The Fammies 2023 - The Famicast Game of the Year Awards Recap - TheFamicast.com: Japan-based Nintendo Podcasts, Videos & Reviews!

2023 is nearly in the books and has been another awesome year for gaming. For us here at The Famicast, we hashed out the best of the best earlier in December on our podcast. Of course, you can still check that out in the video below, however, if you want to just know what games won in specific categories or just want a refresher from the podcast, we’ve got you covered. Below, you will find all of the categories, nominees and winners that we hashed out. Thank you all again for an awesome year and here’s to 2024!

1. Top 5 Played Games of 2023

These are games released in 2023 that we played the most throughout the year.

Danny

5. Super Mario Bros. Wonder - 15 hours

4 Red Dead Redemption - 35 hours

3. MLB The Show 23 - 52 hours

2. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line - 59 hours

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - 130 hours

Honorable Mentions (non-2023 Games)

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion - 35 hours

Banjo Kazooie (via N64 app) - 10 hours

Tetris 99 - 8 hours

5. Joy Mech Fight

4. Quake II

3. GoldenEye

2. Gal Guardians Demon Purge

Advance Wars Re-boot Camp

Honorable mentions (non-2023 Games)

Diablo II Resurrected (500 hours)

Dead By Daylight (600 hours?)

James

5. F-Zero 99 2 hours

4. Goldeneye 007 (N64) 3 hours 22

3. Vampire Survivors 5+

2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder 20

1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 195

Honorable mentions (non-2023 Games)

Splatoon 3 150 —> now 245

Mario Kart 8 (DLC) —> 60 hours

Kukukurin (GBA)

New Super Lucky’s Tale

2. Pleasant Surprise of the Year

Something cool that came out or some gaming news that dropped this year that made you happy.

F-Zero 99 Winner
Sega announcing reboots
Paper Mario Thousand Year Door remake
Mario Movie being good
Another Code Recollection
Finally playing N64 Paper Mario
Danny's house?
Gameboy & Advance Switch Online
Quake 2 Working Really Well for Game Night Runner Up

3. Disappointment of the Year

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the previous award, this is a game or announcement that made you sad/angry/disappointed

AEW: Fight Forever
Mario Movie Runner Up
Nintendo's new dumb tournament guidelines Winner
Redfall Xbox
Noone wants2comeon FamicastFriendCodes
Tears of the Kingdom
No special products/merch, like the Mario & Zelda Game & Watch’s
Overwatch 2 canceling PVE, the reason it became a sequel in the first place

4. TGS 2023 Game of the Year

TGS was back in full swing in 2023! This is the award for the game that we liked the best from the show!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Volume I Winner
Macross Shooting Insight
Tekken 8 Runner Up
Decapolice

5. We Really Need to Play More Next Year…OF THE YEAR!

We played this a bit this year, but NEED to play more over the holidays and/or into next year!

Vampire Survivors Winner
WrestleQuest
Detective Pikachu Returns
Super Mario RPG
Mario Wonder
Valkyria Chronicles 4
Play More Video games in general Runner Up
Tears of the Kingdom

6. Indie Game of the Year

Vampire Survivors Runner Up
Suika Game Winner
Cocoon
Face Raiders
Lethal Company

7. Best Games that Didn’t Get a Mention Last Year Because They Released too Late in 2022…OF THE YEAR

Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion Runner up
River City Girls 2 Runner Up
High on Life
Dragon Quest Treasures
Sports Story
Sail Forth
Melatonin Winner
Iron Lung

8. Game/Feature We Want to See on Switch Successor

Not really an award per-se, but Nintendo is obviously working on a successor to the Switch. What kind of features or games do you want to see on the next console?

Functioning Joy Cons
Functioning D-pad
Functioning online
Keep the portable nature Runner up
Comparable hardware power to anything else Winner
More Robust Capture Features (1080p, online storage)
Controllers with hall effect sticks that don't drift
Nintendo Cardboard VR 2.0
A 3D Donkey Kong Country
An F1 game for Switch!
StreetPass
Themes

9. Best Music Track of the Year

Airborne Assault - Advance Wars Reboot Camp (URL) Winner
Sidewinder - Advance Wars Reboot Camp (URL)
A Night at Boo's Opera (Song Level) | Super Mario Bros. Wonder (URL) Runner Up
New Battle!! - Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed (URL)
Sky Islands (Low Gravity) - Tears of the Kingdom (URL)
Not on the Sidelines - Street Fighter 6 (URL)