The next two weeks are exceedingly busy for new releases, with several big-name titles due along with a glut of horror games and licensed titles. Don’t be quick to turn your nose up at the former, as many upcoming licensed games appear a higher standard than usual. Lessons have perhaps been learned from last year’s Gollum and Rise of Kong double-whammy.
There are even a few licensed horror games on this week’s agenda, including Saber Interactive’s first-person movie tie-in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead – which features microphone support, allowing creatures to pick up on background noise – and Boss Team Games’ pixel art packing Ash vs Evil Dead and Halloween – both of which are developed by WayForward, forming part of a new RetroRealms portal.
Also on the subject of retro horror games, there’s a Switch/PS4 release of the positively received faux PS1 style survival adventure Crow Country, and a retro re-release of the 3DO/PC first person shooter Killing Time. Subtitled Resurrected, it combines elements formerly exclusive to each version. The PSVR2’s Arizona Sunshine Remake falls into the horror camp, too, packing plenty of zombies to wallop.
As for games shiny and new, there’s Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2025 Edition, the long-time coming rhythm action sequel Aaero2 for Xbox, Bandai Namco’s globetrotting mystical adventure Unknown 9: Awakening, and the potential sleeper hit (and rather self-explanatory) Squirrel with a Gun. Amazon Games’ New World: Aeternum – an MMORPG first released on PC in 2021 – also comes to PS5 and Xbox Series.
Then there’s Super Mario Party Jamboree, with seven boards, more mini games than before, and new motion controlled game modes. It looks a lot richer and more involving than past Mario Party games on Switch, possibly being a new franchise high note. The Switch also gains Microid’s investigative adventures Arsene Lupin – Once A Thief and Tintin Reporter: Cigars of The Pharaoh, which like last week’s UFO Robot Grendizer, is running a whole year behind. Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered gains a belated retail release as well.
We can also expect the multiformat colourful Crash Bandicoot-esque side scrolling platformer Nikoderiko, Outright Games’ promising belated movie tie-in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, GameMill’s toy line based Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem, an Xbox Game Pass release of the back-to-basics MechWarrior 5: Clans, the Capcom Vs. SNK influenced 2D one-on-one fighter Blazing Strike, Devolver Digital’s Neva – starring a girl and her wolf, and set within a dying world – and a PS5/Xbox Series release of Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition. We get the impression THQ Nordic will not stop until every gamer owns a copy.
New release trailers
Super Mario Party Jamboree
Just Dance 2025 Edition
Unknown 9: Awakening
New World: Aeternum
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
MechWarrior 5: Clans
Arizona Sunshine Remake
Aaero2
Arsene Lupin – Once A Thief
Killing Time: Resurrected
Neva
Blazing Strike
Crow Country
Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed
Nikoderiko
Squirrel with a Gun
RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead
RetroRealms: Halloween
Purpose 1951
New multiformat releases
- Unknown 9: Awakening
- A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
- Arsene Lupin – Once A Thief
- Killing Time: Resurrected
- Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed
- Squirrel with a Gun
- Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
- Drova – Forsaken Kin
- Neva
- New World: Aeternum
- Nikoderiko: The Magical World
- It Could Happen To You
- RetroRealms: Ash vs Evil Dead
- RetroRealms: Halloween
- The Seed: Unit 7
- 8-Bit Adventures 2
- Purpose 1951
- MetroLand
- Tinkertown
- Beyond Border
New on PSN
- Arizona Sunshine Remake
- Necro Story
- Crow Country
- Blazing Strike
New on Xbox Store
- Aaero2
- MechWarrior 5: Clans
- Together We Live
- Escape from the Dungeon
- Quartz Caverns
- DreadHaunt
- Aery – Midnight Hour
- Galactic Loader
- My Bakery Empire
- UDO – Unidentified Drilling Object
New Switch retail releases
- Super Mario Party Jamboree
- Just Dance 2025
- Tintin Reporter: Cigars of The Pharaoh
- Eternights
- 9 R.I.P.
- Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed
- Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem
- A Little to the Left: Extra Tidy Edition
- RPG MAKER WITH
- Otoko Cross: Naked Remix 2
- Blazing Strike
Next week: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, Puppet House, Fae Farm, Kong: Survivor Instinct, The Smurfs – Dreams, Flint: Treasure of Oblivion, Miraculous: Paris Under Siege, Barbie Project Friendship, Card-en-Ciel, Super XYX, While We Wait Here, VENDETTA FOREVER, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS 8 REMAKE, Speedollama, Wildermyth: Console Edition, Potionomics: Masterwork Edition, and Stilt Fella.