2020

Excluding games like Mario Kart/Just Dance/Jackbox games ect that are kinda just... You play them, thats it; this is a (hopefully) comprehensive list of the games I played in this shitty year. Its a bunch of my thoughts and rambles, with somewhat of a rundown of what the games actually are. These are vaguely in the order I played them in this year, and I have another whole post on just the Resident Evil games I played that I’ll keep seperate, cause this got out of hand lmao.

Games Directory

• Owlboy
• Aragami
• Stardew Valley
• Cave Story+
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Paper Mario: Sticker Star
• Paper Mario: The Origami King
• Everybody's Golf (PS2)
• Everybody's Golf (PS4)
• Flower
• Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes (ROM Hack)
• Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns

Owlboy, Switch

Owlboy… This game is so fantastic, I got it twice. Literally, I have the digital version on switch and bought physical for ps4. What can I say? I really love this game. The soundtrack, visuals and story are just incredible, and it feels right at home alongside other games I hold close to my heart.

You play as Otus - a shy and mute owl who tries to help out, but often gets the short end of the stick. Things start to get serious when the threat of a pirate attack looms over his unassuming town, and he tries to figure out how to help and stop the pirates. With the help of the friends he makes along the way, Otus and pals start to discover that there’s something more sinister beyond everything going wrong.

Playing this handheld on Switch feels just as nice playing console on PS4.

(Yes I know I can put my Switch in the dock, but at the start of the year playing this, I had no internet and my TV was packed in a box ready to move :P)

I think I have a pretty strong resonance with this game due to the fact that I played it at a strange time in my life. Bushfires were burning up the country, the smoke from them was thickly hanging over my town as I tried to pack up all my belongings and move to the city, and no one could come help me due to the severity of the smoke. The stress of trying to move and start up at university all within a few days was getting to me and reflected in slightly more insomnia than usual, so this game kept me good company.

There are a lot of really nice emotional beats within the game, and it was well worth being a thorough player and dicking around to exhaust all npc dialogue; I believe some of the best emotional scenes are optional and could be missed if you don’t go searching for them.
That said, even if you may miss one or two of the hard-hitting feely scenes, there’s plenty of really nice moments in the main story that you can’t miss. I especially liked the way it touched on how to approach and deal with your friends when grieving through tragedies, and that there are moments where the characters tell each other how much they mean to each other.

Overall its just such a gorgeous story about a young owl trying to help, and how far a journey that takes him. I’ve played it probably 5-6 times this year across both platforms, I feel like I can’t get enough of it! While a shorter game, it doesn’t feel like it’s missing anything, and has a fairly satisfying end, even though it is rather open ended.

Love this game, and would encourage you to play/watch a playthrough if you get the chance. (Also big fat win for this game being set on a bunch of floating islands!! Fuck yesssss)

Some songs I really liked were:

Strato
Such Perfect Peace
Tropos By Night

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Aragami, Switch

Oh boy, how do I start?
I really liked playing this game, it was the first time I’ve really delved into stealth games, and I had a great time. It took me a while to get used to the controls, and I feel like this is probably better to play on PS4 or PC, but it was still great on the Switch.
While I do enjoy games set in Japan, that wasn’t the main draw for me to play this game; it was the idea of being a shadow assassin infiltrating the light clans in the dark of night, and I thought it was so interesting and beautifully executed!

You play as an undead, malevolent spirit of the shadows, summoned by the young girl Yamiko to help break her free from the imprisonment of the light clan. While the story isn’t particularly deep or enthralling, it is enough to keep an interesting motive to continue playing. As you collect Yamiko’s guarded belongings, you slowly release the shackles of her imprisonment, and share her memories that are attached.

One thing I found noteworthy- not only do you have the option to choose which style of play you want, its actually encouraged to shake up how you go about each level! I plan on replaying soon and challenging myself to play differently, I tried to simply not be spotted by any enemies, and killed whoever was a nuisance. There are achievements to be had for complete stealth, never being spotted by an enemy, and killing every enemy in the map.
Every time you do well and receive points for excelling at a certain play style, you can buy weapon and attack upgrades. These were very fun to save up and collect, adding more ways to attack and distract enemies for a more thought out attack strategy, or sending out decoy shadows and having shadowy hands consume enemies in an insta-death move.

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy my time playing this game, I also felt it was just a really well designed game. I honestly can’t remember a time playing where I felt unfairly frustrated at a death, it usually felt like my own error and something that I could figure out myself.
Perhaps a few of the boss fights were a bit mediocre in that aspect, but I can remember most the boss fights clearly enough to say that overall, I thought they were clever and creative ways for light and shadow to clash.
It has been a while since I have played, and looking nostalgically to a game I played in Feb/March needs to be taken into consideration. However, if you wanna give stealth games a go, this is a great action-adventure stealth to play, and has a gorgeous aesthetic with a soundtrack to match! Well worth playing if this sounds interesting to you.

Noteable song for me were:

House of the Raven
Trapped!
Main Theme

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Stardew Valley

Ahh Stardew.

Honestly, I played it more last year, as it was a great way for me to relax AND rest my back while playing this on my Switch in bed after work. I still played it enough this year that it warrants being on my list, and I’ll say it’ll be on next years as well since the new update will be coming to consoles early next year, and I’ll bet this will be what I inevitably come back to playing to give my brain a break once uni starts up again.

It's a fairly simple game, you’re a newly appointed farmer taking over your grandpa’s old estate. You can farm… and thats about it.
Just kidding, there’s actually quite a lot to do, so I always come back to this (also the ease of repetitive rituals make the autism go wheeeee!). It’s really nice getting to know the townsfolk, and even date the ones that catch your fancy. I’ve got, like, 3 or 4 files on the go - one of which is me playing as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Enterprise Farm, trying to grow a massive vineyard with a few animals and other plants just for fun. What can I say? The brainrot goes deep.

I’m very excited to see what the updates will hold, as I had a lot of fun with the previous update that lets you befriend the sewer monster and move them into your house. And also that you can get a movie theatre if you go down the right path! This game has so much love poured into it, and it is genuinely one of, if not the best farming sims out there.

I don't have much more to really say, except I love this game a lot, so here are some songs I really like:

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Cave Story+, Switch

I love Cave Story, it hits a certain sweet spot of nostalgia as I had it on WiiWare growing up. It fascinated me as a kid, but I think most of it kinda went over my head, so it was really nice to see it brought to Switch! I played this a lot at the start of the year, but I also did a playthrough with my friend to show her what its all about. They'll back me up, I did Final Cave (Hidden) with joycon drift and somehow made it! After like 20 tries lmao

You wake up as a robot soldier with amnesia, and come across the Mimigma Village, where you find that a girl mimigma named Sue has gone missing. As you try to search for her, you get in contact with her brother, and find out more about why they went missing. The further you investigate, the more dangerous it becomes, as it is made apparent that you are in fact meddling with a plan The Doctor has to take over the world or something, so you gotta fight a big toaster and a cute witch a bunch in order to go kick The Doctor's ass.

Its a very charming and charismatic game, the wit of the old translations has pretty much been carried over in this new translation, and this game is a pretty important part of the history of indie games! Well worth looking into how this game was created as its very interesting!

I definitely recommend playing, I love this game cause holy shit cute robot protags (and a floating island!!) I believe the original version of the game is still free to play on PC, otherwise CS+ is probably the best and most definitive version to play - the main reason being you can stack a bunch of dogs on your head :P

Good songs:

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Switch

What an... interesting game in the series. Honestly, I feel a bit conflicted with this one.

While I did enjoy the early days, and can see that its got some of the best gameplay/mechanics in the series yet, it feels a little soulless.

I’m really not a fan of the way they were drip feeding updates out to us, the content should all be there from the beginning. Special events like seasonal holidays- I can understand them being free updates that are patched in, but things like Redd and the art section of the gallery?
What the hell, why wasn’t that there from the beginning!?
I remember being very disappointed at the lack of art gallery, and not feeling all that satisfied when we eventually got it, because it should’ve been something I'm able to unlock from the start? I know that I’m sounding a bit like a broken record, but while there are so many new things, like being able to terraform and having the most control over your town- I mean island, we’ve ever seen in an AC game - even the fact that we can put furniture outside now; that stuff is awesome. I won’t change my mind on that. But the taste is soured by the fact that theres still so much content that feels like it’s missing.

Brewster wasn’t a part of any museum update as far as I’m aware, it’d be awesome to set up his cafe on the island somewhere! There isn’t much expansion in the way of Nook’s store, and THE LACK OF FURNITURE SERIES. Collecting furniture series was one of my favourite things about AC, and I was so excited going from Wild World to New Leaf, finding out that there were so many new fancy furniture sets to collect.
To have them all taken away.. I think there’s the still the Cabana set, but bruh, I want to collect the sets I loved collecting as a kid, see what new additions to the sets will be added, see if Gracie will have any more expensive shit to buy...
Gracie isn’t here :(
There are so many of the older NPCs that just aren’t here, and it feels pretty empty without them tbh. I know that the idea is that this is literally the next gen of AC as a series, and some of the NPCs are the children/grandchildren of the old NPCs we know and love... But I dunno! It’d be nice to see the originals sometimes too!

The text is also pretty bland tbh. I remember enjoying chatting for hours with villagers in Wild World, and I got tired out quicker with New Leaf, but it was still pretty fun chatting with everyone; but here they all have like 4 things to say and its just sad. It doesn’t feel like there's extra dialogue for when you get close with a villager, there aren’t as many games to play with them, even at festivals and special events, they’ve been pretty bland.
It just sucks because I was so looking forward to it, and the intro to the game really hit home for me, as it really played into the whole ‘starting a new life in a new land’ kind of deal, and I got the keys to my apartment on the same day, so it was a pretty cool moment.

I dunno, this is mostly complaining.There are things I like about the game, but theres a lot thats just pretty shit tbh. I expected better, especially because they pushed back the release from 2019 to 2020.

Also, oh my god, fuck the flower breeding!
I don’t want to spend hours crawling through various strategy guides trying to figure out the exact genetic makeup of my flowers just because I want a blue rose. I have put this game down and not played for quite a while because of all these grievances; I also had a lot of trouble getting to my friend’s villages online, so I only really did local play with my sister lol.
I’m probably going to pick it up again soon, I plan on gifting a copy to my youngest sibling so we can play online together when they gets ther Switch, so I’ll see all the updates that have happened over the second half of the year in one go, and hopefully have a bit more fun than my first impression.

To try tl;dr this; I’m not a fan of the way this feels like the mobile game, with drip fed content and the bare minimum of stuff to do when previous games feel way more fun. I’ve felt more nostalgic to play WW or NL on my DS instead of picking up NH on Switch, so I feel like something’s gone a bit wrong here...
Still, it's a pretty decent game and looks nice, but unless you’re really into these kinds of boring games, and you don’t care as much as I clearly do, it’s still worth playing.

Some of the songs are pretty nice too, though Wild World's soundtrack will always and forever be the best one :P

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Paper Mario: Sticker Star, 3DS

Let me preface this by saying, I knew it was this shitty one when I bought it.
It was on sale and I was cautious about Origami King coming out, so I thought, fuck it, I’ll play the shitty one and then I’ll at least be pleasantly surprised at worst when I play the new one.

It’s a pretty bland setup; Bowser bad, stole something, use stickers, toads everywhere. I really felt the lack of storyline here, it was sad- but honestly I expected it, so I wasn’t that disappointed. There was still a few really fun and witty dialogues from the toads, so I’m glad that’s an important enough staple to still carry that humour despite discarding any semblance of plot.

I only cleared, like, two or three worlds I think? Then Origami King came out and I played that instead. I might go back and continue playing, cause I’ll admit, I’m curious as to how it pans out, but I’m also honestly not that invested.

Oh, I should also mention in the Egyptian level there are like.
Human toads and human koopas.
As enemies and murals on the wall.
They were deeply unsettling, and the cause of a lot of yelling at friends while forcing them to see that shit.
Like, look at this. What the fuck.

Overall, this was just a lame spin-off feeling game. I wouldn’t really class it as a main entry because it is so lackluster, but tbh it wasn’t as miserable as I thought it’d be to play. It just feels a bit empty, but it is also on DS lol.
So.. it’s fine.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack, it has moments where it sounds clearly inspired by Paper Mario 64 and Super Paper Mario. It’s not so bad, so if anything I’d be interested to hear the rest of the soundtrack in context too. 4/10 would not recommend, just read a wiki on it if you’re genuinely interested.
I’m taking this bullet for all of us.

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Paper Mario: The Origami King, Switch

I preordered this game and got a cute origami set to actually fold myself with it. I like folding origami, so it was really fun to fold the characters while I finished up my last online uni class of the day before I was able to boot up and play for myself. I wanted to go in playing with an open mind, and feeling ready to appreciate anything that even vaguely resembled what I wanted... esp after playing sticker star lmao

Honestly? Not disappointed at all!
This was a genuinely enjoyable game to play, had quite a few nice emotional beats and it was a gorgeous world to explore. It definitely feels more action-adventure than rpg, but I think that’s just the style Paper Mario is going in, whether I like it or not.
The turn based battle system (haha get it, cause its turn based, and you base your attacks on how you turn the staghea heahaa funnyyyy) was a fun lil gimmick, but it made me yearn for the battle stages of the first two games (haheheeee cauhsse yureee on a stagggheee)
Honestly, I think this battle system shines with the boss battles the most, having to turn the stage around to navigate it- more akin to a snakes and ladders setup -in order to land an attack on the boss was actually really fun once I got the hang of it. There is a training stage to get good at both regular and boss battles, but tbh... trying to figure out the best methods to hit enemies in normal battles just became a brain-tired chore and I didn’t feel like solving the puzzle. I always gave it a genuine shot for the first few times encountering enemies, but in the late game I just paid the toads to kick their asses for me lol.

Speaking of the toads, you have to rescue, like, a metric fuck tonne of them.
They’re literally everywhere. Its a bit of fun tbh.
They all had something to say, and it often made me chuckle, so it was always well worth saving them all to return them to their homes.

Like most of the Paper Mario games, theres a big baddie that gets a big cool thing/powers that control everything, and you go through various worlds to undo the damage done until you confront said baddie at the end.
One thing I really liked about this was that, with Boswer not being the enemy, you get to interact with the normal Mario enemies we know and love, and get to love them more. It was really nice finding the hidden cafes and ordering a drink to chat with the minions, and as every good PM game should be, it was usually a delight chatting with all the NPCs.
I love that the classic dry wit and often sarcastic humour bled through into this game so thoroughly, it really gives life to the whole thing and eased my worries about being a cranky old gamer with a nostalgia boner for the classics.
It still feels like a PM game, despite it being a very different and unique game in the series, AND despite it not really retaining as much of the rpg elements as I would’ve liked - it was a really nice game to play.

There are actually characters that join your party in this game! I was in such shock and delight that they’d brought that back; albeit not fully.
Without spoiling too much, the party members are limited to their chapters/sections, so while it would’ve been awesome to have permanent party members to swap out depending on how you want to navigate and fight, it was nice that they added them back at all when they’d been steadily phased out of the series.
The only thing I will be a bit cranky about is that they’re pretty much useless in battle. They seem to have what feels like a 75% chance of fumbling their attack and missing, so its not worth relying on them to help out.
Other than that, the party members added some much needed depth to the game and really helped add some character. They’re not as iconic as some of the party members in the first two games, but they’re still loveable enough, and I enjoyed having them join me on this journey.

Have I mentioned that the game is gorgeous? Cause it really is.

While its not really the pop-up-storybook aesthetic the early games had, and really focuses on the whole paper thing, this game feels as though it utilised the origami aspect well - and the sets feel like paper mache dioramas, so it still has a strong visual charm which is lovely! The places you go to as well… I really loved the Autumn Mountain and Shogun Studios, and the Desert + Sniff City at night were really pretty.

The music is awesome too, I enjoyed the full effect of my nice TV speakers I saved up for when I got my tv, everything sounded fantastic! Well worth getting your favourite headphones/speakers and listening to the soundtrack while you play, or even in your own time.

Before I go and ramble on and on about how pleasantly surprised I was at this game, I’ll just leave it at that. I was pleasantly surprised, and will definitely replay at least a few times when I have that Paper Mario itch.

Here's some bangers:

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Everybody's Golf, PS2

I’m not a sporty person in general, I don’t even really enjoy playing sporty video games. But this? This was an iconic part of my childhood. And I’ve been playing it a lot recently.
As I kid, I didn’t understand how to unlock more characters and courses to play, but now that I’m not a stupid kid anymore, I’ve been steadily playing to unlock all the characters and shit cause I genuienly adore this game. Apart from farming sims like Stardew and Harvest Moon, THIS is my go-to game for relaxing.

The early stages, soundtracks and characters are so ingrained into my memory, that when I found a second hand copy online last year and bought it, I still remembered everything, and it’s just as fun as it was back then!
My roommate knows that I’m not sporty at all, and she told me she was thinking ‘Wow, Rads playing a sporting golf game? That feels a bit out of character, but it he likes it…” - and then she saw what it was, and described it perfectly.

It’s a dumb anime golf game.

And it’s the best!

I put this here because it’s awesome, I have been playing it a lot recently while in lockdown, and because I actually found someone on youtube that had the soundtrack. They’re all the extended versions, but here are some of the themes that I could probably hum by memory if prompted.

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Everybody's Golf, PS4

Well, it’s the newest iteration of the game I loved as a kid, and it was really cheap if I bought the disc only online since it wasn’t the VR version, so ofc I got it.

I was literally speechless when I booted up the game and heard Owl City first thing, I fucking love Owl City and I know I don’t really check up on the music as much as I should, but I didn’t know this was a thing lmao??

(For context, this is the ps2 intro… really makes you wanna play anime golf mmmm)

Tbh, this was a bit of a lame golf game… I mean its a golf game they’re all kinda lame, but I dunno...
On PS2 it had a certain charm with all the characters you could select and play as, along with the courses all having some kind of uniqueness. Also, PS2 had not one, but two mini golf courses, and a nice lil par3 course of fun and short holes.
This one? Nothing of the sort.

It's just kinda.. you play really long courses and rack up points lol. It feels a bit sad without minigolf and iconic characters to pick. It is fun making your own character to play as, but I dunno I feel like it’d be better to have that create-a-characer ALONGSIDE the classic golf characters we know and love.

Also, honestly, the soundtrack is nothing special. It’s nice enough, but I would mute it and put on podcasts or albums I wanted to listen to instead. Just listen to Owl City.

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Flower, PS4

Another game played out of nostalgia...
My dad got a PS3 when our DVD player died, and really we only used it for DVDs/Netflix on the TV, but one of the games he did get on there was the Journey Collectors Edition, which had Flower.

It’s a very simple game, you are a single flower petal flowing in the wind, blowing over other flowers in the hope that they bloom.
Its very relaxing and simple, and I played it when I was really not doing well with life in the pandemic and living alone during the worst of the lockdowns. Doing creative works that require some form of portfolio work when I can’t even leave my apartment to see my family, that really sucked ass. But, as much as I wanted to play Resident Evil, I held off to have it as a congratulatory game when I finished Uni for the year. Which is why I played the shit out of flower while I finished the final assessments of the year.

I don’t really have much more to say about this, other than its a very nice and relaxing game, and it was nice and relaxing during a time when I felt incredibly shitty and stressed.

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Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes (ROM Hack), SNES

...I should’ve just played normal Trigger. This rom hack is a nightmare.
Ok it’s not that bad, there have been a lot of things that I genuinely (want to) enjoy.

I don’t really know where to begin with this one. I started playing in my discord just to see the extent of what this is, with the sole goal of getting further than where I got as a teen.
I got further, I’m almost done in fact, but I have to do so much grinding because there is no way to beat the boss without seemingly maxing out everyone because the battles are so ridiculously unbalanced.

Tbh, I have a whole lot to say about this ROM hack, and although I didn’t really like it, I still kinda liked it?
I have a whole essay of incoherent thoughts stored in my brain, and one day I’ll talk about this more in depth. Without being too disrespectful, don’t play this game.
I took the bullet for you all again, and I will continue shooting myself in the foot as I plan on recording footage of it again to make a video essay on it eventually, please wish me luck, I’ll genuinely need it lmao.

For songs… just go listen to the entire Chrono Trigger soundtrack, Yasunori Mitsuda will always and forever be a personal hero of mine, and he did an amazing job on this soundtrack. You can hear the passion and hard work he put into it, which surprisingly is something this rom hack has in common.

As much as I dislike a lot of the decisions made in this game, I have the utmost respect for the team that just sat down and made what they wanted to. There are some genuinely cool things that really show the passion these guys had, like making entirely new animated sprites to put in the game, and creating a fairly fleshed out game with main plots and side quests to juggle.
I will grumble and moan and try to be respectful in the same breath about this another time, so for now, just go play normal Chrono Trigger and thank me later.

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Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns, DS

Well. You saw my Stardew review.
This is another farming game I like to play because it’s cute and I don’t have to use my brain.

I’ve been playing this on my DS during summer cause I’m exhausted from moving house for the third time this year, and just wanna marry pretty boy Cam again. He likes flowers and cats and wears a purple hat and I fucking LOVE him.

That is all I care to say right now, this is a really cute HM game, so fuck yeah.

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