Many generations ago, back at the dawn of console gaming, a series that had my full attention most afternoons was Shining Force on the Mega Drive. The turn-based grid strategy was so gripping and exciting, and it is excellent to hear Null Games' announcement of a new entry to this genre coming in 2024; Athena Crisis.

Developed by Nakazawa Tech KK, you will be placed in the shoes of a commander with a plethora of units at their command, make up of infantry, tanks, and air forces. Think army commander but with a delightfully colourful pixel art style. There will be over 30 types of soldiers to command, across five environments each with its own unique playstyle.

It is time to return to Bikini Bottom, as Tiliting Point alongside Whaleapp has announced the pre-registration for the officially licensed game SpongeBob Adventure: In a Jam. This builder title will have you rescue the city on its inhabitants from a disastrous accident caused by the nefarious Plankton.

It was a normal day in Bikini Bottom, as Plankton was attempting to steal the Krabby Patty formula again, however, this time something went wrong and covered the town in Jellyfish Jam. It is up to Spongebob, Patrick, and all of their friends to find a way to rebuild Bikini Bottom back to its former glory.

Garena has announced the opening of pre-registrations for its upcoming adventure RPG, Black Clover M: Rise of the Wizard King. Developed by VIC Games Studio, Black Clover M will be available in ten different languages to cater for a huge audience.

Black Clover M places its players into the beloved world of the anime series, putting you front and centre on Asta and his companion's journey, on the way to fulfilling his dream of becoming the next Wizard King. This immersive experience will have you interact with the realm of Black Clover like never before by fishing, gathering, and interacting with a host of NPCs.

Jagex has released the first look at the very first new combat style coming to its MMORPG, Runescape, in 2023. In an extremely exciting announcement, Necromancer will be changing the face of the beloved game in a big way, for better or for worse.

The First Necromancer, a loathsome figure who has been seen throughout all time, has resurfaced, and his eyeless sockets are fixed on one particular adventurer. You will need to delve deep into the city of Um, your actual real name, and master this new skill to prevent this fearsome pest from destroying all life.

Thanks to the revival of the animated Bleach series, Bleach: Brave Souls has been enjoying quite the renaissance, with events and giveaways coming fairly frequently. Now, it is time to celebrate, as Brave Souls has hit 75 million downloads.

That is quite the number, even if it does include repeat downloads, but I doubt anyone is sitting there deleting and redownloading Brave Souls every minute. As a thank you for hitting this milestone, Brave Souls is running so truly generous events.

A lot of video games have introduced players to some genuinely top-quality TCG minigames; Gwent from The Witcher, my personal favourite Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8, and Genius Invokation from Genshin Impact, who has just announced their first official international tournament series for 2023.

The series, called Astra Carnival: The Prince Cup, will take place in the second half of 2023, welcoming players from across the globe to take part in one of six regional championships, plus some select invitational tournaments, the battle it out for a share of $270,000, which isn’t bad for the inaugural prize.

After taking the world by storm on its release, Honkai: Star Rail will be levelling up to Version 1.1 on June 7th. Galactic Roaming, as the update is dubbed, brings a plethora of new events and missions to take part in, as well as a total of three familiar faces available to recruit.

In the Starhunt Game, Trailblazers will receive a call from Herta Spaces Station engineer Leonard, asking you to hunt down graffiti across the station that is hiding some mysterious secret. Heading over to Belobog, the Everwinter City Museum Ledger of Curiosities event will give you the chance to land a hand for the reopening of the titular attraction.

Tower of Fantasy welcomes their latest simulacrum to the field, and she is one powerful character. The former head of the Listener Project, Dr. Rubilia is swapping research for adventuring and comes with some truly powerful skills.

Rubilia is definitely a character that is worth getting if you can, as her damage output potential is absolutely immense if you gear her right. If you equip two or more volt weapons you will activate her Volt Resonance ability, increasing Volt Attack by 20% and Volt resistance by 40%.

14 Hours Productions has announced their upcoming Tamagotchi-inspired title, Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago. You will need to hatch and raise your new virtual pet and prepare them to defeat a great evil plaguing the world, and also remind them to take a shower every now and then.

As the Guardian Spirit of this world, you have been ordered by the Fairy Queen to raise an elf hero capable of defeating the Dark Lord and their army of minions attacking the land. You do this in a Tamagotchi-meets idle RPG cross, raising your new little friend and training them, but they require more care than you would think.

It is time to start your tractors and prepare to graft, as the long wait is over with the release of Farming Simulator 23. It has been three years since we could tend to our mobile crops on the go, and the new release brings with it a hefty bag of new features.

All of the hard work we all know and somehow love is back, including new mechanics such as ploughing and weeding to keep your fields in tip-top shape. There are also three new types of crops to grow bringing the total up to 14; grapes, olives and sorghum.

It is time to start expanding your squad, with the Half-elven Warrior Arwen Undómiel joining the fray in The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-Earth. Arriving June 9th, her skills give her the makings of an absolute powerhouse for your support role.

If you know much about the lore, then it’s safe to say Arwen doesn’t see much action in the Tolkien universe, even her big moment in the movie franchise was pinched from another Elf in the books. Luckily, however, this Heroes of Middle-earth Arwen is quite the fighter.

Devsisters have announced a massive new update for Cookie Run: Kingdom, excitingly named Legend of the Red Dragon. There will be two powerful new cookies to recruit, as well as a new story featuring the most majestic of mythological creatures; the dragon.

The Legend of the Red Dragon features Ancient grade, Hollyberry, and the new Pitaya Dragon Cookie venturing forth to Dragon’s Valley. Being trapped in a Cookie’s body, Pitaya makes an interesting proposition to Hollyberry; help Pitaya regain their dragon power, and they will join the battle against the Dark Enchantress Cookie.

Talofa Games have released its feature-packed community fitness app, Run Legends. You can team up with friends all over the world to take down the villainous Sappers draining humanity's energy and get yourself healthier in the process.

In a bid to keep runners' minds occupied and their feet going, Run Legends transforms the power of your speed and stride and uses it to pull off special attacks and moves in the app. Some abilities will require you to go faster for a bit, whereas for others you will need to slow down, making it accessible to all levels of athletes.

Back in 2009, Gameloft created a fairly successful video game franchise called Dungeon Hunter. It mastered the APRG Dungeon Crawler genre and popped out a few sequels that got better and better, but then in 2015 after Dungeon Hunter 5, they stopped, much to the disappointment of fans. Until now.

One big headline of this announcement is that this next instalment won’t be handled by the original developers, instead, it is being passed over to GOAT Games. It is always a bit of a worrying time when the development of a beloved series gets put into the hands of another, of course, they could just as easily ruin the nostalgia as they could take it to higher heights.

Neowiz, in conjunction with StickyHands Inc, has announced the worldwide release of its latest game, Merge Survival: Wasteland. Plunge into the desolate wasteland and do your best to scavenge, combine, and discover a way to survive.

In a rather unique and interesting-sounding combination, Merge Survival mashes up the match-3 genre with survival, however, this is not your nuclear winter or zombie sort of survival world. Neowiz instead has chosen to go for the hard sell and has set the game in a world devastated by pollution.