By Nelson Schneider - 11/30/25 at 12:34 AM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! Winter is upon us, and the deadlines are all drawing near. Will the Games Industry manage to squeeze out a last minute must-play? Or will it be nothing but a succession of constipated turds? Will the MJ Crew be able to clear their Backlog Ablutions? Or will Chris and I (who already have) be getting more free games that we won’t play? Let’s dive into the last dregs of the year and see if there’s anything worth salvaging!
Ugh, well don’t get your hopes up too high for a last minute sock-off-knocker, as the shovelware outnumbers everything else coming in December. In Licensed Swill, there’s a ‘Nicktoons’ game and a ‘Terminator’ game (that was supposed to come out last month)... But that’s really it! There’s no Cazual Swill or Annualized Swill... The rest of the shovelware takes the form of Noteworthy Ports (and there are even more non-noteworthy ports that got pruned from consideration): The Nintendo Switch (not 2) is getting ports of “Final Fantasy 7,” “Final Fantasy 8,” and “Final Fantasy 9,” so those Nintendo fanboys who refused to ever play those games because they were on PlayStation... I guess they can now. Also noteworthy is the fact that “Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024” is leaving Xbox exclusivity to visit the green blue pastures of PlayStation. Apparently the world is turning upside down, because the Indie spiritual successor to ‘Banjo-Kazooey,’ “Yooka-Laylee” is getting a remaster... Seriously? INDIE games are getting remasters now?? “Octopath Traveler 0” is a rehash of a mobile gachapon game, “Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent,” that is being ported to all of the legitimate platforms, but allegedly with all the gachapon and mobile gaming BS removed. (Yeah, right!) And, lastly, there’s a compilation of old ‘Mortal Kombat’ games, because that series is still relevant.
Only three new non-shovel-ready multi-platform titles are dropping in December... and none of them look like winners. “Flying Aces: Legend of the Red Baron” is an oft-delayed Vehicular Combat game that is sure to disappoint. “Goodnight Universe” is an Adventure game about a psychic baby that has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews in Steam Early Access, but interests me not at all. Lastly, there’s “C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield,” which contains the words ‘roguelike deckbuilder’ in the first sentence of its official description... so NO.
Are there even any exclusives? Yes, there are two! Steam is getting the timed exclusive release of another crappy Roguelite in “DunJungle,” while both Nintendo Switches are getting the long-awaited release of “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond,” which I will possibly pick up for my OG Switch if it is reported to run well on the old hardware. But the window for excitement about this game closed a couple years ago.
Bleh. The only things coming in December that I might just POSSIBLE deign to give the time of day are “Octopath Traveler 0” IF it does indeed remove all the mobile guff and is less boring than the original ‘Octopath’ game, and “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” IF it runs well on the original Switch and early reviews make it sound like a better experience than the second and third duds in that series.
Backlog Embiggened: +2, terms and conditions apply
