It will be a big surprise if any of the new releases this week make it to the top of the charts. This year’s biggest games are out. They’re on the shelves right now. And though it’s tempting to reflect on the absurdity of how – following the recent surge of year-defining titles – nothing incredibly significant is being released just four weeks before Christmas, the gaming schedule isn’t exactly known for its stability.

This week sees a 16-Bit resurgence of sorts. The three titles below are essentially aiming to capture the beauty of their predecessors and sell them to a modern audience. The commercial performances of each are likely to be as varied as their critical reception, but it’s encouraging to see three franchises – some the few which have risen from the graveyard that is past-gen – are headlining a release schedule in a closing week of 2008.

This Week's Big Releases

Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Team
PS3/360/Wii/PS2
US Release: Out Now (Wii/PS2), Nov 24 (360), Dec 19 TBC (PS3)
UK Release: Nov 28 (360/Wii/PS2), Dec TBC (PS3)

It is said that for every rule there is always an exception, and in the footnotes to numerous laws of gaming you’ll likely find a mention of Sega’s mascot. In fact, for a number of years Sonic has been defying one of the most prominent principles of gaming: ‘If a franchise continuously fails to deliver, it will ultimately be ignored or forgotten’.

The sheer potential of the Sonic franchise continues to outlive all of its previous failings, and fans of the series continue to believe – almost as a prophecy – that one day a glorious Sonic game will return. When the sensational gameplay footage to Sonic Unleashed was first shown back in June, many believed that day was upon us.  

Alas, the general expectations of Unleashed have seen steeper peaks and drops than a blast through Green Hill Zone. Following the aforementioned ‘Daytime’ gameplay video, it had transpired that Sonic was again going to be subjected to another ‘modern twist’, this time in the guise of action-adventure gameplay à la Devil May Cry. 

‘Night-time’ gameplay sees Sonic transform into the Warehog, a sluggish brawler that claws its way through gangs of enemies. It is of no surprise that the critical reception to this new addition has been wholly negative, with GameInformer’s review stating that “these Werehog segments play like a poor man’s God of War. You fight hordes of enemies and level up his Werehog attacks, but many of the enemies look the same, Sonic’s pace is plodding, and the platforming is frustrating.”

Unleashed’s unfavourable critical reception, on the whole, has focused much of its negativity on this new addition. IGN stated that “had Unleashed shipped with a focus on polished daytime levels, I have no doubt that it would've been one of the best entrants in the franchise's long history. But the developer's insistence on avoiding a pure hedgehog experience at all costs has once again backfired, transforming a speedy beauty into a slow beast.”




Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Backbone Entertainment/UDON
PS3/360
US Release: Nov 25 (PSN), Nov 26 (Xbox Live)
UK Release: Nov 26 (Xbox Live), TBC (PSN)

This February will see a radical shift in the way Street Fighter games are not only played, but also named. As the upcoming ‘IV’ will break from its 2D roots, so too will it end the lineage of elaborate title suffixes. A mere glance at ‘Super’ Street Fighter II ‘Turbo’ ‘HD’ ‘Remix’, then, will tell you exactly what to expect from Capcom’s downloadable title.

Street Fighter HD is all about reliving the glories of that pioneering title in a modern gaming set-up. The game takes advantage of 1080p screen displays and Udon Comics has done a sensational job in redrawing the game's background, portraits and in-game animations. It features (reportedly smooth) online multiplayer functionality, worldwide rankings and excessively specific leaderboards, as well as remixed soundtrack.

Pleasingly, it seems as though Backbone Entertainment wanted to build on more than the game’s presentation. Lead designer David Sirlin, once a competitive Street Fighter tournament participant himself, has made a near-limitless number of tweaks and customisable options to the game to suit it to its veteran fan base.

For the first time yet training mode will feature a hitbox display, for example, and the game’s spectrum of characters have been extensively tweaked so that the Dhalsims can have more of a fighting chance against the Sagats and the Ryus.

“This game was literally designed by a tournament fighter, for tournament fighters,” says IGN’s review. “Remix isn't for everyone, but the gameplay represented in this download is extraordinarily balanced and deep. I spent hours learning the ways of the retooled Fei Long and just barely scratched the surface of it all. For such a reasonable price of $14.99, HD Remix is a very hard game to pass up.”




Chrono Trigger DS
Square Enix
DS
US Release: Nov 25
UK Release: Early 2009 TBC

People swear by Chrono Trigger. Square’s seminal RPG title, released in 1995, has featured in countless ‘Top 100’ rankings from numerous publications. IGN placed it as one of the twenty best games of all time, describing it as “one of the biggest designer collaborations in gaming history; a dream team of developers that included key staff from both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest”. Gamespot too puts Chrono Trigger on its index of the world’s greatest, as does Famitsu and Edge.

If you’re still wondering exactly why, then this week gives you another opportunity to find out, as Chrono Trigger DS is more-or-less a straight port of the SNES original. As per the arrangement with DS updates, the game supports dual-screen and touch-screen functionality and makes a number of small additions to play. These additives come in the form of new dungeons, new bosses, new possible endings and a wireless multiplayer mode for 2-4 players.

Despite the simplistic manner in which the game has been updated, Chrono Trigger DS has already enjoyed critical adoration. The December issue of Gamepro, which gave it a perfect score, concluded: “Regardless of whether you played it already or are new to the series, you own it to yourself to check out this amazing title.”