2024 Year in Review

👋 Hi there! Welcome to the latest edition of SUPERJUMP Weekly. This will be our final newsletter for 2024. We will resume again in mid-January 2025.

It seems like everyone is looking back at the year that was, from Spotify to all of the big console manufacturers, and more. We thought we'd join the fun by highlighting the very best SUPERJUMP stories published over the last 12 months. We hope you enjoy this look back at the very best of SUPERJUMP in 2024.

As always, please consider upgrading your free membership to a Backer membership if you'd like to support our work (and receive a monthly 10% discount code for any purchases on PixelCrib or the SUPERJUMP Merch Store).

Finally, we would like to sincerely thank all of our wonderful Backers for supporting independent, cynicism-free games media over the last year: especially when we know that there are so many folks out there asking for subscriptions. We understand that every dollar matters, and we're so grateful that you chose to vote with your wallet and support our little publication. It keeps our fires burning and puts us on a path to financial sustainability.

From the entire SUPERJUMP team, we hope you have a wonderful, restful, and safe holiday season. We'll see you next year! 🎉

IN THIS ISSUE

✍️ Story Showcase: 2024 Year in Review
📡 On the Radar: Hollywood Animal
🏆 Backers

Hello! James here. I'm SUPERJUMP's proud Editor in Chief. It's such a great pleasure to work with a large team of passionate, talented, and highly diverse writers who bring a huge breadth and depth of experience to their stories. Every month at SUPERJUMP brings something completely different to the table.

For this year in review, I thought I'd go back through all of our stories published throughout 2024 and highlight my absolute favourites. Of course, I believe all of our stories are bangers, but these ones are - in my humble opinion - the cream of the crop. So, without further ado, let's jump in.

JANUARY

• A Metal Gear Solid Experience by Jared McCarty.
• Why Does Playing The Sims 4 Make Me Feel Empty Inside? by Maris Crane.
• How Video Games Have Become a Third Place by Lawrence Adkins.
• Alan Wake II is Terrifying, but Not in the Way You Think by Jared McCarty.
• A New Appraisal of Final Fantasy VII by Brandon R. Chinn.

FEBRUARY

• Sifu: Revenge and Martial Morality by Geordi Ferguson.
• Integrating Learning with Gameplay in Human Resource Machine by Adrian Ma.
• The Virtual World: Art and Design in Video Games by Gavin Annand.
• D: Frustration as a Canvas by Guilherme Alves.
• Worlds Changed at the Computer Game Developers Conferences of 1988 by C.S. Voll.
• At Home with Good Bones: An Interview with Jes Negrón, Retcon Games by Andrea Blythe.
• Alan Wake and the Author by Jacob Self.
• A Deep Dive Into the World of Splatoon by Joe Richards.
• A Look Back at Chinese Bootleg Final Fantasy VII by Andrew Johnston.

MARCH

• GameCube Collecting is Healing My Inner Child by Brandon Johnson.
• Shadow the Hedgehog: Is Black the New Blue? by Harel Cohen.
• Tribes Vengeance: The Forgotten FPS by Ross Joseph Gardner.
• On Critique and Caring by Rachel Alm.
• How They Wish To Be Left Alone by Brandon R. Chinn.
• Momento Mori by Brandon R. Chinn.
• Finding My Monopoly by Nathan Kelly.
• The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Defends the Reputation of Truth by C.S. Voll.
• Home Safety Hotline Shows the Horror of Call Center Work by Priya Sridhar.
• Polybius: The Waking Nightmare of the Arcade by Geordi Ferguson.
• Death Vegas: Unearthing a Lost Adult Swim Classic by Andrew Johnston.
• Where Are All The Black and White Video Games? by Marvel Maximus.

APRIL

• Super Metroid at 30 by Ross Joseph Gardner.
• My Work Is Not Yet Done Puts the Anxiety in 'Anxiety Horror' by Ignas Vieversys.
• The Hidden Depth of In-Game Texts by Marvel Maximus.
• A Brief History of the Nuzlocke Challenge by Lawrence Adkins.
• Resident Evil at 20: Reimagining 'Ground Zero' by Geena Hardy.
• When It's Better to Know the Ending by Rachel Alm.
• Team 0% Accomplishes Their Impossible Mission by William J. Cuevas.
• Nintendo's DS Delivered the Visual Novel to the West by C.S. Voll.
• Firewatch Burns a New Path to Understanding by C.S. Voll.
• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Is Helping Me Write More Fearlessly by Rachel Alm.

MAY

• Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy VII Soundtrack Set the Stage for Contemporary Music in JRPGs by Latonya "Penn" Pennington.
• Crow Country: An Examination and Review by Brandon R. Chinn.
• Metal Gear Acid: The Legacy of Shinra Nojiri's Card-Based Battler by Adam Meadows.
• By Design: Procedural Generation by Gavin Annand.
• Learning To Love The Sega Saturn: Catching Up Decades Later by Cameron Eittreim.
• The Rise, Fall, Revival, and Eventual Death of G4TV by Jared McCarty.
• Designing Marvel's Midnight Suns With Director Joe Weinhoffer by Antony Terence.
• Slave Zero X Never Portrays Kindness by Guilherme Alves.
• Command & Conquer Through the Years: A Retrospective Analysis by Josh Bycer.
• What Video Games Can Teach Us About Suicide by Marvel Maximus.

JUNE

• WordPlayer: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney And The "Dream Job" by James O'Connor.
• Generations: The Great Video Game Age Gap by Andrew Johnston.
• Post Void is Mullet Mad Jack on Psychedelics and Overstimulation by Artemis Octavio.
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Hands-On Preview and Interview with Gareth Damian Martin by James O'Connor.
• Trackmania Deep Dip II: The Most Difficult Challenge in Gaming? by Christian Behler.
• Here's How StarCraft II Pulled Off a "The Floor is Lava" Level by Antony Terence.

JULY

• Dissecting the Gore-Covered Condemned: Criminal Origins by Briana Gonzalez.
• What Defines 'Survival' in Survival Horror? by Josh Bycer.
• We Need More Games with Shadow of War's Nemesis System by Antony Terence.
• That Time Will Wright Put You in Charles Darwin's Shoes by Antony Terence.
• Celebrating David Szymanski's Small Wonders by Artemis Octavio.
• Promises of a Phantom: Dreams of a Lost Console From 2002 by C.S. Voll.
• Sky: Children of Light's Hottest Hangouts Are Off the Edge of the Map by Hayley Williams.
• What is Progress? by Gavin Annand.
• The Making of Amnesia: The Bunker by Ignas Vieversys.

AUGUST

• WordPlayer: Wide Ocean Big Jacket Is A Perfect One-Hour Game by James O'Connor.
• Calm and Comfort: An Interview With Hawai'i Artist Brady Evans by Rachel Alm.
• The Bounce: An Australian Rules Foot Game Retrospective by Gavin Annand.
• My Quest to Find a Specific Demo Disc from 1997 by Gavin Annand.
• Live Service Killed the Suicide Squad by Alex Kubodera.
• Crafting Mystery and Magic: An Interview with HeR Interactive by Rachel Alm.
• Twitch Says ANZ Is A Critical Market, But It Has A Funny Way of Showing It by David Smith.
• Brain Drive: A Retrospective on Scarlet Nexus by Rachel Alm.
• The Genius Communication of Elden Ring by Jared McCarty.
• Is the Execution Barrier of Fighting Games Too High? by Adrian Ma.

SEPTEMBER

• WordPlayer: Nobody Wants To Die Shows the Possibilities - and Limitations - of Detective Adventures by James O'Connor.
• An Off-Peak Conversation with Cosmo D by Artemis Octavio.
• Astro Bot's Beautiful Nostalgia Extends Beyond PlayStation by James O'Connor.
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Embraces Silliness by Benjamin Macready.
• Playing the Feminine by Josefina Huq.

OCTOBER

• Vagrant Story: Looking Back at a Classic by Brandon R. Chinn.
• PAX West 2024: A Horror Showcase by Jared McCarty.
• WordPlayer: Closer The Distance's Empathy Toolbox Is Deeper Than Embodiment by James O'Connor.
• Tetris at 40: The Twisting Tale of Its Journey to Handhelds by C.S. Voll.
• Final Fantasy VI: How To Keep Going by Brandon R. Chinn.
• Resident Evil 2 (Nintendo 64): A Weird and Wonderful Achievement by Jared McCarty.
• The Nintendo Switch Is Not Outdated by James O'Connor.
• I Loved Animal Well, But I'm Bothered By Its Artificial Depth by Josh Bycer.
• Bumps, Heels, and Faces: Building a Wrestling Empire by Jahanzeb Khan.
• Framing the Depths: An Archaeological Approach to Cinematography in The Excavation of Hob's Barrow by Kyle Solomon.

NOVEMBER

• Memory of a Town: Experiencing Silent Hill 2 Through Its Remake by Artemis Octavio.
• Kickin' It: The Making of Anger Foot by Ignas Vieversys.
• A Bloody Good Time: The Castlevania Franchise's Hidden Gems by Jahanzeb Khan.
• Diving Deep with Super Dungeon Designer's Lead Programmer by Lawrence Adkins.
• This is the Choice of Steins;Gate by C.S. Voll.
• The State of Indie Games in 2024 and Beyond by Andrew Johnston.
• WordPlayer: Broken Sword Reminds Me Who I Am by James O'Connor.
• The Dichotomy of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem by Jared McCarty.
• Magic the Gathering: The Fortnite of Card Games by Nathan Kelly.
• Initial Daydream: An Interview with Viktor Krause and Julia Barnacle by Lawrence Adkins.
• Exploring Minds Through Interactive Entertainment by Jacob Self.

DECEMBER

• What Is A Plague Tale: Requiem Saying With Its Loading Screens? by Eric Biancalana.
• All Too Shadow by Guilherme Alves.
• Half-Life: Phase Transition (A Novel Excerpt) by Ross Joseph Gardner.
• Death Stranding and the Unfailing Perseverance of Optimism by Brandon R. Chinn.
• Fear and Hunger and Safe Rooms by Maris Crane.
• Minimalism in Mouthwashing by Marvel Maximus.
• When Video Games Test Your Personality by Marvel Maximus.
• Disco Never Dies by PJ Walerysiak.

Phew! It's hard to believe this is just a subset of all the stories we published in 2024. As I mentioned earlier, each month brings with it new surprises. I think you'll see a running theme with these stories, despite their differences: they are all about celebrating the art form of video games in some way, and in many cases they ask readers to think differently about the hobby we all love.

We understand and deeply appreciate that making video games is a tough and complex business; many indie developers put their entire lives on the line to pursue their passion. We, in return, do our level best to take these creative works seriously and to treat them with due care and consideration.