Complex mysteries that require deep thought and explorations of history through photography round out Joel’s Must Plays of 2024.
ANTONBLAST
ANTONBLAST continually surprised me with its creative moments, goofball humor, and fun level designs. I just felt like I was constantly rewarded for progressing further in this game. Not just from stage-to-stage, but from moment-to-moment as every new screen seemed to offer me something new and delightful. Being able to navigate these areas with such an animated character with an array of easy-to-use abilities also made it all feel extremely seamless to play, encouraging me to go ever-quicker (often to my demise). It just feels like it’s constantly goading you forward through it – I genuinely mean it when I say this was hard to put down.
“With its great movement, explosive and appealing animations, and its creative levels, ANTONBLAST is easily the best platformer I’ve played in ages and it isn’t even close.”
Read our review of ANTONBLAST.
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Return of the Obra Dinn completely changed my mind about what a mystery video game could play and feel like. When I first played that, I was worried that I’d never get that sense of doing real, challenging detective work in a game again, but the folks behind the two Golden Idol games have shown an incredible mastery of weaving a complex mystery in only a few screens while also making the player feel clever for figuring them out.
The Rise of the Golden Idol does a fantastic job of creating a web of seemingly-disconnected stories and bringing them all together in a compelling, captivating way that had me guessing all the way until the ending. And again, I can’t compliment the developers enough for their ability to show the player a handful of screens of activity and a pile of clues, all of which will tell a tale if you examine things carefully enough. I love their fill-in-the-blank mystery format and how you slowly piece things together using word templates. This and the previous title offer some incredible storytelling and puzzles to solve, easily earning it a spot among our Must Plays of 2024.
The Rise of the Golden Idol is available now on the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, the App Store, Google Play, and Steam.
Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber.
Games allow us to inhabit and feel our way through a space and time. I feel like I am drawn to this medium because of its ability to inspire empathy through the time we spend with them. We share in these worlds and we feel along with the characters as we work through their stories and struggles. I think it’s truly important that we use this medium to immerse ourselves in historical periods and cultures in order to broaden our views on the world and to learn more about the people we share the planet with.
So, I found myself drawn to Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber.‘s snapshot of Mexico’s history shown through the experiences of a photojournalist as well as the developer’s eye for detail for this period. They clearly worked incredibly hard to draw the player into this historical time, but through their choice of having the player experience it as a photographer, it encouraged the player to deeply examine the characters, story, and place rather than follow a storyline (although the player IS still doing that). It’s not just that this captures a history I am glad I know more about, and not just that, as a game, it gets us to experience it. It’s that it used that personal, interrogative medium of photography and how we view and capture moments within the world that genuinely make the experience our own and, in doing so, really make our learning about this time our own.
Read our interview with the developers of Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber..
Keylocker
Keylocker is a game about a world where music is illegal and a revolution built around song that aims to overturn the cruel overlords. To carry out this revolution, you’ll be fighting challenging turn-based and timing-based battles against the agents of the regime as well. It will be far from easy – the developers have woven some difficult battles into the game that expect you to make careful use of its neat offensive and defensive systems, but I never minded when I lost. The world and its characters have such a sharp futuristic aesthetic.
It’s the music, and theming the game around it, that makes Keylocker something special. It takes special care with how it uses music and where you hear it, weaving it into combat, the world, and into your own musical acts of rebellion. While hitting monsters to beat them up seems like what would get you closer to overthrowing the regime, it’s spreading the art of music and exploring its connections to the entire world that actually feel like you’re getting closer to raising the people up. It’s a stirring look at how art is what often moves us to finally fight back against the forces that keep us down, and given the state of many places in our world today, it feels like games and art like Keylocker are vital reminders of how to begin to affect positive change in our lives and those of others.
Read our interview with the developers of Keylocker.
Mouthwashing
I was curious about Mouthwashing ever since I found out it was from the same people as the surreal, uncomfortable How Fish is Made. For how silly and bizarre it was, it explored some interesting choices through how it played, which had me wondering what the developer’s next game would be like. I expected something playful but thoughtful. What I got was an example of how to tell and excellent story in a game, but also one of the most unsettling and incredible stories in horror I’ve experienced.
A space freighter crew is stranded. A strange act of sabotage has left them this way, leaving them with little food, a strange cargo, and a desire to try to get through the next few months in hopes they get found before the food runs out. Over the next few hours, you’ll figure out what really happened on this ship as you follow this hopeless situation to its conclusion. As you do, the chilling revelations of what happened steadily unveil themselves to you as the dizzying nightmare becomes clear. It’s stomach-churning and incredibly well-paced and written, and you’ll find yourself powerless to look away as the final of my Must Plays of 2024 careens towards its disturbing conclusion.
Mouthwashing is available now on Steam.
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