My Top 3 Games of 2020

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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic I had the chance to buy more video games than usual last year, but still the number wasn’t quite enough to do a full analysis of 2020’s new releases so I will only be covering my top three choices of the year. So without further ado, let's get into it!






3. Streets of Rage 4

At the number three spot I have Streets of Rage 4. Streets of Rage 4 marks the first sequel in the long lived beat-em-up franchise since 1994. The 26 year time gap comes with new hand drawn HD sprites, online play, and a wide selection of characters. My favorite is newcomer Cherry, a black girl with firery red dreadlocks and a literal electric guitar. There aren't that many black playable men in video games let alone black women so that's what drew me to her at first, but she's also quite fun to play as since she's the fastest character in the game which after playing with her for a while makes everyone else feel slow and she just looks cool.

I found Streets of Rage 4's campaign to be pretty good. It offers a lot of enemy variety and you have enough moves in your arsenal, especially with the new characters to keep the battles engaging. The game can get quite tough sometimes even on the normal difficulty, but things can get surprisingly easy for you once you mastered your character's strengths and can pull off nearly endless combos. Those will be the key to conquering the higher difficulty levels. There's a story to go along with the campaign too, but honestly I can't remember it, but no one plays beat-em ups for the story anyway. Streets of Rage 4's campaign is short as usual for the genre, but it offers a lot of replay value with multiple difficulty levels, unlockable concpet art, and the ability to unlock hidden characters. My favorite hidden character is Dr. Zan who comes from Streets of Rage 3. He's faster than most of the characters on the roster with the exception of Cherry and is an old man cyborg and I just have a thing for old fighters.

SOR4 also comes with a few visual enhancers and modes. You can change your screen setting overlays which also includes a CRT mode. I recommend this mode when playing with retro characters as it looks weird with the new hand drawn characters. There's also a battle mode in which you can go off head to head with another player in an arena fighting game style. It's actually more fun than I thought it would be, but still nothing on the level of a Street Fighter or a Smash Bros., but it does make me wonder what a Streets of Rage 4 fighting game would be like. The series does have enough characters for a tight, but well-balanced roster.

Overall, Streets of Rage was a decent game to play last year.




2. Final Fantasy VII Remake

I was skeptical about the Final Fantasy VII Remake for years. When Square Enix announced it was going to be an episodic title and that the first one would only take place in Midgar it made me worry that the game wasn't going to be any good on top of them making the choice of action-based combat instead of turn-based, but my main gripe with them dropping the turn-based combat was because they think people don't like turn-based combat anymore. When the demo for the remake came out however, my opinion changed and I was looking forward to it. I still had some hesitation so I waited a week or two before I bought it, but once I got into it I loved it.

Final Fantasy VII Remake reimagines the the opening segment of the original and organically stretches it out in a full fledged game with one of the best battle systems the series has ever seen. Fans have been looking forward to this remake since 2005 and it delivered in 2020. The visuals are beyond phenomenal and the characters are fleshed-out. There are few changes to the story I did not like, but as a whole it was great and no one will be forgetting the remade Wall Market sequence. My gosh, that was too good!


You can watch my read my full review of Final Fantasy Remake here and the link to my video review is below along with my opinion on how Barret was portrayed.


 







1. Persona 5 Royal

Yes, my number one game of 2020 is a definitive edition of a 2017 release, but I don't give a fuck. Persona 5 one of the best games I ever played and Persona 5 Royal is one of the best games I ever played, but even better. It is an understatement to just call this game a remaster or a definitive edition. There are so many changes in Royal from the original. The graphics have been updated, load times have been reduced, a number of changes to the combat, two new story characters, three additional confidants, a new explorable area, and a third semester which adds about forty extra hours of gameplay. Those don't even cover all the changes in Royal. It almost feels like a new game.

I played Persona 5 for the first time last year and have been obsessed with it since. Royal just fed it even more with just well it refines everything. Persona 5 still has one of the best narratives in video game history and the third semester's chapter adds a new tone that gives you new perspectives on certain characters and even a segment of the new palace had me questioning things in my own life. Royal was a truly underrepresented game in 2020 and deserved more praise and at least an award for someone's game of the year or RPG of the year. The Phantom Thieves is now my favorite suphero team. I love this game to the bottom of my heart.


Also to note I've been having quite a lot of fun with Cyberpunk 2077. I dismissed it from this list because I haven't finished the title in addition to the game launching with a ton of bugs. Cyberpunk is still a mess on PS4 with the latest patch, but I still have been having a lot of fun.

I played a total of nine new games this year. They are listed below:


Dreams

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

Streets of Rage 4

Half-Life: Alyx

Doom Eternal

Persona 5 Royal

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Fall Guys

Resident Evil 3

Cyberpunk 2077

I missed out on a lot of games this year. Below is a list of some of the most popular titles of 2020:

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

Dreams

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

Streets of Rage 4

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Nioh 2

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Doom Eternal

Persona 5 Royal

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Resident Evil 3

Ghosts of Tsushima

The Last of Us Part II

Fall Guys

Hades

Among Us (Well technically no, but seems like people didn't start playing it until 2020)

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Watch Dogs: Legion

Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Demon's Souls Remake

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Cyberpunk 2077

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