A Maniacs Anticipated games of 2016

Now that 2015 lies dead at the feat of the year 2016, howling with triumph over last year, its time to look forward to the games that will be coming out this year, and hope that they aren’t massive disappointments. Especially now that we’ve wrapped up 2015 and thoughts thereon, let’s look at the games that I am personally excited to see turn out.

Planescape Tides of Numenera

As mentioned on my previous blog, one of my many white whales is that old classic Planescape: Torment. It’s got such a rich and interesting fantasy world, one that I personally find much more enthralling than tolkienesque fantasy-and a type that seems to get far less attention than that style. With interesting locations, characters and great dialogue, it’s fondly remembered by many and going in fresh it’s not hard to agree with people. Which is why, despite not having Wasteland 2 out yet, I backed Planescape torments spiritual successor-aside from Pillars of Eternity-Tides of Numenera. A game that I literally cannot name without accidentally appending Planescape to the front, it’s got a beta coming out soon enough and should release this year to early access-and then come out in its full version. We can only hope the same high level of quality present in Wasteland 2: DC makes its way here as well, and that we get a world that’s engrossing, rich and worthy of its predecessor.

Darkest Dungeon: Vita version-bam, qualifiers.

Darkest Dungeon is a dark, depressing game set in a town located in the heart of a region filled with perverse nightmares and monstrosities-with more than a few of those being lovecraftian in style and idea. Characters can go insane, its balls hard, and the visuals are grim but well drawn. I haven’t played this game yet, and technically it “released” last year to early access-but the Vita version is the one Im keeping an eye out for, so I can still place it here. It looks right up my alley, and if I’m never going to get to play Bloodborne, I might as play this on Sonys own abandoned platform, the PlayStation Vita.

Severed

Drinkbox studios first game that caught my eye was Tales from space: Mutant Blobs attacked. It was one of my earliest vita games, and it’s a damn satisfying adventure as you eat everything in your way to get big enough to eat more of everything. My next game was the Metroidvania styled Guacamelee, a game that combined a Mexican theme with luchador elements and created one of the finest metroidvanias around-again, on Vita at first. And now severed, a game with a similar art style to Guacamelee in which you slash apart enemies to take their body parts and attempt to figure out what happened to you and your arm-which has been replaced with a monster arm. It’s in first person, and while it may have been a bit disappointing at first due to looking like a mobile game, recent previews seem to indicate it’s still a solid experience and isn’t dumbed down. It’s been quiet for a while, but hopefully we will finally get it this year and I will get to see firsthand if they can keep up this streak of good games.

Hyperlight Drifter

I unfortunately didn’t hear about this one, and didn’t back it. But the visuals are really cool, the game seems to have lots of style and apparently its coming to Vita-so it’s got my interest. Colorful, weird ideas and designs and fun looking combat make this one of the many games I hope turns out well this year. I don’t know as much about it as some of the other games here, but I know enough to be interested.

Shantae Half Genie Hero

Pretty sure this ones coming out this year, unless development gets sidetracked, so here it is. Basically you play as Shantae, a half genie, yada yada save the world and whatnot. Its being made by Wayforward, is also coming to Vita (noticing a theme with these yet?) and looks to be a fun side scrolling game. I’ve never played one of these beside a bit of one of them on the iPad, but I found the concept interesting enough to back and hopefully we get it this year and it turns out well. It’s got a real good looking art style going for it, and all the stuff I’ve seen from the Kickstarter updates is reason enough to pine for it getting out this year.

Moon-hunters

This game might not be as well-known as the rest here, but it’s an interesting little game coming to Vita that recently announced it was coming out sometime around next month for a beta, I believe. Basically it’s a kind of top down action game where you try to find parts of the holy moon that has been destroyed, before the Evil sun overtakes night and destroys life as you know it. You got through the game multiple times, and slowly build a family legacy, line, and build a legend in the stars. It’s in intriguing concept, and should be coming out sometime this year.

Witchmarsh

This game, and Hyperlight drifter are the games I most regret not backing but unlike Hyperlight, I almost backed this one. Decided not to, but I really wish I had. Basically it takes place in the 20s, as a team of detectives goes down south to investigate some weird lovecraftian going ons. It’s a side scrolling, more tactical looking action game. You look for clues, fight monsters and soak in the pixel art surroundings while listening to music by the guy who composed the gunpoint soundtrack. The game is apparently set to come out this year, and with any luck it will hit that goal while being a good time to boot.

Dark Souls 3

My most cautious entry on this list, for the memory of Dark Souls 2 is still in my mind. Dark Souls 2 was not a bad game-it just didn’t nearly live up to its predecessor, and I said in my thoughts on it that I wish it wasn’t Dark Souls 2. That the team who made it should do their own thing, and that the talent was there to make something good if they went out into their own thing. I stand by that, which is unfortunate because Dark Souls 3 was announced. Rather than move on to, say, Pants Souls or something, we continue to explore a universe that really should have had only one game in its series. Bloodborne was a perfect example of where I thought things should evolve to, but here we are with this one. I saw a trailer recently, and it had something so fucking weird in it that hope was ignited for this one. I’m still wary after DS2, and honestly I would much rather have Bloodborne-though due to Sony that’s never going to happen-but I do kind of hope this is much better than DS2 and at least lives up to Demons Souls.

A Night in the Woods

Again, another one I almost backed-but once I saw it was going to happen, I pulled my support due to low money in my pocket at the time. It tells the story of an anthropomorphic cat and her anthropomorphic friends dealing with the stresses of life-as well as possibly lovecraftian elements? At least I think something supernatural is going on. Again, as with most of the games on this list, the art style is very appealing and it seems like an interesting tale about how life and people change after you leave for long enough-and also something supernatural. I dunno. Looks neat.

Yooka-Laylee

Banjo-Kazooie was a game franchise I much enjoyed as a child, and I even managed to beat the second one without the adult humor even registering on me. Sneaky brits. But as time went on, Rare’s game output got weaker and eventually they were subsumed into Microsoft and released Nuts n’ Bolts. I don’t know if the game was good or bad-I almost got a 360 as a gift before LittleBigPlanet caught my eye and switched me to the PS3-but this about sums up certain fans reactions to it.

So imagine my delight when Yooka-Laylee was announced, being made by quite a few ex-Rare staffers and promising to be a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. Time will tell if it lives up to those lofty heights-though being honest it probably won’t-, but the graphics look appealing and they’ve got a lot of the talent behind the originals on hand so there’s a chance. Guess we’ll see if it hits its October release window and then subsequently if it’s a good game.  

Ghost Song

This one was a small one, but it caught my eye and I backed it. It’s basically Metroid, with a different coat of paint and some different design, but it’s basically Metroid. Of all the games I’ve backed, this one is the one I’m most worried about, but the guy releases updates here and there showing off new gameplay and there’s a beta out there so he seems to be chugging along. And yeah, it’s one guy, hence why it missed initial goals by a wide margin for when it would come out.  I don’t actually know if it’s coming out this year, but given the time this has taken I think this year might be when it finally surfaces. The art style looks real good, and if Nintendo won’t give me another side scrolling Metroid game-one that isn’t made by lunatics who give Samus a voice, strip her of strong character, and just so much awful shit-then I won’t keep waiting to hope that I get more. Hopefully, this is another good Metroidvania game and it manages to come out this year.

Republique

This one barely squeaked by when it first went to KS, but it made it barely. It’s a relatively good looking game asthetically, with stealth elements that has you indirectly controlling a character as you try to help them escape a fascist dictatorship run by David Hayter. It used an interesting mechanic of switching cameras, using tech in the environment, and uncovering information about the world as you guided Hope around the complex. I enjoyed my time with the first two episodes, but eventually time passed and I kind of lost interest until the game got done due to the long wait time for new episodes. I backed it before I learned my lesson of waiting to make the experience the best it can be, and now that I’ve realized that thanks to The Wolf Among Us, Imma hold off until this game is all done. Then I will dive in, and hopefully find a game worth the investment-which given the first two episodes is probably going to be the case.

Odins Sphere-Not even going to try to spell the subtitle

I have never played this game, so imagine my glee when not only was a remaster announced, but a remaster that was coming to Vita! Dragons Crown is a game that has consistently had me playing it since it came out, and getting to play another Vanillaware game is an exciting prospect. I have heard good things about this game, and I’m happy to be able to dive in myself to give it a go. It’s rare that I preorder games, but given the system this game is on, the potentially small stock of physical copies anyway, and the free artbook I was enticed enough to do it in this rare instance. Guess we shall see in the upcoming months if it’s a game that hooks me in as much as Dragons Crown.

And there’s my list of my anticipated games of 2016. As opposed to last year, there’s almost nothing AAA to be found and almost all of these have gone through Kickstarter at some point-and a lot are coming to Vita! Maybe. Hopefully. Still it’s an interesting state of affairs to be so flipped, but at least hopefully it means I don’t have to deal with whatever bullshit the AAA starts spewing this year-hello Hitman Episodic Gaming-nearly as much. I can only hope. Feel free to let me know what games you’re excited for, in case I missed something or in case you need me to tell you HOW WRONG YOU ARE.

Thanks for reading!

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