The Official startmenu Game Of The Year Awards 2022 | Winter Spectacular 2022
We always talk about how silly it is that so many publications hand out their game of the year awards before the calender even rolls over, so we here at startmenu decided to take our time with our awards this year. By which I of course mean, all these talented writers sent me their individual awards they were handing out before the December deadline I sent for them, and then I took four months to get this posted. But hey, if the video game industry can delay every game four times before release, we can delay our awards by a bit.
And what a year it was. Despite all the delays, supply shortages, and general industry turmoil we still saw the release of some genre-defining games that will be remembered for decades. From Fromsoft living up to impossibles expectations set by years of fan speculation, God of War: Ragnorak managing to tie together two decades worth of storytelling while setting years more of sequels, or even Vampire Survivors establishing the next hot genre, there was a lot of good games in 2022.
However, we wanted to shout out some games and categories that might not have gotten as much attention at the end of last year. That’s right, is The 100% Serious Very Offical Factually Correct Definite startmenu Game Of The Year Awards for 2022! Enjoy!
- Lex Luddy, EIC of starmenu
Disappointment Of The Year Award
(Awarded by Scott McCrae)
Nominees: Mario Strikers Battle League Football, Gotham Knights, New Tales From The Borderlands, Babylon's Fall, Chocobo GP, Crossfire X, The Calisto Protocol Saints Row, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Winner: Mario Strikers Battle League
Let's be frank. I don’t care about football, I don’t like the Fifa game either (the organisation is also pretty bad too). I do, however, love the first two Mario Strikers games. Super Mario Strikers and Charged - while both basic - were tons of fun and cemented the series as my favourite Mario sports spinoff.
So 15 years have passed, and finally, a new Strikers is announced, once again courtesy of Next Level Games - who have only gotten better since it last worked on the series. With banger games like the Luigi’s Mansion sequels and the super-underappreciated Punch-Out Wii under its belt, everything seemed to be coming up Mii-lhouse for Mario Strikers.
What we got was a barebone, personality-less, almost insulting cash grab in line with other recent hollow Nintendo releases Mario Golf Super Rush and Nintendo Switch Sports. That language may seem quite charged, but 2007’s Strikers Charged on the Wii had a total of 20 characters when you take into account captains and sidekicks. 2022’s Battle League had eight with more only being added later. That’s less than the original 2005 Gamecube game. Not to mention the game’s single-player content was just four cups that were pretty much the same series of matches over and over with no variety.
Nintendo’s new strategy for its sports titles of “release it half-baked and complete later if it does well enough” needs to stop. It was worrying in Mario Tennis Aces and it ruined Mario Golf Super Rush, but even those games had unique (if short) story modes. Battle League has nothing bar it's fantastic animation… however, you’ll have seen all of it after 30 minutes with the game.
Best Soundtrack To Kill A God To
(Awarded by Scott McCrae)
Nominees: Elden Ring, God of War, Kirby and The Forgotten Land, Neon White, Sonic Frontiers, TMNT Shredders Revenge
Winner: Neon White
How do I even describe Neon White’s OST? Much like the game itself, it’s hard to even determine what genre it is. Machine Girl’s Matt Stephenson describes the group’s sound as “fucked-up electronic punk” So I guess we’ll go with that.
While some of these games nominated have great soundtracks in the sense that I’ll sit down and listen to them, what really propels this soundtrack is how it fits in the context of the game. Neon White embodies both. The pace of Neon White’s gameplay is exhilarating enough as is, but paired with the fantastic OST it sends you to a state of nirvana.
Even the low-key tracks featured in the visual-novel sections are great. We’re still early in the game but Neon White is already a strong contender for the best OST of the decade.
The “I’ll get around to it eventually” Award
(Awarded by Jon/Jenna Simspon)
Nominees: Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Pentiment, Evil West, Monark, Soul Hackers 2
Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Everything on this list is something that I want to get around to eventually, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 rises above the rest. I’ve heard so many good things about this game from so many people that I simply can’t let it fall too far behind in my backlog. I know very little about the game, but I’ve heard there’s anime drama, surprisingly Real Shit(™) involving children and war, some wild plot twists, and a bird girl that swears a lot, and I want to see all of that. So congratulations Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I’ll get to you (hopefully sooner than) eventually.
Best PS2 Game
(Awarded by Broc Peterson)
Nominees: Lunistice, Signalis, Sonic Frontiers on the Switch, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, Shadowman Remastered, Kao The Kangaroo, replaying God Hand again on the Steam Deck, Spark The Electric Jester 3
Winner: Lunistice
I had the pleasure of reviewing Lunistice earlier this year and cannot think of a more deserving winner for this category. The game perfectly emulates the games of yesteryear while carving out a personality of its own. Each level has a distinct environment that introduces new mechanics throughout the entire game and is so enthralling that you will likely want to finish the game in one sitting. Then you get to the hidden characters after you complete the game that changes the flow of the game enough that you will probably find yourself running through the game all over again. Finally, throw in a soundtrack that demands a separate Steam purchase, and you have a complete package that captures the wonderment that we don’t see enough these days.
Lunistice not only looks like games from the past but flawlessly brings back the sense of going to the local video rental, taking a chance on an unknown game, and being so floored you have to tell all your friends about it. And even if these are memories that newer generations didn’t experience, the game ensures that everyone will be delighted with the superb platforming and undeniably cute visuals.
Best Xbox 360 Game
(Awarded by Lex Luddy)
Nominees: Gungrave G.O.R.E., Star Wars The Force Unleashed (Switch) - disqualified for being the Wii version), Valkyrie Elysium, Lego: Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Winner: Evil West
There has rarely been a modern game that feels like it was ripped from the early days of the Xbox 360 quite like Evil West.
Air juggles, corny voice acting, a certain charming jank it has everything you could ask for out of a game that you’d play on a console that could red ring at any moment.
Oooof of the Year or The News Story That Made Us Say "ooooof" The Loudest Award
(Awarded by Kate Robinson)
Nominees: Robin Hunicke/Funomena/General Annapurna messiness, Bayonetta Voice Acting controversy, Hbomberguy's Tommy Talirico video, Yuji Naka's entire year
Runner-ups: Yuji Naka and Tommy Tallerico
Winner (if you could call it that): Helena Taylor-Joy
This was a close call considering the legal ramifications of the Roblox oof sound effect were born out this year, and Yuji Naka made a late run to win thanks to multiple arrests, but despite these, there’s no doubt that the winner should go to Helena Taylor Joy for her performance as deplatformed voice actor. An utterly incredible display of acting talent went into her iconic call-out video that took the internet by storm just a few months ago.
Originally highlighting the fundamental issue of poor pay within the games industry; a sentiment that programmers, artists, designers and voice acting talent rightly corroborated, Helena called for a boycott of the highly anticipated Bayonetta 3, (which was just two weeks away from releasing) and asked fans do donate their money to charity instead. It’s easy to see how her call-out against Platinum Games, the developer of Babylon’s Fall, was met with an open heart from all corners of the internet, but a thorough dissection of her video discovered that this message was designed to throw shade at the innocent new voice of Bayonetta and the charities linked in the video include anti-abortion and anti-trans groups.
Just a few days later, Jason Schreier broke the news that Helena had also been bending the truth about the sum she’d been paid for the role. The deceitful details of her account have now brought doubt to an unfortunately prominent issue that more people could’ve been made aware of, which is truly upsetting. But at the very least we all got to laugh at a high-profile transphobe losing her career prospects.
Live Service Game Of The Year That I Don't Have Time For But I’m Happy For The Community Anyway (Awarded by Broc Peterson)
Nominees: No Man's Sky, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy 14, Apex Legends, Genshin Impact
Winner: Final Fantasy 14
As someone who will quickly get sucked into games that make numbers go up and is a massive fan of the Final Fantasy series, it is flabbergasting to me that I don’t make time for Final Fantasy XIV. Everything I see from the community of this game makes me wish just a little bit that I was getting in there and seeing what the fuss was all about. Knowing that Square Enix completely botched the original launch and then came back with a game that people love playing all these years later does have a pull to it, but it is one I have resisted.
I see articles of people making beautiful homes or videos of raids with more flashing lights than a nightclub and think to myself, “I gotta check this out,” but it never happens. But I will say, from what I have gleaned from the community, that they are a relatively positive and approachable bunch. Other long-running games like Destiny 2 seem to have a level of gatekeeping, or perpetual discontent that prevents me from dipping my toes in. Still, the seemingly upbeat nature of Final Fantasy XIV’s crowd has me happy for them and has me very frequently saying, “I’ll try it out one of these days.” Maybe 2023 is when it’ll happen.
The “Are we sure this came out this year?” Award
(Awarded by Scott Nowbaveh)
Nominees: Gotham Knights, Dragonball The Breakers, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, Ghostwire Tokyo, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, New Tales from the Borderlands, Saints Row, The Quarry, Weird West, Rainbow Six Extraction, Crossfire X
Winner: New Tales From The Borderlands
The only thing that really even brought people to say 'wow' to New Tales of the Borderlands was its existence in the first place. A sequel, to a somewhat sleeper hit, turning up past years after the implosion of Tellgame Games is more interesting than whatever is happening in the Borderlands-iverse.
Sure, some fans of the first game might have been keen, but the "buzz" for this game seemed to fade as suddenly as it appeared in store leaks. People had seen a wacky idea of a story-driven Borderlands game already, and this one was being helmed by a totally different team.
The game's loud persona and distinctive cel-shaded visuals, couldn’t gloss over the writing simply being dull. This is a death sentence for any narrative-driven game, not to mind for a sequel to a game that had built up a cult following because its writing was so much better than the rest of the franchise.
New Tales From The Borderlands just felt anything but, as Gearbox chose to churn out the ol' Telltale formula: a big IP in episodic stories, promising real choices but with no "real" agency. It’s a game that seems to have learned nothing from why Telltale shuttered in the first place.
This game epitomises this award. Dull but not painfully so. A recognisable IP but not a big enough name to draw interest that it flopped. A concept done before and done better. Nothing new, nothing more. I’m almost impressed that I remembered it came out this year.
Live Service Game Of The Year That Pissed Off The Most Players That Will Keep Playing Anyway (presented by Activision Blizzard)
(Awarded by Eloise Evans)
Nominees: Overwatch 2, Diablo Immortal, World of Warcraft, Lost Ark, Call of Duty: warzone 2.0
Winner: Overwatch 2
Last year I gave the award for ‘Best Game that is Never Actually Being Released’ to The Elder Scrolls VI, but gave an honourable mention to Overwatch 2. Blizzard clearly took that personally and so, on 4th October 2022, the company released this long-awaited sequel, but I sometimes wish it hadn’t.
Game launches never seem to go smoothly, but Overwatch 2’s launch was particularly bad. DDoS attacks aside, the login queues were painfully long and once in, many people found themselves missing cosmetic items, in-game currency and heroes, even those that completed the lengthy and strangely complex migration from the first game. There was also an outcry over Blizzard requiring all players to have a phone number to make an account (a policy the company dropped three days after release).
These issues have now mostly been fixed, but there are still so many issues, big and small. From how painful playing any Support heroes currently is to it being quicker to get Overwatch currency by playing another game, it is just hard to justify playing.
Naturally, of course, none of this will stop me, or any of the other 20 million or so active players from loading in, to be miserable some more, but sometimes, I wish it would.
Game That Made Me Feel The Most Dumb (Award by Lex Luddy)
Nominees: Tunic, Patrick's Parabox, Marvel: Snap, AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative, Scorn, Escape Academy, Immortality, Case Of The Golden Idol, Elden Ring
Winner: Tunic
I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in a Discord server full of journalists trying to decode a secret language
for a game, before it comes out, while still on a review deadline before, but let me tell you that is a unique experience, to say the least.
By the time that server was shut down by the PR team working on Tunic some of the writers in that chat thought there might be a secret in the game's music. Weeks after releasing the community discovered there is an entire second secret language hidden in almost every part of the game’s audio design. Yeah, I felt pretty dumb after that.
One thing that makes me feel better about the whole thing though is that the game’s creator Andrew Shouldice confirmed there are still several secrets even the community hasn’t found. So who’s the real dummy now?
(the answer is still me)
Remake Of The Year
(Awarded by Kate Robinson)
Nominees: Live-A-Live, Pac Man World Repac, Last Of Us Part 1, Atari 50, Shadowrun Trilogy, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie
Winners:
3rd - Pac-Man World Repac
2nd - Live-A-Live
1st - Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
One title that may have gone under everyone’s radar this year is Atari 50, which makes sense considering the company has ruined its own reputation with micro-transaction heavy Rollercoaster Tycoon mobile games, the expensive Rasberry Pi Atari VCS, a huge investment NFTs, planning a hotel and casino chain for some reason, and most egregious of all, buying advertising space in the Ready Player One movie.
I didn’t think there was anything Atari could do to regain any semblance of respect from anyone who wasn’t knee-deep in a mid-life crisis. Yet to my surprise Atari 50 is a true love letter to gaming history featuring over a hundred works of a pioneering media company alongside an overwhelming amount of historic footage behind the scenes footage and interviews, documents and concept art pieces, and even adverts that were considered lost media.
The developers at Digital Eclipse have essentially made a playable museum exhibition showcasing games as an art form, unlike any other compilation or remake in the games space. This is far more than simply a collection of ROMS and video files dumped onto a cartridge with a fancy presentation. A whole category of the games in this collection use defunct rendering techniques and another comes from a system that’s notoriously hard to emulate, there are even games from the unreleased Intellivision Amico and an Atari calculator. The wild thing is that the majority of these games don’t look anywhere near as good with decades of community-led emulation techniques on the most high-end systems, and yet not a single frame is lost, even on the Switch.
Digital Eclipse itself has pioneered a new method of accessible archival with Atari 50 and I can’t wait to see what company it works with next.
Fighting Game of The Year
(Awarded by Lex Luddy)
Nominees: Sifu, Midnight Fight Express, Godfall Ultimate Edition, The Callisto Protocol
Winner: 2023
Yeah, so last year was pretty light on fighting games. Multiversus could have won this but it has since been un-released. While RumbleVerse was a cool concept that asked what if the FGC created a Battle Royal, however, it too has been shut down.
The good news is that 2023 seems like it will be a jam-packed year for fighting games with Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, and a new Mortal Kombat all scheduled. So yeah, good things come to fighting game fans that wait.
Best DLC Of 2022
(Awarded by Scott McCrae)
Nominees: Winters Expansion (Resident Evil: Village), The Delicious Last Course (Cuphead), Co-op Update and The Tower of Sisyphus (Returnal), Brisket! (Guilty Gear), The Kaito Files (Lost Judgment), Rock Band finally getting more Muse songs (Rock Band 4), Sunbreak (Monster Hunter Rise), Extra Courses (Mario Kart 8 Dexule)
Winner: Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course
After 15000 years of delays, Cuphead took the world by storm when it was released in 2017. Delicious Last Course finally came by this year after a comparably short year delay of three years and Studio MDHR nailed it.
Everything that made the original Cuphead experience so good makes its return in the Delicious Last Course, from the gorgeous animation, banging music and tough-as-nails gameplay. However, the biggest enhancement has to be Ms Chalice, who works as a sort of Funky Mode for Cuphead, having extra movement options to make those tricky manoeuvres that much easier.
The DLC That Nobody Asked For Award
(Awarded by Louise Chase)
Nominees: Literally anything from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Outriders: Worldslayer, Trials of The Dungeon King and Wanderer of the Rift (Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origins), Pathogen (Alien: Fireteam Elite), Bloody Ties (Dying Light 2 Stay Human), Tom Holland Nathan Drake Skin (Fornite)
Winner: Literally anything from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
I think we established that I’m a diehard fan of Assassin’s Creed at this point in my career, from my history on this website, to … well, everything.
2022 saw the final pieces of DLC released for Ubisoft’s 2020 instalment Valhalla, and it’s safe to say that it was not what anyone was expecting. The surprise announcement at the end of 2021 with the crossover adventures with Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’s Mistios (and buff Queen) Kassandra was a delight! Skye was beautiful and there were plenty of enjoyable moments - there’s nobody else I’d want to gatecrash a wedding with.
And I was hoping that The Last Chapter and Dawn of Ragnarok would be the same. Instead, I was greeted with constant moments where the story diverged from telling a satisfying conclusion, and instead set up more unanswered questions by The Siege, and at times even contradicting its own previous decisions. Perhaps the most disheartening of all was Eivor’s most powerful moment where she stood up to Odin/Havi in the base game being undermined by her decisions in The Last Chapter.
Most Anticipated Game of 2023
(Awarded by Alex Green)
Nominees: Starfeild, The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Final Fantasy 16, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Destiny 2: Lightfall, Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, Baldur’s Gate, Sea of Stars, Tekken 8, Hades 2, Hyper Light Breaker, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and… um Crime Boss: Rockay City?
Winner: Redfall
Let’s get this out of the way. This is an illogical award. Apparently, I am being allowed to determine what the entire community of diverse folks in the startmenu community think they are most looking forward to in 2023. It doesn’t help that it looks like it will be a year which just has too many damn games releasing. Let’s just take the first half of the year. We have notable remakes in Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, new instalments in big franchises that include Fire Emblem Engage, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the small matter of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at some point before the summer. That’s on top of both Sony and Microsoft having their hands in the first-party pie. Sony has Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and a bunch of new titles releasing coinciding with the PSVR2, whilst Microsoft will hope to showcase new first-party nous with Starfield, Forza Motorsport and, Redfall, the winner of this incredibly subjective award that I get to decide as I am the ultimate arbiter of hype apparently.
Why Redfall? Simple reasons. Number one, it's made by Arkane who refuses to miss with its dramatically different immersive sims. Two, it has the gameplay foundation of Left 4 Dead, one of the best co-op games of all time, without the stale character design that hurt Back 4 Blood, thanks to clearly defined characters with intriguing gameplay roles. Third, it's on Game Pass on Day One. What more do I need to say?
The Most Depressing Game In The Shortest Time Award
(Awarded by Louise Chase)
Nominees: Plague Tale: Requiem’s immediate castle of horrors, starting Scorn, the traditional immediate death in Elden Ring, not getting to play Stranger Of Paradise because it released too close to Elden Ring, Stray hurting a cat less than 20 minutes into the game, God of War’s wolf, Stray’s opening, realising Citizen Sleeper is going to break your heart constantly in the first textbox
Winner: Stray hurting a cat less than 20 minutes into the game
We all remember the most dramatic moments of a game, the heroic triumphs over the final boss, or finally getting that glorious Platinum trophy. But we decided to award the other end of the spectrum, the heart-wrenching moment. Not only that but the moment breaks your heart before you have even really gotten going.
Is there anything more tear-inducing than that last-second death to your first boss in Elden Ring, almost tradition for the Souls-type games at this point, as they taunt you with their smidge of remaining health? Or even worse getting your heart shred before you even start, from an errant spoiler or missing the launch of a game altogether you’ve been waiting months or years for, purely because it’s released too close to another hot title, and you’re being made to choose?
However., for me, Stray takes the cake this year.
I was brought in with the allure of an intriguing and cute sci-fi cat game, believing it would be puzzles galore and a pleasant delve into the cyberpunk-esque world. I was ready for it, pre-installed on the release date, with snacks prepared and everything as I prepared to journey beyond the start menu (see what I did there?).
And then less than twenty minutes into the first level BlueTwevle Studio set the waterworks flowing by injuring my beloved fluffy boy, right after I had decided he was the purest being to ever exist. It’s not an exaggeration when I say that it took me off guard so sharply that I burst into tears, and had to get someone else to finish the level because I was more than a little distraught. This moment upset me more than anything else this year, and I am including basically everything about A Plague Tale: Requiem in that comparison.
I’m not afraid of rat hoards, but the sight and sounds of an injured kitty is too much for me to deal with. Now if you need me, I’m off to hug my own kitty.
Biggest Surprise of 2022
(Awarded by Michael Beckwith)
Nominees: Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe getting DLC, Marvel Snap, Nier Automata releasing for Switch and not as a terrible cloud port, Sonic Frontiers getting good reviews
Winner: Marvel Snap
When it comes to annual recaps, mobile games are rarely included in the conversation. Marvel Snap, however, very quickly became a popular talking point when it launched in October, even going on to win Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards, beating longer-running titles like Genshin Impact.
Admittedly, Marvel Snap’s mainly on here because, unlike most other mobile games, it doesn’t exist just to drain players’ wallets. A low bar, yes, but it’s so refreshing for a mobile game to not be constantly needling you about its microtransactions and paid bundles every five minutes. There are no ads either nor does it feel like the game gatekeeps its best cards behind a paywall, avoiding the dreaded play-to-win formula other mobile titles make use of.
The honeymoon period has certainly wound down (those season passes are a bit too expensive), but Marvel Snap is the one mobile game I regularly play because it’s actually fun and not just to fulfil a daily quota. Matches are moreish and never drag for more than five minutes, there’s enough randomness to keep things balanced, and the collectible cards are a hotbed of Marvel fanservice.
The Least Surprising Delay Award
(Awarded by Odhrán Johnson)
Nominees: Redfall, Starfield, Forespoken, Skull & Bones, Dead Island 2, Pragmata, STALKER 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Winner: Dead Island 2
There are only three things that are certain in life: birth, death, and the inevitable delay of Dead Island 2. Allegedly this game is coming out on April 28th having been delayed for (hopefully) one final time from February 2023. But whether it comes out or not, I just can’t see it living up to the hype. Dead Island 2 feels like when you were a kid around Christmas time. The build-up was immense and you were super excited to open your presents. Then, Christmas day arrives, you rush down the stairs and open all those presents until you then realize “Oh, that’s it I guess.” I for one do not want to have to experience that with Dead Island 2 so here’s to past delays and hopefully more to come!
Squishiest/Squelchiest Game Of The Year
(Awarded by Odhrán Johnson)
Nominees: The Callisto Protocol, Scorn, Splatoon 3, Kirby And The Forgotten Land, High on Life, Evil West, Slime Rancher 2
Winner: Scorn
Scorn made me want to take a nice long bath after playing it. Looking at pictures of the game just makes you feel like grime is accumulating on your skin. Scorn is the video game equivalent of whispering the word moist too many times until it no longer sounds like a real word. It looks moist, it sounds moist, and it FEELS moist. The way people either love or hate this game feels like how different people react to hearing the word moist. There’s no middle ground here. Scorn is the sort of squelchy game that leaves you asking questions like “oh, how do I open this door?” before proceeding to dislocate your ankle to use it as a crowbar. Scorn is very squalchy and moist in the most disgustingly entrancing way possible. Congratulations. Do with that what you will.
Best New Character
(Awarded by Tyler Denyer)
Nominees: Big Man (Splatoon 3), Mina and Lem (Citizen Sleeper), NeoVend The Vending Machine (Citizen Sleeper), Sage (Sonic Frontiers), Eunie (Xenoblade Chronicles 3), Rabbid Rosalina (Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope), Viola (Bayonetta 3)
Winner: Rabbid Rosalina (Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope)
This new character immediately gets a positive boost because her introduction effectively created Rabbid Lumas, known as “Sparks”, meaning that without Rosalina and her Rabbid counterpart, the game would not have a premise.
She brings a side not really thought of in the bright colourful Mario world, a sort of emo teenager with a “whatever” attitude. However, she becomes filled with glee whenever she sees Rosalina, which many fans can relate to. While many of us might feel a bit lackadaisical about things, we all have some things that bring us a Spark of hope.
She loves her books, her luma plush and her own space. While initially, she may seem bothered to have to step out of her bubble and help others, she is a welcome addition and loves being a part of the team.
Mechanically she is a supporting character brilliant at single targets, so great for taking down tank-like foes by stunning them with heavy fire.
The Perfect for Xbox Game Pass Award
(Awarded by Alex Green)
Nominees: Metal: Hellsinger, Nobody Saves The World, A Memoir Blue, TMNT Shredders Revenge, Vampire Survivors, Pentiment, Grounded, Tunic, Immortality, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Winner: Metal: Hellsinger
2022 was a difficult year for Microsoft, what with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard becoming more complex than a blackboard in Fermat’s house and its biggest releases in Starfield & Redfall delayed to 2023. Thank goodness then for a number of gems on Xbox Game Pass.
Like many, I found myself drawn to numerous titles I may not have got around to thanks to Game Pass. Drinkbox Studios’ Nobody Saves The World combined relentless action gameplay and a constantly engaging and evolving set of dungeons with the studio’s blend of chaotic humour. While another game in the catalogue, A Memoir Blue, was another Annapurna Interactive visual tale utilising camerawork more than many titles to create an intriguing tale around memory and familial relationships.
When it comes to the winner, it's the entry that had the freshest and most satisfying FPS gameplay loop, one of the best and heart-thumping soundtracks of the year, on top of excellent sound design, replayability and was my (personal) biggest surprise of the year. Metal: Hellsinger truly demonstrated the power of this service to surface indies I might not otherwise play by curating them properly.
