It’s tough to pick favorites (don’t tell my cats, they both think they’re special. And they are), but the end of the year is a good time for a little bit of retrospection on what made us happier these past twelve months. There’s no need to dwell on any unpleasant particulars here, but we all know that each of us has a story they don’t want to get into over a holiday biscuit. 2024 was a year that needed some happiness and a sense of escape to somewhere more peaceful than (she gestures vaguely) whatever this all was.
Best Games of 2024: Margaret’s Choice
Video games are just one method of escape, as I’ve gone on about before, and when one clicks, it’s like the ugly parts of life wash away for a bit. There are always classics that come back into the rotation when needed, from starting a new farm on Stardew Valley to jumping into a beloved action game that’s a bit beyond the scope of our cosy corner here (let’s just say it’s 1999 there). But there are also the new comfy homes and games that hit just right just when we needed them. I’m here to talk about a few of my new favorites this year, and hopefully, one or two of them will be your favorite, too.
Go-Go Town!
I was already happy to review Go-Go Town! for Ladiesgamers when its Early Access became open to everyone who wanted a little more of what the team behind Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles could come up with. A pleasant city-builder with a goofy-corny skin and a ton of imaginative guests, I enjoyed a hearty chunk of time with it before giving it my thumbs up. Then I set it aside for a while to focus on new games, during which time it received a couple of major updates, massively increasing the amount of silliness and detail-orientated building you could get up to.
Go-Go Town! is now somewhere between street-level Cities: Skylines, The Sims, and a Kairosoft game, touched by Prideful Sloth’s familiar goofballs. The fuzzy Groffles return… along with alien visitors and nighttime werewolves, because why not? It’s the exact sort of game I can constantly restart or home in on for dozens of hours in one play-through, reorganizing my residential neighborhood (complete with my new personal hovel, which currently has one bed and a roll of toilet paper to symbolize my ADHD rat mind) until I realize I messed something up and now I gotta redo this whole corner. It’s already even more great fun, and it’s still early access. Keep it up, Slothies. You’re doing great.
Horticular
Bought on a whim when I read someone describing it as the closest thing to Viva Piñata we’ve had in years, I think I played it for most of a day before I volunteered Horticular for a review here. If you’re looking for that pastel-colorful silliness of Viva Piñata, we’re still hunting, unfortunately. But if you want a customizable, beautiful, pure-pixel life sim (that’s hiding a few Keebler Elf jokes) that hits a lot of those same notes, welcome home to Horticular.
Recent upgrades have smoothed over a few funky things, like how easy it was to make your animal residents unhappy with their neighbor critters, but the core of the game is the same as on launch. The world is your garden, now go primp it back up. Beautification tools, garden upgrades, and defences against the annoying-but-mostly-just-that incursions of some fun-hating Nemesis are all doled out at a good pace, just enough to refresh things without breaking you out of your zen of figuring out how to lure the owls in. For me, it’s another game where I can simply zone out and build the way I want to. It’s been a tough year, and this game has definitely helped.
Everafter Falls
Everafter Falls isn’t the most visually attractive life sim, clocking in with an aesthetic that’s somewhere between RimWorld and some older Flash games. Still, there is a ridiculous amount of charm waiting to be found. I was drawn in by the silly meta premise — of course you just returned to the Falls after living a full life playing life sims in an alternate world. I love meta-fiction in all things, for whatever reason. But the rest of the game is a nice mix of familiar and bizarre, and it’s full of plenty of things to do.
I genuinely think this game has the best museum arrangement of most post-Stardew life sims. It’s not as much fun to visit as Blathers’ sprawling public facility, but turning in new finds hits my serotonin hard. Other systems, from the fairies to the random daily quests, might not be as intuitive or fun, but there’s a much greater sense of being able to keep your own pace here without pressure. That’s a big thing when you’re already going through enough. Bonus: your pet isn’t just absolutely bizarre; they’re incredibly useful. I love my weird muppet dog thing.
Core Keeper
I bought Core Keeper in early 2024, just a couple of updates before the 1.0 finished release in August. Available on early access before that, I didn’t really mess with it much until its fated day dropped. What I played I liked; I love the idea of Minecraft and Terraria, with their flexible base building, collections, and open play, but their aesthetics and actual gameplay do nothing for me. Bright, pixelated, and with plenty to do and collect (plus having a somewhat more chill difficulty level available), I was content to buy Core Keeper, let it mellow in my Steam Deck loadout, and see how it turned out.
It is currently saving my December. My latest base is a little clunky, but the addition of magical and summoner skills, plus the graphical upgrades, the oddly gorgeous caves (why does this lighting engine go so hard?), and the improved handling of all your little building tables have me hyper focusing my way towards Christmas. It’s what I wanted from Terraria in particular: all the home customization with none of the platforming.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete
So maybe it’s a bit of a dodge to say Pocket Camp is a 2024 game, having become a one-purchase ‘remaster’ of a years-long live service game. And yet, this completed rerelease is exactly what the game — and a lot of AC fans — needed to make it a full entry into the franchise. While a few timers still exist, mostly in a similar fashion to its console cousins (tree fruits and furniture construction), it’s become a perfect game for small bursts of decorating, friend-making, and collecting goodies on the go.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp isn’t great for long sessions; at that point, the cracks begin to show, and you’ll be reminded that this isn’t your long-term home. But it succeeds perfectly as a sleepaway camp, now deluged with the leaf tokens you need and packs of snacks to woo your fellow campers to focus on what’s really fun here: expanding and designing the fudge out of the multiple locations handed to you to doll up. Without the bulk of even a handheld console, it’s a perfect game for when you need to hide from your family in the bathroom for a few minutes or have to try and relax in a waiting room for a little longer than that.
Final Holiday Thoughts
I’m looking forward to lots more in 2025, from finally picking up Fields of Mistria after another update or two, to the return (hopefully) of Fantasy Life. But until then, and even afterwards, the games I’ve talked about here are ones I think will carry on with me for a good while; games I’ll return to or restart when I know they’ll hit something I need to help get me through another patch of (she gestures vaguely) whatever this all is.
It’s been a good year for cozy games of all kinds, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch new and returning independent creators do their best to create good times in between a lot of high-powered, expensive action games that don’t always hit the right notes. As this year ends, we’ve got champagne and comfy games to help us greet the new one. And if the next year starts showing sass, well, heck. At least we’ve got our valleys, falls, cores, and fields (plus so many more) to escape to. Bless them all for that. To them — and you — may you have a happy new year.
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