KizuRai: Rai's Top 10 Games of 2022
1. Sifu
Sifu is such a well polished beat ’em up game with a very interesting life/age mechanic. You start at the age of 20 and grow older the more you die. If you die in a row, it adds to a multiplier and you start adding up the age really quickly. You can bring this multiplier down by defeating difficult enemies. But essentially, the goal is to not die, because when you finish a stage, the game remembers all the things you did in that stage and you carry on with your upgrades and age. It’s a game that might be short, but there’s a lot of replayability and very fun to master. The controls are extremely smooth with satisfying feedback to each punch, kick and dodge. I found myself replaying the stages over and over until I mastered them, until I didn’t lose a combo or never die in it. There’s just something so vindicating about going back and defeating a previous boss without even taking a hit.
2. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
Yes, I fell on the pokemon bandwagon, though my situation is a bit unique. I love monster capturing games, from Dragon Warrior Monsters to Monster Hunter Stories 2 to Monster Sanctuary to… you get the idea. But the last Pokemon game I played was Silver on a gameboy colour. So you can understand that when I first jumped into this, this was essentially an entirely new game for me. What? Gyms don’t have a gauntlet of trainers thrown at you anymore? What are these pokemon?? EVs? IVs?? This is a foreign language! So yeah, I was very out of my depth but dear god did I obsessively play this game for one full week and completed it in that timeframe. There’s so many things to do (still do!) and I honestly didn’t meet as many crazy glitches as other people did. Though the game DID crash on me once, so I recommend not turning off autosave.
3. Little Witch in the Woods
This was a really fun and chill potion crafting/management game. It was short, still in it’s early access stage, with some framerate issues, but it was cute for the bit that I played. There’s a lot of promise of more areas, more puzzles, more things to collect which I’m excited to see. The game is very generous when it comes to time – I actually wished it would just stop counting the amount of in-game days I’ve played altogether – and I spent a good 7 in-game days just collecting materials and making money by delivering requests which the game never punished me for. So if you’re looking for a very relaxing game with NO combat by the way, then this is the game for you. (As a side note, I do like the main character’s personality, she just wants some excitement in her life which is such a mood.)
4. Dragon Quest Builders 2
Okay, this game didn’t come out this year but not enough people talk about it and it’s on gamepass so everyone should try this game out. No, it is not minecraft, it’s an base-building RPG with a very helpful NPC system that doesn’t try to punish you. I made a friend play this this year (and replayed it along-side him) and he fell in love with it, I re-fell(?) in love with it and it was just an absolute joy to play (with zero lag on PC). The best I can tell you is that it has very loveable characters, cute heartfelt storyline, a game that just wants you to succeed, and the ability to recruit monsters. What else do you need?
5. Horizon Forbidden West
If you know anything about Horizon Zero Dawn, what more should I even say? More machines, more story, more Aloy! Granted I haven’t had time to play a lot of it, but you start off learning more of what happened after the end of HZD right from the beginning, which I like because it definitely feels like I’m just continuing the same game. The beginning is really a tutorial, but I needed that refresher so I appreciated it, I also like the way these games do tutorials which is letting me control and looking around instead of constantly telling me what to do. Anyway, the game looks gorgeous and the bow is just as satisfying to use. They’ve added additional skill upgrades and I’m excited to pillage the heck out of everything again.
6. Persona 5 Royal
This was definitely not a game released this year but it was a game I JUST completed this year and I want to talk about it. Plus it just released on PC so this is very relevant! P5R is a long but very fun traditional JRPG with an engaging plot and likeable/unlikeable characters. I personally like how the game is broken up between battling and school life – or, as I like to call it, stat upgrade time – and it can break up the monotony when one section feels like it might be starting to overstay its welcome. There’s a mystery plot that I got very invested in and some fun ridiculous moments that made me come back for more.
7. Trombone Champ
Oh my god, this game was a toot (pun very much intended). I’m awful at it but this was so much fun. It’s a mix of a rhythm piano game and gitaroo man and if no one knows what either of those are like then let me try to explain. You can change the pitch/notes of your trombone by moving the mouse up and down and play the note when you press or hold the mouse button. This doesn’t sound difficult, until you realize that moving and stopping your mouse at precisely the right height when notes are speeding towards you and constantly changing at an alarming rate is way more difficult than you thought. It’s absolutely hilarious though (and completely bonkers) and I found myself laughing while making the most offkey Entertainer I’ve ever heard. Also! There’s a very big modding community apparently, with a discord, so you can play your favourte songs! Badly!
8. TMNT Shredder's Revenge
This was very fun to get and play with friends. If you don’t know what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games were about, it’s a side scrolling beat ’em up, which was a genre that was super popular in a 90’s arcade. The total levels are short but I assume it’s to match the arcade length of it’s predecessor. You can play up to 4 people, you can chaotically get in each other’s way, and you each have your own achievements per level to accomplish. It’s a good beat em up fun and retains that arcade-like nature as a homage to the original.
9. Stray
You play as an adorable cat in an adventure platformer, knocking down cans, scratching carpets, meowing in cutscenes and just being an absolute cat. There is a bit of stealth and combat in it, which I admit, did make me wary, but there is actually very little combat and the stealth probably only frustrated me in one area. I would say this was a pretty good introductory game for those who don’t normally play games. I knew many people who never played a game before, play and complete this purely because there’s an adorable cat and that is very valid.
10. Elden Ring
I would like to mention that I only like this game because I can play with friends. It’s not bad and I finally have a good build; but there’s just something about playing in this miserable world by myself that wasn’t nearly as fun as playing and messing around, gesturing with all my friends. There’s now a seamless co-op mod too and it’s fantastic. There are quite a lot of things to do, the world being as vast as it is, with different endings and paths I could take for the end of the game. I think I only hated the twin gargoyle bosses but everything else was doable. There are many choices for builds and an assortment of weapons to give everyone some variety in gameplay styles. All in all, this was not a bad game, not my favourite, but I can see why people enjoyed it.