(Here are the rest of the notable games from October 2015 to December 2015!)
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Nintendo Reality-
Red Raven
An indie game with a fairly high budget,
Red Raven is a horror title with a unique red visual perspective and a compelling mystery, while featuring fairly minimal combat. It mostly takes place in an old mansion and the grounds surrounding it, as the protagonist is sent to find a bird belonging to the mansion's owner and his daughter, who have both disappeared. The protagonist is poisoned early on, and he's only able to see in shades of red, which is a hindrance at times but also allows him to sense motion and detect things that normal people wouldn't be able to find. The game forces the player to rely on both their hearing and their ability to detect these unique motions to find clues and avoid threats, which can come at any time from any direction. While the game is short, only lasting a few hours, and it never becomes much more than a cult hit, it's notable for being one of the best horror games of the year, with unique scares and challenging, engaging gameplay with some of the most memorable characters in a horror game in recent memory.
Rare Replay
Rare's collection of classic hits and newer games comes exclusively to the Reality ITTL, and features 40 games instead of 30 like the OTL version. This includes all the same classic Rare games from OTL's collection (which, admittedly, most of them were pretty bad) and most of their newer titles as well, including numerous games in the
Velvet Dark series, the first four
Killer Instinct games, and even numerous
Donkey Kong Country titles. A few titles, such as
Battletoads vs. TMNT and
Star Wars: Masters Of Juyo are left out of the collection for licensing reasons, but most Rare games released in the last 30 years are here. The game does release at full retail price, $59.99, rather than OTL's budget price, but it's still considered an excellent collection and a must play for classic Rare fans.
Mysterie
A detective game that makes use of VR, developed by a second party studio for Nintendo. Players use the VR to find clues and to explore areas, and it's sort of like a Layton/Detective Club-style game meant for younger players, with none of the mysteries being too serious (you're solving burglaries and disappearances instead of murders). A fun game but a bit of a niche one, though it does okay amongst the younger audience it's aimed at.
Apple Virtua-
Virtua Dodgeball
The latest in the “Virtua” line of sports titles,
Virtua Dodgeball gives the player a chance to experience realistic dodgeball with either full motion controls or traditional controls. In contrast with Nintendo's more fantastical dodgeball series,
Virtua Dodgeball has an emphasis on realism, with 16 teams of human players and the option for full league or tournament play. There's also the option to create either a player or a full team, and there are both women's and men's teams as well, with single player, local multiplayer, or online multiplayer. The game itself is surprisingly in-depth for a dodgeball game, but the gameplay itself is a bit stiff and shallow, so reviews are only middling and the game itself does fairly mediocre sales. It's a nice effort at a realistic dodgeball title, but if there's a sequel, Apple will need to spice things up a bit more.
End Run
End Run is a battlefield/action based game in which characters run around an arena blasting each other with rings. Along with
Vindicate, this is meant to be one of the big titles to push VR on the Virtua. Very reminiscent of
Tron, with a somewhat similar visual aesthetic, and meant to push the Virtua's motion controls heavily as well. It's meant as a multiplayer game first and foremost, but also includes an extensive single player/campaign mode, sort of like OTL's
Splatoon in that it's meant to teach the player the mechanics of the game while also pushing the game's storyline and lore.
End Run takes place in a futuristic world in which corporations are attempting to control the people, but due to the popularity of the world's most popular sport, a combat sport known as “ringfire”, it's possible for the poor and downtrodden to rise up and gain power by becoming popular ringfire stars and defeating the corporation's hired experts in ringfire matches. However, the corporation also sends assassins after popular players, as a bid to squash the people's rebellious spirit and take control once and for all, with the campaign consisting of 56 missions in which the primary goal is to defeat all of your opponents and sometimes collect certain items. In multiplayer mode, there's two teams of six battling one another, and you're able to select a loadout of weaponry consisting of various types of rings. Some rings fire straighter, but also quicker and they do less damage, while other rings fire in a loop, doing more damage but taking more skillful shots to make contact, and some rings fire only a short distance but do a lot of damage. There are different modes as well, including deathmatch, elimination, king of the hill, and others. Intended to be a major new first party IP for Apple,
End Run ends up being quite critically and commercially successful, becoming one of the most popular online titles on the Virtua in the year following its release.
The Adventures Of Sunny
A 3-D platformer featuring a young girl protagonist, this game plays the genre as straight as it comes, with plenty of worlds to explore and things to collect. Features beautiful graphics and some interesting challenges, but is fairly boring from a gameplay standpoint, and achieves only moderate sales. However, Sunny herself is quite well liked, and becomes somewhat popular in terms of memes, which helps to keep the game in the public eye longer than it probably should be.
The Conduit 4
The acclaimed FPS series from the iTwin comes to the Virtua for the first time, accompanied by a wave of hype and featuring a brand new protagonist and story, but fairly similar gameplay to its predecessors, enhanced by the Virtua's motion controls and of course compatible with the 3-D Oculus accessory. The plot itself features the protagonist, a man named Noah, with a secret: he's actually an alien sent to infiltrate the Earth's government in preparation for an invasion. For the first half or so of the game, the player performs Noah's tasks as if they are going to lead the aliens to Earth, but things get complicated in the second half, as Noah is found out by a government agent who seems like she'll stop him at first, but then begins working with him, as shadowy forces in her own government make it advantageous for her to learn more about the aliens first. This leads into a tangled web of alliances and intrigue, culminating in an invasion toward the end of the game that Noah and the agent must decide if they're going to help or stop.
The Conduit 4's graphics are fairly cutting edge for their time, making it one of the best looking Virtua titles of the year, while the game's slick HUD and animation quality also help to give it a polished and futuristic look. The gameplay is a bit of a weak point, however, as there's not a lot to set it apart from other FPS titles, and not a lot has evolved from the original trilogy. Though the game's graphics and storyline win it some praise and some solid reviews, it's not exactly the year's best FPS, and reviews average in the high 7s, making it a bit of a disappointment.
Google Nexus-
Forza Horizon 2
The sequel to the hit 2012 Nexus launch title sees the series once again take to the open road, giving players a massive expanse of environments to race in, cars to drive, and things to do. OTL's game came out in 2014, but this game had a slightly longer production cycle, both to accommodate VR graphics and also to provide players with more cars and more environments, making this game about twice as big as the original and quite possibly the most expansive racing game ever made. There are tons of things to do, from racing at normal tracks in cities to off-road racing with street racers out in the desert, and an extensive campaign mode that includes a huge variety of activities and cars. Everything about the original game has been improved, from the graphics to the physics to the number of songs on the soundtrack, and Google has really pushed
Forza Horizon 2 as the year's biggest racing title. For the most part, it paid off: reviews and sales are both excellent and this game becomes the fastest selling Nexus exclusive since
Miraculous Ladybug, even managing to outsell
Dream Garden's strong first week. Many consider it to be the Nexus exclusive of the year, and it creates an excellent impression on players and critics alike, driving Nexus and VR sales heavily in the last part of 2015.
Bomberman Royale
Exactly what it says on the tin: this is a Bomberman battle royale game, allowing up to 100 people to blow each other up in massive stages with a huge variety of power-ups and boosts. There's a normal mode in which 4, 8, or 16 people can compete, and also a fairly short campaign mode, but the big attraction here is the battle royale, and accompanied by some of the best
Bomberman gameplay to date, this is both the best reviewed and best selling
Bomberman game in many, many years, and becomes a bit of a killer app for the Nexus.
Nintendo Connect-
Super Peach RPG 2
The sequel to Nintendo's 2011 hit RPG for the Nintendo Supernova,
Super Peach RPG 2 builds upon and expands a lot of the elements from that hit title, while providing the same whimsical and exciting fun of the last game. Peach returns as the protagonist, and this time, is able to battle alongside two companions at once, including Mario, Luigi, and Daisy, and Katie Koopa from the original game, but also two new companions: Fluttery, a butterfly that grew up from a Wiggler, and Lady Lakitu, a wannabe pilot who craves adventure. The Fashion system from the previous game also returns, and not only can Peach accessorize and dress for success, but her companions can as well (though they can only equip something for the body and something for the head, unlike Peach who can wear lots of different things). There's also a more simplified system of techniques from the original game, instead of learning techniques, characters now find, buy, and equip them, giving each character less techniques overall but also making them somewhat more consistent in when players are expected to have them. That said, this game is no less expansive or epic than the previous title, about the same overall in terms of length. This time, Bowser is the game's main villain and his Koopalings are the main underlings (though Peach and Wendy, who fought together in the previous game, have some very interesting dialogue in this one as Wendy is a bit reluctant to fight her old “friend” Peach). Bowser and his brats have stolen the Toad Princesses from all across the realm, and Peach is determined to save them, with the help of her friends and the various denizens of the seven kingdoms. The game features a colorful graphical style that wouldn't be all that out of place in an OTL
Mario and Luigi game, and with Yoko Shimamura returning as composer, that's the overall mood that this game seems to have. Overall,
Super Peach RPG 2 gets slightly lower review scores than the original, but still quite solid, averaging in the mid 8s, and sales are about on track with the original as well, maintaining this series' success and showing that Peach can indeed carry an epic RPG.
Apple Gemini-
Dead Rising: Survival
This Gemini spinoff of the main
Dead Rising series is a sort of roguelike title, with similarities to OTL's
Zombi. You create a protagonist and are forced to scrounge through an apocalyptic wasteland, completing missions and finding supplies while fighting off increasingly difficult waves of zombies (similar to the
Resident Evil: Mercenaries series). It seems fairly simple, but there are a wide variety of missions to accomplish and it'll take a lot of playing to see everything, especially since dying once means that it's back to character creation and a new start. It's a surprisingly fun and intuitive title, and it achieves good reviews, while becoming one of the better selling Gemini titles of the latter part of the year.
Multiplatform-
Lollipop Chainsaw 2
(Author's Note: I'm gonna be kinda lazy here and just reuse most of the summary I posted in the “Top Video Games never made” topic... what can I say, I think it'd be a good idea for a sequel
)
Lollipop Chainsaw 2 is the sequel to 2012's
Lollipop Chainsaw, published by Acclaim and developed by Suda51's studio, while being directed by James Gunn. With no
Guardians of the Galaxy to direct ITTL, James Gunn was looking for something to do, and asked Suda51 if they could collaborate on another
Lollipop Chainsaw title. Suda51 decided to eschew his normal anti-sequel stance, coming up with some new ideas and agreeing to produce this game. Many of the same gameplay systems return from the original, including chainsaw combos, special moves, and Sparkle Hunting, though Juliet is now able to utilize the environment to her advantage and can fling objects and enemies into one another to rack up even more damage. In addition, Juliet's younger sister Rosalind and her older sister Cordelia are now playable characters, each with their own movesets, with Rosalind wielding fierce bladed weapons and Cordelia able to use ranged attacks and explosives. The game features high definition graphics and a significantly longer story than the previous game (10 levels as opposed to 6 in the original).
The game itself takes place two years after the events of the previous game. Juliet is still dating Nick, and Rosalind now has a boyfriend of her own, a somewhat timid and nerdy boy (pretty much the opposite of Nick in every way). The Starling family is celebrating Rosalind's high school graduation with a cross-country road trip, but the trip is interrupted by another zombie attack on San Romero. Just when it seems like Juliet is outmatched, she's saved by a fierce young zombie huntress named Katrina von Domme (voiced by and modeled after Elizabeth Gillies) who utilizes a whip/chainsaw weapon in combat and dresses (and acts) like a dominatrix. Katrina descends from a family of European zombie hunters (a take on the Belmonts from
Castlevania) and is considered a legend in the zombie hunting world, someone who Juliet idolizes. Katrina appears to be an ally at first, but later we see that she's responsible for the zombie outbreak and that she plans to unleash an even bigger one. She's motivated by jealousy of the Starlings, Juliet in particular. Katrina was trained from birth to be a zombie hunter and was never allowed to have fun or a boyfriend or a normal life, but thought it would all be worth it when she showed up in San Romero to stop the zombie outbreak from the original game. However, she arrived just as Juliet had defeated Zanna and saved the day, and was furious with Juliet ever since. After foiling another zombie attack on San Romero (which was initiated by Katrina, though Juliet doesn't find that out just yet), the Starlings (along with Rosalind's boyfriend and Nick) decide to continue their vacation, heading to Las Vegas. Katrina unleashes another zombie outbreak there, and after Juliet defeats the boss, Katrina finally reveals her duplicity and battles Juliet, severely injuring her. She also tries to zombify Rosalind's boyfriend, but Rosalind is able to save him by severing his head via the same process that Juliet did to Nick in the previous game. The next two levels feature Rosalind (and her talking head boyfriend) and then Cordelia clearing out two more zombie-infested places (Yellowstone and Cheyenne Mountain) as Juliet recovers from her injury. Juliet then visits three more levels (a Texas slaughterhouse, Detroit, and Nashville), stopping zombie infestations there as well. At the end of the seventh level, Katrina shows up again and kidnaps Juliet, which once more forces Rosalind and Cordelia to battle zombies, first in a Disney World spoof that features a boss inspired by the frozen Walt Disney myth, and then in Washington DC, where Katrina is attempting to take over the city and bring back her ancestors as powerful zombies. Interspersed between these two levels are some humorous scenes of Katrina "torturing" Juliet, which is played completely for laughs and fanservice. Eventually Rosalind has to rescue Juliet at the end of the Washington DC level, battling the von Domme family's zombified matriarch at the same time. Juliet is rescued, and returns to battle for the final level, a battle in a New York City overrun by Katrina's zombie hordes. Juliet and Katrina battle it out in an epic final boss fight atop the city's tallest building. The first stage of the fight features Juliet battling Katrina, who is in her own version of Sparkle Dancing mode, and can only be damaged by Juliet herself entering Sparkle Dancing. The next four stages of the fight feature Katrina in a series of increasingly powerful battle mechs. Interspersed between these stages of the fight are scenes of Juliet's family attacking Katrina, only to be seemingly killed one by one: first Cordelia and Nick, then Rosalind and her boyfriend, and then Juliet's dad, before finally, Juliet's mom is able to help Juliet take out Katrina's mech once and for all. Juliet's family returns as Katrina takes on Juliet in one final short clash that ultimately ends with Juliet chopping off one of Katrina's arms. Katrina refuses to surrender, injecting herself with her own zombification serum to turn herself into a zombie, but one QTE later and Katrina gets kicked off the building into a sea of her own zombies, finally putting her out of commission. The Starlings launch a cure into the sky, curing all the zombies that Katrina made (though, like with the San Romero outbreak in the first game, there's still tons of dead people, a fact that the game shrugs off in its typical darkly humorous fashion).
Lollipop Chainsaw 2 is widely praised upon its release for the Reality, Gemini, and Nexus. It's seen as having fixed most of the original game's issues (particularly the original's short length), while characters such as Katrina are exceptionally highly praised. It sees significantly better reviews than the original, with some even calling it a Game of the Year contender, while sales are also outstanding as well. Despite the game's success, Suda51 doesn't want to do a sequel, but he's not so attached to the character that he isn't willing to sell the property to Acclaim outright. Acclaim will do future
Lollipop Chainsaw games, without Suda51's involvement (but possibly with James Gunn's).
Mackinac Nightmare 2
A horror sequel six years in the making, this game is published by Electronic Arts rather than Sony (EA also published a port of the original game, which was once a Sapphire exclusive, for the Virtua and Nexus, allowing more people to experience it). It once again takes place in the upper peninsula of Michigan, and features urban legends, both endemic to the area but also elsewhere, as the protagonist, a sheriff of a small Upper Peninsula town, attempts to defend his town from various horrors that have the town's residents under siege. Most of the game takes place in the town and the area surrounding it, and the player is given a minimum of tools to help them accomplish their mission, limited mostly to a pistol and a flashlight (though you do get heavier weapons later on, and it's also possible to craft). The game mostly relies on atmospheric horror rather than action, and accomplishes those goals fairly well, but does run into a few snags or slow parts here and there. It's overall a decent game, reviewed about as well as the original, but is seen as a bit of a disappointment nonetheless for its rather small scale and somewhat pedestrian graphics. It also becomes lost in a sea of other major releases, making it one of the year's bigger sales disappointments, and Electronic Arts decides to abandon the IP soon after.
Necrocracy 3
The VERY long awaited console port of 2014's PC game includes a lot of the DLC, along with some improvements to the game's ending and some glitch fixes as well. The graphics aren't as good, obviously, but this is still a very good port, with even the Nexus version (which runs at a slower framerate), being quite well regarded. The port averages around a 9/10 on most of the review sites, and overall, is a strong seller on all three consoles, with the Virtua version doing the best thanks to the Oculus push that the game gets around the time of its release. The console ports help to improve
Necrocracy 3's reputation somewhat, and though it's still not as popular as the first two games, it gets the praise it deserves as a strong finish to the trilogy.
Evolve
Similar to OTL's game,
Evolve is a multiplayer-based FPS in which players must become hunters and team up to face a monster, which in multiplayer mode is also controlled by a player. The monster can evolve and change itself to become stronger, forcing the hunters to work together to kill it before it becomes too strong. There's not much of a change from OTL's core gameplay mechanics, though it is notable that ITTL, the game is published by THQ rather than by 2K, and that there's MUCH less of a focus on DLC for this title, with THQ wanting to make it an ongoing multiplayer game with expansions rather than a piecemeal DLC experience. Sales are a bit slow early on, mostly due to competition and slightly weak reviews, but patches and free content improve the game throughout 2016, and a lot more people would pick it up over time as the price drops.
Dragonball Xenoverse
The popular
Dragonball role-playing game in which the player takes the role of a time traveling warrior who goes around to various moments in the series, helping out heroes while battling lots of different
Dragonball villains, is released in late 2015 ITTL, and not only for the consoles, but for the handhelds too. The plot and gameplay are nearly identical to OTL's title, and there's not too much to say about this title except that the handheld versions are considered quite excellent, with even the Connect version losing little in translation. Of course, there's plenty of DLC to be found, which becomes a point of contention, but overall this game is VERY pleasing to Dragonball fans, just like IOTL, and would receive a sequel in a few years time.
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Top Selling New Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):
October 2015:
1. Super Smash Bros. Reality (Nintendo Reality)
2. Assassin's Creed Domination (Apple Virtua)
3. Assassin's Creed Domination (Nintendo Reality)
4. Forza Horizon 2 (Google Nexus)
5. Necrocracy 3 (Apple Virtua)
November 2015:
1. Call Of Duty: Nightfall III (Nintendo Reality)
2. Call Of Duty: Nightfall III (Apple Virtua)
3. Call Of Duty: Nightfall III (Google Nexus)
4. Resident Evil 7 (Apple Virtua)
5. Thrillseekers 3 (Nintendo Reality)
December 2015:
1. Bomberman Royale (Google Nexus)
2. Dragonball Xenoverse (Nintendo Reality)
3. The Conduit 4 (Apple Virtua)
4. Super Peach RPG 2 (Nintendo Connect)
5. Dragonball Xenoverse (Google Nexus)