My Favorite Games of 2020
While I did a lot of gaming in 2020, I did not play many brand new to 2020 games. I got pulled right back into my comfort games at the start of quarantine and didn’t cover as many new games as I expected. This list is a showcase of my favorite games that were new to 2020 and broken down into a few different categories.
Favorite Rerelease
BioShock: The Collection (Nintendo Switch)
The Nintendo Switch is great at a lot of things. The portability is excellent. I like the controllers. It obviously gets all those wonderful Nintendo exclusive games. It is not known for being a very powerful console.
Just for laughs, I treated myself to the BioShock: The Collection release on the Nintendo Switch during a sale. The BioShock trilogy are some of my favorite games of all time. I was shocked to find out that all three BioShock games play beautifully on the Switch. They look great, the controls are responsive, and it doesn’t lag like I expected. Now I have BioShock on the go whenever I need it, which is worth celebrating.
Super Mario 3D All Stars (Nintendo Switch)
This release did not surprise me. Nintendo ported Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy to the Nintendo Switch. Obviously they’re as delightful as they ever were. The Switch is not the most powerful console, but it is the most powerful Nintendo console, so these games run well.
The only caveat here is I have an easier time not slipping onto the wrong buttons on the grip when the controllers are not connected to the Switch. Using the kickstand and the Joy-Cons separately isn’t the worst disadvantage.
Favorite Early Access
Ooblets (PC, Epic Games Store exclusive)
Ooblets is a positive vibes only mash-up of Pokemon, Stardew Valley, deck building games, and rhythm games. You arrive at the island of Oob to start a new life. There, people co-exist with these adorable little dancing monsters called Ooblets. You farm your team from seeds you collect in dance battles. In turn, those Ooblets give you cards to perform dances or stop your opponents from dancing so you can reach the score threshold first and win.
There is so much enjoyable content in this game already that’s still being actively developed. The music and characters are great. The farming mechanics have some nice twists that differentiate them from similar games. The fetch quests are fun. I can lose hours to this game without even realizing it.
World of Horror (PC)
World of Horror calls itself a cross between Junji Ito and HP Lovecraft. On that alone, I was sold. Then I played hours on-stream and can comfortably say this is really a mix of the art style of Junji Ito with the horror/detective writing of Edogawa Ranpo.
This game is Weird Fiction with a capital W. You play as a woman investigating supernatural events all around Japan while a clock ticks down to the end of the world brought on by the Ancient Ones of Lovecraft. It’s a rogue-like game, with different missions, main enemy, and growing list of disadvantages. When this game finally has all its content finalized, I’ll be lost in it for weeks.
My Favorite New Games of 2020
Monster Train (PC)
Monster Train is a rogue-like deck building game. You play as the forces of hell, trying to carry the last bit of fire to the core of Hell so it doesn’t fully freeze over. To get there, you must fight the forces of heaven through the eight circles of hell.
There is so much depth and complexity to Monster Train that I keep coming back again and again. It is one of the hardest and most entertaining deck building games I’ve ever encountered. You lay your card units and spells down on three floors of a train, fighting wave after wave of enemies that all fight with different rules. There are 40 possible deck combinations so far (you choose one of two champions in one of five classes of characters, then a secondary support class out of the remaining four) and the exact layout of the map (with items to buy and upgrade) and the pattern of enemies changes every playthrough. That’s not even getting into daily challenges, user created content, and multiplayer modes.
Scarlet Hollow: Episode One (PC)
Scarlet Hollow is a horror/adventure/visual novel game from cartoonist/graphic novelist Abby Howard. You play as a character returning to your ancestral home for the funeral of a relative you never met. You arrive in the Holler and find out that there are everyday occurrences in this town that are myths and nightmares to the rest of the world.
Episode One is the first of seven chapters for Scarlet Hollow. It is already a visual novel with high re-playability. You choose two out of seven traits that offer you different dialogue and action options in the story. Having the ability to talk to animals tells a very different story than being strong or knowing how to read people. It’s as beautiful as it is terrifying, and I paused many times on my playthroughs so far just to admire the quality of Howard’s art.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)
For full disclosure, I have not touched Animal Crossing: New Horizons since Easter. Before then, I was playing four-plus hours every day to get the full experience of one of my favorite Nintendo series. This was THE game that was keeping people sane during the first few months of quarantine, a gentle escapist fantasy about building a community on an island populated by human-sized animals.
There is nothing quite like an Animal Crossing game. You farm, you fish, you catch bugs, you dig up fossils, you make friends with critters, you build, you travel to other islands, you make clothes, you take photos, and so much more. The game is just so much fun, and far more gentle than ever before since the villagers no longer roast you and steal your items. I have dark memories of being robbed in broad daylight by a bird on the GameCube, and no one helped me. Thankfully, that mechanic is gone for good, replaced with genuine online multiplayer.
