2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards

Platformers have mostly been ignored by AAA publishers outside of the occasional first-party release. Indie developers have been advancing the series for the last decade and we got a huge variety of great games this year. Many 2D, some 3D, and all a ton of fun.

Sonic Frontiers

They finally did it. Sonic Team finally managed to make a good 3D Sonic game. It may have taken 20 years, but it’s finally here. It may not objectively be perfect platformer, but it advances the series so much that it deserves praise. It’s something that fans have been wanting and it has become a running joke that Sonic Team can’t make a good 3D game. The gameplay loop is addictive, the voice acting is finally good, the graphics are weird, but wonderful, and despite a few hiccups you can’t fault Sonic Team much for it. This game is the start of something grand that tens of millions of fans can finally be proud of.