The most anticipated video games will be released in December 2024

The parts of the year we consider dead zones for games—January and February, the twilight of summer—can still be hot spots, with companies releasing blockbuster games when no one else is.

But December is just a few weeks before Christmas, and it's now home to the Geoff Quigley Game Awards (ft. Hideo Kojima). As such, it's still going to be a pretty quiet month, with most of the big holiday releases hitting store shelves weeks before.

Therefore, this list is shorter than usual, and features a previous live-action game released on mobile and a 25-year-old action game editor. However, there's a reason to look forward to everything on this list.

Editor's Note: All of the games on this month's list are traditional “Web2” video games with unknown crypto or blockchain components. But you can love them anyway.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is complete

Release Date: December 3 Platforms: Android, iOS

In the year Released in 2017, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp marked Nintendo's relatively brief push into the mobile space alongside games like Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes. Instead of running a whole dang city, you're just running a small camp.

After seven years, Nintendo is retiring the game as a Live Service product. Instead of trying to erase any records from the Internet, as many publishers do, Nintendo will instead allow Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete – and existing players – to transfer over their data and continue the same progression.

If you're curious but put off a Nintendo game with in-app purchases, you can jump in for a one-time $20 purchase—no more hooks to line your pocket. And early adopters will only be $10 until the end of January 2025.

Marvel's antagonists

Release Date: December 6 Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Too many hero shooters are missing a crucial element: real heroes. Marvel Rivals looks to put the “hero” in a “hero shooter”. Underneath games like Overwatch, Apex Legends and the endangered PlayStation 5 shooter Concorde, Rivals lets you choose from a variety of characters, each with unique abilities.

The options range from household names like Spider-Man, Captain America, Venom and various X-Men mutations to lesser-known characters like Luna Snow, who first appeared in 2018's Marvel Future Fight. There is also Jeff the Land Shark, a land shark named Jeff. (Obviously.) Even the adorable Squirrel Girl is here.

Marvel Rivals features a third-person perspective, allowing you to see your favorite super-guy or gal on screen as you play. After the recent implosion of Concorde, our eyes are on Rivals as a game that could either put the hero shooter genre on ice or give it a second wind.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Release Date: December 9 Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

In Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, FPS developer Machine Games asks you to punch, shoot and whip Nazis in the shoes of legendary archaeologist Indiana Jones after taking aim. Machine Games claims this is the biggest and longest game to date, featuring hours of cutscenes.

This isn't a shooter, but instead is meant to be a first-person action game. Sure, there's some shooting, but if you think about all the ways that Indie has dispatched its enemies in movies, you can imagine what sort of machine games are promising here. This game is being released on Xbox and PC to start, but Microsoft has announced that the game will hit PlayStation 5 later.

Legacy of Cain: Soul River 1&2 Remastered.

Release Date: December 10 Platforms: Switch, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), PS5/PS4, Xbox One + Series X/S

Legacy of Kain is an old favorite from the early days of the PlayStation; Well-received by critics and fans alike, the series never became huge, but it was enough to destroy one of its characters, the resurrected vampire Raziel. After Cain betrays Raziel, an Elder God resurrects Raziel to collect souls for him – and give him a chance for revenge.

As Raziel, you can switch between the material and specter worlds for unique exploration and puzzle-solving gameplay. The games themselves remain intact for this controller, warts and all, just seeing a graphics update. But more than two decades after the last entry, this one is sure to be a welcome treat for old-school fans.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita Rewind

Release Date: December 10 Platforms: Switch, PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox One + Series X/S

Milking millennials for their money with nostalgia is all the rage right now, and one great way to do it is to crush their favorite childhood show with their favorite childhood video game genre. Back when “Power Rangers” were first on television, side-scrolling beat-em-up games were all the rage. There were games like Final Fight and The Simpsons, and indoor games like Golden Ax and Splatter House.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind gives us the best of both worlds. Rita Repulsa teams up with Robo-Rita from the future to prevent teenagers from ever meeting in the first place. This game seems to match the aesthetic of those classic games, and the Power Rangers are a great team to build a local feud around.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.