Now that we’re on the finish of 2022, I’m taking the time to look again on the 12 months and determine what the theme was — and the way we’ll bear in mind this 12 months in video games when it is long gone.
If you have a look at many websites’ GOTY lists, you will see all of them dominated by Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, however right here on Nintendo Life, we have had a really totally different 12 months. 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’ Switch, and despite the fact that we did not get a full Mario or Zelda launch this 12 months, we acquired a lot of reports about Tears of the Kingdom and the Super Mario Bros. Movie to tide us over.
Personally, I’m extra of an indies gal when it comes right down to it, and this 12 months did not disappoint, even when most of the finest indies on Switch have been ports from earlier years. I prefer to suppose that 2022 might be remembered as a 12 months 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 Switch had a reasonably improbable 12 months for indies.
Still, if I needed to guess what 2022 might be remembered for, I believe I already answered the query: two Pokémon video games, which successfully bookended the 12 months, with Legends: Arceus at first and Scarlet and Violet on the finish. Both have been various levels of janky, however each elevated the sequence to new heights on the identical time, and in a 12 months that was bereft of Mario and Zelda, it is smart that one other one of many large canine would take the highlight.
These two video games, for me a minimum of, 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 so lengthy, the sequence has been about the identical factor with totally different flavours; Arceus and ScarVi lastly dared to take large steps into the good unknown, and regardless of plenty of technical flaws, the sequence is healthier for it.
And riffing off the themes of each of those behemoth Pokémon video games, I suppose I may argue that 2022, 5 years on from Breath of the Wild, was all about freedom. The freedom to roam in ScarVi and Elden Ring, the liberty to discover in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and even the non-linearity of Sonic Frontiers — I believe we’re persevering with to see sport design ripples coming from the large splash that Breath of the Wild made in 2017, and I do not thoughts in any respect. Plenty of video games, AAA particularly, benefitted this 12 months from open worlds, and if studios can proceed to get it proper, video games might be all the higher for it.
But there might be a much bigger, grander theme that I’m 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 Switch than different platforms? And what do you suppose subsequent 12 months might be all about, apart from Zelda? Tell me within the feedback!
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