Top Releases:

• Doom: The Dark Ages (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 14^th
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (PC/PS4/Switch/Xbox One) – Releases May 16^th
• Death end re;Quest: Code Z (PS4/PS5) – Releases May 13^th
• The Precinct (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 13^th
• Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases May 14^th

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a snoozefest (sorry MotoGP 25), so it’s great to finally have some exciting games to talk about! Our top game of the week is the highly anticipated Doom: The Dark Ages, the third entry in Bethesda’s reboot of the Doom franchise. While the two previous games were heavy on acrobatic platforming, combined with shooting mechanics, The Dark Ages is a bit slower and has you going up against hordes of demons in hand-to-hand combat (there are still guns, don’t worry).

Doom: The Dark Ages (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 14^th

Developed by: id Software
Published by: Bethesda Softworks

The Dark Ages is, as you might have imagined, set before the events of the 2016 Doom reboot and has the same player protagonist, “Doom Guy” (or Doom Slayer), who must protect his kingdom from the forces of Hell. The Dark Ages has already received glowing reviews from multiple outlets and is likely going to be one of the most memorable games of 2025, and a possible GOTY contender.

Our other top release, this week, is Capcom Fighting Collection 2, which bundles multiple Capcom developed fighting games together, with a big emphasis on the Capcom vs. SNK franchise. Featuring a handful of Capcom titles originally released between 1998 and 2004, we’ve got four 3D games, Plasma Sword, Power Stone, Power Stone 2 and Project Justice; the aforementioned Capcom vs. SNK & Capcom vs. SNK 2; Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, a Dreamcast version of the game that also got an arcade release; and, finally, Capcom Fighting Evolution, a crossover title that features characters from Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Red Earth.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (PC/PS4/Switch/Xbox One) – Releases May 16^th

Developed by: Capcom
Published by: Capcom

Like other recent Capcom fighting game collections, every game in CFC2 will be playable online with everyone’s favorite phrase, “rollback netcode”, thank goodness. As if that wasn’t enough, you can also expect all of the various bells & whistles that are sort of expected from retro collections nowadays, including high-score leaderboards, viewable hitboxes in the 2D games, the marquee move sets seen on the arcade cabinets, a training mode, secret characters, one-button super moves, various display settings, an art gallery, and music soundtracks for each game.

If you’re in the mood for an RPG, developer Compile Heart is here with a third entry in the Death end re:Quest series, titled Code Z (because “3” was probably too confusing). Get ready for a nostalgic trip back to the, my god, EARLY 2000’s (I’m getting old), as protagonist Iris must explore an alternate Earth which mirrors that era. It seems that someone…EVIL…is threatening this idyllic world that birthed the Fast & the Furious franchise, leaving it up to Iris to figure out what the hell is going on before we lose the decade that gave us The Bravery song “Honest Mistake”. Don’t look at me that way.

Death end re;Quest: Code Z (PS4/PS5) – Releases May 13^th

Developed by: Compile Heart
Published by: Idea Factory

If you’re in the mood for 1990’s nostalgia, we’ve got something for the fans of the original GTA games with The Precinct. In this top down, open world game from Fallen Tree Games (developers of a similar title from 2019 called American Fugitive), players take on the role of a police officer who must help rid the city crime…on both sides of the law! I’m really digging the way this game looks, could be one to watch as a potential hidden gem.

The Precinct (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 13^th

Developed by: Fallen Tree Games
Published by: Kwalee

Our last top game of the week is the hack & slash, action/RPG Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade. Set during Japan’s Edo period (when demons and other mythical creatures apparently thrived), players must restore the balance that humans & demons have enjoyed for centuries, bringing peace back to the land. With three characters to play as, a multitude of weapons to choose from, and various story branches to follow, there is a lot here to discover.

Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases May 14^th

Developed by: 7QUARK
Published by: 7QUARK/Game Source Entertainment

Ports and Expansions:

If you were one of the Kamala Harris voters who purchased Star Wars Outlaws in 2024, you’ll be happy to know that the game is getting its second piece of story DLC, A Pirate’s Fortune. What makes this DLC even more exciting is that it features Captain Hondo Ohnaka, a pirate/smuggler who you might recognize from his multiple appearances in various Star Wars properties including, maybe most famously, the Disneyland (and Disney’s Hollywood Studios) ride, Rise of the Resistance.

• Shovel Knight Dig (PS5/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 14^th
• Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 15^th

Everything else:

• Art House (PC) – Releases May 13^th
• The Black Vault (PC) – Releases May 13^th
• Gunbot Diplomacy (PC) – Releases May 13^th
• Labyrinth Of The Demon King (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 13^th
• Neon Hearts City (PC) – Releases May 13^th
• Shining In Mind (PC) – Releases May 14^th
• Super Engine GT Turbo SPEC (PC/Switch) – Releases May 14^th
• Void Sails (PC) – Releases May 14^th
• Into the Restless Ruins (PC) – Releases May 14^th

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

Hey, we’re back to only three decades this week, phew. There’s some great stuff to talk about, so no more wasting time, let’s check ’em out!

Games:

Starting things off, we have one of the most highly decorated and critically acclaimed games of 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The third game in the series, the developers of The Witcher 3 built upon its predecessors to give us the franchise’s most polished and user friendly game. While the first two Witcher games featured non-linear(ish) story lines, their game world was separated by individual “open area” maps. In The Witcher 3, the game was set on a completely open world map, made up of multiple, differing zone types.

In creating the open world, developer CD Projekt Red found that, during their initial playthrough of the game, the map felt empty and, frankly, a little boring. While the quests and instances were entertaining, there wasn’t a lot to do in-between. To help with this, the team looked at Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series for inspiration and found that their map needed more points of interest. It’s one thing to have a big forest, but if that forest doesn’t have hidden secrets, or interesting things to look at/encounter, you’ll start to lose interest.

Aside from the main story quests, in which lead character Geralt teams with his former lover, Yennifer, on a quest to find his adopted daughter, Ciri, players can also take on multiple side quests. One of the most popular are the Witcher Contracts that can be picked up in each town, sending Geralt on elaborate missions where he must, at the end, fight and kill an elite monster. Another popular piece of side content is the deck-building card game Gwent, which proved so addicting that CD Projekt Red released a stand-alone version in 2018, and are expecting a physical version to release sometime in 2025.

The Witcher 3 was a massive critical success, earning some of the highest scores of the year from critics. It was praised for its massive scope and ambition, with a dazzling sense of immersion that was further enhanced by CD Projekt Red’s high attention to detail. The game’s multitude of quests was praised, as was the game’s overall story and writing, with many critics applauding the extra time given to flesh out all of the main characters. The game’s combat was also praised and positively compared to Dark Souls. Many critics believed that The Witcher 3 wasn’t just one of the best video games of 2015, it was among the greatest of all time.

This isn’t to say that there weren’t criticism. Just about everything the game was praised for, it was also knocked for. Despite CD Projekt Red’s best efforts, the open world still felt fairly lifeless and empty. The quests, while plentiful, eventually became stale and one note to some critics. The writing, while good, would lean on fantasy cliché’s and tropes a little too often, sometimes bordering on generic, and while the combat was satisfying, that was only when it worked perfectly. The Witcher 3 was plagued with bugs at launch and some of the biggest issues were with the combat, finding players getting killed too often when a roll wouldn’t go the correct direction, as an example.

Still, there was no denying that The Witcher 3 was destined to be a classic, and it would tower over just about every other title released in 2015. Players didn’t seem to mind the issues (or were content to wait for patches), as the game would eventually sell over 50 million copies. This would put it among the best selling video games of all time, where it is currently tied at the 15th spot with Overwatch and Bejeweled. By the end of the year, The Witcher 3 was named Game of the Year by four major awards shows, at least three major gaming outlets, and various other gaming blogs. An enhanced edition for the PS5 and Series X|S would arrive in 2022, and it would even get a Switch port in 2019. A sequel, The Witcher IV, is currently in development and I am sure it is being waited for with bated breath by many in the gaming world.

Next up, from 2005, we’ve got the game Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones for the Game Boy Advance. This was the eighth entry in the Fire Emblem series, but only the second to be released outside of Japan, after 2003’s Fire Emblem (with the subtitle The Blazing Blade in Japan). Set in an entirely different universe than every other Fire Emblem game, The Sacred Stones tells the story of the five nations of Magrel and their commitment to work together to seal away the demon world.

When one of the nations decides to break the peace, all hell breaks loose (literally) and it is up to royal siblings, Eirika & Ephraim, to put an end to this madness and return the demons from whence they came. The gameplay in The Sacred Stones is not unlike all previous Fire Emblem games, with players moving their units around multiple grid based maps, killing enemies, gaining levels and, of course, using the three weapon combat wheel of axe/sword/lance to gain an advantage against their opponents.

The critical reception to The Sacred Stones was mostly positive, with a lot of praise going to the game’s story and its darker tone in comparison to the previous GBA title. The game’s characters were also praised for their eccentric & quirky attitudes, helping to keep a jovial tone in a plot that was fairly serious. Sales of the game were decent, with almost 250k copies sold in Japan and 90k copies sold in North America. While it wasn’t an all-time best seller, Nintendo were happy with how well the game did in North America.

The Sacred Stones would be the last Fire Emblem game released on the GBA, and the last original game in the series on a hand held until 2012’s Awakening. It would eventually hit the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, before being released on the Nintendo Switch Online’s GBA app in 2025. Generally regarded as one of the better Fire Emblem games to hit North America, The Sacred Stones should certainly be a game to check out if you’re a fan of the Fire Emblem series and have yet to play it.

Closing out the notable games, we’ve got another tactical RPG, 1995’s Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen. Created by a developer named Yasumi Matsuno, a project lead at Quest Corporation, work on Ogre Battle began in 1991, with Matsuno wanting to make a real-time strategy game with RPG elements, hoping that it could stand out from the two major Japanese RPGs that dominated the market, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

The gameplay in Ogre Battle is unique among tactical RPGs, not really following the same kind of system as, say, Fire Emblem. Players descend upon a map and can move around it at will, attempting to liberate towns and get into skirmishes with enemy units. While on the overworld map, players can build squads, change their equipment, and set each unit’s job. During battles, instead of a grid map that you move individual units on, the screen takes on a Final Fantasy-esque layout. However, instead of giving each individual unit a command, players decide what course of action each unit should take during battle, with the computer AI taking control.

The development of Ogre Battle was full of personal touches from Matsuno. The characters were given the names that he picked for his units in the MSX game Master of Monsters, while the game’s title, and some of its locations, were named after songs by Matsuno’s favorite band, Queen. During development, Matsuno felt that the leadership at Quest Corporation were, well, acting like a corporation, feeling suffocated by what he later referred to as a executive dictatorship. Shortly after the release of Ogre Battle, he would leave Quest and join Squaresoft, where he would go on to create Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and lead the development on Final Fantasy XII.

For Ogre Battle’s Japanese launch, Quest Corporation opted for a modest printing of 200k copies. However, after receiving a positive reception at a Nintendo press event, the big N reached to Quest and recommended they double their order. It was a good thing they did, because all 400k copies quickly sold out in Japan, making the game a major commercial success. In North America, a paltry 25k copies were produced, which also quickly sold out, making Ogre Battle one of the rarest games on the console, with used copies going for $150 bucks only two years after release.

The critical reception to Ogre Battle was mostly positive, with critics praising the game’s music, easy to learn game system, and satisfying challenge. Some critics, however, felt that Ogre Battle was incredibly tedious, with most of your time spent looking at menus, and was almost entirely devoid of action, but even they couldn’t say that Ogre Battle wasn’t completely unique in the world of RPGs. Following its SNES release, ports of the game would come out for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, as well as the Wii’s Virtual Console in 2009. Ogre Battle is still difficult to come by today, a used copy of the game will probably run you about $200 – $300, depending on the condition, so my best suggestion is, if you’re down with it, emulation. Maybe we’ll get this on the NSO Super Nintendo app one day but, until then, piracy is your best friend.

Movies:

In notable films, 2015 saw the release of Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth entry in George Miller’s post-apocalyptic series, which sees the titular Max trying to help a group of women escape from a brutal warlord. Initially conceiving of the idea in 1987, the film would languish in development hell for almost 30 years. Fury Road was almost green lit in the early 2000’s, but the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which caused the Australian dollar to crash, as well as the Iraq War, which made the Middle East a very unstable place to shoot a movie, Fury Road was delayed. Then, after star Mel Gibson’s high profile fallout in Hollywood, the film was delayed YET AGAIN. By the time Miller was ready to go again, Gibson was too old (and still too toxic) so the search for a replacement began, with Miller choosing Tom Hardy (other high profile names up for the role included Jeremy Renner, Eric Bana, Michael Fassbender, and rapper Eminem).

For the role of Max’s ally, Furiosa, Miller would choose Charlize Theron (a role that would have gone to Sigourney Weaver in the 2000’s version). Things were tense on the set of Fury Road, as Hardy was having a hard time understanding what was going on. This led to shouting matches between Hardy, Miller and Theron, and the actor would often show up to set late & unprepared, causing delays and generally making life harder for everyone on set. During the film’s premiere at Cannes, Hardy would publicly apologize to Miller, saying he finally understood the vision after seeing the completed film, and would later apologize to Theron for his behavior after she wrote about how frightening he was to be around.

Perhaps the on-set drama helped out, in some sick way, as Fury Road was regarded as one of the best films of 2015, earning an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and audiences. At the Academy Awards, Fury Road would receive ten nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and would win six; Best Costumes, Best Editing, Best Makeup, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. A prequel film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, would release in 2024, though the role would now be played by Anya Taylor-Joy. I must have gifted Fury Road to at least 4 or 5 different people during Christmas, 2015. It’s a brilliant movie!

From 2005, we have the British crime flick Layer Cake, directed by Matthew Vaughn and featuring a star making performance by Daniel Craig. Having earned a solid reputation after producing the films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Vaughn found himself in the director’s seat for Layer Cake. To critics, the film felt far more grounded and real, compared to the Guy Ritchie films he produced (which were too “clever”). The darker tone of Layer Cake caught the attention of Fox who tapped him to direct the third X-Men film, The Last Stand, which itself was darker in tone compared to the previous films. However, Vaughn would eventually drop out due to disagreements, although he would later return to the franchise, directing 2011’s X-Men: First Class.

Craig’s role was also highly praised, thrusting him into the international spotlight. His portrayal of the film’s leading man, the unnamed “XXXX”, was seen as a revelation, oscillating between menacing, cool, awkward, naïve, and charming. These were the qualities that producers were looking for in the person they wanted to play James Bond for their upcoming reboot of the franchise, 2006’s Casino Royale, casting Craig in the role that would change his life forever.

While Layer Cake’s $11 million worldwide gross wasn’t terribly high, the film earned a cult following on DVD and was nominated for multiple awards, with director Matthew Vaughn earning the Empire Awards for Best British Director, and a nomination for Most Promising Newcomer at the BAFTA’s. The film would also receive a special recognition for excellence in filmmaking from the prestigious National Board of Review. I watched Layer Cake recently, in preparation for this article, and found myself instantly hooked by the story and the characters. It is a truly remarkable film and I would strongly recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen it.

From 1995, we’ve got the movie Braveheart, directed by and starring the already aforementioned, “problematic”, Mel Gibson. Loosely based on the real life figure William Wallace, Braveheart is an epic tale that follows a group of Scottish rebels who are trying to gain their independence from the British. When the final cut of the film came in at nearly 3 hours and 20 minutes, distributor Paramount demanded that Gibson trim 15-20 minutes from the film. Further, the studio was worried that the gruesome battle scenes would get the Braveheart an NC-17 rating, so much of the offending material was removed, helping to reign in the run time, just a little bit.

Despite mostly positive reviews from critics, and a final box office tally of $209 million worldwide, Braveheart was never #1 at the box office, opening in 7th place, getting beaten out by two other new releases, Bruce Willis’ Die Hard With a Vengeance and Billy Crystal’s romantic comedy Forget Paris, as well as holdovers Crimson Tide, While You Were Sleeping, French Kiss, and A Little Princess.

Braveheart would, however, get the last laugh, earning ten Academy Award nominations and winning five; Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, and the big two, Best Director and Best Picture. Gibson would take a break from directing after this, despite trying to get a version of Fahrenheit 451 on screen, returning to the director’s chair for the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.

Braveheart was one of the defining films of not just 1995, but probably the decade, finding itself parodied and referenced just about everywhere. How many times have you seen someone wearing that blue face paint and give a rousing speech, or shout “FREEDOM” or “HOLD” (followers of Cheap Ass Gamer know what I’m talking about). It was a cultural phenomenon, and one of those rare double VHS movies. I always hated trying to fan those out at the video store, they just wouldn’t angle properly with the rest of the single tape movies, truly showing just what kind of monster Mel Gibson was.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Why Make Sense? by the group Hot Chip. This was the electronic band’s sixth album and was the follow-up to their fifth, and most successful album, In Our Heads. Unfortunately, Why Make Sense? did not reach the same heights in the US, though it fared much better in the UK, Hot Chip’s home country, where it peaked at #13 on UK Albums chart (the album peaked at #103 on the Billboard Top 200).

Three singles were released to promote the album, “Huarache Lights”, “Started Right”, and “Need You Now”, which was the most successful of the three. Again, it wasn’t a massive hit in the US, but it was big in Belgium. Have any of you ever been to a Belgian dance club? I bet it’s fun. On a personal level, I listened to In Our Heads a bunch and the record that came out after this one, A Bath Full of Ecstasy. I don’t know why Why Make Sense? eluded me, oh well.

From 2005, we’ve got Demon Days from the band Gorillaz, one of the most successful and critically acclaimed albums of the year. After finding mainstream success with their 2001 self-titled debut, Gorillaz frontman and lead songwriter, Damon Albarn, and artist Jamie Hewlett wanted to make a Gorillaz film about a world trapped in endless night but, with Albarn busy with his other band, Blur, the film was scrapped.

Having already written some songs for the film, Albarn didn’t want them to just go to waste so it was decided to pivot into a second album that used the same themes. The endless night motif was altered a bit to be a bit more metaphorical. With the issues of modern Earth front & center in Albarn’s mind, he felt like we were all living in an endless night/dark period. With the planet plagued by climate change and war, humanity, with its huge ego, felt that everything was fine and nothing needed to change despite, one day, leading us to our extinction.

Another reason for the return to an album, instead of a film, what that Albarn and Hewlett wanted to prove that Gorillaz wasn’t just a gimmick. If you aren’t aware, while Albarn writes and produces the music for Gorillaz and has a band that performs the songs, the “real” Gorillaz are animated, fictional characters who “perform” the songs. You aren’t supposed to hear Albarn singing, you’re supposed to hear the band’s animated singer, 2-D.

To help differentiate Demon Days from Gorillaz, Albarn changed producers, replacing Dan The Automator with Danger Mouse, who had just taken the music world by storm with The Grey Album, his controversial remix of both Jay-Z’s The Black Album and The Beatles self-titled album, known colloquially as “The White Album”. What came from this new partnership was nothing short of extraordinary, as Demon Days was given an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and audiences. The album debuted at #6 on the Billboard Top 200 and spent an astonishing 73 weeks on the chart.

At The Grammy Awards, the hit single “Feel Good Inc.” was nominated for two awards, Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, winning the Best Pop Collab trophy. In the ensuing years, Demon Days has only seen its reputation increase. Multiple critics, journalists, and artists have called it one of the greatest albums of all-time, citing it as ahead of its time and having a strong influence on modern music. Some critics in 2005 felt that the album’s messaging and themes were a bit pretensions and unfathomable, only to find out that the world would, indeed, continue to kill itself with self-inflicted wounds, making Demon Days even more relevant than it was in 2005.

Closing things out this week, from 1995, we’ve got the album Jerk of All Trades from the punk band Lunachicks. Founded in New York City in 1987, the Lunachicks got their big break when Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon, of Sonic Youth fame, attended a show and sent the bands demo to a record label in the UK, Blast First, who put out the groups debut, Babysitters on Acid in 1990. A second album (on a different label), followed in 1992, with Lunachicks signing to New York label, Go Kart Records, for Jerk of All Trades.

With a larger budget and strong label support, the album started to take off in the underground music scene, earning the group touring gigs with bands like No Doubt and NOFX. Lead singer Theo Kogan even made an appearance on MTV’s The John Stewart Show to promote the album and also talk about her modeling career (Kogan has also appeared in a handful of films, including Zoolander and Bringing Out the Dead).

While the album wouldn’t tear up the Billboard charts or earn any Grammy nominations, it did continue to solidify the Lunachicks reputation in the 90’s punk rock scene. The band never reached mainstream success but they had a solid fanbase, particularly among women who, unsurprisingly, didn’t have many female bands to look up to. In 2001, Lunachicks would go on hiatus, and reunited a few times in the last 24 years with two one off shows in 2002 & 2004, and two gigs at Punk Rock Bowling in 2021.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released May 19^th, 2015

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA) – Released May 23^rd, 2005

Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES) – Released May 1995

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