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2024 Year End Review

 As another year comes to a close, it's time to take a look at the highlights, and lowlights, of 2024.


This marks year six of GOTBP, something I still can't believe. I can't lie, I am starting to feel myself slow down a little bit. Some of it is burnout, some of it is age and some of it is just all around busyness. Of course, having the podcast going also adds to the workload. I really like doing it, writing is old hat for me but I feel like I learn something new each time. I'm really trying to increase the quality on that front, I think I've improved a lot from the early episodes but I could always be better. 

Speaking of increasing quality, I played a lot of really good games this year. I may not have as many reviews as I typically do, but this might be the highest average scoring year I've ever had. Part of that comes from me focusing a little bit more on genres I actually like playing. Some of it is also due to looking at new consoles, I didn't do too much research into these but I didn't want my first experience with a new console to be absolutely horrible either. As such, I tried to look at games that were either had generally positive reviews or absolutely none at all. As usual, I am going with my typical awards of best, worst, most surprising, most disappointing and most deserving of a modern update/remake. Before we do that though, a reminder of our scores:

Lost Odyssey 9.5/10

Devil's Crush 9.5/10

Nier: Automata 9.25/10

Terranigma 9.25/10

Lords of Thunder 9/10

Zone of the Enders 9/10

Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash 8.5/10

Heretic 8.25/10

Super Baseball 2020 8.25/10

The Bard's Tale 8.25/10

Shadowrun 8/10

Mutant League Hockey 7.75/10

Street Fighter x Mega Man 7.75/10

Rival Schools 7.25/10

Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu 7/10

Flink 6.5/10

Madden 04 (PS1) 6.5/10

Mega Man & Bass 6.25/10

I don’t think I need to adjust any scores, so let’s move on to the awards.

Two games had identical 9.5 scores, but I didn’t even have to think twice about this one. Devil’s Crush was one of the most addictive games I have ever played and it was probably the title I fired up the most this year. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get as many reviews in as I usually do. But as fun and addictive as it is, it just couldn’t quite match Lost Odyssey for me. I had heard the game was great, but it was still shocking to see such a great RPG on an XBox console. Kaim’s story was truly compelling and it presented a narrative unlike any other game that was out at the time. The whole “pros and cons of being immortal” theme has been explored before, but Lost Odyssey definitely presented an interesting take on the trope. It also provided some fun, old school RPG gameplay at a time when a lot of developers were insistent the genre was dying.

Honestly, I don’t think I am going to do a worst game this year. Mega Man & Bass was my lowest scoring game, but I don’t think it’s worthy of the “award.” I’m not going to say I recommend it, but it’s far from a bad game and has its reasons for existing. It’s borderline unfair difficulty makes it something of a “final boss” kind of challenge for long time Mega Man fans. It may have been my least favorite game of the year, but I’m still glad I played it. That’s more than I could say for some of the truly horrible games I’ve played in the past.

There were quite a few surprising games this year and I’m tempted to give this to Devil’s Crush. While I was surprised I liked it as much as I did, I still did have some semblance of knowledge of it. I had no such knowledge of Lords of Thunder or Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash, which were outstanding hidden gems in their respective genres. But Zone of the Enders was a game I had actively avoided for the better part of 20 years. I don’t have any interest in anything involving mechs or anything of the sort, so I was shocked how much I liked this title. It got a sequel, but it really is a shame they didn’t go farther with the series. It had some truly inspired gameplay that could have really benefited from being fleshed out a little bit more.

I would love to see a modern adaptation of Zone of the Enders. But I can’t say any of these games are more in need of a modern remake than Mutant League Hockey (or it’s close cousin Mutant League Football). I know there’s a spiritual successor to Mutant League Football, but I’m talking about a proper, AAA version of either of these games. A fully realized mutant league sports game with franchise mode, online play and all the works would be an absolute license to print money. I’m shocked that EA hasn’t tried it already.

So, before we close out the year, let’s take a look at where we are on the 10’s games.

Borderlands 2

Breath of Fire 2

Civilization 2

Deus Ex

Doom

Earthbound

Final Fantasy 6

Final Fantasy 7

Final Fantasy 8

Goldeneye: 007

Half Life 2

Heroes of Might and Magic 3

The Last of Us

Legend of Legia

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Lunar II: Eternal Blue

Madden 04, 08, 09

Mega Man 3

Mega Man X

Metal Gear Solid

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow

Resident Evil (REmake)

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil: Code: Veronica

Soul Caliber

Star Ocean: The Second Story   

Street Fighter II Turbo/Champion Edition

Super Mario 64

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars

Super Mario World

Twisted Metal 2

Valkyria Chronicles

WCW Vs. NWO: World Tour

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

Suikoden II

So many RPGs, so little time. I don’t know how many of these I’m going to be able to get through this year. I have so much in the backlog and there have been a shocking number of modern games I actually want to play released in the last few years. Still though, I’m always looking for an excuse to play my old favorites. At any rate, thanks for all those who still read this stuff and I hope to see you for yet another year of gaming in 2025.

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