A Year in Review - 2023

[kashell]

I can't speak for everyone, but 2023 might have been one of the best years, ever. New adventures. New experiences. Exciting changes. And of course, some solid gaming moments. As it draws to a close, let's talk about the gaming journeys from the year.

I'll post my responses to the below later.

Categories:

Favorite 2023 Release: What's your favorite game that you played released this year?

Least Favorite 2023 Release: On the opposite end, what's your least favorite game released this year?

Favorite Game Played in 2023: What game this year earns your spot for best game ever?

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: What's your least favorite game that you played this year?

Sleeper Hit of 2023: If you have one, what's your personal sleeper hit for 2023?

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: What moment in a game you played this sticks in your head the strongest? Was it something awesome? Something tragic? Something completely over the top? Keep spoilers to a minimum or mark them if you can.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Share a story about a cool find from this year!

[kamikazekeeg]

Favorite 2023 Release: Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - While I do have some issues with the game (Doing away with alot of stuff from the previous game, the underground, needing more sky stuff), I still can't deny how much fun I had with this game.  It does open world freedom in a very unique that was still great.  I'm definitely done with this version of Zelda, sounds like Nintendo is too, so I'm very interested to see where it goes from here.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Starfield - I didn't have high expectations going into it, but I figured with Game Pass, I could give it a look since I still do enjoy the Bethesda formula, but nope, I think it's a pretty awful game.  Combat is weaker than ever, AI feels even worse, story is boring, companions are mostly bland and uninteresting, how the planets are designed is boring and not worth exploring, its just a whole lot of missteps.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Maneater - I've beaten it before, but decided to replay it and do the DLC and this is still just a dumb fun game, growing your shark, causing havoc, it's a particular type of game that isn't done as much as it use to be.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Sonic Frontiers - I wanted to like this game, I think the gameplay is decent and a more open world design is fun, but I hate the art style they chose for the game, it gives off major "Unreal Tech Demo" vibes, the very short render distances is awful combined with there just being lots of rails and ramps hanging in the air, it looks terrible because of all that.  It just has very little of what makes Sonic good with its art styles and vibe.  Like I look at Sonic Dream Team, a mobile game, and that looks so much more like a proper Sonic game to me.  Only good things from this were some of the music as they went crazy hard on it.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Pseudoregalia - I went in on 3D platformer throwback games and this one had some fantastic gameplay in it.  It's rather short and lacking in a few areas, exploration gets tough without a map, but the gameplay is so satisfying.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Some story moments are real good in Tears of the Kingdom, but I don't want to spoil anything in particular.

[ignition365]

It is getting to be that time.  I'll update my post tomorrow hopefully with lots of the same added questions I do every year.

I always look forward to this post every year

Favorite 2023 Release: Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.  Fantastic game, unfortunately it gets a lot of complaints because it's more of the same of Breath of the Wild, which is a fair complaint, but the game is still fantastic even if it didn't move the goal posts again.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Starfield.  At no point had I been hyped for this game, I'm not big on the sci-fi genre in general, which is a huge reason I never cared for Halo.  But even after release I just never felt the need to spend my time with the game.  I played for an hour or so and I just couldn't get over the fact that the first decision they make you make and you don't have a choice, you must join the foundation or whatever the cult is called.  I will definitely force myself to finish the game at some point, but the game is just horribly mismanaged and does enough to alienate players of previous Bethesda games.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.  It's the top of my list for the year.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Batman Forever (SNES), oh my lawd is this game just absolutely awful.  I almost get anxiety thinking about how awful that game was.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: For games released this year? Lies of P, didn't expect that game to be as good as it was, best non-From Soft Soulslike I've played.  Played in general?  Saints Row.  I heard nothing good about it, people talked shit about it and even after I've played it and Volition got shut down people still shit on the game, but it's honestly one of if not the best entry in the Saints Row series.  I can admit marketing killed the game, but the game is amazing, could've been my GOTY if not for Elden Ring last year, had I played last year.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Tears of the Kingdom.  Can't really explain, because spoilers, but iykyk based on the title.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: None, I've basically gotten out of collecting.  I buy modern stuff I plan on playing and that's about it.  Maybe getting tons of steam games for like nothing?

As usual I'll add some categories

Proudest Gaming Accomplishment in 2023: 100% completing Lies of P.  I'm always proud of beating these tough games, but especially proud when I 100% complete the game.

Favorite Game Revisited in 2023: Goldeneye 007.  Despite it releasing this year on Xbox, I'll consider it a revisit.  100% complete the game in a few days, was an absolute blast to revisit on Xbox with modern controls.  If we don't want to count that because it's new?  Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands  Started replaying this on Xbox recently because I wanted to revisit something, specifically.  Really enjoying my time with it again.

Top 10 Games played in 2023:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (NS)
• Atelier Ryza 3 (NS)
• Lies of P (XS)
• Saints Row (XS)
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
• Resident Evil 4 (PS5)
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NS)
• Goldeneye 007 (XS)
• Robocop: Rogue City (XS)
• Wild Arms (PS5)

Ten worst games played in 2023

• Batman Forever (SNES)
• Double Dragon Neon (XBLA)
• GAI Stops Auto: Right Version Simulator (PC)
• Batman (ZX)
• Clustertruck (X1)
• Batman (SNES)
• Twisted Metal 4 (PSX)
• Twisted Metal 3 (PSX)
• Twisted Metal 2 (PSX)
• Twisted Metal (PSX)

[telekill]

This wasn't an abysmal year with the new Zelda saving it, but it wasn't great either.

So favorite overall and played for a 2023 release is Zelda TotK.

My least favorite part of gaming is coming to terms that I'm no longer the demographic, and the new demographic loves shallow online only experiences. The games worth playing are so few and far between that it's essentially useless to own a modern system.

Sleeper hit would probably be the LRG Jurassic Park Collection. It's also the biggest surprise too.

[bikingjahuty]

Favorite 2023 Release: Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - not as good as Fallen Order, but I still loved it. I still stand by my belief that this is the best Star Wars series we've had since the prequel era wrapped up in the 2000s.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Armored Core 6 - It's not that I didn't like it. I guess it's more I didn't like it as much as I was hoping I would. I've been away from this series for nearly two decades, and I guess I'm just not into giant mech games as much as I was in my late teens in the early and mid 2000s.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - This was my second playthrough of Fallen Order, and I spent a lot more time being a completionist and exploring everything more than I did the first time around. I still adore this game, particularly the characters and story, but the gameplay is also incredible I actually like this game more than I like a few of the movies (pre-Disney of course).

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Raycrisis (PS1) - It's been a long time since I last played Raycrisis and it's probably one of the worst shmups I've ever played. This is tragic considering its two predecessors are among the best shmups I've ever played.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Fatal Fury 3 - I have far less experience with the Fatal Fury series than I do various other SNK fighting franchises, but I was genuinely surprised how good I thought this game was. I played it pretty much half the day on my birthday and didn't want to stop, which doesn't often happen when I play a random fighting game.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: This is a tough one, but I guess I'd say it's a tie between realizing that Final Fantasy is a Top Tier JRPG series once again after a 20-year hiatus, or being relieved EA (and Disney by extention) didn't screw up Jedi Survivor.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: I don't really consider myself a collector anymore for the most part, so trying to reach collecting milestones isn't something that I necessarily after anymore. But to answer this one, my top accomplishment as a collector was deciding to trim down my collection even more and focus on keeping stuff that really matters to me the most. I did this heavily with my N64 this year, mostly as a result of getting an Everdrive 64 X7 for by birthday. I now just own games for it that really mean a lot to me.

[kashell]

Categories:

Favorite 2023 Release: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe. It's Kirby, so I had a feeling this would take the win and I was right. It took all of the great stuff from the Wii version, amplified, and poured in tons of new content.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Mato Anomalies. I was this close to nominating Trinity Trigger, but Mato Anomalies took the cake. This was game bad upwards, downwards, left and right. I wouldn't be so harsh if the game didn't have such a promising start that lead me to believe it would be something amazing.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Valkyrie Profile Lenneth. I'll never grow tired of this game. Getting to play it yet again with a trophy list inspired me to write a guide for it. Good times.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Mato Anomalies. Again.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Crymachina. Unlike Crystar, Crymachina is actually a damn good time to play. I only know of one other person on another forum that's played it. They didn't care for it, haha.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: I can't think of anything major for this year. Since getting back into .hack, maybe the series' overall plot? It moves at a nice pace with each reveal being more exciting than the last.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: The pruning continues as I get rid of stuff that no longer fits in my collection. Heck, I haven't even thought of going "game hunting" in months. But, for this year's Secret Santa, I was gifted the three .hack//G.U. games on the PlayStation 2. That really made me happy so I'll go with that.

[Cartagia]

Favorite 2023 Release: Going a little out of the box and choosing a game I haven't even played yet, but Baldur's Gate 3.  I love D&D, I love Larian games, I've had a blast watching people play.  I just need to get it for myself.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: I think I've only played a couple of actually 2023 releases and I liked them both a lot, so I'll just go with Starfield I guess?  A lot of hype for just another Bethesda game.  Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but I'd really love to see them innovate again.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.  Improved on BotW in a lot of ways, while still feeling like there's so much more they can do.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: The Callisto Protocol.  Pretty meh overall.  Not awful, but the combat isn't that great and the story is pretty bog-standard stuff.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Infernax: Deux or Die.  Technically more of "complete" edition that added some features to Infernax from 2022.  It's a great throwback platformer, styled after Castlevania.  Currently my #2 game of the year.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: I got the 300 mounts achievement in World of Warcraft followed soon after by the achievement for 350.  I got some very lucky drops, alongside some heavy grinding, but 300 was one of my primary goals when I came back to the game last year, and 350 was just a nice cherry on top.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Like others, I'm not doing a ton of hunting these days.  I got some title I really wanted to play here and there, but that is about it.

[galaxygamer102]

tis that time o year

Favorite 2023 Release: To be honest I didn't play that many games (that released) this year, as I was playing more older ones but Touhou 19 was pretty fun, Advance Wars 1+2 was cool too

I guess if I had to choose, Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe was pretty fun to play with my friends.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Super Bomberman R 2. I haven't played too much of the story, but the "open world" is pretty boring, and bland. Castle mode's ok, kinda wished there was a map creator for normal maps.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Astro's Playroom. Best intro I could ask for to my first Playstation Console. Shoutouts to: Disgaea 6, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, and 100% Orange Juice.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: All the Neptunia Games I've played this year have been boring, and pretty much require grinding (or just getting the dlc characters for better abilities, which i did considering I got the 3-Pack with some DLC included with it.), plus, both did this annoying this where you'd have a boss to beat and I'd be like "man that was a challenge, but I got through it" and then after a cutscene they'd just hit you with a second stronger one, and I'd be fine with it if they at least healed my units, but not only do they not, but the boss is always faster so it goes first and One-Hits one of my teammates, so I'm basically screwed. Even worse in Neptunia VII, there's no healing before the 1st boss begins, the only place you could heal was if you left the dungeon. You know, the four floor maze dungeon that's the 2ND area in the game. But I would say the worst game I played this year was Touhou Genso Wanderer, because I could at least get through the first dungeon in Neptunia. Who the hell thought to make the first dungeon 38 Floors?? PLUS if you die you restart the whole thing AND get reduced back to level 1.

Though I played this last year, Cris Tales was extremely boring.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Pretty much the same as my Best Game of 2023.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Playing Astro's Playroom for the first time. (It really hit for me)

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Getting my first Playstation Console!

Probably not a "Collection" Achievement but still

Anyway, Here's a top 7 list of my favorite and least favorite Games I played this year:

Favorite

• Astro's Playroom
• Rivals of Aether - I can make touhou smash bros (the mods honestly bring this game up from being good to amazing)
• Disgaea 6 - JRPG comedy done right
• 100% Orange Juice - The only "Mario Party Like" I've found fun
• Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe
• LittleBigPlanet 3 - just plain fun, dunno how to make good levels but I've played a lot of em
• Persona Q - One of the few RPGs I found myself getting into

Least Favorite

• Touhou Genso Wanderer
• Megadimension Neptunia VII - for the reasons listed above + JRPG comedy done wrong
• MONARK - pretty boring and has this weird spike in level when the bosses arrive, which means grinding!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
• Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus - don't
• Monster Prom - I don't actually remember much from this as I refunded it but I remember not liking it
• Super Bomberman R 2
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - least bad game here, but I think it had kinda boring combat. I'm trying to like JRPGs but like I can only find like a few I like

[soera]

Favorite 2023 Release: What's your favorite game that you played released this year? Has to be Reverie. Such a fantastic ending to Liberl/Crossbell/Erebonia

Least Favorite 2023 Release: On the opposite end, what's your least favorite game released this year? Really do not have an answer for this. Every game I played I liked. I am disappointed at how Diablo IV turned out with the seasons and the lack of end game though.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: What game this year earns your spot for best game ever? Persona 5 Royal. Anyone who has not experienced this game is doing themselves an injustice by making it wait.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: What's your least favorite game that you played this year? Again from above, I didn't have a game this year I disliked.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: If you have one, what's your personal sleeper hit for 2023? Midnight suns, hands down. I normally do not get into card based games but this game was done so well. Screw all the naysayers. Give this one a shot. You won't regret it!

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: What moment in a game you played this year sticks in your head the strongest? Was it something awesome? Something tragic? Something completely over the top? Keep spoilers to a minimum or mark them if you can. Mine isn't technically in a game but it's my tattoos. I have added a piece from: Ni no Kuni, Final fantasy, Diablo, Ys, Tokyo Xanadu and Dragon quest and next Friday, I'm doing Gal Gun/Gal Guardians.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Share a story about a cool find from this year! This is almost the antithesis of this question but my accomplishment was finally selling off all of my extras I had. Accepted a fair offer on the entire lot and it cleared up much needed space so that my collection itself and grow.

[shfan]

Favorite 2023 Release: Pikmin 4, hands down. Sublime game design with additional tweaks to a pre-existing format which already works brilliantly, absolutely loved it.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Atomic Heart, what an absolute shoddy mess, I was so looking forward to a new BioShock type game too.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Probably Age of Empires II's new expansions (loved em) or Geneforge I: Mutagen, a revamped version of one of Spiderweb Software's best games which takes me back 20 years, fond memories.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Atomic Heart. I mean, there's a few games on Steam I bought for pence from Kinguin which I spent less time on and deleted, but as far as actually investing money into a game and expecting to play it that one was a heart-breaker.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Fully beating Pikmin 4 and sitting watching the end sequence.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Slashing and burning most of it in order to raise cash and trade for some delicious Nintendo releases on Switch.

[kamikazekeeg]

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Atomic Heart, what an absolute shoddy mess, I was so looking forward to a new BioShock type game too.

This was going to be my least favorite release until Starfield came out lol It has some good elements to it, but it's just a terrible package.

[Cartagia]

Sleeper Hit of 2023: If you have one, what's your personal sleeper hit for 2023? Midnight suns, hands down. I normally do not get into card based games but this game was done so well. Screw all the naysayers. Give this one a shot. You won't regret it!

I've had this on my wishlist for a while.  It's pretty cheap now so I'll probably pick it up sooner rather than later.

[alligo]

Favorite 2023 Release: Hi-Fi Rush, Kirby's DreamLand Deluxe and Mario Wonder

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Dead Island 2 and Forza Motorsport

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Mario Wonder, Sniper Elite 4, Trepang2, RE4R, Hi-Fi Rush

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: AC6, NFS Heat, FM and Lego SW Skywalker (not bad but too many bugs)

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: try for the biggest score in hi-fi rush and have platinum Melody Of Memory

I don't know if we can choose several titles.

[ferraroso]

Favorite 2023 Release: Resident Evil 4 (not amazing, but I haven't played many games released this year)

Least Favorite 2023 Release: Marvel's Spider-Man (not for the reasons most people disliked it though...)

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Metal Gear Solid 3 (from the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1)

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: GoldenEye 007 on the Switch (it's my favorite N64 game, but for some reason, playing it on the Switch didn't feel quite right for me... it desperately needs a new control scheme in order to be fully enjoyed on the new platforms... I also hate the fact that it wasn't released physically)

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Robocop: Rogue City (Only played a few minutes, but pretty good so far despite the PS3-era graphics)

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Not a specific "moment" in itself, but I really enjoyed purchasing and playing a few awesome PC Engine shooters I had never tried before such as Gate of Thunder, Wings of Thunder (Lords of Thunder) and Gunhead (Blazing Lazers).

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023: Metal Gear for the MSX (one of my most desired items!)

[turf]

I’m in. I’ll give this a whack

Categories:

Favorite 2023 Release: Super Mario Wonder
I still haven’t finished it, but damn it’s fun. I caught myself smiling when Wild shit would happen.
Vampire Survivors gets honorable mention here.

Least Favorite 2023 Release: I’m not a negative guy. I’m going to skip this.

Favorite Game Played in 2023: Mother Truckin Red Dead Redemption 2. I started this one again after about 4 years off. It is a damn masterpiece. It’s in the conversation for Best Game Ever.

Least Favorite Game Played in 2023: Being an adult and paying bills.

Sleeper Hit of 2023: Vampire Survivors is a simple little game where you just kill everything until the 30 minute mark when the Reaper comes for you. It’s cheap on Steam. Give it a go.

Favorite Gaming Moment in 2023: Getting back into playing games. I had just about fallen out of gaming. Just didn’t have time and didn’t have anything grab me. Then, I stumbled across a second-hand SteamDeck. I’m back, baby!  I’ve played more games since October than I have in the last 3 years.

Proudest Collection Accomplishment of 2023:  I broke the cycle of feeling like I was missing out. I only bought stuff I wanted to play this year. I even sold a few things that were taking up space. It’s personal growth.