ALL OF 2022, RANKED

2022 was a good year and I spent way more than I needed to on games - most of which were mid! But there were still a lot of highlights and fun laughs over vc. My tastes didn't evolve much, but I felt my linguistics and understanding of old favorites maturing.

This is EVERYTHING ranked - plus blurbs for the Top 50.

(Set to 'List' view for best reading of the blurbs, or 'Grid' for best display of overall ranks.)

Excluded replays:
-Dynamite Headdy -Vectorman 1/2 -Star Allies -Time Crisis 3 -Sonic CD -Ninja Gaiden -Knuckles in Sonic 2 -Barney's Hide & Seek Game -Darius MD [Extra] -GG Aleste -Jurassic Park (Arcade) -Warlords -Sonic & Knuckles -Sonic Classic Heroes -Shinobi III

Excluded new plays:
-Super Cream 64 -Radar Mission -Top Pro Golf 2 -Answer These 10 Questions And I'll Tell You What Kind of Lover You Are -Death Crimson -Two Girls Punch Me Repeatedly -Prehistoric Isle 2 -Boxy & Prisma -New 3D Golf Simulation: Harukanaru Augusta -New 3D Golf Simulation: Waialae no Kiseki

(Arcade)
Somehow more exploitative than divine sealing
A cool jetbiker girl rides through the endless sea, eliminating foes while jamming out to jazz-rock. An extremely solid yet overlooked Namco gem - and to me, a shining star of the early MD library.
(Game Gear)
Beat-em-ups, run-and-guns, shmups - all very contextually similar in abstract, and Sunset Riders blends tropes across all 3 for one of Konami's best arcade gigs. Yee-haw.
C-C-C-commando
This artform is truly about weird polygon creatures shooting each other with laser beams for fun. Just as a giggle. A hallway nerf gun fight.
Konami spent 2 decades being beat-em-up's false prophet but I gotta give credit where due: Turtles in Time's SNES port cleans up really well. All those tv-quality sprites finally put to good use in something with impact and a satisfying rhythm.
Shmups as jazz: So much shit on-screen and so many weapon types all set against chill house beats. Masterful contrast and the total peak of the SNES' STG library.

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