My 2023 Game of the Year List

Before I get into the games, a quick note that 2023 was a very strange year for me personally. Nothing bad, but just a lot of changes in my life that made it a whirlwind of a year. After 22 years at the same employer, I changed jobs in June - kind of at a whim… That led to a second half of the year constantly questioning my decision and ending the year mostly convinced that the decision wasn’t terrible, but I probably would have been fine not changing jobs. One really positive thing from the past year was that my wife and I were able to visit Japan, and her family, for the first time in four years. That was a lot of fun. Another positive was that my wife’s little brother moved to the US and is going to school here. It’s really great to have some of her family close by to visit.

Now onto the games. This year was the year of remakes/remasters. Three games from my top ten favorite games of all time had a remake or remaster released this year and I played all of them. To no one’s surprise, I really enjoyed each of these remasters/remakes, but there is one that really stood out to me and reminded me why I loved the original so much.

I do need to mentioned two games that I started, but never played enough of to consider them for the list. [1] Zelda: Tiers of the Kingdom. I only played until the first dungeon in this one. I really enjoyed my time, but I will admit it did feel like more of an expansion for Breath of the Wild than its own game. Regardless, I set it down to play FFXVI, and I don’t feel that I gave it a fair enough playthrough to judge it against other games that came out this year. Maybe I’ll get to it someday. [2] Alan Wake 2. I just started this game a few days ago. I never played the original, but I loved Control so I picked this up. It is a very different thing from Control and I don’t think I’m liking it very much. Regardless, I haven’t played enough to give it a fair shake and I will withhold judgment until a later date.

Now here is my list of favorite games that I played in 2023:

List items

• 

  Street Fighter 6

  #7

  I did get this for Christmas, but I haven’t opened it and played more of it yet. However, my friends brought this over for a game night in the summer and it was one of the best gaming experiences that I had in 2023. I am a fan of the Street Fighter franchise; SF2 Turbo, SF Alpha 2, and SF4 being my favorites. Although I never played any of 5, the hype was enough for 6 that I had to play it. I wasn’t disappointed. This game looks, sounds, and plays amazingly. Doing couch co-op with friends brought back so many great memories of when I played SF2 Turbo with my friends until sunrise each weekend in high school.

• 

  Final Fantasy XVI

  #6

  They came so close to creating a good Final Fantasy game… The story was good, the main characters weren’t super annoying (although somewhat devoid of personality), the scenery and environments had some of the best art direction that I’ve seen in years, the combat was mostly engaging, the big kaiju (eikon) battles were spectacular and amazing, and hell, I even liked the main antagonist - I though his look and dialogue was better done than Sephiroth in FFVII Remake. However, it was everything else around these parts that was just down right terrible; all side quests (with maybe one or two exceptions) were mind-numbingly abysmal, the enemies took too many hits to kill which made battles last longer than they should, enemies were recycled too many times and none were all that memorable, the side characters felt like cardboard cutouts of winners of England’s most boring persons contest, and the dialogue and writing around all of the side content must have been written by someone’s 12-year-old sibling… However, despite how bad the side content is, this game is still on my list of favorite games of 2023 because of the mainline story, characters, music, scenery, and bombastically over-the-top kaiju battles, one of them (Titan) being my favorite gaming moment of 2023.

• 

  Super Mario Bros. Wonder

  #5

  I typically love the Mario games. However, I only played the New Super Mario game for the Wii U once with friends, and it was enough to help me recognize the truth to the neverending stories of how annoying it was in co-op. Along comes Mario Wonder with some tweaks to make it much less annoying, and adding in those mind-twisting Wonder Flowers in each level you have a super fun, light-hearted Mario game that really surprised me. I beat the game fairly quickly, but I had a smile on my face the entire time I was playing. What a really great way to spice up the 2D Mario formula.

• 

  Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection

  #4 - Specifically Final Fantasy VI

  Why isn’t a remaster of my favorite game of all time not at the top of the list? I’ll give you three reasons before I start gushing about this game: [1] This port is buggy as hell. I constantly ran into bugs, even one that made the game crash on me on the Switch. [2] Some of the character-specific moves are dumbed down because they wanted to make this game playable on mobile devices (dry-heave). Cyan’s is just a list of his moves to choose from, instead of waiting for the timer (I know you still have to wait after you choose, but it’s not the same). You have to choose Sabin’s from a list instead of just entering the move - not a biggy, but does take some fun out of it. [3] For the most part, this is still the same game that I’ve played a hundred times before. It isn’t a remake, and with the exception of the Opera scene, I didn’t really notice any differences other than some nicer pixel artwork and music. However, with that said, the nicer pixel art and music are AMAZING! The team did a great job enhancing FFVI and it made it very enjoyable to play through again. I was actually blown away by the Opera scene - real voices now! This is a great way to play this game, but not the best that it could be.

• 

  Metroid Prime

  #3 - Metroid Prime Remastered

  As usual I went back and forth between my top three games on which should be number one. At one point during my playthrough of Prime Remaster, I thought that there was no way this couldn’t be my game of the year. Although the game is basically the same as the original release (currently my #9 all-time favorite game), the graphics have been improved, and, the best part, the controls have been updated to support dual joystick gameplay. The latter is a complete game changer and made the gameplay enjoyable and very engaging - just like my nostalgia remembered the original on the GameCube. By the end of the game, I had a completely reconfirmed conviction of this game’s place in my top ten all-time favorite games list. What an incredible masterpiece and a joy to play.

• 

  Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

  #2

  Wo Long (aka Nioh 3 in China, haha)

  This game was number 1 for me for most of the year. Although Nioh 2 was my 2021 game of the year, I didn’t have interest in playing Wo Long when I heard that it was focused on parry/timing moves - I’m terrible at parry/timing mechanics in games. However, when Wo Long came out, I didn’t have anything else that I had a burning desire to play so I tried the demo. I didn’t like it… Even after not liking the demo, there still wasn’t anything else that I really wanted to play, so I decided to pick it up. I almost put the game down permanently due to the difficulty of the first boss (which I later found out is everyone’s least favorite part of the game). However, after I finally beat the first boss (on probably my 20th try), the remainder of the game is a gem and a lot of fun to play. The parry/timing mechanic is something that I struggled with throughout the game, but it rarely got to the point of frustration, instead, I found myself elated when I was able to pull off a perfect parry and bury a difficult enemy - it felt so damn good! There’s only two things that kept Wo Long out of the top spot this year: [1] The DLC was a bit lack-luster and I didn’t get very far in it; and [2] the top spot was taken by one of the greatest games ever made.

• 

  Resident Evil 4

  #1

  Occasionally I will review my all-time favorite games list to see if I still feel strongly about the placement and order I gave the games. A few years back, I tried to replay RE4 with one of its most recent re-releases (possibly the PS4 version), and I really didn’t like it at all (I don’t think I even got out of the village). Because of that experience, I’ve been questioning whether or not it still deserved a spot in my top ten (currently #7 all-time). Well this remake helped alleviate those concerns and convinced me that it does belong in the top ten. RE4 is easily one of the best games ever made. The remake helps enhance that status and does not detract in any perceivable way. Simply said by someone that doesn’t like the horror genre, it is simply a joy to play. The story and characters are wonderful and interesting. Even the DLC, Separate Ways, was a joy to play through with Ada in the lead role and a mixed up gameplay style. I played this game four times this year. I might just start it again and play through a fifth time.