It’s fair to say 2023 was a killer year for enjoyers of digital entertainment. Several notable AAA releases dressed to impress, captivating mainstream audiences for untold hours. But the indie scene was no less impressive this year, releasing some of the best games our writers have played in ages. With high bars come hard choices; several excellent games were nominated and in a year this strong they’re just as worthy of commendation. Without further ado, here are our favorites!

Programming note: games we played in 2023 made it into our consideration for these awards, but some may have come out earlier.

Kyle – Last Train Outta Wormtown – Normally we shy away from Early Access games being considered for awards since there’s still time for the current build to change, but honestly we’ve had so much fun with each version that this game could 1.0 as-is and our minds wouldn’t change. It’s been a pretty lively year for asymmetric multiplayer games but the combination of wacky and hilariously terrifying gameplay with a super-powered human-controlled worm hunting down Wild West Escapees is too much fun to not give these pardners their just desserts.

Demetri – Deceive Inc. – It can be difficult to recommend a game that takes at least 10 hours to get good. Doubly so when you’re over 70 and still learning. Deceive Inc is that game, one that’s constantly and intensely testing your skills and will break you the moment you slip. This would prove frustrating if it wasn’t so damn good. Moreso than any other stealthy-shoot-bang I’ve played, extracting with your ill-gotten briefcase really does feel like you’ve successfully pulled a heist for the ages. It may not be for everyone, but if it’s for you it is for you.

Kyle – Metal: Hellsinger – It feels pedestrian awarding Best Soundtrack to a game that literally runs its gameplay off of said soundtrack, but if you’re a metalhead like myself you can’t help but appreciate and absolutely ingest the set list provided by The Outsiders. With appearances from Arch Enemy, Jinjer, Black Crown Initiate, Lamb of God, Refused, System of a Down, and Trivium just to rattle a few off: it’s an absolutely stacked lineup that carries the gameplay with thumping drums and heavy riffs that turn the volume way up on slaying demons and are worth listening to over and over again, inside or outside of the game.

Demetri – Pizza Tower – In a game whose every facet is perfect, Pizza Tower’s soundtrack may be its most enduring quality. It’s impossible to overstate how much personality each stage’s unique tunes bring, nor how successful the recurring jams are at ratcheting up the tension when pushing for P ranks. I’ve been listening to it all year and I don’t intend to stop come January.

Demetri – The Case of the Golden Idol – The Case of the Golden Idol isn’t interested in telling you its story. Instead it has you discover it, dissect it, disassemble it, so you can disentangle its chaotic crime scenes like some sort of omniscient time-traveling detective. What you’ll put back together is one of the most unhinged mystery plots I’ve seen in years, and I refuse to elaborate further as a result.

Kyle – The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – To put together the herculean task that Cosmic Wheel had set forward: branching choices based on created tarot-esque cards with elemental fragmenting and player edited art that will change what choices are provided alongside the random chance of pulling whatever cards in your deck, and hitting the mark on all ends is such an astounding achievement that it’s awe-inspiring that everything comes together as neatly and captivatingly as Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood does during every playthrough. Masterful work that’ll be hard to top for years to come.

Demetri – Robocop: Rogue City – It is frankly unreal that we got a licensed RoboCop game in 2023 that slaps this hard. Every bit of the combat sells the fantasy of bringing a bipedal tank to a knife fight, and while the plot won’t blow your mind, the strong dialogue and performances will keep you invested for reasons other than an insatiable craving for creep blood. It’s everything a game with this license should be.

Kyle – Deceive Inc. – This win for Deceive Inc. is less a surprise of how well done the PvP secret-spy CTF-laden gameplay is presented to its players, and more so how much I enjoyed playing it over and over throughout the year! This game is super not my style, but the smooth gunplay and many moments of outsmarting opponents brings so much more to finishing a firefight alive than just outgunning your enemies. Being able to set traps and out-brain your opposition makes this an adrenaline stimpack that’s hard to duplicate.

Kyle – The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo – Let’s be real: Mr. Coo is one of the prettiest games to come out this year, and maybe a few more behind it.  But the ongoing allegations and tribulations behind Mr. Coo’s creator and the developers that were hired to help bring the game to consoles and PC from its initial Flash-made home is a rumbling detriment to the final build of the product: unfinished and unpolished.

Demetri – Bomb Rush Cyberfunk – How did Team Reptile fumble the bag this hard? Sure they got the look and most of the sound down, but BRC plays far more poorly than it has any excuse to. Even when graded on a Jet Set Radio nostalgia curve this doesn’t hold up, especially when compared to JSRF. We were all rooting for you! Now Sega’s going to resurrect it and probably do just as poorly but for different reasons!

Demetri – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Slaughterhouse – Until this year I did not believe board games could capture terror. Tension sure, horror in rare cases, but never terror, not even in the most indie productions. If you’d told me a licensed game published by Funko would be the first to pull it off I’d have called you a liar, but TCM:S is a masterclass in Ameritrash dice-chucking game design, facilitating incredible tales of bravery, brutality, and butchery in less than the runtime of the film. This box has set a new bar and I eagerly await the next game to reach it.

Kyle – Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – While the initial 28 episode season is still currently airing, we can rank this anime on a “standard” 12-14 episode season and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End has shown a captivating world traveled years at a time followed by our elven main character whose years feel like small passing moments.  A lovable cast, a sprawling world, a tempered pace, and beautiful animation put Frieren worlds above its fantasy-genre neighbors and continues to do so week in and week out.

Kyle – The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood – For a medium of entertainment as unfathomably large as the Video Game industry, it’s harder and harder these days to find games as complete as what Deconstructeam has provided.  A masterclass in writing, pace, emotion, and imagination puts The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood not only as a Game of the Year, but a strong contender for Game of the Decade as the 2020s roll on.

Demetri – Pizza Tower – Most games don’t live up to their hype. It is incredibly rare to see a project not only deliver on its promises after years of development, much less exceed them, but most games aren’t Pizza Tower. This is the game everyone wanted and then some. It’s the best Wario game in years, better than any Sonic title, and beats so many other platformers clean that it’s still king in a year where Nintendo finally saw fit to drop a new goddamn 2D Mario. Perfect video game, 10/10, play this one.

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That’s another year wrapped up here! Thank you again to all the teams making bangers year after year and the very generous readers taking time to check out our website. We’ve had over 18,000 unique visitors find their way here and our site broke 24,000 views without having to sell our soul to advertisers. For a little site that’s been going on strong for four years, seeing this incredible progress will mean more than most will ever know. Thank you for reading.

Here’s to a safe, enjoyable, and well-played 2024!