« Do you want moar QUICKERFLAK, but you get a fuck-off huge sword and with an even more breakneck pace? Then QF2 will provide all of the badass combat and spartan design QF is known for. »

« For those who seek a great new Metroidvania that hews heavily towards the first half of the term, Rebel Transmute is a must in 2024. Tight and robust as hell. »

« One of the year's finest action roguelites sees the affable Turnip Boy goin' full heist mode with a cleverly designed, hilarious, and cute gungeon crawler. Wonderful tunes and pixel art too. »

« Delightfully providing a wonderful finale to this cult favorite series of Metroidvanias, Moonlit Farewell is lovingly crafted and a complete joy to play. Tight design with impeccable pixel art. »

« Despite its appearances, Hoversteppers is much closer in terms of gameplay to the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games than Jet Set Radio, and it's a welcome THPS spiritual successor in a world bereft of 'em. »

« One of the greatest mobile games of all time (and that is no hyperbole) has just now hit Steam—so, if you scoff at the prospect of mobile gaming, finally check this characterful puzzler out. »

« Blistering combat is decisively ATME's big selling point, as few action roguelite contemporaries tout such exhilarating fights with such buttery smooth controls. Looks and sounds great too, though. »

« Sure to be one of 2024's finest narratively focused titles, 1000xRESIST serves up gracefully poetic writing with gutting visual storytelling, incredible environmental design, and great cinematography. »

« Sometimes, you just desire a laid-back idle game to while away minutes between other matters. And RR absolutely provides, with the cute distinction of existing at the bottom of your desktop. »

« Roguelite deckbuilding that's a biiiiit of a different beast from Slay the Spire and the like, but still with incredibly tight mechanics, superb gamefeel, and bugfuck powerful runs. »

« Hook this exhilarating, Akira × Duke Nukem × [post void] FPS straight into your veins for a brilliant time. Let's call it early: this is doubtlessly the #1 FPS of the year. It goes so hard and fast! »

« LK,BC channels decades of cute cat pics into one indelibly delightful ball of an open world collect-a-thon. To say that it is effortlessly endearing would be tautological, but it still bears praise. »

« Excellent humor, boundless style, exceptional voice acting, and intriguing mechanics make for one of the coolest, freshest games of the year. It's a typing dungeon crawler after all! »

« Surprising no one, Hades II is already a sterling sequel that builds upon the world, cast, and mechanics of its predecessor in fresh—yet comfortably familiar—ways. Shaping up to be a masterpiece. »

« Offering a more involved experience than your usual garlic-like, Frontline Survivors is a thematically consistent garlic-like with twinstick controls and batshit builds. It's clever and very fun. »

« Lovers of short, morbid, indie story games will find much to appreciate with Sunflower Pie. It's strange, affecting, creepy, and pulls no punches. »

« A barn-burner of the highest caliber, delivering a genuinely fresh riff on the saturated garlic-like genre: you're driving through the onslaughts like a bat outta hell, slamming into them. »

« Lovers of short, cute investigative adventure titles will find plenty to enjoy with DD:TSS. It's clever, it's fun, it's adorable, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. Does what it says on the tin. »

« If you were yearning for a Hades-esque retelling of Greek mythology but with even better queer and neurodivergent representation in a spectacularly written text RPG, then FoA here is the ticket. »

« It does not take long for Balatro to sink its hooks into you, being one of the freshest roguelite deckbuilders yet. Psychedelic visuals, magnificent music, and insatiable gameplay. »

« Proudly crude in every sense of the word, this adaptation of the zany tabletop title offers a breadth and depth in both its gameplay and set of features. But it's the hilarious voice acting that's #1. »

« Hotline Miami 3 ain't happenin', hon, but its legacy lives on in Anger Foot—albeit now in first-person and bathed in Free Lives' offbeat personality. Few games are as exhilarating AF as AF is. »

« Psychedelia and Metroidvanias are IN in 2024, and this banger with spectacular art by El Huervo (of Hotline Miami fame) synthesizes these two crazes with style, refinement, and more style. »

« Try to name a twinstick that is as mesmerizing as Dead Petals Bliss already is—you can't. This trippy twinstick combines forces between the devs of Dead Petals and satryn deluxe, and they NAIL IT. »

« Despite completely sucking at it, I cannot dispute that Slidemagi is a robust, kickass tactical RPG with an inventive control scheme and design around it, as well as a cute claymation aesthetic. »