Scott McCrae's Top 11-ish Games of 2022 | Winter Spectacular

Here we are, the end of my first official year as a games journalist. Who would’ve thought that after years of posting bad opinions on Twitter that I would finally find a way to get paid to post those same bad opinions. It was actually the piece about God Hand that we published here earlier this year that finally got me going. Ted, a guy at my garbo retail job, who is a toddler born in 2001, said some disparaging things about the PS2, and out of pure spite, I played God Hand again and wrote a piece about how it was the best. I don’t know why that was the one I decided to finally pitch with (yes, I wrote a piece before pitching it, the horror). But the response of the person I pitched it to is what led me here. 

So long-winded personal ramblings aside, here’s ten games I thought were pretty neat this year. 

11. Marvel’s Midnight City Girls: Legacy: Arceus.

I couldn’t find an image that encapsulates all these… so here’s God Hand.

It took me a long time to try and figure out what my number ten would be. So very quickly the ones that didn’t make it deserve a shout-out: 

• Marvel’s Midnight Suns: Haven’t played enough to really say yet but it’s cool so far.

• Rogue Legacy 2: This game is the definition of solid. I can’t really fault it, I was a big fan and it’s probably one of the best games on this list from a purely technical point of view.

• Pokemon Legends Arceus: They finally made another good pokemon game.

• River City Girls 2: Loved the first, liked this one a lot, even if it played things very safe.

10. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Just a lil dude having an lil dance.

Kirby is a fun and cute lil dude, and Forgotten Land is a fun and cute lil game. Truth be told, I love Kirby (the lil dude seems sound out), but the games are generally very safe and boring to play most of the time. It’s fine they are made for kids and that's okay. Forgotten Land is a breath of fresh air however; it has the usual Kirby charm, the over-the-top endings and fantastic tunes. The 3D perspective took some of the long-standing pre-existing issues with the series away and did the best thing it could, give Kirby more things to joyously interact with. That said it’s still too easy and slow though. 

Also, I was a very big fan of the King Dedede theme remix.  

9. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

Wait… Is Turtles In Time word play?

I just got that…

Speaking of games with absolute banger soundtracks. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is a total joy through and through. I don’t even hold that much love for the Turts, but Shredder’s Revenge stands as one of the best throwback beat ‘em’ up’s in the last few years. 

TMNT Arcade and Turtles in Time are okay for their time but don’t hold a candle to the likes of Final Fight or Streets of Rage 2. So I didn’t exactly have any expectation that this game would blow my ass off, especially since Dotemu’s previous beat ‘em’ up, Streets of Rage 4 didn’t. Yet despite that, Mikey and the other inferior turtles’ newest adventure was a joy for its entire very-short runtime.  Someone even clearly won an argument and managed to get Raekwon and Ghostface in for the final boss tune and that alone earns its spot here. 

8. Live A Live 

Cavemen roll deep. I’ve always said this.

I should make it clear, I don’t like turn-based RPGs! Especially old ones. I’ve never finished a classic Final Fantasy game or played Dragon Quest. I don’t care much for random encounters or medieval-era fantasy themes. However, RPGs set in modern-day like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Persona 4 and 5 are some of my favourite games ever made.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that it turned out an RPG set in seven distinct eras, none of which adhere to the classic medieval stuff absolutely slaps. Only to fumble it entirely after the completion of those seven arcs, since the eighth one is set in the Middle-ages and has random encounters every few steps. 

I was so into Live A Live up until that point, and I never even finished it in the end. It’s almost an all-timer.

Those first seven chapters are great, though.

7. Bayonetta 3

No chance did I expect a new Bayonetta to rank so low on a GOTY list of mine. It’s just so weird, I don't know. Why can you only equip one set of weapons per set now? Why are the weapon LP’s gone? Why is the Umbran Climax Gone? Why is Jeanne an afterthought? Why * gestures at the big controversial ending*?

I LIKE VIOLA… Even if Bayonetta 3 doesn’t…

I like Viola, she's fun, she’s clumsy, and I can’t wait to see the series continue with her. But if it’s meant to continue with her, why is she treated like such a jobber the whole game. It is somewhat telling that Platnium literally gave her a post-credit, final boss because it just gave her nothing to do during the actual final boss of the game. 

I had high hopes for this since the last truly great Platinum action game was Bayo 2, and everything since then has been either a licensed game, an RPG that doesn’t feel very platinum combat-wise or Babylon's Fall. I still enjoyed my time with it and don’t get me wrong, Bayonetta 3 is still better than most games that came out this year, but it’s not pure-Platinum. 

6. God of War: Ragnarok

I never expected a Sony first-party game to rank above Bayonetta on any GOTY list of mine. For me, Sony has become the MCU of games; their first-party stuff is usually at the very least solid, but it all usually has samey-ness that results in them all blurring together. You get the mould-breaking standout like Returnal, Astro or Bloodborne, but for the rest, it feels like there's been a set formula since Uncharted 2 and I yearn for the days of the varied PS Studios output of the PS1-PS3 eras. 

Two sad dads have a rad… disagreement.

And despite having a lot of the same issues as the typical PS Studios fare, Ragnarok just nails it somehow. It feels like Sony Santa Monica takes its influences from the right games, and tells a very engaging story, full of great moments. 

Dad-Kratos is a fantastic character, the supporting cast all rule even if some of them can get a bit annoying at times and the combat has a solid weight to it. It helps that the huge development team manages to get the spectacle right, and it provides a Last-Of-Us-esque story without stewing in abject misery like TLOU2 did. 

5. Vampire Survivors

Hell yeah, that spinny book rocks. 

Are ya winning son?

I think my one frame a second answers that question.

4. Sonic Frontiers

Wait a second… SCOTT DO YOU JUST LIKE THIS GAME BECAUSE THEY PUT DMC IN YOUR SONIC?

Sonic Frontiers is a bit of a mess. It has some bad shit in it, and yet, I loved it. Going fast around the islands was a joy, the music rocks and I just had such a great time playing it. 

I like Sonic a lot, the world, characters, music etc. but I have never really liked playing them all that much (even the 2D ones). So I was delighted the choice Sonic Team made to throw Sonic into a big open world worked out super well in my eyes. I think the biggest thing is though,  even if it fumbles in places at least the team tried new things right? 

3. Sifu

On an unrelated note, John Wick 4 is coming out this year. That’s nice.

I could go into a big long spiel about how Sifu’s ageing mechanic is one of the most interesting mechanics of the year and that it encapsulates the brutality of movies like John Wick and the Raid so well into game form.

But my pure honest thoughts about Sifu is that it just feels very good to punch dudes in it. I really like kicking a stool at a dude to trip him over, or launching a bottle at them off a counter, or yeeting them over a balcony in a nightclub. Sifu Rocks.

2. Elden Ring

Hahahahaha, yeeeeeeeessssss. Video games.

Elden Ring is a masterpiece. It’s incredible, it’s so impressive that Fromsoft managed to pull migrate the Dark Souls style to an open world so well on its first attempt(much like Nintendo did with BOTW). While I still prefer the more focused experiences of the first Dark Souls and Sekiro more, it’s undeniable how much of an achievement Elden Ring truly is. 

So much has been said about it, that I don’t know if I can truly add anything. As an achievement, a piece of engineering, design, and art Elden Ring is the best game of 2022; it may not be everyone's favourite, but it’s the best. 

1. Neon White

Team kill! That was fast…

Neon White is a game for freaks. Luckily I am one. 

Neon White’s gameplay is just pure bliss; the speedrunning-shooter-platformer-puzzler-hybrid feels so incredible to just move around in. Good movement can make a game; it’s what makes the act of playing stuff like Titanfall and Mario 64 for the first time so memorable. Replaying every level to get the best time was an absolute joy. I played it during the review window, so I didn’t even have leaderboards full of friends to compete with but I still felt the constant urge to replay for the best times (although let it be known, I was number one on every single level on Switch before launch).

 The gameplay alone puts it at the top of this list. Thankfully, the story, characters, music, style and near-enough everything else is incredible too. I get why some don’t like the writing; there's a bit of intentionally very online cringe to it as it evokes the vibe of a mid-2000s messageboard. Yet underneath it all, the characters, their struggles, and the overall message resonated with me. Also, Machine Girl’s soundtrack is the best soundtrack of the decade so far.

This was also the first game I ever got the chance to review pre-release professionally. Do you know how terrifying it is to try and give a game a ten on your first ever review? So not only is it an absolute banger, it holds an even more special place in my heart because of what it means to me professionally. 25 reviews later and nothing has yet matched the absolute joy I take in this line of work as Neon White. 

I still haven’t gotten over how cool it is that I get to do this as my job. I know there are so many issues in this industry, and yet, I’m so happy to be here. And I have so many people to thank, and I have Neon White to thank for being the moment when it felt like everything clicked for me.