{"id":130922,"date":"2022-12-31T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-142885"},"modified":"2022-12-31T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T18:00:00","slug":"talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/12\/31\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming &#8216;Theme&#8217; Of 2022?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/fc9885313381a\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/fc9885313381a\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 1\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/fc9885313381a\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-1.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA5MDAgNTA2Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/fc9885313381a\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-1.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 1\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hey, remember in 2022&#8217;s Summer Game Fest when every other trailer was about scary things happening in space? It was like, &#8220;hey, what if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps5\/dead_space\" class=\"external\">Dead Space<\/a> was everything&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>What a fun time that was. But it highlighted something important in video games: The fact that every year more or less has a trend. Like how 2017 was the year the Switch swept everything, and then 2019 was the year of cool, weird indies like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/untitled_goose_game\">Goose Game<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/disco_elysium_the_final_cut\">Disco Elysium<\/a>, and 2020 was the year we all got sad, stayed inside, and played <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/animal_crossing_new_horizons\">Animal Crossing: New Horizons<\/a>. Right?<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/related-articles:142051 @ 2023-01-01T11:16:53+00:00 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p>Now that we&#8217;re at the end of 2022, I&#8217;m taking the time to look back at the year and figure out what the theme was \u2014 and how we&#8217;ll remember this year in games when it&#8217;s long past.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at many sites&#8217; GOTY lists, you&#8217;ll see them all dominated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps5\/elden_ring\" class=\"external\">Elden Ring<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pushsquare.com\/games\/ps5\/god_of_war_ragnarok\" class=\"external\">God of War Ragnarok<\/a>, but here on Nintendo Life, we&#8217;ve had a very different year. Two Pok\u00e9mon games, a new 3D <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/kirby_and_the_forgotten_land\">Kirby<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/splatoon_3\">Splatoon 3<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/bayonetta_3\">Bayonetta 3<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/mario_plus_rabbids_sparks_of_hope\">Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope<\/a> kept the exclusives and first-party fires burning on the ol&#8217; Switch, and even though we didn&#8217;t get a full Mario or Zelda release this year, we got <em>plenty<\/em> of news about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/legend_of_zelda_tears_of_the_kingdom\">Tears of the Kingdom<\/a> and the <strong>Super Mario Bros. Movie<\/strong> to tide us over.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 3\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b5f1e4bfc2aee\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-3.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA5MDAgNTA2Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/b5f1e4bfc2aee\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-3.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 3\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Image: Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Personally, I&#8217;m more of an indies gal when it comes down to it, and this year didn&#8217;t disappoint, even if many of the best indies on Switch were ports from previous years. I like to think that 2022 will be remembered as a year of weird-but-beautiful narrative-angled games that defy genre, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/neon_white\">Neon White<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/cult_of_the_lamb\">Cult of the Lamb<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/citizen_sleeper\">Citizen Sleeper<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/card_shark\">Card Shark<\/a>, and even if we didn&#8217;t get other games in the same category \u2014 <strong>Immortality<\/strong>, <strong>Pentiment<\/strong>, and <strong>Case of the Golden Idol<\/strong> come to mind \u2014 I still think the Switch had a pretty fantastic year for indies.<\/p>\n<p>Still, if I had to guess what 2022 will be remembered for, I think I already answered the question: two Pok\u00e9mon games, which effectively bookended the year, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/pokemon_legends_arceus\">Legends: Arceus<\/a> at the start and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/pokemon_scarlet_and_violet\">Scarlet and Violet<\/a> at the end. Both were varying degrees of janky, but both elevated the series to new heights at the same time, and in a year that was bereft of Mario and Zelda, it makes sense that another one of the big dogs would take the spotlight.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"picture\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 2\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c516eb896a71b\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-2.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA5MDAgNTA2Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/c516eb896a71b\/talking-point-what-was-the-video-gaming-theme-of-2022-2.900x.jpg\" alt=\"Talking Point: What Was The Video Gaming Theme Of 2022? 2\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Image: The Pok\u00e9mon Company<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>These two games, for me at least, were a real coming home moment \u2014 the first time in a long time that I&#8217;ve actually wanted to play a Pok\u00e9mon game to completion. For so long, the series has been about the same thing with different flavours; Arceus and ScarVi finally dared to take big steps into the great unknown, and despite a lot of technical flaws, the series is better for it.<\/p>\n<p>And riffing off the themes of both of these behemoth Pok\u00e9mon games, I suppose I could argue that 2022, five years on from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/legend_of_zelda_breath_of_the_wild\">Breath of the Wild<\/a>, was all about <em>freedom<\/em>. The freedom to roam in ScarVi and Elden Ring, the freedom to explore in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/xenoblade_chronicles_3\">Xenoblade Chronicles 3<\/a>, and even the non-linearity of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/sonic_frontiers\">Sonic Frontiers<\/a> \u2014 I think we&#8217;re continuing to see game design ripples coming from the gigantic splash that Breath of the Wild made in 2017, and I don&#8217;t mind at all. A lot of games, AAA especially, benefitted this year from open worlds, and if studios can continue to get it right, games will be all the better for it.<\/p>\n<p>But there could be a bigger, grander theme that I&#8217;m just not seeing, and so I turn to you, lovely readers. What do you think will be the &#8220;theme&#8221; of 2022? Is it different on Switch than other platforms? And what do you think next year will be all about, other than Zelda? Tell me in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/related-articles:115162 @ 2023-01-01T11:16:53+00:00 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Nintendo Life Hey, remember in 2022&#8217;s Summer Game Fest when every other trailer was about scary things happening in space? It was like, &#8220;hey, what if Dead Space was everything&#8221;? What a fun time that was. But it highlighted something important in video games: The fact that every year more or less has a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}