Top Ten First-Party Nintendo Switch Exclusives

Let's cap off the work week right with a brand-new top ten list on SPC. This time around we're going to be taking a look at the best first-party exclusives on the Nintendo Switch so far. There's one caveat of sorts, and that's that each game has to only be able to be played on the Nintendo Switch, so games that have Wii U versions, even enhanced ones like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, are excluded from this list. However, remakes of older titles from previous systems are allowed. So, let's get to counting down the best of Nintendo's Switch lineup, offering a copious amount of variety in genres, franchises, and styles!

10) Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield

The countdown begins with a familiar favorite, the ever-popular monster-catching and battling series of Pokémon with the dual versions of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Adventuring in the Galar region sees prospective Pokémon trainers journeying through plenty of expansive and beautiful pastures, including the all-new Wild Area, as well as the huge cities and other sections of the game. Gigantamax battles and the combat against gym leaders made for impressive encounters, too. What makes Pokémon Sword and Shield even more worthwhile is the addition of downloadable content in the form of two new areas in Galar: The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, bringing with it new Pokémon to catch and new challenges to tackle. It makes a game that was already rather content-rich into an even richer game.

9) Paper Mario: The Origami King

Releasing over the summer, and after bouncing off the previous entry, Paper Mario: Color Splash, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the latest in the Paper Mario series, Paper Mario: The Origami King. Not only is the game full of charm, lovely and cleverly designed areas to explore for all sorts of collectibles, and filled with a well done script featuring an abundance of humor, but the battle system this time around was something I actually liked. It was worthwhile in the sense that all battles were essentially puzzles to solve, awarding coins to be used to purchase myriad goods outside of simply more items for battle. Paper Mario: The Origami King stands as one of my favorite Switch games released this year, and one that I will no doubt come back to in the not-so-distant future.

8) Splatoon 2

It's time to get funky and fresh with the Inklings from the Splatoon series with the inked up sequel to the Wii U's breakout hit. Splatoon 2 features a brand-new campaign, serving as not just a collection of well executed obstacle course levels to shoot, splat, and paint one's way through, but also to serve as a primer and tutorial for hopping online in the 4v4 competitive modes. No doubt the latter is the main draw, offering a pleasant smattering (or is it "splattering"?) of maps to learn, tactics to master, and a wide assortment of weapons to become acquainted with. I'm not usually one for competitive shooters, as I find the genre to be a bit overdone, but Splatoon and its amazing Switch sequel bring an exuberant amount of freshness, originality and uniqueness to a somewhat tired genre.

7) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Last year, players got the wonderful opportunity to return to Koholint Island, playing one of the most cherished entries in The Legend of Zelda series. It was almost like a dream come true! (Wink, wink!) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening sees the remake of a Game Boy classic with everything modeled like a collection of toys set in a diorama. The adventure is as fantastic, if not better than ever before thanks to a multitude of quality of life upgrades, most notably having additional buttons to assign items to. Players can even design their own dungeons using pieces of completed in-game dungeons, and while the level of freedom certainly holds no candle to the Super Mario Maker series, it is enjoyable enough. This is especially so if you try to complete Dampe's construction challenges, which serve as puzzles in how you to have to select the correct rooms and place them properly to satisfy each design condition. Overall, it was a tremendous privilege to be able to revisit Koholint Island and Link's Awakening.

6) Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Three houses, three unique stories, and an astounding amount of maps, strategies, characters, and weapons to employ all make this next game on this list an insanely enjoyable strategy RPG. Fire Emblem: Three Houses offers a surprisingly dark at times story to digest with characters that are hardly one-dimensional, giving great performances and possessing a great deal of depth. Battles are as incredible as ever, continuing the Fire Emblem franchise's rock-paper-scissors-esque strengths and weaknesses system, and presenting a sizable variety of combat scenarios to engage in. Between battles, scampering around Garreg Mach Monastery sees players interact with their students, teach classes, participate in mock battles, purchase weapons and other goods, and enjoy one-on-one events with characters. Fire Emblem: Three Houses leaped to the top of the list of my favorite Fire Emblem games, and with all of the aforementioned factors, it's no wonder why. 

5) Luigi's Mansion 3

Speaking of entries that jumped to the top of my list, Luigi's Mansion 3 delights with Luigi's journey through the Last Resort hotel. Filled with ghosts and specters of all villainous varieties, the Last Resort is by no means a friendly place, but Luigi and his patented, trusty and literally dusty Poltergust G-00 are there to vanquish all that goes bump in the night. Between the masterful puzzles, some of which spread across multiple rooms for some particularly tricky brain teasers, the showdowns against boss ghosts, the different themed floors of the hotel, and the absolutely jaw-dropping visuals on display, Luigi's Mansion 3 offers a lot to love. That's not even going into the co-operative goodness that is the Scarescraper, allowing up to four players to search rooms of a given floor for a means of escape. It's quite the fright..eningly good time! All of this makes Luigi's Mansion 3 a scary good entry in the series and one of the Nintendo Switch's top exclusives first-party-wise. 

4) Super Mario Maker 2

The next two first-party exclusives are ones that I have dedicated the most time to on the Nintendo Switch. With Super Mario Maker 2, everything from the story mode that shows players possible design ideas to implement into their own levels, to jumping online and playing other creators' levels, to designing my own creations and making a Super World--essentially my own Mario game--out of them, I spent an exceptionally lengthy amount of time with Nintendo's Mario level creation suite. Then, there is the multiplayer, where one can leap online and either compete or play with other players co-operatively. The online at first was quite a mess with plenty of lag, but as of now, things have tidied up considerably, making for a much more enjoyable experience. A game where you can create your own levels is only as good as its creators, and fortunately, the pickings of excellent levels certainly aren't slim in Super Mario Maker 2. Yes, there's definitely a lot of poorly made and ill-conceived levels online, but take a shovel with you and you'll eventually find some gold.

3) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

There is no game that was better for a quarantine and pandemic than Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The ability to "visit" people--albeit in virtual form brought countless people and players around the world together in ways that just wasn't responsible or possible face-to-face due to the pandemic. Plus, New Horizons just offers so much with its monthly events, endless amount of tasks to do and accomplish, islanders to talk to and become friends with, and a multitude of furniture and various odds and ends to decorate one's home and island with. The addition of new updates allows more and more reasons to keep returning to players' islands, and I know for certain that this particular player has been doing just that. What is usually a three month game for me with past Animal Crossing games has turned into a yearlong ambition, and that's mostly because this specific Animal Crossing has so much that I love about it.

2) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

A game that keeps on giving in the form of new characters, stages, and updates (though the latter is the only thing that is gratis; the others require paid DLC) is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I don't know if there is a more fitting name for this Super Smash Bros. either than Ultimate, as throwing in every playable fighter ever featured in a Smash Bros. game, tossing in the majority of stages from every past Smash Bros. game, and chucking in an abundance of new modes and features for good measure makes a very compelling argument. There is just SO much content packed inside Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the actual fighting mechanics are my favorite in a Smash Bros. game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is an absolutely amazing and stellar love letter to gaming, an excellent fighter in its own right, and one of my favorite Nintendo Switch first-party exclusives.

1) Super Mario Odyssey

However, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is not my absolute favorite. That title goes to none other than Super Mario Odyssey, Mario's biggest and boldest 3D platforming outing. The amount of freedom that players have to reach destinations throughout the expansive kingdoms featured in Odyssey is something to truly behold. The additions to Mario's move set thanks to Cappy, his throwable hat, makes his repertoire of moves his grandest and most ambitious yet. Never has Mario controlled so exquisitely, feeling so tight, enabling such mobility. Plus, the expansive kingdoms that Mario gets to explore is something to cherish, too, delivering impressive platforming challenges, myriad enemies and objects to capture, sights to see and take in, and wonders behind every corner. The Power Moons are fun to find, as well, giving players motivation and rewarding curiosity every step of the way. Super Mario Odyssey is a fantastic title, and one that I routinely return to since it just plays so well, feels so good, and makes me so happy when I'm in the act of playing it.

Honorable Mentions:

ARMS, Ring Fit Adventure, Yoshi's Crafted World, Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu! / Let's Go, Eevee!

Which Nintendo Switch first-party exclusives are your favorites? Drop a comment below to let the SPC community know!

Review Round-Up - September 2017

If Mario + Rabbids can turn out awesomely, what other odd combinations
could work? Final Fantasy + Mortal Kombat? ...Nah.

September not only brought autumn for a fair portion of the world, but it brought five new reviews to SuperPhillip Central. It's not the optimal number I like to hit each month (that would be six), but these were satisfying enough to play and write nonetheless.

Things kicked off with Splatoon 2, which splatted its way to a B thanks to some clever and addicting gameplay but clumsy online options. Then, a Review Redux put The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds back under focus a few years after its original release, earning an A. Meanwhile, try as the developers did, Beach Buggy Racing was not a satisfying arcade kart racer, falling off the track quite a bit with a D grade. From there, Samus Aran made her majestic comeback with Metroid: Samus Returns, plundering planet SR388 for a B+. Finally, an unpredictable combination and one that seemed unlikely to be as great as it was, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle serves as SuperPhillip Central's featured game of the month, scoring an A-!

Splatoon 2 (NS) - B
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) - A
Beach Buggy Racing (NS) - D
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) - B+
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (NS) - A-

School wasn't the only thing back in session this September, so was splat season with Splatoon 2.

Splatoon 2 (NS) Review

We're nearly halfway through the month here at SuperPhillip Central without a new review. That changes this evening with a game I've been waiting to go in-depth with for a while now, Splatoon 2. Now that I've seen everything the sequel to the smash Wii U hit has to offer, it's time for my Splatoon 2 review!

Improve Your Splatitude

Despite the company's perceived problem with creating new games that don't feature one of their cornerstone characters, like Mario, Link, Pikachu, or Kirby, Nintendo has pushed out a lot of new franchises in the past decade or so from the Wii on. Recently, one of their biggest successes with a brand-new IP is Splatoon, which managed to become a highly successful new series despite being on the failure of a system, the Wii U. This was after a notable number of gamers and the press preemptively called the unique third-person shooter dead in the water.

Now, after the Wii U comes a success story for Nintendo, the Switch. Leading up to the release of Nintendo's next big multiplayer-focused game for the system, Splatoon 2, many found themselves concerned that there wasn't enough new in the previews and footage shown for the game to call it a sequel rather than just an expansion. However, as you'll see with this review, there's enough new here to differentiate it from just being a token expansion to the Wii U original.

Welcome to the freshest spot in Splatoon 2, Inkopolis.

I say this, despite Splatoon 2 pretty much feeling and playing like the original in many ways. Aside from new tactics available to you, Splatoon 2 still contains its focus on splattering the environment with paint rather than other players. KO's are definitely present in the game, but they're not the focus in the Splatoon series unlike in much more traditional third-person shooters. In fact, no mode in Splatoon 2 requires splatting other opponents. Instead, each mode has an objective to it that has nothing to do with the obliteration of other players. Though, it is helpful to splat foes to get them out of your way and send them back to their spawn point.

The roller weapon is great for spreading ink quickly across large
patches of ground; no so great for long-range skirmishes.

Before delving into the major modes, let's talk gameplay. Splatoon 2 is a shooter based on mobility and teamwork (each mode has two teams of four players each battling one another), among other aspects of play. The mobility comes in from just how many options you have available to you to get across each map and arena. This is thanks to your ability to switch between kid and squid mode at any time. Kid mode offers the offensive capabilities, shooting out colorful ink with one of your selected weapons. With over a dozen weapon types which offer differing advantages and disadvantages, rates of fire, attack strengths, ink storage, and secondary and special attacks, it's important to find your footing and choose the weapon that best fits your play style and what you're most comfortable with using -- or you can just switch between weapons at your leisure, just getting a feel for each depending on the mode.

Likewise, as a squid, you can drop down between grates, ride through similarly colored ink to gain speed and also replenish the ink in your usable tank, and even climb up walls to higher points by utilizing ink sprayed on them. Of course, as I said, kid and squid modes can be switched between any time and with ease, allowing skirmishes and battles for turf all the more complex and exciting. For instance, just splat down some ink, dive into it in squid form to speed around your foe, pop out of the ink as a kid, and then blow them away! That said, only your team's ink is something you can swim and move through without issues. Otherwise you'll trudge through enemy ink, making you an easy target as you move much more slowly, can't enter squid form, and take small amounts of damage in the process.

With the game's multiplayer modes, Splatoon 2 contains four of them to enjoy. The most basic and the only one available in multiplayer battles at first is Turf War, the main and most prominent mode of the Splatoon 2 experience. In this mode, each of the two teams try to spread as much of their colored ink across the given map -- though walls don't count, they benefit players by allowing them to climb up them in squid form. At the end of the three minutes of play, the squid squad with the most coverage of the map in their own ink wins. What I like about this mode is that a team rarely is out of the fight, unless each teammate goes off and does their own thing (which is popular to do because "lol teamwork" and "lol being able to use voice chat in random matches thanks to Mother Nintendo"). Comebacks are always possible. Just one death of a teammate at the wrong time can have the other side mount an amazing offensive, taking the most important part of each map, the middle, in the process. if not into your own team's territory. There's no worse feeling in a Turf War than having most of the map under your ink's cover most of the map, only for your teammates to get splatted and sent back to the team's spawn point, giving free reign to the opposition to cover as much map as possible with their ink in the last thirty seconds of the match.

Color up as much of the map with your team's ink to win Turf War.

The other three modes are locked behind Splatoon 2's ranking system, which is understandable for newbies but less enticing to Splatoon veterans who just want to play something different aside from Turf War. Everyone begins at level one when they first play multiplayer. As you participate in matches, win, and the like, you earn points that eventually allow you to go up another rank. The good thing about Splatoon 2 is that just finishing a match awards you with experience points as well as money. To have access to the ranked modes in Splatoon 2, you need to reach Rank 10, which takes about 1-3 hours of playtime to do depending on your skill level and persistence.

Besides the Random Battle's Turf War, Splatoon 2 features the Ranked Battles' Splat Zones, Tower Control, and Rainmaker. Splat Zones has both teams starting at 100 seconds on maps with a zone to cover in your team's own ink. As you control the splat zone, the timer ticks down towards zero, but you can lose control at a moment's notice. Splat Zones is pretty much king of the hill with a Splatoon 2 twist, but it's also my favorite of the three Ranked Battle Modes included in the game. Tower Control's goal is to ride a tower that sits in the middle of the map to begin with into the enemy team's section of the map. The tower only moves forward while the top is covered in ink, and the opposition wants that tower in YOUR end of the map as well. Thus, a vicious game of tug-of-war tower-style with teams raining down ink on the tower and opponents is all but ensured. Last but not least, Rainmaker has both teams vying for the titular weapon of this mode, a beast of a cannon that can blow away foes with ease. The objective of this mode is to take the Rainmaker and transport it to the enemy base. Though for that player carrying the Rainmaker, they have an octopus-sized target on their backs. All three modes are definite winners, but it would have been nice to see a new mode that wasn't featured in the Wii U game.

This player is certainly making it rain with the Rainmaker.
Thank goodness that Inkling was present for arm day as that weapon looks heavy!

So, there's a lot similar to Splatoon, but what makes Splatoon 2 stand out from its predecessor? One thing is the upfront content available to you from the get-go. Instead of bare-bones, drip-fed content (such as a limited selection of maps, weapons, and modes), a significant amount of stuff is available right from the start. It only gets better each week with new additions to the multiplayer like maps from the original Splatoon (with specific touches to make these maps feel fresher) and all-new maps as well.

Splatoon had an original single-player campaign to teach the basics of the game to players, and Splatoon 2's is a lot of fun, too, and does the same thing. Five worlds featuring multiple levels and one boss each, alongside each level featuring some main mechanic or obstacle to get a hold of or come to grips with, hidden collectibles, and challenges. The campaign also includes added replayability by allowing players to come back to previously cleared levels with different weapons, which changes how each level is played completely. Each weapon you complete a level with is documented on the menu screen. If you're really ambitious, you can use your favorite weapon and beat all the Splatoon 2 campaign's levels with it to unlock it in multiplayer mode. Overall, though, regardless of having totally new levels, sights, and bosses to partake in, Splatoon 2's campaign doesn't wholly feel like an astonishingly fresh foot forward.

One of five bosses within Splatoon 2's solo campaign. This one packs quite a wallop!

Speaking of the multiplayer modes of Splatoon 2 that I already went through, there's one more to talk about, but this one isn't competitive at all. It's Salmon Run, and it pits up to four players against wave after wave of Octoling forces, some lackey foes and some really dangerous bosses. The latter drop gold eggs when defeated, requiring players to take them back to a storage unit to satisfy the quota required to move on to the next wave. Between each wave, players switch between four randomly assigned weapons, keeping everyone from getting too comfortable. Splatted teammates can be revived by blasting them with ink, but it's all to easy to be overrun with enemies in the process so observant and alert players are required here. It's like playing many games on the Wii U that used both the TV and GamePad screens; it's hard to focus on both at the same time.

During the hours in which you can actually play Salmon Run, the mode is a blast.

While Salmon Run is a fantastic new mode, it suffers from an annoying setback: it can only be played during certain hours of the day. That's fine for everyone without a schedule, but that's not the majority of people in the world, Nintendo. Why not just have this mode open for everyone at any time of the day, or do you think you know what we want and how our busy our lives are better than we do?

The annoyances with Splatoon 2 don't end there, unfortunately. Nintendo's online app for voice chat is the most asinine, insultingly stupid thing to come from Nintendo in a long lineup for idiotic "solutions" to problems. Somehow Nintendo's online system regressed from the Wii U. How do you even do that without purposefully, intentionally, maliciously doing so? Voice chat is limited to friends, if you can even play with them, as rooms usually fill up before you can join a friend. "Hope you don't mind waiting 3+ minutes to have a chance again to play a match with me!" It's all these systematic and quite frankly, obnoxious design decisions from Nintendo that turned me a bit off of otherwise enjoying my Splatoon 2 experience.

Whether inking or splatting, Splatoon 2 offers a healthy and heaping dose of sloppy and satisfying fun. It has a sizable amount of content, including something I didn't yet even mention like being able to customize your Inkling in clothing and gear that affects not just your style but bonuses to him or her. Some of these include being able to move quicker through enemy ink, have better defense against bombs, swim faster through ink, and fast jumping to a teammate. However, with all the praise and admiration I give to the game, Splatoon 2 is far from excellent, whether it's the poor online functionality that severely prohibited my enjoyment of the multiplayer to the inane limited hours of Salmon Run. While Splatoon 2 is a game I wanted to love, all of its current boneheaded design decisions make it a game that I can only like. However, better to swim steadily with some faults than to flounder and sink altogether, right?

[SPC Says: B]

Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of E3 2017

E3 begins very soon! Christmas for gamers, Dawn of the Final Day, and all that fun stuff! With it comes an enormous amount of details on games both new and already announced. Of course, the real fun generally comes from learning about new games that somehow didn't leak out in this digital age, but what about those that have already been officially announced and will most likely be at the show in some way? That's what this Friday night top ten is here for: SuperPhillip Central's Top Ten Most Anticipated Games of E3 2017!

Which already announced games that are most likely going to be shown at E3 2017 are YOU most excited for?

As for SuperPhillip Central? Let's start things off!

10) Everybody's Golf (PS4)

And by starting things off, we begin with a genre of game I'm a sucker for -- arcade golf. While not technically a sim, Everybody's Golf (formerly Hot Shots Golf in North America) is pretty darn challenging as a series and requires patience, determination, and the ability to let out a few (or several hundred) cuss words on missed shots. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to be selected for the beta of the new PlayStation 4 entry a few weeks ago, as it was limited like entrance to an exclusive country club. Thankfully, unlike those hoity-toity clubs, Everybody's Golf will be accessible to -- well -- everybody, on the E3 show floor. I'm excited to see new gameplay!

9) Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4, PC)

I haven't done much research on this next game. Heck, I've yet to play the original Ni no Kuni on the PlayStation 3! (Please don't hurt me.) But the visual style, fairy tale like feel, and RPG combat all appeal to me greatly. Seriously, the game looks even more like a Studio Ghibli animated film than the first Ni no Kuni, which already looked like a Studio Ghibli animated movie to begin with. Being engrossed in such a world and being able to interact with it gets me jonesing to find out more about the game. Maybe even play the original, now that I'm thinking about it... Curse you, backlogs!

8) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4)

Announced late last year at the PlayStation Experience event, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is a standalone expansion of last year's mega hit and critical darling Uncharted 4. It features two main characters: a person of extreme interest (wink, wink) in Nathan Drake's life, Chloe Frazer, and Nadine Ross, introduced in Uncharted 4. With its release set for August, it's going to be fantastic to have a full blowout of information for this continuation of the Uncharted series now that Nathan Drake's chapter has finally closed.

7) Splatoon 2 (NS)

For those who have already played Splatoon on the Wii U, you probably have an idea on how the sequel on the Nintendo Switch will play when it launches next month. After all, it's a known quality. However, Splatoon 2 has a good deal of new content and gameplay mechanics to make Nintendo's super fresh franchise even fresher, such as a new single player campaign, a new Horde-like multiplayer mode, and who knows what else! I'm eager to see what tricks are left in Splatoon 2's sleeves that haven't been revealed yet. Perhaps we'll see at either Nintendo's pre-recorded show or the Splatoon 2 tournament!

6) Star Wars Battlefront II (PS4, XB1, PC)

Releasing as a major holiday release in the middle of November, I'm hoping Star Wars Battlefront II will be the game that EA's original Star Wars Battlefront should have been -- fully featured, possessing enough solo content to engage players, while retaining the frantic and fun engagements and combat scenarios from the original classics on the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox. If there are bots in every mode, this will give DICE good marks in my book as well. While EA and DICE's first attempt at Star Wars Battlefront was indeed lacking, it did bring a steady and solid foundation that I'm really interested to see how it's built upon to make an improved, loved and much desirable sequel.

5) Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (PS4, XB1, PC)

Despite rumors of a disappointing starting roster that have been building up across the net, I'm still quite excited to see the return of the Marvel vs. Capcom series with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. It's a game I'm sure competitive players will certainly get a lot of mileage out of with its fast-paced combat, gem system, and 2 vs. 2 battles. Heck, if competitive players could find a lot to love about Street Fighter V when it launched with limited modes and content, then anything's possible, right? As a casual player, I hope that I'm able to enjoy the game at my own pace with my own skill level. In fact, even the starting roster doesn't dissuade me much, as it has a character I've long wanted for the series, Mega Man X!

4) Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (NS)

A common debate (sometimes even an argument) among Nintendo fans on message boards and comment sections is when is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 going to release. The music has been confirmed to have been completed, which is one of the final things gone in production, and Nintendo itself has said 2017 for the release year. Others think it's going to get delayed, either early into next year or possibly later. What ever the case may be, developer Monolith Soft has yet to fail with the Xenoblade name. We've only seen one trailer of the game, and that was back in January at the Nintendo Switch unveiling press conference in Japan, so it's about time the curtain gets fully pulled back on Monolith Soft's latest.

3) Spider-Man (PS4)

Insomniac Games has a proven track record of excellent action games under its collective belt, so to me, trusting the developer behind games like Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Sunset Overdrive with Spider-Man was a phenomenal decision on the part of Sony. Not only will Insomniac most likely nail the action -- the unadulterated joy of swinging through Manhattan -- but the team will also nail the humor of the webhead. While I don't anticipate the game coming out soon, I'm just looking forward to seeing more of what Insomniac Games has done with the spectacular Spider-Man's PlayStation 4 exclusive.

2) God of War (PS4)

At long last, Kratos isn't obnoxiously angry all the time and a ridiculous version of an adolescent male's power fantasy! Don't get me wrong though, the previous God of War games were a great deal of fun, but the formula started to wear thin, as of course, did the character Kratos himself. With a new scope, a new story, and a new focus, the God of War series' debut on PlayStation 4 is without question my most anticipated game currently announced for Sony's system. I'm eager to view a new trailer, get fresh gameplay insights from players and journalists, and just see more of the game in general.

1) Super Mario Odyssey (NS)

Mario got me into gaming back on the original Nintendo, so when the first trailer for Super Mario Odyssey premiered this past January at Nintendo's Switch unveiling event, I couldn't contain myself and had to burst out a continuous smile throughout the whole video. Although Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel are two of my favorite games of all time, Odyssey is a grand return to the sandbox, platforming playground style of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine that had been long since abandoned (for more than a decade to be exact). While I'm not foaming at the mouth literally to see new footage of the game, counting the days to finally see a gameplay and content blowout of Nintendo's big holiday game is driving me a bit batty. However, I know it will all be worth it on Tuesday. In my 30 years with Mario, the portly plumber seldom fails to deliver.