COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #4 F-Zero 99
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #4 F-Zero 99

The 99 line of games available to NSO members is a series of essentially battle royales where you, the player take on 99 other players via the internet and compete to the “death”. Introduced with Tetris back in 2019 (!?), it has proven to apply itself much more naturally to some games than others. Tetris is an absolute natural for this concept, and highly addictive. The Super Mario Bros. version was oddly fun (though timed and no longer available) and a Pac-Man attempt was a bit too frantic and maybe didn’t work all that great in my opinion.

Well, recently Nintendo decided to give a certain SNES launch title a swing at the gameplay style and oh man, F-Zero 99 where have you been all my life?

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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #5 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #5 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This placement on the countdown will probably rub a lot of people the wrong way but we’re all just going to have to accept the fact that not everyone has the same opinion. I know there’s a quality game here and Tears of the Kingdom is an experience which meant quite a bit to many video game players and lovers of the franchise.

It’s just kinda the opposite of everything I loved about BOTW…it’s just kinda too much.

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PSA: 1080 Snowboarding Makes It’s Long Awaited Appearance On the Nintendo Switch!
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PSA: 1080 Snowboarding Makes It’s Long Awaited Appearance On the Nintendo Switch!

We interrupt our 2023 top ten countdown to bring you this very important announcement: 1080 Snowboarding is now available for the Nintendo Switch. I honestly couldn’t begin to calculate how many hours I sunk into this game back when it first came out for the N64 in 1998.

Mostly because I was 17 years old, real deep into my house music listening/raver days and more often than not in some form of heavily altered state.

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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #6 Pikmin 1: Remastered
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #6 Pikmin 1: Remastered

Beginning with Mario Kart 8 in the previous entry on this list and as you’ll see for the rest of it, 2023 was a fantastic mixture of both old and new for Nintendo. In anticipation of Pikmin 4, the company decided to release HD versions of the first two installments released for the Gamecube way back when. And with Pikmin 3 already available as a Deluxe version on the console, this makes the Nintendo Switch home to every mainline game in the series.

And this makes the Nintendo Switch quite an awesome Nintendo video game playing machine.

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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #7 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (DLC)
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #7 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (DLC)

Mario Kart 8 originally appeared on the Wii U way back in 2014, meaning many Nintendo enthusiasts have been playing a good chunk of these courses for nearly a decade now. So how is it possible that the Nintendo Switch Deluxe version released not long after the console launched back in 2017 makes a top ten list in 2023? For the same reason that it still regularly hovers near the top of monthly sales charts and is by far and away the highest selling title for Nintendo’s hybrid:

Quality and a ridiculously high volume of content.

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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #9 Tanuki Justice
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #9 Tanuki Justice

Unless Batman: Arkham trilogy which is due to arrive tomorrow turns out to not run horrendously on Switch, Tanuki Justice will mark my final purchase for the year. It was released in October but I only just downloaded it last week and upon pressing start, a huge idiot grin was instantly plastered across my face. What a fantastic game to end the year on!

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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #10 Gravity Circuit
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COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #10 Gravity Circuit

Well it’s that time of year again people, when best of 2023 lists of all shapes and sizes begin to crop up across every corner of the internet. And here at The Dorkside that means it’s time to check off the top ten Nintendo Switch games that yours truly played over these last 12 months. In compiling and ranking this countdown though, my personal rule was that each title had to be released in 2023 which added up to precisely 10 purchases. Meaning that the first couple of games here managed to make the list purely by virtue of fitting into that guideline.

Which isn’t to say that Gravity Circuit is a bad game, far from it!

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PHOTO BLOG: Nintendo Amiibo Update: The Legend of Zelda Edition.
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PHOTO BLOG: Nintendo Amiibo Update: The Legend of Zelda Edition.

My Amiibo photo postings over on Instagram have been less than shall we say…consistent over the last few years. This is partially due to a steady decrease in releases for the toy line but mostly due to going outside having become a bit of a worldwide no-no there for a while. Well thanks to a new technique I’ve recently patched together along with a couple of high profile figures recently hitting store shelves, I’m happy to share a few snaps from this week!

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CHRISTMAS 2023: CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980) “…If You’re Bad Boys & Girls, I’ll Bring You Something…Horrible.”
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CHRISTMAS 2023: CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980) “…If You’re Bad Boys & Girls, I’ll Bring You Something…Horrible.”

Now before all three of you get too excited, listen: I have absolutely no intention of writing up Holiday Horror flicks all throughout Christmastime the way I did in September and October. At least I don’t think that’s gonna happen. But who knows? Until we find out, consider this write-up a one-off because to be totally honest, scary Christmas movies are a sub-genre I’m not really all that familiar with and haven’t been compelled by in the past. Not to sound like a prude, but the idea of introducing slashers or monsters into the season has always felt a bit tacky to me. But many years back I came across a little something called Christmas Evil from 1980 and whoa boy, did it become quite the exception!

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