Boy, picking 5 games that you’re most excited for an upcoming year is tough. It’s especially hard when nearly every company has laid bare what’s left on their serving trays as we are led wallet first into the next console generation. It’s even MORE difficult when nearly every game you’ve been hyped about since they announced the IP is being released in a 5-month window that just happens to be the exact 5 months that my day job’s 3-4-year project is at its craziest. I hope you enjoy reading why I'll be dropping everything to play the following games in 2020.
#5- Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC- February 25th
Yes, this is a DLC, but I’ve been a fan of Kingdom Hearts since the first game released on the PS2 back in 2002. What’s more is Kingdom Hearts has taken me down a path of being a diehard Disney fan. I watch movies/tv shows daily, actively seek out fun facts about the parks and how to get the most out of Disney World/Land, and being excited to see mascots looking as giddy as a 5 year old. What most of you may not know is, this isn’t the first time Kingdom Hearts has gotten updates to it’s game. For Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, Birth By Sleep, and Chain of Memories, they were re-released in Japan under the monicker, “Final Mix” or “Re:”, and the states normally never got those versions until the 1.5 and 2.5 releases of Kingdom Hearts on the PS3. So, the states getting an update to Kingdom Hearts along with Japan is awesome in it’s own way. We all get to learn extra story, and experience all the new content together (give or take a month…). Plus, the DLC sounds like a TON of content for the price. New story elements, new keyblades, 2 new chapters, each with it’s own set of new and difficult bosses, and a great difficulty changer where you can change any aspect of the game (including deactivating attraction flows). I think it’s going to be a great year to be a Kingdom Hearts fan on the Xbox… Stay tuned for more Kingdom Hearts coverage here!
#4- Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga
Do you ever have a guilty pleasure game, where you hate to admit that you love every iteration of it? Yeah, for me, that’s the Lego games. I’ve tried to 100% every single one of them released on the Xbox One, including the super buggy Lego Marvel Super Heroes. Well, after Lego stopped releasing about 2 a year, they decided to take some time off, and rework their old engine and come out with a new game made almost from the ground up. And what better way to do that? Lego Star Wars is revered as one of the best Lego games ever made. The puzzles are fun, the characters are enjoyable to play, and there’s so much to do! Well, we’re getting a huge Star Wars Lego game that encompasses the whole Skywalker Saga, and it’s touting to have space exploration beyond the regular open maps, more variety, and much larger levels. I’m going to lose a lot of time trying to find every minifig, gold brick, and red cheat brick.
#3 Halo Infinite
Of course Halo’s going to be on this list! Halo: CE was the game that got me to be an Xbox player. As someone who thought Halo 5 was fun, but not really what Halo was, I’m glad to see that they’re rethinking the series. It’s due for an overhaul and needs to step away from the Call of Duty like combat. Yes, the Halo 5 multiplayer is regarded as the best in the series, it wasn’t for me. That’s why I loved the Master Chief Collection. It was Halo back at its roots on current gen. People are worried about what looks to be an open world design of the game, but I think it’ll add some great storytelling if implemented correctly. Because, Halo has an amazing story between its books and games, but one that does well with both and really incorporates everything well could lead to the best Halo and shooter ever made.
#2 Psychonauts 2
Now, my number 2 game was hard to pick out. There’s a lot of games coming out in 2020, but one game excited me a lot after its announcement. A lot of you may be Funhaus fans, and may know of one James Willems. After watching Funhaus grow, James talked about Psychonauts a LOT. By a LOT, I mean he mentioned it at every chance he could. So, when I was needing a game to play, I picked up Psychonauts. The platforming was what I needed at the time and really helped me a lot. I trust Tim Schafer, and after being acquired by Xbox, I can’t wait to see what they do with a blank Microsoft check to bring platforming into the modern world. A modern platformer is long overdue, and we got close with A Hat In Time, but a AAA platformer sounds just like what I’ll need sometime this year.
#1 Microsoft Flight Simulator
My number 1 pick even surprised me! So, I’ve always been intrigued by pilots and flying. I loved Microsoft Flight Simulator X when it came out and it made me want to be a Pilot. Well, colorblind people can’t be pilots, even if it is partial colorblindness. Look up any gif, presser, or trailer about this game and you can see that this is the next best thing to a several thousand dollar flight simulator that pilots use to train. Azure is populating the world with several petabytes of satellite map data and adding every single airport and city in the world. You can basically fly from nowhere Kansas to Tokyo if you wanted to! I stream at Twitch.tv/TheNanoBiologist and I have so many plans to play this game on stream after I get a couple things, and I can’t wait to finally basically fly whenever I want wherever I want without needing to pay a lot of money or needing to get a pilots license. Overall, this game looks absolutely stunning and extremely ambitious, and may just raise the bar to almost unreachable heights for simulator games.
What were your top 5 most anticipated games of 2020? Tweet me @TheNanoBiologist so we can discuss!