Alongside our staff-voted Game of the Year awards, each of our writers have crafted their own personal lists, covering their top five PlayStation 5 and PS4 titles of 2020. Today, it's the turn of retro specialist Jamie O'Neill.
5. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
My favourite part of Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the beauty of its Christmas winter time setting. There's a nostalgia factor for me. In 2018, Insomniac Games had already succeeded with a modern take on PS2 Spider-Man 2's swinging traversal, with an expansion of the free-flow combat from the Arkham games, but Miles adds extra flair and style. I find the succinct game length ideal, so I hope the shorter, standalone, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy template is continued in the ninth generation. The update to include a Performance RT Mode was welcome, as PS5's combination of 60 frames-per-second with ray-tracing was the icing on a snowy skyscraper cake, with shiny reflective windows.
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2
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. Vicarious Visions' remake was rad through its faithfulness to the flow and feel of Neversoft's original controls. If you told me at the start of the PS4 generation that Activision would publish two of my favourite remakes — the other being Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, which also featured the development skills of Beenox — I wouldn't have believed you. So go bail a 100,000+ point combo, you groms, because Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is sick on PS4, and I can't wait for you to hear me shout it.
3. Streets of Rage 4
Alongside Hotshot Racing as a 2020 retro modern release, developer Guard Crush Games can be commended for Streets of Rage 4 as a PS4 brawler that feels authentic to the game design of classic 1990s SEGA. When it was first announced, I initially wished that Streets of Rage 4 incorporated traditional sprites and pixel art, but in a similar way to Lizardcube's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, Streets of Rage 4's glorious hand-drawn visuals surpassed my expectations. I loved the details, secrets, and nods to the retro games, as well as the absurdity of the final boss battle. I also appreciated later balancing refinements like the 1.03 patch that improved Axel's movement speed.
2. Demon's Souls
Before I read Christian Kobza's 10/10 scoring Push Square review, I was excited by his sub-heading praising PS5 Demon’s Souls as "PlayStation's Best Ever Launch Game". Bluepoint Games is known through work on the likes of PS4 Shadow of the Colossus as the masters of the remaster, so Demon's Souls is a true graphical showcase for PS5. The fast load times and 60 frames-per-second Performance Mode are bliss to experience. Also, if you're unsure about its difficulty, read Sammy Barker's Soapbox, because anyone fortunate enough to own a launch PS5 shouldn’t miss out on a game that's in Push Square's rare 'Outstanding' score club.
1. The Last of Us: Part II
I don’t just consider The Last of Us: Part II as the best game of 2020, it's also my personal favourite PS4 game of the eighth generation. With the opening lyric of Pearl Jam's song Future Days declaring "If I ever were to lose you, I'd surely lose myself" still ringing in my ears, this sentiment depicted a running theme throughout Naughty Dog's series. Similarly, the PS3 expansion's idea of being 'Left Behind' after losing a loved one is continued in The Last of Us: Part II's heart-breaking story, which sadly became reflective of 2020 as a heart-breaking year for me.
So, that's Jamie's five favourite games from 2020. Do you agree with his picks? Have your say in the comments section below.
Comments 23
I'm never sure what people expect in the comments of this type of article. If you have a different opinion then some people get upset. Anyway I'm glad DS is up there in the article. What an amazing game to start the new gen with. A lot easier than I was expecting but that s all the better for my taste.
Hi there fellow gamers.
The Last of Us part 2 was, is an amazing gaming experience.
one I will not forget and actually want a PS5 upgrade or PS5 remaster so I can play trough one one the most satisfying survival horror game and one of the most engrossing and heart wrenching story I´ve experienced.
The only other was Nier. Can´t wait for the remaster on that one.
Great list Jamie.
Cheers, stay safe people and happy gaming to us all
Just to elaborate on a few points in my Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 section, I feel that this year, and the PS4 generation in general, has been particularly great for remakes that expand upon PS1 games.
I think that publishers like Activision and Capcom, and developers who balance the feel of a retro game with modern additions to the gameplay, should be commended for recreating the nostalgia of a 32-bit classic, but freshened up for modern standards.
Also, when I refer to "groms" above, I'm affectionately harking back to my days as a skate grommet in the late 1980s. I tried to rekindle how we embraced talking with our own slang and terms as skaters, through being influenced by skate videos like Public Domain, Shackle Me Not, and Streets on Fire.
I was still skating when the first PS1 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was released, so I saw its huge influence first hand, and how it encouraged more people to skate. The thing is, skating wasn't cool in the north of England in the late 1980s, for example we'd get legged through Birkenhead and jumped on the train to Southport for having skateboards.
Yet, the THPS PS1 games helped change people's attitudes towards skateboarding, to the point that our gobbledygook language with using words like "sick" has become pretty common to hear nowadays from young people. I love how these remakes bring back so many good memories.
Nice list and shows the TLOU2 is like marmite you either love it or hate it. But you can't say it didn't take risks and played it safe. I have Tony hawks for Xmas looking forward to it.
Demon's souls isn't that hard. The insane SSD load times makes soul farming a breeze. I clocked up a million souls in 45 mins in the last section of the shrine of storms level with the sky sword. That made levelling up your character pretty easy and more balanced rather than just focusing on a few categories. I left the game at soul level 130. Flew through level 1 and then BOOOOM, ng+hits you with its total brutality.
I left a lot of the trophies behind so hopefully I can get them via Co op.
The first ps game I've paid 70 quid for and worth every penny. I have put 80 hours into it so far but am taking a break to play sackboy.
@Max2574
Funny analogy. Also makes me think of how in the world people like pimento cheese. UhhHHhhHhHhHh.
I bought Tony Hawk Pro-Skater 1 + 2 Remake day one... yet I still haven't gotten around to playing it.
Well at least you have Streets of Rage 4 in your list
I used to be fairly good at tony hawks game back when the orginal games were released, however just got the remasters for Christmas and can't play it for life of me, anyone got any tips haha
I always felt THPS 4 was the pinnacle of the series. It was the smoothest playing and had the best level and mission design in my opinion. I’m excited to eventually pick this remake up! I always thought Matt Hoffman’s pro bmx was super underrated as well as having a stellar soundtrack.
@Ssimsim Use half-pipes, special to revert to manual into the other side, repeat until you’re going too slow. If you’re too slow, either grind off the side to build up speed or lip the edge. Managed to get over 3 million on Burnside so still have a ways to go but those sorta tactics worked for me. There are some massively exploitable lines as well, grinding the Channel Gap on Warehouse and grinding the bowl in Roswell’s hidden room are a couple of examples. You can pretty much infinitely grind to build up a huge combo while doing grabs or flips during the jump between the rails.
@Jimmer-jammer I love THPS4, I have the most nostalgia for that one with levels like Alcatraz and College. I hope they do a big DLC for this game that adds the levels from 3 along with a PS5 patch and then get to work on a THPS4 and THUG remaster, although it would be interesting to see how they add off-board travel into 4 if that was the case.
@JamieO I'm loving many of the 32 bit recreations on PS4, Capcom knocked it out of the Park with RE2 and whilst I'm not personally a fan of Tony Hawks, I only ever hear good things from those that are
@carlos82 I agree, PS4 Resident Evil 2 set the standard for developers going above and beyond at establishing the atmosphere of a 32-bit game — in this case with the Raccoon Police Department setting, with surrounding cells, labs and hidey-holes — but with presentation and gameplay that still feels relevant today.
I like how you describe them as "recreations" of PS1 classics, because I think that Capcom's team must have genuinely loved their source material in creating that game. Just imagine having a crystal ball in 1998 and seeing just how much video games would advance 21 years later.
@nessisonett oh man, college is burned into my memory for good. Such a well designed level. There is so much potential here, it sounds to me like this remake really managed to breath new life into a series that deserves it. Underground didn’t click with me quite the same way as the others but I’m excited to see where they go from here nonetheless.
Streets of Rage 4 didn’t disappoint. Have it on Switch and PS4.
I thought TLOU 2 was pretty good but not as good as its predecessor .
Jamie, if I read that right, it sound like you lost someone this year. I'm so sorry and I hope you're okay.
3 good games, an overpriced expansion, and the revenge bad game.
Good list 👍🏻
Good to see Streets of Rage in a lot of people top 5 choices 😎
@B_Lindz Yes, mate, you're correct in your observation. I wasn't sure if I should mention it here, but it's very fresh and recent, and at the forefront of my thoughts.
To be honest, I thought that mentioning it felt relevant in regards to 2020 being a tough year, because I think many people can relate to going through a hard time.
At least a New Year is coming for fresh starts, so I hope that 2021 is a good year for everyone.
Thanks for your kind comment, and all the best to you.
@JamieO remember that same train in the late 80's, early 90's. Spent a lot of my youth in Southport arcades in those days - Street Fighter 2 my biggest obsession.
Not played the TH games but can agree with your number 1. Playing Bloodborne as part of the Plus Collection and love it so much I'll definitely be getting Demon's Souls - and probably anything else From Software releases
Edit: just saw your last message. sorry for your bad news. hope 2021 brings you a better year than 2020.
Uhhh where the hell is Ghost of Tsushima?!?!?!?
@StonyKL Cool, I didn't expect to find myself reminiscing about my youth visiting Southport's arcades here, so this has turned into a pleasant surprise.
We used to skate from Southport train station to down by the pier where there was a helter skelter slide park, which also included a concrete snake run with banks for skating.
We'd stop at lots of the arcades on the way, so I can remember playing Konami's four-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coin-op with my mates, and also Shadow Warriors — which was the arcade beat-'em-up version of Ninja Gaiden that I loved. I know that it was 1988 and 1989, because the arcades were flourishing enough for them to regularly make new machines available.
I also have fond memories of the arcades at New Brighton, good times indeed!
Cheers, and all the best to you for 2021, too.
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