PCs, handhelds, mobile, console, indies, triple A, free-to-play — the gaming scene gets more diverse and difficult to follow by the day, but thankfully I’m here every week to guide you through what’s happening with games.
As always, I’ll rattle off five games I think you might want to check out this week. Keep in mind, these articles aren’t meant to be comprehensive lists of everything coming out that week so much as a nice rounded tasting menu. So, here are the games you need to know about this week…
This Week’s Mario Sports Game
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Wii U, Nov. 20)
Mario has tried his hand at a lot of sports, but in my opinion tennis has always been his best game. Well, Mario and pals are hitting the court again in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, and things look as solid as ever. This time around you can grab a Mega Mushroom to transform into a smash shot-blasting giant, and compete against other players online.
This Week’s Adorable Roguelike
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (3DS, Nov. 20)
Pokémon once again gets a roguelike twist in the latest Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game. Create a party of critters and venture through procedurally generated dungeons that contain a full Pokédex of 720 monsters to battle. If you can’t wait until the next mainline Pokémon game, this just may tide you over.
This Week’s Strategy RPG
Stella Glow (3DS, Nov. 17)
Stella Glow is a new Japanese strategy-RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics or Fire Emblem. Like most of those games, you arrange your little army on grid-covered battlefields and engage in turn-based battles, but Stella Glow also focuses on music, as your characters can cast “song magic” by singing tunes performed by actual Japanese pop stars. So yeah, this one’s pretty niche, but it looks cute and fairly fun.
This Week’s Episodic Game
Game of Thrones: Episode 6 – The Ice Dragon (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 & PS4, Nov. 17)
Warning: The trailer above contains spoilers for Game of Thrones episodes 1 – 5.
It’s the final chapter of Telltale’s Game of Thrones series! I haven’t been keeping a close track of this series, but I’m sure this final episode will contain plenty of bloodletting. Also, based on the title, we might be getting some dragon action. What more do you need?
Pick of the Week
Star Wars Battlefront (PC, Xbox One & PS4, Nov. 17)
Rejoice Star Wars fans, because Star Wars Battlefront has almost arrived to keep you sane until The Force Awakens hits in December. If you’re hoping for a deep single-player campaign, look elsewhere, but if you’re up for some fun, simple, almost old-school multiplayer action, Star Wars Battlefront should satisfy. It should also satisfy anybody who’s into the idea of blasting Ewoks on a beautifully rendered Endor as Darth Vader (which ought to be everybody).
One of the last really big weeks of 2015. Any games you’re itching to get your hands on that I failed to mention? Hit the comments and let the world know.