Every week, there are more games for more systems than ever before. So, every week, we pick five games worth your time and money to play this week. Starting with the GI Joe game we all wanted but never quite got.
Pick Of The Week: Agents Of Mayhem, Tuesday ($60, PS4, Xbox One and PC)
If you dearly remember the postmodern commentary and utter hilarious carnage of the Saints Row series, it’s back, sort of, in a game paying tribute to the Saturday morning action cartoons of yore and set in one of the many alternate realities that spawned from Saints Row IV‘s insane ending. Pick a squad of quasi-military borderline superheroes, each with unique weapons, gear, and superpowers ranging from lightning strikes to stuffing people in your giant balls, and fight the evil forces of Legion by blowing things up. You know, for freedom!
Because freedom means explosions, didn’t you learn anything from Michael Bay?
Sonic Mania, Tuesday ($20, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch)
Yes, Sonic is returning to his roots with Sonic Mania, a 2D platformer like the classic games of yore, when the inexplicably quick blue hedgehog blasted his way through loop-de-loops and collected rings instead of fighting his Glock-toting evil clone. The goal is to completely replicate the experience, right down to the animation and pixel graphics, and the result should be interesting. If nothing else, it’ll be a nice throwback to the ’90s. And hey, speaking of Sega and the ’90s…
Night Trap, Tuesday ($20, PS4 and PC)
A bizarre piece of gaming history, originally published for the Sega CD, finally gets some justice this week, as Night Trap arrives on shelves. The game itself is a campy throwback where you play a security guard trying to save several nubile young women from a “terrifying” killer. Let’s just say the production values are about what you’d expect from a low-budget ’90s horror movie. The real point of interest is that the game was the focus of a campaign against violent video games that completely misconstrued what the game was about and was driven off the shelves. So 25 years later, the creators are getting just a little bit of justice.
Ken Follet’s The Pillars Of The Earth Book 1: From The Ashes, Tuesday ($20, PS4, Xbox One and PC)
If you’d ever wondered what it would be like if Don Bluth tackled Game Of Thrones, good news, there’s a video game for you! One can’t deny this is unique in gaming. Based on Ken Follett’s historical novel, the episodic game follows the construction of a cathedral in 12th century England, not exactly a barrel of laughs even when you weren’t a starving peasant who could be murdered with impunity. Guess what most of the cast is! That said, this looks well-animated, voice-acted, and scored, and it should be interesting to see where this experiment goes.
Observer, Tuesday ($20, PS4, Xbox One, and PC)
Finally, wrapping up what appears to be nostalgia week in gaming, here is a game about hacking into people’s minds and stealing their memories, with a score and atmosphere that is suspiciously similar to Blade Runner. That it stars and is narrated by Rutger Hauer, well, draw your own conclusions, but the game itself looks neat and it’s from the team behind superb horror game Layers Of Fear, so it’s automatically worth your time.
Any games we missed? Let us know in the comments!