Former Giant Bomb man-child Dan Ryckert has graced us with his top 10 list for 2021. You can catch Dan in the debut season of Bak 2 Skool, the Fire Escape Cast and on Twitch.
And quite possibly, in the time it's taken you to read this intro, Dan has inexplicably won a juggling contest, invented a new type of eating utensil and written several books on all the subjects previously referenced. For signed copies, please reach out to Dan directly on Twitter.
Dan's Honorable Mentions: Loop Hero, Forza Horizon 5, Death’s Door, WarioWare: Get it Together!
10. Resident Evil Village
This game is dumb as fuck and I think I love it for it. None of it should work. The internet got all obsessed over the big lady and she’s barely even in it. All of the bosses seem like they’re from different games with different art styles. And the ending is some of the most gleefully dumb bullshit I’ve ever seen in a Resident Evil game, which is saying something.
“Gleefully” might be the key word here though, because it all inexplicably works. I laughed every time something ridiculous happened to Ethan’s hand and he just poured some gloop on it and everything was fine. I was enthusiastically onboard for the explanation that your dweeb-ass protagonist for the last two games is made out of mold and has been dead since the beginning of Resident Evil 7. Plus, the action and puzzles are all solid and a big mutant baby scared the shit out of me. Good game.
9. Hitman 3
This would have been way farther up if they hadn’t decided that the thing people love about Hitman is the DEEP LORE OF THE BAR CODE MAN and not, you know, dressing up like Big Bird and dropping a piano on someone’s head or something. THAT SAID, it gets better after your first playthrough and as long as you never play that train level again.
Dubai, the Knives Out level, Berlin, and the wine place are all top notch Hitman locales. And despite the overemphasis on lore shit, you really don’t have to pay attention to it beyond your first playthrough. It’s mechanically the best in the series, and there are lots of goofy ways to approach kills once you’re just picking stages a la carte and messing around.
8. Psychonauts 2
I was gonna call this the Terminator 2 of sequels, but that would imply that I liked the first Psychonauts. Not only did I dislike the first Psychonauts, but I had never enjoyed a single Double Fine game to date before this excellent platformer. I’ve always appreciated the vibe and writing of their games, but I always felt they fell short on the gameplay front. I’m not saying Psychonauts 2 is Super Mario Odyssey or anything, but the gameplay end of things is still super solid and was more than enough to keep me interested to see it through.
As a lifelong platforming fan, I was really happy to see an assortment of worlds that were more than “fire level, ice level, water level, etc.” Instead, it’s “germ-infested bowling alley level, casino hospital level, dental hell level, etc.” It’s loaded with inspired ideas, characters, and jokes, and I loved it from beginning to end.
7. Cruis’n Blast
Arcade racing is such a pure genre and I’ve missed it so much since…San Francisco Rush 2049? Rumble Racing? At least a few console generations. Just give me some unrealistic vehicles, impossible physics, and most importantly, a boost meter, and I’m on cloud nine. Cruis’n Blast knows exactly what it is and it excels at it, with one of the best theme songs in years to boot.