Genre News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Topping 2023 is going to be difficult for fighting games, given the year saw the release of new entries in some of the most celebrated franchises ever such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, alongside a few other titles that gave players plenty of opportunities to beat up other player and prove their mettle virtually.

The most endearing aspect of the SteamWorld series is how each of its games relates to one another despite their disparate genres. From tower defense to turn-based RPG, each title offers a unique spin on a specific gameplay experience while adhering to a shared mythos, resulting in a fun collection of games that coalesce thematically. SteamWorld Build, Thunderful's city-builder/RTS hybrid, serves as the latest iteration of this formula. Sporting streamlined genre mechanics, intuitive controls, and charming visuals, many essential parts are in place. Unfortunately, despite a solid foundation, SteamWorld Build struggles to maintain an engaging experience throughout its campaign.

Persona 5 has become its own sort of mini-franchise within the Persona series. With many spin-off titles released over the years, such as Persona 5 Strikers, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, Atlus seems to love using Persona 5’s popularity to explore new stories and gameplay ideas. However, I applaud Atlus for making all of these spin-offs in completely different genres from each other. The latest, Persona 5 Tactica, delivers an entertaining story, a colorful cast of characters, and fun combat mechanics within the context of a strategy RPG. Longtime Phantom Thieves can look forward to an enjoyable side adventure, but its uneven pacing and low enemy variety hold it back from being a true revolution.

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

Let’s not beat around the proverbial bush; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the best Prince of Persia game for the last twenty-one years. Heck, it might even be better than Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, though that particular argument involves taking on nostalgia, and that’s a battle I get nervous about as it is one I cannot win. What I can say with supreme confidence is this; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is utterly brilliant.

Rocksteady Studios has told Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League alpha test participants they’re now free to share their impressions of the game.

Any gamer who regularly browses Steam (and, to a lesser degree, the console digital stores) is probably already aware of the sheer multitude of games that are coming to the market. For years now, the so-called backlog of each gamer has been getting longer due to the accumulation of previously unplayed titles and the launch of new titles. While to a certain extent this is proof of a vibrant industry, it also engenders a series of problems: obviously, there is only a finite amount of time that users can dedicate to their games, and they also compete against other hobbies.

Benoit Clerc, the head of publishing at video game publisher and gaming peripheral manufacturer Nacon, has been reflecting on the current state of the games industry in a new interview.

When Final Fantasy X exploded onto the PlayStation 2 in 2001, it revolutionized not just the Final Fantasy series but the role-playing genre as a whole. The tuned-to-perfection turn-based combat, the beautiful soundtrack, the heartfelt story, and the eye-popping-for-the-time visuals created one of the most important entries of one of the most important franchises in video game history. However, one element was absent from Final Fantasy X that several of the key developers involved with the project lamented: an explorable world map.

The quality of video game releases in 2023 has been discussed in detail by many, and it will absolutely go down as one of the best years the medium has experienced, strictly in terms of the excellent games that were released. The larger industry and its members will always look back on 2023 with justified frustration.

It’s no secret that 2023 is off to a raucous start with multiple high-scoring games hitting within the first few months of the year. This list will be your guide to every gaming experience Game Informer considers a must-play in 2023, encompassing the best games you can play on platforms like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC, among others.

What is it? A time-bending metroidvania that marks a new era of Prince of Persia. Release date January 18, 2024Expect to pay £45 / $50 Developer Ubisoft Montpellier, UbisoftPublisher UbisoftReviewed on Nvidia GeForce RTX3070, AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 32GB RAMSteam Deck N/ALink Official site

What is it? A city builder with Dungeon Keeper-like layers, set in a world of steampunk robots.Release date December 1, 2023Expect to pay TBCDeveloper The StationPublisher Thunderful PublishingReviewed on Nvidia Geforce RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 32GB RAMSteam Deck PlayableLink Official site

What is it? A turn-based strategy spin-off of Persona 5. Release date November 17, 2023 Expect to pay $60/£55 Developer P-Studio Publisher Sega Reviewed on RTX 4080, Ryzen 7 7700X, 64GB RAM Steam Deck Verified Link Official site

What was once a stalwart of Ubisoft‘s release schedule, spawning well-loved games like The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones, Prince of Persia’s fortunes declined almost in parallel with the meteoric rise of Ubisoft’s biggest franchise, Assassin’s Creed.

Sitting down to write this review, I could barely believe Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the first new entry in the Prince of Persia franchise in 13 years. After both considering my time with this game and the rich history the series has enjoyed until now, I had to remind myself why that is.

Echo, the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is probably going to fly under a lot of people’s radar. The urgency of the interconnected superhero setting has ebbed as Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. retool their offerings, and that goes double for a show that’s spinning off a minor character from a two-year-old miniseries into a five-episode miniseries on Hulu and Disney Plus, and making teases about another less-than-imminent show.

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Minecraft Legends has ended active development.

Another mini console has seemingly appeared on the ESRB rating database, with the Atari ‘The400 Mini’ tagging onto the long tail of the mini console craze with a collection of Atari 400 games to delight the older gaming souls out there.

Amid the altogether glowing launch reception for Baldur's Gate 3, which went on to win just about every GOTY award under the sun and which we also put at the summit of the best games of 2023, there were a fair few reviews and posts from long-time CRPG fans who argued that Larian's take on the series felt more like a Divinity game than a Baldur's Gate game. That's not necessarily calling it bad – the Divinity games are beloved, after all – but perhaps it just doesn't feel like the Baldur's Gates of old. And I remember similar conversations around Baldur's Gate 3's early access launch about three years ago.

A January Jason Statham action movie titled The Beekeeper comes with the weight of expectations. “Beekeeper” must have a double meaning. The movie must be littered with tongue-in-cheek bee puns and references. The action must be fun and creative, ideally with bee-centered hijinks. And above all, the movie must be ridiculous, but with a straight face that hides the knowing wink behind the curtain.

Just over two years ago, Netflix announced it would enter a new business: gaming. Amid a mobile gaming market dominated by free-to-play and ad-supported business models, Netflix’s plan was to make its games free without ads or in-app purchases. The gambit may now be starting to pay off. In 2023, Netflix Games downloads increased by over 180% year-over-year, according to estimates from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. In total, the games have been downloaded 81.2 million times worldwide across the App Store and Google Play in 2023, with the fourth quarter accounting for around 53% of those downloads.

If you’re playing on the PlayStation 5, then chances are you’re subscribed to PlayStation Plus. It’s a pretty much must-have subscription service for the platform. But if you’re keen on getting the most gaming out of your buck, then taking on one of the more premium tiers for PlayStation Plus might be well worth the investment. There are three tiers of PlayStation Plus, and if you’re on at least the PlayStation Plus Extra tier, you will gain access to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. 

Tabletop RPG design studio Son of Oak has had enormous success with City of Mist, a game that combines superhero action with a setting steeped in noir atmosphere and mythological magic. In fact, it's so full of cool ideas that I put it in our list of the best alternatives to D&D. 

Rocksteady Studios is gearing up to release their latest game, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. The team is well known for their work on the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series, and understandably, some fans are pretty darn excited to jump back into that world – albeit from a different perspective. Heck, in a different genre entirely. 

Warner Bros. has lined up David Bruckner to direct its reimagining of the iconic sci-fi horror The Blob. According to The Wrap, the filmmaker, whose previous genre titles include The Ritual, The Night House, and Hellraiser, will also pen the script to the modern take on the cult monster movie.

Metroidvanias tend to be slow, deliberate experiences where the focus is on exploration and accumulating new tools. Bullet hells feel like the polar opposite in many ways – they’re fast-paced, linear adrenaline-rush experiences where you face an immediate, overwhelming threat that you can only overcome with quick reflexes. It doesn’t feel like the two genres would mesh too well on paper, yet CreSpirit and GemaYue made it work flawlessly in their 2016 bullet-dodging rabbit-vania Rabi-Ribi. Now, the development team behind that genre mashup have returned with a follow-up called TEVI – and while it’s a different flavour of anime girl adventure entirely, it’s also an incredible Metroidvania that genre veterans and newcomers alike will adore.

Palworld, the open-world survival and crafting adventure from developer Pocketpair that looks a lot like Pokémon with guns, is launching into early access on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Game Pass next Friday, 19th January.

Baldur's Gate 3 managed to break out of the traditional CRPG demographic and capture the hearts and minds of total newcomers to the genre (like me). This was hugely exciting to see, but it inevitably caused some headaches for folks who found themselves intimidated by the game's unfamiliar rules and systems (again, like me). The cure to this headache, according to Larian senior RPG designer Anna Guxens, is to simply "roll with it" instead of trying to understand and master everything perfectly. 

Through preordained fate or pure chance, 2023 will go down as one of the best years ever when it comes to the quality and quantity of games released throughout the year. Most of these games were likely originally targeting 2022 or even earlier, but the global pandemic threw everyone's plans in the air and forced us to wait until 2023. As they say, though, good things come to those who can wait.

After the customary New Year cooling off period where Steam's release lineup consists almost entirely of experimental indies enjoying the uncommon quiet, one of the biggest genres on PC is about to kick it into high gear. The survival game space is due for a double whammy later this month with Palworld and Enshrouded, both among the most wishlisted survival games on Steam according to SteamDB, now confirmed to be launching less than a week apart.

Following the massive success of Disney Lorcana, Disney and publisher Ravensburger are setting their eyes on another genre, as it makes the jump from trading card games to tabletop RPGs with Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls.

Lift isn’t your standard heist movie. The trademarks of the genre – a slick ensemble (here led by Kevin Hart), impossible odds, and a deliciously evil target (ruthless banker Jorgensen, played by Jean Reno) – are all present but, as Hart tells GamesRadar+, there are a few more wildcards to help set it apart from its sticky-fingered peers.

2024 is revving up, and 2024 TV is following suit. This week, some big name players are coming to grace our television screens, and tee up some genuinely good TV to get our new year really rockin’ and rollin’.

Prepare your heart, because EastAsiaSoft is bringing two of the Hakuoki games to Switch as part of Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom. It will bundle together 2017’s Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds with 2018’s Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms.

Game developer veterans from RPG companies like Obsidian and Bioware say that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling, as outlined in a series of tweets made just before the holidays.

A Naughty Dog developer has warned future The Last of Us 2 Remastered players that the upcoming game's roguelike mode is "not recommended for weak hearts."

Two former C-suite staff at developer Phoenix Labs have founded a brand new studio called Critical Path Games.

2023 has seen my gaming life jump off of a cliff. Due to a promotion at the day job, I'm an elected councillor, and I have two gorgeous cats, which means I have a lot on - not to mention other family commitments, illnesses, and general "why is life?!" moments. That doesn't stop me from playing games; it just means I have to be selective, and something needs to make me want to play it. Yes, that is precisely why I reviewed Arrow a Row. You're here for Wccftech's Best Strategy and Simulation Games of 2023, so let's get started.

Genre veterans have explained how retail companies (Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, and more) contributed to the death of isometric role-playing games. 

As the roster of RPGs using Anime-style art and storylines grows, fans are always looking for the next big hit. That’s why the Wuthering Waves release date is so important, because it could redefine the genre with its combat, character, and narrative offerings.

Character-based historical 4X Old World will release a fourth DLC on January 11th, Wonders and Dynasties, bringing a whole, whole lot of new historical characters to the dynastic politics of your ancient empires. Something like 120 new characters, in fact, ranging from Hannibal and Caesar to Khufu and Stateira. That alongside 21 new character traits for those historicals and 100-some new events related to the politics of your imperial dynasty.

2023 ended on a very sour note for Goodreads. In early December, a writer was exposed for review bombing other authors, and she ultimately lost her book deal. While this scandal was horrifying, what’s more so is that it wasn’t surprising — nor was it the first high-profile case of review bombing on Goodreads that happened last year.

One former Stardew Valley developer is setting off on their own to create an urban take on the life sim genre. 

Hunter x Hunter: Nen X Impact has just been revealed. A new fighting game based on the Hunter x Hunter manga series, Nen X Impact was unveiled with a short teaser trailer, showing some of the characters preparing to duke it out.

Happy new year, Polygon readers! The holiday season is behind us, and 2024 beckons.

Exodus, an upcoming space RPG from genre veterans, will have multiple endings depending on your choices.

In a new trailer running down accessibility features for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ubisoft has revealed a map option so smart that every Metroidvania should make use of it.

Happy new year, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

PC Gamer contributor Noah Smith declared near the end of 2023 that it was another great year for boomer shooters, but he had one request: Can we call them something else now? The answer appears to be a firm no, as «boomer shooter» has now officially taken its place as a tagged genre on Steam.

Ubisoft has revealed an array of accessibility options that will be available to players in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Ubisoft has revealed the specs for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and it seems that optimizing the game for the Nintendo Switch has given all consoles a boost. 

The combination of horror and Western is a surprisingly untapped resource. Aside from notable exceptions like Red Dead Undead Nightmare and Bone Tomahawk, this mixture of genres doesn’t get used anywhere near as often as it should. Hyperstrange’s Blood West is the latest to take advantage of the heady mix of high noon and darkest night and does so in a way that surprised me many times.

Studio 67—AKA Salman Arif—describes Chicky Pop as a “minimal drop merge puzzle game”, which might just be the most poetically concise description we’ve ever read.

Steam has added another genre tag to the digital storefront, this time officially recognizing the old-school "boomer shooters," as games about booming and shooting surge. 

Our Game of the Year coverage continues with the Best PS5, PS4 Puzzle Game of 2023, of which a top four has been put together by the Push Square editorial team. In this new category, we're highlighting the best games that make solving puzzles their main gameplay element. These titles will test you in creative ways, resulting in a ton of satisfaction once solved.

For the many accolades Larian Studios' roleplaying epic, Baldur's Gate 3, has earned, the fact that it even exists is somehow still its most impressive accomplishment of all. Its predecessor, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, was released almost a quarter of a century ago and is still considered one of the all-time genre greats. Not only did Larian surpass it with Baldur's Gate 3, it reimagined the classic series for a new generation and found monstrous success in the process.

Platform games have had a standout year. 2023 has been one of the best years for the genre since perhaps 2018 and its catalog of La Mulana 2, among others. As usual, Nintendo’s seal of quality shines through with their representation, but there’s a fair bit to jump and collect regardless of your console (or PC) preference. Metroidvanias took a backseat this year to traditional platformers. While sidescrollers still reign supreme in the genre, Ghostrunner 2 was a pleasant surprise that took that parkour action I loved from the original Mirror’s Edge and cranked it up to a whole new level.

The headline of this article is kind of silly. Heck, it might not even make sense once broken down into its core components. It’s there for a reason though –  it’s there because Pokemon, as a franchise, is just as ludicrously nonsensical. So much so, that Game Freak has no chance of actually breaking the curse brought on by decades of success. So totally not clickbait. Probably.

Well, it’s finally over. The year of our lord, 2023, has been, gone, and will never return. We now stare down the barrel of 2024, and honestly, it’s looking pretty swanky in the gaming space. Grim everywhere else, granted, but the games look cool. Before we say goodbye once and for all, I thought it would be swell if I had a glance at some games that didn’t get much attention in 2023 and give them their time in the sun. 

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is not expected to be particularly challenging to run. As a 2.5D perspective action platformer, Ubisoft chose to prioritize genre over technology. That comes with quite a few upsides.

The Banshees of Inisherin star Kerry Condon has a lot more respect for horror actors after starring in Night Swim, her first-ever horror venture.

Microsoft added 150 games to Xbox Game Pass in 2023, the total of which was valued at over $5,000.

Jason Blum's Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster, two of the biggest horror production companies in Hollywood, have officially merged. 

Given the vast number of fighting games and arena brawlers based on popular Shonen anime and manga, fans might assume that all the major franchises have seen English-language video game releases, but one major title that has been overlooked up until now could see its first localized game soon: . Shonen is perhaps the best-known category of manga and anime in the West, featuring over-the-top battles and heroic adventures. These translate particularly well to video games, and most of the big-name series, especially those released in the publication Shonen Jump, have found audiences in English-speaking territories. is one Shonen Jump hit that has, unfortunately, never had a video game localized outside of Japan.

Plenty of battle royales are out there, and we continue to see new games released regularly. However, few seem to hit their strides and manage to gain a massive audience. One of the few games that have helped pave the way for the genre has been Fortnite, a game that captivated players worldwide. We’ve continued to see Epic support this title and deliver thrilling new events, crossovers, and maps. However, some fans always would like to step back to the good old days. Fortnite OG offered just that as it stripped back the game to its early years. 

Every few years, a new action movie recalibrates expectations for the genre. It happened in 2011 with The Raid: Redemption, it happened in 2014 with John Wick, and it’s about to happen again with Mayhem!, the new revenge thriller from many of the people behind the brilliant first season of Gangs of London.

What does it truly mean to “play a video game?” That might seem like a basic question, and many might reply, “You turn the game on and use your controller or keyboard to play it!” But it’s a bit more philosophical than that. What does it mean to truly “play?” That’s a question that Masahiro Sakurai decided to answer in his latest YouTube video, and he actually didn’t reference himself or his experience when defining it. Or, at least, not at first. Instead, he gave an answer from a book called, “Man, Play and Games.” In it, the author defined four different metrics that define “play” in its many forms.

Going into 2023, it seemed like the year was poised to be a landmark one for the horror genre, and it mostly delivered the goods. Some games expected for 2023, like the Silent Hill revival, didn’t materialize, but we still got rock-solid remakes of games like Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 and some terrifying new nightmares like Alan Wake 2. So, summon up your courage for Wccftech’s Best Horror Games of 2023…

Jordan Peele says his mysterious next film might be his favorite.

The owner of the speedrunning Shiba Inu, Peanut Butter, has revealed the secret behind the good boy's success.

Some of the most iconic characters from children's tales have entered the public domain, and for fans of Lies of P - Neowiz's twisted and brilliant take on Pinocchio - that's a very exciting prospect.

Brand-new year, brand-new TV! We’re not totally done with last year’s television, though: This Sunday will be the Golden Globe Awards, honoring a lot of the best films and TV shows of 2023 (along with some duds — award shows, what’re you gonna do?). That will be airing at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST, and will be streaming at the same time it’s on CBS.

Pure adventure games are a peculiar genre. Some of the most popular games nowadays belong to the action/adventure genre, but for the purposes of our year-end lists, we prefer to split this category into action and adventure.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a huge game with many different routes to take, but eventually, it's time to move on. As it happens, Larian has a long history with the CRPG genre, so understandably, many have gone back to play the studio's previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Baldur's Gate 3 can be quite tricky if you're new to the genre, as it gives you multiple different things to juggle, such as Advantage, Status Effects, Spell Slots, and more. One of the most important things to manage properly is your Armor Class, which determines whether an enemy hits or misses you when they roll. Have it too low, and you'll take a beating from pretty much every attack, and enemies will rarely miss.

Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick will produce and star in the themed slasher movie New Fears Eve, which is currently in post-production. To celebrate the turn of the year, a New Fears Eve poster has been unveiled.

Keeping track of all the latest video games coming out is an increasingly complex task, what with multiple PC storefronts, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, mobile, and more to keep track of, but don’t worry, I’m here to help. Every month I'll be running down the games you need to be keeping an eye on, from the big triple-A headliners, to the intriguing indies you might otherwise overlook.