My Racing Game of the Year

AND THE RACING GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

GRAN TURISMO 2?!?

What do you mean that "ArcadeStriker" is calling a simcade game his racing game of the year?

The fact that I completed the game from start to end (World Championship), that's why I have to commend it with this prize.

With how tough it can be for a game to keep my attention for incredibly long times if it is a single player game (I still have to go back and keep playing Castlevania SOTN...or Hollow Knight...or-), the fact that this game, which I had already tried years ago and didn't gel with me and then had tried again in January ended up clicking with me in the gameplay and getting used to proper braking technique instead of drifting everywhere and then stick with it for two to three whole months until I completed the World League with the hard-to-control but really fast Tuscan Speed 12 when I could also have easily sold the prize cars I had got to cheese it with the Suzuki Pikes Peak...that's how I can tell you that it had quite something special to even catch my fly attention span and grip it with Dragula playing on the background ("Oh snap its that song I heard in Jet Set Radio").

I even remember saving so many replays from the game that I ended up doing a montage to one of Top Gear Overdrive's songs, another racing game that I loved as a kid since I owned it on the N64 but didn't replay recently.

2nd Place: ArcRacer

I played the demo and then the perfect storm of somehow having enough on my Steam wallet and the game being on sale led to me actually getting this game, and while I only really played it for like 3 or 4 days and still got to go back to it, that burst of adrenaline from playing it for quite a while and doing some progress in the campaign, as well as this being a game RELEASED IN 2023, is what warranted this to get a bigger mention than just an honorable mention.

The gameplay is quite the unique mix between Wipeout, F-Zero and its own ideas, while having a set of accessibility and difficulty settings, so you can make it so much harder or so much easier to pick up for you at will. Be warned for some of the later tracks though.

Definitely a highlight of a racing game I could get to play in 2023 and at the time of writing this, is SEVERELY underrated. It would be nice to see more tracks to be added in the future, maybe even potentially a level editor (I would vouch for multiplayer but I don't know who I could play this with...), but for a package that is considered super cheap in price, it sure packs a punch if you want something more unique- and more so if you already have grabbed something like BallisticNG or Super Pilot.

But if there's a game that I would have likely put over both GT2 and ArcRacer te with it if I had kept playing it longer until completion...

3rd Place: Burnout 3 Takedown

The first time I got to play this game after only knowing about the PSP games and up to Burnout 2 on the Wii, even using 60fps patches for the PSP games, it was just absurd.

Full speed driving, crispy 60fps action, and all the adrenaline plus insane crashes a Burnout game can have. The soundtrack was also another huge highlight, from having Franz Ferdinand's This Fire a whole decade before everyone (including me) heard of it from Cyberpunk Edgerunners, to WOOOOH SHAKE THAT BUSH AGAIN, to C'mon C'mon...everything in this game really makes for an insanely memorable package to remember (and also beats GT2 in soundtrack quantity since that game is unfortunately very limited by default in that regard, which I compensated on my own).

The only reason this doesn't take the top prize is because I unfortunately only played this one quite sporadically- basically for like one or two days when I had a friend's Xbox 360 temporarily and put the game in it, and then later on I managed to make the game run well on my PC some trickery, but only sat down occasionally to play it. So while it might have been left at 3rd compared to the unexpected racer that stole my heart for enough time to convince me it was special and the new antigravity racer that held me for days, this game is absolutely a treat that deserves the reputation it has. And another reason this game goes here is because it will likely also have a sport in the mentions of First Time Playing of the Year.

Honorable Mentions

Most of these are either arcade racers or I could only play for a single day with the best controller at hand, but are still worth mentioning

My Platformer of the Year

AND THE PLATFORMING GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD

Watching Castlevania Nocturne with a friend was the reason why I ended up so compelled to try the game when there was nothing else to watch (no matter how you feel about the show, you have to admit that more people playing Rondo of Blood from it is still a good thing, right?).

I hadn't got so hooked with a tough but fair challenge in a while, and I completed it 100%.

I was very stubborn to stick to my guns and do the entire game only with Richter even after unlocking Maria, since I knew I could do it and it was doable with just the right amount of patience. And from who knows where, over like four or five days of playing, I gained that patience to return consistently and keep chipping away at that game until I eventually cracked through Shaft's boss fight, Stage 7, and then Dracula himself...and then eventually having to hunt for the alternate stages, being baffled by the conditions to both find Iris and unlock Stage 5' because of that frog...and after a whole day of malding hard with Stage 5', I somehow got that in two attempts the day after.

Such a well refined Classicvania title, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a fair challenge as it is actually considered one of the easiest Classicvanias, which I can definitely see after having completed the Japanese version of Bloodlines and attempted Castlevania NES without savestates but giving ut at Stage 4 becaues of Frankenstein and Igor.

Honorable Mentions

My First Time Playing of the Year

AND THE FIRST TIME PLAYING GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

Outrun 2 for the Xbox

See, I obviously had played Outrun 2 Coast to Coast before, but the vanilla version of Outrun 2 I only tried out thanks to that aforementioned borrowed Xbox 360 where I tried Ridge Racer 6 with, not only had an extra tinge of challenge with how bumping other cars would result in crashes instead of being able to brush them off, but also it is the only version of the game where you can play the Daytona USA 2 and Scud Race/SEGA Super GT tracks, which was an experience little young me had been waiting for years and is admittedly surreal because of how much faster you go through these carefully crafted layouts. Though in the case of Super GT, it is super cool to be able to drift through these tracks without feeling like the steering wheel is strapped to a ticking bomb. I even spent some minutes after completing those stages playing the standard Outrun 2 courses for a challenge.

I'll give it up and admit that I had initially planned to have Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe featured here, but with how those games I actually recalled I played at the tail end of 2022, they wouldn't exactly count for this if we are super specific...though I did definitely only play them for a long amount of time through local events in 2023, so I'll at least give them that before going to the proper honorable mentions.

Such a well refined Classicvania title, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a fair challenge as it is actually considered one of the easiest Classicvanias, which I can definitely see after having completed the Japanese version of Bloodlines and attempted Castlevania NES without savestates but giving ut at Stage 4 becaues of Frankenstein and Igor.

Honorable Mentions

Multiplayer of the Year

AND THE MULTIPLAYER GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

I know, biased, kartpilled and KRU-filled, but 2023 actually was the first time where I could get to play in some servers at Delay 3 thanks to an internet upgrade allowing me much lower ping...and thus, I could partake in many games at my full potential, or at least join in events that would otherwise be unplayable to me such as Diggle's Kart Anniversary marathon.

It was nice to go back to such a crazy racer the way it was intended. Aside from how servers are full of mods, but at least there's an undeniable amount of variety due to that.

Runner Ups: Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

About Smash Ultimate, hear me out.

Forming part of a local Smash community, being able to play Smash Ultimate with many skilled players and even being able to watch the top players here duke it out on a movie theater screen are absolutely highlights of the year. Even if I'm definitely not on the level to be up there with the top dogs, its still cool to be able to play like this and brush up my skills, as well as how these tournaments often also came with Melee tournaments where I did get to Top 8 placements.

And then there's the fact that even though it only must have been like 6 or 7 times in total of the entire year, every time playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was quite entertaining, and the last tournament of the year featuring it had the tightest races I could have ever got in that game, which was awesome..

Muchas gracias El Tigre Smash Circuit :)

Honorable Mentions

My Best Replay of the Year

AND THE BEST REPLAYED GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

Daytona USA and Daytona USA 2

Apologies, I'm obviously biased, but of course if there isn't other big game that I had replayed in forever would get this spot, then I had to give it up to the old SEGA racing classics that I managed to give a spin with the Hornet in Manual Transmission again- achieving conclusive victory in the Xbox 360 port of the first game in Expert for the first time, and achieving a 1st place with the Hornet Classic MT in Daytona USA 2 for the first time too even with a rather hooky analog stick.

But there's another game I want to highlight.

Tempest 2000

First time I got a million points in this game, also being the first time I had played and survived THIS long. Another old favorite of mine since a kid but the fact that I actually pushed my skills that far on a playthrough made it noteworthy to bring it up.

Honorable Mentions

Most Difficult Game of the Year

AND THE MOST DIFFICULT GAME OF THE YEARRRRRRRRRRRRR GOES TO...

Castlevania Dracula X

I was stubborn to try completing this without savestates from start to end and with the best ending possible.

Death and Dracula made me suffer like you have no idea, but I eventually conquered them. They still took a chunk of my soul with them, though, and don't think that I would miss out on mentioning Stage 5' which I had to replay until I managed to reach the boss without dying once just to stock up on hearts and the cross to cheese its boss with Item Crashes.

Runner Up: Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth [Hard Classic Mode] & Castlevania NES

The Adventure ReBirth in normal is not that bad, but Hard mode changes some stages to be really painful- the reason why it isn't winner though is because what was the cherry on top of my Hard mode attempt was playing it in the even harder Classic controls mode that leaves you without the axe, and I got stuck in Stage 3 because of it. Castlevania NES screwed me over in Stage 4, and I would have to debate whether that would be enough to dethrone Dracula X in BS difficulty due to the skeleton dragons and boss, but what stopped me from continuing was also trying to complete it without states very late at night and dropping the run there.

3rd Place: Sonic Advance 2

Even if some stages have occasional death pits which I did admittedly savestate through as I played the whole thing on a phone, what was the most absurd thing were the bosses. As soon as Music Plant they were already having me savescum constantly, and my jaw dropped in disbelief when I saw that XX had AN ENTIRE BOSS RUSH OF EVERY PAIN IN THE ALAMO THAT THIS GAME HAS FOR A BOSS. This game missed out on a higher spot here only because of how the winners are all Classicvania games as tough as they can be- and I didn't even get to play Castlevania III yet.

Honorable Mentions

My Video Game of the Year

AND THE BEST GAME OF THE YEAR GOES TO...

BOMB RUSH CYBERFUNK

WIPE OUT OF YOUR MIND THE QUESTIONS OF DA PEOPLE

Banger soundtrack, graphics that looked nice while also didn't nuke my computer, a neat evolution from the JSR gameplay that's further refined, a story twist, spending a while doing post-game tagging and challenges, and even a multiplayer mod through SlopCrew. If there's a game that had to be stealing the hearts of many old SEGA fans, it had to be this one- a fair bit before SEGA actually announced a new one.

RUNNER UPS:

Aside from the previously described games, Neo Contra I wanted to highlight as a game that despite the disastrous first co-op experience I had with laughs, hooked me to practice and aim to finish it with the good ending, which I eventually did- surprisingly cool game and a pretty short one in levels plus being able to replay them for better ranks makes it easier to aim for good ranks.

Honorable mention to Megaman Zero Online on the other hand was a multiplayer-focused fangame that I had a lot of laughs with at the start of the year and was super cool to play. Unfortunately the servers have went down for quite a while and you have to play with Radmin, but it still is worth remembering for a game that I dove head first back then along with Megaman X Online Deathmatch.

Gaming Announcements of the Year

THE GAMING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE YEAR GOES TO...

SEGA BEING THE ONLY GOOD THING IN 2023 GAME AWARDS HOLY SHIT

And this happens to be the gigantic cherry on top of the cake that was getting the announcement of Daytona USA 2 and Fighting Vipers 2 finally arriving home officially through Like a Dragon Gaiden, as well as Spikeout Final Edition arriving in the soon to release Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth. To think that SEGA would suddenly show up and show this much love to older SEGA fans is such a huge surprise, and that's why it is worth highlighting here.

2nd Place: BLOODBORNE KART

Yep, after a fair amount of time this one is finally going to go golden this very month, and it honestly looks like will be great to play through with whatever it offers in single player.

Runner Ups: Dragon Ball Z Sparking Zero and F-Zero 99

Tenkaichi 4 turned out to finally be real after so many years of being memed AND even being made as a hack of Budokai Tenkaichi 3- I could hear the entirety of Latin American screaming in excitement when that initial trailer dropped. In the case of F-Zero 99, I know that it is only was really meaningful for F-Zero even though it wasn't exactly what they expected...but I'm a F-Zero fan, you know? I wish I could get to play it, but it seems that for the few months of release where people were really catching wind of it, it did catch on quite a bit and enjoy some popularity even with non F-Zero fans, so hopefully that will lead to a bigger F-Zero project being greenlit.

RUNNER UPS:

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW?

Yes, my hands are cramped. Change the world, my final message, goodb ye

Jokes aside though, though my hands aren't no joke, it would be cool to do more stuff like this as time goes on, and even maybe collab with James with how their Neocities site has already quite a lot of writing and musings included so could definitely be someone to talk about certain stuff with. Who knows. I did also intend this to make a general 2023 stuff to highlight some few anime, manga, movies, etc that I checked out...but again, since my hand exhaustion is not something I'm making up as of typing this because I basically typed all of this in one sitting for maybe an hour, that might be for another day.

till next time felllas