My favorite stuff from 2024

2024! What a year. A horrible, miserable year. But at least a lot of stuff I enjoyed came out in that time frame, right?

In 2023, I wrote a one-paragraph review for every single thing I watched, read, played, or listened to, and then shared the whole big list at the end of the year. This year, I decided to do things differently. For one, I gave myself a little more time to reflect on my thoughts and catch up on a few more highlights from the year that I had missed. (Every big site doing their end-of-year review earlier and earlier in December every year drives me crazy. We need time to digest!) And instead of listing everything, I'd just like to share the things I enjoyed the most in 2024. That includes both new releases AND older stuff I only got around to in the last calendar year, because keeping up with what's currently in the zeitgeist this week isn't the only thing that matters!

First, let's get into the many honorable mentions, divided up by category. Then at the end I'll cover my absolute favorites!

TV!

Bang Brave Bang Bravern (subbed)

The best surprise of the winter 2024 anime season. What was initially advertised as a gritty military sci-fi mecha anime throws a massive curveball in the climax of the first episode when it reveals the true star of the show is a hot-blooded, over the top super robot who evokes the ones from the Brave franchise (such as the entry I fell in love with last year, The King of Braves GaoGaiGar). They get a lot of comedic mileage out of the clashing tones between these two subgenres, with the military guys reacting with disbelief when Bravern does things like playing his own theme song diegetically, but it’s made with so much love and knows when to play the tropes straight. And then they just keep throwing more and more curveballs damn near every episode, whether it’s for comedy or drama or both - not the least of which is the fact that it basically turns into yaoi? This is one of the most homoerotic anime I’ve ever seen. Not everything in this series hits (I often found Lulu grating), but when it works it REALLY works. In my heart this deserved to be a full 52 episodes like the classics, but I also think as a 12-episode thrill ride it’s a pretty perfect entry point for the super robot genre.

Dandadan (season 1)

The big hit of the fall anime season, and for good reason. The source material is great, but the incredibly slick direction from the team at Science Saru elevates this to the next level. Whether a scene is doing raunchy teen comedy, high school romance, shonen action, genuine drama, or some combination of all those things, they can handle whatever's thrown at them. It's not a 1:1 match by any means, but part of me thinks this is a better spiritual successor to FLCL than the actual FLCL sequels Adult Swim has been pumping out. I also feel like it says a lot that I, of all people, genuinely find the romance in this cute and endearing. The season does end on an insane note, though, so I'm glad we'll be getting more sooner rather than later lol

Fallout (season 1)

I have very little direct experience with the Fallout games. (I’ve tried to play New Vegas, but boy does that game love to crash.) But man, this is just a good show. Definitely not perfect, particularly due to its heavy reliance on conveniences like the way main characters just so happen to keep running into each other in this massive wasteland. But I found the characters, their arcs, and the central mysteries compelling, and I’m excited to see where they go next. The production values also help, with a commitment to practical effects and shooting either on location or on a nice physical set rather than a green screen or The Volume. This is definitely not just eight episodes of dumb fanservice, and well worth the watch.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (season 1, subbed)

This is a very good fantasy show with a lovable main cast, beautiful animation, and great vibes. My problem is that it's received such overwhelming praise that I feel the need to explain why I think it's just a good show, and not, like, the greatest anime ever made.

I like it a lot more when it’s a slow-paced, introspective meditation on the passage of time, grief, and missed opportunities in life from the perspective of a thousand-year-old elf, as opposed to when it’s trying to do more typical shonen anime stuff, which I don’t think it particularly excels at. The Hunter Exam arc introducing a ton of new supporting characters in the back half of the season is kind of a drag at times, particularly during its first round. So is the earlier arc spent fighting demons, where you think there’ll be some nuance and then it’s like “no Frieren’s bias against the demons was right, these guys are inherently evil and duplicitous and should be wiped out on sight, even the children.” Just an odd fit for the wistful, low-stakes fantasy tone established up front. This makes it sound like I dislike the series, but I do really like it a lot overall! I look forward to more. There was just another fantasy anime this year that beats it in my book...

Smiling Friends (season 2)

funny cartoon

X-Men ‘97 (season 1)

While reruns of the ‘90s cartoon were my main exposure to X-Men as a kid (alongside the first three Fox movies), I can’t say I had the highest hopes for what was being marketed as a nostalgic additional season of that show. So imagine my surprise when it ends up being maybe the best adaptation of X-Men… ever? The cool ensemble cast of characters with flashy powers, the soap opera melodrama elements, the pulpy sci-fi, the heavy-handed but resonant political allegories, it’s all there and it’s done so, so well. The ‘90s cartoon is used as a familiar starting point to push things in a more mature, interesting direction, giving us rapid-fire adaptations of a bunch of comic arcs in a shockingly coherent package. It feels exactly like jumping onto a comic series at the start of a really awesome new run, where if you don't know about all the old plot threads it's building upon you can still pick up the important bits via context clues and go along for the ride. An absolute treat from start to finish that reminded me why I loved the X-Men so much growing up. (And it also got me to finally start reading the Claremont comics!)

Older shows I got around to in 2024

Centaurworld (season 2)

I'd never gotten around to finishing this! Still a very goofy and silly and colorful and weird and dark and sweet show, mashing a bunch of disparate tones together and somehow making it work. The finale is basically just a feature length film and it rules.

Scavengers Reign

Truly one of the best sci-fi shows of all time, animated or otherwise. It goes all in on being an alien nature show right from the jump, with its scattered human survivors (and one robot) navigating a complex and creative ecosystem of alien flora and fauna. The world is brought to life via consistently stunning animation, letting the visuals do most of the talking. And like on Earth, nature can be beautiful and awe-inspiring, but it can also be scary and grotesque and violent, and the series balances these tones incredibly well. The human cast and their story arcs are great, too. This is absolutely not a show where you just turn off your brain and appreciate the pretty animation, it’s the full package. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and I NEED it to miraculously get a second season already. In the meantime, I'll be eagerly awaiting the new show this team is doing with Mike Judge, Common Side Effects.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (seasons 1 and 2)

DS9 really does get good fast. But I already wrote about that. Excited to keep watching more this year!

YouTube!

Double Fine PsychOdyssey episode 33: “We Wrote It Down” (2 Player Productions)

A new feature length epilogue for the absolutely phenomenal Psychonauts 2 development documentary. Really great to have this opportunity for the team to look back on the game’s reception, the hardships of its development, reopening the physical studio post-Covid, and even the documentary itself as they try to learn from their mistakes and become a healthier studio. Also it’s just really nice to hear that they’re all doing well and back to working on smaller, more experimental games under Microsoft, since things have been kinda scary with other Microsoft-acquired studios shutting down in the time since they last released anything. I’m happy for them, and looking forward to whatever they make next.

I Don't Know James Rolfe (Folding Ideas)

This was an incredibly risky move, given the number of viewers who inevitably took it purely at face value as a takedown of James Rolfe and nothing more. (Though, also: James Rolfe is not some poor widdle guy who is undeserving of serious criticism, he's a grown man with his own little media empire who invented the concept of getting performatively angry at video games on YouTube.) Really though, while this is using the trappings of a video essay, it's more a piece of performance art. The real heart of it is the subtext. If you feel this is a little mean-spirited and unfair and obsessive towards James at points... yeah, that seems intentional. It's not that Dan doesn't think those things, but James is a mirror for Dan's deepest insecurities, and he knows this. The critiques Dan has of James and his work say more about him and his hangups as a creative than they do about James. That's the point. It's not just a twist ending. It's there the whole time. That's why he talks about Wavelength. That's why the thumbnail has an unflattering photo of Dan, not James. That's why he films a section with James's face projected over his. This one won't be for everyone, but it's one of the most fascinating and vulnerable things I've ever seen anyone do with the video essay format.

The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel (Jenny Nicholson)

I’d been waiting for this one, and it didn’t disappoint. Despite being four entire hours long, Jenny’s recounting of both the history of the project and her own trip are super engaging throughout, a good mix of funny and informative without feeling too hyperbolic.

REFORM! (Jon Bois)

I’m really glad that the new Secret Base Patreon is allowing Jon to branch out more again. While the subject of American electoral politics is more serious and at times sobering than the usual team sports Jon talks about, this manages to be one of his funniest documentaries yet, just because Ross Perot and his followers in the Reform Party were so fucking weird and dysfunctional. I laughed out loud or mouthed “oh noooo” at multiple points in this. And even though the Reform Party was kind of a joke that ended up embodying the worst of American politics, and even though Jon’s just as tired of presidential elections and the surrounding discourse as the rest of us, he still manages to end it on a hopeful note. Better things are still possible. This was a great watch when it came out, and it only feels more important after the election.

The History of Tetris World Records (Summoning Salt)

Two hours of footage of NES Tetris could have gotten real boring, but this is easily one of Summoning Salt’s best videos ever. The combination of a game with universally understood rules paired with a long history of sudden massive shakeups in the way people play it makes for a great story. It’s nuts how far people have pushed this game beyond its intended limits.

Movies!

Dune: Part Two

Turns out the decision to split Dune into two parts, with one being the audience's homework assignment and the other being the movie they actually wanted to make, really paid off. Because holy FUCK, this movie is firing on all cylinders the entire time. Absolutely stunning. Completely raises the bar for grand sci-fi blockbusters.

Hundreds of Beavers

If you've ever wanted a feature length version of the AVGN bit where he beats the shit out of Bugs Bunny, this is the film for you. This is one of the best comedies I've seen in years. Just 108 minutes of pure slapstick gold. Incredible comedic timing, and the jokes continue to build on themselves in clever and surprising ways throughout the movie. The production values are obviously cheap, with bad mascot costumes and fake-looking compositing, but they put their whole asses into this one. What it lacks in budget it makes up for in sheer effort, and honestly sometimes shoddy effects just look funnier anyway.

Look Back

A really great adaptation of an already great manga one-shot. Fujimoto's art style is captured beautifully here. He's a master with page layouts, but his very cinematic sensibilities translate nicely to film. All the repeated panels of Fujino drawing work really well as match cut montages you have to sit with a little longer.

As readers know, this is largely a story about Fujimoto working out his feelings about making manga during the break between Chainsaw Man parts 1 and 2, and it captures both a love of making art and a lot of the uglier and more melancholic feelings that come with the job in an incredibly resonant way. That feeling that the monotony and isolation of the work, of sitting at a desk drawing silly things all day for hours on end, is slowly killing you and making you forget why you ever enjoyed making art in the first place... but if you were doing anything else, you'd still rather just be making art. All you can do is try to hold onto that spark and keep drawing.

Transformers One

Holy shit. They actually did it. They made a good Transformers movie.

Well, okay, that's not entirely fair. I'll always love the audacity of the 1986 movie, the first Bay movie was serviceable enough, and I really enjoyed Bumblebee as a classic "Autobot hiding out on Earth" type story told in the form of a cute Spielberg pastiche. But this... this is the best one, easily. This is Transformers.

This is the best the Transformers themselves have ever been depicted as characters on the big screen, matched with a beautiful take on pre-war Cybertron. This is a movie with actual Themes, with conflicts over things like colonization and bodily autonomy told in a way that's digestible for kids. And, yes, it's very much still a broadly appealing family animated adventure movie, but it feels like it doesn't pull its punches. This may very well be the new definitive take on the backstory of Optimus Prime and Megatron, one part heroic origin story and one part tragic fall from grace. They're the heart of this movie, and they're done so, so well here. (We could've used one more scene to help smooth out Megatron's turn to villainy, I guess, but the pieces are all there to explain why he did what he did.) The final act of this movie completely owns. I'm so glad this movie is opening peoples' eyes to the juicy robot melodrama that's normally been relegated to the comics and the better Transformers cartoons, but that the live action movies have never fully been able to capture.

Really, the only major flaw to me is Keegan-Michael Key's Bumblebee. He's really not bad, but they give him the most annoying generic family film comic relief jokes possible. Thankfully, though, that's only really relegated to a few scenes, and he isn't even in like the first half hour of the movie. That first trailer made it seem like Bee going "BADASSITRON!" was going to be the whole movie! It's not! They crammed almost every single dud of a joke he has across the 104 minute runtime of this film into that three minute trailer. There are other jokes that land way better, both from him and from other characters, but this is thankfully a movie that knows when to take things seriously and not undermine things with a joke. Most of this movie is played straight, allowing the strength of the drama with Optimus and Megatron to carry it, and it's all the better for it. I'm so glad I was able to see this in the theater while it was still playing.

Older movies I got around to in 2024

Anatomy of a Fall

Super engrossing courtroom drama that's really more about examining this flawed family than it is about the central mystery. I like that the ending gives some closure, but still refuses to offer any clear-cut answers. I also now understand why the dog had to be invited to the Oscars last year. What a performance.

BlackBerry

Who knew that we’d end up seeing the Wii Shop Wednesday guys make a great biographical dramedy about a fallen giant of the tech world? The movie starts out in pretty comfortable territory for them as a comedy about this dysfunctional ‘90s tech startup where everyone is more interested in LAN parties and movie nights than actually working, but it slowly morphs into a tragic corporate drama as the main character becomes the thing he hates the most in the world, capped off with a perfectly haunting ending. I also think it gains a lot from being a story about a product that ultimately failed, even skipping over most of the period in which BlackBerry dominated the smartphone market, meaning it can be played as a cautionary tale of hubris instead of just stroking the egos of the guys (and the corporation) the story’s about. Also Glenn Howerton shows off how strong of a dramatic actor he is here, and SungWon Cho is even in this briefly! He should be in more movies.

The Holdovers

The most New England movie of all time. What a perfect little movie. A funny, bittersweet story about three sad people struggling to get along but ultimately finding comfort in each others' company over a shitty winter break, the usual barriers between student and faculty slowly breaking down as they get to know each other as human beings. I hope this becomes a new Christmas classic.

Promare

God, this movie is cool. The plot and the central allegory... well, they're kind of a clunky mess. But this isn't a movie about logic. It's about capturing a feeling of righteous anger in the face of "pragmatic" evil and wanting to scream until you feel better, in a way that only a big, dumb super robot anime can convey. And really, the most important thing is that it's got style for days. The gorgeous color palette. The loose, expressive character animation. The polygonal, flat color backgrounds that allow Trigger to blend 2D and 3D really seamlessly. It's so goddamn pretty. Not a perfect movie, but an extremely fun and visually creative one.

Wes Anderson's filmography

After I watched and loved Asteroid City I knew it was time to finally sit down and watch all of Anderson's feature films. You can read more about my thoughts on those individual movies here.

In general, this year I made an effort to watch more beloved films that I should have already seen by now. You can go check my Letterboxd for reviews if you want to hear my thoughts on these, but to keep things brief, these were my favorites of the bunch:

• 12 Angry Men
• Blade Runner 2049
• Eraserhead
• Get Out
• The Godfather parts I and II
• Goodfellas
• House
• Parasite

Albums!

The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Chappell Roan)

Yeah she’s pretty good, huh? Honestly I’m kind of surprised how much of the full album consists of slow, gentle ballads given her extremely upbeat and camp image as a pop star (barely anything here sounds like Hot To Go), but she’s a great singer and a good lyricist and she’s gay, so I’ll let it slide. When it hits, it really hits. Favorite track: Kaleidoscope

SHINBANGUMI (Ginger Root)

I have to admit, the pre-release singles for this didn’t completely blow me away on their own compared to Ginger Root’s last couple EPs. However, listening to the whole album front to back, I’m really impressed. This is easily his most complete and varied album yet. The city pop-influenced sound he’s become known for is still there on a couple tracks, but it feels like he’s also returning to more of his lo-fi funk/soul roots with everything he’s learned as a songwriter in that city pop era. There’s even a little classic rock, bossa nova, and smooth jazz in there. He’s really pushing himself here. It’s a great album, and it probably ended up being the album I enjoyed casually listening to the most this year. (Also, Only You has the best Ginger Root music video yet.) Favorite track: Only You

Hyperdrama (Justice)

I’m not sure anything will ever top their debut album, but this is definitely my favorite Justice album in years. A good mix of electronic and analog sounds, with influences spanning from harsher rave stuff (which they hadn’t done enough of on previous albums) to disco to maybe even some Vangelis? Very little blows me away here and I wish more of it went hard, but it’s solid overall. Favorite track: Generator

Familial Verses (Petriform)

I’m a big fan of Petriform’s chiptune stuff, and this new album mashing together the Virtual Boy and Game Boy chips for a unique, rich sound really doesn’t disappoint. These are some real hardcore rave jams with a bit of a dark sound, with their usual heavily digitized vocals coming in for the grand finale with the last few tracks. Favorite track: Twin

Embodiment of Frequency Modulation (+TEK, blowitch, Yiter, konamiscc)

I love +TEK’s previous FM synth Touhou cover albums done in a style very reminiscent of Eschatos composer Yousuke Yasui’s work, and wouldn’t you know it? This latest (and seemingly final) one also rules! This one fills out the rest of the list of Touhou’s most iconic bangers like UN Owen Was Her, Bad Apple, Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial, Love-coloured Master Spark, Septette for the Dead Princess, and more. Favorite track: U.N. Owen Was Her S

Older albums I got around to in 2024

Control (Janet Jackson)

The predecessor to the new jack swing genre. We wouldn’t have so much late ‘80s/early ‘90s pop and hip hop without this album - or, by extension, the Sonic CD soundtrack. Still holds up.

THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND (PUP)

I don’t know why it took me two years to listen to the new Pup album. It’s good. I like their brand of anxious, angry punk rock, and this has more of that, though it also has some more stylistic and lyrical variety than previous records of theirs, most notably with the jokey piano interludes.

lately I feel EVERYTHING and <COPINGMECHANISM> (WILLOW)

I'm still processing the fact that Willow "Whip My Hair" Smith is grown up and doing pop punk with Travis Barker now, and that I like it. That first album is pretty good, but I don't think there's a single weak track on the second.

Comics!

I already wrote a long post about some comics I enjoyed this year, so I won't restate all those opinions here. I'll single out Ryan North's Fantastic Four as my favorite ongoing big two comic of the year, because I'll never miss an opportunity to tell people to read those. Anyway, here's some manga and stuff that wasn't in that post!

Chainsaw Man (ongoing)

Chainsaw Man's second saga is still ongoing, and frankly with this series I'm never sure where it'll go next. So I have a hard time summarizing how I feel about this current saga. But it does still rule. No one's doing it like Fujimoto.

My Hero Academia

It feels like the end of an era now that this is over. I really loved those first couple seasons of the anime and the early parts of the story, and they even had some amount of influence on SLARPG (the anime debuted early in the game’s development, and it was another story about a meek underdog hero inheriting some sort of power). But I’d be lying if I said MHA wasn’t a very hit or miss series. It feels like the true successor to Naruto in that way. Not every arc lands, and it has some characters I find really annoying, and some story developments can feel like an ass pull, and boy does the series end up sidelining the “Academia” part.

That being said, when it does manage to hit, it really hits. I was probably most surprised by how much I ended up enjoying the nuanced depiction of the Todoroki family trying to put their lives back together, and Endeavor owning up to how horrible he’d been as a dad. Stuff like that makes it feel really worthwhile as a series. Overall, while I know the shippers and the fans who wanted every sympathetic villain to live happily ever after are mad, I’d say Horikoshi has more or less stuck the landing with the final arc. Things mostly played out about how I expected them to, but not in a bad way. I’m just glad that in the end I’ll mostly be able to look back on this series fondly, warts and all.

Also: it definitely had a way more narratively cohesive and satisfying ending than Jujutsu Kaisen did. That's for sure.

One Piece (ongoing, Egghead Island arc)

Man, what a wild ride this was reading it week to week. The final saga of One Piece kicks off with the arc where we finally meet the enigmatic Dr. Vegapunk, the smartest man in the world whose inventions have been present all over the series. The reveals he gives us about the world and its history would already be huge enough as it is, but instead of just being a pit stop for a lore dump this arc ended up having all sorts of huge “oh shit we’re finally doing this” moments, a bunch of fun action, and a lot of great character development for some side characters as well. Every new chapter continues to feel like an event. And after that it's straight to Elbaph, an island the Straw Hats have been planning on visiting since the turn of the damn millennium! What a time to be a One Piece fan.

IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog (ongoing)

An obligatory inclusion for me, obviously, but this year did give us the Phantom Riders arc, which took a bunch of previously established storylines and brought them all to a head in an awesome Sonic Riders-inspired hoverboard racing arc. Easily one of the best arcs of the series to date, and the highlight of Evan's run so far. If you're a Sonic fan who isn't already following these comics, you've got no excuse. This is where the good shit is.

Team Fortress Comics

I had to go back and reread the TF2 comics from the start when the new final issue dropped. (Especially because some of my friends got to help out on the art! Wow!!) These still hold up as a lot of fun. There have been many more live service shooters in the years since that go all-in on cross-media storytelling and trying to get you to care about their characters and lore and world from the start, but none of them have topped the hilarious cast of characters and bizarre alternate history they built up as they went with the TF2 comics. What a treat to finally have the last chapter of that story and give the mercs some genuine closure, a thing I never really thought they'd get. A funny and thematically satisfying conclusion to a saga that started all the way back when I was in middle school.

Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman (ongoing)

I've been reading these month to month and enjoying them quite a bit. They're not quite my favorite book on the shelves, largely due to the fact that the extremely decompressed storytelling can make some issues feel more eventful than the others, but Midlife Crisis Spider-Man is great and the civilian supporting cast is great. I particularly like Jameson and the still very much alive Uncle Ben's efforts to start their own independent news outlet after quitting the Daily Bugle. (And on the subject of the new Ultimate Universe, Ultimates by Deniz Camp also whips ass.)

Older comics I read in 2024

Scott Pilgrim series (reread via color editions)

Scott Pilgrim was my absolute favorite thing in the world for like a year of high school, having gotten into it after Anamanaguchi announced they were doing the soundtrack for the game, but I haven’t returned to it much as an adult. I’m glad I finally did following the Netflix show, though, because I think I can really appreciate this series on a different level now. Aside from a few iffy jokes it’s aged WAY better than I thought it did. There's so much more to it than just "hipster guy who likes retro video games gets into anime fights to win the girl."

Scott and Ramona are really interesting foils for each other, both being kind of shitty people who run away from their problems in completely opposite ways. Scott literally represses the memories of most of the bad things he’s done in past relationships, with lots of fun little hints about him being an unreliable narrator throughout the series, and he acts like he never has to change or grow up. That’s the whole thing with Knives. He enters into this, like, pretend relationship with a younger girl so he can imagine he’s still back in high school, when he thinks everything was simpler. He also has a hero complex where he thinks he just has to punch the right people to make everything okay, which Gideon’s League of Evil Exes only exacerbates. Ramona, on the other hand, is constantly dwelling on the worst parts of her past, running away and reinventing herself any time the weight of her mistakes becomes too much to bear. There are a lot of hints at how badly Ramona hurt some of her exes, which Takes Off greatly expanded upon. But Scott is the first boyfriend that makes Ramona want to stay, and Ramona gives Scott a more complicated relationship that makes him have to grow up. In the end, after a tumultuous final two volumes where they both do a lot of soul searching, they decide to start over and put in the effort to change for the better and make their relationship work, stepping into an unknown future together. It’s a really beautiful ending to a classic series.

Video Games!

Astro Bot

Astro Bot IS great, though I'm not sure I quiiiiite agree that it's a perfect 10/10 5-star masterpiece. Mainly this is because Astro Bot doesn't really do anything you haven't seen before in a platformer. It's not really pushing the boundaries of the genre in terms of mechanics, structure, aesthetics, narrative, music, anything. There's nothing I can point to and say THAT'S what Astro Bot adds to the genre that future games will want to copy. What it does have, though, is absolutely impeccable execution. It plays great, it looks great, it's full of cute little details and secrets. Every level introduces something new, and I'm not sure I had a bad time with any of them. (Though some of the optional challenge stages can be a bit unforgiving with their lack of checkpoints. But they're, y'know, optional.) There really aren't many other 3D platformers anywhere close to this level of polish that don't star Mario.

Atlyss

A really solid early access dungeon crawler action RPG with some light MMO trappings, which is undoubtedly most famous for its character creator that lets you make caked up furries. As it should be. Because that rules. Looking forward to seeing how this one develops.

Balatro

I love gambling

Dr. Robotnik’s Ring Racers

Ring Racers makes a rough first impression between its lengthy tutorial and the fact that it's a much more fiddly, mechanically dense kart racer than what most people are used to. It's got a high skill ceiling AND floor, presenting itself as a game for dedicated kart racing freaks where even the easiest difficulty is fairly challenging. That being said, even as a pretty casual fan of the genre, the more I played Ring Racers, the more fun I had with it and the more I appreciated its eccentricities. It's really something special.

While it won't be for everyone, I have to respect the desire to do something different. Nintendo's never gonna make a Mario Kart that plays like this, but why shouldn't this fangame with no shareholders to please take some creative risks? SRB2 Kart isn't going anywhere for people who still prefer that. Personally, I was never all that attached to the older game, having only played it casually a couple times with friends, but I really put a good amount of time into playing all the cups in Ring Racers and unlocking stuff on the massive challenge board, and had a great time doing so. This would be an impressive package for a paid kart racer, but for a free fangame it's practically in a league of its own.

Fortnite Chapter 5, Season 3: Wrecked

Fortnite has remained my go-to multiplayer game with friends since 2022, and our favorite season of the year, by far, was the one of the most divisive seasons the game has ever had: "Wrecked," the Mad Max-inspired season that ran during the summer last year. We just loved the co-op car combat. Tons of people hated the car combat (it was admittedly pretty awkward in solos), and by extension the season as a whole, but we loved it. I had a ton of fun in duos matches where Jake would drive and I would man the grenade launcher turret, or trios matches where Derek would get on the turret and I'd sit in the back with a repair torch as our car's dedicated healer. I miss it already. Such is the nature of endlessly evolving live service games, I suppose...

Leap Year

A very clever little one button platformer that's really more of a puzzle game built around understanding the unconventional rules of your movement, the first of which is extremely aggressive fall damage that requires you to jump carefully. This could be considered a Metroidvania, though you never really gain any new abilities. Instead, the game keeps revealing new things you didn't realize you could always do, which in turn makes you look at the areas you've already been through in a new light. If I have one complaint, it's just the lack of checkpoints in one specific tricky area near the end, but the game is so short that it's not a huge issue.

Marvel Rivals

It's a pleasant surprise how good of an Overwatch clone this ended up being! I have some minor gripes with the game feel and the cumbersome UI and the bajillion currencies that keep me from thinking it's truly the clear winner between it and Overwatch 2 (which I started playing again this year), but the roster of heroes is great and I've been having a blast playing this with friends.

Mouthwashing

An incredibly tight and effective sci-fi horror thriller that does a lot with a little. Without spoiling anything for those who still haven't gotten around to it, the quirks of seeing the world through the eyes of a player character rather than an objective observer are used to great dramatic effect here, with a bleak story that gets bleaker the more you consider its layered subtext. The low poly graphics are also super appealing, with a great eye for cinematic shots and evocative lighting that always heightens the mood. Sometimes you get a little tired of seeing happy endings everywhere, and you want a story that acknowledges that sometimes shit just sucks. In that regard, this hit the spot for me. 

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Yep, this is the best 3D Sonic has been since... what, the original Generations? Honestly it's more consistent in quality than Generations and has way better writing (thanks Ian), so maybe it's the best since the Adventure games? All the levels are great, even the challenge stages. They refined the format introduced in Frontiers where you explore a 3D platforming hub area to find linear stages where you earn doodads that unlock more stages quite a bit, too. They even made me like Black Doom. Sonic is embracing its cringe again and I'm here for it.

Now, as is always the case when Sonic does something right: please, for the love of god, Sega, keep iterating in this direction instead of arbitrarily pivoting. Give us a new game that plays like this but is twice as long with all new stages and we're golden. 

Webfishing

This game is nice. It was a nice distraction after the election.

Games from this year that I still need to finish but I want to shout them out anyway

• Animal Well - This would be a very real contender for my game of the year if I hadn't started it at the end of the year. Still need to finish it. This feels like the exact Metroidvania I've been waiting for in so many ways, though.
• Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure - I just really want to shout out the incredible art direction in this, which comes to us from David Hellman of Braid fame. The gorgeous painterly textures and the decision to fill the negative space of every highly abstracted level with little vibe-setting vignettes, almost like illustrations off to the side in a book, is truly an inspired choice. My favorite art direction in any game this year.
• Kitsune Tails - Perhaps not the best Mario 3 clone you'll ever play, but it's definitely the one with the cutest fox yuri.
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - An extremely cool blending of old and new styles of Zelda that I haven't made much progress in because I got it for Christmas.
• Penny's Big Breakaway - Shockingly underrated, especially for the new game from the devs of Sonic Mania! The only reason I haven't finished it is that it came out too close to Rebirth. Sure, it's got more annoying parts than, say, Astro Bot, and a lot of people bounce off of it because its odd movement mechanics give it kind of a high skill floor. But it's just so much more unique and interesting to me than Astro Bot. It has so much more personality, more of its own ideas. Between the two, this one's probably gonna stick with me longer. One of the absolute best soundtracks of the year, too! Tee Lopes never misses.

And, while I'm here, here's my backlog of 2024 games I picked up on sale or was gifted but still need to play. I'm almost certain I'll enjoy all of these:

• 1000xRESIST
• Alan Wake 2: Nights Springs and The Lake House DLCs
• Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
• Caves of Qud
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Ufouria: The Saga 2
• Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom

Older games I got around to in 2024

Alan Wake/Control series

SO glad I decided to check these out, despite not considering myself a survival horror fan. These games are awesome and I'm a total Remedy fan now. They're doing wild stuff with metanarratives and blending in-engine and live action visuals that no other big studio is doing. You can read more thoughts from when I was playing through the series here.

Final Fantasy VII

Like basically all of the other mainline numbered FF entries, I’ve started this one multiple times, but never managed to finish it. Something else would always come up and distract me, or I’d get out of Midgar and decide I’d had my fill. But with Rebirth on the way, I decided it was time to finally sit down and play it start to finish. And man, what an all timer. It’s still clunky in places, sure. Some haphazard minigames, prerendered backgrounds that can be hard to parse, a stilted English translation that really needs an update. But it’s still so damn fun, and made with so much passion to try out new things and experiment with interactive storytelling. It’s not quite my favorite FF gameplay-wise, but it may still be my favorite in terms of story. I’ll always cherish these characters and the world they live in.

(As for Rebirth... well, more on that in a future piece.)

Gravity Circuit

There’s no shortage of Mega Man-like games out there these days, but Gravity Circuit is easily one of the very best. It liberally borrows from the best of classic Mega Man, Mega Man X, and Mega Man Zero, in particular taking obvious inspiration from Zero’s Chain Rod with its grapple-focused gameplay. It’s also got a bit of influence from NES cult classic Shatterhand and a very ‘80s soundtrack as the cherries on top. What it lacks in originality it makes up for with its absurdly polished execution. The pixel art is gorgeous, with appealing use of limited color palettes, detailed backgrounds, and fluid character animation. And it just feels damn good to play. While there’s nothing quite like Mega Man’s traditional boss weapons here, it never stops being satisfying to punch and grapple and divekick enemies until they burst into a shower of explosion sprites, or to hit a boss with a well-timed special move and send them tumbling into a wall. I even liked what they did with the story! Just a great time all around. I guess if I have to nitpick, the levels might be a bit too long? And it might be slightly easy? But I’d say it’s about in the same sweet spot as Shovel Knight on both those fronts. Overall, this is a must-play game for any fan of Mega Man and action sidescrollers in general.

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast

What a perfect update of one of my favorite arcade classics. Immaculate vibes. Love to go on high-speed Sunday drives across various scenic landscapes that logically shouldn't be located next to each other.

SteamWorld Dig 2

This might be a new top 10 Metroidvania for me. Not my absolute favorite, but definitely on the higher end of the genre. The core loop of digging further down into more dangerous territory in the mine, getting more loot, then returning to town to cash in and upgrade is fun enough, bringing back memories of the Flash classic Motherload, but then you’ve also got this great balance of more platforming and puzzle-oriented sections for variety. The game’s also pretty good about letting you poke around in areas the story hasn’t explicitly told you to explore yet to get things slightly “out of order,” which is always something I appreciate in this genre. It just feels so excellently paced. Also has a really cool, chill soundtrack. Had a great time with this overall.

And, finally...

My favorites of the year!

Favorite TV Show of 2024: Delicious in Dungeon (season 1, subbed)

What more can be said about Dungeon Meshi? I knew I’d love the series going in based on what friends had said about the manga, but I waited for the anime once that was announced, which unsurprisingly ended up being excellent. This is a 10/10 for me, up there with my all-time favorites.

There's just so much care and attention to detail put into every little aspect, which is true of the source material and continues to be true for this stellar adaptation. The world is carefully thought out and lovingly crafted, giving logic and consistency to a dungeon crawler-inspired world that feels fresh and vibrant even in an era where we're constantly inundated with anime riffing on RPG tropes. The cooking could have been a cheap gimmick, but instead it's used to explore the fascinating fantasy ecosystem of the dungeon, from the biggest of boss monsters all the way down to the microorganisms. The cast is incredibly lovable and interesting. Everyone in the main party is genuinely a contender for my favorite character in the series, and even the most minor of characters feel like fully realized individuals whose lives we're only catching a brief glimpse of rather than stock extras. The comedy is consistently hilarious, but it also manages to pull off its more serious turn towards dark fantasy spectacularly. And the predictably lavish and characterful Studio Trigger animation never ceases to impress. It’s great. It’s in a league of its own among RPG-inspired fantasy anime. It uses a deep, earnest interest in the worlds of classic computer RPGs as a springboard for a story about how you're a living organism that's a part of the ecosystem just like anything else, and you need to take care of yourself accordingly.

I'm sure many people reading this have already seen it, since it was one of the big anime of the year with a ton of buzz on social media, but if you're still on the fence: you gotta watch Dungeon Meshi. And meanwhile I have to go read the manga during the wait for season 2.

Favorite film of 2024: I Saw the TV Glow

For the wrong people, this is going to be a slow, quiet, impressionistic PG-13 "horror movie" that's rarely even trying to be outright scary, about a painfully awkward, passive teenager who grows up to be a painfully awkward, passive adult.

For the right people, this movie—and particularly its ending—will make you ugly cry multiple times. I was the right people. I think about this movie damn near every day now.

You don't have to be trans to relate to this movie or be moved by it, but boy does that help it hit like a truck. As a trans woman who's been out online and with close friends for years but is still closeted IRL, so much of Owen's story was painfully, achingly relatable to me, even right down to the inciting incident of gender questioning being thanks to a cheesy kids' show for girls that he became obsessed with as a teenager. That feeling of needing to deny yourself, to shut down that introspection, to stop questioning that hollowness you feel deep down in your soul, to shrink away from the world and just keep coasting along with life as you know it, settling for living vicariously through fiction, only to look back in your 30s and realize how much of your life has already passed you by... it's real. It's very real. It hurts. That deep-seated dread is what this movie taps into. That passiveness is something I still struggle with for a variety of reasons, some more legitimate than others. Just look at the current state of things in America. But, like one of several moments in this movie that made me break down sobbing says: there is still time.

Favorite album of 2024: plastic death (glass beach)

This one had to grow on me a bit. It's obviously great, but as promised by the band it’s a big departure from the first glass beach album, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. Where tfgba had very direct, biographical lyrics exploring queer themes and playfully blended indie power pop and emo with old school synths, jazz, ambience, and whatever other influences the band felt like, plastic death is much heavier overall, with muttered vocals, more metaphorical and abstract lyrics, and a focus on prog, shoegaze, and art rock influences. And I wasn't sure that played to the band's strengths or landed for me in the same way.

It was also, frankly, annoying to see music snobs praise this album by tearing down the previous one, framing the things I love about tfgba as rookie mistakes that were rightfully ironed out the second time around. I saw way too many takes that basically boiled down to "that first album was trash, but now they sound more like Radiohead so they're Real Artists now." Is this style really just more "correct" than their old one? Is a moody prog album inherently just more artistically worthwhile than something more punky? I sure as hell don't think so.

But, of course, it's still glass beach, and they're still incredible musicians, so after a few more listens I was able to appreciate how great and layered this album is. It just feels so... complete, as a work of art, when listened to front to back. Its lyrics are less straightforward, but incredibly evocative. I'm still not quite sure which album I like better, personally, but with a band like this I'm sure their next LP will veer off into another new direction, and I'm excited to see them continue to experiment.

Favorite tracks: the CIA, cul-de-sac, commatose

Favorite comic series of 2024: Transformers by Daniel Warren Johnson

Yeah, yeah, big surprise. Like with Fantastic Four (my second favorite comic of the year), I already wrote a good deal about what I think makes this series so special, which you can read here if you haven't already. Anyone with even a slight interest in Transformers should be reading this series.

Favorite game of 2024: UFO 50

UFO 50 is one of those releases that reminds me why I love video games so much as an art form. It's a celebration of the medium's rapid growth over the course of the '80s, and a master class in how you can do a lot with a little.

For those unaware, UFO 50 is a collection of 50 original 8-bit games from a team of indie devs including the creators of Spelunky and Downwell. And they kick ass. I've poured almost 60 hours into it and plan to go back for more. Any flaws that the individual games may have feel completely insignificant in the face of the greater collection.  And even then, the number of bangers that would have justified this purchase for me on their own is off the charts. Rather than relying on pure nostalgia, there are so many clever and weird and original ideas on display here. There are things that feel totally fresh and experimental, and things that make me want to go back to 8-bit games I bounced off of years ago with more of an open mind. (I did, in fact, end up doing this with the original Phantasy Star!) The massive soundtrack is also great and incredibly varied, and the subtle metanarrative about the rise and fall of the fictional company behind these games elevates it to something truly special. What a treat this is. After a couple years of burnout, it makes me want to get back to making games again.

I'll have MUCH more to say about UFO 50 in a future piece, though! I'm still in the process of writing something to highlight my very favorite games in the collection. So please look forward to that in the near(-ish) future.

And that's it for my favorite stuff of 2024! I had a lot to talk about, because there was a lot of stuff I loved last year. If there's anything you think I'd like that I neglected to mention here, feel free to sound off in the comments below.