Graphics, music, sound, writing… All of these elements enhance a videogame, but every now and then, a developer manages to deliver in one of these areas in a way that shines through and not only enhances, but elevates the rest of the experience to a whole other level. These awards go to the games that excelled in one of these areas.
- Best Music
- Best Song
- Best Sound Design
- Best Voice Acting
- Best Graphical Style
- Best Graphics
- Best Story
- Additional Commentary – Day 2
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Best Music
Ori and the Will of the Wisps by Gareth Coker feat. Aeralie Brighton, Kelsey Mira, Kristin Naigus, Laurent Ben Slimane, Philharmonia Orchestra, Pinewood Voices – Out of all of the awards this year, the most difficult choices for me to make were selecting Best Music and Best Song. There were so many good contenders this year in both categories, and a lot of excellent ones simply didn’t make the cut. Animal Crossing: New Horizons could have easily been my pick for Best Music – it was in many ways the soundtrack of 2020 with its soothing tones helping ease the suffering for many in a difficult year. Similarly relaxing was A Short Hike, whose lighthearted soundtrack reflected the wonderfully light tone of the game, and became appropriately dramatic when needed. Nowhere Prophet’s combination of synth beats and Eastern instruments created an unforgettable sound that transports you into the game’s unique post-apocalyptic world. Likewise, Streets of Rage 4’s 80s-inspired synth and fast-paced beats does an outstanding job highlighting the old-fashioned action of that game, and Vitamin Connection’s unique blend of Japanese pop and hip-hop elements really sets that game apart and makes it something truly unique and special. But in the end, Ori and the Will of the Wisp’s soundtrack was so deeply beautiful, so nuanced, so varied, and just overall did such wonders emphasizing the surreal natural beauty that game had on display that I had to make it my selection for Best Music in 2020.
Runners-Up:
Nowhere Prophet by Mike Beaton
Streets of Rage 4 by Olivier Deriviere, Yuzo Koshiro, Motohiro Kawashima, Harumi Fujita
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Best Song
If Found… – Where Are You by 2 Mello – If you’re curious to see just how difficult this choice was, take a look at this playlist of nearly 80 of the best songs in Nintendo Switch games released in 2020. I went back and forth so much on this selection. The Painful Way perfectly sets up the tone for Hades, as does Beach Buds for A Short Hike and Character Select for Streets of Rage 4. Meanwhile, Snow, Lots of Snow does an amazing job making the player feel the intensity of A Short Hike’s final challenge, and Sunset in the City is possibly the best chill, relaxing theme in a year that not only needed chill tunes, but got quite a lot of them too. However, listening over these songs, I had to admit that as much as I loved listening to each of these songs on repeat through the year, none of them packs the emotional punch of Where Are You, which instantly transports me to If Found’s darkest moments, moments of hopelessness, despair, and loneliness. Damn it, just writing this is making me tear up. Not only does this song do an outstanding job of truly pushing the emotion of the moment in the game, but hearing it immediately connects me to its use in the game, and I have to admit that the tone of deep and profound sadness is far too appropriate for this year.
Runners-Up:
Hades – The Painful Way by Darren Korb
A Short Hike – Snow, Lots of Snow (Long Hike) by Mark Sparling
Streets of Rage 4 – Character Select by Yuzo Koshiro
A Short Hike – Beach Buds (Long Hike) by Mark Sparling
Coffee Talk – Cafe Leisure – Sunset in the City by Andrew Jeremy
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Best Sound Design
Lonely Mountains: Downhill – It takes a lot of confidence in your sound design to refrain from putting any music at all in your game, but Lonely Mountains: Downhill is right to be proud of its sounds, which are a huge part of this game’s experience. Despite the game’s stylized polygonal look, speeding through the natural environments really gives you the authentic feeling of bicycling through these environments thanks to the way the sounds of everything around you paint the picture in your head as you go. The result is a truly immersive experience that elevates the game in a way that wouldn’t be possible without this game’s fantastic sound design.
Runners-Up:
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Best Voice Acting
Hades – Hades comes to life in part thanks to its excellent writing delivered with absolutely fantastic voice acting that really gives a new layer of dimension to the petty gods and myths of Greek lore, with everyone delivering the witty lines with a dry and sardonic wit that makes everything here feel just a bit classy, even as you’re thrashing hordes of monsters. Special credit here goes to Darren Korb, Hades’ composer who doubles as the voice actor for the game’s protagonist Zagreus (as well as supporting character Skelly, interestingly enough). Korb, you’re clearly skilled as a composer, but you may want to consider taking up voice acting as a side-gig, because you’re a natural at it.
Runners-Up:
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Best Graphical Style
Hypnospace Outlaw – Each of the games chosen this year does something artistically stunning, with Manifold Garden’s mathematically hypnotic visuals, Ori and the Will of the Wisp’s gorgeously surreal natural landscapes, Journey to the Savage Planet’s comic otherworldly alien environments, Lonely Mountain’s stylistically simple polygonal look, and Animal Crossing’s deceptively detailed yet simple cartoony visuals… but in the end, I felt like Hypnospace Outlaw deserved credit for using its visuals to not only deliver the game’s unique sense of humor, but transport players to another time. It’s rare that the art style of a game’s visuals tells a story as complete and transformative as Hypnospace does.
Runners-Up:
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Best Graphics
Ori and the Will of the Wisps – I feel like all of the games I’m naming in the Best Graphics category this year come with caveats, and we’re starting to see developers really strain when trying to deliver graphically impressive experiences both on the Nintendo Switch and other platforms. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is no exception here – unlike the first Ori game, which managed to get improved graphics on the Nintendo Switch, Will of the Wisps isn’t quite up to par with the Xbox version. However, Will of the Wisps is also more visually ambitious, with some really gorgeous lighting and water effects, and it was undoubtedly a much greater task getting it to look as good as it does this time around. In the coming years, the Nintendo Switch is likely to fall even farther behind other platforms graphically, but games like Ori, as well as multiple other nominees in this category, show that the Nintendo Switch can still deliver a powerful visual experience if a developer is skilled enough at downscaling content to work on the Switch.
Runners-Up:
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Best Story
Hades – Plenty of games in 2020 told an excellent story, but few told them with the level of charm and wit as Hades. What’s more, despite Hades being a game with the focus largely on the action, the story nevertheless became a powerful component driving players forward, thanks in part due to how cleverly it is integrated with the gameplay, constantly changing and adapting to respond to what’s been going on in the game. It’s thrilling to see characters commenting on battles won or lost in prior runs, and this elevates the Roguelike genre to be something transcendent, something that gives a greater meaning to each death. As much as I loved the story in the other nominees this year, Hades was my clear choice for the winner in this category, by far.
Runners-Up:
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
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Additional Commentary – Day 2
Best Music – Holy hell, I agonized over this and Best Song this year. I swear, 2019 was so damn easy by comparison – Sayonara Wild Hearts was such a clear front-runner that most of my hard choices were deciding the runners-up. But in 2020… I went back and forth over this so many times, and I’m still not completely sure of my selection here.
I think the Ori soundtrack is absolutely beautiful, but there’s no one song that’s truly memorable for me except the opening theme… which is derivative of the first game’s theme. For a while, I was really tempted to give this one to Animal Crossing, but while both games’ soundtracks heavily contribute to the atmosphere they’re going for, I think Ori’s is both technically more complex, as well as just overall pulling more weight in delivering the emotional impact it’s going for.
Vitamin Connection was a last-minute choice to round out the runners-up, but I felt it was so varied and creative that it just barely edged out the Hyrule Warriors, Ghostrunner, and Top Run soundtracks (all excellent and pitch-perfect for their respective games).
Oh, and for those wondering, nope, Hades’ soundtrack wasn’t even in consideration as runner-up. I think the Hades soundtrack was solid, and had a few very good songs, but beyond those few songs I didn’t think it was nearly as memorable or catchy as the other ones named here.
Best Song – I’m still not sure about this one. There were sooooo many contenders for the top six here. I have doubts about Where Are You, because it’s repetitive and a little unpleasant to listen to, but it’s also supposed to be repetitive and unpleasant, because of the sort of emotions it’s highlighting in that part of the game. I nearly gave this award to The Painful Way, which perfectly sets up the mood and action of Hades, but upon listening to these songs again, I couldn’t deny the strong emotional impact Where Are You had on me.
For a long while, another top choice was Streets of Rage 4’s Character Select, which is far more varied and wonderful than any character select screen music ever needs to be – most players will be on that screen for all of five seconds, so it’s crazy that Yuzo Kashiro created a song for this screen that’s nearly 4 minutes long and transforms multiple times in its runtime, culminating in a shift at the two-minute mark to one of the most exciting, bad-ass loops I’ve heard this year that just felt so damn perfect for this nostalgic return to a great beat-em-up series.
I’m also surprised that I ultimately didn’t put any of Animal Crossing’s tracks in this list. There were so many that were very good… but both Beach Buds and Sunset in the City go for that same sort of laid-back vibe and do it with less repetition and overall catchier tunes that it was hard to push one of those songs out to fit Animal Crossing in.
On a final note, I was very tempted to put Good Riddance from Hades in the top slot just because I felt like the title of that song was so damn emblematic of my feelings about 2020. However, this isn’t an award for Best Song Title.
Best Sound Design – I had been stressing so much about the musical categories that I hadn’t given much thought to this one, and had to go back through the year’s releases to remind myself which games had great sound. I got to “L” on my list and saw Lonely Mountains and my immediate thought was “oh, of course, duh”. Yeah, the sound in this game is just so good, once I was reminded of it, it was a no-brainer.
A few additional notes here. First, Fuser – I felt like this one deserved a name check for how much work was clearly put into making sure that all of the game’s 100+ songs’ numerous instrumental tracks mesh together well. That’s no small feat and it needed some recognition.
Second, Animal Crossing. You may not think of this game as having great sound, what with its cartoony sound effects and the same animal-ish noises for speech that the series has used for ages. However, I feel like it takes a lot of work to ensure that the game’s noises not only work well with the cartoony vibe, but also sound endearing and not annoying for the undoubtedly countless hours many would play the game. This game not only does that, but has sounds that are instantly recognizable.
Best Voice Acting – Yeah, I think I explained my choice of Hades pretty well here. Not sure there’s much to say about the others beyond… they’re all good.
Immortals Fenyx Rising was one I was a bit torn on, because I think the writing in that game didn’t mesh well with that game’s tone… but the voice acting itself was still top-notch, even though the characters kept saying dumb silly stuff when perhaps something more befitting the serious tone of the game would have been a better choice. But hey, that ain’t the fault of the voice actors.
Best Graphical Style – I don’t think I have too much to add to what I said above.
Best Graphics – I think I explain my choice of Ori pretty well, so let’s address a few of the others.
Immortals looks great, though the hazy landscapes are an testament to the game’s downgrade from other platforms. Similarly, Savage Planet clearly creaks at the edges, and MotoGP 20 has some odd graphical “noise” in parts of the screen in some parts of the game. These games all look fantastic, but with major caveats due to sacrifices made to get the games to work on Switch. Trials of Mana is just all-around great-looking, but doesn’t exactly push any envelopes.
Finally, Animal Crossing. I’m sure some people will wonder why a game with such simple-looking characters and world would be deserving of a “Best Graphics” honor, but the devil’s in the details, and every one of these simple visuals has so much more detail when you look more closely. Fur that looks like fur, fabric that looks like fabric, great-looking water. This game manages to maintain the simple, cartoony look of the prior Animal Crossing games while still adding in so much detail and texture that it brings everything to life in a surreal but appealing way.
Best Story – Yeah, Hades was always gonna’ win this one. Not only is the story here fantastic, but they meshed it with the gameplay in some really creative and even potentially revolutionary ways.
If I had an award for “favorite character”, Horace might win it… but then, Hades’ Zagreus might have taken that as well. I absolutely loved half the story of If Found… but hated the other half. And the remainder in this category were all good, and beat out multiple other great contenders – Lair of the Clockwork God, Hypnospace Outlaw, A Short Hike… a lot of great stories this year…
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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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