Zack’s Ranking of All the Games He Played in 2023

Word on the street is that 2023 was quite the year for video games! Blockbuster releases like Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake 2 dominated headlines and captured the attention of millions of gamers. But not me! I was busy playing the hyper-realistic and wholly engrossing Raise a Baby, developed and published by a small indie studio called Amy (my wife). 

I would highly recommend Raise a Baby, but beware: It is hard to put down! Literally. It turns out babies like to be held, which makes holding things like a controller a bit difficult. And they’re always crying about something! “Wahh, I’m hungry.” “Wahh, I’m tired.” “Wahh, I pooped my pants.” It’s like, chill out, I’m kinda trying to defeat the Demon King here! (I’m hoping one of my daughter’s first and fondest memories is watching me beat Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.)

Despite most of my time being monopolized by a tiny, adorable human being, I was able to find some extra hours this year to chip away at the backlog and even get through a few new releases. 

Here’s my sleep-deprived ranking of every game I played in 2023, ordered from worst to best:

10. Undertale

Unlike the other games on this list, I actually didn’t finish Undertale, and I don’t think I’m going to. Recommended by a friend (sorry, Ayman), this tale was under-whelming from start to quit. 

I typically prefer games that don’t hold your hand, but Undertale not only doesn’t hold your hand—it slaps it away and laughs at you! I didn’t get it. The writing is funny at times, but more often I found it ranged from cute and corny to unhinged and bizarre. The combat consists of mini-games with no explanation, like a worse WarioWare. And though you have the option to get through each confrontation without fighting, the rules of how to accomplish that lofty goal are as clear as mud. 

I like not knowing where I’m going, but I don’t love not knowing how the world around me… works. I managed to get about halfway through the game, and I still barely know what the buttons do, what attacks I have, how to battle, or what my objective is. And for those reasons, I’m out.

9. The Wild at Heart

An indie game with a lot of… heart… The Wild at Heart tells the story of two kids running away from home and stumbling upon a magical world in the woods. The gameplay is an interesting mix of Luigi’s Mansion and Pikmin, where you suck up resources with a trusty vacuum and throw out creatures called Spritelings to solve environmental puzzles and battle enemies. The storytelling, characters, and art style are all highlights, but as David Silbert mentions in his The Wild at Heart review, the game doesn’t fully realize its potential. 

I had a good time for most of my playthrough, though I almost forgot to include this on the list when looking back at my year. I imagine that memory will only continue to fade in time.

8. Mail Time

Don’t mistake its ranking on this list for a poor overall rating: Mail Time is a joy to play. A recommendation from our very own Amanda Tien, Mail Time sounded like it could be a game for me. And it sure was. 

Bumbling around Grumblewood Grove as a fresh-faced Mail Scout, trying to earn badges and deliver letters, rocks. It’s fetch quest after fetch quest, but in the best way possible. You’re learning about secret romances, settling neighborly disputes, and cracking jokes with countless critters in a bright and colorful world that’s tons of fun to bounce around in. 

The bite-sized adventure won’t take long to complete, but it will stick with you. Check out Amanda’s Mail Time review and give the game a try!

7. Blanc

Blanc is such a delight. My wife and I love a cozy couch co-op game, and this fits that description to the nth degree. You and a partner play as a wolf cub and fawn who have been separated from their families and have to work together to navigate a beautiful, quaint, snowy, hand-drawn, black-and-white village and surrounding woods. 

There’s no dialogue and very little direction, but the heavy emotion told through brief cutscenes of these two lost animals cuts deep. By the time you’re reunited (spoiler?), you’ll have laughed, cried, and probably said “push that log, no that log, no that log” quite a few times.

6. Retro Bowl

Good sports games are hard to find on the Nintendo Switch, and for some reason, football (American) has been particularly incapable of breaking onto the console. However, this mobile game, ported to Switch in early 2022, may be the hero we need. 

Retro Bowl was recommended to me by another friend of mine (thanks, Jimmy!). He’d only played on his phone, but I figured it would be worth the $3.63 (thanks, gold points!) to get it on the big screen. Coming in at just shy of 100 hours, this is my second-most played game this year behind Tears of the Kingdom. The retro, arcade-style game has no frills like announcers or even play calling, but my goodness is it addicting. 

I’m a sucker for sports games that are more game than simulation, and by that I mean I absolutely suck at Madden, MLB: The Show, NBA 2K, etc. So, something like Retro Bowl—which includes some light team management, roster building, stat boosting, and snappy gameplay—totally scratches the itch for me without requiring me to remember the 50 different inputs it takes to throw the football fast, but not too fast and with some air under it, but not too much air under it and leading the receiver, but not leading them too much so that it’s an easy interception and… you get it.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Believe me: I also want Tears of the Kingdom to be higher on the list! But looking back at the sheer fun I had playing games this year, it slotted in comfortably at number five. 

This game may be the single greatest achievement in video games—ever. The problem is, I already played it back in 2017. No question, TotK took the foundation of Breath of the Wild and ratcheted it up another level. The addition of two more full-sized maps to explore, new abilities and building mechanics, unique boss fights, deeper characters, and just the general infusion of creativity all elevated the series that we already believed was the best of the best. But despite all that, I couldn’t shake the feeling throughout my 150 hours that I’d already done this before. I’d be having some fun, yet constantly feel the need to compare it to BotW and note the minor differences. The whole thing ultimately didn’t feel fresh enough for me to be able to lose myself in the world, which was the most incredible feeling about Link’s previous adventure. 

It’s hard to thread the needle of being a true masterpiece while also being a massive disappointment, but by golly Nintendo did it!

4. Return to Monkey Island

The Monkey Island series was new to me prior to this year. In my quest to find a game I could effectively play while holding a baby, I stumbled upon the latest adventure in this awesome point-and-click franchise. 

Having enjoyed other point-and-click games in the past, Return to Monkey Island immediately transported me back to the days of sitting in front of my computer as a child, furiously clicking every highlighted option on-screen in the hopes I could brute force my way through the puzzles. That method didn’t work then and it certainly doesn’t work now, due largely to the clever twists and turns Return throws your way. Deceptively few clickable locations force you to pay close attention to combinations of items, small clues given by NPCs, and minor details you may not have originally deemed important. 

My favorite part of the game by far, though, was the voice acting. There’s a wide array of characters, each with their own distinct personality. The cast gives the game a vibrant energy, much like playing an episode of your favorite cartoon. That joy, mixed with the satisfaction of finally piecing together how to overcome each unique obstacle, made this a real treat from start to finish.

3. Lil Gator Game

I wrote about Lil Gator Game for our best cozy video games list, and all of those thoughts still certainly hold true. I had such a blast playing through this story, a love letter to Zelda in the form of animals playing make-believe in the woods. I had a smile on my face nearly the entire time as I sifted through the niche references, quirky quests, and goofy dialogue. 

It’s a shorter adventure and not one that is likely to challenge you greatly, but the weekend I spent with Lil Gator Game ranks near the top of my list for 2023 (rest of my 52 weekend rankings coming soon!).

2. Cult of the Lamb

Cult of the Lamb is unlike anything I’ve ever played before. Taking control of a charming and cute lamb who is sacrificed in a satanic ritual and subsequently spared by an all-powerful demon to do its bidding and recruit woodland creatures to be part of your cult was admittedly a new one for me. But the more I played, the more I realized Cult of the Lamb is the absolute perfect mashup of Hades and Animal Crossing. Two of my favorites, to be sure, but not games I would have thought to combine. Silly me. 

The gameplay loop of navigating the woods to destroy enemies, bringing back materials and recruits to your cult, building up your facilities, and leveling up the cult itself is beyond addicting. Factor in the outstanding combat, the ability to marry as many of your followers as you want, and the general absurdity of watching a lamb sacrifice an elephant to his god-like master, and you’ve got a true gem. 

Cult of the Lamb probably isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to do the evil bidding of a demon, it doesn’t get much better than this!

1. Hollow Knight

This site is called The Punished Backlog, right? I may be the last person on the planet to give Hollow Knight a try, but just in case you’re even more behind the times on this masterpiece, hopefully I can be the one to convince you to take the plunge. 

I downloaded Hollow Knight in early 2022 because it was on sale (for $4.99!!) and I had heard good things. Unfortunately, I’m a big dummy and let it sit idly on my Switch for almost a full year before I finally booted it up. To say I was immediately hooked would be a massive understatement. 

If you haven’t heard my “hot take” on The Punished Podcast about open-world games ruining gaming, the gist is that I’m sick of massive maps being rendered completely pointless by countless waypoints, fast travel systems, objective icons, and compasses telling you exactly where to go. I yearn for games that just drop you in and let you explore without spoonfeeding you the whole dang time. 

Well, this is that game. The feeling of slowly exploring every dark corner of Hallownest to get a new ability to unlock new areas to explore so that you can get a new ability, and so on and so forth, was a dopamine drip I couldn’t stop going back to. This isn’t unlike other Metroidvanias, but as someone who hadn’t experienced many games in the genre, this game showed me the light. Not to mention the combat, art, music, atmosphere, story, characters, writing, etc. 

I could go on forever, but plenty of people already have. Hollow Knight was an easy number one for me this year and slid comfortably in my top five games of all time. Play it!

Games I Didn’t Complete (Yet) – In No Particular Order

Pikmin 4

My experience with the Pikmin series is a bit all over the place. As a kid, I had bought the re-release of Pikmin on the Nintendo Wii due to its massive popularity, but I didn’t really “get it” at the time. It’s such a unique game and one that’s hard to explain to a newcomer, but when I saw Pikmin 3 Deluxe came to the Switch with a couch co-op option, I scooped it up. It seemed like a great, chill game that my wife and I could dig into and explore together. 

And it was! We absolutely loved it, and I quickly joined the bandwagon of fans who had been anxiously awaiting news of Pikmin 4 for nearly a decade. Well, I grabbed Pikmin 4 on release day and quickly found out that the co-op mode in this game was right in line with some of the other tacked-on two-player experiences Nintendo has included in games like Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Galaxy in the past. You’re a reticle. Just what everyone always wants! Laaaaaaaaame. C’mon Nintendo, be better. 

I’d love to know the stats on who plays this game’s two-player mode for more than 30 seconds before deciding it isn’t worth the trouble. It’s a real shame because Pikmin felt like such a natural fit for the couch co-op “genre,” but alas. The single-player experience seems good; my wife has spent a decent amount of time riding (two-legged for some reason) pet dog Oatchi around the dense and colorful maps. But I haven’t bothered to spend much time with it, mostly on principle.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

I’ve played a decent amount of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I grabbed it on release day and dove right in, but now that I’m just about done, I’m still wonder-ing (get it?) when it’s going to get good. It’s fine; it’s a side-scrolling Mario game. I’m having fun. But I was promised a Mario game on shrooms (get it?) that aimed to disrupt the very framework of what I believed was possible within the Mario-verse. This guy has been a flying raccoon for 35 years; it’s going to take a little more than an elephant saying “wowie zowie” to get me all excited.

Death’s Door

This game is cool. It’s also hard. I’m stuck on the first boss. Send thoughts and prayers, please.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

I bought this game during a sale this summer and hoped to get through it before Super Mario RPG. I figured it would get me in the spirit, given that it is a near-exact clone of Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (two of my all-time faves). I like it, and if you like those games, you’ll like it too. But yeah, the whole baby thing again. Tough to do anything on time these days. Now this and Super Mario RPG are sitting there waiting for me, but I’ll get back to them eventually!

Baldo: The Guardian Owls

Baldo has a bit of an interesting story behind its development and release. First announced in 2019, this 3D action-adventure game looked like a fantastic mix of Zelda gameplay and Studio Ghibli animation, which the developers essentially explained was their vision and inspiration all along. That combination led to high expectations for the two-person team, but after a series of delays due to COVID, the game’s release in 2021 was criminally underwhelming. Riddled with bugs, baffling design issues, and just an overall lack of polish, the game was panned and seemed to be destined for a life of obscurity. 

It still might be; I haven’t heard a lot of people talking about it. But! Given the interest I originally had in the title, I followed up on it this past year and was thrilled to find out that the studio heard the feedback and took it to heart. The team revamped the game from the ground up, and new reviews explained that the result was a high-quality experience that delivered on much of the original promise it once had. 

All that to say, I’ve enjoyed my time with Baldo, but I did set it down for a bit and haven’t made my way back. It still has a few rough edges, but overall I would recommend it and plan to finish it……. eventuallllyyyyy!