Right here’s a quantity for you: this yr, I reviewed 69 video games for Destructoid. Good. It wasn’t intentional, nevertheless it virtually was. I believed I used to be at 68, so I used to be attempting to determine learn how to match another in. Nevertheless it seems that OpenCritic is lacking one, and poorer for it.

What are we right here for? Proper. My favourite video games this yr, in no explicit order.

It’s all the time laborious for me to place year-end lists collectively as a result of I can barely bear in mind what I performed final month. That’s it. There’s no “however” to that assertion. Okay, roll the, uh… article.

24 Killers

Whereas the event staff solely stayed collectively for 3 video games, and none of them left Japan, Love-de-Lic’s output is known. Beginning with Moon: Remix RPG Journey, they crafted a collection of genre-defying video games that have been weird and eccentric. They proceed to encourage builders to this present day, and 24 Killers is one such end result.

24 Killers shares loads in widespread with Moon: RPG Remix Journey by way of puzzle design and focus, nevertheless it tells its personal story and a distinct method to gameplay. But, its biggest success is how carefully it emulates Love-de-Lic’s type, which doesn’t appear straightforward to do. It’s pitch-perfect, hitting all of the highs and lows of Moon. That additionally means it’s not for everybody, however I do know it’s for some individuals. For instance, it’s a sport that may be very a lot for me.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer

If I needed to decide a single sport for my Sport of the Yr, it could be Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer. However I’m not going to try this as a result of that’s lame. Nonetheless, this was in all probability my favourite sport of 2023.

It’s not even essentially the sport. Slayers X looks like a mod for Duke Nukem 3D from the ‘90s, and it emulates that completely, proper right down to the amateur-ness of all the manufacturing. Type of like 2015’s The Newbie’s Information however much less miserable. It’s framed as having been constructed by cringy teenager from Hypnospace Outlaw, Zane Lofton. Zane is totally fictional, however regardless of that, the depth of the oblique character exploration in Slayers X, he feels very a lot actual.

It’s sensible. It’s utterly on the mark. It’s astounding. As somebody who – for those who can imagine this – was as soon as a youngster, I related with this totally.

El Paso, Elsewhere

Talking of Hypnospace Outlaw, Xalavier Nelson Jr. labored on that sport, and now he’s on this listing with El Paso, Elsewhere. In truth, El Paso, Elsewhere and Slayers X have loads in widespread in the truth that it’s the storytelling and never the sport itself the makes it so efficient.

On the floor, El Paso, Elsewhere, is a reasonably shut clone of Max Payne with a number of slow-motion diving and taking pictures, solely it’s in an summary surroundings, and also you combat monsters. It’s good, it’s not nice. Fairly, it’s competent, it’s not compelling.

The narrative, alternatively, is absorbing. A narrative a couple of man having to face his abusive ex, who additionally occurs to be the world’s large evil. A lot of it’s informed via monologues by the principle character who presents a really correct and affecting account of being the sufferer of abuse. Emotional abuse. He stresses that the large evil monster he dated by no means lifted a hand to him however nonetheless made his life a dwelling hell. It’s a tough topic, and El Paso, Elsewhere approaches it with easy empathy.

System Shock

2023 was an important yr for remakes and remasters. Some have been loving renewals of beloved video games, outdated classics, and even some forgotten asides. Of those, I feel System Shock was essentially the most fearless. Caught in improvement hell for years, it reportedly modified scope many occasions, however finally, Nightdive Studios determined to only do what they do finest. They created a loving revisit to the traditional, warts and all.

The result’s one thing that can in all probability be fairly alienating to anybody anticipating one thing extra akin to the collection’ non secular successor, the Bioshock collection. Even when individuals are right here to see an early affect on the immersive sim subgenre, they’re going to get extra of an outdated dungeon crawler. However I wouldn’t need it every other means. It has that old-PC sport friction that we don’t actually get to really feel a lot anymore, whereas nonetheless trying like a brand new sport. It lacks any actual synthetic gloss and is, as I put it in my overview, “the right nexus between narrative and design decisions.”

Towards the Storm

Earlier this yr, I used to be satisfied to play Towards the Storm due to an replace to the Early Entry construct that added tea and fox individuals. Little did I do know this was a lure and it grew to become certainly one of my most performed video games this yr. This month, it lastly hit its 1.0 launch, and it’s every part it promised it could be.

As its basis, Towards the Storm is among the tightest survival metropolis builders to return about since, possibly, 2014’s Banished. Nonetheless, quite than simply constructing a single city to perfection, roguelite components have been added, which means you could construct settlement after settlement, honing your effectivity and reacting to new challenges and issues. Roguelite could be a soiled phrase, however I’ve by no means seen meta-progression applied in such a significant means.

RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis

It will need to have been disheartening for developer Teyon to see their upcoming sport positioned under headlines that, at finest, learn, “appears to be like fairly tough.” However that’s usually how previews noticed it. Then the demo dropped, and it obtained some buzz. Even then, I wasn’t satisfied the total model of RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis would ship within the full sport, however someway it did.

The eagerness behind RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis is so palpable I lastly obtained round to watching RoboCop 2. It’s true to the supply materials with out being overly reverent. The tank-like, overpowered gunplay is a blast to start out with however layered over high is an journey that performs out equally to Deus Ex: Human Revolution with depth and character. RoboCop: Rogue Metropolis isn’t simply higher than anticipated; it’s top-of-the-line video games this yr.

World of Horror

Whereas it is perhaps a horror sport for a selected area of interest, World of Horror actually related with me. It presents a tasty buffet of easy horror tales based mostly on the work of Junji Ito with smatterings of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s an efficient presentation of a world teetering getting ready to full destruction, specializing in a single city.

The music units an oppressively nervous tone as you attempt to beat out random rolls. Sure, virtually every part in World of Horror is predicated on a percentage-based likelihood, and the core of the sport is merely bracing your character to endure as they’re whittled down all through the course of your playthrough. Will they final lengthy sufficient to avoid wasting the world, or will they succumb to insanity or harm? That’s what makes World of Horror so tantalizing.

Draft of Darkness

It was the gritty visuals that drew me into Draft of Darkness, however I wound up staying there for for much longer than I anticipated. The roguelite deckbuilder basis, gradual development, and nebulous plot give it a sense of creeping dread and despair. Creating new methods and progressing additional into the sport is extraordinarily rewarding, whereas the useful resource administration retains you scouring via its randomly generated environments.

Nonetheless, that is an occasion the place the roguelite components don’t complement the gameplay. I feel the plot and gameplay can be higher served in a extra bespoke sport world. Nonetheless, I can’t deny that, at the same time as it’s, it obtained me hooked, changing into certainly one of my most performed video games of the yr.

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo wasn’t even on my radar till out of the blue it was. Regardless of already being swamped with overview deadlines, I managed to suit this one into my schedule. What I discovered was an unexpectedly well-executed and classy visible novel. The narrative is about up in a means that’s utterly pushed by character interplay, and those which are provided are a few of the finest this yr.

Its use of an ‘80s model of Sumida, Japan, and its tie-ins with Japanese folklore current an engrossing world. Its method to the visible novel style feels liberating, even when the story appears to be framed in a press release about participant freedom. Paranormasight is simply such a humble sport that punches far tougher than you’d anticipate.

Tyko’s Dying Collectively

Suburban Basketball was a reasonably memorable expertise for me this yr. Its garish jank-pop aesthetic, weird, unfocused plot, and contempt for the participant actually captured my consideration. The walkedoutneiman’s follow-up, Tyko’s Dying Collectively, is extra of that, however with some considerable added depth.

Tyko’s Dying Collectively locations you, with out context, into an absurd world crammed with clowns, animals, and trolls. And whereas its watermarked textures and eye-shattering UI might counsel an summary try at humor, what it actually represents is the hell of social media. Actually, you end up in an afterlife the place you’re informed essentially the most rewarding use of eternity is constructing your on-line presence and getting a number of likes. With a smile, it tells you that we’re already in Hell. We’ve constructed it for ourselves. And we’ve no alternative however to take part.

Right here’s to a different yr

I went again and browse my end-of-year listing from final yr, which was a mistake. The alternatives are related, however the listing was irreverent, self-deprecating, and, if I can decide myself on such issues, sort of humorous. What’s amusing is that I recall being in a worse place final yr than I’m proper now. Not that I’m nice proper now, however I assume a yr in the past, I felt extra like I wanted to specific my state of affairs via my writing, even when it was an inventory of stuff I loved.

Or possibly it’s as a result of this yr, I needed to discover ways to report on demise, layoffs, and billionaires being assholes. Conditions the place my defensive humorousness isn’t applicable. The swap is there now, and possibly I nonetheless have to determine when it will get turned off, and when it’s protected to show it again on.

Both means, we did it. We made it via one other yr. So, let’s all take a deep breath, brace ourselves, and step into the subsequent one.