Ten Games I Played In 2024 That Nobody Talks About, For Some Reason

Hello all! Late to the review round-up party, but never out of fashion: I know these "My Patient Gaming Year Wrapped" reviews are a dime a dozen, but I personally always enjoy reading them and seeing what people have been digging into over the past year.

I finished 70-some patient games in 2024, which is on the low side for me. Part of the reason is that I spent more time with multiplayer games/really replayable games this year than I have in years past (I probably dumped like 150 hours into the Tony Hawk 1+2 remakes). I also have a hyperactive toddler, so there's that. Lastly, I would say the games I played this year were probably longer on average so that's a factor too. I'll put the full list of games I finished in a comment to prevent this post from being humongous, but instead of talking about all of them (though I can if anybody's curious), or picking my Top 10 or something like that, I thought maybe I will try something different:

Ten Games I Played In 2024 That Nobody Talks About, For Some Reason, But Are Also Not Stupidly Obscure. In no particular order. Because although I played stuff like Fallout 1 this year, and enjoyed it, I think many people have probably heard all they need to hear about it.

Jumping Flash (and Jumping Flash 2) (PS1)

I was no PlayStation boy in the 90s, but even if I was, I probably would have missed out on this one. I'm sure most people probably did. A platformer from 1995 that revolves around checks notes hopping around as a robot rabbit, which if you want to be extremely generous could be called an early 3D first-person-shooter. Because, well, it is - but it doesn't play much like a shooter.

The game is about exploring small levels, finding jet parts, getting to the exit, and killin' bosses. That's about it. There isn't a ton on offer here unless perhaps you like to speedrun - there's a limited set of maybe 18ish(?) levels in each game, you jump and shoot, the enemy pool is limited. It's ambitious for sure, and I can imagine myself playing this in 1995 and being very impressed for what it was. But the problem is the levels are usually designed to be explored vertically, the camera controls suck, and your robot's view is fairly limited. So you're often jumping around trying to understand how the level is laid out before you actually get doing anything. Then the horizontally-designed-inside-a-building levels are just plain boring, because the shooting is boring, and you ain't jumpin'. Bosses are easy-peasy, the whole games are.

It's not a game I would really recommend to anybody but it has its charm, and while it might sound like I'm being really negative, it's actually nice that the games are very simple and they only last a couple hours. There's a third Japanese-only game (Robbit Mon Dieu) that I haven't tried, and will probably play as well when I want something short and simple.

Toy Story 3 (360, via backwards compatibility on Series X)

Toy Story actually has a really good history with video games. Toy Story 1 was a solid 2D platformer. Toy Story 2 was, at least if you ask me, a really fun 3D platformer. But those came out in the 90s when licensed games were aplenty and vidya games was simple, honest work -- Toy Story 3 came out in 2010 when the third movie did. How do you compete with what's going on in the age of the 360 and PS3? Well, Toy Story 3 found a way.

This is by no means some amazing game, and I only played it because I had it digitally on 360 already from an Xbox Live giveaway years ago. But I had heard it was alright and it lived up to that reputation. The game tosses away the explore-the-level gameplay of Toy Story 2 (mostly), except for a Woody-themed hub world you can roam around, in favor of very linear levels themed after different parts of the movie. While this might seem like a downgrade, all of these levels are competently done, and they are a fun enough ride -- if you are game for playing a 7th gen linear licensed game based on Toy Story. The game throws you into it pretty fast with a Woody-riding-Bullseye action sequence, and later in the game has you sneaking around a "stealth" mission, skating on rails, doing 2D platforming, playing minigames within a nursery, fightin' UFOs, parachuting army men -- there's a lot of different stuff going on, with every level trying to do something new, and I have to say they did a pretty good job with it. It's a little taste of the movie in a linear package and it doesn't last too long, but everything here is good enough that you might have a fun time.

Incredible Crisis (PS1, via emulation on PC)

If you were a 90s Kid, you probably remember seeing this game, but not knowing WTF it was about. Well, having played through it in its entirety (and it was goddamn tough!) I can say I still don't really know WTF it was about. This is almost a WarioWare-esque game with a story, a collection of minigames strung together telling the tale of a family and the insane adventures they all get up to in a single chaotic day. You know, the kind of day where you go from dancing with your coworkers to balancing on a flagpole off the side of a building to bailing out a sinking boat to saving aliens from the military to skateboarding away from tanks to... you get the idea. If Incredible Crisis 2 ever comes out I just hope they don't re-use the boat minigame like four times. My poor thumbs.

This game is really a like it or hate it. I imagine most would hate it these days since the novelty of a minigame collection is no longer really a thing, as the genre has proliferated. If chaotic minigames with high levels of difficulty and wacky Japanese insanity doesn't get you going, this won't be the game for you. WarioWare did this better, and is still plenty wacky, but it's not THIS insane.

Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

Being an N64 diehard I've long enjoyed Pilotwings 64, but was never that fond of the original SNES game. I've had a 3DS since near launch, but never bothered with Resort, which was yet again a launch title for the system. But I recently played Wii Sports Resort (last year?) and Pilotwings Resort was giving me sort of similar vibes, and is cheap to pick up, so I figured I'd check it out.

I don't regret it. It's actually a really fun game, if you like the Pilotwings gameplay. The art has that simple kind of Wii aesthetic to it that is clean but nice, there's cheery music, it's just a really feel-good experience. The missions are fun and you can unlock alternates for each of the vehicles, and then - the best part of the game, of course - you can roam the whole island where the missions take place, but more freely than in previous games, and go around finding collectables with the different vehicles like in Wii Sports Resort. If you have a 3DS lying around and want a nice sunny game to chill out with, I would definitely recommend this - honestly my biggest problem with the game is that there isn't enough of it, and maybe if you paid $40 at launch you'd feel like it should have been bigger.

Policenauts (Sega Saturn, English fan translation via emulation on PC)

I've long been a Kojima fanboy, but my fanboyism took a big dent in recent years when Death Stranding came out as I really didn't care for that game. I found myself wanting some of his flavor and decided to go back and play Policenauts since it has a fan translation that is supposedly pretty good (it was pretty good! from what I can tell) and it had been on my list to play for a while anyway.

This game is some real Kojima shit. Half of the game is world-building with detailed scientific bullshit about how the different systems and concepts of the created world work. It's set in the near-future where humans have started to colonize outer space -- you play a guy who was stranded, suspended in time -- in space -- for decades... only to return home and find that the world has moved on without you. The story here is pretty interesting, and if you can stomach the meticulous detail with which the writing builds up the world -- and the not so good shoot-em-up sequences that were probably better if you had a lightgun on Saturn -- you might get a kick out of this one. The world-building here is impeccable, it really feels like a realized sci-fi world -- honestly, moreso than anything else I've seen from Kojima including MGS. This is a world I'd actually like to see more of. I have never played Snatcher but I know it's a cyberpunk favorite and may be some of the same -- that one is on my list to play this year.

Bomberman 64: Second Attack (N64)

As somebody who collected N64 games years ago, I'm lucky enough to own a copy of this one despite it being apparently rare and stupid expensive. And yet despite enjoying Bomberman 64, I've never played it. Why? I'm not sure. I played the first level or so of it many years ago and bounced off. Having played it now, I am here to say: it's nothing special, Bomberman 64 is better.

Bomberman 64 Second Attack feels like the team decided to take a big portion of the time they spent designing levels and use it to write dialogue and create characters instead. There's way more story in this game than you would think, and it all sucks. Lots of boss characters talking at each other endlessly about stuff that could not be less interesting. The levels themselves are fine, but go from being more action-heavy like in Bomberman 64, or linear 3D like in Bomberman Hero - and letting you explore in 3D and stuff - to being more like an overhead 3D-ified version of the Super Bomberman games, with worse gameplay. They have like 7 different bomb types in this game, which are interesting I suppose, but then the game is filled with puzzles where you sometimes just have to use every different bomb you have and hope something happens... and there's a lot of backtracking through levels, since most of them involve taking branching paths from the start of the level, grabbing Some Things to Unlock Another Thing and eventually getting to the boss. The bosses stink, too. They're stinky. The final boss was weirdly difficult for me as well, though it doesn't seem like other people have a big problem with it.

Also, those bits where you have to build an ice bridge over lava at the end of some levels, and if you lose all your lives you get to restart the whole like 30 minute level? Yeah, fuck those parts. Fuck them big time. Not a recommend from me, Bomberfans. It's rare for a reason.

Gears of War 5: Hivebusters (Xbox Series X)

I played through Gears of War 5 when it came out, and Hivebusters was added to Game Pass as well either when it came out or not long after. I enjoyed GoW5, but just never bothered with Hivebusters for whatever reason until now. I have to say: it's pretty good! I didn't play any of the multiplayer - and this expansion is kind of driven towards multiplayer I guess, the campaign functions to set up why these new modes are available - but the campaign was quite fun. Short but sweet. If you want a Gears fix and haven't played this I recommend it, it's a self-contained little campaign that is maybe like half the length of the main one, with some characters who are interesting to follow and that same snappy gameplay. The story is its own thing, so you could play this one even if you haven't played Gears 5, though I suppose it might spoil some of the bigger notes of the story like how things are going in general.

The Simpsons: Road Rage (GameCube)

I've played Hit & Run to death but never actually played this game a ton. It was a rental on my XBOX waaay back when, and that was about it - I never finished it, it may have been too hard for me at the time as I also sucked at Crazy Taxi. Well, I found myself in the mood for a Crazy Taxi esque game and decided to play this, and stuck with it. It's a fun time, if that's what you're looking for. Will it rock your world? Not really. Is that last forest-y level the worst one in the game? Yes. But overall it's a fun time, even if it isn't as interesting as Hit & Run, or that other "Simpsons Game" from 360 that got all meta.

It's no Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge, but then, what is?

NIGHTS Into Dreams... (PC)

More like fever dreams. I never played this one but it's... weird. Firstly, I had no idea wtf I was really doing until I played this game for a while - definitely a situation where reading the manual would help. This game got amazing reviews when it came out, but playing it now, it isn't much to speak of - flying in 2.5D, doing flips and shit, going through rings, making your thumbs sweat - this type of analog-control 3D gameplay was probably much more impressive when it came out a few months before Super Mario 64 blew the doors off.

This is no Sonic replacement, which is how I envisioned it - it is very much its own thing. I kind of disliked it when I started playing, but as I went along and got more used to the controls and figured out what I was doing, the game became much simpler (it at first just feels like a jumble of things and you're not sure what picking up different items etc really does, and weirdly the ranking system in the game doesn't encourage you to just go through the level's "laps" as fast as you can, but to use up all your time racking up points in weird ways).

The music is nice. The art is weird. It's imaginative, but also feels like you are stepping one toe into some weird kid's Sonic quasi-erotic dream-invader fanfiction. It made me uncomfortable in a weird way. The gameplay is just something to get used to - this is very much an arcade-style score-em-up game but doesn't present itself super well in terms of telling you how to play. I did play the original Saturn version in the remaster, not the remastered version, so maybe it changes some stuff, I don't know. If you wanna play an arcade-style timed game where you can do lots of flips (like a lot of flips, a lot) then you might like it. I started out thinking I'd drop it but now I kinda wanna check out the sequel.

Bluey: The Videogame (Xbox Series X)

Okay, what is there to say about this one, really? It's a video game for fans of the show Bluey, who are going to be children. Why did I play this? Because it was on Game Pass, and because I have a toddler who, until recently, only watched one TV show, which happens to be Bluey.

There isn't much going on here. Even if you are playing it with your toddler, the appeal is limited. You can explore some environments from the show (the Heeler house, the creek, the park/playground, the beach) and do some limited interaction with stuff around you. You can collect toys to do some limited play with, some little minigames you can play like Keepy Uppy (keep the balloon up), and hats to put on. You can play "co-op" up to 4 players so that's nice, but this game really won't last long. My daughter did get a kick out of exploring places from the show, and did enjoy it, but it's not something anybody over the age of 4 is really gonna get much out of. Good to practice moving a character around in a space with a controller, without having to worry about a camera, for the youngins. This game is kind of in the vein of a lot of Bluey merchandise - the show is fantastic, but a lot of the merch stuff like the toys doesn't have the same kind of QC and is clearly phoned in.

Well, that's my TED talk. Hope you guys enjoyed it, and I hope you all played a lot of weird patient games last year, and play a lot of weird patient ones this year. Some of these games turned me on to others that I might check out this year like I mentioned - Robbit Mon Dieu, Nights: Journey of Dreams, Snatcher. And I'm always looking for odd stuff other people are playing (including the obscure stuff I've never laid eyes upon in my life!).