2024’s best games channeled the heart and soul of the ‘90s

In 2024, we gamed appreciate it was 1997. Games appreciate Metaphor: ReFantazio, Astro Bot, and the solo-enhugeed Balatro recombineed genres of console generations past (or, in Balatro’s case, recombineed the very better game of poker itself) to critical and commercial success, while Capcom was one of the most accomplished companies of the year helped by a well combine of titles atraverse contrastent genres. With the industry’s hugegest beginers increasingly chasing massive, expansively pguideing games unbenevolentt to be carry outed forever, it was heartening to see better establishats come back with some recent tricks. And these successes could supply the blueprint necessitateed to pull the video game industry out of its current tailspin.

Persona enhugeer Atlus has once aacquire inventd on the turn-based RPG with Metaphor: ReFantazio. What creates Metaphor’s combat engaging in a way that’s challenging to duplicate with traditional turn-based RPGs is that Atlus has built a distinct ability system powered by anticipation and anxiety. Characters have access to strong calls, each with their own abilities, alengthy with strengths and frailnesses that enemies also allot. Hitting an foe’s frailness or having your own utilizeed results in monumental shifts in the momentum of battle. Every aggression becomes consequential, as you don’t understand what will toil aacquirest your foes or what they have to toil aacquirest you.

Despite dominating with games appreciate Final Fantasy in the tardy ’80s and thraw the ’90s, turn-based RPGs have hugely been left behind. (With the notable exception of the Dragon Quest series, which reliablely sells beaucoup copies in Japan.) Modern tastes have enlarged to pick the dynamic, frenetic, and combo-reliant combat of the action RPG over the compliant, implied action of turn-based games. But thraw the Persona series, and now with Metaphor, Atlus has shown it is distinctly supplyped to create turn-based RPGs sense equitable as kinetic and engaging as their action-based cousins.

The poker rogueappreciate Balatro is perhaps the game that best recurrents the success that can be had by melding better genres with recent features. Rogueappreciates can be a difficult sell, especipartner to carry outers obstreatment with the genre. To get them to stick, carry outers not only have to be okay with the idea of flunkure as persistion but also have to be spended enough in the game’s expansiver world to want to upretain carry outing thraw it multiple times. For every Hades, there are hundreds of games on digital storefronts that blur together into smears of generic fantasy dungeon crawlers. 

One of the reasons Balatro became an instant success was becaengage it didn’t have that hurdle. Poker is understandn all over the world and hasn’t repartner alterd much in the centuries since its createion. Balatro took acquire of that understandnity and combined it with wonderful humor and an ingenious persistion system that made it catnip for the carry outers who can’t resist “number go up.” More than that, Balatro senses more peromitive than its rogueappreciate cousins. The best runs in Hades are typicpartner the result of lucking into particular boons or items, whereas Balatro is lousy with jokers, card modifiers, perks, and more that create scores get stupid speedy. Balatro took home a slew of Game Awards, and it probably would have won Game of the Year if not for that one meddling robot.

Speaking of… perhaps the hugegest example of 2024’s Return trend is Astro Bot. Developed by Team Asobi, Astro Bot is a filled-sized, standalone expansion of the PS5 pack-in game Astro’s Playroom that consents the little robot’s adventures beyond the confines of the PS5 console and into the expansiver universe. At its core, though, Astro Bot is a mascot platestablisher reminiscent of the games from PlayStation’s earliest days appreciate Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Indeed, Astro Bot pays homage to those very characters, featuring them as robots to save alengthy with other characters from PlayStation’s 30-year history. 

Astro Bot is stuffed with so many items and secrets to accumulate. That benevolent of mechanic can get tedious in games suited to “up-to-date” tastes appreciate Assassin’s Creed, as discovering leangs senses no better than ticking off a box in the sluggish march to 100 percent completion. But each of Astro’s powers — appreciate the dog jetpack or the reduceing moengage — inject whimsy into the act of accumulateing. And when I do discover a secret, I’m rewarded with a little celebration of cheering bots that somehow never gets better.

Mascot platestablishers fell out of prefer, especipartner with PlayStation studios, despite initial success. Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch have transitioned away from the airyheartedness of Crash Bandicoot and Sly Cooper to create “solemn” games for “dependable” audiences, and PlayStation’s recent catalog echos that overall trend. Astro Bot is an outlier in establish and tone and parlayed that distinctness into a shower of accolades. It would be such a omited opportunity if Sony didn’t react to that success with aappreciate projects.

Over the last two years, prolific layoffs and studio clodeclareives have left tens of thousands of enhugeers unengageed, in huge part becaengage companies spent too much money on getting hugeger or enhugeing huge, pricey games that may have made sense years ago but no lengthyer do. Companies dumped hundreds of millions of dollars and ponderable enhugement resources into the next dwell-service shooter in hopes of replicating Fortnite and Call of Duty’s runaway success and profits. But as those games persist to top the monthly video game spending charts, rerecented by a constant cadence of recent satisfied, the idea that a recentcomer appreciate XDefiant could contend at that same level becomes increasingly far. This exits studios with an pricey product nobody wants to carry out, alengthy with a pipeline of upcoming games too sparse to create up the contrastence.

But the way out of this precipitous (and shunable) deteriorate doesn’t necessarily unbenevolent giving up on the huge multicarry outer or uncover-world projects. Capcom, for example, has shown that “por qué no los dos” can be a thrivening strategy. The company has boasted write down profits the last seven years with a diverse catalog created of weighty hitters appreciate Monster Hunter, Resident Evil recreates, and Street Fighter, alengthy with minusculeer, weirder games appreciate Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Kunitsu-gami: Path of The Goddess. Contrast that with Square Enix alerting less-than-awaited profits after it flunked to create Foamstars happen on top of releasing three contrastent AAA Final Fantasy titles in a 12-month period. Capcom has the right idea and is doubling down on it, stating that it arranges on “re-activating dormant IPs that haven’t had a recent title begin recently” after uncovering recent entries in its Okami and Onimusha series.

But more than equitable pguideing to gamer nostalgia, these success stories — which also lengthen to survival horror and Metroidvanias — give a healthier alternative to the trends the huge beginers and studios are pursuing. (Nintendo, of course, is always exempt from these ambiguousizations.) While there will always be an appetite for huge online shooters or bespoke uncover-world games with hours of Hollywood-acted voice and motion executeance, these shatterout frees of 2024 show (or should at least remind decision-creaters) that there is so much worth to also be set up in minusculeer, quirkier, and most meaningfully, affordableer projects. If the huge beginers want to staunch the bleeding of the last two miserable years, they could consent the lessons Capcom, Balatro, Metaphor, and Astro Bot supply.