The New Games You Can’t Miss in April

By Garrett Martin | April 1, 2020 | 1:45pm

Video Games Lists new releases

April’s already here, and it’s got one thing on its mind: remakes! At least when it comes to videogames. This month brings two of the most anticipated remakes of the year, Resident Evil 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake, the latter one of which might be the most hotly desired videogame remake of all time. All you Sephiroth fans have only nine more days to wait for that one. Meanwhile a couple of beautiful oddities that we’ve had our eyes on for a while finally come out in April, along with the newest permutation of the Gears of War saga. Here are the games we’re most excited for in April.

In Other Waters

Release Date: April 3
Platforms: Switch, PC, Mac

We’ve been immersed in this one for a while (our first piece on it was published over two years ago, and Holly Green took a deeper dive just two weeks ago), and thankfully the undersea science adventure from Gareth Damian Martin (no relation) is finally coming out. The sleek minimalism of In Other Waters belies the game’s full depth, both mechanically and narratively. If you’re looking for something truly unique, that doesn’t really feel too much like any other game you’ve played recently, here’s a great place to start.

Resident Evil 3

Release Date: April 3
Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

The latest HD remake of a classic Resident Evil will be scaring up your systems by the end of the week. Resident Evil 3 is a bit of an outlier in the series, with a shorter story that keeps a tight focus on the monstrous Nemesis and its pursuit of Jill Valentine throughout Raccoon City. The remake promises to do what remakes these days do: polish everything up to a ridiculous degree, and translate this 20-year-old classic into a vernacular that modern audiences can understand. If Capcom does as good a job as it did remaking Resident Evil 2, this could be the game of the month.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake

Release Date: April 10
Platform: PlayStation 4

Yeah, that’s the real name. It’s weird to say that the month’s biggest new game is actually one from 23 years ago, but Final Fantasy fans have been salivating for a modern remake of Final Fantasy VII for as long as Final Fantasy games have been getting remade. Final Fantasy VII is one of the most beloved games of all time, and perhaps the most analyzed, discussed, replayed, overrated and yet still somehow underrated game of all time. Based on impact alone, it’s pretty much destined to remain in the top 10 of the entire medium of all time, so maybe we should all dedicate some of our quarantine hours to revisiting Cloud, Sephiroth and the rest. How weird is it that this game references “Sister Ray,” the Velvet Underground’s 18-minute noise epic about a heroin-fueled orgy of drag queens and sailors?

SoundSelf

Release Date: April 22
Platforms: PC, PC VR

Robin Arnott’s long-gestating virtual reality meditation experience (here’s Paste again, writing about it back in 2017) will finally manifest itself in our homes later this month. SoundSelf syncs itself up to the rhythm of your own breathing to create a psychedelic experience that helps you transcend your surroundings—and since our surroundings are all so limited all of a sudden, this is a perfect time to finally put it out. The “but is it a game” crowd should steer clear (of everything, really, especially the internet), but anybody fascinated by one-of-a-kind experiences should keep their eyes and ears on SoundSelf

Trials of Mana

Release Date: April 24
Platforms: Switch, PlayStation 4,PC

The remake mamba continues with a game that’s not nearly as well-known as Final Fantasy VII or Resident Evil III, but whose rerelease is, in a way, more newsworthy. This sequel to the Super Nintendo cult classic Secret of Mana came out in Japan in 1995, but never hit our shores until it was included in a 2019 collection for the Switch. Now it’s being remade in 3D and coming out the same month as another Square Enix remake. Don’t let the (deserved) Final Fantasy hype distract you: if you’re at all interested in ‘90s JRPGs, you should set some time aside for Trials of Mana.

Gears Tactics

Release Date: April 28
Platforms: Xbox One, PC

There comes a time when almost every beloved game franchise gets its own tactical spinoff. The Gears of War equivalent to Halo Wars finally comes out this month, although with a foundation that owes more to XCOM or Final Fantasy Tactics than the G.I. Joe fantasies of that space-bound military sim. A game like this has three main points of interest: how will it convert Gears into this new format? Will it feel enough like a fully featured, well-designed strategy game to appeal to genre fans who don’t care about Gears of War? And what’s the point of a Gears game if you can’t do the roadie run? The answers are incoming.

Moving Out

Release Date: April 28
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC

This game adaptation of the Billy Joel jukebox musical (note: it actually isn’t) is a perfect game for our time—assuming you have a friend, roommate or loved one quarantined alongside you. It’s a local two-player game about what has become today’s ultimate fantasy: getting the hell out of your house and never coming back. This furniture moving sim (for real) should give you a new outlet during these increasingly endless days of housebound isolation.

Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.