Jump Dash Roll’s Best Video Games of 2024

Is it surprising that 2024 wasn’t really a showcase for AAA games? Perhaps it’s a consequence of console hardware reaching maturity (or close to its twilight years, in the case of the Switch). Perhaps, more likely, the spiralling costs of developing games coupled with studios stripping back their personnel meant that it simply isn’t as feasible to make a blockbuster game as it used to be. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The indie market has always been a hive of creativity, always on hand to step up with wonderful feats of storytelling, design and innovation. We’d rather not play bloated identikit fetch quest titles, and it seems you’d prefer not to either. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some brilliant games from established houses this year. Team Asobo, MachineGames and FromSoft are flying the well-funded flag marvellously, and even the annual Call of Duty was actually (gasp) good. But overall, 2024 does feel like we’re witnessing a sea change as player tastes evolve and the market pivots to accommodate. So, which games caught our attention this year?

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Boxes: Lost Fragments

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Is there anything more satisfying than a game that just works? One that you can pick up, dive into, and feel your way around, even with no prior knowledge of the genre? Better yet, one that is polished to such an extent that progressing through it is an absolute joy? Boxes: Lost Fragments is that title. 

There’s something magical about unlocking a puzzle box which taps directly into a primal part of the brain, an innate desire for discovery and exploration for which no amount of mindless gunplay or jump scares could ever be a substitute.

On the surface, the idea of working out how to open a series of twenty progressively ostentatious themed boxes might sound dull, but Big Loop Studios ensures this is never the case. Each compartment you open, switch you uncover, or section you reroute power to reveals further puzzles to solve, until eventually you exhaust all of the box’s secrets — usually marked by the flourish of a set piece in keeping with the level’s theme.

The game’s impact would be severely diminished without the incredible sound design, which taps perfectly into the player’s dopamine receptors. Levers crank, gears grind and panels scrape open in such a gratifying way that completing a box is almost heart-wrenching in its finality. When coupled with a level of innovation which borders on magical (and in one box, actually is), the result is an experience you’ll be devastated to complete. It’s a game you’ll want to erase from your memory immediately after finishing it so you can start it again afresh — there’s no greater recommendation than that. 

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Astro Bot

Is there anything more satisfying than a game that just works? One that you can pick up, dive into, and feel your way around, even with no prior knowledge of the genre? Better yet, one that is polished to such an extent that progressing through it is an absolute joy? Astro Bot is that title. 

Where the delightful creativity of Boxes was contained within its cuboids, Astro Bot shoots for the stars, literally. Everything that made the PS5’s bundled DualSense controller tech demo a blast to play is expanded and improved on in every possible way with this full sequel. Entire game mechanics — which other platform games would kill to implement with such panache — are crafted for a single level and then discarded in favour of new horizons and new gameplay elements in which to navigate them. 

Your plucky hero’s quest to rescue his companions scattered across planets and galaxies is achieved in the cutest way possible. Navigating the levels is a delight, since Astro often has a gadget to assist — boxing gloves, an inflatable suit, a dashing dog and more — while enemy grunts are varied enough to keep you entertained, even if most of them can be offed with a single hit. The boss design is incredible, landing firmly in the sweet Venn diagram intersection of puzzle complexity and arcade freneticism. All of this is underpinned by a control system which is introduced so gently, even your grandma would be able to understand it. 

It’s hard to see how much more Team Asobo could have milked from the PlayStation 5 and its controller. Everything runs with butter smoothness regardless of what’s happening on screen (and in some cases, that’s a lot), the music and songs accompanying your adventure are infectious, and the inventiveness ensures you’ll dive into each new planet desperate to see what wild ride the developer has lined up for you. It is, in short, pure, distilled platforming perfection. 

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Shadow of the Erdtree — according to some here at JDR Towers — is the best game of the year. Yes, it is DLC. So? What Miyazaki and FromSoft have given us is a whole new world which is bigger than most games and filled with all new opportunities for exploration, character-building and adventure. The bosses are incredible and varied, the new weapons and armour fabulously creative, and the execution of the challenge (given the DLC is accessed late-game) is very clever. 

Fundamentally though, it’s more open-world Souls gaming. And aside from a newly remastered Dark Souls, there isn’t anything else in this genre we’d rather play more. 

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

It says a lot about the gaming industry for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to end up on this list. We aren’t exactly sure what, though. Does it mean so few good games released this year that BlOps6 is somehow one of the best simply because it didn’t have any real competition? Or does it mean that a series without a good entry in almost five years was actually good in 2024? Depending on which of our writers you ask, the answer is probably both of those things.

Obviously 2024 wasn’t exactly great for the world of video games. There weren’t any genre-defining AAA games, nor were there many unique indie darlings. And so, for the lack of other options, the latest Call of Duty is one of the best to release this year. Don’t get us wrong: we aren’t saying that exclusively because it’s the one that our de facto FPS guy spent the most time in. Even if Naughty Dog had released a new title in the past 12 months, we’d still think BlOps6 was a remarkably great shooter that’s worth commending. Although it didn’t reinvent the wheel its series created almost 20 years ago, it was refined enough to provide an enjoyable experience for even the most virtual war weary players. The campaign is classic Call of Duty pulp fiction, its co-op Zombies mode lacks the meaningless features of all instalments post-Black Ops (2010), and its multiplayer is a return to the relative simplicity that makes the series so addictive.

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‍BlOps6 isn’t perfect, mind. The servers suck, it has predatory microtransactions, and the paid skins are ludicrous (and not in a good way). All of that is par for the proverbial course when it comes to AAA shooters, though. What isn’t is the aforementioned single-player, excellent gunplay, and whatever magic it implements to make the entire experience feel fresh by its franchise’s standards. The title embodies everything right about the series that’s been around longer than some of our readers, and very few of the things it does wrong. And so, as far as we’re concerned, that makes it worth playing for at least a few hundred hours if nothing else.

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Balatro

Seldom have I played a game that really does have that “just one more go” feeling in spades. It’s a simple game to understand, you play poker hands with the cards you get and use jokers and other cards to boost and adjust the scoring. However, how it all comes together is delicious and when you get how everything fits together (it took me ages to realise I could reorganise my jokers to influence my combo outcome) nailing a run is very, very satisfying. 

Whilst some didn’t quite get why it was up for GOTY at the recent Game Awards, those who’ve played it and enjoyed it, totally understand the nomination. Word of warning, however, Balatro can be very, very addictive.

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

It’s exceedingly rare for games to be fun these days. For reasons we don’t really understand, a lot of the titles we played this year shoehorned in some sort of mechanic or narrative that didn’t make sense given that they should’ve been the video game equivalent of a movie that skips straight from its theatrical release to being on Netflix. Those gameplay elements or stories rarely made the titles unenjoyable, but they did make it hard to enjoy the whole escapism part of consuming fiction. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, didn’t, though. It’s the first first person shooter we’ve played recently that, just like the movie franchise it’s based off of, is pure popcorn entertainment. Its gameplay involves solving simple puzzles, punching Nazis in the face, and occasionally scraping your way through gunfights. Its narrative doesn’t force you to contemplate your own morals, and it doesn’t have any microtransactions or anything that encourages you to spend more than $70/£60 on it.

The title isn’t without its flaws, mind. Its second and third acts aren’t nearly as strong as its first, and if you play it on PC, you need a pretty beefy rig despite its visuals not warranting an overpriced GPU or processor. However, all things considered, those are exceedingly minor problems for a game that is otherwise unabashedly fun. Using your whip on fascists, uncovering lost treasures, and, of course, playing as one of the most iconic protagonists in movie/game history, is the perfect way to turn your brain off. And, if that doesn’t make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle one of the best games of 2024, then the fact that Troy Baker, the voice actor for Indy, sounds exactly like a young and less angry Harrison Ford, does.

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Steamworld Heist 2

This sequel to 2015’s Steamworld Heist means more of everything. More “people”, more exploration, more battles, more options. The Gamefather and his son put so many hours into this ostensibly single-player game by sharing the controller and taking ownership of certain characters that the game sneaked in very high to their best local PS5 co-op games of all time despite not actually having local co-op!

A steambot game with fun robot characters to level up, a huge plot, a massive interactive map to explore in your upgradeable submarine, and lots of strategic 2D turn-based battles, all backed by a wonderful soundtrack written, as the first one was, by the band Steam Powered Giraffe, who are often playing in the bars that you go into all over the place to recuperate and upgrade. The music is so good we often take a little while longer than we should to leave the bar.

At first glance the game feels very similar to the first, but you realise everything is bigger and has more options. Very little choice in exploration in the first is replaced with a frankly gorgeous map full of locations and enemies, where you can plan out your missions and follow the increasingly crazy story. Your characters can not only upgrade their abilities, but the game also encourages multi-classing, so you can try and figure out frankly unfair advantages by stealing bits from the other classes. You have flankers who can run and gun, reapers who get extra hits from kills, snipers who have aimlines, boomers who possess dangerous AOE rocket launchers, melee brawlers who heal with every close range smash, and engineers who weaken other enemies. There are more than one of each type, who all possess their own unique trait and personality, so you can really try and set up a mission to match what you think the situation is likely to be.

Fun and appealing cartoonish graphics make the combat easy to learn, and while it can feel easy to start, there are definite increases in the difficulty that make Steamworld Heist 2 fun to play, and leave you determined to reach the end.

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It's heartening to see that despite some turmoil in the industry, 2024 still produced plenty of fantastic titles. Next year looks no different either. The likes of GTA VI, Intergalactic, Monster Hunter Wilds and a standalone Elden Ring adventure in the form of Nightreign all promise to be AAA best sellers. Indie gaming is looking strong too, with Hyper Light Breaker, Eternal Strands and Croak likely to make significant splashes. And of course, Switch 2 is on the horizon with backwards compatibility. Can Nintendo achieve another stunning console win? We wouldn't bet against it. Happy New Year indeed.