Ready to pick apart the gaming slate to find a hidden gem or two? Welcome to the sophomore installment of Digging Deeper Than the Mainstream (now bearing the title PlayStation Releases: Best of the Rest), PlayStation LifeStyle’s recurring feature that acts as a concise tie-in to our Monthly Releases Spotlight.
But whereas our video series would cast the net far and wide to assemble each and every release headed to PlayStation platforms over the next four weeks, the purpose of this feature is to cherry-pick the lesser-known titles among that catalog.
Yes, March is upon us, and thanks to The Witness, Firewatch, Unravel and even the (almost) fully functional Street Fighter V, 2016 is off to a flyer. But we get it, such an onslaught of new software can make it difficult to see the wood for the trees.
Besides, modern-day life and other responsibilities beyond the perimeters of our pixelated havens often push and pull at our limited time to pick up a controller (or indeed handheld), and that’s something I’m confident we can all relate to. Spare time is precious, and even when you only account for the software headed to PlayStation platforms, the list of games slated for a release in 2016 is staggering.
But before we get too caught up in the months to come, here we present a handful of the lesser-known titles arriving on PlayStation platforms over the next four weeks.
Will you dabble with Samurai Punk’s shooter and peek at your opponent’s screen? Or find out if there really is 101 Ways to Die in Vision Games’ platformer? Drop your thoughts down below.
Digging Deeper Feature - March 2016
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PlayStation Releases: Best of the Rest - March, 2016
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Screencheat
Release Date: March 1
Platforms: PS4
Split-screen experiences may have carved out a passionate niche on current-gen consoles thanks to a recent resurgence in both supply and demand. Still, many feel games that cater to this nostalgic itch are few and far between; those releases that evoke fond memories of GoldenEye and have you playing long into the early hours of the morning with friends and family.
Rocket League and Diablo 3 are all well and good — great, in fact — but Samurai Punk’s upcoming first-person shooter Screencheat is a game that’s built around the split-screen experience, rather than one that simply presents the mechanic as an optional feature. Here’s the kicker: Much like the title suggests, Samurai’s shooter actively encourages you to have a peep at your opponent’s screen because in Screencheat, all players are invisible.
It’s an elevator pitch that immediately piques our curiosity. Toss in eight-player support, challenges and a roster of added features from the PC release and we can hardly wait to hop into Screencheat for some old-fashioned fun on March 1.
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Assault Android Cactus
Release Date: March 8
Platforms: PS4
Another low-key release making the jump from PC to PlayStation 4 is Witch Beam’s twin-stick shooter, Assault Android Cactus. A sci-fi romp built on an arcade foundation, the studio’s bullet hell title represents a rare sheen of polish in a genre that’s arguably over-saturated. It takes something quite special to release a twin-stick shoot ‘em up that’s considered above par, but Witch Beam looks to have achieved that feat and then some, with charming characters and a sound, intense gameplay loop at its beating heart.
Assault Android Cactus is on course to release on March 8, and it’ll also feature Cross-Buy between both PS4 and Vita.
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Republique
Release Date: March 22
Platforms: PS4
Having already carved out an audience across mobile and PC, Republique is poised to slink onto PlayStation 4 later this month. Situated in the titular totalitarian state, Camouflaj and Logan Games’ episodic stealth actioner follows Hope (AKA 390-H), a young woman trapped in the Metamorphosis facility. Your task, then, is to guide Hope out of the compound before calibration, and it’s a story that’s told across five distinct episodes.
Republique will make a beeline for PlayStation 4 come March 22.
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101 Ways to Die
Release Date: March 23
Platforms: PS4
Prepare to die — and we’re not talking about a certain unforgivable RPG. For in Vision Games’ physics-based puzzler 101 Ways to Die, you’ll be meeting your maker more times than you can count. It is, in a word, “reverse-Lemmings,” a whimsical romp that centers on a bat-shit insane professor who, in a last-gasp attempt to recreate the events of the titular novel, begins experimenting with Splatts — “strange creatures also created in the lab for the purpose of aiding with the Professor’s experiments.”
Featuring over 50 levels, you’ll then begin utilizing the professor’s tools of chaos throughout the course of the game, and even from the trailers released thus far 101 Ways to Die isn't too far removed from the excellent Stealth Inc.: A Clone in the Dark.
Expect spills and thrills aplenty when 101 Ways to Die catapults onto PS4 on March 23.
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Organic Panic
Release Date: March TBA
Platforms: PS4
After securing its crowdfunding goal three years ago, Last Limb's Kickstarter darling Organic Panic is finally nearing its PS4 debut.
On paper, it's a 2.5D physics-based puzzle-platformer, with the studio citing the likes of Lemmings, Worms, Gears, and even Little Big Planet as creative inspirations. A single-player story mode will allow you to get to grips with the game's destructible environments -- each can be flooded to open up new areas -- before venturing into the couch co-op and four-player versus modes.
A Vita version may be off the table, but Organic Panic will bring unruly chaos to PS4 at some point in March.
