Without a doubt, 2022 was a standout year for video games and those who adore them, with a wide assortment of anticipated and celebrated releases, from Elden Ring to Return to Monkey Island to Inscryption to God of War: Ragnarök, to name but a meager few. Less generally speaking, it was also a great year for games appealing more specifically to those with an overt passion for movies and TV shows, and we’ve rounded up the best releases that are most worthy of players’ attention (and obsessions).
All of the games listed below were brand new releases within 2022, so you won’t see such potentially suitable offerings as Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual’s PSVR port, the World War Z: Aftermath update, or Cuphead’s Delicious Last Course DLC, though the latter should 100% be enjoyed by anyone who’s watched the TV show with a Netflix subscription. Now let’s kick things off with one of the wildest pop culture crossovers of the digital age.
MultiVersus
Fictional mash-ups have long been a concept utilized by fighting games, from Marvel vs. Capcom to Super Smash Bros., but it was still a shock when Warner Bros. unveiled its own take on the sub-genre with MultiVersus. The freemium brawler features a gobsmacking lineup to choose from, including Steven Universe, Iron Giant, Velma and Shaggy, Gremlins’ Gizmo and Stripe, Batman, Black Adam, Harley Quinn, Adventure Time’s Jake and Finn, Rick and Morty’s titular characters, and even more. Even more gobsmacking? The game is actually a winner, garnering much fan praise and winning Best Fighting Game at this year’s Game Awards, where it was also nominated for Best Multiplayer Game. It’s the only piece of media in history where one can say “Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark just whooped the shit out of Tom and Jerry.”
Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
The Walking Dead: Saints And Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution
The Walking Dead’s flagship TV series came to its spinoff-spawning end this year, which coincided with the second and final chapter of Skydance and Skybound’s zombified VR series The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution. While the Telltale Games’ series is arguably a better example of a morality-imbued TWD narrative, the Saints & Sinners games are the gaming apex when it comes to suspensefully dealing with walker herds in satisfyingly gruesome ways. Despite some early hiccups, Chapter 2: Retribution is still a pretty stellar sequel, delivering much more terror for fans to survive, with a few new weapons to help in that endeavor.
Available On: Meta Quest 2, PICO 4
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Whatever one’s mileage is for live-action Star Wars storytelling, the universe is rarely more charming than when it’s handled by LEGO Star Wars. While the upcoming Star Wars: Jedi Survivor is clearly aiming for certain kinds of gamers, the Skywalker Saga is a Death Star-sized piece of block-filled fun for all ages. Though LEGO games are best enjoyed in sporadic bursts that help combat same-y gameplay woes, this collection’s all-encompassing embrace of the mainline canon trilogies features lots of varied up chaos to help keep things fresh. Any game that lets players wreck shop as Leia is one worth playing.
Available On: PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
While technically more aligned with fans of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game than the original ‘80s-’90s animated series, the sheer throwback excellence of Shredder’s Revenge makes it a must-play release for fans who adore the Heroes in a Half-Shell in any medium. Beyond the tight gameplay and perfectly crafted 16-bit graphic scheme, this return to Ninja Turtles lore features a fantastic lineup of villains and side characters introduced during those early years, from the Punk Frogs to the Neutrinos to Slash and Metalhead. The only fault with TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge is that it isn’t a hundred times longer.
Available On: PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows, Linux (coming to Android and iOS in 2023)
The Quarry
One of two 2022 releases from Until Dawn’s Supermassive Games, The Quarry stands out as the more optimal choice over the developer’s shift to true crime with The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me. Embracing and thwarting tropes in equal measure, The Quarry is a love letter to creature features and ‘80s slashers, giving players control of the fates of various summer camp counselors during a single, terror-filled night. On top of the engaging and unsettling branching story and mechanics, the game’s biggest strength is possibly its mo-capped cast of familiar TV and horror talents, including David Arquette, Ariel Winter, Ethan Suplee, Ted Raimi, Lance Henriksen, Halston Sage, Brenda Song, Lin Shaye, Justice Smith, and Grace Zabriskie. Unlike your favorite horror movie, The Quarry features more than a few different endings based on the choices that players made.
Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Immortality
Possibly the most unique entry on this or any other Best of 2022 lists out there, Immortality is the latest and greatest perception-jarring experience from Her Story and Telling Lies creator Sam Barlow. A game that is best enjoyed going in blind, Immortality centers on fictional model-turned-actress Marissa Marcel (Manon Gage), whose promising career comprised productions on three films (in 1968, 1970, and 1999) that were never publicly released. Players are tasked with sorting through finished and unfinished clips, behind-the-scenes interviews, auditions and more in order to find clues behind what happened to Marissa, as well as her various colleagues over the years. It’s a disturbing, meaningful, and obsession-inducing mystery that will have film lovers considering themselves bonafide detectives by the end.
Available On: Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Android, iOS (coming to macOS TBA)
High On Life
Rick and Morty wrapped up its enjoyable Season 6 run with December 11’s finale, which was gloriously followed almost immediately by the release of High on Life, the latest dialogue explosion from R&M co-creator and star Justin Roiland. The game involves a human fighting off tyrannical aliens using living, sentient weapons whose baffling and often NSFW thoughts are voiced with unbridled glee by Roiland, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s J.B. Smoove, I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson, and Duncanville’s Betsy Sodaro. Not to mention a supporting cast filled out by such A+ talents as Jack Black, Susan Sarandon, Andy Daly, Maria Bamford, Nolan North, Tara Strong, Tom Kenny, Kevin McDonald, and many more. High on Life isn’t for everyone, particularly given its drug-addled storyline, but it’s the funniest shooter imaginable for Roiland’s most devoted fans.
Available On: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Evil Dead: The Game
Though there's a new Evil Dead movie on the way, franchise vet Bruce Campbell portrayed his iconic character Ash Williams for the last time in live-action via Ash vs. Evil Dead. But he did lend his vocal chops to the PvP and co-op survival horror Evil Dead: The Game, as did his TV co-stars Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago, as well as the 2013 remake’s Jane Levy and Shiloh Fernandez. (The legendary effects master Tom Savini even designed an exclusive Ash look for the game.) While I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of PvP fare, it’s a definite blast to run around this entire Sam Raimi-created universe as these characters, even if it means getting hacked to death by total strangers.
Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (coming to Nintendo Switch TBA)
The Last Of Us Part 1
We’re ending things on a bit of a rule-stretch, since The Last of Us was initially released back in 2014, with several re-releases having come and gone in the interim. However, the fully remastered Part I release was worth adding to this round-up not only because of the bonkers visual updates and other tweaks that make the emotionally affecting story all the more effective, but because it precedes HBO’s slightly less violent live-action adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as the quintessential gaming duo of Joel and Ellie. There’s been no better time or way to relive (or experience for the first time) their post-apocalyptic bond during their cross-country journey to try and find a cure for the deadly infection that ravaged the U.S.
Available On: PS5 (coming to Windows on March 3, 2023)
There were obviously some TV and film-themed games that didn't make the cut here, including Rifftrax - The Game, featuring everyone's favorite movie-riffing MST3K vets; Death Stranding: Director's Cut, with creator Hideo Kojima announcing a Death Stranding TV show is on the way; and As Dusk Falls, another pretty excellent choice-driven, branching narrative game with a botched robbery at its core. So feel free to check out those three after knocking out the nine listed above.
And when those peepers are exhausted from all the gaming, head to our 2023 TV premiere guide and our upcoming new movies schedule to see all the big shows and films coming soon.
