Metro Video Game Awards GameCentrals Best of the Year 2024GameCentralPublished December 30, 2024 1:00am The Plucky Squire pretty but not a particularly good game (Devolver Digital)The best graphics of the year, the best soundtrack, and remake of the year are part of GameCentrals mini-awards, along with Worst Game of 2024.Our list of the Top 20 games of 2024 honours what we consider to be the best video games of the year but sometimes titles can have elements that are worthy of high praise, even though the overall game doesnt necessarily work on every level.We wouldnt unconditionally recommend the games weve named as having the best visuals and best music, and our innovation of the year award goes to a title that only just made our Top 20, but theres no doubting that, at least in some respects, theyre very accomplished games.Our worst game of the year is the only one without any redeeming features but its always useful to warn about that too, especially when its a licensed game.Best VisualsThe Plucky SquireIts very common for the best visuals of the year to not belong to a particularly good game. Ever since gaming began, amazing graphics have been used to compensate for mediocre gameplay and were afraid to say thats definitely true for The Plucky Squire.Its not a bad game but its attempt to combine Zelda style 2D visuals with the ability to walk around in a modern 3D world is much more interesting for how it looks than how it plays. Its a shame, because the game has lots of other great ideas too, such as making the storybook you play in a physical object you can move around to change the game world, but unfortunately it never evolves beyond a neat visual gimmick.Runner-up: Black Myth: WukongBest InnovationThe Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom2024 has been a little short on big new ideas, although we were very impressed by how well Batman: Arkham Shadows nailed its VR controls and how the puzzles in Arranger work. The most enjoyable and inventive idea of the year though was Echoes Of Wisdom, the spin-off Zelda game where you finally get to play as Zelda herself.It wasnt a perfect game, but it did revolve around an entirely new concept where Zelda is able to clone any object whether living or inanimate and create new copies indefinitely. This is used to solve puzzles and engage in combat and while the game doesnt exploit the possibilities to their full potential thats what makes the concept so exciting that its not a one shot gimmick and theres more that can be done with it in the future.Runner-up: Arranger: A Role-Puzzling AdventureFormat of the year The old reliable comes through again (Valve)PCThis is the hardest award to give out this year, since no format has really excelled beyond any of its competitors, although interestingly none of them have embarrassed themselves either. The Xboxs line-up didnt fulfil its early potential but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Indiana Jones both impressed. The Switchs 2024 releases were also clearly all second stringers but only Princess Peach: Showtime! was a real letdown.And while were still disappointed by much of what Sony did this year, we have to admit that they did have some great third party exclusives this year, including Silent Hill 2, Stellar Blade, and our game of the year Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. On balance though we gave the prize to the PC, as not only are most of the best games of the year available on the format but many of the indie titles are exclusive to it at least for now.Runner-up: PlayStation 5Remake of the yearSilent Hill 2Youll be shocked to find that Sonys farcical remake of Until Dawn wasnt in contention for this award. Instead, it was a fairly easy win for Silent Hill 2, which is not something you wouldve guessed at the beginning of the year. There was very little faith in the remake amongst fans, including us, but as soon as we got to play it, it was clear what a good job Bloober Team had done; not just recreating the original with modern graphics and controls but adding to and enhancing the game with new areas, new puzzles, and additional story elements that fit in seamlessly.Silent Hill has always been a very different franchise to Resident Evil but now both horror legends have got excellent remakes for their most famous entries.Runner-up: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year DoorBest MusicKunitsu-Gami: Path Of The GoddessAnother game we didnt particularly like but where one element clearly stood out as exceptional. The action strategy gameplay in Path Of The Goddess was very undercooked but the soundtrack is fantastic, not least because of how varied it is. Therere multiple jazz tracks that are amongst the best weve heard in games for years, but theres also everything from traditional Japanese music to modern electronica.Most of the boss battles in the game are a chore but theyre greatly enchanced by the superb music, enough to have us play them more than once just to listen to it again in situ. Thats when you know youve got a great soundtrack. Capcom doesnt seem to have made any great effort to promote it separately, but it is on Spotify and we strongly recommend giving it a listen.Runner-up: Final Fantasy 7 RebirthBest StorytellingMetaphor: ReFantazioThey say launching a new IP is difficult but the trick to making a successful one seems pretty straightforward: ensure its good. Metaphor: ReFantazio owes an obvious debt to sister series Persona, especially in terms of the visuals and combat, but its in terms of the plot and characters that it really distinguishes itself.Despite its peculiar set-up, with an election in a fantasy world that has just lost its king, it manages to deal with a lot of serious subjects, from discrimination to populism, without ever getting too specific with its allegories. Its more than enough to make the point though and by coincidence, given how long ago the game was started, it manages to seem very topical as a result.The human (and otherwise) stories are compelling too, as the game neatly avoids being too serious and still has time to be a fun Japanese role-player with outrageous boss battles.Runner-up: 1000xResistWorst gameStranger Things VRMore TrendingSometimes we dont like giving out this award, when it feels like youre just kicking a game when its already down. But other times its a useful second warning that something is not what its pretending to be.More often than not the worst game of the year is a licensed title and so it was this year, with this dreadful VR game that is barely interactive, utilises ugly cel-shades graphics that make it look nothing like the show, and has little in the way of story. When the only thing a Stranger Things game gets right is the music you know things arent going well.Runner-up: SlitterheadEmailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy