The RPS Selection Box: Edwin’s bonus games of the year 2024

My selection box isn’t really a selection box. It’s a tray of barely-nibbled leftovers, hastily lifted from my Steam backlog. One of the disadvantages of being news editor, you see, is that I have developed a goldfish-grade attention span. In my hectic pursuit of the next scoop, or the next Elden Ring update changelog, I snatch and cast aside game demos like a pickpocket speedrunning the checkout line at Harvey Nichols. I’m dimly aware that some of these cast-aside games are Very Good. A few might even deserve to be played for longer than 30 minutes. I feel immensely guilty about that. Perhaps a little… existential, too. I have measured out my life in tutorial levels.

So! Rather than digging out three of the games I’ve actually completed this year, such as The Crush House, Death Of A Wish and Mask Quest, I’m going to gamble on recommending a few I’ve barely scratched, but which sure feel excellent and have attracted a positive critical consensus. If I am false in this assessment, may Horace the Endless Bear bite my head off for my impudence. Let’s begin.

Withering Rooms

If you have fond memories of American McGee’s Alice, and/or enjoy the horror subgenre of Small Spooky Girl In Big Spooky House, get a load of this. It’s a 2.5D corridor crawler set in a procedurally generated Victorian mansion that changes each night, from dream to dream, deleting your inventory in the progress. I like it both for the moodiness of the dollhouse presentation, and for the inventiveness of its enemies and occult combat design, which compensates for some janky handling. There are ghosts who are only visible in mirrors. There’s a potion that super-sizes you, and the opportunity to play-act as a zombie to fool a ghoul. You can hex doors to stop monsters gaining access, and enchant suits of armour to serve as rideable minions.

The writing, ambience and supporting fiction remind me heavily of the golden age of survival horror games like Rule of Rose, Fatal Frame and Clocktower. Hey, you should play this! Then tell me whether it’s as good as I’ve just made it sound! If I’m wrong, may Horace the Endless Bear savage my supplies of toilet paper.

To The Stars

I’m more confident about recommending this one because it’s a quickfire strategy game, designed to be played in 15 minute bursts – a great coffee break diversion, providing you like your coffee full of monstrous, gurning planets. The idea is to draw starlanes between those planets to have them send fleets to attack each other, the catch being that each planet consumes its own numerical mass to fund the war effort, and will eventually run out of resources and explode. There are also space monuments, which bestow victory when you claim all of them, but don’t have any ship-building facilities, and a selection of special map-wide abilities on cooldown to swing the balance.

Certain sage elders of the Rock Paper Shotgun commentariat have described To The Stars as Galcon but with a warped, upmarket Hanna Barbera aesthetic. The presentation is certainly distinctive: the planets are always glancing at you and each other, smirking or scowling or waggling their tongues provocatively. The music, meanwhile, is the kind of music that gives you enjoyable palpitations. While it’s not verified for Steam Deck, I suspect this will scrub up well as a handheld play. If I’m wrong, may Horace the Endless Bear mercilessly despoil my kitchenware.

Isles Of Sea And Sky

I did not much care for block-pushing puzzles until I happened on the demo for this lovely, soothing, SNESational puzzler. It casts you as a hairy castaway exploring an open world archipelago comprised of single screen conundrums, featuring many a block and key. There is apparently a story to uncover, but this is of scant importance next to the balmy tropical lustre of the pixelart visuals, and the relaxed intricacy of the puzzles, which you can tackle in any order. The props include tiles that become impassable once you walk over them, propulsive jets of water, volatile blocks that count down to an explosion, slippy ice patches, and swirly teleporters.

It’s a regular festival of sokoban. I see precisely zero ways in which this would not have earned a Bestest Best. If I’m wrong, may Horace the Endless Bear make a tasty spaghetti lunch out of my entrails.