New games i played in 2023 ranked
woah! a work in progress numbered list!
40 Games
been loosely following the development of this game for a few years, but never actually played any demos or anything. The game was amazing though, I always love fast paced platformers with an emphasis on getting perfect runs of a level, so the design in this game was right up my alley. Already perfected every level and every boss (except the final one), and definitely going to be going back to do some speedrun clears.
1
Finally got around to playing this after hearing so much about it, and it was as good as everyone was saying! Combat had plenty of depth that I'm not knowledgeable enough to talk about in length, but even with what I knew it was incredibly satisfying. The dynamic difficulty felt really good, and did its job giving me a constant challenge throughout the game. Story was the perfect amount of stupid, and although I didn't find much of the music memorable (apart from the credits) it still sounded good. My only major issue is some levels being a bit annoying to get through, and some general issues to do with the age of the game (I understand that it's important to the combat, but the tank controls can still feel awkward at times.)
Overall really glad I played this though! Decent chance I'd raise the score to a 10 eventually.
Overall really glad I played this though! Decent chance I'd raise the score to a 10 eventually.
2
This game really lived up to the hype. Ultrahand is a great mechanic that works really well with the shrines, exploration is so much more interesting with the sky and depths, dungeons are actually in the game to some extent. All around a massive improvement upon the first, which is all this game really needed to rank this high.
3
Did a little review of this but a really good game! One of the best rhythm games I've played in a while, and wouldn't be surprised if it ends up in my top 5 of the year.
5
Did a proper review of this, but in short: really good and blew my expectations out of the water. Got really attached to all these characters and I'm hoping the creator continues to make games like this in the future.
7
No idea what my opinion is going to end up being on this! Combat is cool but bland, story has interesting beats followed by some of the most boring sections I've had in a game. So many highs and so many lows.
8
Really fun rhythm game that I'll probably be playing throughout the year and beyond.
10
I did a seperate review for this! In short, probably the most fun creature-collector I've played.
11
Really charming game even if (most) of it is incredibly easy. I personally love having a bunch of extra challenges to complete along the way. Lack of unique forms is a shame, but the variety in levels makes up for it enough.
12
Really love the setting for this game, and how unique each sections feels. The aesthetics just hit the right spot for me.
13
14
Pretty fun and doesn't overstay its welcome! Having the venom meter makes combat easier but feel flashier which is a good tradeoff. Writing still feels like the best part of the game though.
15
Did a review for this! tldr; fun but overhyped.
16
Platforming is really unique (if a bit clunky), and I really enjoyed the puzzle sections. Story was pretty good too.
17
Pretty fun little puzzle platformer! Not too hard and doesn't overstay its welcome. Backtracking to get collectables for the extra ending was annoying though.
18
The platforming in this game feels amazing, but the levels never introduce anything too interesting aside from a few minor mechanics.
19
Really charming platformer that you can tell was made for the ps1! The difficulty spike in some of the last levels was brutal.
20
21
I intended to play this game for a bit before bed and next thing I knew I'd spent nearly 3 hours playing. Really fun and definitely something I'll play when I'm bored
22
I played this game mainly to do the time trials, and the game was fine enough for that. A lot of levels felt awkward to run through however, with most time being saved from making a single long jump to skip across an area. Apart from that, there's enemies all around the place that you can run past, being useless unless you want to go for score medals. Combat itself is also very basic, with button mashing and a 'parry' button that you can hold for a few seconds at a time. I had fun for what i came for, but i feel like this would be an awkward experience otherwise.
25
26
Still playing this and generally like it but have some mixed opinions, could easily go down.
27
A alright little platformer that has some rough spots. Some platforming is too slow, especially during later levels, and the game never really introduces many meaningful new mechanics. The core gameplay is fun enough though, and there's some pretty fun boss fights.
28
Had fun with this, the mechanics around the puzzles were fun but never grew too difficult, and towards the end of the game it devolved more into a platformer than a puzzler.
29
30
31
Fun little platformer, nothing crazy but entertaining and doesn't overstay its welcome. Time trials are pretty challenging too which is nice.
32
Shelved when I got to the final point of the game and realized I had to go through character sidequests or grind to get to the end. I was already getting sorta tired of it by then, so might finish it later in the year if I feel up to it.
Ignoring all that, I can still definitely see why this game is so heavily regarded, but something about it just didn't click for me.
Ignoring all that, I can still definitely see why this game is so heavily regarded, but something about it just didn't click for me.
33
Nails the presentation, but can be a pain to play, especially solo
34
Still pretty fun, but the difficulty on some of the levels is absurd and the save system is terrible.
35
This game is in a weird spot for me, because I think that it's not as good as some of the games below it, but I enjoyed my time playing it more. I enjoyed the puzzles and playing around with a new gimmick each world, but I didn't care about the story, and the music and art was below average.
37
Decently fun for a movie tie-in game, lots of variety in the levels which is nice. Still has a lot of jank associated with tie-in games, but the core gameplay was fun enough
38
Turns out there's a lot of drama with the creator of this game I didn't know about! Maybe look into it before you buy it!
Ignoring all that, pretty fun dungeon crawler that didn't overstay it's welcome! Some mechanics in the dungeon and enemies were annoying, (that forest dungeon with the blocks especially.)
Ignoring all that, pretty fun dungeon crawler that didn't overstay it's welcome! Some mechanics in the dungeon and enemies were annoying, (that forest dungeon with the blocks especially.)
39
Interesting game but was all the hype I heard before I played probably set my expectations too high
40