My Top 10 Games of 2023

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favorite products the everyday earbuds 3x kit bundles three pairs of earbuds for a steep discount it's the perfect Christmas deal I have to leave now and I can't ever return hey alternate universe Arlo yeah Arlo I'm going to miss you buddy I'm going to miss you too there's one last thing I need to tell you before you go anything this holiday season get premium audio and power Tech at a great price and save even more doing it go to by ron.com Arlo to get 15% off sitewide I know I know goodbye [Music] 8T 12 in I'm sure every single top 10 games of 2023 list is going to start exactly the same way but I don't care 2023 was an incredible year for games so incredible in fact that I barely got to play half of the new games I wanted to play and you will no doubt wonder why some of your favorite 2023 games are not on this list I do I can and I did indeed get to play a good number of awesome games this year so it is now time to talk about them and as always there are sure to be some honorable mentions and cheats let's get started I'm a new Kirby fan I ain't been at this for long forgotten land really grabbed me on release so it was cool that Nintendo immediately gave me an opportunity to play a game from Kirby's past that is generally considered to be very good and I am happy to say that I also feel that Return to Dream Dreamland is quite good the level design is solid the presentation is delightful the story is Fun the whole package is just nice that's really what Kirby is about right it's all just very friendly and nice and consistently enjoyable to play all the mini gamess are pretty cool and magol land tying them all together helps give me incentive to actually engage with them which is a plus the piece to resistance however is definitely magalor epilog Kirby is fun but there are some things about how it controls that don't sit quite right with me and this little campaign addresses every one of those problems the move set is really cool with tons of moves to unlock slowly making them stronger is extremely satisfying and the whole thing is really short but it still manages to feel meaty because it's just so much fun from start to finish if anything the length makes it great for repeat playthroughs I'm really hoping that future Kirby games have modes like this and actually a whole game like this would be extra amazing but I guess I'm not holding my breath oh overall Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe is a good time Kirby is good multiple 2D Platformers on Arlo's end of year top 10 list Q Twilight Zone Theme am I right Sonic 2 was my very first video game ever so even if I'm not an active fan I am pretty susceptible to Sonic related Nostalgia and Superstars hits all the right notes for me it's a perfect blend of modern and classic I did love the clean pixel art of mania but 2.5 opens up some new possibilities and I love what they did with it the characters look so perfect and they're all expressive there are loads of little details to enjoy in each environment everything is fun and colorful the controls feel perfect and the levels all have loads of splitting paths and cool mechanics plus lots of bosses to enjoy the game doesn't do anything to push Sonic forward but I don't feel like it needed to I know reception to Superstars has been mixed and elephant in the room some people thought maybe I only liked it so much because my Impressions video was sponsored but if I may defend myself for just a moment I didn't like it because of the sponsorship I took the sponsorship because I liked it and I was so happy to recommend it I I I literally turned down sponsorships for trashy games every single day and I I don't know what to tell you I didn't have any major complaints here I played on Steam and encountered no bugs or hitches uh it sounds like the co-op is weak but I I didn't play the co-op my only major complaint now is that the latter third of the game has some rough bosses that are more frustrating than fun but those are the exception most of my experience has been just plain fun I really honestly like Sonic Superstars and I super duper hope we don't have to wait too long for a sequel it was a breath of fresh air this year a delicious Little slice of nostalgia for this aging monster and you know what Josh from gek critique loves it and he's like the biggest Sonic fan on the planet so there did you know Nintendo released a an HD Pikmin collection on switch in 2023 because they did after all these years of me ranting and raving about how they were letting their poor little IP rot in the fridge they were keeping the series from making new fans they weren't utilizing their library of Legacy titles they finally went okay already here's your stupid Pikmin now shut up in all seriousness though it is fantastic that a new generation of people finally have easy access to these terrific games especially with Pikmin 4 Making a Splash on the system now every Mainline Pikmin game is on switch and all is right with the world they even updated the controls and completely remastered the cutcenes in Pikmin 2 which was a really pleasant surprise I've played the game so many times that messing with these HD ports didn't take up a ton of my play time this year but I did stream the games which was incredibly fun amazing turnout super cool chat everyone having a good time I already adore Pikman obviously but now I have another great memory to associate with it I still need to stream Pikmin 3 and four though so stay tuned for that point is Pikmin is great and they put more Pikmin on switch so I am happy PlayStation VR2 was what finally pushed me to buy a PS5 I really wanted to check it out and I thought I'd make some videos and stuff though psvr2 was basically Dead on Arrival so uh so much for that plan but I have experienced one VR highlight so far and no it wasn't Horizon call of the mountain or Resident Evil Village VR as it probably should have been no even with all this amazing AAA stuff to play I found myself returning to this game called puzzling places have you played this this is basically just a 3D jigsaw puzzle game where you can manipulate the pieces using motion controllers and I I I can't even tell you how amazing it is is I mean puzzles are already fun but being immersed in a game like this actually grabbing and placing and moving pieces intuitively with your real hands there's just something really magical about it it's so ridiculously Zen especially considering how these models are all beautiful structures and places created using 3D photography and they even put sound effects in there like whooshing wind people in the distance all these little things to make you feel just plain nice it's been a good year but also something of a stressful one and puzzling places has really helped me out it never fails to put me in a good head space Did You Know Nintendo released a full remaster of Metroid Prime on switch in 2023 because they did and I don't think enough time can possibly pass for me to stop feeling surprised a remaster was rumored for a long time but for them to Shadow drop it during a direct and only charge $40 that's not even the half of it though every single asset was completely and Faithfully remade for this remaster every element brought up to Modern standards as though this were a brand new game and honestly I don't think a game can look better on switch I just don't think it's possible and they even updated the controls the controls are perfect I literally couldn't have asked for a better remaster on this Hardware I'm I'm completely in awe of what they did and Metroid Prime is one of my all-time favorite games easily a top 10er to see it given this treatment it's it's just unreal I really might never recover from the shock of its reveal and release only time will tell if the other Prime games get the same kind of treatment but even if they don't this was a big win for Metroid fans and you know what we deserve some wins we're getting into the real meet now Super Mario Brothers Wonder was another surprise not only a new 2D Mario after all these years but one that does literally everything a new 2D Mario needed to do in order to actually stand out and live up to Mario's Legacy what is this in my eyes Wonder really is the exact game that Mario needed it's got a strong and highly appealing visual style which is not something you can say about the games that came before it the Wonder mechanic turns each level into a little present for you to open you never know what you're going to get the whole game tries its hardest to surprise and delight at every turn and it very much succeeds the fun is constant and even if the overall difficulty is a little too far on the easy side for my liking the game features plenty of tricky challenges oh and I have not forgotten about the badge system they've still got some Kinks to iron out and most of the badges are fairly pointless I'll admit but I still feel like badges add a good chunk of fun and customizability to the experience and I'm not personally into the online stuff but there is no denying that it's another great option for people willing to engage with it Super Mario Brothers wonder is yet another 2D platformer on this Arlo top 10 list which is simply unheard of and I'm willing to go as far as to say it is one of the finest 2D Platformers I have ever played I always knew Nintendo had this game in them we just had to wait for them to actually go for it but who cares about brand new entries in classic series that push their respective formulas forward even higher on this list is a remake of a game I've played a 100,000 times already and you know why because Resident Evil 4 isn't just a simple remake it's not just a soulless rehash of an already great game it takes the original and refreshes it adds to it remixes it it fleshes out characters that didn't get a fair shake it improves upon the pacing and level design and most importantly it provides new gameplay elements that make the experience feel new even while it feels familiar and that's really the amazing thing here remakes don't always know exactly how faithful to stay to the source material but this game Nails it like 99.99% it manages to change exactly what needed to change and kept just the right stuff intact it's a big Improvement in a lot of ways and yet it doesn't feel like it replaces the original it's it's incredible I I really can't understand how they did it Resident Evil 4 is probably the best remake I've ever played and it's also probably just the most fun Resident Evil game I love all the modern games but the gameplay here is just oh it's so refined it is perfect I honestly lost count of how many times I ran through the game and all the new game pluses and whatnot and even just talking about it here I am getting the itch to boot it back up it's a good good time to be a Resident Evil fan now it's time for this year's cheat game only one this time impressive this isn't a game that released this year but it's a game that I played this year and it ate up enough of my life and brain power to deserve a spot on this list as you likely know over the last few years I have become something of a fromsoft freak and I've been slowly working my way through their soul Style catalog well I finally picked up that PS5 and mustered up the courage to tackle Demon Souls the remake of the game that literally created an entire genre being the first Souls like Demon Souls is a little rough some mechanics that still needed ironing out some frustrating bits extremely uneven bosses and the most agonizing boss runbacks imaginable and honestly I had to struggle for a good while before it all clicked during the opening hours it felt like the game was just desperately trying to stop me from having fun and to get me to quit I did eventually get over that hump though and once I did I predictably fell head over heels in love like I always do when I'm into a from soft game playing it is all I want to do no other games compare no other life activities compare and Demon Souls in particular is just so easy to pick up and play thanks to the more segmented structure where you can pick and choose which world you feel like tackling next and slowly make your way through each individual area as is becoming standard practice for me I beat the game told myself I was done played through New Game Plus told myself I was done again then proceeded to play all the way through New Game Plus 5 where the difficulty stopped scaling up and now I'm sad that there's nothing left to do even though it's good that I'm done because I need to play other games and do other things yet even now even now the idea of just starting with an all new character is weirdly tempting so yeah Demon Souls was one of my favorite experiences in 2023 clearly see you next year when I inevitably say this all over again for Dark Souls 3 I don't know exactly how I feel about tears of the Kingdom I am still trying to figure it out I was actually close to putting it just below Demon Souls and that's because it is indeed a really great game the ways that it builds upon the foundation of breath of the wild how it takes the old Hyrule and makes it feel fresh and full of mysteries and of course the new Ultra hand and fusing systems it's all really impressive I can easily say that for quite a few hours the game felt like one of those special experiences that you remember forever but the more I played the quicker I found myself filling up on the meal you know I didn't feel quite is compelled to sink hundreds of hours into this one and I've actually not even finished it yet I need to get back into it and wrap up all the story stuff before I can tell you how I really feel about tears of the Kingdom until then I'm kind of stuck in this weird limbo where it feels extremely important and like The Shining Pinnacle of the series but also like kind of sort of maybe too little too late I really don't know where I'll ultimately land but for now I can say that the game is at least special enough to place very high on the list of the best games I played in 2023 I mean some of these shrines with all the ultrah hand Contraption puzzles alone like this is this is truly a unique video game experience [Music] yeah yeah Nintendo gave us Pikman 4 in 2023 Pikman 4 for real life and whenever you get something you've been wanting for years and years there's always the chance that you'll be disappointed it won't turn out the way you wanted and then you'll be really sad about it but that's not what happened with Pikmin 4 at least not for me is the game perfect nah there are some tweaks I'd like to see them make the new auto lock on system in particular needs some work but overall this game is so good it's absurdly good Pikmin 3 scaled back the complexity of two and returned to the series roots of relative Simplicity in order to increase replayability I loved Pikmin 3 but I was sad that this was probably the ultimate fate of the series Back to Basics shorter more tightly designed less fluff probably for the best ly but no apparently their design philosophies just change wildly from game to game because they could not have possibly leaned harder in the opposite direction small issues aside they could not have made a Pikmin game that felt more tailored to the arlos of the World the game is bigger so much bigger it's got so much content it's got story and characters intrig loads and loads of new creatures and abilities and stuff to collect and upgrade there's upgrading you can upgrade everything and of course it's beautiful it's the most stunning World we've seen in the series thus far and it's approachable enough to appeal to new players without completely abandoning all of the veteran players it strikes an incredible balance between old and new between faithful and fresh Pikmin 4 is just a really really good Pikman game after so many years I didn't even know what a new Pikmin game should be yet I can now confid ID L say that this was it this was the exact Pikmin game they should have made and it feels good it just feels good so good Pikmin 4 finally came and it ended up real real good and yeah it's my game of the year easy nothing else compared to the Joy I felt playing this game beating flame lurker came close but Pikman 4 won not a lot of cheat games this year but plenty of honorable mentions here are the games that probably would have made the list but I didn't get a chance to finish them the first is sea of stars I streamed the game a couple times absolutely adored what I played and then life got in the way and I haven't picked it up since it's so it's really good so far though and same with octopath traveler 2 extremely good played it a good amount but then in the middle of the game I got distracted by stuff and it's just really hard to pick up an RPG again once it's put down you know but oh man octopath 2 good stuff more honorable mentions here are the games that probably would have made the list if ID played them but I didn't get a chance to play them at all born of bread is the latest big Paper Mario like and it looks really really exceptional I cannot wait to play it except clearly I can because I am now but you know what I mean I think I made that joke last year whatever moving on lies of peace ooh ooh I wanted to get this game so bad I've heard some kind of mixed stuff about it and apparently it's really heavy on parrying which is not my thing but I'm still down to give it a shot it it looks so good then the biggest one Blasphemous 2 I love the first game so much and I I really want to play it again with all the updates and the DLC and stuff before I tackle the sequel so I haven't touched the sequel yet it looks good though ooh ooh it looks good oh yeah I guess I should mention mention Super Mario RPG as well or everyone will be a little confused I really do want to play it I just I don't have time I don't have time this is the end of year rush I'm too busy making this video and finally I didn't play enough games to give you a top 10 worst games or anything but how about my own personal top two most disappointing games of 2023 first is Somerville which I guess is technically a cheat because it released at the end of 2022 play dead made limbo and ins side two of my favorite games ever and one of the studio Founders split off to form his own Studio their first project was Summerville and on the surface this is another play dead title super moody no dialogue atmospheric visual emotional puzzly kind of Adventure game I mean I was extremely excited for it this was basically the play Dead game number three I was waiting for right nah I don't exactly know what when went wrong here but Somerville isn't great it's got good elements I mean look at it like those visuals the Artistry here the shot composition it's all completely on point it's got all the makings of a beautiful emotional Masterpiece but the game playay just kind of Falls flat the puzzles are a little obtuse some of the sequences feel rote and the ending is a tremendous confusing letdown that ends everything on a sour note it's a real bummer this game had every reason to be great guess I'll go back to waiting for the next play Dead game some more maybe I'll get lucky and it will release this decade and the other disappointing game Starfield another game following a particular formula from people who have made games using that formula that I really really loved and unfortunately another game that just kind of Falls flat go check out my review for my complete thoughts but Starfield is just kind of blah it's got all the the ideas and mechanics of a big Bethesda RPG but very little of the interest this is a bland by the Numbers sci-fi world with no cool alien races or interesting technology or any of the stuff that I like about sci-fi I mean Bethesda your desolate world is a planet post-apocalypse Series has more interesting culture than a grand sci-fi epic you created from the ground up what happened why is this so Bland and unimaginative there's so much to do and so many conversations to have and so many planets to explore and yet I don't really feel like doing any of it I did play the game for a good bit a few dozen hours and I had some fun but once I put it down for more than like a day I felt very little pull to pick it back up again gosh what a waste so there you have it those are the games I loved most least and almost in 2023 but as always I will ask you to Moose ywn down to the comments and let us know what your favorite games were and why they were balers Gate 3 now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go round up all those games I wanted to play and play them instead of just getting distracted by life and other new games and relegating them to the backlog literally forever this is the year that I am actually going to do that for real this is it here I go I'm going to go play all those games now I'm walking away for real not a joke not a joke for real life it's really happening here I go

Channel: Arlo

Views: 262,693

Keywords: puppet, blue, monster, nintendo, switch, top ten, top 10, games, 2023, tears of the kingdom, pikmin 4, starfield, super mario bros wonder, demon's souls

Id: rVdmkS-G2QI

Length: 24min 47sec (1487 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023