We somehow reached the end of June already, and that means it’s time for one of my regular annual features, where we look at some of the movers and shakers I’ve covered in the regular Weekly Spotlight features here every Sunday, and see how the Retro Arcadia Game of the Year 2024 Top Ten Countdown is currently shaping up! Before we get to that though, I want to go back to January, and another regular annual feature where we look ahead to everything we know is coming over the next twelve months to make some Game of the Year Predictions. Now, I’m not going to go through everything there, but if you do fancy seeing a load of trailers and a bit of commentary on each game I liked the look of at that point, do go back and click that link you just went past! Otherwise, I want to quickly mention the couple of games that have already released but are missing in action from my current top ten. The first is innocent enough – I just haven’t got to Tekken 8 yet, but nothing I’ve seen so far has put me off in the slightest, so hopefully I’ll get there before the end of the year! The one game I won’t get to – having really tried to like its demo too – is Contra: Operation Galuga, which admittedly I didn’t have great expectations for in that predictions feature anyway, but I found both the presentation and the run and gun gameplay a bit flat. Shame. Anyway, enough moaning about what’s not here because all of that means there’s more room for great stuff I didn’t necessarily see coming, which is even better, so let’s run down my current top ten games of the year, as they stand at the end of June 2024…

10. A Little to the Left (Xbox Series X)

This appeared on Game Pass out of the blue around the start of the year and not only seemed like a playful bit of absent-minded indie puzzling but immediately appealed to my sense of tidiness too! It’s a hundred-plus levels (and a daily challenge) of sorting, stacking and organising various household items, and even in spite of the occasional interruption by a mischievous cat, it couldn’t be more relaxing! There’s no direction as you start each diverse new level but working out the puzzle is part of the puzzle, whether it’s putting different sized detergent bottles into a neat arrangement, finding a coherent pattern in the wavy lines scribbled on a pile of Post-it notes, or simply moving cooking ingredients into a pleasing order on a shelf. The sound effects are lovely, the music soothing and the graphics varied and stylish, connected by a shared pastel simplicity. All very pleasant!

9. Rainbow Cotton HD Remake (Nintendo Switch)

While Cotton definitely sits in my top ten game series, if I were to do a top ten Cotton games then unfortunately the Sega Dreamcast original of this one from 2000 would struggle because as lovely as it all looks and sounds and moves, it’s always played like crap! We’re talking 3D cute ‘em up, where as usual, the witch Cotton and her bikini-clad fairy sidekick Silk have been called upon to rescue the magical Willow candy from the latest demon to have stolen it and plunged the world into darkness. It plays more or less on-rails, across five very spruced-up stages that do still vary from a bit sparse to spectacular but are mostly full of cartoon vibrancy, character-filled monsters, huge bosses with some brilliant special effects, and the top-notch job on the soundtrack you expect from a decent Cotton game… And it finally is decent, thanks to a rebuilt magic-aiming system that actually makes where you’re shooting and what’s shooting back visible from behind your big, witchy sprite on her super-animated broomstick! The overall package is a bit barebones but the game itself is a good ‘un at last!

8. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Xbox Series X)

I was a big fan of the dark humour behind the Munch Bunch cuteness of the original Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, a dungeon-crawling, puzzle-adventure thingy that made this very interim top ten back in 2022. It’s evolved into more of a roguelike this time out, with you repeatedly robbing a bank, inevitably getting inundated once the alarms go off, then trying to get out with the cash you’ve already grabbed and using it to buy what you need to get further into the bank on your next run, which will get you more cash for more of what you need and so on. This ranges from regular bank-robber gear like explosives to blow safes, to special boots to walk through toxic waste further into the increasingly less bank-like depths, with loads of wacky guards to fight, even more wacky NPC quests to pick up, and disturbing bosses to take down. It’s fast-paced, has familiarly polished cartoon presentation and familiar but different gameplay all at once. And I love it! Top stuff from Game Pass again.

7. Mushroom Soup (ZX Spectrum)

As well as simply enjoying putting these things together throughout the year, this mid-year countdown also gives me the opportunity to showcase games that realistically might not make the cut by December after the usual pre-Christmas flurry, although with Mushroom Soup on the 128K Spectrum, I’m not so sure that’s the case! You play a hungry goblin who’s ventured into the nearby caves to collect mushrooms on each of the game’s platform-filled screens while avoiding the nasties that like to gather there, with the twist being he can’t jump so has to rely on timing and hiding instead! And that, in turn, means some really clever level designs that need some proper puzzling out to progress through. They look the part too, with superb use of colour and thoughtfully animated sprites that are full of character, helped on by some distinctive sound effects and a nice tune in the background. And all from a first-time dev! It’s short but very sweet and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

6. Hauntii (Xbox Series X)

More from Game Pass, and a weird mix of relaxed twin-stick shooter, a bit of puzzling and an almost 3D Mario-like exploration vibe, as you take your new-dead ghost on a surreal journey of self-discovery! Progress mostly involves possessing stuff you encounter along the way to extend your abilities, like a supernatural lamppost to light the demon-filled darkness for just long enough to dash through it unscathed. It gets way more wacky though, from furniture to insects to fairground rides, as you gradually reveal this bizarre new world and your place in it, and except for a couple of places where the challenge seems cheap and for the sake of it, it’s a good time too, but not as good as the outrageously good artwork! I believe it’s called pointillism, using tiny dots of glowing colour (although mostly monochrome) to create isometric imagery that borders on optical illusion, especially when things zoom out to reveal these huge, living vistas around you! It’s amazing, and the music behind it is no slouch either, possibly resulting in a bit more style than substance but when it’s this stylish, it will struggle to be anything else!

5. Cash Cow DX (PC)

As a big fan of Donut Dodo, I was all over the demo for its new stablemate, Cash Cow DX, when it arrived during this year’s Steam Next Fest, then I won a copy of the full game almost immediately after! Once again, it’s an eighties-inspired arcade-platformer, where this time you play Cash Cow, who’s had all her money nicked by Pig Pockets and needs to make it through five multi-screen levels (plus bonus stages and a few secrets) to grab it all back. Imagine playing Sonic the Hedgehog inside Bubble Bobble and you’re not too far off, with non-stop, pixel-perfect leaps demanding fast-paced precision, and when you’re dead you’re dead with no continues allowed, but you don’t need them because even if you never got off the first screen you’d keep playing regardless! The pixel-art style is joyful modern-retro, full of character and colour, and the refined chiptune soundtrack couldn’t be better suited. Fantastic time, whether 2024 or 1984!

4. MLB The Show 24 (Xbox Series X)

At some point I expect I’ll get tired of minimal updates and new modes I’ll never play and stop including these things here but as I’m only a year or so into my new-found passion (or borderline obsession!) for baseball then I reckon it deserves its place. And what the hell, I’ve had a great time with it so far, and I played it every day until I decided that meant it needed deleting, and it launched straight onto Game Pass to boot! Same as last year, it’s like playing a game you’re watching on telly, as long as you don’t look too close because there’s still minor details like grass and player faces that seem a bit last-gen, although the players have never moved better. The ball hasn’t either, with a more authentic flow to the game, and what is now exquisitely refined pitching, fielding and batting. And with tons of regular and narrative-based modes, even more gameplay and presentation options, live rosters and stats, and dynamic difficulty, it’s as deep as you want it to be, which isn’t very for me but I love it all the same!

3. Skald: Against the Black Priory (PC)

This is like a new take on Ultima with a Lovecraftian narrative, introduced right in the thick of mutinous, monstrous action leading to your shipwreck on an island full of unimaginable mysteries, unnameable horrors and, if you’re lucky, some clues on the whereabouts of the missing childhood friend that brought you there. It moves at pace in a pretty linear fashion, although there’s decisions to make, branching paths to take, things to do on the side and a huge variety of characters you can create, with the usual high-fantasy classes and sub-classes, all of which have all sorts of specialities that can be levelled-up, as well as more folk you can add to your party as you go. Tentacled, oozing horrors aside, it’s all familiar swords and sorcery stuff, with the turn-based combat and other interactions subject to on-screen dice rolls, and lots of inventory, attributes and skills to manage to your nerdy heart’s content on easy-to-use menu screens. The overall presentation is great, with relatively simple but detailed and carefully-lit modern pixel-art supplemented by the mass of gorgeously illustrated static scenes that are so full of character and atmosphere and really add immersion, as do the crunchy sound effects and the surprisingly rich soundtrack. Overall it’s a joy to play – especially if you have nostalgia for such things!

2. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (Xbox Series X)

I enjoyed the first game well enough but this is something else, taking you on the most stunning, most cinematic journey through brutal Viking landscapes and oppressive folklore, that’s emotionally-charged and almost physically draining from the outset. In fact, it’s so cinematic that there are times you won’t notice you’re not even in control anymore, and this is particularly effective during combat – which remains responsive while on the simple side – bringing a realism to its ebb and flow, on top of seeming even more violent, as you hack into real people rather than hellish representations of them, although it’s not always quite so grounded! That goes for the returning environmental puzzles and eerily clever hallucination sequences too, and while you’re occasionally encouraged off the wonderfully weather-beaten track, its mostly a methodically scripted seven or so hours as Senua and her relentless psychosis (best experienced with headphones!) refuse to break a promise despite immediate, unexpected and absolutely hopeless adversity. And it’s so good-looking (highlighted by the prominent photo-mode), with incredible lighting and weather effects, and those crashing waves on such realistic coastlines… It’s all intrinsic to the wider storytelling too, together with as-good-as-it-gets facial animation and general characterisation. No HUD or anything else to distract you anywhere either, not unlike something like Ico or Journey, which also goes for the overall package, and while it’s not on that level, nothing really is, and it’s a great bit of Game Pass action while it lasts all the same.

1. Botany Manor (Xbox Series X)

Who’d have thought shoving a seed in a pot and watching it grow could be quite so exhilarating! This laid-back, English country garden walking simulator is just a joy, putting you in the shoes of a retired 19th century botanist, exploring the house and gardens of an idyllic stately home that’s filled with botanical research, which you need to piece together by finding clues and using them to puzzle out how to create the ideal environment to grow various types of forgotten flora, also learning more about your character and her place there as you go. New plants appear by chapter, naturally expanding your immediate surroundings, and once you’ve worked out what to do from what you’ve seen and read in each new, self-contained area, you then plant the seed and set up everything you’ve learnt to get it to germinate and reveal itself. I don’t want to spoil too much but maybe a certain plant thrives in a thunderstorm, so you need to try and recreate one, which then involves putting certain equipment together and finding missing parts to make it work, which then need to be assembled from specific components you’ll also need to learn how to create. It gets very clever, and a real thrill as you piece things together, and doing so is so intuitive, even as the clues start to mount up! To look at, it veers between painterly realism and vibrant, colour-splashed minimalism, like one of those old rail travel posters from the 1920s, and the chirping bird and walking around an old house sounds, interspersed with occasional, gentle, folky music, couldn’t be more atmospheric. Just a lovely, leisurely few hours, and good old Game Pass again too!

I’ve had such a good time with all those games that it will be a shame for any of them to drop out for new stuff that’s still on the way for the rest of the year, albeit a nice shame! Hopefully I’m talking at least some of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Night Slashers Remake, Citizen Sleeper 2, UFO 50, Clock Tower: Rewind, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Star Wars Outlaws, Baimason’s Thing Finder Puzzle, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, NULLPTR and who knows, maybe even a bit more Hollow Knight! We live in eternal hope for that one but before we finish, I also want to give a special shoutout to Return to Grace, which arrived on consoles (including Xbox Game Pass where I played it) a few months ago but did also get a full PC release last year, which left me in a quandary about whether or not to include it here! The thing is, it was probably going to top the list, so on the basis I was questioning its inclusion, I decided I shouldn’t because I’d never be comfortable doing so! Anyway, it’s an unthreatening, first-person, retro-futuristic sci-fi walking simulator with a well-voiced and increasingly compelling story in an often gorgeous, sixties-inspired but far-distant setting, and was a wonderful three hours I’ll definitely be enjoying again sometime!

A couple more shoutouts… Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, which wasn’t just the first Star Wars FPS when it first arrived in 1995 but had plenty to offer the emerging genre as well, and while you can’t remaster ancient jank or being a bit sparse, the same applies to fun, and it all looks a lot better to boot! Then there’s Go Mecha Ball, a wild mix of isometric twin-stick shooter, roguelike progression and heavy metal pinball physics, and that was actually the first game I wrote down on this list when it came to Game Pass at the start of the year. And while it’s not quite a full game, I also want to mention the Dune Expansion for Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X, where you fly the dragonfly-inspired helicopter thing on a bunch of missions across the desert planet Arrakis was a fantastic few hours, and it was free, and it was worth every penny! As was Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, which will take some beating as my favourite compilation this year. Good times indeed, and hopefully plenty more still to come, so that’s it for our halfway-house countdown but I hope you’ll join me again the week before Christmas and we’ll see how everything turned out!

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