Team Picks: The Most Anticipated Games of April

Welcome to Team Picks! Team Picks is Press-Start Australia’s monthly feature where members of the team get together to tell you about their most anticipated games of the upcoming month.

Why not join in? Let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments!

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition – State of Decay was one of my favorite games of 2013 when it was first released on the Xbox 360. It entrusted me with the task of caring for a group of survivors living in a world ravaged by the zombie apocalypse, pulling no punches with its difficulty and community-based social simulations. It was truly a survival horror game like no other. Still, its scope and ambition was noticeably restrained by the aging hardware it had to work with; visuals were murky and the framerate could be downright atrocious at times.

That is why Year-One Survival Edition is my most anticipated release for the month of April: it repackages everything I loved about the original and its two DLC add-ons into one neat bundle, only this time its got the added horsepower of the Xbox One backing it up. Am I tired of remasters? Yes. Would I like to see more new games? Undoubtedly. But for State of Decay.. I think I’m ready to jump back in.

Shovel Knight (Playstation) – My Vita has become my (handheld) console of choice for the miriad of Indie games that make their way to the PlayStation platform. With cross-save functionality, I can take gems – like I believe Shovel Knight to be – with me on the go and return to it on the PS4 at home. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Shovel Knight and can’t wait to finally play it on the system of my choice.

Axiom Verge – I was remarkably impressed with Ori and the Blind Forest and the way it managed to make a game that was nothing short of beautiful and colourful feel like a game as dull and gloomy as Metroid (I mean this positively, mind you). Thankfully, it wasn’t what I thought it would be and exceeded my expectations. Now, with Axiom Verge, yet another high profile Metroidvania style title is available for the Playstation plaforms. And I can’t wait to get into it.

Sure, I’m looking forward to Mortal Kombat too, but I just can’t wait to see whether or not Axiom Verge manages to capture that dark and dank isolationist feel that the classic Metroid games did so well. Hopefully it won’t disappoint.

Mortal Kombat X – The Mortal Kombat series has always been the only fighting game I’ve ever been able to get into, from the arcade beat ’em ups to the interesting new look of the Playstation 2 era games to now. The characters have always looked great, the lore of the story of the elder gods and the tournament itself and even the movies and cartoons have captured my interest. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time and I’m even more excited to play as the legendary Jason and Predator.

Mortal Kombat X – Violence, more violence, and even more violence. And this time it has a rating! Netherrealm Studios brings forth klassic and new kombatants in what is shaping up to be the most awesome offering since the series was rebooted with MK9. Now includes added Jason Voorhees and the Predator!

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D – So far, April is a pretty sparse month for me, but one game I’ve always been keen to try was Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii. After seeing the game go for way too much on eBay, I lost hope… but then they announced it as a port for the New 3DS, and I was hyped! I’m just hoping the “I’m really feeling it” doesn’t make a resurgence when the game releases…