We generally do not do genre-based awards as part of our year end celebration of gaming. This year, though, a few games kept coming up that didn’t have a place in our regular categories. These games were exemplars in their fields. It was clear that they stood head and shoulders above any other offerings this year. As such, we needed a way to celebrate that. Hence the Best in Class Award was born. Unlike the other categories, this is a category with no runner-ups, just winners. This award is for games that blew us away by doing one specific thing so well, we could not help buy recognize them. With that said, here are the winners of Lords of Gamings 2023 Golden Lance Award for Best in Class.
Fighting Game: Street Fighter 6
Street Fighter retains a longstanding history of memorable titles and is held with such high regard as best in class within the Fighting Game community. Subsequently, Street Fighter 6 launched to strong reviews. Capcom delivered a product that addressed many of the issues with its predecessor while simultaneously innovating itself.
This title stands apart from other fighters. The game has an incredible amount of single-player content with World Tour mode alone. Its online netcode is solid, and the new drive gauge system revitalizes the classic Street Fighter formula. I would be remiss not to mention the incredible addition of the Modern control scheming.
This grants accessibility to more players who are often deterred by fighting game mechanics and motions. Street Fighter 6 is not only the best fighting game of the year but I personally find it to be the poster child for the fighting game community today.
Platformer: Hi-Fi Rush
Racing: Forza Motorsport