Sam: Welcome to The Punished Prop Awards, where instead of giving out awards based on genre or “Impact” or whatever, we give them out based on a more bizarre (unique?) set of criteria. Joining me in handing out our personal choices for these awards are David Silbert and Amanda Tien! How we doing today everyone?
Amanda: Hyped to talk about gaming’s highs and lows outside of the standard GOTY ranking! Also slightly dehydrated, over-caffeinated but still tired, the usual.
David: Doing well! Honestly, I’m still catching up on all the great titles (AAA & indie) that came out this year. 2023 looks even more insane, sooooo… yeah let’s buckle the heck up.
How Would You Rate 2022 in Gaming?
Sam: How would we rate this year in terms of game releases? I would say it was better than last year and had a particularly good high end, but not everyone agrees because all the BANGERZ got delayed.
Amanda: Feeling pretty good about it to be honest. My personal gaming goal for 2022 was to play a significant amount of new releases to challenge myself to write an end-of-year/GOTY list that only featured that year releases (which I’ve never done for TPB before). So while yes, less big AAA bangers, I thought it actually gave more time to focus on some pretty great/surprising ones, both small and large, that came out this year.
David: AAA-wise, I’d put 2022 maybe slightly above 2021? You can make a solid argument that Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok eclipsed anything 2021 produced (It Takes Two, Deathloop, Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart).
On the indie front, though, holy shit. 2022 was a heater. Immortality, Neon White, Tunic, Citizen Sleeper… the hits just kept coming. Even now, I’m struggling to keep up with games that snuck in before end of year, like Chained Echoes (a phenomenal little JRPG-inspired indie).
Sam: All great observations! I definitely agree that there were some especially good indies this year, and most people saying 2022 had “nothing” just didn’t try much outside their comfort zone.
What Was the Best 2022 Game You Didn’t Actually Play?
Amanda: womp womp I know I’m in the minority here, but I didn’t truly play Elden Ring. I gave it about 20 hours before I fell off of it. I respect what it did it turns of open world design, but Elden Ring demanded time and patience, neither of which I had a lot of this year.
David: To give you credit, Amanda, 20 hours into Elden Ring is a lot. I’m still making my way through to the finish, and I’m at like… 90 hours? But the first 20 or so hours were def some of the most memorable for me.
Sam wrote a while back about the beauty of picking up something like Elden Ring and putting it down whenever you feel “finished” with it. I like that approach a lot, especially with today’s crazy-af game lengths.
For me, the answer’s pretty cut and dry: God of War Ragnarök. Never finished the first (wasn’t my cup of tea at the time, but I’ve gotta go back to it), so I haven’t even purchased the sequel. I’ll get to it eventually!
Sam: So I’m going in a slightly different direction than the two of you. I’m naming a game that not only I didn’t have time to play, but I’m also not sure I actually want to: Sonic Frontiers!
Conceptually, I like a lot about what I’ve seen. The “open zone” structure, the more involved combat. I’ve read that Frontiers is kind of a mess narratively, gets bland over time, and has tons of bugs, but I like that Sega always tries weird ideas with Sonic games, even if I think most of them turn out poorly. Sonic Frontiers is the ultimate “I’m happy for y’all” game of the year for those who enjoyed it.
What Was the Best “More of the Same” Game?
Amanda: Pokémon Scarlet/Violet for me. Just like… yeah, that’s still Pokémon. No matter how they told themselves it was a revamp, it’s (just) (for better and for worse) Pokémon. Arceus is a diff story.
David: I’ll cheat and give two answers here: OlliOlli World and Horizon Forbidden West. OlliOlli World gets the nod as best “More of the Same” from a completely positive lens. Like, yeah it’s essentially a pretty version of the first two games, with a drop of increased player freedom (a world map, side quests, alternative routes, etc.) but this is one case where I wouldn’t have it any other way. Utter perfection.
Forbidden West gets the best “More of the Same” award in a much more cynical light. Don’t get me wrong: It’s a great game, and I look forward to going back and finishing it ahead of the DLC next year. But this is a case where the game’s open-world structure (and the OW-structure of games at large) is starting to really weigh on me. In 2023, let’s get the heck away from open worlds, shall we? (Except Tears of the Kingdom—you can stay, boo.)
Amanda: Agree with you on open worlds, and I think that aligns to Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, too. The “open world” I think actually holds the game back in many ways.
Sam: I’m going with Splatoon 3, which is easily the best game in the franchise yet not really all that different from its predecessors. Nearly every aspect of the game is an improvement, yet the core experience is almost indistinguishable from Splatoon 2 (besides Tableturf Battle). I don’t think that’s the worst thing in the world, considering so many gamers eat from the Call of Duty trough each year. Still, I think Nintendo has an opportunity to do incredible things with Splatoon, and I hope future releases (or potential spinoffs) take bigger risks.
Amanda: What do you love about the Splatoon series, in one sentence, Sam?
Sam: It’s the only shooter I can think of where killing enemies isn’t actually that important (except in Salmon Run, I guess).
What Game Surprised You the Most (in a Good Way)?
David:Neon White. I remember first seeing the game in a Nintendo Direct, and being immediately drawn to its slick art style and deck-builder/shooter/platformer gameplay.
The final release ended up really blowing me away. The level design feels on par with something out of a Mario game, and while the story and voice acting are cringe at times, the gameplay more than makes up for it. Just a stellar indie and fan of the platformer genre should play. Bonus points for the awesome speedrunning potential.
Amanda: I had no idea what to expect going into Immortality. I hadn’t read anything about it, and only knew that y’all were really amped about it, so I gave it a go one quiet night. It kept surprising and delighting me for hours. It was addicting to play, and after finishing it, the first thing I wanted to do was talk to you guys about it. I don’t think it’s perfect (there’s some social commentary and meta stuff that makes me a little cranky about it) but it was a really special game.
I also thought I would hate Neon White. And to be honest, I don’t think I’m enjoying it enough to finish it, but I was surprised by the immense satisfaction I found in getting a 30-second speed run through a heaven puzzle maze while killing demons and then being willing to do it all over again. It’s one of that games that makes me do a nod of respect. Like, OK. Good for you. It’s not for me, but I love that for other people.
Sam: Despite the massive hype surrounding it, my answer is God of War Ragnarök. I wasn’t as high on the last God of War as everyone else, and I kind of expected Ragnarök to be like an MCU release: solid action, fun time, mostly empty calories. But I genuinely loved the story, the characters, and the more open-ended world design.
My other answer would be Marvel Snap because who the hell expected that game to be SO GOOD?!
Amanda: YES to everything y’all said.
David: Absolutely. Y’all picked my no-brainer follow-up picks. Immortality and Marvel Snap are sensational.
Amanda: Though I was lucky and only really heard about Marvel Snap after David’s review so I went in being like, I bet this is gonna be sick. And then it was.
Sam: The only reason I didn’t pick Immortality was because I genuinely had no idea what to expect.
What 2022 Game Disappointed You the Most?
Amanda: Horizon Forbidden West because of its cowardly approach to its story. I was happy that David’s friend Mark came in hot ranting about the ending. It reminded me of how I joined The Punished Backlog just texting you, Sam, being like “You do video game writing right? Because I NEED to talk to someone about how weak Cyberpunk 2077 is.”
Gameplay, like David said, is generally more of the same. Kill some robot dinosaurs. Make friends. Admire Aloy, etc. etc. But I found the story and writing of Horizon Zero Dawn to be pretty excellent, especially in the Frozen Wilds DLC, so I was coming in ready to be impressed. I felt Forbidden West misstepped an astounding number of times. New characters get introduced with very little investment, and old favorites depart unnecessarily or without the proper fanfare. Some eye-roll third act choices, jumping the shark, etc. Even something as small as audio files, which were utilized impeccably well in Zero Dawn to add emotion and world lore, are just straight-up boring in Forbidden West.
David: Forspoken. It ain’t even out yet and I’m already playing its funeral march.
Jokes aside, I can’t say a game truly disappointed me this year. That’s probably because I’ve been playing a lot of games I had zero expectations for (or knowledge about) going into them. Marvel Snap, Immortality, Citizen Sleeper, Escape Academy… all games I would consider very pleasant surprises. And, of course, the one game I had anticipated this year—Elden Ring—100% delivered on its promises. Forbidden West could’ve been better though, agreed.
Sam: Before getting into mine, I just wanted to say one more thing about Horizon Forbidden West. I think once the twist about the whole world and universe is revealed, everything else kind of falls apart. It’s hard to keep up that story momentum when the truth is already out there.
Amanda: I do think that the first game, Zero Dawn, is counting on you to not totally realize it’s set on Earth in the (perhaps not so distant) future, and using that surprise to shock and propel you forward. It works, for the most part. And I agree, they do it again in Forbidden West and much less successfully.
Sam: For my answer, though, I have to go with A Plague Tale: Requiem. I really liked its predecessor, Innocence, because it succeeded in places where most games of its ilk fail: good combat-less stealth, genuine tension and fear at all times, and children that actually speak and behave like children. It wasn’t perfect, but Innocence felt really interesting and special.
Requiem tries too hard to be like standard AAA games. It wants to be The Last of Us, but is too rough around the edges in its presentation. It wants to be more action-oriented, yet the combat is just… bad. It made sense that Amecia could fend off a soldier or bandit with a slingshot in the first game, but now she’s supposed to take down far more enemies, and the whole concept just falls apart. I bounced off Requiem pretty early, and I’m glad I did.
What 2022 Game Should Developers Learn From?
Sam: Regardless of your actual GOTY, is there a game you hope developers will learn from? Like not necessarily your favorite game, but the game you think should be most influential?
Amanda: I’ve got three: 1) I hope Elden Ring inspires devs to consider how they can bring back curiosity for players, perhaps with an unmarked open world map and no quest-trackers, 2) how well-designed God of War: Ragnarök’s levels are to integrate both main and side quests, and 3) how Pokémon Legends Arceus breathed life into an IP by trying something new and finding joy in the experiment.
David: Love your answers, Amanda! Mine is Pentiment. PUBLISHERS: LET BIG-NAME DEVELOPERS TRY SMALLER THINGS. PLAYERS: REWARD THEM FOR DOING SO.
Sam: I’m also going with Pentiment! Pentiment gets a lot of bonus points for its story and art direction, but I love how it crafts an entire mystery narrative around the idea that you’re not supposed to know if you solved murders correctly, and are forced to witness the long-term consequences of whichever person is found guilty. It adds so much tension to each conversation, so much context to the way the town of Tassing changes, that I hope other developers take note of how to take mystery-solving in new directions. In addition, I loved that different characters have different fonts. It makes the world feel more alive, and each character a little more unique. Do stuff with fonts, cowards!
Best Single Gameplay Mechanic or System?
Sam: The movement controls in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope! In normal tactics games, you select where you want your character to go, then watch them automatically move there. In Sparks of Hope, you see your character’s movement radius and can move freely in that space, which not only makes the game feel more active, but also greatly expands your strategic options. I can, for example, move one character closer to another, let that other character jump off that one to reach higher ground, and then move the first character (not the jumper) somewhere else to make an attack. I thought Kingdom Battle was a cool idea but not fully fleshed out. Sparks of Hope, however, feels like it has more of that classic Nintendo platformer DNA, instead of just being a reskinned XCOM.
Amanda: I think the “investigation” process in Immortality was delightful, even on mobile and even if it made me a little seasick. You’re trying to click on props, background actors, production teams, to discover some answers to a mystery, scrolling back and forth through old footage. There’s this satisfying warbling bell noise that occurs when you’ve found something new, and you’re transported to a new piece of footage, one that may take place twenty years later, with different sets, different color tones, and different stories. And then you’re zooming out, trying to see where it lines up with what you’ve got so far. Trying to remember what you need to come back to. There’s an obsessive quality to it. It felt like what I imagine playing in an orchestra might feel like, a feeling of being in lyrical melody with an other.
David: Mine’s not a particularly novel mechanic, per se; it’s just cool AF. Whenever you wind up a heavy attack when horseback in Elden Ring, your character tends to drag their weapon across the ground. (I say “tends to,” because this only happens when you’re using bigger weapons like swords and axes.) The experience of seeing sparks fly off cobblestones as I’m about to clobber some poor soul in Limgrave is just soooo satisfying. It’s the entire reason I decided to main a sword character (playing with a dagger just wouldn’t have hit the same… literally, LOL).
Worst Good Game of 2022?
David: Horizon Forbidden West for me this year, probably. Enjoyable game, but the fact I dropped it the moment Elden Ring came out is telling.
Amanda: Pokémon Scarlet/Violet I think for me. Playing co-op online with a friend made me shriek with delight. On the other hand, there’s a vacuum cleaner Pokémon now. I hate it.
Sam: Sticking with Pokemon, I’m going with Arceus. I really like that game, especially just catching little monsters and traversing beautiful worlds in a completely new context. But MAN it has a lot of weird design issues, and there are times when the visual performance problems were baffling.
Best Bad Game of 2022?
Sam: My answer is Nintendo Switch Sports. There’s not a lot of content there, it’s not a substantial improvement gameplay-wise from Wii Sports, and the online capabilities don’t really add enough to the experience. But motion-control bowling and tennis are still really fun!
David: High on Life. Haven’t played it yet (I’ve got it queued up on Game Pass), but everything I’ve heard so far suggests it’s terrible but mayyyybe funny for fans of Roiland’s humor (Rick & Morty). Also, it’s got a gun voiced by Tim Robinson (I Think You Should Leave), so I really have to give this one a go.
Sam: Tim Robinson as a gun:
Amanda: I’ll say Stray. I wrote more about this in my Stray review, but I really was not impressed with the “combat” or really the whole third act of the story. But there’s a part in the middle of the game where you’re exploring this robot village and you’re just doing cat things running around neighborhoods and riding in buckets and knocking over books and purring next to robots and it’s just some of the most delightful shit I’ve ever seen in a video game.
Who Was 2022’s Best Animal Buddy?
David: Torrent babyyyy!
Sam: I’ll just say Fenrir from God of War Ragnarök. Not going to spoil anything by saying why!
Amanda: I’ll change it up and say Remy from Disney Dreamlight Valley. His enthusiasm for cooking delicious meals for Mickey Mouse et al is absolutely lovely.
Final Thoughts
Sam: Well, that’s all she wrote, folks. Any closing thoughts?
David: Happy Holidays!! Play Chained Echoes. Go Celtics. 2023 is gonna be lit.
Sam: Happy Holidays! Play Pentiment. Go Knicks. 2023 will be lit until everything gets delayed.
Amanda: Some rapid fire superlative thoughts I have:
Best Bromance: Kratos & Mimir
Best Dressed: cast of Immortality
Best Smile: Melina
Team MVP: “Let Me Solo Her”
Best Hair: Spider-Woman in her Marvel Snap card (or Lady Sif in God of War Ragnarök!)
Most Likely to Succeed: Pikachu
Class President: Aloy
(and yes this was me reading off of high school yearbook superlatives and then trying to remember literally any video game I’ve ever played)
What are some of your picks for these prop awards? Let us know in the comments!
Sam has been playing video games since his earliest years and has been writing about them since 2016. He’s a big fan of Nintendo games and complaining about The Last of Us Part II. You either agree wholeheartedly with his opinions or despise them. There is no in between.A lifelong New Yorker, Sam views gaming as far more than a silly little pastime, and hopes though critical analysis and in-depth reviews to better understand the medium's artistic merit.Twitter: @sam_martinelli.
Most of your picks were good, but I have to heartily disagree with your take on A Plague Tale: Requiem. The initial part of the game is focused on expanding Amicia’s combat abilities, but once you get through that “intro” you can choose to approach the game however you like. Sure you can go in sling a-slinging but more often than not you can get away with full stealth. And the game rewards you for picking a play style and sticking to it. You mention you bounced off the game early and it shows in this take. I feel like you would be well served giving it another go (respectfully).
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Most of your picks were good, but I have to heartily disagree with your take on A Plague Tale: Requiem. The initial part of the game is focused on expanding Amicia’s combat abilities, but once you get through that “intro” you can choose to approach the game however you like. Sure you can go in sling a-slinging but more often than not you can get away with full stealth. And the game rewards you for picking a play style and sticking to it. You mention you bounced off the game early and it shows in this take. I feel like you would be well served giving it another go (respectfully).
Loved it!