The movies, TV shows, albums, and video games we're looking forward to in 2024

Remakes have oversaturated the market, but this is more than merely Mean Girls remake. No, this is an adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the hit film. Tina Fey is still a key creative figure, and the tone of Mean Girls does seem like something that could easily be turned into a fun musical.

Jeymes Samuel’s feature debut, The Harder They Fall, was a little spotty, but it was an interesting take on the Western, so there were encouraging elements. Now, he’s turning his attention to…a biblical comedy? We’re interested because The Book of Clarence stars LaKeith Stanfield, and he’s not one to phone it in.

You are probably on Matthew Vaughn’s wavelength, or you aren’t. He’s the guy behind movies like Kicĸ-Åss and the three Kingsman films. Argylle is a spy-centered action-comedy, and it isn’t written by Vaughn, so it may be a little funnier and a little less raunchy. The cast is killer, though. Sam Rockwell is involved. We’re sold.

When Charlie Kaufman is given the chance to direct his own scripts, they end up tedious. Others have succeeded with Kaufman’s screenplays. Orion and the Dark is animated and based on a children’s book, which is encouraging. So is Werner Herzog lending his voice.

Granted, we don’t think Madame Web will be “good” in the traditional sense. It’s from Sony’s disastrous Spider-Man adjacent universe, which gave us Venom and Morbius . Madame Web is as obscure to the mainstream audience as the living vampire, and a cast headlined by Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney makes it feel like this will be more of the same. However, people have fun, a lot of fun, with Venom and Morbius. Hopefully, that will be the case with Madame Web.

Bob Marley is certainly a figure worthy of a biopic. One Love will have some catchy music, obviously, and hopefully some good storytelling. It seems focused on a portion of Marley’s life, as opposed to a “cradle-to-grave” biopic, and hopefully, that is true because those films tend to turn out better.

The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s  Dune doubleheader was supposed to come out in 2023. Then, SAG-AFTRA went on strike. Are you going to release a movie with Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, and Florence Pugh in it if they can’t promote it and show up at events for photo ops? Yeah, there’s a reason Part Two got pushed. Now, it is one of the most exciting film events of 2024.

Either you’re excited to see Jack Black voicing Po again, or you aren’t. Movies make it to the fourth installment for a reason. You aren’t likely to be jumping on here, but if you enjoy the Kung Fu Panda movies, you’re getting another one.

When Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters reimagining dropped, it didn’t really feel like Ghostbusters. The trailer for the sequel, Frozen Empire, makes that feeling even stronger. This isn’t really Ghostbusters in any way other than a few bits of iconography. That’s neither a strength nor a weakness, but it does make it interesting to see how this essentially new franchise moves forward.

Well, we were looking forward to Mickey 17 before it was removed from Warner Bros.'s slate (h/t Variety). One of the last, perhaps the last, delightful cultural moments before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in a major way was the Oscars ceremony, where Bong Joon-ho won Best Director, and Parasite won Best Picture. Now, Director Bong’s follow-up is finally arriving. Mickey 17 stars, among others, Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo. This filmmaker already garnered excitement for each of his new films. Now that he’s an Oscar winner, that excitement has only grown.

A prequel to The Omen has been in the works for years. Finally, it is arriving. Now, did we need an origin story for The Omen? Maybe not, but it takes place in Rome and focuses on the conspiracy to bring about the Antichrist, so color us intrigued.

Godzilla vs. Kong brought us some fun monster fights, and Rebecca Hall said, “Kong bows to no one.” That’s the exact right-side-of-silly feel we want from a movie of this ilk. No need for high art! A giant ape is punching a radioactive lizard! Here’s hoping this sequel is more of the same.

The Universal Monsters Universe ended up D.O.A. after the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy flopped. Well, when you have I.P. like this at your disposal, you don’t let that deter you. Universal is giving it another shot, this time going the horror route with a cast lacking A-listers. The rumors are that the movie is inspired by Dracula’s Daughter. Let’s see how it goes.

Another holdover from 2023 that got pushed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Challengers is a romantic dramedy set in the world of tennis, directed by Call Me By Your Name helmer Luca Guadagnino and costars Zendaya. It seems fascinating on paper. Now, we want to see how it actually plays out.

The Fall Guy is loosely based on the TV show of the same name. It features an aging stuntman investigating a mystery and should be action-packed. We don’t mind the I.P. mining because Ryan Gosling is starring as the stuntman and David Leitch of Atomic Blonde and Bullet Train is directed. This is going to be some kitchen-sink action stuff.

Charlize Theron shined as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, which led to some consternation when it was announced she would not play the character in Furiosa. However, it is a prequel, and Anya Taylor-Joy is not exactly a slouch. What matters is George Miller is at it again, and you should enjoy that while you can.

Sure, be skeptical. It’s warranted! Those Garfield movies with Bill Murray were awful! Chris Pratt is voicing Garfield, and that dude is ubiquitous. On the other hand, remember how skeptical people were about Pratt voicing Mario? The Super Mario Bros. Movie proved charming and was a huge hit. Mark Dindal is directing The Garfield Movie, and he directed The Emperor’s New Groove. Perhaps this will be a pleasant surprise.

In a way, this is a reboot of a reboot. It’s the sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, but it is also set generations after that story. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes focuses on a young chimpanzee and a feral woman joining forces to try and save both apes and humans from a ruthless ape dictator.

Len Wiseman is maybe not a director who inspires enthusiasm. We’d call him a capable studio hand when it comes to action films. That said, Ballerina is a spinoff of John Wick, and it stars Ana de Armas, which is the reason to be excited and not a reason to file a class-action lawsuit.

We didn’t expect to see an Inside Out sequel, but here we are. Pixar’s juice in the animation world has admittedly flagged. When that happens, maybe the thing to do is go back to a beloved film from your history and try to mine it for more gold. Hey, we’ll give it a shot. You never know if that old magic will return.

Yes, another spinoff, another prequel, etc. Look, if you are reading this, you’re likely a movie enthusiast, and you know where Hollywood’s bread is buttered. We just try and find the versions of this that seem cool and promising. Hopefully, Day One can capture some of that A Quiet Place energy. It stars Lupita Nyong’o, which is a strong start.

You know the drill. Gru and the Minions are back. We will note that it stuck out to us that this film is written by Mike White, the White Lotus guy. He also wrote films like School of Rock and Orange County but has done animation as well, like, um, The Emoji Movie. So…should be interesting.

They are doing a sequel to Twister in 2024. It’s called Twisters. That is so dumb, and we love it. Hopefully, the film captures that same “Yeah, this is goofy, but c’mon, it’s fun” feeling we are getting from the fact that, again, this movie is called Twisters.

There is a risk of Deadpool fatigue, for sure. Such is the nature of the character and these films. That said, Ryan Reynolds is clearly all in on doing these movies, so we know he won’t phone it in. Also, Hugh Jackman is playing Wolverine, and Jennifer Garner is playing Elektra. No, really.

First, we saw that Eli Roth was directing an adaptation of a video game series, and we said, “Pass.” Then, we saw the cast list. Cate Blanchett is the lead! Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Jamie Lee Curtis are in it. This movie seems utterly bonkers, and that’s got us looking forward to it.

We have here another film from the Alien franchise, this one with a cast of relative unknowns, harkening back to the first film Ridley Scott directed all those decades ago. Speaking of the original Alien, that was a taut, nasty bit of sci-fi horror we still admire. Don’t be surprised if Romulus captures some of that essence. It’s from the dude who directed the grisly Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe.

Kraven has maybe a slightly higher upside as an actually good movie than Madame Web, but only just. There is a “morbid curiosity” factor to all these Sony movies adjacent to Spider-Man but notably lacking, you know, Spider-Man. Kraven is a weird hunter guy with, like, animal instincts? Aaron Taylor-Johnson was good in Bullet Train, though.

He did it. Tim Burton is bringing us Beetlejuice 2 . Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder are back. Plus, he got Wednesday star Jenna Ortega into the mix, which is going to bring the generations together for this one.

How did a Transformers movie manage to get a cast like this? Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Brian Tyree Henry, Laurence Fishburne, and the list goes on. Now, it helps that it’s basically voiceover work for this cast, but that’s still notable.

Ugh. On the one hand, a middling, muddy film became tedious thanks to the discourse. The only thing more tedious than the Joker discourse was the discourse about said discourse. One assumes the sequel will only ratchet that up. On the other hand, Folie a Deux is a musical, and Lady Gaga is in it. Fine, bring on the discourse. Also, this movie will make one billion dollars.

You have a surprise horror hit, you make a sequel. Smile was made for $17 million and brought in $217.4 million. Naturally, a sequel is coming in October 2024. Get your Halloween plans settled.

Tom Hardy is back. Kelly Marcel is back directing. These two turned  Let There Be Carnage into the bugnuts action film we wanted. We just hope they can do it again.

Nicholas Pileggi wrote Goodfellas and Casino. Barry Levinson has directed films like Diner, Rain Man, and Wag the Dog. Those two have joined forces for Alto Knights . Also, Robert De Niro is playing Vito Genovese AND Frank Costello, two ‘50s mob bosses.

Ridley Scott is closer to 90 than he is to 80, but he just won’t stop. One year after Napoleon came out, he has a sequel to his crowning achievement, Best Picture winner Gladiator . Now, Russell Crowe isn’t back, but Oscar nominee Paul Mescal is starring, and Oscar winner Denzel Washington is in the cast.

Wicked, the musical, is a bit much. Of course, many fans of musicals want just that. The film version is so overstuffed that it has been divided into two parts. Color us curious.

When you make a prequel in the world of Middle Earth, you have a lot of ground to work with. For example, The War of Rohirrim takes place a full 261 years before The Two Towers. And yet, it all ties together. It’s animated as well, which makes it a bit fresh.

We don’t know who is playing the titular Karate Kid this time. As of this writing, a worldwide casting process is ongoing. What we do know is the film is scheduled for a December release, and both Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio are in it. Worlds are colliding! Plus, no Jaden Smith!

If you didn’t like the look of that photorealistic The Lion King remake, we have bad news for you. If you were fine with it, then Mufasa is a prequel to mark on your calendar. It seems likely to focus on Mufasa (non-trampled version) and Scar. Barry Jenkins is directing, which seems needlessly impressive.

Yeah, sure, why not? The first Sonic the Hedgehog was hurt by the pandemic. It deserved a shot for a proper run for the sequel, and now we have a third film. Idris Elba is voicing Knuckles, which is keeping this fresh, and maybe some character called Shadow the Hedgehog? Is that exciting? We don’t know enough Sonic lore.

You know Robert Eggers? The guy who made The Witch and The Northman? He has a new movie, and it’s a vampire film. Remember Willem Dafoe’s performance in The Lighthouse? How insane that was? Well, he’s in Nosferatu.

There have been some delays on Beyond the Spider-Verse, but it still seems like a likely 2024 release. Frankly, it needs to be. We enjoyed Across the Spider-Verse, but it was a surreptitious Part One, and it lacked an ending. The longer they wait, the more curdled the ending becomes. Let’s get some finality!

Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are joining forces for a wedding comedy. Now, neither of them has a perfect track record when it comes to comedy, but they both deliver at their best. The same is true for writer and director Nicholas Stoller, but he will be looking to rebound after Bros was critically successful but commercially a flop.

Paddington in Peru doesn’t have an American release date yet, but it is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom in November 2024, so we assume we’ll get it in the States later in the year. The love for Paddington 2 was massive. Now, the Browns and Paddington are headed to his home country!

Francis Ford Coppola was the defining filmmaker of the 1970s. He’s a legend. An icon. He also hasn’t made a notable movie since The Rainmaker in 1997. Megalopolis is his passion project. He’s been working on it since the 1980s. He’s producing it himself. Coppola says he spent $120 million of his own money on it. It’s filmed. Now, it’s just a matter of it coming out. If you care about film history at all, how could you not be intrigued by Megalopolis?

Jordan Peele has a December release slated. We don’t know the title. We don’t know what it’s about. It doesn’t matter. This is Peele’s M.O. In time, dribs and drabs will come out. It will be eerie. People will be excited. Peele will likely deliver. All we need is the knowledge of a new Peele film to be looking forward to it.

3 Body Problem was a huge book, and now the sci-fi story is being turned into a Netflix show. It should be epic, and it was developed by, among others, "Weiss and Benioff," aka the Game of Thrones guys.

Hey, Kathryn Hahn as Agatha on WandaVision was fun, right? Are you up for her to have her own show? If it can carry over that fun and maybe throw some cool magic in the mix, it should be good.

Remember the animated version of The Last Airbender? That was a beloved show. The story is getting turned into a live-action show for Netflix. Hopefully, it satisfies fans. If nothing else, it should be better than M. Night Shyamalan’s film version.

Netflix is hitting us with a lot of new shows early! Seems like the streaming service wants to get new subscribers for 2024. The Brothers Sun is being pitched as a dark action-comedy about a family of gangsters. All we know is Michelle Yeoh seems to be playing the matriarch of the family, so we’re in.

Disney+ brought the Netflix Marvel shows and characters into their world. The company has invested enough in the MCU that they allowed TV-MA shows on the streaming service. Now, they are even giving the most successful of those characters, Daredevil, his own show. Or, rather, a reboot of his own show. Charlie Cox is back as "The Man Without Fear," and Jon Bernthal returns as The Punisher.

Do you like the Benoit Blanc films or the Kenneth Branagh Poirot films? Death and Other Details could be for you. The first season is a locked-room mystery set on a cruise liner, like one of the better Columbo episodes. Of course, as with any project like this, the detective and the actor matter. We don’t know anything about Rufus Cotesworth yet, but he’s played by Mandy Patinkin, and that’s encouraging.

Spinning off from Hawkeye, Echo has her own show. It ties into Daredevil, which makes sense because both shows feature Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin. Echo is also TV-MA, so that’s going to be different.

Based on a popular video game series, Fallout is a retrofuturist post-apocalyptic adventure. If you play the games, you know what’s up. If you don’t know the games, just know Walton Goggins plays The Ghoul, a gunslinger with a skull face. That’s interesting, right?

On occasion, FOX hits with a new animated show. Maybe Grimsburg will be one of them. It seems like something of a parody of overly serious crime procedurals. Jon Hamm voices the lead character, and the rest of the voice cast seems good. We’re definitely down to give it a chance.

What is Sofia Vergara doing in the wake of Modern Family? Oh, just producing and starring in a Netflix series about Griselda Blanco, the “Godmother of Cocaine.” It’s definitely a change of pace, and every episode is written by Narcos veteran Doug Miro. Yeah, some have had fun with side-by-side photos of Vergara and the real Blanco, but we’re not particularly concerned about that.

Knuckles is in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but is also getting his own show? Evidently, people are into this echidna. It’s impressive that Paramount has managed to get Idris Elba to lend his voice to Knuckles for a full show. Also, it seems like it’ll be a goofy comedy? This is going to be a trip.

First, the cast list for Masters of the Air is incredibly lengthy. It seems like a big-time ensemble piece, perhaps in the vein of Band of Brothers . That would track, given that it is about bomber pilots during World War II. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the release of the show, but it might have helped sell it. Austin Butler is one of the stars, and now he’s Elvis Presley and some dude in Dune: Part Two.

They say CBS is a network only old people watch. The original Matlock was associated with older folks, as any Simpsons watcher knows. As such, it only makes sense that a Matlock reboot is coming to CBS. It just feels right, and that’s why we’re looking forward to it. Oh, also, Kathy Bates is Matlock now. Twist!

Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a perfectly fine film, but the fact it starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who became paramours, has given it an outsized cultural legacy. It’s no sacred cow, so why not remake it as a TV show? The premise is good. Donald Glover as one of the stars is also good, even if this feels less personal than Atlanta.

AMC’s recent original output has not been at its peak, but hopefully, something other than a Walking Dead spinoff hits. Two of AMC’s biggest hits were Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul . Both of those shows costarred Giancarlo Esposito. Now, he’s the star of an AMC show in Parish, an American adaptation of The Driver.

Colin Farrell is throwing on the Penguin prosthetics for a full-on show on (HBO) Max. He was a lot of fun in The Batman, which is saying something because that is not a fun movie. Needlessly dour, you might say. Hopefully, The Penguin is willing to meet Farrell at his performance level. Also, it takes place one week after The Batman, which is delightfully wild.

Shogun was a hugely popular novel and was turned into a miniseries in 1980. Now, in 2024, it’s being adapted again. This time, it is for FX. That means the story can be told in a decidedly different way. There’s a shipwrecked English sailor, a daimyo, a lady samurai, and more.

Based on a popular fantasy novel series and once adapted to the big screen, The Spiderwick Chronicles was originally developed by Disney+. They nixed it, but The Roku Channel swooped in. Now, they don’t have the same budget for future seasons, but giving a fantasy series a chance to spread out on television seems wise.

Meet HBO’s next prestige drama, or at least that will be the goal. It’s based on a novel that won the Pulitzer, and one of the showrunners is Park Chan-wook, an acclaimed director. Not only that, but Robert Downey Jr. is playing multiple antagonist roles, which sounds intriguing, to be sure.

Will Tracy went from writing for Last Week Tonight to writing for Succession to writing the screenplay for The Menu. If you’re looking for political satire, he’s one of the guys to turn to now. Tracy created and is the writer of the limited series The Regime . It’s set during the collapse of an authoritarian regime, and if that wasn’t enough, Kate Winslet is the star.

We know exactly when Tracker is debuting. The CBS show is about a wandering guy with tracking skills who helps, well, track people for reward money. It has been chosen as the lead-out show for the Super Bowl. Anytime a show debuts after the Super Bowl, we’re interested. Clearly, the network believes in Tracker.

Pixar is getting into the television series space! That’s interesting enough as is. The show also has an intriguing premise. Win or Lose is focused on a middle school softball team leading up to the championship game, but each episode is told from the perspective of one of the team members. That could work really well or flop. Either way, we want to see it happen.

Here comes another Star Wars show! This one seems to be more on the serious side, in the vein of Andor, but there is something about The Acolyte that sticks out to us. It’s set 100 years before The Phantom Menace. Exploring the Star Wars universe to that point in time allows for a lot of fresh stuff. Hopefully, we get it.

An HBO show about the making of a superhero movie…that is created by Armando Iannucci…and Sam Mendes. How could we not be hyped? Now, Iannucci’s last show, Avenue 5, wasn’t great, but the dude created Veep and The Thick of It. When he has a new show, we’re in for it.

Palm Royale is a limited series coming to Apple TV+ about a woman trying to rise in Palm Beach’s society scene. You know, like that one episode of The Simpsons , but a full-on TV show. The cast is incredible. Kristen Wiig plays the lead, but the case includes Laura Dern, Allison Janney, and Carol Burnett, among others.

Lulu Wang, director of the excellent film The Farewell, adapted Expats from a novel and directed every episode of the first season. Nicole Kidman is one of the stars of this show that is, yes, about expatriates. We also appreciate the fact the author of the novel, Janice Y.K. Lee, wrote one of the episodes of the show.

It’s…it’s going to happen? Six seasons and a movie? The rallying cry adapted from Dan Harmon’s coltishly-adored meta-flavored sitcom will become a reality. They managed to get to six seasons, but the movie seemed unlikely. Community: The Movie is going to happen. It’s still slated for 2024 after some strike-related delays, and when it happens, the prophecy will have been fulfilled.

X-Men: The Animated Series proved unexpectedly popular on Disney+. Call it a mix of nostalgia from ‘90s kids and kids of the modern era finding it and enjoying it. Now, the show is coming back, in essence. Now called X-Men ’97, the show is picking up right where the original left off back in, well, 1997. Enjoy, millennials!

Sleater-Kinney is not quite the band they were when it was a trio with the stellar drummer Janet Weiss in the mix. However, a new release from the indie rock legends is still worth diving into. Little Rope was preceded by a couple of singles, and the sound is encouraging for those looking for the “classic” Sleater-Kinney vibe.

Kid Cudi is a polarizing musician, but his fans tend to be devoted. When he hasn’t been acting (or serving as the bandleader for the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV show back in the day), he’s kept on producing his own music, and Insano finally arrived on January 12. 

Usher is an astute businessman. Coming Home is his first solo album in nearly eight years, and it is being released on February 11. That is the day of the Super Bowl, and do you happen to know who is performing the halftime show? Yes, that would be Usher. As we said, an astute businessman.

British punk (though they occasionally chafe at being called a punk band) doesn’t come more shrewd and powerful than Idles. They absolutely rip as a band, but lyrically, they are pretty clever. They also tend to exude positivity, and Joe Talbot has said that every song on Tangk is a love song. Love songs that’ll tear your face off, but love songs.

Back in 2002, Jennifer Lopez released an album called This is Me…Then. Two decades later, and one decade after her last album, J. Lo is releasing a sequel album. In terms of going full circle, Then came out right as “Bennifer” was picking up steam. Now, Lopez and Ben Affleck are married, and both of their careers are still going strong.

Sia’s whole weird vibe is back with her first proper album in a bit. Her last album was a soundtrack for a movie you did not see, and before that, she made a Christmas album. Sia had some time away from watching Survivor to put out a fresh album, with the single “Gimme Love” already having been released.

MGMT dropped their debut album at the perfect time in 2007. The “indie sleaze” era was in full effect, and “Time to Pretend” became one of the defining indie songs of that era. They haven’t released a new album since 2018, but Loss of Life is on its way because indie-influenced psych rock never dies.

Now, any announcement of a new Guns N’ Roses album must be taken with several grains of salt. Their last album came out in 2008, and it was Chinese Democracy, one of the longest-gestating projects ever. Axl Rose isn’t the most reliable, but a single has been released for the new album. Also, and this is key, Slash and Duff are back, making this the first “classic” GNR album in decades.

The original Alone in the Dark was at the forefront of the survival horror video game movement. This is something of a reimagining of that game, but obviously, graphics have improved, and the storytelling of video games has changed. So much so that Jodie Comer and David Harbour are lending their voices to the game.

Speaking of old-school games, the original Prince of Persia even predates Alone in the Dark, and the series has been so successful it has gotten a (terrible) movie adaptation. The Lost Crown is the first game in the series since 2010 and features a new protagonist. Additionally, the game’s director has said that The Lost Crown is heavily influenced by Persian mythology, which is probably a long time coming for a game series called, you know, Prince of Persia.

Sure, it’s another game in a series, and you can only do so many variations on a theme for a fighting game. On the other hand, it’s Tekken! The series is one of the foremost in the fighting space, right up there with Mortal Kombat. Plus, you can still fight as a bear.

Kill the Justice League has been delayed a couple of times, but it will arrive, we believe, in February 2024. The subtitle is definitely intriguing and very Suıcide Squad, even if the Justice League has been brainwashed by Brainiac. Notably, this game will feature Kevin Conroy’s final turn as Batman, as he passed away in 2022.

It comes full circle for these two. Back when Mario was just “Jumpman,” he went toe-to-toe with the barrel-throwing ape. In the ensuing years they have both gone on to bigger, better things. Also, played golf and tennis together and stuff. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a revamping of an old GameBoy game for the Nintendo Switch era. We just like seeing these two squaring off.

It’s a bit of a switcheroo, and you play as Mordred in King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. An RPG set in the world of Arthurian legend certainly makes sense to us. An earlier computer version came out after a successful Kickstarter, and it got good reviews. It’s going to be available in video game form now on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which should boost the graphics and gameplay.

Peach is getting her Bob Fosse on in Showtime!, the first game with Peach as a protagonist since 2005. It looks pretty cool and is presented as a stage play, a la Super Mario Bros. 3. Plus, the villain is named Wicked Grape, which we enjoy.

Yo, you can ride a dinosaur in the Ark games! The first game was a fun open-world adventure several years ago, and now a sequel to the survival game is arriving. Some quibbled with the difficulty of the first Ark, so perhaps Ark 2 can tamp that down while also expanding the already expansive world. Vin Diesel is providing a voice as well.

A horror game inspired by the films of Dario Argento, Clock Tower came out for the Super Famicom (the Japanese version of Super Nintendo) back in 1995. The graphics are pretty fun, but of course, time comes for us all. An updated version of Clock Tower will arrive in 2024 for modern consoles.

An actual original game! Even more than movies, video games are I.P. and sequel-driven, but Flintlock is not that. It’s an open-world, action-heavy RPG game where you fight “old Gods.” That’s a premise that hooks you.

Cuddly Carnage is something of an oxymoron, which is the point. We don’t know a ton about this game other than the title, the fact it is a hack-and-slash adventure, and the fact there’s a cat on a hover skateboard on the cover art. So yeah, we’re sold.

Doubling down on the feline festivities! This one seems a little more lo-fi and family-friendly than Cuddly Carnage. In Little Kitty, Big City, you play a lost cat in a Japanese metropolis. Your objective is to get back home, but you are free to chase birds and wear hats in the interim if you want.

Anything taking place in Middle Earth is going to draw interest and enthusiasm. Return to Moria takes place after the events of the Lord of the Rings books and focuses on dwarves returning to their homeland of Moria. A lot of customization is available in the game, so you can make your dwarves, and your version of Moria, truly your own.

You create your own character in Rise of the Ronin and drop them into the middle of the Boshin War. This period piece takes you back to 19th-century Edo (now Tokyo), a landscape not commonly found in video games or movies. The look of the game is promising, and hopefully, the gameplay is fresh.

Rivals of Aether was well received for a platform fighting game, not always a critically acclaimed genre. Several years later, a sequel arrives, and they aren’t resting on their laurels. Unlike the first game, which was 2D, this game is 2.5D, and it also features a lot of new game mechanics to it.

In Skate Story, you play a skateboarding demon. You make a deal with the Devil, and if you can skate to the Moon and swallow it, you will be freed. So, you know, just your typical skateboarding game.

Skull and Bones is kind of the Chinese Democracy of video games. Development began in 2013. It first appeared on Ubisoft’s release schedule in 2018. Now, finally, the piracy-centered adventure game does seem ready to arrive. Will the delay have proven worth it? We’ll find out…we assume.

Episodic graphic adventure games aren’t for everybody, but they have a foothold in the market for a reason. The Wolf Among Us had cool noir vibes and a striking aesthetic, and the sequel has been gestating for a while. It’s here, and it still looks great visually speaking, and that’s half the battle with a game like this.

There are a couple of Star Wars games arriving in 2024, but Outlaws is the one that intrigues us more. It’s set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and you play as a duo looking to pull off a major heist. Outlaws is mixing familiar planets with new ones, which is a nice balance for a Star Wars game.