Siliconera’s Switch Game of the Year 2023

This year’s Siliconera Switch Game of the Year contest may have been the toughest competition since the console’s 2017 debut, with a lineup of stellar first-party releases accompanied by some surprise third-party entrants. What’s the winner? You can probably guess! But all of our Switch Game of the Year 2023 selections got here by beating out some truly impressive titles.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2023 archive.

Fire Emblem Engage

Strategy players love to min-max, and it seems developers like that as well sometimes! Following the watered-down gameplay and excellent characters of Three Houses, Engage pushes the slider all the way to “mechanics” and delivers some of the best maps and combat systems in the franchise’s history. Story? Characters? Toothpaste hair? Uh, we don’t need to talk about those. Engage instead offers something more like Fates’ customization-focused tactical playground, and there’s a lot of fun in that approach.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

It may not be Danganronpa in name, but Master Detective Archives: Rain Code sure does feel like its creators’ previous popular franchise. It’s got a similar look and feel, and the gameplay sure is about similar investigative techniques! Don’t get us wrong: this isn’t a complaint. It’s just very possible that Danganronpa fans might have overlooked this one, and… if that’s you, reader, you should probably get on it!

Siliconera Game of the Year Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

There were worries from some that Tears of the Kingdom’s reuse of Breath of the Wild Hyrule would make the game feel stale. Instead, it served as a base for a massively expanded world and all sorts of new-power hijinks. We know the Zelda franchise doesn’t do sequels often, but they seem to unlock an extra level of creativity from the team and we love to see them at least occasionally. It has its flaws — we’re looking at you, Lizalfos Tail drop rate — but we won’t forget our time with Tears of the Kingdom for quite a while. Congratulations, Switch Game of the Year 2023!