Some of the best games you might have slept on in 2024

A screenshot for Infinity Nikki in which the main character is using forced perspective to make it look like she's touching hands with a painting.

2024 was a weird year with a TON of massive releases. Dragon Age showed up out of no where with Dragon Age: The Veilguard and rocked. Astro Boy platformed into everyone's heart showing that he can be more than just a mascot demo boy. Marvel Rivals showed up and proved that interest in Marvel and in hero shooters can someone be resurrected after over saturation. It was a big year.

But with all these releases there's a ton of games that may have slipped past you as the fast pitch machine of development releases fired them past you. Here's a couple you should look into in no particular order.

10) The Crush House

When I was first approached to try this game I had zero interest in it. The weird citrus color palette, the concept of running a reality romance show, spying on people as they make out. It felt like it was very much not my thing.

Than a PR person who I've worked with for a very long time told me five simple words, "It's not what you think." Which is technically six depending on your school of thought but shut up and listen.

In The Crush House you're tasked with exactly what I said. You're brought to live on the set of a reality TV show much like MTV's The Real World where you have to film six strangers picked to live together in the same house. You pick the six from a small pool of "applicants". Then, at the end of the season, they all exit the house in a dramatic fashion and exit via a bright ceremony and a massive tube slide and then you get set to start on the next season.

When the next season starts you pick six new contestants...or some of the previous ones as well. But you'll quickly notice that returning contestants aren't coming back familiar with the set or their costars, they're having an entirely new experience which makes you feel like it's just a simulator letting you trial and error different combinations...until your character also points out how strange it is that they literally do not remember things.

This leads you to not only have to successfully run the show, but find out the mystery of what's going on with the show, the sponsor, and that strange, seemingly unnecessary, tube slide.

Don't be fulled by how the game looks at first, this game is a bait-and-switch wild ride we haven't seen since Doki Doki Literature Club just replace the horror with mystery.

09) Fae Farm

Okay, sure, this came out on the Switch a few years ago but now it's out on damn near everything. And, if you missed it...I LOVED it...as it combines much of what I love about Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with more of an actual plot.

Much as how many of these games go, you get a farm that's trashed, you clean it up, you learn skills and crafting. You get to meet the colorful folks on the island. And then...you slowly start to discover the island is a nexus point for magical beings and you are a chosen warrior who must uncover magic spells and special abilities that will allow you traverse magical dimensions and dangerous biomes to bring peace to the world. And then you return to make sure you pet your cattle before bed.

It's the openness of being able to customize your home and chose a romantic partner (though we all know you're going to choose the goth fairy named Pyria because how could you not) with the linear path of an adventure game with a world saving plot mixed into the equation.

It's a gorgeous game that hits all the things you want from a life sim that flew under more radars than a New York drone.

08) Princess Peach: Showtime

If you haven't played this game I bet I know what you think this game is and I assure you it isn't that. Princess Peach: Showtime is a game staring the Mario franchise's titular Princess Peach as she goes off on her own and ending up in an adventure all her own. In fact, the fact she never once mentions Mario is remarkably empowering for this oft under used character.

It starts off exactly like how you think with Peach showing some classic 3D Mario movement but after discovering that the theater you're trying to save is under attack by the 12 minions of a demonic entity, you quickly discover that this game is about versatility.

Taking place mostly within 12 different story lines that explore 12 different media themes (cooking show, crime noir, anime, superhero, western, etc) you discover Princess Peach getting a different suit for each local. But unlike Mario's power-ups, these outfits don't just change how Mario performs, it changes the GAME.

You can go from a cowgirl, riding a horse and lassoing obstacles and robbers, to a detective solving an art heist, over to a martial artist comboing enemies into the distance, before becoming a pastry chef and flying over massive baked goods to apply decorations and frosting to them.

The massive variety and the way you can choose to switch between stories at your own pace makes this a game hard to get bored with. And as you get through the game, you find it actually starts getting genuinely challenging. Not Souls hard, but definitely harder than the children's game this was poorly marketed as.

07) Tetris Forever

I love Tetris. I've played almost every version, I've watched Captain N save a town from falling Tetinos, I've read the Tetris graphic novel more times than I can count (it's really good, trust me). And I will also fathom a guess that you love it as well.

No matter how long it's been since you played, I promise you that not only have you played but if you get the chance to play Tetris you WILL play Tetris because that is Tetris. Deal with it.

But Tetris Forever is an incredible journey into the world of what makes Tetris, Tetris (jesus I need to cut back on typing Tetris). The game takes place on a timeline where you get to watch short documentaries explaining the history of where Tetris comes from, where it went, and how it got there all while learning about Soviet intrigue and behind the scenes views of the 80's gaming industry we don't normally get to see.

And along the way, you get to play various versions of the game itself from the original made of ASCII art, to the weird ones like "Hatris". It's an incredible journey that fills a hole in your soul that you didn't know you had like a long piece showing up clutch.

06) Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete

This is a release that flew under the radars of even some of the biggest Animal Crossing fans I know.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has been out for a good long while now and while it was nice, it featured a lot of forced wait times and micro transactions to skip them. It was slow going, especially if you played it for free and having a Nintendo game run off microtransactions felt, for lack of a better word, icky.

But this year, despite having what feels like ZERO marketing for it, Nintendo released Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. It looks and feels like the exact same game that's been out except you pay once and get the complete thing. No obscene wait times, no over fluffed fetch quests, you just get the full game that you can play at your own pace however you like.

And while it's not a perfect Animal Crossing game by any stretch, having this time waster on your phone is an awesome escape, especially knowing that you don't have to time manage your choices anymore.

05) Infinity Nikki

As someone obsessed with customizing my characters I'm not a stranger to the Nikki games, which, often, is ONLY about customizing your characters so I was already on board when I first heard that was a Nikki game coming to consoles, but now that I've played it, one word...HOW.

I also wrote multiple words about it that you can read in my full review but that's between you and your clicks.

Infinity Nikki is not only free-to-play, it's also a whole game. It's a whole multitude of games. Sure, you're still dressing up Nikki and coming up with awesome outfits, but you're now doing it in a full on open world adventure filled with side quests, puzzle games, and some awesome old school boss fights.

You can pay money for things in the game, but they're just cosmetic. You can easily tear through the game without paying a single cent. Admittedly, that isn't me as they introduced an ninja outfit based off the transparency grid in Photoshop, but I'm sure you can if your impulse control is better.

Released with almost no push despite looking better and feeling better than anything Hoyoverse has shot out recently, Infinity Nikki is an incredible game that is somehow free.

04) Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

I know it seems hard to believe a remaster of a game from a popular franchise might fly under radars, but it really feels like a lot of people don't understand with this game holds.

I love the Luigi's Mansion games but they get old quick. Always backtracking in the same large building. And while it's fun to discover and unlock new areas of the building I'm trapped within, it still means I'm going to be revisiting the same rooms so many times I feel like I owe rent.

Luigi's Mansion 2, which is actually a remaster of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, does away with that feeling of constantly having to revisit the same rooms. What if, instead of an obnoxiously massive mansion that would even wear out a member of S.T.A.R.S., we get a multitude of smaller (yet still fairly big) facilities each with their own visual themes and gimmicks. Every time you start to get warn out on a particular visual, you're suddenly treated with one of the best boss fights in the series before being taken away to a whole new locale.

It's brilliant and I feel if more people knew that this game would have sold WAY more.

03) That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Isekai Chronicles

Oof, the isekai realm of anime has GOT to do something about these chapter long titles. But still, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is one of my favoriate isekais and it's great to be able to play in this world.

At first play, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Isekai Chronicles looks and plays a lot like it's mobile game counterpart where you need to build up a city and gather resources while also getting to experience moments in the story, but over time you see some big changes.

For one, the world is a lot better looking and more detailed. You also don't have to deal with a game being forced to limit your daily play to encourage you to engage in microtransactions. But the best part is when you go into battle.

Instead of the mobile version, where you go into your standard mobile game turn based battle which could easily run on auto, you're instead given chibi versions of your characters and engage in active battles using Street Fighter like controls to perform combos and massive spells on your enemies.

It's a fun and cathartic way to burn off the energy that builds up in you while you're slowly watching your town go and experience the story play out. It also adds an awesome NEW storyline to the game which somewhat interferes with the world as we know it so even if you're a diehard and familiar with the original storyline, get ready for some surprises.

02) Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2

I honestly only tried this because it was free with Playstation Plus Premium and I hadn't played an Earth Defense Force game in years. I was really glad I did and I'm worried people have missed out on this bizarre gem.

Unlike the mainline Earth Defense Force games where you famously control a tough as nails marine as you run around and blast giant creatures, you play in a voxel built universe in a party of up to four unique characters that you find and collect in the game world.

And while the tough-as-nails soldiers of the past games are all present, while play as them when you can have a team comprised of a vampire, a baseball player, a polar bear, and a European woman who makes it rain waffles from the sky.

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a game that wears its silliness on its sleeve and makes for an excellent co-op game either online or co-op with others as you each take four weirdos into a voxel based world and take out giant robots and insects.

It's the kind of weird shooting experience I haven't gotten a lot of since the end of the Dreamcast era.

01) Gundam Breaker 4

Not only was Gundam Breaker 4 my most anticipated game of 2024, but it was, easily, my most played title.

Given, your excitement with this game is heavily going to stem from your interest in Gundams or even just large anime mecha, but if you're even close to being a fan of either or both there is a LOT to love here.

Not only are there over 250 different Gundam models to play as in the game, you have the full freedom to take them completely apart and put them together. You can resize and move every part leading to anything you can think of fighting how you want it to fight.

I have gone into battle online, teamed with an anime girl and a house plant and that's a normal Tuesday in the game. It's fun beat'em up gameplay with variety that only stops due to the limits of your own imagination and I love this game.