GOTY 2020

[Sarge]

Boy, I really haven't played/beaten much from this year. Let's see what I can come up with...

- Streets of Rage 4
- Shantae and the Seven Sirens

That's it!

Of the two, I go with SoR4 on top easily. I originally rated it an 8/10, but it really has grown on me with successive plays. I don't think the soundtrack matches the first two games (although I do like a few tracks and the way they build), but other than that, the brawling feels incredibly tight and impactful.

Shantae wasn't a slouch, either. I was worried since it showed up on Apple Arcade first, but this felt like a good return to the Metroidvania formula, even if I don't think it quite stacks up to Pirate's Curse. Too many niggling bits I didn't care for, like using the Seer power to reveal secrets across the map, forcing a sort of "bomb every wall/burn every bush" feeling if you're going for 100%, but still a great game. Oh, and it was way, way too easy.

 

[Bongo]

I haven't even finished FF7R, but that's on me more than the game, which is basically superb. It has not been a good year for wanting new experiences, and the most fun I've had in 2020 has been diving ever deeper into games I loved in previous years.

Still, there are a few promising releases that are still managing to come out on time, and I might eventually manage to unpack enough of my lingering roguelite burnout to give Hades a try.

 

[JBear]

Hrm...

I think I'm going to have to give the nod to XCOM: Chimera Squad. It gave me the XCOM I love with a campaign length more suited to my preferences.

Runner-up is definitely Monster Train, though, which is easily my most-played game of the year, inching up on 250 hours. I think I would have fallen off it much earlier if my new SO wasn't so into it, but it's cool that she is! I suspect I'll finally put it down for good once I've polished off the last few Expert Challenges, but I haven't been playing it nearly as much lately, so that may take me until the end of the year.

 

[Violentvixen]

Gotta be Animal Crossing. Without getting into what it means to be GOTY or what a good game is or whatever, Animal Crossing ate an astonishing number of my hours at a time when I (and a lot of people) needed it most. On Halloween I logged in for the first time in 2 months to visit my friend's decorated island for the holiday; I got dressed up, did some trick-or-treating on my own island, enjoyed my friend's decorations and costumes, caught up with my villagers, and it's still just...such a nice game. Even if it's off-and-on I imagine I'll still be playing it for years to come.

I harken back to something Justin said on the AC episode of Besties, too - it's the most important video game of the year, maybe even the decade, just for what it was and when it was that. A lot of that has to do with timing and context outside of the game's content, but so what? That doesn't change anything.

This. So hard.

Clubhouse Games for Switch is a delight, especially since only one person needs to buy a copy of the game. My spouse and I have logged a LOT of hours in this. Highly recommended.

Also Trials of Mana. I still think I like the SNES one better but it made me so happy to see my favourite game get a remake and holy shit listening to that music on something other than a ROM was a treat.

Coffee Talk was a short visual novel thing, but I really enjoyed it. Short but good and not as long or dark as VA11 Hall-A (which I liked, but it's nice to have a lighter alternative).

[This spot reserved for Calamity Warriors or Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 or maybe both]

 

[Neo Skimbleshanks]

Another for Trials of Mana here! Beloved childhood game got a very satisfying remake for me. Played through it... four times? Including the post-game dungeon. Great art style, fun to play moment-to-moment, and satisfying to plan your team composition. Also, it is basically a discrete experience - no reason at all to keep a save file to come back to. (some people like that; some people can stop playing if they don't - I have trouble)

 

[4-So]

Probably Trails of Mana remake. I played through the game three times, back to back, which is something I've never done for any other game. Honorable mentions to FF7 Remake and Ghost of Tsushima, the latter being one of the best looking games I've ever played.

Having said that, I'm picking up Demon's Souls at PS5 launch and I've followed Immortals: Fenyx Rising since it was first announced as Gods & Monsters, so I may change my mind before year end. I'm also willing to be pleasantly surprised with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla; it looks great but it has a lot to live up to since Odyssey was so utterly delicious.

 

[Juno]

For new game releases, I'd go with FFVII Remake so far. It plays very well, has fantastic aesthetics between graphical fidelity and strong VA work, and works a very meta twist into the storytelling. As somebody who was largely ambivalent on the original FFVII, I was surprised by how much I was drawn into this game.

If we were to include things like patches/DLC releases into the mix, I'd go with Shadowbringers Patch 5.3. Shadowbringers was the best that FF has ever been at telling a story, and 5.3 sticks the ending perfectly. I'm never gonna forget it.

 

[spines]

played a lot of games this year, a lot more than most recent years since being at home so much has really changed pretty much all of the habits i have around grinding persistent games constantly...but even then, most of them were at least a little old.

my favorite game of 2020 so far: Final Fantasy VII Remake. it feels like a bit of a bland answer, but the original is probably my favorite of the main series games at this point, and while it's certainly not faultless, i'm overwhelmingly impressed by the way remake's creators expanded on it in a way that feels full of love for the original but doesn't feel obligated to play it safe with recreating absolutely everything. plus it's got one of the best pseudo-real-time jrpg battle systems i've seen in years. it's been a long time since i've been left with that "wow, i can't wait to see what the sequel is like!" feeling at all, much less this strongly.

my other favorite game of 2020 so far: Touhou Spell Bubble. not my favorite taito versus puzzler, but it's exciting to see them come back to the genre, and even more so in a licensed game that really takes advantage of the other material in terms of mechanics and content. it's a very multitasking type of game, and surprisingly intense in a tough match, made all the more so by the structure preventing premature losses and enabling a lot of last-second comebacks, but at the end of the day it still feels hard primarily because i never practiced puzzle bobble that much. hahaha.

there are a couple other things i'm looking to check out soon or am hoping will make it to an accessible release for me in time, but those two do seem pretty hard to pass up at this point

 

[Adrenaline]

Half-Life: Alyx

 

[nataeryn]

I'm not sure how I could pick between FF7 Remake and Hades.
I've not played Ghost of Tsushima yet.

 

[ThornGhost]

When I think about the gaming experiences that meant things to me this year, they have been:

Final Fantasy VII Remake: I mean, yeah. I expected to like it, but not as much as I eventually did. Love love that combat system. I don't know if it will mean as much to those who weren't there for the original FFVII but maybe that's OK? Also, the meta narrative seems to be following in the Eva remake's footsteps, but the original FFVII aped the original Evangelion so that, in some ways, makes it even better.

Animal Crossing: Absolutely brought the whole family together during the earliest, scariest, most fluid days of the pandemic. My mom hid eggs in her town then I let my 4 year old daughter use my account to visit so she could have an egg hunt on Easter with her grandmother. Thank you Animal Crossing.

Spelunky 2: Taught me what I was missing sleeping on the original Spelunky. So hard, but so fun to learn and improve. A nourishing game.

Genshin Impact: A BotW rip off anime waifu gacha holy shit why do I like this game so much? So mindlessly compelling. Like eating a big thing of Cheetos while you watch TV, just a slurry of focus-tested pleasure that gently cups some animal part of your brain. Go to hell Genshin Impact, I love you so much.

 

[Oathbreaker]

Ghost of Tsushima came close, I definitely like it more than any game that's even vaguely similar...

But I gotta give it to Final Fantasy VII Remake. I've been waiting since FFIX came out, the first one I played, for a new FF game to be better than that and it finally happened (and it even looks to my eyes like it's gonna happen again with XVI). It's currently my second favorite game ever held back by it only being the first act of the story. I'm really excited to see what they do with it in the future installments.

 

[Thraeg]

As usual, I haven't played a lot of new releases, but of what I've played, Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Hades are the biggest standouts. Runners-up would be Streets of Rage 4 and Spelunky 2.

 

[Yimothy]

The only games I’ve played this year that were released this year are the La Mulana port for switch and Jet Lancer. La Mulana is one of the greats but it’s really a stretch to call it a 2020 game, and Jet Lancer is pretty good, so it’s Jet Lancer for my GOTY.

 

[pudik]

WATTAM. Technically it came out last December, but the physical release didn't happen until this year, and I was waiting on that, so I'm going to count it. If ports are allowed, then my runner-up is moon: Remix RPG adventure.

 

[ShakeWell]

As the year is finally winding down and I don't expect to play any more 2020 games, I gotta give it to Resident Evil 3.

 

[madhair60]

Immortals: Fenyx Rising was a joy

 

[muteKi]

Sonic 3 AIR went open source this year, allowing full modding of just about anything in the game.

Based on replies here, I guess Yakuza wasn't all that impressive?

 

[MJG]

This thread was for created and mostly ran its course in early November, before Yakuza came out.

I'm about 10 hours into it right now, so too early to say anything for certain, but based on what I've seen so far, it feels like it will definitely have a place somewhere in my top five.

 

[karzac]

Best games I played this year:

Outer Wilds (played a decent chunk in 2019, I'm counting it)
Sekiro
A Short Hike

Other worthy mentions:
Prey
Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Return of the Obra Dinn
Hades (also played in 2018 and 2019, but it launched this year)
Crusader Kings 3
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
Minit

I think I played more games this year than I have in any other year of my life.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I have to circle back to give honorable mention to Hades. It took Animal Crossing to unseat it, and that's no small feat, but in any other year it would've been Hades.

 

[Sarge]

Still SoR4, but I've been surprised at how solid FFVII Remake is. Way better than I expected, and from a storytelling standpoint, I like it a lot better than the original. Heck, I like it a lot more than the original, period. (And the original is good, but not GOTY material for me.)

 

[TE-Ryan]

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, FFVII Remake and Resident Evil 3 top my list of 2020 releases.

Shout-outs to Murder by Numbers and Piczle Cross Adventures for doing a good job of mashing nonograms into other game genres.

 

[Lokii]

It's Final Fantasy 7 Remake I'm sorry. It should've been terrible. In a better world it's rightfully awful. Only in this fallen reality could FF7R be amazing.

 

[Zef]

...the heck is Roche.

Also shouldn't he and his brother own a supermarket.

 

[Kishi]

...the heck is Roche.

My boyfriend.

 

[Juno]

...the heck is Roche.

Also shouldn't he and his brother own a supermarket.

This is Roche

https://twitter.com/x/status/1252967090883092480

 

[Paul le Fou]

Jesus

This is Roche

jesus christ

 

[Zef]

So the Speed Racer movie and the motorcycle chase scene from Advent Children had a baby, I see.

 

[Juno]

I've watched that clip 10 times since posting it, I love it so much.