Games

New Game Releases 05/19/26 – 05/25/26

Top Releases:

  • Yoshi & the Mysterious Book (Switch 2) – Releases May 21st
  • Forza Horizon 6 (PC/Series X|S) – Releases May 19th
  • Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (PC/PS5/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases May 22nd
  • Coffee Talk Tokyo (PC/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases May 21st
  • Zero Parades: For Dead Spies (PC) – Releases May 21st
  • Bubsy 4D (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 22nd

It’s a huge week for new releases, with three massive titles to help close out the Spring and usher in the Summer. Our top game is Nintendo’s Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the latest entry in the long running platforming series. The game looks exceptionally cute, having all of the charm and hand crafted beauty that all of the mainline Yoshi games have had since the days of Yoshi’s Island. In the land of Xbox exclusives, we’ve got Forza Horizon 6 which is currently, as of this writing, the highest rated game on Metacritic for 2026. Set in Japan, Forza Horizon 6 is full of all the open world madness you’ve come to expect from the series.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (Switch 2) – Releases May 21st

Developed by: Good-Feel
Published by: Nintendo

Forza Horizon 6 (PC/Series X|S) – Releases May 19th

Developed by: Playground Games
Published by: Xbox Game Studios

As if two big games wasn’t enough, our third major release is LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. This title sees longtime LEGO game developer Traveller’s Tales returning after it seemed like they were maybe on the outs following LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case, as the Warner Bros. owned developer is here to give us all one of the greatest super heroes of all time, Batman, in a game that celebrates his long legacy in comics, film, television, and video games.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (PC/PS5/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases May 22nd

Developed by: Traveller’s Tales
Published by: Warner Bros. Games

In smaller titles, Coffee Talk Tokyo is finally arriving after a delay (or two). The RPG Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the newest game from the creators of Disco Elysium, is hitting PC storefronts. Finally, Bubsy 4D is hoping to cement a new legacy for the longtime video game character after a string of less than favorable games in the series.

Coffee Talk Tokyo (PC/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Series X|S) – Releases May 21st

Developed by: Chorus Worldwide Games/Toge Productions
Published by: Chorus Worldwide Games

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies (PC) – Releases May 21st

Developed by: ZA/UM
Published by: ZA/UM

Bubsy 4D (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Switch 2/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases May 22nd

Developed by: Fabraz
Published by: Atari

Ports and Expansions:

  • Darksiders Warmastered Edition (PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 19th
  • Myst (PS5/PSVR 2) – Releases May 19th
  • Riven (PS5/PSVR 2/Series X|S) – Releases May 19th
  • Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II (PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 21st
  • Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks (PS5/Series X|S) – Releases May 21st
  • Rugrats Retro Rewind Collection (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases May 22nd
  • Tales of Arise – Beyond the Dawn Edition (Switch 2) – Releases May 22nd

There are a bunch of ports coming out this week, including Myst and its sequel, Riven, coming to PSVR 2, while two Warhammer 40,000 titles, Mechanicus II and Speed Freaks, arrive on PS5 & Xbox Series X|S. The Rugrats Retro Rewind Collection is also slated to drop, though I couldn’t find a single trailer for it on YouTube. Instead, enjoy the trailer for the Switch 2 port of Tales of Arise – Beyond the Dawn Edition.

Everything else:

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

Games:

In notable games, 2016 saw the release of Overwatch, a hero shooter that has, for better or worse, come to define an entirely new genre of games called “hero shooters”. Like its initial contemporary/rival Battleborn, Overwatch is an always-online title that places players onto teams where they must work together to overtake another team of players. Each player character has unique abilities and, as is common in MMOs, are part of a class that is meant to fulfill a specific role on the team. There are tanks, characters designed to take maximum damage and pull enemy attacks; support, characters designed to keep the team alive and buffed; last are damage, characters specifically designed to inflict the most amount of damage and are, generally, the most well rounded and easiest characters to use.

The reception to Overwatch by players and critics was instantaneous universal acclaim. The speed at which positive feedback was given to Overwatch was almost unheard of. Players and critics alike remarked about how fun the game was to play, and how iconic some of its characters already felt (such as cover model Tracer). The positive word-of-mouth from pre-launch beta testing helped Overwatch become a cross over hit, bringing in players who were not traditional gamers or who were not necessarily major online obsessed players. While multiplayer games were certainly popular, going as far back the the early 1990’s with titles like Doom, Overwatch was able to appeal to a more casual online gaming crowd and not just the people who spent 10 hours a day playing Counter-Strike.

After a week on the market, over 7 million people had played the game and spent over 119 million hours with it. By the end of the year, Overwatch had pulled in over half a billion dollars in revenue, making it the highest grossing game of 2016. A true phenomenon, Overwatch was synonymous with video games at the time. While it has somewhat fallen out of favor in recent years, particularly from the less than stellar reception to Overwatch 2, it is still highly popular and seems to show no sign of going anywhere, even in an online gaming world dominated by Fortnite and Roblox.

From 2006 we have Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (or just Table Tennis for short). While a normal table tennis video game is not typically something you might associate with being groundbreaking or notable, Table Tennis is not just an ordinary game. As its full name indicates, Table Tennis was developed by the studio Rockstar Games, best known for the massively popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. In 2006, the studio had yet to release a “next gen” game, so anything, even a game about playing table tennis, was going to be a big deal.

It also helped that Table Tennis would use the brand new graphics & gameplay engine built by their San Diego studio, named RAGE, and promised to give players their first glimpse at what character models might look like in a new GTA title. With the hype of Rockstar and its new game engine, Table Tennis sold remarkably well, a little over 750,000 copies, making it an early best seller for the 360. Critics were also happy with the game, calling it easy learn and contained sophisticated, but simple to use controls.

In October of 2007, Rockstar would port the game to the Wii, one of only three games from the studio to appear on Nintendo’s popular console. While it certainly seems like an odd game to highlight as notable, Table Tennis was absolutely one of the biggest games of 2006, and certainly one that was very important for the early life of the Xbox 360. It might have eventually cluttered up used game shelves at GameStop and other second-hand retailers, but for a minute there, Table Tennis was a phenomenon.

From 1996, we have the arcade game Metal Slug. I don’t remember the first time I saw a Metal Slug cabinet, in fact, I’m not entirely sure that Metal Slug hasn’t just existed since the dawn of time. It wasn’t a gradual roll out, either. One day, Metal Slug just showed up in every arcade, laundromat, taco shop, and 7-Eleven in existence and we all just accepted it.

I’m not trying to put the game down or anything like that, I genuinely love Metal Slug and I’d wager that many of you also have a soft spot for this game. It’s just such a perfect arcade title that I can’t imagine a world without it. It’s run & gun style is just so much fun to play that any game of Metal Slug feels like a treat. There’s a while bunch, or maybe only a couple, I don’t think anybody knows for certain. You could walk into an arcade, see Metal Slug and would have no clue if its a version you had ever played before. Every time you played, the game felt different, even if it was the same one you had just played.

As a Millennial, Metal Slug is such a core part of my life, and I’m sure it’s part of yours as well if you’re over the age of 35. There was a meme going around saying that “Shrek was life”, but I don’t agree with that. Metal Slug is life. If all of humanity was wiped out tomorrow, Metal Slug would still be here, propped up in the corner of Super Sergio’s, or Adalberto’s, playing it’s music and sound effects the only volume it can be set to; maximum.

Movies:

In notable films, 2016 saw the release of The Lobster, director Yorgos Lanthimos’ first English language film. It is a bizarre, absurdist comedy with elements of sci-fi and horror. In The Lobster, humanity has decreed that everyone must be in a relationship with another human being, otherwise, they are to be sent to “hotels” where they must find a suitable romantic partner or be transformed into an animal of their choosing. The Lobster is a wild film that had me laughing and gasping in equal measure; I highly recommend it.

From 2006, we have the film The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks’ long hair. The film was directed by Ron Howard and is based on the best selling novel of the same name. When this came out I was still in my “I only watch FILMS” phase, so this mainstream “trash” eluded me. From 1996, we have the movie Mission: Impossible, one of the most entertaining, popcorn films of the last thirty years. Somewhat of a sleeper hit, Mission: Impossible helped kind of re-launch the mainstream action film career of Tom Cruise who was, at the time, kind of falling into dramatic roles that were hit or miss, at best.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2016 gave us Holy Ghost from the emo band Modern Baseball. This was their third and, so far, final album, finding the band going on hiatus just a year after it was released. It was a critical success, being called one of the best albums of the year by multiple outlets. Commercially, it reached #53 on the Billboard 200. From 2006, we have the album We Don’t Need to Whisper by the band Angels & Airwaves. My younger brothers and sister absolutely LOVED this band and album. As for me, well, I couldn’t really stand it; not really my thing.

From 1996, we’ve got the album Down on the Upside from one of the biggest bands of the 90’s, Soundgarden. While the album was a commercial hit, selling nearly 2 million copies and peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200, it wasn’t quite a critical smash. While it wasn’t hated, it just didn’t seem to move critics in the same way that their previous effort, Superunknown did. The album’s singles did hit, though, with “Pretty Noose”, the lead track, being nominated for a Grammy in the Best Hard Rock Performance category (losing to “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins). My favorite track, “Burden in My Hand”, would not receive any Grammy nominations, but it would win the award given out by my heart, because I love it.

Tensions in the band, which were already pretty well documented by 1996, were starting to become a major issue. Touring began to take its tool, as well, with the band saying that they were getting burnt out on the grind, lamenting that their current fans, teeny boppers and housewives, were just not who they felt like playing for. In 1997, Soundgarden would disband and not release another album until 2012.

Overwatch (PC/PS4/Xbox One) – Released May 24th, 2016

Notable Film Release: The Lobster – Starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, and Ben Whishaw
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Modern Baseball – Holy Ghost
Click here to listen to the album

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360) – Released May 23rd, 2006

Notable Film Release: The Da Vinci Code – Starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Angels & Airwaves – We Don’t Need to Whisper
Click here to listen to the album

Metal Slug (Arcade) – Released May 1996

Notable Film Release: Mission: Impossible – Starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, and Vanessa Redgrave
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Soundgarden – Down on the Upside
Click here to listen to album

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