RJ Writing Ink’s Picks for Best Video Games of 2024

Video games just keep getting better and better as the years go by, and 2024 was a big year for video games. From the success of adaptations like Fallout and Arcane to the runaway success of games like Zenless Zone Zero, there were plenty of good video games this year. And while I may not have found the time to play all of them, the ones that I did play usually blew me away.

I’m RJ Writing Ink for The Game of Nerds, and today, we’re looking at some picks for the best games of 2024. Please note that these are all my opinions. They may not always reflect the game’s overall success or popularity.

Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth

In 2020, Square Enix returned us to the world of Final Fantasy VII with the first part of its long-awaited remake of the legendary game. Now, in 2024, the story continues with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. Following the events in Midgar, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barrett, and Red XIII are forced to leave the city to hunt down the maniacal Sephiroth. However, while the story seems to play out similarly to the original game, it becomes clear that a few things have begun to change. Those changes begin to create a ripple effect that could wind up altering the entire story as fans know it.

I could spend an entire article gushing about how incredible this game is, but I will keep it simple. While Remake brought us back to the world of FF7, Rebirth was the game that let us experience that world for all its worth. Each region is filled with hours of side quests, the story can seamlessly shift from funny to heartwarming to tearjerking, and the combat has gotten even better. I spent weeks working my way through the entire game before i reached the ending, and even then, there’s stuff leftover for me to do.

Speaking of endings, everyone has at least heard about what happened to Aerith in the original video game. Thus, one of the big selling points of Rebirth was whether or not players could prevent that fate. While it does look like we might have, the game isn’t that clear on the matter, opting to leave that for the final part of the trilogy. However, it did manage to do that moment justice, and unless you’re ready for it, expect to start crying all over again.

Black Myth: Wukong

Before there was Son Goku, there was Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. Serving as a sequel to the original Chinese novel, Black Myth: Wukong starts with the famed Monkey King being assaulted and imprisoned in stone by the paranoid forces of Heaven. Centuries later, you play as The Destined One, one of his Monkey people tasked with claiming six relics said to have the power to free their king. In doing so, you must fight your way across all of China as you learn more about the Monkey King’s past and what led to this second imprisonment.

Even though more about Goku than they do his inspiration, Sun Wukong has become more and more well-known outside of his native China in recent years. It’s not hard to understand why, as he is easily one of the most powerful characters in fictional history. Black Myth: Wukong provides gamers with the chance to experience the power that made Heaven tremble firsthand as you dive headfirst into the myths of the original Journey to the West. The combat is amazing, the setting and characters are extraordinary, and the difficulty is enough to keep players coming back for more. I may not have had the time to play it myself, but I was more than tempted to do so.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero

It’s felt like an eternity, but at long last, the legendary Budokai Tenkaichi video games series has a new entry. And this one had almost everything that fans could ever hope to ask for from the Dragon Ball franchise. With a massive roster of 182 characters, tons of customization, online multiplayer, and a sizable campaign mode, this is the Dragon Ball games fans have been itching to play.

The campaign retells most of the story of Dragon Ball from the perspective of eight major characters in the franchise. While that is standard for Dragon Ball games, what sets this apart is if players can fulfill certain requirements here, they can make the story deviate from canon into what if scenarios. What if Goku didn’t die fighting Raditz? Or Jiren won the Tournament of Power? These are just a few examples of what can happen!

Then there’s the multiplayer aspect. With the largest roster in a Dragon Ball game to date, Sparking Zero is perfect for people to compete with each other online. The one downside is that it doesn’t allow for cross-platform playability, meaning you can’t play someone on Steam if you’re on console.

Lastly, the custom battles portion allows people to craft their own scenarios and have them play out in whatever way they want. If you wanted to see certain characters interact when they never did in the series, then this is the perfect chance to do so! Sparking Zero is a very fun game that’s perfect for any Dragon Ball fan and a worthy addition to the Budokai Tenkaichi series.

Astro Bot

Last, but not least, we have the best game of the year, Astro Bot. Released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation brand, you play as Astro Bot, a plucky robot leading a crew of Bots exploring the stars in their PS5 ship. Or rather, they were, until an alien bully called Nebulax rips out the ship’s CPU and causing it to crash. With the core systems and crew now scattered, it’s your job to explore nearby galaxies, reunite your crew, get the parts back, and stop Nebulax!

Astro Bot is, hands down, the best game of 2024, and it has the award to prove it. The entire game is a massive love letter to the PlayStation series of consoles, drawing on the brand’s thirty-year history to create the levels of this platformer. Almost every Bot you rescue will be a reference to a PlayStation game. Several of the levels are based directly off some of the console’s biggest hits like Ape Escape, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and Horzion: Zero Dawn. The entire hub world has the Bots you rescue re-enacting more games than I can list here! It was, by far, the most fun I’ve had playing a platformer game in years.

The success of Astro Bot speaks for itself. At this years edition of The Game Awards, Astro Bot was nominated for seven categories and won four of them. Most importantly, it won Game of the Year, beating out FF7 Rebirth, Black Myth: Wukong, Balatro, Metaphor, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. If you have a PS5 and you haven’t gotten this game yet, do yourself a favor and buy it. It’s worth every penny!