So 2020 was… a year. Can’t argue with those claims. But hey… some pretty good games came out.
So despite the state of the nightmare dimension that we currently find ourselves in, one thing I can say is that when it came to releases this year, 2020 fucking killed it. Honestly, I was just going to make this a juu ten, but there were just so many games I wanted to talk about this year, and even still, I was upset that I had to cut some from the juu twenty. Like Hades, Animal Crossing, Ori, Spider-Man, Resident Evil 3, so many other games to talk about. This was like my busiest mwaka for gaming ever. And I’m excited to talk about my favorites. From the obscure to the popular, the indie to the big budget, the return of old franchises to the new comers. It’s here, it’s queer, let’s stop talking around them and start talking about them.

#20: Death Come True



So I never played Danganronpa. I was always an Ace Attorney boy growing up. If I played in high school, I’m positive I would have eaten this thing up, but it just alluded me all my life. However, the creator of those games, Kazutaka Kadoka, went on to make his own game studio, as many developers do, called Too Kyo Games. They haven’t released much outside of Death Come True. They did release the anime, Akudama Drive. Never watched it, but it looks neat. Honestly, I’m not a shabiki of the interactive story games. I only like two, being mbwa mwitu Among Us and Detroit: Become Human, and only because mbwa mwitu Among Us has good lighting to give it a style and Detroit… Well, let’s just say I sure as shit don’t upendo it genuinely. And I would have probably never touched Death Come True if not for one reason. The games composer, Masafumi Takada, the composer for the first No zaidi Heroes and Killer7. And I absolutely adore those soundtracks, loving everything just about them. So when I heard this, I just had to at least buy it on sale. Needless to say, I was sucked. Young boy with amnesia accused of being a killer that looks like him and trapped in hotel with an unconscious girl, big man in trench kanzu, koti out to break necks, a twink bellboy runs the place, and wewe are stuck in a time loop until wewe figure out what the fuck is going on, no matter how many times wewe die. The game can be accused of just being a movie that wewe occasionally press buttons on and yeah, I can see that. But with the twists that the game takes to abuse being an interactive movie, and the style it goes into the font and the choices, it’s a decent movie. The sets look colorful and so otherworldly, and everyone dresses in these strange clothes and hot colors. Though the protagonist is kind of bland looking. Come on, my man, the news anchor’s got zaidi style than wewe do. And I genuinely enjoy the story even after the twist. I was scared where it would go, but it ended up not shooting itself in the dick. And of course, the soundtrack does have that Masafumi flare to it, sounding so strange but so damn stylish. As I expect from the composer of the Silver Case games. The game is just a fun little two hours that I found enjoyment out of. With the right budget, I can see the studio making something really spectacular. Perhaps time will tell. Death Come True is quite the sleeper hit for me, and depending on what Too Kyo Games does next, I can see them becoming a studio with a small following like panzi Manufacture, Red Entertainment, Toybox Inc., and even Chunsoft, the studio behind Danganronpa. And hell, this game actually made me want to check out the Danganronpa franchise. Thank you, Too Kyo Games. wewe ruined my life.

#19: Cyberpunk 2077



… hear me out. Yes, this game is buggy as a motherfucker. Yes, this game is definitely the biggest disappointment of the year. Yes, the practices of the higher management, not the developers, management, of CD Projekt Red are sketchy as all hell. And yes, I do think that this game deserves every ounce of criticism that it gets. While I never get hyped for a game, when your managers promise the biggest thing in the world and wewe come out with okay, it is in your god aliyopewa right to tell them to go fuck theirselves. But I remember hearing that if wewe need to defend your reason for liking a game, it’s not worth it. So I just won’t. Cyberpunk 2077 is a buggy, fuggly mess and I upendo it. I don’t gotta explain myself to you! I dumped hours and hours into fucking Skyrim and original Saints Row: The Third. I live for the jank! I never went in expecting the world. I never do that for games these days because I’ve been disappointed too many times in the past. I still found myself having a blast with this game. Even trying to find ways to break the game aside, I genuinely enjoyed travelling around the city. I thought the place was just dirty and dank enough for my brain to comprehend. Finally, the best of LA without having to actually go to that rancid place. But seriously, exploring the streets of the Chinese district soaked in the neon lights. Going across sky scrapers and looking down at the structures through the city. Going through the desert with the giant monuments in the distance and nothing but rusted windmills and decrepit buildings at your back. This game got atmosphere to it, not going to lie. I will say, the game works like 70% of the time. But when it does work those seventy percents of the time, it fucking works. I had immense enjoyment running around and slicing motherfuckers with a sword. Gun play in my first person game? That’s some fucking coward crap! Give me a sword! au fuck that, let me shove twenty different robotic parts into my body like Gorilla Arms and Donkey Kong this bitch! But when you're not laughing at the absurdity of seeing fuckers go flying from a punch, and take some time with the writing, the game is actually not badly written at all. The game chills out, and lets wewe enjoy these interactions with characters. I was genuinely amazed kwa some of these side missions, like a serial killer being crucified as means of repenting for his crimes au different self driving cars with different personalities trying to overthrow their master. I was invested in characters like Panam wanting to help her biker family despite the struggles within au helping River in his detective investigation to find a crazed serial killer. Even the main story, when it’s not rushing your ass, takes time to let wewe talk with these characters. I actually came to enjoy these characters like Jackie and Yorinobu. Even 100% Keanu Wholesome, less known as Johnny Silverhand, with his overacting. Like even when the game is falling apart like fucking popsicle sticks glues together, wewe can still see the effort put into it to make a damn good popsicle stick statue. And that’s what Cyberpunk is. A popsicle statue. That’s the analogy. Take it au fuck it.

#18: Dreams



Have wewe ever had the desire to make a game of your own, but didn’t have the team, au the funds, au the training, au a decent computer, au the constant fear that your game won’t get attention remotely at all and wewe wasted years of your life for a mediocre product?... Well, thankfully, Dreams is here for you. Originally in early build in 2019, it came out in full this year, and what a game it is. We all have that one dream game, I’m sure. And Dreams just decide, “Hey, fuck it. Make that game”. Sadly, with time constraints and, ironically, no will to even try with that, I am not in the mood for creating from this sort of hardware. I am, however, zaidi interested in seeing what other people create. And let me tell you, this game just warms my heart, seeing all these passionate creators make stuff and onyesha what they got. And this isn’t some crappy meme stuff, well not all the time. No, these are genuine projects that I wish were their own games. Some of my vipendwa on here are The Missing Constellation for the sheer creativity and just the otherworldly feely, The Seinfeld Chronicles for giving both a sense of absolute dread and the hardest laughs I’ve had all year. Bloodborne Kart because fuck it, why not. Ruckus: Another Natural Disaster, because damn, I upendo giant monsters destroying cities and there is a sore lacking of games like that, au at least, good ones. The Eternity House, which is the greatest sense of actual psychological horror I’ve seen all year. Art Therapy, just because I like smashing shit. Babatunde, a great starting point for what looks like an insane fighting game. Good Work, Human, just a fun little platformer game. But my personal inayopendelewa is The Pilgrim. It feels like nothing else despite being a simple platformer, just for the visuals alone. Like if The Pilgrim was just a game on it’s own, it would probably make the list. But Dreams is a game that just has something for everyone. For those looking for passionate projects to enjoy, people waiting to create their ideal game from the multitude of different learning tools, au just want to make a meme, Dreams is all that in one package.

#17 Mortal Shell



Wait, this is an indie game? This shit isn’t ugly punda pixel art and isn’t filled with gay main characters! Well no, but it is ball bustingly hard like some other indie games. Another in the long line of Soulslike games, Mortal Shell does something a little unique. It is a game that has decided to throw away the shield and say, “Fuck it, be the shield. Not like in a metaphorical saying. Literally be the shield.” Playing as some uggo alien fuck, wewe are tasked with killing the old lords of this realm in the hopes of reaching the heavens, I think. I don’t know, the game is very vague, just the way I like it. wewe select from an assortment of four other characters, all with their own skills, that being light on their feet with blades au being a slow fuck with a club au a big heavy man with a claymore au some guy with a small hammer. And with wewe being the shield, wewe can always harden in battle. Yes, harnessing the powers of Metapod, wewe can harden your body midswing during an attack to protect yourself from an oncoming attack, but only once, au twice if wewe get the upgrade. Don’t think this will make fights easy. It is easy to get swarmed and get fucked up if wewe aren’t light on your feet. Mortal Shell is not a game that holds your hand. It gives wewe the basics and then throws your punda to the wolves. wewe gotta adapt au you’re going to die over and over again. Sadly, while it takes all the good of Dark Souls, it also takes some of the bullshit like annoying levels and some enemy placement being absurd, which is why it’s not higher up. But damn, if some of these levels didn’t impress me. The swamp can suck my ass, but everything else, the catacombs, the frozen castle, and the strange temple covered in these bizarre, almost alien-like objects, it honestly made me wonder just what the hell happened to this world, and I’m fine with not knowing. I think whatever my brain can conjure up is vastly zaidi interesting than what could be explained. Mortal Shell is a strange, hard game, and I can’t help but upendo it. wewe can also strum a kinanda in the game. What’s not to upendo about that?

#16: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout



wewe know, this game was at my number one when it came out. That is not a joke. Let this be a lesson to you, kids. Never let first impressions wingu your judgement. For all wewe know, that big hype could die, and it could die fucking fast. And boy, did I get burnt the fuck out on Fall Guys. But that is not to discourage the game at all. When we were in the middle of… the plague, we needed some fun online games to help us out. Sure, I could have put Among Us on the list, but this ain’t the Game Awards. We actually do some FUCKING research. And Among Us, good as it was, came out in 2018. Fall Guys is all 2020, baby! So anyway, Fall Guys is a game all about running across different marathons of challenges from races to puzzles to collecting things up until wewe reach the final match. Your goal, to obtain the fabled crown. And not to brag, but I’ve collected at least eighteen of these bad boys. That may not sound like much especially to the Chad Fall Out Boys that have like eighty, but when everyone else in my friend group who has played this game has one crown at best, I will take this small victory. The game can bring out the grandest of victories and the most aggressive failures, especially when this is a game where everyone will fuck wewe over just for the sake of moving on. Some stages don’t care if everyone is skilled. We don’t songesha on until a sacrifice has been made. And wewe better believe, when push comes to shove, motherfuckers are gonna get shoved. And with the assortment of different costumes, rounds to play in, and just sasisho for zaidi levels constantly being added, the game could manage to stick around. Sure, it’s far from being maarufu nowadays, with Among Us pretty much taking all the fans, but hey… Fall Guys is at least better appreciated than fighting games. Don’t worry, that low blow hurt me too.

#15: SpiritFarer



So hey, I don’t cry much when it comes to video games, au any piece of media for that matter. I usually have this way of separating fictional tragedy from real life tragedy, and while I can definitely feel bad for a character, it usually takes a lot for me to start getting teary eyed. But man, did SpiritFarer almost break my no cry streak. wewe play as a ferrywoman running a mashua on the Styx, having to collect spirits and help them out until they are ready to pass on to the afterlife. And wewe better believe this shit can be sad. I wasn’t expecting to get into this game much, but as soon as I started seeing all that I needed to manage my little boat, keep the residents on it happy, and having to explore all the islands, two saa sessions soon turned into six saa sessions at a time. I wanted to see all that this world had to offer, find all the collectables, create all the parts on the ship, get all the upgrades, and especially help out all the characters. And damn, if this game doesn’t do it’s hardest to make wewe feel like your moyo is about to be torn out of your chest. When funny Uncle Frog is on the ship, he’s just a regular goofball. He loves chakula and he always makes jokes. But then when he is satisfied, and wewe find out he’s gone, he’s already passed on. Everyone else says goodbye, but not him. He just left without a world. au how about the friendly old hedgehog, who enjoys your company until she can’t even remember who wewe are, and soon starts thinking your someone else. She just forgets wewe completely. And when wewe take her to the doorway to the afterlife, it’s only then that she realizes you're not the person she’s been mistaking wewe for. That’s some goddamn sadness right there man. That said, the grind near the end did start to wear me down, which is why this game that I find to be so powerfully written and even the game being fun did get down a few points. Not to knock the game itself. There’s just so much that came out that I had to. But man, if wewe want a game to make wewe feel just sad and moyo broken, then yeah, try SpiritFarer. I guarantee you’ll feel like trash kwa the end.

#14: Carrion



I remember seeing this game and being excited for it for a while. It was always something I was waiting for Devolver to just drop, and then finally, we got it. wewe play as this big spaghetti, tambi boy, with the intent of escaping the lab wewe are trapped in. Described as a reverse horror game, wewe have to find unlockables, and kill everyone of the humans and security that run around the lab. Oh, sure, wewe don’t have to kill the harmless humans that are just running around… But come on, did the creature in The Thing spare anyone? I don’t think so. The game manages to have the movement flow in a way that feels satisfying to songesha around the facility while also just looking really gross, in a good way. Seeing the tendrils grab onto anything it can as it moves around while just dripping with blood and chunks. I swear, this game is what I like to look at when I say that pixel art can still be really good if wewe put it into the hands of the right kind of people. The game also has a sort of Metroid approach to it, with wewe exploring a massive map looking for traversal and attack upgrades, removing parts of your body to squeeze into smaller vents, shooting a dark out to grab people, hardening your flesh to avoid getting blown up, and my personal favorite, taking over the body of a human and using them to open doors and kill unsuspecting humans. The game is very short and the map can get very confusing, but I will take short and sweet and just ujumla, jumla fun over big, empty, bland and hours long au any stinky Ubisoft game any siku of the week. Carrion. Good shit. Not the best horror game out there, but a good Metroid clone.

#13: Doom: Eternal



So when Doom 2016 came out, I was very much done with first person shooters at that time. I had played one too many military shooters and was just ready to songesha on to other things. But then Doom 2016 came out and forced me to go right back into that genre again. And when news of Doom Eternal dropped, I was ready to experience it again… And then Bethesda told me to make an account. Not cool, gamers. But that aside, damn did this game deliver on all fronts. I didn’t think the game could get zaidi intense and just fun than the last game, but goddamn, did it surprise me. I was already immediately in upendo with the new system of having enemies just be weaklings for your chainsaw. Need ammo crates? The weak enemies are your ammo crates. Cut them up and take it. Need health. Just rip some motherfuckers head off. When the fighting starts, it doesn’t let up. wewe got a shotgun, wewe just blow motherfuckers away. Shooting heads, limbs, seeing their Bones sticking out. But you're out of ammo, so wewe just grab your chainsaw and slice a demon in half. Now wewe have zaidi ammo. But you're low on health. Just throw a grenade and stun an enemy. Now climb up him and tear his eye out with your bare fucking fist. There’s no stopping. Just keep on moving. It’s a fucking massacre and it knows how to hype wewe up with the brilliant score kwa Mick Gordon, famous for his score on Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots. (That’s not a joke. wewe can look it up if wewe don’t believe me.) But when wewe aren’t slaughtering an armies worth of demons, Doomguy just likes to relax in his home, checking out his computers, kusoma up on his books, and even having a skateboard which I think is a reference to his cameo in Tony Hawk Pro Skater. This one room with all these nods to classic games just put the biggest, dumbest grin on my face. This is how wewe make and humanize a character. Even with all the fear he puts into the humans and demons alike and just lumbers around like a fucking brute, he still has some down time in his space ship. And with every new weapon wewe get, wewe get introduced to like three new demons. The game throws one new demon at wewe and then gives wewe two to fight at once. This is a game that does not hold your hand. It respects your skills and wants to see if wewe got the balls to go through it. Sure, the Bethesda account stuff may put people off, and the Mick Gordon incident where he left and refuses to work on future games is very upsetting, but I won’t deny the hard work that went into making this hardcore game for hardcore gamers. The same hardcore gamers that bought New Horizons.

#12: Ghostrunner



Now this is the real Cyberpunk 2077. Ghostrunner is a short, face paced, first person, one hit one kill game set in the cyberpunk future with cyborg samurai, crazy techno punk brawlers, giant robots, and crazy punda level ubunifu all around you. wewe only got one objective, to ascend the tower and kill the leader at the top. A lot of these cyberpunk indie games always appeal to me so hard, with games like VA-11 HALL-A, Ruiner, and 2064: Read Only Memories, and Ghostrunner is definitely among them. It also helps kwa being so goddamn hard. Everything in this game dies in one hit, including you… Well, except for bosses, but wewe get checkpoints in those, so it’s fair. This game will really pin wewe up against a ton of enemies, all with their own means of attacking. So fights turn into less fights and zaidi like puzzles, having to find the right way to songesha around the area using air dashes and ukuta runs and using the right set of sub weapons to kill them all before progressing to the inayofuata level. wewe will die a lot in this game, so when wewe manage to clear a room in one perfect run, its like a symphony of murder. It all blends perfectly together, and every time, after dying to the same gaggle of pricks over and over, and wewe finally beat them, it feels so damn good. And with the killer soundtrack that adds on juu of that, this game just gives wewe that constant adrenaline rush, the same kind that I get from a game like Hotline Miami. And mix that with some crazy punda platforming, and some great visuals to the levels that just drench this world in a weird industrial setting that feels foreign even for earth, it really gives off this sort of hostile unwelcoming vibe, and I upendo it so much. It’s a game that made me want to see zaidi from this creator. Time will only tell if it manages to get the success it super fucking deserves.

#11: Mafia: Definitive Edition



Man, 2020 had a lot of remakes and remasters come out this year. I don’t want to put any remasters on this orodha and I really, really want to the amount of remakes I put on here because I want to talk about newer experiences. Kinda only limiting the remakes to from the ground up ones that add something new. And hey, I heard about this franchise of games for a while. Heard Mafia 2 was pretty good and Mafia 3 was… not as good. But I never heard much about Mafia 1, and looking at the original game… I can see why. But damn, let me just say that after playing Definitive Edition, I am now zaidi invested than ever in this series. wewe play as Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver who is at the wrong place at the wrong time and is forced to be the driver for some goons of a local mafia family. After joining them, he starts to climb up the ranks, seeing all the praise and power of the mafia while also experiencing the corruption, the paranoia and the tragedy that comes from it. While I wasn’t too big into the shooting sections, but did eventually adapt to them over time, what pulled me into this game was the world, the story, and the characters. I am actually big into the whole mafioso sort of stories. I greatly advocate the use of having your main characters be awful criminals. Having awful people as your protagonist usually makes for the most interesting stories for me, and goddamn is this game interesting. Seeing how the city changes over a decade, with zaidi buildings being added over time, seeing the cars wewe drive just change from these bulky pieces of shit to the zaidi smooth, round cars of the 1930s, seeing how the city advances over time is just a nice touch that so many other games just don’t do. And the story, the characters, it’s all so good. I upendo hearing the jokes that Sam and Paulie throw around. I upendo talking to the chuckleheads at the bar, hearing Luigi just being a friendly old man and Vinny talking about weapons with such joy. I upendo the dialogue from Frank and how he observes everyone. I like how Sam is a zaidi collective member, knowing how to get out of a situation the right way au Paulie being a loveable meathead with bigger ambitions. And even still, wewe know from the start that things aren’t going to end well for everyone. But goddamn, this game had me invested from start to finish. I don’t know what the Mafia franchise has in store for me, I mean, god, Mafia 3 was all kind of fucky. But hopefully, there’s something in store.

#10: Bugsnax



Ah yes, the true horror game of 2020. So when I saw this game, I was interested. I didn’t think it would be anything special, but I wanted to see what it was like. Not sure what it was. Maybe it was the strange undertones, maybe it was because I like weird indie games, au maybe it’s because all the people who saw the trailer were speculating that this game had far darker themes underneath it and it was just trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Well, can’t really say what they’re talking about, but what I can say is that Bugsnax is a cute game all mixed with some serious real world issues and dark undertones. But no time for that, we gotta collect funny Bunger. So at first, I thought this game was going to be really fucking dull. I thought I would just collect bugs and that’s it. But when I soon realized that I had to strategize to collect them, and had to actually think outside the box, that’s when I got interested. Like collecting a giant walking popsicle called a Big Bopsicle, I could cover him in honey and lure a flying flaming s'more toward him to melt him, au I could lure him to a hot spring to melt him down. au I could light a rope on fire, tie it to the Strawby in a ball and roll it over to trip him. There is rarely just one way to collect a Bugsnax in this game, and the game is fine with letting wewe figure it out. It reminds me of games of old. I hate to be the, “They don’t make games like that anymore”, but I swear, games today are so scared of wewe not following the thing their exact way. Even some games that are higher up on this orodha don’t give wewe that kind of freedom. But Bugsnax is like games of old, giving wewe the objects to solve a problem, and letting wewe solve it however wewe wish. It’s just good shit. But the dark undertones are where it really comes in. Like sure, wewe got these beings known as Grumpuses, who inhabit the island. And they are all just fun characters. wewe get such like Wambus, who refused to give up on planting crops because he was a failure back nyumbani and now is in a strained relationship with his wife over it, au Beffica, a nosy journalist who has Lost all her Marafiki due to her snooping and has decided that keeping Marafiki just isn’t worth it. au Crambo, a scam artist who is only left to scam people because he wasn’t born fortunate au rich and tried living an honest life, but was kicked down again and again and sees this island as his last chance of making it. Did I mention this game was rated E? Like I genuinely came to care about these characters and did all their side quests. I was wanting to see the end result of Chandlo and Snorpy’s relationship. I wanted to know what Grambo would do with his pet Bugsnax. I wanted to see what the hell happened to Lizbert. I’m getting invested in creature called a fucking Grumpus! And as for the horror?... Well, who knows. All I can say is Bugsnax ain’t no Knack 2. And that’s pretty cool.

#9: No Straight Roads



Okay, look. No Straight Roads is a very janky game. It has a lot of glitches, one of my vipendwa being when the world just starts spinning after going back to a boss fight. And even the fighting is kind of on the basic side. Devil May Cry this is not… But holy fuck, this game oozes nothing but passion. This is nothing but pure fucking passion and it just rubs off on me. No Straight Roads follows our protags, Mayday and Zuke, band members of the indie rock band, Bunkbed Junction, facing off against the organization NSR, who rule the city using EDM. It’s a basic fight the man sort of story, on surface level. But then we get to face off these bosses, with some insane character and story around them. Sure, some of them are just funny and entertaining, like DJ Subatomic Supernova, an egotistical DJ who uses big words to sound smarter, au Sayu, a virtual pop idol that is piloted kwa four social rejects. But then we get to some bosses like Yinu, a child prodigy who just feels suffocated kwa her haters from Bunkbed Junction and her mother wanting her to push her music, and the fight with Eve, Zuke’s ex girlfriend who actually comes off as the abusive one in their relationship to push her artistic interests. Like the guts this game has to call out other sides in things. Not just women being abusive in a relationships, but rocky relationships in families, losing your own ideals on the way and trying to justify your own methods of putting down other people’s creativity because it doesn’t mix with yours au how entitled mashabiki can be a threat to someone’s artistic value because they feel they’re owed something. And not even in the deeper themes, the characters of Zuke and Mayday are just fun characters. Mayday’s hot temper and zaidi wild personality mixed with the calm and cool Zuke just give these two a great dynamic, especially when they are just trash talking the bosses au having their own conversations during the fight. And that fucking soundtrack, fucking ten outta ten, my guy. The fact that this didn’t even get nominated for best score is a goddamn crime. But just seeing everything about this game, the god like soundtrack, the characters and the backstory, the overworld that just has this great personality to it. Hell, even the combat can be fun at times when the camera isn’t trying to fuck wewe over. If any indie studio deserves to have any attention, it’s these guys. They just have all the passion in the world for this game, and it fucking shows. I really can’t say anymore about No Straight Roads. It’s stylish, it’s passionate, it’s funny and also melancholy, and it’s just goddamn good.

#8: Final ndoto VII: Remake



I have been in upendo with Final ndoto VII ever since I played it on the OG Playstation when I was ten. Sure, I never could beat the game because I only had disc one. And when wewe got a single disc missing on a game made of multiple discs, just give up. What I’m saying is that I played the Midgar sections a fucking ton, so I think I have a fonder connection with those starting hours of the game zaidi than the average Final ndoto VII player. So a remake dedicated to that one part of the game, with greater visuals, new characters, the soundtrack enhanced, and all my inayopendelewa members of Avalanche here. wewe better believe I was all over that. If wewe even mildly play video games, wewe know the story of Final ndoto VII. Twink with blonde hair fight big bad company, fall into church, meet cute girl, big mean boy with big mean sword come in, featuring big titters, Mr. T, and poochy, go on a grand adventure to commit terrorism and also maybe save the earth. But Remake adds zaidi to that. Other than the addition of things to change in the ending, we get zaidi time with Avalanche, with Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse. Jesse is so unapologetically fucking horny for Cloud, and it honestly comes off as charming rather than try hard. Wedge manages to just be the nerdy guy who loves Cats and yet he still comes off as entertaining in his own way. Even party members are made better. Barret was always a fun character, but he’s got even zaidi charisma than ever before. And Aerith is the sassiest person on the planet and I fucking upendo her. I am now so conflicted on who I want to take on the dhahabu Saucer. I like Tifa, but now I also like Aerith. Yuffie can rot in the forest, obviously. And with the additions of new characters, it still manages to be really fun. Like all these characters are fun. Except Kiriye, she can go die. But I like everyone else. I think the three fuckers of ukuta Market, Andrea, Chocobo Sam and Madame M are fun characters. I like the addition of Johnny being a dumb fuckboy and getting screwed over at every chance. I even like the stupid Kingdom Hearts fucker, Roche. Look, I like a guy who dicks around and just has fun with the stupidity of things. Let me have this. I enjoyed going around the Sector 7 Slums and seeing the thriving city. I loved seeing the neon drenched lights of ukuta Market. I loved the expensive but soulless metal of Shinra HQ. And seeing all these dumb but iconic enemies get such respect and treatment, like Hellhouse getting a fucking WWE intro just warmed my could, dead heart. I don’t know what the future holds for Remake Part 2. I think that it will be okay as long as they don’t make Sephiroth jiunge the party to fight a greater evil. That would make me spew. But I will take a big risk for something new over a shot for shot remake. That is always zaidi interesting. And besides, we got Aerith smacking a fucker with a chair. That’s worth the price of admission alone.

#7: HuntDown



Well here’s a game that sadly went under the radar for a lot of people. HuntDown is dumb 80s action sinema machesmo and spectacle all put in a side scrolling shooter in a style similar to say Contra au Metal Slug, fighting off aggressive glam rockers, hockey players with guns, sci fi bikers and hip hop samurai and ninjas. A fun, violent blend of sinema like Escape from N.Y., The Running Man, Total Recall, The Warriors, and RoboCop, your job is to find and kill all the leaders of the four gangs in the city and just go nuts with it. wewe get an assortment of guns, a ton of enemies to fight, just go fucking nuts. The game may look like one of those “One-hit, one kill, so fucking hard” kinda games, and it can be at times, but it was mostly and enjoyable ride through and through. But where the game really shines is with the bosses. I swear, the amount of insane bosses in this game just add onto it. I will always admire a game that puts so much spectacle and effort into their bosses and has fun with it. Some of my vipendwa are the giant psycho with a flamethrower that bursts into flames and in his dying moments, tries to burn wewe and the theater down with him, a crazed soldier that runs around the map and shoots everything, a rockabilly that falls into lava and tries to kill wewe in a mutant form, an old monk with machine guns, and the orodha goes on and on. These people are crazy and they have no hesitation in killing you, so best to kill them and all their goons. And once again, amazing pixel art. If wewe put in the effort, pixel art can look damn amazing. And surely a hell of a lot better than Cyberpunk 2077, even on PC on a bad day. I’m mad this game went under the radar so hard, it’s the right kind of dumb fun and challenging. I hope that this game gets zaidi praise later down the road and I hope that zaidi people check it out.

#6: Streets of Rage 4



So back when I promised I would do the best games of the decade for 2010s, I was going to bring up how much I fucking loved River City Girls, as that was my game of 2019, but I never got around to it. So to right my sins, here we have Streets of Rage 4. I am a big shabiki of side scrolling beat em ups. I fucking upendo that genre and seeing that it is making a come back in some form warms my dead soul. That being said, despite playing tons of old school SEGA beat em ups like Golden Axe and Atered Beast, fucking ew, I never got into the Streets of Rage games. Not kwa choice, I just never managed to get my hands on them. But with this game, I thought it would be a good entry point. And fucking hell, was it. With all the old school characters like Axel, Blaze and Adam coming back, along with new characters like cherry and Floyd, this game is a four player beat 'em up with some beautiful hand drawn uhuishaji and some challenges that can get insane. Streets of Rage 4 manages to be old school in the best way while adding something I love. So in these old beat em ups, when wewe are surrounded on both sides kwa an enemy, wewe can get fucked real easy if wewe don’t have a stage clearer. But hey, I got a combo and I wanna get those numbers higher, because in this game, points help wewe get an extra life, and with this game being as hard as it is, wewe want those lives. So this game has a great feature. When wewe ngumi, punch enemies, they get stunned, but shake slightly when they’re about to get back into the fight. So if wewe are on both sides, wewe can wail on one enemy, and songesha onto the inayofuata guy, then go right back to the inayofuata guy and repeat the process until one is down au wewe need to clear out before wewe get hit and break your combo. And with the game being online co-op, wewe better believe me and the boys were going nuts with this game, taking on all the thugs and ninjas and dirty cops and punks and robot samurai and dominatrixes and jay from Clerks, I think. Streets of Rage 4 is just a good time, and hey, it got nominated at the Game Awards. It didn’t win, but it got nominated. Good job, Game Awards. wewe did something right for once.

#5: Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise



Really? This game is in your juu 20, let alone in the juu 5? This low frame rate, buggy as fuck, janky as fuck, weird as fuck, transphobic as fuck, Japanese as fuck, Nintendo Switch Mini Direct as fuck game? ...yeh. Also, on the topic of transgenders, deadnaming is not a subject in Japan. The creator felt bad and patched it out, so shush the fuck up about that already. So yes, despite all the issues of this game, like frames, inapakia screens, weird level design, some missions dragging out, I still fell in upendo with this game and haven’t forgotten this game at all. And this ain’t a shabiki thing. I upendo Deadly Premonition 1, but I was not there on siku one. I only played the game a mwaka ago. Deadly Premonition 2, I feel, is the superior game. Even with the small world and smaller cast, even with the annoying corridors that go on for forty five minutes, the game is just so genuine. I upendo these murder mystery kinds of games, as we will see with a game later on in the list. Deadly Premonition 2 acts as both a prequel and a sequel, a prequel to onyesha York’s involvement with the Red Seeds, the thing that has haunted him all his life, and a sequel to see how those have ruined his life and his mentality, and having to both antagonize and work alongside the new agent, Aliah, to try and find out what this all means, and where it all goes to. And with that comes all sorts of strange characters in the depths of Louisiana, from a preacher who is also the town doctor that believes he has a connection to the Lord, a hotel owner who has a mgawanyiko, baidisha personality as a fancy concierge, a friendly chef and a hip bellboy, a voodoo duka salesmen with tons of trinkets, and a witch doctor that only speaks through illusions. And York is just the strangest of them all, but despite being so odd, I think York is an amazing character. Maybe one of my all time favorites. His thoughts on dumb sinema and the minds of killers is so fascinating. And the fact that he will make a reference to a one time conversation about Blue Thunder, a movie that only he would care about, just shows that SWERY is a creator that gives a fuck about his characters. And god, just seeing that smile on York’s face, it makes me happy. And I was genuinely interested in the story kwa the end. I came to care about the town of Le Carre, the strange characters that inhabited it from their dialogue, hearing their own philosophies, theories on the case and just their general interests. Sure, it’s not as alive with them all having their own schedules like in the first game, but man, even still, this game managed to give these characters a unique personality that most big budget games wouldn’t even bother with. Deadly Premonition 2 is weirdo stank and jank. But I play PS2 games, so fuck wewe and what wewe think. I will adore my jank with fucking pride!

#4: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2



Okay, I promise this is the last remake on the list. I just can’t believe this game came out. I am so happy. It’s a shame that it won’t get the recognition it deserves since streaming a game with licensed muziki is apparently a bigger felony in Congress than fucking little boys, but whatever, I’m not a politician. I’ve always loved this franchise. I made a whole makala about it, it’s bad, don’t read it. But I always had a fondness for this franchise. Too chicken shit to ride a skateboard myself, but that won’t stop me from loving these games. And god, does this remake manage to add zaidi to it. It takes the games of old with the music, the levels and the style, but adds all the great new additions from later games. Manuals, Verts, Specials, this game has it all and I am glad for that. But don’t think that makes the game any easier. Fuck no, it doesn’t. Oh, wewe got all those fancy tricks? Well try doing this one long trick session for a gap trophy, nerd. This is not a game that holds your hand. wewe want to get everything and platinum it, wewe are going to have to put the work in for it. And god, was I close to doing it, but this game really makes it a challenge for you. Hey, I unlocked the Alien and Jack Black. I think I can say I’m better than the average player of this game. I think the moment I knew this game was going to be good was when I was able to start pulling off tricks immediately. The game had the same layout, the same sets of skills, all from the start from the start. I just had my muscle memory from playing so many games prior. The fact that the controls for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 are the same for this game are just charming. wewe can call it lazy, but I just find that to be great attention to detail. And man, when wewe think wewe finished with all the levels, there is still zaidi to do. Trial runs, Time missions, online skate parks. This game is just good fun. And the fact that it won Best Sports Game…. Yeah, that wasn’t exactly a challenge. I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with that one. I think that this has a bright future for Tony Hawk games. And man, if we can just get Tony Hawk’s Underground remake, I will die a satisfied man.

#3: Paradise Killer



Have wewe ever played that one game, that one game that just meets everything wewe want in a game? Well… Paradise Killer is not a beat em up RPG with social events, sick music, and tons to explore in the city, but it’s the inayofuata best thing I want. A crazy world where the gods control this dimension and need to reset when their perfect island fails in even the slightest. But right when it’s time to start the inayofuata island, the council are all murdered and it’s up to the investigator, Lady upendo Dies to find out whodunit. A murder mystery with strange characters in a stranger land where everyone is hiding something and making it that much harder for you. Kicking jazzy tunes to add to your music. Bizarre character visuals with flashy clothes and Jojo poses. Big moons that are every color but pale. Strange text to speech audio. Sleek as fuck font. A protagonist with the right kind of sass and taking no shit complete with the thighs I want to fucking smothered with until I leave this terrible reality. All with characters with names that are stupid but turn around and become cool like Doctor Doom Jazz, Crimson Acid, Lydia and Sam siku Break, One Last Kiss and so on and so forth. I found the level ubunifu to be so fucking strange, but amazing all at the same time. Like this is what I would expect from a strange vaporwave world run kwa immortal beings. Even if there is a lot to collect and even if it can get cluttered, there was never a point where this world bored the fuck out of me. And the story, I was expecting it to be a damn mess, but the zaidi I learned about it, the zaidi I read on the characters and the zaidi I got closer and closer to the case, I found myself invested. And when I got to the Ace Attorney style trial, there were points where I was looking at all the characters thinking, “... I really hope it’s not you.” and then following it up with, “Goddammit, man! Why’d wewe have to go and pull that shit!?” And the dialogue, from the times wewe try to catch people in a lie to the bars on the inayofuata island, it’s all genuinely good. This game is just style incarnate. And this isn’t just a stylish game without substance. It’s got both. At the time of this article's release, I beat the game today. And even still, I’m feeling nostalgic for it. This is my big sleeper hit of 2020. This game just screams everything I want. And honestly, the only reason it’s not my number one game is because the other games just get to me a bit more. But goddamn, this has become a game that I want to keep following up on. Can’t wait to see what the creators have in store for us next. And I can’t wait to return to that Perfect 25 again.

#2: Ghost of Tsushima



Was Ghost of Tsushima robbed at the Game Awards? Maybe. But that’s implying that the Game Awards is actually worth something. I never see an award as a reason to justify a game's value. Oh, Dragon Age: Inquisition won game of the year. The only award that game got was that it wasn’t the biggest piece of shit that BioWare made. But god, if there was a game that super deserved every ounce of success, it was Ghost of Tsushima. This was a game I was ready to sleep on, just saw it as another triple A market kind of game. But son, am I glad I didn’t pass this game up. This game is the modern equivalent of an epic. Like the real term for an epic. Like a grand tale that wewe need to experience for yourself. The story was unlike anything I’ve seen this year. All these characters on your side are damaged in some way. The archer Ishikawa is so stubborn and old, only made zaidi so kwa his apprentice betraying him. The warrior Masako goes on a revenge mission after her children and grandchildren are slaughtered, only wanting the deaths of everyone responsible. A monk named Norio who has to choose between getting revenge for his brother's death at the risk of betraying his beliefs. And Yuna, poor fucking Yuna. That is a character who can’t catch a break. And through this game, as wewe play as Jin and see how honorable he is as a samurai as so many of his samurai brethren die around him, wewe realize something. The way of the samurai is… kinda fucking stupid and died out for a reason. This game is not a samurai fantasy. This is a complete deconstruction of the samurai code. Jin completely forgoes the path of a samurai to become a ghost, who kills with stealth and poison, fighting off Mongols anyway he can. Because the Mongols don’t care. The game starts with a samurai challenging the Mongol leader to a duel, and he is met with being drenched in alcohol and set on fire. And throughout, Jin’s uncle, Shimura, can only watch in disgust and shame. wewe want them both to reconcile and find common ground, but wewe know that their conflicting ideals will never allow that. And that ending, it was so much. It was heartbreaking, it was fulfilling, it was everything I wanted in an ending. And that’s just the story. The gameplay really works in its favor. There are so many times where I found myself actually… doing shit, rather than pushing a button prompt au having to let the game automatically do it for me. When I jumped down and sent four feet of steel through a man’s body and cut down his friends, I did that. No quick time event au auto movement. That was me. When I was fighting a guy in a house then crashed through a screen door to fight an oncoming enemy, I did that. I made the scenarios myself rather than letting the game do it for me. Dare I say, this game truly makes wewe feel like a samurai. I could gush about this game all day, the characters, the shit talking of the samurai code, the gameplay, the Arakawa Mode, all of it. But we gotta save our gushers for one game. One in particular.

#1: Yakuza: Like a Dragon



Yes, it’s that good. I managed to binge the entire franchise this mwaka alone thanks to the Yakuza Remastered Collection and the fact that the Yakuza games go on sale a lot on the PS4. And let me say, when I heard about this game, I had to admire the fucking brass balls on this game. Not only was it swapping out a main character that was in the franchise for years, but it was also changing the gameplay up entirely and was also going to have an English dub for the first time since the first game, and people hated the English dub of the first game. And yet, despite those odds, it worked out. Yakuza: Like a Dragon, au Yakuza 7 as I’ll refer to it as, is a breath of fresh air. Look, I like going around the streets and smacking motherfuckers as much as the inayofuata guy, but we’ve been doing it for eight games, including 0 and including Judgement. Plus it’s nice to have a real turn based RPG game that really fucking slaps. So our new protagonist that isn’t Kiryu is Ichiban Kasuga, a dumb little shit who just can’t catch a break, as proven kwa how every disrespects him and now has to go to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. And once he’s out, he is left homeless, and thrown out of the family. So with nowhere to turn, he just decides to become a hero and help people out with the help of friends, local hobo Nanba, ex-cop Adachi, and soapland worker Saeko. Together, they get jobs, become not as homeless, beat up drunks and angry punks, and maybe solve a yakuza conspiracy. Yakuza 7 is a game that starts off high energy and doesn’t let up. The combat is always fun, having to time when people will group up to get the most out of an area attack, mixing up the job classes to unlock new skills and new levels for your characters, all of them just as strange as the last, getting new combo moves between two party members when wewe max out their Drink Links, hiring characters that are both new to Yakuza 7 au classic characters from older titles to help wewe in fights, like the giant baby ma from Yakuza 2, Gary Buster Holmes from the arena au a reference to Mr. Libido from Yakuza 0. This game manages to please new games and old fans. And there was never a moment I got bored with this game. Outside of the battles, there’s a ton of side activities for wewe to do, like helping out a shamed Korean celebrity, saving a crawfish from getting eaten, fighting a giant Roomba, and so on. And that’s just substories. wewe can run a business to get a Chicken assistant and a new, strong party member. wewe can go and race go karts in a mini game that is just like Mario Kart. wewe can collect enemies into the Sujidex in a Pokemon styled collectathon. Even the dungeons underground, which are just dull to look at, have so many strange enemies that I find myself laughing and enjoying the game again. Even when I am bored, I am entertained again. A lot of people compare the game to Persona and the game is very much influenced kwa Dragon Quest, but with the weird abilities and odd enemies, the game is zaidi like Earthbound to me. And the story manages to appeal to new mashabiki with the lovable cast of new characters and sheer madness, as well as appealing to old mashabiki with the return of some old characters. And playing this game with the English dub, I gotta say that Ichiban’s voice actor killed it with this game, especially in that ending. God damn. And I think it’s because of Ichiban that I upendo this game so much. Because here’s the thing. Ichiban is an optimist. And I gotta say, that may not sound like much, but right now, that’s a really good thing to have.
I really, really don’t want to bring down the mood, and I know everyone is sick of it at this point, but it’s important to bring up the big tembo in the room that has been clouding this orodha from the start to explain why Ichiban is an important kind of character right now. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say 2020 was the most miserable mwaka of pretty much all our lives. The pandemic was bad enough, sure. That would have already caused this mwaka to be a joke. But with the addition of people in politics coming out as corrupt, inexperienced au just plain fucking stupid, not just in America, but pretty much every part of the world, the fucking three ring circus that is social media shoving bad news after bad news on a daily basis down our throats, and people like me working in retail, pretty much having to act like soldiers in the trenches to utter stupidity, hearing conspiracy theories from anti maskers and getting called a kondoo for not wanting to get sick kwa some genuine fucktard, seeing that idiots like that would allow the virus to stay strong and healthy for a long time really, really started to get to us. Even me, someone who tries to stay happy and care free was starting to get burdened kwa the bombardment of idiocy and bad news. And it’s not like video games were salama from this as well. Sure, delays of games and cancellations of conventions were bad, but that’s nothing compared to CDPR staff getting threatened kwa neckbeards online because they couldn’t have a game they wanted while they get underpaid and overworked kwa the actual liars, every company abusing their consumers, their employees, au both at best, au being run kwa actual rapists and pedophiles at worst. Even smaller gamers like the fighting games with EVO being run kwa a pedophile, Smash Pro Players having a pedophile ring of sorts, and the talented people that made Skullgirls getting abused kwa some corporate piece of shit. Hell even Yakuza 7 was getting dicked over kwa SEGA with some bullshit where wewe have to pay for New Game Plus, a feature that has been free since fucking Chrono Trigger. It made me think, “Why do I stick around with this soules, miserable industry. Where mashabiki complain will send death threats to creators, then get upset when the game comes out not perfect, and really, at the end of the day, don’t know what they want. Where creators will get forced into working extra hours for little to no pay, and sacrifice their social lives and mental health while the fuckers roll in the cash that they wouldn’t have without those creative people. Where a soulless game built on the backs of crunch and overwork, and jokes about it, is rewarded and praised, and all credit goes to the slave driver running the ship and thanks the team, not with an actual paycheck au anything, but just a shit eating grin. Why the fuck do I even bother?”. But then, something like Yakuza 7 comes along. Ichiban is a dumbass, he is disrespected, he is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he gets shot as soon as he escapes and is left to die, is left homeless, without a job, is threatened every siku on the streets and can only manage to live in a whore house where the beds are still wet from customers jizzing on it. This man face plants into a g-spot and all he says is “Hey man, think of the history this mattress has gone through.” Ichiban is a protagonist that smiles and is always happy, even through the worst of times. Even when shit goes horribly wrong for him, and it goes horribly, horribly wrong for him, he manages to smile through it, keep going, never giving up, because there’s always something good. There’s always someone there to help, there’s always a light at the end of even the longest, darkest tunnel. And that is something that I think we all need right now. And even on a smaller scale, all these games, they all came out, they all had their own issues, both with their development and even with some bad press au low scores au bad sales au just wasn’t as liked as say Last of Us 2 au something. But even still, there’s always a silver lining in some way. And hey, 2020 was a terrible year. We all know that. But that just means that it can’t get worse. 2021 has to be better than this year. It’s all up kilima from here. So look to the future, because there is always something there. Yakuza 7 is my game of the year, and not just my inayopendelewa game in the franchise, but it has become one of my inayopendelewa games ever. Would this game have the same impact on me if 2020 wasn’t so bad? Maybe, in a different life. But in this one, in the one we occupy, right now, it is. So there wewe have it. My inayopendelewa games of 2020. I hope wewe all stay safe, tell 2020 to eat a dick, and I wish wewe all a zaidi hopeful 2021.