April 2024 will likely be one of the quieter months of the year in terms of new game releases, but it is also poised to be a very fulfilling one. Harold Halibut, a game over a decade in the making, will finally launch. Akira Toriyama’s underappreciated Sand Land will finally get a video game adaptation just over a month after its creator’s passing. RPG fans will be thriving with a new SaGa game and the long-awaited spiritual successor to Suikoden. It’s also quite a heavy re-release month, with remasters of Gigantic and Braid and multiplatform ports of two Xbox Game Studios titles also coming out.
In some ways, April’s release lineup is emblematic of 2024’s as a whole. Many of the games are a bit niche, but they will be extremely fulfilling for the players anticipating them. The following eight games are new releases, mostly coming in the back half of the month, that are worth looking out for in particular.
Children of the Sun (April 9)
Recommended if you like: Sniper Elite 5
Sniping video games are a surprisingly robust subset of the shooter genre thanks to series like Hitman, Sniper Elite, and Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Devolver Digital’s next game turns the basics of sniping on their head, though, as it lets players control the bullet after they fire it from their sniper rifle. Part shooter and part puzzle game, Children of the Sun is all about finding a way to take out all of the enemies in a level with a single sniper bullet.
Children of the Sun launches for PC on April 9, and a free demo of the game is available now if you want to get a feel for it.
Harold Halibut (April 16)
Recommended if you like: The Neverhood
Harold Halibut is an adventure game that has been in development for 10 years. It’s taken that long because claymation and photogrammetry played a significant role in the game’s development, giving Harold Halibut a distinct hand-crafted art style that few games have had since The Neverhood became a cult classic in the 1990s. Those who appreciate games with strong art direction, emotional narratives, and interesting adventure game puzzles will want to keep an eye on Harold Halibut when it comes out for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
A free demo of Harold Halibut is available on Steam right now, and the full game will be added to the Xbox Game Pass catalog the day it launches.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (April 23)
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is the long-awaited spiritual successor to the Suikoden series — many of the developers who made that classic Konami franchise even worked on it. It’s an RPG with a beautiful pixel art visual style, a vast narrative, and over 100 recruitable characters. With the release of this and SaGa Emerald Beyond, this is a good month for the spirit of classic RPG franchises making a comeback; in general, 2024 has been a fantastic year for RPGs.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launches for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on April 23 and will also be available via Xbox Game Pass.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (April 23)
Recommended if you like: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
2024 has also been a great year for Metroidvanias as Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown kicked the year off with a bang. Continuing that momentum this April is Tales of Kenzera: Zau from Surgent Studios and EA. Spearheaded by Abubakar Salim, the actor behind Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins, this is a game about grief that embraces African culture in its worldbuilding and storytelling. It’s an emotional, personal project for Salim, who made the game to discuss his grief over his father’s death.
If that all sounds interesting to you, check out Tales of Kenzera: ZAU’s free demo on Steam or the full game when it comes to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on April 23.
Another Crab’s Treasure (April 25)
Recommended if you like: Dark Souls
Another Crab’s Treasure left a strong first impression in 2022 because of how funny the idea of a Soulslike starring a crab is. It has all the trappings of the action game subgenre FromSoftware established but layers in a mechanic where players can equip different items, such as hermit crab shells, to block some attacks or gain some special abilities. One of those shells is even a gun, which makes the game much easier as it lets you one-shot everything.
Fans of Soulslikes will definitely want to check out this more lighthearted take on the genre when Another Crab’s Treasure launches into Xbox Games Pass and for PC, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on April 25.
Sand Land (April 26)
Recommended if you like: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama sadly died in March, but his legacy will live on with a game releasing this month. Sand Land is an underrated manga of his from the early 2000s, and it’s finally getting a video game adaptation where players can explore its post-apocalyptic world in a variety of vehicles. Games based on manga and anime can be hit and miss, but Sand Land pulls from some fantastic source material and looks like it’s shaping up to be one of the good ones.
Sand Land has a demo available to play right now across all platforms and will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 26.
Stellar Blade (April 26)
Recommended if you like: Bayonetta 3
In the AAA space, April is looking fairly quiet outside of the release of Stellar Blade, a PS5-exclusive sci-fi action game. Fans of games like Nier Automata and Bayonetta will definitely want to keep an eye on this one because it’s a combo-driven character action game with flashy battles and what seems to be a gripping sci-fi story. Rise of the Ronin ended up being a bit underwhelming in March, so hopefully, Stellar Blade lives up to the hype and gives Sony it’s first can’t-miss exclusive of 2024.
Stellar Blade launches for PS5 on April 26, and a free demo of the game is available on the PlayStation Store right now.
More new games in April 2024
- Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop (April 4)
- Botany Manor (April 9)
- Gigantic: Rampage Edition (April 9)
- Ereban: Shadow Legacy (April 10)
- Turbo Kid (April 10)
- Grounded for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch (April 16)
- No Rest for the Wicked (April 18)
- Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide (April 18)
- Lunar Lander Beyond (April 23)
- Megaton Musashi W: Wired (April 24)
- SaGa: Emerald Beyond (April 25)
- Demon Slayer — Kimetsu no Yaiba- Sweep the Board! (April 26)
- TopSpin 2K25 (April 26)
- Braid Anniversary Edition (April 30)
- Sea of Thieves for PS5 (April 30)
