A Big Year for Small Games 18 minutes ago

Video games can be big, and video games can be small. Large-scale AAA games were all over the place in 2024: Astro Bot, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Meta’s new Batman: Arkham Shadow game on the Quest 3S and Quest 3. But the games I played through a lot of this year were small. My 2024 has been about indies.

I love indie games and every year a few sweep me up on my phone, the Switch, a VR headset or the Steam Deck. But I didn’t see these games coming. These three new loves of my life have defined my year. While they’re not the only indies worth your time (Animal Well and Thank Goodness You’re Here are also wonderful), Balatro, UFO 50 and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes have captured my soul.

These three games give me hope that the industry, as repetitive as it seems at times, is still full of life. They’re labors of love and they hooked me in very different ways. But somehow, I never wrote about any of them. I’m fixing that now: These are my personal best games of 2024. They’re all on sale right now, but even at their original prices, they’re great deals for their quality.

Balatro: Infinite poker brilliance

When people were raving about Balatro earlier this year, I was curious and bought it for the Switch. It initially didn’t win me over, even though I love poker. This roguelike game challenges you to keep scoring more and more points with poker hands enhanced with various Jokers and other cards that increase the hand values over time and change the game rules in subtle ways. But the whole look of the game was, frankly, sort of ugly. It’s retro, but full of numbers and cards and charts, and I didn’t understand what it really meant.

I started to play, and as I did, I never stopped.

Balatro games are random, but you can evolve tactics. The whole game has a sinister, whimsical air about it, like some retro poker game that filtered in from a haunted dimension. Balatro’s arrival on mobile this fall sealed the deal for me. I’ve gone from playing most days to playing hours every day without end. Someone, please help me, because Balatro has taken over my life.

Am I saying then that you shouldn’t buy Balatro because doing so will wreck your life by gluing you to your phone forever? Excuse me, I can’t answer, it’s time to play another run of Balatro.

Balatro’s rounds are perfectly bite-sized for on-the-go play. The open-ended strategies, unlockable extras and strategy secrets will drive you to Reddit for insights. My only complaint with Balatro is that the cards and text are a little too small for me on most phone screens and even the Switch. Play on an iPad, though, and you’re set for life.

Balatro costs $10 on mobile, or it’s free with an Apple Arcade subscription. On PCs and consoles it’s $15, but it’s on sale right now for $13.

UFO 50: A game compilation from another universe

I pop back in and out of using the Steam Deck, Valve’s excellent PC game-capable Steam-enabled handheld, because I get distracted by games I play everywhere else. One game drew me back to it, though, and made the Steam Deck a system I play on all the time now. That game — that PC-exclusive (for now), mysterious, challenging, overstuffed and miraculous game — is UFO 50.

UFO 50, published by Mossmouth, is a compilation of 50 of the best games made by “UFOSoft,” a game company that never existed, for a game console that also never existed. Launching it feels like starting Atari 50, Sega Genesis Classics or Nintendo’s Virtual Console apps for the NES, SNES or N64. Perfectly retro music plays and a menu of 50 different “classic” games await your discovery. The instructions are sparse and the games are strange, compelling and difficult. But you’ll learn how to play them, and as you learn, you’ll appreciate how fantastic so many of them are.

It’s stunning to me that this one $25 game (less, on sale) includes 50 games: It’s the deal of the year, and nothing else is close. Many of the games are multiplayer, too, something I haven’t even explored since I’m playing by myself on a Steam Deck, but if you have multiple controllers and a dock, or are playing on a PC, go for it.

The genres cover everything from Double Dragon-style beat-em-ups to turn-based strategy to point-and-click adventures to RPGs to platformers to arcade puzzlers. Really, it’s a lot. Many games mix multiple inspirations or genres in new ways. Many of them are games I’d gladly have bought separately, they’re that good. And the lore and design of the games, from the bits you can pick up while playing, even connect the spiritual universe of UFOSoft into a cohesive whole.

If you’ve ever wanted to play a game compilation from a parallel universe full of titles you never knew existed, UFO 50 awaits. I’m amazed that I keep playing, and keep loving the games even more as I play them.

My most played UFO 50 game right now? Magic Garden. My least played? Well, I keep playing all the games, so I’m not sure.

UFO 50 is normally $25, but it’s part of the big Steam Sale at the moment for a little over $21.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: Mystery puzzle book in game form

I love weird worlds and strange puzzles. My house is full of puzzle books like this (I grew up loving Christopher Manson’s Maze), and games like Myst and Riven hypnotized me. Swedish game developer Simogo has been a favorite of mine since the iPad’s early days with games like Device 6 and Year Walk. They felt disturbing and fascinating in the best ways. More recently, Simogo made the excellent Sayonara Wild Hearts. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a return to older forms, though… a sinister, haunted world infused with puzzles. I started playing it over the spring and summer but never made it far. I keep returning to it, though.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes starts at the doorway to a strange house, which you’ll explore soon enough. What to do and what puzzles to solve is a matter of exploration as a story unfolds. It’s as mysterious as the old puzzle books I used to love, and the puzzles are sometimes so difficult that I didn’t even know where to look to understand what the puzzle even was — or which parts of the game were even puzzles. But I found myself figuring things out bit by bit, and giving myself that space to discover answers was so rewarding.

The game is apparently randomized each time you play, and I can’t even say what happens further in. But I want to keep playing.

It’s usually $25, but it does go on sale for less — it’s 25% off right now on Steam.