Collage by Aurich Lawson
Before we get on to the list, don’t miss this year’s Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes. You can win part of nearly $2,000 in prizes, including limited-edition gaming collectibles, all while helping out a good cause. Entries are due by January 3, 2023, and there’s no purchase necessary. Thanks in advance for your entry!
2022 was a bit of a weird year for video games. For a start, quite possibly the most anticipated game of the year came out in March, well ahead of the usual holiday season rush of releases. But that holiday rush was itself muted this year, thanks to delays of big-name franchises from Diablo to Starfield to The Legend of Zelda.
That’s led some commentators to call 2022 a “slow year” for a games industry still recovering from the development chaos of COVID. And it’s true; we did have some collective trouble getting to our usual selection of 20 games for this year’s best games list, a possible sign that there were fewer “obvious” picks than usual.
Looking over the selections that did make the 2022 list, though, it’s hard to feel like the collective industry has let us down in any way. The relative lack of big-budget blockbusters allowed plenty of independent games a chance to shine, including those that made this list on the strength of brave new ideas in gameplay or storytelling. All told, the games listed below will stick with us for a long time and speak highly of the game industry’s continuing creativity and resilience.
This year we chose to list our gaming picks in alphabetical order, with a single “Game of the Year” pick at the end. Here they are.
Atari 50: the Anniversary Celebration
Digital Eclipse; Windows, Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series, Atari VCS
It’s rare for a compilation of retro games to be considered for Ars’ annual Game of the Year list. It’s unprecedented for such a game to actually win one of our coveted spots. But Atari 50 does a couple of crucial things to separate itself from the countless classic game emulation collections that have proliferated over the years.
Enlarge / A fast-paced take on Atari’s Lunar Lander, as seen in Vctr Sctr.
The first is an intense focus on supplementary materials. Atari 50 is packed with video interviews, design documents, contemporaneous advertisements, trivia, quotes, and more. It all gives crucial context to Atari’s 50-year history, and makes even the least playable games in the collection more interesting from a historical perspective. The “timeline” presentation is also top-notch, making the entire product feel more like an interactive museum than a simple collection of old titles.
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Atari 50 also shines in its half-dozen “reimagined” versions of a few Atari classics. These feature updated graphics, sound, and gameplay that takes advantage of decades of advances in game design and technology, giving old concepts fresh life for a new audience. While these offerings aren’t all winners, the addictive action of Vctr Sctr alone is enough to warm the heart of any old-school arcade game fan.
-Kyle Orland
Cult of the Lamb
Massive Monster; Windows, Mac, Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series
Here’s a weird statement: There aren’t enough cult simulators out there. …….