crim's extremely late, mostly no frills Top...like 20 or so games of 2022

[crimson_tide]

Alright fam it's mad late and a little rushed...a lot rushed (Lost Judgment, you are SO lucky) but here we go!

20 Lost Judgement

I hate Lost Judgment. It's a damn shame too. Judgment won me over as a new action focused replacement for Yakuza since Like A Dragon was going turned based. Yagami was fine but Kaito was my boy. The plot and its themes were clear and established and played out in a logical fashion given the framework we were given. It left me feeling good. Yagami would search for the truth and correct societal wrongs for those left behind.

Then they made Lost Judgment and threw all that good faith right in the garbage. The setup in this game for the crime is just ridiculous. It's also not that interesting as it had been in the previous game. And then they introduce the handyman who is basically Yagami's Knuckles. If Knuckles just sucked and you dreaded every time he came on the scene because he was going to talk. Endlessly.

The high school setting is just not conducive to the story they are telling because they don't use it remotely effectively. There's this elaborate side story thing that's just no fun. Most of it is not...good. The skateboarding one has a mission called 'Hello Fellow Kids' meaning I think the translation team knew the assignment. Yaagami doesn't fit and they do a really bad job making him fit. He beats the hell out of literal children and they give you an option to scare them off...but only after you have beaten the hell out of them and it's nonsense. Yagami is just bullying literal children because they are bullying. It's really off. The high school thing is just a series of substories and it's not particularly well put together and takes too long to get to anything interesting. I didn't even start the last few. For a story about bullying, they sure do bury it. Also, and I can't stress this enough, RGG needs to recognize that while they do a great job telling stories about men, they NEED some people to help them work on how they treat women. You know, like other women. Because it's bad. Every woman in this game gets done dirty. If they had literally ONE woman look at what they did, they would have immediately pointed out that it was dumb. And the worst part is this is a functionally better game than Judgment. I am loathe that I even have to write this at all because dammit the game is erstwhile GREAT...but it's story is just so bad I never want to touch it again. Almost. You'll see why...

19 4 way tie: TMNT/TMNT 2/Fall of the Foot Clan/Back From the Sewers

Wait, let me explain. The Turtles are GREAT. Take off the nostalgia goggles and most of their games just are not good. It's just that simple. These four cowabunga collection games are not good. They MIGHT have been at the time but I distinctly remember not liking them back then either. The arcade games and TMNT 4 on the SNES, pure gold! The rest. No.

18 Sonic 1

Nostalgia. Marketing. How the hell was Sega so goddamn good at marketing? This game is slow and not that fun. The music and character designs absolutely slapped, but this was not a fun foray into the past in the Sonic Origins collection. CD wasn't winning me over and I haven't touched this one all year.

17 Red Earth

It was fine. It looked pretty. It was extremely mid at marrying RPG's and fighting games...which I think was the point. Not what I expected at all in a bad way. I am stretching to even remember it now.

16 SFV

No. No no NO!!! A Shadow Falls, the story campaign in this was one of the most insulting things I ever played. I don't know what this Necali nonsense was all about. They play dude up like a slasher villain and then he's clowned and gone. It doesn't fit together nicely at all, there's no flow. FANG...uuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. The ONLY good thing is that Zangief is so swole at one point he snaps the impact of a katana blade on his pec. There, I saved you a few hours by spoiling the ONLY good thing in this train wreck.

15 MVC Infinite

This was also not a good story mode. Glad Capcom has at least seems to have learned their lesson and put actual effort into the SF6 solo campaign. However, there are several moments I will spoil for you now which make it just a LITTLE better than SFV:

-Ryu doing the shoryuken to a Monster Hunter dragon in Wakanda
-Thanos stealing the hado (thing that makes Ryu go evil) and treating it like it's better than the Infinity Gauntlet
-Morrigan being thirsty for Ghost Rider and him having none of it. It's hilarious.

But all that is washed away by how bad Spidey looks in this game. I can't even bring myself to post it, It's horrible. Why did they do my boy that way!?!?!

14 Lego DC Supervillains

What a weird year. This is not at the bottom. Mostly because the kiddo had a blast roller skating around as Harley listening to the boom box. Otherwise, typical Lego nonsense. It wasn't even funny this time. But it was good to play with the kiddo so I will give it SOME credit.

13 Cat Quest

I plat'd Cat Quest unintentionally. It's extremely mid. But that mid like a box of Hostess cakes or chips when you kinda go through the whole thing and don't feel great but don't hate it either. Also, you wouldn't really recommend it. That's Cat Quest.

12 SteamWorld Dig 2

I don't get the appeal. It was a fine time waster on the train commute but I don't get why everyone loves this game so much. The loop is dull, the power ups basic, the combat meh...I must be missing something because I can't see why these Steamworld games are considered 'great'. They are fairly basic.

11 Freedom Planet

This makes me so sad. Y'all should be begging me to shut up about this game. Literally half of it feels like it was made just for me. It's very much a Treasure clone (Gunstar/Guardian Heroes). Lilac, the main character, is just a Sonic/Sparkster from Rocketknight Adventures hybrid. It looks amazing. The bosses are huge and interesting. But the game is just not for me. And I wanted to love it SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO badly. It's partly the honestly bland and inconsistent voice acting with a just try hard story (they do terrible things to cute animal types including Lilac). I made it as far as I could stand, about 6 or 7 levels and then just lost the taste. I would suggest others who like 2D action/platformers try it though. It just didn't ever really click for me after the first few levels.

10 Ys IX

Top 10, finally! This is a solid game. It didn't give me an undying love of Ys or anything but I liked the very straightforward here's the new story beat > do a few sidequests > beat a dungeon > get a new party member > buy the next weapon upgrade > repeat like 10 times. It had a really great high energy soundtrack. The battles were very simple and the abilities felt like JRPG Avengers...if they dressed like they shopped at Hot Topic. The characters were fun tropes. It was a solid game. I spent 50 hours in it. However, they got too grand with whatever twist they were going for. There was a weird switching mechanic that felt forced. The prison city thing never felt like more than a gimmick, I never felt anything about the setting. And silent protagonists...blah. However, people should play this if you just want something simple and that's exactly what you need it to be with a killer soundtrack, go for it. You might not see it through to the end but you won't mind the time you spend with it.

9 MKX

Basically, the next two entries are interchangeable. These story modes are baller fam! They go really hard and kill people left and right. They're lore heavy, I liked the MK characters' kids and was engaged throughout. I hated controlling it (why is there STILL a block button?) but I had a great time with the story.

8 MK11

This one edged out the other one because Johnny Cage meeting young Johnny Cage and realizing what a jackass he was is just goddamn hilarious. Also, time travel is generally not my jam but they had a whole lot of fun with it. Again, block button why? But cranking it to easy and going through the story made for a breezy, blood soaked and really good looking time.

7 Shredder's Revenge

What a TREAT! This was the second game me and the kiddo ever beat together. And that's because it's so dang accessible. And packed with so many references. And then at the Shredder fight...

Yo.



Me and the kiddo beat this game three times. And every time we stop and have a dance break because they made a TMNT arcade style game with a Shredder boss theme by the goddamn WU TANG CLAN. 'Nuff said. *mic drop*

6 Miles Morales

I have three main problems with this game. First, Brooklyn is NOWHERE NEAR Harlem. You abso ******* lutely CANNOT see the Brooklyn Bridge from Harlem. There would NEVER be a pop up street fair in goddamn December and especially not at Christmas. And there would NEVER be a special election being held during the holidays, especially for city council. Other than that (ok and the ridiculous damage sponge final boss), I really loved this game and would easily go back for another playthrough whenever I get a PS5 to get the platinum. It's really a great game. However...

5 Guardians of the Galaxy

Oh my God, someone finally got the memo that Gamora is the most dangerous woman in the universe and made her terrifying! Shame what happened with this game. It's like Uncharted by way of Kingdom Hearts. It's a really fun play with some amazing musical moments. This game spins a great yarn and is consistently just a blast to play. It's a straight up action romp, the highest budget B game I have ever loved. I am gobsmacked this is only in my top 5, I can see how so many had it as a GOTY contender in 2021. But hey, it's still a winner in my book and I would easily replay it especially since there's a new game plus mode. If you slept on it, wake up and do the thing!

4 Tekken 7

I platinum'd my first fighting game!!! Not only because it's relatively easy but because holy schnikeys is this a fun as hell game to play. The Tekken lore is the Tekken lore...then they added Akuma because...ummm...look, it's HILARIOUS. The narrator is just so milquetoast and detached for a guy who hates the Mishimas for killing his entire family. And everyone can talk to anyone or thing because they all speak in their chosen language and everyone just kinda understands. it makes no sense. And is again AMAZING. The cutscenes are so goddamned extra. And then there's the treasure hunt mode where I became pretty good with FFXV's Noctis (and his literal armory he brings along with him) while going for the platinum. I even jumped online for the last few trophies...and it was fine! I still won't jump online often but it wasn't the nightmare I was expecting. I had such a great time with this game. Really great stuff, it was my GOTY for most of the year...

3 Soul Calibur 6

Oh wow. Ok, I didn't plat it but good lord did I love this game. i dip in and out of the quest mode every now and again where I designed a character named Malaika who looks very much like my really hot wife (she approves of my creation) who runs around doing Nier Automata's 2B move set beating the hell out of everything thrown at her. The story was dumb but then they have this chart of destiny thing where you dabble with all the characters and unlock new nodes to go back to others. The create a character is really strong, the characters are really fun to use. It really brought me back to my senior year of college playing Soul Calibur on the DC. It's very pick up and play, it is breezy, it is just fun. It came out on top of my fighting game arc just barely edging out Tekken 7.

2 Kaito Files

Oh RGG, THANK YOU!!!! This DLC is just the bee's knees. It's 8-10 hours, very focused and takes the Judgment character I love most and puts him front and center. And it jobs him out by not making Kaito as instantly magnetic like Kazuma, Yagami or Kasuga is. He's a himbo, he's an oaf and people don't drop everything for him because he's the just so cool. The story is great, revolving around Kaito's past with a woman he loved. The thing that makes it great is just focused. There's no real side content here. It's really focused on the mystery and I really appreciated that. There's a ton of story and cutscenes here, it feels like a full Judgment game on its own. And the final boss might be the best to come out of RGG in years. It's so good, I can't spoil it here. If you own Lost Judgment...first, sorry. Second, The Kaito Files has zero story spoilers for Lost Judgment so you can actually just play it without touching the main game. Do that. Please. This rekindled my love of RGG instantly after Lost Judgment made me question if Like A Dragon 8 would turn out ok. Turns out they didn't lose their minds!

1 Sonic Frontiers

Ha ha. Go ahead and laugh. Of course Sonic Frontiers is the unsurprising GOTY for crim. But they gave me exactly what I wanted. The soundtrack is insanely good, especially the boss fight themes. The main bosses are all super Sonic throwdowns in full ass anime style. The silly little story has some actually really good character moments. The open world is fun to run around in. The combat is what I always wanted 3D Sonic to be with character action vibes. I put 30 hours into this in less than a month. I was obsessed with this sucker. Now, I would not recommend this game to everyone. This is the Sonic game I always wanted. So I had a blast with it. I loved playing this game so much. It's glitchy and messy and I will be going back to the all free DLC very soon now that it's all out. They gave me what I wanted. I cannot be mad about this. Hence, it gets my GOTY.

My 2023 list will be much faster...mostly because I played much less but still!

[Phaseknox]

My 2023 list will be much faster...mostly because I played much less but still!

The whole time that I was reading this list I thought that it was your 2023 list. I hope that it doesn’t take until the end of 2024 for your 2023 list.

I enjoyed reading your impressions of the games that you played in 2022, I own most of them and plan on playing some of them in 2024.

[crimson_tide]

Oh my list next year will be MUCH quicker, probably no later than the end of February. This one I did in fits and starts. I honestly haven't played as much this year but I played some really good stuff. We will see what wins the top spot!

[isthatallyougot]

What I've learned from crim's reviews...

crim: Story is very *VERY* important to me. Just look at Lost Judgment, etc! All the mentions of narrative engagement or lack thereof.

also crim:

Sonic...****SONIC****is my 2022 GOTY



Seriously though, (even though I am confused, lol), I enjoyed reading the long delayed 2022 version of crim gaming. Thanks for sharing, and do better for 2023.



I've got to play a full Sonic game one day. I tried to make it through unleashed, but just couldn't, and I've only dabbled in a couple others.

[argyle]

Great list, very fun read as always. You went fighting game heavy last year! Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Quick note:

The skateboarding one has a mission called 'Hello Fellow Kids' meaning I think the translation team knew the assignment.

This **HAS** to be a 30 Rock reference:

tenor.gif (1.87 MiB) Viewed 1395 times

Also, it's a shame I didn't play more of Guardians than I did - I really enjoyed what I played, not sure why I dropped it. Do you remember about how long it is? May put it on my "return to" list this coming year.

[isthatallyougot]

Another thing your list reminded me of crim is how far behind I am on fighting games. In specific, I haven't played a MK game since 3. (or Tekken since 3, despite having other newer entries in my backlog.) I know the more recent-ish entries have been well loved and I picked up XL several months back, thinking I would enjoy it. Are the more recent entries (of MK) that much better than the older titles?

I'm always hesitant to jump into a new fighting game, because ever since I played VF 4 & 5 FS, they've ruined the rest of the genre for me. I can have fun with them, but I always think, "I could just be mastering a new VF character", lol.

[canedaddy]

The whole time that I was reading this list I thought that it was your 2023 list. I hope that it doesn’t take until the end of 2024 for your 2023 list.

Same. Then I realized Midnight Suns wasn't on there, that tipped me off.