1. Celeste
Release date: January 25 (Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Not many masocore platformers are designed so that your seemingly endless string of deaths serves as a tie-in for a larger metaphor about overcoming depression and anxiety, but Celeste manages to do it artfully. Playing as Madeline, determined to summit the mountain Celeste, your pixelated character dashes, wall jumps, and climbs through the levels of the pseudo-haunted pastel 2D world, fighting the physical embodiment of her self-doubt, on her difficult, introspective journey to self-actualization. There are hidden rooms to find and strawberries, crystal hearts, and mixtapes to collect, but none of those things really matter in the end: Celeste is about celebrating screen-sized accomplishments and wearing your death count as a badge of learned honor.
2. God of War
Release Date: April 20 (PS4)
God of War is pinned somewhere between a hyper-realistic Norse mythology simulator and a satisfying 30-hour beat-'em-up that turns an axe into freaking Mjolnir (y'know, Thor's hammer?). Its storytelling, action sequences, art direction, and highly detailed approach to world-building draws up one of the greatest anti-hero stories ever told and delivers a sense of scale and scope that would throw George Miller into a tizzy. One minute, you're fully into a Man Of Steel-esque fight scene with a stranger and the next, you’re taking on a Valkyrie with your adoptive son. Its level of immersion detracts from God of War’s minor flaws and even goes on to question why some developers refuse to reinvent their intellectual properties. We may never see a Mass Effect FPS that looks like Cyberpunk 2077 or a Dead Space reboot that scares like P.T., but we are totally here for Cory Barlog and his team if they ever decide to do Wonder Woman justice.
3. Monster Hunter: World
Release date: January 26 (PS4, Xbox One)
If you've been itching to invest all of your foreseeable free time into an expansive sandbox world, consider Monster Hunter: World! Easily the most accessible game in the Monster Hunter franchise, this one still doesn't quite hold your hand as it runs you through its basic machinations, like how to track down monsters or properly upgrade your weapons, but it offers enough direction to send off even the newest players on a big dino-monster slaying adventure. Figuring out your combat style and quest strategy (sometimes with friends!) is just part of the fun.
4. Dead Cells
Release Date: August 7 (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
Dead Cells is an overstimulated fever dream, sure, but Motion Twin’s debut hits every checkmark that’s attached to rogue-lites and Metroidvanias. It’s an action platformer that keeps you grounded and invested -- throwing you head-first into a 2D pixelated nod to Dark Souls that replaces "serenity now" with "kill, die, learn, repeat." Its difficulty is right up there with the likes of Spelunky and Hollow Knight, but it balances those hair-pulling, pixel-perfect deaths with a ridiculously awesome upgrade system that makes "loop" feel like a dirty word. It’s an Early Access game done right and one that gives every run a genuine purpose.
5. Florence
Release date: February 14 (iOS, Android)
Mountains’ Florence is a twee look at love and heartbreak, and how both can permanently change a person for the better. It follows Florence Yeoh, a 20-something who puts her everyday routine on pause when she falls for a bearded cellist named Krish. Florence's story, told through a beautiful interactive puzzler, is wordless, swipe-friendly, and full of minigames that recall the golden days of WarioWare, but the way in which it unfolds and uses its aesthetic to carve relatable moments into your heart is second to none. Interactive art really can sweep you off your feet.
6. Shadow of the Colossus
Release date: February 6 (PS4)
Remaking an original work largely considered a masterpiece is a tricky dance to pull off, but the newest version of Shadow of the Colossus makes it look easy. The spirit and adventure of the 2005 PS2 game remains the same -- fight the gigantic stony colossi, ride your horse around a ruinous fantasy landscape, save the befallen maiden -- but it looks a whole lot sleeker thanks to Bluepoint, the studio also responsible for the PS3 remaster, rebuilding the improved graphics from the ground up in ultra HD. Return players will be glad to hear the controls are less cumbersome; newcomers should revel in their fortune for not gaming harder sooner.
7. Octopath Traveler
Release Date: June 5 (Switch)
The Bravely Default team’s SNES-inspired, HD-2D turn-based battler is a remarkable tribute to every JRPG ever. It binds its stunning pop-up book design to highly detailed sprites that recall Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6; harmonizes its eight different characters with superb level design and an overworld that is crawling with secrets; and swaps the endless grind of similar RPGs for an intuitive play style that requires a whole lot of hypothesizing to deal massive amounts of damage. Octopath Traveler is everything you would want in a 70-plus hour adventure and new NVIDIA cards be damned, it’s one of the best-looking games of this decade.
8. Mario Tennis Aces
Release Date: June 22 (Switch)
Mario Tennis Aces revives Mario Tennis in the right way. It’s extremely competitive, Wario is there, and Spike coughs up tennis balls while Chain Chomp somehow embodies Andre Agassi's prowess. The Switch title has its imperfections -- its story mode is an in-depth tutorial with a few hazards along the way -- but its flaws turn into the fodder for lonely GameFAQs diatribes when you jump online and discover Aces is actually just a fighting game. Rackets have their own health bars and can be broken, resulting in an instant K.O., and there’s a barrage of trick shots and special moves that turn a set of tennis into a full-on cage match. It still could use a few revisions, but at least Birdo and Koopa Paratroopa are on the way as playable characters.
9. Dragon Ball FighterZ
Release date: January 26 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
PSA: Dragon Ball FighterZ is anime on bath salts. The latest entry in Akira Toriyama’s series is a hyper-stylish 2-D fighter that sticks to its source material. Its three-versus-three approach makes last year’s Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite look like Shaq Fu with infinity stones, and its shared command list is a welcome change for newbies and EVO heads. There’s levels to the mechanics but you’ll mostly find yourself getting whooped by some 10-year-old from South Dakota who triggers a Dragon Ball Z finish that you haven’t seen since your Pepsi Blue days.
10. Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life
Release Date: April 17 (PS4)
Like Yakuza 0 and the Kiwamis before it, Yakuza 6: The Song Of Life sticks to a highly specific tone and aesthetic, never letting up. The Western port follows an older Kiryu who finishes a three-year prison sentence only to find out his surrogate daughter is in a coma and he’s now responsible for looking after her son. There’s still a whole lot of Hiroshima yakuza drama -- making it a weird Passions-meets-Full Contact mashup that thrives on over-the-top combat that’s downright silly, stylish, and super-addicting. It’s also one of the few action genre titles in which you can play Space Harrier, throw darts, take up batting practice, bond with a personal trainer, visit a popular cat cafe, and karaoke your heart out until sunrise. It’s weird, for sure, but it’s why the Yakuza series remains one of the most creative time-killers since the PS2 era.
11. Overcooked 2
Release Date: August 7 (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
Ghost Town Games’ Overcooked 2 is a damn good time as a proper sequel that spoon-feeds you another helping of what it’s really like to deal with too many cooks. Throw in an Arcade Mode, emotes, online multiplayer (and local wireless play), dynamic kitchens inspired by the Dreamcast’s Power Stone 2, and the ability to throw ingredients, and voilà! You have a recipe for disaster that will happily forge some of the greatest (and most frustrating) three-minute bursts of your gaming existence. You will laugh, cry, yell, and repeatedly hit someone in the face with unnecessary amounts of chopped fish, but that’s just a part of Overcooked’s divisive charm.
12. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
Release date: March 23 (PS4, PC)
Like most good JRPGs, Ni No Kuni II transcends the age of its youthful protagonist (in this case, a boy king) to offer a more fulfilling, mature, and fucked-up experience to a wider audience. I mean, a city is bombed to bits in the opening scene. Though this sequel didn't have the direct support of Studio Ghibli like its predecessor, Ni No Kuni II still had a former Ghibli character designer on staff to maintain the beloved studio's level of charm. With simple gameplay and a manageable open world, it's a great entry-level title for gamers at any age.
13. Into the Breach
Release date: February 27 (PC)
The premise of Into the Breach is simple: Take control of powerful mechs from the future in order to defeat an alien threat. As much as it sounds like some weird X-COM 2 meets Armored Core visual novel fetish, it’s not (for now, anyways) -- Justin Ma and Matthew Davis’ follow-up to 2012’s FTL: Faster Than Light is surprisingly irresistible. You're thrown into a turn-based world fighting pixelated kaiju on eight-by-eight grids, and since you’ll die, like a lot, you’re locked into a perk- and skills-filled progression that makes every 20-to-30-minute run feel meaningful.
14. The Adventure Pals
Release Date: April 3 (PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch)
The Adventure Pals, Massive Monster’s debut, takes the idea of a "boy saving his dad from being turned into a hotdog" and stuffs it into a meme-heavy aesthetic that sits somewhere between Castle Crashers and Adventure Time. It balances its internet humor and thrill for giraffe BFFs named Sparkles with questing, sticker packs, levelling systems, and light combat that is more focused on the visual idea of fighting bosses made out of bacon and eggs. The Pals' quirky simplicity and old-school heart makes it a pleasure to play -- especially if you’re looking for a casual weekend adventure that doesn’t come with a side of "griefing" and loot grinds.
15. The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit
Release Date: June 26 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
The creators of Life Is Strange know a lot about the blues. While The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit isn’t a direct sequel to the original or Before The Storm, it is a precursor to a new episodic series that takes place in the same universe. In it you meet Chris, a super-imaginative 10-year-old boy, who offsets a fractured relationship with his father and the disappearance of his mother with a superhero alter ego who harnesses the ability to do "awesome" things. Its tightly scripted storyline is weaved through interactive puzzles and exploration, and when the feelings hit, they hit hard. There’s a ton of charm and relatable human drama packed into Captain Spirit’s 120 minutes and it’s a (free and) worthwhile pickup for anyone who was raised by a single parent or has found some solace in a Sufjan Stevens song.
Source: https://www.thrillist.com
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