What Are Your Games of the Decade So Far?

[Issun]

We are halfway through the 2020s. What game/games (ranked or not) are your top games so far? Here's mine:

10 Mouthwashing Low poly sci fi horror that also tackles misogyny and the people who protect it. Just an incredible experience.

9 Thank Goodness You're Here! Silly Britishcore slappy platformer. Just so much wonderful, off-color nonsense.

8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge The TMNT brwler we've been waiting for for 30 years. Possibly the best one.

7 Life is Strange: True Colors One of the best entries in the franchise, with memorable characters and a gorgeous setting.

6 Death's Door Zelda Soulslike with incredible aesthetics and gameplay and a banger soundtrack.

5 Super Mario Bros. Wonder 2D Mario hasn't been this weird or wonderful since 6 Golden Coins. A true gem.

4 Animal Crossing: New Horizons AKA the Pandemic Game. It is still wonderful, though, with so many things to do and see. Ozzie is my boi.

3 Sea of Stars The retro JRPG to end them all. While it story isn't as good as some of the games it calls back to, Sea of Stars nevertheless creates an engagin world with wonderful visuals and music, amazing battle mechanics, and Garl.

2 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom A lot of people didn't care so much for this one but for me it's my favorite since Ocarina of Time. It just does so many things that I love.

1 Spiritfarer I am currently replaying this and it is even better than I remember. Joyous and melancholy, wistful, sad, magical. So far it is my game of the decade.

 

[Bongo]

Gaming in the time of COVID, eh?

 

[q 3]

Some of the games that have attached themselves to my soul so far.

The Caligula Effect 2 is a social sim RPG featuring a cast of mostly adults having mostly adult problems, while being thoughtful and unambiguously inclusive. One half of what I've always wanted from modern Persona...

Blue Reflection: Second Light is the other half, a social sim RPG featuring a cast of magical girls that is unambiguously gay, while having a profoundly empathetic narrative that is perfectly matched by its gorgeous aesthetics.

Harvestella is Square-Enix's attempt at a farming sim that was released to die among a glut of B-tier games, but what they didn't tell you is it has a fantastically gonzo, quietly contemplative sci-fi plot with a cast I grew extremely fond of, and some lovely aesthetics as well.

Little Goody Two Shoes is an indie venture about girls making deals with the devil and the townsfolk who correctly suspect them of witchcraft but for all the wrong reasons. The narrative is mostly visual novel, but it incorporates Zelda-like dungeons and quirky 8-bit minigames into the narrative in an eclectic but engaging way.

The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a fairly conventional RPG with an unconventional narrative that doesn't just tug but rips out the heartstrings before carefully winding them back together.

Cassette Beasts is Pokemon for adults in the sense that it focuses on adult characters with adult problems, while still having fun exploration, monster collecting, and strategic team building.

 

[Violentvixen]

Gaming in the time of COVID, eh?

Yeah, I think Animal Crossing New Horizons will permanently hold a 2020s gaming aura due to this.

 

[4-So]

Trials of Mana (remake)
Ghost of Tsushima
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Elden Ring
Final Fantasy 7 Remake/Rebirth
Octopath Traveler 2
Lies of P

 

[Bongo]

It's been five years, so here's five lists of five:

Indies and other games that aren't so big: UFO 50, Hades, both parts of the Golden Idol duology, and Deltarune Chapter 2.

Mass-market megahits: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and uhh I guess Kirby and the Forgotten Land. What can I say? My tastes align with Nintendo's house style.

RPGs and RPG-adjacent good times: Octopath Traveler II, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Unicorn Overlord, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, and Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin.

Remakes of games I had played previously: Super Mario RPG, Dragon Quest III, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp, and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.

Some other games I thought were great: Live A Live, Metroid Dread, Thank Goodness You're Here!, Bowser's Fury, and the gaming-adjacent YouTube series Masahiro Sakurai On Creating Games.

 

[Adrenaline]

Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate III, Elden Ring, Half-Life: Alyx, and Hades are all contenders for me.

 

[gogglebob]

Vampire Survivors invented a genre that I never knew I needed, and has now gradually evolved through DLC and alike to be something I consider absolutely essential. Contra/Amoongus content was "neat", but the Castlevania DLC was transcendent.

EDIT TO ADD: It is also an excellent example of a game that could be loaded with microtransactions, but is conversely almost as cheap as a videogame could be. It's a choice by the creator/distributor, and I don't think that is something that would be so noticeable/precarious at other points in gaming history.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Hmm...

Animal Crossing New Horizons, and not just because I worked on it for so long. It will forever have my heart.

Elden Ring, obviously. No Question. Including Shadow of the Erdtree as a semi-sequel as much as it is an expansion.

Vampire Survivors for reasons mentioned above. It's perfectly addictive, it's criminally inexpensive, it invented an entire genre.

Unicorn Overlord, the best strategy RPG I've played in a long time, perhaps ever.

Hades, again for obvious reasons. Shit's good.

Paradise Killer, for being a vaporwave exploration-heavy mystery game with open-ended resolution and amazing music. I may be its biggest booster so I'm obviously going to boost it, and it's from 2020 so here it is!

Pentiment, for being an incredibly stylish and engaging narrative game set in a historical period and dressed with its trappings in a way we almost never see. It's got marginalia! Heartrending decisions! Excellent characters! MEDIEVAL HANDWRITING FONTS!

Damn, Disco Elysium misses the cutoff by like 2 and a half months. Oops I mentioned it anyways.

Other honorable mentions I'm considering to round out a list:
Armored Core VI
Splatoon 3
Case of the Golden Idol
Monster Train
Cult of the Lamb
Gnosia
Triangle Strategy

 

[Baudshaw]

I doubt Sky counts, but 2024 Sky is an extremely different game than 2019 Sky, so I think it deserves a mention. It’s a really great and unique game.

Besides that, I’d say some would be Crusader Kings 3, Citizen Sleeper, Another Crab’s Treasure, Solar Ash, Planet of Lana, TOTK, Pokemon Legends Arceus, and Minecraft Dungeons

 

[ThricebornPhoenix]

I suppose I have to say Octopath Traveler II, Vampire Survivors, Hades, and Trials of Mana.

I... haven't finished any other 2020s games; or if I have, I forgot to add them to my Grouvee account.

 

[Oathbreaker]

In no particular order

Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth
Baldur's Gate 3
Armored Core 6
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Elden Ring
Slay the Princess
LoZ Echoes of Wisdom
Star Ocean 2R
Hades/2
Lies of P

Hoping to add Witcher 4 to that list cuz I am extremely hype to play as Ciri. There are others that probably deserve to be here but just my personal taste doesn't quite click with them even though I know they're amazing.

 

[Olli]

I know I'm pretty basic, but Hades, TOTK, ACNH, Dread. Haven't started on Zelda Zelda yet but I have hopes for it.

 

[Sarge]

Let's see, for me, so far...

- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land

If we toss in 9/10 games...

- God of War: Ragnarok
- Alan Wake II
- Cyber Shadow
- Super Mario RPG
- Blasphemous 2
- Super Mario Wonder
- Astalon: Tears of the Earth
- Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth
- Metroid Dread
- Final Fantasy VII Remake

 

[Torzelbaum]

I'm not sure if these necessarily count but I thought I'd throw them out anyway:
Wordle*
Redactle**

*Until jerks went and screwed it up.
** This one almost got screwed up but it was salvaged.

 

[Violentvixen]

I'm not sure if these necessarily count but I thought I'd throw them out anyway:
Wordle*
Redactle**

*Until jerks went and screwed it up.
** This one almost got screwed up but it was salvaged.

Oooh, Wordle is a huge cultural thing and has inspired so many spinoffs (including Redactle). Great pick.

I still wonder what happened to the original Redactle dev (probably something sad unfortunately) but glad someone took it over and has been so great about taking feedback.

 

[ShakeWell]

Risk of Rain 2
Balatro
Vampire Survivors
Resident Evil 8
Hades

 

[Destil]

Vampire Survivors

 

[Kirin]

The game actually released in the 2020s that I’ve gotten the most sucked into for the longest time has probably been the Switch Theatrhythm, lol.

I appreciate the *theory* of a lot of other 2020s games (mostly ones already mentioned in the thread) and perhaps someday I’ll get around to playing some of them….