It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2024.
As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded a maximum of 10 points and the values would descend to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.
After Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom dominated every single top ten list with relative ease in the last half a decade, Echoes of Wisdom perhaps had more to prove. It’s the series’ first attempt at casting Zelda herself as the lead, it appeared to regress back to a more kiddish art direction, and it largely stripped away the combat we know, replacing it with a quasi-puzzler formula that ties into the game’s key feature being the echoes themselves.
We’re grateful, of course, that not one of these design choices missed and Echoes of Wisdom proved to be a darling, novel take on a franchise that had already been many things.
While taking a more straightforward, top-down approach to The Legend of Zelda, which we’ve seen before, the game offers players so much creative freedom in both combat and problem-solving through the echoes. It’s hard to put Echoes of Wisdom down, as it throws new echoes at you at an astounding clip that warrants experimentation within its cute, yet still sprawling overworld.
I do think it’s a shame Nintendo felt the need to include something like Sword Fighter mode, which effectively transforms Zelda into Link for a short burst because it suggests her clever twist on offense and defense can’t stand up without placing a sword and shield in her hand when I believe it truly can. In fact, it outshines it.
Buy The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on Amazon
In our review, James B. scored The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom a 9.5 out of 10 stating:
“The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom elegantly bridges old and new Zelda with grace and gusto. The Echoes system is inventive, the dungeon designs are strong and the whole experience feels like everything a classic Zelda experience should be. While minor performance issues hold Echoes of Wisdom back from being everything it could be, they’re only minor blemishes on an otherwise stellar adventure fit for a princess.”
On the review aggregator Metacritic, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is resting at an average of 85.
Congratulations to Nintendo for earning a place in our top ten for 2024.
Game of the Year 2024
#10 – Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
#9 – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
