Even with occasional design quirks and bugs holding it back, I adore this game as is. Similar to Planet Coaster, I think it'll get better over time, and Frontier will surely flesh out the species list with DLC packs. But even if that doesn't happen, I'll be satisfied. Some of us have been waiting decades for a game like Planet Zoo to come along and scratch our Zoo Tycoon itch. Now that it's here, I can't get enough.
I'm not sure if Takahashi will ever be able to top Katamari Damacy – for my money, it's one of the greatest video games ever made – but Wattam captures that sense of whimsy and magic in its own way. The care-free music and gosh-darn-huggable character designs make this a must-play for fans.
Journey to the Savage Planet was such a fun way to kick off the decade, and I'm going to bring it up at the end of the year when people inevitably begin asking about the overlooked gems of 2020. If you want something light and breezy with an intoxicating collectible-based feedback loop, here you go.
The Bad Seed is a natural extension of everything that made Dead Cells so tireless and long-lasting. The new levels don't feel arbitrarily tacked-on (even though they essentially are), and you don't need to be a masterful player to conquer them. I could go for a few more DLC packs with this exact structure, easily.
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics might sound generic at first blush, but it's secretly one of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2020. It's the right game at the right time with the right temperament.
Even if the story doesn't hit as hard this time around and the stakes, in general, can feel weirdly low (due in part to the self-contained time-hopping conceit), I can't deny it: Darkness in the Capital is fun as hell. I didn't expect to want to completely redo my build after falling in love with the Fists, but here I am.
There's something so magical about the way Overcooked mixes simple cooking instructions with frantic stage hazards that require verbal check-ins between co-op players. I can't get enough. I've lost track of how many times I've beaten these games, and it's a testament to their design that they still hold up so well. If you're hankering for more happy, shouty, don't-blame-me vibes, All You Can Eat feels definitive.
I spent close to a dozen hours with the main progression path in PixelJunk Eden 2, and I've hardly dug into the unlimited-time "choose your garden and Grimp" free-play mode. Whenever I feel the gotta-catch-'em-all collectathon itch, I'll be sure to head there first since that mode has its own achievements. You can't tell me the total number of seeds in each level and not expect me to hunt them down.
Whether you're a seasoned survivor or an all-new player, you'll have a thrilling time with the sequel. It's ideal to start from the beginning, but it's not mandatory – this freaky story stands on its own.
Even if there are a lot of shared elements between the two games and the ground-based traversal isn't everything it's cracked up to be, Below Zero's greater focus on character-driven storytelling lands well and this standalone adventure captures the unrivaled magic of underwater exploration all over again.
Even if I have complaints here and there, all told, KeyWe is a delightfully panic-inducing co-op puzzle game. The level objectives are fun, the hazards are varied, the scattered story scenes are super cute, the cosmetic unlocks are worthy rewards, and the mini-games are meaningful enough to keep coming back to. If you’re feeling lucky, make it a date.
For as simple as the challenges seem, the stakes sure feel high when you’re racing to get the most points and every wrong answer feels like a tragedy. I didn’t expect to get this swept up in Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, but it has become an honest-to-goodness competition in our household. These are the bragging rights to end all bragging rights.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
I’m a big fan of roguelite action games and city builders, but even if you’re on the mild side, Cult of the Lamb is a winning combo. It draws many of the best aspects of those genres, places them in a one-of-a-kind world, and charts its own condensed course.
Impressive efforts with a few noticeable problems holding them back. Won't astound everyone, but is worth your time and cash.
For the time being, however, this approach works -- Battlefield 4's multiplayer is strong enough to carry it. The single-player campaign isn't nearly the waste of time that it was in the last game, though it still ends up being an unnecessary inclusion. One can't help but wonder how much better Battlefield would be if DICE quit striving for back-of-the-box feature parity and concentrated its efforts entirely on multiplayer. I hope that day comes again.
Most everything is well-thought-out, polished, and delightful
If I were to stick with a single installment going forward, this would be the one. Some of the upgrades fall short of expectations, and a good deal of the content is overly familiar at this point, but The Shadow of New Despair still represents the series at its best.
In the end, I have come to love and loathe Nuclear Throne. It's one of the hardest, most rewarding games I've ever played. But as satisfying as it can eventually become, I think it is far too demanding for its own good. With additional polish and balancing, this could be a masterpiece in the genre. It's not quite there yet, but it's close.
Shadow Complex was great in 2009, and for the most part, it still is to this day. You won't find many new elements in this remaster apart from standard graphical upgrades, but if it has been a few years since you've played the original version, it's worth going through the journey again.