2024 was full of surprises. Not all of them good! 2024 was a rough year, y'all. But sometimes surprises can be wonderful, and in this category we explore the things that caught us off guard in a good way. All sorts of things can be involved in this category, be it patches, games, DLC, or in one case, an entire restructuring of games distribution. These are the Best Surprises of 2024. The Nominees Are: Castlevania: Dominus Collection Celeste 64 Dragon Ball FighterZ Patch 1.38 Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club The Jackbox Survey Scramble Killer Instinct 10th Anniversary Update Kinki Spiritual Affairs Bureau Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics Steam Family Sharing Update Terry Bogard in Street Fighter 6 Tetrachroma UFO 50 Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Webfishing 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.