Top 7 Games of 2020 Ranked
I only played seven games that came out this year due to money problems, logistic problems, pandemic problems yadda yadda yadda
Here are my rankings from least best to most best.
List items
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#7 - DOOM Eternal
I like DOOM Eternal.
I liked it so much that I wanted to play it on my new TV that I was finally able to afford after somehow getting a job mid-pandemic.
I liked it so much that I didn't want to have to strain my eyes to watch it on the Playstation tv they showed at E3 2011 that my friend lent me because I mentioned I didn't have a TV of my own for two years and his was just sitting in his closet (Thanks duder, I really appreciate it. I just have to sit 5 inches away when I'm playing FPS's tho).
That unfortunately meant that I only got two hours in before I had to return it to the library. Which is why its in my least best spot.
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#6 - Helltaker
Helltaker is a game that takes a misogynistic, overly played anime trope ("Man goes to fantasy destination and starts a harem with beautiful fantasy girls") and somehow makes something wholesome out of it? For one, all of the demon ladies in the game are overflowing with personality (so much so that you'll be shocked how little dialogue is actually in the game.) and make it known that they have their own agency in all of this (literally every demon girl can and will kill you if you don't answer their questions correctly). Secondly, the ending scene is the best depiction of a healthy polycule I've seen in video games? It's heartfelt and sweet and it's just a bunch of people (well, err, a human, an angel, and several demons) living in a house together and caring for one another. You know, in their own way...
Also, it's nice to see something acknowledge Heroes of Might & Magic 3 as an absolute classic and the pinnacles of strategy games.
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#5 - Monster Hunter: World - Iceborne
Is Iceborne a different game? Every other generation of Monster Hunter would have released the "G rank" as an "Ultimate" version of the game. Iceborne is sold as both an expansion and as a full package with the base game (arguably something the series should have been doing all along, but I understand the limitations on previous portable consoles made that... difficult).
But, ultimately (HA!), does it matter? It's my list and the new snow location is a blast. It's more Monster Hunter World and that game fucking rules. How could it not make my list?
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#4 - Granblue Fantasy: Versus
Granblue Fantasy: Versus is in contention to be my favourite fighting game this generation.
Theoretically.
Because I haven't actually *played* this. GB:VS launched and, by the time I was able to get a copy from the library, the pandemic hit. So I've never actually got to rush down people with my small potato where it matters: shoulder to shoulder at a local meetup, a tournament, or someone's basement for 5 hours straight.
I mean, the online was... okay... when people were actually playing it.... and you could find someone who wasn't a wifi wimp. Plus, I'm not exactly convinced that the newly announced Battle Pass is going to reinvigorate the community the same way that, say, rollback netcode would (note: go play Guilty Gear +r) .
That being said the fundamentals of this game are nearly perfected despite being shockingly simple for an arcsys game. It's closer to a Street Fighter than a Blazblue or Dragon Ball FighterZ. It is simply a joy to play.
What's more is that it single handedly proved to me that tying special moves to cooldowns in fighting games can be used in a way that both make the game accessible and add depth.
The game uses single button inputs for special moves (much like Rising Thunder) by, weirdly, using same solution as Smash Ultimate: doing the input properly will produce a stronger version of the move while the single input allows you to do combos not possible otherwise (like using a charge move instantly). What's more is that using the "EX", stronger version of a move doesn't use metre, instead locking you out of the attack for a much longer cooldown.
This implementation of the cooldowns themselves adds so much depth to the use of combos beyond pure optimization for max damage with the metre you have available. Do you use an EX version of this attack right now to push more damage, possibly at the risk of losing a crucial reversal? Doyou use the EX instead of the normal as a reversal to make use of its better iframes and startup, knowing that I can't then use the normal special as a combo ender for a bit? Do I risk just using the normal version now to apply pressure or wait to push that damage through when I can? Do I trust myself to do this motion in time or do I have to panic and hit the faster, but weaker and more punishing quick special?
Every situation in the game means that to have a set gameplan that you always execute, you have to hold yourself back. Yet, paradoxically, you can never do the kind of damage you need to win a fight without pushing yourself to a point where you might overextend.
So not only are you looking to find the optimal combo for a situation and executing it, you're finding an optimal combo with the moves you have available to you. I find this so much more interesting to put into practice vs mere metre management. It becomes less about comparing the marginal benefits of combo path a vs combo path b when you have 2 bars and becomes "well what can I do when I have my fireball, but not anything else? What if I have my fireball, but I know my tatsu is about to comeback mid-combo? What if I have my fireball and my command grab?" This change alone makes putting the time into training mode not become a slog of numbers and covering edgecases that most combo experimentation has become, but fitting puzzle pieces together to find a solution to several very real scenarios that might come up in every round.
In short: Granblue Vs is a game that both pleases my game designer brain with its revolutionary mechanics and my little lizard brain that likes to push the buttons and do the damage.
I just really wish I got a chance to *actually* play it this year.
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#3 - Animal Crossing: New Horizons
If you would have told me at the start of the pandemic this wasn't going to be game of the year, I would have called you a fool. "It's perfect!" I thought, naïvely.
And it's not like I didn't have precedence for Animal Crossing being a perfect escape. 2013 might still be the darkest year of my life (yes, maybe even darker than 2020) and Animal Crossing: New Leaf, in some ways, saved me from it. I played that game every day without fail for a large chunk of that year, stopping only when I felt like I was ready to rejoin society.
But what I failed to understand is how much different it is to be in the deepest depression of your life, trying anything to avoid the world around you, and being in a bunker, wanting desperately to rejoin society, but being unable to do so without significant personal risk (especially considering my partner is immunocompromised).
In 2020, Animal Crossing wasn't an escape to a world that was better than the one I was in like in 2013, Animal Crossing was a constant reminder of what I was missing out on. Friends, family, being able to walk into a store and get something you need. The small things in life. Hell, even just getting the swimming update filled me with the strongest desire to go swimming I've ever felt in my entire life. Even moreso than when I was 11 in Disney World and I wasn't able to go to the water parks that my parents promised me we could go to because it was """too cold""".
Anyway, I'm not trying to say Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't a great game. It's probably the best game in the series. It's just not the right game for me this year. I needed escapism, not constant reminders of what life could be like.
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#2 - Hades
Hades will probably take the top spot barring some sort of storytelling shenanigans or awful last act game balance spike, both of which would be uncharacteristic of Supergiant.
I just haven't beaten it yet so I don't feel comfortable putting it at the top spot. Hell, if this was a normal list in a normal year, I wouldn't even put it on the list yet. But considering the only game on this list I've "finished" is Helltaker, putting it on this list feels natural.
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#1 - Spelunky 2
Just last night I reached the "final boss" of a normal Spelunky 2 run for the first time. I died, naturally, having expended all my resources and desperately flailing at the boss with my whip, under so much pressure, and not knowing their patterns, attacks, etc.
This might sound like I'm bad at Spelunky (I am) and inexperienced that I'm only not getting to the final boss, but I've been playing the game since release almost daily. This is a feat I wouldn't compare to getting to Olmec in Spelunky 1, but getting all the way through Hell. Spelunky 2 pulls no punches and, even if I am nowhere near ready to start working on (or even spoiling myself of what the mechanics are of) "the Quest" and what lies behind it, it is still out to kick my ass and send me back to 1-1.
No shit, right? This is Spelunky we're talking about. It'll do that. But I feel like, this time around, I'm at peace with that a lot more. I feel like Spelunky 2 is an evolution of the original that lost nothing along the way. While the original I've had numerous problems with and been very vocal about through the years (why are the ice caves so much easier than the jungle?! Why?!), I'm hard pressed to find a part of the game I dislike... or at least disagree with from a design perspective.
Like Hades, I don't know where this well cement itself in my list once my time with it is over, but I think I'm ready to call Spelunky 2 the word so many used for the original: perfect.
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