Cole Carver’s Game of the Year 2020

2020 sucked, but there’s not much more I can say about it that hasn’t already been said elsewhere. However, it seems like the gaming industry continued to put out quality content to keep everyone entertained throughout lockdown, and with all the extra time at home I managed to play a ton of videogames this year, including some real bangers. As always, these are not necessarily games that were released in 2020, but games that I played for the first time this year.

multiplayer mention - hyrule warriors : age of calamity (switch)

We’re starting this list off strong with some comfort food. Age of Calamity is a Dynasty Warriors game with a Legend of Zelda skin. A prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this game takes place 100 years prior, in an alternate timeline, where you can see how the Calamity would have gone had the events revealed during the Flashbacks of Breath of the Wild not happened. (Now that was a convoluted explanation to avoid spoilers!)

The game is an absolute blast to play - with about 20 unique characters to play as, hacking through hundreds of iconic Zelda enemies in the breathtaking visual artstyle that Breath of the Wild showcases. Being a Dynasty Warriors game, the combat is more about tearing through tons of “fodder” enemies while working towards the larger “boss” enemies in forts and managing the flow of an overall battlefield, instead of the more traditional Zelda combat system. However, the lengths that Koei Tecmo went through to make it match the Breath of the Wild experience is impressive. You have a huge variety of weapon options, all of the Shieka Slate runes, and Link’s entire wardrobe to fully customize out how you want to play. You visit every iconic location from the game’s predecessor, and get to see how all your favorite characters of Breath of the Wild got to where they are.

For lack of a better phrase, it’s definitely a Dynasty Warriors Love-Letter to Zelda, and it’s just fun to play. Plus, Meaghan and I could play couch co-op together to absolutely shred through some of the tougher challenges together. There are absolutely some performance issues, especially when playing together, but as long as you’re not too snobby and can stomach drops into the single digit frames per second, it’s still a joy to play.

#10 - Control (ps4)

I have been a fan of the SCP Foundation internet sensation since my first discovery of it. Control is a story-driven Metroidvania game based on this very idea, set in Remedy’s Alan Wake universe. You play as Jesse Faden, the newly appointed Director of the Federal Bureau of Control, a secret bureau of the government that makes sure that the weird shit contained in The Oldest House, the non-euclidean workplace, doesn’t get out into the rest of the world.

Being a game taking place within a federal workplace, there is a TON of reading and audiologs scattered throughout The Oldest House, but every bit of it is a pleasure to take in. I loved each sidequest that involved finding redacted paperwork about strange Objects of Power, and then figuring out how to tame them into a calmed state where they would wreck a little less havoc. The whole story is absolutely dripping with mystery, dread, and dark lore that was such a pleasure to peel back and discover. I think the story is good, and the character work and performances are great, but the magic I couldn’t get enough of is in the world and lore itself.

The minute-to-minute gameplay is also a ton of fun, if repetitive. I believe I quoted to a friend earlier this year, that it’s one of the best Jedi Simulators I’ve ever played. Jesse does have a gun, but the feeling, look, and sound of telekinetically (via one of those wild objects of power!) ripping a chunk of concrete out of the wall to hurl at enemies running your way is just blissful. I also appreciate that they give you really excellent telekinetic movement options very early into the game, making sure the game constantly is drip-feeding you new tools and abilities to play with.

The game’s world isn’t the only weird thing about it. The art direction decisions are an absolute treat, using a mix of rendered characters as well as full-motion video with actual actors interwoven throughout entire scenes. Plus the sound design of Control is a cut above - everything sounds so powerful, heavy, but also otherworldly. 

Control also has one of my favorite gaming moments of the year - The Ashtray Maze. I would go more into that, but if you ever plan to play Control I would be morose to ruin it for you. But man, it rules.

#9 - Astro’s Playroom (ps5)

What a pack-in game! I actually wasn’t going to include this game in eligibility for this year, because I started it for the first time on Christmas Eve, but I played it so much I have 100%’d it before the new year hit.

Astro’s Playroom is a cute platformer built around showcasing to the player all the fun, new things that the PS5 DualSense Controller is capable of performing. It showcases the Haptic Feedback effects, the Adaptive Triggers, and the built-in controller microphone. I’m gushing over this game because of being an incredible technical showcase for what you’re physically holding in your hand.

Right when you open up Astro’s and it’s giving you the basics on how to move and jump, the technological leap of controller design is immediately noticeable. Every step that little Astro takes, you feel each leg rumble in each of your hands, and you can feel differences in the different kind of textures you walk across, whether its metal, sand, grass, glass, plastic - they all feel different and recognizable. Maybe it’s the engineer in me, but I cannot get over how this game feels to play. I can only hope Sony continues to push the magic of the controller in all their games going forward.

I’d also like to give merit to the quality of the game as a platformer itself. It’s not terribly long, but the levels are well thought out, fun to play, and a visual and auditory treat. I very much appreciate the level focused on “the GPU”, which has a background song featuring robotic lyrics “All you see, rendered by me”. Throughout the game, there are little references to other Sony games hidden everywhere. I loved to stop and puzzle out what some of the more niche references could be, or finding a Bloodbourne Hunter or Cloud’s Buster Sword stuck in the SSD Speedway. What a love letter to the history of Sony. I really hope they continue to produce more Astro’s content as their Sony History mascot.

#8 - Marvel’s Avengers (ps4)

Lately I’ve found I tend to enjoy things that “the collective internet” hates, and Avengers is no exception. I read all the horrible early reviews for this game, and had seen a ton of ads that really made it look like it was going to be at an easy cash grab using one of the world’s biggest IPs. But, I spent a Sunday checking out their free early access demo to see if it was anything that I might like - and I am so, so glad I did.

Avengers is Looter game at its foundation, quite like Diablo, Destiny, or Anthem, where you’re going to smash some AIM Robots and pick up the increasing rarity loot that drops from their metallic corpses in order to customize out the 6 (at launch, now 7 with Kate Bishop) playable Avengers. I have never really sunken my teeth into a Looter game like those mentioned above because I wasn’t sure if they were my cup of tea, but I guess if you put an Avengers storyline on top of it, I have a blast!

And that’s what I want to focus on. Everyone else on the internet has talked about how the Endgame (hyuk!) is nonexistent, about how the gear is “not fun to get”, and that there’s not enough unique gear for each hero - all reasonable concerns, I’m sure, but as someone who hasn’t spent any time playing for “endgame grind” I cannot relate to these qualms. I’m here to talk about my experience, which was a great romp through an Avengers world, playing a bunch of characters that I love, finding tons and tons of fun dialogue and easter eggs for fans of Marvel movies, games, and comics.

Playing each character feels very different, and can even be further customized out based on the player’s likes. For example, I mostly play Captain America, with a focus on range, throwing and bouncing my Shield around to cripple anyone at a distance, however, I’ve partied with friends who have a Captain America built around brawling. The use of the gear system and the very large skill tree allows for customizing out each character to something unique. Right now I’m working on my katana-wielding Kate Bishop, but I know a friend who has never not used her bow for combat.

The shining star of Marvel’s Avengers, though, is the story and performances. This is the world’s first mainstream introduction to Kamala Khan, the wonderful Ms. Marvel who has a Disney+ series coming soon that I am SO hyped for, and they did a fantastic job with her. She is a die-hard Avengers fan, like myself, but unlike me she finds herself with Superpowers and on a mission to reunite the Avengers after a tragedy brought about their downfall. It is a story of finding yourself, inclusion, teamwork, and coming of age, and it’s absolutely beautiful. The performances and relationship development of Kamala and Bruce Banner stand out as the game’s highlight - even setting this as my favorite adaptation of Bruce Banner in any media I’ve seen. The world needs more Kamala Khan, and I’m so glad this brought it to me. I’ll definitely be jumping into this game for a long time coming every time they release new stories and characters.

#7 - Uncharted 4: a thief’s end

Naughty Dog is a masterclass in performance, animation, and attention to detail, and it’s amazing I hadn’t played this game until now. Uncharted 4 is an excellent action-adventure game with the same energy as Indiana Jones. Your lighthearted, funny, yet tired protagonist, Nathan Drake, is out to find the biggest score in history - Henry Avery’s pirate treasure.

I had a blast with this game. I don’t want to talk too much about the story because I feel like “the play’s the thing”, and I wouldn’t want to take that away from anyone. However, Naughty Dog always continues to show that they are the best at what they do regarding performances and animation. The facial animation, especially for its time, is just astounding, really conveying the emotions of the actor. Emotional moments throughout the story really leave an impact because you can see the sorrow or elation in the characters.

Naughty Dog is also great with accessibility options. I played the game with specific handicaps turned on because I wanted a fun, hectic, cinematic experience and I didn’t want to worry about lining up shots. With Autoaim turned on, every shot hit, and I could focus on running, climbing, swinging, jumping, and sliding while firing my gun blindly to feel like some awesome mix of Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne. This way, no combat encounter was going to hold me up from getting to the next historical puzzle or stunning vista.

And good LORD the vistas are stunning. Again, I don’t want to get into too many locales of the game to protect the integrity of the story, but whether you’re looking out at snow-covered mountains or tropical islands, the PS4 (at its time) has never looked better. I’m telling you, they’re wizards over there at ND.

#6 - Final Fantasy vII REmake (ps4)

Final Fantasy VII is my favorite videogame of all time. I do not know if I have ever been as excited for a game as I was for Final Fantasy VII Remake, and man it absolutely delivered. It is an incredible expansion on the world set up in my #1 favorite game… until a point.

FFVIIR is a blast to play. Square-Enix really did something incredible with its combat system. It’s somehow a retelling of the classic turn-based combat of the original, while also putting a modern spin on the action combat that is so prevalent in action RPGs in modern gaming. You freely do small attack strings with each character in order to build ATB Meter, and then you can expend that Meter on special abilities, or offense or defensive magics. They also kept the Limit Break system, where if you take too much punishment from an enemy, you can perform a massive-damage supermove. In the original, you controlled a party of 3 members in a turned-based system, but in the Remake you control one individually, but you can swap between them freely. This creates a juggling game of attempting to build up ATB Meter for each party member equally so you can work it into intricate combos. Plus, each character feels drastically different to play. I find this combat system to be brilliant for fans of original and also newcomers to the series.

I’ve played FFVII at least 10 times through to completion. As I said, it’s my favorite game. I know that story and all it’s intricate details backwards and forwards. So when it comes to the FFVIIR story, I knew they were going to be taking some creative liberties that may be different from the original, and to an extent, I was okay with that. For example, within the first two hours of the game, Sephiroth (the primary antagonist of Final Fantasy VII) is introduced, and we get a good look at him. This is a pretty large departure because in the original you don’t see any mention of Sephiroth until a significant bit of time into the game. This intrigued me and I couldn’t wait to find out more.

Now here’s the thing - FFVII is a massive game. In order for them to cover the whole game with the amount of care and detail that they did for this Remake, it would be unrealistically huge. So they announced very early on, that the FFVII Remake would be split into multiple parts, with this first part strictly covering the first ~6 hours (up to the escape of Midgar) of Final Fantasy VII, a ~50 hour RPG. Again, this is fine to me, this means they were blowing up each portion into a full labor of love and giving it all the care and attention I feel like it deserves. I’m totally down with it being multiple parts if that’s what we get. And that is what we go! … to a point.

Man if this game didn’t pull some of the shit it did at the end of it, I think it’d be much higher on this list, but having played through the whole game twice now, both times I got to the ending it left such a sour taste in my mouth that it practically kills the whole meal.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is less of a remake and more of an alternate timeline sequel, and that false advertising for it really bothers me. The above mentioned “change” of bringing in Sephiroth early isn’t an adaption of the original story, it’s “another timeline” Sephiroth engaging himself in this game’s plot. I don’t want to ruin too much of how it ends, for anyone who still intends to play it, but I find myself continually disappointed that this game got 95% there on being a Remake, for the big reveal to be it’s actually a sequel of sorts.

I think because so much of it is true to the original, what really will set the tone for me is what the next part is like. The way it concludes, it literally tells the player that they’re going to “do their own thing” going forward. I am interested to see what the story they’ll tell is, but I was really looking forward to having my favorite game remade in this new system with it’s beautiful fidelity - and I’m absolutely bummed by the change in direction.

Who knows, maybe they’ll backpedal on it after all the outrage over it and just continue with making a remake. I’d like to see it take that route. But it seems to me that this first part will be the only piece of Remake, and that part two will be aptly named something else. I guess we’ll see.

#5 - Spider-Man Miles Morales

Man, I hate putting this so low, but this year has some nuts games. If you’re realizing that Cole Caver is putting Spider-Man at #5, that must speak for the quality of the rest of this list. It’s not this low because it’s not good, this game absolutely slaps.

Miles Morales does everything that Spider-Man did two years ago, but better in every way. The animations are more fluid, the combat has more options, the dynamic between Miles and Peter is lovely, the villains are fun to fight, and the swagger of Miles himself is unparalleled. There are tons of great skills to unlock, there are awesome activities to do all over the city, and there are so many DOPE suits to unlock for Miles. Plus, a Spider-Cat.

For the three people out there who haven’t seen and adored Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales has all the powers of Peter Parker, plus some. He has his electrical “venom blast” powers, and the ability to turn invisible, a la a camouflage spider. Integrating these skills into gameplay really sets Miles apart from Peter and makes the similar gameplay feel fresh. There’s something so fun about turning invisible, sneaking into a large group of enemies, and then slamming the ground with an electrical blast that is sent out in all directions, and then clumsily web-slinging away with the grace of a “Spider-Man in Training”. And that relationship between Mentor and Student of Peter and Miles is so wonderfully crafted.

I really find the message of the game to resonate strongly with me - “Don’t do it like me, do it like you.” From the very beginning, Peter is teaching Miles what it means to be a Spider-Man but doesn’t want him to be exactly like he is, he wants Miles to find out how to be his own Spider-Man. This coming-of-age story is so wonderful to contrast against the previous Spider-Man game because it is those differences that make it so powerful. Miles’ clumsy swinging animations, the use of hip-hop beats instead of Peter’s more orchestral score, the new abilities, and slow-growing love that the city develops for “the new guy”. There are two big moments that stuck with me, and both brought tears to my eyes, Miles’ first “I’m doing it like me” moment and when a Harlem resident says to a news reporter, “He’s our Spider-Man.”. I would also like to point out the messages of inclusion that permeate throughout the game, whether it’s Black Lives Matter murals, the incredible use of Puerto Rican history, or the major side character who is non-hearing and Miles communicates with via ASL.

I’m such an emotional sucker for everything Marvel is pushing with MIles lately. “Anyone can wear the mask” or “Don’t do it like me, do it like you.” Spider-Man continues to be my favorite Superhero, whether it’s Peter or Miles under the mask, I can love either of them. I absolutely cannot wait for whatever Insomniac has planned for Spider-Man 2, but I hope I can play as both Peter and Miles because I want to keep living both of those taglines - Be Greater, Be Yourself.

#4 - Animal Crossing New Horizons (switch)

While I do not have it as my Best Videogame of 2020, I think Animal Crossing New Horizons is the Most Important Videogame of 2020. This game came at the perfect time to keep people entertained, and mental health at a somewhat-better level. Dropping right at the top of the lockdown, I didn’t know a single person with a Switch not playing Animal Crossing.

This game is just so fucking pleasant. The no stakes gameplay and the relaxing mood is just perfect for relaxing escapism or just vibing. Animal Crossing has always been wonderful, and I’ve been a fan since the first release on Gamecube. Between the seasonal events, catching bugs, fishing, and meeting all the villagers, Animal Crossing is as good as it ever was. 

The new additions brought to the table with New Horizons are also great. I loved still being able to reach out to friends online during a pandemic to visit islands, exchange clothing designs, and visit shops. I also love to send messages online through the Animal Crossing mail system. Being able to place furniture outside is a strong welcome addition that really allows you to customize your whole island town. And speaking of strong customization tools - the terraforming system allows you to decide where your rivers, lakes, and cliffs are. Meaghan and I have completely remodeled our island twice because it’s so fun to introduce variety and rework our entire Aulani (our island name) experience.

The visual and audio upgrades from the previous series entry are also nice. I love the way the trees blow in the wind and seeing the clouds trailing behind an airplane after a friend visits your island. The slow and subtle change in color as we approached Autumn was so nice, and right now the snowfall transforms the entire feeling of the island into something new and beautiful. Also, each hourly tune is so good, and I love that they’ve kept up that tradition. Meg and I caught the 5am music in the middle of a night where we couldn’t sleep, and it is just magical.

I feel like I don’t really need to say much more about it - Animal Crossing is just nice, and relaxing, and wholesome, and kind, and Beau, my sweet simple boy, is my best friend.

#3 - Outer Wilds (pc)

When I played Outer Wilds, I was so certain it was going to be #1 on my list this year. I think that really speaks for the next two games to come, because I think Outer Wilds is a perfect videogame.

And it is SO hard to talk about.

Knowing anything about it immediately ruins it for you. Seriously. I even think reading the advertisement blurb on the steam page has too much information. I was lucky enough to start this game on a whim from a podcaster’s recommendation, and it’s one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. 

Outer Wilds is an adventure game with an incredible story told in an incredible way. It can almost be likened to a Metroidvania, but you don’t learn new abilities or get new items, you just learn. Knowledge is power in this videogame, and as you progress with your newfound knowledge you can apply it to get to never-before-seen areas. This retropunk space odyssey is something I have thought about throughout the whole year, and because of its workings as a “knowledge is progression” type game, there’s no good way for me to replay it. I wish I could wipe it from memory and play it again for the first time because it is that impactful.

Outer Wilds is made by a very small indie team, so I can’t say it’s the most visually stunning game ever made, the animations are extremely simple, there’s not a lot of character modeling done, but the story, and the way it is told, is unparalleled. I will give massive props to the score though. It is instrumental (har har!) in understanding when certain things are happening, and the main theme is a bit I find myself humming to myself constantly. Hell, it was even our Animal Crossing town tune for several months.

Please, don’t look it up, just trust me on this one - go download Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds!). It’s a masterpiece.

#2 - Hades (switch)

Only masterpieces from here on out, boy.

Hades fucking rules.

Supergiant Games has never made a bad game, and they definitely continued that trend with Hades, but this thing is their Magnum Opus.

Hades is a Greek Mythology Roguelike where you play as The God of the Dead’s son, Zagreus. Zag is attempting to break out of the underworld to make it to the surface world, but Hades has strictly forbidden it. He sets out into Tartarus with an array of weapon options, where he’s met with different boons (upgrades) from the Greek Pantheon willing to come to aid in his escape, and when the going gets too tough, he dies, and rides the Styx back down to the House of Hades where he can begin anew.

This is the most fun-to-play game of 2020, I think. Each run is so drastically different than the last, between the layout of the rooms you’re given, the weapon you choose to start with, the boons that you manage to get, the characters you meet along the way - it’s all so variable, and yet every run reveals to me some incredible new combo I had never considered. Plus, the game is constantly drip-feeding new mechanics to the player to keep it fresh and engaging. Probably some 40 hours in I unlocked a new mechanic called The Pact of Punishment that completely changes the runs! That’s an insane amount of content! THIS GAME HAS FISHING! WHY?! I DON’T KNOW BUT IT DOES AND THAT RULES.

Also, the game looks so good - I love the isometric view, and the use of color and animation is both incredibly functional for conveying the high-octane action coming at you and pleasant to look at. The character portraits, and how they shift based upon the character’s current voiceline, are incredibly detailed and just excellent examples of top-notch character design. The soundtrack is incredible throughout the different regions of Hades, the boss fights, and the lyrical masterpieces. Meg and I find ourselves singing Eurydice’s Good Riddance, one of Ashley Barrett’s greatest performances, all the time.

The game is hard. And that’s awesome. You learn so much when you play. Whether it’s about your weapon, about new enemies and bosses, or about “if I mix this Athena boon with this Zeus boon I get this amazing wombocombo”. There’s always some sense of discovery while trying to force your way out of the Underworld. I have over 100 hours in this game, and sometimes I still think pushing through Elysium is hard. But man, I have never felt a gaming rush quite like having that first successful escape attempt. I don’t want to spoil exactly what you have to overcome, but after failing countless times, when I succeeded I sprang up off the couch and let out a guttural yell. I had finally forced my way out and overcome the challenges … and then of course the game had even more to offer me.

And man, I’m not even getting into half of the magic of Hades. Every character you meet has so much dialogue, and it’s all masterclass. I think in my 100 hours of playtime I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard repeat lines. There’s always some way the game reacts to your previous runs or choices, it’s absolutely unreal. And within all that dialogue are incredibly-well-written characters. Hades, your incredibly angry father with dark secrets, Dusa the housemaid, Eurydice the Muse, Athena the protector, and even Aphrodite who really just wants to bone down. Every character is so well thought out, full of fun and interesting things to say, and pushes the narrative forward in every run. And I haven’t even spoken on Zagreus, who is an absolute joy to play as, and is incredibly performed by Darren Korb (the composer of the game!). 

Hades has something for everyone and is just another perfect videogame. I’d recommend it to anyone, and I suggest it on Switch because it is so rad to be able to play this thing on the go.

Aw man… the more time I spend talking about Hades … I just want to be playing Hades.

#1 - The Last of Us part II

This game did things to me. 

I’m going to get ahead of this now - for readers who are keyed into gaming news. How can I possibly put The Last of Us Part II ahead of the Outer Wilds and Hades when I’ve absolutely gushed about how amazing they are to play, especially when there was so much discourse about The Last of Us Part II? Because Naughty Dog took some serious risks with this game, and every bit of that paid off for me. It impacted me in powerful ways, and it was incredibly effective. I understand this isn’t for everyone, and I know there are people with genuine grievances about it, but to me, The Last of Us Part II is perfect.

I’m a huge fan of The Last of Us. It’s potentially my favorite videogame from the PS3 generation. It was revolutionary in its cinematic method of storytelling in games, it was the next evolution of character animation, and it told an emotional story about fatherhood, which for some reason impacts me heavily, even without being a father. Part II continued to push that envelope on all fronts while maintaining the upward trajectory of Naughty Dog’s technical ability.

The Last of Us Part II is a continuation of Ellie’s story from the first game. It’s a story of brutal revenge and a story about how violence does nothing more than beget more violence. Like I’ve said before for other games, it’s very hard to talk about what’s so special about the story and even for me to mention “the big risks” they took without spoiling it, so I will try to tiptoe around it. There is a character that is introduced early on in the game that you are destined to hate. You hate her with every fiber of your being, and you’re looking forward to the moment of the game where you have Ellie put her down. Yet, over the course of the story, and here’s the gamble, I began to understand that character, slowly and surely I was beginning to love and care for her just like I did with Ellie back in 2013 with The Last of Us. When the story of the game becomes a Black Spy vs. White Spy of these two characters that I have such invested relationships with, I didn’t know who I wanted to win - there was no winning, it was just violence and destruction. 

And that worked for me so well. I faced dread and was moved to tears so many times throughout the course of this story because Naughty Dog made me care about these people. These are survivors trying to live in a really, really messed up world, and to see them burn themselves down like a moth to the flame caused me actual emotional pain.

The gameplay itself is a wonderful progression from the first game. Constantly shifting between stealth and high-action shooting feels fluid and well done. The “momentum” skill (take less damage after killing someone with a melee weapon) gives certain encounters such a different playstyle than earlier encounters where you relied on stealth and carefully placed potshots. The different methods of handling each encounter (or running from it entirely) are extremely varied and all uniquely fun - whether you’re stealthily picking off enemies, guns blazing, or laying traps from enemies to fall into. Plus all the different enemy types drastically change how you want to be approaching each situation, whether you’re facing militaristic humans, scavengers, or the infected “zombies”.

As I said earlier in the Uncharted 4 section - Naughty Dog is the best at what they do with performance capture and animation. Every character looks, moves, speaks, and animates like a real person. It is easily the most technically advanced game I’ve ever seen. The way subtle animations blend into each other when you walk by a bookshelf and your character puts her hand out to stablize herself, or brushes dangling moss out of her face. The way the programmers built a dynamic reloading animation system in place, that no two gun reload animations are the same, they’re all dynamically generated. Not to mention the visual fidelity in the environments and the incredible soundtrack that really drives the desperate and sullen story home.

I said it when I finished the first game, and I’ll say it again now. The Last of Us is a finished story, they don’t need to add anything to it. But if they have something else to say, I will be there on day 1, and I anticipate having my heart broken once again.

It’s not for everyone, but The Last of Us Part II is my favorite game of 2020.

Full List of Games I Played This Year:

The Last of Us Part II
Hades
Outer Wilds
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Marvel’s Avengers
Astro’s Playroom
Control
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Dragonball FighterZ
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Halo: CE Anniversary
Halo 2 Anniversary
Valorant
Legends of Runeterra
Monster Hunter World: Icebourne
Halo 3
The Last of Us Remaster & Left Behind
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Paper Mario (N64)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered
Baba Is You
Mario 64 (Remastered for Switch)
Mario Galaxy (Remastered for Switch)
Star Wars Squadrons
Ring Fit Adventure
What the Golf?

Games I started this year, but haven’t played enough of to fully render judgement - I’ll consider these as part of 2021 List:
Dragon Quest XI S
Cyberpunk 2077
Dark Souls Remastered
Spider-Man Remastered
Ghost of Tsushima