2022 in review
Another year comes to a close. Here are some great games I played in 2022 — plus some great films and TV series I enjoyed.
Well, it’s more or less the end of 2022 now, and I thought I’d do something a bit different than I have in previous years. I already wrote about some great games from 2022, and next week, I might write about some games released in 2022 that I’m still looking forward to playing. But this week, I’m writing about 2022, writ large.
You’ll find here ten games I loved this year, five movies I enjoyed in the theater, and five TV series that I found captivating. (I missed a lot of new music in 2022, instead diving deep into Japanese city pop. Maybe next year I’ll have a music segment for you. We’ll just have to wait and see!)
Ten games I played in 2022
I played a lot more than just ten games in 2022, but here are ten I played this year — a bunch from 2021 and a few considerable older — that lodged themselves firmly in my head. Some I’d played plenty in the past, while others first made the table over the last 12 months.
7 Wonders: Architects — This was a fun little spin on 7 Wonders, one of my favorite gateway games — except it’s a bit easier to teach, and it’s much easier to manage than the drafting classic.
Burgle Bros 2 — This was one of my top games of 2021, and I really enjoyed it in 2022, too. I love this cooperative heist, and I think it’s different enough than the original
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea — This one was good enough to make my list in 2022, and we played through the entire campaign with some friends through the year. The game’s v ariability is a real standout. I love a good trick-taker, and I love a good cooperative, and I love The Crew. This one was fated to be great.
Dominion — It had been a few years since I played a game of Dominion, but one of my wife’s aunts is a huge fan. I played a couple games with her, and it sparked my interest in the game anew. There’s just something comforting about this old classic. There’s a good reason it spawned the deck-building genre, and it holds up pretty well.
Exit: The Game — 2022 was the year of playing through every Exit game we could. I’d played a good number before 2022, but I got completely up-to-date on the series throughout the year with the help of some good friends. The series is consistently high-quality, excepting maybe the Lord of the Rings version.
For Science! — Mix dexterity, real-time and cooperative games together, and you’ve got a formula for one of the weirdest, most exciting games I’ve played in a long time. With big, chunky blocks and a sand timer, For Science is a game that pushes some really interesting limits.
Point Salad — This became one of my go-to games for teaching less-experienced gamers, in part because teaching the rules is a breeze. This set collection game is colorful, quick and casual, and sometimes, it’s exactly the game you need.
Railroad Ink — I’ve loved this game for a while, but I’ve just started playing the app on my tablet. It’s a great experience, and it’s one of the better apps I’ve played. One of these days I’m going to write about all the expansions and write about it. Just you wait.
Rook — I hadn’t played Rook until a camping trip this year, and it’s a classic trick-taker, so I’m glad this one made its way into my play this year. With only some cards scoring points, it made for some interesting strategy.
Tichu — I only played Tichu for the first time this year, and it was such a standout. Some day I’ll understand the strategy well enough to play well consistently. Until then, I’ll continue enjoying this ladder-climbing, trick-taking game while playing suboptimally.
Five films from 2022
The Batman — I’m not the biggest DC Comics reader (I’m more into Marvel, and I love what they’re doing with the X-Men these days), but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Batman. And like most people, I enjoyed the Christopher Nolan films in the universe, although I do think there’s something lacking there, too. The Batman felt like a film that found some of what was lacking in those films, and I thought it just worked really well.
Everything Everywhere All at Once — What a film! I‘m very clearly not alone in loving this one. It’s such a heartfelt take on one of the hot trends in all of popular science fiction right now, with great performances, beautifully filmed sequences, and a script that just hits all the right notes.
Nope — I really enjoyed director Jordan Peele’s earlier directorial efforts, Get Out and Us. Unsurprisingly, this was wildly different from either of those. Such a good monster movie. I had so much fun, start to finish.
Inu-Oh — I don’t know how to write about this one at all. This was a tremendously weird rock opera anime set in 14th century Japan. I’ve never seen anything even remotely like this. (This one was released in Japan in 2021, but I don’t live in Japan. I live in the United States. Just like my “9 great games from 2022” list, I’m counting U.S. release dates.)
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On — What a sweet, heartfelt film. I don’t think I can describe it better than the labels ascribed to it in the Wikipedia entry: It’s a “live-action stop-motion animated mockumentary comedy-drama film.” I never watched the shorts — or maybe I did, but it had been forever, and YouTube movies don’t stick in my head as well as films I see in theaters, for some reason. (OK, so this one saw a festival release in 2021, and it was in the United States, but you know what? I’m not counting that, either. I’m not the academy. This one came out in 2022 in a way I could see it, so I’m calling it that.)
Five TV series
The Rehearsal: Wow. Just … wow. I thought this was a comedy when I first watched it. Then I watched Nathan for You. Then I started rewatching The Rehearsal. This almost-sort-of reality show is an incredible exploration of life.
Severance: This is probably the most beautiful TV series I’ve ever seen. Every shot is perfection. It’s so stark and bleak, making the visuals an immaculate reflection of the story. I loved this.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — I’m a big Star Trek fan. I have been since basically birth. I don’t think this comes as a surprise to anybody, really, because I sort of don’t ever stop talking about it. As a result, all Star Trek is good in my eyes, within reason. (I still don’t like Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.) Strange New Worlds is the absolute height of modern Trek. Each episode feels unique, compelling and satisfying. There’s so much to love here.
The Midnight Club — I’ve got a real soft spot for horror, and I thought The Midnight Club was an excellent young adult take on the genre. It’s sort of an anthology series with a strong frame around it, and the frame is also a compelling story all its own. Don’t expect strong resolution from this one — Netflix cancelled it — but I think it’s well worth the watch all the same.
Ozark — the first four above started in 2022, but Ozark ended in 2022, and it’s some of the very best television I’ve seen. The story is intensely compelling, the acting is top-notch, and the cinematography is incredible. What a journey this series is.
I still haven’t seen a few key shows. The Rings of Power is one of those. So are so many others. I’m also not done with some shows, too. Count The Bear among those, but I’ve gotta tell you, it’s been so good. So is the 2022 anime Spy X Family, of which I’ve only seen the first half.
Don’t Eat the Meeples in 2022
This was the year I abandoned issue numbers, for one reason or another. It was also a sparse year for the first bit, and then I ramped up in the fall — and I’m glad I did. I’m enjoying the routine of writing about games on a weekly basis, and I’ll aim to continue that in 2023. (No promises, though.)
January: I started the year off with some of my favorite games from 2021.
March: I played a few great adventure board games and wrote about three of them.
May: I wrote about The Quacks of Quedlinburg, which cemented itself as one of my favorites in 2022
June: I discovered the joys of For Science!, which became one of the most interesting games I played all year.
August: Escape rooms and Exit games! Two of my favorite gaming experiences.
October: I picked up the regular publishing again, writing about games for playing in fall, a guide to trick-taking games, some great Halloween games, and one of the coolest games of the year, Paperback Adventures,.
November: I went over some of my favorite games from five years past (something I’m excited to do in 2023, too), wrote my annual board game gift guide, highlighted some of my favorite Japanese games you can buy in the U.S., and went over six games with quick teach times.
December: I highlighted three great roll-and-write games, five games for the winter season, and went over some of my favorite games from 2022.
Thanks for reading Don’t Eat the Meeples in 2022! I’m excited about what I’ll be writing in 2023, and I hope you’ll join me on that journey.