Games

New Game Releases 02/17/26 – 02/23/26

Top Releases:

  • Ys X: Proud Nordics (PC/PS5/Switch 2) – Releases Feb. 20th
  • Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown (PC/PS5/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 18th
  • Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse (PC/Switch) – Releases Feb. 19th
  • Styx: Blades of Greed (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 19th
  • Aerial_Knight’s DropShot (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 17th

It’s a big week for AA releases, giving fans of mid-tier budget games a large number of titles to sink their teeth into. If you’re not into these types of games, well, I’ve got nothing for you. Our biggest title of the week is Ys X: Proud Nordics, an updated version of the game that originally came out in North America in 2024. While Proud Nordics contains all the things you would expect from an updated/enhanced version of a game (better graphics, more stable performance, new cosmetic options), this also includes an entirely new area to explore, called the Oland Islands. It’s here that players will embark on new missions and story content, while experiencing a more “open world” style of gameplay that fans of Ys XIII and Ys IX missed with the (somewhat downgraded) Ys X. I can’t say for sure if this new version is worth the upgrade for people who have already played Nordics, but for those who have not, this is the definitive Ys X, so grab this instead of the original.

Ys X: Proud Nordics (PC/PS5/Switch 2) – Releases Feb. 20th

Developed by: Nihon Falcom
Published by: NIS America

Next up, we have Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a hybrid space combat/”city builder” strategy game. Players will guide the Voyager across a multitude of missions while trying to maintain their crew’s quality of life and the ship’s dwindling resources. Fans of the show will be happy to see and interact with their favorite characters, and should get a kick out of hearing the actors Tim Russ & Robert Duncan McNeill return to voice the characters Tom Paris and Tuvok.

Ys X isn’t the only big Japanese title being released this week, as Square Enix brings us Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse. This investigative adventure game, with elements of a visual novel, should delight fans of the genre. The rest of you, well, do you like Star Trek?

Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown (PC/PS5/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 18th

Developed by: Gamexcite
Published by: Daedalic Entertainment

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse (PC/Switch) – Releases Feb. 19th

Developed by: Square Enix
Published by: Square Enix

Rounding things our, we have Styx: Blades of Greed, a stealth-based heist game in which players must use their wits (and a plethora of tools) to try and pull off daring feats of thievery. This is the fourth game in the long running series (and third to feature the Styx name) but, according to the developer, you should be able to dive right in if you’ve never played those titles before.

Lastly, we have the first person shooter Aerial_Knight’s DropShot. In this wild fantasy game, players take on the role of Smoke Wallace, a young man with superpowers that came from being bitten by a radioactive dragon. Smoke’s unique “finger gun” powers allow him to shoot bullets from his hands and, with this power, he goes on a mission of revenge (though why, I don’t know). Gameplay-wise, you basically spend each level in free fall, shooting your enemies as you search for a parachute. Sometimes things don’t need to make sense, they just need to be fun, and DropShot sounds like a lot of fun.

Styx: Blades of Greed (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 19th

Developed by: Cyanide Studio
Published by: Nacon

Aerial_Knight’s DropShot (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 17th

Developed by: Aerial_Knight
Published by: Aerial_Knight

Ports and Expansions:

Hey, do you remember Neva, the 2024 puzzle platformer from Normada Studio? I don’t! There must be a decently sized audience that does, though (it was nominated for and won a bunch of awards), as the game gets new DLC this week, called Prologue. As you might expect from the name, this new content takes place before the events of Neva but is designed to be played AFTER you beat the base game. It is, apparently, brutally difficult.

Aside from Neva: prologue, we have the…highly anticipated (?)…Virtual Boy library coming to the Nintendo Switch Online service, debuting with three titles; Wario Land, Teleroboxer, and Galactic Pinball. A physical replica of the Virtual Boy is also being released, allowing you to insert your Switch console into the peripheral and play it like you would have back in 1995. Our other port this week is Obsidian’s Avowed, which is coming to PlayStation 5 to bore and disappoint a whole new audience of players.

  • Neva: Prologue (PC) – Releases Feb. 19th
  • Virtual Boy (Switch/Switch 2) – Releases Feb. 17th
  • Avowed (PS5) – Releases Feb. 17th

Everything else:

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

Games:

Kicking things off in this week’s notable releases, we have the game Street Fighter V, for PC and PS4. Now, you might be thinking, “wow, Street Fighter V; I bet everyone loved this game when it launched!“, but you’d be so, so wrong. While the game received praise for its graphics and controls, it was universally panned for its barebones launch. As we have, unfortunately, come to expect from fighting games, the base roster was fairly small, with the vast majority of characters being released as DLC over a number of years at an extra cost to players. The biggest sin, however, was the complete lack of a single player story mode at launch, with Capcom instead making players dive right into online competitive play.

This would be fine, I suppose, if the game had a stable online mode; it, of course, did not. The lack of content and unstable online play turned many fans off, with over 50% of Steam reviews being negative. The game’s lead developer, Yoshinori Ono, issued an apology to players for the poor online performance, while Capcom’s CEO, Kenzo Tsujimoto, publicly stated that the game was released too early, echoing player sentiment about the lack of content and the need for further polish of the online mode.

It took over a year for Capcom to finally add a single player story mode, titled “A Shadow Falls”, but it was universally panned by critics. Post-launch DLC prices were also received poorly due to the high prices ($10 for a stage, $6 for new costumes), and it contributed to the overall negative perception of Street Fighter V. However, this still did not stop people from buying the game at historic levels. By 2020, the game had sold over 4 million copies, surpassing the sales of Street Fighter IV, and making it one of the top ten best-selling Capcom games of all-time. By the end of 2025, the game had sold nearly 8 million copies, despite a new title, Street Fighter 6, arriving in 2023.

At The Game Awards, Street Fighter V would take home the prize for Best Fighting Game, beating contenders Killer Instinct: Season 3, The King of Fighter XIV, and Pokkén Tournament. While the game has been largely replaced by Street Fighter 6, you can still find people online to play this with, though it has been refined and tweaked, with only the Champion Edition available to purchase.

From 2006, we have the racing game Sonic Riders, a title where someone clearly played the hoverboard levels in Sonic Adventure and thought it should be turned into a full game. In Sonic Riders, players take part in several races on “extreme” hoverboards, battling against a multitude of characters from the Sonic universe. There is a fairly deep story, as well, and involves players having to stop Dr. Eggman from completing some kind of nefarious plan involving chaos emeralds (what else is new).

Critically, Sonic Riders was not very well received, earning mixed reviews. Commercially, however, the game was a huge hit, selling over 1 million copies in the first year of release. It was among the best selling GameCube games of 2006 as well, though it paled in comparison to the sales of PlayStation 2 version (like, 10 to 1). Two sequels would arrive over the next four years, 2008’s Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for the PS2 and Wii, and the Kinect exclusive title, Sonic Free Riders. Since then, Sega and Team Sonic have opted for kart racing over hoverboards, with the Sonic Racing franchise.

From 1996, we have the game Clockwork Knight 2, for the Sega Saturn. Initially released in Japan and Europe in the Summer of 1995 as a standalone title, a version containing both Clockwork Knight games would arrive in Japan in December of 1995, which is the version we would get in North America in February of 1996. However, while the version we got was a dual-pack, Sega removed the ability to play the first Clockwork Knight from the disc; neat.

For those unaware of the title, Clockwork Knight 2 is a side scrolling action/platformer in which players take on the role of a toy knight named Pepper. The plot is fairly rudimentary, with an evil wizard kidnapping a helpless princess. Critics heaped overwhelming praise upon Clockwork Knight 2, calling it one of the greatest Saturn games of all-time. Particular praise was given to the game’s graphics, which critics felt were among the best on any home console. Personally, I think the game looks and plays like garbage. I suppose it may have been impressive in 1996 but it looks primitive by today’s standards.

Movies:

In notable films, 2016 saw the release of Deadpool, the long awaited adaptation of the incredibly popular Marvel Comics character. After a poorly received version of Deadpool appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, actor Ryan Reynolds made it his mission to get a proper adaptation on screen. What ensued was years of trying & failing, stopping & starting, until the stars would finally align after test footage was leaked online (with Reynolds later admitting to be the culprit).

While comic book films had generally stuck to a middle of the road, PG-13 tone for their films, Deadpool strove to be as hardcore and R rated as it possibly could. The film, like the comics it was based on, are full of gratuitous violence, foul language, sexual content, and drug & alcohol usage. While part of the larger X-Men film universe from 20th Century Fox, Deadpool functions more like a stand-alone film, with the only established X-Men character in the film being Colossus.

Deadpool was a massive hit for Fox, earning over $750 million, worldwide, at the box office. It earned the title as the highest grossing film in the entire X-Men franchise, as well as the ninth highest-grossing film of 2016. Deadpool was also the highest grossing R rated film of all-time, beating 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded, until it was surpassed by its sequel, Deadpool 2 in 2018, which was then surpassed by Joker in 2019 and then by itself, once again, with 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine.

The success of Deadpool caught many in the movie industry by surprise, no one more than Fox, who anticipated it would only be a modest hit. Critically, the film received pretty high praise, with an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences loved the film, giving it an “A” rating in post-screening interviews, which helped the film’s word of mouth and kept it at the top of the North American box office for three weeks in a row.

As alluded to earlier, the film was followed up by two sequels, Deadpool 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, with the second sequel being part of the larger MCU slate of films following Disney’s acquisition of 20 Century Fox. While there have been rumors of a fourth film in the franchise, star Ryan Reynolds does not seem to think a stand-alone film may be in the cards, indicating that Deadpool would be part of a team or co-billed film, similar to Deadpool & Wolverine. Regardless, the fact that we even have Deadpool films is a miracle, so let’s just enjoy what we’ve got.

From 2006, we have the animated film Curious George, based on the popular series of children’s books by H.A. & Margret Rey. The movie follows the adventures of George, a curious little monkey, who follows The Man with the Yellow Hat from Africa all the way to The City, an amalgamation of famous American cities, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Attempts to make a Curious George film had been underway since the early 1990’s, with a live action/CGI hybrid film coming close in 1997 with director Brad Bird. This fell apart and, in 2003, the final version of the film, a hybrid 2D/3D animated flick, was given the greenlight and led to what we got on screen in 2006. While the film received mostly positive reviews from critics, it was considered a box office disappointment, earning only $70 million on a budget of $50.

Plans to make Curious George a big mascot for Universal Studios fell through, as did any theatrical sequels. However, there was just enough good-will with audiences that five direct to DVD (and then streaming) sequels arrived, starting in 2010. Universal has been, over the last ten years, trying to return to the live action/CGI hybrid route for a Curious George film but, as of 2020, this has been stuck in development hell.

From 1996, we have the comedy classic Happy Gilmore, the second major film from Adam Sandler and, arguably, the one that put him on the path to mega stardom. Playing yet another buffoonish man-child like he did in Billy Madison, Sandler’s Gilmore character is a hockey nut who finds out he’s an incredible golfer. When his grandmother’s home is at risk of foreclosure, Gilmore must join a pro golfers tour to earn the cash to stop the seizure of her home. Along the way, Gilmore must contend with a cocky rival, Shooter McGavin, learn golfing tips from his mentor Chubbs Peterson, try to win the heart of the tour’s PR manager Virginia Venit, and get into a fist fight with Bob Barker.

Happy Gilmore was not well received by critics, many of whom found Sandler’s antics to be grating. That may have persuaded some audiences to stay away, with the film opening in third place behind hold-over title Broken Arrow and another newcomer, Muppet Treasure Island. It’s $41 million dollar worldwide grosses failed to put it anywhere near the top earning films of 1996 but its modest success continued to raise the profile of Adam Sandler, especially as people caught it on VHS and cable television, leading to his next film, 1998’s The Waterboy, earning a massive $190 million dollars, worldwide.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2016 gave us The Life of Pablo from rapper Kanye West. As this is my article and I can talk about whatever I want for however long I want, this is all I will say about it. Moving on, from 2006, we have the album Destroyer’s Rubies from indie rock band Destroyer. I wish I had something interesting to say about this album and the band, but I don’t! Until today, I had never heard of Destroyer, nor heard any of their music. Destroyer’s Rubies was, however, loved by critics and sold decently well, hitting #24 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Maybe you listened to this?

Closing things out this week, we have the album Roots by the heavy metal band Sepultura. Featuring a heavy dosage of traditional Brazillian rhythms, pulled from the band’s home country, Roots continued Sepultura’s ascent into one of the most eclectic metal bands in the scene. While there was a major Latin influence on Roots, the album was also influenced by the then emerging Nu-Metal sound, with the band taking great influence from both Korn and Deftones in their songwriting.

The album was received well by critics, calling the Latin influence a game changer for the metal genre. Metal enthusiasts have, over the years, called Roots one of the best albums of all-time, seeing it frequently pop up in “Best of…” lists since its 1996 release. With a peak of #27 on the Billboard Top 200, this is Sepultura’s highest charting record, which helped make them one of the most successful metal bands of the 1990’s. In the aftermath, however, lead singer/songwriter Max Cavalera would leave the band, forming another group, called Soulfly. Sepultura did not let this stop them, releasing albums and singles steadily over the next 30 years, but have recently announced they will be putting out a new EP in 2026 that will coincide with a farewell tour.

Street Fighter V (PC/PS4) – Released Feb. 16th, 2016

Notable Film Release: Deadpool – Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein, Brianna Hildebrand, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, and Gina Carano
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
Click here to listen to the album

Sonic Riders (PS2/GameCube/Xbox) – Released Feb 21st, 2006

Notable Film Release: Curious George – Starring Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, and Dick Van Dyke
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
Click here to listen to the album

Clockwork Knight 2 (Saturn) – Released Feb. 17th, 1996

Notable Film Release: Happy Gilmore – Starring Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, and Carl Weathers
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Sepultura – Roots
Click here to listen to album

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