User blog:BlurayOriginals/The Bluriginals Blogs Episode 15: Top 15 Most Anticipated Games of 2016

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING EPISODE IS GROTESQUELY LATE

i started this back in like february and wrote most of it in a notebook, then i planned on typing the rest, began retyping what i had already wrote but stopped at like entry 10, finished the episode in notebook and the episode has been finished in my notebook for like a month now and i was just too lazy to type the rest of it but i finished it now and i didn't wanted to go to waste so FUCK here it is.

if not for the content itself, you might as well read it for some fun with 20/20 hindsight at some of the things i said

i've left it (mostly) unedited from here on out so hopefully enjoy, let's try not to be 6 months late next time

2016 is a real jam-packed year with thrilling new--

Well that was unfortunate.

So I think it's a strong enough year to warrant a 6 month late countdown. But let's not beat around the bush too long, this episode was long overdue so let's jump RIGHT into it!  15.)

Oh Sonic, these passed few years have been a bit bumpy. Not nearly as tragic as the period of time from Shadow the Hedgehog to before Unleashed's release but still rather bumpy. And vacant too; from the disappointing (but not garbage, just disappointing) Lost World U to the disappointing AND garbage Rise of Lyric this has been an overall been a vacant three years for Sonic. Sure, we've had the TV show (which I've heard is good) and the comics, but we haven't had a main series game in 3 years (a main series gap that rivals (ha) the 4 year gap between Sonic 3 & Knuckles to Adventure). Hell, the spin-off scene has been an absolute deadzone (other than olympics--thx free riders)! Other than the Boom games which are luckily, here for the rescue!



*blood curdling scream*

No, the mediocre one no one cares about.



That's it!...well, half of it. Closer, at the least.



Mhm! This year for Sonic's 25th anniversary, we're being treated to a plethora of things but our biggest games at the moment and our #15 AND #14 entries are Mario & Sonic at the Rio Games U & Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice respectively. It was initially a toss up between the two due to their similar situations (stepping up and trying to improve on the previous installment/being Sonic related) and while I appreciate Mario/Sonic's massive roster and seemingly improved gameplay, the series doesn't appeal to me as much since it's been very saturated. These games sort of just seem to come out, get mediocre scores, get swept under the rug and repeat. Also the Wii U version locks newcomers to one event. Introducing popular characters like Rosalina and then making them playable in only one event defeats the entire /purpose/ of adding new characters. That's like if in Mario Kart you could only play as characters on their home track, like what the hell? This game's coming out on the /exact/ date of the anniversary too. What a way to celebrate! I-I still like this game I swear it has business being on the list

I've not kept up with the Boomiverse but a refined 2D Sonic would be a great addition to the series. Emphasis on the refined part, as that new initiative for Sonic that SEGA came up with might've saved Fire and Ice from being dumped in the mediocre installment pile, thanks to the delay. It's not too high however, due to my lack of attachment to the Boomiverse and not wanting to possibly be disappointed again.



The life of waiting for the real 25th anniversary game is a hard one.

 13.)

Like the Blue Blur, the Electric Mouse is having a staggering anniversary in 2016. From the anime to movies to games to TCG to Go to merchandise, Pokémon is ready to remind everyone why it's stayed a titan for 20 years. Also like Sonic, this year is filled to the brim with spin-offs and one that stood out to me was Great Detective Pikachu. The currently Japan-only episodic series of digital games looks to me as another cool layer of lore to add to Pokémon with its mysterious plot and characters, in particularly the talking titular character and his human friend. They announced the game almost three years ago so an English release doesn't seem too Farfetch'd. Though that Danny Devito situation...



sad

 12.)

So uh, funny story. During the Christmas of 2012, I dedicated most of my money to buying Gen 6 games, since we know PS2, GCN and uh....Dreamcast are the truth. I got tons of games one of them being the first installment of the iconic, now cinematic Sony franchise, Ratchet and Clank! Now, I've owned this game going on four years and...

Not once have I played it.

Well, on my own save file. I helped my brother out in one or two parts but other than that, no tap. Disgraceful.

Well it appears my neglect of this game hasn't left me too far beyond thanks to the aforementioned movie & its partner game (and the #12 entry), Ratchet and Clank (2016) or Ratchet and Clank Reimagined, as I like to call it.

Now how did a game that I've played no longer than 12 minutes outrank two franchises I've loved for years? Simple, I love me some 3D platforming far more than Pika-fressor Layton, the-last-main-series-game-disappointed-me-severely  and  Mario & Sonic 86. Couple this with the fact that people say Ratchet is almost always reliable in quality (barring the movie apparently ; and the creative universe it presents and it stands to add something to my small list of reasons to get a PS4. Its reboot status also makes it a great entry point. Good on Ratchet for keeping up the quality content for 14 years. I hope to be able to try them out some ti-- oh yeah i own the first game lol

 11.)

While I have few reasons to get a PS4, I have nearly NO reasons to get an Xbox One. Nothing it has really appeals to me other than Killer Instinct, which got ported to Windows 10. Oh, and a little game at E3 last year by the name of Cuphead. This classic cartoon cluster of platforming and shoot 'em up action looks to be a fun and unique title for the Xbone. Because of my absolute love of animation this one captivated me with that reason ALONE.



The attention put into making this look like a toon jumped straight from the 30's makes this so good.

In a world where indie nostalgia games are rather plentiful, this game's different approach to nostalgia is top notch and is looking to have the markings of a good addition to the Xbone library....except it's also on Windows 10.



 10.)

Nintendo is no stranger to obscure crossovers: So the prospect of Fire Emblem crossing with Shin Megami Tensei sparked a light of promise in many fans' eyes only for this light to be extinguished over 2 years later with the reintroduction of FE x SMT in a much more...culturally distinct state.
 * Zelda X Dynasty Warriors = Hyrule Warriors (Legends)
 * Mario X Sonic- = the olympic games(wait how)
 * Pokémon X Nobunaga's Ambition = Pokémon Conquest (Remember that one?)
 * Star Fox X Zelda = lol
 * Mario X Kirby = educational videos (look it up)



''Kawaii-desu Ne! Allow me to show you the power of the glorious Nippon culture :3''

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯ FE came under SO much fire due to the large leap it took from both Fire Emblem and SMT to the point that it almost looks like a new I.P. Like, seriously this game is really weebing out the competition. Despite this, because of my lack of connection to these two franchises (mostly SMT, I played and liked Awakening) this didn't bother me too much. The game still looks like a fun, expansive RPG experience with sick characters (at least in terms of design). Besides, in a world where the Wii U is clearly a dying lad, you're happy to make the most out of it while you can. Not like I'm forcing myself to get it to feel as though the Wii U was a worthwhile purchase (the Wii U has a plethora of great games) but it legitimately interests me, I mean look at!



 9.)

How the MIGHTY have fallen.

(immediately removed from the premises)

My, my, my Mighty No. 9th entry on my Top 15...the tides have truly turned against you. Going from being a mascot of what Kickstarter could be to a mascot of what Kickstarter shouldn't be, this game has come under fire more and more with every passing delay. Oh, and the manipulation of almost an entire fanbase accompanied the potential waste of millions of dollars on hookers and blow doesn't help either. While I'm not gonna blindly whiteknight any of the stupidity behind it, the game itself still looks like fun. It reminds me of Mega Man Powered Up which I absolutely loved. Even so, I'd be perfectly OK with it being a ridiculously huge disappointment if it meant the proper retribution distribution, lynch scheduling for Keiji and Comcept and a learnt lesson.



Looking back like

 8.)

On the flip side of the Mega Man spiritual successor coin--



...

anyway, Azure Striker Gunvolt. Just one play of this demo during a doctor visit was enough to captivate me. The cool gameplay, great tagging system and characters/story really have me thirsty.



Maybe I'd be able to quench this thirst if I wasn't 15 cents away from the sale 😂 🔫 back to shantae i suppose

This is definitely where the list goes from optimistic to excited. The sequel, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, looks to be adding a new character to the mix but other than that I don't know WHY I'm that excited for this game. I don't know anything else about it though. Guess that demo was just THAT engaging. T-that's a legitimate reason right?

<p style="text-align:center;"> 7.)

Let's enter..uncharted waters for a sec. And by that I mean to talk about a franchise I've never played: Metroid.

I can already feel the water boiling.

Yes, Metroid Prime: Federation Force is entry #7. No it isn't because I don't care about Metroid's past. let me explain.

Initially, I had deemed the reaction to Fed Force one of butthurt from Prime fans who were salty when Retro wanted to make Tropical Freeze, a second DKC game instead of a fourth Prime game (that's IGNORING Hunters) even though Donkey Kong had been dormant in terms of main series games since DK64 (1999) before DKCR (2010) and that was only the second game as opposed to the 3 games Retro gave Metroid in the span of 5 years AND AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

there's a reason metroid's got two characters in smash and they're both samus

There was also the artstyle. I originally thought "Zelda's allowed a radically different cartoonish artstyle shift, but when Metroid does it, it's wrong?!". But after thinking about it more, Zelda was never a completely serious series. It had elements of humor and lightheartedness as well as more serious moments that could be encompassed in The Wind Waker's artstyle and fit properly. Contrastingly, Metroid is a lot more serious so this artstyle shift isn't as conducive. Despite all this I'm not bothered too much. We don't see chibi faces on the characters or anything; the tone doesn't seem to be dumbed down and the game looks to add depth to the Metroid lord. Also it has four-player co-op which I'd GLADLY (and plan to) play with my friends.



<p style="text-align:center;">''This game launched on my birthday and I was going to get it until I heard the bad news. Region lock a game's online and it becomes dead to me, no lie.''

It is a game I'm genuinely excited for but can respectfully understand if you're not. Unless the reason is something stupid like Samus not being the protagonist. If that's the case may I recommend the Cranberry Clorox, my good visitor?

Now on the topic of whether or not the game will be good, Next Level has developed some great games and seeing them branch out and be trusted with an I.P. as close to Nintendo as Metroid is a great feeling. That's not to say good devs can't make mediocre/bad games--



<p style="text-align:center;">[anakin voice] you brought him here to KiLL meee!!1!

But in the case that the game is bad, I wouldn't be too hurt. Since you know it really is one of those games that upon release will usher in a "I-told-ya-so" beatdown the likes of which...has been seen many times before. In the case that the game IS great, feels Metroid and is ignored out of spite by salty Prime 4 fans I'll be awaiting Metroid's completely warranted NX skip/decade long hiatus <3 <3 XOXOXOXO :))) <p style="text-align:center;"> 6.)

Back to the indie scene and a situation similar to Gunvolt we have Shantae: ½ Genie Hero.

<p style="text-align:center;">

Now I know what you're thinking: But I have a response: thanks, true, true, true, true AND true, but by the time I found that out I already had the list planned out and couldn't figure out a new entry since I was barely able to scrape up a fifteenth entry and originally Pokémon Moon was on the list but had so little info I bumped it to an honorable mention but I took so long to make this episode as I'm writing we just got our first Sun and Moon reveal an hour and seven minutes ago which I could use to haphazardly fix the list but I really don't wanna remove Shantae and AAAAAAA--
 * 1) Hey you mentioned Shantae in Gunvolt's section! Nice foreshadowing!
 * 2) This artstyle is great.
 * 3) WayForward is great.
 * 4) Shantae's tits are great.
 * Ew, why is Shantae so light. She looks HORRIBLE.
 * 1) Wait, isn't this game in alpha, meaning it might not come out this year?

So for the sake of me ) let's all say ½ Genie Hero is releasing Fall 2016. Back on topic, Shantae is similar to Gunvolt in how I haven't played it that much, though what makes it different is that I've played an actually decent amount of Shantae (up to the second boss, King Golem) making my interest a bit more justified. Said interest wasn't even hurt when the Last Son of Krypton died and I lost my save file :')



<p style="text-align:center;">More like the Last Bastard Son of Krypton, amirite?!

But from the considerable amount I played, I liked it. As with pretty much every entry on the list the world and characters had me interested. The platforming with pseudo-RPG elements also helped a lot. The series in general just looks to be great platforming, design, story, characters all that stuff. I was so interested that I used my Christmas eShop card for 2015 to get both Shantae and Risky's Revenge. So I might as well continue with ½ Genie Hero (not to skip Pirate's Curse of course.)

<p style="text-align:center;"> 5.)

It's been a long time coming but it finally came for Brick B to get a fourth installment.



<p style="text-align:center;">Yay for refs no one gets!

Ah yes, Lego Star Wars has returned with Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens! Or as I like to call it, The 4ce Awakens. 'cause it's the fourth g-- i've got the aforementioned cranberry clorox on stand-by don't worry

Growing up I loved Lego Star Wars: the Video Game so much I got every Minikit and off-topic but Traveller's Tales is a great dev



<p style="text-align:center;">best crash game and nothing you say can convince me otherwise So I was on this game the MINUTE it was  announced leaked. Also helping is the fact that I loved Force Awakens so this is definitely up there for me.



<p style="text-align:center;">''Fun fact, my Star Wars knowledge is so rusty, I didn't notice that Episode 7 is apparently A New Hope 2.0. r.i.p.''

Not much to say (as you could see with me padding the segment out with jokes). Lego is great, Lego games are great, Traveller's Tales is great and Star Wars is great. Can't wait to play the game soon!

<p style="text-align:center;"> 4.)

Smash equals cash! Not just for Nintendo itself, but the franchises within. And no franchise (particularly in Smash 4), knows this as well as Fire Emblem.

<p style="text-align:center;">...yeah, you know the deal insert a too many fe characters gag here

Fire Emblem's recent incline with the release of Awakening and Smash inclusions have shot the franchise up a lot in Nintendo's eyes and to mainstream audiences and Fire Emblem Fates seems to be no great exception. It's colorful cast and diverging plotlines along with all the improvements from Awakening (which I already liked) build up to a great follow-up.



This one remains a bit low however not only because I prefer the following entries but also all the controversy. Fates ROLLS in it, from the hate from it being a versioned release like Pokémon to censorship to the embarrassing translation, it all makes it a bit harder to be enticed. Despite this however, the game still stands tall in its own (birth)right. As such my (con)quest to own all three versions has not been deterred (other than that 80$ price tag lol). Definitely worth the wait! Uh, revelation pun. <p style="text-align:center;"> 3.)

It's time for the list to go from optimistic to excited to VERY excited! And what do you know, it took so long for me to make this episode, new info about the game came out! Number 3 is a really righteous revival of a now Rare™ genre: the collect-a-thon platformer! Yup, it's Yooka-Laylee!



<p style="text-align:center;">Now with a good logo!

I've established that 3D platformers are my lord and savior so the moment I saw this game I had to tap. I didn't grow up with Banjo and the N64 brand of collect-a-thons but I uh, played Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Close enough to judge.

The world looks expansive and absolutely gorgeous, like seriously that lighting is spectacular. The actual characters themselves have the RareWare charm (though I wish Yooka would put on some article of clothing—preferably pants, as Banjo-like as that would be) that I can't 100% speak for since I'm a second hand source that only learned of Rare from the early 2010s countdown community, but still they look really creative, easily identifiable in terms of purpose/goal/personality and they all mesh together into the same world perfectly. This looks like a phenomenal game in the making. In an era in which every other indie game is a spiritual successor or inspired by a ground-breaking game of yesteryear it's so nice to see Yooka-Laylee be so efficient and representative of a long quiet genre. Especially considering it's a Kickstarter game that isn't like the absolute mess that is Mighty No. 9. It's so good to see not every game dev is a treacherous fraud who crushes an entire fanbase's dream. And the game is coming out around my birth--



<p style="text-align:center;">looks like this game's been yooka-DELAYlee'd

>It's not even coming out this year anymore

....

lol it's too late to remove it from the list anyway ONTO NUMBER 2

<p style="text-align:center;"> 2.)

...

/i already have Pokkén Tournament/

it's uh, pretty cool

i like braixen, libre and pikachu

the game can feel a bit tough for me (because i don't fucking practice), i hate how grab isn't religated to either of the two empty Z buttons and it might feel a little too rock, paper, scissor-y to some but uh

THAT JUST MAKES IT ACCURATE TO THE SOURCE MATERIAL HUH HYUK HYUK HYUK

let's just get this obnoxiously late episode over with.

<p style="text-align:center;"> Honorable Mentions

<p style="text-align:center;"> 1.)

Right on time for release  'haha my dude, you're over a month late now. nice try. The number 1 entry is Kirby: Planet Robobot'!



Ever since Return to Dream Land, I've kept up with Kirby to a tee (excluding Rainbow Curse) so Robobot is a must have for me. I adore the pink puffball and the additions to Triple Deluxe's engine look fun. The new/returning ability choices (ESP/Doctor & Smash/Mirror respectively, to name a few) look great! The latter two abilities were basically BEGGING for a return and the former are two of my fav Smash characters so 10 out of 10 👌s. I was initially hoping for a 4P Wii U extravaganza like Return to Dream Land but the multiplayer sub-games that build off Triple Deluxe certainly make up for it. That's not even mentioning that Kirby got in a robot before Shinji in Eva 4.0! The Robobot Armor not only looks great but opens up a lot of puzzle possibilities. At this point, all I can hope for is an endgame weapon like the Star Rod or Triple Star. What can I say? Kirby is perfect.



<p style="text-align:center;">Or at least, he would be if Dedede wasn't around

Thanks for reading this-delayed-so-hard-it-should-have-been-cancelled episode. I've been busy as hell but an episode so late on a topic like this is inexcusable. So seriously, shout-outs to everyone who bothered to read. See you next episode that hopefully won't take five months. And remember: