This is gonna be a pretty simple post. I’m just looking at the next year of games and trying to figure out what the games I’m most excited for. I’m keeping it straightforward. I’ll list my 6 most hyped games and talk about them quickly, then just have a big list of other games I’m interested in (with some comments next to some of them), and finally a smaller list of games that might end up being a big deal but that I don’t care about for whatever reason (either because they’ll be shit, or because they’re not my kinda game). Of course, I’ll have a bit of ranting at the end there because why not. Just to be clear about my choices.

So let’s go and discuss the hype for another year of games!

Then I can get back to normal, I still have the January games list to post 😀

EDIT 01/03 I ADDED A GAME (in the “Other games I am excited about” list)! I won’t do this much but the post is still new so why not.

My top 6 most hyped games

It was kinda tough to even pick 6 games that I had THAT much hype for. Not that there are no games I’m hyped for, there’s a ton, but to put in a “Top” list like this requires top-level quality or curiosity. There are some games that I know will be a big deal, that I’m just not sure about myself based on what I’ve seen. But I’ll talk about that later.

These are 6 games I’m mostly sure I will love this year.

Bayonetta 3

Finally, it’s coming out. Took them a good long while to finally show us anything from this game, but this looks fantastic. Seems to add a lot of gameplay elements, with a bit of extra focus on summoning demons to fight for you. I don’t have much to talk about with this game at the moment, because it’s Bayonetta, we know it’s gonna be good. Anyone not putting this game near the top of their list is incorrect.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Almost a weird one to put on the list because Kirby is always a series I said was consistently great, all the way up until Star Allies. Star Allies was awful, which is very unfortunate. On the old blog, I gave it a pretty scathing review. But I can’t stay mad at Kirby. This seems like a step in a pretty interesting direction for the series and what we’ve seen does look pretty good. It takes a more 3D approach, with level design reminiscent of the Mario 3D World style. I’m quite excited to play this one and see how this all works out.

Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

The first Mario + Rabbids game is surprisingly good. It’s something that had a few rumors going and sounded stupid and fake but somehow ended up being real… And then it came out and was very fun. I feel that in recent days it’s not talked about much, but it was a great take on both Mario gameplay and even the Rabbids characters (which are essentially proto-Minions), putting the characters in an Xcom-like strategy game with Mario elements to the combat. This seems like it will improve on a few things from the previous game, and otherwise be more of what made the first one great. I’m always up for more of something that we know is good.

Monark

This is one of my weirder choices. I haven’t heard much about it from Japanese gamers (since the game has been out since October over there), but it’s a game that is quite interesting. Namely, it’s developed by a bunch of people who worked on old Persona games (and seems to have some similarities to both old and modern Persona). And it has a pretty decent-looking strategy combat system. It’s not the most exciting game this year, but I like to highlight this kind of smaller game that fewer people will play. I’m checking it out for sure.

Triangle Strategy

People have been loving the graphical style of Octopath Traveler (and the game itself was pretty cool too), and this is a new game from that team using that similar HD-2D graphic style. This is a strategy RPG, and the demo had pretty interesting gameplay. Also, the story is heavily choice-based, so it feels like you might have pretty different stories completely based on those choices. The demo alone already had a pretty interesting way where you get to make these choices, by asking different characters’ opinions, which could lead to more choices opening up for you. I think the FFT fans are gonna be happy with this one.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2

This is one we’re not yet sure will come in 2022, if it does I think we’ll only know at E3. That said the game did look pretty far in development last time we saw it, so I think we’re not too far away from it. As for why I’m highlighting it, it’s really that the first one was quite good and a rare example of an open world that almost worked (which is surprising especially for one that’s this big). It wasn’t perfect, but it was one of the better examples. What we’ve seen of this game is new powers for Link that seem to have very cool applications in combat and puzzles, as well as a different kind of world than the first game as it seems heavily focused on being in the air and traveling to those floating islands (it is the same Hyrule, but set up completely differently).

If this is coming in 2022, it WILL be probably the most talked-about game, and probably one of the better ones.

Other games I am excited about

I will note this is a list of games that MAY come out in 2022. Some of them have confirmed release dates, some of them do not. There are some games I didn’t put on the list because I’m pretty sure they won’t release in 2022, while some I did because I’m thinking there’s a chance. That’s why I don’t have Metroid Prime 4 on here, I don’t think it’s out in 2022, I think development will be almost final and we’ll see a release in mid-2023. But I do have FF16 here. Not because I think for sure it’ll be out, but there’s a chance despite recent news. I’m very weirdly selective about the games I’m putting there, it’s pretty arbitrary.

These are not all games I will get, some of them are there because I find them interesting. For example, there’s a roughly 0% chance I’ll play Dragon Ball: The Breakers… but I’m curious to see what it’s like and will almost definitely watch someone playing it at some point. So these are, obviously, not all games I’ll review, but I am at least somewhat likely to check a game if it’s on this list.

Also, I’m putting some DLC in here, I never usually do that but these are noteworthy.

And, why not, I’ll BOLD the games I’m most interested in.

• 30XX
• Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp (I hope it does well, I want new Advance Wars)
• AI: The Somnium Files – Nirvana Initiative
• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream
• Avowed
• Azure Striker Gunvolt 3
• Babylon’s Fall (the last trailer I saw for this didn’t look too good, but I’m still hoping it’ll be okay because it’s Platinum)
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
• Blossom Tales 2: The Minotaur Prince
• Chocobo GP
• COGEN: Sword of Rewind
• Convergence: A League of Legends Story
• The Cruel King and the Great Hero
• Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course (I’m surprised this is coming out as DLC. I was expecting it to just be re-branded as Cuphead 2, tbh. Still hyped to finally play it)
• Dawn of the Monsters
• Digimon Survive (hoping it comes out for real this time)
• DokeV (this looks pretty unique with some action shooter gameplay where you also capture monsters, but the k-pop bullshit needs to stop… k-pop bad)
• Dragon Ball: The Breakers
• Dragon Quest X Offline (unfortunately it’s probably not coming out outside of Japan, Squeenix are dumb idiots who will not localize Dragon Quest outside of MAYBE the mainline games)
• Dragon Quest Treasures (Not sure if that’s out this year, and I’m not expecting localization either)
• Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (I do think this one is the only one of the DQ games that MAY come this year that will see a western release… not sure if it will come in 2022 at all, but I’m kinda betting on it, at least in Japan)
• DNF Duel (Actually looks quite fun)
• Dying Light 2 (I have not played the first Dying Light, so I doubt I’ll play this until I do… but it’s at least interesting and doesn’t look bad)
• Earth Defense Force 6
• Earthworm Jim 4 (The Amico is a huge mess, isn’t it? Was supposed to come out early last year, still isn’t out, launch games are still not ready despite nearly an extra year of dev and none of them are looking too impressive… and we have NO idea if EWJ4 is progressing, at all… I’m just hoping)
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
• Elden Ring (one of the most hyped games this year for other people… I’m not fully convinced. Open world is rarely a good thing)
• Evil West (this looks like a pretty cool action game, the few bits of gameplay we saw gave me minor God Hand vibes)
• Ex-Zodiac (Star Fox? Star Fox. SNES-style. The demo is pretty good)
• ExoMecha
• Final Fantasy 16 (I don’t think this will be out in 2022, but I think there’s a chance… I hope it’s better than that FF15 garbage)
• Flashback 2
• Forspoken (magic looks cool. Open world doesn’t. I’ll give it a chance)
• Freedom Planet 2 (seems the devs are pretty solid on Spring 2022 being the release date so we might see it this year)
• Getsu Fūma Den: Undying Moon
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• GigaBash
• God of War Ragnarök (If I run out of things to play I might get the PS4 version… I’m in no hurry, the last GoW game was just kinda okay-ish)
• Granblue Fantasy: Relink (no idea if this is still happening, but it does sound like 2022 is what they’re thinking)
• Graven
• Gungrave G.O.R.E.
• Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong (I was considering not listing this because it feels like it’s never coming out… there’s hardly even been news at all since the announcement in 2019)
• Horizon Forbidden West (I know people are really hyped for this, and I will play it at some point, but I’m really in no hurry. If I were I’d just get it on PS4, but honestly I’m waiting for the PC release)
• Infinity Strash – Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (another DQ game, which is also unlikely to get a localization)
• Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja (I have no idea why they’re remaking Joe & Mac… but they are… good for them)
• Kerbal Space Program 2
• King of Fighters XV
• Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
• Lost Ark
• Maglam Lord
• Marvel’s Midnight Suns (I need to see a bit more of this one, could be okay)
• Metal: Hellsinger
• Metal Max Xeno Reborn
• Metal Slug Tactics (this looks super fun, a unique take on Metal Slug for sure)
• Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak (another DLC! But, if Iceborne is any indication, Monster Hunter DLC is anything but minor. This will probably be at least a full game’s worth of content)
• MultiVersus (for legal reasons I can’t talk about this too much yet, so I’ll be a bit vague… I am not looking forward to this, but I’m keeping it here because of reasons… and it’s free-to-play anyway so there’s no big loss trying it out)
• Neon White
• Overlord: Escape from Nazarick
• Pocky & Rocky Reshrined
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus (A new take on mainline Pokemon gameplay, with a bit more going on outside of battles. I’m interested, I hope it’s good and ends up feeling fresh)
• Project Eve
• Redout 2
• Relayer
• Rise of the Triad Remastered
• River City Girls 2
• River City Girls Zero
• RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
• Rune Factory 5
• Salt and Sacrifice
• Shadow Warrior 3
• Shovel Knight Dig
• Sifu
• Slime Rancher 2
• Sol Cresta
• Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story
• Sonic Frontiers (I have very low expectations for any new Sonic game… this one even more, due to the apparent open-world concept… please devs stop making open-world games… but it’s Sonic so I’ll buy it and be mad when it’s bad)
• Soulstice
• Splatoon 3 (I love Splatoon but haven’t played it since NSO became paid (because paying to play online is a scam), not sure I’ll play it even for single player)
• Sports Story
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl (this game looks really good visually, no idea about gameplay based on what they showed so far though)
• Star Ocean: The Divine Force (really surprised to see Squeenix bringing out a new one after the one on PS4 was… garbage… But the little we’ve seen does look kinda cool, I hope it is)
• Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (I almost put this in my top 6, kind of as a joke but kind of seriously… it does seem interesting, even beyond the Chaos meme)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder’s Revenge (it looks really fun, almost had this in my top 6)
• Temtem
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (Borderlands 3 was not good. Tiny Tina fucking sucks as a character. But I’m willing to make this Gearbox’s last chance to make something that isn’t shitty)
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Tunic (Whoa it’s coming out! This looks like a fun one, a Zelda-inspired game by a single developer)
• Two Point Campus
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
• Weird West
• Windjammers 2
• Witchfire (not very convinced this will be out this year, but I think we’re gonna start seeing more about it at least)
• WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

Big upcoming games that I don’t care about

There are many upcoming games that I don’t care about, but that will be popular despite me not caring about them. Some because they’re not my kinda stuff at all, or they’re gonna be shit probably. So this isn’t me being negative about all of these… only some. Like Starfield and Diablo Immortal. But if a game is on this list, there’s a very low chance you’ll see me playing and reviewing it.

• Ark 2
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Beyond Good & Evil 2 (I have this here but I’m 90% sure it’s not coming out… nor does what we’ve been shown so far looks good)
• Dead Space Remake
• Diablo Immortal (I played the beta for this, it’s awful)
• Evil Dead: The Game
• Gotham Knights
• Gran Turismo 7
• Hello Neighbor 2
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Homeworld 3
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• Nightingale
• Overwatch 2
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake
• Redfall
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (the “gameplay” shown at the VGAs wasn’t gameplay, it was a cutscene where you had no actual influence on what was happening… it’s certainly not looking like an exciting game based on that)
• Shitty Saints Row reboot (They’re trying hard to Fortnitify Saints Row, and removing all the stuff that made the previous ones popular-ish)
• Skull and Bones (I feel like we haven’t heard at all about this in like 2 years now)
• Starfield (we’ve seen nothing of it after YEARS so we have no idea how this is gonna play, and describing it as “Skyrim in space” is not positive)
• Star Wars: Eclipse (it’s by the Heavy Rain team, there’s 0% chance this will be good)
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Overall thoughts

I feel like 2022 isn’t shaping up as well as 2021, as far as game releases. There are several smaller things I’m interested in, a bunch of games that I’m at least curious about and hope will be good, but it’s currently kinda lacking that one big badass game that we know is coming out and will blow our minds.

One thing to talk about is the obvious Nintendo bias in my top 6 list… Hey, I’m sorry that the Switch is getting all the exciting games, ain’t my fault. I was thinking about this while making this list, that I needed to find some more multiplats since Monark was the only one there and I’m gonna be playing it on Switch anyways. If you look at the second list, of all currently announced games of 2022 that I’m interested in, you see all the multiplat stuff there (that I’ll play on PC or Switch), and you see why I didn’t end up putting some of them in that top 6 list. But I’ll just elaborate a bit more.  The reason I have none of those in the top 6 is that I’m not convinced about some of them.

Elden Ring is gonna be a HUGE deal (I will play it for sure), but it is an open-world game, something I’m not sure will work for a Souls game (which usually focuses on interconnected well-designed areas)… and an open world is difficult to make functional in the first place, regardless of being Souls or not (the rest of the game seems fine, the open world is the issue). Forspoken seems to have interesting combat, but the open world, based on gameplay videos we have, is not good. Horizon 2… the first game was only okay, so it’s not top hype material. Same for God of War Ragnarok. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a follow-up to the worst game in the Borderlands series, heavily featuring the worst character in that series, so I can’t be that hyped for it. Even looking at Nintendo’s games, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is coming soon, I’m interested in that one, but it wasn’t making the top 6 list because it’s questionable how good that will be.

Tells you something when I almost put Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and the TMNT game in the top list while none of these big games even stood a chance. And maybe my doubts will be wrong and all of these will be amazing, who knows. It’s entirely possible, I will play and them, and write reviews for them.

But hey, we don’t know what games will show up beyond these games this year, there’s a chance we’ll see a bunch of stuff that we don’t currently know about that will blow all of these out of the water. Or maybe something I overlooked while making this list will become a big deal (possibly some Japanese games that weren’t on lists because they came out in japan but have no localization announced). For sure Nintendo will have some new games to show at Directs and E3. Other companies tend to not like to announce new games the year they’re coming out though, especially Sony and Microsoft, so new announcements for big games that we don’t currently know about for 2022 are unlikely… but they could happen, especially for smaller games. I do think that if we get new announcements for non-Nintendo games, it’s gonna be for 2023 and 2024, if not further off.

And that’s it, see you next year!