Game of the year: Jamie’s top 5 PS5, PS4 games of 2022

Our individual Game of the Year articles allow our lovely team of writers to share their personal PS5 and PS4 picks for 2022. Today, it’s retro reviewer Jamie O’Neill’s turn.

I’ve been looking for a surprise comparable to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy since last year, so I considered Need for Speed ​​Unbound in that search as well, but Sonic Frontiers ended up being my favorite gaming surprise of 2022. The open zone structure expanded the paths to verticality, while the game retained elements of traditional 3D Sonic in its cyberspace stages. It reminded me of Shenmue III in 2019, bridging a gap, and allowing life to be pumped into a classic SEGA franchise. While Sonic Frontiers will likely be considered a stepping stone in the development of Sonic games in the future, I was still happy that the Sonic Team succeeded by using creativity and innovation to differentiate the 3D Sonic formula.

The Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Bundle is another exclusive selection of arcade games, but at £32.99 for 32 titles, it retains the same value as the classic-pack Capcom Arcade Stadium. These unique games evoked a more specific sense of nostalgia, as Knights of the Round filled my fantasy melee fix, Echo Fighters provided a brilliantly colorful shampoo, and Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors brought me back to the 1990s. Reminiscent of the Middle Student Union Bar. 2022 had a lot of cool retro collections, but there’s something about Capcom’s pixel art and chiptunes that makes Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium the most homage to my dad’s weekend trips to seaside arcades in Frith Beach, New Brighton and Southport. Makes a suitable method. 1980s and 1990s.

I knew I was going to appreciate the release of the Klonoa Fantasy Reverie series based on how much I enjoyed Klonoa on the PS1 and PS2 in the first place. Sometimes I feel that Klonoa can be dismissed as too cartoonish, but where many games use 2.5D visuals to dynamically rotate background graphics along a 2D gameplay plane — one of these from Cotton Fantasy 2022 For example — Klonoa’s stages are built around 2.5D. Platforms wrap around paths to create tangled platforming routes. This was exemplified in the act of freeing all the inhabitants of Fantomile, as discovering the location of the bubbles, and figuring out how to pop them is cleverly woven into the twisting stage design.

Back in February, it was great to discuss my progress in the Alden Ring with my cousin and my friend, although at times it felt like I played the Alden Ring all wrong, as their Soulsbourne experience ensured that they Proceed in a more efficient manner. At first I ignored Grace’s guidance, so I traveled from Limgrave to Liurnia around its impressive castle, even before entering Stormveil Castle. I also found a way to get myself to Calid, and I spent a lot of time exploring these three areas before I encountered Godric the Grafted. Then again, FromSoftware designed the Elden Ring to be accessed this way, and I’ve enjoyed a similar approach to questing for story progression in games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for a while now.

There was a moment while playing six players online — with the intention of completing Arcade Mode in a two-hour sitting on the hardest Gnarly difficulty, as groups of sprites took over the screen — when I realized that I Just don’t like tribute games. ‘ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, I ranked it as my favorite game of 2022. The trophy is ‘just like the old days!’ And the experience perfectly captured memories of skateboarding around the Southport arcades and marveling at the original TMNT coin-op for the first time in 1989. After that, I’ll also be getting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Kawabunga Collection as a kava-bonus gift this Christmas. .

What do you think of Jamie’s personal Game of the Year picks? Feel free to agree wholeheartedly, or be relentlessly rude in the comments section below.