To say that 2017 was a landmark year for gaming would be an understatement. We not only saw the release of a brand new, industry-changing console in the form of the Nintendo Switch (now officially the fastest-selling console of all time) but more importantly, there was simply a ton of incredible games to play. From January pretty much right up until the end of the year, it felt like not a week would go by without a new, must-play title coming out, making it very difficult (read: impossible) to keep up with everything. The first three months of 2017 in particular may have been the strongest first quarter ever, with legitimate game of the year caliber titles such as Resident Evil 7, Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild all releasing during that period.
Looking ahead to 2018, it’s looking like we may not be quite as inundated with must-play games as we were last year but there are some definite heavy-hitters coming our way. The PlayStation 4 in particular is set to deliver a handful of highly anticipated exclusives and we’re also only a few months away from the release of a new Rockstar game (you know which one). That being said, there are still a ton of games that will hit later this year that we don’t even know about yet and even if we were only getting the following 18 games in 2018, it would still be a strong year. There is no guarantee that all of these games will make it out this year, of course, but as of right now, these are the ones that we’re most looking forward to getting our hands on.
18. Mega Man 11
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One
Capcom has given the Mega Man franchise some love in recent years with the release of the Mega Man Legacy Collections but when it comes to new games, fans haven’t had a proper sequel since the release of Mega Man 10 in 2010. It came as something of a pleasant surprise then to hear the publisher announce a brand new Mega Man game as part of the franchise’s 30th anniversary celebration this past December. Simply titled Mega Man 11, the game is another side-scrolling action platformer much like previous Mega Man titles, only with 3D visuals this time rather than the 8-bit aesthetic adopted by Mega Man 9 and 10.
Little is known about the game right now but Capcom is aiming for a late 2018 release on multiple platforms and even though there have been a ton of Mega Man copycats released in recent years to help fill the void left by the series’ absence, it’s hard not to be excited by Mega Man 11 considering veteran producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya and director Koji Oda are both involved.
Capcom