Best of 2024, Not from 2024

Continuing to rest in the comfort zones of retro styles, but my new calling as a junior roleplaying Game Master kept me from stagnating and got me scribbling furiously on notepads again. Welcome to this year's influential round-up of Some Things I Liked This Year, Not Necessarily Also Produced This Year, Although Some Were.

~ Best Game of 2024, Not from 2024 ~

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game (2016)

I always wondered whether I'd end up owning one of those chunky RPG rulebooks. I didn't expect it would be for My Little Pony, but I couldn't have asked for a clearer introduction, subsequently devouring most of the related supplements and hand-holding adventure books (2017–21) until there was no choice but to make our own. In boxed games, we enjoyed asynchronous word association with Stella (2021) and constructing high-rise deathtraps in Rhino Hero: Super Battle (2017), but the slightly more complex Forbidden Island (2010) will have to remain a solo co-op until she grows into it or indulges her old man. Map-making RPG Cartograph (2022) was a less lonely solo pursuit when I could be bothered.

~ Best Book of 2024, Not from 2024 ~

Ben Egloff and artists, The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables (2023)

I don't know if I'll ever need to create a universe from scratch in this much painstaking detail, but it's comforting to know that dice rolls have me covered. In unchallenging literature, the Doctor Who Eleventh Doctor novels exceeded my expectations for franchise cash-ins, with Jonathan Morris' Touched by an Angel (2011) and Naomi A. Alderman's Borrowed Time (2011) being particular stand-outs. Matthew Gregory Lewis' The Monk (1796) earned a cobwebbed throne at the Gothic round table, Alan Partridge soared to new literary heights with Big Beacon (2023), and Steve Aylett's The Crime Studio (1994) was a darkly hilarious overture to subsequent letdowns.

~ Best TV of 2024, Some from 2024 ~

The Expanse (2015–22)

The best space show since Battlestar Galactica, and similarly upbeat, though it wouldn't make the all-time list. Cyberpunk anime Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990) was good too, but too short. Gratuitously repetitive celestial teen superheroine saga Sailor Moon (seasons one, SuperS & Sailor Stars, 1992–97) had the opposite problem, but still had infectious charm. A year's break rekindled my enthusiasm for Taskmaster (UK, NZ & AU, 2023–24), but other stalwarts Black Mirror (season six, 2023) and Inside No. 9 (series nine, 2024) had few surprises at this point. Documentaries Prehistoric Planet (2022–23) and Back in Time for Birmingham (2022) were a couple of insightful time trips.

~ Best Film of 2024, Some from 2024 ~

Les Diaboliques (1955)

My favourite type of mystery: unrealistically overconvoluted. The Babadook (2014) was an impressively compassionate creeper; The City of the Dead (1960), Hour of the Wolf (1968) and Inferno (1980) more conventionally atmospheric. I came late, so to speak, to spicy French arthouse vampires, but Daughters of Darkness (1971) and Lips of Blood (1975) pleased my inner teenage Cradle of Filth fan, and I Saw the TV Glow (2024) skilfully captured the angst-complicated nostalgia of those times.

~ Best Album of 2024, Not from 2024 ~

Various, Top Gun soundtrack (1986)

Seeking the best of nostalgically novel 80s Action Cartoon Intro Rock, from ZZ Top's Afterburner (1985) to the jazzy Japanese cul-de-sac of Prism's Nothin' Unusual (1985), I found its ultimate expression in the bespoke anthems for a film I have no interest in ever watching. The Sailor Moon Sailor Stars Music Collection (1996) proved to be more productive work music, while the conventional darkness crept back in courtesy of French goth punks Dystopian Society's Overturned Reality (2015), Russian doomers Molchat Doma's Etazhi (2018) and Hell house band Devil Master's Ecstasies of Never Ending Night (2022). The Household Shocks demo compilation (1980) was uncategorisably cool too.

~ Best Spoken Word of 2024, Actually from 2024 ~

Maker, Ultimate Rabbit Holes & Conspiracy Icebergs (2024)

They're alphabetical encyclopaedias, not "icebergs" (and not always correctly alphabetised), but across the year I looked forward to these regular refreshers, updates and new mild-melting revelations, like how we're addicted to air, fire is alive and animals can talk, they just choose not to.

~ Best Food of 2024, Not from 2024 ~

Raw spring onions (Antiquity)

It's not like I haven't had them before, but usually cooked to rob them of their potency. Tear some up and toss 'em on your mature Cheddar sandwich to give it a kick up the ass! On a similar note, I liked that jar of spicy onion flakes we had in the fridge once too, we should get that again.

~ Best Spice Girl of 2024, Not from 2024 ~

Sporty Spice (1990s)

As my daughter's music repertoire expanded beyond animated characters to live-action characters, I caught up on the pop sensation I was too preoccupied with Sonic and Star Trek to care about at the time. This one can do backflips!

As (mostly) seen on

Best Things: 1985–2024