There are so many amazing and highly anticipated games coming out this year, which is why I think 2019 will be one of the best years in gaming for game releases.

There's a lot of big titles coming out that I'm not that interested in but I can definitely appreciate their importance. But that's why I'm going to focus on just the games that I'm personally excited for. This is just a small fraction of what's coming out.


Shenmue III (PlayStation 4)
Waited for: 18 Years

Fans of the series have been waiting since 2001 for this saga to conclude. The failure of my favorite game system ever, the Sega Dreamcast, resulted into Shenmue II not landing on the Dreamcast in the USA but instead it landed on the original Xbox (it landed in Europe for the Dreamcast but only with English subtitles). This 3rd installment was funded by kickstarter due to the risks that no developer wanted to take with Shenmue III's potential development costs (Shenmue was one of the most expensive games ever made) but since the kickstarter was so successful, Yu Suzuki (the creator of Shenmue and many popular SEGA franchises) has teased the idea of a potential Shenmue IV.

I've been playing the Shenmue I and II HD releases in the mean time.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Multi)
Waited for: 14 Years

An FFVII Remake tech demo was teased at 2005 at E3 for the PlayStation 3. While this was never something that was going to happen (at that time anyway), it sparked a lot of interest and fans have been anticipating a remake to one of the greatest (but poorly aged) games every made for a very long time. The real remake was announced at E3 of 2015 but not much else has been revealed about it including the release date, which has been pushed back a lot and most likely be postponed beyond 2019.

Team Sonic Racing (Multi)
Waited for: 7 Years

'Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed' is my favorite racing game ever and not just because of the SEGA nostalgia in it but also because the mechanics are amazing, mastering the car handling feels so good and it's one of the few racing games that can really pump my adrenaline (I play in Expert).

The 1st game in this franchise, 'Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing', was also amazing. It was released in 2010 while the other was released in 2012. Only 2 years separated the 2 games and at that time I had assumed there would be another sequel in the near future since they were both amazing games and only 2 years separated their release dates. Well it turned out to be about 7 years so I'm hoping it was worth the wait.

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
Waited for: 3 Years

The 1st Super Mario Maker was released on the Wii-U in 2015. I easily put 100-200 hours into that game within its first 4 months of release but sadly never really played it much since. I've been looking for an excuse to get back into Super Mario Maker and this is the best opportunity for me to put my love of game design back to use and also my drive to push myself to beating extremely difficult levels.

I created videos of all my creations and also put together a playlist showcasing them all here.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (Switch)
Waited for: 10 Years

The original 2 came out on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, DS and Wii and were released only 3 years apart. HD ports came out in 2016 on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One but they were kinda just ports, graphics weren't really upgraded beyond just having a higher resolution.

These games are amazing and easily my favorite marvel games.

Kingdom Hearts III (Multi)
Waited for: 14 Years

I'll be honest here, I never played any of the games in this franchise, and there's a lot. I've always had great interest in playing them and had always been meaning to but since they're big games and since my available time to play video games slowly diminishes as I get older, I just haven't been able to get into them. I've followed them and have watched many clips so I'm familiar enough with the franchise.

I got the HD Remixes so I'm hoping to eventually play through I, II and III. I probably wont be able to ever find time to play all of the other entries though.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
Waited for: 26 Years

So I haven't actually been waiting 26 years for this remake but that is about how long it's been since I played through the original on my Super GameBoy as a kid. I haven't really played it since and yet I somehow still have very fond memories of this game.

Master Chief Collection (Xbox One)
This isn't necessarily a new game. In fact, it's not really a single game, but rather a collection of most of the Halo games (some being in my top 10 favorite games) filled with enhancements and new features.

The Master Chief Collection came out in 2014 but was launched with many problems. Many of them were eventually fixed but the game was sorta abandoned after a year or so after being released. The servers stayed up this entire time but the popularity slowly died due to the many issues it had and the lack of updates.

Fast forward to 2018. Announcements were made that they were going to basically continue development on this game by fixing all of the issues and adding an insane number of updates. In 2018 they fulfilled their promises of fixing all of the issues and now in 2019 they're rolling out a ton new features and enhancements. Some have already been released while others are yet to come. Out of the many new features, the biggest one for me is Halo Reach being added to the collection (and with Firefight!) which is a big deal to me since to me it had the best online matchmaking but was (and still is since it's still supported online) very choppy online.

Some Others Include
-Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Xbox One, Switch)
-Final Fantasy VII, VIII, IX ports (Xbox One, Switch)
-Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Multi)
-Battletoads (Xbox One)
-Mario Kart Tour (Mobile)
-Pokémon Sword and Shield (Switch)
-RPG Maker MV (Consoles)


There's a very obvious trend on this list; most of these games stem from nostalgia either because they're remakes, releases or are part of franchises I grew up playing. Let me know what games you all are looking forward to in 2019, or are already enjoying.

I somehow never got attracted towards Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, but if you say such good things about that franchise, I may try them out as well. I'm a huge fan of racing games in general, and even though my interest in new games has declined incredibly I can't let this one slip.

Same goes for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, I've enjoyed the previous three racing titles of the bandicoots on consoles, and I can't wait to get my hands on the new one, even if I have to wait several months after release.

Mario Kart Tour is also interesting. It will enter a beta stage in late May, a couple months before it releases. Not sure if my old phone can handle it, but still let's not forget how much of a success was Nintendo's other mobile bet, Pokémon GO.

I wonder what will we see at E3 this year. Nothing about Shenmue, because Sony won't be attending it, but for everything coming out on other systems we could get a lot of info. And always keeping an eye on Nintendo Directs, should they reveal anything rather unexpectedly.

So far list looks good personally I'd like to add...

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Switch
Final Fantasy Chocobo Mystery Dungeon(bought but was out in March)
Starlink: Blood Moon expansion
Fire Emblem 3 houses
Animal Crossing Switch
Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers
Persona 5: Scramble
Luigi's Mansion 3
Rune Factory 4 Switch

I just want to add that, if you can't find the time to play the other entries in ther series and you're only going to play Kingdom Hearts I, II, and III, please at least watch videos of the rest of the games, They're almost all critically relevant to the plot, and skipping any of them, with maybe the exception of Re:Coded, will leave a whole lot of unanswered questions. They all criss-cross and interconnect with each other.

I know I'm ages late to reply to this but now that most of the games you mentioned have come out I'm curious what you thought of the year and if you got play the games you listed, and for me personally I've realized that I think 2017 is the best year ever for game releases I mean for starters the switch came out which is always a good start for a year when a new console releases. Just to name some other releases that came out I'd point to....

Persona 5 (at least in the us)
Super Mario Odyssey
Legend of Zelda Breath of The Wild
Nier Automata

And I'm sure there's others I've forgotten since then but of course I would say it's my favorite year when it gave me my favorite game of all time and all the games I listed our top 10 favorites for me.

SonicOlmstead : That's actually an interesting question.


Shenmue III (PlayStation 4)
I own this game for the PS4 since I was a backer of the game but I still don't have a PS4 so I have not been able to play it yet.


Final Fantasy VII Remake (Multi)
(This ended up coming out in 2020 instead)

This is still a PlayStation exclusive and like mentioned above, I still don't have a PS4 (haven't had the money to afford one). It will eventually come out for Xbox One I believe and so I'll get it when it does. However, I probably wont have time to make much progress in the game so it'll be a game that I spend a long time playing through.


Team Sonic Racing (Multi)
I got it when it came out and it was fun but unfortunately it wasn't nearly as fun as the other Sonic Racing games. And the lack of other SEGA franchises (it's solely just Sonic themed tracks and Sonic characters) makes it fall short of capturing the same charm that the other 2 games had.


Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
I loved it. Even better than I had expected. It was better than the 1st in almost every way. Unfortunately, I didn't get to invest as much time into it as I did the original due to a busy life.


Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order (Switch)
I've been meaning to get this but I haven't actually got it yet. I do have a switch and most of the gaming I do is with my wife and/or kids so this one seems like a no brainer to get. I'll get it eventually.


Kingdom Hearts III (Multi)
I don't have time for games that require a lot of time. This one is going to be added to the list of games that I want to play someday.


The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)
I actually forgot about this game. I'll buy it and play it eventually.


Master Chief Collection (Xbox One)
All of the updates and enhancements did not disappoint. They added everything I wanted. And I played and enjoyed all of it. 343 offers some of the best fan service and they continue to make this collection more awesome. They recently added 2 new maps for Halo 3...Halo 3 is a game that came out in 2007!


Battletoads (Xbox One)
I wasn't looking forward to this all that much but I played it anyway since it was free with game pass and it being a 3 player co-op game meant it was a perfect game to play with my kids. And WOW did I love this game. I was never that big of a fan of Battletoads so I went into this game not expecting much. Everything about this game is great. I love the graphics. The story line is actually good and surprisingly hilarious. The levels offer some of the most variety you'll see in a video game and it all feels nostalgic.


Mario Kart Tour (Mobile)
Another one I wasn't really looking forward to that much but did enjoy. I didn't really play it much though but I did have fun with it. I just didn't like the way you unlock stuff.