Rob’s Top 5 Games of 2022

2022! The year everyone came out of their COVID caves, and gamers finally went outside again…but then saw their own shadows and went back in. Because everything is awful, and people still suck. But you know what doesn’t suck? My yearly segue to my pre top 5 list Top 5 list, a Grumpy Old gamer tradition!!

The Top 5 reasons 2022 is the best year ever!!

5 – Inflation and lending rates skyrocketing! Tired of being able to buy a cucumber for less than 17 dollars, or being able to make your mortgage payments? Then 2022 may be the year for you!

4 –Stadia announce they’re going home and taking their ball with them, although on a positive note, they WERE giving out refunds to everyone who bought hardware and games…which at this point was pretty much just me. But I appreciated it.

3- Beyond Good and Evil 2 finally passed Duke Nukem Forever as the game longest game ever in development. Sigh.

2 – Amico still doesn’t get released. Will probably use this as a punchline next year at this time as well.

And number 1…

1 – Activision Blizzard. Everything they did this year….I mean man, they aren’t even pretending anymore.

Ahem…

Anywhoooooo….back to the main attraction, this years Top 5 list of the best games I played this year. As always, these are the best games I played, so there might be some on here that you don’t agree with, and that’s ok! We’re all grown ups, and can agree that we all have different ideas of what a good game….except for Diablo Immortal. Spoilers, that’s not on anyone’s Top anything list. Screw that game….

Number 5

Tinykin – (Available on Switch, Playstation, Xbox, PC…possibly toasters too?)

Tinykin is a delightfully game, that I almost never tried…if not for my kids seeing it when I scrolled through Game Pass aimlessly one day, I would have completely missed playing this game. The cries of “try that one dad, the one with the cute monsters in it” led me to install what quickly became one of my favourite games of the year.

Tinykin has you leading our protagonist through a 3d platforming world where you have been sent back in time from a distant future to investigate where humans originally came from…which leads you to a 90’s style house that has now been overrun and inhabited by….talking…bugs? Yeah, maybe the plot isn’t selling anyone on the game…but trust me when I say there is a lot more to this platformer than a great story.

You’ll platform through various areas of the house, doing quests to get items you need to rebuild the machine to take you home. Along the way is some basic collectathon platforming action, which is well done enough. You’re main way to interact with the various obstacles are the Tinykin, which are Pikmin type creatures that you collect and use to either blow up things, stack on top of to reach obstacles or link together to create paths for electrical circuits.

Is this Dark Souls? Nope….you’ll breeze through this games narrative fairly easily, with a couple of puzzles that may stretch you for a bit. But Tinykin’s wonderful world and environments is what came me personally coming back to find things I’d missed, and is why I would recommend giving this a try…especially while it is still on Game Pass!

Number 4

The Pedestrian (PC, Xbox and Playstation)

When 2022 began, I promised myself I would play more games that were a little different than what I would normally boot up. That being said, I had heard great things about the puzzle platformer Pedestrian before I tried it, but it quickly became the my first “have to keep playing 5 more min” game of the year.

In the world of Pedestrian, you’re a stick figure man stuck in a series of signs, and have to traverse through them to the next area. The whole gam is ever changing backgrounds to, from inside an office space to bustling city streets to rooftops. Also, you are interacting as a 3rd person, dragging the signs around and connecting them in different ways to then go back and run your little stick man through.

It does start off easy, but the puzzle difficulty quickly ramps up, but never really too far far to be completely frustrating. There are also hidden areas and collectibles, because video games. The collectibles are purely cosmetic, but are a nice reward for looking off the beaten path. There’s also no monsters, gore, violence, or COVID in the game anywhere, which makes it a good one for the family to play together, which is a nice change in 2022.

So, if you are a puzzle fan, or just someone looking to try something new, I would whole heartedly recommend The Pedestrian for quality family friendly fun…the kind of family fun that will tide us over until Amico releases….(weeps openly)

Number 3

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : The Cowabunga Collection (All of them systems)

Cowabunga…the rallying cry of many a young person back in the 80’s, wielding wrapping paper tubes like a ninja while sugaring out with some off brand frosted flakes on Saturday morning. The turtles were a huge part of pop culture, and as many cartoons did, they got a boatload of videogames made over the years accross consoles and arcade…and Konami has faithfully released ALL of the them in one collection, for PC, Switch, Xbox and Playstation. They also sold one of the coolest collectors editions in years with it, which we did an opening of on our channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWdXBkmByTw if you’d like to check that out.

Chances are, you’ve played at least a few of the 13 games included, but some of my personal favourites in the collection are the Arcade original game, TMNT IV Turtles in time for the SNES, and the wickedly hard TMNT for the NES. These emulated ROMS all have the usual perks, with scan lines, rewind features and save states…making beating some of these actually beatable without a game genie! There’s also a boat load of added features, including scanned manuals, artwork, and soundtracks. All of the games play perfectly, as far as I remember them of course!

Finally, in a trend I hope begins to catch on, this was not released at a AAA pricepoint, only costing 40 Canadian dollardoos, making this well worth a pick up for anyone who nostalgically remembers these games, or is just interested in seeing what all of the hype was about. And with save states, some of these games are beatable by us mere humans for the first time!

Number 2

Far:Changing Tides (PC, Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox)

This year, I had the privilege of playing both this game, and its prequel (Lone Sail) and it was honestly a toss up for which one I’d put in here. Both games do an amazing job of atmosphere building, as you play a silent protagonist travelling across the country, in a wasteland type world. In Changing tides, you pilot a ship over endless waters, and the mechanics for piloting it are a huge part of the charm. You’ll be diving in the water to collect fuel to keep moving, as well as relying on the sail at times…and there are sections where you step out onto land as well, with some very simple platforming and puzzle solving. Usually this is just done so that you can continue sailing to the next destination.

The visuals are both simple and breathtaking, with a simpler model for both the character and the animals you’ll see, contrasted with the skyline and water effects which are gorgeous. The soundtrack as well is one of the best I’ve ever heard in a game, which really helped set the isolationist type atmosphere. There is also next to no sounds, bar for the sounds of your ship and the occasional crane or door noises. The game really does an amazing job of feeling like an epic story is being told, without voices or acting.

Overall, I can not recommend this game enough, if you are a fan of “the journey is the best part” games! Twitch action gamers may not get much out of this, but personally, this game stuck with me a long time, and even typing this out is getting me excited to play through it again!

Number Juan!

Return to Monkey Island

So, if you had told me 5 years ago that we would have a brand new Monkey Island game in 2022, I would have called you a filthy liar and then run off crying..it seemed like that ship had long since sailed. Creator Ron Gilbert had expressed interest in re-acquiring the IP for years, but wasn’t even sure how to do it, with LucasArts having been run into the ground after Disney acquired them.

Then, in April 2022, Ron announced that he had been secretly working on this for 2 years, and had brought back many members of the original team. To say I was excited would be like saying Canadians “sort of” enjoy hockey and mediocre but easy to acquire coffee…

And in September of 2022, Devolver Digital released Return to Monkey Island to critical acclaim. The game was a successful return to what had made the first two games so loved. Guybrush Threepwood returns as the hero, with a story told through him regaling his son in modern times with a story from the past, where he does indeed Return to Monkey Island. The story follows the same mechanics, as a point and click story but with new modern hint mechanics as well as an easier mode if you want to be more story focused and just enjoy the game. The story telling is absolutely top notch, with the same humour and care as the original games. I legitimately cared about every single character, and enjoyed every single interaction and arc of the story.

The new artstyle has been a polarizing topic however, as they have gone with a more cubic art look to the characters (think Sony Vitas Tearaway). I personally grew to love it, and it never bothered me that much to begin with…but I could see how it would bother some people, as it was indeed different.

Personally, I’m super excited to see where they go with the series, no that Monkey Island has stepped back into the limelight, and can’t wait to see is and when they make a new game in the series!