Mike's Best Games of 2022

hey everybody this is Mike with the One Stop Co-op shop with my last big top list of the Year this is the top 20 games of 2022. uh this time I am doing a list of games that were just released this year unlike my usual thing where I kind of matched together everything I had covered on the channel I played over 30 entirely new games this year and by the way what I'm calling new was a bit of a mix like some games you know delivered to Kickstarter backers at the end of December or the very beginning of January at the end of November so I tried to like go by the dates I could find and make it as accurate as possible and if you like the content on the One Stop Co-op shop consider supporting us through patreon to get early access to our videos and exclusive videos every month you can check out my worst games of the year list if you're uh inclined to go on the negative side you can also watch our separate streaming channel for even more great content every week we also have a podcast you can listen to or you can come join the conversation with us on our Discord but let's go and look at which games soared to the top for me in my top 20.

so starting us out at number 20 is Mythic Mischief this is a competitor additive game 1v1 although I think there's like a 2v2 mode you can play with uh double boards for the game but it also has a solo mode that I did a playthrough of and honestly I like the competitive mode more than the solo mode there's basically like a little tactical game you have these varied factions that like hugely vary the game still very straightforward to learn but you're trying to move your little figures around and trying to get this uh Tome keeper the big darker figure there you see to run over your enemies uh figures and not your own and get victory points that way and the solo mode works kind of similarly they have a pretty straightforward AI you also like all these little event cards that'll affect you you can see ahead of time which event cards might hit you and what the probability is so there's a nice tactical game again I do think the competitive mode is the best way to play and it's not like super varied or amazing but I've enjoyed it playing with my family and playing solo as well that's Mythic Mischief at number 20.

then at number 19 we've got one I covered really recently this is John company second edition and this again is a competitive game with a solo mode the solo mode is very complicated I'm super impressed the Ricky Royal designed this one I'm super impressed with what Ricky achieved in creating a really good solo negotiation game where you use like these little cubes to kind of control the ai's ability like giving them cubes to get favors and taking cubes when you do nice things to them I think that's genius and the game itself is like a nice mix of Randomness and it's got all these interesting things with different roles you're jocking for control over it is a heavier than I kind of prefer for my games it is longer than I prefer and unfortunately my main gaming group my heaviest gaming group the only one that would really play this competitively with me didn't really like it that much but uh even though it's only number 19 for me I still think it's a crowning achievement of design especially that solo mode and the way they model negotiation I think is awesome so you know I don't think it's going to hit my table very often but I really really respect the design but it is my number 19 for the Year John company second edition then at number 18 I've got another pretty big pretty long game although very different this is the defense of pro Scion three this is again a competitive game for up to four players uh playing on two teams teams against each other you've got like aliens kind of attacking these humans both on a planet and in a big space battle and I really like the faction asymmetry here I really like how the space battle and the Ground Battle kind of tie into each other I thought that was all very exciting but this is another one that uh it's pretty much impossible for me to find players for the competitive mode I did like the solo and co-op mode but you always play as the humans you can never play as the aliens and there are some rough spots in the uh bot they've like already had to fix a few things including something that I called out in the video I'm showing uh that they had to like kind of address a problem with but I still enjoy it a lot I think it's a really good design but again just not one that I expect to hit my table very often but really respect what the team did here so that's the defense of pro Scion three my number 18.

then at number 17 I've got battle Crest which is from button shy games this is an 18 card 1v1 fighting game and it does have an official solo mode if you buy one of the expansions for it that works pretty well uh one thing I did not like is that the solo mode they they totally ignore range they can just attack you no matter where they are so I actually designed my own little solo variant that fixes that one problem I personally have with the game it's not really a problem it works fine but yeah this one is cool um it doesn't have the the depth or the Tactical decisions or the character variety that's something like exceed or battlecon or Sakura arms or like some of my favorite 1v1 fighting games do but it is ridiculous again kind of like I said about John company and other games just like what they achieved with the design here and the the characters are very different you know again they're not like ridiculously different but they are very different the battlefield is cool it looks like they're going to be adding more content and making the game very modular so that's very exciting so there's a lot to like here and if you don't want to go all in on one of the other battle games I mentioned they cost a lot more and take a lot longer to play this is an amazing one in a small package for a small price and again if you want to try my solo variant I think it just makes things a bit more interesting with range but battlecrest my number 17 really cool game for a ridiculous value the number 16 I have one that I just covered recently partially because I wanted to get it on this list and that is Lands of gal's year this is a solo or cooperative or competitive if you want to although I don't know why you would want to um Adventure game where you're just wandering around this board very sandbox style you can kind of like go and have Adventures wherever you like it's uh app based where you have like this narrative stuff you're reading with the app and it leads you down little skill checks and things and I think the writing of this game is beautiful the stories are very Charming the core dice resolution system is incredibly simple and straightforward and quick to resolve my one big knock about it as I said in my review recently is that it is uh so open-ended doesn't really have like any clear ending doesn't really like force you into objectives and I want a bit more hand-holding and linearity in my stories but people who don't care about that are going to love this one and I still enjoyed it quite a bit myself this is Lands of galzier my number 16.

then at number 15 I have stars of Aquarius this is a big sprawling sci-fi campaign Adventure game uh partially based on Gloom Haven but with kind of its own like uh positioning base combat system with dice X activation and it also has Planet exploration and sort of like Choose Your Own Adventure elements I really like the combat of this game I think it's very fast and Punchy and fun and the Tactical positioning is interesting I sometimes like the story elements my biggest problem with this one is that it's too ambitious and too big and the campaign goes on longer than I think it should but I feel the same way about glue Maven so uh for people who love epic uh sci-fi adventure games this one is a blast and I still had a lot of fun with it but uh it was a little bit too tough to get through to go higher than my number 15 of the year that's stars of Aquarius then at number 14 is another one I covered recently this is lanzarath Ridge a solo only war game the latest in the Valiant Defender series from my friend David Thompson and this is a very fun very tense very challenging game with a lot of incredible tactical decisions and like really exciting uh dice based combat uh is it the best in the valley Defender series I'm not sure I still might give that to Castle itter just because it is the most streamlined but this one has some of the most interesting tactical gameplay I love the the machine gun system especially you know like all of these they're based on uh strict kind of historical scenarios so they don't have as much varieties I would like that's what kind of keeps them from being like in my top 10 games of all time but this is a super solid one even if you don't like war game this is uh straightforward enough and uh great enough for solo play that I think non-wargamers might enjoy it so lanzarath Ridge my number 14.

then for 13 another somewhat recent one this is frost Punk this is a big solo and Cooperative a survival game where you are trying to get resources in all these different scenarios to keep your people heated to keep them from dying of sickness building buildings and making these tough moral choices you know these very interesting kind of like ethical dilemmas I think this game is really good if you like a sort of worker placement uh survival games or if you like kind of like optimization engine building up games I think this one is great it is very long it is very big to get to the table it takes a long time to set up um and it is very challenging and it's kind of demoralizing sometimes it is certainly a harsh kind of moral like tone you are living in in the world which of course matches the post-apocalyptic setting but yeah this one is not always going to be something I want to put on my table but when I do I know I'm going to have a challenging but fun time this is frostpunk my number 13.

then number 12 I've got a boss battler this is townsfolk Tessa we'll have at least one more boss battle on the list I can promise you uh this is a not quite one-off one but it's not a huge campaign game like most boss Battlers uh this one has up to four scenarios in a row you're fighting different bosses on a grid based map and you've got like these different terrain things that can affect them and then you have this little village phase in between where you level up your characters and have different events and yeah this one um it's not my favorite boss battler I do enjoy it still though it can be a little bit too random sometimes you can like lose turns which isn't always fun uh sometimes the leveling up is very random and you don't get like the cool combos but the fast play the fact that it's not a giant campaign the great Variety in the bosses the cool way to do the final scenarios where like each boss has their own unique one and you unlock stuff and all these interesting things I find all that really good so if you want a boss battle you can actually like finish in a night and then play something else the next week uh Townsville tussle is certainly the one that you have to beat here this is my number 12.

then finally my number 11 just outside of the top 10 is familiar Tales this is a solo and Cooperative Adventure game with a little bit of deck building and I barely call it deck building it's more like deck modification because you do it so infrequently but uh this is a narrative Adventure where some animals are protecting a little girl and uh guiding her along You Move Along on these uh book maps and I always love those the deck base play is pretty interesting the big knock against the game and I mentioned this in my review is that the way they try to allow for lower players really is kind of terrible especially for Pure solo uh two players not quite as bad but because it takes away the uniqueness of each character so if you're gonna play this one I would either say divide up the full four characters between the players or just play it four-handed for solo and if you can do that it's not like the deepest deck builder it's not the deepest Adventure game but the narrative the like way the app with the voice acting tells really compelling almost like Disney like story The Great Adventure you have I think is a lot of fun so familiar Tales just outside the top 10 at my number 11 spots and then finally the first game in the actual top 10 is Uprising curse of the last emperor there's a solo and Cooperative 4X game not too many of those especially in the Fantasy Realm and I think it's really cool uh yeah so this is another sprawling one how many giant huge sprawling kickstarters uh and crowdfunding games in general do we cover this year uh this one has really cool uh diverse factions again the fact that it's a solo and Co-op for X is really neat although I sometimes wish there were a little bit more options for like cooperating with each other it's still pretty interesting uh the combat system is incredibly swingy but also very exciting so that could uh be a good or bad thing based on your taste I like how the map comes out it is so challenging like the big bosses like the leaders from both of the enemy factions coming out are such a a bear to face off and beat sometimes but that adds to the desperate and exciting play of the game do I wish it was half as long as it is yeah I kind of do but still Uprising curse of the last emperor is an excellent game and it's earned its spot and my number 10.

dead on my number nine is Sakura Arms This cell was recently ported in a new edition by level 99 games it's usually from Japan this is a 1v1 battler a card base where you mash together two uh decks from two different goddesses with different like capabilities which is already super cool like the different combinations of characters you can create is really interesting and then there's this very tense kind of uh exacting use of these Sakura tokens the little Lotus pedals you see uh because they like determine it range they determine how much armor you have they determine how much fuel you have to use your special abilities it's a great 1v1 battler it's a little bit too strict so I still think I might prefer exceed and battlecon over it but it's a great game and the reason it's on the list even though it's only competitive is that I designed what I think is a really good solo mode for it I'm proud of all my level 99 solo modes and it's unofficial but I think it works really well so yeah a Sakura arm is a cool game it's got I think a cool solo mode and definitely another great fighting competitive game that I look forward to playing for hopefully years to come my number nine soccer arms then at number eight the first chip Theory Game on the list although there will be another is burn cycle this is a solo and Cooperative uh stealth game where you're trying to sneak your robots using this interesting like little kind of programming mechanic with actions into this building and I love the stealth here I know some people on our Discord that have different preferences for stealth didn't enjoy as much as I did but for me it feels like a really good kind of recreation of sort of great stealth games in video games or stealth mechanics and yeah I just really enjoy this one the mission variety is great the robot variety is good I do wish I kind of liking too many bones that they sort of rebalance the way you uh get your character's powers that they would always be worth doing and you would always have as much uniqueness as possible but that's a minor gripe I really enjoy this one I mean chip theory is pretty much never missing for me these days and again just the Stealth gameplay is so cool I really love it so that is burn cycle my number eight and then man I never thought this game would climb as high as it did but this is my number seven resist another one from my friend David Thompson uh and sorry there were two designers on this one and yeah this is a card based solo only kind of like Survival game you're basically going on these little missions with different enemies on them and you have this hand of cards and in a really cool mechanic there's sort of like a reverse deck builder at times because you're using your cards to defeat these missions to defeat the enemies but if you use their stronger revealed side on the right that card is called from your deck and it becomes tougher and tougher to survive the missions so it's really got like some great like push your luck aspects some great uh tactical play and combos between the card Powers just such a delicious quick easy to play easy to table amazing solo game I've also played it like cooperatively with my son just like kind of taking turns making decisions hard not to recommend this one more this is resist my number seven and then just outside the top five at number six is Paint The Roses this is a Cooperative only no solo uh Cooperative deduction game where you and the other players are putting down little tiles on the board trying to match these different objective cards you have and you're giving Clues every player simultaneously one of the things I love everyone's always involved every player gives a Clues as these tiles are placed and yeah this one has just been a huge hit for my family especially ever since I covered the Prototype uh famously I said in my video that my kids were sad when I had to send it away so I was very happy to get the new version there was an expansion that kicks things up in a ridiculous way sort of in complexity and I'll be honest we never use it so I would definitely recommend people buying the game just get the base game first and see if that's enough for you because it definitely is enough for us but I love Cooperative deduction you know there have been other ones of those on my top list this year and this one is a great one I think it'll be a family favorite for a long time that is Paint The Roses my number six for the year and then ship theory is back on my number five a spot hopla Marcus victorum which I know is just starting to deliver to uh some people I got to play it a lot earlier uh this is a solo Lee campaign based sort of Adventure tactical game where like the original haplo you're fighting on these different battle maps and uh one of the great things I love is building your squad up I always love that kind of thing in games it always reminds me of XCOM but yeah build your squad up and fighting these varied battles my one big knock against the game that keeps it uh at number five instead of maybe even like my number one or two spot is that it just takes a really long time to get through the whole campaign like I did it a few times for my review to make sure I had covered everything but it's it's really intimidating for me to like think about getting at the whole game and be able to dig through the entire thing again which is why I think whenever remastered delivers which is like the one-off play version I think that might actually hit my table more I'm not sure yet we'll see I still really love Apple Market victorum the Tactical battles are just so good and the variety in them like the different battlefields and different enemies I love it and there's like giant uh you know Scion battles at the end and it's really really great but again uh it's a little bit tougher to get on the table consistently with my schedule at least if you just have of a table dedicated to like play this thing for like a week straight go to it you will have the best time ever hop on Mac is Victoria my number five and at number four I've got ISS Vanguard dang awaken Realms between my top crowdfunding a list of this you did really well this year this is a solo and Cooperative again big campaign game but this one's more focused on exploration instead of combat and uh you're like switching between kind of moving around the Galaxy and managing your ship with like this binder and then going on to planets similar to kind of unsettled another game that was high on my list this year and uh exploring them and having these unique encounters and I will say like the mechanics in this one aren't always the best like the card play the dice doesn't always grab me sometimes managing your ship can feel like a chore so why is this my number four because oh my gosh the story and the exploration and kind of the sense of adventure and mystery this one grabbed me and would not let go and also like the kind of ship Management in the x-com as I mentioned before like style of like Tech uh upgrades and like getting these different cool abilities and equipment for your people yeah this game like really just grabbed my heart and pulled it I still haven't finished yet and I really want to I was letting Peter borrow it and I haven't gotten it back yet but ISS Vanguard one of the most exciting adventure games I played this year and definitely deserves to be in my number four spot engaging my number three spot whoa I just covered this and it's already up here that's why I had to get the video in now is this call to the new is heat pedal to the metal being my number three game just be like being a little bit sillier it's possible but here's the thing actually the more I play this the more I think maybe this should be my number two maybe this should be my number one game of the year I thought that would be too crazy after only having it for a couple of weeks whereas most of these games have been playing for months and months but yeah this is uh one of the best racing games I've ever played my previous top racing game was rally man and I do have to see because I went all in on the rally man dirt Kickstarter so I have to see when that delivers which is pretty soon I think um you know if uh if he seems better than it or worse than it but I'm very happy to own both of them at the moment but this one definitely beats out like formula D for me beats out snow Tails except my other favorite racing games the card play the tension the super lightning fast AI like yes I had a few gripes about it in the review but still just the fact that it's so quick to play both to fill out a competitive game um or to play a solo game is just amazing this is definitely the smoothest solo racer I've ever played by far which already kind of kicks it up for me see I love this one it might uh in the wash like when I'm thinking about these games like six months later it might end up being my number one game of the year but for now I wasn't comfortable putting it any higher than three that is heat pedal to the middle and then almost done my number two game of the year and I apologize because I know this one is like impossible to find I don't know if they're gonna print any more copies but this is Isla and something shiny so this is a narrative Adventure game although narrative like they don't really have much writing it's all pretty much told through pictures and I'll be honest one of the things I love most about it is that it has a sort of paleo-ish pale is one of my favorite games the Paleo mechanic where cards are like getting taken out of the deck or cycled through the deck but then you go through those cards again in the day so like things are slowly changing but the way they use that to build this really amazing narrative story and the ending uh yeah the final ending I think some people might not like it I'm not going to spoil anything but it definitely hit me in a very emotional way the most emotional game experience I've had this year which certainly did a lot for me for the game uh my children adored it I played it through with both my seven-year-old and my ten-year-old the entire thing I love this game it was almost my number one and again it sucks that it's so hard to find like you might have to trade for a copy or buy a used one or something but if you can if you like narrative games you like sort of Choose Your Own Adventure stuff if you like paleo I think you will love this one this is Isla and something shiny my number two which means what's my number one well this actually was not almost my number one like heat was fighting it ILO is fighting it ISS was fighting like all of my top five any of them could kind of be shuffled around a bit but this is oath swarm and yeah so this is a big boss battler mixed with a epic like kind of narrative section although you can skim through that and why'd I put this one here the narrative is great the World building is great the story they're trying to tell the like only I have slight complaints about the game like none of the games on my list this year are perfect the character leveling up is not quite what I would like and there's like some fiddliness with like items and how you lose them and gain them but they aren't really that different but the actual like play of the cards I think is great to be like a little cooldown system they have the variety and the character classes the excellent way they have simpler characters so you can have like your kids run them that's what I did or you can have like one main character and three supporting characters which makes solo so much easier than any of these other games I think is this excellent the boss variety is great the combats are so exciting The Narrative is awesome the voice acting the like app so many great things here and my the previous problems I have with the game is that the campaign is super long it's a huge game and they have gigantic minis because they sent me review happy with the minis so like all those actually make it tougher to get to my table and I do I've left it at Peter's house because we're playing gonna play through the campaign so uh yeah it's an unwieldy game it's not necessarily like 100 to my taste but I fully love the design the tactics here it's just such an awesome game and I think for anybody who does like uh Campaign games I mean you've seen this on a lot of people's like topless already so you know they're loving it if you do like big Campaign games and again you have more time for them than I do I can't imagine this not being a complete winner for you I certainly was completely captured by it my number one of the Year congratulations it's you oh sworn so there you go that's my last big top video of the Year hope you enjoyed it let me know in the comments what your favorite games of the year are I might still do a shelf life this month we'll see if I have time for it but either way great time spending 2022 with you all such amazing games this year was really a great collection good gaming everybody and I'll see you at the next stop