Games Beaten 2020

[Ack]

Dang, pook, way to bury the lead. Congratulations!

[marurun]

Congratulations pook!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Dang, pook, way to bury the lead. Congratulations!

Agreed. Congratulations, pook99. You will undoubtedly have less time for gaming with a baby in the house, and that’s fine. Spending time with your daughter while she’s a baby is way more important than anything related to gaming, and you should treasure that time. You’ll need a break from time-to-time, though, and since I enjoy your posts and reviews, I hope you’ll keep in touch! (It’s nice having another person on here who’ll defend Metroid: Other M!)

.....

Anyway, I’m really enjoying these lists. They help me prioritize games for 2021, and I get a better feel for everyone’s taste. Here are my top ten games for 2020, in alphabetical order:

Aggelos - This is a wonderful tribute to classic Wonder Boy games, playing very similarly to Wonder Boy in Monster World. I love that genre, and this game is among its best.

Daggerhood - This budget, hidden gem, mobile port is, in fact, an absolutely brilliant platformer. It’s unique teleport mechanic makes you think very critically about level design and, specifically, horizontal space. It also controls like a dream and is a delight for fans of die-and-retry platformers.

Elminage Original - I gleefully dumped nearly 100 hours into this dungeon crawler, and I still didn’t get to everything the game had to offer. It combines old-fashioned Wizardry difficulty with some modern quality of life features, making for a tense, but never unduly frustrating, experience. It also has the best training dungeon of all time.

INSIDE - This is the best cinematic platformer. From its breathtaking, horrifying opening to its stunning conclusion, everything about this game is expertly crafted. Great Platforming, puzzles, and set pieces combine into an haunting, sublime experience.

Legend of Grimrock - This is a stupendous, first-person dungeon crawler inspired by Dungeon Master. It looks great, and it plays wonderfully. It’s full of puzzles, secrets, and traps, and I loved it. It served as my introduction to this sub-genre, and based on my experience with it, I am very much looking forward to it exploring it further.

The Messenger - It’s basically a mashup of Ninja Gaiden and Metroid, with a great jumping mechanic. It makes you feel very ninja-y, and it is also genuinely funny. Nothing about it is particularly groundbreaking, but everything it does, it does very, very well.

Ori & The Blind Forest - It took me a while to warm up to this one. Once I got my expectations in check, realizing it is a precision platformer first and a metroidvania second, I couldn’t put it down. The story’s pretty cheesy, and the graphics are not always conducive to precision platforming, but it is otherwise an incredibly well-designed, compelling experience. Also, it takes place in a forest...FULL OF LASERS!!!

Sayonara Wild Hearts - This mobile port is the video game equivalent of a great pop album. It has a little bit of everything, from racing to platforming to rail shooting; it’s short; it looks and sounds great; and once you’ve played it, you’ll want to play it again and again. (Writing about it makes me want to revisit it right now.)

SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash - I’d read that this was a classic game and the NGPC’s killer app, but I had no idea it was so much fun. Collecting cards, assembling a deck, and exploiting the game’s AI to pull out thrilling victories in card games requiring the perfect mix of luck and skill was really engaging, and I regret only that I am not able to play this game against other people, as the developers intended.

Super Mario Odyssey - I didn’t think Nintendo would ever top Super Mario Galaxy, but I was thankfully wrong. Super Mario Odyssey is a sublime 3D platformer and love letter to Nintendo’s mascot. It is easily one of the best games I’ve ever played, and a must-have for anyone with a Nintendo Switch.

Looking forward to 2021!

[MrPopo]

Legend of Grimrock - This is a stupendous, first-person dungeon crawler inspired by Dungeon Master. It looks great, and it plays wonderfully. It’s full of puzzles, secrets, and traps, and I loved it. It served as my introduction to this sub-genre, and based on my experience with it, I am very much looking forward to it exploring it further.

That's been my first game of the year (and I'm going to segue right into the second when I finish) and so far the only "bad" puzzle was the one that required four objects, two of which you were unlikely to have on you and would need to roll back through previous levels to find one.

[Ack]

I need to get back to Grimrock at some point. I think I was on floor 6 when I set it aside for some reason and never got back around to it.

[prfsnl_gmr]

LoG rules. I have the sequel, and I may try to play through it this year too. Apparently, it’s the sub-genre’s pinnacle.

If you’re looking for something very short that, while not the sub-genre’s pinnacle, is still a lot of fun, I recommend Heroes of Monkey Tavern. It scratches that itch, and you can breeze through it in a couple of hours. Also, it’s frequently on sale in the eShop for just $2.

[pook99]

Thanks everyone, having a newborn is a pretty amazing experience, unfortunately, my wife and I also picked up COVID somewhere along the way, which has been an absolute nightmare. Thankfully, we seem to both be getting slowly better, but it was definitely had some terrifying moments over the last couple of days. Also, not being able to smell or taste anything completely sucks, hoping my senses return soon.

[marurun]

Also, not being able to smell or taste anything completely sucks, hoping my senses return soon.

The way babies poop, this may also have a temporary benefit.