Top Five: Video Games of 2023

• 2023 was certainly an interesting year, with all of that connotes. It would be weird to write about all of the great video games I got to play without mentioning the thousands of people laid off by the games industry due to terribly short sighted corporations as they try to extract every last dollar of profit, even at the expense of the people who count on them. Games don't spontaneously emerge, they are the hard work of people who genuinely love them and those people deserve to be treated better. By celebrating these games, I celebrate the people behind them and hope everyone can find stability in the new year.


• Monster Hunter World - Some five years after its release, I finally saw the ending of Monster Hunter World. That it took a foray into Monster Hunter Rise to remind me that I never completed the earlier game feels a little silly, but I'm glad my appetite for fighting those gargantuan beasts brought me back. MHW let you explore the world, learn how to navigate it, and discover how the monsters act there. It was neat to get to know those environments and really explore those fantastic ecosytems.


• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - It feels a little strange to put a game on this list that I played thrugh to completion previously, but BOTW really earned its return trip to the top five. And the reason for that is that I played through the game for my daughter. It wasn't hard to convince me since I wanted to warm up for the impending Tears of the Kingdom. In a way, it reminded me of my childhood when my brother and I would game together, with one of us at the controls and the other navigating. We had a great time, laughing our way through the game. I'll never be able to say the words "spirit orb" without a funny voice again.


• The Making of Karateka - I received the Criterion Collection DVD of >Citizen Kane as a gift one year and was immediately taken with all of the extras included that help explain why the film is held in such high esteem. Without all of the work, the film might have come off as terribly boring because decades of movies have learned so heavily from it. I suspect the same would have occured if I attempted to play Karateka outside of this amazing package. More documentary and archive than game, The Making of Karateka walks you through its creation and the discusses the advances Jordan Mechnar made in bringing his vision to the computer. It is an exciting start to Digital Extreme's Gold Master Series, and I'm fascinated to see when they go in the future.


• Vampire Survivors - When Vampire Survivors first came out, I was perplexed as to why anyone find it fun. "You just run around and try not to die?" I asked myself. Thanks to Game Pass, I was able to try it for myself and discovered that there is a lot more to it. The "trying-not-to-die" part is greatly assisted by the upgrades you choose and your thoughtful positioning to get the most use out of them. It is a very strightforward game, but the simplicity of execution allows for an easy on-ramp to the layers that it adds. For a while there, it became a ritual to run a level before work every day. I don't know if there is any way to finish the game, but I quite enjoyed my time with it.


• Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - When this game was first announced, I had trouble understanding why it was necessary. Having finished it, I still have the same thought. But it doesn't have to be necessary to have been a joyful addition to the Like A Dragon series. Just running around Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios' Sotenbori again was enough to remind me how much it is to just exist in this world. Of the two combat styles, I far preferred the Yakuza style to the new Agent style, but the game did not suffer due to that preference. If anything, the game was very welcoming to just going out and having a great time. So much so in fact that it was the first AAA game that I ever completed all Xbox achievements on. For it to grab ahold of me that thoroughly is quite the compliment.


• Honorable Mentions: Hi-Fi Rush, Saints Row, Starfield, and Borderlands all flirted with space on this list, but didn't end up making the cut. I still liked them all for various reasons.


• Um, I'd better get started on the 2024 list if I want any chance of releasing it before the end of 2025.