Huff

Buckshot Roulette

I think this is one of those meme games people talk about sometimes. Maybe I can be a twitch streamer if I keep it up? But no, Buckshot Roulette is a cool, stylish little game and has the second lowest resolution textures out of the games I will be talking about in this post. It's a cool little russian roulette (with a shotgun) simulator that plays like rock-paper-scissors with card counting and powerups. Pretty fun to count shells on my fingers while playing and the visual and audio design is good. Recently got a perplexing competitive multiplayer update, so I'd like to have some weird matches with my boys. Maybe I will sap my skill out of Disc Jam and be autistically talented at it? Probably not.

 

Yakuza Zero

I'll be honest in that I've only played through about four hours of this, which amounts to one main story mission and a few side stories. I liked what I played of it though! It just kind of got away from me... I'll pick it up again in 2025. I still wanna play LAD and it feels dirty not to give the existing games their due diligence.

 

Tunic

Another game I've only played a few hours of. It's... been a very, VERY hard year and I have not felt up to tackling a game that requires so much attention and is pretty hard. I know it does cool as fuck meta/Outer Wilds-ey shit, but I'm just not at the point in my life where I can give it the respect it demands. Same reason I haven't played Dark Souls-I can't handle that frustration and stress when I'm just trying to fuck around at the moment :L

 

Summerhouse

A fun little game about building two-dimensional houses in pixel vistas while lo-fi music plays. Ahhh. There's not much gameplay to this, but screenshots of this game always look incredible. I think there's additional house parts and NPC residents to collect, but I got my fill with the hour or so I played. More fun as a toy than anything else, but it's a very comfy toy that indulges my love of cozy architecture.

 

Pokemon Sword

Thin fucking ice, GameFreak. I got this because I grabbed two other used games at gamestop and there was a buy two get one free sale. I'm remiss to say... I kinda enjoyed this a fair amount. I still think GF as a whole is one of the worst companies this side of WOTC, but this game was a lot more enjoyable than Scarlet/Violet for me, which only has it beat out in new mons and the rivals. Galar is pretty comfy and it doesn't look like miserable dogshit? Like, it's still rough compared to its contemporaries, but it captures the world of Pokemon much much better than SV did. And the music is probably up in my top few gens in terms of music? There's some good tracks as listed below. The only other thing it really excels at is the gym league setup, which really makes it feel like a true event. I still think I liked the island trial system from SM, but the spectacle of the gym challenge was pretty good. I'll run through the DLC for my wife Klara some time.

 

Payday 3 DLC

Game's still going pretty well. New heists are the best in the game. Great music still.

 

Pizza Tower Noise update

I like Peppino more, but he's tons of fuckin fun to play. Good shit.

10. Flipwitch: Forbidden Sex Hex

UH OH.

 

Yeah, like I said last year with The Coffin of Andy and Lely, I have no qualms with listing games that made the list for explicit content. It's pretty good quality, which is all I'll say on that front. But the rest of the game really suprised me with how competent it is. The base gameplay isn't too much to write home about, but the level design is varied and interesting, the sidequests are pretty fun, and the art (not sexy) and music are honestly phenominal. Like. I don't really know, but the devs made a fetishized hub city full of animal girls who want to fuck the protagonist feel really REALLY comfy and kind of lived in. There's a good amount of collectibles to keep one playing for a while and the bosses are pretty good (masochist boss gains HP from being hit which is a good touch). It's just a competent metroidvania all around, a genre with which I am generally unfamiliar so I may have low standards and/or be easily swayed by tits.

 

Ahem.

 

9. The Exit 8

They haven't added sex to this game yet. Exit 8 is a streamer bait game for sure, but it's one that appealed to me when I saw RTGame play it, so I closed the video and grabbed it for myself. The setup is that you're walking down a hallway in a japanese underground train station and are trapped in an endless loop of noneuclidean spaces. To get out, you have to identify if there's an anomaly in the hall or not-turn back if so, keep going forward if not. Some of them are creepy, some are funny, and a couple did make me yelp out in fear and get my housemates annoyed with me. Good little game worth the $2 I paid. I'm mostly happy this introduced me to the genre of anomaly-spotting horror games, which are just the type of horror I can vibe with. I'm a pussy when it comes to jumpscares and whatnot, but this kind of unsettling atmospheric game is just up my alley and hits the sweetspot of scary but not stressful.

 

8. Mouthwashing

The other horror game on this list. Its position on this list is tenuous and based off of vibes since I just finished it about 15 minutes ago. An indie darling, what struck me most was the very cool setpieces and visual treats toward the end of the game (both conceptual and some very neat ways of playing with the game's intentionally faux-PS1 graphical fidelity and  aesthetic). The characters are also good (Anya cute), so much so that I think I might just go read some fix-it fanfics sometime to indulge in some wish-fulfillment happy endings for them. Not to say I disliked the tragedy and horror that befalls them in the game-the game just did a very good job of making me care about them in such a short time that I want just a little bit more. Great job in making the protagonist a hateable slimeball while keeping other characters flawed and not paragons in comparison to him.

 

7. Hades II

Woah. This far down? But Huff, didn't you play 400 hours of Hades 1 and already have >100 hours in this one? Haven't you notedly praised the music, gameplay improvements, art, and every other piece of the game? Yeah, I have, but it really comes down to one thing in the protagonist.

 

Now, Mel is a good character. Her design and voice acting are both great. She's written well. But she's not Zagreus, god damn it! Zagreus is   my favorite protag in games ever and his snarky-to-some but otherwise polite and cheeky personality makes the first game very fun. Melinoe gets made fun of in-universe like two separate times (by Chaos and Dionysus) for being boring compared to Zag and like... yeah? Why joke ab out it instead of just making her more entertaining? It isn't bad in the slightest, but I find the rib-jabbing joke of "heh, isn't our protag so grounded and serious compared to the previous one haha WINK" painful. In addition, I know the story isn't complete yet, but I find the character relationships and story beats to be much less satisfying than Hades I. There is nothing in the game currently that is 10% as powerful as Zagreus fighting his way out of hell time and time again just to have a few minutes with his mother before dying in her arms over and over while this gut-wrenching track plays. In Hades II that track is remixed into elevator music and plays when you have to look at Dionysus' gigantic leopard-skin bound package (it's a great remix, just kind of retroactively taints (haha) the piece a little...).

 

All that aside, the game is superb. Even if there's only three weapons I really like from the lineup, that's about as many as I had in the first game. Boons generally feel better (though another criticism I have is that the visual design for boons and the UI is a severe downgrade from Hades 1. Gone are the stylized emblems and codified boon images, in are the fucking mobile game looking sprites, sigh) even if the duos probably need more tweaking and labbing. The zones are all very fun and the bosses are pretty much all incredible (but I think the third one on the underworld path is a little lame). Another issue I have is that the devs are removing cool parts of the game in the name of accessibility...? Chronos used to unpause the game and talk shit to you if you paused during his fight. People complained that their wives left them or whatever because they couldn't accept a loss in a roguelite or wait two minutes to scratch their nose or whatever. Ugh, I'm being unfair, but it was my favorite touch in the game and it was removed because dipshits on the internet don't enjoy videogames in the same exact way I do.

 

I'm very much happy with the game and am excited for the rest of it to be dropped, but there are just some elements that bewilder and annoy me in their execution.

 

6. Scarlet Hollow

AKA Slay the Princess' less popular big sister. This is the game that they put on hold and made Slay The Princess to further fund. And their marketable side project became one of the most popular and highly-rated indie games of the decade. Oops! All bangers!

 

Scarlet Hollow hits a specific few notes right to appeal to me specifically. I already knew the writing and art would be good going into it from StP, but it's mostly the combination of cryptids, mysterious small-town Americana spooks, and the choose-your own adventure storytelling that really drew me in. I've only done one playthrough as I write this, but I will go back and play a couple more when the next chapter drops because there is an INSANE level of variability to the game and its story. From the character creation to small details and relationships being tracked over multiple chapters, it's a marvel of narrative design and I want to experience the variability myself instead of just reading about it on TVtropes. Stella best girl.

 

5. Antonblast

GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH!

 

The other brother in indie Wariolikes we have been waiting on. I've been waiting for this game for a year or two, but missed the release date until Silent reminded me LOL. It's good! Whereas Pizza Tower was like 60% Sonic and 40% Wario Land 4, Antonblast is 50% Wario Land 4 and 50% Crash Bandicoot 2/3, which is something I didn't expect. I'll admit I was initially disappointed it wasn't just more Pizza Tower, but it was around the Poolrooms level (my favorite) that the gameplay clicked for me. It's not perfect, but it's quite fun. I don't think I have the desire to master the game like I did PT, but I think I will play it enough to get all the unlockables and stuff. The later levels are frustrating and the final boss drags on just a little to long though (it's still a great boss fight), but the rest of the game is quite a fun experience. Great music, too!

 

4. Katawa Shoujo

Yeah, I'm cheating. It's the 4chan cripplefucking VN we all know and love, freshly and unexpectedly released on Steam this past summer. I think 9 years ago I had a Lily Satou avatar on this very site, and nothing has changed. I love my wife Lily Satou. I've only replayed her route so far, but I at least want to play Hanako and Rin's next since I never went through theirs at the end of the day. It's just. Lily's story is so fucking perfect man. I cry every fucking time.

 

If you haven't played this game, go get it on Steam (the R18 patch is simple to install and is on the game's itch.io page as well if you don't mind H-scenes). It's a very important part of internet and indie dev culture and is simply a poignant and heartfelt story about living with disabilities and just how little they matter to who one truly is. If I had to have one complaint, it's actually that the H-scenes feel a little... forced? Like they feel distinctly like a reward for progressing and were put in because that was the expectation for VNs at the time... or maybe that's the Katawa dick speaking. Regardless, go play this fucking game. You'll get Emi first.

 

3. Sonic x Shadow Generations

This year I have realized that this image is the most correct thing in the fucking universe:

Over the past two weeks like 75% of my media consumption has involved Shadow the Hedgehog in some way or form and it's because he fucking rules!!!! Shadow's so fucking cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck. God damn I love Shadow.

 

Back in like 2006 or whatever, I was starving for any kind of game with shooter mechanics because I only had Nintendo consoles (and didn't know about Metroid Prime), and Shadow the Hedgehog was the closest I could get. Even though that game was mediocre, I loved it and that love of Shadow has stayed since. This new game, a side campaign alongside a remaster a la Bowser's Fury, is great! I haven't played a huge amount of Sonic games (Sonic 1, Heroes, Advance 1, and Unleashed is my track record), but this game stands out as the best mechanically that I've played. I had the drive to get all the collectables, which speaks to the quality of the game's movement since half of that time consisted of searching around the hub world. In addition, the story is the right balance of edgy, sincere, and interesting. Good stuff all around, grab it even if you've played the original Sonic Generations.

 

2. Balatro

Silent pretty much said it best. Addictive, great gameplay and presentation that is the perfect toy for fiddling around with when you're doing something else. I am also our resident non-ironic clown lover and adore the themes of the jokers and the clown and jester imagery all through the games. Twitter currently has a trend of people dramatically illustrating some of the Jokers via their gameplay functions, and it's my favorite art trend of the year.

 

GOTY: Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut

Another cheat, but if the Game Awards can nominate Shadow of the Erdtree, I can perform the cognitive torsion to allow myself to give GOTY to a hand-drawn and incredibly well-made expansion to one of my favorite games of all time.

 

I said most of what needs to be said last year about the basics of the game. Of the insane range and performances of the two voice actors, the interesting and intriguing writing, the immaculate and insanely well-made art (bonus points for being black and white with a splash of red, my favorite color trope), the lovely music, and EVERYTHING else about the game. The best part about the update are the three new routes, which consist of one standard but high quality route (The Cage), one that does something every fan has been wanting since the game released (The Princess and the Dragon), and one that feels like the ultimate romantic tragedy route (Happily Ever After). My fave is the middle of those three. Just like. Play this game. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I played it a year ago man. Incredible work of art.

Cyberpunk 2077

Man... I'm sure I'll play this game all the way through eventually. But as it stands I played for like three hours and got bored. I just need to get into the headspace, but it didn't grip me. Also it feels like Jackie was wasted as a character. I loved him :(

 

Fallout New Vegas

YEAH I KNOW. Dude I just hate fallout. It's not fun!! I have tried to play this game four times and I have hated the early game so much every time. I think the only hope left for me is slapping true god mode on, but fuck, I don't think I'd have fun even then. I will just watch retrospectives and let's plays instead.

 

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore.

I wanted to like this game so bad, but it really misunderstands what makes its selling point, the CD-i cutscene style, so beloved. They didn't get the smoothness or the stilted writing correct and seemed to think that intentionally corny writing and low-quality art sufficed. Agh. Still glad it came out but it fell short of being very good at all.

 

Taiji

It's another Witness...? Mmmmmm no. I can see where it gets its ideas and the inspiration is obvious, but Taiji really fell short for me in the whole nonverbally teaching game mechanics sector. I'm sure it's a good game, I just didn't care for it.

Flipwitch: Bubble Beat, Tengoku Love, Waves of Nostalgia

(NOTE: THIS GAME'S WHOLE OST FUCKS AS HARD AS THE PROTAGONIST GETS AS SUCH)

 

Hades II: The Silver Sisters, Witch of Shadows, Olympus Aflame

 

Antonblast: Turnin' Up the Heat ...In Cinnamon Springs, Idle Hands ...In the Mysterious Glasshouse, Commit to the Bit! ...Vs Freako Dragon, The Mad Mall B, Hell Manor

 

Sonic x Shadow Generations: White Space, All Hail Shadow (Final Boss Mix)

 

Payday 3: Siren Rush, Pump n' Dump

 

Katawa Shoujo (I am cheating again (it is actually the whole OST I love it to bits)): Ah Eh I Oh You, Everyday Fantasy, Concord

 

Musica del Balatro (Aka theme of Huff winning two Pub Quizzes in a Row) as mentioned in Silent's post

 

Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut: The Princess and the Dragon, An Empty Void That Dared to Dream It Was Alive, I Meant It

 

The Princess and the Dragon (StP:TPC)

Happily Ever After (StP:TPC)

Anya (Mouthwashing)

Hecate (Hades II)

Stella (Scarlet Hollow)

Lilly (KS)

Monster Prom

Pools

Perfect Tides

The Sonic part of Sonic Generations

All the Yakuzas

ULTRAKILL

Titanfall 2 campaign

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People

Spiritfarer

Rain World

Pyre

All the Onimushas

Persona 3 and 4

Not for Broadcast

All the No More Heroes

Night in the Woods

Nine Sols

OMORI

Mullet Mad Jack

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Hunt Down the Freeman....

Halo: Reach

Halo ODST

Half-Life Alyx

Black Mesa

Doki Doki Literature Club

All the Devil May Crys

Control

Carrion

Bayonetta

Animal Well

Obviously there are three big additions to the list and one instance of me barefaced cheating to get more slots. Not... necessarily in the order they're presented on the chart, but rather by the list below.

1. Ghost Trick is still up there! I have not yet played all the way through the PC port as of this writing but hey! My favorite game ever is now the most accessible it's ever been. And Capcom makes VERY high-quality ports for its VN-like games. Pick it up now!! Last time I said that Ghost Trick was in a precarious position of being usurped by Deltarune if Toby released chapters 3-5 and they were at least as good as Chapter 2. Guess what hasn't happened yet LOL. But given the previews, I think Shu Takumi's masterpiece will have to abdicate its throne before the next 3x4 of mine is created. God willing holy shit.
2. Deltarune and Undertale have been consolidated into one space. While Undertale is undeniably the more complete and better experience right now, I have been excited to see the entirety of Deltarune since almost exactly six years ago when Mr. Fox told us to download a mystery .exe. and not talk about it for a few days.
3. Outer Wilds, with the Echoes of the Eye DLC is almost the perfect game. I think it might honestly be the most important piece of media in general made in the last few years. When I originally played OW back in like 2021 or 22 or whatever, I loved it, but it didn't make its way into the top 12 after I finished. Echoes of the Eye released and it smashed its way up to 3rd favorite of all time for me. The first time you enter the DLC area and view your surroundings was one of the few times I've unironically been in awe at a game. I tend to kind of keep myself in check, but I legit just took my hands off the mouse and stared. And then it got even better-it plays with all the strengths of the medium of games in a superb fashion. The ending cutscene of the DLC is also insane and I cri evry tim.
4. I'm not sure much more needs to be said about Disco Elysium. Do I prefer the original voice actors in the first cut and think the narrator constantly yapping in my ear is annoying? Yes. Is the fanbase one of the most aggravating known to mankind and need to internalize Homo-sexual Underground themselves? Yeah. Will the four splinter cells of ZA/UM perform leftist inter-warfare on each other until nothing is left but the parasites who killed the studio? Also yes. But all of that will never take away what we have, which is the finest piece of literature I've had the pleasure of playing.
5. Before I played TotK, BotW stood somewhere around, like, 6th or 7th on my list. I take them as a package deal, but also... kind of the exact opposite. In any case, they are brother games and combined, they deserve a spot in the top 5. A lot of people think TotK is BotW with a few Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts glued on, but I think they're very different games. BotW is much more of a chill and subdued experience, which is why it's still my favorite of the two. It's all about the exploration and nature and solemn and peaceful atmosphere. TotK, for better or worse, is much more gamey which isn't to my preference, but it makes for an objectively more engaging and interesting experience. In any case, TotK's highs (Final boss and Master Sword pull) pulled enough weight to rocket these two into the coveted space of the front page of my Backloggd profile.
6. God it is so close, but Pizza Tower was just inches away from pulling off a P-rank and making it into the top 5. But hey, we all know what a kickass game it is. Like my good buddy Silent said, it's probably the most fun VIDEO GAME to just go and PLAY. Getting Pranks is a perfect game experience and what Sonic wishes it could be. The Noise update was also an incredible way to make the whole thing fresh again too.
7. The Witness is still here, but Jonathan Blow's next game hasn't appeared in the three years it has kept its spot. Huh? Wasn't he making a sokoban game? Christ. For as perfect and precisely crafted this game is, Blow sure is a dipshit. Where's that video of Soulja Boy playing Braid that got him super mad. Also even though I didn't care much for it, the fact that he didn't recognize The Looker as a labor of love for The Witness is really funny.
8. I'm still playing through it, but I think The Pristine Cut boosted Slay the Princess up to this spot. I knew it had managed to eak its way onto the list when I first played it back last Christmas, but the new content has really perfected it in my eyes. As its one of the newest games on here, I won't spoil it for anyone, but it's a horror-comedy VN that deals with a ton of themes and tropes I adore. monochrome with a splash of color, repetition of story beats and fate, change vs stagnation, the power of belief and perception... god it's such a special game. Like before, Thorn and Razor best girls, but The Princess and the Dragon is a new favorite of mine.
9. Persona 5 Royal was once described by me as my favorite game that I never wanted to play again and now I have played through it two more times. I fucking despise the SMT/Persona gameplay, but like I've sated before, this game knocks it out of the park on presentation. The music, menus, visual flair, UX and UI, and everything else that isn't the turn-based combat is perfection and glory. Thankfully I can slap it on easy and the Switch version comes with the DLC personas and I can just Myriad Truths my way through everything.
10. Woaahhh, it's Bugsnax! Standing as the one game I've put any time and effort into learning to speedrun, Bugsnax is a personal favorite of mine. I was captivated the moment we saw it in that State of Play or whatever and even braved the land of Epic Games Launcher to play it on release. It's very fun, has a lot of love put into it, and can be pretty poignant or scary when it puts its mind to it. The DLC, Isle of Bigsnax, is pretty good too! I own almost all of the plushies that Fangamer sells fore this game.
11. Bioshock 2 is the best game in the series. I think that 1 has the best plot twist, but that its gameplay is rough and certain sections of the game hold it back. I think that Infinite's story is dogshit when it isn't minutes 5-30 of the game (note: the game is only good between the pod breaching the clouds and choosing a baseball at the raffle) but that its environmental art design is so special it almost makes up for everything else. Bioshock 2 is a happy... not medium, but strong as hell entry that gets everything right. The gameplay is the best in the series, the characters and story are very good and dare I say more consistently great than Bioshock 1's, and the art design and atmosphere are as strong as ever. People think this game has a bad story and characters because they don't think about anything beyond "would you kindly" and it shows. Go watch the Zero Punctuation for Bioshock 2 and you'll see the parroted opinion that most people who aren't dedicated Bioshock fans hold.
12. Over the past year or two I've been considering making a little shitty comic where Hotline Miani and Furi fight each other for ownership of this spot on my top 12 and they end up killing each other while Katana Zero wins by doing nothing. But that sounds stupid. Furi is still great even though the devs only make slop now (who the FUCK cares about Cairn), and Hotline Miami is still a good game but has suffered the Seinfeld effect where it inspired so much other stuff that iterated on it where it feels basic now. Katana Zero is an incredible tactical game and I'm insanely interested in the legendarily delayed DLC. The hard mode is what really earned it its spot here. Perfect example of how difficulties should be. It has unique mechanics and enemies and really puts one to the test. One day I will complete a hard more no-slowmo playthrough.

Runners-up include Katawa Shoujo, which was THIS close to beating out KZ (might be on there next year tbh I love my wife Lilly that much), Portal 2, Hades 2 (maybe when it's finished), BG3, A Hat in Time, Celese, Furi still, The Talos Principle, and The End is Nigh.