20 games have made it through to this stage - You make vote for up to 3.
Vote for the game or games that you enjoyed playing most this year.
You may alter your votes at any time until the poll closes.
Games are presented in order of seeding - the 4 group winners appear first, then the group 2nd place finishers etc.
Note that votes from users who registered after the first poll started on December 10 will be discounted from the final total. Sorry about that.
Congratulations to everyone who managed to get a game out in 2023, and good luck to all the finalists.
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Wycheweald
This fantasy epic does a great job bringing a first-person Bard's Tale style RPG to the Spectrum. This is not a genre with a huge number of titles on the Spectrum, but in the year that Baldur's Gate made CRPGs cool again, this was there keep the Speccy's end up. Atmospheric and satisfying.
Seraphima
Big, colourful, responsive sprites, a big Dun-Darachy map to explore, cool guns, speech. Technically this an absolute powerhouse. I can't get along with the jumping mechanics ( Flap your wIngs, luv! ) and the sudden death, but this is a definite contender.
EXO-TICAL
The first obstacle in this bright and colourful Cybernoidesque shooter is a set of vines that you have to blast through, in what feels like an homage to Airwolf's infamous wall. The vines are trivially easy, but the don't let that put you off guard. The rest of the game is absolutely unforgiving, but there's enough variety to keep you coming back. Top notch.
Johnny The Ghost
Johnny the Ghost is a little-known Atari 400/800 puzzle game, released in 1994 long after the 8-bit hayday. Given a bright and colourful new life by this conversion, it's easy on the eye, controls are spot on and puzzles are increasingly devious, and as satisfying as they were 30 years ago.
Super Bomberman 2 Remix
Despite the clear copyright infringement, this costs $3. That's the spirit! And if you like Bomberman, this is a very professional and slick production.
Bruxólico
Visually unique sidescroller, like a vapourwave goth Rygar, with a marvellous big-footed attack animation. For me, visually the best game of the year. Gameplay is simple, but offers up variety in each short level and boss encounter, not unlike a 2-D Mario.
FOREST ESCAPE - A KNIGHT'S QUEST
This is a colourful exploratory platformer with an interesting mushroom-eating powerup system. Sequel to 2022's Castle Escape, with all proceeds going to charity.
Haoken
Slashy, dashy, double-jumping ninja platform action. Adds enough to the basic traversal to make this stand out from the platforming crowd.
Bomber Pengo
A top quality arcade game. Looks, plays and sounds great. Tough as nails, but fair.
Speccy Soccer Community Edition 2023
An extraordinary Sensible Soccer remake. How can this possibly be this smooth? Immediately playable but very difficult to master, this is very accurate to the original in that regard.
Tuerkas the White Cat
Pretty slick cat-themed platformer with some unique traversal gimmicks. Will set you back to the start if you lose a life, which is harrowing, but this is a unique design.
Pacman
Buttery-smooth, this is a fine and accurate Pacman conversion. The movement and pre-turning works perfectly, the established arcade patterns seem to work, the inter-level animations are there. Stellar work, really.
Ramire the Vampire and the Mystery of the Papyrus
A characterful platformer with good presentation and music, and a variety of challenges that elevate the gameplay beyond simple jumping puzzles.
COINZ are Mine!
Excellently animated single-character sprites in a fast moving and devious platform puzzler. A hoot, and offers a 2-player mode that promises mayhem.
ZX Robots
Sharp-looking isometric game with fun block-pushing robot-smashing action. Back in the Spectrum's heyday, you couldn't move for isometric games, but they're few and far between these days. Refreshing.
Tenebra 2
Terrific puzzle sequel that looks like a rogue-like but isn't. My only complaint about Tenebra was there there wasn't enough of it, and now there's more of it. Huzzah!
Storm Over Valhalla
Live-action Video trailer? Check! 80s hair metal soundtrack? Check! Cool cover art and loading screens? Check! Tough, exploratory platforming with neat combat? Check! Occasional issues with jumping and ladders that will get you killed unfairly, undermining the whole thing? Check! Almost great, this one is very much worth a look despite its issues.
Jam!
This is a sound adaptation of the Rush Hour board/puzzle game, where you have to slide the block-shaped cars around to allow one car to move out of the maze. By Clive 'Saboteur' Townsend, this delivers a classic puzzle game in a classily presented package.
Area 51 - The Roswell Incident
One of several mutiple-choice text adventure from Furillo, this one has a 50s b-movie/x-files style and story. One of the best-looking games this year for me, with is slightly ironic for a text game.
The Mijadore Vase
Super-smooth movement, a double jump and a killer soundtrack all elevate this very tricky platformer. A bit of a treat this one, although you can expect to be restarting a lot.
