Some people have their own preferred genre, a type of game they like best. Today’s awards are for those people, who want the best games of their kind to grace that genre this year.
Note: You can listen to a podcast where Jenn and I discuss these awards! Check it out here!
- Best Platformer
- Best Arcade / Party Game
- Best Action Game
- Best Metroidvania
- Best Roguelike
- Best Action-RPG
- Best RPG
- Best Strategy Game
- Best Simulation
- Best Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel
- Best Puzzle Game
- Best Card Game
- Best Driving/Racing Game
- Best Sports Game
- Best Music-Rhythm Game
- Best Misc. Game
- Additional Commentary!
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Best Platformer
New Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Mario’s first completely new 2D game in over a decade (if we don’t count Super Mario Run and the Super Mario Maker games) still borrows a lot from the New Super Mario Bros. games, but shakes things up with new “Wonder” effects that instill the game with much-needed variety. I disagree with critics who claim this game is on par with Mario’s 8-bit and 16-bit adventures, but this is nevertheless a fantastic Platformer, and without question the best one I played in 2023.
Runners-Up:
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
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Best Arcade / Party Game
WarioWare: Move It! – After trying something a bit different in WarioWare: Get It Together!, the franchise returns to its usual formula, and specifically back to the formula of one of the greatest games in the series, WarioWare: Smooth Moves on the Wii. This game succeeds at being a worthy successor to that one, and an absolutely wonderful multiplayer game too.
Runners-Up:
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Best Action Game
Sanabi – It’s hard to top Sanabi’s feeling of skillfully swinging around the environment and then suddenly flinging yourself straight to one enemy after another, quickly and effortlessly eliminating them. Just the way you move and fight in this game is a thrill, and that’s exactly the sort of thing I look for in a truly great Action game.
Runners-Up:
Squad 51 Vs. The Flying Saucers
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Best Metroidvania
Blasphemous 2 – I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Blasphemous, but I simply could not ignore the high level of quality in this sequel, which improves on nearly everything its predecessor did. It’s still difficult enough that not everyone will appreciate it, and the gruesome imagery and religious undertones may leave a bad taste in some players’ mouths. However, whether or not this game appeals to you, it’s clear that this is a truly great Metroidvania, and absolutely deserving of this award.
Runners-Up:
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Best Roguelike
Backpack Hero – Backpack Hero gets really good mileage out of the fact that it’s a Roguelike, because each run through the dungeon is a chance to try a completely different configuration of equipment, something the game encourages through its quest requirements. And playing these diverse backpack builds lends some really fun variety to the game, and pushes players to leave their comfort zone and try new things. Plus, the loot you bring back then folds into the game’s Management Simulation elements. This is the kind of game that absolutely makes Roguelikes shine, exemplifying what makes the genre work so well.
Runners-Up:
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Best Action-RPG
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – After The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gave us one of the most incredible, epic quests of all-time, Tears of the Kingdom somehow managed to do this all over again. Do I even need to say more? All of the other games in this category were great, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was by far the most epic quest we adventured through in 2023, and more than that – it was one of the greatest of all time.
Runners-Up:
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Best RPG
Sea of Stars – Pairing old-school sensibilities with modern elements makes Sea of Stars a loving tribute to the great RPGs of the past while being a truly excellent RPG in its own right. Few RPGs in 2023 demanded attention the way Sea of Stars did, and it absolutely deserves that attention.
Runners-Up:
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless
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Best Strategy Game
Pikmin 4 – Pikmin 4 was almost the perfect Pikmin game, only stumbling in its lack of true campaign co-op. But in every other way, this game was both the epitome of this series’ formula, and a great way to introduce newcomers to the series. The new elements here like Oatchi and the Dandori Challenges are wonderful and fit right in with the returning elements, and exploring the beautiful world within the game is as delightful as ever. These combine with some great unit management that makes this a clear choice for best Strategy game in 2023.
Runners-Up:
Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless
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Best Simulation
Fae Farm – Fae Farm doesn’t revolutionize the “Farming RPG” style of Management Simulation game that we’ve seen countless times before now. However, I would argue that it polishes the genre in virtually every way, giving us something that represents the best this genre has to offer. Multiple games this year aimed to capture the “cozy game” niche that has become increasingly popular over the years, but few succeeded as brilliantly as Fae Farm.
Runners-Up:
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Best Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – In a genre that values stories, no other game had me so absolutely hooked with its amazing story with big ideas and down-to earth characters and emotions. But what puts this game above and beyond is the way that players use the game’s central mechanic of divination card reading to influence the story in ways that make the player feel like they are truly guiding the tale down their own unique path through their choices. When it comes to Graphic Adventure and Visual Novel games, a well-told story you feel like you’re playing an active part in is pretty much the ideal every game in this genre should be aiming for.
Runners-Up:
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly
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Best Puzzle Game
Cocoon – Cocoon’s amazing presentation and imaginative alien world are outstanding, but just as incredible are the way its extradimensional orbs factor into the game’s puzzle-solving. The reality-warping nature of this game’s puzzles actually made me audibly gasp at one point, and that’s the kind of thoughtfulness and creativity one truly looks for in the best games of this genre.
Runners-Up:
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Best Card Game
Wildfrost – Plenty of games have tried to topple Slay the Spire’s reign as the king of Roguelike deckbuilding Card games, and none have yet succeeded, but Wildfrost comes darn close, with its compelling mechanics and evocative setting. It also really does a great job hitting that “just one more run” feeling you really look for in this sort of game. Absolutely a great game for anyone who enjoys building up the ultimate deck to take on the opposition.
Runners-Up:
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Best Driving/Racing Game
Horizon Chase 2 – Horizon Chase 2 doesn’t do anything especially unusual or ambitious, it’s just a very good Arcade-style Racing Game. However, the polish and the quality gameplay shine through here, and even if this isn’t as flashy as some other Racing Games, it’s still overall the game I felt was the best game this year for anyone who enjoys putting the pedal to the metal.
Runners-Up:
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Best Sports Game
MLB The Show 23 – For the second year in a row, the MLB The Show franchise demonstrates that it’s a force to be reckoned with on Nintendo Switch. Not satisfied with merely updating the roster and rehashing the same game with a new year on the title, MLB The Show 23 swung for the fences and tried something genuinely ambitious this year – a Negro League mode aiming to explore an important moment in history for the sport. While I wish this game went even deeper into this exploration, it was nevertheless an exciting and welcome tour through history that videogame renditions of the sport often gloss over, and I absolutely appreciated what it brought to the table to bring something extra special to this year’s release in the series.
Runners-Up:
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Best Music-Rhythm Game
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line – While I had some concerns about this series’ transition to a platform without a touchscreen, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line actually plays exceptionally well using a gamepad, with some delightful gameplay that has players trying to multitask different actions with each hand. However, what truly puts this game over-the-top in its genre is the absolutely massive selection of legendary Square Enix songs, some of the best videogame music of all time. With such an absolute wealth of sublime music to play through and such a fun way to play it, this game should be considered an absolute must for anyone who calls themselves a Music-Rhythm fan.
Runners-Up:
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Best Misc. Game
Alekon – It is quite a feat to make a game on par with, or possibly better than, a similar game produced by Nintendo, but that is exactly what has happened here, with Alekon being an absolutely incredible game that can go toe to toe with the Pokemon Snap series and even bring some unique elements to the table to set it apart in its own right. If a photography adventure in a fantastical land with quirky creatures sounds at all interesting to you, this is definitely a game you should play.
Runners-Up:
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Additional Commentary!
Just going to comment on the categories I feel like I have more to add.
Best Platformer
“Doesn’t Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe being a remake break your no old games rule?”, you may ask. And to that I say that there’s absolutely enough new content here to justify its inclusion, particularly the wonderful Magolor Epilogue, which is basically a whole new game unto itself.
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Best Arcade / Party Game
While I do technically consider Vampire Survivors an Arcade-style game, it is also clearly an Action game and a Roguelike, and I had to draw the line somewhere, and I felt like Action and Roguelike were more appropriate categories to put it in here.
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Best Metroidvania
Yeah, honestly this one wasn’t even close. I enjoyed 9 Years of Shadows, and I… recognize that some other people enjoyed Vernal Edge… but even if you love those games, you have to admit that as Metroidvania games, they both pale in comparison to Blasphemous 2.
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Best Roguelike
I know there are probably Vampire Survivor lovers who are fuming at my choice here, but there’s no doubt in my mind – while Vampire Survivors is a great Roguelike, Backpack Hero is great in part because it’s a Roguelike.
However, as I mentioned yesterday, Backpack Hero’s recent patch and stability issues were not taken into consideration when writing this. I’m really hoping it gets an additional patch that rids this game of its terrible stability issues on Nintendo Switch, because the game itself is brilliant.
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Best Action-RPG
It’s hard not to feel sorry for the runners-up in this category in 2023. How the heck to you even compete against a game like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Trust me, being a runner-up to a game like that is still very high praise.
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Best RPG
Okay, two things to address here.
First, why didn’t Octopath Traveler II win this award when I gave it a better grade? Well, as I mentioned earlier in the week, I’m hesitant to give an award to a game that’s just “more of the same” of its predecessor. Octopath Traveler II does indeed try a few new things, but pretty much everything about it that’s great is something that was great about the first Octopath Traveler.
Second, plenty of games were disqualified here due to an earlier release. This includes Star Ocean: The Second Story R, Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, and although I haven’t played them, it would undoubtedly also include the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters and Super Mario RPG. Even though some of these were great remakes, they weren’t extensive enough remakes to consider them an entirely new game. These awards are for new games to shine, not to constantly give awards to old classics re-released on a modern platform.
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Best Strategy Game
You know what I said above for Octopath Traveler II? Apply that to Wargroove 2 here. And including Wargroove in this category even though it was a remake was a judgment call – I feel like enough has changed that it’s probably justified.
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Best Puzzle Game
If it wasn’t disqualified due to being too old, Tents and Trees would have been a contender for this award, and may very well have won it. Patrick’s Parabox was a strong contender too.
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Best Card Game
Sometimes, a genre simply doesn’t get enough good choices to justify a category in the awards, and this year this category came very close. Fights in Tight Spaces isn’t bad, but I feel like the Card Game elements do the game just as much harm as good, and while I love The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, I feel like the actual card part of the game is one of the game’s weakest elements. However, Wildfrost is indeed a truly great Card game that deserves recognition as such, so I felt like I could justify making a bit of a stretch to give it the recognition it deserves.
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Best Racing Game
This is another category that had a pretty poor year on Nintendo Switch (though sadly I wasn’t able to play that Hot Wheels game to see if it deserved inclusion here). In the end, the choice here was a bit difficult – do I go with Horizon Chase 2, which is a solid Racing Game, but not at all memorable? Or do I go with F-Zero 99, which tried to do something truly unique and memorable, but which I also felt was often just as frustrating as it was fun? In the end, I just went with the game I enjoyed the most.
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That’s all for today! to keep up with all of the eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page, which I’ll be updating throughout the week!
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