Every New Game Announcement from the 2024 Game Awards, Ranked
Because I can't not rank things
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The Game Awards! Like the Oscars for video games, if new movie trailers were the reason anyone watched the Oscars. Can you imagine Dame Helen Mirren winning for Shazam 2, and she’s thanking God and her acting teachers for helping get where she is today, but the moment she’s off-stage, a new trailer of Godzilla X Kong III: The Reckoning makes us forget she was ever there? Hollywood, for all its faults, would probably never commit to such shameless product placement.
But the gaming industry pretends to not care, and the Game Awards watch numbers show why. In 2023, the show received 118 million streams, which is, like, 10x what the Oscars gets these days.
Let’s face it, most of those watching the Game Awards – and I hate to write this, but we all know it’s true – are not there to watch talented actors, developers, writers, and directors receive awards for their hard work. They’re watching to see the latest Witcher 4 or GTA VI trailer or the occasional random celebrity treat video games like they’re more than an afterthought. Like when Keanu strolled out on stage to plug Cyberpunk 2077. Or, in 2024’s case, an 82-year-old Harrison Ford (who was probably paid handsomely to be there) announcing Best Performance alongside Bethesda’s Todd Howard and Troy Baker.
Yeah, I don’t care about the Game Awards, but I do like ranking things that the Internet seems to care about. Hence the following list, where I rank every new game announcement from the 2024 Game Awards. I’m only ranking games that were announced for the first time last night, not previously announced games that received their first trailers. Still, Geoff Keighley and co. presented 19 never-before-seen games last night, which seems like a lot to me! Most of us who have disposable income to purchase these upcoming games will be lucky to play 1 or 2 a year.
Nevertheless! I shall rank these 19 titles from Least Interested to Most Interested. As per all Internet standards and bylaws, feel free to tell me why my thoughts and opinions are trash (respectively) in the comments below.
Enough intro blather. Let’s do this!
#19 – STEEL PAWS
The latest Yu Suzuki title, soon to be released by Netflix Games. A brief 30-second anime-heavy trailer reveals very little, although the press release says, “In Steel Paws, embark on an adventure alongside Buddy Robots to conquer a mysterious tower that reappears every century. Master your abilities and upgrade your buddies to uncover new enemies, rewards, and endless ways to play. Steel Paws comes exclusively to Netflix in 2025.”
If Yu Suzuki’s name wasn’t on this, I wonder if Steel Paws would have gotten a Game Awards announcement at all. Hang-On, OutRun, Virtua Fighter, Shenmue, Suzuki’s a legend, which is why I don’t want his career to end with Steel Paws. The super-short trailer doesn’t reveal gameplay nor does it hint at why we should care. Also, it’s only for mobile at the moment, which makes me think all the bad things. Someone give Suzuki-san some money to make Shenmue 4 and let him retire with dignity.
#18 – STEEL HUNTERS
The world is ending, giant robot suits are the only way to free humanity, blast fools to smithies, and so on. Steel Hunters is a free-to-play mech battle arena from Wargaming. The trailer looks very pretty, and I know there’s a huge audience for these types of games. Alas, they lost me at free-to-play. Give me the full game for a single price upfront or leave me be.
#17 – THICK AS THIEVES
Like Steel Paws, Thick as Thieves has an impressive resume. Warren Spector from Deus Ex and Greg LoPiccolo and Paul Neurath from Thief are the leads here, and their previous work speaks for itself. This trailer, though…
The inclusion of “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction is woefully on the nose in a game where you play as a variety of different thieves1 . The presumably four-player action where the thief you control has to steal an item, not get caught, and keep other thieves away from the loot looks stressful and exhausting. I’m all for original game concepts, and a part of me hopes this does well just because it’s different, but nothing about Thick as Thieves appeals to me in the slightest.
#16 – STAGE FRIGHT
From VGC: “Stage Fright is a two-player co-op game with a horror theme, which is described as “Luigi’s Mansion meets Overcooked with a really charming story”.
According to Hello Games, the game is “packed with co-op moments” which it says combine Overcooked-style chaotic moments with escape room principles.
Stage Fright’s trailer is cute and self-effacing with excellent animation, and if you like co-op games, this might be up your alley. But I miss the days when co-op wasn’t forced into a game, like you must play with another person to progress. Can you imagine being forced to play Turtles in Time with your brother every single time you wanted to beat Shredder?
Anyway, Stage Fright is a game you can play with your kids or spouse and probably have a heartwarming time. Not for me, though.
#15 – ONE MOVE AWAY
A warm and fuzzy indie game about placing all your crap in a car and moving away from home. Is there more to it than that? Maybe. I hope so! But all the trailer showed was that aspect of it and some mild millennial nostalgia (it’s set in 1989 and has big tube TVs and cassette stereos), so… who knows.
#14 – REMATCH
Gotta be honest, I’m not a huge soccer fan, so I didn’t think a 5-v-5 soccer game would even rank this high. Rematch’s trailer looks intriguing, though. No licenses, no real players, but the players’ fluid movement and unique backdrops look engaging. If the game feels great to play and has a rewarding gameplay loop, I could see Rematch sucking in fans of arcade sports.
#13 – NINJA GAIDEN: RAGEBOUND
Listen, I want the first 2D Ninja Gaiden game in 29 years to be incredible, but I have a tremendously personal nitpick: the egregious amount of bloodshed in the trailer. Yes, the 3D Ninja Gaiden games of the 2000s were M-Rated action titles with some blood, but the original 2D NES trilogy were simple all-ages, parent-approved affairs. Any eight-year-old could slash away at a bird or soldier and not see geysers of blood greeting them at every turn.
Anyway, I’m disappointed and disgusted, especially since the art direction looks fantastic.
#12 – SHADOW LABYRINTH
Shadow Labyrinth looks like it was being developed as a brand-new IP before Namco brass got a hold of it and said, “We’ll only greenlight this game if you insert Pac-Man in it somehow.” And thus, a dark, edgy Pac-Man adventure that nobody asked for was born.
#11 – INTERGALACTIC: THE HERETIC PROPHET
A four-and-a-half-minute movie trailer introduces Naughty Dog’s latest single-player, presumably story-driven game, a la Uncharted and The Last of Us. Naughty Dog has been in the Last of Us business for over a decade now, so I’m curious to see how a brand-new IP fares with gamers. I haven’t enjoyed a Naughty Dog game since Uncharted 3, and I’d be shocked if Intergalactic sucks me back in after a 14-year interim (presuming the game comes out in 2025). Also, apparently AAA gaming is so expensive now, that product placements must be placed front-and-center. Hilarious and sad.
#10 – PROJECT CENTURY
In the first twenty seconds or so, this trailer had me on board with its early 20th century Japanese setting. But man, I just can not abide all the violence against normal looking human beings here. It’s one thing to stab a creature from some mystical realm and see blood pool out from him, but dudes from the 1910s wearing overalls and wife-beaters? That’s too real for me, friends. Feels like something 15-year-olds trying to be hard would really get off on, yet these games are made by adults, for… adults?
#9 – SPLIT FICTION
From VGC: “Split Fiction tells the story of two writers who specialize in fantasy and sci-fi stories. Both characters find themselves in each other’s worlds, meaning players have to make their way through sci-fi and fantasy environments, using each other’s abilities to work together.”
The premise has potential, and the gameplay presented in the trailer looks potentially satisfying. But man, every line uttered by these characters is a generic stinker. To the point where I wondered if that’s what the writers were going for. Gamers generally don’t care if a script is a cliched mediocre mess if the gameplay sucks them in, but some dialogue polishing would work wonders here.
#8 – DISPATCH
A hero loses his super powerful suit and must work at a dispatch center for superheroes. Looks like a Telltale game, which makes sense given that a lot of Telltale developers worked on it. I’m cautiously optimistic, but the trailer has some weird elements that give me cause for concern. You’ll know them when you see them, they clash with the rest of the trailer, don’t @ me.
#7 – ELDEN RING: NIGHTREIGN
Do you like Elden Ring? Do you like… co-op?! Get ready for some cooperative swatting down of enormous world-swallowing bosses, the likes of which you’ve seen before in previous FromSoft games. I’ve yet to play Elden Ring, and as previously mentioned, I’m not a big co-op guy. But Nightreign looks swanky and will absolutely appeal to a good chunk of the 20 million+ people who bought Elden Ring. Have at it, boys.
#6 – SONIC RACING: CROSSWORLDS
Perhaps a controversial pick placing it this high, especially since the trailer showed little other than the back of Shadow’s head getting into an oversized sports car. But these Sonic Racing games are almost always good times, and I doubt this one will disappoint.
#5 – OKAMI SEQUEL
Okami is one of those games that’s so pretty and iconic, people forget how clunky the game was when it first released for PS2 back in… *checks time log*… 2006?! Stunning visuals forgive a lot of sins in the gaming realm, though, plus control schematics have come a long way. Developer Clovers Studio would have to drop the ball pretty hard to mess this up.
#4 – ONIMUSHA: WAY OF THE SWORD
Is the gaming industry running out of brands to bring back from the dead, or was the clamor for a new Onimusha game really that loud? Nevertheless, here’s Way of the Sword, a game that looks a little like the Onimusha of old and a considerable amount like a modern From Software title. Capcom has generally excelled at giving gamers what they want in recent years, though, so I imagine this sequel/”re-imagining” will hit hard in 2026.
#3 – TUROK ORIGINS
Turok, like Onimusha, is another one of those franchises that I’m surprised anyone still cares about. Sure, a Dinosaur Hunter hunting alien dinosaurs in jungles/cities is a winning idea for video games, but most Turok titles are average-to-terrible at best. That hasn’t prevented all three original Turok N64 games from receiving a remaster in recent years, though. Crazy! And apparently, someone bought the remasters a few times over, hence this very pretty-looking modern revamp of Turok. The trailer looks like a return to the jungles of the first game, with some weird DNA splicing going on for good measure. Dare I write, Origins looks decent.
#2 – NEW VIRTUA FIGHTER PROJECT
2024 is the year of gaming miracles, no thanks to the handful of franchise resurrections on display at the Game Awards and beyond. Sega promised not long ago that they were working on a new Virtua Fighter entry, and here it is, sort of. Just a brief glimpse of Sarah Bryant fighting some bulky hat-wearing individual. But it’s enough! Nearly two decades on from Virtua Fighter 5, fans have hope.
#1 – PROJECT: ROBOT
Going by Fumito Ueda’s track record, I don’t expect to see Project Robot until at least 2030 on the PlayStation 6. But you know when it comes out, it’ll be a banger. The man’s only ever produced three games in the last quarter century – Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian - and all are iconic gaming landmarks. If he disappoints with Project: Robot, it’ll be the first time.
So that’s it! Thanks for joining me on this journey, I’ve never ranked game announcements before. It was both fun and meaningless – but mostly fun! If these Game Awards trailers have taught me anything, it’s that most modern games aren’t for me. Between the excessive violence, dark themes, or just genres I don’t care for like forced co-op, I am very much feeling my middle age.
Oh well! At least I’ll always have Nintendo and retro games.
What were some of your favorite announcements from the Game Awards? Do you like seeing folks win awards or do you only watch for the trailers?
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!
the song itself is also dreadful, I have no idea why it’s still so popular 30 years later
This is a fantastic wrap! Thanks for pulling it together.
Pumped for Dispatch, Split Fiction, Witcher 4 and the new Naughty Dog game -- though I am genuinely curious as to how many real-life brands will feature in it.
So you’re telling me you didn’t like The Last of Us or Uncharted 4??? That’s crazy, bro.