In addition to the Game of the Year awards voted by our staff, all of our writers have created their own personal lists of their top five PlayStation 5 and PS4 titles of 2020. Today it’s retro specialist Jamie O’Neill’s turn.
My favorite part of Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the beauty of the Christmas wintertime. There is a nostalgia factor for me. In 2018, Insomniac Games had already succeeded with a modern take on PS2 Spider-Man 2’s swinging traversal, expanding the free-flow combat from the Arkham games, but Miles adds extra flair and style. I find the short game length ideal, so I hope the shorter, standalone, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy template continues into the ninth generation. The update with a Performance RT mode was welcome, as PS5’s 60 frames per second ray-traced combination was the icing on a snowy skyscraper cake, with glossy reflective windows.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the most fun I’ve had playing a Tony Hawk game since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 in 2001. The Vicarious Visions remake was amazing for its fidelity to the flow and feel of the original Neversoft controls. If you had told me at the start of the PS4 generation that Activision would be publishing two of my favorite remakes – the other being Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, which also featured Beenox’s development skills – I wouldn’t have believed you. So get a combo worth over 100,000 points, guys, because Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is sick on PS4, and I can’t wait for you to hear me shout.
In addition to Hotshot Racing as a retro-modern 2020 release, developer Guard Crush Games can be hailed for Streets of Rage 4 as a PS4 brawl that feels authentic to the game design of the classic ’90s SEGA. was announced, I initially wished Streets of Rage 4 included traditional sprites and pixel art, but in a similar fashion to Lizardcube’s Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, Streets of Rage 4’s glorious hand-drawn visuals exceeded my expectations. I loved the details, secrets, and nods to the retro games, as well as the absurdity of the last boss fight. I also appreciated later refinements to the balance, such as the 1.03 patch that improved Axel’s movement speed.
Before reading Christian Kobza’s 10/10 Push Square review, I was thrilled by his subsection praising PS5 Demon’s Souls as “PlayStation’s best launch game ever”. Bluepoint Games is known for its work on PS4 Shadow of the Colossus as the masters of the remaster, so Demon’s Souls is a true graphics showcase for PS5. The fast loading times and 60 frames per second Performance Mode are a joy to experience. If you’re not sure about the difficulty, read Sammy Barker’s Soapbox, because anyone lucky enough to have a launch PS5 shouldn’t miss a game in Push Square’s rare ‘Outstanding’ scoring club.
Not only do I consider The Last of Us: Part II the best game of 2020, it’s also my personal favorite eighth generation PS4 game. With the opening lyrics to Pearl Jam’s song Future Days stating “If I ever lost you, I would definitely lose myself” still resonating in my ears, this sentiment portrayed an ongoing theme in Naughty Dog’s series. Likewise, the idea of the PS3 expansion to be ‘Left Behind’ after the loss of a loved one continues in the heartbreaking story of The Last of Us: Part II, which sadly became a reflection of 2020 as a heartbreaking year for me .
So those are Jamie’s five favorite games from 2020. Do you agree with his choices? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.