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31. Catlateral Damage: Remeowstered

Release: Sep 2021, PC/PS/Switch/Xbox (May 2015, PC [Original]) Beaten: May 16th, PC (itch) Play time: 3h 30m

A cute and silly game where you are a cat and you knock things over. There are additional objectives on every level and a constantly-ticking timer that needs to be managed in order to get as much done as possible in a "run." The objectives don't need to be completed simultaneously within a single run, so the meter is mostly inconsequential for progression mode, but I definitely stretched myself to try to full clear the levels in as few runs as possible (which was fun). There's a lot of content (I imagine especially so with the inclusion of a procedurally-generated mode that I didn't really touch), but most of the long-term stuff amounts to grinding for cat treats in order to purchase uninteresting collectibles which lead to somewhat more interesting playable cats. I can't really imagine myself sinking more time into this than I already have (we'll see), but I wouldn't say the game is worse for providing reasons to go back to it for people who really like the gameplay. The gameplay itself is, from my perspective, passable. Maybe somewhat mindless at times, but generally pretty enjoyable. Overall, yeah, I liked it. Any game where you get to be a cat tends to be pretty fun for me.

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30. Mooncat

Release: September 2024, PC (UFO 50) Beaten: May 15th, PC (UFO 50) (Steam) Play time: 1h 51m

The first game in UFO 50 that I've fully cleared. I decided that to motivate myself to play UFO 50 more, I'm going to count some of its games for my media thread.

Mooncat is one of those games that is really fun because it has a very weird control scheme. I've seen a lot of people say it's a game that feels like learning how to play video games for the first time again, and I kind of get that even if it's not the perfect analogy. Once you get a handle on the unique controls it becomes extremely enjoyable to maneuver your character. You have these really strict jump arcs but you can slam-cancel them at any point and can combo bounces off enemies/obstacles with that. It was one of my favorite games when I first picked up UFO 50 and now that I've got the cherry disk I feel even more strongly about it being one of the best in the package.

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29. Mobile Suit Baba

Release: December 2023, PC (itch) Beaten: May 15th, PC (itch) Play time: 3h 50m

A very cute spin on tactics games. It is quite literally best described as "a Baba Is You crossover with Into the Breach." Similar play style of Into the Breach with some of the puzzley rules-based quirks of Baba Is You. It doesn't ever quite reach the highs of Baba Is You but it is still really fun and often very satisfying to solve. It's a good length too, never overstaying its welcome but leaving you with with plenty of optional objectives and levels if you feel like diving into them. I had a great time with it!

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28. Monument Valley 3

Release: December 2024, iOS/Android Beaten: May 12th, iOS (Netflix) Play time: 1h 46m

Maybe not as good as the first two, but still a delight. This entry manages to live up to my expectations for this series being visually interesting/trippy; I feel like it might actually outshine its predecessors somewhat in that regard. It was pretty easy and very short--I definitely would have liked to see more levels--but it's still a great time.

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Snowball in Hell, acrylics, 30cmx20cm

I used a random piece of wire to paint the smallest details..!

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27. Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain

Release: January 2024, PC (itch) Beaten: April 26 (Main), May 10 (100%), PC (itch) Play time: 1h 7m (Main), 2h 30m (100%)

Pretty solid little 3D platformer/collectathon with some rudimentary Celeste mechanics. It expands on the world in a cute way and very much feels like a love letter to Celeste and to retro platformers in general. It is sort of clunky, but in a way that feels mostly fine with only a few moments where it makes the game frustrating. I feel like I could say it's not that high in the difficulty level, probably nowhere near as difficult as Celeste, but it has a decent amount of challenge and some learning curve to it. I got through the whole game with 430 deaths, which kind of seems like a lot, but I threw myself off cliffs stupidly and/or on purpose many times (sometimes trying to do cool schmovement tech). Overall it was a fun experience.

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26. DIGDIG

Release: July 2024, Playdate Beaten: May 8th, Playdate Play time: 32m

A really frustratingly lackluster game where you do clicker game stuff with absolutely none of the intricacies that make clicker games satisfying. I feel like I probably damaged my Playdate's crank beating this thing and it wasn't worth it at all. This is basically on par with a bad tech demo/jam game, but they're charging two dollars for it on the catalog.

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25. Recommendation Dog

Release: March 2023, Playdate Beaten: May 6th, Playdate

A kind of fun arcade game that I enjoyed significantly more than the other games I've played from these devs. I don't even want to say the dev team (or are they the publisher for this? idk) name because certain people on the internet are really vitriolic about them for batshit stupid reasons, but I will say that my experience with this dev has been that their games are a little uninspired.

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24. Escape the Arcade

Release: December 2023, Playdate Beaten: May 5th, Playdate

Really short, not particularly challenging, but it had a really cute art style and was a fair amount of fun. Unrelated to this game specifically, but I've decided to stop timing myself for Playdate games because having to set up a timer sort of discourages me from starting games on this console. Hopefully I get through a lot more Playdate games now that I'm not fretting about keeping track of the playtime.

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in a moment, everything can change

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23. Valley Peaks

Release: July 2024, PC Beaten: April 6th, PC (Steam) Play time: 10h 26m

A surprisingly harrowing first-person climbing game where every mountain you climb can be approached in multiple ways. There's basically a set of three routes to try for each mountain, and it's effectively three separate puzzles. Some of the climbs are really hard, some of them are really easy, but they're always fun and rewarding to complete. The game is also a lot longer than I expected, but this is one of the few times where I end up playing a game longer than I anticipated, and yet, still feel like it's an appropriate length. It seems like the game hasn't performed super well (a Switch port was outright cancelled because of funding issues) which is a damn shame because it's cute and highly polished and very unique. Very cool.

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22. Pokemon Sun

Release: November 2016, 3DS Beaten: April 6th, 3DS Play time: 30h 31m

One of the most engaging and weird Pokemon stories ever, and it helps that this is probably the most interesting region Pokemon had ever done to that point (and, I feel, still haven't topped). Alola is really fun and the parental trauma storyline is really intense and moving and I can't wait to see how they fuck it up in the Ultra versions of the games.

Also sorry I took so long to post this. My usual pokemon-team-image generator is offline so I had to make my own thing and I put it off continuously for weeks. But the results speak for themselves.

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Sound's Very Belated Games of the Year for 2024

If you thought me posting 2023's G's OTY in late February 2024 was bad, allow me to one-up myself by posting 2024's G's in mid April of 2025! Haha! I am so good at this!

Anyway, what you can expect below the cut is three lists: -2024 Games of the Year Released That Year That I Played -Best Games I Played 2024 Not Released That Year -Secret Third List -There's Four Actually, I Also Have 2024 Honorable Mentions

2024 GAMES OF THE YEAR RELEASED THAT YEAR THAT I PLAYED THAT YEAR (WITH ONE EXCEPTION), ALSO THE LIST IS SIX LONG BECAUSE IT NEEDS TO BE, TRUST ME

6. Webfishing Webfishing might have been sort of a flash in the pan game, and I feel like in order for it to have lasting success, it needs some updates. But what is currently there is fucking good and I spent a lot of time with it and shared beautiful moments with friends. I don't know if I'd revisit it unless my friends played it more, but it's a great little social sandbox for what it is.

5. Portal: Revolution One of the highest quality mods/fangames I've ever played (although that list is only about one or two dozen long). It's tightly designed and not too challenging, which is a problem I face with other Portal mods in particular. It also has an interesting story, even if I feel like some of the beats fall flat; it still touches on interesting things in this universe.

4. Thank Goodness You're Here I've played a good handful of comedy games, but this is the first one that just feels like you're living inside of a sketch comedy show. That could have been a spectacular failure if the game wasn't so damn funny and entertaining to wander around in. But it IS damn funny and entertaining to wander around in, AND I LIKE IT A LOT.

3. Animal Well Hands down one of the most interesting metroidvanias I've ever played, and I barely even scratched the surface with it. The game itself has different "layers" of content, and I only did the first layer, which was essentially just beating the game. Every additional layer is increasingly intricate puzzle-solving, eventually devolving into ARG territory, and while I wasn't especially interested in spending 20 hours of my life solving the puzzles or looking up guides, I was thoroughly impressed by what was on display. And the first layer on its own is just a really solid game and worth the asking price alone.

2. Great God Grove I may have played this game in 2025, but I started it in 2024 and just fell off for no reason. The game is really fucking good and beautiful and just an excellent representation of the joys of creating art and the ways we can and will reach the hearts of others by being our genuine selves.

1. Arranger Hands down one of the finest puzzle games I've ever played. I've never seen a game do this whole "even traversal is a puzzle" thing in a way that feels consistently fun, consistently puzzling, never overly complex, and never overstays its welcome. It also has a pretty lovely story and world. I just adored it, I could see myself replaying it in the future once the puzzles have totally escaped my memory. Favorite game of 2024.

hoo boy that was tough, honestly I could probably have made this list a lot longer, and I could see myself rearranging my top 3 depending on my whims of the day. Here's a bonus list aside from my other 2 lists, one of which is already bonus.

2024 HONORABLE MENTIONS, ALL OF THEM GREAT GAMES WORTH PLAYING, BUT NOT GREAT ENOUGH TO BE IN MY TOP SIX, SORRY

-Clickolding -The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom -Wilmot Works It Out -World of Goo 2 -Little Kitty Big City -The Plucky Squire

and now for my other 2 lists

BEST GAMES I PLAYED IN 2024 THAT DID NOT RELEASE IN 2024 BUT I DID PLAY THEM THAT YEAR AND QUITE LIKED THEM

5. A Year of Springs (2021) One of my few forays into modern novels. I typically don't like visual novels where you have to replay the game to get different routes, but the stories in Year of Springs are short enough and don't have an overabundance of choices, making it easy to get through all the different story paths. And the game outright tells you which are the canon paths, which is nice. It's a really good series of short stories about sexuality and gender and living in a world where those things are misunderstood.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (2015) Probably a weird one to be popping up on a top 5 list, but I had so much fun with this game, and it's a god damn shame that it's basically inaccessible right now in the form I played it in.

3. Mess Quest (2022) I wrote at length about this game in last year's media thread, but it's a great cleaning game (a genre that I love from time to time) which can be fully completed in a few hours.

2. Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (2021/1989) A visual novel/detective type game with a really compelling story and an engaging mystery. It has great voice acting (it's not in English but it's still very good) and fun art that sells the experience. It also improves upon the first game in the series immensely.

1. Super Lesbian Animal RPG I love lesbians and animals and RPGs. This one has it all.

and my final list is gonna just be a list without descriptions because i genuinely am getting tired and I need to just get this post out before i draft it permanently.

THE SECRET THIRD LIST (IGNORE THE SECOND LIST AND PRETEND THIS IS THIRD) MENTIONED AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS POST: GAMES OF 2023 THAT MIGHT HAVE MADE GOTY LIST IF I PLAYED THEM IN 2023, ALSO ORDERED BY HOW MUCH I LIKE THEM

4. Gunbrella 3. Sea of Stars 2. Undertale Yellow 1. Cocoon

I DIDN'T PROOFREAD THIS POST! OKAY BYE!

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