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 a few of my own thoughts too! It being January though, there’s not a huge amount to report on, but what’s there is pretty good so let’s jump right in!

If I didn’t own half these games already on Evercade, and had more than barely ever touched them, then Top Racer Collection would probably be the first thing I’d buy this year! It features the old SNES arcade racers (better known as Top Gear outside of Japan) Top Racer, Top Racer 2, Top Racer 3000 plus a brand new crossover with its modern spiritual successor Horizon Chase called Top Racer: Crossroads. There’s also new modes and new cars to try, and it looks like a really top notch package that’s out on everything on the 11th. UPDATE: After I published this I heard it’s been delayed to the start of March on Switch at least but not sure about elsewhere as I write.

Also on everything a week later, on the 18th, is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which I believe is the series’ first proper new game in fourteen years. Ditched the crappy 3D too, and is now a 2.5D side-scrolling metroidvania far more akin to its iconic 1989 platforming forefather. Plenty of accessibility options to make it a bit easier than that by the looks of it though, so anyone will hopefully be able to enjoy its twenty-plus hour campaign. Loads of exploration, puzzles and no doubt impressive bosses to sink your teeth into, and while I’m not sure about the art style yet, in the ongoing absence of Hollow Knight: Silksong, this might fill a gap!

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy comes specifically to PC, Switch, Xbox One and PS4 on January 25th, which I know still happens a lot but aren’t we now years into the current generation of consoles? Don’t suppose it matters, and it collects Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. They all get the remaster treatment too, so your courtroom dramas have never looked better, and a newly designed UI and menu system means they should finally look decent on modern screens too. Well, Capcom “modern” at least!

Tekken 8 comes to PC, PlayStation and Xbox on 26th January, and I’m thinking it might just be the first game of the year contender for 2024 (and more on that shortly)! I played the closed beta a couple of months back and the demo more recently and both were fantastic, looking absolutely stunning with a great cast of thirty-two fighters and feeling very fine – familiar but focussed on aggressive tactics. I’ve loved these since the original on PS1 and I’m already counting down the days!

As I write there’s a Monty Mole collection just out on Switch in the US that should arrive in Europe any time now so keep an eye out for that too! I also think there’s yet another remaster of The Last of Us something or other this month too but I’m about as interested in that as I am a new GTA, so I’m going to call it a day there! However, if you want more, as alluded to above, there’s not long to wait for the similarly formatted Retro Arcadia Game of the Year 2024 Predictions, which is coming this Thursday, and is our annual look ahead to all the upcoming retro-interest (and more) games releases, complete with trailers, that might make the cut next December. There’s loads there too, so I’ll hopefully see you then!