By Nelson Schneider - 01/29/22 at 04:59 PM CT
The shortest month of the year is back with 28 days’ worth of crap.
For the second month in a row, there’s no blatant shovelware being dumped on the unsuspecting game-buying public. That’s good news! I wonder how long it can last...
As with last month, though, February isn’t letting off the gas in the slightest when it comes to ports, remasters, remakes, and whatnot. Indeed, the Nintendo Switch – the near-constant Port King for the last half-decade – is getting several ports of remasters: “Grand Theft Auto Trilogy” and “Assassin’s Creed: Ezio Collection.” But that’s not all the Switch is getting dumped on it; it’s also getting “Life is Strange: True Colors.” However, the Switch isn’t the objectively worst dumping ground for February, as the PS5 is getting both “Tormented Souls” and “King of Fighters 15,” is sharing a port of “Assetto Corsa Competizione” with the SeX, while the Playstation 4 and XBONE are getting a port of PC-centric ‘Pokemon’ knock-off, “Monster Crown.”
New multi-platform releases are looking fairly healthy in February – on the surface at least. There are 8 such titles coming, and they’re in a wide variety of diverse genres. There’s a Racing game in “GRID Legends,” another one of Gust’s crappy Alchemy-themed RPGs in “Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream,” From Software’s latest cancerous turd (pooped in collaboration with George R.R. Martin) in “Elden Ring,” a weird Tarot-themed Adventure game in “Martha is Dead,” a super-weeb new IP from Nippon Ichi in “Monark,” yet another ‘Dynasty Warriors’ cookie-cutter from Tecmo-Koei, a new Fishing game (a fairly rare Sports subgenre these days!) in “Bassmaster Fishing 2022,” and Techland’s Zombie Schlock sequel “Dying Light 2: Stay Human.” They may be a diverse lot, but February’s multi-plats have one thing in common: I wouldn’t touch any of them with a 10-foot pole!
Exclusives are pretty barren in February, with Sony pushing the only compelling title of the month in “Horizon: Forbidden West,” the sequel to their first-party Sandbox, “Horizon: Zero Dawn,” which I found the be passable, but nothing exceptional. The other platform getting exclusives in February in the Nintendo Switch, but they aren’t first-party titles… they’re barrel-bottom pulp in game form: A Visual Novel in “Variable Barricade” and yet another crappy Compile Heart/Idea Factory RPG sequel – complete with word-salad title – in “Death end re;Quest 2.”
The only February release I’d even consider buying and playing is “Horizon: Forbidden West.” Of course, in order for that to happen, Sony will have to bring it to PC like they did with the first ‘Horizon’ game, and it’ll need to get an even deeper discount than the first one.
Backlog Embiggened: +1
