Hello! Welcome to this week’s Geeky Brummie Games Release Roundup!

This week, the plumber and hedgehog face off again, two spidered men join forces and some cars go vroom.

I’m back from America! Hello! Because I skipped last week, games released in the past two weeks will be covered today. However, last week didn’t provide many, which makes my life easier because this week is absolutely packed.

Impressively, all three consoles have a major game on offer in this roundup. Nintendo nailed the Game of the Week, but PlayStation have some superhero game and Xbox have a car one, so there’s something for everyone. In terms of personal choices that I think look neat, I can vouch for the excellence of World of Horror based on its time in Early Access, and Laika: Aged Through Blood looks cool (I feel like I played an early build at EGX a few years ago?). Also, Wizard with a Gun earns points just for its excellent title.

We are very much in the “oh god why stop” phase of the year though, as the next few weeks will also be crammed. Pray for me.

New Releases

The gacha game that has no right being as good as it is, Honkai: Star Rail, is now on PS5 as well as its previous PC and mobile releases. Admittedly, I haven’t played some of its major new additions, but you can expect an avalanche of cool anime characters and some excellent writing, as you travel the universe in your magic train. Keep an eye out for the trash can lore too.

Releasing on PC in Early Access, Dreadhunter is shooter RPG where you play a bounty hunter taking out hordes of alien monsters in a procedurally generated world.

In smaller releases this week, Slay the Princess (PC) is a spooky narrative adventure where you must try and murder an ominously persuasive princess, Night Loops (PC) is an isometric point-and-click about a mystery mansion underneath a hotel, Growth (PC) is a grid-based strategy about growing a world using unique animal abilities, and finally, Laika: Aged Through Blood (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a handdrawn action game about protecting a small fox in a violent post-apocalyptic world.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is the sequel to the previous Hot Wheels racing game, which takes the concept of the classic toys to their natural conclusion. Take your toy cars around bright orange tracks set up around the house and try not to crash them into the cat. In video game form!

World of Horror (PC, PlayStation, Switch) is the full release of a spooky adventure game that’s been in Early Access since 2020. I even made it Game of the Week back then, before I implemented my new “no Early Access games for GotW” rule. It’s a visual novel with RPG elements, combining Lovecraft and Junji Ito into a brilliant horrendous mix. It’s a brilliant game, and I can only imagine the full release has improved on the experience vastly. If you’re looking for a good Halloween game, I highly recommend this.

Winning the award for best game title of the week, Wizard with a Gun (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is a survival game set in a magic wilderness full of horrors. Collect resources, hunt monsters and bring a friend to help.

The Jackbox Party Pack 10 (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is the latest in the relentless party game franchise where you and your friends goof around using prompts on your phone. This latest entry features Tee KO 2, where you all make silly t-shirts, Fixy Text, where you and your friends try and improve someone’s terrible texts, Time Jinx, a time-travelling trivia game, Hypnotorious, where everyone answers questions based on identities they’re given, and Dodo-Re-Mi, a rhythm action game.

Endless Dungeon (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a roguelike game set in the Endless universe (Dungeon of the Endless, Endless Space). Recruit a team of goofy misfits and try to survive in an abandoned space station full of monsters.

Star Trek: Infinite (PC) is the kind of grand strategy game you’d expect from Paradox Interactive, just set in the Star Trek universe. Play as the Federation, Klingons, Romulans or Cardassians in a game of galactic diplomacy.

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) is a beat-em-up roguelike set in the Hellboy universe. It features a story developed with input from series creator Mike Mignola.

Lords of the Fallen (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S) is, confusingly, the sequel to Lords of the Fallen (2014). This Soulslike sees you facing off against the demon god Adyr in a brutal quest where you will likely die a lot. That is how this genre works, after all.

Forza Motorsport (PC, Xbox) is the latest in the Forza franchise, representing the “serious” side over Horizon’s party atmosphere. As you’d expect, there is a wider range of fast cars and circuits to blast around, along with a whole bunch of dynamic day-to-night effects making use of “the power of the cloud” or whatever else Microsoft like to claim their games do these days.

Continuing the never-ending march of superhero media, Spider-Man 2 (PS5) is the follow-up to both Spider-Man and Miles Morales from Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games. I hear these games are good if you’re into that sort of thing, but I famously am not. You get to play as two Spider-Men though, so there’s that.

Games of the Week

This week, Game of the Week is going to two games, simply because of the obvious connection. Both Sonic Superstars (PC, PlayStation, Switch, Xbox) and Super Mario Bros Wonder (Switch) are brand new 2D outings for the most iconic platfoming mascots in gaming history. Both games are also co-op.

Sonic Superstars is a classic-style Sonic game, similar to 2017’s Sonic Mania. The main exception here is that the game uses 3D models, giving the game a 2.5D style. All the usual Sonic trappings are here, and now you can bring friends along, with Tails, Knuckles and Amy all being playable, each with their own unique abilities (flight, climbing, a hammer).

Super Mario Bros Wonder is a new 2D entry in Nintendo’s iconic platforming series. It’s set in the Flower Kingdom, where Bowser has used a reality-warping Wonder Flower to turn himself into a flying castle. Expect a lot of experimental weirdness that evokes some of the best of Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3. Also, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, assorted Toads, assorted Yoshis and popular character Nabbit are playable, and yes, co-op play is available.

How can I not hand this combo Game of the Week? It’s the 90s all over again, as both Nintendo and Sega’s mascots go head-to-head in a single week, in somewhat similar games. Of course, Mario is winning this battle again based on limited sales data and the Metacritic scores (Mario’s 93 vs Sonic’s 79) but I have to include both due to my love of both franchises and also because we need more 2D platformers taking the spotlight.