When I don’t have other things to write about, I’m slowly starting to work on doing top 10s for each year through the mid-1990s. This is in anticipation of doing bigger lists, like my greatest games of all time. I find ranking games year by year is an easier way to parse through things over trying to rank every game of all time all at once.
With that said, here were my top 10 games from 2022!
10. Islets
It seems like every year, there is one random indie Metroidvania game that captures my heart, and Islets was that one in 2022. Islets has a charming, colorful world, some pretty exciting combat and exploration, funny dialogue, and solid platforming. The game also has these mini bullet hell type fights that end up being really fun, and give the game something you don’t see in this genre.
This is also one of two games on the list that were developed by one person. This was incredible work by Kyle Thompson.
9. The Entropy Centre
Plenty of first-person puzzle games have tried to follow in Portal 2′s footsteps. The Entropy Centre is one of many that falls short of those lofty ambitions.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t really good! The puzzle mechanic in Entropy Centre allows you to reverse time on objects, which means you do a lot of “thinking in reverse.” There are plenty of satisfying puzzles here, though the mechanic means it often takes a minute of setup in order to see the puzzle solved. This takes away some of the instant gratification that normally comes when you solve puzzles, but they still do plenty of interesting and cool things with it.
The biggest highlight of the game ends up being the story, which had me interested throughout. The game also does an admirable job of reaching Portal levels of wit. Your robot companion is really fun as well. Basically, Entropy Centre does all the non-puzzle stuff as well as Portal does, and the puzzles themselves are at least pretty good. It’s not a bad attempt at all here by the developer.
8. Tunic
Tunic is absolutely beautiful. From the graphics to the music to the overall atmosphere, it just absolutely nails its aesthetic. There is an air of mystery that dominates the game throughout as well, as you navigate a world with a language you do not understand, and the game does not just simply tell you where to go next. You can use instruction manual pages to piece things together, which is a fascinating mechanic that truly makes Tunic special.
It can also make it occasionally annoying, as I think most people who have played this game have had a moment or two where they couldn’t figure something out because they didn’t notice something in the manual, or they missed a page. That sort of pure exploration is rare in video games these days and can be both exhilarating and frustrating. I ran into both of those feelings throughout my time with Tunic, but the positive feelings far outweighed the occasional irritation.
7. Vampire Survivors
One of the biggest hits of 2022. Vampire Survivors takes your traditional twin stick roguelite shooter and… takes away the shooting stick. Now, that is the stick that you generally view as the “fun stick,” so this would seem to be a questionable decision. But it ends up working brilliantly. The focus on the game ends up being movement, exploration, and builds. The game is able to throw an absolutely insane amount of enemies at you thanks to its minimalistic graphics, and the animations and sound design are strong enough for it to feel very good to take them out. The upgrades and different characters to play as help keep the experience fresh and rewarding too.
As you can imagine, it gets old eventually, but I loved the 40 hours or so I spent with it.
6. Tinykin
I had never played a Pikmin game until Pikmin 4. The reason I tried that game was because of Tinykin in 2022. This ended up being an absolutely perfect Xbox Gamepass game that got me interested in the genre. Much like Pikmin, this is a chill game where you slowly go about completing tasks as a small person in a big world.
The Paper Mario art style ends up being incredibly fun, and I actually think Tinykin has better level design than Pikmin, by focusing more on inside of a house than the great outdoors, they were able to use a lot more creativity and verticality. It’s also a perfect length. This is one of those rare games where I’m not sure I had one complaint afterward. It just doesn’t reach the highs of the games above it.
5. Neon White
This is the point in the list where we go up another tier. Everything in the top 5 is an elite game to me. And that starts with Neon White. Neon White is a first-person speedrunning game with first-person shooter and card elements. Yeah, there is a lot going on. But that mix of speed and strategy is incredibly satisfying. Every level you beat, you have both adrenaline pumping, and that same satisfaction solving a difficult puzzle gets you.
I actually thought the story and ending were pretty cool, too. And the characters are at least interesting. There are some exploration elements that can be a bit frustrating, and you need to explore each level if you want the best ending, but overall this game just absolutely hit it out of the park, and with it being such a unique experience, I definitely want more of it in the future.
4. Horizon: Forbidden West
If you played Horizon: Zero Dawn, you know what to expect here. This is an absolutely gorgeous game, teeming with things to do, with impressive and satisfying combat. While it improved on Zero Dawn in a few ways, the story didn’t have me quite as engaged, and I found the skill tree to be pretty unsatisfying. I felt “maxed out” about 2/3rd of the way through the game because I didn’t care about so many of the skills in the game.
I only bring up my qualms because we are at the top of the food chain here, and expectations are greater to be at the top. This is still an incredible game, and it is arguably the best-looking game of this generation.
3. Elden Ring
I have a weird relationship with FromSoft games. I usually really enjoy them for 20-30 hours, and then I reach a boss that I just run out of patience on and give up the game. Because of this, I generally don’t buy their games anymore. Elden Ring sold me on giving it another go with its open world concept. Instead of being completely roadblocked by any one boss, you can go another direction and come back stronger. And I found this to be true for the most part. I got through probably 3/4th of the game, put in something like 60 hours, and was generally able to find ways to progress, and then go back and beat any bosses that gave me a hard time.
This is classic FromSoft combat. It’s slow, methodical, tense, and impactful. But the real star of the show is the exploration. Simply, the game doesn’t tell you where to go, but it constantly gives you fantastic looking landmarks that you will want to seek out and discover more about. I had a blast going around and looking for upgrades with absolutely no marker telling me where to go. This might be the pinnacle of exploration in modern video games
I do think it drags a bit, and I didn’t personally feel engaged enough to keep slogging away at some of the endgame bosses that I was pretty far away from beating. But this was still a monumental achievement, and anytime FromSoft goes open world in the future, I’m there.
2. Chained Echoes
I’ve played a lot of awesome turn based RPGs in recent years, but none have ever come close to challenging my personal favorite of all time, Chrono Trigger. Chained Echoes was the first that at least made me think about it. Craziest of all, it was made by one man.
I think Chained Echoes succeeds on almost every level. Most of all, its battle system. Because your skills refresh after every battle, it avoids the annoying mechanic in most of these games where you never feel incentivized to use your best attacks. The game penalizes you for using too many strong attacks in a row instead. There is also a completely separate battle system for mechs that is equally fun.
Exploration is rich and rewarding, and the story had me invested from start to finish. If there is one major way it falls short of Chrono Trigger, it is with the characters, who I honestly did not care about much at all. But other than that, I truly view this as the second best turn based RPG of all time. And yet, it is somehow not my favorite game of 2022.
1. God of War: Ragnarok
I absolutely loved 2019’s God of War. I knew I would like Ragnarok, but taking it to the next level was always going to be difficult. Ragnarok somehow does that mostly with its story and characters. It builds perfectly on the first games story, and the character development and growth from the first game to this one is rare to see in video games. You truly see the events and actions from the first and this game changing the characters around you in profound ways.
And the combat absolutely cooks once again as you would expect. You truly feel Kratos’ power with every punch or axe swing, and they’ve made a lot of smart changes to make that combat feel a bit more satisfying and impactful. Exploration also remains strong, and the worlds are stunning again. They basically mastered the formula here in a way where I have no idea what they could do with a third game to take things to the next level, but I can’t wait to find out.
Big Nerd Gaming 
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