Games

New Game Releases 04/22/25 – 04/28/25

Top Releases:

  • Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (PC/PS4/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 24th
  • Steel Seed (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 22nd
  • Old Skies (PC/Switch) – Releases Apr. 23rd
  • Once Upon A Puppet (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 23rd
  • Sunderfolk (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 23rd
  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 24th
  • The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC/Switch) – Releases Apr. 24th

While April has seen a great deal of indie titles release (like, TONS, it’s crazy), large, AAA titles haven’t really been a factor this month. This allows a title like Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves to really shine and grab everyone’s attention until Doom: The Dark Ages releases on May 14th.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (PC/PS4/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 24th

Developed by: KOF Studio
Published by: SNK

If fighting games aren’t your bag, which I totally understand, you’re spoiled for choice! French developer Sandfall Interactive is bringing us Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn based RPG that is said to take inspiration from Final Fantasy and Persona; not bad games to be inspired by.

Speaking of Japanese RPGs, the team over at Too Kyo Games (World’s End Club, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code) are here with their fourth game, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, which I assume also takes inspiration from Final Fantasy and Persona because, well, they are two of the most popular RPG franchises of all time. The team at Too Kyo Games are also former developers of Spike Chunsoft where they worked on Danganronpa, if that does anything for you.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 24th

Developed by: Sandfall Interactive
Published by: Kepler Interactive

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC/Switch) – Releases Apr. 24th

Developed by: Too Kyo Games/Media.Vision
Published by: Xseed Games

There’s not a whole lot else after that, I’m afraid. Steel Seed looks fun but a litter “Gooner-y”, if you catch my drift. Old Skies is a point & click adventure game that has been delayed for quite some time, I’ll be happy to finally scratch it off my list of upcoming games. Once Upon A Puppet is a 2.5D puzzle platformer that looks really interesting, could be worth a look if you’re into those types of games.

Lastly, we’ve got Sunderfolk, a tactical RPG that allows you to play couch co-op with your friends. The catch, though, is that everyone controls the game using a personal device, either a smartphone or tablet. Strange as it sounds, this could be a really interesting experience. I’m surprised Nintendo hasn’t already tried a gimmick like this.

Steel Seed (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 22nd

Developed by: Storm in a Teacup
Published by: ESDigital Games

Old Skies (PC/Switch) – Releases Apr. 23rd

Developed by: Wadjet Eye Games
Published by: Wadjet Eye Games

Once Upon A Puppet (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 23rd

Developed by: Flatter Than Earth
Published by: Daedalic Entertainment

Sunderfolk (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 23rd

Developed by: Secret Door
Published by: Dreamhaven

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Remastered (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Apr. 22nd

Shortly after this article went live, ol’ Bethesda decided to shadow drop The Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion – Remastered on us! I absolutely loved the original Xbox 360 release, putting in well over 100 hours on it (maybe even 200 hours). I can’t wait to dive back into this world and try to collect every single book in the game and place them in my woodland cabin, sitting in the snowy mountains. I can se it now, me, sitting in that cabin, reading those books, a warm fire going while I, Andy, sit in my living room where the Summer temperatures will make my apartment reach temperatures of 90 degrees while my landlord does nothing about it. They’ll collect my money, use it to pad their retirement while my family and I suffer in misery, paying insane rent prices to live in Southern California for “the vibes”. Life rules!

Ports and Re-releases:

I’m a sucker for retro video collections, so Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics has me breathing heavy like that fat cat in the meme (you know which one; no, the other one). ALSO! Days Gone: Remastered is coming out so that you can ignore it all over again…sorry, so I can ignore it all over again. I also like bananas.

  • Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Apr. 24th
  • Days Gone: Remastered (PC/PS5) – Releases Apr. 25th

Everything else:

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

Let’s turn back the clock and check out some of the biggest games, movies, and albums we were all going bonkers for back in 2015, 2005, 1995, and 1985! Were you alive? Are you still alive? Good, I’m glad.

Games:

From 2015, we’ve got the spaceship crafting game Kerbal Space Program. Initially released independently by developer Squad in 2011, then again in 2013 on Steam as an Early Access title, the full version was finally released on April 17th, 2015. In Kerbal Space Program, players must build various spacecraft in order to complete various space exploration tasks for their people, the Kerbals.

There are three different ways to play Kerbal Space Program; in Science, players have limited resources and will need to explore the galaxy and conduct experiments to unlock various ship parts and other components. In Career, along with the same limitations in Science, players must deal with finances, ensuring they have enough cash flow to continue. This can be done by making deals, taking on contract work, and gaining a positive reputation.

The most played mode, however, is likely Sandbox, where players are given no limitations and are allowed to build as many crazy rocket ships as they like. This will, undoubtedly, lead to not just chaos but immense joy and laughter as you watch your little Kerbals get blown up.

Kerbal Space Program was a hit with both critics and players. The game earned some of the highest scores of the year and was nominated in two categories at the DICE Awards, “Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year” and the “DICE Sprite Award”, which is an awards for the best independent game of the year (it would not win either of these). The UK magazine Edge would name Kerbal Space Program “PC Game of the Year”

In 2023 a sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, was released on Steam in Early Access, though it was met with mostly negative reviews. As of 2024, with the closure of the game’s developer, Intercept Games, Kerbal Space Program 2 appears to be abandoned. Kerbal Space Program, like most of the rockets you’ll build, appears to have had a fantastic lift off but, unfortunately, something went wrong on its ascension and caused the whole thing to come crashing back down to the ground.

From 2005, we have the tactical RPG Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity. The game was developed by Atlus, featuring a story by Ryo Mizuno (creator of Record of Lodoss War) and art by Shigenori Soejima (known for his work on the Persona series). In Stella Deus, players take on the role of Spero, a young fighter who finds himself caught up in a war between various religious factions. Spero, along with up to 21 other recruitable characters, must try and end this war before the planet is engulfed in a destructive substance called “Miasma”.

Despite positive reviews from critics, Stella Deus didn’t make much of a splash, sales wise, moving a little over 800k copies worldwide. It was, unsurprisingly, a bigger hit in Japan than in the West, and received two follow-up titles that only came out on mobile devices, Raven Spirits, a sort of expansion to the original game, and a sequel, Time of Alchemy. These have never been ported to NA or EU and the series seems to be a one and done.

Moving on to 1995, we’ve got the PC game Blood Bowl, the first video game adaptation of the Games Workshop’s table top game. For those unfamiliar, Blood Bowl is, essentially, an American football game set in the fantasy world of Warhammer. Unlike Madden, where you select plays and control the character holding the call, Blood Bowl turns football into a dice rolling RPG of sorts. In order to move, players must roll dice to determine the chance of success. The opposing team will then roll their own dice, determining any damage taken, or any other outcome.

While extreme violence and death are frowned upon in real life American football, Blood Bowl actively encourages violence and murder, as it is a major factor in determining the winner. While the table top game has a loyal fanbase, the PC game was just not up to par with player expectations. The game received poor reviews and less than encouraging sales, leaving fans of the game without a digital version until the 2009 release, which received much better reviews.

Our last notable game is, without a doubt, the most well known and most endearing; Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. The seeds of Carmen were planted in 1983, when a programmer at Broderbund, named Dane Bingham, wanted to make a simple text adventure game for children. He had recently played and enjoyed Colossal Cave Adventure, but found that typing in commands was a bit obtuse and and required vast knowledge of synonyms. Using the Apple II’s graphical power, Bingham was able to create menus of words that allowed the player to select their commands, making the game play easier and more streamlined.

Bingham created a game based on the childhood playtime activity of “cops & robbers” and brought the game to Broderbund’s “Rubber Room”, where programmers could pitch their projects to higher ups and bounce around idea. Not feeling overly enthused about the initial game, Broderbund’s co-founder, Gary Carlston, suggested that the game pivot away from the adventure genre and become an educational title that would help teach kids about geography.

Broderbund ended up hiring a writer named David Siefkin, who was given instruction to base the narrative around the World Almanac (which would be bundled with the new game). Siefkin ended up taking the idea of Colossal Cave’s rooms, and turning those into the various countries. He would then take facts from the almanac and use those as clues in order to help players figure out where to go next. Bingham took this a step further, coming up with the idea that players were chasing a crook around the world who had stolen a significant artifact. Players would gather clues about the crook, cross referencing them against a dossier in order to obtain a warrant for their arrest.

Initially, the game was going to be called World Quest, with the lead villain being a demented professor named Esteban Devious. One of his goons, named Carmen Sandiego, caught the attention of a project manager at Broderbund named Karen Bird. She loved the name and felt that it was the most exotic and mysterious of the many goons & villains in the game. It also wasn’t lost on her, and the rest of the team, that having the lead antagonist be a woman was a bit groundbreaking in 1985 as, you’ve probably guessed, most video game characters were men.

With a new lead villain, the game’s title was changed to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, with the rest of game’s stable of goons called V.I.L.E., while players took on the role of an investigator in the ACME Detective Agency. Meanwhile, during the entire development of Carmen, the game’s lead programming, Dane Bingham, was really unhappy, feeling like the game was being forced upon him.

Bingham had no real interest in educational games, vastly preferring adventure titles, and he was certain that Carmen would flop and he’d have wasted his time. Bingham was so sure the game would be a failure, that when development on Carmen had finished, he took a brief break from Broderbund to work on a different game at another company. When that job finished, Bingham expected to come back to terrible news about Carmen; au contraire.

To everyone and Broderbund’s surprise, Carmen was a huge hit, including from a market they did not expect; schools. With computers becoming more common around American school’s, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was quickly gaining attention from school children and teachers who found the game to be fun, exciting, and really good at teaching geography & history without being stuffy or pretentious.

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was a massive success out the gate, quickly becoming one of the best selling games in Broderbund’s catalog. By the end of the 1980’s, Carmen became the best selling PC video game of all-time, selling nearly 1 million units. By 1992, it had sold 2 million units, by 1995, 4 million units, and was considered the best-selling educational software title of all-time in 2003.

The success of Carmen led to a huge franchise for Broderbund, releasing the mainline games Where in the USA…, Where in Europe…, Where in Time…, Where in America’s Past…, and Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego. Two other regional titles were also released, Where in North Dakota… and Where in Japan Is Carmen Sandiego. The game’s success also led to two educational gameshows on PBS, an animated series on Fox called Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego, and another animated show on Netflix simply called Carmen Sandiego.

In the ensuring years, the Carmen IP has been bought and moved a few times, with various action/adventure games releasing in the 90’s, 00’s, 10’s and 20’s, games that series creator Dane Bingham might have wanted to make 40 years ago.

Movies:

In notable films, 2015 gave us Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, and I wish I could give it back (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!), while 2005 gave us The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and society said; nah. That’s not to say it was a complete bomb, the movie grossed over $100 million worldwide on a budget of ~$50 million, but it wasn’t the HUGE success that distributor Disney had hoped for.

As a fan of the novel and original miniseries, I absolutely loved the movie, which was divisive at release. Critic Roger Ebert was not a fan, and expected that the film was solely made for people familiar with the book/miniseries, leaving the rest of society to collectively shrug their shoulders and ask “Why?“. There’s an answer for that, but I seem to have forgotten it.

From 1995, we had the cultural phenomenon Friday, which turned Ice Cube from rapper to movie star overnight, and put Chris Tucker on the radar of every casting director in Hollywood. Friday tells the story of two unambitious stoners who get into all kinds of shenanigans on a single day, Friday (duh), and the effect that it will, presumably, have on their lives.

With the popularity of ‘hood movies increasing, Ice Cube and co-writer DJ Pooh felt that Hollywood studios were only interested in making violent films that portrayed the life of Black youth as troublesome and hopeless. With Friday, the hope was that they could release a film that centered on the positive aspects of the Black community and show that their lives, while a struggle at times, was also lighthearted and often fun.

The film was directed by F. Gary Gray, a music video director who was in the process of producing a short film as a way to establish himself in the industry. Having worked with Ice Cube in the past, Gray was given the opportunity to helm Friday but had reservations about Cube’s role in the film. Gray was nervous about the audience’s response to Ice Cube in a comedy, worried that “the most violent man in America” might not get the right kind of laughs. However, Cube’s character was more of a straight man to the film’s breakout star, Chris Tucker.

The role of Smokey was originally going to be offered to both Chris Rock and Tommy Davidson but, after seeing his set on Def Comedy Jam, Tucker was immediately offered the role. His initial audition was reportedly “terrible”, so Tucker hired an acting coach and within the course of one meal, “became Smokey”. His second audition was a knockout and he secured role, making film history in the process.

While not a massive box office success, the film found a huge following on home video and cable, leading to its status as one of the most remembered and beloved films of the 1990’s. The lines “Bye, Felicia” and “You got knocked the fuck out, man” have been quoted countless times, and the film’s soundtrack would go on to be one of the biggest selling albums of the year (more on that later). Oh, one final note on Friday, if you’re looking for something with the same vibe then I would strongly recommend checking out the 2025 film One of Them Days, starring Keke Palmer and SZA, a female-centric take on the themes seen in Friday, that I hope, one day, becomes just as beloved.

From 1985, we’ve got another comedy that found a second life on home video and cable, Just One of the Guys. Loosely adapted from the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, Just One of the Guys tells the story of Terri, a teenage girl who feels she is being overlooked as a serious journalist because she is a woman. The gives Terri the idea to go undercover as “Terry”, a male student, at a different high school. While there, “Terry” becomes somewhat popular and makes friends with another student, Rick, who Terri falls in love with.

Through various shenanigans, “Terry” is eventually outed as Terri, humiliating Rick. Terri writes an article about what it’s like to be a teenage boy, earning the respect of her teachers and getting her the “big reporting job”. Rick also reads the article and forgives Terri, with the two of them riding off into the sunset. The big famous scene in this movie is when Terri flashes Rick her tits, proving that she’s a girl. These boobies are cut out in TV airings, WHICH IS BULLSHIT!

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Jekyll + Hyde by Zac Brown Band. I don’t know anything about this man, his band, or his album. Dave Grohl thinks he’s cool, though. From 2005 we’ve got the album Paper Tigers from the Swedish band Caesars. This was the band’s second to last release before disbanding in 2012, clearly things didn’t work out, but they did “Jerk It Out”, which is something.

From 1995, we have Friday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring the hit single “Keep Their Heads Ringin'” by Dr. Dre (this is also Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth’s walk-up song). Like the film, the Friday soundtrack was also a cultural phenomenon and is often brought up when talking about the greatest movie soundtracks of all-time. The album was a commercial success as well, holding the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 for two consecutive weeks.

A mixture of modern hip-hop/rap and old school funk & soul, the Friday soundtrack had something for the kids, as well as something for their parents. By 1995 we were deep into 1970’s nostalgia, with artists like Rick James and Bootsy Collins seeing a resurgence in popularity (among other artists of the 70’s). With over 2 million copies sold, the Friday soundtrack went triple platinum and became a staple of backyard barbecues and cookouts across the country.

Closing out the week, we’ve got the album Around the World In A Day by Prince and the Revolution. Following the release of 1984’s Purple Rain, Prince and the Revolution were a household name, earning their first #1 on the Billboard Top 200. For their follow-up, Around the World, Prince went a little more eccentric with his sound, getting experimental and “weird”. It didn’t matter much, though, as the success of Purple Rain ensured that Around the World would also hit the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200.

While the album didn’t contain nearly the same amount of radio friendly pop hits as Purple Rain, it did still manage to contain two top 10 singles, “Pop Life”, which hit #7, and “Raspberry Beret”, which hit #2 (behind Duran Duran’s title track for the James Bond film A View to a Kill). Around the World In A Day was poorly received by critics when it debuted and it failed to receive any Grammy nominations. Over time, however, modern critics have discovered a greater appreciation for the album, though not by much.

Kerbal Space Program (PC) – Released Apr. 27th, 2015

Notable Film Release: Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – Starring Kevin James, Raini Rodriguez, and Neal McDonough
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Zac Brown Band – Jekyll + Hyde
Click here to listen to the album

Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (PS2) – Released Apr. 26th, 2005

Notable Film Release: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Warwick Davis, and Alan Rickman
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Caesars – Paper Tigers
Click here to listen to the album

Blood Bowl (PC) – Released Apr. 1995

Notable Film Release: Friday – Starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Various Artists – Friday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Click here to listen to album

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (PC) – Released Apr. 23rd, 1985

Notable Film Release: Just one of the Guys – Starring Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jacoby, Toni Hudson, and William Zabka
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Prince and the Revolution – Around the World In A Day
Click here to listen to album

Whenever I think of, or hear, “Raspberry Beret” I think of this Jay Electronica song that briefly mentions the song:

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