The Best and Worst of 2023

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Kind of a slow year, and seems even more-so with how concentrated my time was, spending a couple hundred hours in Civ and variant sudoku probably getting close. In periods it's refreshing to just sit down for 2 hours and have a complete experience, or sink into a book with a more guaranteed level of quality, but even if this year's list is a bit meagre and it can take tens (if not hundreds) of hours to understand some games' exact level of mediocrity, I'm always coming back hungry to learn and experience all the nifty things the medium can offer. 

Here's a mixtape, and cheers to a brand new year.

Best Games

Thought Monster Train would sneak the top spot last minute but I haven't even bought the dlc yet so it'll have to wait. These plucked from the good games I played this year.

1. Sid Meier's Civilization V (PC)

Huge step up in UX, while giving diverse and interesting options to explore and optimise. Spirals out of scale to be messier and less interesting than to start, not helped by awful AI and vague diplomacy (relationships, the victory condition, AI shenanigans). The first 200-odd turns full of possibility are magical though. Deity is a bit absurd, Immortal and lower are more balanced I feel, making things like city states a relevant factor and allowing broader approaches, but that could be a skill or playstyle issue. 

2. Gunbird 2 (Arcade, via PC)

Introducing ties! These two Psikyo shmups top their catalogue for me (at least until I replay Dragon Blaze), filling a niche each. Gunbird, especially the second, is really fun to explore with several ways to use meter (I went through like 3 distinct strategies while learning the game), extra enemies if you're efficient enough, and hidden score piñatas. The latter particularly is something I'm not that into for score chasing (tempts you to reset a lot), but cool journey.

2. Strikers 1945 (Arcade, via PC)

This comparatively goes all in on the fundamentals, less powerful offense with a lot more enemies so instead of managing your resources to take out obstacles before they even materialize, you're forced into sticky situations. For both of these, the fancier attack patterns go a lot further than their older titles, but simultaneously the rotating score pickups are bad for casual play. A big thing holding the two, or me, back is that I'm not warming up to how reliant progress is on bombs.

4. The Legend of Zelda (NES, via 3DS, replay)

Feels good to ascend from fake fandom, beat this with guides and some save states way back, now drew my own map and only needed a push at the end (wtf level-9). Gets the basics right with solid enemy design and a compelling world to explore and navigate. Dungeons are fine generally, get a bit silly towards the end but some high points too (like bats with statues shooting fireballs, never get tired of that room).

5. Slay the Spire (PC, + phone but that version sucks) 

Solid fundamentals with card management and structure, even if it takes a bit long to unlock stuff. Bit too limited in build agency and variety (random relic obtainment restricts it a lot), but fun to happen upon combos and interactions a while.

6. [fr0g] clan official server 24/7 zk map (PC)

Satisfying movement with wild obstacles, haphazard level design makes for surprisingly few dead ends while really pushing routing.

7. Soft Kitten Experience (Web)

Some cool tricks and satisfying rhythm-making in figuring out a routine for levels - been a while since I got into a masocore game and there is a basic appeal there. Gravity is a bit of a downer, fair for a level as a gimmick and switch-up but in 18 it feels pretty pointless and only adds to the inscrutability and tedium of experimentation in 14 (didn't finish that, partially due to the saving).

8. Super Mario 3D World (Switch, via PC)

The rolling and diving is really fun, playful movement reminiscent of the last time Mario could roll (in Donkey Kong '94). Tight levels, slightly gimmicky as a rule with few blunders or stand-outs. Not that replayable with a lot of stars rewarded as secrets (without free camera or open levels, those are just spotting a room in the corner of the camera or whatever) rather than challenges, so I stopped at the 170 star gate but the way there is a good time [edit: came back because apparently half the levels are in that post-game, got a save file to bypass the last and silliest gate which of course blocks the decidedly best level in the game]. Bowser's Fury is like a less bad Sunshine, same movement but with really boring level design honestly.

9. Riven (PC)

Excellent worldbuilding and exploration with some good light puzzling along the way, but both of the major tests aren't entirely sensible in-universe nor flawless in logic, plus some obscure ways to progress that should've had a fallback route.

10. Atlantis no Puzzle (Web)

Cool mix of mapping out interconnected rooms, exploring item interactions and deducing the path of progress given those. What an argument in favor of puzzle platforming, not so much the small-scale movement as just how key your navigational abilities are to routing with one-way paths and such.

Worst Games

A minor collection of trash, there was a lot I just can't downright dislike, from the meandering first chapter of Higurashi, through Half-Life 2's innocent obsession with physics gimmicks, to Phoenix Wright 3 limply letting down any expectation of fundamental improvements from the first two.

1. Golf Story (Switch, via PC)

I wrote about how nice it is to find a good game in a genre I dislike recently, and I expected this to be at least partway there. Golf mechanics can be cool and some kind of streamlined single-player campaign seems like a good context, but this retains a lot of unintuitive faff and the campaign aspect only serves to break up the action while stuffing in tedium through cutscenes and slow walking.

2. Donkey Kong Country (N64, via PC)

From that era of platformers with big clunky sprites to show off the graphix and awkward gimmicks for the scope sell, slapping the most basic camera on top that never shows you what's happening where you're going fast enough, but what's actually offensive about this one is how damn ugly it is. Might be the worst-looking proper game I've played. If it was any more garish it might spin around to work as an intentional aesthetic but it's stuck as some cursed in-between.

3. Tomb Raider (2013, PC)

This one's slightly low hanging fruit but given the base enjoyability of Uncharted I honestly was expecting this to not be so worthless. Compared even to the first game there, this is a charmless mess with so much downtime. The camera is terrible, even the menus make me dizzy, and QTE-ridden set pieces clog a downright stupid plot introduction / tutorial. I was thinking there might be ok stealth shooting and I've heard about the more involved puzzle dungeons, but if so there's a long period of boring wolf combat, forced stealth and walking-and-talking first.

4. Signalis (PC)

If the atmosphere worked this might be alright, if probably not my kind of genre, but without that I'm left finding it pretty boring for the decent chunk I played. Slow movement with repetitive "combat" where it's easier and more efficient to step around them even before it brings respawns into the mix. Limits the inventory space but when there's no resource drain from moving around on the map, it only serves as tedium and another reason to consistently avoid combat as you leave behind your gun to fit another puzzle piece.

Other Media

Skipping over some more predictable likes to find the unexpected or peculiar hits.

Barefoot Gen (anime film)

Up until and including the bomb, immaculate in its innocence and heart. From there the educational voice-over clashes a bit with the stylization, not the cleanest storytelling, but bouts of dynamic animation and rich watercolor art don't let up.

Tales of the Dying Earth (novel(s))

The first book's Liane and Ulan Dhor chapters are evocative as a longtime D&D player, where Vance's influence is felt clearly, and I even adapted the latter to a short campaign. The Eyes of the Overworld introduces the delightfully devilish Cugel with one of my favorite endings, and his adventures only become richer in Cugel's Saga with ever-more extravagant exploits.

Rhialto is a bit more scattered, even compared to the episodic original: the first chapter is very strange, with fellow wizards being gender-bent and made subservient to a witch of unknown goals beyond female dominion; second has a grand time-travel adventure where the very high power level doesn't obstruct the plotting as much as I'd expect it, at least until the end where it skips over a lot of how things resolve; and finally Morreion is a fantastic piece of speculative fiction, as filled with frivolous dialogue as it is awe-inspiring renditions of the setting. Morreion himself is fascinating, ever-evolving as he reminisces his way through the cycle of life and loss. 

His and Her Circumstances (anime series)

I'm still haphazardly reading the manga, but the unfinished adaptation lingers with me. Impressive how quickly it makes archetypes into people and moves through developments in their relationships, and while I don't think it's all Anno (for example) there's certainly a heavy touch of his on top of the moody swings of the storyline. I wrote a bit more / different at the time, highly recommended.

Phoenix: Karma Chapter (manga)

Future may have literally shown the infinite path of the universe, but this is just as majestic in scope, exploring the spiritual depth of humanity given that path. Even as Akanemaru recognizes he's lost his way, he can't find his way back. Haven't read the final part yet (or checked the adaptations), but the god of manga's magnum opus seems about right. Edit: I did watch the adaptation and while it sucked, it also made clear a lot of what I liked in this original story.

Christmas Movies

Might sound weird but I never really checked out holiday movies until this year, basically staying with the handful of TV films that always showed plus some nostalgia fuel (I did read Narnia this season, but didn't get to the film which is what really holds that status). White Christmas is such a fun romp, if light on the festive spirit, Cool Runnings and Wonka had that to spare while hitting some good notes of their own, and finally It's a Wonderful Life is as delightful as I ever could have expected. Throw Gillian's Little Women on the pile too even if that was earlier. Turns out it's pretty nice to end the year with stories about community, family and celebration.