BEST OF 2023 - Animation, Movies, Games, Audio dramas

Hello I'm Tomix! And we are back with my now  FOURTH end of the year roundup video of all the best media that blew me away this year, which I  feel you should know about! We're talking movies, shows, games and audio dramas that  I found so amazing that they were an inseperable, wonderful part of 2023 for me. Some of them you probably already know, but some are sure to be little hidden gems you're hearing  about for the first time! So let's get to it! If last year's video was about the rise of li

ve  action, this year animation is back with a bang! Look, there's no point being coy or putting  this off since you all know it's coming, so I won't even harp on it too long  but 2023 in animation IS "across the spiderverse"! How do you take a movie that  completely revolutionized the animation industry and made every single studio  out there up it's game (except pixar), and then make a SEQUEL to it that somehow manages  to feel just as wild and revolutionary as the first?! I can't stress this

enough - one of  the reasons sequels are so often lacking in comparison to the thing they're continuing is  that the original broke new ground, whereas the sequel just... continues that story. And yet  here is across the spiderverse schooling an entire industry on how to get it done. Okay... Maybe not... HOW to get it done? But... The mindest, the incredible way it swings  both litteraly and figuratively between different art styles, narrative devices, talking about  one thing while the subtext

is talking abotu antoher thing without sacrificing either one and all so masterfully, rather than it all just endng up as some big disjointed  mess! all the while pushing the envelope on things we've seen in cinema is... Wow!  Classes will be taught about this movie, And one of the first students in  that classroom already WAS whoever made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem! This movie also came out this  year and MAN was it a blast! On one hand - you can't ignore the clear  influence t

hat Into the spiderverse had on the creation of this wonderful movie with  it's extremely stylistic marriage of 3D and 2D animation in it's story about a beloved  IP making it's way through new york city. On the other hand - it's not just trying to  copy spiderverse - this movie knows that one of the things that made spiderverse great -  is going for it's OWN unique visual style, and mutant mayhem has that in BARRELS, with  that beautiful style that feels hyper detailed, masterful and stylized o

n one hand and  yet - like a comic slapped together in cryaons on the other. Somehow mashing both  of them up to a vibe that matches the tone of this movie perfectly! When I was a kid I was obsessed with the teenage mutant ninja turtles. I would go home  every day and draw piles and piles of comics about them - those were the first comics I ever drew and  now it's my JOB. But as I grew up - the franchise took some turns I didn't like and I lost interest, chalking it up to just "growing up", sinc

e the ninja turtles was essentially a kid's show.  But when the trailer for this dropped - I could feel my inner child just freaking out  with glee. I sat my 34 year old butt in that cinema seat feeling like I was 12 as all  the hype was matched by a wonderful movie. The way they respect and showcase nostalgia shows  real love for the franchise, and I freaked out with joy any time a familiar character, visual  or event came on screen - while at the same time they weren't afraid to update things

and  take things in an interesting new direction, which some people don't love but... I think those  people maybe don't get that the versions of the ninja turtles they grew up on - were themselves  a complete overhaul of whatever came before them. The beautiful way this movie manages to appeal to  the nostalgia in me while making bold new choices that excited me had me smiling ear to ear. The badass action scenes were SO badass even if you don't care about fighting -  because they were creative,

interesting and stylized like nothing you've ever seen. It might not be one of those movies that has like a crazy darker, deeper meaning that you can watch  an hour and a half analysis video on - but UGH. It absolutely accomplished what it set out to do and  manages to still be memorable by the sheer value of it's creativity, and hell, it seems it can even teach spiderverse executives a thing or two, with the studio putting animators' wellbeing first  and foremost in this project and knocking i

t out of the park anyway - I can't wait to see more from this world, be it in the TV show it was building up to or any subsequent movie sequels.  Just - do me a favor and give my boy Mikey some more of the spotlight, huh? He's clearly  the best one and he was BARELY in this. Mutant Mayhem was far from  being the only one to learn all the right things from spiderverse, though. Puss in boots 2 came out in christmas of last year so it didn't make my 2022 video in time -  partly because i hadn't see

n it and didn't realize it was anything special. Much like everyone else  when I heard about it my first thought was "wow, they're still milking that franchise?" It's  a sequel of spinoff of a sequel of SHREK, who in thier right mind would have THIS thing  on their radar NOW...? But then it comes out and blows EVERYONE the hell away with how INCREDIBLE  it is! Jaw dropping stylized animation, excellent writing, obvious spiderverse inspiration  and an overall movie that has no business being as g

ood as it is...! ...or so  i'm told... I still havne't seen it I'M SORRY I KNOW I KNOW. I KNOW. okay? I know. But... yeah, the hype is real on this one. And even if I ahvne't seen it, enough people  around me are currently gathering their torches and pitchforks to know this movie  is hands down worth a blind recommendation. And since i'm already mentioning 2022  movies i only saw this year I might as well throw guilliermo del toro's pinnochio  into the mix, which I knew was going to be beautiful

but still surprised me with both  how gorgeous it is, as well as how beautifully dark it was willing to go, as well. I won't go too much into it since this is a 2023 list but I did  feel it was worth a mention. There is one more hyper stylized, possibly-only-allowed-to-be-so-out-there-thanks-to-spiderverse movie to look out for this year though, and I  actually ahve a lot of experience with this one, When Nimona was first announced I was really  hyped - I read the comic book and it was SO good

and I was THRILLED to hear it's getting  a feature length animated film adaptation, I waited in expectation and... The  studio making it was bought out, almost all of their projects scrapped and  the movie was cancelled despite being %75 COMPLETE. I was kind of FURIOUS  and BEWILDERED by that decision, honestly! But then... Netflix to the rescue! They bought the project from Disney and completed it, releasing it this year  to highly justified rave reviews. See, Netflix... When you do stuff like 

this it makes it harder to stay mad at you for cancelling every other animated  show ever!!! But I'm STILL gonna try! But... I think their adaptation of  Nimona is an excellent one! Which is not to say it's 1-for-1 what happens in  the book, they change a lot, actually... I was really surprised when something that  was a big third act twist in the book ended up being revealed 5 minutes in  as practically insignificant. Hell, it's in the TRAILER. But the reason it  still works is that none of th

is hurts the SPIRIT of Nimona, be it the main character or  the message. Nimona herself is still the same intentionally-annoying-kind-of-murderous-yet-still-lovable  character she was in the book, and she doesn't lose any of that representation  that made her story an incredibly important one to tell. Historically, adapting something to  screen can sometimes tone down representation, here I feel it amplified it! There is no arguing  that queer represntation is a VERY obvious theme in this movie,

And by making the fact  some character are queer be just part of the world and not a big 3rd act twist - I  not only feel like it helps normalize things, but the story gets an added extra level of  subtext in how even within queer communities, who resent being seen as different or abnormal, they will sometimes treat members of other,  possibly LGBTQ groups as different or abnormal and aboslutely not see the irony. Which... feels  like a very "nimona" sort of subtext to have. I love seeing them

respect a story who's creation  helped it's own creator realize he is trans, in a medium that is only just starting  to properly respect and represent it. Plus - by having the 3rd act twist be revealed  early on it just made me equally as excited and clueless on seeing where the story is going as  someone who'd be exposed to it for the first time. Which is not to say the adaptation got NOTHING  wrong. I hate that in order to make Ambrosius more likable they just took all the negative qualities 

he had in the comic and dumped them on a brand new character that was just so insanely unlikable  I wanted them removed from the movie entirely, and that's just one critique out of  several, but this movie took risks, and even if some didn't pan out, or were  downright flaws, a lot of them DID really work, or improved things. I love the original cartoony  style of the comic but I also love this hyper stylized fantasypunk world the movie created. And that's what it really comes down to. Nimona th

e movie is an excellent companion to nimona the  book. They are both excellent in their own rights, they both tell the story of the wonderful  character that is Nimona, but they both do it with their own unique style and voice. I feel like even if you've already seen one, you'd still benefit from checking out the other,  and if you haven't seen either - get on it. Okay that was kinda long what do I have to  recommend that I liked but don't have much to say about...? Ah! There we go. "Elemental"

was  a fun movie, I certainly have critique of it, I feel like pixar has kind of gone  from being the studio that pushes the envelope and does all the truly wild, imaginitive stuff in an entire industry that kind of plays it safe to ironically being the  exact opposite - and elemental is definitely a "safe" movie. But i'd be lying if i didn't say i  still loved the enivroment, plus I really enjoyed seeing a story that isn't all about two people  falling in love or getting together, where the big

climax of the movie is them kissing or deciding  to go on a date but rather a movie where that stuff happens fairly early on and is more about  trying to make things work once you ARE dating, which is a story less often told.  So for that I do give it credit. As for movies playing it safe  - I didn't see the super mario brothers movie - i hear the animation  is absolutely gorgeous and there's a zillion references but the story is  surprisingly vanilla cookie cutter, I'll probably still want to

see it at some point  - but do with that information what you will. The last animated movie I'll be  talking about is The Venture Bros: Radiant is the blood of the baboon heart! the  finale to the most incredible show you have never seen. Seriously. I don't care about telling  you abotu this movie because if you don't know the venture bros. you shouldn't see it and if you do know the venture bros. you alreayd HAVE seen it - but i'm gonna use the fact it came out  recently as sort of the last cha

nce reminder to tell every single one of you that the venture  bros. is one of the most ridiculously underrated, slept on shows in human history. That is  not hyperbole, this show is... Phenomenal. Everything we love about modern  adult aniamtion today this show has probably done first. It did the realistic  deconstruction of superheros vs. zoning laws and paperwork way better and way before  either modern marvel movies or one punch man. It showcased how life doesn't always follow  the narrative

media made you expect from it ages before bojack did. It played with  different tropes clashing at each other in glorious unexpected ways so intelligent, Rick  and Morty still fantasizes about it to this day, and it's characters are some of the most charming, hilarious, engaging and enjoyable, bunch of assholes since the golden girls. Why do people not know about it? Well, you know how sometimes people tell you "oh  my god this show is so good but you have to get through the first few episodes

which  kinda suck but trust me it's worth it"? and you're like "yeah okay i have a backlog  i need to sit through and watch first but i'll throw it somewhre on the list"  and then you never get around to it? Well, I call that VENTURE SYNROME because it  is the most extreme example I can think of. It starts off as just some kind of low budget parody  of johnny quest, the hardy boys, scooby doo and various mystery or adventure shows nobody in the age group watching my video has ever actually sat d

own to watch - but as it goes on  the world and character it builds become so good, so engaging... and the narratives so impressive  and with such huge payoffs... That at some point around 2014, gravity falls, steven  universe and adventure time were all simultenously running their big, hyped up, multi  part season finales or SERIES finales - all at the same time - in what might be the most  amazing month of television i remember - and yet the best thing on TV that month by a MILE  was the episo

de of venture bros. that came out. THAT'S HOW GOOD IT IS. With the show now over  this might be your algorithm's last chance to tell you to WATCH. THIS. SHOW. I cannot  stress thing enough. DO NOT, IGNORE ME. [sigh] But, since I do have to move on to other topics at  some point - let's continue on to animated shows: With 100 MILLION VIEWS in just a month, there is  very little chance you've not already heard of The Amazing Digital Circus. To put that into  perspective - the first episode of Hell

uva boss - arguably the most popular online animated  series in recent years - currently has about HALF as many views for it's first episode that came out THREE YEARS ago. This indie animated pilot exploded onto  Youtube after a lot of hype building, and is currently taking the world of  fandoms by storm. And it's easy to see why, with amazing creators behind it such as famous Youtube musicians and animators Goosworx who runs the show or Kevin Tennerman who aniamtes  on it, as well as voice acto

rs you've seen in other indie animated projects such  as Hazbin Hotel or Helluva boss, this show tells the story of a weird digital  circus who people enter by putting some kind of headset - but then - they forget  who they are, how they got there, and as far as they know, they can't get out. This show does that thing that's so popular nowadays where it marries childish, whimisical,  comedic settings or places with soft, ominous horror undertones sprinkled in  between the jokes. And what can I s

ay? It does it really freaking well. The characters are interesting, the setting and lore both invite exploration,  the jokes are funny, the story's engaging, and the animation is a lot of fun. There's only one episode right now and it's unknown when the next one will come out,  but given it's arguably the most successful animation currently on Youtube - I think  it's safe to say it will sooner or later. Another thing that dropped recently  is Scott Pilgrim's animated show, and I haven't watched

it yet so  I can't say what I think of it, but it looks pretty and i'm really impressed they  got all the characters from the live action movie to come back and voice their characters,  so if nothing else it's worth checking out. And while scott pilgrim, digital circus, helluva  boss season 2, and the upcoming premiere of hazbin hotel are all making big waves and a lot of  noise in the animation industry it's easy to miss the fact that possibly the best animated  show of 2023 has been very, ver

y... quiet. [Does your dog know it's the end of the world?] Carol and the end of the world tells the story of a 43 year old woman facing... The upcoming  end of all things, with 7 months to go before an entire planet comes crashing down on earth. The show takes place somewhere after the initial shock of the news wears off on society, but  before all the real last minute chaos breaks out, as a sort of weird semi-functional-semi-not  "new normal" takes over the planet. With the apocalypse still a

few months  away everyone in the world sets out to make the most of whatever time they have  left, doing what they never had a chance or the courage to do. Travelling, skydiving,  loving and partying like there's no tomorrow, With the clock bearing down on her, carol  decides to do what she truly wants and... Gets an office job so she can pay her taxes,  keeping her normal going while society crumbles in one last big hurrah around her. This show is... Indescribably beautiful. I've not had a chan

ce to finish it  yet because it only just came out, and I have no idea where it's going but  you can tell right from the first few episodes that this is the PEAK of quality adult  animation. And it wears that tag with pride. This isn't adult animation in the sense  that everyone is swearing all the time, there's guts and gore and rampant screwing and  nudity, which - with 7 months to go until the end of the world - the show would have every right  to show if it chose to, and only sometimes does,

but moreso in the themes and sturcture  that this show pulls off with a master stroke. The characters might look like something  something out of Gravity falls or Steven Universe, but the story, cinematography and  subtext would make Wes Anderson proud. The show is very enjoyable at face value and  tells a coherent story with engaging interesting characters, funny moments and beautiful art, but  I feel like every minute of this show could be studied and turned into TWO minutes of analysis. I co

uld try to compare this show to "These final hours" - a fantastic heart wrenching movie  that takes palce in a similar setting, "severance" - A show that marries the boring  and mundane with the mysterious and fantastical, for a comedic yet bleak look at society  and how peopple might realistically react to surreal situations, or "bojack  horseman" - which takes adult animation to hilarious yet bleak quality places I  never knew it could go, but the truth is, even if this show reminds me of all

those things,  Carol & the end of the world is unlike any of them. It's very much it's own, beautiful story. Part of what fascinates about this show is that Carol is not your standard protagonist. Especially  not for an animated show. Maybe if this was an A24 studio film. She has no protagonist bone in her  body and there's probably people in the apocalypse living way more eventful stories than hers. But the show chooses to focus on her because she's interesting and BECAUSE she's not your typica

l  everyman. I want to understand who she is, how her mind works, and what she is looking for. I want  to understand the story's design choices. Most of which do give a satisfying answer, and those that don't just remain as the beautiful mysteries they were supposed to be. Though... If this all  sounds a little too gloom and doom for you I have to say... The show is still very humourous  and fun. Maybe not in a wacky over the top way like bojack horseman. But also not overly  depressing and desp

airing like... Bojack horseman. I don't know how Carol's story ends. I'm  only halfway through the show. I have no doubt the ending could be a massive tear jerker  or even bleak. A lot of end of the world stories do in fact end with... The world ending. All I know is that in an Era where it's hard to find truly high quality, original  concept animated shows that weren't made to be part of a franchise or stylistically  remind people of another popular thing, carol & of the world quietly rides thr

ough  the chaos around it almost unnotticed, choosing to care less what everyone around  it is doing and instead focusing on being the best self it can be. I honestly think  it is by far, the best show of the year. If you want a hidden gem, this is it. This is  the show you will not be shutting up about how everyone you know needs to watch it  and how haven't they watched it yet? I Can't belive this is by Netflix. I  never know how to feel about you people anymore! Are you killing animation  or

saving it?! You can't do both!!! Now... my last biggest discovery of  2023 is actually not FROM 2023. Not even close. Not even a little bit. "King of the hill" is a show from 19 freaking 97. You've probably already heard of  it, some of you have probably even watched it, and even though I thought I had the general  idea of it down from little clips i've seen online - my wonderful friend Thomas sat me down to actually see it for the first time this year. We've marathoned nearly the entire show  a

t this point and if I had any. freaking. idea. how great of a show it was - I  would have watched it SO much sooner. I was expecting just some kind of generic  animated sitcom "simpsons except texas" show with some - frankly unnappealing looking  animation - but what I got was so much more. In the early 2000's i was complaing about how  the animated shows at the time lacked depth, artistic innovation, interesting writing, or  any sort of continuity - meanwhile king of the hill was just back ther

e watching me from  an alleyway drinking a beer and going "yup". I did not know from the little i've seen online  that this show has linear continuity, status quo changes, truly hilarious social commentary  that still hits hard today, nuanced subtext, emotional twists and turns, runnning gags  or themes that would make community blush, moments when the animation goes so hard or  stylistic that it reminds you that this very mundane, quiet looking show was produced by  90's MTV, and all this on TO

P of what is, at it's core, still a very good sitcom. Yes, again, i know it's from the 90's but... It was probably my best discovery of  the year, I think you all should watch it, especially with a reboot coming up soon  and... Hey, better late than never. But let's move away from america  for now and over to japan. I've only really watched through one  new anime this year, And not just any anime... It was an Isekai. One of those  really stereotypical ones, too. Where the protagonsit dies and is

reincranated into  a fantasy world where they're the hero that saves the day and eveyrone loves them and wants to either be their friend or fuck them even though they're just a  boring blank slate of a person. Except this show... does that litteraly. YES  I AM TALKIGN ABOUT THE VENDING MACHINE ANIME. "reborn as a vending machine, i now wander  the dungeon" is unironically, an AMAZING show. Like... It's funny, it's cute, it's charming,  and it gets added points for... I think being commentary on

other isekai stories? It's  hard to tell because it does nothing to show you it's a parody with the excpetion of how it replaces it's protagonist with a FREAKING VENDING MACHINE and everythign  still plays out the way it might in a normal isekai anime! Which... Just from a writing  standpoint? Is really freaking impressive??? Like, okay, hear me out. Having an anime show  where the hero from another world saves the day and everyone thinks they're cool -  overdone, boring, right? But how do you

accomplish that as a writer in a believable  way when your hero is a VENDING MACHINE??? Having all of sorts of lovely ladies  swoon over you like you're an exotic knight in shining armor is- kinda cringey  and gartuitous in most anime if you ask me, but how do you accomplish that in a believable way  when your hero is a VENDING MACHINE????????????? The basic synopsis is - some guy who's special  interest was vending machines dies and when he gets the usual "reincrnation into another fantasy  wor

ld TM" destiny that anime so loves to put on it's heroes, he reincarantes as a vending  machine with the ability to transform into basically every vending machine from out  own world, change his invnetory and prices, etcetera - all at a certain cost of magic  points, which is what he runs on instead of electricity. How does he get magic points?  By people buying shit from him, of course. So he has to balance out wanting to be the  cool guy dishing out otherworldy wares to all his new friends who

are like "what the fuck  is this thing" and knowing he needs money to stay alive because that's how capitalism works! Oh - Did I mention he can only say 5 pre-recorded phrases??? Do you get how impressive writing  has to be written for a character to still be compelling and carry out entire scenes  like this without it becoming annoying??? Which, for the record, the writing absolutely  accomplishes, the protagonist is likeable, and as much as I make fun of this  story for being a little cookie

cutter, it's still a fun, well written, engaging cookie! Also, I just want to point out, while this  show is maybe not COMPLETELY innocent of being a little bit horny at times, it had SO  MANY instances where ANY other anime would have handled things in a way that's so much  more gratuitous, objectifying fanservicey or unpleasant, and this show VERY CLEARLY chose NOT to steer too hard in this direction and treat it's various characters with respect  you wouldn't see in other shows. Even when hot

springs are involved! Which...  I know, low bar, but I appreciate! This show is impressive because not only does  it manage to jump through all of the usual hoops with ALL it's limbs tied behind it's back - and  still not being all "haha do you get it? do you get what we are doing? do you get that it's a  parody? do you get that it is funny because he is a vending machine" but instead opting to... Go  a step beyond and make a world that's... Genuinely interesting? Like... I actually care aboout

  finding out more information about this weird game-like world they're in... I think the magic  system our protagnoist uses is kind of extremely interesting and creative... Which is NOT  something i usually give a fuck about, there's... a surprising amount of realism and  consideration for little relaistic things in this hsow in a way I wasn't expecting? And the characters, while definitely not super deep, are still pretty fun for scene  interactions and written as people with personalities rat

her than just "anime stereotype  character number 3, this one's a tsundere!". Plus, you know, food in anime is always a joy,  and watching people who are used to potatoes and fish try weird otherworldly sodas for the  first time and get all starry eyed about how amazing they are just... I don't know,  kind of appeals to me for some reason. This show's greatest strength both in it's  comedy and in it's serious moments is that it plays things pretty straight and tries to  make an engaging story wh

ere the hero just so happens to be... A freaking vending machine. I watched an entire season of this and I want more!!! Good thing season  2 is already in the works! That's it for animation but there  were also two live action movies that put a smile on my face this year! First was a little unknown comedy by the name of "Robots" that me and my friend  Maya saw simply because we happened to be in the movie theater and were like "screw it,  nothing we care about is showing, what happens to be sche

duled right now?" and one of them was a movie I saw a trailer for that looked kinda nice. We watched it and ended up having  a lot of fun! It's a comedy movie taking place in the near future, where these two unrelated  assholes each have robot copies of themselves that they send out to do tasks they don't want to do. This is... Actually illegal. You're not supposed to have robot copies of yourself and have them  pretend to be you. But they use them anyway. The guy sends his robot on dates and st

uff  to be the perfect lover for each woman he meets so when the time is right he can  tag in instead of his robot counterpart and get to the sexy times. Because... He's  a manipulative, gender-stereotyped asshole. The woman sends her robot on dates and stuff so to have all the sexy times with all  the guys so they'll buy her lots of expensive gifts and things because... She's  a minapulative gender-stereotyped asshole. One day, after their robots date  for a while they're like "hey, you know? W

e both realized you two are kind of  manipulative gender stereotyped assholes. Also, we're in love and running off to mexico together  using your identities, try to stop it and we'll ruin your lives using your own faces". Mr. and Mrs. asshole are like "bruh" and begrudgingly go on a trip together to try to  stop/assasinate their robot counterparts from stealing their own identities. On the way they're  forced to actually... Deal with each other, and the chemistry is... Kind of hilarious. Like, y

ou know exactly how the basic story is going to go. But the way it gets there is...  Always fun, and funny. It can be hard to make a story about protagonists who are not supposed to  be likable, and still have them be, well, likable, but somehow - this movie pulls it off. It's a really light hearted film, but if you want some light hearted fun,  man, this is a really fun one! Check it out. As for the last live action movie of  the year... Come on you know what it is! The Barbie movie's effects o

n the world  this year can only be described as a phenomenon. It took the world by pink storm,  and joins the ranks of the lego movie in "toy franchise based movies that went about 10,000  times harder than they needed to and became genuinely overwhelmingly impressive andd spectacular and also star will pherell as the corporate toy-owning bad guy for  some reason" land. [doofenshmirtz "but it's weird that it happened twice.] With what could have easily just been another cashgrab "fantasy charact

er  goes to the real world, fish out of water" story we've seen a zillion times, the  Barbie movie specificlaly decides to do that while focusing on meta commentary in the form of "so how do we portray barbie as anything when she is both a famous, desired icon for little girls  we're supposed to be representing positively, as well as a potentially very problematic  outdated ideal to have nowadays" and then goes even deeper with all that, with what it means to be a woman in today's society. How y

ou balance out  conflicting roles and expectations from a society where no matter what you do it's  wrong in someone's eyes and they will rip into you for it and the only right solution is to accept your existence as wrong. It's a harsh, sharp social commentary with a pink sprakly  comedy glaze. It's a brilliant movie with some truly amazing casting, tons of visual  style and it seems it was exactly the sort of movie many people in my life wanted  and needed to see, and as a guy I honestly felt

pretty educated by it myself at times.  It might be a little TOO unsubtle at times for my liking but if the movie teaches us anything  it's that neon pink was never meant to be quiet. That's it for shows and movies  but let's move on to games! Probably my biggest gaming surprise of the  year is just how much I enjoyed "Flooded", an unknown little indie survival city building  game where one day the whole world is flooded for no clear reason and you build cities on  islands that used to be moutna

intops to try and fight off the rising tide, as you progress  through the story to find out what happened. The story is, like... okay, at best. It has a  very saturday morning cartoon style logic to it, and while I LOVE pixel art I think making pixel  art of voxel buildings is a little overkill and doesn't do this game any favors but who cares - it's all about the gameplay here and the gameplay is so good! It's just the right amount of  very challenging without being frustrating, and there's a g

ood campaign that switches  out the mechanics between levels to keep it interesting all through the decentlyyy sized game, after which you unlock free play where you can basically play a randomly  generated challenge! I really loved it, kept me invested for a very long time for a  game that I was not expecitng much out of, and if that sounds like your  cup of tea give it a go! Another fun survival city builder is  "Black forest" a game where you build a village in the middle of a forest full  of

mythical creatures with one main goal: survive. Every so often creatures from the forest  will swoop in and hurt your village, which can be anything from destroying crops to going full on wreck it ralph. Manage your economy, build defenseses and see if you can make it  to the finish line! Some levels are story based while other are very simply "sruvive  so and so days to win". At first I drove myself crazy trying to do whatever I can  to make sure absolutely nobody dies ever, but after the deve

loper himself assured me  that's not suppsoed to be possible the game started to be a whole lot less frustrating  and a whole lot more fun. This is a small indie game and as such you can expect the  occasional rough edge or bug but i was still very pleasantly surprised by how fun and challenging the game is and how many levels with goals there are. If survival city  builders are your thing give this one a look. Another build and manage game I really  enjoyed this year is "Espresso Tycoon"! In th

is game you manage coffee shops! It's very different from every other restaurant managment sim i've played - the  gameplay mechanics are completely different. While designing your shop and managing staff is  part of it, It's less about about those things, and more about creating a menu that balances a  select few ingredients you choose to work with, with creating drinks that appeal to as much  of your potential target audience as possible, with different gorups having different  preferences and

very different demands. The better you are at what you  do - the more money you earn, the more ingredients you can work with,  the more staff you can hire, the more you can upgrade your shop and the more  the challenging things become as you try to match the crowd's growing demand. I'll be honest, usually I like to focus more on building in my build and manage games  and in this one you don't build so much as decorate an existing space - but the managment  aspect of this game is amazing. It's al

ways the right amount of challenging, I was never  swimming in so much money that it felt like it doesn't matter what I do, the challenge was  always there, but I was also not struggling so much that it became frustrating or got  the point where i'd just go do something else while I wait for profit to roll in.  Everything is balanced to the point where I'm frankly not used to seeing in any game! This also might be the first ever build and manage game where I have used every single  one of the ma

ny micromanaging options and windows. They ALL mattered. Even the wallpaper  selection! In almost every game I play there's usually some flab. Some kind of window or  setting you ignore and don't think about. In this one, I really used everything the game  gave me to play with because it all felt useful, and I just think that's so cool. Plus, the  game has such nice little personal touches, like how if the camera phases through  an object, that object won't just disappear - it'll fade away into

coffe beans! It's not without it's flaws, what various groups of people like tends to be a little random  which means often i'd wind up with elders who like their coffee to contain fish sauce, tabasco  and caramel ice cream while remaining low calory, but with excellent gameplay, and a campaign  mode that takes you to various locations, if you enjoy business managment  games I really recomend this one! Traffic brains 2 is a delightful puzzle game  where you manage traffic with various traffic si

gns and traffic lights, trying to  get it flowing as well as possible, and is suprirsingly excellent for it's  ridiculously low price of about a dollar. Power to the people is a pretty fun game  where you build and manage a power grid, connecting different cities and the buildings  within them while taking on the challenge of power surges, weather, and various nimbys  who [mocking voice] "don't WANT a giant coal power plant in their back yard NYEEHH!" I did enjoy this game even if I felt it got

repetiive pretty quickly, it still has a decent  sized campaign and i enjoyed it for quite a while. But hey if you want to manage both traffic  AND power at the same time why not just go ahead and play the biggest new game of  the year for me - CITIES SKYLINES 2! ... It's alright. Pretty nice even. Kinda buggy  for a game as hyped up as this but they acknowledged that before release and I'm sure  they'll patch it all out sooner or later and still funcitonal and fun even in it's current  state wh

ich is what ultimately matters most. The next category I like to cover in my  roundups is AUDIO DRAMAS - Those excellent, fully acted out fictional shows for your  ears that you can usually find in podcast form. Like those old radio plays except  with modern writing and production values. I only really listened to a few new audio  dramas this year when I wasn't busy listening to Midnight Burger Season 3 it's so good check  it out and i'm not just syaing it cus i'm on it The first one i'd like to

recommend being  "Super suits" - A comedy about a world full of superheroes. Who we don't care about,  because we're focusing on their LAWYERS. It stars Mx. Hallow, a new apprentice  at a law firm dealing specifically with superhero law. As they try to win  cases with funny or weird settings, or deal with moral choices such  as representing a known villain, torn between wanting to do their job well but  also not wanting to lose their values as a person. The superheroes themselves are very obvio

usly just  the usual comedy cavalcade of "definitely not DC superheroes don't know what you're talking about"  but that's fine because as mentioned - they're just here to serve as the setting for the story,  the actual characters in the law office are fun, fleshed out, interesting and enjoyable,  and every episode is it's own mostly self contianed case. I gotta keep my eye out for  when season 2 is dropping if it hadn't already. A more serious one that I also enjoyed greatly  is "Give me away" b

y Gideon Media - A story that takes place in modern day america after  a UFO has landed there, and turns out to basically be a digital prison for aliens where as  punishment for various crimes their conciousness is trapped forever in a digital hellscape. [digital circus music swells] eh- stop that. There's one way to get them out so you can  actually communicate with them - put their conciousness into a live host, which would  effectively mean the human host and the alien would be sharing a brai

n, but only  the Human can actually control the body. In a sharp contrast to a lot of stories  of this type - Humans have the upper hand throughout this plot. There is  no great existential threat to us, we control what's going on since it's  happening on our home turf, other than the ocasional glimpse at technology on the ship  we spend most of the story in good old familiar north america, or rather - a military base  set up to handle this weird new thing. I. Love. This story. Because once you

get past  the weird wild wackiness of a science fiction premise like this - And yes - also hand wave  away that the united states government would at ALL let people get alien brain roomates -  what you're left with is a story that feels very real and grounded in reality, with very deep, throughly thought out characters doing what I love in stories so much - reacting realistically  to a very surreal situation. It's not your standard story, it really tries to delve into  how a process like this wo

uld go, what sort of people would even be willing to go through this  kind of process, and given you probably have to be a little insane to sign up for something  like this - how do you weed out who you choose to accept and who you reject? This story doesn't  shy away from conversations and paperwork which SOUNDS boring, but I actually kind of value for  how much realism it gives this sort of thing, but it manages to remain interesting,  mysterious, and excellently produced throughout. I also di

pped my own toe into producing audio  dramas for the first time this year by creating the pilot episode for Amusement Musings  - an comedy about how a year after two of the biggest competing amsuement park chains in  the world decided to merge and join forces - it caused all of south california to basically become one huge, colorful, thrilling, sprawling, growing, eating everything  in it's path amusement park, converting quiet towns into colorful happy  capitalist hellscapes. By the way - one m

onth after releasing this? Two of the biggest  competing amusement park chains in the world decided to merge and join forces - let's see how THAT one pans out! It stars a whole bunch of other folks who also  played parts in Midnight Burger, and If that sounds like fun to you you  can find it right here on my channel! The final Audio Drama I want to talk about is  "Absolutely no adventures". A comedy about a guy in one of those stock fantasy storybook  kingdoms that was born under a full moon, as

all the planets aligned, to parents  of two worlds and blah blah blah blah He's basically destined from birth to  fulfill every chosen one destiny ever, except... He doesn't want to, he wants to  bake. He likes baking, leave him alone. So he runs a bakery and basically trieds to  avoid getting caught up into plotlines no matter how much they come knocking at his door. He's joined by two characters - Happy, his gruff ominous coworker, and... Uh. Another  character who I know has a name but I jus

t keep thinking of her as Luz from the owl house  because she's basically Luz form the Owl house. When I heard the premise I was worried  this would be a show about one joke that gets repetitive real fast but no -  it's actually pretty varied, fun, and always a good time to listen to. It,  too, is currently awaiting a new season. That's it for the main media stuff! My song of the year is "Screws" by "The foxies" which is a FUCKING BOP. With an honorary mention to whatever this is. Youtube recomm

ended it to me at random,  it's from some kind of russian animated movie, and I can't stop listening to it even if  I can't understand a word it's saying. My snack of the year is the white chocolate  blueberry schneke from the Zeit fur brot bakery which wasa bakery in germany I  FELL IN LOVE WITH on vacation years ago and this year it happened to open it's first  international branch right here in my city. That's it for 2023, I hope you found things that  piqued your interest in this video. If y

ou did I'd love to know about it - Please let me know  with a comment, not because of the algortihm, but because I genuinely want to knwo  what you think and love hearing it when people find something they like based on my recomemndations. 2024 is right around the corner and I can't wait  to see what other fantastic media it has in store for us. Do you realize there's gonna  be movies and shows that are so amazing they will blow our freaking minds and give us so  much joy and excitement, and we

still don't know them because they haven't happened yet!  Thinking of that always gets me excited for the year to come. So until next time, I've  been tomix, I currently am tomix and will hopefully continue to be tomix, and I will see  you, next year. Happy new year eveyrbody!!!!