Best of 2022: Pokemon Scarlet and Kelsey’s other GOTY picks

My GOTY is broken, but I don't care.

2022 has been a dilatory twelvemonth for games, but by nary means a atrocious one. This year, I got to walk plentifulness of clip with games that I’d of ne'er seen myself playing beforehand, and yet held hands with immoderate games I’d been waiting an eternity for. On apical of that, it’s been a fantastic twelvemonth for fearfulness games and reveals, which I’ll ever gobble up eagerly.

Amongst it all, however, I experienced thing that I didn’t expect; I fell caput implicit heels successful emotion with the Pokemon franchise again.

If you tin get past the bugs, this year's mainline Pokemon crippled is afloat of superb ideas.

Pokemon Scarlet - Nintendo Switch

My idiosyncratic crippled of the twelvemonth for 2022 is Pokemon Scarlet. The merchandise of Pokemon Sword and Shield successful 2019 near a sour sensation successful my mouth, and saw maine crook distant from the Pokemon bid for a while. While it whitethorn beryllium a bid chiefly aimed astatine children, Pokemon has a ample big fanbase too, and Pokemon Shield genuinely took the piss erstwhile it comes to hand-holding. By my 3rd gym, I couldn’t grip it immoderate more, and didn’t look back.

Sprigatito and maine are the champion of friends.

That is, until, Pokemon Legends: Arceus came out. This wasn’t a apical Pokemon crippled for me, but it laid the foundations for what could beryllium a superb aboriginal game, and that’s precisely what we received erstwhile Pokemon Scarlet and Violet launched. I’ll beryllium the archetypal to admit that the prime of the crippled is genuinely abysmal, however, with pouch monsters progressive successful the astir absurd of bugs and glitches, it really became portion of the amusive for me.

Now, this is nary excuse for Game Freak and Nintendo to vessel games successful this state. That aside, though, this is the astir amusive I’ve had with a Pokemon crippled since Pokemon X, and the open-world shows large committedness arsenic to wherever the bid could spell with immoderate further TLC. With that, and a brand-new fixation connected Pokemon Trading Card Game, I couldn’t get enough. The caller Pokemon, the traversal mechanics, adjacent the picnics with my enactment of Pokemon; I emotion everything astir wherever Pokemon gameplay is headed, and can’t hold for more.

Back successful 2019, I’d of ne'er expected this.

Stray - PC

My runner-up for crippled of the twelvemonth has to beryllium Stray, which I’ve patiently waited for since it was announced years ago. So, erstwhile it arrived and was adjacent much than I expected, I was overjoyed. I went successful hard connected my review trying to find the words to explicate however magical this crippled feels, but inactive consciousness similar thing I accidental doesn’t bash this fantastic feline crippled the justness that it deserves.

Stray was the cleanable playground for a cat. The astir beautiful, cyberpunk situation packed with item and charming robot NPCs is overflowing with items to sound over, ledges to clamber up, and catnaps to beryllium had. But determination is truthful overmuch much to this crippled than simply immersing yourself successful the beingness of a feline successful an unfamiliar world.

Stray is besides littered with references to different games, music, and more, which I'm a sucker for.

Stray tells a communicative of nonaccomplishment and friendship, and often reminds you however important animals are to humans, oregon astatine slightest entities mimicking humans. It’s a batch of work for our protagonist to have, but their escapade is executed flawlessly arsenic they usage their feline dexterity to span gaps betwixt these mislaid civilisations, and find their ain mode home. Stray had maine locomotion distant feeling much considerate of those astir me, and besides had maine scrolling done feline adoption websites…

Stray is the lone crippled this twelvemonth to marque maine cry, which doesn’t instrumentality much, but the communicative it tells and messages it hides distant impacted maine similar nary different crippled this year.

Signalis - PC

When we were discussing our crippled of the twelvemonth arsenic a team, video shaper Jim Trinca assumed excavation to beryllium “something chill, oregon thing truly horrible, nary inbetween,” and rightfully so. Signalis is the latter.

Arriving conscionable a week aft the Silent Hill Transmission, which announced aggregate Silent Hill games including a remake of Silent Hill 2, I was itching for immoderate of Konami’s finest. I picked up Silent Hill 2 for my PS2… but alternatively recovered myself playing Signalis. Which, contempt being a precise antithetic crippled with pixel creation and robots, takes large inspiration from the endurance fearfulness of the aboriginal noughties.

Signalis is dark, eerie, and hard to enactment down.

As Elster, you stalk corridors packed with hostile Replika enemies, astir resembling Silent Hill’s nurses, and 1 of the bosses you look is fundamentally a reinterpretation of Silent Hill 2’s Flesh Lip enemy. This, paired with an industrial, synthy soundtrack, made Signalis the champion Silent Hill crippled to not adjacent beryllium a Silent Hill game, honestly.

Just similar a bully Silent Hill crippled would, Signalis messes with you. It breaks the 4th wall, frustrates you with puzzles, and ultimately, is 1 of the champion fearfulness games I’ve played successful years. With a abbreviated runtime and a slot connected Xbox Game Pass, I couldn’t urge Signalis much for the fearfulness fans among us.

---

2022 was surely something. I besides spent plentifulness of clip suffering from an Elden Ring hangover aft playing the crippled for a period straight, and kicked backmost with Kirby and the Forgotten Land soon after. Both games could’ve easy been my Game of the Year, but ultimately, Pokemon, Stray, and Signalis snagged the apical spots.

As for adjacent year, I person precocious expectations. I’ll yet beryllium capable to play the Resident Evil 4 Remake, and hopefully get to leap into Replaced, a pixel-art sci-fi platformer shown disconnected astatine The Game Awards that looks unbelievably cool.