Japanese publisher Hamster is best known for porting numerous classic arcade games to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch (plus some NeoGeo games on Xbox). The Arcade Archives series makes it possible to play dozens of games from yesteryear, many of which have never been released on consoles before. The latest Arcade Archives release is Konami's Vendetta, the sequel to Crime Fighters.
After enjoying a period of Early Access, the Steam version of All In! Games' Fort Triumph launched in full early last year. A turn-based tactics game, it won us over with its environmental activity and decent local co-op. Console gamers will soon be able to get in on the strategic fun when Fort Triumph heads to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch in August.
The Tetris Effect: Connected Beta Test just wrapped up last week, providing the developers and publisher Enhance with useful cross-play data. While Xbox and Windows 10 gamers have been enjoying the 'Connected' version of Tetris Effect for almost a year now, players on other platforms have had to wait. The wait will soon come to an end, as Tetris Effect: Connected will officially launch on PlayStation and Steam on August 18, with cross-play coming to all versions simultaneously.
Samurai Warriors 5, the latest installment in Koei Tecmo's long-running feudal Japan-based hack and slash series, launches on July 27. Waiting can be tough, though, especially given that fans have already been waiting seven years since Samurai Warriors 4 (we won't count the iterations on 4). To tide us over until then, Koei Tecmo has kindly released a free trial version on all major platforms. Making it even more of a must-download, progress in the demo will carry over to the full game.
Toodee and Topdee is the first Steam release from 2-man indie developer Diet Zribi. A challenging and colorful platformer, the game involves switching back and forth between a flat 2D perspective and an angled 2.5 view. Each of the protagonists can only move around in one perspective or another, making the game perfect for local co-op play. It will arrive on Steam on August 4.
Back 4 Blood, sequel to the little-known "Back 3 Blood" (not really), is only a few months away from release. Turtle Rock Studios' spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead promises lots of co-op zombie-slaying thrills when it arrives in October. Before then, an open beta will take place in August. In the meantime, today's new PC trailer provides plenty of savory footage to salivate over while the days of the calendar slowly pass by.
Rainbow Six Extraction, the co-op title that started as a spin-off mode for the popular competitive FPS Rainbow Six Siege, has gotten pushed back a little bit. During E3 last month, Ubisoft announced that the game - which was previously known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Rainbow Six Parasite before that - would launch on September 16 this year. A few days ago, though, Ubisoft announced that they would need just a little more time to get it done.
The latest Zombies map to be added to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is called 'Mauer der Toten,' meaning "Wall of the Dead." The Black Ops Cold War Zombies maps are surprisingly story-heavy, and this one sees the members of peacekeeping force Requiem forced to build a warhead to close the Dark Aether portal that was opened in Berlin by traitorous scientist Aleksandra Valentina. We played several co-op games on 'Mauer der Toten,' and we even found out how to unlock the robot, Klaus.
The shoot ‘em up genre has been around for almost as long as video games have existed. Whereas many shmups are deadly serious, there are also a fair number of humorous ones like Parodius, Cho Aniki, and Freedom Finger. Another such game has just arrived on Xbox after first launching on Steam and Switch: Q-Yo Blaster from Team Robot Black Hat ...
In this post-Left 4 Dead 2 world, numerous clones and spiritual successors like the upcoming Back 4 Blood and Evil Dead: The Game are left to make up for the absence of an official L4D sequel. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 from Fatshark is the best of what's actually out right now, so we're naturally looking forward to the sequel/spin-off Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Unfortunately, we'll need to wait a while longer because Darktide's release has been delayed to 2022.
Warframe, the free-to-play action/shooter RPG, has been trucking along since 2013. Gamers can download the MMO-like space ninja game on all the big platforms, including PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. As multiplayer-focused games age, though, playerbase becomes an issue. It's hard to make war on the frames if you can't find anybody to play with. Thankfully, that will soon become less of an issue when Warframe gains cross-play and cross-save before the end of the year.
Look, pinball RPGs are pretty much a dime a dozen these days. You can't throw a rock without hitting some pinball game that features archetypal fantasy heroes knocking around fantasy environments, casting spells, and thwarting skeletons and goblins and such. Still, Rollers of the Realm: Reunion promises one extra ingredient that will make it stand out in the crowded pinball RPG genre: local co-op. Now we're talking!
