The Games of 2020
Let's finally put this year in the grave.
Platitudes about the end of the year feel so unauthentic at this point, so I’ll spare you them here. 2020 sucked, there’s not a single person on earth who would deny it, and in the case of video games it was always guaranteed to be some sort of bizarre situation no matter what. Plague or no plague, new game consoles were set to come out this year; a reality that always has a knock-on effect for game releases. Indie games have to try to schedule either with or around these release dates, and the AAA industry isn’t that different in that regard either.
As a result, these transition years often are viewed as dry years right up to the big console drops, and even then the focus tends to be on a small handful of titles from the launch libraries. However, in the case of 2020, I feel like the “dry” moniker really doesn’t apply here. Sure, if you only cared about the games that got the discourse, you’d probably think there were only three games released this year, but when it finally came time to curate this list, I found it pretty difficult to even cut the list down much less organize it. There were a lot of quality games this year, even if there weren’t the same number of overall games you might see in a normal year - and that’s hard to complain about.
Somehow, I managed to do an end of year platitude anyway. Okay, list time.
10. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
The first Hyrule Warriors is my go-to sick game. When I’m feeling sick, very few things are as comforting as firing the game up and casually ripping through the various Zelda enemies. Age of Calamity probably won’t be the same for me, but that’s the good part about it. The team at Omega Force have taken the same “let’s break the mold” energy that carried The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to instant classic status and applied it to their tried and true musou formula to create something that feels particularly unique to both. By cutting the cast down and allowing for tougher enemies in the field without overpowering either end of this, Age of Calamity guides players away from the button-mashing nature action games often end up (and Hyrule Warriors definitely did) and towards learning how best to leverage each Guardian and beyond. On top of that, Breath of the Wild had some of the best characters a Zelda game has been allowed to have in a long time and being able to spend even more time with them is a true joy. These kinds of games may be more style than substance, but there are a lot of both in Age of Calamity.
9. Umurangi Generation
I owe you all an apology. I wasn’t aware of this game until after The Game Awards nominations hit, and critics like No Escape and Austin Walker were pretty peeved off this game got snubbed and folks - if you have critics talking like that and you haven’t heard of what they’re talking about you’ve done fucked up. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t wrong. Umurangi Generation is tapped into this exact moment in time in ways artists will only try to capture in retrospect. Even so, Umurangi isn’t really trying to play any tricks or really hide what it’s about - you’re taking snapshots of a world where government leadership has completely failed to protect its people from a catastrophe, leaving people adrift, disaffected, and angry. The beauty is in what you don’t get told to take pictures of, the graffiti on the walls betraying the peaking emotions of the people who otherwise don’t give a damn if you take their picture. The combinations of apathy and rage are palpable as I went from shoot location to shoot location, and occasionally back just to see how much worse it all gets. Umurangi Generation isn’t about the hell year we’ve all lived through, but it might as well be. Bonus points for being effectively the least “video game” of all of these, I could easily hand this game over to someone who doesn’t play many if any games and they’d pretty immediately get what’s going on - very good design for something completely interested in commiserating.
Oh, and this is the best soundtrack of the year. No contest.
8. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
It turns out that you can go home again. In truth, I struggled with whether or not something so closely remade like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 even counts for this list; since usually remasters are off the table in my personal considerations. The more I played of it though, the more I realized trying to chalk this up to just a remaster was doing a severe injustice to the ambition and impressive labor that is THPS1+2. This game is as much a modern 2020 title as it is a call back to a 90’s pastime, and maybe even more so the former. As a whole, this is a perfect example of how leveraging nostalgia can lead to something genuinely better, while the first moments of a wheel hitting pavement and Goldfinger’s Superman kicks in to jolt my child brain into action, from there THPS1+2 is entirely focused on showcasing just how much innovation actually has happened in this industry and how we can make genuinely better games out of it; even as those same decades in innovation make me question how the hell Vicarious Visions snuck this past Activision without some kind of gross monetization scheme. Frankly speaking though, what really won me over is that this is the just best time. Tony Hawk games have always managed to put a smile on my face and this was the biggest in ages. Sometimes, that’s enough.
7. Paradise Killer
Paradise Killer’s greatest strength is its simplicity. Sure, it’s a vaporwave fever dream of eldritch gods, offensive aliens, and bartending skeletons, but it’s a murder mystery first and foremost, and the actual game never strays away from it. Paradise Killer is confident enough in the actual game at its core - investigation - that it’s absolutely willing to cut loose with the atmosphere without feeling like it’s going to lose the player, and it’s a good instinct. The central mystery at the core of the game has just enough levels, misdirects, and half truths to feel genuinely compelling even if you weren’t holding all these people’s fates in your hands. Lady Love Dies’ desperation to know the truth at any cost becomes the players seamlessly, leading up to an incredibly tense climax that puts you in full control of the justice being handed down, all while asking if justice is attainable for this bizarre assortment of demigods. Much like UmurangiGeneration, I feel like this was an excellent and potent game that was missed out on by a lot of folks and I will not stand for it.
6. Star Wars: Squadrons
When Squadrons was announced, it was made clear pretty much immediately that this was going to be a one and done small experience - and people thought this was a bad thing. In reality, this was to the contrary. Squadrons harkens back to a time where we actually had middle shelf games, games that weren’t necessarily trying to redefine the medium or be indie darlings (but I repeat myself.) This limitation also puts some restrictions on the game that could really benefit other Star Wars projects. Because Squadrons isn’t some flagship attendant viewing, we instead get a stripped down but serviceable campaign that still manages to do the “I recognize that reference” callouts Star Wars is known for without blowing that up. Sure, the multiplayer doesn’t have battle passes or quarterly updates, but it also means I can fire it up every couple of weeks or so and not feel completely overwhelmed by getting into a radically different environment, instead just being a game to play. This is how it used to be kids, both for Star Wars and for games.
5. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
2018’s Marvel Spider-Man was my favorite game of its respective year, and as such this surprise follow up immediately had me figuring out how to ensure I could lock down a PS5. Thankfully I didn’t have to do that, and this was the only game I reviewed this year, it was a rough year. I stand by what I said there - Miles Morales is a pretty good game straining against the restrictions of what was clearly a limited time to get it out. Even so, it is still an absolute blast to play these games. It’s short, but still manages to get to the heart of what a Spider-Man story often is, all without leaning on Peter Parker. Insomniac used what time they had to really differentiate Miles as a character and player avatar without sacrificing what made the original game so enthralling - if anything the fact that I couldn’t find an excuse to spend more time dinking around in this winterized New York really is what betrays this as a much more limited experience. Paired with the original though, it’s a fantastic additional piece and I can’t wait to see what comes with a full sequel.
4. Yakuza: Like A Dragon
I have no idea if Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a good introduction to the Yakuza franchise, but if the other games are even half as fun, this series has got a lifelong fan in me now. Like A Dragon is such a wacky and bizarre tribute to JRPGs that I can barely believe it wasn’t made exclusively for me. The greatest trick is that while Like A Dragon could easily have been a basic RPG and just let the jokes carry it, instead it commits to being one of the best of its kind in recent memory. Just as earnest and genuine as it is humours, Like A Dragon dares you to let yourself go and get immersed in what I can only assume are the best kinds of aspects the Yakuza series has to offer. Bonus points for taking Ichiban’s Dragon Quest visions to their natural conclusion and never quite letting you forget that all these turn based battles aren’t actually turn based - my personal favorite is when a battle pushes into the road cars will continuously honk at you because traffic is still there while in combat. That’s better than Cyberpunk can do for you! Making it painfully aware how much of this is protagonist Ichiban’s head really sells him as a different character than you’d normally see in games like this, and makes it way more convincing why the characters who gravitate to him do. Like A Dragon reminds me that JRPGs are supposed to make you believe in your heroes as much as they do themselves - and that you kind of want to be them too.
3. Final Fantasy VII Remake
Those mad bastards actually did it, and a part of me still can’t believe it. We now live in a world where they remade (at least a part of) Final Fantasy VII. On top of that, they took the riskiest chances they could come up with and basically dared the game’s devoted fanbase to die mad about it. There’s a decent chance the absolutely bonkers ending boosted this higher up my overall rankings that I want to admit, but Remake really was an excellent play the entire time for me. The team taking up this daunting task were definitely up to the challenge, from adding more context and depth to things the game couldn’t get into or even things that later parts of the game would have handled originally, to follow up media being integrated, to brand new additions and changes made, I was enamored. Getting to step into the full shoes of Tifa, Barrett, Aerith, and even Red XIII for a bit felt like a promise finally fulfilled, each was a blast to play as. And yes - the ending is spectacular. It’s cultural vandalism with a point. Deconstruction for the sake of a statement, and one that gaming probably needs more of. We should be more willing to kill our darlings, especially the most precious ones, if only to free those games to become something new for a later generation. I understand that’s not what everyone came to the table for with this game, but a radical statement like Remake is way more in the spirit of Final Fantasy VII than a ridged HD upscale ever could be.
2. Hades
Surprise, surprise, everyone’s favorite non-AAA game this year is in fact that good. Hades slaps. I almost don’t know what more I can say about a game that’s had as much said about it as the biggest games of the year, but for my part I have to say that Hades finally made rougelikes click for me. I’ve played plenty of these games and not any of the ones I’ve played were bad by any stretch but I’ve always had a hard time sticking to them. More often than not, I feel like I’m hitting my head against a brick wall and making little to no progress. It’s an issue of not feeling satisfaction, I believe. But Hades makes hitting that wall both the point and pointless simultaneously. Each crushing defeat isn’t just making marginal progress, it’s also a chance to talk once again to the denizens of the House of Hades, to question Skelly’s motivations, to pick up mentions of the Olympus gods, and to take in the unique but instantly recognizable Grecian look Supergiant has created. Hades knows that progression isn’t just a tidbit of lore to decipher or a single power up or even the euphoria of overcoming a specific challenge. Instead, progression is every step taken, every conversation, and running again, even after the game’s inevitable conclusion. There’s a good chance this one becomes one of the all time classics, and it deserves it.
1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Did the global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns throwing off all of our basic perception of time impact how we all took to Animal Crossing and even inflated its importance on a list like this? Probably, but there’s no point trying to imagine the reality where that didn’t happen, we don’t live there. I don’t actually live on Dopetopia, my island getaway in Animal Crossing, but it at least has “me” all over it; from the flag referencing Mob Psycho 100 to me isolating my home on a smaller island because I thought it’d be cool to have my own moat. While life outside my Switch basically slowed to a crawl, me and my partner were able to have our own adventures across our copies of the game and see what interesting thing each other has arranged or changed since the last time we visited each other. It’s a small, but important part of 2020 if only for that. That’s not all that’s going for Animal Crossing either, though. It’s incredibly well polished, finally truly solidifying the art style that defines the series into a near perfect form of itself. Taking the role of Nintendo’s answer to live services is a boon too, delivering often meaty seasonal updates that occasionally were too much (looking at you, eggs) but always coming at the perfect moment just as whatever you were doing was right about to become tedious. There's criticism of Animal Crossing and games like it that it doesn’t respect your time, making you always stop what you’re doing and wait, but after more or less being forced to finally “get” it, I do feel like that’s missing a bit of the point. In Animal Crossing, the point is that time passes. The sun will rise again, bringing with it a new day, whether what happens in it is new or not. Over the course of nearly 200 hours of gameplay I’ve watched this isolated plot of land evolve into a monument of my own progression, and I recognize each change I’ve made and the thought process behind them. I remember the villagers who come and go, along with the nights playing with multiple people just messing around. I remember taking Halloween way too seriously. If I was able to play this like any other game, I don’t think any of that would matter - and that’s also why Animal Crossing didn’t stick until now. I don’t think this entry will be an instant classic like Hades, or radically challenge the medium like Final Fantasy VII Remake, or even it’s as fun as Yakuza: Like A Dragon; but Animal Crossing: New Horizons is undoubtedly the game of 2020. One day, I’ll probably leave Dopetopia for the last time and move on to something else, but it’ll have been there for me when I needed it most, and that isn’t a waste of time.