It’s the end of the year, which means we’re rolling out our nominations for the best-in-category for various different platforms and denominations here at Destructoid. Today, we’re taking a look at our list of nominees for the Best Xbox game of 2023, and it’s an interesting pack.
To reiterate our guidelines, we kept nominations to one apiece for each game. Meaning, if one game doesn’t show up here, it can still show up in another. And our eligibility window runs from December to December. Sorry, Avatar.
For Xbox, it was an interesting year. Some high-profile games hit troubled waters, making the first-party field a bit interesting. (If you’re wondering where Starfield is in our GOTY field, well, stay tuned!) But Xbox Game Pass remained an excellent way to play a bunch of cool games for comparatively less, making our Xbox nominees really feel more like a Best Of Game Pass lineup.
Here’s our list of nominees for Best Xbox game of 2023.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may have had some PC woes, but it was a generally enjoyable experience for our reviewer and other players on the console side. Even considering the technical troubles, fans do seem pretty positive on Respawn’s follow-up to its single-player Jedi story.
Hi-Fi Rush
It’s strange to think that Hi-Fi Rush, a music brawler from Tango, was one of the more notable launches from Xbox this year. But like Pentiment before it, the smaller and more focused projects from the Xbox studios have had a lot of charm to them. It could just end up being the standard-bearer this year.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
One of a few games that felt like it fell by the wayside this year, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty made some waves as the latest Team Ninja action game, tackling the Three Kingdoms setting. Several folks at Destructoid were positive on this one when it came time to talk end-of-year, and it’s nice to see Team Ninja leaving that lasting impression with its signature action.
Wild Hearts
Wild Hearts was another that fell by the wayside, but our own Chris Carter particularly enjoyed it. A MonHun-style game from Omega Force, it was weird and interesting, and definitely put a unique spin on the monster hunting genre. We’ll see if it makes the final cut!
RoboCop: Rogue City
Zoey’s review of RoboCop: Rogue City was almost enough to make me, someone unaware of anything RoboCop, seriously consider giving it a go. Mixing the tank-like motions of the titular protagonist with a Deus Ex: Human Revolution vibe outside the gunfights, it seems like one of the year’s biggest surprises.
Sea of Stars
It was no surprise that Sabotage nailed the jump from action-platformer to RPG in Sea of Stars. This RPG captured hearts and minds alike, with both an interesting approach to combat and a particularly gorgeous world. Also, Garl. Garl is best boy.
Jusant
We round out our nominees with Jusant, another surprise, this time from Don’t Nod. You wouldn’t think the studio behind Life is Strange would tackle a climbing game that can seem both meditative and stress-inducing, but they did, and they got it right too. Jusant has been one of those late-in-the-year list-shifters for a lot of people, and might just make a dark horse run for the award here.
Our full list of nominees, in short, is:
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Hi-Fi Rush
- Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
- Wild Hearts
- RoboCop: Rogue City
- Sea of Stars
- Jusant
Stay tuned this week for more categories, including other platforms and a few special ones. Winners of our vote will be announced next week, and then our final write-in ballot winner for Game of the Year will be unveiled on Dec. 22.
