Games. Turns out, you tend to play them. In years past, we have often tried to talk about the elegance of particular systems and mechanics before, but we never had a category exclusive to that. Debuting this year, we wanted to award our favorite mechanics from 2024.

The Nominees Are:

Mind Chess (Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit)Learning Languages (Chants of Sennaar)Bullet Guidance (Children of the Sun)Lane Rails (Deadlock)Memories (Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake)Pawns (Dragons Dogma 2)Bravery Points (Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising)Stratagems (Helldivers 2)Bond (Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom)Team Up (Marvel Rivals)The Car (Pacific Drive)The Starry Expanse (Riven [2024])Fast Talk (Star Wars Outlaws)Possession (Slitterhead)Rewind (Tetrachroma)Guard Thrust (Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes])Tactics (Unicorn Overlord)Special Training Plan (Zenless Zone Zero)

Here's our write-up for the winners!

Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.