Most Of My Remaining Blog Posts For The Year Are Written All The "favorite Games Of 2023" Reviews Are

most of my remaining blog posts for the year are written – all the "favorite games of 2023" reviews are done, and two of the remaining four blog posts *after* that are written too. i just need to write the other two, add images for two of them, and then i'm DONE writing for 2023

PSA: i have moved mastodon accounts and am now available at https://wetdry.world/@skysometric ! if you were already following me on mastodon, no action needed – your follow has automatically transferred to the new account 💖

why, thank you for asking! i've been thinking it through for the last few days, i just wanted to make sure my answer was all written and ready to go first. all... checks notes... 4,000 words of it.

ICYMI, last week i sent asks to a bunch of my friends with a simple question: "what's your favorite game you played this year?" as i hoped, y'all gave a bunch of EXCELLENT answers, all of which i reblogged on my side blog @autumatically! (if you didn't get an ask like this and you want to join in, ping me – i sent too many asks to keep track of and i probably just forgot to send one your way!)

of course i wanted to answer this myself, but i wanted to write about more than just one game! and when i sat down to write, i just kept going, and going, and going...

so we're splitting this up! every day this week, i'll be counting down my top 5 games that i played in 2023. not all of these are games that i've streamed, and only one of them has shown up on anyone else's lists so far, so i'm really excited to reminisce and share my experiences this year 💖

maybe you'll even find a new game to try out? i'm certainly really excited to dig through y'alls lists and try some of the ones i missed out on this year!

to kick things off, let's start with:

Honorable Mentions

two games came out this year that i would probably put in my top 5, no competition. so why didn't i? because i didn't actually play them!

see, as much as i love to play video games, oftentimes i also like to watch them just as much. this has always been great for games that i never intended to play in the first place, like the Final Fantasies and Fortnites of our day… but lately it's also let me take turns with my partner on who plays which new releases.

in fact, for both of the games i'm about to list, i watched my partner play them in full and i've watched no less than two separate people stream them as well. which means, with all that oversaturation, it's probably gonna be a while before i play them myself…

either way! here's my top two games that i didn't play in 2023.

Pizza Tower

this one likely needs no introduction! Wario Land 4 is one of my favorite games of all time, and the way Pizza Tower extends those basic concepts is a masterclass of game design. the moveset is perfectly geared toward accessible speed tech, the level layouts are top notch, the different forms are unique and funny, the art style is GORGEOUS, the combo system adds incredible replay value and pushes the player to their limits…

honestly the only thing stopping me from playing this right now is that the levels are too fresh in my mind, and i'd like a little time to let those memories fade before i dive back in and experience everything in a wave of nostalgia. seeing so much of the game already was totally worth it, though – i had the distinct pleasure of watching my partner learn how to P Rank most of the levels, and the simple joy of watching her build up her skills is one of my standout memories of 2023. proud of you, love!

god, Pizza Tower is a perfect slice of video game. i can't WAIT to play it myself!

Super Mario RPG

as a young kid, i always wanted a physical copy of this game. i could never justify it, though, because i already owned it on Wii Virtual Console, and it was one of the more expensive SNES games i had my eye on… a whole $40 in 2007 money! fast forward to the modern day, and not only do i no longer have easy access to that old Wii copy, but a physical cart now goes for like $90???

blessedly, along comes the Switch remake. i still can't believe this exists – it's a perfect remake in every way, shape, and form! the sprite-based animations are lovingly recreated, the battle system is rebalanced in fun ways, and the music is PERFECTLY re-arranged. even the dialog, which i expected to be completely retranslated… it's smoothed over, but mostly unchanged! the original game's unabashed weirdness and charm is fully intact, and i did NOT expect that out of modern Nintendo.

this is one that i didn't mind watching others play; Super Mario RPG is all about the vibe, and this remake captures that vibe perfectly. i'm excited to play it myself once it's had time to settle! but, for now, i'm perfectly content just vibing with others~

new stream archive – in which we visit some of the prettiest worlds that the Kirby series has to offer 💖

dev commentary time! have you ever wondered what's beyond the edges of the game world…? leaping over a wall that it seems you could reach, or changing the events of a game's story by skipping an obvious trap, or looking for secret areas that the NPCs talk about. sometimes the game rewards you! and sometimes the game wasn't programmed for that. but i spent a LOT of time testing various theories like those as a kid, and this challenge was my way of capturing a little bit of that magic.

the "glitched" flagpole is, of course, very intended. it uses a metric ton of the game's custom event system under the hood, which means i could add a secret challenge to it without much fuss. but a player would not have the chance to try slipping past it on their first try – it's a purposeful trap, made to look exactly like the power lines that toggle the level's fading pathways. even the flag graphic itself is disabled, and the border that stops Mario's portal gun is removed (a feature exclusive to newer versions of Mari0!).

so i love the idea of a challenge that lets you get past that trap, and circumvent the climax of the adventure! what else lies beyond the flagpole? where does it take you? maybe there's some corrupted level data, or an alternate ending…??

…well, to be honest, i didn't have a lot of time to do anything fancy! by this point in development i was cramming as much as i could before my self-imposed birthday deadline. i had to settle for a simple challenge to tie together the secret coins and call it a day. it may not be cool in execution, but at least it's cool on paper, right?

the challenge itself is an alternate take on the ending of Raspberry Rainbow, the level's remix – once i laid out the jump for the last coin, i figured that a taller version that requires portals would be a neat way to remix the remix, if you will. like a third tier challenge! if anything, Raspberry Rainbow is the player's biggest hint that there's something beyond the glitched flagpole, even before getting to the mural… though i don't think anyone ever realized that was supposed to be a hint.

like all of the secret coins, this challenge requires the portal gun. with a mouse and keyboard, it's the perfect level of pressure for the average player! but sadly, it's a little too tight for players using a controller. the angles are just too precise, the time just too short. luckily, dying behind the flagpole here resets to the checkpoint without triggering the cutscene that goes to the final level, so the player can retry without any problems… as long as they don't touch the flagpole itself.

it's not as fancy as i wanted it to be. there's no alternate ending hidden behind the flagpole or whatever. but as the last secret coin… it does lead directly to the secret ending in its own way! and that's what counts. maybe in another game, i can explore that out-of-bounds magic more thoroughly~

Secret Coin 4 (Vinegar Void) | Retrush

The final secret mural suggests that we can get past the glitchy flagpole that normally sends us to the final stage! But how do we get there, and what awaits us at the end…? Only one way to find out!

*robotnik voice* I ATE THAT EGGNOG