Remasters, Gangsters And A Pink Blob
August is usually a quiet month for video game releases as people swap their consoles for a summer holiday, but not this year. It’s been a manic few weeks for new titles; Konami continued its comeback and Nightdive Studios delivered yet another superb remaster of a classic first-person shooter.
From sneaking through a Russian jungle to soaring across space, here’s my pick of the games released in August 2025 that are worth your time.
Gradius Origins
Release date: August 7
Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC
Konami’s first August offering was Gradius Origins, a collection of 18 games from both the Gradius and Salamander series that features regional iterations of each from Japan, North America and Europe.
In case you’ve never played a Gradius game or its spin offs, it’s a classic shoot ‘em up where the player controls a spaceship across various space opera-themed levels. The idea is to navigate tight and claustrophobic paths in between enemy projectiles by nimbly flying around and blasting the baddies with your craft’s weapons.
As expected with a modern collection, there’s new additions such as save states and the ability to rewind time should you crash and burn (which you’ll do aplenty as these games are tougher than you remember). As well as the titles themselves, there’s detailed audio and visual galleries where you can peruse soundtracks and prototype artwork.
Heretic + Hexen
Release date: August 7
Available on: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC
After id Software had enormous success with Doom in 1993, it teamed up with Raven Software a year later to release Heretic, a first-person shooter that utilised a modified version of the Doom games engine. This time it was set in a fantasy world where the player controls an elf whose race is fighting off hordes of otherworldly monsters.
In 1995, Hexen was released; both titles contributed to the evolution of the FPS genre through the introduction of vertical aiming (yes, there was a time when we couldn’t look up), a class system and inventory management. Alongside id, Nightdive Studios – a developer which continues to knock out excellent remasters – has combined the original games with two new episodes. There’s also online multiplayer now, plus improved performance and a belting enhanced soundtrack.
Mafia: The Old Country
Release date: August 8
Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC
Owing its themes of power and legacy to the flicks of seventies cinema like The Godfather, Mafia: The Old Country takes us back to the turn of the 20th century where we play as Enzo, a young Italian who escapes slavery as a miner in Sicily. He’s taken in by a powerful crime lord and put to work running errands, although he’s soon propelled into a life of violence.
Hangar 13’s sequel to 2016’s Mafia III is a thrilling adventure that prioritises story and character development above everything else. There’s no open world here; it’s a tight and linear experience with a running time of around 12 hours. The game’s shootouts and chase sequences are wonderfully cinematic, as is its stunning Mediterranean setting.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
Release date: August 26
Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC
Konami’s remake of 2004’s seminal Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater comes with a glossy visual upgrade and some subtle gameplay tweaks (mainly around how we interact with the game’s dense environment) but aside from that, the Japanese studio has resisted the urge to tinker with too much. In doing so it’s avoided making a game that tarnishes the original in a way that would alienate its hardcore fan base. Besides, Snake Eater holds up remarkably well despite being more than 20 years old.
It also means that the plot is mostly intact too. We play as CIA operative Snake in the midst of the Cold War in 1964, more than three decades before the setting of 1998’s Metal Gear Solid. He’s sent into a deadly Russian jungle to rescue a scientist who has been captured by the Soviet Union and put to work building a super weapon. During the mission, Snake is betrayed by his former mentor, The Boss, and so he’s eventually tasked with taking her down.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World
Release date: August 28
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Kirby and the Forgotten Land was the first fully 3D adventure for Nintendo’s pink blob mascot; it also became one of the Switch’s best games when it came out in 2022. This iteration for the Switch 2 showcases the console’s power increase – the visuals are shinier and the performance is smoother.
It now comes with an expansion called Star Crossed World (it can be bought as a standalone experience if you own the base game) which runs alongside the game’s main story. In this add on, a meteor lands on a volcanic island and so Kirby is left collecting shards of a shattered crystal and preventing an eerie presence from inside the rock from escaping.