2023 Rankings
Ranking all the games I either beat or played enough of to score them in 2023. This includes games I replayed this year. Each game has a small note attached to it. There's 24 more games on here compared to last year, so I'm happy that the number went up. I'd like it to do up even more this year, but we'll have to see about that.
71 Games
This is an improvement in every way when you compare it to the first 2 games. The power of the PS5 making everything load instantly makes the feel of it mind blowing. Swinging around the world was so much fun I'd catch myself just doing it to do it. The combat is improved and they got rid of all the stuff that trivialized the combat in the other games. They even made the MJ sections kinda fun. It has Venom in it and he actually looks and sounds cool so that earn this huge points too. I'd say the only thing that even comes close in the first game to be better than this is the story. It's a close call as to which one is better in that regard.
1
One of the best soul games from a company not called FromSoft. Very interesting setting and story. Combat was very smooth and responsive. The after credit scene also sets up something I'm super excited to see happen.
2
I'll get this out of the way and say this is a very divisive game. A lot of people love and and a lot hate it. I'm one of the people who love this game. Do I think it could be better? Sure I do. The combat really is not that good. I wish they didn't try to make this an action game. The ending of the game really got me. Such an emotional ending. The characters range from amazing to kinda meh, but the ones that matter are all excellent. Clive is just so cool and he's one of the best FF main characters. The big set piece Eikon battle were eye candy. The music is also really good, especially the Titan fight. Most of the sidequests were nothing special. They were fine the first time through for the added lore but on additional playthroughs I'd probably never interact with 95% of them ever again. They also really really needed more than one combo for the basic attack. Spamming the same thing over and over did get tiring. Despite the flaws it does have I think this is a great game. I don't think this would break my top 5 favorite Final Fantasy games but it's an easy top 10.
3
Pokemon but with anime girls. Honestly surprised no one has made this into a full game and not just a mod.
4
This game is just beautiful. One of if not the best metroidvania games out there. It's extreme responsive and has a ton of customization options to mold the game to your own playstyle. The bosses range from easy to tough but fair. Though some of the optional ones get into the "Why would you do this" territory. I enjoyed my time with this game from the beginning to end. Exploring the world and finding things for yourself was so fun. This is a game everyone should play for sure.
5
The best Classicvania game. The graphics are beautiful and the soundtrack is amazing. Combat is super smooth with excellent level design. I feel the difficulty hits just right, a little harder than normal but not unfair.
6
I play the PCE-CD version and the cutscenes are excellent, very charming. This is one of the best Castlevania games, period. From the opening on the horse to the final battle everything just works and is fun. Don't even get me starts on the audio. This game just rocks hardcore. I can't even imagine playing this when it released. Crazy to think it released on a platform that basically had zero relevance outside of Japan. Everyone needs to play this game.
7
A fantastic selection of music with fun gameplay. Trying to find out the perfect combination of characters and abilities to beat some of the stage challenges was really fun. Outside of the Project Diva games this might be my favorite rhythm game.
8
Mech fans we are so back! I played near the beginning with the ultra overpowered Zimmerman guns and it was so much fun pulling the triggers and watching the enemies just melt. I am glad they did end up buffing the other weapons but am a little sad they nerfed these bad boys. The bosses were all fun and fair. You're able to learn their patterns and none of them are too hard it's unfair. There's no one hard boss, everyone has a different boss they point to that took them way too long to beat. The voice actors also killed giving these characters personalities despite you never seeing them.
9
Now THIS is the true sequel to Castlevania 1. It does everything right by making everything bigger and better than the first game. Having multiple playable characters is a welcome addition as it the branching paths. The US version does up the difficulty and made the game a little less fun, but I still enjoyed my time with it. When I go back to this game I'll play the Japanese version which is how the devs meant the game to be played.
10
What can I say other than I love Katamari games? I pray that Bandai Namco keeps remastering these games. If at the end of this they don't use all the assets they made for all of these remasters and make a full scale new game on the current generation consoles then they failed as a company.
11
The castle is the weakest part of the game. It's just a mess. The combat more than makes up for that because it's amazing. The bosses are all fun and well designed. It has a nice look and good music as well. If only the castle wasn't that bad this could have been a top 5 Castlevania game.
12
A very charming game that's extremely cute. The game being a musical is such a cool gimmick that more games need to use. The game is baby easy but that's fine for a game like this.
13
Don't get me wrong this is still a very good game, one of the top tier Classvania games, but it's a step down from 3 with respect to the systems they released on. The only thing 4 has going for it is the whip mechanic. Castlevania 3 looks better, has better music and sounds, has more going for it, and it just cooler.
14
It’s a toss up between this one and the Prompto DLC as to which one is my favorite. This one has the best story of all the DLCs. It has emotional weight behind it and actually has impact. Seeing exactly how he lost he sight was awesome to see. It did not play out how I thought it would. The combat is the most fleshed out too. Really liked that we got to see more of Ravus in this DLC and got to see his perspective on things. The grapplehook was also fun to mess around with. Ignis going sicko mode when he put the ring on was awesome to play.
15
The game is a little jank and sometimes you feel like it doesn't listen to you. Despite that it is fun to have a game where your main way of attacking is magic and your melee attack doesn't do that much other that build your magic bar. It starts off slow but really builds up as you unlock more magic and power it up. The designs are all cute but the story is really whatever.
16
The story is quite interesting with a colorful cast of characters. The game oozes mystery. You're always left wondering what's really happening at all times. There's lots of different gameplay mechanics to keep you entertained. Boss battles all require you to figure out what to do on the fly. The only thing I didn't like about the game was the playthrough required for the platinum trophy where you have to do the whole game in one sitting without saving. One mistake and it's all over.
17
Extremely addicting gameplay loop. It's easy to lose hours doing runs and you'd never know.
18
This is still fun but the DS emulation was rough. I don't know if it was a me problem or emulation problem but it would randomly lag or run slow. That did end up hampering my experience.
19
A blast from the past that's still an extremely fun point and click game. It does require you to think outside the box but it can be done without a guide. You definitely get more out of this if you're a fan of Homestar Runner.
20
This is such an improvement over the other Game Boy Castlevania games, it's insane. For being on the GB I'd say they did the best they could with this. Don't go into this expecting a console quality game but for a handheld version it's perfectly fine. The only GB Castlevania game I'd ever play again.
21
In the end this is just a really polished Castlevania 1 remake. But it does enough neat stuff to set it apart. The werewolf stage sells this hard. It's amazing and one of the best stages / fight in a Castlevania game.
22
It's another Castlevania 1 remake on this list. I've run out of things to say about them at this point lol. This isn't the worst version of that game but it's also not the best.
23
The best part of Circle of the Moon is it takes the best songs from other games and reuses them here. The game starts off slow but does steadily get better. The jump does feel a little weird here. I like the card system here. I like the blending of styles here but it could have done them better.
24
A charming mid tier JRPG. Nothing amazing by today standards but it's still a pleasant time. A decent story and fun characters really save this. Combat was a little weird at first but it does get better.
25
It's more of the same Spider-Man game you loved in the first game but this time with a different character. The gameplay in this smaller scale game is better than the first game as is the exploration and graphics. Where this game fails though is the story. It's so dumb, stupid, and uninteresting. It actually gets infuriating as points.
26
It’s a toss up between this one and the Ignis DLC as to which one is my favorite. This one has a lot of interactions with Aranea so this wins it huge points. The story behind this one is more interesting than the Gladio one and the world is better too. It’s also way longer than Gladio. This one has open places to explore and varied things to do. The Prompto story on its own though isn’t all that great. It could have been fantastic if it wasn’t constrained to this DLC. As it is it lacks impact. The gunplay was also fun to play around with. The snowmobile was fun to use unless you are doing the time trials.
27
Even though it's a gacha game it's extremely fun and addicting. The publisher really messed up by doing a test for the PS5 version. I got into the and I played the test everyday for hours. I was addicted to it and ready to spend money on it. But then they took the test down to prepare for the actual release and in that is was down and I couldn't play it my addiction faded and I didn't feel the need to pick it back up.
28
I just love the games from this developer. All of them are cute, charming, and have interesting world and characters. The gameplay of this one is real good too. This is one of those games you can just zone out and play.
29
I just love the games from this developer. All of them are cute, charming, and have interesting world and characters. This one is easy to just pick up and play. It's super short and doesn't require you to be a god gamer. You can just sit back, relax, and play the game.
30
Catchy music, lovely artwork, and a great presentation. I like the gameplay loop it has going for it. It also has a bunch of unique characters that change things enough to make in enjoyable for a long time.
31
A neat Space Invader style game. It is kinda addicting. As you get more upgrades it does get better. It's more difficult that a lot of the "Space Invader" style games out there. But it never becomes unfair.
32
A fun shoot'em up with an okay gimmick. The gameplay is very responsive so that's a huge plus for this. You have to think fast because you only have 10 seconds to do most things in the game. If that doesn't sound fun to you avoid this. There's not much game here so the majority of your playtime will come from grinding RNG for trophies if you decided to do that.
33
Gotta appreciate a guy who makes a game about his fetish just to get people to make fanart of said fetish. The gameplay was simple but fun at first. Once you play it once there's really no reason to do it again.
34
Fun for Bleach fans but not really anyone else. It's nice to see your favorite characters doing cool things and the gameplay is different from most gacha games. I stopped playing when I got to a point where I kept losing everything I tried to do against the people who spent a lot of money in the game.
35
I like the story this is based on and they nail the aesthetic of the game. It's one of those games that prioritize other things over gameplay so be prepared for that if you go in.
36
A fun game to just have running while you do other things. It tries to make the idle game genre engaging. It has a lot of stuff it never tells you that if you look up you'd enjoy the experience more than just random clicking on stuff.
37
For its time this is a unique and game that was the first of many things. But playing in in current year, it's a little rough around the edges. It's still a polished product that you should experience but don't go in expecting it to be this immaculate game.
38
The gameplay is a mess. It would easily make the cut in a list of the most boring gameplay in an RPG. Many of the big story bosses barely work or do not work at all. Really drains all excitement those big set pieces could of had. The soundtrack though is amazing. The actual ending of the game is among the best in the FF series. This has a lot of passion behind and even if they failed to deliver on a lot of the hype I can still appreciate the good in this game.
What I can’t appreciate is one aspect on the ending. I wanted to explore the World of Ruin. They set up so much interesting stuff after the 10 year time jump. Talcot is dropping all kinds of plot on your ride back to Hammerhead. Cid is still alive? I’d love to see him. Cindy decided to stay in Hammerhead at the garage? Show me! Aranea is considered a huge hero now and is still amazing? Show me her taking out some daemons or something. Iris is now a badass daemon hunter now? Who wouldn’t want to see that? None of these people ever get to see Noctis before he dies.
Most of those I will forgive because they are not in Hammerhead and you go straight from there to the end location. But Cindy? She’s still in Hammerhead! They said as much. Just let me get a glimpse of her.
What I can’t appreciate is one aspect on the ending. I wanted to explore the World of Ruin. They set up so much interesting stuff after the 10 year time jump. Talcot is dropping all kinds of plot on your ride back to Hammerhead. Cid is still alive? I’d love to see him. Cindy decided to stay in Hammerhead at the garage? Show me! Aranea is considered a huge hero now and is still amazing? Show me her taking out some daemons or something. Iris is now a badass daemon hunter now? Who wouldn’t want to see that? None of these people ever get to see Noctis before he dies.
Most of those I will forgive because they are not in Hammerhead and you go straight from there to the end location. But Cindy? She’s still in Hammerhead! They said as much. Just let me get a glimpse of her.
39
I didn’t really enjoy the gameplay loop of this DLC. Press circle without touching the movement stick until the enemy falls over than press triangle. You can also use bars to use some of Ifrit’s powers. Really had a good laugh that you can spend the money you pick up during the DLC on buying hat’s for Ardyn to wear. One bad thing this DLC does is it makes Noctis seem more useless/weaker than you thought he was. This DLC implies that Ardyn was holding back during their big final battle in the main game because he wanted Noctis to win so he can die. Really tempers the hype of Noctis winning the fight tbh.
40
The NES version is a fun time. The levels are cool, the art is cute, the music is fun, and it's a funny game. The only real problem is the last level is horrible and bring the whole game down.
41
The Game Boy version of this game feels rough. It does have different things than the NES game so they are separate games, but I'd just play the NES version if you only wanted to play one. This one does have someone who looks like Jason Voorhees that you fight so that's one upside this has over the other version.
42
This was a unique experience but it's still early enough that I would say hold off until they implement more Yu-Gi-Oh sprites and stuff. You can complete it from beginning to end and there is stuff after the main game though. It also has built in randomizer settings you can interact with that I think should be the default going forward for all fan games.
43
I've liked every game this developer has put out that I've played so far and this one in no exception. I think this is a cute card based roguelike. It's fun to play in short bursts. I find the art / look of the game charming.
44
The concept for the game is amazing. I wish they did more games like this. From everything I've seen multiplayer is the way to go in this. Single Player was just fine for what it is though. This is the type of game you have to pay attention to. One wrong move and it's all over. So be prepared for that.
45
A game from my childhood that I never managed to beat. I like the look of it and the music is alright, but the game ramps up in difficulty a lot as you go. Every level is basically a maze and there's a lot of 1 hit deaths in the later stages. Not something I'd ever want to play again but it was fun to revisit it and finally beat it as an adult.
46
This was just okay. It didn't feel that amazing and the story is one of those you will either like or not, there's no in-between. For what it is though, a free game, it was fine enough for one playthrough. I had fun with it and it's really short so I didn't feel like it was wasting my time.
47
Reminds me of old flash games in a good way. It's short, fun, and a little challenging. Very trial and error though so be prepared for that. One of the best features of this game is the price. At this price point I think this is a must buy if you like the look of this game.
48
A decent enough twin stick shooter arcade game. The challenge is decent enough. Sometimes it's hard to see what's going on though and that does hurt the gameplay loop a little bit. This is the type of game you can tell if you'll like it within minutes. It never really changed much outside those first few minutes.
49
More of the same as the base game. Nothing special and didn't really do anything to up the ante. It was still enjoyable one time through.
50
Now THIS is an Isekai fantasy game. Within the 1st few hours I was already the head of a village with a ton of followers, had a handful of romantic interests, and was impressing deities. Very F2P friendly in the beginning, but you do reach a point where you need to spend money if you want to compete at the top.
51
A goofy VN full of memes and fake lore for Overwatch. Fun for what it is but it's nothing amazing.
52
A fun game that tests your knowledge about video games. It's also fun to see how you stack up against your friends.
53
I mean it's better than the original Adventure game, so this is the definitive version of it. But this still has problems. It just doesn't look good and the sound effects are bad. Some of the remixes of songs also sound subpar.
54
It has some cool ideas and it short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome. I really like the pixel art and characters. It also made me laugh a few times so that's all you can hope for from a meme story.
55
This pales in comparison to the Persona 4 rhythm game. The small amount of songs and no story mode really hurt this. The interactions were fun but forgettable. I found it hard to hit some notes because of the placement of the layout too.
56
This is the worst of the DLC by far. You can skip this one and not miss anything. Is basically boils down to “You wanna know how I got this scar?” We learns a couple of interesting tidbits about Cor and Gladio’s dad get mention but nothing else interesting really. The whole DLC is basically a hallway boss rush with mobs in-between.
57
This was just goofy fun in the same way a bad movie is fun. It was jank, short, and repetitive. But I enjoyed every second.
58
A game you'd play when you have nothing better to do. Nothing special but it can be fun in very small bursts.
59
I can't believe people actually remastered these meme games and made they kinda playable. I still say everyone should play these once and this is the perfect way to do that.
60
I can't believe people actually remastered these meme games and made they kinda playable. I still say everyone should play these once and this is the perfect way to do that.
61
If it wasn't so cryptic, the game didn't straight up lie to you, and the translation was better this could have been a fun game. I understand talking to NPCs for hints but why hide hint books in breakable blocks without anyway of telling they are breakable? Why hide NPCs before false floors and walls?
62
This game gets unfair at times and confusing. It's basically a maze game with a time limit and the key you need is hidden. That's basically every level of the game, so if you don't like level 1 you won't like this game.
63
A very short story game with an uninspiring story. The story and gameplay are not deep enough to make you want to play it more than once. If it wasn't for a platinum trophy I wouldn't have got every ending.
64
For a game that's basically a walking advertisement it was actually well done. It was short and didn't overstay its welcome.
65
A fun enough Google doodle game that comes and goes. It's very forgettable and not something you'd want to play more than once.
66
This is a braindead Castlevania game. There's no difficulty at all. It has a built-in invincible button that lets you melt bosses. With unlimited continues that start you at checkpoints there's no sense of accomplishment with this game. It's sad that this is the game Sonia is stuck on. She deserves another chance to shine. Despite this is was still better than Adventure because it ran better lol.
67
The PlayStation port of the game in the beginning was a joke. The control scheme, menu layout, and menu navigating were laughably bad and actively ruined the game. I have no idea if it's better now after a bunch of patches but I'm so soured on it that I refuse to go back and check.
68
Frustrating Google game that has a slight delay when you click something.
69
Everyone involved with this should feel bad. This is a horrible experience. Slow, laggy, unfun, unfair, and more. You name a problem this game probably has it. I roughed my way through this once and I will never do it again.
70
The worst "game" I "played" this year if you can even call this a game or that I played it and didn't just click a few buttons. Honestly just a waste of time.
71
2 Comments
@stovetop I tried two different emulators for that game. MelonDS and one of the versions of DeSmuME and both were rough at times. So I think I'd have to agree with you on that front. The strange thing is sometimes I would go into the settings and tweak a few things trying to fix it and it would run smooth the rest of the time I had it opened but the next time I loaded the game up and did the same thing it wouldn't fix the problem.
stovetop
4 months ago