My Favorite Game Trailers of 2022
Once again I'm back with my favorite game trailers of the year. I'm sure there are some which slipped through the cracks because an utterly absurd number of trailers get released every DAY. Each year I keep a running YouTube playlist which I add to whenever I see a game trailer that I enjoyed. Then I go through the list at the end of the year and pull out ones that jump out at me. Without further ado here are my favorite game trailers of 2022 (in no particular order)
Best Damage Control - skate "still working on it" trailer. I love how gleefully the skate trailer shows a plethora of unfinished footage while the narrator talks about the team's vision for the game and how very unfinished the game is. This was their way of owning how unfinished the game was in response to the game leaking. I think this does a great job of taking control of the narrative in a very entertaining way. It's clear a lot of work went into this trailer. For example, I can only assume they had to add sound design to every shot.
Honorable mention goes to the Forspoken Demo Announce Trailer made by BOND (edited by Kevin Abernathy) which drops the quippy dialogue and uses more traditional trailer music. After the social media spot debacle I wouldn't be surprised if people saw this and gave Forspoken a second thought. Anyone who didn't see the social media spot are likely to be pretty interested.
Best Idealized Gameplay - Bloody Hell Hotel. This is a super sleekly made trailer which combines gameplay and custom in-engine footage. The developers were helpful enough to write a post with some details about its production after people were skeptical. This also won the Golden Joystick Awards first "Best Game Trailer" award. This does a fantastic job of showing the overall vision of running this hotel full of quirky characters. Will the game look 1:1 like this? Probably not, especially in the more choreographed/timed portions, but if they played their cards right it shouldn't be too far off.
Best Music Video - Skate Story. I wouldn't be surprised if there were people who put this trailer on loop given how good this music is. This trailer cut by Kert Gartner of Devolver Digital has great capture, editing, and amazingly well written copy. The visuals combined with the music are just mesmerizing.
Honorable mention goes to the Valorant "Can't Slow Me Down" trailer with kpop music which much flashier with expensive CG animation intercut with gameplay footage. I don't like that the gameplay doesn't have any sound effects but I understand it's an actual music video, and those don't traditionally have sound effects in them. This is super high production value stuff and looks great.
Most Stylish - Need for Speed: Unbound, Honorable mention - The Finals. Every now and then a trailer comes along that has been PRODUCED with a capital P. These trailers I wrote about in this blog post because their style really augmented their substance. Motion graphics and cut in overlays can at their worst look like they're trying to compensate for poor source material, but in this case they're all in line with the aesthetic of the games, and make for more exciting trailers.
To be clear, only a game of the notoriety of Vampire Survivors can get away with quotes like these.
Best Copy - Vampire Survivors If you've read this newsletter for a while you know how I dislike poorly written copy or boilerplate feature lists, so you'd be surprised to know how much I enjoyed this trailer which starts with "120,000 Positive Reviews." While it is true that incredibly high numbers make more compelling title cards, the part I like most is the next title card: "0 Vampires" poking fun at the fact there are no Vampires in a game titled Vampire Survivors.
I don't know the quotees mentioned (I assume they're content creators) and I think even had I not already played Vampire Survivors, the choice quotes of "Just... one... more... run..." and "Oh god what time is it" reflect the addictive nature of the game. The last quote of "This game rules so hard. I wish Italians were real" is very silly, but fits with the tone set by the trailer. In addition to the well chosen quotes, this trailer has great energy when flashing through power ups and scenes from the game.
Honorable mention to the copy in the Shadows Over Loathing trailer. From the get go "The purveyors of West of Loathing" both establishes the pedigree of the game and adds specificity to the language. This is so much better than if they'd said the typical: "The creators of." The rest of the title cards read: Present a fresh concoction...of confounding intrigue...and cosmic horror." And the best part is when the S falls down to reveal "Comic horror." This so elegantly and humorously establishes the subject matter and sense of humor. Super well done. Second honorable mention to Skate Story, because "You are a demon in the underworld made of glass and pain" is top notch.
Funniest Game Trailer - Goat Simulator 3 Announcement Trailer. This clever riff on the Dead Island 2 CG trailer adds exactly the right sort of absurd imagery I expect from a Goat Simulator game. The production value of the CG makes the visuals all that much more hilarious.
I’m just consistently gobsmacked by the quality of multiplayer capture across the industry right now
Best Multiplayer Capture - TIE between Overwatch, Destiny 2, Fortnite, Halo Infinite, PUBG, Apex Legends, Hunt: Showdown, Call of Duty Warzone. Yeah I know this is a cop out to just give credit to ALL these teams, and some of them are a mix of internal and external teams. I don't have the time to watch all of these trailers, I just know that when I do I'm always incredibly impressed. Multiplayer game capture is not for the faint of heart and it's all gobsmackingly good. I also know people who work in a lot of these teams and I super admire the work they do!
Best Update Trailers - Planet Zoo. These trailers might not be as flashy, but they're very well captured and edited. Also, while watching you might not even notice how natural and good the camera movement is. In this linked trailer pay attention to the camera tilt down movement at how the camera follows the subject around 0:29. That is not the sort of thing that I think you get done with just an analog gamepad. Really good stuff from the internal team.
Best Cinematic Single Player Trailers - Callisto Protocol. I was really blown away by the last couple trailers for the Callisto Protocol made by Hammer Creative. Super cinematic game capture, with tight editing, but shows just enough gameplay moments so it doesn't feel like it's all cinematic all the time.
Honorable mention to Gotham Knights, and trailers for Assassin’s Creed Valhallaupdates. All the trailers for these games have tremendous game capture and editing that I can't really choose between them. This category should also basically be a tie.
They don’t need more eyeballs on this trailer, but god dang is it good.
Best Animated Game Trailers - Hades II, I'm biased because I LOVE Supergiant Games, but hot dang this animated trailer by Studio Grackle, edited by my friend Shaun Finney is so flippin' good. This was the stand out moment of The Game Awards for me 'cause holy moly it's beautiful
Honorable mention to Rogue Legacy 2, Cult of the Lamb, Rollerdrome and Card Shark. Rogue Legacy 2 and Cult of the Lamb were made by Half Giant. These are all really great animated trailers which show off the world, stories, and gameplay with great style. Extra style points for Card Shark's fun editing and shot composition.
Best Cinematic 2D Gameplay Trailers - Dome Keeper Making 3D graphics look cinematic with AAA animation and a team of capture artists is one thing, but doing the same for a 2D game with pixel art is another entirely. That's why I have this category to give a shout out to all the trailers for Dome Keeper which are mostly done in-game (with some cutscenes here and there). All the gameplay concepts are clear, but also very dramatic and exciting to watch. Every single one is super well done!
Best Trailer Music Editing - We Are OFK - All of the trailers for We Are OFK are super well edited. It's really hard to integrate a song with lyrics into a trailer with dialogue because you have to fit dialogue in between the lyrics AND make sure they're telling the story. All of these trailers succeed at doing that and with different songs. Great stuff.
Best Award For Simplicity - Time Flies It's easy to mistake simplicity for either lack of effort or thought and consideration. But to make a trailer which shows so little, but says so much is very impressive. This trailer perfectly fits the minimalist look of the game and ends up being surprisingly touching.
This presentation is fun as heck (and the game is very good too!)
Best Game/Trailer integration - Patrick's Parabox This trailer by Gary J. Kings does a great job of using the presentation of the trailer to highlight the puzzle game mechanic of these recursive boxes. Extremely eye catching and fun to watch.
Best Original Presentation - Earthblade. I LOVE how this trailer combines multiple capture passes and stitches them together into a one-take shot. It's not just flash for the sake of it, this presentation elegantly emphasizes the expansive world of the game.
Honorable mention to Wreckreation whose trailer has us believe that there are living people in this world where you can build and design your own tracks. Very fun presentation.
Best Original Trailer Song - Time on Frog Island. This trailer made by my friend James McGregor is so wholesome and delightful to watch. The song was written by James and does a great job matching the vibe of the game and illustrating gameplay
This trailer is cute and charming as heck!
Best Live Action - A Little to the Left. Integrating live action into a game trailer is usually for when people want to make an 80s or 90s throwback (often to mixed results) but this live action trailer for A Little to the Left is a pure delight. It manages to be cute but not cloying. I love how the camera moves between the live action inspiration to the in-game moments. And of course I love the cat paw knocking things over. It also really personalizes the game by inviting us into the house of the developers.
I mentioned throwback style live-action game trailers and the honorable mention in this category goes to Witch Strandings is an example of it being very well done. Really well shot with a great sense of atmosphere. I still don't really understand what happens in the game, but I'm still intrigued.
Best Long Takes - My Work is Not Yet Done is another trailer I wrote a full review for. I just love how confident and suspenseful these long takes are. It certainly grabbed my attention and held it.
Best Horror Game Trailer - Signalis This trailer has a great sense of foreboding and builds tension tremendously. Very tightly edited but it shows a lot of atmosphere, gameplay, and callbacks to its inspiration.
Honorable mention to Paranormal Tales and its body cam footage very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project. Really super well done and I'm curious to know how accurate this is to the gameplay experience.
Nothing quite like a beloved music cue kicking in at just the right moment
Best Needle Drop Music - Dead Cells Castlevania. The theme from Hades kicking in during the Hades II trailer was * chef's kiss * but nothing quite like hearing the Castlevania music in this trailer for Dead Cells. The hits just kept on hitting from that point forward. Super hype.
Sonic Frontiers ended up having pretty typically middling reviews for a Sonic Game, and the gameplay didn't look terribly interesting, so it's understandable the trailer makers pulled out the big guns by using Don't Stop Me Now by Queen for their launch trailer. It fits Sonic really well and it's hard not to feel exciting when listening to that music, so my hats off.
Everything Looks Cool Award - Judas. I have a hard time separating the visuals from the trailer editing and the pedigree of the people behind this game. I just love the music cue, the giant robot dog, the unique character designs, and other visuals that I can't say I've seen anything like before. I just feel compelled to stare and try to not blink because there's so much going on despite the editing feeling subdued rather than in-your-face.
Best UI Taming - The Case of the Golden Idol wins for taking a game which has tons of UI and not a lot of movement, and making it understandable and compelling to watch. There is a LOT of UI in this game which is played mostly by clicking and dragging text, and yet it's all dramatic and fun to watch in this trailer.
Best Textless Gameplay Trailer - Replaced.- I'm pretty sure a bunch of other trailers in here quality for this made up category. I just didn't know how to classify this one. But this trailer for Replaced is super nice with its mix of varied gameplay footage and rhythms combined with an atmospheric music cue.
Best Energy - Anger Foot. I believe this was edited by my friend MJoshua at Devolver Digital. The gameplay portion of this is only really 30 seconds long, but it fast and hard hitting, which looks like it perfectly matches the pacing of this gameplay which is very Hotline Miami in that you have to start all over again if you mess up. I love that the last nearly half of the trailer is just the protagonist jamming out in their car and then the enemies having a dance party. SO much energy in here it's hard not to get swept up in all of it.
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So there is a fraction of some of my favorite game trailers of 2022. At this rate, this long is going to get longer and longer every year and I might actually have to be more picky. Just so much good work all around, and more and more talented folks are out there making game trailers all the time. I'm so excited to see the pool of talent constantly getting bigger and more skilled. Congrats to everyone, 2022 was such an amazing year for game trailers. There are many more which didn’t make this particular list, so you can look at my YouTube playlist of trailers I really liked from 2022!
