I thought this would be a fun post to do. I wanted to give my thoughts on every new game I played in 2023 as well as a few games that didn’t come out in 2023, but were memorable and defined this year in gaming for me.
Overall, in terms of new releases, this year has been wild. Not only was there a lot of quality stuff out there, but stuff that really interested me. I haven’t even gotten close to playing everything I wanted to. In my personal rating system, a 10/10 game is something that happens once every few years at best, but so far, this year has had 3 games I would give that score to. So let’s talk about them.
Games that released this year
Resident Evil 4 Remake
I was really nervous about the idea of an RE4 remake. RE4 is a weird game in that it’s incredibly influential, but there’s still nothing else quite like it. After playing it through twice and spending plenty of time in Mercenaries, I think it’s hard to say that this isnt objectively better than the original RE4. The same design ethos is there but with updated gameplay and controls. I still love the original RE4, but this remake blew me away. Every part of it was just fun. The bosses were a little weak, but I was excited for every other enemy encounter in the game. Also had some genuinely good scary moments.
Score: 10/10
Tears of the Kingdom
My first impressions of TotK were weird. It doesn’t start as strong as BotW and it’s easy for things to feel too similar at first. However, the more time I put into it, the more my issues melted away and I got to see what makes TotK stand out. It may not seem like it from a first glance, but this is a massive step up from one of the most impressive games out there. There’s a lot of little things that aid TotK from a stronger story to how side quests better guide you to interesting parts of the map to how everything ties together to make combat a frantic mess of changing strategies to best utilize your custom built weapons. I love BotW, but it’s going to be really hard to go back now. TotK is my 2nd favorite Zelda game behind Link to the Past.
Score: 10/10
Final Fantasy XVI
This was the year I finally got a PS5 and this is the game I got with it. I have no problems with Final Fantasy being an action game and I was actually excited to see a new combat system by DMC’s combat director. That being said, FFXVI is really just kinda okay. The combat is fun and has a lot of depth, but the game never asks you to fully take advantage of that depth. I also really wish you had more ways to customize Clive’s base moveset and would be totally okay if that meant his gear remained unchanged throughout (because gear really feels tacked on in this game). What also really annoyed me was that for a Final Fantasy game, the story is just kinda alright. I like each plot point and the bosses are high points, but the characters don’t have enough room to breathe to really let those plot points land. Also for all the effort put into worldbuilding and lore, I wished the game let you see more of the world and properly live in it. I’m okay with not having an open world map or progression, but almost every area you actually get to explore is an open field.
Score: 6/10
Street Fighter 6
This was the year I got into fighting games and Street Fighter 6 is the game I’ve been the most obsessed with this year. It’s really close between this and TotK, but I would probably call SF6 my game of the year. I love how this game feels and the drive gauge is a mechanic that shapes the game so much, other Street Fighter games that don’t have it feel a little empty to me. I’m only at Silver 2, but I love getting better and seeing what my character can do. The community is also great and super helpful when learning the deeper ins and outs of these games.
Score: 10/10
Spider-Man 2
I really enjoyed Spider-Man 2. It’s definitely the best Spider-Man game out there, though it’s nothing mind blowing. The story is good fun, the combat is surprisingly more challenging with higher enemy counts and really great bosses, and traversal is more mechanically complex and feels better than ever. I think this game really nailed Venom and making him a terrifying presence. I do wish Miles had more to do in the story and once Peter gets his symbiote abilities, there’s basically no reason to play Miles other than because you like him as a character (which I do). The game is also pretty unstable and prone to major bugs and crashes, but hopefully that gets worked out. I still had a great time.
Score: 8.5/10
Super Mario Wonder
This game is an absolute delight. Mario Wonder really feels like Nintendo letting off the breaks and running with all of their wild ideas. After two decades of bland, if well-designed, New Super Mario Bros games, 2D Mario finally feels fresh and important again. This is a Mario game that reminds you why Mario is such an icon in gaming. The world map is also great and hides a surprising amount of secrets. This game can also get fairly tricky. I play a lot of platformers and some of the optional challenges in this game can get pretty strict in terms of what it asks of you. If you haven’t felt satisfied with a 2D Mario game since Mario Land 2, this is the game for you.
Score: 9/10
Other games I played this year
Guilty Gear Strive
This is the year I got into fighting games. While I prefer SF6, this is the game that acted as my gateway. This is the game that made me want to get my hands on an arcade stick and get good at fighting games. This game looks absolutely stunning and each character has their own wacky fighting style. I went with May for her giant anchor and throwing various dolphins at people. This is a game with a lot of disparate systems to get ahold of instead of SF6, where almost everything is tied to the drive gauge. It’s a very daunting game to get into, but very accessible with numerous tutorials and plenty of online help. It’s a fun game to jump into and see what wild shit each character can do before trying to somehow make it all work. I think of every game I played this year, this is the one that really defined my 2023.
Score: 9/10
Resident Evil 2 Remake
I was on a bit of an RE kick after RE4 Remake, but this was easily the highlight. In terms of the survival horror RE games, RE7 may be scarier, but this game just has more meat on its bones. This is a very mechanically complex game with a lot to keep track of from enemy placements to key areas to your own inventory space and how you manage it. And that’s before you have Mr. X chasing you throughout the station. This is a game I just keep replaying since I beat it this spring.
Score: 9.5/10
Final Fantasy VII
Oh my god what a game. I love Final Fantasy, but FFVII was always a game I had a hard time getting into. This time though, it just really clicked. This game is widely beloved for a good reason and I’m finally able to fully appreciate it. I wont go into everything, but I love how customizable the materia system is and the story does a good job of balancing goofy moments with more subtle beats that give the game’s message of life an almost spiritual feel. While I do think the game would benefit from an updated presentation and a translation that actually reads well, it’s easy to see why this is such a beloved game. This is tied with FFVI for my favorite Final Fantasy.
Score: 10/10
Elden Ring and Bloodborne
I’m lumping both here because if I had to talk about each individually, we’d be here all day. This was the year that FromSoft games finally clicked with me. I played my brother’s copy of Elden Ring on PS5 and couldn’t stop for a good month. Then I went into Bloodborne for Halloween and that game is also incredible. I think we all know by now these games are great, so all I’ll say is that I prefer Bloodborne for its theming and tighter focus on a specific style of aggressive play, but both rank in my top 20.
Scores: 10/10
A Short Hike
I picked this one up on Gamepass and while I beat it in an hour, it was a wonderful little hour. This is a low poly adventure game where you play as a bird to gather up enough feathers (used for gliding) through various activities before putting your skills to the test to climb a short little mountain trail. The look and feel of this game is remarkable and it’s a great cozy little adventure. It may be short, but I think about it consistently. Highly recommend.
Score: 8/10
Mother 3
Okay. I’ve talked about a lot of games I like here today, and many have even been 10/10s imo. Mother 3 is tied for my favorite game of all time. I love Earthbound, but Mother 3 is all the best parts of Earthbound with numerous gameplay changes for the better alongside a deeply beautiful story about maintaining the capacity to feel and love within a cruel world and learning to live past trauma rather than letting it consume you. While it’s not officially available in America, the fan translation is one of the best localizations out there and it is absolutely a must play.
Score: 10/10
Anyway, that’s most of what I’ve been playing this year outside of games I return to consistently like Animal Crossing and DMC5. In terms of games from this year I haven’t played and want to, we have Dead Space Remake, Pikmin 4, Armored Core 6, Hi Fi Rush, and System Shock Remake.
Tell me some standout games you’ve played this year, regardless of if they launched this year.