I don’t know why I thought that Kirby remake was coming out this month. All of the information I can find about it says it comes out in February. As I’m trying to find what I got it mixed up with, I’m beginning to wonder if it was just wishful thinking on my part that caused the confusion rather than me mixing up the release dates of two things. I can’t find anything that would have come out any time around now that I would have thought I wanted to get. The new God of War game comes out in two weeks, the new Pokémon game doesn’t come out for four more weeks. All of the other Switch games I saw don’t come out until 2023 at some point. I can’t even think of any PC games that I’m waiting for. I guess I just got the numbers mixed up when I looked at the late February release date for the Kirby game. Which is too bad, really, since now I’ve got to wait even longer for a new game. Which is probably fine. Between Cyberpunk 2077 and replaying Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I have plenty to keep me occupied these days.

I’m not even planning to get the new God of War game immediately after it comes out. I’m going to wait a while to see how well it performs on the PS4 since I spent all my PS5 budget on a new OLED Switch. And, to be honest, my PS4 is only 2 years old, so I don’t really feel like replacing it just yet. I’d love to play God of War as it releases since I loved the previous title in the series so much, but I also wound up waiting a long time to play that one so I’m sure I can wait a bit to play this one. I did watch my exroommate play it back when it came out, though, so I didn’t have to contend with spoilers or being invested in a storyline that has new, juicy details to move it forward. I suspect that I’ll wind up breaking down in a couple weeks and get it for the PS4 so long as it doesn’t perform like garbage. Which, you know, it won’t. There aren’t enough PS5s in the world for any developer to be that exclusive unless they’re owned by Sony and trying to keep the demand high now that stock lasts more than a couple minutes on websites as stores get new supplies.

I will get the new Pokémon the instant it releases, though. Maybe the day it does, I guess, since I probably won’t be picking it up until after work. I’m excited for this new iteration in the Pokémon franchise since I really enjoyed Pokémon Legends: Arceus (even if I did sort of stop playing before I got the game anywhere even close to 100%) and I can’t wait to see how well they’ve mixed the open-world gameplay of that game with the more traditional styling of the main series. Everything I’ve seen about it so far has me excited for a new Pokémon game, even if I am worried that we’re going to wind up with another anthropomorphic cat Pokémon from the Grass type starter’s evolutionary chain. I’d really like it if the cat stayed quadrapedal. I feel like it would be really cool to have some kind of grass tiger Pokémon. If not, I hope the duck one stays cool. I feel like I’m counting on that as my backup since I’m not super impressed with the fire type starter. I’m willing for all my opinions to change as we see what they all evolve into and we get news on whatever dual-typing happens as these new starters evolve, but I will say that the patterns of the past have me putting all my hopes on a cool duck sort of thing. Maybe a swan. Either way, I feel confident that I’ll at least enjoy having that lil’ Pokémon on my team no matter what.

The thing is, I guess I don’t feel… giddy? about any of this. I’m interested and looking forward to enjoying myself when these games all come out, but I don’t really feel genuinely excited about any of them. The Pokémon game will be fine. The God of War game will be cool and fun, but might be difficult to fully enjoy on my PS4 if it was built primarily for the PS5 and then added PS4 compatibility as an afterthought. The Kirby remake will be a fun trip down memory lane. Even the new Fire Emblem game has me feeling kinda just on the positive side of neutral, what with the Joy-Con-looking protagonist. I’m just not super excited about the character design and I feel like the trailer wasn’t really coherent enough for me to get excited about the story they’re telling beyond, you know, the basic details of it. I recognize that I prefer simpler character design and these rather complex (and, in my opinion, crowded) designs probably appeal to a lot of other people. I know I’m not the target audience for those sorts of character designs and that I’m going to play the game anyway, I just wish I felt more excited about it. At least I’ll probably be able to change the characters outfits pretty quickly (and hopefully the hair because the weird crossing in front of the character’s eyes thing bothers me).

I guess I have to wait for the new Legend of Zelda game next May. It’s a long wait and one that might grow longer, since it is not impossible that we’ll see some delays between now and then, but it’s what I feel genuinely excited about. Even with only a tiny bit of information released, I’m already eager to see what they do with the next entry in that franchise. Enough so that I have strict rules about not watching the trailer more than once a month so I don’t get myself all hyped up for something that’s not going to be available for over half a year and that will come out at a time when I’ll need to restrict my access to it so I can not ignore my friends during their wedding. It’s going to be a test of the power of my friendship and commitment to two people who are probably my favorite couple I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. And, on that sentimental note, I’m going to go try to squeak in a couple hours of Cyberpunk 2077 before it is my calm-down time AND also try to restrict myself to ONLY a couple hours of Cyberpunk 2077. I’m real bad at stopping when it’s not an hour or two past my bedtime. It struck that perfect “I’ll just do one more thing quick before I go to bed” level of acitivty and engagement.