Jeff Grubb’s Top 10 Games of 2024

For as much as I love game of the year season, I don’t actually like pitting the things I enjoy against one another. For example, I’ve never felt the need to rank the Star Wars movies. And I don’t really have a favorite band. This disposition is especially the case when it comes to video games. In my mind, games are more of an experience than some other mediums, and that makes them more personal.

That personal connection sometimes causes me to struggle to communicate what it is I get out of games. I care deeply about the way truck tires dig into mud or the feeling of a snowboard transitioning from fresh powder to a sheet of ice, but do you? These things speak to me and my relationship with physics to the point where they feel like truthful expressions of something foundational to reality.

But not everyone feels the way I do, and that is the problem. I don’t know how useful a Jeff Grubb GOTY list is to anyone.

Although, it’s probably a good idea just to admit what I want to get out of my GOTY list.

The longer I do this job, the more people I meet who came into this space because they found video game characters and stories that inspired them. And I get that. I do not think it is the children who are wrong. But it does sometimes make me feel left out. Frequently these days, I will say what I like about games only to be met with polite nods and an obvious desire to change the subject.

I love making the link between games and jazz. It’s probably tiresome to anyone who has followed me for a long time. The trouble is that it’s too accurate, so I can’t stop going to it. Both artforms are about conflict and compromise (between players in a band or between players and the developers), and the neat thing about video games is that you get to jam along with the band.

The games I love the most are the ones that feel like they left gaps open for the player to take ownership over the fun. And I think all I want from a GOTY list is one or two people to pull me aside and say, “yes! You get how I feel.”

It’s connection that I’m after.

Steven Spohn, a gaming renaissance man, once told me that people come to games for social currency. We get experiences that we can share with others through storytelling. And while I love games on their own terms, we’re a social animal, and I want to feel like people understand what I’m getting out of them.

Anyway, I threw a bunch of games I liked into a spreadsheet and then organized them until I felt OK about it. I don’t know. This will almost certainly change if I were to do it again tomorrow. I’ll drop some thoughts about specific games below.

Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip

Terry was definitely a family favorite this year. It’s Grand Theft Auto by way of A Short Hike. What if you could run around an open world, cause mayhem, do a couple of quests, and then beat a game in a handful of hours? That sounds awesome to me, and that’s exactly what Tiny Terry delivers. It’s also cute and weird, which goes a long way with me.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

I’m so glad I was able to get on this game’s wavelength. To me, the Indy films are so good because they never dawdle. The adventure whisks you from one location to another while the stakes are amplified, and Indy never gets a chance to catch his breath.

The game takes a much different approach, but it’s very much an Indiana Jones solution to what a video game should play like. In The Great Circle, you get to do archaeology. This means exploring vast spaces and taking your time to retrace the footsteps of antiquity. The good news is that the game excels at making these moments feel satisfying (it doesn’t get better than lighting the oil in a sconce with your torch).

And then, when the game’s motor gets going, it can turn into a rip-roaring adventure on a dime. And The Great Circle is at its best when the tension builds up throughout the exploratory phases and then pops into a spectacular action sequence. And as in the movies, those heroic moments only lead to new and more complicated problems for Indy and his fellow adventurers.

This is easily one of the best games of the year.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

The most monkey-paw-ass game of the year for old Grubby. Nothing is more of a dream game for me than a collection of challenges ripped out of NES games that emphasize speedrunning. The only thing that could hold back something like this is Nintendo being weird about online features, such as leaderboards. Of course, Nintendo is weird, so that’s exactly the thing it left out of World Championships.

Despite that unforgivable omission, this is an excellent game that is very smart about showcasing some of the best and most challenging moments from the Nintendo Entertainment System. I’ve already played a game like Super Mario Bros. 2 so many times that I already was speeding through it to make it more difficult, and it is awesome to get something that recognizes that relationship and expands upon it.

If it had leaderboards, this would be my GOTY.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Making a Metroidvania is cheating. If you are making a game, I promise that you can make it better by turning it into a Metroidvania (no, this will not help it sell better). Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is maybe my new favorite Metroidvania. It is one of the best-feeling games ever, and what is impressive is that excellent sense of control persists even as the devs layer abilities and complexities on top of one another.

By the end of the game, you can pull off mind-bending combos where you attack an enemy, dash over them, swing down to hit them again from above, double jump into a bow attack, and then use your recall ability to go back to the first position to do it all again. It also is a joy to move around the world thanks to its wide assortment of awesome locomotion options.

But I think it’s easiest if I put it this way: I nearly cried when I got the double jump. The hold off on that ability for quite a while in The Lost Crown to the point where I didn’t even really think they’d give it to me. But they did, and it felt so amazing that it gave me chills. The game was already doing so many amazing things to make me feel cool as a player, and then it hit me with the double jump and the entire rest of the game opened up. It felt like ascending.