My Top Games 2022

Hey Spacers,

It was a pretty wild year for me! I spent three months in Sweden and got married in India. But this is about the games.

As always, I played a lot of different great games this year, and I rated them on my Spacehey profile as I played them. Which one gets my fabled GOTY 2022 award? Read on to find out. Here are my favorite games I played this year - each of which I enjoyed in different ways.

A masterfully done rework of an old classic - using a new art style and a remade soundtrack to enhance the original vision, rather than to bury it with newfound glamour.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is one of those exceedingly rare, perfectly well-rounded game experiences that deliver both on the gameplay and the story. As you delve deeper into the surreal environments of Koholint island, a growing sense of somberness and melancholy washes over you. It's difficult to describe the game's impact without giving too much of it away. Suffice it to say that, by the end of it, I savored every moment I could in the world of this game. Only after I explored all that there is to find, after I tried all that there is to do, was I able to make that final step to finish the game's story. Similar to last year's Metroid Dread, I got 100% completion on this game - which is a rare thing for me nowadays. 

Sadly, the gameplay itself of Link's Awakening feels a bit dated at times - too simplistic. Boss encounters can feel anticlimactic due to that. The world also feels small compared to newer titles. I would not call these things flaws necessarily, but they do feel like shortcomings when compared to most other Zelda games. Although Link's Awakening left an impact on me like very few games do, my favorite Zelda game will still be Wind Waker. My GOTY 2022 award therefore went to a different game.

I first saw a trailer for Poinpy at a stream that was part of the Summer Game Fest. The stream was called "Geeked Week", and it was hosted by Netflix. Me and some friends watched it mainly just to riff on it. One of the other games shown was a mobile game adaptation of Netflix's Too Hot To Handle, for instance. So the expectations were very low. 

When I saw the trailer for Poinpy, I also didn't take it seriously at first. For some reason, I was intrigued enough to give it a try however. After all, the game is free to download for anyone who's got Netflix (and without any ads or microtransactions whatsoever). 

I am really glad that I gave it a try - I ended up enjoying Poinpy far more than I expected! I was impressed with the entire presentation of it. The gameplay feels fresh and unique, while the characters, visuals, sounds, and music are all lovely and memorable. 

What is Poinpy anyway? It's essentially a Roguelite, with randomized runs and unlockable progression features that make it easier to progress further and further into the game if you stick to it. You will also feel your skills at the game improve over time. The difficulty curve feels just perfect, and the game keeps throwing new challenges and equippable items at you to keep it fresh. The game does have an ending however, which feels very satisfying to achieve.

The only flaw is that there is not enough Poinpy. For a Roguelite, Poinpy sadly does not have much replayability. What I'd really want to see is a proper Roguelite mode where you pick up new, random items as you progress in a run (instead of simply equipping items before the start of a run) - I think that could add a lot of longevity to the game. Sadly, Poinpy did not seem to receive any substantial updates since its release in June 2022. Perhaps that is due to the nature of mobile games, or due to it being released by Netflix? I am not sure, but I would for sure love to see more Poinpy in the future: DLCs, sequels, spin-offs, merchandise - I'll take anything! So anyway, my GOTY 2022 award did not go to Poinpy.

Monster Train is a game I first picked up in 2020, but the more I played it, the deeper I got into it. The deeper I got into it, the more I learned to appreciate it. 

Monster Train is a roguelike deck building game with similar mechanics and features as other such games, but with a unique twist: the presence of a board state, similar to TCGs like Magic. Your mission is to protect your hellish train's engine from angelic invaders. There are three levels to the train (not including the engine itself), which makes for a lot of different gameplay situations. At times, you will have to fend off attackers on each level of the train. Turns can therefore take a lot of time to think about, as there are a near-endless amount of options to take each turn.

This complexity can be overwhelming at first, which is probably the reason why I did not immediately dive too deep into this game. The learning curve is steep for sure. Once you get over it, you will see that the game has a lot to offer. The complexity opens up as you stick with the game, as you discover the wealth of valid strategies and broken card combinations. More than 60 hours in, and I still discover new synergies that break the game. The open-ended nature of the game is alluring and addictive; there is always more to discover and experiment with.

So, the game is great. Why is it not my GOTY 2022? Well, the game was rigged from the start.

Elden Ring came out in 2022; therefore, it receives my GOTY 2022 award. Once I picked up the game, I knew that nothing else I played this year could come close to it. The game is utterly singular in scope and quality. 

What is left to say about the game that everybody loves? Personally, the game reminded me a lot of old PC RPGs - Might & Magic 7 and 8 in particular, which I fondly remember from my childhood. In those games, the world felt dangerous and alive. You could walk off into any direction you liked, and you might just get killed by a horde of ogres that are completely out of your level. An attempt to clear an early quest could turn into a harrowing journey deep inside a labyrinthian catacomb ridden with the undead. Any victory won feels earned.

Recent AAA games have conditioned players to accept that exploration necessitates calculated bursts of dopamine. Victories are not earned, but rather handed out at set intervals. Elden Ring brought back a quintessential element necessary for a true sense of exploration: dread. A world needs to be able to fight back to feel convincing. For this reason, more than any other, Elden Ring is my GOTY 2022. It is an inspiring game, which is sure to impact game developers across the world.

Here's my full ranking of games I played this year. I didn't include games that I didn't spend too much time on, or games that I would have rated worse than 6/10. I had a lot of fun with all of the games listed here.

• Elden Ring ---- GOTY 10/10 ✨✨✨✨✨
• Monster Train ---- 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐
• Poinpy ---- 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐
• The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening ---- 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐
• South Park: Fractured But Whole ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Slay the Spire ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Inscryption ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands mod ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• To the Moon ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Card Shark ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Dome Keeper ---- 9/10 ⭐⭐
• Into the Breach ---- 8/10 ⭐
• Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup ---- 8/10 ⭐
• Vampire Survivors ---- 8/10 ⭐
• Let's Build a Zoo ---- 8/10 ⭐
• Paper Mario (N64) ---- 7/10
• Garlic ---- 7/10
• Shin Megami Tensei V ---- 7/10
• Yakuza Like a Dragon ---- 7/10
• Magic Spellslingers ---- 7/10
• Democratic Socialism Simulator ---- 7/10