Hello there! Two thirds of the year have officially passed, and that means it’s time for part two of our triannual Game of the Year discussion. Traditionally GOTY talk is kept to late December, but why wait when there’s very likely gems listed below that you missed and could be going back to play right now? If you missed the first part that covered January to April, you can find that here. And if you think we missed something vital that happened between then and now, leave a comment or find us on Twitter.
And with that out of the way, on to the games!
Tim’s Picks
By Tim
Live A Live
Live A Live is a 1994 role-playing game that was only ever released in Japan, but would prove to be extremely influential and historically relevant. It was directed by Chrono Trigger’s Takashi Tokita, composed by the legendary Yoko Shimomura, and featured art and design from seven prominent Manga artists.
This year’s remake not only provides an English translation, offers new musical arrangements from Shimomura, and uses the same HD-2D graphics engine as Octopath Traveller and Triangle strategy — making for a stunning realisation of what Super Nintendo graphics looked like in our childhood imaginations — but it also offers plenty of optional concessions for new players not attuned to the difficulty of ’90s RPGs. The result is a series of wonderful short stories, spread across multiple time periods and divided between voiced narrative cutscenes, exploration and turn-based battles. It feels like playing a lost Final Fantasy from that series’ golden age, and it’s a real treat.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade games are always overwritten, annoyingly acted, meandering and totally unapologetic in how little respect they have for the player’s time, but I’ll be damned if they’re not great enough to hook me anyway. This is a mostly standalone story and, as ever, the setting and characters are immediately engrossing but spiral into gleeful lunacy as you progress. Our heroes are soldiers in a war-torn world, where everybody’s a clone that can only live for 10 years, and enemies need to be constantly killed to power Flame Clocks, and you send your dead friends to the afterlife with flutes. It’s all ripe for a glorious disentangling.
Anime tropes and endless tutorial popups aside, it’s a wonderful world supported by a convoluted but extremely gratifying combat system. I love combining characters into an unstoppable Ouroburos, and the ability to trade classes on the fly makes for pretty much infinite customisation and variety.
Stray
You don’t have to say much more than “you play as a cat in the post-apocalypse” to convince people on Stray, but as it turns out the game nails its premise harder than just about anyone could have expected. The feline nature of your protagonist is pretty much always front and centre, whether you’re finding ways to ascend tall structures, avoiding fetid bacterial growth enemies or just looking for a warm spot to snooze. The way you control your cat — by looking for spots to jump to and planning your routes rather than having free platformer control — results in very believable kitty animations, not to mention how inspired the “meow” button is, and the ability to bat any object off shelves purely for jerk purposes.
Otherwise this is a fairly standard “collect and combine the objects” adventure game. But the robot-inhabited areas are so well-realised and the narrative just intriguing enough that, combined with the cat factor, it all makes for a very enjoyable few hours.
Card Shark
Set in 18th-century France and featuring wonderful monoprinted art and classical music, Cardshark would be an intriguingly novel game based purely on its presentation. But its design and play ideas are also pleasantly unusual, teaching you the elements of confidence tricks inspired by the strategies of real-world card cheats, and putting your nerve, timing and memory to the test in complex grifts.
You play as a mute tavern attendant who’s taken under the wing of the Comte de Saint Germain, a figure of French folklore, and whisked across the country to rub shoulders with Voltaire, help out the local Romani nomads, empty the pockets of soldiers and aristocracy alike and help uncover a royal conspiracy. But you don’t have to be good at cards to love this game; it’s all about paying attention to the ways the Comte teaches you to signal values or doctor decks, and pulling off each con with a flourish.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge
Like 2020’s Streets of Rage 4, here’s a game that takes piles of inspiration from a classic beat-em-up (in this case Turtles in Time), but knows how to modernise just enough. The combo system is far beyond anything that could have existed in the early 90s arcades, the roster of seven characters all feel distinct, and the music and animations are fantastically nostalgic without being beholden to retro limitations.
But the best part is how lovably goofy it all is. Ninjas who take over a TV station end up putting on their own cooking show just so they can attack you with rolling pins, April has somehow invented her own martial art that uses a microphone as a weapon, and you can finish foes with team-up attacks where Michaelangelo and Splinter the rat both ram their butts into someone’s skull. The six-player co-op is perhaps a little too chaotic, but with two or three players it’s an amazing time.
Alice’s Picks
By Alice
Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels
I think we all knew that this game would be at the top of my list.
As the name suggests, this was the first Forza Horizon 5 expansion and it was themed around Hot Wheels toy cars. The developers built a Hot Wheels world in the sky above Mexico, and you can drive around loop de loops, go sideways, and do all the cool stuff you could do with the famous Hot Wheels orange tracks, complete with dragons.
The expansion struck the perfect balance between creating the world of a ridiculous toy, and making the ridiculous toy just serious enough that you could escape into the world you went to when you played with toy cars as a kid.
As far as Forza Horizon expansions go, I still prefer the Lego one, but I would, wouldn’t I? However, this comes a fairly close second in terms of entertainment value. My only complaint is that I finished it 100% in a weekend, and that felt a bit too short. But, of all the complaints to have, I think that’s a pretty good one.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football
While I don’t think Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is going to be the next great Nintendo party game, it’s just impossible to not have a good time once you get the hang of it. Answering the question “what if soccer was more like Mario Kart?” Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is really the only way I would enjoy soccer. If soccer was played like this in real life, I would watch.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is soccer, but with weapons and no one knows the rules. Adding the Battle League to it means there’s a bunch of multiplayer and online requirements, which irks me somewhat, because I always think Nintendo is at its best when the games are for couch co-op, but it’s still a good time and is roughly on par with my understanding of soccer.
Cult of the Lamb
First you must kill the old gods, and then it becomes an occult-themed farming simulator and clan manager with dungeons to explore and enemies to kill. However, it’s not too dark, because they’re all adorable animals. “What if Stardew Valley was evil?” is a hell of a premise and I am entirely here for it. The fact that it was made in Melbourne only makes it better.
Cult of the Lamb was one of the surprise hits of the year, and shows that Devolver is still looking for the weird and wonderful. Definitely one worth picking up.
The Quarry
You know how you scream at the TV when watching a horror movie? This is like that, only the dumb teenagers actually listen to your commands. This playable horror movie follows a group of teenagers at a closed summer camp where something sinister is lurking in the dark. You can keep them all alive, or not.
While I’m not entirely sure it counts as a game, I loved the experience. Playing with my wife was extremely fun, with us each taking it in turns to control the characters. It’s the kind of game I want to replay soon so I can experience the other endings, and I don’t normally care enough to take the time to do that. It also helps that the mo-cap cast is spectacular, and, much like a B-Grade horror movie, you’ll spend a lot of time recognising that guy from that thing. Also, Ted Raimi is there, for some reason, to make it extra B-grade horror.
Exploding Kittens
Was this game released this year? No. Is it a videogame? Also no. But I’m making the rules here, and this is a game I discovered last month and am now completely in love with. I think my family has played 10-15 games of it now, and it’s an utterly delightful card game with the perfect balance and the right level of stakes.
It’s kind of similar to Uno, but with fewer card types. Every turn you can choose to play any number of cards, and then you must draw a card. You lose if you draw an exploding kitten and can’t defuse it. There are 6 defuse cards in the deck, along with enough exploding kittens for each player, minus one. It takes about two minutes to learn how to play, and each game only lasts 15 minutes. We found it best with four players, but it also works fine with just two (though, it is a completely different game). I highly recommend it as a party game, or for people who are fairly new to/sceptical about board games.