For a few years now, I’ve been loving the Eggplant Podcast episodes where the hosts share their top 5 games of the year. Inspired by that, here are my own top 5 games of 2024.

As I started writing this list, it got way too long, so I’m releasing it one game at a time, starting with rank 5. Plus, with every post, I’ll name one honorable mention.

Other posts in my Top 5 list: Rank 5 - Rank 4 - Rank 3 - Rank 2 - Rank 1. And the Finnish version of my list starts here.

By the way, I left out any TTRPG sessions or campaigns I’ve run to keep things simple.

Rank 5: Slice & Dice

Slice & Dice is a dungeon-crawling mobile game where the gimmick is that each party member is represented by a unique dice. And they are rolled every turn. The character’s class and level determine the actions on their die faces.

This seemingly simple idea is the foundation for an excellent and versatile mobile game. Each session lasts less than 10 minutes, making it a perfect game for short breaks.

The core mechanics are super solid. The different character classes, level-up options, and items add endless variations to the basic gameplay. On top of that, the various game modes expand the variety even further.

I played Slice & Dice a ton early in the year and into the spring. During summer, I stopped playing, and I haven’t picked it up again this fall. It’s been replaced on my phone by Puzzmo Crosswords (which I’ll mention in the honorable mentions).

I first discovered Slice & Dice through a recommendation on the Eggplant Podcast.

Based on how much I played it in the spring, Slice & Dice barely makes it into my top 5 games of 2024.

Honorable Mention: Puzzmo Daily Crossword

Puzzmo Cross|word replaced Slice & Dice as my go-to mobile game in the fall of 2024. I started solving Puzzmo crosswords earlier in the year, of course, thanks to the Eggplant Podcast recommendation.

Puzzmo is a web app with a bunch of daily puzzles. The crossword is the most popular, and honestly, it’s the only one I play almost daily.

At first, the English-language, US-centric puzzles were too tricky for me, but I’ve slowly gotten into the genre. That said, I still need to Google Taylor Swift album names and Sabrina Carpenter song titles.

Most of the time, solving the crosswords feels super rewarding. But every now and then, the difficulty doesn’t quite hit the mark for me, which can get frustrating. That’s why it’s only an honorable mention this year and not in the top 5. ```