The 15 Best Games Releasing During the Summer Drought

The latest Kirby game mixes things up a bit, by granting the pink puffball a giant mech suit. Traditional Kirby gameplay returns to the 3DS, but the new mech theme ties into both the gameplay and aesthetic. Planet Robobot is just the game to pop into your 3DS when you’re out and about this summer.

Star Wars returned in a big way last year with The Force Awakens, and now the film is receiving its own LEGO video game adaption. The new game will retell the story of the film in the traditional quirky LEGO way, and even features some new story content set between Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Another huge JRPG lands the last week of June, with the fifth entry in the Star Ocean series. After being absent since 2010 the series returns with a new adventure and some improvements. For the first time, players can use their entire party of seven characters in battle at once. Integrity and Faithlessness is also trying to make cutscenes and story moments far more interactive than most JRPGs. If you want a title that you can really sink into over the slow summer, Star Ocean could be a good choice.

Monster Hunter has seen rising popularity in North America over the last few years, and the newest entry in the series is bound to be jam packed full of dangerous beasts for players to track down. Generations blends new areas and monsters, with fan favorites from across the series that have been updated and adapted with the newest mechanics. It also introduces a couple new gameplay mechanics with styles and Hunter Arts, providing even more customization. Monster Hunter Generations is a title you’ll be able to easily spend 100 hours with over the summer drought.

Although No Man’s Sky didn’t release in June, it’s still slated for the summer with a new release date of August 9. Hello Games the developers behind No Man’s Sky have promised a limitless explorable universe, with endless possibilities. Players will venture across galaxies discovering planets and alien life, that no other player may ever see again. There’s still a lot of unknowns hanging around the game, but what we’ve seen so far of No Man’s Sky looks gorgeous and full of potential. It may be a game that you can while hours upon hours away in, just discovering new things.

The last week of the summer ends things with a bang, seeing a few different big titles release. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided may be the biggest of those, a direct sequel to the previous game Human Revolution. Two years after the first game the “Aug Incident” has fueled tensions between augmented humans and non-augmented, causing huge amounts of discrimination and violence. Mankind Divided allows players to approach situations however they want, with stealth, guns blazing or a combination of the two. It’s a sprawling cyber punk action-RPG that weaves in choice and morality.