By Nelson Schneider - 12/24/23 at 03:26 PM CT

2023 was yet another dismal year, adding its own turd-pearl to the string that began in 2020. We’ve seen global instability become even more unstable, while closer to home in the media, we witnessed the fall of Games Journalism and numerous legacy media platforms and IP sacrificed in the culture wars.

Honestly, we’re lucky that ANY good games managed to come out of the current Games Industry in 2023, but we were ultimately saved from despair by the long-time-coming release of the Chosen One, who was destined to take the top slot from the moment Larian announced they were working on it. Filling out the rest of the list, though, was a significant challenge, with many high-profile releases falling flat, failing to deliver on promises, or just not having enough *oomph* behind them to make lightning strike twice.

Without further ado, MeltedJoystick proudly presents our selection of the 5 most Jimmy-Rustling releases of 2023:

1. Baldur’s Gate 3 (PC)
Yeah, we knew this one was coming. As soon as the MJ Crew played “Divinity: Orignal Sin” back in 2017/18, we knew that the studio had the chops to create the best Licensed Dungeons & Dragons game ever conceived. Unfortunately, Wizards of the Coast and their overlords at Hasbro did NOT come to the same realization, which forced Larian to actually buy the rights to make a D&D game themselves. Fortunately, that self-starter initiative also gave Larian a much longer leash than if they were working on a commissioned D&D project. The result is nothing short of stellar, bringing a slightly-modified version of 5th Edition to the cRPG space, nestled into the heart of the biggest, boldest, freest RPG we’ve seen in ages.

2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo)
Nintendo released a few sequels and remakes this year. Out of all of them, the revitalized 2D platforming of their latest ‘Mario’ game impressed the most. Zany, creative level design; fun new power-ups; and the cooperative experience that has been part of 2D ‘Mario’ since “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” combine to make this THE game to have in your Switch in 2023.

3. Hogwarts Legacy (Multi)
While on the surface it may appear to be a Licensed knock-off of the Ubisoft Sandbox formula made popular in the ‘FarCry’ series and more recent ‘Assassin’s Creed’ titles, “Hogwarts Legacy” stands out primarily due to its relevance to the stupid Culture Wars of the 2020s. Trans Ideologues tried to sabotage this game for at least a year before it released and organized a massive boycott movement through social media… but “Hogwarts Legacy” just made like Honey Badger and didn’t give a single shit! The Woke boycott backfired hilariously, and the game that was the target of the Ideologues ire went on to make insane amounts of money… and was actually a decent Sandbox game on top of all that!

4. GrimGrimoire OnceMore (PlayStation/Remaster)
While I, as MeltedJoystick Editor, personally HATE the current plague of remakes, remasters, rehashes, ports, compilations, and the like that clutter-up the release slate each month, sometime – SOMETIMES! – such treatment is justified for a rare handful of truly excellent, unique games that languish on dead platforms, forgotten by history. The ONE remaster that came out in 2023 that actually deserves a second chance at life is the remake of “GrimGrimoire,” the Vanillaware Real-Time Strategy title that first appeared on the PlayStation 2 back in 2007. Unfortunately, Vanillaware is still working with a backward mindset and only released the remaster of their game on PlayStation (with a port to the Switch, because, well EVERYONE is porting EVERYTHING to the Switch), instead of bringing the game to Steam, the Evergreen Platform. So we know that “GrimGrimoire OnceMore” will once again fade into obscurity after a few more iterations of PlayStation (if Sony even has it in them).

5. Gal Guardians: Demon Purge (Multi)
MeltedJoystick likes to throw a bone to Indie developers when handing out Game of the Year cudos. This year we went with Inti Creates’ “Gal Guardians: Demon Purge.” It’s a throwback Metroidvania that really cleaves closely to the paradigms laid-down by Konami’s classic “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.” Of course, we’ve got an absolute glut of Indie Metroidvania titles coming at us right and left these days. The one thing that makes “Gal Guardians” stand out over its throngs of competition is simple: Coop. Yeah, sometimes something as simple as adding couch-coop to what has traditionally been a single-player subgenre can be revolutionary.