Questions for the new gaming year
Foremost among them: how will I keep up?
2024’s got a vague gaming calendar — lots of promised games, few confirmed dates. Still, even with only the most plausible releases, it looks like I’ll have four JRPGs to attempt in the first months of the year — not to mention indie games I’ve yet to hear about, a new Princess Peach game and the possible drop of Hades 2 on early access.
Oh, and a little something called Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which leads me to the first of my questions.
Who will die in Rebirth?
1997’s Final Fantasy 7 featured a famous and traumatizing main character death in its middle act. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, coming out Leap Day, will likely depart even further from the source material than 2020’s Remake, but I can’t imagine that everyone from its cast will survive. Perhaps they’ll be resurrected in some form, but it’s got to hit at least some of the original’s emotional beats. So who’ll it be? I demand blood sacrifice — and I’m sure Square Enix will exploit the narrative tension to the hilt.
Just how good will Princess Peach’s new game be?
I trust that Nintendo’s working to make Princess Peach: Showtime! a spectacle to far surpass the only other game she headlined, 2005’s Super Princess Peach. But could Showtime! outshine even Super Mario Bros. Wonder? It’s not impossible — at the very least, the game could take the franchise in new directions, unshackled from expectations of what makes a Mario game a Mario game.
When will we get a console sequel to the Nintendo Switch?
My money’s on a Holiday 2024 release, for a few reasons. 1) The Switch came out in 2017, so we’re overdue for an upgrade. 2) Nintendo’s mostly releasing remakes the first half of the year, indicating that they may be holding onto new titles (like the ever-elusive Metroid Prime 4) to help sell a new console. 3) While Nintendo denied reports that they briefed developers on upcoming hardware, I think there’s enough truth spinning out the rumor mill to make a late 2024 release likely.
If you want to hear more of my thoughts on the year, check out my hit with Morning Edition’s A Martinez. I also appeared on a radio roundup of NPR’s top games of 2024 on All Things Considered, produced by the inimitable Vinny Acovino.
Onward!
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