Top Releases:

• Sniper Elite: Resistance (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 30^th
• Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 30^th
• Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos (PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 31^st

Hey gang! We’re going to be a little light on commentary in this week’s column. I spent last week at a work retreat, followed by a weekend birthday celebration for my wife. I’ve eaten so much catered lunch and fancy restaurant dinners that I don’t even remember what home cooked food tastes like. I live a life of opulence, what can I say? Anyway, you can see all of the games coming out this week below…or above, I guess.

Sniper Elite: Resistance (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 30^th

Developed by: Rebellion
Published by: Rebellion

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 30^th

Developed by: Nippon Ichi Software
Published by: NIS America

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 28^th

Developed by: Robot Entertainment
Published by: Robot Entertainment

Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos (PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 28^th

Developed by: Compile Heart
Published by: Idea Factory

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter (PC/PS4/PS5/Xbox One) – Releases Jan. 28^th

Developed by: Odd Bug Studio
Published by: United Label

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 31^st

Developed by: Jump Over The Age
Published by: Fellow Traveller

Ports and Re-releases:

• Accolade Sports Collection (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 30^th
• Spider-Man 2 (PC) – Releases Jan. 30^th

Expansions:

• Darkest Dungeon II – Inhuman Bondage (PC) – Releases Jan. 28^th

Everything else:

• Camelbirds (PC) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• Eternal Strands (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• The Stone of Madness (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 28^th
• Robot Anarchy (PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 29^th
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Jan. 30^th

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

There’s too much neat stuff to gloss over the notable titles this week, though I don’t plan on doing any major deep dives. Let’s get to it!

Games:

From 2015, we’ve got the narrative adventure game Life is Strange, with its first episode, Chrysalis. While developer Don’t Nod had already had a minor hit on their hands with Remember Me, they would reach worldwide acclaim and notoriety with Life is Strange.

The game is a coming of age story about two young women, Max and Chloe, and how their relationship changes over the course of their years long friendship. Players follow Max throughout the game and are able to use her extraordinary powers to rewind time, allowing the player to re-shape future events.

A critical and commercial hit, Life is Strange sold over 1 million copies by the end of 2015 and ended up receiving 75 “Game of the Year” designations from various outlets around the world. A prequel called Before the Storm, developed by Deck Nine, would arrive in 2017, while Don’t Nod would put out a sequel, Life is Strange 2, in 2018/2019. After that, Deck Nine would take control of development, releasing the spin-off True Colors in 2022, and Double Exposure, which continues the story of Max, in 2024.

From 2005, we have the DS game WarioWare: Touched!, the fourth game in the wacky minigame series. Like 2004’s Twisted, this WarioWare game focuses on a single gimmick, the Nintendo DS touchscreen. The game was both a critical and commercial hit, receiving high marks for its innovative & fun gameplay, while selling nearly 2.5 million copies around the world.

Our last notable game, from 1995, is the miniature golf game Kirby’s Dream Course. In Dream Course, players navigate Kirby around various mini-golf courses, attempting to reach the goal before the stroke limit is met. Initially, developer HAL had started work on the game back in the early 1990’s, just before the release of Kirby’s Dream Land. After the success of that game, HAL decided to incorporate Kirby characters into Dream Course, hoping to cash in on the pink puffball’s popularity.

Kirby’s Dream Course received mostly positive reviews, particularly for its outrageous and unique take on mini-golf, though its shot accuracy left something to be desired. This would be the first of three Kirby games to release in North America in 1995, with another spin-off, Kirby’s Avalanche, arriving only a few weeks after Dream Course (more on that later).

Movies:

Alright, let’s talk about notable films. 2015 gave us the film Black or White, another melodrama from Mike Binder (director of The Upside of Anger and Reign Over Me). The film was initially planned to be released during the 2014 Oscar season but was scrapped in favor of a February 2015 release. I can only assume that the film’s 33% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes may have had something to do with that. This is, to date, Mike Binder’s last theatrically release film, having since moved on to television.

2005 saw the release of Boogeyman, a horror film directed by Stephen Kay, produced by Sam Rami, and co-written by Eric Kripke. While each of these men are more well known for other work, Kay has directed several prominent TV shows, including The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, and Yellowstone, Rami is most well known for the Evil Dead franchise, and Kripke is best known as the creator of the show Supernatural, Boogeyman is a wholly forgettable film. While it made over $67 million at the box office, critics tore the film apart, calling it generic and boring; womp womp.

1995 gave us another horror film, In the Mouth of Madness, from one of my favorite filmmakers, John Carpenter. The film stars Sam Neill as a insurance investigator named John Trent. It seems that a prominent author of horror novels, Sutter Cane, has gone missing, which is set to delay his next book, In the Mouth of Madness. Thinking this is all a publicity stunt, Trent goes on a hunt for Cane, eventually tracking him down to a small New England town, Hobb’s End.

The strange thing, however, is that Hobb’s End is supposed to be a fictional place, one created by Cane himself. Well, as Trent soon finds out, the strange and horrific things that appear in Cane’s novels are manifesting themselves in the real world, leading to an apocalyptic end to all of humanity if Trent isn’t able to stop it in time.

I fucking LOVE In the Mouth of Madness, it’s a delightfully cheesy horror flick that is, I think, Carpenter’s best work of the later part of his career. A fancy-pants Blu-ray came out a few years ago from Shout! Factory and I highly recommend seeking it out.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Hyperview from one of my favorite bands, Title Fight. With Hyperview, Title Fight saw themselves move away from the pop-punk sound of their earlier albums to a more alternative, shoegaze sound, which you could hear snippets of on their previous effort, Floral Green.

Hyperview would be well received by critics, who praised the band’s new stylistic shift. While Hyperview would debut at #78 on the Billboard Top 200, it would fail to reach Floral Green’s peak position on #68. This would be the band’s last full release, going into hiatus in 2018, though various members of the group say that a return is possible…one day.

2005’s notable album is a killer follow-up to last week’s LCD Soundsystem, and that’s Bloc Party’s debut studio album Silent Alarm. What a great couple of week’s for fans of electronic indie rock, though I think Bloc Party is far more “rockin” than LCD Soundsystem, at least in the traditional rock sense.

Being a almost 24 year old in February of 2005, these two album were absolutely critical to my new found “indie rock” identity. Gone were the pop-punk albums of my teens, in were Radiohead, Pixies, Bloc Party, and LCD Soundsystem. Silent Alarm was adored by critics, naming it one of the best albums of 2005. In fact, British magazine NME gave it their Album of the Year prize over another seminal album from that time, Arcade Fire’s Funeral.

Silent Alarm has retained its reputation over the years, often finding itself named among the greatest albums of the 2000’s. Not bad for a debut. A personal anecdote, I was working with a buddy doing interviews of bands at the San Diego Street Scene festival around 2005 or 2006 and got to go backstage. I ended up standing on the side of the state when Bloc Party was playing, it was wild. Front man Kele started climbing the lighting rig, I got to chat with a local radio DJ named Tim Pyles, and Danny Masterson was also there. I did not hang out with Danny Masterson.

Finally, from 1995, we’ve got another debut studio album, For God and Country, from the punk band Good Riddance. Formed in 1986, but not a full band until the early 1990’s, Good Riddance burst onto the punk scene with their 1993 EP Gidget. Catching the attention of NOFX front man Fat Mike’s label Fat Wreck Chords, Good Riddance signed a deal with them and got busy recording For God and Country.

Politically charged, with lyrics like “When we cease to question war as entertainment, and Christian battle hymns will keep us pacified…We all fall down“, For God and Country saw Good Riddance taking up the messages and attitudes of earlier punk bands like Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, D.R.I., Minor Threat, and Naked Raygun. The album cover, featuring soldiers carrying the casket of a fallen soldier with the band’s name “Good Riddance” on the cover, must have turned a few heads in the local Sam Goody. In early 1995 we were only about a year into the new found mainstream punk rock movement. Who knew that it would only get bigger as the decade went on.

Life is Strange – Ep. 1: Chrysalis (PC/PS3/PS4/Xbox 360/Xbox One) – Released Jan. 30^th, 2015

WarioWare: Touched! (Nintendo DS) – Released Feb. 14^th, 2005

Kirby’s Dream Course (SNES) – Released Feb. 1^st, 1995

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