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Okay! We’ve named our system-specific winners for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox and PC, but it’s all been leading to this: our overall winner. What is the Siliconera Game of the Year 2024? Read on!

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

Balatro 4t2j3h

Balatro is one of those games that hooks you in an instant. The moment you encounter your first Jokers, the appeal of the game and its potential is abundantly clear, and continued play shows that solo developer LocalThunk knew exactly how to see those ideas through. Writers love to bandy about the idea of “setting a new standard for the genre,” but never has that been truer than with Balatro and roguelike deckbuilders: from now on, every new game has to be worth playing instead of another round of Balatro, and that’s a high bar to clear.

Mouthwashing 3o6lq

Mouthwashing is a relatively short experience, clocking in at just a couple of hours. Still, it packs so much psychological horror and body horror into that time to rival its ive-media equivalents. We won’t talk about the game’s twists to avoid spoilers, but you’ll certainly want to! And that’s the hallmark of a successful narrative. (For more on the game, check out Stephanie's review.)

Winner: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 5a6c4m

Well, we called it. Rebirth revitalized our faith in Final Fantasy with a game that’s fantastic on its own and only enhanced by knowledge of the older releases. And though some titles took a serious run at it, nothing managed to topple Square Enix’s gem off the top of the Siliconera podium. Congratulations to our 2024 Game of the Year!

What is your overall Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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The reports of the Nintendo Switch’s death are greatly exaggerated. 2024 brought even more great games to the platform, be them excellent remasters or truly fresh ideas. But which won Siliconera’s Switch Game of the Year 2024?

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. Multiplatform games are considered on the platform for which they received the most staff . For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door 1r1949

This remake of the GameCube classic showed a new generation of players just how good the Paper Mario series was — and could be again — when allowed to sport fun characterization and mechanical depth. It’s one of the best role-playing games of all time, lovingly restored to play just as we it. It certainly earned our 10/10 score.

Unicorn Overlord 42183w

A spiritual successor to Ogre Battle, Vanillaware’s Unicorn Overlord has a nuanced world, engaging combat and that signature Vanillaware art we know and (usually) love. The developer generally hasn’t done sequels, but we’d really love to see what it could do if it built atop this work! Still, even if that doesn’t happen, it’s nice to see a game like this again.

Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom 2gw6n

A Zelda game starring Zelda herself — that is, one acknowledged by Nintendo — has been a long time coming for fans who have been clamoring for it for ages. It surely is its own thing, as Grezzo’s follow-up to the Link’s Awakening remake and not a sprawling 3D adventure, but it’s a great little toy box with tons of puzzles to solve and lots of pieces to try to solve them. Congratulations, Echoes of Wisdom!

What is your Switch Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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In a world in which most big titles make it to lots of platforms, the PC has become a haven for indie projects to shine before they get the resources to spread further. That shows in this year’s PC Game of the Year finalists!

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. Multiplatform games are considered on the platform for which they received the most staff . For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

1000xResist 631c40

If your game is so exclusively narrative-focused that there’s not much else, that puts a heck of a lot of pressure on that narrative. But hey, pressure makes diamonds! It’s hard to put 1000xResist down, as it captures your attention and won’t let go until its story is fully told. (See Jenni's full review of the game for more on what makes the game so special.)

Crow Country 354t6d

Snipperclips developer SFB Games’ love letter to PS1-era survival horror, Crow Country shows both a profound knowledge and appreciation of those games and a desire to tell its own sort of story within those confines. It nails the look and feel, but it doesn’t feel like a cheap imitation. Many recent indie homages have shown just how difficult it can be to thread that needle. (Check out Daniel's review.)

Winner: Balatro 3d5e3x

There are some who scoff at the accolades Balatro has been earning. We’re guessing most of those people just haven’t played it! The game has ed the rarefied air once occupied by Tetris alone, games that you encounter and immediately realize you’ll be playing for the rest of your life. Congratulations, Balatro! You’re the 2024 Siliconera PC Game of the Year!

What is your PC Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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Microsoft has made significant strides in recent years, bringing more of the games that we cover here at Siliconera to its platform. That shows in our Xbox Game of the Year 2024 nominees! Check out this year’s honored titles.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. Multiplatform games are considered on the platform for which they received the most staff . For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

Persona 3 Reload 4xf3j

While it’s famously missing some stuff, Persona 3 Reload still manages to be the best version of the much-beloved game. The signature Persona style shines with the added visual fidelity, and new features help you to see more story choices and keep more party caught up. (Read our review for more!)

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake 707040

Dragon Quest III is a beloved entry in the franchise and the centerpiece of the Erdrick saga, but its original presentation left it inaccessible to a lot of today’s players. The slick HD-2D aesthetic, combined with a host of quality-of-life improvements and updates? They make this iteration of the game the perfect way to play it. (Shaun's review delves deeper into these things!)

Winner: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth 182j29

Kiryu and Kasuga’s Hawaiian adventure has all the fun, drama and just plain game inside this game to make it a can’t-miss regardless of whether you’re a long-time Yakuza fan or just showing up now. You can get emotionally invested in its narrative if you’d like, but hey, if not, there’s basically whole Pokemon and Animal Crossing games in here to play too. In many ways, it’s a culmination of the franchise to date! We’re curious to see where Like a Dragon goes from here.

What is your Xbox Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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It’s that time again! Over the next few days, Siliconera is celebrating the best of 2024, with platform awards each day until the overall winner next week. Read on for our PlayStation Game of the Year selections!

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. Multiplatform games are considered on the platform for which they received the most staff . For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2024 archive.

Astro Bot 36431o

While Sony’s dismantling of its Japanese studios has been heartbreaking, its last group standing put in the work and showed just how good games could be. But hey, we’re not kidding ourselves; we’re probably just getting this game and not a full rebuild of what was. Still, what a game it is! The best platformer without Mario in the title (and better than a lot of them with it), Astro Bot takes the warm fuzzies of nostalgia and surrounds them with well-crafted levels and super-polished mechanics. The little bot’s previous adventures have been wonderful, too! But this is the first one without any need for asterisks: a great, full game for everyone.

Metaphor: ReFantazio 1f5p5b

The combat and characters of Metaphor paper over the game’s many rough narrative elements, building a high fantasy take on Persona that holds up well to lofty expectations. (And the soundtrack is of course stellar.) It’s familiar enough to make long-time Atlus-heads happy, while sporting a fresh enough setting to add variety to the studio’s catalog. (Check out Stephanie's review for a deeper dive into Metaphor.)

Winner: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth 5a6c4m

While we briefly considered giving the award directly to in-world card game Queen’s Blood, the whole of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is worthy of our PlayStation Game of the Year 2024 honor. This excellent return to the world of Square Enix’s most famous game is filled with love and care, meeting (and subverting) the expectations of longtime fans. (But yeah, also, you should definitely check out Queen’s Blood.)

What is your PlayStation Game of the Year 2024? Let us know in the comments!

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