There's no getting around the fact that 2020 has been really quite pants on several fronts. Not a nice, fresh pair of the finest undergarments occupying your dresser drawer, either — quite the opposite, in fact (we'll spare you the metaphorical details, but you get the idea). It's during the darkest times, though, that the tiniest specs of light are most easily visible, and in the realm of video gaming there have been some real highlights in this most testing of years.
For Nintendo fans in particular, what looked like a particularly empty twelve-month schedule at the start of 2020 eventually turned into a rather solid year of releases. You only have to peruse a list of Nintendo's first-party developed and published output to see that 2020 wasn't half bad.
The biggest hitter was Animal Crossing: New Horizons which did much of Nintendo's heavy lifting, but it was ultimately supported by the likes of Paper Mario: The Origami King, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, and (in collaboration with Koei Tecmo) Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.
Then we had remasters and re-releases in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, Pikmin 3 Deluxe and Super Mario 3D All-Stars which bolstered the first-party line up, and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit brought some of that trademark Nintendo magic to a year that dearly needed it. Then there were the smaller digital-only titles like Super Mario Bros. 35 and the excellent Good Job!, not to mention the metric ton of fantastic indie releases and some choice big-name third-party titles.
In fact, for a year that some people were writing off as one of Nintendo's 'worst', there's been plenty of really strong software. With Switch selling at record numbers and Nintendo Life awarding no less that four 10/10s this year, it's tough to look back on the games released in 2020 and feel dissatisfied, all things considered. Even if you're not an Animal Crossing fan, there's been something for everyone.
Those projects that slipped into next year only make the following twelve months all the juicier, too! So, let's keep the positivity flowing and take a look at six of our favourite Nintendo moments from 2020...
Nindie World Showcases
The absence of E3 this year meant many online substitutes were hastily assembled over the summer. Many people did an awful lot of hard work to make them happen, although the resulting network of semi-affiliated shows and online events, not to mention overlapping announcements, made it a little tough to keep up with the gaming news they contained.
The big stories got out, of course, but the relatively scattergun approach over the summer highlighted how events like E3 can help distil and focus attention for an audience barraged with reveals and trailers, and also how effectively Nintendo curates its own announcements.
We think Nintendo did a fine job with the Indie World Showcases this year, with the August one in particular highlighting some real gems on the system (see above). Of course, with the first-party pipeline disrupted by the pandemic, it was in the platform holder's interest to put some real effort into showing off games other developers were putting on its system.
Still, it's heartening to see its support of smaller developers whose contributions make Switch such a lively and diverse platform. Nintendo's lucky to have games like Hades, Horace and A Short Hike on its console, and with any luck we'll see more indie gems of that calibre on Switch in the future.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons - yes, all of it
There have been several games which 'took over' 2020 at one point or another — Fall Guys and Among Us spring to mind immediately — but only one truly spilled out into the mainstream media and dominated the gaming news landscape this year.
And thank goodness for that. Tom Nook has helped us get through the year with countless moments of diversion. Whether pottering around catching critters and pleasing ourselves in-game, or looking online to find island inspiration or endlessly creative custom designs, we're not sure what would have taken its place had Animal Crossing: New Horizons not arrived when it did. It's been invaluable.
We and the rest of the internet have written more than enough words about it; it's offered genuine escape this year in a way only video games can, and we're very thankful for the fortuitous timing of its launch. Cheers to you, Tommy-boy.
Paper Mario: The Origami King and Bobby's touching arc
We didn't expect Paper Mario — a series perhaps best known for its comedy — to hit us hardest in the feels this year, but The Origami King managed to do just that. It's filled with plenty of great characters and writing, but Bobby Bob-omb was a particular highlight and we salute the little chap and the writers and localisation team at Nintendo for their work in delivering some of the year's very best moments.
Comments 30
Favorite moments from Nintendo Switch during 2020 :
1. Doing Time Travel a lot of times to get Raymond as my most wanted villager on ACNH.
2. Pretty Princess Party got English release.
3. Playing Moving Out with 80's style music.
Well, not many interesting moments from Nintendo Switch as year 2020 is my PS3 year. I played PS3 games oftenly during pandemic, not just only ACNH.
It was a bad year for Nintendo. What a bunch of nothing we got.
Not a whole lot of first party releases this year but as a big fan of visual novels and indie games, it's been another great year for the Switch for my tastes. I was hoping to use this year to work through some of my backlog but I still just keep ending up buying more games that I can find time to play.
Oops, I didn’t buy any Nintendo published software this year. I’m sure I’ll buy more in 2021, it’s shaping up to be a good one for video games. There may even be a new Switch model to tempt me a third time!
Edit: I bought Kirby Fighters. How could I forget!
I'm looking forward to the thing everyone is waiting for: the end of that awful year that was 2020 in company of my Switch. That will be my best Nintendo 2020 moment. Hoping 2021 isn't even worse
@Sandro89
There are a lot of great Switch games during year 2020.
You just keep salty because you don't like by almost everything.
This was kind of a slow year to be honest, outside of Animal Crossing there wasn't much in the way of big hitters this year from Nintendo. That said the 3'rd party has been as solid as ever and I got no shortage of great games to play on my Switch, GOAT handheld.
Apart from Animal Crossing - which is not my kind of game but I can see its appeal - , there was nothing else really special from Nintendo this year.
In my view, it was the worst year for Switch players in terms of first part games.
There were some nice things in 2020 for the Switch but nothing spectacular.
I hope 2021 is better in every way.
Imagine time travel is your favourite moment during 2020. What a shame. I feel sorry for you and i hope 2021 will treat you better.
The only first party Nintendo game I played n 2020 was Luigi's Mansion 3, and it was really good fun. Otherwise, indies were the saving grace, played a lot of Hades and Dead Cells. The worst parts were the limited time releases.
2020 really did suck. I mean come on, we Americans had to deal with divisive politics, a pandemic, job loses and on top of that; we had to deal with the lack of Nintendo games. That being said, my favorite game of 2020 would have to be Xenoblade Chronicles the definitive edition. It absolutely streamline this classic Xenoblade title and made it even better. It also had a second story which was nice. I cannot wait for 2021. I hope everybody at Nintendo Life, everybody on this site and the world has a happy new year.
@JokerCK
I don't feel ashamed for Time Travelling on ACNH.
I said it aloud. Very loud.
I have my own schedules, Time Travelling is the key to not get slaved by video games.
I take control the game and time, not the game take control my daily schedules.
"In fact, for a year that some people were writing off as one of Nintendo's 'worst', there's been plenty of really strong software."
...
Gonna have to agree to disagree here. Really hoping 2021 is better... though honestly, I expect it to be even worse.
I shudder to think what Nintendo's year would have been like without New Horizons. I love the game, but even for those who didn't, it still kept the Nintendo brand name afloat for many months in 2020.
What I want to know is what Nintendo's original plan was before the pandemic hit. They had a really thin spring lineup, relying on just one game basically to get them through, and that was planned before COVID changed things.
I can of course understand the slower release schedule in the second half of 2020, but the first half seemed very light. I'd love to know if Mario 3D World was originally planned to come out in 2020 as a their big holiday title.
Was overall really happy with this year. I really did miss E3, and hope every company goes back next year, but I’m pretty sure I was actually able to afford almost all first party titles this year which was kind of nice. Ones I’ve played the most are animal crossing and age of calamity. And while I do love new horizons, age of calamity probably my game of the year. Hoping for a switch pro to come out next year, as I’d definitely end up buying that.
Really not a bad year at all. For 1st party titles, I bought Animal Crossing, 51 Club House Games, Paper Mario, Links Awakening , Luigi’s Mansion 3 , New Super Mario Brothers and Fire Emblem 3 Houses of the top of my head. Haven’t even touched LM3 or PM yet as I’m making my way through FE3H.
In total I picked up 35 games this year and there are still quite a few older releases I still want to get as well, just don’t have the time to realistically play them any time soon. I really wonder with people who complain about the no. Of releases how much time they have available for gaming or if Nintendo is really the right fit for their tastes because I’m just not seeing it when you look at the entire catalog of available games as a whole.
There were some cool games. Xenoblade, Hyrule Warriors, Mario 3D All-Stars, Pikmin, Animal Crossing... but otherwise there was nothing. It was a dry year, and hopefully Nintendo has a deck full of aces next year!
Tsukihime Remake to release Summer 2021 for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
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I picked up Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (really good), Animal Crossing (amazing), Paper Mario (pretty good), and the 3D Collection (amazing but basically just ports). I’ll probably get Pikmin 3 at some point down the road but that’s about it for me this year as far as Nintendo software. Solid year but nothing spectacular. I’m sure 2021 will be better
No mention of Super Nintendo World at all?!
I know it'll be bigger when it officially opens in February, but the first look at the real thing should have been mentioned. It's huge for Nintendo, Universal, and theme parks in general.
My favorite times from 2020
1) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (as a whole)
2) Puyo Puyo Tetris getting a sequel
3) Mario 35th Anniversary direct (with Super Mario All Stars FINALLY getting a digital release)
4) Sephiroth in Smash
5) Bug Fables coming to consoles (a.k.a. the "Paper Mario" that The Origami King failed to be)
6) Pop'n TwinBee FINALLY coming to the US
It's been a fairly quiet year on the Nintendo front, at least when compared to how full the latter half of 2019 was. Personally, I don't really mind; there were plenty of gaming gems this year, plus I'm playing catch-up on the Switch's library as I only picked one up late last year. Honestly, I have enough backlogged to at least keep me busy for another year. And that's only on the Switch!
That said, 2020 can leave anytime now. Go on. There's the door.
Let's face it, 2020 hasn't been the greatest of years, for a lot of people and businesses (including Nintendo). Could they have handled certain things better? Of course, however, I think they did a pretty good job, all things considered.
As for me, I rather enjoyed Nintendo's first party offerings, from the new games (Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Paper Mario: The Origami King), to the ported ones (3D All-Stars, Pikmin 3). Honestly, Animal Crossing basically took over my life, from the time it released, up until Paper Mario came out. As for 3D All-Stars, would having Galaxy 2 on it been cool? Yeah for sure, still though revisiting the first Galaxy game was a lot of fun and it was nice to play Super Mario 64, for the first time.
It was also great to replay some fantastic retro games as well, from Super Metroid and the DKC trilogy. I don't know what 2021 holds for video games, but hopefully it'll be just as good as this year, cause I I thoroughly enjoyed 2020.
Even with the covid halting and delaying everything, this was a good year for Nintendo. AC is great, Hyrule warriors AoC was awesome, Smash got some cool DLC characters and Mario Kart Tour is one of nintendo's best mobile titles.
Of course there were things that could have been much better like the rushed but Ok-ish like Super Mario 3D All-Star or Doom Eternal being only digital, but it was a solid year considering the circumstances.
2021 seems much better for Nintendo fans I hope it is.
People really think this year was worse for Nintendo than 2018, when all it really had was Smash, ports, divisive games, and Octopath? Huh
I think my personal highlights for the year are Animal Crossing's release and the announcement/release of Ori and the Will of the Wisps along with Steve in Smash
Honestly didn't buy any of Nintendo's games this year, though I do plan on picking up XC:DE and Age of Calamity eventually. I don't think their lineup was bad to be honest but their marketing certainly was (and continues to be). For the second year in a row we have no idea what Nintendo has for the Switch past the first couple months. I hope they start 2021 with a bang by giving us a nice big general Direct (their first in 16 months!) outlining their first half of the year.
@theJGG
When you think about it, that's pretty much a contradictory statement there. How many games would it take for you to consider a year to be full of games, considering you already listed quite a lot there?
@NathanTheAsian I know! But most of them were ports or remasters. I still had a massive amount of fun, but hopefully we'll get more original games this year.
Thanks for the positive outlook approach NL! I agree. This year I got Xenoblade, Pikmin 3, Paper Mario, Animal Crossing, Clubhouse Games, Hyrule Warriors and Mario 3D All Stars. That’s 7 very solid games. And this doesn’t cover all the great digi games I fell in love with like Streets of Rage, A Short Hike, and Lonely Mountain. And I know I’m missing a ton of the great 3rd party games and other indies. Considering how bad 2020 was, Nintendo was still a saving grace from me. Really helped me thru some hard times.
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