It was, by all accounts, an odd 2023 for Xbox. Its video games had been everywhere in the board, and the corporate itself spent a lot of the 12 months embroiled within the strategy of getting Activision Blizzard into the figurative catcher’s mitt.

So, fittingly, our Greatest Xbox nominees listing wound up wanting just a little unusual. Not solely did most of us play Starfield on PC, nevertheless it’s additionally the place it felt greatest to play, if we had been solely choosing a single class. The nominees right here that hit Recreation Move really feel like a testomony to the service’s energy, at the least. Choose-ups like Sea of Stars and Jusant are good to see, and positively made the Move’ library really feel extra various.

However Xbox did have one winner that emerged in our voting, an early-in-the-year earworm we simply couldn’t shake. I’m speaking about Tango Gameworks’ Hello-Fi Rush.

In a manner, this shouldn’t be an enormous shock. Just some months earlier than, Obsidian’s Pentiment confirmed that these extra targeted, AA-esque tasks from Xbox’s studios may very well be a breath of recent air. However Hello-Fi Rush, in my thoughts, cemented the affect that these sorts of efforts may have on Xbox’s Recreation Move technique.

Hello-Fi Rush is a rhythmic brawler, definitely not the kind of factor you’d affiliate with Tango. However its relative size, effusive attraction, and flat-out unbelievable playlist choice for the soundtrack all blended to create a thumping, bumping, endearing motion recreation. The lovable forged of characters and basic Saturday morning vibes I obtained from the story helped, too.

In a 12 months the place Xbox felt shaky on its AAA legs, the fervour tasks shone via. And I actually hope that Pentiment and Hello-Fi Rush aren’t the top, both; I’d like to see extra studios get the possibility to only make one thing this thrilling and recent, outdoors their wheelhouse, and put it on the Move.

Whereas all of the nominees introduced one thing nice to the desk, I feel Hello-Fi Rush‘s attraction and sheer inventiveness, laid over an especially well-crafted mix of rhythm and motion, will likely be one thing to recollect. Hopefully it’s the beginning of extra to come back, too.

Congratulations, and right here’s our nominees listing, in case you forgot the sector:

• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Hello-Fi Rush
• Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty
• Wild Hearts
• RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis
• Sea of Stars
• Jusant