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New Game Releases 04/08/25 – 04/14/25

Andy Tuttle

Top Releases:

What’s happening everybody! I’m wrapping up my vacation as I write this so I’m gonna breeze through these. Our top game of the week is South of Midnight, a new third person action/adventure title from Compulsion Games. Pre-release buzz from critics has been overwhelmingly positive, but will that translate into sales? Personally, I feel really burned by Microsoft this year after the abysmal Avowed, and Compulsion’s previous title, We Happy Few is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. Still, that was almost seven years ago, surely Compulsion has gotten better at making games since then, right?

South of Midnight (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 8th

Developed by: Compulsion Games
Published by: Xbox Game Studios

As for the rest of the top releases, All in Abyss: Judge the Fake is some kind of narrative based poker game with RPG elements; when will AAA studios stop making the same game over and over again, GUH! Commandos: Origins gives us all the answers we’ve had about the origins of the Commandos, and Monaco 2 is about ten years too late with a sequel, I think. I didn’t play the first Monaco back in 2013 because I don’t have many online friends to play games with. In 2025 I have even less so, you know, I won’t play this one either. What’s that? You have friends online who play games with you? Must be nice.

All in Abyss: Judge the Fake (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Apr. 9th

Developed by: ACQUIRE Corp./WSS Playground
Published by: Alliance Arts

Commandos: Origins (PC/PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 9th

Developed by: Claymore Game Studios
Published by: Kalypso Media

Monaco 2 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 10th

Developed by: Pocketwatch Games
Published by: Humble Games

Rounding out the top releases we have one remaster, The Talos Principle: Reawakened, and one expansion, Dave the Diver – Ichiban’s Holiday. I could have put each of these in their own section but, like, that would have just been a waste of digital space. I’m really concerned about the amount of space we take up online, sometimes, with trivial matters that don’t enhance the conversation one bit. I could prattle on and on about how much time we waste on the internet, hoping to catch a dopamine hit from hearing our own thoughts shot back at us, but that would just be a waste of my time and yours. Honestly, what good comes from it? Just talking and talking and talking and talking so that we hear our own voices (spoken or written), it’s a circle jerk of epic proportions. Speaking of, the Circle Jerks are coming to San Diego soon and I was thinking about going but then realized I don’t know any of their songs. Would that make me a poser (or is it spelled posuer) if I went? Anyway, I’m done wasting all of our time with this nonsense of extra sections in this column, it doesn’t benefit anyone. Now, if there were, like, 4 or 5 expansions and a half dozen ports/re-releases, okay, I could see myself making separate sections for those, but when we have one of each? Come on, I don’t think so, ya know? Alright, it’s time for me to try and recover from this vacation I was just on which, let me tell you, was incredible! We ate so much good food (and some bad food too), had a blast walking around Omega Mart, and built some lasting family memories. I don’t want to bore you any further, let’s just remember that if there is only one expansion and/or remaster, I won’t put those in a separate section, it’s just a waste of digital space and your precious time. We don’t get too many years on this planet and I’d hate to waste your time with unnecessary words; Fahrvergnügen.

The Talos Principle: Reawakened (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 10th

Developed by: Croteam
Published by: Devolver Digitial

Dave the Diver – Ichiban’s Holiday (PC – maybe??/PS4/PS5) – Releases Apr. 10th

Developed by: Mint Rocket
Published by: Mint Rocket

Blue Prince (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 10th

Developed by: Dogubomb
Published by: Raw Fury

In my post vacation stupor I apparently forgot about Blue Prince which, according to the reaction of critics, is the greatest, most important video game to ever be released. It will change the world and unite us all in harmony like the music of Bill & Ted. It’s so important/good that I’ve never even heard about it until today; great marketing!

Everything else:

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

There’s a lot of cool stuff to talk about, I’m just going to give brief overviews and then we can all discuss these further in the comments…

Games:

From 2015 we’ve got the fighting game Mortal Kombat X, the tenth mainline game in the series and follow-up to the 2011 reboot that was simply titled Mortal Kombat. The base game included 25 characters, eight of which are brand new, while DLC continued the recent tradition of adding famous horror/sci-fi movie characters with the addition of Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and both an Alien and a Predator.

Mortal Kombat X was well received by critics and players, calling it one of the best fighting games in years, leading to over 12 million copies sold by the end of the decade. At the end of the year awards shows, Mortal Kombat X won Best Fighting Game & Fighting Game of the Year from The Game Awards and The DICE Awards, respectively. While the game is still available to play today, it has been surpassed by two more entries, 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11 and 2023’s confusingly named Mortal Kombat 1.

2005’s notable title is the Xbox exclusive action/RPG Jade Empire from the studio BioWare. According to BioWare’s co-founders, Ray Muzyka & Greg Zeschuk, it was their “dream project” as they had both wanted to make a game where players could become badass martial artists; cool. The gameplay in Jade Empire would have been instantly familiar to anyone who had played their previous game, Knights of the Old Republic, and included that game’s same morality system where your dialogue choices affected the story and your relationships.

Jade Empire was a smash with critics who thought the game’s story and world were imaginative, the graphics were incredible, and it did an outstanding job immersing players into its world. Players, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same love. At launch, Jade Empire found itself going up against the Xbox port of Doom 3 and, despite positive initial sales, the game would eventually flounder and see a steep drop in consumer interest.

The team at BioWare would lament their decision to release the game on the original Xbox and thought it might have been better to wait a few more months and release it as an Xbox 360 launch title. Despite critic’s love for the game, and BioWare’s insistence that they “haven’t forgotten about it”, there has never been a sequel. A PC port would eventually release, but that’s as far as things got. Jade Empire, like many unsuccessful new IP’s has been buried and forgotten.

Our last notable title, from 1995, is Metal Warriors for the SNES. Developed by LucasArts and published by Konami, Metal Warriors is a side scrolling run & gun that was made by many of the same people who made the beloved classic, Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Inspired by several mecha based anime films and programs, Metal Warriors was almost published by Nintendo before they decided to abandon the 16-bit era in favor of the upcoming 3D era.

Despite praise from critics, Metal Warriors was not a hit with players. With the move to Konami, and nearing the end of the SNES’ life cycle, Metal Warriors only received a limited run of cartridges, which likely attributed to the poor sales, along with a non-existing marketing campaign. Don’t worry, though, resellers are the real winners here, as the low production run makes this a highly sought after game for collectors who will buy the game and never play it. That’s okay, this is what emulation is for.

Movies:

In movies, 2015 gave us the sexy & violent robot flick Ex Machina. It would be nominated for two Oscars, winning Best Visual Effects but would lose Best Original Screenplay to Spotlight. Ex Machina was a hit with critics who called it not only one of the best films of the year, but also the decade.

From 2005 we have the wacky action flick Kung-Fu Hustle from filmmaker Stephen Chow. This was Chow’s second big film to release in the U.S. after Shaolin Soccer and was a huge hit, making over $100 million at the box office. I wish I could say I’ve seen this movie but, sadly, I haven’t! Based on the trailers, there’s a lot of CGI used and I always kind of thought of Chow in a similar vein as Robert Rodriguez as they both kind of rely a lot on green screen filmmaking and questionable CGI. I’ve heard the movie is great, maybe one day I’ll get around to watching it.

From 1995 we have a movie that I wager is a favorite among many 90’s kids, A Goofy Movie. Billed as a continuation of the animated series Goof Troop, A Goofy Movie finds a teenage Max having to deal with his idiotic father and the horrifying reality that he is, well, just like him. It’s a feel good, road trip movie that, surprisingly, allows the character of Goofy to show some real emotion.

Executive Jeffery Katzenberg, who was fired mid development on the film, had initially wanted Steve Martin to take over the role of Goofy from his regular voice actor, Bill Farmer. While I love Steve Martin, it would have been incredibly bizarre for the man to voice Goofy. Like, can you even imagine that? In any case, Disney didn’t seem to have much faith in A Goofy Movie and only released it out of a contractual obligation to Katzenberg.

While the film opened in second place behind Bad Boys, it still managed to gross $37 million worldwide, which is about $77 million today. Seeing as the film’s budget was only $18 million, you could call it a modest hit. Its impact on audiences, however, is priceless. Easily one of my favorite movies as a teenager, I felt like A Goof Movie was speaking directly to me and found a role model in Max.

A sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie, would release in 2000 but wouldn’t reach the same level of success. In honor of its 30th anniversary, a documentary about the making of the film and the cultural impact it had on 90’s kids & teens was released on Disney+. For a small movie based on a TV show that was thrown into theatres as a “contractual obligation”, to see the lasting impression that A Goofy Movie has had on people fills me with joy.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Cherry Bomb from rapper Tyler, the Creator. While it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top 200, it did not gain any Grammy nominations but it did see Tyler’s reputation as a force in the hip-hop community continue to grow. It was also around this time that Tyler was banned from entering the United Kingdom at the direction of then Home Secretary Theresa May (who eventually became Prime Minister).

The reasoning behind the ban was that Tyler’s lyrical content was too much for the youth of the UK to be exposed to. Tyler, for his part, felt that it had more to do with his race, the fears of white UK parents who thought a black man had too much influence over their kids. In 2020, Tyler won International Male Solo Artist at the Brit Awards. In his acceptance speech he thanked Theresa May and inferred that she must be at home, really pissed off about this.

In 2005, Mariah Carey released The Emancipation of Mimi, her biggest album since 1995’s Daydream, which went on to become the best selling album of the year in the United States. Seen as a “comeback album”, Mimi found Mariah back in good graces with both critics and audiences after her 2001 film Glitter flopped and she had a kind of public meltdown on MTV’s Total Request Live.

Mimi went on to receive 10 Grammy nominations, winning three, but missing out on Album, Record, and Song of the Year. In the ensuing years, The Emancipation of Mimi saw itself embraced by music critics around the world, finding itself on multiple “Best of…” lists, including the number 389 spot on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All-Time (funny enough, they only rated it 2 1/2 stars at release).

Closing things out this week, from 1995, we have White Zombie’s final studio album, Astro-Creep: 2000. With the success of their previous album, La Sexorcista, White Zombie were given a much larger budget to record with and, according to lead singer Rob Zombie, they made the record that they always wanted to. It’s brash, loud, angry, and full of weird quotes and noises from a multitude of horror and exploitation films.

Propelled by two hit singles, “More Human than Human” (a line from the film Blade Runner) and “Super-Charger Heaven”, Astro-Creep became the band’s best selling album of all-time, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top 200. For their efforts on Astro-Creep, White Zombie were nominated for two Grammy’s, Best Engineered Album and Best Metal Performance for “More Human than Human”. The success of the album would lead the band on a 15 month tour, which would also be their last, with the band breaking up not long after.

Mortal Kombat X (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released Apr. 14th, 2015

Notable Film Release: Ex Machina – Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar Isaac
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Tyler, the Creator – Cherry Bomb
Click here to listen to the album

Jade Empire (Xbox) – Released Apr. 12th, 2005

Notable Film Release: Kung Fu Hustle – Starring Stephen Chow, Danny Chan, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu, Eva Huang, and Leung Siu-lung
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Mariah Carey – The Emancipation of Mimi
Click here to listen to the album

Metal Warriors (SNES) – Released Apr. 1995

Notable Film Release: A Goofy Movie – Starring Bill Farmer, Jason Marsden, Jim Cummings, Kellie Martin, and Rob Paulsen
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: White Zombie – Astro-Creep: 2000
Click here to listen to album

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