Site icon The Avocado

New Game Releases 02/10/26 – 02/16/26

Andy Tuttle

Top Releases:

I am back from vacation and ready to rock and, well, it seems that all of the game publishers are, too, because we have SO MANY games coming out this week! Our top release is Nintendo’s Mario Tennis Fever, from long time series developer, Camelot. The “Fever” subtitle is meant to refer to the new special moves that players will be able to take advantage of in matches, helping to ensure a decisive victory. While the game features a standard vs. mode, the adventure mode follows Mario and his pals as they search for a way to return to adult form after they have been turned into babies. While the whole baby gang is here; Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Daisy, they will have to contend with a brand new character, Baby Waluigi!

Mario Tennis Fever (Switch 2) – Releases Feb. 12th

Developed by: Camelot Software Planning
Published by: Nintendo

Our other big release of the week is the brand new Grasshopper Manufacture title, Romeo is a Dead Man, from famed video game designer Suda 51. While the game is, essentially, a third person action/adventure title, with Suda 51 at the helm you can expect bizarre characters, surreal moments, and plenty of over-the-top violence & gore. There does not appear to be a physical version of the game coming out (at least not at launch), so look for this on your favorite digital game store.

Romeo is a Dead Man (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 11th

Developed by: Grasshopper Manufacture
Published by: Grasshopper Manufacture

Rounding out the bigger releases of the week, we have Yakuza Kiwami 3, a remake of the PS3 title that, frankly, feels like the first Yakuza title to set the standard for all titles in the series that followed it. Purchasing Yakuza Kiwami 3 will also get you another title, Dark Ties, a brand new spin-off game in which players take on the role of Yakuza 3’s Yoshitaka Mine. I don’t know how long/big Dark Ties is, but all signs point to it being a full fledged Yakuza game.

If you want to get silly this week, check out High on Life 2, the latest entry in the first person shooter in which your weapons talk and say funny things like “fuck” and “shit” (probably). The first High on Life received pretty positive reviews from critics, so don’t immediately ignore this sequel, give it a shot.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 12th

Developed by: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Published by: Sega

High on Life 2 (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 13th

Developed by: Squanch Games
Published by: Squanch Games

Edmund McMillen, best known for Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, is back with a brand new gross-out game, Mewgenics; the worst person you know is really, really upset about Relooted, a side-scrolling heist game in which a group of thieves steal back African artifacts from various non-African collectors, art dealers, whomever. Tokyo Scramble is a brand new game set deep under the city of Tokyo. Strange, dinosaur-like creatures are stalking you and, without the aid of weapons, you must try and escape without being seen by the dinosaur things. Finally, Tarsier Studios, the developer of Little Nightmares, has a brand new horror title for you, REANIMAL. Taking inspiration from titles like It Takes Two and Split Fiction, REANIMAL has players teaming up with a buddy in co-op mode, as they attempt to escape from this nightmare world they’re trapped in.

Mewgenics (PC) – Releases Feb. 10th

Developed by: Edmund McMillen / Tyler Glaiel
Published by: Edmund McMillen / Tyler Glaiel

Relooted (PC/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 10th

Developed by: Nyamakop
Published by: Nyamakop

Tokyo Scramble (Switch 2) – Releases Feb. 11th

Developed by: Adglobe
Published by: Binary Haze Interactive

REANIMAL (PC/PS5/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 13th

Developed by: Tarsier Studios
Published by: THQ Nordic

Ports and Expansions:

Everything else:

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

Games:

In notable games, 2016 saw the release of Firewatch, the first and (so far) only game from the studio Camp Santo. Firewatch is a narrative adventure game played in a first person perspective. Players take on the role of a fire lookout named Henry; if you’re not clear on what a “fire lookout” is, this is a person who spends their day in a forest, atop a high structure, and looks to see if there are fires going, any threat of fires, and to help coordinate ground response if a fire is raging.

As the gameplay in Firewatch is tied strongly to its narrative, and the twists & turns it takes, I won’t go into full detail here, but give a general overview. Having come to this isolated forest to work as a fire lookout, Henry first spends his days in boring solitude, keeping things tidy and doing patrols. One day, Henry comes across two teenage girls shooting off fireworks, leading to a chain reaction of events that deal with government conspiracy, shadowy figures, possible kidnapping, and murder.

The game’s development team was made up of some key narrative writers at Telltale who had, specifically, been part of the team that created The Walking Dead. As such, the story in Firewatch is riveting and keeps you guessing the entire time. Critics were mostly positive towards Firewatch, calling it immersive but, at times, frustrating. Some critics were also let down by the game’s ending, feeling that it didn’t quite deliver on what seemed to be promised by the plot’s initial offerings.

However, player word of mouth, and the generally favorable reviews, helped make Firewatch a big hit for Campo Santo. It would go on to sell over a million copies in its first year and has, to date, sold over 2.5 million copies. Firewatch would be nominated at several awards shows at the end of the year, mostly in the narrative and acting/performance categories, and was even named Game of the Year by Polygon. Following the success of Firewatch, Campo Santo were acquired by Valve who wanted to release their next title, In the Valley of the Gods. This game has since been put on hold, with Campo Santo and its team working instead on Vavle’s own titles, like Half-Life: Alyx and Dota Underlords. I suppose we’ll just have to wait & see if Campo Santo ever get to make another original project.

From 2006, we have the game Chibi-Robo! for the Nintendo GameCube. This is a third-person platforming adventure game in which players take on the role of a tiny robot that must attend to the needs and whims of the family that purchased it. By completing tasks for your family, players will earn “Happy Points” which are used to determine who is the greatest Chibi-Robo in the world.

Initially, Chibi-Robo was to be published by Bandai, with players having to use the robot to defend their home from invading burglars using traps, like Home Alone. In this version of the game, players would not directly control the Chibi-Robo, they would, instead, use a cursor to give commands to the robot, like a point & click adventure game. Development would stall on Chibi-Robo and the game was ultimately cancelled by Bandai. However, the title had a fan in Kensuke Tanabe, a producer at Nintendo who had worked on just about all the company’s big hits in the 80’s & 90’s, and he showed it to Shigeru Miyamoto who, I hope, needs no introduction.

Miyamoto was immediately struck by the character of Chibi-Robo and wanted to make a game based around it. He contacted the developers and said that he’d like to come on as producer and, well, change things up. Now with Miyamoto and Nintendo on board, the point & click, burglar trap concept was out and the platforming, housework version was in.

Chibi-Robo received mostly positive reviews from critics, who called it charming and fresh, with a surprisingly moving story. It was felt, however, that the cutesy visuals of the character and world, which were likely to appeal strongly to young children, made Chibi-Robo a tough game to market. It wasn’t a simple game, relatively, and it dealt with some fairly heavy issues, meaning that the game’s actual target audience of older teens and adults were perhaps turned off by the “baby game” visuals.

Still, the game found enough of an audience to warrant a sequel, 2007’s Chibi-Robo!: Park Patrol, followed by 2013’s Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash. If I’m being honest, I think the only reason it got a third entry in 2013 is because people finally started to realize how great the GameCube game was and Nintendo was happy to oblige (plus, Miyamoto really seems to love the character). As of now, there have been no new Chibi-Robo titles announced, but the GameCube title was released for the Switch 2 through Nintendo’s online service, so go give it a try!

From 1996, we’ve got the PlayStation title King’s Field from developer From Software. While King’s Field is not the biggest PlayStation game of the 90’s, it would go on to inspire the creation of what you could arguably call one of the great video game franchises of all-time, Dark Souls. To give a little background, From Software initially released a game called King’s Field in Japan as a launch title for the PlayStation. That never came to the US, we instead got its sequel, King’s Field II, with the “II” removed. It’s a little confusing, I know, but shouldn’t be too hard to wrap your head around.

Okay, so, what exactly is King’s Field? Well, it’s a dungeon crawling RPG played in a first person perspective. After surviving a shipwreck, players move around a mysterious island in search of the Moonlight Sword. Along the way, they encounter terrible monsters and must fight to survive. Like its eventual progeny, Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, King’s Field is brutally difficult and has no real desire to teach you how to play it nor explain what is going on. It is up to you, the player, to figure out how everything works through trial & error that, ultimately, should give you a strong sense of accomplishment and pride once you complete the game.

Critics were a bit uneven on King’s Field. In Japan it received glowing remarks from the publication Famitsu, earning 35 out of 40 points. In the US it was met with claims of being one of the best RPGs ever made, to it being one of the worst games ever made. King’s Field has problems, you move incredibly slow, the enemies are punishing, and the game world is fairly generic looking to the point that it is difficult to tell where you are and where you’ve been. Still, under the muddy surface is a deep, engrossing game that offers a challenge unlike many you’ve encountered. We would get two more King’s Field games in the US, while Japan would receive further entries on mobile and PC. The series does appear to be dead, or at least dormant, as From Software focus on the game’s spiritual successors.

Movies:

In notable films, 2016 gave us Hail, Caesar!, from directors Joel and Ethan Coen. Like many of the Coen Bros. films, Hail, Caesar! is a screwball comedy mixed with a crime caper. Set in 1950’s Hollywood, Hail, Caesar! star Josh Brolin as studio fixer Eddie Mannix, a guy who makes problems go away or never happen. One of the studio’s major stars, Baird Whitlock (played by George Clooney), is kidnapped and held for random by a shadowy group called “The Future”. What ensues is a madcap romp through old Hollywood as Mannix tries to find Whitlock so that he can complete his latest picture.

Hail, Caesar! was mostly a success. Critics mostly liked it, but felt it didn’t quite have the charm of their biggest hits nor did it reek of self indulgence like some of their biggest misses, while audiences liked it enough to make it debut in second place, only for it to drop off heavily due to poor word-of-mouth. In the end, Hail, Caesar! is just what you would expect from the Coen Bros., no more and no less. This would be the second to last film that the brothers would work on together, the next being 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, before venturing off onto their own.

From 2006, we have the film The Pink Panther, another screwball comedy this week, though not from the Coens, but instead from Steve Martin. A reboot of the Pink Panther franchise created by Blake Edwards in the 1960’s, the film follows the misadventures of Jacques Clouseau as he attempts to solve the murder of a French soccer coach and the theft of the infamous Pink Panther diamond. What ensues is, of course, a bumbling affair of madcap physical comedy, ridiculous fake accents, and humor just edgy enough to make your grandmother feel comfortable but slightly shocked.

Initially seen as a vehicle for either Mike Myers or Chris Tucker, the film was eventually given to Steve Martin after he formed a working relationship with the film’s producer on their previous reboot effort, Cheaper by the Dozen. Martin co-wrote the script and turned in a script that was far more adult in nature, with many sexual jokes and sight gags (a la, Austin Powers). The studio balked at this and demanded rewrites (and eventually reshoots) in order to maintain a more family friendly tone.

Despite a massive outpouring of hatred towards the film from critics, The Pink Panther opened in the #1 spot at the box office, going on to earn a whopping $164 million worldwide, more than doubling its budget. I gave the movie a watch this past week and I found myself chuckling far more than I expected. Still, the critics damage had been done, as the film’s follow-up, 2009’s The Pink Panther 2, was a huge flop, earning less than half of the first film’s total grosses.

From 1996, we have the film Broken Arrow, the second American film from Chinese director John Woo and his first of two with actor John Travolta. In the film, Travolta stars Travolta as Major Vic Deakins, an Air Force pilot who has gone rogue and is attempting to extort money from the US government in exchange for nuclear warheads he has stolen. Meanwhile, another pilot named Hale (played by Christian Slater) is attempting to track down Deakins after being ejected from the plan they were flying together. It all culminates in an epic showdown that is expertly shot by Woo.

While Broken Arrow didn’t quite live up to critics expectations, audiences loved the film and saw it so many times that it stayed in the #1 spot for two weeks in a row, grossing over $150 million worldwide. The film was written by Graham Yost who had found earlier success with the film Speed, and would later go on to create the TV show Justified. Travolta would work with Woo again on the director’s next film, Face/Off, and the two have not worked together since then.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2016 gave us Promise Everything from the punk band Basement. This was the third album from the English rockers and served as their breakthrough, being signed to the major indie label, Fueled by Ramen shortly after its release. Your familiarity with Basement may be limited, as they never quite made it to the mainstream. In fact, the band that opened for Basement on their 2016 tour, Turnstile, has received far more mainstream success and praise in recent years.

While Promise Everything was a commercial and critical success, reaching #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart, the band has only release one follow-up album since, 2018’s Beside Myself (which I LOVE, by the way). The good news, for fans like me, is that they are working on a fifth album and it should be out “soon”. Oh, one final note, in the world of video games, the title track of Promise Everything was made available as DLC for Rock Band 4. Did I buy it? You bet I did!

From 2006, we have the album The Life Pursuit by indie pop band Belle and Sebastian. This was the seventh major release for the Scottish group and continued the same sound and style as their previous efforts. Years of relentless touring and album releases paid off for Belle and Sebastian, with The Life Pursuit becoming their highest charting album at its release, at #65, though it has been surpassed by subsequent releases.

I’ve loved Belle and Sebastian for nearly 25 years now, after hearing their music in the Todd Solondz film Storytelling, and am happy to report that I still consider them one of my favorite groups whose albums I eagerly anticipate. Oh, and just like with Promise Everything, songs from The Life Pursuit appeared in a video game; not Rock Band, but in MLB 2K6, which has the track “To Be Myself Completely”. Personally, I love “We Are the Sleepyheads” and “Funny Little Frog”, I hope you like them too.

Closing things out this week, from 1996, we have The Score from hip-hop group Fugees. This was their second, and ultimately, last album. I mean, if you’re gonna go out, you might as well go out with a bang, because my goodness, The Score is a masterpiece. Propelled by four singles, “Fu-Gee-La”, “Killing Me Softly”, “Ready or Not”, and “No Woman, No Cry”, The Score would go on to sell over 7 million copies, reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200, be the fifth best-selling album of 1996, and win the Grammy for Best Rap Album (losing Best Album to Celine Dion).

The most successful song on the album is, undoubtedly, “Killing Me Softly”, a re-working of the Roberta Flack song “Killing Me Softly With His Song”, which earned the group another Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. In an odd twist, since the song was never commercially released as a single it was not eligible to hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It would, instead, peak at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B Airplay chart.

The success of The Score launched singer Lauryn Hill into the stratosphere, culminating in a successful solo debut, 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, while principal songwriter/producer Wyclef Jean would embark on his own solo career in 1997 with the album The Carnival. Fugees third member, Pras, also released a solo album in 1998, called Ghetto Supastar, and release a hit single of the same name. While each have been successful on their own, as a 90’s teen, I can’t help but see them as the Fugees.

Firewatch (PC) – Released Feb. 9th, 2016

Notable Film Release: Hail, Caesar! – Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Basement – Promise Everything
Click here to listen to the album

Chibi-Robo! (GameCube) – Released Feb 8th, 2006

Notable Film Release: The Pink Panther – Starring Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Henry Czerny, and Beyoncé Knowles
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
Click here to listen to the album

King’s Field (PlayStation) – Released Feb. 14th, 1996

Notable Film Release: Broken Arrow – Starring John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Bob Gunton, and Howie Long
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Fugees –The Score
Click here to listen to album

Now we’ve come to the part of the article where I like to plug other things I’m doing! I’ve recently restarted my Notable Releases series on YouTube, here’s the latest episode where I play XCOM 2, Drill Dozer, and Wing Commander IV. Do I get mad and yell at one (or more) of the games? Yes. ALSO! I’ve been releasing daily video logs (or “vlogs”) on my channel, so if you’d like to see what I get up to in San Diego and beyond, give those a watch.

If you like what I’m doing here consider supporting me on Patreon. You can also find me on Blue Sky where I occasionally make jokes and talk about stuff I like. I used to eat a lot of corndogs but then I got Type-2 diabetes.

Exit mobile version