Platformers have mostly been ignored by AAA publishers outside of the occasional first-party release. Indie developers have been advancing the series for the last decade and we got a huge variety of great games this year. Many 2D, some 3D, and all a ton of fun.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder may not be revolutionary, but it’s damn fine fun with tried and true Mario platforming and charm. The new power-ups and transformations add just enough new flavor and multiplayer is as fun as ever. There’s not much to hate on Wonder for outside of not raising the already insanely high bar that the series has set.

Runner-Ups

Blasphemous II

Vernal Edge

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Planet of Lana

Single-player games are making a huge comeback and this has probably been the strongest year for them in the last decade. Publishers are seeing the numbers and single-player only games with no microtransactions are selling well. Whether it’s a remake or a new IP people want them badly.

Alan Wake II

What makes Alan Wake II one of the best single-player games ever made is the incredible story, writing, crazy gameplay, and the single best visuals we have ever seen in a video game to date. With a mix of awesome live-action cut-scenes and trippy horror scenes Alan Wake II is replayable and offers everything a single-player game should.

Runner-Ups

Resident Evil 4

Dead Space

Baldur’s Gate III

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

With streaming at an all time high, the best multiplayer games are usually the ones that are overall just the most goofy and fun and less competitive. This year had a large variety of multiplayer games from co-op RPGs to insanely hard Souls-like games.

Bang-On Balls Chronicles

What is Bang-On Balls really? It’s a hit game that really came out of left field and became a smash hit on Twitch. You just run around exploring, having fun, and adventuring with up to four players or solo. It’s goofy, light-hearted, and the kind of game that won’t break your friends up. A lot of multiplayer games are insanely competitive and serious (which is fine) but when a game comes around like this it needs to be celebrated.

Runner-Ups

Diablo IV

Counter-Strike 2

Remnant II

Risk of Rain Returns

Adventure games are literally thriving! The genre has made a massive comeback in the last few years and this year has so many great games that include both fun gameplay and incredible stories and characters. This is one of my favorite genres and one of the very first video game genres.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The Cosmic Wheel doesn’t just have an incredible narrative, but it has imaginative gameplay and gorgeous artwork. You’re hooked from the very start and don’t know what to do with yourself once the game ends. This is one of the best adventure titles ever made and should be experienced by anyone who loves reading or enjoys a good story.

Runner-Ups

A Space for the Unbound

Jusant

Viewfinder

The Invincible

Another weak year for the racing genre. There were your usual suspects. F1, WRC, Forza, some sort of effort from Ubisoft, etc. The racing genre has stagnated for the last few years, but with a Forza game in the mix the winner had no competition.

Forza Motorsport

With Microsoft rebooting the Forza series there was a lot of excitement and buzz. This title shares the same as the original game released in 2005 on the original Xbox. Forza still remains the best racing series around and this title not only looks amazing, but has the usual fun gameplay that still separates it from its open world brother, the Horizon series.

Runner-Ups

F1 23

Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbo Charged

The Crew Motorfest

This was a solid year for fighting games. Less anime only games and more overall variety. Of course we hit a year of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter releasing in the same year so there wasn’t much competition. Fighting games have scaled back quite a bit over the years and the genre doesn’t seem as popular as it used to be. I would like to see more original IPs pop up or old favorites make a come back. Only time will tell.

Mortal Kombat 1

Well there’s no competition here. While Street Fighter 6 is the best the series has ever been it had a small roster, weak new characters, and an awful adventure mode. These are things Mortal Kombat was criticized for years ago and grew out of. There are no new characters in Mortal Kombat 1 but we get new favorites that haven’t been around in years. The adventure mode is also pretty lame in this one, but we get a solid core fighter and that’s something Mortal Kombat hasn’t focused on in years. Less extra content sucks, but let’s hope it means a bright future.

Runner-Ups

Street Fighter 6

Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl 2

Pocket Bravery

This wasn’t the best year for strategy games both turn-based and real-time. We had a lot of early access games in Steam with many turning out to be turds and the turn-based genre having a trickle of releases. While the genre is picking up steam again we are far from the days of mega strategy games duking it out on PC or even consoles.

Pikmin 4

Pikmin 4 isn’t revolutionary, but it does what people wanted with the series to do. I’m surprised this Nintendo series has reached the number four at all. The third game came out over a decade ago and everyone expected the series to finally be dead. What we got was another cute addictive and whimsical adventure with new features and surprises.

Runner-Ups

Jagged Alliance 3

Age of Wonders 4

Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless

We are finally moving away from mostly HD remasters to full on remakes. These games are getting better and better every year and somehow being better than new games releasing the same year. This year was no exception to fantastic remakes and I hope this trend continues.

Resident Evil 4

I didn’t think RE4 could be remade to be better than the original. RE2 and RE3 were both great remakes and redefined themselves once again, but RE4 was already a game that set out to redefine the series, so how can it keep improving? By being a better and tighter version of itself. Improved camera, gunplay, tighter levels, fixed bugs and issues, and new stuff thrown in made this the definitive RE4 package.

Runner-Ups

Dead Space

Super Mario RPG

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

Metroid Prime Remastered

This may not be a super exciting year for hardware for gaming, but companies are starting to experiment and push boundaries. Apple is getting next-generation games to run on their phones, Microsoft is acquiring studios, Sony is experimenting with new hardware, Nintendo is still releasing solid exclusives, and Valve has created a beast.

Portable PC Competition

Valve release of the Steam Deck has unlocked and entirely new console war among the portable PC crowd. This year it was Valve Steam Deck vs. ROG Ally vs. Lenovo Legion Go which came out right at the tail end of the year. These three portable PCs will surely duke it out next year and with the updated Steam Deck, the Steam Deck OLED, ROG and Lenovo will surely respond in due time, but we may also see other PC manufacturers release something of their own. It’s a brand new and healthy market and I can’t wait to see what comes.

Runner-Ups

Continued Solid Game Line-Up

Experimental Hardware

Apple iPhone 15

Xbox Acquisitions

Well, this was a small year for the PS5. Not very many exclusives and a few of them weren’t all that great to begin with. The PS5 may have slowed down this year, but it seems to be picking up for an explosive 2024.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

More of the same isn’t really all that bad especially when it’s as good as Insomniacs pedigree. Spider-Man 2 took what made the first game a classic and expanded upon it some more. It looks even better and is more incredible fun. What more could you ask for?

Runner-Ups

Final Fantasy XVI

Horizon: Call of the Mountain