The 10 best video games of 2019

This was an interesting year for video games.

The games that really shined 2019 weren’t sequels to well-established series, they were new worlds with new characters making their marks for the first time. Sure, there were a couple remakes and sequels that were fantastic, but the majority of the best games of the year brought something completely new to the table.

Some of the games that had the biggest hype in 2019, like Kingdom Hearts 3, fizzled out of the zeitgeist shortly after release because they didn’t really do anything interesting. Meanwhile, dark horses like Control and My Friend Pedro proved that there’s plenty of space in video games for new properties that do what they do incredibly well.

This year also saw the release of Google’s Stadia console, which basically flopped right out of the gate, and then there was Apple Arcade, a subscription-based service that launched with so many amazing little games from all kinds of developers.

It was an up and down sort of year, but despite the flops, there were still a whole bunch of fantastic games over the last 12 months.

Here are the best video games of 2019.

10. Sekiro: Shadow Die Twice

There was no game in 2019 that was as impressively designed as the ninja action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game puts players in the shoes of Sekiro, a shinobi with the unique ability to come back from the dead once, which is immensely helpful considering how difficult Sekiro is. Like its predecessors Dark Souls and Bloodborne, Sekiro puts an emphasis on melee combat where the slightest mistake in timing or movement could mean disaster, and that timing and movement is so precisely and meticulously designed. It’s hard not to be in awe of it, as long as the difficulty isn’t a big deterrent. – Kellen Beck, entertainment reporter

9. Heaven’s Vault

It looked a little dicey at launch, as our own review laid out. But post-release patches fixed all the problems we had and turned Heaven’s Vault into something special. The game casts you as Aliya Elasra, a space archeologist who explores the stars in her high-tech sailing ship. There’s a lost alien civilization to be uncovered, with tons of people to talk to and artifacts to dig up as you search for clues. More even than most people will fit into one playthrough, and yes, this story changes with your choices. But the thing that brings it all together and really makes Heaven’s Vault stand out is its linguistics game: as Aliya explores the spaceways, you help her piece together a lost alien language. There isn’t any other game quite like this. Add it to your list. – Adam Rosenberg, senior entertainment reporter

8. Katana Zero

How’s this for a pitch? Katana Zero is like a side-scrolling Hotline Miami, except you’re a katana-swinging assassin armed with a drug that can bend time. Also, you get your jobs from your psychiatrist, who prescribes the time drugs as well. Setting aside the great story that’s best experienced firsthand rather than spoiled in a synopsis, Katana Zero is an action game that plays like a puzzle game. Each room you visit is a self-contained challenge in which you need to figure out the most efficient way out. It’s a process that usually involves plotting a route in which you carve up all the baddies in a matter of seconds, and with great style. – AR

7. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Cal Kestis is hardly the most personable Jedi we’ve encountered in a Star Wars, but his post-Order 66 adventure is one of the most gripping rides that 2019 games had to offer. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes a Jedi’s journey into Dark Souls territory. Combat is fast, brutal, and punishing, and levels are sewn together by cleverly placed, successively unlocked shortcuts. The Star Wars-y vibes are very strong with this one, but what ties the whole thing together is the welcome concession of being able to dial that difficulty way, way down if you just want your very own lightsaber-swinging and Force-fueled power trip. – AR

6. Death Stranding

Death Stranding teased the world for so long with its cryptic and enticingly bizarre trailers, and when it finally came out in November, it managed to live up to its own hype. With its dual focus on mass extinction events and human connection, Death Stranding weaves between heartfelt dialogues and moments of existential terror. Likewise, its gameplay takes on a starkly contrasted duality, the majority of which is composed of pretty peaceful traversal intermixed with intense and mind-bending action sequences. What Death Stranding never stops being is over the top, which is just perfect. – KB

5. My Friend Pedro

My Friend Pedro is about three things: moving fast, doing flips, and shooting people. It does all three so well and so fluidly. The premise is pretty odd, as it involves a floating, talking banana named Pedro telling you to kill people, but the simple-yet-challenging gameplay is hard not to get addicted to as you perform slow-motion wall jumps into rooms full of enemies and take them out with precise marksmanship. It’s like living a non-stop slow-motion action sequence from a John Woo movie. – KB

4. Resident Evil 2

It’s unclear if one can ever truly recover from playing Resident Evil 2. Straight from the bowels of hell (and a 1998 game of the same name), the latest installment in Capcom’s survival horror franchise shook us to our cores. As Officer Leon Kennedy and unpaid badass Claire Redfielld, players inhabited a slow-burn world of puzzles and panic that held on tight from start to finish. Certain death lurked at every corner, but the desire to live and beat this god-forsaken game prevailed. Heading into 2020, we can still hear the footsteps of Mr. X lurking close — a reality that is at once the highest compliment to Capcom, and a massive inconvenience to us. – Ali Foreman, entertainment reporter

3. Luigi’s Mansion 3 

Few games demand to be poked, prodded, and replayed like Luigi’s Mansion 3. With the help of Gooigi, Polterpup, and Professor E. Gadd, Luigi and players crept through the haunted halls of the Last Resort Hotel facing ghostly foes on 17 different levels. There were doors to enter, secrets to uncover, and so, SO much money to vacuum. From start to end, Luigi’s Mansion 3 was genuine fun — an accolade rarely given to kidnapping simulations — that managed to exceed our incredibly high expectations. Here’s lookin’ at you, Luigi, ya beautiful green-wearing, mustachioed bastard. – AF

2. Untitled Goose Game

Cast aside your moon and star signs, forego your ancestral calendars, and gather ‘round ye old platform of choice — for this is the Year of the Goose. 2019 gaming was a lot of things, captivating, enchanting, and transporting. Still, no world engrossed us quite like the untitled village where an untitled farmer and his untitled goose foe teed off for a relentless game of “No, fuck you.” Untitled Goose Game offered a glimpse into class struggle, moral ambivalence, and existential dread, fundamentally redefining what it means to be a goose on the loose. HONK!! – AF

1. Control

Control is maybe one of the easiest Game of the Year picks we’ve ever made. Everything about it is great. The fast-moving action gels more and more as protagonist Jesse Faden unlocks a wider range of powers and configurations for her mysterious and highly-relevant-to-the-plot firearm. The story is exceedingly well-written and performed, with tons of collectibles scattered around that lend miles more depth to the unfolding mystery. And the setting is a wondrous gift: a forever-transforming secret government facility that serves up new thrills around every corner. There’s also the fact that Control is essentially a stealth Alan Wake game. Even with some brutal difficulty spikes in the latest stages of the game, this one is our locked-in 2019 Game of the Year. What’s not to like? – AR

Honorable Mention: Apple Arcade

Apple spent years and years after the first iPhone launched maintaining a respectful professional distance from games. They were big business on a young and still-developing App Store, but they were also for other people to make and sell while Apple simply took its typical cut. Apple Arcade – forgive the pun – changes the game. It’s a subscription service that gives you access to a library of well more than 100 games (and growing!) for $5 per month. These are good games, too. Apple’s investing in their development and release, and in the process making sure that subscribers have a carefully curated selection of mobile gaming excellence to choose from. There have been some great games released in 2019, but there’s no better deal out there right now, and for gaming fans of every age, than Apple Arcade. – AR