It’s the start of the new year and that means it’s time to reflect on my favorite games of last year. As I do every year, I will be listing my ten favorite games of the year, with a couple rules. One is that remasters don’t qualify, as these are not new games, however full remakes would count. This is a weird year for that, as there are a couple examples of games that really walk the line between remake and remaster, and I may have broken that rule depending on how you look at it, maybe even how I looked at it if you go back and read what I originally said about it earlier in the year. The other rule is that the game had to release for the first time in the US in 2023. I don’t think there’s any weird examples of that with what I played, but it does come up in some previous years.

Now, before we get to any of that, let’s go over my honorable mentions. Honorable mentions don’t follow either of the rules I just detailed. All it has to be is something that I enjoyed in 2023, whether that’s an old game, or one that just happened to not make the top ten but I still wanted to shout out. I have a lot of these this year, so let’s get started.

Honorable Mentions

Godzilla Voxel Wars

I’m a big Godzilla fan, and I’ve been wanting a new Godzilla game for a long time. Godzilla Voxel Wars is not the game that I had hoped for. However, it is a fun little strategy game that I spent a good amount of time with in 2023. It was a good way to cool down at the end of the night, playing on my Steam Deck in bed. I do wish that it had real Steam Deck support, but it works just fine with the little track pad.

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge

Here’s a really old one. The original Banjo-Kazooie is my all time favorite game, but somehow I missed the Game Boy Advance game when it had originally came out. However, I stumbled onto a copy at a retro game store this year and played through it. Is it as good as the N64 games? No, definitely not. But it captures the charm of those games really well and was a good time. I wasn’t expecting to play a Banjo game that I hadn’t played before in 2023, but it’s pretty cool that I did. Now hopefully the rumors of a brand new Banjo game end up being true.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Diablo IV, and Pizza Tower

I’m lumping Spider-Man, Avatar, Diablo, and Pizza Tower together into the same post because I have the exact same thing to say about all of them. They all seem really good, and I’m looking forward to playing them way more in 2024. As it is, I’ve put maybe two hours into Avatar, like twenty minutes into Spider-Man, an hour at most into Diablo, and I barely left the tutorial in Pizza Tower. Hopefully I’ll have more to say about both of these in next year’s list.

Sea of Thieves

I am still playing a ton of Sea of Thieves. This was a good year for it with a ton of great new features. My favorite being The Legend of Monkey Island. This could have easily just been a typical Sea of Thieves story mission that just happened to also have Monkey Island characters. Instead, it’s a full on adventure game, in the style of the classic Monkey Island characters, just without the pointing and clicking. It’s a brilliant and unique new section to a game I’ve been playing for several years now.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was my favorite game of last year, especially highlighted by the fact that I had played the first two games in the same year. I’m really glad I did, as not only did it allow me to enjoy the references to the previous games, but also to fully enjoy this DLC, which brought together characters from those games and wrapped up some loose ends. It’s really good and really worth checking out.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I don’t even know what to say about New Horizons at this point. I’m still playing it every day. I like it a lot.

Atari 2600+

Here’s a weird one, I’ve never shouted out hardware in one of these before. The Atari 2600+ is a new console from Atari that uses actual old Atari cartridges. This isn’t a completely new concept, there was a Retron console in the past that did basically the same thing. But there is something to be said about an actual Atari console that looks like a smaller version of the 2600 that uses real Atari cartridges and controllers. I’ve been playing a good amount of Atari games, with Activision’s Chopper Attack being the one to hold my attention the longest. I’m really happy to have it in my connection and I’m really enjoying playing these old games.

And now, my top ten games of 2023.

10. Fire Emblem Engage

Fire Emblem Engage was definitely a disappointment to me, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s actually really good. The tactical combat might be the best of any of the Fire Emblem games that I’ve played and it looks beautiful. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the characters just aren’t that interesting and the story is pretty generic. A huge step back form Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which was my game of the year in 2019, but still a great game in its own right.

9. Mortal Kombat 1

Ever since Mortal Kombat 9, NetherRealm has been the absolute best fighting game developer when it came to making story modes. Mortal Kombat 1 is no different, although I wasn’t as into the story they wanted to tell this time around. Mortal Kombat 11 ended with the universe being reset, and 1 was set up to reintroduce us to our favorite characters with completely different origins. Unfortunately, by the end it became less about building this new universe and more about the multiverse. That can be good, but it’s not what I came to the game for. But it’s still an excellent game just like the previous games in the series.

8. Super Mario RPG

The original Super Nintendo version of Super Mario RPG is one of my all time favorites, and this remake is an excellent way to either discover or rediscover this classic. It was one of the first Mario games to really give the characters personalities. It made Peach more adventurous, Bowser more lighthearted, and the Mushroom Kingdom in general a whole lot sillier. It also introduced the idea of timing button presses to increase damage during turn-based combat. A very cool game, and one I’m happy to have back.

7. Metroid Prime Remastered

Here it is, the rule breaker. But when I look at Super Mario RPG, which everyone seems to agree is a remake, It’s hard for me to look at Metroid Prime Remastered and argue that it isn’t. Metroid Prime is another of my all time favorite games, but it’s one that’s been difficult to go back to due to a pretty outdated control scheme. Remastered has a new, modern, dual-stick control scheme that will feel right at home if you’ve played any shooters in the last twenty years. On top of that, the visuals have been completely overhauled, and is honestly one of the best looking games on the Switch. Metroid Prime Remastered is an absolute must play and worth breaking my own rule over.

6. Final Fantasy XVI

This was the game that I bought my PS5 to play. I wanted a PS5 as soon as I could get one, not because there was anything I was dying to play on it, but because I didn’t want to have to be scrambling to get one when XVI was almost out. And it was worth it. While I would like to see a new, traditional Final Fantasy, I was a big fan of XV’s real time combat, so I was happy to see another game without turn-based combat. The combat is much tighter this time around, feeling closer to a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. The tone is much darker than what Final Fantasy has been lately, but I think they pulled it off brilliantly. Most years, Final Fantasy XVI would be much further up on the list, but this was a really good year.

5. Street Fighter 6

Considering this blog is named after a thing you do in fighting games but I rarely talk about them here, it feels really good to have two fighting games on this list. I haven’t gotten this into a Street Fighter game since the first version of 4. The classic characters feel the way they should. The new characters fit right in. The online multiplayer experience is really cool, featuring a lobby you walk around in and challenge other players. All things you might expect from Street Fighter, but it also has a really unique story mode. You create your own character and explore Metro City from Final Fight while getting training from classic characters. There’s way more to it than you would expect from a fighting game’s story mode, and I hope this stays a thing for the series moving forward.

4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

I am a huge defender of the New Super Mario Bros. series, especially U. But even I can’t argue that we didn’t need a fresh new take on 2D Mario. Super Mario Bros. Wonder impresses immediately with its new cartoony art style, and it doesn’t take long before you learn what the game’s biggest trick is. Every level has a Wonder Flower, which when touched, causes all sorts of crazy effects. I know everyone has already said this, but the second level has a parade of singing Piranha Plants coming at you as soon as you activate the Wonder Flower, and that’s not even close to the wildest stuff that happens. Wonder is a blast, I highly recommend it.

3. Resident Evil 4

How do you remake one of the most influential games of all time? Like this, I guess. The Resident Evil 4 remake isn’t as crazy as the Resident Evil 2 remake from a few years ago, but 4 was a much more modern feeling game to begin with. Regardless, adding a lot of the newer mechanics that have been introduced in more recent games back into 4 works really well. It’s also a completely new game. You go to familiar locations, but layouts and enemies and everything is quite different. This game doesn’t replace the original game, but it’s a new game that’s worthy of the Resident Evil 4 name.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

My biggest surprise while making this list was the realization that Tears of the Kingdom was not my favorite game of the year. Breath of the Wild was a game I obsessed over back when the Switch first came out, and Tears take that same setup but adds tons of new stuff. It features the exact same map as Breath of the Wild, but now there’s floating islands and the underground throughout the whole thing. There’s new abilities that allow you to build all sorts of stuff, including vehicles. It’s just an incredible accomplishment and one that I took a full week off of work just to play, and spent almost the entire time doing just that. I was certain this would be my favorite of the year, but there’s just one game that captured my attention just a little bit more.

1. Pikmin 4

We have been waiting a really long time for a new Pikmin game. When they finally showed us the game, there was reason to be skeptical. No longer did we have the classic overhead view, but instead a new behind the back view. There’s also a new dog that seems to simplify things. But, once the game came out, it was clear that these were only good things. Pikmin 4 isn’t just a great Pikmin game, it’s my favorite one.

Everything about it just works. I love the return of Pikmin 2’s dungeon concept, with more focused puzzle and combat challenges. I love the dog, Oatchi, who you can train to learn new skills over time. I love collecting all the treasure, and ended up getting all of them. I love the characters, which there are way more of than there usually is in a Pikmin game. I love the new night missions, which play more like a tower defense game than normal Pikmin.  The game completely consumed my life and I loved every minute of it. It may not be as ambitious as Zelda, but it’s the game that brought me the most joy in 2023.

And that’s my list! I know there’s a few obvious ones that are missing that I simply didn’t play. Maybe they’ll find their way onto 2024’s honorable mentions. What did you think of the games of 2023? Do you completely disagree with my list? Let me know in the comments!