This year felt like it had dozens of games worthy of the "Game of the Year" label within it. It felt like awarding just one game such a crowning achievement would be such a discredit to the level of quality that this year held.
So, we did what we always do when we're stumped on what to do. We went to our community and asked them what they thought.
After polling our community for an entire week, we are so proud to announce the winner of our inaugural VGG Community Game of the Year award!
With 16% of an extremely split vote, a write-in game from out of left field... CONGRATULATIONS TO HI-FI RUSH!
Tango Gameworks shocked the world when they announced and immediately released this rhythm brawler in January this year. It was bright, colorful, packed with thumping tracks to beat up enemies to, and most importantly, it was just flat-out fun.
Chai and his food-based pantry of pals took us on quite the adventure, plowing through the corporate ladder one beat-based boss fight at a time. On top of the pitch-perfect gameplay and surprisingly powerful bits of accessibility, it was just a fairly surprising shift in tone for the team most known for making games like The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo. One that clearly resonated with our community.
We worried that, thanks to its fairly early release date, it would get lost in the shuffle of an extremely packed 2023. But our community never forgot and came out to support this underrated gem from Tango Gameworks and Bethesda.
Bonus congratulations to all the games celebrated and awarded Game of the Year votes by our Video Games Are Good community.
Hi-Fi Rush
In Stars and Time
Honkai: Star Rail
Baldur's Gate 3
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Sea of Stars
Each one is truly worth celebrating and a winner in its own right. So go play all of these games that were so well loved by our community in the last year! Thanks for supporting us through 2023, thanks for playing and supporting so many great games, and thanks for voting. Cheers to 2024!