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The 15 best video games of 2020

The Guardian

Dive into caves, get slightly further than you did last time, and die hilariously: that's the Spelunky loop, and it's compelling. With its rideable turkeys, spilling lava and omnipresent hazards, Derek Yu's subterranean world is entropic but thrillingly conquerable. It might not do much that the first Spelunky didn't, 10 years ago – but the original is a perfect game, and it is so good to have it back. What we said: "Every new thing is useful, perilous, versatile. Exploring these possibilities is the new game. The bits that didn't need fixing are left untouched."


Once more with feelings: How Yakuza: Like a Dragon reinvents middle-aged men in video games

The Guardian

It sounds like the set-up for a violent revenge movie. Low-ranking yakuza Ichiban Kasuga takes the blame for an inter-clan assassination and does 18 years in prison to protect the organisation's patriarch. But, on his release, the gang disowns him and the boss, who he considers a father figure, shoots him and leaves him for dead. Surely, the stage is set for bloody retribution? Kasuga is not that kind of protagonist.