Zeus’s son sought freedom, planting brought a sense of calm – and who was the murderer aboard a spaceship?
1. Hades
Supergiant Games, September
Like every son, Zagreus wants to slip the gravitational influence of his father. His father, however, is Zeus, a parent whose clinginess is matched only by divine-grade vindictiveness. So you hack through the ever-shifting maze of Hades, battling whomever Zeus puts in your way. Slick, compelling, endlessly replayable.
2. Animal Crossing
Nintendo, March
A game that brought lockdown households together to nurture a doll’s house community, Animal Crossing was video gaming’s sweetest gift in 2020. Its calm rhythms of pottering and planting were the perfect salve to the discombobulation of the raging now.