The best video games of 2024 so far

Games are weird again!

Don’t get us wrong, 2023 was an all-timer. We got new Zelda and Mario. Armored Core and Baldur’s Gate woke up from cryogenic sleep. Alan Wake rose from its plot in the Video Game IP Cemetery, while Street Fighter 6 acted like Street Fighter 5 had never happened. But while 2023 was an unforgettable year for iconic franchises, it wasn’t a surprising one. Nobody was underestimating Nintendo, FromSoftware, and Capcom.

2024, on the other hand, has been unpredictable! Our favorite games include a gun-wielding Pokémon parody, a surprisingly popular sequel in a totally different genre than its little-played predecessor, and a massive RPG where a reformed yakuza recreates Animal Crossing with perverts and garbage dumps.

This is a year for the real sickos (it’s us, we’re sickos) — the ones who feel their skin tingle and their pupils widen when they see “7/10” at the bottom of a review. This is the person who doesn’t want a pitch-perfect remake of Final Fantasy 7; they want Final Fantasy 7 tossed into a cosmic blender and funneled down their gullet.

It may be a decade before we see another year like 2023, but that’s OK by us. Without a classic entry in a beloved franchise released every month, there’s room for the new, the weird, and the unexpected.

The games on this list will be sorted in reverse chronological order, so the newest releases will always show up first. We also have a short section at the end devoted to late 2023 releases we didn’t have the time to consider for last year’s best-of list. Our latest update added Animal Well, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Summer House, Stardew Valley 1.6, and Against the Storm.

The best games of 2024 so far

Animal Well

Where to play:Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC

There’s a haunting little poem recited by an ominous figure midway through the TV series Twin Peaks: The Return:

This is the water and this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and the dark within.

The series never elaborates on this; it just exists alongside every other strange thing you encounter. Maybe you will discover an answer that satisfies you. Maybe you won’t. You won’t forget it, though.

Animal Well is best understood this way. A beguiling labyrinth of indelible sights and fiendishly clever puzzles, Billy Basso’s mysterious low-fi dream (or nightmare?) of a game haunts the player with what it all could mean, it anything at all. Drink full and descend. —Joshua Rivera

Princess Peach: Showtime!

Where to play:Nintendo Switch

Peach takes the spotlight in her first starring role in what feels like forever with Princess Peach: Showtime! Not only is she the star of the game, but Nintendo’s March release pulls the princess into a theater overrun with bad guys — and she’s got to take the lead in each of the plays to save the day. Princess Peach: Showtime! is a simple adventure game that keeps things interesting by putting Princess Peach into different costumes with different abilities: sometimes she’s a ninja or detective, elsewhere she’s a pastry chef or cowgirl. It’s exactly the game I’d love to have played as a little girl, while also being a game that constantly delighted and charmed me as an adult. —Nicole Carpenter

Dragon’s Dogma 2

Where to play:PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Windows PC

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a sequel released a full 12 years after its predecessor. It builds on and expands the original’s world and concepts, and offers a fascinating combination of action-RPG and party-based MMO without the rigidity that usually comes with those games. As a player, you can swap your vocation (class) as often as you like, and then you can fill out your party with pawns — NPCs to fight by your side that you can change out on a whim. Together, you and your pawns go explore the vast world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 — a world made even bigger by the lack of readily available fast travel. A quick trip to the next town over becomes a journey. You learn the roads between the big cities as you traverse them over and over. It makes the world familiar.

It’s a world populated by a mix of low-level enemies, like wolves, goblins, and lizardfolk, but also peppered with towering cyclopes, minotaurs, and griffins. This creates a really satisfying mix of hack-and-slash combat that you flavor with whatever class and tactics you want and large-scale, Shadow of the Colossus- or Monster Hunter-style not-quite boss fights. And through it all, you’re tackling quests for the characters that populate the cities, with a grand conspiracy in the main story supported by smaller, more human conflicts. It’s intricate without being complicated, and one of the most genuinely engaging games of the year. —Jeffrey Parkin

Stardew Valley 1.6 update

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

I’d cooled on Stardew Valley for years before the recent 1.6 update, but was brought back to the game for that release. I wondered, like many others, how much an update could impact Stardew Valley; I knew the update was supposed to be big, but was shocked to see just how much it adjusted. Stardew Valley is still Stardew Valley, but developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone absolutely overdelivered. The update touches all aspects of the game, making quality-of-life changes like the ability to drink mayonnaise with new content updates, like the Meadowlands Farm, which gives you chickens right away. I chose these two as examples because they’re illustrative of how deep the update goes: These two pieces work together as an essential early game strategy to move through the game more efficiently. (Chickens make eggs, and eggs make mayonnaise. Mayonnaise makes energy. An endless supply of mayonnaise means lots of extra energy!) Together, small updates like this make Stardew Valley even more of a pleasure to play. —NC

Summerhouse

Where to play:Mac, Windows PC

Summerhouse is a much smaller experience than some of the other games on this list, but it deserves its spot just as much. In Summerhouse, you use a set of lovely, well-designed assets to make houses. You can make houses in different environments, but Summerhouse is simple: You make houses. Every so often, you’ll unlock a new door or window that includes a character — a kid or a dog, for example. And you just keep building. Developer Friedmann described Summerhouse as a game about the feeling of exploring little towns and cities — appreciating the charm of an interesting house — on his summer vacations. It’s one of the best games of this year because it executes that goal so perfectly, letting you get lost in a lazy summer afternoon, too. —NC

Pacific Drive

Where to play:PlayStation 5, Windows PC

The most beautifully maddening game of 2024 so far might be this striking combination of roguelike, survival game, and station wagon driving simulator. Pacific Drive is all about making repeated, randomized forays into the irradiated, glitching reality of the Olympic Exclusion Zone in the Pacific Northwest, where some kind of massive science experiment went wrong decades before. You do so behind the wheel of an old car, and the core gameplay loop is all about scavenging the resources you need to fortify this old heap against the unpredictable hazards of the Zone.

It’s a tough game, and runs can go very wrong, seemingly costing you hours of progress. But throughout it all, the deepening bond you have with the heap of junk that becomes your mobile base and extension of yourself is what keeps you going. This is one of the best games around about the love affair between man and machine. —Oli Welsh

Balatro

Where to play:Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

There have been a lot of games that have drawn my eye (and my time) this year. The pure delight of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The nonstop hilarity of Helldivers 2. The haunting landscape of Pacific Drive. But no game has truly grabbed me in 2024 like Balatro. There’s just nothing quite like the alluring pull of a roguelite that keeps you coming back for just onemore run.

Balatrotakes the bones of poker and adds roguelite mechanics and a healthy dash of math to create an irresistible experience in the “number go up” genre of games. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have with PEMDAS, especially as you unlock more mechanics that encourage you to break the game.

The end result is a simple concept with a lot of strategic depth and endless replayability. Solo developer LocalThunk has created an absolute winner in Balatro, no matter how you pronounce it. —Pete Volk

Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior

Where to play:Windows PC

Lysfanga is a single-player game for people who wish they were better about scheduling time for multi-player games. Set in an ancient kingdom, a squad of heroes must work together to obliterate baddies and solve puzzles. The twist: One player controls all the characters by layering one run through an arena atop of another. And another. And another, another, and...

Each fight takes place in an arena crowded with too many enemies to squish within the fight’s limited amount of time. When the clock strikes zero, the battle doesn’t end; it restarts. Now, the player is supported by an AI partner recreating their previous run. Over and over, the player repeats this process, amassing a mob of clones that help them get through the level. The real fun isn’t the combat, but solving little puzzles that require multiple copies of yourself to flip switches and release powerful attacks at precisely the same time. In these moments, you feel less like a hero and more like the world’s finest choreographer. —Chris Plante

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Where to play:PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

Australian author Christina Stead once wrote that every love story is a ghost story, a phrase that perfectly encapsulates the gothic romance tradition so richly explored in literature but rarely in games.

Banishers throws itself at this notion, casting players as Red and Antea, a pair of exorcists sent to colonial New England to deal with a haunting that quickly goes awry. Antea is killed, and over the course of the game, Red must decide to follow love or duty, either banishing her ghost to the afterlife or using his occult knowledge to resurrect her.

Banishers is a slow, considered RPG that contemplates the many ways a place can be haunted, with a terrible question providing its emotional throughline: Are you working towards a reunion, or a long goodbye? —JR

Helldivers 2

Where to play:PlayStation 5, Windows PC

Helldivers 2is one of the year’s best surprises, completely reinventing the approach of the original game to create a hilarious and addictively fun squad shooter that feels like the best Starship Troopersgame you could possibly ask for.

Much of the game’s humor comes from its over-the-top satire of Super Earth and its goal to spread democracy through bullets and hellfire. But Helldivers 2 also uses ragdoll physics and friendly fire to create hilarious moments during playtime, not just in the narrative dressings.

And it’s just rewarding to play. With interlocking gameplay loops, satisfying shooting mechanics, and depth from the stratagem system and the game’s varied enemies, it’s one of the best shooters of the year. Don’t miss it. –PV

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

Where to play:PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

A sprawling RPG with a heart of gold, Infinite Wealth continues the Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) franchise’s commitment to earnest narratives about the power of friendship, variety in play, and ridiculously silly fun.

Infinite Wealth’s story stretches across Hawaii and multiple cities in Japan, with a seemingly endless array of activities. There’s the usual buffet of bite-sized minigames: sports games, card games, dating games, collectible games, and so on. But the trio of the Animal Crossing-inspired Dondoko Island, the Crazy Taxi-inspired Crazy Eats, and the hilarious returning Pokémon parody Sujimon are fun, engaging, and deep enough to justify their own spots on this list. And they’re all just a partof the Infinite Wealthexperience.

At the heart of it all is sweet Ichiban Kasuga, always relentlessly optimistic and supportive of just about everyone, to the point that he’s repeatedly making his enemies into life-long friends. And while Infinite Wealthisn’t technically an anthology story, it has something in common with them: If you don’t like what you’re currently doing, just wait a bit. You’ll be doing something completely different soon. —PV

Tekken 8

Where to play:PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X

Tekken 8 is a smorgasbord of acquired tastes crammed into a blender and set to overdrive. with a clown car roster packed with edgelord OCs, babes, and bears. There’s a limb-based button layout and move lists that seem to scroll forever, with an entrancing backing track of pulsing, aggressive rave beats. And bears! Did I mention the bears? There are two of them.

While the recent Street Fighter 6 seems to have been thoughtfully designed to be the most broadly appealing fighting game ever, Tekken 8 has set its sights on being the most Tekken fighting game ever. And boy, did it succeed! —Patrick Gill

Palworld

Where to play:Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

It’s hard to find the words to talk about Palworld. In one single month, the game became a viral hit, selling over 8,000,000 copies in six days and becoming the subject of mass criticism online. Still, behind the negativity and the hype is the actual game.

Palworldis a hybrid monster of a video game. Players will likely recognize the influence of several games, like Fortniteor The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Despite all the different genres it pulls from, Palworld is a survival game at heart. You’ll build sprawling camps, explore a wide world, and do it alongside Pokémon-like creatures you catch called Pals. It’s still in early access and it’s not the most polished game in the world, but its rough edges make for funny moments with friends. If you’re looking for a light-hearted survival game to play with others, I’d recommend it. —Ana Diaz

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Where to play:Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is so good at what it does, we might need a new name for “Metroidvania.” A Persiavania? A Metroid…prince…ia? Look, the wordsmiths can quibble over the exact phrasing, but the point remains: It’s a rare sight to witness a game instantly establish itself as totemic.

The Lost Crown is initially just a competent platformer, where you navigate a byzantine maze-like palace with routes that unfold as you improve. Then the meticulousness of its assembly dawns on you. Utterly devoid of bloat, not a single pixel out of place, The Lost Crown isn’t just one of the best games of the year — it’s one of the best of the generation. —Ari Notis

The best late 2023 games we couldn’t consider last year

(the) Gnorp Apologue

Where to play:Windows PC

Hit the boulder. Collect the shards. Research upgrades so you can hit the boulder harder, collect the shards faster, and research upgrades smarter, so you can… well, you get the point.

(the) Gnorp Apologue is an idle game that looks like the games I played on my school’s DOC computer in first grade. But (the) Gnorp Apologue’s capacity to devour my day owes more to modern idle gems, like Cookie Clicker, Universal Paperclips, and Candy Box 2. If you haven’t heard of those games, please forgive me for what I’ve unleashed upon your limited time in this universe.

And if you have played those games, you know the drill. Wish your friends and family well. You won’t be seeing them until you’ve hit the boulder, collected the shards, researched the upgrades, and decided to delete this file from your computer as an act of self-preservation. —CP

Against the Storm

Where to play:Windows PC

Against the Stormbreaks the city builder genre in fascinating ways, focusing on the satisfying early game experience of getting your settlement going and using roguelike mechanics straight out of Slay the Spireto give you an endlessly replayable experience.

The game’s interlocking systems make each settlement different — maybe your city has harpies, so you really need to focus on clothing, or maybe you have harpies and humans and they’re clamoring for biscuits. All of those potential choices have cascading results — for clothing, you need materials to turn into fabric, a building to turn those materials into fabric, and a building to turn fabric into clothing. For biscuits, you need a source of grain, plant fiber, or mushrooms, a building to turn those into flour, and a building to make biscuits (along with herbs, berries, or roots to finish those delicious doughy treats). All the while, the storm rages on and threatens the stability of your fledgling city.

Keep your settlers (and the impatient queen) happy long enough, and you’ll move on to the next settlement. And the next one. And the next one. I’ve been hooked on this game for weeks, and it shows no sign of slowing down. —PV

Lethal Company

Where to play:Windows PC

Horror games are a tough sell for me, mainly because I’m a big scaredy cat. However, I have a full-hearted appreciation for Lethal Company, developed by a solo dev who goes by Zeekerss. In the game, you and up to three friends mobilize as beleaguered workers who scrounge up resources from alien planets to sell back to their employer and make quota. As you explore these alien locales, it’s up to you and your group to evade the scourge of each biome’s many horrifying monsters.

Lethal Company is an absolute riot. The game might contain jump scares, but it also really leans into slapstick antics. Accidental deaths are a dime a dozen in its twisting metal corridors, and so are the laughs. For me, these comedic elements helped make it more approachable as a horror game. The one drawback is that you pretty much need a group of four to play and even then, the game can be pretty tough. Seek employment there at your own risk! —AD