The Denties - 2023

As 2023 draws to a close, it’s time for The Denties, my now yearly awards ceremony highlighting some of my favourite things for the year. If this was The Game Awards, this is where I’d throw in 100 trailers and celebrity cameos, but it’s not, so let’s just jump right in.

Film of the year

Wonka

This was the easiest pick for me, and it wasn’t even close. As I started writing this post I actually realised I’ve seen very few films actually released in 2023, though there were still a few standouts.

Wonka was, by far, the film that stood out the most for me this year. I’m not sure if it’s just because I saw it on Christmas Eve with my family, which put me in a good mood, but I loved every second of this film.

It was a relaxing watch, simple to follow and deep in all the right places. I’ve not seen Timothée Chalamet in anything prior to this that I recall, but he did an incredible job in this film and his interpretation of Willie Wonka was very charismatic. The supporting cast were all really fantastic as well. Let me just warn you, however, that the musical numbers are real ear worms.

The film seemingly ignores the Johnny Depp version of the story, and directly references the original, which was a good choice I think.

I don’t even want to ruin any plot points, I’d go in completely blind and just enjoy a relaxing and fun ride. I couldn’t recommend this film enough, which is not something I expected to say when this was announced!

Runners Up

• The Super Mario Movie
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
• Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3

TV Show of the year

Severance

Whilst I’m subscribed to a fair few streaming services, I rarely get a chance to watch more than Apple TV+, so the service is a bit over represented in my list here. That being said, however, Severance is a standout regardless of its home.

Written by Ben Stiller, and starring a really incredible cast, this is a truly fascinating and gripping show and has me chomping at the bit for more. The show revolves around Mark S. who works for a company called Lumon, who agrees to a ‘severance’ program in which his non-work memories are separated from his work memories. What could possibly go wrong with that setup? A fair bit it turns out.

This gave me Lost vibes, for some reason though, unlike Lost, the whole story has apparently been written. Whilst it will be fleshed out, it’s reassuring that it’s not being made up as they go along like they did with poor Lost.

The show was well paced, and actually ended up revealing far more than we’d see in a debut season. The writers strike has delayed season 2 by a fair bit, but I’m very excited to see what comes next.

Runners Up

• Silo
• Loki Season 2
• Hijack

Tech of the year

Surface Pro 5

This was a tough one this year, because my tech purchases have been extremely slim on the ground. I’ve gone with a product that was not newly released, but it was new to me and I absolutely love it.

Whilst it’s pretty old now, it still performs the tasks I’d generally do on my iPad extremely well and, whilst I may be the only one, I really like Windows 11.

I’ve enjoyed using the Surface Pro so much, after my iPad obsession, it’s actually ruined iPads a little but for me. The next iPad is going to have to offer a lot more than an OLED display for me to ever buy an iPad Pro again.

Runners Up

• Stream Deck
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• Analogue Pocket

Game of the year (PC or Console)

Diablo IV

I’ve never been a massive Action RPG fan, but I have enjoyed Diablo over the years. I’ve played through all previous games’ story’s, and then moved on. I did the same with Diablo IV. I finished the story in a few hours and then left it. As a single player experience it was pretty mediocre and the story was very bland. I was ready to move on from Diablo IV pretty quickly, however I discovered the seasonal gameplay and I was pretty hooked.

With the seasonable realms there is a new season that lasts about 3 months which introduces some new content to work through but the main point is to create a character specific for this season to just see how far you can progress in this set period. This switches the game up from you trying to follow a pretty dull story to the focus just being on blindly wading through millions of mobs with your brain fully switched off. It’s hard to describe what is so enjoyable about running a seasonal character, but it gives you a chance (and reason) to play a different character to your main one, there’s fun new seasonable mechanics and it’s just such a fun second screen experience. You really don’t need to concentrate on what you’re doing. You can slaughter to your hearts content while watching a film or YouTube on another screen.

It’s an incredibly relaxing game with great looking characters, fun abilities and some extremely overpriced cosmetic items in the shop which I’ve completely ignored. It works remarkably well on the Steam Deck as well, so all in all it’s a banger.

Runners Up

• Super Mario Wonder
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Alan Wake 2

Game of the year (Mobile)

Warcraft Rumble

This was an easy choice for me, as not only do I like this a lot but it’s also the only new iOS game I’ve played all year I believe. I’ve fallen out of love with iOS gaming over the years and this year is a real down swing for me.

The only reason I’ve played Warcraft Rumble at all is because of my love of the Warcraft world, but this is a fun little game to play when you have a few minutes spare. It’s got a lot of monetisation in it, but unless you’re playing PvP mainly they really are just speed ups rather than required, but your mileage may vary.

This game is a little like a Warcraft branded tower defence game, a lot like Clash Royale. It’s not my favourite genre, but it has a lot of charm.

Runners up

• Ridiculous Fishing EX
• WHAT THE CAR?
• Vampire Survivors

Book of the year

Holly by Stephen King

This is a new category this year, and I’ve no idea why it wasn’t included previously to be honest. My podcast time is all but dead now, apart from the excellent Frogpants shows, so I’ve replaced this time with book reading, or audiobook listening.

Another easy choice for me this year. Any Stephen King release is an event and Holly was no exception. This book perfectly rounds off the Holly Gibney series and was a fitting end for the character. Without going into spoiler territory it was quite a departure from Stephen King’s usual work, particularly the ending, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Well, that’s a wrap for another year. Thanks so much for following on! I just about got this post completed under the wire for 2023, so if you’re reading it before I wish you a very happy new year and here’s to your health and success in 2024.