Anticipation for the new year! (Exciting games coming in 2025!)

     Hey friends, I don't know about you, but this year has been really busy in a lot of ways. Lots of new games coming out (as well as remasters of some old classics), new movies and series are seemingly coming faster and more frequently than ever. Next year is no exception to this rule, and even as I write this, I'm already anticipating some of the cool new things that we'll be getting in 2025. I'm going to lay it out right now, and we'll see just how things end up when the new year does roll around. I'm not going to comment any on the allegedly leaked specs of the new "Switch 2," but I am definitely going to be talking about the games that will hopefully be included on the new system. I hope you're as excited for the new year as I am, and let's talk a bit about the new stuff!

Lots in store!

    I'm not going to be talking about things in chronological order I don't think, but if it happens that way, then that'll be fine. First I have to talk about the continued slate of Nintendo's remakes and remasters as the end of the Switch's life cycle quickly approaches. Next year, we know that we're getting Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, which is a bit of a funny title. The reason the game was called Donkey Kong Country Returns when it came out in 2010 is because the last game in the franchise had come out for the SNES back in 1996. Since that time, this game in particular has now been remastered, or "returned" 2 times. It's a fantastic 2D platformer, definitely one of the best that you could get back on the Wii, so I'm pretty happy that we're getting it again, and hopefully we'll see another one on the successor to the Switch once Retro Studios is done with Metroid Prime 4. Speaking of that game, we're finally getting Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in 2025! First revealed in the June 2017 Nintendo Direct, though it was just a logo being revealed, it was scrapped and restarted development about a year later with Retro Studios at the helm, who were the developers of the first three numbered titles. There was almost no news about Metroid Prime 4 until earlier this year when we got a nice reveal trailer along with the release window of 2025. I'm really excited for both of those, and while I'm not as excited for Xenoblade Chronicles X, it should still be a pretty great game for the people who are fans of the franchise, especially since this means that all of the games are now going to be on Switch. The game originally launched on the Wii U, so it's nice that it's not going to be trapped on that doomed console any longer. Hopefully this time around, we won't need to download a bunch of different texture packs like in the Wii U version.

    Rift of the Necrodancer is coming out in February, and that has to be one of my most anticipated indie titles right now. I've really gotten into rhythm games in the last few years, and truly there just aren't enough of them around. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is probably my favorite one right now, but I'm really excited for this new one. It's a really creative idea which combines Rhythm Heaven-esque minigames with Punch Out's combat for the boss fights. I really hope it's going to be a fun time when it finally comes out. While I'm in my Indie game mode, I'm also really excited for Mina the Hollower and Earthblade. Mina the Hollower is the new game from Yacht Club Games, the developers of Shovel Knight. This game looks very different from their original title, getting rid of the side scrolling platforming for something that's closer in style to the Game Boy Color Zelda games, with some inspirations from Bloodborne in terms of the tone and the setting. It's supposedly pretty hard, but I'm hoping that I'll enjoy it almost as much as Shovel Knight. Earthblade is the new title from MaddyLovesGames, the studio behind Celeste, which should be reason enough to be excited. Really we've seen nothing of it other than a trailer that played at the Game Awards two years ago, but I'm really excited for what this incredible team of developers come up with in the context of a Metroidvania instead of a 2D Platformer. I'm not sure when it's supposed to come out, but I have my fingers crossed for 2025.

    Split Fiction is the next game from the developers of It Takes Two and A Way Out that was revealed this year at the Game Awards and it's coming out in March. If you played It Takes Two, you know that this team makes stellar Co-Op games, which can sometimes be more than a little bit messed up (such as the horrifying stuffed elephant part). I'm really excited to play through it with my brother, since we had a great time playing through the last few games that they put out. Of course we have Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei and Insomniac's Wolverine game, but we still know very little about them, I'm really excited for sure, but I'm waiting until we hear a bit more about both of those titles. Judas, from the director of the Bioshock games, has only had one trailer I think, but I've been excited for that one for a long time. There's nothing pointing to this one coming out in 2025, but I can always dream.

    Before I wrap up, I'll list a few of the games that I don't care about, but I know that people are really excited for. We have Monster Hunter: Wilds, which looks really pretty, but I've just never really been able to get into the Monster Hunter franchise. We have Assassin's Creed: Shadows coming out in February. I'll give Ubisoft credit, people have been wanting an Assassin's Creed game set in Feudal Japan for a long time, but it took them so long to take it there that there are tons of other games that look better and also look like they'd be more fun to play than this one, while also meeting the same theming. I hope fans will be happy with it, but Ubisoft is a company that has rarely been able to deliver a decent experience in the last 10 years or so, so there's that.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I hope you had a happy holiday season and are enjoying lots of time with friends and family. At first, this was going to be a pretty chill and short post, but I got a little carried away. Hopefully you learned a little something about games coming out in the near future, and I hope you're as excited for the new year as I am! I'm Jonathan, a Self Proclaimed video game expert, and I'll talk to you again soon!