2023 in CultureGamesFrom skateboard romances and a horror fishing simulator to the return of beloved classics and the ever-enduring appeal of Zelda, 2023 was a bumper year for gaming. Our critics pick their favourites
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20. Venba
PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
A game about the importance of cooking and the immigrant experience, in which we see vignettes of the daily life of a family who have emigrated from India to Canada. The mother uses food to keep herself and her son connected to their homeland and as a distance grows, perhaps inevitably, between parent and child, we see the consequences. The Tamil language, film, music and cuisine are depicted here with affection, lending emotional weight to the story.
19. Chants of Sennaar
PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
As a traveller in foreign lands, with no knowledge of the local languages, you must piece clues together from context, making this part puzzle game and part adventure game. It certainly doesn’t patronise you. The beautiful, minimalist art is reminiscent of Monument Valley and the contrasting colour palette creates a sense of otherworldliness. A dream for linguists, but fun for anyone who enjoys testing their brainpower.
18. Assassin’s Creed Mirage
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
Ubisoft returns us once again to its world of historical hitmen and underworld subterfuge, this time focusing on Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief turned apprentice assassin in ninth-century Baghdad. It is a much more focused and deliberate tale than Origins or Valhalla, and you are mostly confined within the city walls, which has allowed the designers to pack every street, square and alley with convincing period detail. Stalking your targets, sneaking around enemy buildings or exploring the landscape on camel or horseback all provide exquisite pleasure – the products of a development team in full command of their richly conceived universe.
17. Metroid Prime Remastered
Nintendo Switch
A throwback to a time when first-person games weren’t all about shooting, this immersive 20-year-old science fiction adventure has yet to be bettered and is a treat to revisit. Bounty hunter Samus Aran lands on a dying planet, and slowly augments her spacesuit with blasters, bombs and grapples to aid her exploration and find out what happened there. It’s atmospheric, clever, challenging and mysterious.
16. Thirsty Suitors
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
It turns out that what we really needed in this troubling year was a skateboard romance role-playing adventure about a second-generation Indian immigrant returning to her home town to battle her ex-lovers. Thirsty Suitors sounds like Scott Pilgrim meets the Gilmore Girls but it is even more than that. Filled with authentic detail, it has things to say about the immigrant experience and it says them with style, heart and vitality.
15. Pikmin 4
Nintendo Switch
Exploring an Earth-like planet as a miniature spaceman, you pluck plant-creatures from the ground and guide them like a small, cute army before chucking them at menacing predators and commanding them to transport giant treasures (fruit, discarded toys and the occasional piece of nostalgic Nintendo hardware) back to the ship. A generous, lovable game that takes its concept further than you expect.
14. Hi-Fi Rush
Xbox, PC
Chai is a bit of a loser, but he’s cheerful about it – even after an accident at a factory turns him into a music-playing cyborg with a transforming guitar-arm. Hi-Fi Rush’s world pulses and sways to the beat of its soundtrack and smacking robots about to the rhythm makes for an exhilarating and stylish action game. Comic book boss battles, presented with panache, are a particular highlight.
13. Dredge
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
It is quite frankly a scandal that we’ve had to wait this long for a Lovecraftian-style horror fishing simulator, but at last we have one. Created by New Zealand studio Black Salt Games, Dredge has you braving dark, cruel waves while trying to catch increasingly monstrous fish, then attempting to return safely to harbour. Absolutely sodden with eldritch atmosphere, it’s a game that captures the haunting, beautiful danger of the ocean.
12. Street Fighter 6
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
More than three decades on from Street Fighter II, Capcom’s seminal fighting game series is still successfully reinventing and modernising itself, like a hadouken-blasting David Bowie. Complete with a new fighting system, vibrant visual design and a truly excellent online multiplayer mode, this is a joyous celebration of a genre that refuses to simply lay down and yield.
11. Resident Evil 4 Remake
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
Capcom’s sorties into its survival horror past have been hugely successful, maintaining the scares and shocks of the original games while modernising the visuals and adding fresh narrative twists. This game follows Leon Kennedy into hellish rural horror on the trail of the kidnapped daughter of the US president, and might well be the best in the Remake series. It ramps up every famous set piece encounter, from the mud-splattered villages to the gothic splendour of Salazar Castle. It is an engrossing thrill ride packed with memorable monsters and alive with Grand Guignol horror and style.
10. Sea of Stars
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
In a strong year for Japanese role-playing adventures, Sea of Stars stood out for its pitch-perfect recreation of Super Nintendo-era titles such as Chrono Trigger and Vagrant Story. The cookie-cutter plot sees two young Solstice Warriors combining their magical powers to defeat an evil alchemist, but the joy of the game is in its relaxed pace, gorgeous 2D visuals and enthralling turn-based battles. A respectful ode to a simpler time.
9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, PC
The sequel to 2019’s Fallen Order, Survivor is another rollicking Star Wars adventure that weaves expertly between the movies, TV dramas and reams of attendant lore. Renegade Jedi Cal Kestis is the hero once again, using new powers against old enemies, while the set-piece locations, sounds and battle sequences all brilliantly capture the feel of the films. A breathless exercise in skilled franchise expansion.
8. Super Mario Bros Wonder
Nintendo Switch
Returning to the abundantly adorable world of Mario is always a treat, but while some of the modern 2D multiplayer Mario games have lacked a little magic, this one has it in spades. Each level hides a wild transformation, imaginatively twisting and upending Mario conventions in ways that will delight children and jaded gamer parents alike.
7. A Space for the Unbound
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
A magical realism game set in rural Indonesia, this is the story of a couple of high school students growing up in the late 90s, dealing with other people’s problems as well as their own by using a talismanic notebook to dive into their minds and understand their feelings. The supernatural elements here turn a coming-of-age story into a strange, compelling mystery.
6. Alan Wake 2
PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series S/X
Channelling The X-Files, True Detective, The Silence of the Lambs and Twin Peaks, this dark supernatural sequel follows FBI agent Saga Anderson as she investigates a series of weird, cultish murders in the town where horror writer Alan Wake mysteriously disappeared 13 years previously. It’s a twisted, surreal, utterly individual action adventure involving parallel realities and occultist dread. Blockbuster games in the 2020s are not usually this fascinating and idiosyncratic – thank goodness they still can be.
5. Dave the Diver
Nintendo Switch, PC
By day, playing as chubby scuba diver Dave, you delve ever deeper into a marine trench replete with dangerous and weird sea life, harpooning things, shooting at sharks and collecting treasure. By night, you serve up the things you caught at a beautiful sushi restaurant. This makes for a stunningly compulsive rhythm of play as it is, but the game just gets funnier, more complex and more interesting as it goes on. Let it surprise you with its depths.
4. Cocoon
PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC
In this game, you carry worlds on your shoulders, contained within orbs that your moth-man avatar can jump into, changing the layout of the realities within. Self-assured, understated, impactful sound and visuals support the most quietly brilliant puzzle game to emerge in years, from some of the minds behind the masterful Limbo and Inside.
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
PlayStation 5
Featuring both Miles Morales and Peter Parker, this ambitious sequel takes us back to a now expanded New York, where new foes and personal challenges await. Once again, the feel of navigating the city is utterly intuitive and blissful, and the addition of the ability to fly for short distances brings the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens into reach. The enemies, Kraven the Hunter and Venom, are interesting and challenging foes, and the story cleverly links them to the soap opera-style dramas of our web slinging heroes. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe might have faded of late, Spider-Man 2 shows there is plenty of life left in the games.
2. Baldur’s Gate 3
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
If you picked up this maximalist Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy role-playing-game in August, it’s unlikely you’ll have played anything since. It contains hundreds of hours of well-written, intelligent and amazingly flexible adventuring, which moulds to the player’s choices and actions so convincingly that it truly feels like a game where you can do anything. Very much worth the time investment.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Nintendo Switch
Yes, this latest tale of magic and adventure takes place in the same world as Breath of the Wild, and you will recognise many villages, forest glades and mountain views as you search for the ever-imperilled princess. But Tears of the Kingdom is crammed with fresh sights and experiences, from sky islands to an entire underground mirror kingdom. It also allows you to craft vehicles, weapons and other gadgets, opening up incredible creative avenues. Sometimes a game comes along that makes you feel privileged to play it. This is certainly one of those those.
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