Best of 2023
Twenty Twenty-three. Lots of talk about being the best year ever. So, is it? No. No, it's not. It's a year stacked with *good* games, sure. And, compared to the last few years, it's stellar, but that's a low bar. I feel like many of the "big" games didn't truly live up to their hype. That's alright, though.
Regardless, here are my Top 10 games of the year along with made-up bullshit awards as honorable mentions.
[OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING]
Best Game I Will Never Be Good Enough to Play
I've never been as excited about a game that I'll never play as I was for this kaizo SMW ROM hack. If you're not familiar with SMW ROM hacks, that might sound ridiculous... and it is. But, I've been watching BarbarousKing work on this game since early 2020 while all the best Mario players spent three years trying to avoid spoilers. And it 100% lived up to the hype to become one of if not the best ROM hacks of all time.
Whether it's noxious gas with throwable warp pipes, a ghost house with resurrection blocks, or a tower of 81 one-room challenges in a random order, every level has something unique about it. The tests of skill and knowledge are one thing, but Barb has proven to be a master of secrets and puzzles. I mean... do you know of any other game that requires you to know the lyrics to Wendy's "Hot Drinks"? And I haven't even mentioned that it has a non-linear, FF-style overworld where you get an airship with a radio.
Best N64 Game of 2023
For better or worse, they made the game they set out to make. By that, of course, I mean they made a modern N64 wrestling game. It's fun to play, but everything surrounding the core game is quite lacking. I hope they get a second shot at it.
Best Game I'm Too Scared to Play
I don't do horror games. I've got enough anxiety problems. But, I wanted to stay caught up on the Remedy universe because Control was my GOTY in 2019. So, I watched a streamer play through it. I was a bit disappointed with he ending, but the journey was a hell of a ride. Those jump scares are still entirely unnecessary though.
Second Best Loki Product of the Year
AC is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I enjoyed the return to a smaller scale here, but it was blatantly obvious that this was a slightly juiced-up DLC. I'd love for them to take a shot at "old" AC again with a wholly separate story.
The Going Through the Motions Award
I played through the beta and was actually psyched to get into the "real" game, but quickly realized that retreading through the same 10-15 hours to get to something new was a real slog. The worst part though is that the new stuff after that was quite boring too. I was constantly hoping to rediscover the magic of the franchise's past and simply never finding it.
Best Azaleas
The courses are beautiful and the gameplay is okay once you get a feel for the timing, but there's a lot of jank and weird design decisions. 100% feels like a golf game made by people who used to make golf games who haven't made one in 8 years.
Most Expensive-Looking Game
When I say I don't care much for this game, I feel like the assumed reason is that it's because it's an action game and not an RPG. That doesn't matter at all to me. What matters is that they made an action game that doesn't live up to the hype of bringing in the DMC combat designer from Capcom. The production value is thru the roof and it looks amazing, but there’s no meaningful exploration of the world, customization, or strategy. It feels like I was doing the same dodge > 5-hit combo over and over to get to the next set piece. Those set pieces were incredible though.
Most Characters Whose Names I Already Forgot
It's fine, but they basically made a greatest hits game. The way that you can set up some chain reaction punishes by using the right advantage weapons is super cool, but this is not the next Three Houses most of us want.
Best Reminder That Xbox 360 is Now a Retro Console
Hey, remember the first great Xbox Live Arcade game, Marble Blast Ultra? This is that, but new. And it's still very fun.
Best Game Everyone Kinda Forgot About
It seems like Octopath is the #1 snub in this massive year in games. It's incredibly good. I have this recurring problem, though, where I get over halfway through these HD-2D games and then never finish them. What I'm saying is it's me, not you, Octopath. I'm sorry.
Most Dependable
Jupiter keeps churning these out and I will keep buying them. They came out this year and basically said they'd love to do more Picross collaborations with Nintendo, but that Nintendo is hard to work with. That's upsetting. Since Nintendo also owns the Picross name, this has led Jupiter to making a new sonogram game on Steam called Logiart Grimoire. So, go check that out.
Best "Well That's Neat" Game
Talk about a beautifully weird mind-bender of a game. Wow. While I enjoyed the several hours it took to complete Cocoon, I only had space in my Top 10 for one bizarre puzzle game. It definitely had quite a few moments of "holy shit, that worked?", but some of those boss fights were a bit repetitive, unfortunately. I'm talking about the ones where you have to shoot the targets to ascend to the boss then play tennis.
Best Melons
At this moment, I have not yet combined two watermelons. It's wild that this game was made by some folks who manufacture screen projectors.
The Top 10
You're telling me that in a year as good as this, I'm putting a Geoguessr clone on my Top 10? Yes. Yes, I am. The person who created EQ Guessr, Silvae, did an amazing job picking out countless locations throughout EverQuest and its first two expansions. I also love how well they integrated the classic EQAtlas maps. You see, back in the day, we had no in-game maps at all. Everyone used to print out these hand-drawn maps from EQAtlas because you also couldn't tab out of the game at the time either. Throughout this year, I played hundreds of rounds of this game and I'm still going back several times a week. It was my "comfort food" game of 2023, for sure. If I knew how to program, this is the kind of thing I would've made.
I tried to figure out a way to justify adding the game to the wiki, but it doesn't really fit our rules for Browser games and it's kinda unlicensed. But, I guess it lets me put EverQuest on my Top 10 list nearly 20 years after I quit playing it, so that's fun.
What a wonderfully weird game. Humanity is the kind of weird that we used to get from PlayStation back in the 90s and early 2000s. Right off the bat, it felt like a combination of Lemmings and Intelligent Qube, but each chapter adds another layer to the formula, which creates a slew of increasingly difficult puzzles. I certainly didn't expect to get to a point where I could equip the people with laser pistols and light sabers! It nails the primary thing you want from a good puzzle game, which is that it makes you think just long enough to make you feel super smart when you solve the level; especially when you get all the gold dudes.
I love The Elder Scrolls. I do not like Fallout. I know. It's weird. So, coming into Starfield, I was a bit apprehensive because I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not. Well, unfortunately for me, Starfield didn't live up to the hype. The game simply has too many weird design decisions that have no answers other than "Bethesda made a Bethesda game", and that's frustrating. Plus, despite there being 100 star systems, there's basically no sense of exploration, which is a massive part of why I love Skyrim and Oblivion. I would've been much happier with... I dunno... ten developed worlds and smattering of space stations and such.
The main storyline isn't satisfying at all. Bethesda seems to have set out with the idea that they wanted to make a game that was endlessly playable, and while some of the New Game+ randomness is cool, I don't want to play the same character forever. If I want to play it again, I want to do something completely different. Also, it's not exactly fun doing a bunch of those temples repeatedly. Like...who thought that floating around grabbing glowy things over and over was good?
I did, however, find some enjoyment in the faction quests and side stuff. The problem with them, though, is that Bethesda tries to design them in such a way that everything is a gray area in terms of morality. That sounds good on paper, right? Make the player make difficult decisions and all. But, often this just results in me not giving a fuck who "wins" at the end of the quest line. Instead of getting to a point where I say "Man... this is hard to choose", I end up saying "Both of these sides/people kinda suck, so whatever... just give me the reward".
I'm just glad that they can focus on The Elder Scrolls VI now.
I haven't finished Super Mario Bros. Wonder myself, but I spent an entire weekend playing it with my niece and nephews (5, 8, and 10). While the multiplayer mechanics can be frustrating at times (don't let the 5-year-old have the crown), we had a blast. The level-altering Wonder Flowers add an exciting element every 5-10 minutes, but I felt like the regular power-ups weren't all that great. When given the option, I usually just stuck with a Fire Flower. I did like the addition of the badges, though, and the fun arguments they caused between levels. Now, if my younger nephew and I could just convince the older one to slow down and look for secrets, we'd be golden.
I have almost zero affinity for Star Wars. It somehow just wasn't a thing in my friend group as a kid, so the first Star Wars thing that I truly enjoyed was Knights of the Old Republic. But, when Respawn shows up with an action-adventure game, you bet your Greezy ass that I'm gonna be there. Respawn don't miss and they didn't miss here with Jedi: Survivor. They clearly learned from the first game, improved on its weaknesses (that map!) and amped up all the good stuff for what is a great second chapter of Cal Kestis' story. It's got great characters, a fun evolving cantina as a home base, amazing set pieces, incredible moments that make you feel like a bad ass, and an excellent sense of exploration that rewards you for being curious. There was a lot of talk around the first game being Souls-lite, and while that's still mostly true, I love the additional fighting styles (stances), ridiculous platforming, and Metroidvania elements more of the design more.
Let's just be real for a minute. Insomniac is PlayStation's best studio. Not only are they putting out games quicker than the rest, but they're all stellar. Think about it. Against all odds... they made Kraven the Hunter an actually fearsome villain. For real, though, from start to finish, this game is an incredible ride. Traversing the city is more fun than ever thanks to the wing gliders. All of the collectible side quests have an interesting ending; many of which clearly have implications for future DLC or games. And I still love how Peter has a pre-existing history with many of the characters like Sandman and Mysterio. It makes the world feel more lived-in and real when they don't have to pretend like every interaction is the first time ever. I can't wait to see what Insomniac brings us in the future.
Mortal Kombat is easily one of my favorite franchises of all time. I highly enjoyed the Raiden reboot saga of MK9-MKX-MK11. And, now, we get the series' second reboot; now with Liu Kang being the only one who is aware of all that happened before. NetherRealm is far an away ahead of every other fighting game in terms of storytelling, but that's been true for over a decade now. So, expectations were high and they still delivered an incredibly fun story mode that gets truly wild at the end. In many ways, it's a strange retelling of the "3D Era" games (MK4-MKDA-MKD-MKA) both in references and in the choices of characters they included, and I'm here for it. That era of MK is kind of the dark ages, but I love that they had the confidence to take another swing at it.
The base gameplay is fairly similar to the previous three games, but the addition of the kameo fighters definitely adds a layer of complexity that has not been seen before in the franchise. While the main fighters don't have as many customizable elements as MK11, being able to mix and match partners mostly makes up for that.
So, with all this praise, why is it only #4 on my list? Well, for one, it's been a fantastic year. But, more importantly, MK1 is swamped with decisions that range from frustrating to downright upsetting. The Invasions mode is monotonous and while the rotating seasons is a cool idea, it doesn't change the fact that the mode isn't very fun. Secondly, the in-game economy and XP simply makes no sense and is completely unbalanced. There are three types of currency (including one real money), and the amount of grinding you have to do to level up characters (to obtain their gear and finishing moves) results in having so many "koins" that you literally can't spend them all; some of which get deleted when the new season starts. And, lastly, there's the paid cosmetics. The prices are ridiculous; $12 seasonal fatalities, $10 single character skins, and $10 match announcers. For perspective, the Kombat Pack gets you 6 playable characters and 5 kameo fighters and that's $40. Or you could spend that $40 on 4 skins? Ugh.
But, god damn it's fun to play it.
I've always loved Theatrhythm, and Final Bar Line is the ultimate version of it. If you love Final Fantasy music or even just have nostalgia for any game in the series, I cannot recommend Final Bar Line enough. It's important to understand that this isn't simply a rhythm game. If that's all you want from it, that's cool. You can just play your favorite songs and be happy. But, it offers so much more with Series Quest system, which requires a level of strategy that brings an additional layer of challenge to the game.
Each of the 104 characters in the game have their own specific skills, spells, and perks as you level them up. This leads to situations in certain songs where you need to think about who you bring. For example, if quest goal is to defeat 10 waves of enemies before the song ends, and the first one is a boss, then maybe bring Yuna in your group of four since she has the ability to trigger a summon immediately at the beginning of the fight. That will likely wipe out the boss and give you more time in the song to defeat weaker enemies. These abilities trigger on their own when you meet certain requirements such as hitting a certain number of notes in a row, so you only have to focus on the notes and not casting spells manually.
The base game features 385 songs from 46 Final Fantasy games, but if you include the DLC, it's like Smash said, "Everyone is here!" Check this out. It's not just the mainline Final Fantasy games that have songs in Final Bar Line. Along with Final Fantasy I-XVI, it's got songs from a dozen spin-offs like Dissidia, Crystal Chronicles, Tactics, and Stranger of Paradise. Not only that, but they brought in a truckload of other Square Enix franchises including Chrono, Mana, NieR, SaGa, TWEWY, Bravely, and Octopath. Mother fucker, there's 523 songs from like 70 different games in here. It's the perfect celebration for the 35th Anniversary of Final Fantasy. It's incredible!
Every once in a while, a game hits me like an RKO outta nowhere. Deus Ex Human Revolution did it in 2011. Control did it 2019. Games and/or franchises that I've had no previous experience or even interest in suddenly become one of my favorite games of the year. The only Baldur's Gate game I've played before this was Dark Alliance and I have zero interest in playing tabletop D&D. But, I am neck-deep invested in Baldur's Gate 3 in a way that has only happened with one other game this year. This thing is dangerous. Like, "where did the last 5 hours go" dangerous. The rabbit holes you can go down often have OTHER RABBIT HOLES IN THEM. The density of things in this world and the way quests interact with each other hasn't been this good since The Witcher 3.
I'm *only* 40 hours into it at this point, so I can't speak to how everything turns out, but I'm in for the long haul.
Where do I even start with this game? They took one of my favorite games of all time and made it better in virtually every possible way. The story is better. The tools are better. The big temples are better. The boss fights are better. The shrines are better and more varied. The companions are better implemented. The villain is better. The crafting is better. The inventory/UI is better.
You get the idea.
While I didn't personally get super creative by building tanks and helicopters, I still had a blast with fusing random things just to see what would happen. A rocket boomerang? What could go wrong? When you make something that doesn't work, it's often just as fun as when it does work. Like this:
Nailed it.#TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/sxm94DGYY8
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) May 26, 2023
I truly don't understand those who complain about it being the "same Hyrule". Firstly, I love the fact that I can revisit places I remember from Breath of the Wild, see how they've changed, find people I remember from then, and have those people remember Link and what he did for them in the past. It makes the world feel more real and lived in. Secondly, while the topography of Hyrule is largely the same, that's not even half of the game now. The Depths, which were an incredibly well kept secret in the lead up to release, effectively doubles the size of the game. It's terrifying down there at times and adds a completely different style of exploration and adventure to the mix. And then there's the sky islands. Admittedly, there aren't that many of them, but there are some incredibly fun puzzles and boss battles up there.
On a personal level, I loved talking to my nephews about it as they made their way through the game at the same time. They played Breath of the Wild about a year after release and had already watched a billion videos about it on YouTube, so this was the first time they were adventuring on their own with no prior knowledge. That was fun to be a part of.
In a year full of amazing games, Tears of the Kingdom is the only one that had me truly obsessed. It's the kind of game you think about all day, coming up with things to try when you finally have time to turn on your Switch. After 152 shrines, 120 light roots, 45 battery upgrades, and...a bunch of koroks, I wish there were more.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the best game of 2023.
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