As the end of the year looms large, it signals the close of our awards season, too. We’ve celebrated this year’s incredible visuals, innovative gameplay, and each platform’s best titles, but someone has to be the winner, sitting atop this remarkable pile like a particularly proud mole. Our winner resoundingly stood out as a celebration of PlayStation, and gaming as a whole, focussing on fun, and evoking a purity of vision that is rarely found in AAA games.
It has been a good year for games, but with so many blockbusting new games and genuine surprises, more incredible remakes than you can shake a stick at, even games backed by hundreds of millions could struggle to stand out from the crowd. Diminutive though they might be, Astro did exactly that.
And with good reason — what started out as effectively a tech demo has blossomed into something that shows off the absolute best of PlayStation. Not only is it an absolute nostalgia fest, but it is an incredibly well-designed game.
The long and short of it is that you are searching the universe for your missing buddies. Each level is a beautiful and moreish platformer, with upbeat music, colourful enemies and all manner of things to keep you entertained and engaged — like the special weapons and items that are key to your success. The level design is both varied and the right level of challenging, with super-hard optional side levels for those looking for sweaty palms.
As we said in our review, where we awarded Astro a very rare 10/10, “Whether you’re an old timer or a young kid with their first console — or better yet, a combination of the two — there are dozens of hours of fun to be mined here. It’s a fun, easy-going romp through PlayStation history, and absolutely impossible to play without a smile plastered to your face.”
Well done Astro, you cute little guy, you are well deserving of TheSixthAxis’s Game of the Year Award for 2024.
– Nic B
Metaphor: ReFantazio – Runner-up
In other years, Metaphor could easily have been the one taking this prize home, but even though it’s been hopped over by the delightful Astro, it stands out as this year’s most immersive and impressive RPG. Coming from the team of developers behind the iconic Persona series, Metaphor: ReFantazio could have just been Persona in fantasy land, but it’s so much more.
The new setting of Euchronia let Studio Zero really flex its creative muscles, giving us a world filled with interesting characters, unique races, and some of the most bonkers enemy designs you’ve ever seen. It’s little surprise that it took home this year’s Best Visual Design award, as it looks absolutely stunning. It takes the ‘living anime’ aesthetic and runs with it, bringing creative and fresh ideas to what can often be a staid and conventional genre.
The story, centred on the crowning of a new monarch following the king’s death, takes a series of unexpected turns and asks question after question about race, religion and the nature of democracy, all of which feel incredibly salient in the present day. Metaphor ReFantazio is a remarkable game, and one which everyone should experience.
Helldivers 2 – Runner-up
Dropping onto the scene amidst a cacophony of patriotic explosions and grandiose orchestral music to fight bugs, bots and (as of a few weeks ago) the brainwashed masses, Helldivers 2 was a smash hit. Even though it’s a sequel and follows a familiar formula and game design ethos for the team at Arrowhead, it rode the wave of modern co-op gaming.
You see, you’re dropping in and facing off against what often feels like impossible odds, only able to even things out with the use of bombastic orbital support – emphasis very much on the ‘bomb’ there – but when that support is invariably danger close and a delightful mix of massively and minimally effective, and being called in willy-nilly by everyone on your team…. let’s just say it’s a good thing you’ve got some spare clones.
Helldivers 2 had some ups and downs through the year, though. Launch was hampered by massive demand on the servers, the early balance updates took things in the wrong direction, and then there was the whole PSN fiasco, but with the most recent update adding a third faction and the balance in a bit of a sweet spot, it’s no wonder that player counts swelled massively once more as people answered the call.
– Stefan L
Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order)
Right, so that’s our pick, but do you agree? What’s your personal GOTY 2024 been?
