Jordan Minor’s Top 7 Games That’d Be Cool ‘Video Game of the Year’ Chapters for 2024

Jordan Minor is the author of Video Game of the Year, the best video game history book also featuring Dan Ryckert and many members of the Giant Bomb extended parasocial universe. He’s a Senior Analyst on the Apps and Gaming team at PCMag. He beat Grubb and Minotti at Jeopardy, and one time he told a pretty great lie about Street Sharks.

I’ll probably be thinking about “video game of the year” as a concept for the rest of my life. That’s what happens when you write a book called Video Game of the Year: A Year-by-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977. Putting together that project required creating my own personal criteria for determining what games of each year are worth writing about. It wasn’t just about the best games or my favorite games, but the games I thought told the most compelling story about their moment in history. Even though the book is now out of my hands (and hopefully in yours this holiday season) I still can’t help but think about games this way once the year winds down.

So here are my top seven games from 2024 that I think would be cool Video Game of the Year chapters. For more, you can read my full reviews for all of these games (along with all sorts of other gaming takes) by following me over at PCMag.

It’s no surprise that the team behind Sonic Mania made a game that’s so Sega-core. I imagine the mood board for Penny’s Big Breakaway is just NiGHTS Into Dreams screenshots. The emphasis on momentum, rolling and swinging around using your yo-yo, feels like an attempt to solve the 3D Sonic platformer problem that Sega never cracked. In my review I called Penny’s Big Breakaway a “missing link remix of a lost Saturn game,” and that Sega influence is fun to see even if the company itself isn’t what it once was.

It’s too bad that Prince of Persia basically ate its lunch because Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a fine little side-scroller in its own right. Platforming feels fluid and the mask-switching mechanic gives combat some nice strategy. But more importantly, for years I’ve been aching for video games to embrace the unlimited aesthetic potential of Afrofuturism. Zau rises to the occasion, combining a lush vision of African imagination with Abubakar Salim’s deeply personal storytelling that absolutely has a place in the industry. “Metroid meets the Motherland.”

Of all the video games that turn you into a pervert, at least The Crush House feels intentional. I’ve watched way too much trashy reality TV with my wife (and by myself). The Crush House delivers all the sick thrills, sweet moments, and mild boredom I’d want from a game simulating that petty drama-filled entertainment. I love the game’s uncomfortable and exploitative voyeurism, swapping a soldier’s gun for a producer’s camera but still managing to feel just as dangerous. Mix The Sims, Pokémon Snap, and the rush of capturing private drunken hookups.

If you’ve already read Video Game of the Year (and if you haven’t, get on that) you’ll know I don’t like modern first-party PlayStation games. More specifically, I blame the critical and commercial success of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for creating the Western blockbuster template that too many Sony games now endlessly mimic, leaving wackier and more creative Japanese ideas by the wayside. I was a bit skeptical going into Astro Bot, mostly because I found Astro’s Playroom to be a fun but overrated tech demo. So imagine my surprise that Astro Bot is not only a nearly Super Mario Galaxy-tier 3D platformer but it also brings back the wild variety and sense of pride in PlayStation’s past that modern Sony desperately needs.

If I were to write a 2023 chapter for Video Game of the Year (and it wasn’t about Alan Wake II) it would probably be about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and how its marvelous new mechanics embodied Nintendo’s toy-making legacy. Even in an adorably shrunken form, it was wonderful to see that legacy continue in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The freedom and creativity that come from summoning echoes rival any Zonai contraption you can slap together. The innovative system pairs beautifully with the classic top-down dungeon design. Best of both worlds, and you play as Zelda!

In the good timeline, there’d be a few less Assassin’s Creed games and a few more Prince of Persia games. We’ll see how the Sands of Time remake turns out, or if that roguelike becomes the next early access smash, but Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is so amazing it should inspire an entire franchise renaissance on its own. Every part of the game is just so much better than it needs to be, from the nimble platforming and fierce combat to the dense map full of genuinely brilliant puzzles. You got that “going back in time” potion. The Lost Crown is one of the best Metroidvanias ever made and deserves to be more than just a forgotten side-scrolling spin-off by a team that doesn’t exist anymore, like sand through an hourglass…

UFO 50 isn’t my favorite video game of the year but it is undoubtedly the game I would write a Video Game of the Year chapter about. My book uses individual games to show the overall progress of gaming history. Derek Yu and his collaborators created 50 original indie games to show the history of a fictional 8-bit gaming console. As a metanarrative, that’s unbelievably good. Even better, the vast majority of games in UFO 50’s anthology kept my attention for hours, especially the ones that snuck in very contemporary design ideas under the retro skin. Shout out to Party House. UFO 50 is a fascinating work, equal parts arcade and academic text, and all my attempts to write about it just feel like scratching the surface.

So will we ever get a Video Game of the Year 2 with these chapters and more? Vote with your wallet! Do it for Reggie!