Hours and Hours: A Look at the Games that Took My Time in 2022

2022 seems to have flown by in a blur. It seems like just last week I was starting my final semester of college and now I have graduated, moved out, and have a full-time job. Because this year was pretty busy, I feel like I didn't play as many games as I would prefer, but I did stream for the first half of the year so I can at least say I tried.

With the year coming to an end, Nintendo has sent out the "Nintendo Switch in Review 2022" and I was so excited to see what mine said. So, here are my top three most-played Switch games from this year.

Splatoon 2 - 25+ Hours

Earlier in the year, I bought Splatoon 2 for $40 with the intention of playing with a few friends who are big into the game. I was already playing a few other games so Splatoon gathered dust for months, and months, and months. I did try out the game when I first got it and maybe got an hour and a half of gameplay in before I put it down. It wasn’t until I moved into my apartment and only had my consoles to play that I decided I would pick up the game once more. At the time, Splatoon 3 was only weeks away from launch, but I wanted to “get my money’s worth” out of Splatoon 2.

I played for a few hours a day the first weekend so that when I got the third game, I would at least know what I was doing. Even after the launch of Splatoon 3, I continued to hold onto Splatoon 2, having finally figured out how to use the in-game camera and get the hang of the Splat Roller. It took two different friends begging me to upgrade to Splatoon 3 so we could all play together to finally shelve this game.

Splatoon 3 - 45+ Hours

I finally bought Splatoon 3 in October and I have been addicted. I jumped in and was playing hours of turf war every day after work. I was able to talk my roommate into joining the addiction and we have been spending hours every week inking turf together. Over the about two months I had been playing, I put in over 40 hours into Splatoon 3.

I went into the game primarily playing the Splat Roller, but over time, I have started playing the Dualie Squelchers in order to actually be useful in ranked modes. In the month of December, I developed this urge to become really good in the game so I have been focusing on improving my rank. Having only started playing the Splatoon games in the second half of 2022, I am proud to say that I will be ending the year as B rank. Even though this might not be great for many people, to me, I can see this as a sign that I can actually improve in a game I was initially worried I would always suck at. I’m hoping next year, I can have a post about how I am continuing to improve and talk about trying out different weapons.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - 20+ Hours

This is also the only game that I played at launch. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was one of the games that I was most looking forward to playing this year. The day that I got this game, I started streaming it on Twitch. That play-through was so fun, the feeling of nostalgia of being able to play another Kirby game (the last good Kirby game I played being on the DS) and being able to talk to chat just made the experience memorable for me. The new Mouthful Mode abilities mixed with the old powers you get from enemies made for a game that brought me back to my childhood while also giving me new gameplay. Kirby is still one of my favorite single-player games that I’ve played in 2022.

Now those were my top three games from my Switch library, but I also play a lot of games on my PC, so I will now be showing off 5 of my most played/ favorite experiences from my PC game library.

Valorant - N/A (too many) Hours

A game that I have been playing for a while now. This is a game that I got into by myself but quickly got multiple friends sucked into this game that we all sucked at. Over time, we all have found a role in the game that works for us as individuals and as a team, so the game has become a lot more fun. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I finally decided that I wanted to really grow my skills in this game and improve my rank. Spending hours playing with my friends is always such a fun way to spend my evening. It always feels like something crazy happens every night we play, both good and bad, but that’s the appeal of this game for us.

Stardew Valley - 46 Hours

This is a game that I never thought I would get into because I figured there wouldn’t be enough to do to keep my attention. Boy was I dead wrong. Once again, I was suggested to give this game a try by a friend (the same one who suggested Splatoon, so I guess I should start trusting them more...) so that we could play another game together. I tried out a solo farm just so I could get used to the controls before starting a new farm with my friend. I never knew how fun a farming game could be, there is so much to do in this game. Between tending to my farm, playing in the mines, and fishing, I am doing something every day in this game. It was even more fun to play with others, we could each do our own thing and we can build up our farm so much faster.

This game took over our lives for about two weeks because we so desperately wanted to make out farm pretty, get as many animals as we could, finish the Community Center, and get to the bottom of the mine. There were so many options for us and we found specific things that we each enjoyed doing, so we would venture off at the beginning of the day and reunite at night to go over what we still needed to do to reach our goals.

Monster Hunter World - 32 Hours

This is probably one of the last games I would willingly try out on my own. This game was one recommended to me by my roommate, and at first, I was really put off when he said you literally hunt the monsters in the game. It wasn’t until I saw him playing the game that I realized I might be able to enjoy the gameplay. My roommate actually ended up gifting me Monster Hunter World on Steam and I never looked back (he loves this game so much that he created a new profile to play through the game with me). I will say, the slow (more realistic) movement of the character and the weapons with their combos (I just spam buttons much to my roommate's annoyance) took me a while to get used to. I have such good memories of us fighting the different monsters, both with us winning and us getting completely destroyed. I actually loved this game so much that I ended up buying Monster Hunter Rise when it went on sale not long after finishing World.

Cult of the Lamb - 11 Hours

The cute little game where I get to play as a lamb and raise a cult, of course, I had to try this game out! I binge-played this game for about a week and I absolutely loved it. I had my original save file where I tried to just experience the game and then I had my save file where I played on stream. My carefree run in my personal save had me playing way too many rounds of Knucklebones (I love this game and I would honestly play it as a stand-alone game). I focused a lot on running through the dungeons to see what else I could unlock in my tiny cult world. It was so fun to just vibe with my cult until I realized I really should spruce up the land that my cult members were living on. During my run-through on stream, I spent a lot of time making my cult land up to par and making sure that I took care of my villagers. My first few members were named after friends who were watching in chat, so I felt more connected to them and I wanted to take care of them. Having two different runs that focused on the two different sections of the game really gave me a full view of how fun this game can be and I love how cozy a game about creating a cult can feel.

7 Days to Die - 19 Hours

This is a new game that I only just started playing in December but it’s already earned a spot on my favorite games I’ve played in 2022. A group of friends and I bought this during a Steam sale and played 7 Days to Die for the entire weekend. The first night that we played, we didn’t stop for 8 hours! This is such a fun game because all of us could play together (we had about 6 people) and we could do whatever we wanted. We each found a specialty that we enjoyed and worked around that. Some were hunters who found food, others did missions to get rewards, and others stayed home to build our base or cook food. Nobody was forced to play a certain way and the craziness that hit on the 7th day is always an intense experience. This is just a fun game that you have to try out with friends, it's crazy and unpredictable and just a great time.

And those are the games that have stuck out to me while looking back over the year. With what is showcased for Nintendo alone, 2023 is already looking to be filled with great new games, add that to my neverending backlog of games, I am looking forward to what the new year will bring~