Gaming Recap 2023

Of all of the things I do throughout the year, perhaps one that interests me the most is what games I’ve played and tried out, and why, and how they were. This year was even more exciting because I finally got a Nintendo Switch! This was a very funny coincidence, because I am one of those gamers who tends not to get a new console until its second edition comes out. In one of those very rare situations where I had a few hundred bucks of me-money, I looked online for some used Switches and found out that the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had very literally just come out and I was able to get a Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch for a little less than retail price, from a guy whose daughter won it in a raffle and already had a Switch. I am delighted to have a special Zelda edition Switch, I must say, though boo-ass to Nintendo for sending out promotional copies of this system that don’t actually come with the game in question.

So we’ve been playing a lot more Nintendo this year than we have in the past decade or so (I never did get a WiiU), with the first half of the year being fully PS4 gaming, and post-May switching heavily into Switch games. So, here’s a little recap on the games I played in 2023 in no particular order and for those that I didn’t do a full review of, I’ll include a short recap of my thoughts on the game!

Hob
A fun puzzle game with beautiful artwork and good music. Not too complicated, with lots of collection work to be done if you want to keep being in the world after you’ve finished. A generally fun game for a single playthrough, but not quite so alluring that I felt like 100% completing it. (PS4)

Exit the Gungeon
I didn’t play this nearly as lovingly as I played Enter the Gungeon, likely because the bird’s eye 2D view of Enter works much better for me than traditional side-scrolling 2D of Exit, but otherwise, the game is very nostalgic for everything the original does. This isn’t a very elevated sequel per se, because it didn’t change much beyond the viewpoint and updated the enemies, but still a fun rogue-lite to throw on when you need to kill some time! Plus the theme song still cracks me up. (PS4)

Ori and the Blind Forest
I picked this game up because it was a decent price and because Harri Koskela (Lost in Grey) had played its soundtrack while I was interviewing them once or twice and I was completely captivated by it. The game itself is beautifully designed with obviously amazing music by Gareth Coker, and the story was quite touching. I’m not a huge fan of bitchy platformers these days but I did manage to get through the whole game. Highly recommended for lovers of platformers. I did not opt to get its sequel, Ori and the Will o’ the Wisp though (because platformers don’t excite me that much these days), even though its music is as good if not better than Blind Forest’s. (Switch)

Nex Machina
I’ve actually been playing this game for years now even though I’ve never written about it before, but now that’s changed! It’s one of our all-time most-played couch co-op games and I love the soundtrack from Ari Pulkkinen. This is definitely one of my favorite games from Finnish developers too! You can check out my thoughts here! (PS4)

Mario Kart 8
I’ve actually played this game a fair bit with my friends on their WiiU, but I do think the Switch version of this game has improved on it, mechanically. I have the season pass as well, which allows an extra set of levels to explore and some new characters to play, as well as the “world tour” levels that pretend to represent real world big cities. A lot of the levels are really great and fun, it’s awesome to see a bunch of older levels from previous editions of the game make updated resurgences, though I still maintain that making Mario Kart 64’s Rainbow Road into a single-lap level is a travesty and anyone involved in pushing that decision forward needs to be tarred and feathered. The frustrations of this game are endlessly real and, frankly, part of the game experience by this point, but it remains one of Nintendo’s best 4-player party games. I hope they continue with the concept of adding levels—using the 8 as an infinity symbol was extremely clever—rather than releasing a new game every time. I’d love to have the core game stay the same, but with more levels that I can buy as DLCs to add on. (Switch)

Uncanny Valley
A fun horror game, but the slow pace of movement made it really painful to try to get to as many endings as you could find in the game. In fact, I’m not convinced that we ever got truly into the real horror parts of the game because we got really tired of the PC’s slow walking speed, so after a while, replays to find the scarier routes became more and more tedious and we eventually quit playing. Perhaps we’ll return to it someday though! (Switch)

Untitled Goose Game
Do you ever just feel like being a complete dick for no reason? If so, this is a great game to get that out of your system so you don’t need to be a asshole in real life. It’s largely a puzzle-based game that’s trying to get you to accomplish funny little tasks and it’s actually quite challenging, even in 2-player. We haven’t played this one a lot but it is a stupid, fun little game to throw on when you just want to be weird and annoying for a while. (Switch)

Freaky Trip
This is a strange little game that reminds me of a considerably easier version of the Tim Tang Test from back in like 2006 or whenever that was a thing. The artwork is really fun, the story is truly batshit nonsense, and the mechanics are buggy AF (we had to reset it so many times), but for a game that you can play through in an hour or so, it was amusing and, truly, in its own way, kind of a trip. (Switch)

Arise: A Simple Story
I haven’t finished this one yet, so arguably, it shouldn’t even be on this list. The artwork is really lovely and it’s kind of sweet, pretty, melancholic kind of game. Unfortunately, I do find it plagued by those super slow controls that make it hard for me to come back to it. I’ll likely play this in 2024 properly with a walkthrough just so I can get through it without missing anything. It’s much too slow-paced for me to want to figure it out on my own and it does seem like a game that I’d like to get everything out of during the experience. (Switch)

Crypt of the Necrodancer - Nintendo Switch Edition
I played the hell out of Crypt of the Necrodancer on the Playstation and ended up buying the… I’m not sure what it’s called, electrified/amped edition for the Switch because I am really interested in playing Cadence of Hyrule and I wanted to see how they’d updated the game before I committed to that purchase. I’m still playing it, as I liked to have a rogue-lite game on hand at all times for when I need to kill a bit of time and this is my current go-to (Dead Cells being my go-to on the Playstation), though I’m not sure how I feel about the game just adding a full other level… as if it wasn’t hard enough already! I’ve already beaten the game with Cadence in my new playthrough and am still working on getting through it with Melody, after which it’ll likely go back into retirement because I admit that I’m already getting pretty tired of it (I did play it a lot when I got it on Playstation, so you can’t blame me for burning out quickly the second time around). I am also definitely not the kind of gamer who can put up with the BS required to beat CotN with any other character, but I applaud those who are. (Switch)

Spiritfarer
A spectacular game if you like to putter and feel peaceful, while simultaneously being extremely relatable story-wise and making me cry a lot because of the emotional depth of the spirits, as well as the lessons they learn before passing through the Evergate. I think I played through this game twice. You can read the more in-depth review here! (PS4)

Stray
I really enjoyed getting to spend my time as a cat in a cyberpunk world. The visuals and art were amazing, the “Ballad of the Lonely Robot” was a really catchy little tune that put a smile on my face, and the overall experience was a fun one that I’d likely replay someday because of the enjoyable world and atmosphere—I could see myself having another go at this game to do it to 100% completion sometime. Read the full review over here! (PS4)

Octopath Traveler II
This was an extremely fun and beautiful game in the classic JRPG format. While elevated, mechanically, from classic Final Fantasy turn-based gaming and with a magnificent pixel/polygon combo art style, the storytelling unfortunately really needed a lot more work (unless you like your characters to be trope-ridden, predictable stereotypes). However, the game itself was very fun and I played the hell out of it for probably around 100 hours. I’d give it excellent scores everywhere except for the story depth, in which it scores very poorly. Nevertheless, I do still recommend it. You can get my full thoughts on it over here! (Switch)

Children of Morta
While I haven’t played Diablo 4 yet, Children of Morta really gave me the experience of playing a Diablo game without the tedium of how bloated Diablo games are these days (granted, they have their audience for that sort of thing). We are starved for good couch co-op games and we loved this, particularly with full scores in art and design. While the game was a little buggy, we still played it through twice. Check out the full review here! (Switch)

Moonlighter
While the concept of running a shop and also dungeon crawling was really fun and I enjoyed the world, I found this game to ultimately be a bit tedious and buggy. As a connoisseur of rogue-lites, this was not one of my top picks for the year, though I did enjoy playing it through and I liked their attempt to explain the ever-changing dungeons. Full review here! (Switch)

Oceanhorn
In being such a dedicated homage to Legend of Zelda games, this game felt like it lost a bit of its own identity. I also really can’t handle games with slow-moving characters, as is becoming desperately clear. However, the game is beautiful and the music is spectacular, so if you like LoZ nostalgia, don’t miss this one. Check out the full review here! (Switch)

Sea of Stars
By far my favorite game of the year, with full scores in art, music, design, gameplay, and characterization, as well as for the amazing tie-ins to their previous game, The Messenger. Read the full review here! (Switch)