Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week’s new releases are few, but each one is big enough that it could carry the week on its own.

First up is a brand new Nintendo first party game, Princess Peach Showtime!, an action/adventure game starring the oft-kidnapped Princess Peach (her first lead role since 2005’s Super Princess Peach). While out enjoying a night at the theatre with some Toads, the show is ruined when a group ne’er do well’s called The Sour Bunch crash the show and attack the venue. Peach takes it upon herself to save the theatre by donning a bunch of crazy costumes that give her special abilities. From a kung-fu fighter, to a master thief, to a pastry chef, players must use all of Peach’s abilities in order to save the day!

Princess Peach Showtime! (Switch) – Releases Mar. 22^nd

Developed by: Good-Feel
Published by: Nintendo

If you want your action/adventure to be a little more grand in scale, Capcom has what you’re looking for with Dragon’s Dogma II. This is the, what, fourth, fifth giant RPG to come out in 2024, now? Forget how many hours a live service game drains from your life, imagine trying to play Infinite Wealth, Persona 3, Final Fantasy VII, and Dragon’s Dogma II all before the end of March. The only people with this much free time are independently wealthy a-holes and/or Twitch streamers. That’s fine, those are the only people who can afford to buy $70 games anymore. Anyway, here’s Ian McShane to tell you more about Dragon’s Dogma II.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 22^nd

Developed by: Capcom
Published by: Capcom

Up next we have a new massive, hours long, open world action-RPG (fucking hell) from Team Ninja called Rise of the Ronin. This is Team Ninja’s most ambitious game yet, having been in development for almost nine years. The studio has almost exclusively worked in the linear, stage-based realm for its entire career, so jumping into the open world sphere has been a challenge for the studio. Can they pull it off? Well, the people of South Korea won’t know, that’s for sure.

Rise of the Ronin (PS5) – Releases Mar. 22^nd

Developed by: Team Ninja
Published by: Sony Interactive Entertainment

I FUCKING LOVE BASEBALL!!!!

MLB The Show 24 (PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 19^th

Developed by: San Diego Studio
Published by: Sony Interactive Entertainment/MLB Advanced Media

Look, the guy from Stranger Things is in a video game!

Alone in the Dark (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 19^th

Developed by: Pieces Interactive
Published by: THQ Nordic

Ports and Re-releases

Rounding out the rest of this week’s releases are a couple of ports that, just a few months ago, seemed like an impossibility. First up is the Microsoft backed Hi-Fi Rush coming to the PS5. This was one of the best Xbox exclusives when it came out in 2023, but they couldn’t ignore the fact that no one with an Xbox buys games anymore, they just stream it off Game Pass, so what better way to make some more money than by releasing it on a far more popular platform!

Speaking of jumping to other platforms, it might have taken over ten years, but Final Fantasy XIV is no longer a Sony console exclusive, making its way to the Xbox this week. It’s just in time, too, as Square Enix will be able to get even MORE people to buy the new expansion, Dawntrail, that comes out this Summer. Further, the base game, along with the first three expansions, will be available FOR FREE to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Just make sure you can find time to play this gigantic MMO for several hundred hours between sessions of all your other massive RPGs that take 100+ hours to complete, while also watching every episode of The Sopranos on Max, the new season of Survivor on Paramount+, weekly episodes of WWE Raw and Smackdown on Hulu, reruns of The Office on Peacock (again), catch up on the MCU through Disney+ before the new Deadpool hits theatres, watch every Best Picture nominee from the Academy Awards (even Maestro on Netflix), and spend time with your family, I guess. CONSUME!

Hi-Fi Rush (PS5) – Releases Mar. 19^th

Final Fantasy XIV (Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 21^st

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 (and sometimes 40) years ago:

That’s all for new stuff, time to take a trip back in time with Notable Releases! This week we’ve got four, yes, FOUR, games to talk about; crazy. Sit back, grab a Cactus Cooler, and reminisce about all the game, movies, and music that (approximately) came out this week, 10, 20, 30, and 40, years ago.

Starting with 2014, we’ve got the game Titanfall, one of the early Xbox One exclusives that made it kinda, sorta seem like Microsoft’s console could be a success. However, the damage was done and, despite being a decent multiplayer game, suffered due to the XBone’s low install base.

Created by a small, 65 person team, Titanfall was the brainchild of Respawn Entertainment, a studio founded by former Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, with the team having been responsible for the Call of Duty series, including the massively popular Modern Warfare. This led to a lot of pre-release hype for Titanfall, where it was named one of the most anticipated games at E3 in 2013. It should have been a slam dunk, but it just wasn’t.

Low sales of the Xbox One, aside, Titanfall didn’t live up to the hype that journalists and players had foisted upon it. While clearly made with multiplayer in mind, Titanfall’s single player campaign was derided for how short it was and how shallow & cliched it felt. While critics had positive feelings towards the controls and presentation, the multiplayer aspect of the game was not, well, a game changer. Titanfall had some good ideas, mech combat, an emphasis on verticality, but that there wasn’t a feeling that players were necessarily doing anything new.

An Xbox 360 version would release in April of 2014, presumably to try and boost its player base, but it was too little, too late. Titanfall, despite its accolades and hype, didn’t reach the level of success that Respawn, Microsoft, or publisher EA had for the game. Its sequel, Titanfall 2, would be announced in 2015, this time being a cross platform title. Titanfall would continue to be sold and played after release, though it was almost completely abandoned by Respawn, leading to rampant cheating and multiple, game breaking bugs. In March of 2022, eight years after release, servers would be shut down and the game would be completely removed from digital storefronts and subscription services. A once promising new multiplayer game, shut down and forgotten. Unfortunately, this is our past, present, and future with video games.

Moving on to 2004, we’ve got the first of THREE Nintendo games. First up, the GameCube exclusive Pokémon Colosseum. While this was not the first Pokémon game to come to home consoles, it was the first to be a (somewhat) full game with a single player campaign and story. This is opposed to the Stadium titles on the N64, which were mostly focused on combat and nothing else. Instead of catching Pokémon in the wild, players would need to battle the evil organization Team Cipher, “snagging” their creatures in order to break them free of their shadow curse; a big departure from the hand held titles.

The idea for Colosseum’s was influenced by both Final Fantasy VII and Persona 2, and tried to steer away from the gameplay mechanics of its handheld predecessors. The idea was that, the Game Boy titles functioned that way because of how players connected with one another, so a console title must function differently, because players connect differently through consoles; sure.

Critics gave positive marks to Colosseum, praising the darker tone and being excited that there was finally a big Pokémon RPG to play on home consoles. However, some critics were miffed that the game didn’t play the same way as the Game Boy titles and were upset about the lack of a proper overworld to explore. Players went ape shit over the game, making it the best selling video game on Amazon the week it came out, increasing the GameCube’s market share significantly in the West (though still far behind Sony). A sequel would come out in 2005 called Gale of Darkness, which plays similarly but has a new protagonist. Like a lot of Nintendo’s first party GameCube lineup, Pokémon Colosseum is not available on modern consoles, and it likely never will be.

1994’s Nintendo title is both a sequel and a debut, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. After appearing as the antagonist in Super Mario Land 2, Wario returned as the anti-hero for the series’ third outing. In the game, players control Wario who has traveled to a far away to steal treasure in an attempt to build a castle that is better than Mario’s.

Like the previous two entries, Wario Land is a side scrolling platformer, but instead of jumping on enemies, Wario smashes into them with a dash attack, allowing him to then pick them up and toss them into other enemies. Later in the game, Wario is able to collect hats that allow him to attack differently, including a Jet Helmet that lets him move faster, and a Dragon Helmet that lets Wario roast his enemies with fire.

Critics really enjoyed Wario Land, being particularly please with its creative power-ups and multiple endings. The game was also praised for its more simplistic graphical design, making platforms and enemies easier to see. However, some critics found the game to be overly simple and too short but, in the end, it was still a very well made game and a fantastic new franchise for the company.

With over 5 millions copies sold worldwide, Wario Land was a huge hit, and the first of several platforming adventure games starring Bizarro Mario. Four titles in the series appeared on Nintendo’s handhelds, as well as spin-off’s on the GameCube (Wario World), Wii (Wario Land: Shake It!), and the DS (Wario: Master of Disguise), and, of course, the multiple titles in the WarioWare Inc. series. Playing Wario Land today is fairly difficult, with the last official release being for the 3DS through the Virtual Console. Nintendo has yet to release the game on Switch through the Game Boy app and there appear to be no plans to at the moment.

Heading down to 1984, we have our third Nintendo game of the week, the arcade title Punch-Out!!. Many of us are probably more familiar with the NES game Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (later just called Punch-Out!!), but the series actually got its start in arcades. In the game, players take on the role of an unnamed boxer (though some claim that this is the same Little Mac we all now), giving the character a three letter name (or, you know, your initials).

The gameplay in Punch-Out!! is exactly as you’d expect it to be if you’ve ever played one of the console releases. Dodge your opponents punches and try to land your blows in between theirs. The fighters you face, in order, are Glass Joe, Piston Hurricane, Bald Bull, Kid Quick, Pizza Pasta, and Mr. Sandman. After all six are defeated, players are sent back to the beginning to fight the same opponents over again with an increased difficulty.

The game was created by Genyo Takeda and Shigaru Miyamoto, with Takeda leading development and Miyamoto leading the art team. For the music, Nintendo used a brand new hire, Koji Kondo, who would go on to create the music for Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Punch-Out!! was a response by Nintendo to Konami’s very popular Track & Field arcade game that had released in 1983, as well as a desire to rid themselves of some of the excess monitors they had purchased in anticipation of producing more Donkey Kong units. Instead, Nintendo used this second screen to display images of the fighters, as well as stats and other information.

Punch-Out!! was very well received by both critics and players, and is considered one of the first major success stories after the video game crash of 1983. Sports were a big topic in pop culture, with the 1984 Olympics coming up and, as mentioned above, Konami had already proven the genre was a hit in arcades with Track & Field. Punch-Out!! was so popular that Nintendo immediately got to work on a sequel, Super Punch-Out!!, an released it in October of 1984. The series would eventually find its way to the NES in 1987, then again on the SNES in 1994, and finally in 2009 on the Wii (the last release to date). Unlike Pokémon Colosseum and Wario Land, Punch-Out!! is easily available today on the Nintendo Switch as a paid digital download. I can’t say that I fully enjoy it, the game is a little stiff and a bit unfair, but it’s really cool to see this old title still get some love today.

Switching gears to talk about movies, 2014 saw the release of Muppets Most Wanted, which asked the question “What if we made a Muppet movie worse than Muppets in Space”, and then did it. 2004 gave us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a really well made, beautiful film that is worshiped by the most annoying person you went to college with. 1994’s big film was D2: The Mighty Ducks, the sequel to…The Mighty Ducks. This time, instead of trying to be the best team in the city, they try to be the best team in the world. Do they win? I mean, what do you think?

Lastly, 1984’s notable film is the screwball comedy Police Academy, the film series that made Steve Guttenberg a star. What began as a raunchy comedy in the vein of Porky’s, turned into a franchise for kids and teenagers, featuring even more outlandish, cartoon, slapstick jokes, before eventually becoming a cartoon itself. In the end, SEVEN Police Academy movies would, inexplicably, release over the course of ten years.

On to notable albums, 2014 was a big year for the band Future Islands after a stunning, breakthrough performance on Letterman to promote their album Singles. Front man Samuel Herring growled and danced his way through lead single “Seasons (Waiting on You)”, prompting a huge reaction from Letterman himself who exclaimed “I’ll take all of that you got!“. I remember seeing Future Islands a couple years earlier at FYF in the smallest tent imaginable, their sound and presence being far too big for that small space. They were wild, energetic, and one of the best damn bands I’d ever seen. The Letterman performance allowed the entire world to witness what me and my friends did that Summer afternoon, and eventually led to Future Islands charging well over $100 bucks to see them play live in 2023; yay?

2004’s notable album is one of my absolute favorites, Cool to Be You by Descendents. One of the oldest and most influential pop-punk bands in the genre, Descendents put out, in my opinion, their greatest album of all-time with Cool to Be You. It’s fast, loud, and unapologetically geeky. 1994 gave us the Tim McGraw album Not a Moment Too Soon, one of the biggest country albums of all-time, sitting in the number one spot on the Billboard Country Chart for 26 consecutive weeks. The popularity of the album had a lot to do with its single, “Don’t Take the Girl”, a tragic love song that tells the story of a man and a woman in three different time periods in their life. It’s cheesy, schmaltzy, and America ATE IT UP.

Our final album of the week is 1984’s Heartbeat City by The Cars. Considered a “comeback album” for the band, Heartbeat City was The Cars first big success after their self-titled debut, and re-introduced the new wave band to the MTV generation, with three of its songs playing in heavy rotation on the channel, “Drive”, “You Might Think”, and “Magic”. While those were the three most popular singles, three more songs from the album would be released as singles, “Hello Again”, “Why Can’t I Have You”, and “Heartbeat City”, while the song “It’s Not the Night” charted, but was was never officially released as a single. The Cars rule, if you’ve never listened to this band I would strongly suggest stopping what you’re doing and give them a spin.

Titanfall (PC/Xbox One) – Released Mar. 11^th, 2014: Wiki Link

Pokémon Colosseum (GameCube) – Released Mar. 22^nd, 2004: Wiki Link

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy) – Released Mar. 13^th, 1994: Wiki Link

Punch-Out!! (Arcade) – Released Mar. 1984: Wiki Link

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