Video Games, Son.

Around this time last year I drew up a huge list of games I wanted to play. Well, wanted may be a strong word. I filled it with titles that slipped through the cracks. Some of them I had started in the past and forgot for one reason or another. Others sat in my Steam account for a literal decade without ever getting installed. Throughout the year, I kept digging away at the mountain. Liberating these titles from my backlog felt good, sure. But more often than not, the games themselves failed to live up to expectations. If I didn’t have a psychological condition about rolling credits on everything, I would not have put myself through it.

Despite turning my hobby into a job where I don’t get paid, I still found time for games “for fun,” and perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s where my excitement revved up. I loved running through Mirror’s Edge for the first time. Plopping down in front of a tiny CRT with Ridge Racer Type 4 one random Sunday was a delight. And how can you describe binging Remedy’s back catalog before Alan Wake 2? Why aren’t more people talking about Quantum Break?? I didn’t realize until now the importance of spontaneity. Going forward, while I’m still laying out goals for myself, I’m going to be a lot more lenient than before. If I can’t finish The Witcher 3 by the end of next year… well, few people actually have, so it’s fine.

Luckily, the new releases in 2023 had plenty to get excited for. Most of my favorite developers dropped something new to enjoy. I could have stayed with that and still be happy, but I also stuck my toe out to try some new things. As you’ll see below, I was rewarded for it.

First, the obligatory “games I missed” section. I'm sure the remake of Resident Evil 4 is great, but I finally finished the original version for the first time this year and it didn't make sense to double dip like that. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was certainly appealing, but the technical problems at launch kept me from pulling the trigger. Finally, Baldur's Gate 3 looks like the type of game I could obsess over. But with my commitments, the time just wasn't available to give it its due. Don't worry, this isn't a protest move like with Elden Ring last year. I'm looking forward to hearing everything your characters got up to.

Even with those omissions, 2023 was stacked. Let's relive it. (Potential spoilers)

10. Storyteller

After trying so many puzzle games, I eventually got tired of feeling stupid and backed off. Baba Is You? More like Dumbass Is Me! Storyteller, though, has you drop elements of a narrative to fit given prompts. That's a logic I can follow. A chapter starts with a simple love story, but before long jealousy and murder are added to these adorable comic strips. Later levels riff on monsters, mythology, and royal intrigue. Even as your options grow, everything is limited to one screen. The immediate feedback on each drop means there's always a clear result to work with. Only a handful of puzzles really stumped me, and the bonus objectives that require out-of-the-box thinking are very rewarding. It's all wrapped up in a storybook presentation complete with a hammy narrator and low-key renditions of famous classical music. I played on mobile, and the experience was addicting for the week or so I poked away at it. Sadly, there was a memory leak or something that crashed the game every few puzzles. That didn't even deter me, which speaks both to the quality of the game and to my strength of will to slack off at work.

9. Street Fighter 6

I almost hopped into Street Fighter 5 when it came out, but the vibe just wasn't right. This time, Capcom made nearly every correct decision to attract more people like myself. That starts with the modern controls. I have never felt comfortable with traditional fighting game controls, and the idea that they’re the objective best way to play is dumb. The new option in Street Fighter 6 feels so much more intuitive, and I could finally get past the flailing around stage to start thinking about mechanics more fully. Every character on the roster is imbued with powerful style. It's the most appealing batch of new characters in years. But once I landed on Ken, I never looked back. The single-player World Tour mode is way more in-depth than it has any need or right to be. And once I did start messing with online matches, I was surprised at the results. I did lose, often, but the high volume of players meant that I could go against people at my skill level and feel myself improve. I eventually had to hang up my fighting gloves because I’m still not the person who plays one game for a thousand hours. But for the period where I was in, Street Fighter 6 convinced me that fighting games could be for me.

8. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Insomniac’s latest Spidey game was never going to live up to the expectations set when I bought a PlayStation 5 for it. The story here is sloppy, requiring every character to have 350 IQ and zero common sense. Also, I’m not sure expanding the open world by 50% actually added that much to the experience. But when Insomniac is on their game, no one can compete. Every story mission sends Peter or Miles to a beautifully rendered location which inevitably blows up with spectacular bombast. It succeeds in the smaller moments, too, with character arcs that reward players who paid attention in past games. I made the decision to finish the entire story before tackling side content. That was a mistake, but unwinding as the friendly neighborhood superhero was tremendous. Three years into the generation, instantaneous fast travel continues to blow me away every time. And anyone who’s played this series knows that web-swinging is a thrill like no other. Anyway, even though I still think Venom is stupid, Spider-Man 2 was an engrossing thrill ride from start to finish.

7. Persona 5 Tactica

Before this came out, I was half-convinced that I was over these Persona side games. Then I tried the Persona 5 Dancing title - just about the most vapid, pointless, baffling spinoff content you can imagine - and ate it up happily. Yeah, guess my Phan-dom is still going strong. Tactica, for its part, does more than just play the hits. This grid-based tactics game plays fast and smartly integrates Persona's systems without sacrificing strategy. A lot of these stages only take a few minutes, so clearing them feels like throwing back popcorn. My favorites are the challenge quests that ask you to push the mechanics and win in a single turn. The main issue is the hefty downtime between those tactical bites. This story is far from bad, but still verbose in the Persona tradition, with the Phantom Thieves becoming supporting acts for the two new characters. The soundtrack is also surprisingly forgettable. It doesn't change that Tactica became a dark horse obsession late this year. The more hours I dump into this franchise, the more I just want to wrap myself in a warm blanket and live in it.

6. Like a Dragon (The Series)

It's become a trend for me to blast through an iterative series over the course of the year. In 2022, it was LEGO, and 2023 was the year I sunk way too many hours into Yakuza. You need to hear me preach like Kiryu needs another bullet to the pec, so I'll just focus on what the series meant to me this year. I started out expecting only to play the new remake and localization of Like a Dragon: Ishin. Instead, it just whetted my appetite for more. I marathoned game after game until I finally caught up with the current story in Like a Dragon Gaiden. Each entry has broad similarities while offering something totally unique. Therefore, it’s totally valid to say any one of them is your favorite. In 2023, I sliced up ronin with a katana, destroyed a shopping mall, managed a cabaret club, punched through solid rock, and raced a taxi to the Daytona USA theme. But that’s all nothing compared to how choked up I got over the endings to Yakuza 7 and especially Gaiden. I booted up the demo for Infinite Wealth, which releases in January, and immediately got so excited I had to shut it off. Even as I debated my game of the year for this list, I was already sure of what 2024’s will be.

5. Pikmin 4

Until now, I had equated Pikmin with Indiana Jones’s trajectory as a franchise. They got it right immediately, did something weird and dark for the second entry, and brought it back to what I liked in the third. Thankfully, Pikmin 4 didn’t do anything as divisive as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Instead, it revisits the discordant ideas of Pikmin 2 and makes great strides to streamline them and the series at large. Oatchi is the best companion of the year. Endlessly functional from a gameplay standpoint, he single-pawdly removes almost all the lingering frustration with Pikmin AI. Oatchi’s power and the rewind function makes Pikmin 4 the most forgiving to date, which is a boon. For the purists, though, there is plenty of challenge to be found in the dandori sections and the hunt for every last treasure. They even included a side mode that’s basically a remake of Pikmin 1. Everyone with a passing interest in the series will be able to try Pikmin 4 and come away satisfied. Let’s hope that the next game lands with more impact than The Dial of Destiny movie.

4. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

You wouldn't expect me to get into a Final Fantasy fanservice game, as I'm not exactly a Final Fantasy fan. I have next to no context for whatever the background events are supposed to recreate in Theatrhythm. But the part of my brain that sorts through Smash Bros. soundtracks was attracted to the massive catalog of songs spanning 35 years of history. Final Bar Line is also just an excellent rhythm game. There's a high degree of customization; you can play the game one-handed if you want, or you can crank up the difficulty so that you regret being born. It's not uncommon to plow through dozens of tracks in a row without even thinking about it. The automatic RPG battles that play out really don't matter, yet I spent actual time optimizing my party of people I only knew by name. Even once I finished the hundreds of songs in the base game, new DLC rolled out during the year until just a few weeks ago. It was always a lovely surprise to see it arrive and spend a few minutes with my favorite tunes from Chrono Trigger, NieR, and more. For lifelong fans, the game is probably one massive nostalgia blast. Even I'm starting down that path - Theatrhythm is partly the reason I finished my first “real” entry (if you don't count 7 Remake) with Final Fantasy 6.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

When I gathered Link’s pals from the four corners of Hyrule, the game told me to go to the castle. I assumed this meant the chasm below it. I dove down and raced all the way to the door before Ganondorf, fighting a fierce enemy gauntlet that… didn’t let me progress after they all died. This was a bug, but I wasn’t positive, so I looked up a walkthrough. That’s when I saw that I had missed an entire fifth temple and companion! It was certainly an unusual circumstance, but Tears of the Kingdom is full of memorable surprises. What makes it different this time is the freedom in navigating the game’s challenges. I probably abused Ultrahand and Ascend to jank past as many puzzles as I solved “correctly,” but that’s why it’s fun. In this specific open world, I think a maximalist playstyle is going to suffer. It was a lot more enjoyable for me to cruise around doing what I pleased and checking up on locations from Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom kept my rapt attention in a way that few games do. When I was finally ready to beat the game for real, I had to leave for work. I brought my Switch and destroyed Ganon on my lunch break, in my car. It was awesome.

2. Alan Wake 2

In Alan Wake 2, the story splits into two branches that you can switch between at will. I decided to stick with Saga’s story all the way through first. It’s a gripping mystery set in gorgeous and haunting locales with standout characters. The branch’s climax is against a horde of enemies set to a face-melting rock concert. Alan Wake 1’s best moment had the same setup, with the same band, and it’s a tradition that Remedy continued into Control with the Ashtray Maze. When I finished "Dark Ocean Summoning," I figured that was it. Then, the game put me back in the shoes of Alan Wake. Immediately, it launched into a fully staged FMV musical number with close to 15 minutes of guitar wailing. I watched the game’s actors - which include its creative director - spin around in exaggerated mime. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Remedy was building to this exact moment for 13 years. At that second, though, it took me out of nowhere. Instantly, it became my favorite sequence in a video game, ever.

The game also crashed for me during that section, which is kind of the Alan Wake 2 experience in a nutshell. There are many rough edges on top of an endlessly fascinating work of art. I had visual and audio bugs pop up frequently and I got turned around more than they probably wanted. But the game’s ambition and execution more than make up for those shortcomings. Compare to Spider-Man 2, a game which also happened to crash on me once or twice. Spidey is great, but it could be fairly accused of playing it safe. No one could say that about Alan Wake 2. From surreal yet lived-in spaces, the many layers of meta story that unravel, and the shockingly successful integration of past Remedy games, they sink their hooks in you and don't let go. It’s not a game, it’s a universe.

1. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Hear me out. In a year of legendary releases, Shadow Gambit isn't the most revolutionary. But before too long, there will be another Zelda, Spider-Man, Street Fighter, etc. The incredible work of Mimimi Productions, on the other hand, may never be replicated. In a year where thousands of devs unceremoniously lost their jobs, it's perhaps a small mercy that Mimimi's closure had enough runway to let the devs finish DLC and hopefully find new employment. Still, for us fans of their unique stealth strategy titles, it’s an undeniable loss. Shadow Gambit is the studio's most ambitious game, with more than 10 playable characters and unlimited ways to vary your experience. No two playthroughs of a mission will be the same, depending on which crew members you bring, your entrance and exit strategy, and what challenges you attempt. Knowing that I could spend probably a hundred more hours with Shadow Gambit does lessen the blow a little.

Despite observing them from the perspective of an omniscient god, the time I spent in Mimimi’s worlds will stick with me for years. This studio was so good at boiling down a complex character into a set of unique and useful mechanics. In Shadow Gambit’s case, the crew gets even more depth through their crew tales and unique storylines. The DLC that released just a few days ago brings back Yuki from Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. I’ve noticed that companies often bring back an old character to prey on a player’s emotions and squeeze more money out of them. It doesn’t feel like that this time. Adding Yuki (and Kuma!) to Shadow Gambit feels like a final gift to the fans and brings Mimimi’s stealth strategy tale full circle. I wrote more about my experience here, when my emotions were particularly raw, and I think it still conveys what their games have meant to fans. The book on Mimimi is closed, but I can recommend Shadow Gambit to any and everyone. I know my game of the year has a weight to it, and I want to use the opportunity to elevate a game that never got its due.

That’s what we did, that’s how we lived

Once a mighty crew, now without a ship

Thanks for everything, Mimimi.

I'm also aware that this is the second straight year where I gave the top spot to a game about pirates. If I gush about Skull and Bones next year, please don't let me get away with it. All kidding aside, I don't really know what my plans for 2024 will entail. Regardless, thanks to everyone who's supported the blog by reading and commenting over the years. Peace out.