Critical Hit Game Awards 2020 – Best Nintendo Game

We’ll be the first to admit that Nintendo had a fairly slow year in 2020 but that doesn’t mean that some absolute bangers weren’t released. The Switch is still one of our favourite consoles even in a year where next-gen has properly begun because you can’t really put one of those behemoths in your pocket and play it on the plane, can you?

The Nintendo Switch continues to be the best place to play indie games, and while the eShop is rapidly becoming cluttered with garbage, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of nuggets of quality in there. Only one game can take home the prize for best Switch game though, but before we reveal the champion, let’s look at those honourable mentions:

 Paper Mario and the Origami King

Risk of Rain 2

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Mario Kart Circuit

Hades

And the winner is… Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing New Horizons is the perfect example of a game that was released at the right time. Just as the world was hitting the peak stages of pandemic panic, we were given the opportunity to whisk ourselves away to a peaceful island refuge where everyone was friendly, there was always something to do outside and we could have some semblance of control over our little virtual lives.

Simple in its design yet impressively deep in its scope, New Horizons is an excellent entry in the Animal Crossing franchise that could stand to have evolved a little more from previous titles but the overall game is just so good that you end up forgetting all those gripes.

It’s a testament to the game’s quality that people are still playing it every day, which shouldn’t come as a shock given the phenomenon it was on social media when it launched back in March. New Horizons is the purest form of escapism available in a video game, going the extra mile to make the island you settle on feel like a second home, one that can be tweaked and changed to suit any mood. The seasonal content and events are even better as Nintendo has done a fantastic job of expanding the game and offering players more and more reasons to come back.

We all knew Animal Crossing was good, we just didn’t know it could be this good.

Last Updated: December 3, 2020