Top Five Games Releasing Through Holiday 2019

The end of October, and as a result Halloween, is only a few days away, leaving us with only two full months left in 2019. The holiday season is about to kick into full swing, which is always filled with plenty of games to entice gamers to pick up for Christmas. This year actually has one of the weakest slates in recent years beyond the top few games, especially after the recent delay of Doom Eternal.

With what was left, we were able to narrow down to what we believed to be the top five games that are still to come before the end of 2019, with all of them coming in the next few weeks prior to Black Friday. The following five games were not ranked by anticipation level, but rather by release date since we are hyped for all of these games. These are the top five games set to release through the Holiday 2019 season.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 – October 31

The Luigi’s Mansion series has seen a bit of a revival over the last many years, starting with the sequel on 3DS back in 2013. We then got a remake of the original for the 3DS last year and now the third entry is almost here. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is the series’ first foray onto the Nintendo Switch and it looks like the game is ready to take advantage of the system. The game not only looks great visually, but the gameplay appears to be more similar to the first game that people loved on the GameCube than the second. Nintendo also could not have picked a better release date for this game, releasing it right on Halloween before we jump into the barrage of releases in the early part of November.

Death Stranding – November 8

What more can be said about Death Stranding at this point? It’s a Hideo Kojima game and we still honestly don’t know what exactly it is about. The marketing has been as Kojima-esque as you would expect and that could prove to be a good or bad thing. However, we are still incredibly hyped for whatever Kojima has in store for us with the game. Fans have been waiting to see what Kojima has up his sleeve in his first game since leaving Konami, so there is no question it is not only one of the most anticipated games of the last couple months of 2019, but of 2019 as a whole.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – November 15

Star Wars has not had the best run of things when it comes to gaming in recent years, even with Star Wars Battlefront II correcting course after the debacle that was its launch. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order looks to change that, however, with the first single player game in the series in a long time. Offering a completely original story that takes place between Episode III and Episode IV, players get to take control of Jedi Cal Kestis in a time where Jedi are thought to be all dead. The game takes many inspirations from series such as Uncharted, Dark Souls, and more, so it will certainly be interesting to see if the game can live up to the high standards of the series that have inspired it.

Pokemon Sword & Shield – November 15

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order isn’t the only game to be releasing on November 15, as another pair of games that are destined to be juggernauts come out that day with Pokemon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch. Fans have been waiting for the first true console Pokemon game for ages, with last year’s Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee giving but a tease of what can be expected. The game has not been without its controversies, including the lack of a full National Dex for the game, but it’s a new Pokemon game and people are going to be playing it regardless. With plenty of new Pokemon to capture and the new open world Wild Area, Game Freak is ready to prove why Pokemon is still one of the biggest gaming franchises in the world.

Shenmue III – November 19

The final game on this list was certainly the most unlikely of games to ever happen from these five just a few years ago. Until the Kickstarter campaign was announced during the Sony E3 conference in 2015, a third Shenmue game was merely a pipedream. However, the game is actually real and set to release in less than a month. While the game is almost certainly going to sell a good bit less than the other four games on this list, having a new Shenmue game is nothing to just gloss over. The wait for this game has been 18 years in the making, so it’s great to finally see it come to fruition and there was no way we could leave it off this list.