Welcome to the first ever Trotties! The yearly video game awards where the nominees and winners are decided by one person: me!
There aren’t many ground rules here, but I will say that I don’t actually play all that many new games in a given year so I’ll definitely be making up a bunch of categories to make sure I’m highlighting the games I enjoyed most.
Without further ado, the nominees for the 2024 Trotties!
Best Open World Game
Nominees: Sand Land
What an upset victory, as Sand Land triumphs over…nobody! I have gotten a bit burnt out on open world games lately, specifically those which plop 284 icons on your map, don’t really offer all that much new in terms of gameplay, and stretch on about twice as long as their idea lasted. Enter Sand Land. This is a vehicular combat game at its core, you will unlock new vehicle types, customize the builds, and have a good time fighting in this world pulled from Akira Toriyama’s manga.
This works for me, despite being open world, because you can skip pretty much every side quest and not have any problems. I was doing just that for most of the game until I realized I was having a lot of fun so I started spending some time on the side quests and I enjoyed those too! They feed into improving a home base area which is a fun mechanic in my book.
It is far from perfect, but this game stands out as a far different take on the open world genre compared to much of what is being released these days.
Winner: Sand Land
Best Indie Game
Nominees: Animal Well, The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire fuses 2D and 3D gameplay into one phenomenal looking game, with Zelda-esque action and puzzle sequences pacing most of the game. Throw in a handful of retro-inspired minigames, and you have something
Animal Well is a non-combat Metroidvania made by the infamous Solo Developer. That person has been quite busy the past decade, it seems! The game is about exploration and puzzle solving. Most of the puzzles are tricky enough to make you think for a few seconds but not so tricky as to annoy. It is a very fine line for a puzzle game dunce like myself, but Animal Well pulls it off quite well.
Winner: Animal Well
Best Metroidvania
Nominees: Animal Well, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown
Believe it or not, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is flat-out one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve ever played. No, it isn’t going to earn the cult following of a Hollow Knight, the reverence of a Metroid title, or the accolades of a Castlevania…but it is a fantastic game. Most in the genre choose between combat and platforming as their primary mechanic. Most include both, but one is typically an afterthought. Not here. The combat is weighty, difficult, and feels perfect. The platforming is difficult and full of interesting puzzles to solve. The game runs a bit long, but that’s an entirely forgivable offense in my book. Too bad the team was disbanded, we clearly won’t be getting a sequel, but do yourself a favor and check this out anyway.
Winner: Prince of Persia The Lost Crown
Best New-to-Me Retro Game
Nominees: Sly 2, God of War III, Suikoden, Spyro Ripto’s Rage, Dishonored, Mega Man X3
What. A. List. A truly great year for me playing old games I’d never tried before. I could justify picking any of these at the winner but I was most instantly and immediately impressed with God of War III. I didn’t love the first two, which I first played in 2023, so I wasn’t expecting a lot here, but the game is clearly exactly what the devs wanted to deliver on this style of God of War titles. It has some of the best boss fights but, equally as important, gets the in-between pacing just right. Never boring, never bogged down in overly complicated puzzles, never fighting bad cameras, just a whole lot of chain-whipping fun.
Winner: God of War III
Best New-to-Me Non-Retro Game
Nominees: Pikmin 3, The Messenger, Outer Wilds, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Super Mario Wonder
Another stacked list. I will give one sentence reviews since I loved them all:
- Pikmin 3: good enough I played 1 & 2 immediately after and will play 4 soon.
- The Messenger: Clever mix of ‘90s platforming and Metroidvania with art changes to match.
- Outer Wilds: Don’t read anything, just play it.
- Resident Evil 2 Remake: That new RE engine is good, this is a good repackaging of that game.
- Super Mario Wonder: Best 2D Mario in a long, long time.
- Alan Wake 2: Excellent take on survival horror, so good I played through the countless jump scares
I’m going with Outer Wilds here because that is one of the most unique video game experiences of my life. It may not be as fun, moment-to-moment, as any of the others on this list, but the overall experience makes it the winner for me
Winner: Outer Wilds
Best Game of 2024 I Didn't Play
Nominees: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Balatro, Silent Hill 2, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Ultros, Eiyuden Chronicle
Yes, this list is entirely 1) the Game Awards nominees with 2) the games I want to try tacked onto the end. I don’t know how to pick a winner here, but I’ll say I’m most excited to try Silent Hill 2 out of this bunch, so that sounds like a winner, I suppose
Winner: Silent Hill 2
Best Game of 2024
Nominees: Nominees: Animal Well, Astro Bot, Metaphor ReFantazio, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown
Animal Well and PoP got their attention above. They are both wonderful games that deserve all of the attention, just not in this section as they clearly aren’t real contenders since they already won a Trotty!
Astro Bot is pure joy. Run, jump, use power ups to run and jump higher, faster, better, more stylish. Repeat on new levels with more surprises. That it ties in with so many PlayStation franchises, young and old, only adds to the “gaming like it used to be” feeling oozing out of every pore. Nostalgic references and platforming gameplay wouldn’t be enough to get in this conversation, however. Luckily, Astro Bot is a really excellent platformer, one of the best 3D platformers EVER in my mind.
Metaphor ReFantazio is an Atlus turn-based RPG that leverages an Archetype system to allow you to direct your characters’ fighting style and a calendar to limit what you can do between the main story points. The combat is incredibly smooth and there is a satisfying learning curve on how to best assign and leverage the wide range of available abilities. The fantasy setting provides a nice backdrop for an extremely relevant story in the year 2024.
These two games couldn’t be much more different. Pick-up-and-play 12 hour romp, or a 65+ hour deep RPG. Since I must pick a winner, I am going with Astro Bot because platformers, especially 3D platformers, might just be my favorite genre of game and it has been since Super Mario Odyssey that I’ve played one as good as this.
Winner: Astro Bot
