So many games on the horizon! (State of game releases as of the beginning of September!)

    Every now and then, I think that games are just going to stop coming out and we'll just have to deal with the games that we already have, but nope, the games are still coming and thank goodness for that! Just last week, we had two big games (well, a game and a DLC) that I'm really looking forward to, and so I thought it would be a good time to write a little bit about all the games that we have coming up just in the next few months or so! Let's just jump into it and see where we end up, shall we?

A stacked back half of 2023!

    Starting off with last week, the end of August, Sea of Stars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge were released or released new content. I'll start with Sea of Stars, which is a new RPG from Sabotage Studio, based on some of the best games in the genre from the Super Nintendo era. I've had my eye on this game for a long time, even though I'm not a huge RPG fan, they announced that this game will be a prequel to The Messenger, another game from Sabotage Studio that came out a few years ago that I absolutely adored. This game features some stunning pixel art, a soundtrack that was partially composed by the composer of Chrono Trigger, and some very fun gameplay that definitely reminded me of RPGs such as Super Mario RPG, Mario and Luigi, etc. I'm very excited to play it whenever I have a chance, it came out on August 29, and I'm happy to see all of the positive reviews about it so far. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge is a great little beat-em-up inspired by the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade and SNES games, and it came out last year from Tribute Games. August 31 saw the release of the first DLC for the game, "Dimension Shellshock," which added two new characters, Usagi Yojimbo and Karai, in addition to a new wave-survival mode akin to the "Mr. X Nightmare" mode in Streets of Rage 4. One of the most exciting additions here in this game is the ability to play as some boss characters through the use of special ooze that transforms your character for a limited time. I've played a little bit of the Survival mode so far with my brother and cousin, and I love it so far! The base game was already so fun, and I'm so happy that there's even more content to explore now. In addition to these two, the final DLC for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope featuring Rayman also comes out this week! I would love to see Rayman return to the 2D Platformer space after the superb Rayman Legends and Rayman Origins blew me away years ago, but at this point, I'm happy to see Rayman in any capacity, being one of the very few Ubisoft characters that I care about at all anymore. I hope people will like the DLC a lot, but since I don't have the base game yet, I probably won't be able to play it anytime soon.

    In September, we get quite a few releases as well, with Starfield, the PS5 version of Baldur's Gate 3, and the first DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet coming out just in the first half of the month. Later on, we get The Crew: Motorfest, for the racing fans looking to get a Forza-style experience, the Baiten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster, bringing one of Gamecube's best RPGs back. Both the Bloodborne and Pinocchio inspired Lies of P as well as Mortal Kombat 1, the latest in the brutal fighting game series come out on September 19. We get the Cyberpunk 2077 DLC, "Phantom Liberty," on the 26th, and the final DLC for Sonic Frontiers just a few days later on the 28th. September is clearly not quite as packed as October, as you can see, but I am still really looking forward to quite a few games here. As I've stated before, Starfield is not really my cup of tea, but I can't wait to play Mortal Kombat 1, even though I will admit I'm not the greatest at fighting games in general.

    October is a packed month, even without me looking at any sort of list! We have Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Sonic Superstars, Detective Pikachu Returns, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and of course, Super Mario Bros. Wonder! This month is a tough one to pick a winner, especially with October 20 being a wild time releasing those last two games, which are both pretty good picks for the "Game of the Year" discussion when it finally rolls around. The original Alan Wake was obviously insane, but this game looks even crazier, especially added with the multiple playable characters that you swap between and the shared universe elements that were teased back in 2019's Control. Sonic Superstars looks phenomenal, as I said recently, and with the gameplay that was demoed at Gamescom a few weeks ago, it looks like a great time alone or with friends. I really hope it lives up to the hype! Speaking of hype, Marvel's Spider-Man was definitely one of my favorite games of the year that it came out in, and I'm hoping that the sequel (numbered sequel anyways, since Spider-Man: Miles Morales was a side game) is going to be even better! Venom always makes things a bit more tense for Spider-Man interactions, so I'm honestly a little nervous about the amount of damage that he's going to be able to cause. Super Mario Bros. Wonder had a whole event last Thursday which I covered in my last post, so I won't say too much about it, but suffice it to say that I'm very excited to play it for myself when it comes out!

    November isn't quite as exciting of a month for the most part, although we are getting quite a few exciting games still! WarioWare: Move It! is coming out on the 3rd, and it looks like a spiritual successor to WarioWare: Smooth Moves, which came out for the Wii, so that's pretty exciting in itself. the Switch Joycon isn't as reliable as a Wii Remote for motion controls, but I'm sure the Gyro sensor will work well for these games. On November 17, we have another crowded day here with the Super Mario RPG remake and Persona 5 Tactica. I am obviously really looking forward to both of these games, and hope that they both turn out well! Super Mario RPG has been one of my favorite RPGs of all time ever since I played it on the Wii Virtual Console a long time ago, and this remake looks to make the game look so much better while preserving the style and charm of the original Super Nintendo game. Persona 5 Tactica looks to take the Phantom Thieves in yet another direction, to the Tactical RPG genre that we've seen in such games as the XCom or Mario + Rabbids series. Unfortunately, this is the kind of game that I really won't know how I feel about it until I play it for myself, but I did really enjoy the bit of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope that I played towards the end of last year, so I hope I'll enjoy this too! If nothing else, it's another time where we will get to hang out with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, so I'm totally happy with it!

    That's about all of the games that I'm excited for for the rest of the year, but I'd like to talk just a bit about a few games that will potentially come out this year, but haven't been given release dates yet. First of all, The Plucky Squire is an indie game that I'm extremely excited for, playing as a character in a picture book that comes out of the book and into the real world. The game looks gorgeous and I'm pretty sure it's supposed to come out this year, let's hope we hear something soon! Rift of the Necrodancer is a more traditional rhythm game from the awesome team behind Crypt of the Necrodancer, Brace Yourself Games. The game looks to be a mix of classic rhythm games, little rhythm minigames like you may see in Rhythm Heaven, and boss fights that look heavily inspired by Punch-Out, which all looks so cool. The music also sounds amazing, which they released some examples of last week at Pax West. 

    The future always looks bright when it comes to new releases, and though they don't always live up to expectations, for the most part, this year as well as last have both been really great in my opinion! I want to give a huge shout out to all of the developers that have put in incredible amounts of time and effort in the name of putting out an awesome new product. You guys are the true heroes, of course I'm not a fan of all games, just as I'm not a fan of everything in any classification, I do appreciate the wide variety of games that come out for every type of player.

    Thanks so much for reading my little schedule post, friends! I really appreciate the support and I hope you're excited for some of these games too! Did I miss one of your most anticipated titles? Let me know what you're excited for somewhere on the internet and I'll be happy to check it out sometime. It's kind of crazy to me just how many things have already come out this year, and how many of them have been incredible! Until next time, friends, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Games Reporter, and I'll talk to you again soon!