The list's finished, even now as I look at it I find some flaws or things I'd rather change. Maybe next year I'll remove fighters and racers both, it feels better setting these apart for some reason.
I avoided this year's games, but I don't think any would enter the list, except maybe Hi-Fi Rush toward the bottom.
14. Hollow Knight
There is something utterly compelling about the atmosphere of Hollow Knight. Part of it is the art style, part of it is the environmental design, part of it is the music, but in the end the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. From the few minutes of the game I felt draw to explore Hallownest, to plumb its depths and seek out its secrets. And the game both rewarded me with strange and interesting things: badges, characters, locations, mysteries and punished me when I grew careless or hasty. But being killed only made me more determined to press on. Few deaths felt unfair, it was almost always my own fault which made me want to return and prove that I could do better. I don't know what it is about the melancholy world of Hollow Knight, but I enjoyed it immensely and still can't wait for the sequel.
13. Banjo Kazooie
It's shocking to realize how small the levels of Banjo Kazooie are as an adult. What felt vast and expansive as a child is tiny compared to almost any other game that takes place in a 3D space. But those worlds are densely packed with unique and amusing characters. Everything from an orange-tossing gorilla to a hippo pirate crying over his lost gold to a turtle choir to a camel that is constantly abused for hoarding water. The challenges and collectibles are great fun, but it's the humor that suffuses every interaction that really sells it to me. That was honestly the biggest let-down of Yooka-laylee: the bland copy-paste characters that never had anything interesting to say.
12. Arkham City
I think I've mentioned that I love to explore somewhere in this write-ups. That refrain is about to be repeated a lot more as I head into my top games, but even so Arkham City deserves its spotlight for it. I enjoyed Arkham Asylum. It remains one of my favorite superhero games. But Arkham was very segmented, divided. The free-flowing map of the city where a hundred different distraction awaited was something quite else. Everywhere you looked there was a Riddler challenge or a clue to one of Batman's many rogues doing something dastardly. It was never overwhelming, as I would complete a level for the main quest then dart around the city doing side missions until I felt like resuming the real story again. The combat did a great job of making you feel like a badass while still providing a challenge and the stealth sections were great fun. It's cliche at this point to say that the game 'made you feel like Batman', but if that isn't what making fictional henchmen piss themselves in fear feels like, then I don't know what does.
11. Chrono Trigger
The two essentials for any RPG is the story and the battle system. One is the core gameplay loop and the other is what motivates you to keep playing. In terms of story Chrono Trigger had it all, epic scope, personal tragedies, relatable characters, and a compelling threat driving the characters forward. Similarly the battle system was a joy to play with positioning being important and combo attacks between your teammates mattering. It also helped that none of the team members felt useless compared to others. I often switched up my team and played with the full variety of my available characters. The animated cut scenes and designs from manga great Akira Toriyama are just icing on the cake. It really is the quintessential JRPG for me.
Runa216 said:
It is worth noting that I think your number for bosses is off. I counted like 177-178 bosses in the game but only like 75 unique bosses. I don't consider that a bad thing like some people do, but I don't know where you get the 123 unique bosses number. And yeah, something truly special about Elden Ring if you ask me. My first souls game was Bloodborne, then I went to Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2. My first run through Dark Souls 1 was 50/50 (Half of it I LOVED, half of it I HATED), and my hatred for Dark Souls II is fairly well known now. when 3 came out I fell in love from the start, with Bloodborne and Dark Souls III becoming faves of mine. 1 grew on me, then Sekiro happened and I loved that. then Demon's Souls Remake came out and I loved that, warts and all. Elden Ring came out and I loved that. At this point I just accept that Miyazaki in particular seems to have a direct link to my personal tastes and I'll buy anything that has his involvement. He's not let me down once and I genuinely think he's getting better every time, with Elden Ring really feeling like a culmination of everything we loved about the prior games mashed up into one. I still personally like Bloodborne better but only by a small margin. That might change with the inevitable release of the DLC. |
I just grabbed that number from a Google search didn't really try double checking to see how accurate it was. I just know there were way more bosses than I could count.
I really needed that dlc to be out yesterday. I thought it would've been out by now after all this time.
It's fine I'll let them cook. There are still a few bosses in the base game I haven't fought yet.
| #3 | Heroes of Might and Magic III |
|---|---|
| guessed by | UnderwaterFunktown |
| platform | Windows |
| release year | 1999 |
| developer/publisher | New World Computing/3DO |
| genre | turn based strategy |
| links | Wikipedia |
| past years | 2022: #4, 2021: #1, 2020: #1, 2019: #1, 2018: #1, 2017: #1 |
 | The epic game of strategic world management with heroes helping you control the map never gets old. This is visible in the fact, that this year a spiritual successor enters my list with Songs of Conquest. The gameplay is that good, it still works 2 decades later. |
| #2 | Elden Ring |
|---|---|
| guessed by | UnderwaterFunktown |
| platform | Xbox Series |
| release year | 2022 |
| developer/publisher | From Software |
| genre | action adventure |
| links | Wikipedia |
| past year | 2020: #1 |
 | Elden Ring, Miyazakis masterpiece. Well at least until he releases his next game. For the moment let's look forward to the DLC. |
Before we get to the last game on my list, let's look at the results of the guessing game. With the last games guessed @UnderwaterFunktown got the lead, while @Darashiva and @Machina got close behind on #2 and #3. All three guessed more games than games that stayed unguessed, which is great. Everyone who participated: thank you, it is always fun to engage in this way about these great games with others, I also enjoy guessing your games. Let's do it again next year.
| user | count | entries |
|---|---|---|
| UnderwaterFunktown | 11 | #41, #32, #23, #22, #14, #9, #6, #5, #3, #2, #1 |
| Darashiva | 10 | #42, #36, #29, #27, #26, #25, #24, #20, #18, #4 |
| Machina | 8 | #50, #47, #43, #37, #39, #33, #28, #13 |
| drbunnig | 4½ | #48, #11, (#13), #10, #7 |
| S.Peelman | 4 | #49, #44, #31, #16 |
| The_Liquid_Laser | 2 | #40, #35 |
| Veknoid_Outcast | 1 | #45 |
| haxxiy | 1 | #30 |
| no one | 7 | #46, #38, #34, #19, #17, #15, #12, #8 |
I'll throw down some bonus stuff now that everything's wrapped up. Even added a couple new categories this time.
New debuts:
It was an excellent year for new debuts for me, but also a lot of cuts as a result
Games that got cut:
Biggest climbs:
Literally the only 2 games that climbed more than 1 or 2 spots. Even just staying in place was an achievement this year.
Biggest drops:
Most represented series:
Most represented systems:
Most represented years:
And since I love switching up my Honorable Mentions, this time I'll go for unlikely contenders I've played a ton at one point or another in my life:
Try out my free game on Steam
2024 OpenCritic Prediction Leagues:
10. Banjo Tooie
Many fans feel like this sequel wasn't as good as the original game, but I'd disagree. The bigger worlds gave you more to explore while teleport pads allowed for fast travel. The 'Doom' sections were a fun challenge to add. Almost every world had a great boss battle, Mr. Patches being one that I replayed over and over. The hub world was bigger and had more connectivity, tying all the various levels together. The new characters were good, returning characters all had more twists to them, and the humor was top notch even exceeding the first game. All in all Banjo Tooie doubled down on everything I loved about the first game and added more on top of it.
9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
I played this game before the original Prime, so I might be biased. But for a guy that had never been into shooting games of any description there was something that just felt so natural about pointing the wiimote at the screen to aim and shoot. It's the best use of motion controls possible in my option, but that was just the initial hook. Even without playing the previous games I was invested in the story and wanted to investigate the strange planets Samus was sent to. The foreboding atmosphere, rife with danger was a joy to conquer and this game introduced me to the Metroid series as whole.
8. Mariokart 8
This game is how I spent the summer of 2014. Which surprised me after how much I hated Mariokart Wii, but I blasted through the solo races to unlock everything and kept coming back to the online to compete every single day. Eventually my ranking was above 20K and I was no longer able to play this game against friends irl unless I deliberately chose the worst kart builds. I knew every course backwards and forwards, and it was the most competitive I'd ever been in a multiplayer game. It continued to dominate my playing time through 2015 and 2016 (which might be due to the lack of quality WiiU games in those years), all the way until I got my Switch. I delibrately didn't get Mariokart 8 Deluxe just so it wouldn't steal all my time away from newer games, but even so I often find myself booting my WiiU back up just to play this game. It will be a sad day when those online servers finally close.
7. Super Mario Galaxy
The heart of a good Mario game is fluid movement. Whether 2D or 3D it needs to feel good to move Mario around. Mario64 pioneered this, but the camera could interfere with that feeling. Sunshine was weird and wild and I've come to appreciate it more with time, but Fludd often interrupted Mario's movement or required him to hold still. Galaxy gave Mario an unmatched fluidity which is even crazier to see with it's insane gravity physics as you bounce from planetoid to planetoid, each one themed in wonderfully bizarre and creative ways. But what I enjoyed more than anything was the Comet Observatory. It's easily my favorite hub world in any video game. The soothing music, the chirping lumas, the miniature observatories themed after rooms that launch you into the worlds, and best of all the library. Mario isn't known for its powerful story telling and indeed the story of the game itself is the standard fare. But hidden in the library is the story of Rosalina's past, told as a beautiful children's book in soft pastel colors. It's about loss and growth, and it has a much sadder and emotional core than you'd expect from so simple a story.
6. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I don't think I need to explain why I love this game. It regularly tops lists for the greatest game of all time. It is a cultural touchstone in video games and I'm both lucky and glad to have played it when it first came out.
Top 50 Games:
1 - Final Fantasy VI
2 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
3 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
4 - Bloodborne
5 - Mega Man X
6 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
7 - Final Fantasy VII
8 - Super Mario World
9 - Elden Ring
10- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
11- Final Fantasy XII
12- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
13- Mega Man X3
14- Red Dead Redemption II
15- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
16- Rock Band 4
17- Mega Man 2
18- Final Fantasy X
19- Mega Man X2
20- Super Mario Bros. 3
21- Donkey Kong Country
22- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
23- Final Fantasy XVI
24- Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
25- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
26- Dark Souls III
27- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
28- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
29- God of War (Norse)
30- Final Fantasy IX
31- Dark Souls/Remastered
32- Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
33- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
34- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
35- Final Fantasy VIII
36- Pokemon Black/White
37- Cuphead and the Delicious Last Course
38- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
39- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
40- Resident Evil 4
41- Portal 2
42- Pokemon Red/Blue
43- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
44- Terraria
45- Axiom Verge
46- Guitar Hero II
47- The Messenger
48- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
49- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
50- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
I was gonna do a proper write-up but I ran outta time.
Long story short, a lot of positions are kinda jumbled around and inconsistent because my ACTUAL ranking style heavily emphasises groupings and this thread/event doesn't do that. For example, I don't really love any one Pokemon or Rock Band game more than the others, I like what they do as a collective franchise. I like the building of the pokedex or the track list, or how you can export/trade forward old content to new games so each new entry builds upon the last one instead of replacing it. Smash Bros. Ultimate is a similar case.
Other franchises I felt the need to separate entries even though they're ties. Final Fantasy VII, X, and XII are all tied in my mind, my preferences changing daily. what I wrote and what I decided on this list is not necessarily how I'd rank them if I started from scratch tomorrow.
Other games I purposely omitted because I wanted to avoid redundancy. Demon's Souls deserves to be on this list but I already had 5 other soulslikes (Dark souls, Dark souls III, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring) and Demon's Souls is certainly the weakest of that spiritual sequence. I also could have filled the list with Ratchet & Clank games so I chose the ones that I liked the most (And even had to omit other games I loved like the 2016 remake and Tools of Destruction to minimize redundancy).
On my official list I even include Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World since Mario World and Mario 3 are actually pretty close. but again I tried to separate them a bit.
I wanted to include remakes like the Resident Evil 4 Remake, Mario RPG Remake (If it had come out in time) and the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, but alas, not really an option.
so this is my list as I'm presenting it even though it is not appropriately representative of how I feel. but again, different parameters. Abide by the rules!
**Edit** also worth noting that this year helped to establish my top 2. both Final Fantasy VI and Mario RPG got remakes (Well, technically the Pixel Remaster was last year but I don't do PC gaming so they came out on Switch/PS4 this year and thus that's when I played them). 1 and 2 were both neck and neck for the last decade and a half, with Mario RPG barely edging Final Fantasy VI out due to how much easier it is/was to replay. But having played both the Pixel Remaster and the RPG Remake this year, I can firmly put Final Fantasy VI at the top of the list. both were excellent and both had damn near perfect remakes in their own right but reliving FFVI again really struck my heart in a way that solidified its place in the top spot.
Last edited by Runa216 - on 03 January 2024My Console Library:
PS5, Switch, XSX
PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1, WiiU, Wii, GCN, N64 SNES, XBO, 360
3DS, DS, GBA, Vita, PSP, Android
| #1 | Baldur's Gate III |
|---|---|
| guessed by | UnderwaterFunktown |
| platform | Windows |
| release year | 2023 |
| developer/publisher | Larian Studios |
| genre | RPG |
| links | Wikipedia, Mobygames |
| past years | 2022: #19, 2021: #24, 2020: #39 |
So, we are finally at the top, and how boring, I like the game everyone liked. Interesting though, for many this game came out of nowhere, was a total surprise. Not for me, I had it in my TOP 50 since 2020, from the early access version. I played early access on Stadia, actually this game was a reason I got Stadia, and the service didn't even survive long enough to see the final release of the game. Very funny.
What surprised me though was how much people actually played and liked it. If I told you in 2022 that a turn-based strategic RPG with player controlled party, isometric view and high complexity would be one of the most popular games in 2023 and actually win many awards - would you have believed me? I didn't believe that, I believed it would be successful - in the scale of Pillars of Eternity, the Pathfinder games, Torment and Divinity Original Sin. Not on the scale it got to. What a surprise.
And what about it did I like? Well, there is a lot to like, the absolute great music, the complex battle system with thousands of ways to get about it, which actually make a huge difference. There were fights were my party was easily wiped out on the first try, but the second try with a bit of thinking and changing of strategy it went as easily to my side. Your decisions really do matter in this game!
The writing is outstanding, I actually connected to many characters and not only the companions that you take along your travel, but even side characters. This in turn makes side quests also a joy. Because they aren't just some busywork, all the quests are connected to characters and their needs and wishes. Which also means you have clearly conflicting goals, because the characters in question have conflicting views. It is on you in many cases to make decisions here. And again, also in writing and plot your decisions really matter here. They don't jujst lead to five different endings. If a character is recurring through all three acts and has some role to play it in one playthrough, the same character can be dead early on in your second playthrough and therefore all the interactions in the later acts are different because that character isn't around.
To give an example how well designed these characters are I tell about one character you meet early on. The background is: early in the game you get to a Druid grove. That grove has taken in some fugitives, Tieflings from the city Elturel. Elturel was cast into the hells for some time, the devils using the citizens as slaves. When Elturel got back to the material plane, the other citizens turned on their Tiefling neighbors because Tieflings have devils in their ancestry, even though the Tieflings were victims as much as the other races. So the Tieflings of Elturel were fleeing towards Baldur's Gate, but the roads are dangerous and many lost their lives and they took shelter in the Druid grove. Because so many lost their lives, among the fugitives are now some orphaned kids. And one of these kids take leadership over them, a girl named Mol.She is a scoundrel, making a living off stealing and cons and the other kids join her in this activity. But you also notice how much she cares for these other kids. They are all under her protection, even if they suck at stealing (which some do). Mol reacts to your actions towards these kids. Two kids are in mortal danger early on, and Mol notices if you saved their lives. And she also notices how you react to an attempt to steal from you.
That is an absolute side character with no influence on the main story. Yet I wrote a whole paragraph about her character. This is how detailed she is. Mol takes actions throughout the game, you can meet her again in act 2 and 3. Or... you may not even meet her at all. In act 1 she is at a hidden location, in the later acts she is not as hidden but still can be possibly missed. Again, she is a side character. Yet her story is well written. There are many more character which you meet throughout the act - or not.
The most fascinating thing about the game must be, that every player has their own experience. And not just different endings, big parts may happen or not. You can get to Act 2 without visiting the whole Underdark. Or the githyanki creche. In my multiplayer run with friends I was always surprised about what they did - and that they could do it. And they were surprised by me. Because pretty much everything we thought about in the moment - it often worked in some way.
Some people claim that act 3 is too bad and it ruins the game. And while true, act 3 is not as good as act 1 or 2, it is still good and far from spoiling this game. On the contrary I would argue that some of the best sequences in gaming are there to be found in act 3, particularly disabling the steel watch and the house of hope. But then again, it is also the game that allows you to miss these things, you can play act 3 and never set foot in the house of hope.
What makes this game such an achievement is the support of player agency at every step. I am always surprised what options I have and think: no way the devs have even thought about me doing this - only to be faced with a fully voiced line, showing that indeed they did think of it. There was put a lot of care and love into the game that is seldom to see these days outside of indies. In part it is a crazy overwhelming amount of attention to detail. In my coop playthrough I played a Bard. And going though the character editor with the chosen class of Bard I get the option to choose a starting intrument. I click on one and realize - the music is changing. For every instrument they it starts to play the theme of the character editor with that instrument. They have recorded *five* additional renditions of the song only for a sub-sub-sub-option in the character editor that only exists if you choose one of the twelve classes. How much is in this game I didn't find?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuCfkgaaa08
Soo, I want to give a special shout out to small and (in my opinion) underappreciated games, games that aren't getting the attention they deserve (most often because they lack a big marketing budget). I don't say indie, because technically BG3 is indie (Larian studios stayed independent and the game has no publishing contract with a big publisher). And people also questioned Dave the Divers status as indie. But if I choose games from small teams with small budgets I think many of you agree they can do with a bit of attention. I also let out retro games, all these games are readily available and can be downloaded and played right away. Actually I will give links how to acquire them, as I feel not bad to do this for these games that lack the big marketing. So let's go.
| #48 | Slice & Dice |
|---|---|
 | I love turn-based RPGs. In many of them you choose an action and randomness is applied to determine the outcome of that action. Slice&Dice turns that system on it's head. The dice are rolled first and you can choose what to do with it. As you also see what actions the enemies take it turns an RPG into an experience more like a puzzle. Interesting and innovative mechanics, I would love to see that explored with more depth. |
| #46 | Project Zomboid |
|---|---|
 | A zombie outbreak in rural Kentucky in the early 90s. Your character (which you create) is right inside it and tries to survive. In the beginning looting weapons and food, later on building a fortress and growing crops. It is a project that gets updated over the years and has very satisfying gameplay. |
| #36 | Vampire Survivors |
|---|---|
 | Fight the monster menace in this indie game that has surprisingly simple yet addictive gameplay. Started by a single developer it has now taken on more devs that brought it to more platforms, including all current consoles. |
| #34 | Against the Storm |
|---|---|
 | The storm is relentless in this postapocalyptic fantasy city builder. The surviving civilization is hanging on in the Smoldering City. And when the storm recedes a bit for a time, the city sends out caravans to settle in the forest and gather resources, for the next time the storm wins power and destroys everything outside.As the Scorched Queens viceroy you manage these settlements to gain her favor. The game left early access in December. |
| #32 | A Short Hike |
|---|---|
 | In a time where open worlds game get bigger and marketing brags about the size, A Short Hike offers the opposite experience: a small open world game. It is beatiful, it has great characters you learn to know and love. It is a joy. As the name suggests the game is not long, but the experience stays with you longer than with some much bigger games that are forgotten fast after putting down the controller. |
| #24 | Graveyard Keeper |
|---|---|
 | This game is kinda like Stardew Valley, but instead of a garden you manage a graveyard. It has absolutely brilliant humour and weird characters and a world with a mysterious past. it is such a joy to play through it and learn about all the secrets, while building an army of Zombies that do all your work. |
| #19 | Wildermyth |
|---|---|
 | I love indies for their willingness to explore new concepts. In the case of Wildermyth it is about procedural story telling. For this Wildermyth has templates that can have different characters set in and are modified based on said characters features. Then multiple of these templates are combined and all results in your own story. |
| #17 | 20 Minutes Till Dawn |
|---|---|
 | A wild shooter in a similar vein to Vampire Survivors. But it offers a much deeper system of synergies and different builds. Add to that the beatiful art style and banging music and you have a great time. |
| #15 | Rise to Ruins |
|---|---|
 | A city builder/colony sim, that also incorporates God Game mechanics and tower defense and all of it in run based gameplay with permanent upgrades you can achieve over time? The result of this is a game that you can sink hours in and forget everything else while enjoying building your colonies that are just doomed to fall into ruins again. |
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