myhouse.wad (PC, 2023)
This is a DooM wad that captured the internet for a minute. A wad is a modification for DooM, incase I need to explain that. It can simply be new levels or completely change the game. It is a deep and infinite pool. You’re whole and only thing could just be playing DooM wads.
This has a heavy ARG aspect which in my old age I am not a fan of. This is my dead friend’s house or whatever. The actual game/level/wad though is very effective. You’re dropped into a normal house, then it becomes twisted, of course. But then it twists again. And again. And again.
I personally played it once, then watched an hour video talking about it. I was shocked how much I had missed. How many tiny flags it had introduced to change things. It is a deeply impressive work. More that it expects the player to work this hard to see even half-the content.
Here is one example. In a lot of “one level” wads, once you beat the level it drops you off in the second level of normal DooM. In myhouse.wad you are not done yet. You haven’t left myhouse.wad.
I keep thinking they walled off their art this way. That they wanted, prayed one person would dig that deep, and to share it. That’s magical old video game rumor stuff. And they managed to pull it off. I think a lot about tiny games with infinite secrets no one will ever see. myhouse.wad will reward however much you can possibly prod at it.
A Normal Lost Phone
Video Games like all great art can sometimes be empathy machines. A Normal Lost Phone is about navigating a teenager’s phone. You read text messages, see missed calls, look at the photos. You can draw your own conclusions about why you are doing this. There are reveals as you dig around the phone and solve tiny puzzles. I knew deep within myself how a teen can have a happy life and then suddenly find out that everyone they have ever trusted and loved had betrayed the teen in a way the other people will never understand. The teen suddenly has grow and mature in a way that no one is prepared for, and do it alone. It is certainly A Game of The Year 2023 for me. I keep thinking about how successful it was. Strongly recommend for anyone that I love and trust.
The PC Engine
On the webforum select button dot net someone had decided to devote the year to the PC Engine. I, being an idiot that spoke Japanese and most of the forum not speaking Japanese, decided to join in. After my kid fell asleep, I’d guess 150 nights this year were devoted to the PC Engine. A amateur mathematician would say I played over 300 PC Engine games for the system.
The PC Engine deserves its own Sweet 20. Its own examination of what playing 300 games did to a man. I played them on the MiSTeR, which remains Hardware Of The Year 2023. It is the real hardware, without any physical media hassle. Now they are too expensive, but you’ll be perfectly happy if you get one!
I got it in my head to play every JRPG for the system. Most of them miserable. A few of them noteworthy. Only two of them were good if you somehow didn’t have access to Squaresoft’s greatest. I can say I did it though.
Title Screen Of The Year goes to Tenshi No Uta. A perfectly reasonable JRPG with an all time title screen.
What I am saying is Seirei Senshi Spriggan owns. What an incredible game that is. The rest of the year I would play other games and think about SPRIGGAN. Dozens of other games of all ages were destroyed by me thinking “SPRIGGAN“.
This resolved itself when in Pennyslvania, thousands of miles from Yokohama, I would meet the man who started the thread. We would have a conversation that was almost entirely SPRIGGAN.
Expect the PC Engine Sweet 20 in 2024. It will be a beautiful list. I want to get it right, so I keep thinking about it and then my brain says one thing:
SPRIGGAN
Castlevania 64 Legacy of Darkness
If I had played this game any year before this year, I might have dismissed it. Having conquered Alundra poisoned my brain. I love sicko platform challenges.
And honestly they were not as evil as I expected, even if they did make me cackle. That doesn’t mean I didn’t cheat with save states just to increase the time I was challenging myself and less the frustration of return.
It’s a big great looking games with many game modes waiting once you beat it. With the N64 core on the Mister, I may just play it again.
Once I had finished it I went to its half-prequel Castlevania 64, released just 10 months prior. It is basically the same game. You can think of Legacy as a big 1.1 patch. It fixed things, moved it around, made it a better game. That they tried to get people to buy the game again is absurd.
NEXT: We gotta do something about these Astronaut Hitchhikers.
Hinge Problems 
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