Written by Alex Castellanos

DCL ’25 – End of May

Happy June everyone! We are mere days away from the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, as well as some very big summer gaming showcases. Because of that, I’ll be looking forward to how many of us decide to try and fill up some of our remaining game slots with some of the announced games that we will see within the next week or two. Maybe we’ll hear about a new exciting franchise, or maybe we will get a new gameplay trailer for a highly anticipated game that will announce a proper release date! (This is the time of year where I soak up as much information as possible no matter if it’s the smallest of indie shows, or the big Geoff Keighley special in LA with “special” guest, Hideo Kojima!) Anyway, I hope that you are all as excited as I am for this time of year in video games!

As far as May is concerned, there were 6 games that were released:

  • “DOOM: The Dark Ages” – Dougsvest Digital (15.3 pts)
  • “Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker” – PixelPioneer Studios (17.3 pts)
  • “Monster Train 2” – Crystal Cross Games (18.6 pts)
  • “To a T” – Bearded Bretheren (2.4 pts)
  • “Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3” – PixelPioneer Studios (11.7 pts)
  • “Elden Ring: Nightreign” – Ranch Walker (10.0 pts)

Here are the League Standings as of June 1st:

The highest reviewed game this month belongs to Crystal Cross Games (Eddie) and the release of “Monster Train 2” (18.6 pts). Eddie has been doing a good job of having at least 1 game released each month to stay on top of the Standings thus far. Of course, that means that Eddie only has 4 spots left for the entire second half of the season. Just how long can he expect to hang on before someone overtakes him!

The 2nd highest reviewed game this month was the FLEX PICK for PixelPioneer Studios (Alex) and the free expansion: “Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchtower” (17.3 pts). Although there weren’t that many people that took time to review the free expansion, those that did were pleasantly surprised by what they have found.  At around 7-8 hours, this practically standalone expansion gave players a fun and separate area to explore where the map, dungeon, special moves, and even party members are new! If you enjoyed the base game, make sure you take some time to check this out.

The last game that I’ll highlight from this past month is ID Software’s newest game, [as well as Dougsvest Digital (Micah)] “DOOM: The Dark Ages” (15.3 pts). This game was very well received by a wide swath of Doom players and non-Doom players alike. The only group that doesn’t seem to be in love with this game are the fervent and hardcore DOOM Eternal players who liked the faster paced and more demanding 2nd game in the series, more than this lateral-strafing, grounded, and run-n-gun 3rd game. Either way, this isn’t a bad game but rather a very good one. So, if you are interested, make sure you grab a copy and add to the conversation.

As we look ahead now to June, let’s see what games are being released into the Deer Critic League. Right now, there are only 4 games with definitive June dates (along with several “Summer 2025” games that may just have a date announced sometime through the month.) The 4 games are:

  • “Mario Kart World” (June 5th) Frozen Headlights Studios
  • “The Alters” (June 13th) Dougsvest Digital
  • “Rematch” (June 19th) PixelPioneer Studios
  • “Death Stranding 2: On The Beach” (June 26th) Suladin Software Ltd

Since there are only four games, I think that we could spend a little time talking about each of them:

1st – June 5th (THIS WEEK!) is the release date of the Switch 2, and no Switch 2 game is more anticipated than “Mario Kart World” Frozen Headlights Studios (Nate). While Mario Kart 8 and especially 8 Deluxe were incredibly successful for Nintendo, I feel like a lot of people are awaiting this next entry to see all the differences.  The open world exploration, the 24 driver races, the battle royale style mode, the new items – all these things are great additions to the Mario Kart formula, and I think we’re all here for it!

2nd – Next, is “The Alters” Dougsvest Digital (Micah). The Alters is an interesting upcoming adventure / survival game by 11 Bit Studios. The hook in this game is that throughout the game you will opportunities to create clones of yourself (or Alters). Each of these Alters are you, but the “you” that made different specific decisions in your life – maybe they went to a different college, took a different job, or married a different person.  As you try to survive the situation you are in, you end up having to deal with these different versions of yourself and the emotional drama that arises because of it.

3rd – SIFU was a great game. Kung Fu action, great style, and a great roguelite beat-em-up style gameplay loop. It also sold very well for their developer, Sloclap. Surely, we would be very interested in what their next game would be like. Would anyone have guessed that they would have decided to take on both “Rocket League” and “EA Sports FC” at the same time? Well, they kinda have by making their arcade, 3-v-3 soccer game, “Rematch”. Rematch seems to combine a lot of the zaniness found in Rocket League by adding walls and a ceiling to the soccer pitch (while removing the cars), and also adding some dribbling skills for your player by rocking the right-stick in your past EA Sports FC (or FIFA) game. It looks crazy fun to me, but time will tell if it catches on as much as I’m sure they’re hoping it will.

4th – the last game is, “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach”. There really is very little that I can write here. Hideo Kojima has decided to create a sequel to the weird, package delivery game that also happened to predict the status of our culture during the pandemic crisis. We can expect more greatly acted scenes, more interesting twists in the story, and more crazy characters with equally crazy names. But what we cannot expect is to know where or how this game is going to end.

Okay – that’s what I got for this month! I hope you all enjoy a June filled with new games, new announcements, and new reasons to feel FOMO. I know that I will be obsessed with watching (and re-watching) the biggest and best gaming showcases, wondering how I could possibly play even a small percentage of these games when I’m already so far behind!

Take care & God Bless,

Alex C.

UP TO DATE – DCL 2025 Round 1 Draft Choices:

  1. Bearded Brethren – “Grand Theft Auto VI” DELAYED TO 2026
  2. Iota Strain – “Fable” DELAYED TO 2026
  3. PixelPioneer Studios – “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond”
  4. Dougsvest Digital – “Unannounced Mainline 3D Mario Platformer”
  5. Crystal Cross Games – “Ghost of Yotei”
  6. Suladin Software Ltd – “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach”
  7. Ranch Walker – “Elden Ring: Nightreign” [80]
  8. Frozen Headlights Studios – “Mario Kart World”
  9. Agon Analytics – “Avowed” [81]

Leave a comment