A stacked videogame year like 2023 means good news for the quality of this list, and awful news if you like scrolling through casually without major spoiler risks. This isn’t all plot-focused moments, of course, but if you have not completed all the big 2023 games you wanted to this year, firstly I get it, I’m right there with you; and secondly, you almost certainly will be spoiled on something if you continue to read. Do with that warning what you will.
Alright, let’s go – here’s the stuff that took my breath away in 2023.
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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.
SIGNIFICANT VIDEOGAME SPOILERS FOLLOW!
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10. Any Excuse for Portals – Spider-Man 2
It’s no secret that Insomniac Games has had a thing for instant teleportation in recent times: just look at the wonderfully flashy solid-state-loading showcase Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. But few would have predicted their follow-up game might find another equally brazen use for such tech – let alone with straight-up portals. But thanks to some cheeky contractual limbo, a Dr Strange-adjacent artifact finds its way into the climactic battle at the end of a Miles/Black Cat mission chain, and fireworks ensue.
As expected of a Sony first-party game, Spider-Man 2 can claim a host of highlights worth a mention on a page like this – the opening Sandman boss fight, the flashbacks to Pete and Harry’s teenage years, the Hailey graffiti mission that puts the player inside the world of a deaf person, the emotional clash with a reimagined Scream, the brief moments spent in control of Venom – but that team-up fight with Black Cat is just exhilarating. The already-excellent locomotion the game has to offer is brought to another level when you’re hurtling through the air and suddenly you’re somewhere else entirely – and Erika Lindbeck’s sassy cameo as the Cat warping in for combo finishers is a real bonus.
9. The Mewtwo Raid – Pokemon Scarlet
Aside from Halo Infinite, there’s no question what non-2023 game ate up the most free time for me this past year. The starter Pokemon raid bosses that Pokemon Scarlet unleashed at an impressively regular clip throughout the year were often challenging enough that an entire metagame formed around them: one that required investment in Pokemon development entirely separate from, even contradictory to, the competitive-leaning builds players have been used to for decades. Communities formed and thrived around that raid meta, but in September, things reached an entirely new level when Mewtwo reared its legendary head.
Each player could claim a special free Mew with its own random Tera type, and this Mew would receive an automatic stat boost upon entry into the ridiculously powerful self-healing 7-star Mewtwo battle. This meant any other Pokemon would be a waste to bring in, so the optimisation theorycrafting began – and in no time at all the internet came up with the now-famous Bug Tera/Electric Terrain set that would stop the boss’ big heal turn in its tracks and keep it weakened for as long as possible otherwise. When you loaded up a Mewtwo raid, saw three other Bug Mews in the party, and one of them was running a support set? You knew you were in for a lengthy scrap, but you believed you could win, and the feeling of victory at long last? Haven’t felt anything like it since the first Destiny, mate.
8. Escape! – Pizza Tower
I don’t do an annual videogame music list, but if I did, 2023’s would finish off with the escape theme from manic Wario Land series homage Pizza Tower. The first time you hear this jam, it’s difficult not to feel your grip on the controller or keyboard intensify as the level you supposedly just clocked switches up all its obstacles and demands you rush backwards through it, laughing at you all the way. One listen to the near-perfect 1990s gaming stress throwback tune in the context of the game, and you may end up like me: using it to time everyday tasks like showers and laundry runs until it’s your top-played song of the year according to your streaming stats. It may be surrounded by one of the greatest sets of videogame soundtracks in history, but it is still this tune I’ll remember the clearest from 2023. Here’s the default version of the full track.
7. Scramble on the Battlements – Resident Evil 4
There’s a great deal to love about the fact that one of RE4 2023’s entirely new gameplay segments is arguably one of its best – and for decidedly old-school, tried-and-true game design reasons that would not have been out of place in 2004. A nigh-invincible El Gigante pursues our handsome boy Leon over, under and through the archways and turrets of a crumbling castle, and you have to time your runs from cover to cover to avoid its rampage flare-ups as you make all the usual resource/combat snap desicisions that fuel the Resident Evil 4 gameplay loop. The excellent sound design keeps the tension up throughout the whole sequence before Leon reaches an oh-so-satisfying cannon…
A bonus honorable mention must go to another El Gigante fight, this time from the game’s Separate Ways DLC. Flying around from house to house using Ada Wong’s grappling hook as the hulking foe razes each one to the ground is a truly thrilling set piece I hope Capcom finds an excuse to build on in a future game.
6. The Fire Temple – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Thanks to a potent mix of my stubborn eagerness to avoid world design spoilers and real-world commitments that had me starting Tears of the Kingdom essentially a day later than I had planned, my first 5-10 hours with the game were frantic to say the least; I was particularly anxious to uncover what answers it had in store for the Divine Beast issue in Breath of the Wild. So as soon as I was able, I made a beeline for the major destination I figured would be the least popular first visit for my friends: Eldin Canyon.
I had not even done the tutorial for the Depths yet, so colour me shocked and a tad scared when I was soon plummeted into pitch-darkness without even the novelty of the fantastical glowing trees found elsewhere on the world map to guide me. I banged my head against building materials I didn’t yet understand and struggled against enemies that seemed to come out of every surrounding shadows. And then I turned a corner and saw it: a towering building wrapped in a network of twisting rails and bathed in a shimmering heat haze. I approached in awe, and then the words “Fire Temple” streaked across the screen. I literally stood up and yelled. I am such a nerd.
This did not end up meaning what I thought: true ‘Zelda dungeons’ had not quite returned, and the Fire Temple happened to be far more reminiscent of a traditional Zelda puzzle box than the other three; but the sheer thrill of that moment will mean it ranks among my favourite Zelda series moments for years to come.
5. The Negotiation – Hi-Fi Rush
An action game with such a heavy emphasis on soundtrack was always going to have some pretty hype-inducing set pieces, and Hi-Fi Rush certainly does – quick shout-out to the extremely effective opening number, the remix of Mozart for the wolf boss fight, and the deft mixing of The Prodigy’s Invaders Must Die during the game’s climactic final act – but it is one of the more restrained touches that stands out the most for me.
After a decent dose of dialogue build-up throughout the preceding level implying antagonistic department head Korsica may not have her heart in the villainy business, her boss fight comes down to a one-on-one discussion that essentially uses the game’s central rhythmic pulse in place of a nervous heartbeat and puts you almost exclusively on the defensive. Not only is this a perfect way to force the player into getting real good at Hi-Fi Rush‘s counter mechanic, it’s also remarkably tense in spite of – or maybe because of – the bombast that dominates the rest of the adventure.
4. The Pirate Who’s Secretly a Ninja is Also a Cyborg – Sea of Stars
I don’t know what I can possibly add to that headline to drive home why this moment in the third act of the excellent Sea of Stars hits so well, but I can try. Much of the heart within Sea of Stars‘ memorable supporting cast is held by the pirate crew you meet early on: a group of loud and boisterous larrikins led by a strong-and-silent type called Captain Klee’shaë (one of many pun-tastic or otherwise meaningful names in the game). Shortly afterwards you encounter your first swappable party member Seraï, an assassin of mysterious origin with poisonous knives that can seemingly cut holes in reality itself to attack or get around.
The prospect of new combat options, let alone her sick character design, is so exciting at that point you may not have reason to suspect they are one and the same person; but Sea of Stars eventually provides plenty of those reasons, even outright poking fun at the secret identity – on two separate occasions – after the party has spent long enough together.
In fact the game makes such a big deal about this double role that you may not be ready for the real rug-pull: soon after Seraï helps navigate our heroes to a technologically advanced yet derelict world, she drops her face covering to reveal a jaw as metallic as mine was open when I reached this point. As a successor to The Messenger, Sea of Stars is naturally elevated by standout individual moments, and different players would no doubt pick out different ones (a particular emotionally hard-hitting scene comes to mind as a likely favourite). But I just unironically was not ready for this one.
3. Just a Totally Normal Conversation – Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed
Future Redeemed, by way of both its delightfully short length and its unique position at the end of the numbered Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy, delivers more revelations per hour than nearly any other Monolith Soft experience. This is the case despite a mostly-brand-new cast that needs – and gets – enough time to jell with each other and the player before everything can truly come together. But the real fun begins when the co-protagonist simply known as ‘A’ decides to have a casual lakeside chat at dawn with the respective heroes of the first two Xenoblade games, who up to that point have travelled with the party without openly acknowledging the events of said games at all.
Every third sentence of this conversation is a hilariously understated bombshell without a single shred of regard for people playing the series for the first time, as the third part of the AI triangle powering the series’ split-world structure is acknowledged at last – though by no means in any way that would answer all the questions players may have had for almost a decade. Even by stilted JRPG standards the matter-of-fact way the three throw around heady lore implications the base game refused to go anywhere near is hysterical. And I’m not even going to touch the bit later on in the story when everyone gets magically transported to a random suburban street. No sir.
2. Bahamut Fight – Final Fantasy XVI
Final Fantasy XVI is a gift for fans of videogame discourse that I daresay may continue to deliver for years to come, such is the wild disparity between its biggest strengths and its most prominent weaknesses. But oh my celestial airborne planetary beam-spitting word, do the game’s fantastical Eikon battles take the cake. The first few are backed by operatic audiovisual splendour and believable emotional punch, but they take another massive step up when our boy Ifrit has a crack at Shadow the Hedgehog’s workout plan, skating up the canyon-esque limbs of classic FF foe Titan in an hour-long 1v1 mismatch that would have taken this very slot… If the very next summon battle hadn’t just about made my brain short-circuit on adolescent hype.
Pulling narrative double-duty as a reunion between two long-estranged brothers almost literally burning through their remaining life force in an effort to snuff out a deeply-conflicted monarch with untold power at his fingertips, the fight against Bahamut starts with brilliant sparks, goes all Panzer Dragoon on the player and then ends with a Power Rangers fever dream light show shaking up series fanservice with shonen anime fervency in a cocktail laced with the most intoxicating piano-led orchestral videogame score in years. Square Enix has a big couple of years coming up, but topping this set-piece is going to take some doing.
1. We Sing – Alan Wake II
Remedy is no stranger to giving us great musical moments in their games – 2019’s Control had at least two fab needle drops – but 2023 marked the first time the Finnish development wizards gave us a MUSICAL moment. Like, with the whole song and dance and everything. And there is absolutely no warning. Not content with having the best licensed soundtrack in a non-rhythm game for at least a decade, the horror-tinged Alan Wake II sends its title character into a colour-drenched nightmare for the entirety of one of its chapters, and it is a truly incredible thing to behold.
Towering screens reflect back Wake’s greatest inner traumas via live-action choreography performed by the actor who plays him, alongside the creative director of Remedy himself and a full-camp guitar-shredding iteration of fictional metal band The Old Gods of Asgard (who also provided the soundtrack to that scene from Control) as our man Alan is forced to fight enemies in a sparse, almost Dogville-esque recreation of areas from the first game. Sections of the songs loop and evolve alongside the gameplay with all the grace of Octopath Traveller‘s boss themes, and that finale? Magnificent. The chorus of Herald of Darkness was stuck in my head for days afterwards; check out the live performance the team put on at the game awards for a taste of the magnificence. Sam Lake’s team has done it again.
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Honorable Mentions
–The Jabberwock Appears – Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon
Though there is a decent amount of combat in Bayonetta Origins, it usually shakes out as just another puzzle to solve with the game’s double-character control method. The arrival of the Voracious Faerie Dragon itself, the Jabberwock, in the story’s second half changes that state of affairs significantly; this thing can do some serious damage and makes the threat of its reappearance genuinely scary. As a result, the stakes are properly raised and the path to the endgame becomes clear.
–The Opera – Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster
This one is stacked with qualification asterisks, but because FFVI‘s clever re-release only launched on console this year, I’m counting it. Despite the fact I’ve started the game in various forms many times over the years, I’d never before reached the famous Celes opera scene, but soon after attending a real life piano concert for FF music where the song was played, I managed to get there – and it’s the only part of the game re-rendered entirely in the Square HD-2D art style. Just, wow.
–Flying Orb Boss – Cocoon
How a one-button puzzle game without any real combat to speak of manages to deliver a set of boss “fights” as satisfying as the ones in Cocoon is mystifying to me, but they’re all winners. My favourite has to be the one where an orb temporarily grants you the power of flight and you have to shatter the legs of a giant mech while avoiding sticky patches of turf that slow you down. I got launched out of that fight on multiple occasions, but went back in grinning each time.
—Massacre at Some Random Tunnel – Baldur’s Gate III
If you see weird statues staring at you on the walls of a tunnel you didn’t plan to enter, don’t just let your friends walk forward, and definitely do not mindlessly break crates that may contain oil.
–The Meloetta Riddle – Pokemon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk
Seriously, who on earth thought of that Mew-under-the-truck-level capture method, and how did it get discovered in under three days?
Vagrant Rant 