Now that we’re on the finish of 2022, I am taking the time to look again on the yr and determine what the theme was — and the way we’ll bear in mind this yr in video games when it is gone.
In the event you have a look at many websites’ GOTY lists, you may see all of them dominated by Elden Ring and God of Conflict Ragnarok, however right here on Nintendo Life, we have had a really totally different yr. Two Pokémon video games, a brand new 3D Kirby, Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope stored the exclusives and first-party fires burning on the ol’ Change, and despite the fact that we did not get a full Mario or Zelda launch this yr, we bought a lot of reports about Tears of the Kingdom and the Tremendous Mario Bros. Film to tide us over.
Personally, I am extra of an indies gal when it comes all the way down to it, and this yr did not disappoint, even when lots of the finest indies on Change have been ports from earlier years. I prefer to suppose that 2022 can be remembered as a yr of weird-but-beautiful narrative-angled video games that defy style, like Neon White, Cult of the Lamb, Citizen Sleeper, and Card Shark, and even when we did not get different video games in the identical class — Immortality, Pentiment, and Case of the Golden Idol come to thoughts — I nonetheless suppose the Change had a fairly incredible yr for indies.
Nonetheless, if I needed to guess what 2022 can be remembered for, I feel I already answered the query: two Pokémon video games, which successfully bookended the yr, with Legends: Arceus initially and Scarlet and Violet on the finish. Each have been various levels of janky, however each elevated the collection to new heights on the similar time, and in a yr that was bereft of Mario and Zelda, it is sensible that one other one of many massive canine would take the highlight.
These two video games, for me at the very least, have been an actual coming house second — the primary time in a very long time that I’ve really needed to play a Pokémon sport to completion. For thus lengthy, the collection has been about the identical factor with totally different flavours; Arceus and ScarVi lastly dared to take massive steps into the good unknown, and regardless of loads of technical flaws, the collection is healthier for it.
And riffing off the themes of each of those behemoth Pokémon video games, I suppose I might argue that 2022, 5 years on from Breath of the Wild, was all about freedom. The liberty to roam in ScarVi and Elden Ring, the liberty to discover in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and even the non-linearity of Sonic Frontiers — I feel we’re persevering with to see sport design ripples coming from the big splash that Breath of the Wild made in 2017, and I do not thoughts in any respect. Numerous video games, AAA particularly, benefitted this yr from open worlds, and if studios can proceed to get it proper, video games can be all the higher for it.
However there may very well be an even bigger, grander theme that I am simply not seeing, and so I flip to you, pretty readers. What do you suppose would be the “theme” of 2022? Is it totally different on Change than different platforms? And what do you suppose subsequent yr can be all about, aside from Zelda? Inform me within the feedback!