5 Upcoming Games To Be Hyped For

Written by Cristian Stanic

There’s a lot happening in terms of gaming in the second half of the year and beyond, but these are the titles you need to keep your eye on.

Bayonetta 3

IN DEVELOPMENT

The third instalment in the series about a witch who hunts down angels and uses her hair as her main weapon. Maybe you just know her as the obscenely overpowered character from Smash Bros. We didn’t see any of this one at Nintendo’s E3 (disappointingly), but Nintendo has already confirmed that this game is definitely happening, and that, like the previous one, it will be a Switch exclusive.

Normally, we’d be reticent to get too hyped for a game that hasn’t shown off any gameplay yet, but Bayonetta is a great series with two fantastic titles already under its belt. It’s not the most technically deep DMC-inspired action game, but it is a lot of fun to pull off some fairly simple combos and perfect the timing on Bayonetta’s dodges for that coveted Witch Time. The jump in quality from 1 to 2 was great, so if the upward trajectory continues, we should all be looking forward to a great game, especially with the madlads at PlatinumGames back at the helm.

Metroid Prime 4

IN DEVELOPMENT

Okay, sorry. A rule we break here more often than not is getting excited about games that don’t have any gameplay yet. Remember, “no game, no hype”, but again, we can’t help it. The Prime series has been dead for over a decade, and the fans have paid the price for Nintendo’s apparent lack of faith in Samus already (I’m sure we all remember the less-than-stellar Other M). If you’ve been craving some classic Metroid-style platforming and dungeon exploration, hold onto some cash for this one.

No More Heroes 3: Travis Strikes Again

EXPECTED LATE 2018

Aha, here we go! A game we’re comfortable saying “be hyped for”. There is gameplay of this one! And it looks to be continuing the trademark style of wackiness that Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture are known for delivering.

Sure, the first two were simple waggle-control action titles for the original Wii, but they had a whole lot of personality, especially for a Wii game. This was a system that sold itself on its kid-friendly nature, having a game about crazy assassins hunting each other down and murdering each other, featuring a horny otaku with a lightsaber as the main character. Good times.

Fist Of The North Star: Lost Paradise

OUT OCT 2

Yo yo yo, here we go! It’s brutal, it’s bloody, it’s anime Mad Max meets Yakuza! This combination, of a series with such a rich universe, and the development team behind Yakuza, seems like such an obvious idea now that it’s actually been made, we’re shocked it hasn’t been done sooner.

In the gameplay demo, Kenshiro makes cocktails at a bar, then goes right out into the street and starts beating some lowlife thugs, in a crazy spectacle of flashy, over-the-top moves. The combat looks different enough from Yakuza that it looks like it will still feel like its own beast, particularly with those ‘Strike’ attacks, where you have to time a button press to trigger a painful-looking special move.

Yakuza has always been known for its insanely detailed worlds, packed with hundreds of hours of optional side content, and if they can bring that signature style of gameplay to this iconic dystopia manga, we are definitely down for it.

Devil May Cry 5

EXPECTED EARLY 2019

Dante, Nero, and (hopefully) the rest of the demon hunting crew from Devil May Cry are back. This is the game to be excited for! Ten years in the making, but only six years in development (what’s up with that, Itsuno? Why do you play with our hearts like this!?), this game is going to place the “Best Action Game” crown back where it belongs, on the head of our saviour Dante.

You are also allowed to be excited about this, because, while they haven’t shown a lot of gameplay, it’s enough to be getting hyped over. It looks like you can still pull off a lot of the same moves with Nero that you could in DMC4, but now with an added layer of complexity in the form of his new ‘Devil Breaker’ robot arms.

The trailer showed us that Nero could carry four on his belt at once, which we assume means mid-combo switching, and with every arm boasting a different ability, we can’t wait to see all the combo potential!

The game looks visually gorgeous, but director Hideaki Itsuno has assured the fans that the dev team’s commitment to the gameplay still comes before graphics (lookin’ at you, DmC).