I had a hard time coming up with what movies to pick this year, so I decided to go for videogames instead and post my favorite movies later on
Picking my favorite games is a lot easier than movies. So yeah. Gaming for me changed quite a lot this year, since I got my Nintendo Switch, and it made me change a lot of my gaming habits, opening the door a whole new world of games that I thought I would not try, at least for another 2 or 3 years. But here we are, and here’s my list!
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild
I don’t need to say much about this game, it really made me realize how incredible gaming can be, and how far we’ve gotten. I can’t really play many 3D games without feeling like something is missing now. I can live with it though, but its not the same. Yes there are games that improve on certain areas and that have taken inspiration from this masterpiece, but few things are as complete as it is. To be fair its not like I’ve played many modern titles at all. I only have so much free time and my laptop is not that powerful anyway to run them.
Regardless, this game is great and even though I have not progressed that much despite having more than 50 hours of gameplay already. The music, the gameplay, the world map, everything is so polished and well designed, I am always wondering what will I find next, since I’ve tried to avoid guides as much as possible. I still have a lot of juice to squeeze out of it before I start with Tears of The Kingdom!
Metroid Dread
Metroid is one of my favorite series, having played through Samus Returns, Fusion and Zero Mission, as well as done a few hours of AM2R and Super Metroid. Dread manages to come out on top thanks to its incredibly well done gameplay mechanics and the amount of polish that was put into every little detail of it. Samus feels incredible to control and the boss fights were absolutely awesome, very hard yet fair. Every single one of my movements felt totally in my control, so much so that this is the first game I 100% complete! Since everything felt approachable to me, as long as I had the will to try. Not to mention the abilities that help you discover secrets and new paths.
The story was also quite good and the progression was great, I didn’t feel like there was a lot of backtracking and even if there was, the fluidity made it all a breeze and there were teleporters to fast travel too. Maybe the only thing that was weaker than the rest of the franchise was the music, it was very much ambience and atmosphere, but it did not stand out as much as the themes in previous titles. Whatever the case, I just loved this game, so good.
Monster Hunter Rise
I mean, this is Monster Hunter, what else can I do? The game feels incredible and while I always thought the flashiness would throw me off, it ends up fading in the background and I get into the zone like few games can do to me. Hunting and grinding away is just great, not gonna lie. I actually have not progressed that much in the story and my rank is quite low, but I have had a lot of fun playing with friends and going for hunts together thanks to its local and online multiplayer options.
Its just Monster Hunter, I don’t know what else to say, its fun.
Citizen Sleeper
This was a game that I discovered thanks to Into The Aether, and I actually wrote a review of it too where you can see more of my thoughts on it. This game is short and quite thought provoking, there are many things you can do on it and many things you will miss on your first playthrough, I hope to replay it at some point before the sequel comes out (or once it does!).
Final Thoughts
I kind of wanted to mention that I completed quite a few older games this year too, that were absolutely great! Such as Ys Seven and Jeanne D’Arc, but they were not the highlight in 2023 for me. They were quite the journey though, so I wanted to still mention them.
I wrote a little more about some of the games mentioned here in a previous blogpost in case you wanted to read more of my thoughts on gaming.
I don’t know what else to say, sorry for finishing this list so late! Here are some more runner ups!
These past few months, the amount of posts in this website reviewing books or videogames and things has risen quite a bit, so I just wrote a bit about that.
