The Specialty Awards, for lack of a better term for it, are awards for games that excel in a particular way that has nothing to do with their genre or any technical part of the game, but that I still feel deserves to be singled out for doing something above and beyond what most games offer, whether that is a particularly good port or collection, the best game for kids, best multiplayer, or simply the game that made me laugh the most. These are games that put in an extra special effort in places that deserve to be recognized for it. As mentioned previously, today’s nominees include any games released in 2020, even those released on other platforms before 2018. Also, the 2019 Second Chance Awards and Most played Games of 2020 awards are not restricted to games released this year at all, because of what these categories represent. Anyway, on to the awards!
- 2019 Second Chance Awards
- The Top 10 Games I Wish I could Have Played Before Writing This, But Didn’t Get Around to Doing In Time
- Best Port/Remake
- Best Compilation/Collection
- Best Game for Kids and Casual Players
- Best Multiplayer
- Best Value
- Funniest Game
- Most Underrated
- Most Overlooked
- Most Original
- The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award
- Best Third-Party Publisher
- My Top 5 Most-Played Games of 2020
- Additional Commentary – Day 1
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2019 Second Chance Awards
What follows are games that came out in 2019, but I didn’t get around to playing them until 2020, after doing my 2019 Game Awards. As such, these games did not win any awards from me, but after coming back to them I didn’t want to refrain from recognizing them. These are the top 10 games that would have been most likely to have been nominated (or even win!) awards in 2019 if I had actually played them that year:
9. The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition
7. Superhot
4. Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection
1. Astral Chain
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The Top 10 Games I Wish I could Have Played Before Writing This, But Didn’t Get Around to Doing In Time
I’m never going to be able to play every game that comes out in a given year, and some of the games I tend to miss tend to be some of the bigger releases, sadly. However, just to show that I’m well aware of the stuff I’m missing, here is my list of the top ten games I wish I could have played in time for this article, but haven’t been able to get around to:
10. Crimzon Clover – World EXplosion
9. Part Time UFO
8. Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
7. CrossCode
6. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
5. Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
4. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
3. Doom Eternal
2. Paper Mario: The Origami King
1. Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
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Best Port/Remake
Pikmin 3 Deluxe – The Nintendo Switch received some excellent ports this year, including some that filled in some really important holes in the Nintendo Switch library, some that were way better than they had any right to be, and some that even improved on the original game, but Pikmin 3 Deluxe combines all of these features in one. Firstly, it gives those who missed out on the Wii U one more reason not to be bothered by that. It’s a rare example of a Real-Time Strategy game (sorta’) on the Nintendo Switch. It did a surprisingly excellent job making motion controls work on the Nintendo Switch. And it added a whole slew of new features, including a new campaign co-op that has become what I feel is the absolute highlight of the game. Considering that Nintendo could have easily done a quick and lazy port of this game, the care that was put into ensuring that this was the absolute definitive version of this game is much appreciated.
Runners-Up:
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition
Borderlands Legendary Collection
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Best Compilation/Collection
Borderlands Legendary Collection – I absolutely love the Borderlands series, and I could not be more overjoyed at this quality collection of the first three games in the series that packs in so much value into a $50 package. This is a trio of some of the best co-op games ever made, and it is a part of the reason that I think we can no longer say the Nintendo Switch is hurting for top-notch First-Person Shooters.
Runners-Up:
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
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Best Game for Kids and Casual Players
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – This was a closer race than you might expect. While I consider Animal Crossing to be absolutely one of the greatest games overall in 2020, Island Saver is one of the easiest games for me to recommend for young kids thanks to its free price tag and educational content. Still, in the end, I had to give it to Animal Crossing – this wonderful game about managing your own little private island lets you go at your own pace, doesn’t make you sweat your mistakes, and gives kids (or the kid inside us adults) the perfect opportunity to express ourselves in a stress-free environment. That’s something I think all of us, young and old alike, can appreciate.
Runners-Up:
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Best Multiplayer
Borderlands Legendary Collection – There were a lot of strong contenders in this category this year. On the one hand, you have excellent co-op experiences in Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and Vitamin Connection. On the other hand, you have a fantastic Party Game in Hidden in Plain Sight. And then there’s the huge megahit phenomenon that is Among Us. But in the end, I still have to give it to Borderlands Legendary Collection. As I’ve said just a few paragraphs ago, this is a collection of some of the best co-op games of all time, and unlike every other game on this list, it is outstanding both online and in couch co-op. There are very few games I have enjoyed in multiplayer as much as the games in this collection, and it is a joy to have them on the Nintendo Switch.
Runners-Up:
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
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Best Value
Island Saver – When it comes to value, it’s hard to beat “free”, but Island Saver even goes above and beyond that by offering a wonderful kid-friendly experience without any microtransactions (just an optional paid expansion), designed to teach youngsters about the importance of environmentalism and… er, banking, oddly enough. While I think all of the games on this list are a phenomenal value, nothing quite compares to this game, which is such a good value that I feel that every Nintendo Switch in a household with kids should have the game on it.
Runners-Up:
Borderlands Legendary Collection
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
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Funniest Game
Journey to the Savage Planet – This year more than last, there were a lot of contenders for this award, to the point where I was even tempted to split this category into games that make for hilarious multiplayer situations, such as Hidden in Plain Sight and Among Us, and games that have hilarious writing and content, such as the other games on this list. Ultimately, I decided to give this award to Journey to the Savage Planet, which uses a combination of outstanding writing, great voice acting, and fantastic live-action acting, as well as various environmental details, to deliver a hilarious experience that combines some of the humor of the Fallout series with stuff seemingly straight out of Futurama. Never before has the cold indifference of a distant corporation that my life depends on been as delightful as it is in this game.
Runners-Up:
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Most Underrated
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected – This category is for games with a Metacritic score I felt was way too low, and sometimes this means a good game that I felt was unfairly maligned by critics, such as Crysis Remastered and The Outer Worlds (yes, the Switch versions of those games had worse graphics, but they were still perfectly playable, enjoyable games), and sometimes this means games that critics liked, but I felt like they deserved higher praise than they received. In the case of Saints Row IV, it’s kinda’ somewhere in-between. With a Metacritic score of 71, I think it’d be fair to say critics were lukewarm about this game, which is astounding to me because this game is some of the most fun I’ve had on my Nintendo Switch. Yes, it’s a competent but unspectacular port of an older game (and thankfully a better port than Saints Row The Third was), but it’s a fantastic older game and one that absolutely deserves more attention than I think it got.
Runners-Up
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Most Overlooked
Hidden in Plain Sight – This award goes to games that, as of this writing, do not have enough reviews on Metacritic to have a score. While all of these games are excellent titles well worth playing, Hidden in Plain Sight has become one of my go-to Party Games that has become a staple for fun multiplayer sessions. Don’t make the same mistake a lot of game critics apparently did – do not miss this game.
Runners-Up:
Finding Teddy 2: Definitive Edition
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Most Original
Hypnospace Outlaw – There’s nothing else quite like Hypnospace Outlaw, a game that has you scouring the game’s simulation of a 90s-era internet for content violations. It’s an intriguing premise done spectacularly well, with visuals that transport you back decades while you try to find the right chain of links to bring you to a page with what you’re looking for. If you want something unique on the Nintendo Switch, you’ll be hard-pressed to find something more unique than this.
Runners-Up:
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The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award
Wunderling – I try not to let my personal biases show in my reviews, and I try to give every game a fair chance, but I’ll be honest… I hate most Auto-Runner games. I think they’re lazy, tedious, and I always feel like I’d be much happier just playing a normal Platformer… but not Wunderling. Wunderling takes a genre I hate and uses clever level design to transform it into a series of fantastic puzzles, all while wrapping it up in a marvelous presentation that pokes fun at Mario-style games. I went into Wunderling expecting to hate it, and came out of it absolutely loving the game. No other game in 2020 exceeded my expectations like this one did.
Runners-Up:
Finding Teddy 2: Definitive Edition
1993 Shenandoah
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Best Third-Party Publisher
Take-Two Interactive – Take-Two could have made me perfectly happy this year by simply releasing the Borderlands Legendary Collection, but then on the same day they release the incredible Bioshock Collection, as well as the XCOM 2 Collection which… well, I didn’t like as much, but I know the series has its fans. Then, to top it all off, they give Nintendo Switch owners an excellent Golf Sim in the form of PGA Tour 2K21. Nintendo Switch owners were truly fortunate in 2020 that 2K ❤ Nintendo Switch, as their ad campaign claimed.
Runners-Up:
Sega – Two Point Hospital, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Megamix, Catherine Full Body, Sega Ages games
Marvelous (XSeed) – Rune Factory 4 Special, No More Heroes, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Koch Media – Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Metro 2033 Redux, Metro Last Light Redux
Annapurna Interactive – If Found…, Telling Lies, Florence, Kentucky Route Zero TV Edition
505 Games – Journey to the Savage Planet, Horace
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My Top 5 Most-Played Games of 2020
These are the games that I spent the most time playing this year just for fun. Now, these aren’t necessarily the best games, but they’re the games I most wanted to unwind with when I wasn’t looking to review something. I made a similar list last year, but this year Nintendo did me a solid by setting up a page to actually show me which games I played the most, with a few of these actually surprising me.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – When I originally played Breath of the Wild, it was on the Wii U, and I played that game through to completion, with every shrine finished. In 2020, in anticipation of the upcoming sequel, I thought I’d do the same thing in the Nintendo Switch version, which I had only played long enough to review. Well, I didn’t get anywhere close to finishing all the shrines… perhaps I’ll be able to do so in 2021…
4. Slay the Spire – This one really surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Slay the Spire, but I didn’t remember it being a game I played so much in 2020. But then, I suppose it’s so easy to get lulled into playing through “just one more run” and losing hours of time to the game, that maybe it was far better at sapping my hours without my knowledge than I thought. Not that I’m complaining, I’m sure I enjoyed every minute of it.
3. Disgaea 5 Complete – I have long been a big fan of the Disgaea series, but haven’t played all of the games in the series and when I reviewed them I wanted to take them in numerical order, so I reviewed Disgaea 5 last, even though it was the first of the Disgaea games released on the Nintendo Switch. After finding Disgaea 1 to be still a great game, but one whose port I had a few nitpicky issues with, and Disgaea 4 to be a game with a story I liked but gameplay changes I wasn’t super-thrilled about, I started up Disgaea 5 to find the game to have a story I hated… but gameplay that absolutely sucked me in like the series hadn’t done since the first game came out on PlayStation 2. You can absolutely bet that I am eagerly looking forward to the release of Disgaea 6 in 2021… and hopefully I can keep it from taking over my life after it comes out…
2. Pic-A-Pix Deluxe – What I wrote about this game last year still remains true, so I’ll copy-paste it: This probably seems like it’s coming out of left field, huh? Yeah, that’s right, I log a lot of hours into a Picross game. That stuff is digital crack to me. I don’t regret giving this game a relatively moderate score because I know that not everyone will feel the same as me (and in fact, I’ve encountered some frustrating bugs while playing it), but this Picross game managed to hit juuuuust the right note with me. It helps that this is exactly the sort of game I like to play to chill down right before I’m ready to go to sleep – this game probably has the all-time record of most hours spent with me sleeping while it plays. When I’m looking for a game to put on the Switch to de-stress, this is my go-to.
1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – For months, I played this game every. Single. Day. For hours, no less. And I know I’m not the only one, many of you did too. You and I both know why – 2020 was a horrible year, and few things eased the pain of this painful year like Animal Crossing did, and made things seem, just for a little bit… okay. I haven’t logged into the game for months now. I’m sure my town is covered in weeds and my residents are a tad miffed, but this game served its purpose for me, and I’m extremely grateful that it did.
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Additional Commentary – Day 1
Here are some additional thoughts on today’s awards, for those curious on my thought process:
2019 Second Chance Awards – Not gonna’, lie – if I played Astral Chain in time for my 2019 awards, it would have been my 2019 Game of the Year. Great gameplay, interesting premise, varied, original, visually stunning… it’s not the most accessible game ever, but it doesn’t matter because it’s so damn good. And yeah, Luigi’s Mansion 3 probably would have gotten second place. Dunno what would have gotten the bronze award between Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Wargroove though. Both are amazing games that build on the same great core gameplay, but in completely different directions.
Also, I’ll take this opportunity to once again say I absolutely love Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection and I am not a fan of that franchise. And Alien Isolation may well have taken the title of best port from Ori and the Blind Forest… dunno, that’s a tough call.
Oh, one final note – this award was inspired by Children of Morta, because right after I made my 2019 awards, I played that amazing, amazing game, and I could have kicked myself, because I know I would have name-checked it multiple times in my awards.
Best Port/Remake – I feel like many of the best ports on Switch in 2020 lost something in the transition. Ori’s visuals aren’t up to par with the Xbox One’s (though it’s amazing what they were still able to accomplish). Trials of Mana dropped the original’s co-op multiplayer. Devil May Cry 3 added really good improved on-the-fly stance swapping but nothing else and was still too overpriced. Borderlands Legendary Collection had to drop couch co-op down from four players to two (a reasonable cutback, I feel). And Among Us got improved controls (in my opinion), but of course the fact that it’s on a platform without native voice chat or its own voice app like Discord means you need to use a phone app or computer app to make up the difference, and while that’s not the game’s fault, it’s still frustrating.
Pikmin 3 is the one game I feel is not only greatly improved over the original, but unquestionably a step up over the original without having to make any significant compromises.
Best Compilation/Collection – There was a tiny part of me screaming that I should give every award to Borderlands Legendary Collection this year. I love these games so damn much. Best Compilation and multiplayer? Obviously. Funniest game? Hells yes. Best voice acting? Totally. Best action game? Absolutely. Game of the year? Um… well, the Borderlands games didn’t technically come out this year, did they? Damn it, I can’t just give it all the awards, can I? Ffffffffffuuuu…
Also, I may get heat for including Super Mario 3D All-Stars on this list, or alternately not giving it the award. If you’re one of those people who wants to complain about this, just stop. You know why it was nominated, and you know why I couldn’t give it the award.
Shmup Collection and Bleed Complete Bundle are honestly kinda’ here to round out the list. They’re both good, but I’d say not on par with the other stuff listed here. Both are totally worth it (definitely try to get Bleed Collection when it goes on sale), but come on, they were never gonna’ truly compete with six great Mega Man games for $30, three legendary Mario games, or any of the others on the list.
Best Multiplayer – Every last one of these games on the list is a blast to play in multiplayer, it just depends what type of multiplayer you’re looking for. Want a local party game? You need Hidden in Plain Sight. Want an online party game? Among Us. Light local co-op? Vitamin Connection. Local campaign co-op? Pikmin 3 Deluxe or Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. But yeahhhhh… I’ve put wayyyyy too many hours into Borderlands’ local and online multiplayer co-op to not give it this award.
Best Value – “Value” means different things here. Each of these games offers a different amount of game for a different amount of money, but all offer great bang for buck… having said that, yeah, it’s hard to beat “free”, especially when it doesn’t come with microtransactions attached. I mean, if I can tell everyone they might as well download this game because it’s free and comes with no strings attached… it pretty much has to win this award, right?
Funniest Game – Yeah, like I said, I was tempted to split this category in two, and perhaps next year I might, but I felt if I did that this time I might not have enough for both. I probably got the most laughs out of Hidden in Plain Sight this year, but that was also partly due to the group I played with. I felt like if a game truly deserved credit for delivering those laughs, it was Journey to the Savage Planet, which came at you with the funny from multiple angles and didn’t let up.
Most Underrated – I absolutely loved Saints Row IV, so to see it get a mediocre 71 on Metacritic just struck me as wrong. Also, The Outer Worlds deserved to get complaints for its graphics, but people talked about the Switch version as if it was trash, and that’s just not true – it’s still plenty enjoyable, it’s just an inferior version of that enjoyable game. Similarly, for Crysis, this is a pretty good port of a solid FPS, but the fact that it has a bit of slowdown in a few areas and has this stigma of being “pretty but boring” (hard disagree) led to it getting low scores.
Journey to the Savage Planet got decent Metacritic scores, but nowhere near what it deserved, in my opinion, and the same goes for Manifold Garden and Immortals Fenyx Rising.
Most Overlooked – I think if Hidden in Plain Sight’s creator Adam Spragg was here, he’d probably say he doesn’t think this game was overlooked – he overall seems quite pleased with the good word-of-mouth this game has gotten. However, the Nintendo Switch version of this game has zero reviews on Metacritic. That just pisses me off – this is in my opinion one of the best multiplayer games to hit the Nintendo Switch this year, and the critics didn’t even bother to play it? What the hell!?
Likewise, the Nintendo Switch version of Island Saver has zero reviews on Metacritic. Guys, it’s a great free game for kids on a game console that’s kid-friendly, and you can’t even be bothered to look at it? Come on!
The other games I listed are also deserving of far more attention than they got, but it’s those first two that really frustrate me.
Most Original – Both Hypnospace and Chinese Parents are wildly original, but Hypnospace had the added advantage of actually working. All of the other games listed are either truly unique experiences or do some really original stuff, but Hypnospace is like no other game I’ve played.
The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award – I think I explain why Wunderling won this pretty well above (it was the game that inspired this category), so a few notes on the others.
Island Saver is a free game for kids – the fact that it isn’t trash is noteworthy in and of itself, plus the fact that it isn’t loaded with microtransactions. Finding Teddy 2 is a title that sounds like shovelware, but is actually a solid Metroidvania. Among Us is a port of a truly great game, but really surprised me by being way better on the Switch than I thought it would be. Hades I knew would be good, but I had no idea it would be as mind-blowingly phenomenal as it turned out. Finally, 1993 Shenandoah has to be one of the biggest examples of a game stuck in development hell in the entire industry, yet not only did it come out of that development hell playable, not only was it good, but it actually had some interesting gameplay elements that set it apart from other games in the genre.
Best Third-Party Publisher – I knew months ago that Take Two was going to win this award. The single-day drop of Borderlands, Bioshock, and XCOM 2 were one of the biggest third-party events on the Nintendo Switch in 2020. But then they went ahead and added “just one more thing” and released the solid PGA Tour 2K21, and that sealed it.
Sega seems to consistently be a good supporter for the Switch also, so it was little surprise that they’d feature on this list. But all the other entries here surprised me, as I found myself saying “they released that, that and that?” multiple times. Nothing that would take the top spot for me, but enough to make me impressed with what each of these companies brought to the table.
However, the biggest surprise was that last year’s winner in this category, Devolver Digital, didn’t make the cut at all. They released seven games on the Switch in 2020 – I thought Stories Untold was decent but not mind-blowing, both Carrion and Ruiner were disappointing for me, and I didn’t play any of the others (though to be fair, I hear Disc Room is good). Hopefully next year they’ll be back in fine form again.
Top Five Most-Played Games – I knew what my top two would be, but I was genuinely surprised what my third, fourth, and fifth games were. I thought Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection, Saints Row IV, and Super Mario Bros. 35 would round out this list. But apparently Nintendo’s stats say otherwise. ~shrugs~
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That’s all for today! to keep up with all of the eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page, which I’ll be updating throughout the week!
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