The unconscious process of picking one “ plot of the year ” is a journeying tag by second - guessing . Not a December goes by at Digital Trends where we are n’t agonize over our one-year top 10 list . Do we actually loveBaldur ’s Gate 3as much as we think or are we giving in to the pressures of critical consensus ? IsElden Ringa lame class - end pick when we could be lionize something likeImmortalitythat still sticks with us age afterwards ? Are we weighing main games enough in our deliberation ? These are the form of questions that keep us up at night as winter begins .
This year , we were faced with a similar genial puzzle . After 12 month of obsessively tag our GOTY front - runner in detailed spreadsheet , one game was allow for stand : Astro Bot . The delightful platformer had won our hearts thanks to its precise platforming , good - natured mental attitude , and toylike design . It seemed like a no - brainer , but it was still hard to combat that linger doubt as one interrogative still frequent us .
IsAstro Bota “ flabby pick ” ?
It ’s a musical phrase that I could n’t shake up during deliberations , as I perhaps preemptively listen the voice of critics in my head . After all , Astro Botis the most pound - for - pound “ fun ” game of the twelvemonth , but one could argue that it ’s a pure miniature that does n’t have much to say . Perhaps our top pick should have gone to something that reflect back on the real world like1000xResistorDungeons of Hinterberg . If we were honor a work of total amusement this year , why not honor something wholly original likeBalatroorUFO 50 ? Even next to other self-aggrandizing - budget game , doesAstro Bot ’s playful story design push-down store up to the gargantuan grief poem ofFinal Fantasy VII RebirthorMetaphor ReFantazio ’s grand geographic expedition of commonwealth ?
This is the underlying tomfoolery of crowing one game the best in a year . More than any other medium , picture games are splintered when it comes to what they set out to achieve . Some are thoroughgoing entertainment . Others are works of art that use interactivity to express ideas . Then there are your live - Robert William Service game that are more about curating life style for thespian , as well as gacha games that have more in common with cassino than art . Those differences sparked ugly tirade throughout 2024 , as players clashed over philosophies of what the use of a game really is .
Of course , there is no singular answer to that motion — and that ’s the dish of game . Sometimes a TV game is an RPG that explores a character ’s queer indistinguishability through the lens of phantasy . Other time , it ’s gunning down waves of Tyranids and forgetting all about it 10 minutes after powering down your PlayStation . Both of those experiences are n’t just valid ; they ’re connected . The one thing that unite just about every video recording game , no matter how far aside they are in their intent , is curiosity . The joyfulness of turn on a game always comes back to the medium ’s inherent gaiety . It ’s that magic second where the screen first ignite up and you see a new world for the first clock time . That ’s the enduring tycoon ofSuper Mario Bros. , a game whose eternal charm come from the simple witching trick of pressing the A release and watching Mario jump onscreen .
It ’s with that in mind that I descend back toAstro Bot , the elementary little platformer that so well acquire players over back in September . There ’s no gimmick or innovation that make it special ; it ’s simply the tightest 3D platformer of the past decade . Its movement is elegant enough to support aheated speedrun fashion , its levels are intricate toy that reward histrion who stop to prod every street corner , and it features a wealth of nostalgic callbacks to PlayStation story . It ’s an archetypical genre game powered by good - natured fun and a wealthiness of collectable . So what ’s the magnanimous deal ?
It ’s hard to convey an answer in Word of God , but you ’ll belike feel it the first import you thumb the Dualsense joystick forward . There is a magic in Astro Bot that is so easy to take for grant in a modern landscape painting flooded with game . It ’s too prosperous to become numb to the joys of interactivity , as you yawn through a spectacularBlack Myth : Wukongboss competitiveness . Throughout the year , I take heed empty slang like “ slop ” or “ mid ” liberally thrown around to trace fastidiously craft works of interactional media . I ’m sure I used them myself to write offStellar BladeorConcordin cursory conversation .
That brand of unaffected cynicism never cross my mind during my 15 blissful hours withAstro Bot . I played each of its lovingly designed platforming level with a grin plaster across my face , and experienced the kind of wide - eyed pleasure I have n’t felt since playingCrash Bandicootfor the first clip as a kid . I was eager to toy around with each new power - up , blasting through a column of tail end with my bulldog rocket pack just to learn them all scatter just as I ’d so curiously try out the refinement ofSuper Mario Bros. 3 ’s Gaul cause growing up . Each push button pat feel like a little miracle , the kind I now take for granted day by day .
Astro Bottaps into something primal .
It was only once I ended my playthrough and returned to the real worldly concern that I began doubting my gut response . The few weeks afterAstro Bot ’s spillage launched a debate about its part as a Sony product , full of case cameo from now - dead franchise that only survive to prop up up the PlayStation brand . How were these cute lilliputian mention any different from sporty Funko pop built to monetize fandom ? These werefair ethnical review article , single that keep nagging at me as our squad bring onAstro Botas our Game of the Year . Had we been too well duped by a plot built to fiddle with our serotonin through easy nostalgia ?
Again , none of these existential questions count the 2nd I pick up that restrainer again . When I am playingAstro Bot , I ’m fully lose inside its charming Earth . I ’m not playing itsexcellent Ape Escape leveland guess about IP . I am a kid again who has to the full let my gumption of oddment take the reins . The world of Astro is warm and receive , whereas the actual world is so often frigid and clinical . Each play session transports me back to a dissimilar place where I joyously played games as a kid , free from the nemesis of the net and its ceaseless discussion . I ’m in the back room of my grandparents ’ summer rest home playingSpyro the Dragon . I ’m in my puerility friend ’s cellar playingSuper Mario All - Stars . I ’m in my own business firm playingPikminon Christmas Day . These are the berth where I still believed video games were miracles .
Astro Bottaps into something primal . In a time where freehanded - budget video games keep getting larger and more complex , it pass over back into gaming ’s primordial soup . There , it rediscovers that simple pleasure of a medium so loaded down by the unacceptable demands of profit , countless unsustainable tech ambition , and constant rage from those who like plain about game more than flirt them : agitate a button , make a guy jump .
Sometimes it ’s as simple as that .
