E3 may be dead, but its spirit lives on in the Summer Game Awards. Geoff Keighley’s annual showcase was light on big blockbusters, by his own admission, but it was made up for with a variety of double-A and indie titles that caught everyone’s attention. Here’s the best of what we saw that fell in our wheelhouse in what’s the start of an E3-less weekend of game reveals and announcements.
It’s been a minute since we last had a Power Rangers game, and even longer since it wasn’t a fighting one. Rita’s Rewind puts the original teenagers with attitude against a robotic version of their longtime foe, and she’s using time travel to team up with the actual Rita so they can get rid of the Rangers once and for all. Up to five players will team up to fight the Ritas and their henchmen in locations from the Mighty Morphin show dolled up in the style of an old 2D brawler. Some of the show’s events and episodes will show up in the game as remixed versions, and players will even get to take control of the Megazord before all’s said and done.
Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is currently available to wishlist on Steam, and it’ll morph into a full release later this year.
We here at io9 are no stranger to mechs, whether it’s on our TVs or being assembled on our desks. As such, we’re curious about Amazing Seasun’s multiplayer title Mecha Break, which lets players customize their giant robot however they wish before hopping in and going to war. Different mech types and the ability to easily switch between ground and air battles is exciting enough, but the mech designs coming courtesy of Gundam alums Takayuki Yanase and Junya Ishigaki makes the game even more worth paying attention to.
Mecha Break’s deploy date is currently TBD.
Last year, Blumhouse opened up a video game studio so it had another medium to scare audiences in. As it turns out, the company has six games it’ll be publishing all of them from indie studios like Cozy Game Pals, Perfect Garbage, and Eyes Out. What’s interesting to see is how they each cover a different type of horror and format: Vermila’s Crisol Theater of Dolls looks to be a horror-shooter, while PlayMeStudio’s The Simulation is focused on horror from a technology aspect. That range of experiences is a good move, particularly as an opening salvo of what Blumhouse hopes to be a long life as a game publisher.
Of the ones shown, the biggest is Project C, courtesy of Immortality studio Half Mermaid. Sam Barlow, who directed and wrote that game, is teaming with filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg (Infinity Pool) for that one.
Remember around this time last year when Paramount revealed it was doing a TV show based on Among Us? After Innersloth revealed they’d be funding a bunch of upcoming indie games, the studio also provided a look at the animated series in the form of its apparent intro. You don’t get to hear its weirdly packed voice cast, but it very much looks like the games in that the crew members are doing tasks or goofing off while an intruder picks them off one by one, with everyone else on the ship remaining blissfully unaware until it’s too late.
The Among Us series, headed up by Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis, will premiere “soon.”
PlayStation’s Horizon series is about a post-apocalyptic warrior named Aloy fighting machine animals and the evil AI using them to destroy the world. Naturally, that means it’s time for LEGO to give the series a lighthearted, kid-friendly touch. Players will explore toy versions of the Horizon universe, fight some toy-looking robot animals, and also build a base every now and again. And in a first for the franchise, it’s making the trek to Nintendo Switch, in addition to PlayStation 5 and PC.
Lego Horizon Adventures will build itself up this holiday season.
Funcom first revealed its MMO for the Dune series a few years ago, and its newest trailer provides some actual narrative context for what players will be fighting for. Set in an alternate timeline where Paul Atreides was never born and things went significantly different, players will side with either the Atreides or Harkonnens in a war of the Great Houses on Arakkis that’s also left the Fremen on the run. And to truly sell the idea that this is an alternate version of the Dune story, players will meet Ariste, the daughter Jessica and Leto would’ve had if Jessica stayed on the Bene Gesserit course.
Dune: Awakening will let the spice flow in the near future for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Capcom took the Monster Hunter series to new heights with Monster Hunter World in 2018, and now the studio is ready to do it all over again. Wilds takes players to the desert and plains as they investigate and hunt down giant beasts using a plurality of weapons. There may be new environmental dangers, but it’s nothing having some extra Hunters on hand can’t fix.
Monster Hunter Wilds begins its expedition sometime in 2025 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Bokeh Game Studio is made up of developers who worked on the Silent Hill games, and they’ve brought that experience to their debut project Slitterhead. It’s not a horror game so much as it is an action-horror one, where players take on the role of an apparent entity that can hop from body to body whenever it wants, and the victim doesn’t even need to be human for them to take over. They’ll then use that body to create weapons from their own…well, body, and fight monsters eager to rip them apart. Claws, spears, miniguns—if it can be made from blood or bone, it can take down some gnarly beasts hanging around town.
Expect Slitterhead to take you over on November 8 for PlayStation (4 and 5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
High-profile showcases like SGF tend to have a delightfully odd game that stands alongside the larger titles, and this year’s is Killer Bean. As the titular rogue assassin, players will go through a new story (and POV between first and third-person) each time they begin a new run. While the setup may change, what won’t is how the game takes after action movies and set pieces so common in the genre, from abandoned train tunnels and snowy forests to empty construction sites and dogfights. The game was made by Jeff Lew, a film animator that’s previously worked on Matrix Reloaded and the Transformers movies, which helps explain why it looks so ridiculously appealing.
Killer Bean arrives on Early Access later this summer.
RPG fans love Persona, and they especially love how Atlus has revitalized the series with Persona 5 and updates to Persona 3 and Persona 4. While it has key staff from those games (such as art director Katsura Hashino and art designer Shigenori Soejima), Metaphor looks like a unique beast all its own. Atlus previously called the game its first “full-scale fantasy RPG,” and the game’s newest trailer leans into that as it shows off the Archetypes (or classes) that players will inhabit during what’s probably a long journey. After a hot Persona streak, it’s hard not be excited for whatever this game’s got up its sleeve.
Metaphor: ReFantazio releases October 11 on PC, PlayStation (4 and 5) and Xbox Series X|S.
