And in 2022, more so than any other year, I threw up my hands and allowed myself to revel in the chaos. Like any worthy art form, they require constant categorization, re-categorization, and re-re-categorization, just to keep track of every twist and turn in their labyrinthine evolution. Even “Metroidvania,” a portmanteau created specifically to denote a certain set of design tenets, often comes with a cascade of asterisks, caveats, and parentheticals.īut of course, video games’ stubborn refusal to be pinned down is part of what makes them so damn fun. “Turn-based strategy” isn’t doing all that much work anymore. Simple terms like “open world” and “first-person shooter” have lost much of their original meaning.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult, as the years go by, to describe my favorite video games.