The slate of October game releases starts off with a bang—or should I say hidden blade?—as the rousing return to form Assassin’s Creed Mirage is out on October 5th. (Yep, that’s tomorrow, assuming you’re reading this today.) The rest of the month is stacked full of exciting new games, from Sony’s latest Spider-Man yarn, to Nintendo’s ongoing chronicles of the transformations of Mario. (He’s an elephant this time.) Our games team—assistant editor Moises Taveras, intern Maddie Agne, and senior editor Garrett Martin—heatedly debated which of October’s big game releases should make this list (there were at least two Slack messages about the whole thing), and landed on the following five. Here’s what we’re most excited to play in the coming month.
5. Endless Dungeon
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release Date: October 19
I love a castaway story. I just do. I love abandoned space ships and I love having a little crew of friends to explore it with and, altogether, I love any game that makes me feel like a rootin’-tootin’ space cowboy. So imagine my thrill over Endless Dungeon, Sega’s new rogue-lite about exploring and escaping an empty space station with your pals. This game has all the color palette and jaunty attitude of fall with twice the monsters, treasures, and Saloons—that is to say one Saloon. The Saloon where you respawn, and, fingers crossed, meet a funny little bartender robot that will be my best friend.—Maddie Agne
4. Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Amazon Luna
Release Date: October 5
Thank the Old Man of the Mountain: Assassin’s Creed is going short-ish again after years of punishingly long adventures. Assassin’s Creed Mirage promises to revisit the franchise’s roots, returning to the Middle East (Baghdad, primarily) for a story that should last maybe 20 hours, tops. Not only will it be a relief to not feel the weight of 100+ hours of play when you set off on your murderous hijinks, but it’ll be fascinating to see what modern tech can do with a setting that the series hasn’t really revisited since the 360 era. Set in the 9th century, a few hundred years before Altair’s original adventure during the Crusades, Mirage focuses on the early life of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a major character from 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. As reliably entertaining as Assassin’s Creed’s cocktail of stealth, parkour, historical fiction, and murder can be, its endlessly complicated and absurd meta-story about ancient aliens and a millennia-old hidden war between secret societies is just as much of a draw. Hopefully it gets even more ridiculous and confusing with Mirage, one of our most anticipated October game releases.—Garrett Martin
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Platform: PlayStation 5
Release Date: October 20
Far be it for me to make this assertion, but Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is hitting all the right notes. It’s telegraphing the storied conflicts of the movies and comics into a game that actually feels like it can manage (and maybe even uplift) them. The game has expanded into Queens and Brooklyn, so I can now be an even more obnoxious New Yorker than usual. Peter Parker and Miles Morales are now on equal footing, sharing the screen as fully playable protagonists that each bring their own style to combat. Speaking of style, Peter is now in his famous Symbiote suit and developing an intense and dangerous attitude, teasing some familiar storylines. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get a Bully Maguire easter egg in the game now. And wherever there’s a symbiote, you can bet that all 19 inches of Venom aren’t too far behind. The stage has been extravagantly made for a game that feels like it’ll be both bigger and, amazingly, better.—Moise Taveras
2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Platform: Switch
Release Date: October 20
Just when you start to worry that you’ve grown numb to the charms of a Mario game, Nintendo does something unpredictable, like turning the li’l guy into a goldarn elephant. Okay, transmogrification is Nintendo’s standard go-to when it comes to sprucing up the Mario realm—this humble Brooklyn plumber changes up his look more than Bowie and Madonna combined, despite wearing the same cap and overalls ensemble for over 40 years—but I mean, just look at that lovable little freak above. Who could say no? One of the most intriguing October game releases, Wonder is the latest in the side-series of side-scrolling Marios, something we haven’t gotten a new take on since 2012. If it keeps up the work of the New Super Mario Bros. games it’ll be a fun romp that plays around with some of the most basic Mario traditions in cute and unexpected ways. We’ll find out in a month.—Garrett Martin
1. Alan Wake 2
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
Release Date: October 27
Wanna feel old? The original Alan Wake came out roughly 13.8 billion years ago, immediately after the Big Bang formed the universe. Okay, it was actually released in 2010, but the point stands: it’s been way longer than it feels since Remedy’s mind-bending horror-adjacent game about a writer trapped in his own creation first graced our Xboxes. It actually came out just over a week before the series finale of Lost originally aired, which is very fitting: Alan Wake owed a lot to the kind of serialized mystery shows that popped up in the, um, wake of Lost’s massive success, but was better written and more bewitching than almost any of them. The first game wore its influences on its sleeves—Twin Peaks, Stephen King—but still created something new and unique, and although its title character and primary themes were revisited in 2012’s spinoff Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the true follow-up doesn’t arrive until October.—Garrett Martin