by mocbucket62
A few months ago I made a personal top 10 games of 2019 revisited list. I did it since I had played a few 2019 games since that year and felt compelled to make an updated list It was pretty fun to do and I wanted to make another revisited and I want to do 2020 next. Which I'll say 2020 is a pretty important year for gaming for me since some of my favorite games ever released that year. However, I didn't play that many 2020 games (or games in general) that year as I played Twelve 2020 games within that year. Plus 2 games that year (Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 and Animal Crossing New Horizons) reached over the 100 hour mark. Since then, I've played 4 more 2020 games and 3 of them made this new list.
For gaming in general that year I feel like it was pretty strong where you had a good mix of solid 1st and 3rd party games release and some indies that were runaway hits (Hades and at the time Fall Guys since that was published by Devolver). It was also a year where I felt there were plenty of underrated indies that released that year but didn't quite get the attention that I think they deserved and you'll see a few on this list. If anything with some of the 2020 games I've played, I learned that 2020 was lowkey the greatest year for video game adaptations of popular tabletop games. I mean, both Video Games and Tabletop games had a huge boost in sales since well, 2020 was the year COVID-19 broke out and many people had to stay home to prevent spreading the virus, let alone get infected. So in order to be entertained Video Games and Tabletop games were in high demand. I know this was the year where my family and I fell in love with Ticket to Ride and as I stated in my initial list write up, it was the Board GOTY. Also I'll just say 1 game released that year that became pretty instrumental in developing a hobby of mine in real life. But moving on here is the initial Top 10 I had for 2020:
Cook, Serve, Delicious 3?!
Hades
Them's Fightin' Herds
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Spiritfarer
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Murder By Numbers
Resident Evil 3 Remake
XCOM: Chimera Squad
And now here is the revisited, updated list of my top 10 games of 2020:
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Yeah unlike my Revisited Top Games of 2019 list where Sekiro became my retroactive GOTY, there's no Retroactive GOTY this time. CSD3 was my pick for GOTY back then and its still my GOTY from that year now. Heck if you were to ask me what my favorite game is, my answer is very likely CSD3! If not its a top 5 game ever for me. CSD3 to me has some of the most satisfying gameplay loops ever where you plan out your food truck's menu based on a route's them or sometime point requirement and you serve a bunch of that food to the best of your ability. The days are made better if you make 0 mistakes but more on that later. It's a game where because of how hard it got to serve food perfectly (especially on those No Autoserve foods like Hot Dogs and Bibimbap which require 2 steps to make) I used Chill mode so customers would have infinite patience on those foods so I could practice getting better at No Autoserves while sacrificing being able to obtain gold medals. But eventually when doing standard levels that had Autoserve Foods on them where they only require 1 step to make and getting gold on those, I developed a desire to get better and got golds with No Autoserves and I was hooked. Honestly nothing has felt better to me in gaming than getting a Gold Medal on these routes when you serve orders exactly how every customer wanted their food and getting a perfect run to earn that gold. Also, with Autoserve foods when its ready you press a button that will just serve all that food automatically to speed things up and that feels amazing. It really is a game that I developed a strong love and respect for during 2020 and I got pretty emotional when I beat it in 2020! The last level in the Iron Cook Speedway is thrilling and a great, challenging send off to the game and tests your reflexes and pattern memorization of prepping and cooking the hardest dishes in the game such as the King Potato and Pho. I had put over 100 hours when I beat the game the first time and then in 2022, I did it again but also to get any remaining achievement on Steam I had not gotten before. I 100%-ed CSD3 and am in the 1.3% of Players to get the 2 hardest achievements in the game (Gran Tiramisu which is to get a perfect day on a 36-point menu on one of the ICS levels and Grand Finale which is to get a perfect day on a 44-point menu on the final level). This is also the game I was talking about where it inspired me to develop my hobby of cooking more. I made Tandoori Chicken and Gazpacho because of this game! I even have a Fresh Pasta noodle maker and stand mixer because of CSD3! Plus really quick I do like the light story it tells where it follows up after the events of CSD2 where Terragon Tower (the tower where you built up the Cook, Serve, Delicious Restaurant and where you took shifts in other eateries) gets blown up by a missile and 2 androids named Whisk and Cleaver convince you to start your business over via food truck where Whisk is your driver and Cleaver will fend off any competing food trucks from messing you up. The music is also delightfully composed by Jonathon Geer and I love listening to tunes such as A La Idavey and Seafood Boil on my free time! I am looking forward to CSD Re-Mustard which hopefully releases this year and sounds like that game is taking gameplay cues from 3 such as the Autoserve mechanic and that have me very excited! CSD3 is frankly gonna stay at number 1 from this year of course. Though while CSD3 remains my 2020 GOTY I do have a new runner up that I beat in 2024!
Back in 2024 there were 2 big themes that I noticed with which games I played. It was the year where I really got into Retro Games in a way that I had not approached before and beat lots of classic games such as Super Metroid and Mega Man 1-3. But also I call 2024 the year of Ichiban Kasuga. The reason is because that was the year I beat both Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Now I do consider Infinite Wealth the better video game mechanically and it ended up as my 2024 GOTY. Heck it was a birthday gift from my brother and got it 4 days after I beat Yakuza 7. However, I don't think I would have been interested in Infinite Wealth had I not fallen in love with Ichiban's debut game from 2020. Now I had started playing Like a Dragon back in 2022 but kinda fell off of it after starting chapter 4. But I got the motivation to play it again in 2024 and really couldn't it down. Its a really fun Turn Based RPG where beloved knucklehead Ichiban Kasuga fights random goons (or sujimon as they are referred to) all over Isezaki Ijincho. The battles are really fun as many special attacks require exact timing to land more damage similar to Paper Mario. There also a really fun job system where Ichiban and friends can change jobs and learn new attacks and abilities. I kept Ichiban at Heroo myself but I got Adachi to become a Musician which is kinda a Buff/Debuff based class and Adachi goes from being former detective to a Hippie guitarist. Saeko was an excellent Idol which is basically a white mage class for healing. But while this game is different to past Yakuza's with its RPG battle it still maintains many key components of the old titles. There are still side stories and these made me both fall more in love with Ichiban and his attitude of just wanting to help people as well as witness what insanity was in store for these side stories. One Story Ichiban is helping someone spot a fake mascot that's profiting off of their real mascot and confronting the phony while another will have Ichiban help fund a scientific experiement for a giant Roomba Robot that goes awry. There's plenty of mini games from past Yakuza games in here such as Karaoke and Mahjong but there's 2 main events for mini games in this package. There's Dragon Kart which is a fun Mario Kart side racing game where you are racing against various characters such as a Professional Wrestler and a Bunny Maid. Then there's my favorite Ichiban Confections, where you help a struggling Rice Cracker company rise to the top by managing employee happiness, making profit in various locations and calming down any angry shareholders. I'll also say that when compared to Infinite Wealth, I do think this game has both a better narrative and better villains. The journey you see Ichiban and friends go on reveals lots of dark secrets about certain organizations they uncover and see how diabolical characters like Ryo Aoki end up being. Anyways, if I had a PS5 back in 2020 this could have been my #2 back then and I adore this game from its cast of characters to its addictive gameplay in the battles and the mini games.
Here is my initial runner up from 2020 and oh yeah I understand why this game won GOTY at GB and elsewhere. It was the game that was the 2nd highest winning game for GOTY in 2020 behind The Last of Us Part 2 (a game that I haven't played). It's a masterclass in both Character action games and Roguelike design where you play as Hades' son Zagreus and he wishes to leave the Underworld and meet his mother Persephone. The way the combat flows feels awesome as Zag will wield a weapon of your choice and you can stack with various abilities given by the Gods of Olympus who aid you in your escape. I said this in my initial write up but I loved using the Fisticuffs paired with Dionysus' strike to basically stack poison on enemies as that chews their lifebars away. But really I think favorite weapon was the shield as it is obviously great for defense but its special makes for a good projectile option with Zag throwing it like he's Captain America. Plus the Shield paired with Poseidon's Waves which push enemies back and Athena's Deflect Boons made for a strong defensive build. Hades is also a game full of great characters. Zag himself is bratty but you do understand where he's coming from on why he wants to reach the service. I mean, his dad Hades does not show much love to his son early in the game. Though Hades' witty dialouge and the great performance by Logan Cunningham makes him the definitive Hades in Media in my opinion. Cunningham also does a great job as Poseidon, Asterius, Achillies, Charon and the narrator himself, Homer. Other great characters and performances include Megaera which is Zagreus' ex who is the first boss you encounter after nearing the end of Tartarus and she makes it personal to keep you from advancing upward. Shout Out to Avalon Penrose for her performance as Meg. Also I love Courtney Vineys' performance as Dusa being this shy caretaker in the underworld and she gets so excited and nervous when Zagreus wanted to talk to her. Hades is the complete package for what it sets out to do. Being a really fun character action game with roguelike elements that makes for plenty of replay value and does a stellar job with its music, art style and characterization of its cast. Like how I compared Yakuza 7 to Infinite Wealth, I do think Hades II is a better playing game but the story in Hades 1 I think is better overall. Hades still stands as one of the best games of 2020 to me.
Funny how this game stays in its number 4 spot because in hindsight, I probably should have ranked this #3 on my initial list. At the same with how strong of an impression Yakuza 7 had on me it sorted out to put New Horizons back at #4 for me. Having said all of this still Animal Crossing: New Horizons is definitely a top 5 game from 2020 for me. It is actually the most played game on here as I've put over 250 hours into the game. I was going strong playing New Horizons from when it launched on March 20 to July. But around August even with the update to dive underwater and collect deep sea creatures, that was when the fatigue over checking in on the island ever day was kicking in. Also around August that was when I was checking out CSD3 Early Access updates and then CSD3 took the baton and had that run to be my GOTY. But anyways, New Horizons was what I wanted in something like 2020. Where I needed to get my island to become a 5 star island for inhabitants and I to move to and enjoy paradise. I really enjoyed getting to meet various villagers and vibing with them. Phoebe was an awesome initial villager I got being this Ostrich/Phoenix hybrid lady and she always had some cool big sister energy to her. I also really dug Octavian who was a Cranky Octopus but had a sick house where it looked like it was on the Moon, as if he was an alien. There was some nice satisfaction in getting my island to that 5 star rating by building areas the way I wanted from making an outdoor pizzeria to creating a football field where Snapping Turtles I caught in lakes were my home Football team. Speaking of which, I loved collecting creatures in NH to fill out the museum. I ranked the fishing in NH at the top of my fishing mini game tier list for a good reason as its always a delight to see what creature I caught even though the rods eventually broke. I'll never forget crafting so much bait to catch a Stringfish before March ended and on my first cast, I got a Stringfish! Catching Bugs was also a lot of fun as I'd either stealthily catch a beetle on a tree or time my net right to catch wasps that were chasing me. Giving all of these creatures to Blathers was always nice (despite his clear disdain for bugs) but for Blathers the fossil collection was his specialty since he loves dinosaurs and it was fun to dig up those fossils. It's actually the one exhibit I have filled out in the Museum. This was also a great experience to see other people's islands such as my brother having a very cool, log cabin like Island and even going to other islands to get things like fossils to help get that exhibit filled. Honestly, typing about New Horizons has me itching to come back since its gotten lots of updates and would like to chill at Nuthatch Island again. I never caught Salmon or King Salmon which are only available in September. Maybe this month is due for a revisit.
This game was my initial #3 of 2020 and it sure was a surprise game on here. I know that Them's Fightin' Herds was initially that My Little Pony fan made fighting game (Called Fighting is Magic I think?) and despite being considered a solid fighting game it got the cease-and-desist letter from Hasbro. Then in 2015 it got crowdfunded as an original IP with original characters to fill the voids in of that MLP cast. TFH went into early access in 2018 and then released as a 1.0 game in 2020 with some caveats. But what got me to even give this a chance was watching Ben Pack stream Them's FIghtin' Herds because this was the game he picked to compete for the Rollback Netcode EVO tournament that never happened. Apparently, that was when co-founder Joey "McWizard" Cuellar got charges for sexual misconduct and parties such as Netherrealm and Mane6 (the TFH devs) pulled out which later led to its cancellation. I was curious about this game because the idea of a fighting game starring ungulates was intriguing and little did I know that this game would have quite an impact. Them's Fightin' Herds is an excellent fighting game that excels at many things it strives for. It has a great tutorial that really breaks down how this game's fighting system works but walks the player through both simple and more complicated inputs quite nicely. The music in this game is actually really solid where each stage has an initial theme but depending on which character is winning it changes to match that character. Winning a match in the Majestic Woodlands as Velvet the Reindeer? Well now you get some Christmas like Bells to accompany Velvet's lead. The story mode (while incomplete and more on that later) has a great 1 chapter that very meaty as it takes 3 hours to complete and follows Arizona the cow becoming the champion of the Cows and Bulls despite her Dad not entirely loving the decision and she must confront these shadowy predators such as Giant Snakes and Wolves that are wreaking havoc as well as fight other player fighters who get unique phases in this mode as they are treated more as actual boss fights. But the big thing that made TFH stand out to me was the online play. This might be the most amount of time I spent playing a game online as I loved going into lobbies and facing off against opponents with that sweet Rollback netcode. I mained Arizona and granted I lost more than I won. But when I won it was an awesome feeling and for the most part felt earned! There's also a salt mines mini game online where you take on predators while you mine for salt. Whoever has the most salt transforms into a bear and becomes super OP. I turned a bear once and it was amazing. Its bittersweet typing about TFH again since this game did get support after launch and got 5 new characters in the roster. However that story mode never got complete since the publisher that bought this game Modus/Maximum games fired most of the TFH staff and ended support after the final character released in the season pass. The final update even came with bugs that supposedly came from the publisher intervening and that was not received well. But there is hope for TFH since the game is now owned by Gameplay Group International and maybe they want to get the old team together and finish what they had planned. Anyways TFH was at one point my favorite traditional fighting game but for reasons that aren't Mane6's fault perhaps that probably goes to something like Soul Calibur II or Mortal Kombat 2011. But TFH is definitely one of the greatest online gaming experiences I had and if GGI intends to actually update the game I might get back to doing some Lasso/Stomp combos as Arizona. Just don't have Mike Zaimont touch TFH at all since he sucks. Actually, that's a bummer in itself that the current owners of TFH have let Mike Z work on modern fighting games such as Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game.
One of the new games on this list and one of the big inspirations for making this list. In fact, I first learned about Wingspan the board game from an Indie World where this game was shown in a sizzle real at one Indie World in 2020 and my brother and I were both like "DID YOU SEE THAT BIRD CARD GAME?!" We have a history of bird watching since we are both found of birds and seeing that got us excited. Eventually I bought my brother the Board Game itself for Christmas. Meanwhile I bought Wingspan on Switch and I thought this game was one of the LAST Game releases of 2020 since it came out on Console on 12/29/2020. Actually Wingspan had been out on Steam since 9/17/2020 and the console release was super late. It is a game I played a little bit of in 2021 and liked what I played of it. But this year feels like Wingspan's year both as a board game and digitally since on my recent visit seeing my brother, we played A LOT of Wingspan and its expansions in person and loved it. Meanwhile I have put over 40 hours into the digital version and it's a tremendous transition from its tabletop form to video game form. Wingspan is an engine building game about building up a bird sanctuary as you play birds in 3 different environments. Forest, Grasslands and Water. These environments also have different actions tied to them as Forest lets you gather food resources from a bird feeder, Grasslands let you lay eggs on birds and Water lets you draw more birds cards either from the facing 3 cards shown and/or blindly from the top of the deck. Though the goal is to have the highest score if you are playing with someone else. You can get points from the birds themselves who have feather point values from the Turkey Vulture worth 1 Point to the Baltimore Oriole worth 9 points. There is also end of round goals that you can score on based on how much things you got in a round such as Eggs in the Grassland or just Total Birds. The Bonus Cards are where I tend to score the most as that works like Ticket to Ride Route cards but you don't lose points for not meeting the goal and instead get points based on you played on the map. You can score 4 points for Birds with 4-5 Birds w/ Stone nests or 7 w/ 6 stone nest birds or get 2 points per bird that eat Vermin (go after Hawks and Owls for that bonus card). You can also get points from laying Eggs, Caching Food Tokens (Highly recommend White and Red-Breasted Nuthatches for that) and Tucked Cards if a bird has a Tucked card ability. Birds can even have ability that can synergize with you scoring points. In one game I had a Belted Kingfisher in the water and its "Once Between Turns" ability is to collect a fish resource if another player plays a bird in the water. That was useful for my Double Crested Cormorant who when you draw cards has the ability to discard a fish resource to tuck 2 cards from the deck behind the Cormorant to gain 2 points. So will say, I have mainly must played against CPU players in this game but I have become super hooked on this game that I really have a great time playing matches of Wingspan now on my Switch 2. If anything, its become great practice for when I play this game in person and then I think much more on how to build my bird sanctuary engine to gain more points. Plus this version goes above and behind the standard Board Game adaptation into a video game. The music in this game is calming but quite memorable and the birds animate when you play them! To me Wingspan is one of 2 reasons why 2020 might be the best year for video game versions of tabletop games. This version is an excellent adaptation of the board game that plays super well and taught me how to play the game properly. It helps that I love birds and this game has so many cool birds in North America. I should play this game online and check out those expansions digitally.
My initial #6 game of 2020. Looking back we ate so good with indies in September of 2020 since This, Hades and Wingspan on Steam all released on the same month. Spiritfarer is such a delightful but melancholy game. It is a game where you are a young girl named Stella and she is now the titular new Spiritfarer taking over for Charon. Stella must take care of different passengers across this fantastically sea who all take forms of different animals. What these passengers truly represent are people who your character knew personally in real life and you are doing tasks and requests for them before their eventual destination to the Everdoor, where they will say goodbye to Stella and ascends into the afterlife. This is a game that rated very well on Giant Bomb's GOTY podcasts in 2020 and for good reason. It is a relaxing management sim where you manage this ship full of these people you need to take care of and you have some fun customization with you ship but building things such as Kitchens and Farm houses to either get resources or make specific things for your passengers. It also packs a very emotional punch as you learn more about these passengers and what they were like as people and what even got them onto your boat in the first place. I got rather emotional learning about Alice who was this sweet old lady but something happens to her in the game that well, hit me in the emotional gut. I can tell this was a game that really resonated with Vinny and Alex and I can absolutely relate. Its wild this is only #7 on my list now and frankly that was because I did find some pacing issues with Spiritfarer that annoyed me. For instance, Atul your Uncle Frog Passenger is kindly asking for you to make Fried Chicken if you made some other food early on. Problem is that you can't make any oil needed to make Fried Chicken unless you get a certain passenger that will help you build a crushing room to crush seeds for oil and that passenger wasn't available to me after 1-2 hours of Atul asking for Fried Chicken. Also I found the game a little overwhelming when I had to manage the happiness of 4 to 5 passengers on my ship at times. But still, this is a terrific Management Sim that I highly recommend. I haven't even talked about the side content you do in the game. I really fishing mini game in Spiritfarer where you can catch regular size fish anywhere in the sea but if you find a big fish spot on the map, you can go there and try and catch an Albacore or a Bluefin Tuna to the beat of an absolute jam! Farming felt good in this game and you can mine for ore when on certain islands. THe resource collection often led to satisfying things to make from Passenger's favorite foods to making new structures on the boat. Controlling Stella felt good too as her hat acts like a Guider from BOTW and her running movement just feels satisfying. If you haven't play Spiritfarer yet, definitely play it if you like Management Sims. Oh and you can play this in co-op and Player 2 plays as Stella's good cat Daffodil.
This game took a bit of a fall from my initial list. This was the last game I beat in 2020. I think what hurt Ori here is in reassessing how I like it compared to other games like Spiritfarer and learning about the toxic environment of Moon Studios kinda made me sour on Will of the Wisps to some extent. But in actuality that's unfair to the game itself as I can always separate the art from the artist. And even with Will of the Wisps falling a few spots on my list I still think of it as one of the best Metroidvanias that is neither a Metroid or a Castlevania. Will of the Wisps is a beautiful game where Ori is exploring this natural world to find his new adopted brother and cute owl Ku. But what's cool about Will of the Wisps is that after going through an initial area you can choose to go into certain biomes in any order. Which takes some inspiration from BOTW but in a 2D Metroid viewpoint. Funny enough I did the desert biome last which was where the fun digging ability was at but that seemed more like the intended first biome to go to since it was easiest biome made easier with me getting other abilities from the other biomes. But that's one of the things that stood out to me with Will of the Wisps. That it has a great collecting of mobility power ups that made exploration a whole lotta fun. The Dash itself is good for both dashing forward and combining it with a jump to leap over heights. Technically it has a great grappling hook which is just referred to as Grapple lets you grab onto hooks or blue moss to explore certain sections. But also this game's combat was really enjoyable as well. The Spirit Edge that I get early on was pretty clutch for early boss fights and I can land some easy combos to chew that lifebar up. You also get new attacks from a character named Opher and one that I acquired and used a lot was an upgraded downward hammer attack where after the hammer landed spikes sprung from the ground to deal extra damage. But also with the solid combat and boss fights there are some great chase sequences as well that test you controls and movement builds for Ori and the sequences look awesome and were very thrilling in action. Ultimately this is a wonderfully designed Metridvania that I remember saying it would rank higher if I did play it earlier in that year. Well looking at it now it is weird where this fell a few spots as I think I'd prefer to play some other games from that year now. But still, this is one of the best Metroidvanias and best-looking games out there.
Another new entrant and this along with Wingspan makes me think 2020 was the best year for video game adaptations of tabletop games. Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide classics stays true to what the title promises as many of the games included are Worldwide classic games you can play in person. It had Chess which is one of the greatest tabletop strategy games ever and this version is very polished and fun. It has Yacht Dice which is what Yahtzee took inspiration from and is really addictive as you feel the Switch (well Switch 2 for me) rumble in handheld mode as you shake the die. Scoring is also a little different to Yahtzee in that something like a Full House adds the sum of all the die rolled together vs. 25 points in Yahtzee. Also Darts is super fun as it has a touch screen way of throwing the darts at the target and it feels good to fling a dart right where you want to score points. But this package has gotten me more into other games I had not played before some such as Mancala, Hit and Blow, Hanafuda, President and Carrom. There's even a really fun falling puzzle game called 6 Ball Puzzle which was initially a Mario Party 9 single player mini game that they reworked as a competitive 1v1 puzzle game where you match 6 same colored balls. Preferably as either Lines, Pyramids or Hexagons to throw trash at your opponent. But this package has done an excellent job in teaching me how to play some of these games properly. I had played Backgammon before but learned that I was playing wrong here as in person I would score the closest 5 checkers into the slot before all my checkers where in that section of the board to be beared off. I learned in Clubhouse that you gotta bear off all your checkers in that score zone in order to score. Also this game has the best Riichi Mahjong tutorial ever as I learned how to play Mahjong from knowing when to call Riichi to claiming Chii or Pon when I saw I tile I needed. Yakuza Like a Dragon is way higher ranked on this list, but I find Yakuza's text heavy tutorials hard to memorize whereas the tutorial here helped me understand how to go for Seven Pairs and when playing matches against CPU you cn refer to a cheat sheet to show what hands you should play for such as Half Flushes. Now I don't think every one of these 51 Worldwide Classics are actually good. There's a reason why War is the 1st game played at the Cheapo Casino in the movie Vegas Vacation. It is a lousy card game entirely dependent on luck for you to win, even though Clark Griswold sucked at it. And while many enjoy this game, I just can't get into Renegade. But still I've been on a kick playing 51 Worldwide Classics and this might be the greatest collection of board, card, tabletop sports and other games out there.
The 10 spot was closely contended between this and Astro's Playroom. The Latter is a wonderful showcase of what the PS5 can do where you feel the sensation of your Astro Bot exploring specific levels like walking through a rainy field and the controller feels like its being rained on. Plus its a sweet love letter to Sony's console history and has some fun nods to many Playstation classics and past tech demonstrations. But its a game that is pretty short and the sense of wonder of seeing those levels isn't as strong as the first time around. had I not played Clubhouse Games, Playroom would be on the list. Even though you can argue that the rain tech of Astro Bot is better than feeling the switch rumble when die are shaking in Yacht Dice. But anyways onto the actual game listed here I never really played that much Tony Hawk back then. I saw my cousins play it on their Playstation years ago and really got to play the Game Boy Color Tony Hawk which isn't very good and dabbled in THPS3 and Underground. 1+2 was my real true deep dive into playing a Tony Hawk game proper. I played this game initially on Epic Game Store (something that I never use anymore) but the tutorial did a good job walking through the basics of the controls and getting into how you can chain tricks to increase the score. Not to mention Tony Hawk himself is narrating and he's so encouraging when you do well. But also this game at the time took me a bit to wrap around how to get a good score but after enough practice, I was chaining some grinds into manuals with pivots to increase the multiplier and then I was getting air on half pipe to land some 900's and Aerial McTwists. The levels that were remade from 1 and 2 and so much fun to explore as its always enjoyable to do some of the more collectathon based objectives such as finding the letters to spell skate or get something that's unique to the level such as collecting 5 Subway Cards in NYC. I originally played as Tony Himself for landing more big air tricks for the THPS1 tour, but I swapped to Kareem Campbell for more of a Street Style experience in the THPS2 tour. But also it feels so good to chain your tricks together to get an amazing high score. Admittedly I played this recently to see if it still belongs on my top 10 of 2020 on my PS5 this time. I admit, I was rusty and was wiping out early. But eventually it was coming back to me when I was landing special tricks again after getting the special meter ready. Heck, I remembered a score hack in the Warehouse where you grind on the ramps by the gaps, then ollie to grind the next ramp and then wall jump off a wall to go back and keep grinding and jumping to get the multiplier up. So yeah Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 is an excellent remake of 2 classic video games into 1 and is super replayable today. Oh and the soundtrack of course rules ranging from THPS gems like "Superman" by Goldfinger and "You" by Bad Religion to new songs like "In Control" by Baker Boy.