Top 5 Most Overlooked Games of 2021

With another year at an end (but not really because time is an artificial concept and it’s only meaningful in the sense that humans give it meaning…I mean, something normal about how time really flies, huh?!) it’s only natural to look back and take stock of everything that happened, whether bad, good, or somewhere in between. But hey, who’s got time for that when you’ve got video games to play, amirite? And sure, just any old IGN or Kotaku or Billy Dean’s Video Game Reviews (no, I’m not even going to look up whether that last one is real) can give you a best or worst list at the end of a year, but it takes a true artiste to dig below the surface and unearth the hidden gems that you might otherwise have missed. Luckily for you, dear reader, your humble writer is just such an artiste. In fact, I did exactly that just one year ago! Go have a look if you want even more recent game recommendations or if you just want to see what baby Killem’s writing looked like when he had a lot more free time on his hands.

Again, this list isn’t meant to be entirely made up of games that should have won game of the year – instead, the purpose of this article is to highlight games that I feel deserve more attention than they got and are worth a look if you managed to miss out on any of them. And yes, I’m aware that WhatCulture ripped off my highly original idea that nobody has ever done before and although I won’t retaliate by ragging on their list too much, I do have to question how anybody could think Guardians of the Galaxy was somehow overlooked – it may not have sold great, sure, but the fact is no matter how good that game was (and it really is quite good) plenty of people were just never going to give it a chance after Marvel’s Avengers stunk up the joint last year. It was still an incredibly high-profile release with lots of marketing that garnered multiple year-end awards nominations, unlike virtually all of the games on my list, thank you very much. (All kidding aside, Josh Brown’s list isn’t bad by any means, and his #1 is definitely a game that I overlooked this year – heck, I’d never even heard of it before reading the article.)

Anyway, without further pointless tangents and other nonsense, let’s get on to the list! But first, some…

Honorable Mentions

Forza Horizon 5

Okay, okay, I just criticized WhatCulture for including a massive Marvel game on its list of overlooked games, so how in the world can I justify including one of the biggest Xbox exclusives, not to mention one of the overall highest-rated games, of the year on my list? Well, first of all, it’s an honorable mention, so it’s technically not on my list, now is it?! And secondly, I’m really just using this entry to question how, in a year in which an offbeat co-op game won Game of the Year at the Game Awards, the best driving/racing game not just of this year or this generation but of all time (which again I must remind you is a made-up concept and the phrase “of all time” really only takes into account what has happened so far in our linear perception of reality…um, yeah I got way off topic here, didn’t I?) didn’t even get a GOTY nomination. Yes, I know sports games and the like almost never get recognition outside of their own specific category. I also know most sports and racing games aren’t anywhere near as good as Forza Horizon 5. If you own an Xbox One, Series S/X, and/or a decent gaming PC and you haven’t played this game, just answer me one question: HOW?

Anyway, it’s a great game and I probably shouldn’t even care about the Game Awards, as Rabbidluigi would point out. Maybe that’ll be my New Year’s Resolution for 2022.

Cozy Grove

If Animal Crossing: New Horizons was your groove early on in this new COVID-induced reality and you were looking to recapture some of that same vibe in 2021, you really owe it to yourself to give Cozy Grove a try. You control a “Spirit Scout” who explores an abandoned (but not empty) island in search of…well, spirits to befriend as well as improvements to your camp and new areas to explore. It’s a beautiful, well-written, charming little indie life sim that looks and plays great on PC/console or handheld on Switch/iOS. In fact, about the only thing I’m not such a big fan of in this game is exactly the same thing I wasn’t such a big fan of in Animal Crossing: the game doesn’t so much encourage you to play in short bursts as it outright requires you to stop playing after a certain point each day. Each time you complete a task, you’re given a piece of “spirit wood” that you can feed to the campground’s sentient campfire Flamey, but once you’ve run out of spirit wood to collect for the day…that’s it, Flamey will tell you to pack it in for the day, and there’s not much else you can do. At least there isn’t any sort of penalty for missing a day, but it feels less like the developers Spry Fox are looking out for players’ best interests and more like they’re placing arbitrary limits on how you can play the game. Look, sometimes I want to play a game for 7 hours in a single sitting and then leave it alone for 2 weeks. DON’T JUDGE ME, COZY GROVE.

TOEM

I couldn’t very well put New Pokemon Snap on this list because it’s a Switch exclusive with a massive franchise attached, but another photography-centric game that released on Nintendo consoles this year (along with PS5 and PC) may have flown under the radar. TOEM is a fairly short game, which may be part of the reason it’s easy to overlook, but there is plenty of exploration available in this immaculate black-and-white world from Swedish developers Something We Made for those who want to see (and photograph) everything there is. It can easily be finished in a single sitting if you want to breeze right through the experience, but there are plenty of optional photo ops in each area that will keep completionists occupied for a good while longer. If you’re looking for a relaxing experience with some light puzzle challenges and a unique hand-drawn art style, you really should check out this photographic adventure for yourself. Also, bonus recommendation: if you’re looking for a more colorful experience after the entirely black-and-white TOEM, check out Chicory: A Colorful Tale, another fairly chill game set in an initially achromatic world, but rather than photography, Chicory focuses on a painting mechanic that allows the player to restore color to the Picnic Province. It was an above-average year for chill indie art games with black-and-white game worlds, I guess.

The Ascent

Microsoft may not have had a ton of exclusives this year, but there were some heavy hitters like Forza, Halo, and uh…Microsoft Flight Simulator that managed to overshadow some of the smaller releases on Xbox One/Series X/S. (Spoiler alert, you may be seeing a few more Microsoft exclusives on the list itself for that exact reason.) The Ascent was one such game that didn’t get a ton of fanfare, an isometric twin-stick shooter/action RPG that looks and plays a lot like a cyberpunk Diablo with guns. While not quite polished enough to land itself on the list proper, Neon Giant’s debut game nonetheless deserves tons of praise for all the things it does well. The combat and upgrade systems are great, the soundtrack is incredible, and the overall vibe of the game’s dystopian world makes for a memorable experience. Most impressive of all is that the Swedish development team, made up of a 12 members who formerly worked on the Gears of War, Doom, and Wolfenstein franchises, managed to pull off a cyberpunk game on console so shortly after a much larger studio, well…did not.

Now to the top 5!

5. Sable

Oh look, another chill indie adventure game! Apparently this year’s list is Top Relaxing Games That Not A Lot Of People Played In 2021. (Also another Xbox exclusive but hey, I already warned you that might be a thing.) But when the game is basically a cel-shaded Journey (which should be exciting enough for Xbox fans as that game was a PlayStation exclusive) it’s hard not to include on a “best of” list like this, and the fact that it was not exactly the most played Xbox exclusive of the year is all the justification I need to include it here. I suppose for some this game might be too much like Breath of the Wild without the combat, which if you’re not into the exploration element may be a bit of a turn-off. That coupled with the fact that you can’t die and there’s no distinction between main and side quests gives the player a sense of freedom that few games do, but without the conventional pull of linear challenges and glowing map markers showing your next destination, some players may lose interest. With that said, though, there is no imposed “completion” criteria – there are multiple masks that your character can craft, but there is no requirement to complete all of them before returning to the tribe to end the game. Developer Shedworks have designed the game to entice you with new challenges to complete – you will often be in pursuit of a particular quest when another will present itself, but you are free to ignore whichever you deem non-essential. For a game that is all about figuring out your place in the world, the amount of agency granted to the player feels entirely appropriate, and there is plenty to discover for those who want to see and do everything possible. There are some technical issues and the camera can be a bit finicky at times, but the game has enough style and charm to overcome these flaws to make for an enjoyable, highly recommendable experience.

4. Dodgeball Academia

Apart from chill indie adventure games, 2021 was also a good year for dodgeball games, apparently, as Knockout City released in May and proved to be a fun and easy-to-pick-up (but for a lot of its player base, apparently easy to put down also) multiplayer experience that took us all back to elementary school gym class except without all the scraped knees, broken glasses, and hurt feelings. Well, fewer scraped knees and broken glasses anyway. Still sucks to get knocked out of a dodgeball game as an adult, it turns out. However, if you prefer a solo experience (maybe as a result of not having tons of childhood friends due to your poor dodgeball skills) developer Pocket Trap’s Dodgeball Academia had you covered with its mix of RPG and, well, dodgeball. It’s right there in the name. The cartoony artwork, character design, music, and writing are all major strengths here, but the gameplay itself is no slouch – the basic mechanics of throwing, catching, and using super moves are easy to learn, but there will be matches that test your ability to think on your feet and adapt to what’s (literally) being thrown at you. It’s not a heavily strategy-based game by any means, but there is enough of a difficulty curve as the game goes on to force the player to learn from their mistakes and figure out how to overcome the challenge presented in each battle. Leading Otto and his team of fellow dodgeball enthusiasts all the way to the championship is a consistent blast from start to finish, and completing all of Dodgeball Academia‘s challenges will give you some measure of revenge on Brandon, that jerk from grade school who took such delight in throwing at your head every time you faced off on the playground. It may have taken the better part of 30 years, but LOOK WHO’S FINALLY GOOD AT DODGEBALL, BRANDON.

3. Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Hey look – it’s not just Microsoft exclusives on this list! Here’s a Sony exclusive for all you lucky PS5 owners out there. I fully expect all ten of you reading this to play Kena: Bridge of Spirits if you haven’t already. (I guess it is available on PS4 and PC also, so I guess more than 10 of you have the option to play it.) I’ll grant you that this game isn’t the most overlooked on the list – it did win two Ga…statues from that thing I said I would try to care less about, Best Indie Game and Best Debut Indie. That said, though, winning awards reserved for indie titles is like being named best standing bass player at your local bebop jazz/EDM fusion festival – the recognition is nice, sure, but only so many people pay attention to that sort of thing. (Also, if you are into bebop jazz/EDM fusion, please post a link in the comments or share it with me on Twitter. I’m genuinely curious as to what exactly that would sound like, if it exists.) Anyway, Kena: Bridge of Spirits follows the titular protagonist as she helps the spirits of the departed find the closure they need to move on to the next world as she journeys through a world beset by decay and death. Yes, I apparently have a thing for indie games where you play some sort of “spirit guide” – what with the inclusion of this game and Cozy Grove on this year’s list and Spiritfarer on last year’s. The biggest difference between Kena and the other two games is its art style, as developers Ember Lab opted for a more realistic animation style with the expressiveness and detail you’d expect from a Pixar film. In addition to Kena’s basic combat techniques, you also collect adorable little critters called Rot that help distract, disarm, or otherwise hinder your enemies, and they’ll also be key to puzzle-solving along the way. There are also some standout boss battles throughout the experience that bring some variety to the standard puzzle platforming, exploration, and basic combat – aside from the visual style, these unique fights are probably the most recommendable aspect of the game. Overall, all the elements of Bridge of Spirits fuse well together to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, and anyone who is a fan of 3D animation, action adventure games, and/or emotional storytelling about overcoming guilt, shame, and regret should absolutely pick this one up. Also, if you own a PS5 and need something besides Demon’s Souls and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart to occupy your time, it’s not like you have many other good choices.

What’s that? You actually have lots of good choices? There are numerous outstanding PlayStation exclusives to choose from?

…Fine. But play Kena: Bridge of Spirits anyway. It’s good.

2. Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

If you knew what a big fan of Hollow Knight I am, you would not be the least bit surprised to learn I’m also a big fan of Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. I mean, just look at it. Everything about the design of this game is basically Hollow Knight without all the bugs. (Also, if you knew I was a fan of Hollow Knight, please get out of my brain. I mean, it’s not like I’ve written about that game on this very site before. Certainly not multiple times. That would be ridiculous.) But as obvious as those comparisons are, Ender Lilies deserves credit for being a standout Metroidvania/2D action RPG regardless of its similarities or influences. Beyond the beautiful dark fantasy aesthetic, the game’s central gimmick of controlling the small, vulnerable Lily and her mighty spectral protector the Umbral Knight is an innovative take on the genre – it explains, in one quick and easily understood mechanic, how the player character can be both weak and strong at the same time. Lily, the physical being whose ability to purify the inhabitants of this gothic land of the Blight (that’s literally what it’s called) that turns them into monsters, can only dodge and evade but not directly attack, so it’s up to the spirits that you’ll collect from each boss you defeat (and even some of the lesser enemies, though their spirits have more limited uses even though some are very handy indeed) to do all the attacking and keep the last White Priestess alive so she can complete her mission and save the world. As with most games from this genre, there is also an unmistakable Dark Souls influence here, but mainly through its method of filling in backstory and world-building through item descriptions. It is, thankfully, free of the annoying trend of forcing you to return to the spot where you died in order to retrieve whatever you were carrying. Some hardcore fans of the genre may feel this robs the game of some of its challenge, but I still found it plenty challenging without that extra hurdle, and it just feels more encouraging than punishing to have the player simply go back to the last save spot upon death to reconfigure your special abilities and try again. It’s especially welcome here, with so many secrets to find and areas to explore, that you can decide to try a different route or head off in a different direction without penalty. Another way the game respects the player’s time is in how freely it grants some abilities that similar games often gate off – namely, the double jump and fast travel between the game’s equivalent of Hollow Knight‘s benches or Dark Souls‘ bonfires. Overall, Ender Lilies may not be a complete reinvention of the genre, but it feels like developers Adglobe and Live Wire picked the best elements of modern Metroidvanias to give players a refined, streamlined experience. With that said, though, there was one other underplayed game this year that was just slightly more recommendable.

1. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach

Despite releasing eight mainline entries, several spinoffs, and a book series in addition to a long-rumored film adaptation, this indie horror franchise has never really gotten its due and…I’m sorry, I couldn’t keep that going any longer. Five Nights at Freddy’s is everywhere. By no definition of the word “overlooked” could it even remotely fit the theme of this list. Seriously, if you are even vaguely familiar with the concept of video games and have an internet connection, you’ve probably heard of FNaF. (Otherwise, I’m not sure how you’re reading this. Go watch Markiplier or something, I guess.) Joking aside, let’s get to the real #1.

1. The Artful Escape

While action RPGs/Metroidvanias like Ender Lilies pride themselves on their challenge, The Artful Escape is basically as simple as it gets gameplay-wise. For long stretches, it’s practically a single-button platformer. For anyone who defines themselves by their ability to “git gud” this may well sound like an absolute snoozefest, but for anyone who is open to games that aren’t punishingly difficult, the simplicity of the gameplay will only highlight the absolutely masterful art style, music, and story. Francis Vendetti, the game’s playable character, goes on a journey of self-discovery through the medium of music that leads him through fantastical environments and encounters with eccentric and unforgettable characters, so developer Beethoven & Dinosaur’s choice to focus on style and storytelling over intricate and challenging mechanics is thematically appropriate. The music and art may be the stars of the show, but the voice cast is no slouch either, boasting Jason Schwartzman as a weird alien being named Zomm, Lena Headey as the cosmic booking agent known as the Tastemaker, and Carl Weathers as fading rock icon Lightman. The writing is enjoyably absurd with some of the most ridiculous button prompts you’ll ever press, and the poignancy of the story is only enhanced by the outlandishness of the characters and dialogue. It’s a truly unique game in every sense, and while it may not seem like everyone’s cup of tea, it really is a game that deserves to be experienced by a much wider audience. Think of it as a slightly more grown-up interactive animated film – you may not have thought you’d vibe with something like Moana, Soul, or Encanto based on a basic overview of the plot, but the charming animation and music go a long way toward winning over even those who may have been resistant heading in. Plus it’s got Carl freaking Weathers. Chubbs Peterson. Michael B. Jordan’s dad Apollo Creed. The black half of that ultra macho handshake meme. How could a game with Carl Weathers not be amazing? Well okay, maybe that’s possible, but The Artful Escape is worthy of the voice behind Omnitraxus Prime. And it’s definitely worth checking out in 2022 if you missed it in 2021.

So that’s my list of the most overlooked games of 2021! Since this list is entirely subjective, you may disagree with some of the games I’ve included or left out – maybe you thought Psychonauts 2, Unpacking, or Death’s Door deserved a spot on the list. Well, I think all of those games are great too and would be on my list of games of the year, but I felt like they weren’t quite as overlooked as the games on this list. Consider them bonus recommendations if you missed out on them too. If you have any other suggestions for games you felt were deserving of more love than they got in 2021, feel free to leave a comment below to spread the word! Check us out on Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Facebook, and here’s to a great 2022!