Garrett Martin’s Top 10 Games of 2023

By Garrett Martin | December 27, 2023 | 2:31pm

Video Games Lists best of 2023

I don’t know what’s more shocking: that we’re almost done with 2023, or that Paste is almost done with its “best of 2023” lists. We started them a month ago to the day, and although some might slip through the cracks and go up in January, this week should be the end of ’em. Congrats, reader: you’ve almost made it through another year-end list season. Thanks for humoring us. There are a few days left of non-stop lists, though, including this one: my list of the top 10 games of 2023. I’ve been editing Paste‘s games section for a shockingly long time, and although 2023 saw the release of a number of good games, it was also the single worst year for the industry in the 15 years I’ve been writing about it. According to videogamelayoffs.com, roughly 10,000 people in the games industry lost their jobs in 2023, despite the enduring phenomenal popularity of games. Between mergers, closures, high profile collapses, and the regular churn of studios downsizing between projects, 2023 has been a brutal year for the people who make the games we love to play, and that should never go overlooked amid end-of-year plaudits.

If you’re still in the mood to read some critical acclaim, here are my 10 favorite games of 2023. And make sure you check out Paste‘s overall list of the best games of 2023, in case you haven’t already.

10. Drainus

Okay, Drainus was originally released in 2022, but only for PC; it made its console debut on the Switch early this year, which is where I first played it, and that’s close enough for me to include on a list of my top 10 games of 2023. Drainus is a smart shoot-’em-up (or shmup) with a clever central gimmick of “draining” your enemies’ fire and returning it at them, as well as a weapons upgrade system with a lot of customizability and flexibility. On top of that is a well-told and genuinely touching story about estranged siblings working through their grief over the loss of a parent in very different ways, wrapped inside the kind of cartoonish sci-fi framework you expect from shmups. Veteran shoot-’em-up fans might not find it challenging enough, or might nitpick it for technical reasons that most players wouldn’t even notice, but it’s highly recommended for both newcomers and casual shooters who remember the genre’s 20th century heyday alike.

9. Pikmin 4

Nintendo’s latest Pikmin game isn’t the greatest in the series—as Marc Normandin argued here at Paste, it loses a bit of the complexity and spirit of past games in an attempt to make it accessible to a broader audience—but it’s still one of 2023’s best. A lot of the new additions are basic common sense kind of stuff, like adding more characters with more personality, and coming up with new Pikmin with new abilities. The dandori challenges and battles have rough equivalents in the last two Pikmin games, but they’re integrated more tightly into the main story here, and keep the classic Pikmin experience of exploring maps on a strict day-night schedule from becoming too repetitive. The nighttime battles are a total whiff, and the one decision in Pikmin 4 that seems to exist solely to pad the game out. And despite all this new business and the multitude of new characters, the most important thing here are still the Pikmin themselves, and their short lives of absolute, one-sided, taken-for-granted service. The new Zelda and Mario are both good, but Pikmin 4 is Nintendo’s best new game of 2023.

8. Chants of Sennaar

Imagine if Journey was explicitly about the Tower of Babel. Chants of Sennaar doesn’t follow too directly in the footsteps of thatgamecompany’s modern classic, but it’s just as cryptic and beautiful, with a similarly red-garbed lead character. As its Biblical inspiration suggests, you adventure up a tower whose residents speak a different language on every floor. They can’t communicate with each other, and at first you can barely understand them. You have to puzzle out what their words mean through context, conversation, and repetition, while also contending with occasional stealth sections that can ruin your journey if you’re not careful. Sennaar isn’t perfect, but it’s a unique, fascinating game that sets you loose in an unknown civilization and trusts you to learn your way through.

7. Tchia

Tchia‘s depiction of the unique Melanesian culture of its developers’ homeland, one rarely seen in mainstream global entertainment, is what makes this Zelda-inspired game so special, and one of my top 10 games of 2023. Although based in a fictional setting, Tchia underscores the importance of New Caledonia’s traditions through the emphasis on the “coutume,” a customary greeting gift that drives much of the game’s collection. Tchia’s most vibrant moments come after you earn the trust of a village, which often leads to a post-dinner celebration with music and dancing. These elaborately choreographed and directed dance numbers double as rhythm mini-games, with Tchia playing along on a ukulele or various percussion instruments while you try to tap buttons according to the onscreen prompts. And although rural settlements are found throughout the game’s many islands, it also goes out of its way to show that small Oceanic countries like New Caledonia have developed urban centers filled with cars and tall buildings. Tchia doesn’t just want to share New Caledonia’s traditions, but flout whatever stereotypical expectations players from larger countries might have about the archipelago. You can file the unrealistic, sci-fi trappings of the story under that latter goal; instead of relying simply on mysticism and folklore for its more fantastical elements, Tchia mixes that up with a spot of sci-fi to subvert expectations. New Caledonia might be a small country in the middle of the Pacific, the developers at Awaceb seems to say, but that doesn’t mean it stories have to remain stuck in the past.

6. Metroid Prime Remastered

I’m usually reluctant to put remasters and remakes on lists like this, but this year’s surprise release of Metroid Prime Remastered deserves recognition. The original is one of the two or three best Metroid games ever made, and an all-time Nintendo classic, and the fact that the remaster only needs to make a few minor changes to upgrade it for the modern day only underscores how excellent its foundations are. This is a vital piece of gaming history that has barely aged a day in over 20 years, and one of the best games of 2023 for the Switch.

5. Venba

This short, bittersweet visual novel / puzzle game hybrid examines the immigrant experience through the crucial cultural bedrock of cooking. Set across three decades in the lives of an Indian family who’ve resettled in Canada, Venba is yet more proof that games have the unique capacity to engage us emotionally in ways that other mediums can’t. Like the best meals, Venba ends too soon, but it’s so rich and fulfilling that it’ll leave you satisfied.

4. The Making of Karateka

This interactive documentary painstakingly tracks the design of the classic 1984 computer game Karateka. It shows, in exacting detail, how Jordan Mechner created the kung fu fighter, exploring Mechner’s work on both Karateka and his unpublished earlier games through contemporary video interviews, original design notes, correspondence, and multiple iterative prototypes. It reveals the give-and-take between Mechner and his publisher while showing how the then-college aged Mechner’s vision and mindset changed throughout development. Originally released for the Apple II in 1984, Mechner’s game was a bestseller that broke ground for cinematic technique in games, with a clear storyline, cut-scenes, an original score (written by Mechner’s father, Francis Mechner), and editing and cinematography inspired by films. It’s also an early influence on the fighting game; it consists of a series of one-on-one karate fights, similar to Karate Fight and Yie Ar Kung-Fu, which were also both released in 1984. Karateka is like a playable ‘70s kung fu flick, complete with a shocking twist ending if the player isn’t careful. This playable documentary is a brilliant piece of work, and a must-play for Karateka fans and anybody interested in game design. It might sound weird to call an almost 40 year old game one of the top 10 games of 2023, but The Making of Karateka is far more than just a reissue.

3. Street Fighter 6

All long-running games eventually have to figure out how to attract new players without disenchanting their fans. It’s even tougher with fighting games, and especially one as old, beloved, and rich in history as Street Fighter. Street Fighter 6 has figured out how to cater to its massive following while still welcoming new players, and then providing both with the innovation of a surprisingly deep RPG on top of the core fighting game. Whether you’ve been mixing it up in those streets for decades or never even reeled off a single hadouken before, Street Fighter 6 should be on your fight card. It’s the new standard in fighting game excellence, and one of the top 10 games of 2023.

2. Alan Wake II

Sam Lake reaches the apotheosis of his postmodern kick with this sequel to one of 2010’s most interesting videogames. The Remedy Entertainment head has long tried to break down the barriers between games, film, and literature in a knottier, more avant-garde fashion than the many major studios making “cinematic” games, influenced as much by Pynchon and Twin Peaks as noir or horror movies, and with Alan Wake II he’s crafted another impressive combo of commercial blockbuster and trippy experimentalism. A survival horror game that explores notions of free will, destiny, authorship, and ownership, Alan Wake II doesn’t come close to answering all of the questions it asks, but it raises them with such style, confidence, and confusion that you’ He’ll realize the answers don’t matter. It’s far from a perfect game —the investigation mechanics are inelegant, and Lake’s big narrative swings don’t always connect—but Alan Wake II does more than any other game to undermine the bullshit dichotomy between “AAA” and “indie” games. Just because a game has a budget and a large team doesn’t mean it has to be a safe, hackneyed, overly familiar genre workout.

1. El Paso, Elsewhere

And here it is: the top of my top 10 games of 2023 list. El Paso, Elsewhere does something exceedingly difficult: it’s an action-first game that still focuses heavily on its story, and pulls everything off with a consistent level of care and quality. It’s an intentionally “weird” game that doesn’t owe too much to overly referenced cultural touchstones like Twin Peaks or hoary conspiracy theories, and it’s also blatantly indebted to turn-of-the-century gaming without feeling cliched or unoriginal. (Think Max Payne or PS2-era shooters—that’s what El Paso yearns to evoke.) It invites all manner of comparisons and references, and yet defies almost all of them across its 50 chapters. It stirs a lot of echoes, yet makes a sound that’s entirely and unmistakably its own. It does the job and does it well, with the kind of cohesion you rarely see in games: an expertly calibrated suite of mechanics that interconnect flawlessly, combined with a smart, well-written story and an intricately interwoven soundtrack.

For more year-end coverage, check out Paste assistant games editor Moises Taveras’ top 10 games of 2023, as well as Paste’s best games of 2023.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and more. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.