Games

New Game Releases 09/24/24 – 09/30/24

Top Releases:

Ladies and gentlemen, please stop what you are doing and pay attention to this very important announcement; WE HAVE A NEW ZELDA GAME! Thank you. It’s called Echoes of Wisdom and has you taking on the role of Princess Zelda as she creates objects with a magic wand on her quest to save Link. Yeah, the man is the one in distress now; checkmate Anita Sarkeesian. Nintendo finally did it.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch) – Releases Sep. 26th

Developed by: Nintendo EPD/Grezzo
Published by: Nintendo

Aside from that? Well, there’s ARA: History Untold which is pretty much Microsoft’s version of Civilization. There’s also a new version of Epic Mickey called Rebrushed, which is cute because, you know, Mickey uses a paint brush in that game. The Earth Defense Force spin-off World Brothers is getting a sequel; alright. G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra is yet another beat ’em up based on an 80’s franchise. There’s also a new sports game coming out this week, Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports; anyone for tennis?

ARA: History Untold (PC) – Releases Sep. 24th

Developed by: Oxide Games
Published by: Microsoft

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X}S) – Releases Sep. 24th

Developed by: Purple Lamp
Published by: THQ Nordic

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Sep. 26th

Developed by: Yuke’s
Published by: D3 Publisher

G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra (PC) – Releases Sep. 26th

Developed by: Maple Powered Games
Published by: indie.io

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 27th

Developed by: Bamtang Games
Published by: GameMill Entertainment

Last up, we’ve got Monopoly, Ubisoft’s latest digital version of the classic board game. The problem, though, is that I’m not sure it’s even coming out. The last I heard was that this was coming out in “September”, so it should, theoretically, be arriving before the end of the month. Game Stop, Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart all have it available for pre-order with a Sep. 26th release date…but there’s no official word from Ubisoft and its Steam page just says “Coming Soon”. I’m pretty sure this is arriving on the 26th, but I could be wrong (wouldn’t be the first time; boom, roasted myself).

Monopoly (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 26th, maybe…?

Developed by: Ubisoft/Engine Software
Published by: Ubisoft

Expansions:

I kept trying to share the trailer for Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns but it kept saying the trailer was restricted and could only be viewed on YouTube; lame. Anyway, remember Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader and Starfield? Well, they have expansions coming out. Man, was Starfield a huge let down or what? I though for sure it would be sitting among the greatest open world games of all time, but it just came and went with barely any fanfare. Oh well, guess I’ll just go play Skyrim again.

  • Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 24th
  • Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader – Void Shadows (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 24th
  • Starfield: Shattered Space (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Sep. 30th

Everything else:

I know I’m highlighting EA Sports FC 25 in this section, but there are a bunch of really cool looking indie games and smaller titles this week that I think you should really take a look at. Give something small a chance, it might just be from the next great game studio.

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

There’s a lot of great stuff to look back on this week, I hope you have fond memories of these classics like I do. Let’s check ’em out!

Starting off, we’ve got the 2014 game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, a third person action/adventure game set in the same universe J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit series. Technically, this game takes between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films that Peter Jackson directed, so it’s a bit more hip, ya know? Anyway, the game was developed by Monolith Productions who were best known at the time for the studio behind the Blood, No One Lives Forever, and F.E.A.R. franchises. They had been contacted by Warner Bros. Interactive to make a new Batman game based on the Christopher Nolan films but couldn’t quite get anything going.

However, in the making of this cancelled Batman game, Monolith had experimented with a new gameplay system that they called “Nemesis”. This was a unique feature that would promote random Orcs you encounter into more powerful foes later, giving them unique abilities and weaknesses. If a player is unable to defeat these power Orcs, they can be transferred to a friend’s game, via the internet, where they can have the opportunity to defeat the monster, earning a reward for both players. In another unique twist, if the Orc survives their encounter with the player, they may mock them, or hold a grudge for disfiguring them, giving everyone who plays the game a slightly different experience.

Critics were mostly impressed with Shadow of Mordor, complimenting the combat (which was very similar to the Batman Arkham games), and thought the Nemesis system was well made and fun to interact with. Other critics, though, were less impressed with Nemesis, finding that it failed to generate any memorable bosses/enemies, finding the personalities and weaknesses to be fairly generic. Critics were also unimpressed with the game’s story, feeling that it didn’t fit the Tolkien lore all that well, and was disjointed with the Jackson films.

Shadow of Mordor sold reasonably well, being one of the top selling games of the year, and was nominated for (and won) several awards. It was nominated for “Game of the Year” by at least eight different outlets, and was a huge winner at the D.I.C.E. Awards, taking home eight trophies out of nine nominations (it lost Game of the Year to Dragon Age: Inquisition). PS3 and Xbox 360 versions would come out about a month later, however the Nemesis system was severely pared down for these releases. A sequel, Shadow of War, would arrive in 2017 and, while better received, appears to be the end of the series, for now.

Up next, the 2004 notable title is a big one (in more ways than one), Capcom’s multiplayer hit Monster Hunter. The creation of Monster Hunter came from a directive by Capcom’s leadership team that the company make three titles that had significant online capabilities. These games ended up being Auto Modellista, Resident Evil Outbreak, and Monster Hunter, with the goal that at least one of the three would sell over a million copies and become a hit franchise. I’ll let you guess which one succeeded…it was Monster Hunter. Well, TECHNICALLY, Outbreak also sold one million copies, but it was critically panned and would only kinda/sorta be revisited over the years.

Now, in case you’ve never played a game in the series, the goal of Monster Hunter is, typically, to come into town as a rookie hunter that is trying to achieve glory as one of the greatest hunters to ever live. To do this, players must take on quests from locals which are, as you might guess, to kill monsters. Early on, the monsters are small and fairly easy to kill. Later, however, the monsters start to become much larger, much more aggressive, and much harder to kill. In order to more easily defeat these giant monsters, players must collect materials that will give them stronger weapons and more durable armor. It’s a hack & slash with RPG elements, a perfect combination.

While the majority of Monster Hunter can be played alone, the true experience is playing online. Players can group up in teams of four to take on more difficult challenges for even greater rewards. Players can also partake in special missions that are only available online which, of course, feature even more exotic rewards. While Monster Hunter’s online service was run by Capcom in Japan, they outsourced it to another company for the rest of the world. In 2007, this company decided to no longer support PS2 online and the servers were shut down on Dec. 31st. In Japan, Capcom kept their PS2 servers running until Jul. 1st, 2011.

Monster Hunter became a huge franchise in Japan after this, with a sequel arriving only two years later, exclusively for that country. In North America, we would receive entries on the PSP over the next several years, with the series now, essentially, going portable. That would change in 2013 with the release of Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii, followed by a 3DS entry (Monster Hunter 4), and then two big console releases, Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Rise on modern consoles, giving the franchise a major boost in popularity around the world.

Moving on to 1994, we’ve got one of my favorite Super Nintendo RPG’s, Illusion of Gaia. First released in Japan in 1993 by Enix, the game would come to North America in September of 1994, published by Nintendo who, I’m sure, were looking to cash in on the public’s new found interest in the genre. Illusion of Gaia was developed by a company called Quintet, a small Japanese studio that was founded by veterans of the Ys franchise. Their first game was Actraiser, followed by the game Soulblazer, which was be the first in a trilogy of like-minded, semi-connected RPGs that includes Gaia and another game called Terranigma, which we did not receive in North America.

Illusion of Gaia tells the story of a young man named Will who, for some reason, falls into a dark void and meets a giant floating head named Gaia. She tells Will that he must leave his home to save the world from an evil entity that will arrive at any moment. Will is like, alright, I guess, and he heads out on a quest, all because the giant lady head said to. Will lives in an alternate reality, 16th century Earth, where monsters and magic are prevalent. During his journey, Will must go to several ancient monuments, including The Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, and the Nazca Lines. It is in these places that Will learns more about the approaching evil and how to stop it.

Illusion of Gaia did decently well, financially, with over 650k units sold world wide. By comparison, Soulblazer had only sold about 300k copies. The game seemed to have better reviews and reception in America, perhaps due to the connection with Nintendo. Over in Japan, the game sold far less copies than it did in the West, and was not particularly loved by Weekly Famitsu, who only gave it a score of 26 out of 40.

As I mentioned earlier, a third entry in the kinda/sorta trilogy, Terranigma would release in Europe and Japan, and that has pretty much been it for the series. Developer Quintet has never officially said that they’ve shut down, but they have been inactive since 2002 and have no real presence online. They would go on to make a PSX RPG called The Granstream Saga that maybe also has a connection to Illusion of Gaia, but not really. Their last title was a GBA version of the PS2 game Mystic Heroes, which is kind of a kid version of Dynasty Warriors. While I would love to see Illusion of Gaia return in some form, either as a Nintendo Switch Online title, part of a collection, or even a remake, I doubt it’ll happen. Who knows who the rights belong to; Quintet, Square Enix, Nintendo? It’s a mystery. Maybe we should go into the dark void and ask Gaia if she knows the answer.

Heading to the world of notable films, 2014 saw the release of The Boxtrolls, a stop motion film from the studio Laika, who were alrady well known for the films Coraline and ParaNorman. Before this write up, all I knew was the name “The Boxtrolls“, and I had no idea is was both stop motion and from Laika. It received really good reviews and made over $100 million at the box office, world wide. For whatever reason, though, it just didn’t hit my orbit.

2004’s notable film is one that I am incredibly familiar with, the horror comedy Shaun of the Dead. Now, when the trailers for this first came out I was not impressed. It looked corny, like it was trying too hard, and don’t get me started on the “White Lines” ending to the trailer. Thankfully, after seeing some really great stuff at Comic-Con, and hearing that George A. Romero was a fan, I decided to check it out from the video store I worked at when it released; I’m glad I did.

Shaun of the Dead, for those that don’t know, is the feature film debut for director Edgar Wright and screen writer/actor Simon Pegg. The two had cut their teeth in the London comedy scene and had made a well received cult TV show called Spaced. In one episode of Spaced, a character hallucinates a zombie invasion after playing Resident Evil 2 for several hours. That episode gave Wright the idea for Shaun of the Dead, who co-wrote the script with Pegg, who based parts of the film on Pegg’s life with co-star Nick Frost when they were roommates.

Despite only grossing $38.7 million at the box office, the cost to make the film was only $6 million, turning a healthy profit. The film was a smash with critics as well and it kickstarted the careers of Wright, Pegg, and Frost. Their next collaboration, 2007’s Hot Fuzz, was a huge hit by comparison, taking in over $80 million at the box office, worldwide. A third collaboration, The World’s End, would arrive in 2013 and effectively conclude what Wright & Pegg dubbed the “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy”.

Our 1994 notable film is another one of my favorites, Tim Burton’s, dare I say, masterpiece, Ed Wood. Based on the life of filmmaker Ed Wood, the movie tells the story of the most prolific and aspirational point in Wood’s career. After failing to break into the movie industry, Ed Wood has a chance encounter with aging film star Bela Lugosi, becoming friends in the process. Wood uses his connection with Lugosi to get hired to direct a film inspired by the life of Christine Jorgenson, the first person to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Wood, however, centers the film on a fictional character named Glen who is a transvestite, and a stand-in for Wood’s own obsession with the lifestyle. The film would be known as Glen or Glenda?.

From here we see Wood and his crew make another movie, Bride of the Monster, before creating what would be Wood’s epic masterpiece, Plan 9 From Outer Space. A sci-fi/horror film that is considered by many to be the worst film ever made. Ed Wood is a remarkable film, and should be an inspiration to all filmmakers and artists out there. It would be named among the best films of 1994 and earned two Oscars, one for Best Makeup and another for actor Martin Laundau who portrays the elderly, drug addicted, Bela Lugosi. I absolutely love this film, it’s a treasure and probably Tim Burton’s best work.

In notable album, 2014 gave us one of Prince’s final albums, Art Official Age. While it would receive mostly positive reviews, the album wouldn’t really do all that well commercially. Only 55k copies were sold in the first week, with lifetime sales not going much higher than that, a far cry from Prince’s most successful years.

From 2004, we have the second studio album from rock band Interpol, Antics. The album was a hit for the band, propelling them to international stardom, selling over 500k copies in the U.S. alone. The album’s success was attributed to a string of successful singles, “Slow Hands”, “Evil”, “C’mere”, and my personal favorite, “Narc”. Critics loved the album as well, placing it on several “Best of 2004” lists at the end of the year. Over time it has also been named as one of the best albums of the decade, and even made it onto the list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” from British publication NME.

Last, and certainly not least, we’ve got another potential masterpiece, R.E.M.’s album Monster. Recorded over a seven month period from Oct. 93 to May of 94, Monster was a kind of reinvention of the band, stepping away from the softer, more subdued songs from their previous two albums (Out of Time and Automatic for the People), and moving into a harder, more alternative rock sound. While the band might sometimes classify the songs on Monster as “rock”, with quotation marks, it was certainly faster and louder than previous efforts.

The lyrics on the album, written by singer Michael Stipe, were semi-autobiographical told from the point of view of a jaded musician having to deal with fame. Stipe used Monster as an outlet for his own frustrations with fame and the attention it brings, and was also inspired by the recent deaths of River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain, who he had close, personal relationships with.

The album was a huge commercial hit, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard Top 200, selling almost 150k copies in the first four days of release, and had five singles, “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?”, “Bang and Blame”, “Crush With Eyeliner”, “Strange Currencies”, and “Tongue”. While it was not as big a hit as their previous two albums, Monster would go on to sell almost 10 million copies worldwide, further solidifying the band’s status as major, international rock stars.

Critics mostly liked the album, though they felt Stipe’s delivery was pulled back & distant (the vocals were lowered in the mix), it was still able to gain a Grammy nomination in the Best Rock Album category, losing to The Rolling Stones record Voodoo Lounge. Monster is my favorite R.E.M. album, probably because it is so raw and edgy compared to the rest of their catalog. For me, the band doesn’t get any better than this.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released Sep. 30th, 2014: Wiki Link

Notable Film Release: The Boxtrolls – Starring Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Simon Pegg, and Tracy Morgan
Notable Album Release: Prince – Art Official Age
Click here to listen to the album

Monster Hunter (PS2) – Released Sep. 30th, 2004: Wiki Link

Notable Film Release: Shaun of the Dead – Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, and Dylan Moran
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Interpol – Antics
Click here to listen to the album

Illusion of Gaia (SNES) – Released Sep. 26th, 1994: Wiki Link

Notable Film Release: Ed Wood – Starring Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, and Patricia Arquette
Notable Album Release: R.E.M. – Monster
Click here to listen to album

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