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.
Move over Solitaire, there’s a new card game in town, Balatro is the little indie card game that came from absolutely nowhere.
Conceptually, it’s simple. You’re dealt a hand of cards and the aim is to create poker hands, like straights and flushes, using them. However, as you begin to recognise the joker cards are imbued with a strange kind of magic, things begin to take a curious turn as high scores, combos, and antes get well and truly out of hand.
The game is moreish and hard to put down like a good roguelike should be, and I’ve lost several nights to its allure without making any ground at all. And that’s the beauty of it, although you can absolutely rack up calculator-breaking scores and rake in more chips than could be counted, Balatro is simple fun even for modest players.
In a further effort to devastate productivity, Balatro has also made its way to iOS and Android. Dopamine is dealt out as rapidly as the cards themselves, Balatro truly is a game that I can’t fold.
I’m all in.
In our review, Kieron scored Balatro a 9.5 out of 10 stating:
“Balatro is one of those deceptively-approachable ideas that will absolutely consume you the more you start to puzzle out its secrets and intricacies. It somehow makes playing the same game over and over feel completely fresh in possibility each time, and doles out just enough new ideas and just the right amount of intoxicating feedback to keep you thinking “one more game” well into the AM.”
On the review aggregator Metacritic, Balatro is resting at an average of 90.
Congratulations to LocalThunk for earning a place in our top ten of 2024.
Game of the Year 2024
#10 – Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
#9 – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
#8 – Helldivers 2
#7 – Animal Well
#6 – Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
#5 – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
#4 – Metaphor: ReFantazio
#3 – Silent Hill 2
#2 – Balatro
