Astro Bot, Balatro, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and More: Gadgets 360's Best Games of 2024
Astro Bot released exclusively on the PS5 on September 6
The Lost Crown revived the Prince of Persia series as a Metroidvania
Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilder inspired by poker
This year was supposed to be a slow year for games, a gap year for major releases before 2025 brought out the big guns. But in hindsight, 2024 has been a bountiful year for video games, with some standout titles on all platforms. From Helldivers 2 and Palworld becoming multiplayer phenomenons, to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Black Myth: Wukong lighting up the action-RPG category, past 12 months have seen excellent launches across genres.
It's been a great year for indie games, too. Balatro, a poker-inspired roguelike deckbuilder developer by a single person, was nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. There were some excellent remakes of older games, as well. Silent Hill 2 and Persona 3 Reload brought back classic games in a contemporary package. There were many great games this year, and since 2024 is winding down, it's time to pick our favourites.
It's also worth noting that there were several acclaimed titles that we didn't get to play this year and are hence not part of this list. These include games like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Metaphor: ReFantazio and more. Our list consists of our favourite picks from the games we did play in 2024. So here are our best video games of 2024 across all platforms (in alphabetical order):
Astro Bot
Sony didn't have any major first-party launches this year, but a few surprise exclusives helped tide the PlayStation parent over during the period. The best of them all came from the most unexpected place. Team Asobi's Astro Bot, a sequel to free-to-play PS5 title Astro's Playroom, arrived like a splash of colour on a dull page. The Nintendo-style family-friendly 3D platformer stands distinct from other PlayStation exclusives in both the way it looks and plays. You play as Astro, the cute robot mascot for PlayStation, faring across the galaxy with his bot buddies, before Nebulax intercepts your PS5-shaped spaceship. The ship crash lands on a strange planet and the bots are scattered and lost across several galaxies.
You're then tasked with collecting all your friends and repairing your ship by finding the missing parts, as you explore over 80 vibrant levels across multiple galaxies. There's easter eggs to be found, special VIP bots to be collected and hidden planets to be discovered. Astro Bot is brimming with PlayStation memorabilia, essentially acting as a museum for the brand and its journey through the ages.
Aside from being a fun collectathon, Astro Bot features colouful levels, each with a distinct theme and flavour. There is a planet made out of confections, another that's designed as a construction site, and one that's a tropical beach paradise. Moving around in these levels using Astro's modest move set is fun and responsive, especially with the excellent haptic feedback on the DualSense controller. The gameplay doesn't feature the depth of some of the other games on this list, but a wide variety of inventive abilities adds freshness to each planet.
With its candy-coloured visuals, creative level design and fun-focussed gameplay, Astro Bot stood out in a year full of excellent action-adventure games, winning four trophies at The Game Awards 2024, including Game of the Year.
Astro Bot Review: Team Asobi's Nintendo-Style Platformer Is an Instant PS5 Classic
Animal Well
Developed by one person, Billy Blasso, Animal Well is an atmospheric Metroidvania platformer that emphasises exploration. There are no tutorials or hints that guide the player through the expanding maze and there is no combat. Players are instead encouraged to be curious and engage with the game's challenges creatively.
Animal Well puts the spotlight on its puzzles as each section of the map requires inventive thinking to progress through. The labyrinthine levels are full of eerie animals that sometimes help the player and other times stand in their way. The game can be disorienting at first, with multiple branching paths and no clear way through. Early sections of the game can feel like you are stumbling around in the dark with arms outstretched, trying to feel your way through. But then your eyes get accustomed to the darkness, and you begin to see the path forward.
While you can stick to the golden path in your playthrough and rush through the main objectives, inquisitive players will find hidden areas and increasingly complex puzzles. Gear items found during the playthrough also become key to unlocking the maze. And beyond its rewarding platforming and puzzle solving, Animal Well's dreamlike visuals and pixel art style bring a surreal, immersive experience that you couldn't find in any other game released in 2024.
Animal Well's intricate maze is full of animals and spirits
Photo Credit: Shared Memory
Balatro
At this point, there's little to be said about Balatro that hasn't already been said. The indie roguelike deckbuilder, also developed by a single person who goes by the psuedonym LocalThunk, became the year's breakout hit on every platform. The game has sold over 3.5 million copies and it's easy to see why. Balatro is deceptively simple, increasingly complex and ridiculously addictive. The goal of the game is to play the best poker hands to defeat blinds — Small, Big and Boss blinds, that escalate difficulty by introducing new challenges.
Each blind includes several rounds of playing your hands until you run out of them or hit the target score. You also get access to special cards that come with buffs to tilt the round in your favour by twisting the rules. As the name would suggest, Joker cards are all-important in Balatro. They come with unique effects that alter rules and consequently can help you hit the score.
Balatro received five nominations at The Game Awards 2024, including Game of the Year. It ended up winning Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Mobile Game categories. It's available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms, and via Apple Arcade subscription. But be warned, downloading Balatro on your phone comes with a risk of getting addicted to its loop.
Balatro is available on PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms
Photo Credit: LocalThunk
Helldivers 2
Who knew shooting some bugs with your friends could be this fun? Helldivers 2 arrived in a saturated multiplayer market, with new live service games struggling to hold on to players. But with its frenetic PvE action, its distinct humour, and excellent visuals, Helldivers 2 has managed to stand out in a field full of imitations and iterations. In Arrowhead Games' third-person shooter, you're recruited as mindless soldier for the fascistic government of Super Earth and thrown into an endless war against Terminids and Automatons. Your aim as a foot soldier for the empire is to listen to orders, kill the targets, and die in service of Super Earth. But instead of playing the militaristic intent and jingoism straight, the game is dripping with biting satire, paying homage to Starship Troopers. Helldivers 2 is constantly making fun of its own premise, bringing a sense of comedic self-awareness that lends itself to the exaggerated objectives.
There's no PvP element to Helldivers 2, and so its PvE battleground lends itself perfectly to collaborative and rallying online matches, even if you're playing with strangers. The action itself is quite epic. You land on overrun outposts on far-flung planets to find them crawling with giant bugs. While you take out the scurrying insects and blow up their nests, you also must complete a set of objectives to gain maximum rewards before you fly out.
To aid your extermination efforts, you get some of the most explosive weapons you'll see in video games. While your start out with standard assault weapons and can call in special weaponry later through your stratagems, your biggest arsenal are the orbital strikes. These strikes are capable of levelling everything that's in front you in over-the-top fashion and serve as blockbuster moments in fast-paced matches.
Helldivers 2 Review: Democracy Done Right
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Prince of Persia is a beloved and storied franchise that had been dormant for a while before Ubisoft Montpellier, makers of the excellent Rayman games, decided to give the series a new direction. The Lost Crown reinvents Prince of Persia as a Metroidvania action-platformer with intense boss fights, intricate level design and tons of puzzles. In The Lost Crown, you play as Sargon, a member of The Immortals, tasked with rescuing the prince, who has been kidnapped and taken to Mount Qaf.
The mountain becomes the maze where the game's branching levels rest. As you explore different parts of Mount Qaf, you meet its residents and villains, you discover its hidden secrets and find buried treasures. Along your way, you take on threats in the form of your environment and the enemies that stand in your path. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown features some of the hardest platforming sections in a game this year that demand precision and patience from players.
And its dynamic combat, that emphasises parrying incoming strikes and hitting back during the right window, keeps escalating the difficulty on a steady curve. The Lost Crown, thus, feels challenging, but never unfair. There are some sections that could end up grinding you down, but the developers ensured these areas remain optional. There have been a few excellent Metroidvanias in the past few years and The Lost Crown borrows bright ideas from each of them but ultimately presents an adventure that remains distinctly Prince of Persia.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review: A Bold New Path for the Prince
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
We've talked about platformers, deckbuilders, action titles and shooters. Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is an action-adventure game, but it's also uncompromisingly focussed on a cinematic vision. The game can only be played in a wide-screen aspect ratio, it features beautiful, near photo-realistic visuals and it is powered by a central performance that can rival some of the best ones in films this year.
As a video game, Senua's Saga isn't offering a lot; It can be finished in about six hours and its gameplay systems are purposely shallow. But the game packs an unsparing amount of detail and care into its narrative and visual presentation, resulting in an immersive experience like no other in the medium in 2024. From its binaural audio that attempts to capture Senua's psychosis in an authentic way to its industry leading facial animations, Senua's Saga is a technical powerhouse.
The game utilises Unreal Engine 5 to present natural landscapes that are evocative. Walking through desolate and jagged hills and Norse ruins helps sell a sense of isolation, reflecting Senua's state. And her determined march forward is reflected in the game's strictly linear levels. There are action-adventure titles that tell an affecting story while bringing a deeper gameplay experience, where players get to define their time with the game in their own ways. But Senua's Saga: Hellblade II aims to create a singular experience that obsessively adheres to the developer's intensions. And that is an admirable approach in a medium that's ever ready to bend to the will of the player.
- REVIEW
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- Good
- Fun, engaging gameplay
- Vibrant visuals
- Rewarding exploration
- Free-flowing level design
- Excellent soundtrack
- Excellent DualSense feedback
- Bad
- Lack of a challenge
- Gameplay lacks depth
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- REVIEW
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- Good
- Fun and engaging gameplay
- Tongue-in-cheek tone
- Explosive weapons
- Simple, effective mission structure
- Diverse environments
- Fair pricing
- Bad
- Server issues
- Jumping into online matches can take time
- Needs more diverse missions
- REVIEW
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- Good
- Excellent world design
- Fast and fun combat
- Challenging platforming
- Engaging boss fights
- Excellent music
- Bad
- Tedious later section
- Unbalanced difficulty spikes
- Uninspired art style
- Prosaic story and characters
- REVIEW
- KEY SPECS
- NEWS
- Good
- Emphasis on narrative, characters
- Industry-defining visuals
- Excellent audio design, music
- Sensitive portrayal of mental health issues
- Cinematic, immersive storytelling
- Bad
- Shallow combat, exploration
- Repetitive gameplay loop
- Performance issues
