Every day, more games arrive for more platforms demanding our attention. So every Monday, we cut through the noise to present five games you need to play this week. And while the major AAA releases may all be behind us, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot, and we mean a lot, of games arriving this week fighting for your gaming buck. Starting with the Caped Crusader himself.
Pick Of The Week
Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 5: City Of Light, Tuesday (PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC)
I’ll give Telltale this: Once they’ve got a schedule, they stick to it, and as a result, just short of the holidays, Batman is finishing up his first outing with the adventure game team. It’s been an unexpectedly fascinating and distinct take on Batman that explores Bruce Wayne and his background much more than many Bat-stories, and as a result has managed to overcome some mechanical flaws and pacing issues to be a fascinating take on Batman. Expect a review of the full season later this week.
Super Mario Run, Friday (iOS)
The only reason Nintendo’s arrival on a platform that they didn’t build — which is a big, big deal — isn’t the pick of the week is because they’re still sticking to one platform. Oh, and also they want ten bucks to play a new Mario game, which they will probably get! Super Mario Run is turning out to be a very different kind of mobile game, with Nintendo using the touchscreen to its full advantage. We’ll see how it does, but if Nintendo decides to get into mobile in a bigger way, everybody else should be very afraid.
The Little Acre, Tuesday, (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
In what has turned out to be an adventure game-heavy week, Pewter Games delivers the Don Bluth-esque hand-animated adventure game we never got in the ’80s for some baffling reason. Single dad Aiden falls into an alternate world, and his intrepid daughter Lily is right behind him. It’ll be interested to see how the hand-crafted animated aesthetic blends with old-school adventure gaming.
Stardew Valley, PS4 (Tuesday), Xbox One (Wednesday)
Awwwww yeah, you ready to farm turnips and get married, son? OK, OK, so this game may not exactly be a white-knuckle thrill ride, but it is, inarguably, one of the biggest hits of the year and has done incredibly well on PC. It’s also the closest you’ll get on non-Nintendo consoles to Animal Crossing, which for some people is a selling point by itself.
Drive!Drive!Drive!, Tuesday (PS4, PC)
Meet the racing game where you drive on three tracks at once. No, really. The race is all about threading the needle between the various tracks as you switch between them, trying to avoid going off the side. It looks to be Mario Kart on… well, all right, Mario Kart is already pretty much “Mario Kart on acid” but this promises to bump up the mind-bending factor by several degrees.
Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!