2023 is wrapping up with many critics claiming it resides shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best years in gaming history. My experience isn’t quite so stellar, but
Let’s go through some lists starting with titles that were released before 2023, all while realizing that the true best game I played this past year was Bloodborne!
Older Games Played:
- Dark Souls III
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- SteamWorld Dig
- SteamWorld Dig 2
- Rogue Legacy 2
- Neon White
- Lunistice
Of those titles, I completed the 2D ones only. While I had played Rogue Legacy 2 on Steam the prior year, it was only when I got it for free on PS+, and could play from my couch, that I beat it. Admittedly, I lowered the difficulty to blaze through chunks that I had beaten before. In some ways this game is perfect: allowing for those changes to difficulty, a fantastic gameplay loop and incredibly-tight and responsive controls. Several of the theme songs stuck in my head for quite some time and it was a fun experience. However, my Old Game Of The Year, if that were a category, would go to SteamWorld Dig 2. It’s so funny, I got a trophy in the first game way back in 2013 and I remember playing it and abandoning it. No clue what drove me to return, but once I started, I was hooked. After blazing through the first title, I anxiously awaited a sale price for the second, eventually pulling the trigger without one, that’s how much I liked it. And the sequel did not disappoint, living up to and exceeding my praise of the first. I simply loved that game and, much like the emptiness felt after completing Elden Ring, I continually yearn for a similar experience, with no satisfaction. In fact, if I were ranking the best games of the year regardless of their release date, SteamWorld Dig 2 would be in contention.
The other titles all had qualities of their own, but not enough to keep me returning to them.
Moving along, now we look at titles released this year that I have yet to play in 2023:
- Alan Wake 2 (Some day I’ll try)
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (Trial was cool, dunno if it’s for me)
- Blasphemous 2 (Curious, not much more)
- Cocoon (Hmmm)
- Dead Space (Maybe an ‘on-sale’ game)
- Diablo 4 (Trial run, felt like D3, really)
- Hi-Fi Rush (Maybe when I get an Xbox!)
- Octopath Traveler 2 (Never played the first)
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Lost interest in the first)
- The Talos Principle 2 (Never beat the first)
- Viewfinder (Demo was fun!)
There are a few games I’d like to try, but none here give me the burning desire to jump in. Games like Pikmin and Fire Emblem may be great, but do I care? Nothing above are a have to play game, despite how good BG3 appears to be.
Our final category is the games I have indeed played this year, and ranking them isn’t very easy.
2023 Games:
- Final Fantasy XVI
- The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
- Lies Of P
- Resident Evil 4
- Sea Of Stars
- Street Fighter 6
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Xenotilt
As I work through Lies Of P and Sea Of Stars, I quite like the former due to its obvious inspirations and feel indifferent towards the latter. I beat neither Zelda, much as I didn’t its predecessor, nor FFXVI, losing interest after numerous hours.
Thus, we’ve whittled down the list to four games, all sequels. As much as I love Mario games – and I do like the franchise – nothing about Wonder stood out to me, despite what everyone else thinks.
And then there were three. Xenotilt probably improves on everything in Demon’s Tilt. As DT is in my top-20 ever, I struggle to wonder which should be on that list. In either event: it’s not 2023’s GOTY.
Capcom ends up holding the trophy, as the remaining games are both theirs. And this decision is a difficult one. By all accounts, Resident Evil 4 should do what no game has ever done: won the trophy as both an original release and a remake! But while it effectively replaces the original, I think I have to give it to Street Fighter 6. The gameplay is honed. The systems are polished. The game is just fun and it’s the best launch-SF game since SFII. I absolutely love this title and have no reservations awarding it GOTY, even if RE4 is as good as it is – DLC included!
So there it is: Game Of The Year 2023 is Street Fighter 6!
