It's a thread! (Games discussion, etc.)

[Moge]

My very late GOTY 2023 list. Sorry, meant to post this way, way earlier

10. Metal Max 3 (DS) -- B

9. Blaster Master Zero (PC) -- B
8. King's Field with mouse control hack (PS1) -- B

7. Gimmick! (NES) -- C
6. Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64) -- B

5. Private eye dol  (PC-Engine Super CD-ROM²) -- A
4. Jet Set Radio Future (X-Box) -- A

3. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) -- A
A pure delight to play from start to finish. Every level having some sort of new gimmick meant I never grew bored. Now, the problem with this is that it scales the game to not be difficult at all, with each level serving as a mini tutorial. Personally, I didn't have a problem with this design and was fine with it being a game i can blast through (final bonus level notwithstanding; it's brutal, although it felt great once i conquered it). That aside, the graphics and animation deserve special mention. I'm happy to see the polygonal Mario universe evolve to be more expressive with its visuals.

2. Street Fighter 6 (PC) -- A
Fighting games usually feel like a beta for at least the first or second year, but SF6 feels like a complete package from top to bottom, and more importantly, has been relatively controversy free when it comes to its game mechanics, the character balance, and the network code. You can't really say that for just for any other new fighter in 2023 and 2024. Capcom has reclaimed its crown as the king of the fighting genre.

1. Wild Guns with mouse control hack (SNES) -- A
A controversial pick for my first choice 'cause it's a game i already played in previous years, but a recent rom hack to add in mouse control completely transformed how i enjoyed the game. No longer being restricted to a dpad for aiming feels incredibly liberating. Despite the huge control upgrade, the game is still very difficult, so it strangely all balances out.


Honorable Mentions:

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge -- F
Kaizou Choujin Schbibinman Zero -- D
Armored Core -- D
The Amazing Spider-Man: Lethal Foes -- D

Michigan: Report from Hell -- C
Jumping Flash! -- C
Kick Master -- C

Gaiapolis -- B
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 27: Panzer Dragoon -- B
Treasure Conflix -- B
Streets of Rage Remake -- B

Anticipated Games:
Shadow of the Ninja - Reborn
Stray Children
Victory Heat Rally
Dragon Quest III remake
Perfect Dark

Biggest Worry:
Game industry layoffs

Favorite New Gadget:
Logitech Lift Vertical Mouse

Best Anime:
Onimai - Onii-chan wa Oshimai!

[JG]

Was Tears of the Kingdom not played in 2023?

[Moge]

Decided to pass on Tears due to being so close to SF6's release. Still plan to play it, perhaps when it's enhanced on Switch 2.

Forgot to mention that the games on my list that have a mouse hack, i was able to play with gyro controls. That's the secret sauce that makes me come back to them again and again.

[JG]

I have to agree with you on the SF6 bit as well. I don't really follow fighting games, but typically, a month or two after release, there's a bajillion posts online about tiers, or which character is busted, or how the recent patch nerfed some overpowered character so they aren't fun anymore, and what not. I didn't see any of this for SF6 so the character roster appears to be very well balanced.

[JG]

Microsoft and SquareEnix are taking opposite directions to arrive at the same non-relevance goal.

A short time back, SquareEnix sold off all their western studios, in part to pay for debt incurred by major flops in Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Balan Wonderworld. This has robbed SquareEnix of any insight into western player's likes and dislikes, and as a result their games have generally gotten worse. They are now so Japan-centric they are making bad management decisions based on a Japan-only sales plan, instead of the actuality of a worldwide sales plan. Dragon Quest X Offline being the prime example: a game designed with intent to sell outside of Japan to complement the Online version only available in Japan but yet hasn't left Japan because they don't want to localize it, even though they'd supposedly had it in the original development budget. As a mainline DQ game, its sales are expected to greatly exceed the localization and distribution costs, so no one really knows what the holdup is, except SquareEnix's own admission that it didn't sell as well in Japan as hoped (and expected by everyone else) and hesitant to pull the trigger on the action that would make them money, on the fear of losing more money because they no longer understand (or listen to) their fans in the west.

Microsoft just shuttered a number of their smaller studios, including their lone Japanese studio, TangoGames. So Microsoft Gaming division now has no presence in Japan. They've always had trouble selling Xboxes there, in part because their games are typically for western audiences and don't always get localized to Japanese, but to pull out entirely seems unwise in the wake of SquareEnix's similar troubles in the reverse direction. Microsoft, if they have any intention of continuing to compete in the hardware space, absolutely has to get their Japan sales problem solved. They can't be running at just 1-2% of market share and expect to get the Japanese third party studios to continue to buy-in to making Xbox ports (and recent trends are showing that they indeed aren't.) This worked in the prior two generations because they had a healthy 30-40% of the worldwide market, but now they're dragging at about 10% and I don't think many studios (Japanese or western) think its a worthwhile investment anymore. The real kicker is that one of the highest rated exclusive games for Xbox in the last year and change, Hi-Fi Rush, came from TangoGames, and it was widely assumed it would be one of the previous-Xbox exclusives coming to Switch this year (having just ported to PS5 in March) and was, until this announcement, a favorite to appear in the upcoming June Nintendo Direct. Why Microsoft would close a studio immediately after it's made a hit game that can potentially port to the most popular console is absolutely bizarre thinking.

It seems SquareEnix doesn't want to care about anything but Japan, and Microsoft Gaming doesn't want to care about anything but the west, to the detriment of fans and shareholders. Maybe, just maybe, if SquareEnix continues to flounder and finally goes into bankruptcy, Microsoft can buy them and together they can figure out a solution to each other's woes. (I personally don't want to see Microsoft buy SquareEnix, but can't deny they would make curious bedfellows.)