Top 10 Games of 2020

I think I avoided it mostly this time but minor plot spoilers for some games (primarily spoilers for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker) ahead, yada yada you know. 

2020 sucked ass. I guess it wasn’t all bad though. The space in which other hobbies once existed, like swing dancing, was instead filled with video games. Between unemployment and quarantine, I likely played more games last year than I have since I started doing these top 10 retrospectives.

I had so much time, along with wonderful quarantine company, that I played through the entire Metal Gear Solid saga, from Metal Gear Solid to The Phantom Pain, all the way through. Because I could. And it was awesome. Except for Metal Gear Solid 4. I’ve now learned I dislike that one more each time I play it. A story for another time.

Even with around a hundred hours dropped into Kojima’s work, I was still able to play a lot of other wonderful games. 

I’ve been putting off writing this for a lot of reasons but I guess the biggest ones were a mix of laziness and apathy. It’s not that I didn’t want to as much as I couldn’t bring myself to for a long time. 2020 was the motivation killer. Doing even the smallest things seems impossible sometimes since March of last year.

Another part of it was uncertainty in how to write about the top two games on this list. In fact, I originally put it off for a couple months into 2020 to finish one of the games above. Anyway. You’ll see.

Let’s get to it.

Top 10 Games of 2019

I played way more games this year than I did in 2018. Several of my favorites for this year weren’t exactly new though. 2019 was a year of blessed re-releases. For the first time since 2010, I got to (legitimately) return to vanilla World of Warcraft and explore the original Azeroth that I fell in love with all those years ago. In March, Halo: The Master Chief Collection was announced for PC and Halo: Reach dropped at the start of December. These are not new games; these are games I played years ago.

I thought for a while about how to handle them in my normal rules for these Top 10 of the Year pieces and I think it’s best to exclude them. I enjoy all of Bungie’s Halo games and while Reach is basically a stopgap until Halo 2 and Halo 3 drop, getting back into that sweet, sweet Halo has dominated my gaming time since it released. The original World of Warcraft is one of my favorite games of all time and placing it on this list would only knock out deserving games that I enjoyed for the first time this year. I write about WoW enough already anyway.

In short: while those re-releases have their issues (Reach lacking Theater and Forge, for example), the games are awesome. Both are as fun as I remember. Play them, have a blast. 

Here are my guidelines for this list:

1. In the case of a non-multiplayer-only game, I must have played its single player experience to completion. This does not require a 100% of all that the game has to offer. Instead, a completion of its main quest, story or campaign will suffice.
2. I must have accomplished the above rules in 2019. The games on this list are not all 2019 releases. It is a list of what I played this year.

I think the only games this disqualifies that I started this year are God of War (PS4) and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch). 

Let’s go. 

Hollow Knight: A Deep Journey

SPOILER WARNING: Some mild gameplay and plot spoilers below.

If you have any plans to play Hollow Knight, please play it.

Hollow Knight released in 2017 and I am upset that I spent the last two years of my life without playing it. Please stop yourself from continuing the same mistake I made and play it now, particularly if you are a fan of the Metroidvania genre.

Hollow Knight is the tale of the diminutive Knight as they explore Hallownest, a fallen insect kingdom deep beneath the ground. Much like the treasure and secrets Hallownest is known for, the map itself is full of surprises, even for the genre. The oppressive tunnels and caverns of the fallen kingdom open into beautiful gardens and canyons and a glowing peak for the civilization’s crown.

It’s full of surprises. The content its underground depths hold for a $15 USD ticket cost put fully priced AAA games to shame. There is more here than there should be for an indie game — definitely for one made by three people. Ari Gibson and William Pellen, with the help of composer Christopher Larkin, have created a pure vessel for gaming and Metroid-inspired brilliance themselves.

Top 5 Games of 2018

I didn’t actually play a lot of games this year. Oops. Believe me, that’s not what I wanted to realize when I sat down to compile the list of games I completed this year in preparation for this piece. I have started more games than I played, I just haven’t finished them. I’ll probably finish most. Some I won’t.

I played seven games to completion this year. Two were multiplayer games and one was a replay of an old favorite with self-imposed challenge rules. So there will be some adjustment to the article this year. For one, we’re only going to talk about five games instead of the usual ten. It’s more like four though. You’ll see what I mean below.

Here are the rules, as always:

1. In the case of a non-multiplayer-only game, I must have played its single player experience to completion. This does not require a 100% of all that the game has to offer. Instead, a completion of its main quest, story or campaign will suffice.
2. In the case of a multiplayer game, I must describe how I played it. Whether cooperative or competitive multiplayer, I will detail whether I played with friends, matchmaking, or online or local multiplayer.
3. I must have accomplished the above rules in 2018. The games on this list are not all 2018 releases. It is a list of what I played that year.

Let’s get started.

Now! Show yourself! Deltarune!

WARNING: THE POST BELOW CONTAINS LIGHT SPOILERS FOR THE GAME DELTARUNE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: CHARACTER NAMES AND APPEARANCES AND GAMEPLAY SPOILERS.

Toby Fox made my Halloween at work torture when he released Deltarune early that morning.

More accurately, he released chapter 1 of Deltarune. The game isn’t complete yet. Where Undertale was proof that one person could make a game alone, Deltarune is impossible to make solo. It dreams too big. Compared to Undertale, that’s saying something. The game isn’t here yet. It will be here when it’s done. As a fan, that’s both refreshing and torturous. I want the game now and I want it to be good. The logic in me says, “Take as long as you need.” The rest of me says “Give it to me now.”

That’s an unfair desire and one that fans should be careful to check before they turn to Twitter vitriol. I want the game now precisely because it is so good. It took the most famous aspects of Undertale and ran with them: the music, the clever battle system, the lovable characters. When the boots of Deltarune hit the ground, it felt so obvious. Of course these were the next steps. How did no one think of them sooner?