2023 was a pretty weird year for me in terms of games. It's often been regarded as one of the biggest years for gaming in recent memory, probably the biggest coming off of 2017. Every major studio has been putting out some massive releases, tons of indie darlings have begun to spawn, and Nintendo in particular has been absolutely killing it in terms of critical acclaim. Unfortunately, in my case, there's a lot of really massive games that I have not been able to play. Spider Man 2, Baldur's Gate 3, RE4 Remake, Pizza Tower, Hi Fi Rush, Armored Core VI, all games that look awesome but I just don't have the hardware for.
That being said, in terms of the games that I was able to play, this was a pretty consistently strong year! It really wasn't too hard to fill out a Top 10 of my favorite games from this year, and it still felt like I had games to spare. So, let's get into it, shall we? Here are my Top 10 games from 2023.
10. WarioWare: Move It
WarioWare Move It is a sequel to the fan favorite WarioWare Smooth Moves, and it pretty much manages to capture that same exact magic twice. Not just because it's also a fantastic microgame collection with tons of silly motion control shenanigans that utilizes the Switch's hardware in ways no other game on the console has, but because it feels like a game ripped straight out of the early-mid 2000s. It has that weird experimental feel that a lot of games often had around that time, and it had me up on my feet and actively moving around like it was the Wii era all over again. And that's absolutely a good thing, by the way. I grew up with the Wii, I adore motion control minigame collections, and Move It absolutely ranks among the upper echelon of this very niche and divisive genre.
Like its predecessor, WarioWare Move It has you hold both Joy Cons in your hand and do a bunch of poses to complete an onslaught of quick-fire microgames. The poses range from simple things like holding the Joy Cons to the sky, to far more weird things such as acting like a chicken. One of the poses even utilizes the Switch's IR Reader which I believe most people who read this forgotten existed. All of these microgames are creative, visually weird, and an absolute blast, especially most of the boss minigames. Move It also puts a lot of emphasis on its multiplayer, boasting a large array of exclusive party modes, and they're all great. From a wide array of exclusively multiplayer microgames, to one of the most hilariously cruel board games I've ever seen, to several four-player outings, Move It is an incredible party game. Add in tons of fun cutscenes and interactions starring WarioWare's fantastic cast of characters, some very fun hidden minigames, and a strong presentation that balances polish with purposeful jank, and you get one of the most joyous games I've played this year.
9. Hello Kitty Island Adventure/Sonic Dream Team
I'm grouping these two games together because I know I could not getting away with putting two Apple Arcade games on this list. That being said, damn was this a good year for Apple Arcade! It was always nice to have as it served as a way for me to discover more indie gems, but with these two games, I think Apple finally found some heavy hitting software sellers. Hello Kitty Island Adventure in particular is the game that I feel really makes Apple Arcade worth getting now. The main premise is that you and the Sanrio cast crash land on an island, and it's your job to explore and find everyone, help the other characters set up on the island, and befriend all the Sanrio characters. It's Animal Crossing crossed with an open world adventure game, and there's no shortage of charming quests, robust customization opportunities, and hidden secrets to engage with. Don't let the fact that it's a licensed game put you off, Hello Kitty Island Adventure stands on its own as an incredibly comfy and enjoyable game that's easy to sink tons of hours into. It may even be a better Animal Crossing game that the most recent Animal Crossing game (no disrespect to New Horizons though).
Sonic Dream Team may not be as ambitious, but it's also worth highlight for being the first actually good 3D Sonic game in almost a decade. While it's not as Shonen-y as Frontiers, Sonic Dream Team is polished to a glowing sheen, with controls so tight and reliable that the game can toss these fast-paced do-or-die platforming segments at you that feel entirely fair and manageable. The level design strikes a nice balance between briskly-paced linearity and engaging exploration, the bosses are a blast, the cast of playable characters is impressively large, the visual style is colorful and bright, and the game even brings back some of the best elements of previous games like Lost World's antigravity and Colors' Eggman announcements. With Dream Team, the team at Sega Hardlight truly managed to capture the charm and spirit of Sega at their peak, and I'm very excited to see what they choose to do in the future, both in terms of post-launch content and their next game.
8. Cocoon
Cocoon got a lot of buzz for winning Best Debut Indie over Pizza Tower. As I said above, I haven't played Pizza Tower, so I can't really say anything about that. But what I can say is that Cocoon kicks ass, and I'm not gonna tolerate any slander of it. Cocoon is an incredibly clever and mind-bending puzzle game that I'm going to do my best to explain. So you play as a little cricket creature who can carry around these orbs. These orbs are their own worlds, and you can hop into and out of these orb worlds. Eventually, you'll start to get multiple worlds, and you can bring these worlds into other worlds which predictably leads to some very mind-bending puzzles and even some incredibly cool twists that will cause you to question how the worlds are even laid out to begin with. Despite this, however, the devs do a remarkable job at keeping everything palatable and digestible, and worlds and new mechanics are slowly introduced at a good pace. The puzzle design in Cocoon is incredible, never frustrating and always giving you that "ah-ha!" moment.
Even beyond the simple puzzle design, part of the appeal of Cocoon are the worlds in which you explore. Cocoon takes place across several alien worlds, and they all feel genuinely alien. There are tons of cool-looking biological creatures and squelchy flora, and the game isn't afraid to really unnerve the player with how unfamiliar everything is. Each of the worlds also feel vastly different from one another, all having their own unique species, atmosphere, and level gimmicks. But the thing that really elevates Cocoon's worlds for me is how tactile it all feels. Every single major mechanic in Cocoon is used by physically interacting with them. The worlds must be physically carried on your back, the levers must be physically dragged, the switches and springs must be pressed down on, it makes Cocoon's worlds and the myraid of contraptions within them feel all the more tangible and satisfying to interact with. The apex of this is in the boss fights, yes there are boss fights, each of which giving you a unique item to carry that you can use in the fight. My personal favorite being a fruit (?) that squirts out water boosting you into the air ala FLUDD. As a whole, Cocoon is a masterful puzzle game that balances weighty concepts with satisfying puzzle design, elevated by its unique presentation and eerie atmosphere. It's not super long, but it was a gripping experience from start to finish that I doubt I'll ever forget. Play it.
7. Pikmin 4
Speaking of exploring alien worlds, Pikmin is awesome. It's always been great, but now that its long-awaited fourth installment is out, the series has gotten more buzz than it has ever gotten, even winning Best Strategy Game. And I can't say it isn't deserved, Pikmin 4 is a fantastic entry in the series. While I do still prefer the more time-centric games like 1 and 3, Pikmin 4 takes the formula that Pikmin 2 established and pretty much perfects it on every front. Exploration is more fun since the locations you visit are much larger and more original, the caves are far better now that they're actually individually hand-crafted rather than randomly generated, the boss and enemy rosters are quite a lot larger, and many of the quality of life improvements that Pikmin 3 added do a great job at taming Pikmin 2's unwieldy difficulty. And for people like me who prefer dealing with the time crunch, there's still a fantastic side mode starring Olimar based entirely around the first Pikmin game.
But I think my favorite thing about Pikmin 4 is just how big it is. An issue this series has always struggled with is its short length, but Pikmin 4 is simply gargantuan on every level. The overworld areas are absolutely massive and numerous, the cave count has been upped dramatically, there are tons of side missions you can do, there's the newly added Night Missions, there's all the upgrades you can get for your new dog Oatchi, there's a beefy postgame, and I already mentioned the Olimar campaign. This focus on scale even extends to the game's presentation, as Pikmin 4 really emphasizes just how small the characters are, culminating in a (fantastic) level that straight-up takes place inside someone's house. In a lot of ways, Pikmin 4 feels like the definitive Pikmin game. Even if Pikmin 3 is still my personal favorite and 4 does make a lot of really baffling regressions, I can't help but admire just how grand Pikmin 4 feels.
6. Kirby's Return To Dream Land Deluxe
But the real standout additions in Return To Dream Land Deluxe is just all the extra content it adds. The mere two minigames we had originally have been substituted with an entire minigame mode called Merry Magoland, which lovingly recreates minigames from across the franchise. It's so robust too, there's achievements, unlockable masks, multiple difficulties, it feels like a game in its own right. Similarly, there's the new postgame campaign Magolor Epilogue which also feels like it could be its own game. Not only is it just more Kirby goodness with strong level design, fun bosses, and banging music, but Magolor Epilogue is especially notable for leaning further into Kirby's hack-and-slash inspirations by implementing combo, upgrade, and ranking systems. It's one of the first times outside of the True Arena where it felt like I was rewarded for high-level play in a Kirby game, and I really hope HAL takes some cues for the next main installment. While I do have my gripes with this remake particularly in terms of its ability balancing and difficulty tweaks, Return To Dream Land is still one of my favorite games and this remake manages to add so many fantastic new features that I still very much enjoyed my time with it.
5. Gravity Circuit
Do you like Mega Man? Do you like robots? Do you like platformers in general? Play Gravity Circuit, it's incredible. Gravity Circuit feels like a middle-ground between the Mega Man X and Zero series, balancing the vibes and level design philosophy of an X game with the fast-paced and flowing combat of a Zero game, and you can tell the developer understands what makes these series so great. Gravity Circuit's movement and combat does take a bit of time to get used to since it's a lot more melee focused, but once it clicks, you'll be blazing through stages and tearing enemies to shreds. There's so much freedom in your movement too, from the abundance of melee combos, to the grapple hook you can use to swing around, to the ability to throw or knock enemies into other enemies, to all the purchasable chips you can use to give yourself more moves and perks. The level and boss design is top-tier too, with each stage taking a bunch of fun central mechanics, slowly iterating on and combining them over the course of the stage, and then integrating them all into the big final boss fight. Gravity Circuit is as brutal as you'd expect from a Mega Man game, but it's all incredibly fair.
On top of the fantastic game design, goddamn is this game stylish! The pixel art is incredibly smooth and detailed while also employing a striking use of color that helps the important characters stick out from the backgrounds and gives each stage and boss their own individual color scheme. The stage intros are super slick, utilizing Utsuho-esque warning banners to great effect, and each boss fight starts with a VS screen straight out of a fighting game. Even the opening cutscene is so well-paced and delivered, especially when paired with the music that accompanies it. The character designs are phenomenal too, these are some top-tier robot designs. They have that bulkiness that defines the Mega Man X series, and I love the massive and expressive eye-screens they have. The characters have such a wide range of expressions that even watching the dialogue bits is a ton of fun. And the music is incredible, perfectly capturing the blend of rock and synth that defines the Mega Man franchise, while also throwing in some top-notch eurobeat to really spice things up. Gravity Circuit is a stellar action platformer that strikes that perfect balance between capturing everything that makes Mega Man great while adding in its own ideas to help it fresh. It's everything I look for in a great indie game and it deserved so much more recognition than it got.
4. Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG was always a game I enjoyed, but it was never one of my favorite Mario RPGs... until now. Super Mario RPG even getting a remake to begin with was wild, but ArtePiazza went above and beyond with improving on the original while keeping everything people loved out it. In terms of the visuals, the Super Mario RPG remake is remarkably accurate. The characters look just as lovably scrimbly as they always did, the posing is damn near identical, and while the new translation did change some names and remove some pop-culture references, the vast majority of the game's best jokes were left completely intact. And it's a good thing too because playing Super Mario RPG again really made me appreciate just how incredibly funny and heartfelt this game is. I think I got more attached to this party than any party in any other Mario RPG, they're so lovable and fully-formed as characters thanks to Taro Kudo's excellent writing. The devs also went the extra mile and added in fully-rendered CG cutscenes for pivotal moments, and they are absolutely stunning. The remixed soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura is also perfect, with every song getting rich orchestrations that add in even more layers to an already great score.
In terms of gameplay, Super Mario RPG initially felt like the most simple out of the Mario RPGs, as its successors would go farther with the action commands and it was noticeably more basic than its Squaresoft contemporaries. This remake does just enough to liven up battles by putting a larger emphasis on action command timing, introducing an action command chain system that gives you perks for nailing action commands in a row, a super precise perfect command that deals splash damage, and an action gauge that lets you do unique special moves depending on your team. I think most of these changes are for the better, especially that super addictive chain system, but the game also compensates for the decrease in difficulty by introducing some brutally hard post-game rematches that test your skills in the game's mechanics in ways never before seen. There's also a whole bunch of nice quality of life improvements like the addition of a bestiary, the improved menuing, fast travel, records to beat for many of the minigames, and an auto-run option. Super Mario RPG perfectly toes the line between capturing the appeal of the original work and elevating it for a modern audience, it's pretty much a perfect remake in my eyes.
3. Super Mario Bros Wonder
This is probably the least surprising entry on this list if you are at all familiar with my taste in video games. I'm not even sure what I can say about Super Mario Bros Wonder that hasn't already been said at this point. It's an incredibly tight and well-designed platformer with top-notch movement, inventive level design, and a visually stunning 2D/3D artstyle that gives the characters so much extra personality. While most of the 2D Mario games outside of like World and Land 2 can feel somewhat derivative nowadays, Super Mario Bros Wonder is bursting at the seams with fresh new ideas and innovations. The core gimmick itself are these flowers that cause the level you're in to dramatically shift and terraform, the entire philosophy that Super Mario Bros Wonder is built upon is to surprise the player. And despite all of the experimental level design and wacky gimmicks, the series' penchant for incredible level design remains entirely intact. SMB Wonder never veers too far into gimmickry, it's always a blast from start to finish.
Super Mario Bros Wonder also leans far more into the collectathon aspects of the series, with a massive roster of collectibles, hidden secrets, and optional side levels to discover. There's a very neat badge system that you can use to boost your moveset, tons of charming standees that you can use in Wonder's surprisingly robust multiplayer, and a laundry list of varied bonus stages from bite-sized mini challenges to enemy gauntlets to rhythm games to the literal worst puzzles ever created. And to top it all off, Wonder boasts an incredibly polished and charming presentation that really emphasizes the cartoony aspects of Mario's cast to great effect. Characters like Daisy, Toadette, and Nabbit have never looked this good in motion. Wonder even takes cues from the Mario RPGs by giving each world a cute little mini narrative, some of which not even ending on a boss fight. And to top it all off, the soundtrack is fantastic, combining that classic Mario sound with a more modern feel. Also, there are singing Piranha Plants, and you'd have to be heartless not to like that.
2. Bayonetta Origins
I'll admit that I haven't gotten around to playing the mainline Bayonetta games yet. They look cool, and I quite like character action games, but I just never got the chance to play them. However, with Bayonetta Origins, I just couldn't resist. It looked so unique, and it was getting quite a lot of surprise praise by Bayonetta fans. After checking out the demo and really enjoying it, I went ahead and bought the full game, and folks, we got a real sleeper hit on our hands with this one. Bayonetta Origins shows Platinum Games stepping outside their hack-and-slash comfort zone a bit with a game that feels like it harkens back to their work on Okami as Clover Studio. It has that experimental PS2 game energy to it, boasting a stunningly original painterly visual style and an unconventional twin-stick control scheme that feels like it's ripped straight out of Ape Escape.
At its core, Bayonetta Origins is a low-key adventure game where you explore a labyrinthe forest as Cereza (young Bayonetta) and her new familiar Cheshire at the same time. You'll often find yourself having to control both characters in tandem, and pretty much all of their combined abilities are used both for the enjoyable puzzles and fun combat. The main campaign is filled with surreal environments, fun setpieces, and thrilling boss fights that let Platinum flex their action chops, but the world is also just chock-full of side content such as a ton of hidden collectibles to find, contained challenges to do, upgrades to get, and costumes to unlock. There's even a hidden postgame campaign just to sweeten the deal. And even beyond the gameplay, Origins's presentation is immaculate. I'm aware fans of the series are a bit burned by the third game's narrative, but I gotta say, the story in Origins is actually really good. It's a simple but effective coming of age tale with a strong character arc for Cereza and enjoyable banter between the main cast. The framing of the entire game as a picture book also imbues Origins with so much soul, from the charming narration to the stunning watercolor visuals to the gorgeous orchestral score. That final vocal track hit me on a level only something like Ico's credits theme could manage.
In a similar fashion to fellow sleeper hit Hi-Fi Rush, Bayonetta Origins shows a dev team taking a risk, going out of their comfort zone, and making something experimental and unique. Origins didn't sell especially well, of course, it's a niche game within an already niche series, but it's those weird, niche titles that are what really stick with me a lot of the time. It's the same reason why I love games like Gurumin, and Klonoa, and Parasite Eve. Bayonetta Origins looks and plays unlike any other game out there, and it's a top-notch adventure game to boot. I can't think of a better game to call my favorite new release of 2023. However...
1. Metroid Prime Remastered
I know it might seem kind of lame to place a remaster of a game from 2002 in the #1 spot, it probably sounds like I'm implying nothing from this year managed to reach those same heights. But in reality, I think this is a testament to how perfectly Metroid Prime has aged, that it is able to hold its own with games made 20 years down the line. To this day, Metroid Prime is still one of the most immersive games I've ever played. It does such an effective job at putting you in Samus's shoes, and allows you to see the world of the Metroid series through entirely new eyes. The sheer attention to detail put into the world of Tallon IV and its lore is still remarkable. And even more, Metroid Prime is just a damn good metroidvania that perfectly recreates the series' formula in 3D. Tallon IV is an incredibly engaging planet to explore, combat is as fun as movement-based as always, the bosses are towering and memorable, and the game is chock-full of iconic setpieces that will always stick in my mind. And the phenomenal and atmospheric score by Kenji Yamamoto is just icing on the cake, solidifying Metroid Prime as one of my favorite games ever made.
And of course, even beyond the game itself, the actual work that Retro Studios put into Metroid Prime Remastered is incredibly impressive and shows that the dev team hasn't missed a beat when it came to working on this series. Metroid Prime Remastered is, bar none, the most visually-stunning game on the Switch right now, and it still stuns me that it was even possible on this hardware. The texture work is immaculate and the textures themselves are far more detailed and grisp, the added particle effects and improved lighting do so much work to heighten the mood of every area, and it still manages to run at a smooth 60fps. I thought the original Metroid Prime already aged wonderfully visually, but this Remastered makes it look downright dated. On the gameplay front, Remastered also adds just enough worthwhile additions to really solidify itself as the definitive version. The sheer amount of customization options Retro Studios added is quite impressive, and being able to use gyro/right-stick aiming completely transforms the game for me. Add in some charming collectible concept art and models, and some extra difficulties, and you get what feels like a truly complete package. And to top it all off, Remastered was shadow-dropped in a Direct and released for an uncharacteristically low price of $40, and yet the remake was so quality that I still would've easily bought it for $60 and felt like it was worth the extra money. Metroid Prime Remastered is one of the best remastering jobs in all of video gaming, and it took what is already one of the greatest games of all time and improved it in ways I didn't think was imaginable.
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