Wordle
Platforms: Android, iOS, web
Hands down, this is the game of the year, trouncing million-dollar titles. Created in 2021, the game became a delight for all this year. It started as a free once-a-day word game from developer Josh Wardle, who coded it for his better half. The game took his friends circle by storm and then the world followed to the point that The New York Times acquired the property while other developers continue to come up with spin-offs. And there is also an offline version of the game. In case you still haven’t tried it, it’s a daily vocabulary game in which users are given six guesses to figure out the word of the day. All players around the world get the same word and can play only once per day. The game even became slightly political with The Times removing the words “slave” and “lynch” from the pool of potential words while in May, it barred the word “fetus”, probably in response to the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
Elden Ring
Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and story and world-building from George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring is this year’s best-designed video game with a hostile fantasy world where battles have left their scars. Yet, it’s not a traditional game packed with cinematics. The characters you meet, and are willing to talk, will offer clues about your purpose in that open world where you will often find yourself in battle you’re not ready for. Miyazaki has given this world minute details, making it a delight in every possible way.
God of War: Ragnarok
Platform: PlayStation
Set three years after the previous edition, Ragnarok finds Kratos and his son Atreus looking for peace in Midgard but things are shattered by the Aesir. This time the focus is not on Kratos but his emotional growth is integral to the plot while 2018’s God of War was about the father and son trying to connect in the absence of Atreus’s mother. Here he tries to be a good dad and while the world crumbles around him, Kratos counsels his allies and prepares to put in his all for his son’s future. Atreus is a typical good-hearted teenager whose actions are not always right.
Wylde Flowers
Platform: Apple Arcade
A young girl named Tara arrives in sleepy Fairhaven Town with the simple objective of taking care of her grandmother (and perhaps to get away from her broken-off engagement). She has to get down to business at once, which involves growing crops, fixing things around the house, getting to know the townsfolk and take care of magical elements in the magic forest. The sheer scale (and objectives) makes this unlike Farmville or any of the farm-related games you may have played.
Trombone Champ
Platform: PC
The rhythm-based video game is similar to Guitar Hero but it trades in the guitar for trombone. Developed by Holy Wow Studios, an avatar plays the trombone while the player moves the mouse up and down to sync with pitches on the screen. The mouse movements are inverted, adding another level of difficulty. It’s a straightforward game but you have to slide the mouse up and down very quickly to adjust the pitch while holding down a button for the right length of time to play along with music. There are cartoonish characters playing along on trombones as well as a few jokes about the word “toot” and facts about trombones throughout history.
Sifu
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
It’s a no-nonsense game that will remind you of Jackie Chan films. The game impresses with the use of its martial arts combat system and making the game special is the fact that each time the player dies, the character ages, allowing you to showcase complicated techniques but your overall health takes a toll. Success depends on a player’s reaction to incoming attacks.
Immortality
Platforms: PC; Xbox
Immortality is game designer Sam Barlow’s most ambitious work to date. He makes the player sift and sort the story to complete a narrative jigsaw puzzle. In the game, the player goes through live-action footage drawn from three unreleased movies, each starring the fictional Marissa Marcel. You browse unsorted clips via an interface. Clicking on any actor or prop will make the camera transport you to a related image from another clip. Barlow cites as influence David Lynch’s Inland Empire and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure.
Gran Turismo 7
Platform: PlayStation
The popular racing game received a great refresh in the graphics department. Playing in entry-level mode, the game helps drivers by automatically braking and accelerating, which is helpful around turns. Once you have adjusted, you are ready to take on the world map with 14 venues. Each is unlocked gradually. Multiplayer races are unlocked once you complete your 10th challenge “menu”.
Stray
Platforms: PlayStation, Windows
In the game from BlueTwelve Studio we plunge into a post-apocalyptic setting where humans have disappeared but cats have proved hardy. It’s a world of concrete imagination as you slip through a crevice, landing in a laboratory that’s home to a flying drone called B12 that quickly becomes your — that is, the cat’s — companion. In the neon-soaked city, B12 becomes a translator for all the other sentient robots that are present. The idea is to escape the city of robots after a lot of exploration and solving light puzzles. But slipping into a cat’s body comes with its challenges. The protagonist can jump higher than a human, fit in strange places and can be awfully creative, especially when it comes to reaching rooftops.
The Last of Us Part 1
Platform: PlayStation 5
The idea for the remake came to Naughty Dog when animating flashbacks for Part II. It’s a story you already know — Joel, a smuggler, escorts a teenage girl, Ellie, across ruins, trying to to stay alive against Cordyceps mutated humans and warring factions. It’s a gorgeous rebuild from scratch for current generation console — water reflections are detailed and the main characters appear lifelike. As with most PS5 games, you can also choose between two modes, one of which prioritises a smooth frame rate while the other focuses on visual clarity.
Neon White
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation
The game is about a deceased assassin with amnesia, White, who takes on other assassins to kill demons and get out of hell. The heart of the game has to do with the relationship the player has with individual levels. When the game begins, it’s about killing every demon to reach the finish line. But then things become more creative.
MultiVersus
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, Xbox
The Warner Bros. IP-populated game is a simple one. Perform special moves by using a dedicated button while to win a match, zonk your opponent until they’re weak enough to be knocked off the map. The characters are grouped into classes, and each has abilities “designed to work in conjunction with a partner”.
PGA Tour 2K23
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox and Microsoft Windows
Anybody who likes to play golf and that too with Tiger Woods, this remains the best game. The shot mechanisms and ball physics make this game a classic. And in the equipment section there is hockey stick that’s offered as a putter… a hat tip to Happy Gilmore.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC
Lego Star Wars in 2005 to Lego Marvel Super Heroes, it has been a great journey. On the new title, players go on a journey through all the movies with The Skywalker Saga treating each episode as a mini-adventure that follows the narrative of the film and extra sequences are added to heighten the fun quotient. There are several characters throughout the Galaxy and you’re tasked with completing many missions.