This Month's Games - December 2016

With the end of the year truly in our sights, the amount of game releases is starting to slow down. But there is that one game we’ve been waiting on for about ten years…

01-12-2016  -  by Thijs Kaagman

With the crazy October and November months behind us, we’re starting to look back on a good year of games. But that doesn’t mean December has nothing to offer! In fact, whether you believe it or not; The Last Guardian is finally coming out! Plus, just two weeks after launching Pokémon Sun & Moon, Nintendo has another 3DS-surprise for us this month.

You can find the full list of releases below (thanks VG247), after which I have handpicked my favourites for this month.

• Maize (PC) – December 1
• The Dwarves (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – December 1
• Hearthstone – Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion (PC) – December 1
• Super Mario Maker 3DS (3DS) – December 2
• Steep(PC, PS4, Xbox One) – December 2
• Werewolves Within (HTC Vive, PSVR, Oculus Rift) – December 6
• Dead Rising 4 (PC, Xbox One) – December 6
• The Last Guardian(PS4) – December 6
• Star Wars Battlefront – Rogue One: Scarif expansion (PC, PS4, Xbox One) – December 6
• Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission (PSVR) – December 6
• Space Hulk: Deathwing (PC) – December 9
• Forza Horizon 3 – Blizzard Mountain expansion (Xbox One, Windows 10) – December 13
• Stardew Valley (PS4) – December 13
• Stardew Valley (Xbox One) – December 14
• Super Mario Run (iOS) – December 15
• The Walking Dead: Season 3 – Episode One: A New Frontier (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One) – December 20
• The Division: DLC 2 Survival (PS4) – December 20

Super Mario Maker 3DS

December 2 – 3DS

Think you can do better than Shigeru Miyamoto and the developers at Nintendo? You can now prove it in Super Mario Maker on the Nintendo 3DS. In Super Mario Maker for 3DS you have all the tools at your disposal to create your ultimate Super Mario level. Do you think the game needs more Goomba’s? Less Piranha Plants? More pipes to hidden parts of the level? Is the game not challenging enough? It’s all up to you!

Super Mario Maker for 3DS comes with 100 levels created by Nintendo, to give you some inspiration for your own levels. The company also promises players can download thousands of levels through Recommended Courses and the 100 Mario Challenge, plus you can exchange your own levels through local multiplayer or Streetpass.

The Last Guardian

December 9 – PS4

With Final Fantasy XV finally released this week, there’s one more game players have been waiting on for years. No one even believed it was still coming, but Sony dropped the bomb last year at E3: The Last Guardian is still alive.

The Last Guardian is the spiritual successor to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. It tells the story of a young boy and the creature Trico. Together with this mystical creature you’ll have to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles to escape from a mysterious castle to which you have been kidnapped. It will be very exciting to see if The Last Guardian can meet the enormous expectations.

Super Mario Run

December 15 – iOS

A mobile game as one of your favourite releases? Well, not just any mobile game! Super Mario Run is the first actual game developed by Nintendo for a mobile platform. We’re not counting that weird Miitomo thing they launched earlier this year, of course.

The basics of Super Mario Run are simple; tap your screen to make Mario run and tap again to make him jump. There’s also a game mode where you can build your very own Mushroom Kingdom and a mode where you race your friends. We’ve seen it a hundred times before, but we’re still very curious to see what Nintendo can do with this simple concept. I’m pretty sure they’ll come up with a new twist on that core gameplay.

Super Mario Run is free to try, but to unlock the full game you'll need to buy it for €9,99. Need some iTunes credit for that? You know where to find it!