10 Best Nintendo Switch Games Of 2020

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity isn't the Switch Zelda follow-up we improbably hoped to see in 2020, but as a crouton between the main broths of the Wild, it's a more than ample appetiser.

A sequel to 2014's Wii U crossover, Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity is not strictly Zelda at all, so much as Dynasty Warriors with a coat of Hylian paint. Whereas the original was very much a piece of Link-flavoured musou fanservice, the sequel canonically exists alongside its mainline brother - and it's all the meatier for it. The marriage of large-scale tactical combat works so much better within BOTW's expansive vision of Hyrule, and the corresponding story of the land's brave armies facing down Ganon's demonic hordes snugly fits before the calamity that awaits. Zelda has always played fast and loose with its lore; it's somewhat ironic that a mash-up gaiden is amongst the first to develop an existing narrative with real cohesion.

Though the game still suffers from the usual musou drawbacks - namely, performance issues made all the more excruciating by the Switch's piddly processor - it's nevertheless the finest example of the template yet. Combat is both furious and sophisticated, and thanks to the array of different character playstyles, never grows stale. If Hyrule Warriors was a love letter to Zelda fans, this is Dynasty Warriors' reply.

Of course, those same Zelda fanatics will ache to explore the gloriously detailed minutiae of Age of Calamity's Hyrule of yore - something the setup agonisingly restricts. That fix will be satiated when BOTW2 eventually rolls around. Until then, this pro tem glimpse to this past is more than sufficient.