Mary Kish is the Director of Community Marketing & Production at Twitch and one third of the Fire Escape podcast with Dan Ryckert and Mike Mahardy. You may also remember her as the world's #1 Downwell player during her time at Gamespot.
10. Venba
UGH heads up this game made me cry. I can’t help it, it's about moms. I love my mom. When a game is able to tug at the heartstrings of a mom-kid relationship like Venba does, I’m just no good. Moms are great, they take care of us and tell us it's gonna be ok and hide the stuff that sucks so that we have a childhood with laughter. Venba does an incredible job showing both sides of being a mother. Making good memories with her family and being the glue that holds everyone together. But, also being a person, with their own wants and needs. I freaking loved this game, and I really wanna encourage you to try it so here I go: It's short! You can play this in like a few hours, you got that time. It's about food! I swear it's like watching The Great British Bakeoff you can smell the food and it looks delicious. The puzzles are fun! Learn how to cook kind of and enjoy discovering new cooking methods. The music is good! I called my mom when I was done playing.
9. Baldurs Gate 3
You know this game rocks everyone knows it rocks. I made friends and cared for them and then walked into a room with barrels and set off a trap and everyone died. I caught a kid stealing and told him to pursue his dreams and 30 hours later he stole from me. I fell in love with a green lady filled with vengeance and think of her often. This game pulls you through so many emotions and scenarios it seems impossible it exists. Its a marvel its a spectacle its deserving of every award. Good god.
8. Sea of Stars
A love letter to Chrono Trigger, this game had my heart from before I started playing. I’ve been waiting for an experience like this one, where the characters are genuine and I care for each and every one of them. The story is exciting and gripping, getting you into the main plot within a few hours. I found myself dedicated to my rag tag crew and wanting to see how the story ends. Adorably funny and filled with charm, the writing is rich and easily digestible, even for someone like me that prefers not to read too much when gaming. This one broke me, I wanted to read it all.
Sea of Stars is also spectacularly breathtaking. The fast travel actually made is say, ‘Oh My’ out loud. Its not just the art style, but how creative they are when coming up with the world design. The characters, the buildings, the map itself is stunning. I kept finding myself shocked with how much detail they put into this game.
7. Hi-Fi Rush
A total spectacle both visually and audibly, Hi-Fi Rush is the only game this year that got me to dance while playing (well except Just Dance but that’s a gimmie). I usually don’t care for games that make me play to the beat, as a notorious button masher I find games like these too confining. However, the system is designed to encourage but not punish, so if I end up playing it more like DMC it’s no big deal. There was a casual approach to the story too. Sure I gotta stop an evil corporation, who doesn’t?! I hate corporations and have a natural desire to stop them, so I didn’t need to read all that context. Corpo bad, music good, I’m in who do I kill.
This game is all over well made and expertly designed. I always knew where to go because the level design was clear and easy to understand. Fun secrets throughout the environments encouraged me to explore, but again, not punished for just burning through a level. Hi-Fi Rush is all carrot, no stick. It’s nudging me to enjoy the content but never punishing. A slick, fast moving combat system keeps me on my toes, and I just kept finding myself nodding my head to the beats. A worthy contender for GOTY that deserves all the love it gets.
6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This game is too damn big. Take it down a notch, seriously. I get anxiety from clearing one map let alone 3. The game is massive and it's stupid impressive from a technical perspective. I can’t tell you how many times I definitely did not complete that shrine the way it was intended, but that's the magic of this game. Break it, they want you to.