Welcome friends to another lovely Tuesday and New Game Releases! This week comes with yet another major, AAA, title for all of us to sink our teeth into. Hell, I’m so excited that I just had to dance!

The biggest game of the week is Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Following their very successful Batman Arkham franchise, Rocksteady is now dipping their toe into the live service genre to, um, mixed results. Early previews have painted Suicide Squad in a fairly negative light, particularly from IGN who said the game was not clicking with them…yet. This is the crux of the problem when it comes to live service games. You don’t know when, or if, these games will ever be good. On the other side, it could start out great and then become worse over time if the gameplay changes or content is removed.

Publisher Warner Bros. Games is refusing to give out review copies before the launch of the game or, in the case of IGN, just flat out refusing to supply them with a review copy at all. This is typically a bad sign, similar to the way that movie studios will refuse to screen bad movies for critics, to help mitigate any negative press before launch. Still, the pre-release buzz for Suicide Squad has been a mixed bag. There are clearly fans of Rocksteady and the “Arkham-verse” that are looking forward to this, but there is another group of players that are wary of the live service, “always online” nature of the game (you cannot play this without a persistent internet connection). Suicide Squad feels like a game that was supposed to come out 5 to 10 years ago, stuck in old ideas of what players want. Could it be good, though? I mean, maybe, but it probably won’t be.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 2^nd

Developed by: Rocksteady Studios
Published by: Warner Bros. Games

Rounding things out are a trio of Japanese developed games. First we have Persona 3: Reload, a remake of 2006’s Persona 3, and is probably the best release of the week. Featuring updated graphics and gameplay updates that bring it in line with recent Persona entries, Reload looks absolutely FANTASTIC; I can not wait to dive into this world.

I’m not sure where or when the Granblue Fantasy franchise became a thing, but they seem poised to take the gaming world by storm. In this new title, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, the franchise heads back to the RPG realm after 2023’s Versus fighting game. Continuing the collaboration of former Final Fantasy veterans Hideo Minaba and Nobuo Uematsu, Relink was also a collaboration between developer/publisher Cygames and Platinum Games, however Platinum would step away from the project in 2019. There are some rather high profile names attached to this game, it could be a sleeper hit, folks. Check it out.

The third Japanese developed game this week is Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash, a fighting game that looks very similar to every other licensed anime fighter that Bandai Namco has put out over the last, what, 20 years? Anyway, you’re not playing this for the intricate fighting, you’re playing this because you’re a fan of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Persona 3: Reload (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 2^nd

Developed by: Atlus/P Studio
Published by: Sega

Granblue Fantasy: Relink (PC/PS4/PS5) – Releases Jan. 31^st

Developed by: Cygames Inc.
Published by: Cygames Inc.

Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 1^st

Developed by: Byking Inc.
Published by: Bandai Namco

Expansions:

Oh yeah, Alan Wake is in Dead by Daylight now, so that’s cool.

Dead by Daylight: Alan Wake (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 30^th

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 years ago:

Time to move away from the new and check out the old, welcome to Notable Releases! This week’s titles are all solid entries, with one of them being considered an all-time great. Sit back, relax, and take a journey into the past.

2014’s notable release is the 3DS RPG Bravely Default. Originally conceived as a sequel to the DS game Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, the game’s producer, Tomoya Asano, decided to create a brand new franchise that he could mold and shape from the beginning. However, the team wanted to appeal to a Western audience and it was decided that, while Bravely Default wouldn’t BE a Final Fantasy title, it would incorporate many of the familiar Final Fantasy tropes, such as the setting, art style, battle mechanics, and story/theme.

Seeing the growing market of social media and its incorporation into video games, Asano wanted Bravely Default to allow for social connects. Using the StreetPass feature built into the 3DS, players could interact with each other in three ways; they could help each other rebuild the village Norende, they could summon one another in battle, and they could borrow the job level of another player in order to temporarily increase their stats. It was thought that these social aspects would help set Bravely Default apart from the somewhat crowded RPG field in Japan, letting the game stand out among the rest.

I could explain the story in Bravely Default but it wouldn’t really make much sense without actually playing it. The gist of it is, four crystals that keep the world in balance have been consumed by darkness, plunging everything into chaos. Four heroes must join forces and save the crystals, bringing balance back to the world. Yeah, that sounds like a Final Fantasy game to me.

Bravely Default would release in Japan in October of 2012 before coming West in February of 2014 to high acclaim. There didn’t seem to be a consensus about just what made Bravely Default good as some critics loved the story while other hated it, some found the gameplay to be amazing while others felt it to be boring, some critics praised the graphics as gorgeous while others found it dated and ugly. What is certain, though, is that Bravely Default is a pretty good game sometimes to some people, and not that great a game sometimes to some people. What did you think about it?

Moving to 2004, we’ve got the PS2 action/adventure game Maximo vs. Army of Zin. Developed by Capcom’s U.S. team, Studio 8, Army of Zin is the sequel to Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, and is set in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins franchise. The game’s story picks up directly after the events of the first game, with Maximo still looking for his dear love Sophia. He is still followed by Death who can grant Maximo the power of resurrection. However, Maxmio’s search is halted when an army of robotic creatures begin to attack multiple villages and towns. These are the titular army of Zin, having been freed from their prison by an evil warlord named Lord Bane.

Let’s be real, the story doesn’t really matter here. Army of Zin is a classing 3d hack & slash platformer where players must navigate through tricky levels in order to reach the goal. This is Army of Zin’s biggest problem, it just isn’t different enough from its predecessor to justify its existence. Yes, it’s still a fun game, but there’s not a whole lot under the hood, so to speak. In the time since the release of Ghosts to Glory, the PS2 had received two very well made, very popular 3d platformers with Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter, making Army of Zin’s gameplay and graphics look dated. It was still received well by critics, but the game failed to make much of an impression on the gaming public, making Army of Zin the final entry in the series.

While Bravely Default and Maximo vs. Army of Zin are swell games in their own right, the biggest notable title of the week is 1994’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, one of video gaming’s all-time greats. Originally conceived as an isometric, 3d title, the developers at Sega Technical Institute in California had to pivot once it became clear that the graphics chip needed to power the game engine would not be ready for quite some time (it would eventually be used in the 1996 release, Sonic 3D Blast). Development began on Sonic 3 in January of 1993, with half of the team working on this new game (made up of mostly Japanese staff), and the other half worked on Sonic Spinball (made up of mostly U.S. staff).

After the pivot to a more traditional 2d Sonic title, the team still found themselves biting off more than they could chew. With the addition of a new character, Knuckles the Echidna, the team had wanted the game to feature three playable characters and a higher amount of stages, with specific pathways for each character. The team would, unfortunately, run into two major problems. The first was that the size of the game was far too big for a standard Genesis cartridge, meaning that the team would need to cut content, which they didn’t want to do. The second major issue was time. Sega had entered into a huge partnership with McDonald’s to have Sonic 3 toys appear in the Happy Meal during the month of February. The team was torn, but ultimately realized that they would have to split the game into two separate titles if they wanted to keep their vision intact.

One of the more notorious, and debated, aspects of Sonic 3 is the game’s collaboration with pop music star Michael Jackson. It had been long rumored that Jackson himself had written music for the game, with some saying he had written full tracks, while other claimed he had only written small parts that were incorporated into already completed tracks. Now, you might wonder why Sega would try to hide, deny, and/or minimize Jackson’s role in the game’s soundtrack. Well, as you probably know, Michael Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting an underage boy in 1993 and, despite what you believe about the situation, Sega was probably not keen to tie their biggest game of the year to a potential pedophile.

While Jackson’s level of involvement in the soundtrack has varied from person to person, it does seem that the King of Pop did something with the music in Sonic 3. Moving on, Sega spent a TON of money to promote Sonic 3, something along the lines of $20 million, including having the group Right Said Fred re-record their song “Wonderman” to include references to Sonic. With commercials, Happy Meals, and Right Said Fred, the public’s demand for Sonic the Hedgehog was at an all-time. When the game finally hit store shelves, it was an instant hit, selling over 1 million copies in the U.S. alone, and after the release of the second part, Sonic & Knuckles, both games would sell a combined 4 million units worldwide, making them two of the best selling Genesis games of all-time.

Critics heaped heavy praise onto Sonic 3, calling it one of the best games of 1994. Multiple outlets declared that it was the best Sonic game ever released. Critics praised the graphics, sound, and the highly explorable stages that demanded repeat play-throughs in order to find all of the games secrets. Critics were also happy to see that Sega had introduced a save system in Sonic 3, allowing players to easily turn off their game and come back to it later without losing all of their progress. As I noted above, Sega would eventually release the rest of the game as Sonic & Knuckles, which featured a slot on top of the cartridge that allowed you to place your Sonic 3 cart into it and play as Knuckles in the opening stages. While the game received re-releases over the years, Sonic 3 has been a bit notorious for its lack of ports in comparison to the first two games. The biggest reason is, in case you didn’t figure it out, the music, likely tied to the involvement of Michael Jackson. Luckily, the game is available on modern consoles, though some music has been changed. It is what it is, I suppose.

Moving to notable films, 2014 gave us the “Bro”mantic comedy That Awkward Moment in which audiences are supposed to believe that Michael B. Jordan can’t get a girlfriend. 2004 saw the release of the dance movie You Got Served, featuring members of the groups B2K and Immature, directed by Immature’s producer Chris Stokes…who was also accused of sexually assaulting a minor. Stokes would deny the allegations and it doesn’t seem to have affected his career, with the accuser retracting his statement. In any case, You Got Served gave us the inspiration for this South Park episode, one of my favorites:

1994’s notable film was a movie that I watched endlessly in my middle school years, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The big breakthrough for actor Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura allowed him to bring all of his strange quirks, voices, and facial expressions, which he perfected in years of stand-up comedy and in his run on In Living Color, to the masses. The movie, one of three released in 1994, put Jim Carrey on the map and solidified him as a major Hollywood star.

When I was 13 I thought this was the funniest fucking movie on the planet, then a few years passed and it began to dawn on me that this movie has some really vile, hateful, homophobic and transphobic jokes. I won’t go into detail, likely because you’ve either seen the movie or, if you haven’t, probably have no desire to hear about it, but the jokes are so one note and unfunny that it makes you wonder why they were even there in the first place. Carrey tried to explain himself in interviews, claiming that Ace’s reaction to kissing a man was so over the top that it could only be viewed as a farcical parody, showing that only a buffoon like Ace would act this way, but that kind of falls apart in the sense that the filmmakers clearly want you to like Ace because of his good guy heroics and left leaning politics when it comes to animal rights.

Truly a bizarre juxtaposition, and a huge stain on an otherwise serviceable comedy with genuine laugh out loud moments. For my money, though, his two later 1994 films, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber are both far superior, with his turn in The Mask really affecting me after I saw it that Summer (we’ll get into that later). I have a hard time justifying watching Ace Ventura today because of its hateful jokes, but it’s also hard to now view it as a “coming out”, so to speak, of Jim Carrey as a leading Hollywood actor. If you need to watch an Ace Ventura movie then go with its sequel, When Nature Calls, at least he doesn’t puke in a bucket after learning he kissed a man.

In notable albums, 2014 saw the release of Broken Bells second full-length album After the Disco, a retro-futuristic inspired, synth heavy dance record for people who just want to go home after the party is over. It’s beautiful, haunting, and one of my all-time favorite records. 2004 gave is the album Bows + Arrows from indie rock group The Walkmen. While the band wasn’t really a household name, their song “The Rat” received considerable airplay and was featured in multiple places, including the video games Major League Baseball 2K7, Dirt 2, and True Crime: New York City.

1994 was just on one this week, not only having the most successful Sonic the Hedgehog game, and Jim Carrey’s big breakthrough film, but also the album that made punk band Green Day a household name, Dookie. While the band had toiled in the underground scene since 1987 and released two studio albums, it was the release of their major label debut Dookie that turned Green Day into major pop/rock stars, delighting fans of all ages. It was a strange place for a punk band to be, sitting in the tape decks of children, teenagers, and parents, but it was a natural progression of the anti-authority and authentic message that Gen X was craving after listening to their older siblings punk records from the 70’s and 80’s. Like Nirvana, Green Day brought a sound and a style to mainstream music that most people hadn’t heard or seen before. It was revolutionary, it was scary, and it was really fucking cool.

I don’t know what it was about 1994, but punk, particularly the fast, skate/pop-punk sound made famous by bands like Descendents in the 1980’s, broke out this year. Bands like Rancid, Social Distortion, and Pennywise had kind of laid some groundwork in the previous couple of years, but it was Green Day and, later, The Offspring, that brought punk rock to the masses. As you might imagine from some of the albums I highlight and the songs I share, I’m a big fan of punk rock, Green Day was my primer. Despite the accusations of “selling out” and what not, and making the punk rock lifestyle/ethos palatable to corporate America, it turned many of us into bleeding heart liberals who have a healthy distrust of authority, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

Bravely Default (3DS) – Released Jan. Feb. 7^th, 2014: Wiki Link

Maximo Vs. Army of Zin (PS2) – Released Jan. 20^th, 2004: Wiki Link

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis) – Released Feb. 2^nd, 1994: Wiki Link

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In modern music, Alkaline Trio just put out an album called Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs that I absolutely love. Check out the song “Break”:

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