Writer's Choice: Our Favorite Games of 2023 - Article
by Paul Broussard , posted on 01 January 2024 / 2,572 Views
Another year has come and gone, full of good games, mediocre games, bad games, and whatever the hell that Gollum thing was. But before we move on to 2024 and all it has to offer, let's glance back at 2023 and recognize some of the best it had to offer. Before we start announcing the winners for our site-wide awards, we're kicking things off by having a few of our writers offer up some words about some of the titles that left the greatest impressions on them in 2023.
Pizza Tower
Paul Broussard
Coming into 2023, there were a lot of games that I fully expected to contend for my personal game of the year. What I didn't expect to be a serious contender was a Wario Land-esque platformer with some fantastic controls and level design. But Pizza Tower put to rest all of my doubts almost as soon as I picked it up, and once I was in, I was along for one of the best experiences I've had in any platformer.
The animation is top notch, with a hand drawn style depicting Pepino's quest to save his pizzeria, and the levels provide a ton of visual variety, all based around themes like an urban environment, a vacation resort, and even a cosmic horror setting. The icing on the cake is the game's bevvy of fantastic boss fights; perhaps the best collection of bosses I've seen to-date in a 2D platformer. Sure, the experience is short, but that fits in well with the focus on replayability and emphasis on getting high scores and better ranks. At only $15 on Steam at the time of writing, it's an immense steal.
Resident Evil 4
Craig Snow
Resident Evil 4 is a triumphant return to form for the REmake line, following on from a serviceable but disappointingly shallow & content-lite Resident Evil 3. Resident Evil 4 builds on top of its antecedent, instead of impoverishing it, with strong positive changes to the controls, gameplay, characters, and dialogue. All while, of course, delivering the beautiful visual spectacle we’ve come to expect from Capcom’s RE Engine when it’s properly utilised.
The end result is a title that succeeds in carefully balancing the usually unrealistic demands of nostalgia with the need to update & evolve beyond the numerous technical constraints of a game that was originally made almost 20 years ago. As in 2019 with its remake of Resident Evil 2, Capcom has once again managed to craft a REmake that’s worthy of serious Game of the Year consideration.
Honkai: Star Rail
Thomas Froehlicher
Having become a big fan of Genshin Impact's universe, it was only natural that I would jump into Honkai: Star Rail on day one. That was in April, a few weeks before Final Fantasy XVI released. At that point I realised something: ironically, the Chinese are the ones making Japanese RPGs now. Honkai: Star Rail and Final Fantasy XVI are total opposites. miHoYo's game boasts dozens of varied playable characters, a gorgeous anime style, epic turn-based combat, rich strategic gameplay, and regular mini-games. In short, it's everything that made JRPGs so enjoyable for me.
It's been amazing to witness miHoYo take up everything that I feel like Final Fantasy has moved away from. Honkai: Star Rail celebrates the characters first and foremost, because in a JRPG, no story or universe will impress without a comprehensive and coherent cast. Every new addition is a joy, as fans eagerly wait for the ever beautiful character trailers, the cool new moves, the strategic changes. The content is deeply overwhelming and comes with awesome music, breathtaking boss fights, and pleasant little side stories. Only time will tell if other RPGs can keep up with miHoYo on these fronts.
Alan Wake 2
William D'Angelo
As a fan of Remedy games since Max Payne in 2001, and with the first Alan Wake being one of my top 10 favorite games of all time, Alan Wake 2 is truly something special for me. It takes all of the themes and narratives of the first game and elevates them to an all new level; I was engrossed with the story that I had to keep playing to see what happened next.
Set 13 years after the first game, Alan Wake 2 has you playing as two protagonists: Alan Wake and a new character, FBI special agent Saga Anderson. I wasn't sure how I would feel playing as someone other than Alan Wake, however it didn't take long for me to enjoy Saga as a character, and seeing where her story went and how it connected to Alan Wake. I tend to not enjoy horror as a genre, whether in games or movies, but Alan Wake 2 is a perfect mix of thriller and tension, while also still having a sense of humour at other times. It also has my favorite moment in gaming, which comes partway through Alan's story; if you watched The Game Awards then you saw a shortened version of it performed live. Alan Wake 2 is not only my pick for Game of the Year 2023, but also easily my favorite game of the last few years.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Evan Norris
The year 2023 was a special one for gaming. It witnessed great sequels, remakes, and wholly original experiences, from all corners of the industry. It saw two games crack the 96 mark on OpenCritic and a brand new 2D Super Mario game – the first in 11 years. Yet when I look back on the past year, I think mostly of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and how it elaborated so masterfully upon the modern Zelda formula.
A new Legend of Zelda game is always a special event, but the arrival of Tears was triply special: it was the first new game in the series in six years; it was the sequel to arguably the finest game in the history of the industry, Breath of the Wild; and it was a direct sequel at that. As a result, expectations were impossibly high. Gratefully, the producers and designers at Nintendo met those expectations, delivering an open world sandbox with incredible spatial freedom and mechanical flexibility, and a campaign with gameplay depth that surpasses its predecessor, even as it sags somewhat from the weight of all its systems and tasks. As a result, Tears of the Kingdom is an outstanding follow-up to a landmark game, a stellar entry in the Zelda canon, and a top contender for game of the year.
