*** I should acknowledge that I know for a fact that Baldur’s Gate III would be on this list if I had played it. This year has been so good for games that there are a number of releases like Baldur’s Gate, Warioware, Mario RPG and Resident Evil 4 Remake that I just haven’t had time for.
10.) Quest Master [demo/early access released 2023, PC]
Technically, this game isn’t even out yet. It’s literally just a demo, but I already know that I am going to fucking love it. A small indie studio has taken on the mantle of filling in the gap Nintendo teased us with in the Link’s Awakening remake - a full-on “Zelda Maker”. The demo is essentially an early-access version of the game, receiving regular patches and content updates, but even in its current state it combines the simplicity of the Mario Maker interface with the complexity and interactive mechanics of a 2D Zelda game. You can create your own sprawling multi-floor dungeons filled with keys, items, enemies and secrets, and string them together to make your own mini Zelda-like games! The pixel art style is great - it looks visually very similar to Minish Cap, which is my favourite 2D Zelda, and I honestly can’t wait for the full release. I am going to be making so many dungeons.
9.) Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity [released 2021, Switch]
I will admit, I slept on this at launch. I played the original Hyrule Warriors on Wii U and I thought it was an interesting concept, but ended up feeling like something put together by a modder. It was disjointed and janky, and I didn’t love it. Age of Calamity, however, takes its entire identity from Breath of the Wild, wearing its stylish skin, and telling a “what if” story that takes place in the events leading up to Breath of the Wild. It’s the same usual hack-and-slash objective-based gameplay from all of the “Warriors” series, but somehow this time around I was a lot more invested, and the repetitive nature of the gameplay wasn’t a deterrent to me because I was engaged in the story and actually enjoying unlocking characters, levelling up etc. It felt like a lot more effort was put in to create a rewarding and enjoyable gameplay loop - with a fairly compelling narrative too - so even though the gameplay can feel a bit grindy and repetitive, there is enough going on to keep you engaged longer term. This was a great way to dive back into the world of Zelda and Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom (more on that further down…)
8.) Pokemon Scarlet [released 2022, Switch]
Pokemon Scarlet is proof that games don’t have to be masterpieces to be fun. I will openly admit that the game is a bit of a mess. It’s poorly optimised, running at varying framerates, with some of the worst “pop-in” I’ve seen in a modern video game. Some areas and characters look really beautiful and detailed, whilst others look a bit undercooked and seem to be missing lighting or textures. Having said that, I’ve sat out of the last few years of Pokemon releases so there were a lot of quality of life improvements and small modernisations that made the game immediately feel very fresh and enjoyable to me. My favourite thing about Pokemon Scarlet is that there are NO random encounters - all the Pokemon just wander around freely in the open world, and that alone was enough to make the world really fun to explore. You’re not just wandering through wild grass and caves hoping to the RNG gods to find a cool rare Pokemon - you are surveying the landscape for them and have to chase them down to get them! There were times where the game’s performance or inconsistent quality let me down or frustrated me, but the fact that I have already put in 45 hours into this game and I am still playing it clearly shows that I am having a lot of fun with it. Did this game need another year in the oven? Definitely. Is it still fun nonetheless? You betcha.
7.) Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure [released 2023, PC]
Not a lot to say about this one really - it’s more Guild Wars, and I love it. I’ve always loved ArenaNet’s design philosophy of “horizontal design”, which basically means that new features, subclasses, weapons, mounts etc. are very rarely objectively better than anything that came before it; instead they just give the player more options. With four major expansions under its belt, and 11 years of support, Guild Wars 2 has an immense amount of varied character builds you can go for. This expansion in particular feels a lot smaller in scale compared to the previous one which was very grandiose and epic, but to be honest I am enjoying the smaller “side story” feel to it. It’s very typical fantasy wizard-themed, and it is heavily reliant on the player having the Skyscale mount - the mount I completed the world’s stupidest, longest questline to get - so I have very much enjoyed being able to make use of the mount to get around and explore the new maps. They also also recently allowed all classes to use weapons that they previously wouldn’t be able to use, so this has added more variety and options to the way you play.
6.) Super Mario Wonder [released 2023, Switch]
After four increasingly stale “New Super Mario Bros.” games and two Mario Maker titles, the future of 2D Mario was uncertain. But Nintendo came out of the blue with the announcement of Super Mario Wonder, a secret project that they had been working on in the background for a number of years. The name of the game pretty much sums up how I’ve felt playing every single level - a sense of wonder, and childlike joy on my face at every turn. It’s the most refined and easy to pick up and play platformer I’ve played in a long time. The expressive animations, the catchy music, the sublime level design and gradual difficulty curve (including some truly gruelling secret levels!) all blend together to create one of the best 2D Mario games ever. It’s actually incredible how much new stuff there is crammed into this game - it’s by far the most creative 2D Mario game since Yoshi’s Island. It simultaneously manages to feel familiar yet new, and it’s been a joy from start to finish.
5.) Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp [released 2023, Switch]
Delayed indefinitely, but finally released in 2023, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp is a revamped remake of the first two GBA titles. I played these games to death as a kid, but I was a little worried that they might not hold my attention like they did back in the day. But, I can safely say that I was wrong - the timeless turn-based strategy of Advance Wars has been retained here, and it’s never looked or played better. The game has been given a striking makeover, with animated sequences and characters, full voice acting and beautifully rescored soundtrack. Plenty of quality of life and modernisation changes have been made too, including a vastly improved map editor and the ability to undo a single action, which feels useful without feeling like cheating. The two campaigns are as good as ever, starting out easy but ramping up with some severe difficulty spikes that had me genuinely stuck a fair few times, but feeling immensely satisfied and relieved after finally beating them. In addition to the campaign you’ve got an improved level editor and the War Room scenarios, as well as a slew of new unlockables and bonuses to spend your points on. I’ve finished the campaigns but still have plenty to chip away at, and I’ll be doing so for some time to come. Advance Wars deserves more love, and this is the most charming, stylish and approachable that the series has been in a long time.
4.) Tunic [released 2023, Switch]
I held out for the physical Switch release for this game, and oh boy was it worth it. Tunic is the greatest love letter to the NES era of gaming that I have ever seen. It manages to recapture the mystery and wonder of the pre-internet era of gaming - you collect in-game pages to the game’s manual, gradually piecing them together to discover the secrets and techniques required to progress. It’s a really novel concept that is executed really well. The manual is in an unreadable runic language, but there are just enough context clues and mysterious hand-drawn notes and diagrams in the manual to point you in the right direction. Gameplay-wise Tunic is a perfect blend of 2D Zelda and Dark Souls, with the puzzle-solving, dungeon crawling and green tunic-wearing swordsman protagonist of Zelda, with the bonfire system, dodge-rolling and lock-on combat and tough bosses of the Souls games. Tunic’s presentation is a perfect 10 for me, with simplistic geometric voxel-based characters and environments paired with a beautiful lighting system and a dreamy, mysterious soundtrack. The fact that this game was programmed by a single guy is absolutely astounding, and it’s proof that an uncompromised creative vision and passion are the most important things when it comes to game development.
3.) Metroid Prime Remastered [released 2023, Switch]
Metroid Prime Remastered is quite possibly the perfect example of how to do a remaster. It faithfully retains the skeleton of the 2002 original, but with gorgeous new graphics, and hugely modernised controls. And the graphical update and modernised controls do so much for the game that it feels brand new - if I hadn’t played this at launch, you could have convinced me that this was a new release. Metroid Prime remains one of the best games of all time, with a compelling maze of an overworld that is just begging to be explored, especially with its new lick of paint. It’s fun to scan all the flora and fauna and learn about the secrets and lore of this world, and it’s also just as fun to shoot the shit out of creatures and space pirates. Everything about Prime just feels so detailed and immersive, with details like the rain pouring down the screen, or the reflection of Samus’s face in your visor when you fire missiles in a dark room really making the world of Prime feel vibrant and alive. To use an overused quote in video game journalism - it really makes you FEEL like Samus! I unfortunately don’t think it will happen, but I would absolutely love for Prime 2 and 3 to be given the same treatment as this remaster before the (eventual…) release of Metroid Prime 4.
2.) Pikmin 4 [released 2023, Switch]
Pikmin 4 is the largest and most ambitious Pikmin game ever. It’s slow to start, and can be incredibly hand-holdy and interrupts you a lot in the first couple of hours, but once the game lets you off its leash, I absolutely fell in love. Much like I mentioned with Pokemon, there are dozens of tiny quality-of-life improvements that have been made here that just make the moment to moment gameplay feel buttery smooth, and so much better than ever before. And there’s so much content here - the maps are enormous, and there are even more of them than in previous games. In addition to that, the caves system from Pikmin 2 returns, with dozens of tricky underground dungeons for you to explore. The Pikmin series has always had a very charming atmosphere to it, but Pikmin 4 goes particularly hard on this front. It’s the best-looking game in the series, and the seemingly subtle decision to bring the camera lower to the ground ends up having a big impact - it makes you feel truly tiny, and it lets you see what is on the horizon, both in terms of the actual playable level, but also in the backgrounds. Everywhere feels like a conceivably real environment that is really enjoyable to explore at such a small scale, such as the dungeon set inside a series of fishtanks in an aquarium, or the level themed around a kitchen. I’ve finished the “main game” of Pikmin 4, but there is still a load of postgame ultra-hard stuff for me to come back to. It’s an absolute joy from start to finish, and remains one of gaming’s most unique and charming series.
1.) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom [released 2023, Switch]
Oh man. I think it’s safe to say that The Legend of Zelda is my favourite series of all time, so needless to say this was on my watch list ever since it was announced way back in 2019. The wait felt like forever, but Tears of the Kingdom finally released in May of this year and I can easily say that it is by far my favourite game of 2023. From the gameplay, to the story, to the presentation, everything is just flawless. I was initially a little dubious about Nintendo re-using the Breath of the Wild map, but in the end it proved to be a great decision. Tears of the Kingdom truly feels like a sequel in every possible way - you are returning to a world that you’ve already saved once. You’re invested in the characters and locations that you’ve spent so much time engaging with - you wander around Hyrule and people recognise you. And that 6 year gap between the two games releases? Turns out that 6 years have passed in-game, too! The world is familiar, but changed. You know the approximate lay of the land, but the passage of time has changed things, and the “Upheaval” event that occurs in the beginning of the game causes countless floating isles to appear in the sky above you, scattering debris, relics and ruins across the land. Oh yeah, and there are vast pits all over the place that lead to AN ENTIRE UNDERGROUND MAP AS BIG AS HYRULE.
Like Breath of the Wild before it, Tears of the Kingdom is a masterclass in open world game design that will play out differently from player to player. Aside from the prologue and finale, the entirety of the game is open up to you and you can choose to engage and pursue whatever you like. This results in extremely memorable and amazing discoveries - one moment that will stick with me is when I first saw one of the spirit dragons flying into a pit that led to the Depths. Curious, I decided to follow it and accidentally discovered that you can now ride dragons! I was chilling on the dragon’s back flying through the pitch black of the depths, just in awe that this was even possible. Everyone’s experiences with this game will be different and unique, and everyone will have their own jaw-dropping anecdotes to share.
The fact that the entirety of the Sky, as well as the main Hyrule map including every building, cave and dungeon as well as the entirety of the Depths, is all one unbroken instance with no loading screens whatsoever, that runs on the Switch, and looks as good as it does, is nothing short of incredible. Countless critics and game devs alike have accused Nintendo of witchcraft for some of the things that Tears of the Kingdom lets you do. From its gargantuan, seamless open-world, to one of the most impressive physics systems ever utilised in gaming, all running on a system that was underpowered even at launch 6 years ago - I, too, am convinced that some dark magic must have been involved somewhere along the line! I’m still not 100% finished with the game - I’ve got about 15 shrines still to find and complete, a few sidequests here and there and of course still hundreds of Koroks to find. I’ll come back to it every now and then to chip away at the last few bits, but the 165+ hours I’ve already spent in the game have been just full of moments of wonder. The game is so full of mysteries, little secrets, and “they did WHAT?!” moments.
Tears of the Kingdom could have used a little more “traditional” Zelda gameplay and story design from my point of view, but it is certainly more story-focused than Breath of the Wild was, and the game’s dungeons feel a step closer to the more traditional Zelda design than Breath of the Wild’s Divine Beasts. Overall though I haven’t had this much fun with a game in a very long time, and this cements Tears of the Kingdom as both my favourite game of 2023 and my favourite Switch game.