[Editor’s Note: Authors were told to approach their game of the year lists however they wanted, including listing their favorite games they personally played this year regardless of release year.]
In no particular order or ranking.
1. Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
I was drawn back the carjacks, heists, and other nefarious hijinks following the recent announcement of its successor, GTA VI. Returning to San Andreas, I found the game still boasted blockbuster production values now a decade after its initial release. And the game is still as ridiculous a decade later too; heists involving submarines, hidden missions involving high speed paparazzi pursuits, and the entire cartoon setting of the City of Angels that is Los Santos. If nothing else, this game provided a grand escape from the, at times, stagnant academic world of grad school by being able to play virtual cops & robbers on a grand scale with mostly absolute freedom. In 2023, Grand Theft Auto V proved that there’s still fun to be had in Rockstar’s grand adult sandbox.
2. Stray (2022)
A year after its release, I finally caught up with the one cute cat game that showed complexity in its environmental storytelling. BlueTwelve Studios use the feline at center its story of its story to traverse Walled City 99 with a perspective that could not be achieved with a human protagonist, with hope and warmth. This game worked like elevated cat therapy for me through my first year or so of grad school. Even when those you talk to are metal androids, those robots feel comfort and safety when telling of their lives in a post-apocalyptic underground city when their audience is a cat. Still, there is plenty of mystery to uncover, zurks to outrun, and intrigue to uncover when exploring the world of Stray.
3. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (2003)
Growing up, I put countless hours into the Heavy Iron Studios follow up to, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie, but it was only in 2023 that I finally got around to playing the game that played the foundation what was a surprising fun movie-tie-in-game platformer. Between papers and discussions of complex media theory, it felt good connect with my inner child by returning to the undersea world of SpongeBob. As a lifelong SpongeBob fan, it’s extremely satisfying exploring Bikini Bottom as the setting for a solid collectathon. Solid level design combined with a goofy narrative involving evil villain, Plankton, releasing an invasion of robots with the Duplicatron 3000 onto the under the sea community, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a funny, addicting, and bubble-blowing delight.
4. Night In The Woods (2017)
Nothing quite captures the feeling of the living in the Midwestern Rustbelt like the setting of Possum Springs. After having moved Carbondale, IL which has its own similar punk community underneath the surfaces of its geography, I found a lot to relate to with the cast of anthropomorphic characters in this delightful side scrolling adventure mystery. I could relate to Mae as a new grad student in terms of just trying to make sense of my place in the world, laugh at Bea’s combination of puns as well as rowdiness as a young adult queer outsider (“Be gay, do crimes!”, to quote Bea), and find various joyful connections with many other residents of Possum Springs in Night in the Woods.
5. Firewatch (2016)
For a game in which isolation could become a character unto itself, a mainly two-person cast of characters end up providing a twisting mystery in a place where one wouldn’t expect in the wilds of a National Park in 1980s Wyoming. As a first-year grad student, it was the isolation aspect from this game that drew me back in, as I had just moved to a new city and had initially felt isolated myself by my geography of moving from suburban metro area to a rural college town. Through the walkie-talkie conversations between our playable protagonist of Henry and the unseen companion of Delilah, the player uncovers a mystery the wraps up these to fire lookouts yet also uncovers personal details of two geographical isolated human beings with their own backstories and relationships. Exploring the wilds of Shoeshone National Park, finding unexpected secrets, and discovering companionship in isolation make Firewatch a memorable experience.
