Our Picks From Summer Game Fest 2024

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

After years of hoping Zelda finally receives a protagonist role in the game that bears her name, the Nintendo Direct was a delightful surprise. Nintendo’s design decision to swap out the series’ combat staple for a bizarre and intriguing “copy and paste” magic gimmick is equally wonderful. Obviously, as the vessel for the Triforce of Wisdom, Hyrule’s princess wouldn’t do anything as brutish as swing a sword – though she would, apparently, lob a boulder. The return of the Link’s Awakening play-doh aesthetic is also very welcome – I’m sure the team at Nintendo was desperate for a chance to use that top-down, 3D charming art style again. Very excited for September to roll around now!

Perfect Dark

As a man of a certain age, the N64's most ground-breaking stealth shooter is obviously very near and dear to my heart. So it was a wonderful surprise that SGF 2024 provided me with not just a brand new entry in the Joanna Dark canon, but also Nintendo chucking the original up on the Switch's surprisingly fluid online Expansion Pack emulation service. What's more, it doesn't even look like you'll need rose-tinted glasses to enjoy that Xbox Studios reboot, what a luxury! Very excited to start deepfaking enemy grunt voices with Joanna's new spy dictaphone, the perfect blend of sci-fi nonsense and old-school espionage.

Flock

At the recent Summer Game Fest events in LA, I checked out more than two dozen titles, including everything from Once Human and Unknown 9: Awakening to Akimbot and Harmonium: The Musical. Among so many varied experiences, Flock stole the show (and my heart) with its relaxing premise that allows players to ride on the back of a bird as they identify and collect a variety of colorful critters. The game’s creature collection and flight mechanics make Flock feel like a mix between Pokemon and Flower (a superb 2009 release from Thatgamecompany), and I could have played the demo all day. Learn more about Flock in our Summer Game Fest preview.

Fear the Spotlight

Fear the Spotlight feels like it came out of nowhere – I certainly wasn’t expecting to play a horror game inspired by PS1-era classics like Silent Hill at Summer Game Fest. Yet this debut title from Cozy Game Pals and publisher Blumhouse Games pulled me in with its spooky storyline that follows Vivian, a student at Sunnyside High, whose friend Amy goes missing after the pair breaks into the school for a makeshift seance. Everything from the game’s inventory system to the CRT TV graphical overlay make this feel like a retro experience, but accessibility features (like the ability to turn off that overlay) offer some of the modern touches players expect in 2024. Check out more in our Summer Game Fest preview of Fear the Spotlight.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Samus is back, baby! We had to wait until the very end of the 2024 summer announcements, but there it was, closing out the June Nintendo Direct: Metroid Prime 4. And blimey, just the briefest snippet of what looks to be the game's bombastic opening level was enough to set me salivating over Space Pirates once more. My arm cannon is already itching for action. And yes, I'm the kind of dork who cheered with glee at seeing the scanner given dedicated time in the trailer's precious two-minute runtime.

With Nintendo currently tightening the screws on the Switch's successor, it seems inevitable that Metroid Prime 4 will straddle console generations. But that's not likely to be a bad thing. It only means the planet of towering trees teased at the end of the trailer will be even prettier when Ms. Aran's ship finally touches down within it.

Blumhouse Games' horror suite

Okay, so I'm cheating here by picking a whole bunch of games instead of just one. But allow a horror fan his moment, would you? When Blumhouse took to the stage at Summer Game Fest 2024, I knew scares would soon follow. What I wasn't prepared for was just how unusual and intriguing every game under the studio's banner would be.

First, there's Chrisol: Theater of Idols, a Spanish horror shooter in which your own blood fuels your weaponry. Folklore, mystery, and a macabre reloading system – that's a winning formula in our books.

Not to your tastes? Consider Grave Seasons, a Stardew-like farming sim in which a supernatural serial killer stalks the fields. Just make sure you don't accidentally romance the murderer.

Sleep Awake promises psychedelic first-person fears. It's set in the far future, when those who drift off risk disappearing entirely.

Then we have The Simulation. It follows a retired game designer who discovers horrific hidden truths in an unknown horror game left at a crime scene.

Much like Brandy, my favorite of the lot was Fear the Spotlight: a retro-themed love letter to '90s teen horror. Two girls sneak into school at night, and after a seance gone wrong, they must solve puzzles and piece together the past if they want to escape alive.

And finally, there's Project C. All we know is that it's born from a partnership between Immortality developer Sam Barlow and director Brandon Cronenberg. That alone makes it a tantalizing prospect.

It's evident that Blumhouse didn't get into games publishing to play around. It did it to scare us silly in as many manners as possible.