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.
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