September 1st – Iron Harvest (PS4/PC)
September 1st – Crusader Kings III (PC)
September 1st – MX vs ATV All Out (Switch)
September 3rd – Spellbreak (PS4/Xbox One/PC/Switch)
September 4th – Marvel’s Avengers (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 4th – Doraemon: Story of Seasons (PS4)
September 4th – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 8th – Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 15th – Spelunky 2 (PS4)
September 15th – Fight Crab (Switch)
September 15th – BPM: Bullets Per Minute (PC)
September 17th – Pacer (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 18th – Crysis Remastered (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 25th – Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4/Xbox One/PC)
September 28th – Genshin Impact (PS4/Xbox OnePC)
September 30th – Baldur’s Gate III (PC Early Access)
As is the way these days – when in doubt, remaster or remake something. Sometimes the wheeling out of the old corpses that game companies then attach strings to in order make them dance for our nostalgia is tiresome, but there’s more than a bit of excitement over September’s remastermakes. Kingdom of Amalur gets a second chance at life, Mafia puts us back in the original tailor-made jorts of an aspiring mafioso, but most importantly Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 + 2 lets us remember when everybody wanted to skate because of a video game. The 90s was a crazy time, and the original THPS was a veritable phenomenon in the twilight of that hallowed decade. While it may be heresy, it might be time to ditch the jorts for a baggy pair of pants and giant pair of Osiris shoes in order to relive those glory days.
September is usually the time to rock the sports jorts, with both yearly iterations of FIFA and NHL normally releasing. However, this year I’ll have to wait an extra month to get my sports fix, but thankfully there are still a couple games to get me through the month. First up is a game I have been keen on for a while, but I had feared it had been cancelled given the lack of updates recently. Thankfully that’s not the case, with R8 Games’ Wipeout-inspired racer Pacer set to launch on September 17, and you can be damn sure I’ll be racing in first-person. September also sees the release of Serious Sam 4, and although I won’t grab it on launch day, I’ll certainly be keeping on eye on its reception. Last up for me is a game I have always wanted to play but never have in Mafia, and thanks to Hangar 13’s full remake in Mafia: Definitive Edition I’ll be able to experience the much-revered title with tasty visuals.
So 2020 is a bit of a dud year so far, but at least for September I’ll have a few excuses to revisit earlier, arguably better years in my life. That’s right, it’s a month of remasters and blasts from ye olde pasts for me with. Representing full on, ground-up remakes are Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 – a combo of games I played the hell out of as a teen despite having zero interest in real life skateboarding – and Mafia: Definitive Edition, which I’ve had the privilege of playing a huge chunk of already. Then in remaster territory, it’s Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, a game that I’m happy just to be able to play at a stable framerate on console. For some reason we’re also getting a port of RPG Maker MV to PlayStation 4, which I’m keen to check out solely because I had an RPG Maker obsession in my youth. I’m also super keen to see how free-to-play open-world weeb game Genshin Impact goes when it launches at the tail end of the month!
Real talk time. I badly want to get around Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning as I didn’t give the original the attention it deserved. Will I actually play it? No, probably not. I’m usually an advocate for innovation over nostalgia, but I’m going to be a hypocrite this month and relive my childhood with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. I’ve got such excellent memories of my older brother spending hours making the perfect skate park in Park Editor for me to come in and terribly grind, flip and fall around it. I can’t tell you how keen I am to be shit at this game again.
That’s not all though, as the allure of a comic book game is just as strong. Kieron and I jumped into the Marvel’s Avengers Beta in early August and the experience left me with concerns, but it also left me keen to play more. The game’s story is shaping up to be solid and playing as Earth’s Mightiest Mortals with friends is too tempting to pass up. As long as I get to play as Kamala, I’m in.
