The amazing Astro Bot won Game of the Year at The Game Awards, but in Dexerto’s best games of 2024 list, it was beaten by Black Myth: Wukong. Here’s why we, if we’d had the casting vote, would have handed the award to Game Science’s action-packed role-playing game.
It’s that time of the year when we, as players, get to debate which games made the biggest impact over the last 12 months. 2024 has brought us some standout releases, from the sprawling Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth to the quirky Balatro.
But while Astro Bot cleaned up at this year’s Game Awards, it’s hard not to feel like Black Myth: Wukong deserved more flowers than it got.
Action-packed
Black Myth did manage to scoop the Best Action-Adventure award, and it’s easy to see why. In terms of combat, it has absolutely everything you could want, whether you’re a hardened Souls-like veteran or a newcomer to the genre.
The moment-to-moment action is exactly what it needs to be: simple to pick up but difficult to master, and challenging without being so oppressively difficult that you want to send your controller flying back down Black Wind Mountain. This is a game that those, like me, who find themselves fighting a losing battle in titles like Elden Ring can realistically reach the end of.
That’s not to say it’s dull by any stretch – in fact, its lightning-fast jabs and dodges make up the most satisfying combat system in recent memory. The lack of a block button encourages you to evade attacks and land follow-ups, rather than simply trying to soak them up and stay alive.
There’s also the Focus system, which charges up with every blow you land before allowing you to spend them for a flashy attack that deals huge damage to small grunts and big bosses alike. It’s fast, it’s fluid, and you’re rewarded for being aggressive. Chaining it all together and finally dropping that end-of-chapter boss after a dozen attempts is a dopamine hit like nothing else I’ve felt in 2024.
Boss from start to finish
Speaking of bosses, the enemy design is stellar all the way through. Every single boss encounter, whether integral to the story or a hidden fight tucked away in a secret area, is unique and inspired.
Over the course of the six chapters, there are 107 different bosses to slay, with new challengers presenting themselves at a blistering pace. There are shapeshifting pigs, ancient gods, and everything in between, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and devastating abilities to learn.
Every time you scrape through a fight and think the game must be running out of ideas, it hits you with something new to mix up the formula. Chapter 2’s Fuban and Buddha’s Right Hand from Chapter 4 are particularly memorable, with the latter pitting you against a gross hand hanging from the ceiling until its final form reveals itself.
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None of this would matter if they weren’t fun to fight, but Black Myth: Wukong takes special care to ensure that the same tactic never works twice. Every major boss forces you to rethink how you make use of your abilities; often to the point that full re-spec of your character is needed. That might sound off-putting, but you’ll soon come to think of each enemy as a puzzle to solve, where one tweak to your approach finally clicks everything into place.
There’s no shortage of iconic boss battles within the Souls-like genre, but the attention to detail and rapid pace with which they’re thrown at you mean that Wukong’s foes can go toe-to-toe with any of them – and I can pay it no higher compliment than that.
Secrets within secrets
One of the main draws of Astro Bot is the sheer number of secrets and hidden levels there are to track down, giving completionists plenty to do. But if it’s secrets you want, Black Myth: Wukong has them in spades.
Each of the six distinct regions appears to be pretty linear at first, but once you start poking around they reveal themselves as intricately designed labyrinths with tons to discover. Even the most thorough player is unlikely to see and do everything in their first playthrough, leaving side quests, boss fights, rare armor, and even entire levels untouched.
So, Black Myth: Wukong really lends itself to multiple playthroughs, and each one is as rewarding as the last. Finding a secret area in one chapter could lead to a powerful item, which totally changes the direction you take your build or how you tackle a boss that mauled you the first time around.
The beauty, though, is that you can also completely ignore the optional content if you just want to stick to the beaten path. While some of the rewards no doubt make the road ahead smoother, it’s ultimately up to you if you want to enjoy the challenge of beelining straight to the final boss or fully immersing yourself in the mythical Chinese lore.
Black Myth: Wukong and Astro Bot are like apples and oranges, so comparing the two is virtually impossible. Plus, none of this is to say that Astro Bot isn’t a worthy winner of Game of the Year 2024.
Sony’s platformer is a colorful and lovingly made journey through PlayStation history, with top-tier level design and an adorable main character who’s sure to become a brand mascot going forward. It’s easily the standout game of its kind this year and arguably the best since Super Mario Galaxy.
But while Astro Bot is like a quick rush of sugar, Black Myth: Wukong is a slower burn that’s already kept me hooked for dozens of hours. That’s why, when I look back on 2024 in the years to come, it’s my journey to Mount Muago that will truly stay with me.
