This was one of the most critically acclaimed years ever in the video game industry.

Month after month, a new video game became the standard-bearer for its respective genre, series or platform. Legendary classics like "Resident Evil 4" and "Metroid Prime" received transformative remakes and remasters. And original titles pushed the art forward. Among this unprecedented release schedule, the following 10 games have left an indelible mark for anyone who touched them.

Starfield

Bethesda Game Studios' ambition to create a thousand explorable planets sacrificed much of the developer's classic open-world magic. Still, Xbox's biggest title in recent years offered a space exploration adventure that kept its most concrete promises of inhabiting many different lives among the stars.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Sega Dreamcast cult hit Jet Set Radio is the clear inspiration for this stylish action platformer, but the original aged poorly due to turn-of-the-century challenges in depicting 3D worlds. Netherlands developer Team Reptile properly updated controls and sharpened player goals to finally give the formula its long-deserved shine.

Final Fantasy XVI

Despite this entry's narrative messiness when handling themes of slavery and self-determination, Final Fantasy games are renowned for driving home dramatically emotional moments. Square Enix's PlayStation 5 exclusive nails this aspect, making it one of the most memorable stories of the year. It's a stellar action game, too.

Dredge

True horror is found in the violation of safe spaces, and New Zealand studio Black Salt Games demonstrates its mastery of this concept in one of the great comfort sports, fishing. It's no coincidence that this game's title sounds like dread.

Lies of P

South Korean developer Round8 Studio makes a big splash with its first international release, elevating and at times surpassing the grindingly difficult formula popularized by the Dark Souls series. A newly conscious puppet navigates a dark spin on the classic Pinocchio tale that has more surprises than expected.

Street Fighter 6

Intending to grow a niche fighting game audience, Capcom made the latest chapter of the legendary series widely accessible with simple controls; fast, sturdy online play; and a compelling, funny story mode that allows for endless customization.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Nintendo games emphasize the concept of "play" above all, and the latest Zelda took it to its natural extreme. Now players can build almost anything, including robots and vehicles powered by literal quantum physics. It's Zelda for the Minecraft generation, and it's a technical miracle on the aging Switch console.

Hi-Fi Rush

Released by Tango Gameworks in January, Hi-Fi Rush is still one of the most innovative games of the year. It's an action game where every player input and on-screen element moves in time with the music, an audiovisual riot that feels unbeatably fresh.

Baldur's Gate 3

Larian Studios created the best digital re-creation of a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons game, an ideal chased by hundreds of studios since the inception of the games industry. It's an Olympian feat that the game narrative naturally threads out into untold different permutations, all at the whim of the player's intuition and fancy. Any character and line of dialogue can lead to another call to adventure. Baldur's Gate 3 is the new benchmark for computer role-playing games.

Alan Wake 2

While other games tried to push respective genres forward, Remedy Entertainment's psychological thriller rams against the boundaries of the medium altogether. On the surface, it seems like a typical horror game based on a novelist struggling with writer's block. But it's impossible to guess where this experience goes.