Games

New Game Releases 01/13/26 – 01/19/26

Top Releases:

  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Jan. 15th
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2) – Releases Jan. 15th
  • Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights (Switch) – Releases Jan. 13th
  • BrokenLore: Unfollow (PC/PS5) – Releases Jan. 16th

Massive RPG fans, rejoice! For we have another entry in The Legend of Heroes franchise with Trails Beyond the Horizon! This is the third game in the “Calvard” arc, being a direct sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II, this is also the thirteenth entry in the Trails sub-series, and the eighteenth game in the overall Legend of Heroes franchise. I know that’s a lot of games that precede this one, but don’t be intimidated. Just start here, it doesn’t matter; nothing matters. Life is too short to worry about how you don’t know any of the lore from the Erebonia or Gilstafar arcs. Hell, I made one of those up and I bet you didn’t even question it. This is our first major game of 2026, folks, let’s make it one to remember!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Jan. 15th

Developed by: Nihon Falcom
Published by: NIS America

We’ve got a few other games that might pique your interest. The one that I’m the most jazzed about, actually, is the free update coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Version 3.0. In this new expansion, players will assist Kapp’n and his family with maintaining an island resort. You might be saying, “wow, isn’t this just like the other paid expansion“? Hahaha, no, you’re wrong, it isn’t! In this new expansion, you will decorate rooms for visiting guests, based on their own specific needs and personalities. In exchange, you will receive a unique currency that you can use to buy new furniture items. See, it’s totally different!

Players will also get access to the Slumber Islands which is, basically, a second island that you can fuck around with. It exists out of time and space, meaning it is not bound to seasonal weather changes or the time of day. Think of it like sandbox SANDBOX mode. Of course there will also be a bunch of new things to collect, including tie-in items and villagers from The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon, as well as LEGO themed furniture, continuing Nintendo’s recent partnership with the world famous toy company.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Free update Ver. 3.0 (Switch 2) – Releases Jan. 15th

Developed by: Nintendo EPD
Published by: Nintendo

The last two games of the week are smaller titles but, nonetheless, interesting looking. First up is Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights. a visual novel coming to the Switch. Can you fall in love with five different dudes, despite having a horrible curse?! If romance makes you gag, but dismembered corpses don’t, then give BrokenLore: Unfollow. This survival horror game coming to PC and PS5 looks wild, with hauntingly beautiful imagery and a story that should bend your mind into a pretzel.

Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights (Switch) – Releases Jan. 13th

Developed by: Idea Factory/Ichicolumn
Published by: Idea Factory International

BrokenLore: Unfollow (PC/PS5) – Releases Jan. 16th

Developed by: Serafini Productions
Published by: Serafini Productions/Shochiku

Everything else:

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

Games:

In notable games, 2016 gave us the narrative adventure game Oxenfree, from developer Night School Studio. In the game, players take on the role of Alex, a teenage girl, as she heads to a remote island off the coast of Oregon with her friends. While there, the group decide to explore a series of caves which are rumored to contain supernatural energy. While you might assume it’s all normal stuff, like in Gone Home and Firewatch, Oxenfree delivers on its ghost story promise by having actual paranormal/sci-fi elements.

Talking about it too much would give away a lot of the surprises but, suffice to say, shit goes down and it is up to Alex to harness this supernatural energy to save herself and (almost) all her friends; the choice is up to you. Night Dive Studios was founded by cousins Sean Krankel and Adam Hines, two former developers at Disney Interactive and Telltale, so narrative game design was in their blood. Oxenfree does a spectacular job of laying out its story, piece by piece, building the narrative to bigger and bigger stakes until you are confronted with life altering decisions that will determine how your game ends.

Oxenfree was received favorably by critics who praised the game’s whip-smart dialogue and clever writing. The game’s puzzles were also praised for their ingenuity and ability to tease your brain just enough to make it a fair challenge instead of a frustrating slog. The game’s retro graphics were praised, with the artists at Night School finding a way to make the somewhat tired retro pastiche feel fresh. While the game would receive several nominations at the various year-end awards shows, including Best Narrative at The Game Awards and Outstanding Achievement in Story at the DICE Awards, its only won came from the Independent Games Festival Awards in the category of Excellence in Visual Art.

Following its brief status as an Xbox One exclusive, Oxenfree would hit PS4 in May of 2016, followed by ports to mobile devices and Switch in 2017. A sequel, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals arrived in 2023 to high praise, though some critics felt that player’s choices had far less of an impact on the story as they did in the first game. A feature film was in the works from Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment but ultimately never materialized. A television series has been in the works since 2021 so I guess we can look forward to more info on that any day now, right?

From 2006, we have the game Ape Escape 3, the third numbered entry in the series but the EIGHTH overall. The gameplay saw little change in this latest entry, with players having to capture monkey with a net and/or beat the hell out of them with a glowing baton. One change to the game, however, gave players the ability to morph into stronger versions of themselves. For example, players can morph into a knight which makes their baton hit harder and equips them with a shield that they can use to absorb fire attacks.

Critics had a mostly positive reception to Ape Escape 3, calling it a perfect little time waster. The relative ease of the game, along with its delightful character models, catchy music, and wacky humor, made it the perfect game to complete at the start of the year. Oh, and one more little fun item, Ape Escape 3 contains a separate mode called “Mesal Gear Solid: Snake Escape”, which spoofs the Metal Gear Solid series. In this mode, players take on the role of Pipo Snake, a monkey that bears a striking resemblance to a certain Solid Snake, as they use stealth & weapons to sneak around stages, rescuing captured monkeys.

2005’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater contained a mode in which players, as Snake, must capture the monkey from Ape Escape. As Ape Escape 3 released after MGS 3, I think it can be inferred that “Mesal Gear Solid: Snake Escape” is the follow-up title; FUN! Please don’t fight me on this, okay? I really need this to be true.

From 1996, we have the Super NES game Mega Man X3. The third entry in the popular series, X3 didn’t deviate much from its predecessors. The looks, sounds, and plays exactly like X and X2, though you could argue that the graphics got better, I guess. Critics had mostly positive things to say about the game, despite it playing exactly like the previous X titles, and found it to be a fitting swan song to the “16-bit era”. With the PlayStation & Saturn releasing in 1995, and the Nintendo 64 only a few months away, the Super Nintendo’s days were numbered.

Soon enough, we would have to say goodbye to our 16-bit consoles as we leapt into our 3D future, never to see 2D, side-scrolling games again…right? Following its SNES release, ports for the PlayStation and Saturn would come to Japan, while a PC version was released in the US in 1998 (and also in Japan). Today, playing the game is relatively easy if you purchase the Mega Man X Collection for your favorite modern console. X3 isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either.

Movies:

In notable films, 2016 gave us the film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers which proved, once and for all, that Michael Bay is the greatest director of all-time. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s because he somehow convinced us all that Jim from The Office is a bad-ass. Jokes aside, this is probably Michael Bay’s best film, if only because he doesn’t load it up full of of saccharine bullshit and ethnic stereotypes.

Okay, okay, there’s a LITTLE BIT of saccharine bullshit and ethic stereotyping but, like, not a ton of it. For a Michael Bay movie, that was a win. Now, I know that a lot of us aren’t too jazzed about the things going on in the United States and probably aren’t keen to watch a film that hypes up how badass our military is but, damn, 13 Hours is really good. Sure, it’s hokey at times, it’s jingoistic, and it plays fast & loose with true events, but it’s entertaining as hell.

For those unaware, 13 Hours tells the story of the attack on the US embassy and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans lost their lives in the chaos, including the US ambassador, and it led to a whole bunch of political heat back in the United States. Thankfully, the film doesn’t go into all of that, it only focuses on the attack and how the soldiers on the ground dealt with it. Sure, it makes its jabs at politicians in not so subtle ways, but it isn’t necessarily preachy.

Critics were split on the film, calling it a mature effort from the typically bombastic director, but that didn’t mean it was some kind of artistic masterpiece. Stilted dialogue, muddy visuals, and a clear right wing slant in a film that aimed to be apolitical, kept 13 Hours from earning more respect than it could have. However, the film did receive an Academy Award nomination in the category of Best Sound Mixing, losing to another Conservative leaning war film, Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge.

From 2006, we have the film Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, starring comedian Albert Brooks. Playing a fictionalized version of himself, Brooks is tasked by the US government with trying to figure out what makes Muslim people laugh. Taking place primarily in India and Pakistan, Brooks sets out to see what passes for humor in these countries to, well, humorous results.

The film was panned by critics, though it had some fans, including Nathan Rabin at The A.V. Club (he just loves those flops), and Roger Ebert who just “clicks” with Brooks’ low-key style of comedy. Most critics, however, felt that Brooks’ film, which he wrote and directed himself, was too tame. There certainly seemed to be a lot one could say about comedy and the Muslim religion, but Brooks didn’t attempt to explore it in any meaningful way. The criticism was too soft and the jokes weren’t clever enough to act as biting social commentary. It opened in 28th place, earning just over half a million dollars from 161 theatres. It was, unsurprisingly, the last film Brooks would write or direct.

From 1996, we have the movie From Dusk Till Dawn, from director Robert Rodriguez and writer Quentin Tarantino. The film starts off as a standard crime flick, as two brothers, Seth and Richie, attempt to flee the law after the two rob a bank. Along the way, they kidnap a preacher and his two children, forcing them to drive to Mexico where the brothers can hide out for the rest of their days. However, when the group finally arrives as the bar they are told to meet their contact at, it quickly devolves into chaos when it is discovered that vampires run the joint.

The story for From Dusk Till Dawn was initially conceived in 1988 by a special effects artist named Robert Kurtzman. When the artist’s studio, KNB EFX Group, was hired to work on Tarantino’s first film, Reservoir Dogs, they asked him to write a script for From Dusk Till Dawn that Kurtzman could direct. Tarantino followed through but, like a lot of Hollywood projects, it sat on a shelf waiting to be made. No one wanted this gory vampire flick from an unknown director but, like a lot of Hollywood projects, it eventually gained traction once someone associated with it became really, really famous; Tarantino.

With the success of Pulp Fiction, everyone wanted to thrown money at Quentin, hoping he’d made his next picture with them. Tarantino would ultimately stick with Miramax, who released Pulp Fiction, and brought on Rodriguez to direct, having himself just had a minor hit with Miramax in Desperado (after gaining attention with his low budget film El Mariachi), much to the dismay of original idea man Robert Kurtzman; that’s Hollywood, baby.

Critics were divided on the film but conceded that it was, ultimately, pretty good. It was a romping, stomping, good time that harkened back to the sleazy days of 70’s grindhouse cinema. While the film was ultra violent, with over-the-top gore and sizzling sexuality, it was still a smart, clever film that didn’t talk down to its audience. With only his third film, Rodriguez had shown that he was a capable director and one hell of a visual storyteller.

While lead actor George Clooney was well known for his role on TV’s ER, this was his first major film role and he was an unknown commodity. While the negative reviews might have hurt him if this film released a decade or two earlier, the 90’s were a time of “edgy excess”, where clever characters who skirted the edge of decency were king. With the success of From Dusk Till Dawn, Clooney went in a more mainstream direction, next starring in the romantic comedy One Fine Day and the mainstream action film The Peacemaker, before almost losing it with Batman & Robin. He would course correct after that, becoming a sort of art-house darling after hooking up with Steven Soderbergh on Out of Sight.

From Dusk Till Dawn grossed $60 million on a budget of only $19 million, earning it two direct-to-video sequels and a television series. Clooney would receive an MTV Movie Award in the Best Breakthrough Performance category and Best Actor at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards and the Saturn Awards. Quentin Tarantino, however, would be nominated for Worst Supporting Actor at the Razzie Awards, “losing” to Marlon Brando.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2016 saw the release of Death of a Bachelor from Panic! At The Disco. This was the groups fifth album overall and the second as a solo endeavor by front man and songwriter Brendon Urie. Four singles were released, none of which I’ve ever heard before in my life, but they did really well. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock album, losing to Tell Me I’m Pretty by Cage the Elephant.

From 2006, we have the debut album from Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Highly anticipated prior to its release, thanks to a devoted fanbase that spread the group’s early demos across the internet, Whatever… debuted huge in the UK and broke all kinds of sales records. In the US, the album was debut at #24 on the Billboard Top 200 and eventually sell over 1 million copies.

The album had two singles, including the UK chart-topping “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”, which reached #7 on the Billboard US Alternative Airplay chart. Critics loved the album, calling it one of the best from 2006 and it earned one Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, losing to St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley.

Critics consider Whatever… to be one of the greatest albums of all-time and, certainly, one of the best of the 2000’s. Its sound was indicative of the decade, being seen as “the sound” that many rock acts were trying to find in previous years and would go on to mimic for the next several.

Closing things out this week, from 1996, we have the album Boys for Pele by the singer/songwriter Tori Amos. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard Top 200, her highest charting album to date, you would think that Boys for Pele would been a well loved, cherished album; it’s not. Highly experimental and almost aggravatingly frustrating to listen to, Boys for Pele found Amos trying to change up her style and image, and failing.

Following a messy break-up that was both romantic and professional, as well as other horrible encounters with men, Boys for Pele was Amos’ way of “sacrificing” these men to the volcano goddess Pele. During the writing of the album, Amos was using psychedelic drugs with great frequency, leading to multiple trips that would influence her lyrics, particularly on “Father Lucifer”.

Boys for Pele was highly polarizing, with some critics calling it unlistenable while others praised it as a grand masterpiece. While Amos’ lyrics had been seen as her strongest skill on previous albums, being open, direct, and brutally honest, the lyrics on Boys for Pele were a mess of double talk, obfuscation, mystery, and nearly impenetrable. Breaking up can be completely devastating, I know what it’s like, it fucking sucks. Sometimes great art can come from it, like Beck’s Seachange, other times you Boys for Pele.

In fairness, the album’s reputation has grown more positive over the years, with younger audiences embracing it better than audiences in the 1990’s who just wanted more of the stuff they heard on her previous albums. Despite the negative reception, the album was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category, losing to Odelay by Beck. It has since become a kind of cult classic, but it’s not for me; I don’t think I ever need to hear again.

Oxenfree (PC/Xbox One) – Released Jan. 15th, 2016

Notable Film Release: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers – Starring James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, Max Martini, David Denman, and Dominic Fumusa
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Panic! At The Disco – Death of a Bachelor
Click here to listen to the album

Ape Escape 3 (PS2) – Released Jan. 17th, 2006

Notable Film Release: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World – Starring Albert Brooks, Sheetal Sheth, Amy Ryan, Jon Tenney, John Carroll Lynch, Fred Thompson, and Penny Marshall
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Click here to listen to the album

Mega Man X3 (SNES) – Released Jan. 1996

Notable Film Release: From Dusk till Dawn – Starring Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu, Fred Williamson, Tom Savini, Danny Trejo, Salma Hayek, and Cheech Marin
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Tori Amos –Boys for Pele
Click here to listen to album

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