Most Anticipated Games of 2016

As we close on 2015, many people are looking back at what was released during the year.  Instead of a retrospective, I decided to take a look ahead at 2016 and what titles I am excited to get my hands on.

Now, I tried to pick a variety of games from a variety of systems.  It’s hard to whittle down a list when there are so many exciting games coming out across the board.  After much debate, I’ve decided that the following are the more interesting releases slated for 2016.

Total War: Warhammer (April 28, 2016)

This is by far my most anticipated title for 2016.  I am a long time Warhammer player (both Fantasy and 40k) as well as a huge fan of the Total War series.  I can remember way back, when I was playing the original Medieval: Total War while simultaneously participating in a General’s Compendium Warhammer campaign and wondering how awesome it would be to combine the two.  Sure, we eventually got the Call of Warhammer mod for Medieval II, but it was not really complete.

Of course, the new Total War is not without controversy.  First, it was announced that Chaos would be day one DLC.  Next, it was announced that there will be no mod support at launch.  Combined with the less-than-stellar rollout of Rome II and its associated glitches, Creative Assembly does not have a lot of goodwill to cash in.

Cuphead (TBD 2016)

Cuphead is a game I have not heard a lot about recently, but is truly unique.  The art style is just amazing, and all the animation was done by hand and colored with Photoshop.  Coming from the indie side, this should be awesome.

The gameplay itself it rumored to hearken back to the “Nintendo hard” style, with difficult stages requiring replay, similar to Super Meat Boy.  It will also feature a large list of boss battles, in addition to co-op play.  All of this leads me to believe it will not be a particularly long game, but if it delivers, I’m alright with that.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (January 22, 2016)

This one will be coming out soon to North America, and is already out elsewhere in the world.  The initial reviews have generally been positive, which is a warm welcome from where the series had been going.

Beginning with the Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario RPGs have undergone different iterations, with the latest being the “Mario & Luigi” series.  Perhaps one of the strongest entries were the Paper Mario games for N64 and Gamecube, which subsequently spawned two below-average games in Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star.  It is highly encouraging that Nintendo seems to be bringing the Paper Mario aspect back to its RPG roots, and having it on handheld is even better (now release Thousand Year Door on 3DS please!).

No Man’s Sky (June 2016)

No Man’s Sky may be a victim of its own success.  Successful hype that is.  Everyone has been talking up the space exploration simulator forever now, but we haven’t received a whole lot of detail.  A procedurally generated space sim is quite ambitious, and the development studio is not particularly large.

Despite these qualms, this game has the capacity to really bring something unique yet highly desired to the gaming space.  Given the scope the developers have mentioned, it could be the best game of 2016.  Again, this should be tempered with the realistic capacity of creating a game of this scale.  Either way, this game needs to come with Playstation VR and be less Spore and more Minecraft.

That concludes my most anticipated titles for 2016.  Of course, the list is much longer, including titles like Final Fantasy XV, Uncharted 4, Mighty No.9, The Witness, and others, but I wanted to highlight a couple less talked about games.  It certainly looks like 2016 will be a good year for games.

What are your most anticipated titles for 2016?  Will No Man’s Sky flop?  Comment Below!