All photos included are official content. Warning: minor spoilers ahead for each of the games discussed.
1: Pokémon Legends: Arceus
These last few weeks I’ve been playing the just-released Pokémon Scarlet, but my year started with its predecessor, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which came out all the way back in late January. Before then, I had emulated dabbled in older Pokémon games, but I had never really played one all the way through earnestly, and Legends: Arceus was the perfect opportunity to try a newer entry on release.
The major changes this game made to what I understand as the age-old Pokémon formula were, in my opinion, all extremely beneficial. The game being open world made the progression through the story much more flexible, and therefore more digestible, and the various travel mount forms worked smoothly to increase your relative freedom over the course of the game. Going from running to riding to swimming t
o climbing to flying felt like it opened up the huge map at the perfect pace, and sidetracking the plot to catch dozens of new Pokémon never felt disruptive, which is pretty important for a game about catching a bunch of little creatures.
The standout feature of this game for me compared to other Pokémon titles, including the new one, was the aesthetics. Arceus does not have the depth of content that some of the others have, but it does have gameplay, music, and visuals that match each other well and evoke something unique. The design of the pokéballs and the available clothing options, the village theme that develops as you expand that village, even the look of the menus, all work together in a very pleasant way to make the game surprisingly cozy.
If you’re curious about trying a Pokémon game, or if you’ve finished Scarlet/Violet and are looking for more, Legends: Arceus is a great place to start.
2: Monster Hunter Rise
A little later in the year, I began playing Monster Hunter Rise for the second time, when its expansion—Sunbreak—released in late March. I had played through a decent amount of the base game when it first came out in 2021, but it wasn’t until my repeat playthrough that I felt like I really got it. My understanding is that this is pretty typical for a Monster Hunter game.
Part of what characterizes the Monster Hunter franchise is a pretty huge barrier to entry in the form of: a deep and difficult combat system, a nearly endless slew of menus and tutorials, and a unique gameplay loop that feels unforgiving and tedious if you haven’t gotten a handle on the latter two elements. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for it to take a few tries to finally get hooked.
The premise of a Monster Hunter game is actually pretty straightforward. Hunt a monster, harvest the drops, turn them into better weapons and armor, then hunt a more difficult monster. But realistically, you often spend more time preparing for a hunt—gathering resources, crafting new gear, training pets, sorting inventory, eating meals, 
practicing your moveset—than you spend on the hunt itself. And, unsurprisingly in hindsight, finding the satisfaction in this part of the process, rather than rushing through it to get back to the action, is the key to enjoying a Monster Hunter game, Rise included.
It’s a dense experience, it frontloads a ton of information, and the learning curve is frustratingly steep. But if you can push through all that, pace yourself with the mechanics, learn a little bit at a time, and revel in the spectacle of the monsters, there is a rich, deeply satisfying game on the other end of it.
Plus it’s got palicos.
3: Ooblets
During the summer, I picked up Ooblets, the first of three indie games on this list, and an adorable little farming/collecting sim that came out for Nintendo Switch this year.
Like Pokémon, it has you collecting adorable little creatures and battling others with them, except it’s dance-battling. And like Stardew Valley, it has you running a little farm next to a shoddy cabin in a small town, except the main thing you’re growing on your farm is the little creatures.
Needless to say, the titular ooblets themselves are extremely adorable, which is reason enough to play. But what really pulls this game together is the characters. The townspeople that serve as your neighbors throughout your time in Badgetown are charming, diverse, and always have something funny to say, whether you’re running around soliciting them for treabies during Halloween, or just doing the rounds in town to become better friends with everyone and earn that next friendship sticker.
Ooblets has everything you need in a cozy game: an endlessly pleasant atmosphere, a myriad of tasks to accomplish, and a plot just interesting enough to motivate you while still letting you enjoy the journey as you go.
4: Tunic
Despite looking like a simple, Zelda-style adventure on the surface, Tunic turns out to have a real depth that I couldn’t have predicted. It drops you into this polygonal, isometric world along with little introduction at all, some eerie ambient music, and a stick with which to defend yourself, and by the time you have a handle on the movement, you start to realize that this is much more than just another straightforward narrative RPG. 
The combat portions are often challenging but not unfair, and exploration throughout the map feels natural. But what drew me in the most was the puzzle design; the world of Tunic is absolutely riddled with secrets, and much of the time you discover them in places you’ve already been, hiding in plain sight and waiting for you to get a key piece of information or direction that tells you what to look for. The visual style, music, and subtle storytelling work together for a profoundly nostalgic, mysterious tone that demands your curiosity, and it delivers on that curiosity more than you can possibly predict.
There’s not much else in this game I can discuss here in depth, because discovery is much of what makes Tunic so special. But suffice it to say that I picked up this game expecting a somewhat difficult combat-focused game, and I came away from it having had one of the most inexplicably fulfilling gaming experiences I can remember.
5: Hades
Hades is the only game on this list that didn’t actually release/come to Switch this year at all. It came out in 2018, and was ported to Switch in 2020, but at the recommendation of multiple people I finally gave it a chance, and I am so glad I did.
The core of this game is an extremely well-polished loop of satisfying roguelike combat, built on the premise of you, the son of the god Hades, trying to escape from the Greek mythological hell of Tartarus itself. Fighting the many monsters that stand in your way is not only a little different every time—which is the intent of a roguelike—but it is also 
extremely satisfying and responsive, in a way that I haven’t personally experienced since the heyday of Diablo III.
That core gameplay alone has an unprecedented level of quality for an indie title. But what surprised me about this game was all the elements that aren’t essential; at least, not to a typical roguelike. There is a genuinely compelling narrative—complete with dynamic characters and interesting subplots—that develops gradually, giving you just a few pieces of information at a time whenever you finish an escape attempt. There is an ever-expanding catalogue of cosmetic improvements to make the home base area (the very deepest depths of hell) more customized and comfortable, adding flavor and personalization to the place where you spend the most time. And there is a staggering amount of fully-voiced, well-performed dialogue for all of the characters, all of which is responsive not only to previous interactions with those characters but also to actions and accomplishments in the main gameplay. All of these mechanics in combination with each other create a world that truly feels like it is affected by your choices as a player.
Hades boasts literally hundreds of hours of replayability: not by way of repeat playthroughs but just in the process of earning all the available rewards, most of which unlock new aspects to your escape attempts, and in exploring the immense gameplay variety provided by those aspects. It took me a while to get around to this award-winning game, but I’m confident it is just as good in 2022 as it was when it first debuted.
Philip Rienstra (‘21) majored in writing and music and has plans to pursue a career in publishing. They are a recovering music snob, a fruit juice enthusiast, and a big fan of the enneagram. They’re currently living in St. Paul with their spouse, Heidi.
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I’ve wanted to try Tunic for a while, so I’ll take this post as a cosmic nudge. But the actual reason I’m popping in here is to echo you: Hades is incredible.
Pumped for the sequel!
Me too! The timing really worked out for that announcement!
Fun fact: Tunic was published by a company in Grand Rapids called Finji. Crazy that such a popular game is just around the corner.
Oh I didn’t know that!