Alex's Games of 2023

We're doing things slightly differently this time. For various reasons that I'll soon get into, I was in an odd place when it came to games in 2023. So instead of the standard list of ten games, I'm going to take you through my year in gaming roughly chronologically - but don't worry, along the way I'll share some recommendations, and you'll get that top ten by the end.

Last Year's Game

My GOTY for 2022 continued to dominate my time for much of the first half of the year. After a brief break I dived back in - and despite a substantial amount of time spent in Elden Ring previously, I still had vast swathes of The Lands Between to explore. For details on why and how it's such a phenomenal game, I direct you to last year's list. Suffice to say here that Elden Ring was still irresistible, constantly offering up yet greater challenges as I worked my way through all the monstrous deities that comprise its toughest enemies. Defeating the final boss gave me some of the greatest sense of achievement of any game, but even so it was not the end. Harder optional areas of the map awaited me, including the notoriously difficult fight against Malenia.

Pictured: death incarnate.

By the time I was at last finished with Elden Ring I had played it for over 200 hours, and then I had a problem. Other games simply weren't as fulfilling. Tchia was a relaxing and heartwarming time on the Pacific island of New Caledonia, but fleeting next to Elden Ring. Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise should have been an enjoyable if perhaps more throwaway experience, but the 3rd person melee combat was unsatisfying in comparison with Elden Ring. 

This malaise I was in is inextricably linked with a paralysis of choice that often afflicts me. I tend to stock up on PC games during the big Steam sales, and I'm subscribed to Xbox Gamepass and Playstation Plus: to justify the financial outlay, I feel a certain internal pressure to get my money's worth. This is not a new problem, but in 2023 I was regularly conflicted about what I actually wanted to play, and what to leave aside until it no longer felt like gaming homework. Admittedly this is probably a classic 'first-world problem', but the psychological effect is there nonetheless. Combined with nothing matching up to Elden Ring, it was quite frustrating.

Games That Are Barely Games

Naturally, one answer to the above is "play something completely different, stupid." This I did, attempting to crack through one of those Steam sale purchases - in my greed to consume all media that comes out of Japan, I had bought some visual novels. Generally these games are somewhat similar to the "choose-your-own-adventure" books of yesteryear, with branching paths and multiple endings. Most of your time is spent reading, but there is still some interactivity.

When I chose to play Higurashi, I knew it was going to take many hours and put the novel in 'visual novel'. I knew there would be a metric ton of text to read, which is not a problem for an avid reader such as myself. I did not know that the interactive element of this visual novel was barely present. After fifty hours and five of its nine chapters, Higurashi has given me a total of three narrative choices, one of which was an inconsequential tutorial, and all of which are recent - the first three chapters had no interaction other than clicking the mouse to move on to the next line of text.

It's hard not to get a little disappointed and even bored in this situation, which is unfortunate because the story of Higurashi is really interesting. Set in a small Japanese village in the mountains, the main character Keiichi is enjoying alongside some great friends one of those endless summers of youth that, like me, you might distantly remember experiencing. Something seems off amid his blissful daily life though, especially when he questions his friends about certain moments in the town's past. When the eagerly-awaited summer festival known as the "Watanagashi" is interrupted by a grisly murder, Keiichi's determination to solve the mystery leads him to many horrifying revelations, and more additional mysteries than answers. Chiefly, is what's going on supernatural, an otherworldly curse pervading the village, or has he wandered into a conspiracy so vast that virtually every individual in this town is an accessory to murder? 

Maddeningly, there are different paths through the narrative but this is chosen for, not by the player - every chapter returns to the start of the timeline, with subtle changes in direction leading to new outcomes as the tension and horror builds each time through. I found myself wishing I was more involved with the game, if it can be called such - the biggest puzzle was how to avoid straining my left-mouse-button finger. I'm fascinated to know how Higurashi concludes, but I don't know if I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Embracing the Past

During this time I did find some joy re-discovering two old systems: the 3DS and the Wii U. Spurred on by Nintendo's depressing decision to permanently close the digital stores on both devices, I surmised that now was as good a time as any to jailbreak my 3DS. As many folks online have often reported, this is a relatively easy thing to do: if you can follow a step-by-step guide, have an SD card reader and can manage to hold down five buttons at once to boot the 3DS into safe mode, you should find as I did that it takes less than an hour to free the little guy from Nintendo's shackles.

Doing so allows you to personalise the home menu, and experiment with emulators that shouldn't be on a Nintendo device, but let's not ignore the elephant in the room. I would of course never recommend acquiring games from unofficial sources, but with the closure of the eShop the only other option is an increasingly overpriced second-hand market, to say nothing of many digital-only games that can no longer be purchased at all. I paid for these, but the choice is yours.

Mutant Mudds is a Megaman-esque platformer which I had played previously about a decade ago. It's deviously difficult but immensely satisfying to conquer every level. I was delighted to discover that a sequel, Mutant Mudds Super Challenge, had been released many years ago, sadly to little attention online. I spent much of a summer holiday abroad sitting in the shade and enjoying these underrated classics.

Mario & Luigi Dream Team Bros is a follow-up to the excellent Bowser's Inside Story. These lightweight RPGs sport interactive turn-based combat (press the button at the right time for bonus damage), a colourful world and a lot of interesting dialogue from the various characters the plumber bros encounter.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is a Professor Layton game. That honestly says enough in my opinion - hundreds of enjoyable puzzles and the unique charm of Layton and his lovable buddies. Oh, as a side activity you can train a cute rabbit. I named the rabbit Maliketh.

Gunman Clive is a minimalist run-and-gun platformer with an aesthetic I can only describe as "hand-drawn cowboys". It's short, very satisfying and feels like it may have time-travelled from the 8- or 16-bit eras of video games.

There are a total of eight Picross e titles on the 3DS, each containing over a hundred devilish puzzles. There's also a growing library of Picross S games on the Switch, but the 3DS series is fantastic as well. I may never run out of Picross, which is great to know.

I didn't jailbreak my Wii U (there seemed more to lose and less to gain than in the case of the 3DS). But I did plug it back into my TV. I couldn't help noticing that the Wii U tablet controller feels much more comfortable in my hands than its younger sibling the Switch. It does lack some quality of life features like a rest mode, but it was worth re-connecting the console to play some games that are still not available anywhere else.

Ironically just as a new Zelda release was approaching I gave in to nostalgia and started a new playthrough of Wind Waker, an incredible Zelda game I lauded in a previous top ten. I also restarted the adorable puzzle game Pullblox World. In a fit of absurd paranoia I bought Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush out of fear that with the eShop shuttered, used copies would go up in price (they didn't). 

I also played through much of the little known Affordable Space Adventures, which involves piloting a tiny craft around a harsh, darkly atmospheric planet. The unique feature of the game and the reason, sadly, it will likely never be ported to a less extinct system is that it extensively uses the Wii U's tablet screen to adjust the engines and anti-gravity systems of the vulnerable escape pod, with various threatening entities ready to pounce if your engine is too noisy or too hot. This is an indie game obscure enough to have absolutely no guides or video tutorials available online - the true isolation of this game is getting stuck and lacking the safety net of instructions from GameFAQs. In the final days of the Wii U eShop, Affordable Space Adventures actually topped the best sellers list - I'm glad they got their moment in the spotlight at the last possible opportunity.

Ye Olde Explosions

Somehow this extended period of indulgence in nostalgia inspired me to re-download Just Cause 2, which I originally played on the PS3 well over a decade prior. The game has an almost singular focus: a massive, sprawling open world, filled with stuff that blows up. Story missions with their extremely on-the-nose parody of Cold War CIA regime change represents a mere sliver of the experience - the true joy of JC2 is in parachuting and grapple-hooking around, detonating this tinpot dictator state's many fuel depots, naval bases and airstrips. The map features hundreds of locations with individual completion percentages, and an overall number that creeps up incredibly slowly, because there are literally thousands of explosions waiting to happen, and of course countless blinking collectibles.

Back in the day I recall reaching around 75% completion, before realising that most of the remaining things that go boom were outside of the marked locations, and it was a struggle to even contemplate combing JC2's 400 square mile world in a search for 30 mobile radar stations. But in 2023 I could defeat my gaming white whale because: mods exist. A particularly useful one being a detailed map program that reads the save file and marks with an icon every single collectible or incendiary target. But beyond that, I discovered a multitude of mods that bypassed certain archaic annoyances in the game, and of course many that made it more beautiful. Most vitally, one mod fixes a missing destructible water tower, without which it is impossible to reach 100%. It's a simple fact that by waiting many years to come back to it, I got to play this game in an objectively better state.

It's important to have goals in life - after an admittedly repetitive sixtyish hours I could proudly say my goal of 100%-ing Just Cause 2 had been achieved (although I received no Steam achievement for doing so).

Playable Anime

My anime addiction was a significant obstacle to playing games in the past year. This is a very good thing. It started a few years ago as an academic, from-the-outside-looking-in fascination with this whole world I knew nothing about, but now I cannot pretend it is anything other than a powerful obsession. My shōnen-villain transformation into full-on weeb is practically complete.

So when a sponsorship segment in an anime analysis YouTube video advertised to me a a Persona-style turn-based RPG with gorgeous visuals and a ridiculous, very anime sci-fi story... I was instantly intrigued, especially after all the above oscillations I had been going through with my gaming time in 2023 so far. 

But there was a price to pay - or more specifically, there wasn't. Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play "gacha" game from the makers of Genshin Impact, an incredibly popular (and also very anime) live service game that had been chugging along for several years. Live service games have never appealed to me. After all, I have a constant nagging guilt about the many games I have paid money for and not finished, or not even installed. How could I prioritise above my pile of shame a game that costs nothing (in theory, see below shortly) and is determined to monopolise my life with time-limited events and endless grind-filled content? 

Nevertheless I dove into Honkai: Star Rail, my fears partially assuaged by the fact that, because it had been out for only a matter of months, there would not yet be a mountain of addictive content. The opening cutscene was filled with a dizzying gamut of proper nouns and, to be frank, utterly nonsensical anime bullshit that went far beyond my experience with the medium, and I watched over 50 seasons of anime in 2023. I'm sure this confusing dump of gibberish exposition would be initially off-putting to many people, but if you end up checking the game out I would encourage you to push through it so you can enjoy the captivating environments and deeply satisfying turn-based combat. Every adorable character has class- and element-based abilities that combine in almost endless configurations, and as a result I found the battles brilliantly engaging. Like any turn-based game, it will involve a certain degree of repetition, but it's a joy to watch and there is thankfully an option to play the combat at double speed.

But, as I hinted at two paragraphs ago, the insidious nature of the live service playbook is ever-present. Upgrading your beloved characters means dealing with a plethora of bewildering currencies and items that can only be obtained by mindlessly grinding. Those grindable activities are restricted by yet another currency that can be purchased with real money. Playable characters are overwhelmingly acquired through the gacha element of the game, which for those blissfully not in the know is a virtual capsule machine, or lootbox if you will. A so-called "pity" system guarantees a good character every tenth attempt and a great one after 90. Paying for more attempts is offensively expensive at roughly £100 to reach that 90th pull of the slot-machine arm, which of course firmly pushed me away from spending money, but must be horrifying for anyone with a gambling problem. And, of course, there's a premium battle-pass.

Honkai: Star Rail is a scummy, beautiful game that I don't have an hour count for, which is handy because I would be ashamed to write it down. You should play it?

The Top Three

This is not entirely breaking with the diarised format, because I encountered all three in November and December! Oh, here are the other seven I guess:

10. Higurashi When They Cry

9. Affordable Space Adventures

8. Tchia

7. Just Cause 2

6. Honkai: Star Rail

5. Mutant Mudds Super Challenge

4. Elden Ring

3. Trine 2

Following regular conversations with BFVG member, and mushroom enthusiast Rich "Heliosrain", I was inspired into playing through the many games in the Trine series. The first Trine may be an indie game released in 2008, but it has aged impressively well. Its sequel is an all-time classic that will hold up for a long time.

Set in an appealing fairy-tale world rendered in glorious 3D visuals but with 2D side-scrolling gameplay, Trine 2 revolves around three distinct characters, throwing puzzles and simple combat scenarios at them that can be approached differently by each hero. Pontius, the knight, hits with his sword and blocks with his shield. Zoya, the thief, does archery and Cirque du Soleil rope-swinging. Amadeus, the wizard, lacks any direct fighting skills but can conjure boxes out of thin air.

In my opinion, the brief moments fighting goblins are a sideshow for the main event of Trine 2: delightfully fun physics puzzles. A basic example would be a long seesaw-like platform that the wizard can weigh down with one of his boxes. At the more devilish end of the scale, multiple giant gears might rotate, some of them spewing fire, above a pit of deadly acid, and inevitably a trail of the game's sparkly collectibles hovers tantalisingly out of reach. 

Trine 2 is not only incredibly entertaining to play, it's also timelessly stunning to look at. Whether distant backgrounds or the geometry of the level itself, the screen is constantly filled with wonderful coloured lighting and detailed artwork of all the requisite fairy-tale set pieces the narrative heads to. Medieval castles, a witch's lair, a spooky forest, everything looks amazing, especially for a game released in 2011.

2. Bit.Trip ReRunner

Trips down memory lane seem to be a constant as I write this. Bit.Trip Runner was originally, of all things, a downloadable game on the Wii - a fact unknown to me in 2013 when I played it and its sequel shortly after building a PC for the first time. I have a shaky relationship with exacting rhythm games, but I have a loving relationship with demanding platformers. The Bit.Trip Runner games combine the two, and I think both elements benefit greatly. The concept is quite simple: the protagonist, a bipedal black rectangle called Commander Video, runs automatically from left to right and needs your help to jump over, slide under or punch away various obstacles. If that sounds familiarly like a million phone games you've played, this was one of the first, and in my opinion ranks among the best.

The music builds as you progress, specifically each time Commander Video collects one of four red-cross collectibles found in every level. It adds more layers to the music each time, keeping the same melody but greatly changing the feel of the music. Once you've grabbed the last plus sign, Commander Video gains a rainbow comet-trail behind him and the energy of the song peaks and everything becomes kind of chilled and transcendent. Someone with a better understanding of music could probably go into more detail - what I know is I absolutely adore the experience of each level/song, and how each note is tied into the platforming action, unifying those two gaming genres masterfully.

And that all merely describes the original Bit.Trip Runner games. ReRunner remakes a game that looked like this:

and turns it into this:

This is not a quick cash-grab remake. Every level has been re-designed and is much longer, allowing the platforming challenge and the music to build more impressively: a case of more is more. Two gameplay mechanics that were cut from the first game are fully implemented for the first time. More faithful versions of the original game's levels are also offered in a bulging menu of bonus levels. And terrifyingly, the developers appear to have played some Super Mario Maker, because the main selling point of Re.Runner is that it hands the keys over to the playing community in the form of a fully-featured level-making mode. Terrifying because the only criticism I have is that there is no option to give a player feedback along the lines of "thank you, you magnificent bastard" - many of the user-made levels I sampled were maddeningly difficult.

ReRunner perfectly retains the feel of the original, my muscle memory slid into the groove instantly and when I compare them directly there is no difference in the controls that I can discern. It's utterly wonderful to see a title I remember so fondly given a new lease of life, and I hope this leads to a lasting new era for Commander Video.

1. The Talos Principle II

Earlier in the year when I was indulging in nostalgia, I re-downloaded 2014's The Talos Principle on a whim. The Talos Principle is a puzzle game with quite the deep story. An artificially intelligent robot has to navigate a simulation (filled with a multitude of puzzles, of course) in order to prove it is consciously alive and graduate to the real world, where many years ago humanity created the circumstances of its extinction via climate change. Many parts of this premise certainly only feel more topical today.

These high-minded concepts are explored through text logs very clearly inspired by Ancient Greek philosophy, including documents written by what is basically a fictional Socrates. The Talos Principle II expands on its predecessor with another leap forward in time: the I, Robot-looking successors to humanity have built a new society but are fraught with division on whether to ambitiously expand and explore, or to learn from the death of humanity that any impact they make upon the natural world is inevitably dangerous, and therefore they should restrict themselves to a minimal existence. Both sides of this debate come from a reasonable position, and soon events transpire that lead you and a few robotic citizens to, naturally, a huge island filled to the brim with puzzles.

So, how do these games with such incredibly deep themes justify you spending almost all your time connecting laser beams to open a door and grab another arbitrary video game 'point'? Both TP1 and TP2 are quite brief on this, because after all the real reason is that the people playing these games presumably really enjoy solving puzzles (I certainly do). TP1 frames the puzzles as a kind of Turing Test for the burgeoning AI protagonist; TP2 being set in the real world, not a simulation, has to devise a more complex answer that I won't reveal here as it is a late-game revelation. In both cases though, the ultimate reasoning is that humans and other intelligent beings interact with the world through play - which hopefully proves that I will one day get through my aforementioned pile of unplayed Steam games.

Forgive me for the spoiling the solution, but this is the very first puzzle in the game.

The puzzles are excellent: I really want to emphasise that without going into much detail as the proper way to understand it would be to play the game yourself. The massive island has twelve distinct areas all containing eight puzzles - when you factor in various secret challenges and additional puzzles encountered  in the progression on the narrative, you're looking at well over a hundred puzzles in TP2. Every one of those twelve zones introduces a new tool or mechanic that gives each set their own theme, which at first I was concerned would make the experience feel unfocused, that the puzzles' difficulty would keep resetting as the player has to be taught each area's core idea. Fortunately, the designers at Croteam are masterful at creating these lateral-thinking head-scratchers. There were countless times I thought "this is utterly impossible" before identifying a different strategy that, slowly or quickly, led me to a deeply satisfying solution. And the mechanics from previous areas are constantly brought back into the mix, so my fears about the overall flow of the game were unfounded.

Inclusive of TP1, I spent over 80 hours this year solving these fantastic puzzles, getting that wonderful release of dopamine from untold 'eureka!' moments. Honestly, it's hard for me to fathom how such an unlikely fusion of ideas came to exist: something so uniquely so video-gamey in the form of its puzzles, combined with an engaging story centred on Socratic debates on human agency, and made by the developers of the Serious Sam series, of all things! It brought me a lot of joy and thoughtful musings on its deep themes, and I am delighted to crown it my Game of the Year.

There's one more anecdote to tell before I finish. Early on in TP2, before coming to the island of puzzles, you are given the chance to explore the small city these robots have built. One of the sites of interest is a statue of a person holding a cat, with numerous displays surrounding it. Each display cycled through pictures of cats with cute descriptions of them. Under the statue I had a brief conversation with a robot about their love for their cats and this monument to them. I had just bought this game, and yet within the first hour I decided it had told me to turn it off and spend some time with my cats. Which I did.

A month later, and three days after I completed The Talos Principle II, my cat Stanley passed away. He's been my friend and loving companion for over 19 years, a majority of my life and the entirety of my adulthood. I'm never going to forget how this game pointed out his importance to me in that one small moment, and although it hurts to write this, I'm dedicating this to his memory. Farewell, and thank you so much.