Well damn, gang. Now it’s MY turn to go “what do you even say about 2020?” So I guess I’ll say this. For me, this year was… strange in how much DIDN’T change for me. I’m an “essential worker” so I’m still going in to work as usual, though my coworkers are catching covid and disappearing one by one =( I couldn’t go out… which I don’t really do anyway. All my friends are online friends, so it’s not like my friendships felt the brunt. Things felt… almost normal, for my affairs.
Mostly for me it was a year of trying to understand the pain of others. Even if things weren’t changing too much for ME, the people around me were hurting, and I needed to be there for them. And make fun of them for their Horny On Main posts. That’s what it looks like when I care.
I don’t really expect 2021 to be much better. Small steps, maybe. But the main thing is, I will be braced for bad events, rather than getting flatfooted. Now, time for a really awkward transition: VIDEO GAMES!
10. Cook Serve Delicious 3
Not even CSD3 could unseat Cook Serve Delicious 2 from the throne of Best Cooking Game Ever. To be honest, I just think the tuning in this one is a bit off. It’s a little too hard! But the presentation is more charming than ever, and I would never have guessed that what would push the series’ formula over the top is dialogue. Huge, HUGE props to the VAs and writers for Whisk and Cleaver, the two robot friends who carried me through this game and indeed a lot of 2020 with their spirit.
I love to cook, and to serve. And I really love it when my food is delicious. So what else could I want?
9. Banner of the Maid
Ok. I’ll say it again: Chinese free-to-play studio makes a Switch Fire Emblem/Advance Wars hybrid tactics game about an alternate history French Revolution. Marie Antoinette has magic. Napoleon has a little sister who’s also a badass general and a sort of like tactics witch? This game owns and is really unexpected. At times it leans a little hard into anime tropes, but this is an overlooked gem. PC and Switch, give it a try.
8. Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Alright, cutter. Now, the last one I taught set herself on fire twice cuz she weren’t so good at listenin’. You’re gonna be better, right? So, here’s the deal: you owe Lynx a billion dollars. Sounds like a lot of money, don’t it Cutter? That’s ok. You are gonna pay that off, eventually, probably. Just get up every morning, and do some shipbreakin’.
What’s shipbreakin’? Oh cutter, you really ARE fresh, aren’tcha. You see this ship? Decommissioned transport shuttle. Looks like a pile of paint and metal to you, I bet. Well, once I’m done with ya, you’ll look at it and see money. Take this grapple, laser, and jetpack, and skin this sumbitch like an orange. Every piece, treated properly, is money in the bank.
And cutter? For god’s SAKE stop moving before you fire that laser. You’re gonna give me a heart attack.
7. Gundam Breaker 3
I don’t think it’s right for me to put gunpla on this list, though I built a LOT of gunpla in 2020. So I’m gonna do the next best thing: a game I imported in 2020 and played a ton of, which is like gunpla Dynasty Warriors. I know, they already made a Dynasty Warriors Gundam. Four of em, actually. This is better. A lot better.
The options for building and customizing your own gunpla are frankly buck wild. I built a centaur-Gundam loaded with funnels (free-floating laser drones, basically). I made a mobile suit that was just a sea of missile pods. I built a martial arts robot that dashed at you and crushed your head with one glowing red fist. And the gameplay is GOOD! Wears a little thin, is very grindy. But in 2020, grindy was almost a GOOD thing. I really hope they make another good Gundam Breaker. And I hope for you Gundam fans out there that you give this game a shot.
6. Shenmue 2
Do you know where I can find some… time to finish Shenmue 2? It wasn’t until 2021 that I actually knuckled down and finished the second part of Yu Suzuki’s martial arts epic. Saying “I should have done it sooner” feels empty, because obviously I should have: I promised to do it sooner, and kept all our listeners plus Jen and Kyrie waiting! But even setting that pressure aside, I should have played it sooner for ME.
There really is nothing like Shenmue. The series is about the mundane in pursuit of the extraordinary, and it’s astonishing. I can see why people get so obsessed with it: Yu Suzuki and his team just figured out an approach to games that literally NO ONE has replicated. It leaves me speechless.
5. Ghost of Tsushima
I am shrinking into my seat. There’s a Triple A open world action game in Six’s top five? What kind of game critic are they? Don’t they know this game is clumsy in its engagement with Japanese history and culture, and its idea of samurai cinema is laughably basic?
I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I just liked it! The combat was fun, the abilities were fun, the game is very pretty, and I just wanted to go around and duel people! I had a really really good time with this game! It’s basically the Assassin’s Creed Japan game they never made. And it’s better than that would have been! You can dunk on me all you like, this was one of my five favorite games of the year.
4. Dragon Ball FighterZ
Fighting gaaaames! I almost gave this spot to Granblue Fantasy Versus, a fighting game I had a really good time with, but by the end of the year, I’d soured on it a little. It’s not that GBFV isn’t awesome, it’s just that the character design started to blur together. Oh, this character has a one button counter, a DP, and a projectile? Wow I’ve described half the cast. It got a little… tired.
Meanwhile, DBFZ continues to put out new characters with amazing design, and keep me engaged with the existing designs. Kefla didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped, but I’m still delighted she’s finally in the game. Meanwhile, Master Roshi is a character I absolutely HATE in the anime, but his movelist in the game is… really cool? And Ultra Instinct Goku is really sick too? And they just released Super Baby 2 from fuckin GT of all things and he’s fun as SHIT? Plus, hey. Broly never got boring. Terrifying people with armor and bullying them with the game’s best zoning? God. I love that character.
3. Apex Legends
Countless evenings in 2020 were capped by getting a message from friend of the site Ryan, asking if I wanted to play Apex. I nearly always did. All the things that people said about Apex Legends at launch are still true: it’s pretty, it’s fun, the gunplay is great, the movement is on point, the communication tools are excellent. 2020 saw some great changes to the map, though I am still salty that they removed the train, probably my favorite part of any map.
This spot goes to Apex, but it’s really more of a stand-in for evening nights gaming with Ryan. I don’t know if I can make it number one because that doesn’t feel fair, most of y’all don’t have a Ryan in your life. You should. Playing games with Ryan is the most fun I had all year. Thanks to Apex for facilitating that, and thanks to Ryan for being there with me.
2. Paradise Killer
A part of me is so MAD that this is on my list. Jen told me I needed to play this over-stylized Danganronpa-inspired murder mystery. And like I trust her. I do! But boy, I really don’t like Danganronpa, and I was bracing myself to dislike this. But nani the hell (grrr), this game was SO GOOD. Beautiful, poppy, fun, and soothing. It is honestly the best walking sim of all time.
We’ve spoken a lot about it on Gimmick Award categories, so I don’t wanna stretch this too much longer. But every time I log onto Twitter now, in my mind, I hear Starlight saying NIGHTMARE COMPUTER.
1. Hades
It is hard to believe that our site Game of the Year from 2019 and my personal number 3 from that year is now sitting atop the pack. Supergiant has always made good games. With Hades, I think they have made one of the best roguelikes of all time, second only to Spelunky.
I played a TON of this game in 2019, but with all the updates that hit in 2020, I sure as shit played a lot of it last year too. The conclusion of the narrative was everything I was hoping, and the additions to the late game were a real blast. But honestly, the main thing that hooked me last year was the same thing that hooked me in 2019. An incredible art style and presentation on top layered on top of the pinnacle of the action combat that Supergiant has been chasing since their inception. What a game.
