Games I enjoyed playing the most this year

Splatoon 3:

I play on my school’s Splatoon 3 ESports team, and my roommate is the captain. While on its own it can still be fun, I noticed I enjoy this game a lot more when I’m in an in person team environment! The Splatoon series is Nintendo’s 3rd person shooter, with unique mechanics. You can play as either a squid or an octopi (which only affects cosmetics). Instead of bullets, you shoot colored ink. To recharge, you swim in your ink. Swimming in your ink also lets you move faster. This game also makes good use of joy-con’s motion controls!

Grounded:

If you love bugs as much as I do, you’ll also love this game! It’s a survival game where instead of cutting wood, you cut grass, and instead of fighting monsters, you fight bigger bugs. The story mode is also fun, as you learn how and why you were shrunk, and if you can ever possibly go back to your original size.

Rain World:

In most video games, you're powerful enough to at least eventually be able to beat most if not all enemies. In this game, you are the prey. Even though it’s a side scroller pixel art game, it feels incredibly realistic because all of the movements are AI generated in real time. You get to see how different species react to each other, which you can use to your advantage to escape from them.

Cult of the Lamb:

This game is the perfect combination of cute and creepy. On one hand, you play as an adorable lamb. On the other hand, the lamb’s destiny is to create a cult following to a banished god. While you totally eviscerate your enemies skeletons, you also care for your followers, making sure they’re all housed comfortably and well fed.

The Stanley Parable:

This game is a jab at first player narration games, and questions what happens if the player does not do what the narrator tells them to do. It’s great fun to explore each possible path with the narrator's self aware remarks.

Stray:

A beautiful single player game about a cat who gets lost in a post-apocalyptic underground robot city, trying to get back to the surface. The story is so well written, you will feel emotionally connected to the characters. Although I already know the story, I plan on playing again to get the side quests.

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes:

You need another person for this, but it’s a great bonding activity! One person sits at the computer, and the other person has a “bomb defusal guide”. The person who has the packet can not see the computer screen and vice versa. The person at the computer has a limited amount of time to defuse the bomb, and the person with the packet has the instructions. You have to communicate quickly and effectively in a simulated stressful situation, which I find quite fun.