By Nelson Schneider - 02/20/26 at 02:34 AM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! With the coming of March, we’re officially at the end of the Fiscal Year, around which all big corporations – including those in Industrial Gaming – build their existence. Will there be any real last-ditch efforts to bring in revenue? Will there be any ambitious go-getters looking to get a head start on the year’s profit margins before everyone else? Let’s take a look!
Well, we’ve got shovelware again in March. The most shovely of shovelware I’ve seen in quite some time is coming in the form of “Neopets: Mega Mini Games Collection,” which is simultaneously Licensed Swill, Casual Swill, AND a Port! Other than that, there’s a couple Annualized Releases in Sports: “WWE” and “MLB: The Show.” That leaves us with a number of Noteworthy Ports, including the “Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection,” a remake of “Fatal Frame 2,” a FOURTH volume of ‘Taito Milestones’ hitting the original Switch, plus Sega and Nintendo porting some decent games to the Switch 2: “Sonic Racing: Crossworlds” and “Super Mario Bros. Wonder.”
There are quite a few legitimate, new multi-platform releases landing in March. “Screamer” is a sequel/reboot of a crusty old Racing franchise, “Life is Strange: Reunion” is... more of that, “Greedfall 2: The Dying World” is leaving Early Access (hopefully in a more polished state), “Monster Hunter Stories 3” is... more of that too, and “Crimson Desert” is the offline sequel to “Black Desert Online” and one of the few games scheduled for release in 2026 worth building any hype for. It’s not all sequels, though, as we are getting several new IPs too. “Etrange Overlord” is a typical Nippon Ichi RPG (so, do not want). “Ariana and the Elder Codex” is a painfully generic-looking Metroidvania by... Idea Factory and Compile Heart (so... do NOT want). “John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando” might sound like it’s based on the ‘Toxic Crusader’ or ‘Toxic Avenger’ IPs, but as far as I can tell it’s not... it’s just another crappy “Left 4 Dead” clone. Lastly, “1348 Ex Voto” is, as far as I can tell, some sort of revisionist history Medieval Lesbians Simulator that takes combat cues from ‘Kingdom Come’... yeah... pass.
Exclusives are decidedly thinner on the ground. PC is getting the timed exclusive release of “Rushing Beat X: Return of the Brawl Brothers,” a(nother) Indie Beat ‘em Up. PlayStation is getting Cyberpunk dystopian point-and-click Adventure, “NORCO” and ‘Red Dead’ knock-off, “Wild West Legacy.” Lastly, Nintendo is having the original Switch polluted by Idea Factory with “Otome Daioshi: Fighting for Love,” while bringing the first party “Pokemon: Pokopia” spinoff to the Switch 2.
Well, March is at least looking a bit more enjoyable than a sharp stick in the eye. While there is a LOT of crap coming, the presence of two possibly-great Sandbox games in “Greedfall 2” and “Crimson Desert” might make up for that fact.
Backlog Embiggened: +2
