Time for our regular roundup of the mostly (but not strictly) retro-interest games releases on the way for the coming month, with trailers for everything and maybe a few snippets of fascinating information too! I thought we might be in for a bit of an August drought too, but not the case at all, so let’s jump right in!

I’m sure Baldur’s Gate 3 has already been around for years, but anyway, it finally comes out of early access or whatever it’s been up to for all that time on August 3rd for PC (and possibly MAC), followed by PS5 in September and Xbox sometime after that. It’s a narrative-heavy, party-based proper Dungeons & Dragons RPG, where “your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power.” All sounds very lovely and I’m very much looking forward to playing it when it comes to something I can play it on!

I’m less sold (so far) on WrestleQuest, out on the 8th on everything (including mobile via Netflix), which is weird because it should be right up my street! It’s a wrestling fantasy RPG that has the pixel art style of something like Secret of Mana with characters like Macho Man Randy Savage, Jake the Snake and Andre the Giant as you try to climb to superstardom. It looks like matches are turn-based and it’s big on story too. Just not grabbing me yet but I hope it does when the reviews start appearing! UPDATE: Understand it’s been delayed to the 22nd.

Not a million miles away, and also out on everything a day later on the 9th, Legend Bowl brings an even more retro pixel art style to American football. Looks very cool too, with what seems like pretty deep but still arcade-like gameplay as well as off-field management (which I really hope is of the optional kind). There’s also realistic weather, detailed stats, career mode, tournament mode, fully customizable rosters and it seems like more to come after release. Reminds me of Tecmo Bowl on a Sensible Soccer pitch, and that can’t be bad!

This is the first of two new collections for Evercade coming out on the 11th, and one I’ve had preordered for ages because I don’t think I’ve ever played any of the nine arcade games on it, or even heard of most of them! Piko Interactive Arcade 1 features a bunch of rare arcade games from the mid to late 1990s, including Dragon Master, Master’s Fury, Fancy World: Earth of Crisis, Magic Purple, The Legend of Silkroad and Burglar X from Korean developer Unico, plus Art & Magic’s visually impressive sports title Ultimate Tennis, and Steel Force and Diver Boy from Electronic Devices Italy. I might well do a review for that one so keep your eyes peeled!

I probably won’t be reviewing the second Evercade cartridge though, out the same day, but only because it really doesn’t appeal to me. It might to you though, so read on! The Sydney Hunter Collection brings together three platforming games and one maze game from CollectorVision, each originally released for a different old 8- or 16-bit platform, including Sydney Hunter and the Shrines of Peril, Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe, Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death, and Jester. They look good to me too if that’s your bag!

Every year I have my fill of the latest Madden game within the ten hour EA Game Pass trial thing then come back a few months later for the same again when it lands of the service for real. And I’m sure that will be the case for Madden NFL 24 too when it arrives on PlayStation, Xbox and PC on August 18th! As well as all the usual updates, this time there’s all new player skeleton physics, the return of Superstar mode, 3v3 online play and loads of gameplay tweaks, such as no-look passes and a new catching system. Will be very cool I’m sure.

As will The Texas Chain Saw Massacre… if you’re into asymmetrical horror experiences based on the groundbreaking and iconic 1974 horror film… Which I don’t think I am, unfortunately, as much as I love the movie. I’ve got it pre-installed on Xbox Game Pass all the same though, and it’s also out on the 18th on PlayStation and PC. It’s that co-op and PvP deal with multiple killers to choose from (including Kane Hodder as Leatherface) while everyone else looks for their missing friend, and I so wish I was into that stuff but I’ll give it a go on the strength of the property all the same. And credit to IGN for the most up to date video.

The first game could have been created just for me but try as I might, it just never clicked, so I’m intrigued to see if Blasphemous 2 has that je ne sais quoi I was missing before when it comes to everything on the 24th. Seems to pick up the story after the last DLC from the first game, which is hard to fathom if you weren’t there so I’ll simply say it looks like more of the same horror metroidvania shenanigans with brutal combat and some serious bosses. I’ll watch this space, although my opinions aside, it had better have something about it going up against this next game the following day…

If we were only talking about the pedigree of previous Armored Core games, I’m not sure anyone (outside of a handful of nerds) would care much about Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, but we’re also now talking about the pedigree of FromSoftware on top, and that seems to have come a long way since the last entry in this series over a decade ago! It’s coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on the 25th, and it’s going to be full of high-octane mech-based vehicular combat, with missions to complete and giant bosses to take down, and upgrades and customisation and all that nerdy stuff the nerds will still love about the game. Looks spectacular too!

Last up this month, Taito Milestones 2, which collects no less than Kiki Kaikai, The New Zealand Story, Darius II, Metal Black, Gun Frontier, Ben Bero Beh, Solitary Fighter, The Legend of Kage, Liquid Kids and Dinorex. Plenty of variety and plenty of stuff that doesn’t appear on everything else all the time – some stone cold classics too! It is going to cost you £34.99 for ten ancient games though but I hope to bring you a full review all the same (just like the first volume here) when it lands on Switch on the 31st.

That’s what I’ve got for you for this month, but be sure to check back again this time next month for more of the same for September’s new releases of note. I know there’s Starfield and Mortal Kombat 1 leading the pack for me, but loads of cool stuff like Super Bomberman R 2, Gloomhaven and a new Harvest Moon on the way too. Should be good so I’ll see you then!