{"id":24687,"date":"2024-07-05T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T00:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=24687"},"modified":"2024-06-25T11:39:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T11:39:22","slug":"carys-best-games-of-2024-so-far-awards-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/05\/carys-best-games-of-2024-so-far-awards-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Cary’s Best Games of 2024 SO FAR Awards Show!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten.\u00a0 So here\u2019s when those games get their due.\u00a0 Keep in mind that this is my list only and no other outside opinions contributed.\u00a0 And if a game isn\u2019t on this list, it either just didn\u2019t appeal to me as much or I haven\u2019t had a chance to play it yet.\u00a0 Ok with that out of the way, let\u2019s begin!<\/p>\n

BEST 2D ADVENTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Freedom Planet 2 (PS4)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

When I first started playing Freedom Planet 2 for my review, the first thing I thought of was how much things have changed since then, as it\u2019s been nearly ten years since!\u00a0 Gaming-wise, I reviewed the first game on a totally different console generation.\u00a0 Also, Freedom Planet was meant to play like a classic 2-D Sonic style game, at a time when there wasn\u2019t a whole lot of good 2-D Sonic titles around.\u00a0 But since then we\u2019ve got Sonic Mania and Sonic Superstars, both of which are fairly decent (although I still like Freedom Planet 2 more).\u00a0 My life has also changed a lot since then, as I have a different job and live in a different place than I did back then.\u00a0 Even the world has changed, thanks to the COVID pandemic and whatnot.\u00a0 And now we finally have a sequel to Freedom Planet, and it\u2019s vastly improved over the original game.\u00a0 Also I\u2019d like to add that I\u2019m so thankful for XSEED, the publishers of this game, as they\u2019ve always been supportive of me and this site since they\u2019ve been around.<\/p>\n

BEST 3D ADVENTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of reviewers have complained about this game, saying it\u2019s too easy and made just for kids.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t see anything wrong with that.\u00a0 Kids deserve good games, too!\u00a0 And I still had fun with it.\u00a0 Is it Game of the Year material?\u00a0 No, but not every game has to be.\u00a0 It kind of reminded me of some of the GameCube\u2019s more experimental titles like Luigi\u2019s Mansion or Wario World, and I thought that was pretty cool.\u00a0 Despite the sales numbers, I thought that era was a great time for Nintendo.<\/p>\n

Runner Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Little Kitty, Big City (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In this unique game you play as a regular old house cat.\u00a0 You are lying on your favorite windowsill when you accidentally roll over and fall out.\u00a0 You land safely via a string of comical incidents, but now you must figure out how to get back up to your owner\u2019s apartment.\u00a0 So you must explore the big city below, helping out other animals and causing cat-like mischief as well.\u00a0 This game reminds me of a mix of Untitled Goose Game, as well as a PS2 game I played a long time ago called A Dog\u2019s Life, which was kind of the same premise except you were a dog doing dog things.\u00a0 The game also has a bit of a Katamari Damacy vibe with the simple graphics and the Japanese style city setting.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit short, so it only gets runner up status, but it\u2019s still a fun time.<\/p>\n

BEST PUZZLE GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picross S Namco Legendary Edition (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a couple of Picross games for this category.\u00a0 Ultimately, this one won out mainly for the theme.\u00a0 Because you know how much I like my Namco characters!<\/p>\n

Runner Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Even though this one didn\u2019t win, it\u2019s still pretty good.\u00a0 In fact, the presentation might even be better here than in the Namco one.\u00a0 But yeah, both are great Picross games!<\/p>\n

BEST CLASSIC COLLECTION\/REMAKE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course this one\u2019s going to win, it\u2019s Pac-Man!\u00a0 Have you ever heard of the Google Stadia?\u00a0 It\u2019s OK if you haven\u2019t.\u00a0 It was a cloud based game console that came out a few years ago and bombed.\u00a0 Well, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle was one of the exclusive games for it.\u00a0 I really wanted to play it, but I wasn\u2019t worried because I knew the Stadia would fail and we\u2019d probably get this game after that.\u00a0 And I was right!\u00a0 It\u2019s not the best Pac-Man game in the world, but it\u2019s a neat take on the battle royale format as you can use warp tunnels to go to other players\u2019 mazes.\u00a0 Plus you can play as Pac-Man wearing a Klonoa hat while chomping dots in a Mr. Driller maze.\u00a0 So yeah, Namco knows how to push my buttons.<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was originally a 3DS game and a really fun one at that.\u00a0 It was later ported to Apple Arcade and the Switch version is based off of that.\u00a0 The game combines solitaire with\u2026horse racing?\u00a0 Yeah it\u2019s a weird one, but incredibly fun.\u00a0 Even weirder is it was made by Game Freak.\u00a0 They made another little game series you might\u2019ve heard of before called Pok\u00e9mon.\u00a0 You know how in horse races, sometimes the horses have funny names?\u00a0 Well in this game, some of the names of the horses you compete against make references to Pok\u00e9mon, like \u201cBulba Soarer\u201d or \u201cVolt Tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have to make a confession.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t played this one yet.\u00a0 But I have played the original GBA game so I know it\u2019s good.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a sequel to the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, which was one of the best arcade updates to this day.\u00a0 This sequel isn\u2019t quite as good, but still fun.\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably wait and ask for it for my birthday or Christmas or something.<\/p>\n

And now for the best game of 2024 SO FAR.\u00a0 Taiko drum roll please\u2026<\/p>\n

BEST GAME OF 2024 SO FAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This was easily one of the best games on the GameCube, and certainly the best GameCube RPG (sorry Tales of Symphonia fans).\u00a0 The battle system was so much fun, with a unique audience feature.\u00a0 Lots of great set pieces.\u00a0 My favorite is the third chapter\u2019s wrestling theme.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t even like wrestling!\u00a0 And the script text is just as lively and fun to read as it was back then.\u00a0 They touched up the graphics and sound, but if you don\u2019t like the new remixes, you can have the old GameCube songs, too.\u00a0 Really glad they remade this one so more people can play it.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 There were a couple of games I wanted to put on this list because they technically came out in the first half of the year.\u00a0 But they only came out like, a week before I wrote this and I haven\u2019t had a chance to get them yet.\u00a0 They may also be games I save to ask for on my birthday or Christmas and those games are Luigi\u2019s Mansion 2 HD and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.<\/p>\n

I have to say that this first half of the year was pretty slow.\u00a0 It could be because we may be nearing the end of the Switch\u2019s life cycle.\u00a0 But I waited till after the June Nintendo Direct to write this article and boy, the rest of the year will be way better!\u00a0 I\u2019m most excited for Mario & Luigi Brothership, the new RPG in the series.\u00a0 Also the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection because it has one game that never made it to the US before now.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t in the Nintendo Direct, but I\u2019m also looking forward to Ys X: Nordics.\u00a0 But the game from the Direct I\u2019m MOST excited for is the new Zelda game: Echoes of Wisdom.\u00a0 Not only does it share the same style from the Link\u2019s Awakening remake, but \u00a0you finally get to play as Princess Zelda and that\u2019s really cool!\u00a0 And of course there\u2019s also Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Metroid Prime 4, but those won\u2019t be out until 2025 so I\u2019ll talk about them later on.<\/p>\n

Anyway, in the comments section, let me know what you think of my list, and tell me what YOUR favorite games of 2024 SO FAR are.\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around this time of year, I like to make a list of my best games SO FAR, because usually the AAA titles are released later in the year during the holiday season, and the titles that came out earlier tend to be forgotten.\u00a0 So here\u2019s when those games get their due.\u00a0 Keep in mind that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24689,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24687\/revisions\/24689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}