‘Indiana Jones,’ ‘Misericorde’ and 2024 games we missed

Try as I might to play every notable release, many more worthy games came out in 2024 than we could possibly include on NPR’s annual list of favorites. The industry even had the gall to debut a Game of the Year contender in December of all things! So with the Nintendo Switch 2 announced and the tide of 2025 games about to overflow, I’ve raced to catch up with “Indiana Jones and The Great Circle” and more top contenders from last year.

“Super Mario Party” has an excruciating minigame where you jiggle the controller to evenly brown each side of a cube of meat. “Arctic Eggs” nestles that mechanic, which some freaks actually enjoy, in a lo-fi world of cryptic and wry dialogue. You’re this frozen compound’s resident egg sizzler – and you’ll have to satisfy some truly weird tastes.

You’ll use your pan and its invisible heat source to flip pizzas, fry stingrays, melt ice, burn cigarettes, explode bullets and more. Drop anything from your pan and you’ll have to restart. Challenges range from simple to maddening. It took me dozens of attempts to cook six perfect eggs at once: a nightmare even on the game’s easiest mode. But I’ll admit that these frustrations make “Arctic Eggs” more memorable. The game commits to an audacious bit that makes just as much sense as its mystifying setting and the “Saint of the Six Stomachs” who rules it.

The card-slinging “Slay the Spire” spawned numerous imitators, a (reportedly great) board game, and an upcoming early-access sequel, but “Hellcard” distinguishes itself with modular co-op. Each player pilots their own deck and makes independent decisions about which enemies to face and which rewards to swipe. But you’ll still feel like you’re working together as you stack buffs and carefully plot your turns.

“Hellcard” lacks the intriguing story of “Cobalt Core” and the polish of “Wildfrost,” nor are its mechanics as deep as either “Slay the Spire”-esque roguelike. But though I nearly exhausted the game’s novelty in 10 hours, “Hellcard” dealt my wife, my bro-in-law, and me some of the snappiest team gameplay we’ve ever experienced.

I was indifferent to this latest “Indiana Jones” game until I realized that the geniuses behind the new “Wolfenstein” titles had made it. Like those first-person games, “The Great Circle” pits you against fascists, but you’re more likely to dispatch them with stealthy tricks and improvised weapons than guns. Satisfying as it is to bludgeon Nazis with broomsticks, cookware, or anything else handy, it’s the game’s vast, layered level design that really shines.

Only occasionally burdened by opaque puzzles, the game’s locales, from the Vatican to Gizeh, overflow with unique notes, mysteries, sidequests, banter and books. Complete with a stellar voice cast (including the iconic Troy Baker in the title role), few games have combined cinematic spectacle, pulpy action, and open exploration as seamlessly as “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.”

I love “The Name of the Rose” and murder mysteries set in monasteries. Surprisingly, that premise now includes two stand-out video games with radically diverging approaches to  historical accuracy. "Pentiment" attempts to preserve much of 1500s Bavaria's art and attitudes, while "Misericorde," which came out with a second volume at the very end of last year, is far more interested in character psychology than its ostensibly medieval setting.

“Volume Two” also puts the game’s queer subtext front and center. Protagonist Hedwig begins to encounter a “doppelganger” that tempts her to increasingly riotous behavior with her fellow nuns. Just as the political machinations and psycho-sexual plots start to boil over, the game also introduces a second timeline, set in the 1980s, that raises more questions than it answers and even once busts the fourth wall like the mind-bending FMV game, “Immortality.”

Solo-developer xeecee will have a devil of a time knitting these loose threads together in the upcoming “Volume Three,” but if you’re looking for something that really puts the “novel” in “visual novel,” the salacious secrets and punk-edged aesthetic of “Misericorde” may tickle your particular fancy.

Sharing a name with a pub made famous by Jack the Ripper, “Ten Bells” is short, sweet and sinister. Your job is to investigate anomalies at the Victorian bar – if nothing’s out of the ordinary, proceed to the private room in the back. Soon you’ll find discrepancies ranging from innocuous (the wallpaper’s the wrong color) to perplexing (the spigots are backward) to downright terrifying (the sudden appearance of pools of blood). Each time you discover an anomaly, you’ll need to sprint back to the start of the level, or you may just lose your life.

Over each run, you’ll slowly unlock more documents and artifacts that explain the pub’s dire history. This writing is a bit hamfisted (its “secret ending” is especially maudlin), but the execution of the game’s core mechanic is nothing short of brilliant. At only a few dollars, “Ten Bells” is well worth the cover charge.