Most will be familiar with the feelings of frustration that comes with waiting for an anticipated new game release. At best, you may have to wait months before getting your hands on the game, and at worst, several painstaking years. Then there are the games that get released within the very same breath that they’re announced.
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Every once in a while, a game will drop out of nowhere. Just as soon as an announcement trailer of a cool new game finishes, the glorious words “Available now” will flash across the screen - to the glee and delight of inpatient players around the world. Shadow-dropped games are often met with huge success and great favor from the gaming community at large. Here are some of the most memorable.
10Unravel 2
Just as quickly as it was announced, Unravel 2 was available to download right after EA’s 2018 E3 press conference. Fans of the weird little anthropomorphic creatures made of yarn could now engage in the game’s fun physics-based platforming and thoughtful puzzle-solvingwith another player in co-op.
The first Unravel title was released under the EA Originals banner and became quite a success in the indie scene. In an industry filled with lonesome single-player experiences and persistent live service games, having an honest-to-goodness co-op platformer was a nice surprise and a welcome addition to many a gamer’s library.
9Halo Infinite Multiplayer
What better way to celebrate twenty years since the release of Xbox andHalo: Combat Evolved than with free access to the newest Halo’s multiplayer? After much rumor and speculation,Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer was shadow-dropped alongside Xbox’s 20th-anniversary stream - a good one month or so before it was initially slated.
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For Halo fans, this was a pretty big deal, as it gave gamers a chance to get their hands on one of the most highly anticipated Halo games in years. Initially, the game was met with much praise due to its great shooting mechanics and map design. Since its launch, Infinite’s multiplayer has been riddled with a myriad of issues that have seriously hampered the experience for a lot of the player base. A lot needs to be done to improve and salvage the game, but it’s still hard to deny the impact of its initial release.
8Hollow Knight On Nintendo Switch
Right after Nintendo’s E3 Direct in 2018, players were given the opportunity to playone of the best indie action adventures ever.Hollow Knightwas released the year before on other platforms, but it really found its home on Nintendo’s brilliant hybrid home console.
Themysterious and sprawling cave networkof Hallownest is the perfect backdrop for the game’s Metroidvania nature. The tense boss fights and explorative backtracking is particularly suited to handheld play. Here’s hoping that its much-anticipated sequel, Silksong, will get the same shadow drop treatment someday very soon - pretty please, Nintendo?
7Persona 4 Golden On Steam
For the longest time, the only way to play the brilliantPersona 4 Goldenwas on PlayStation Vita. Originally released exclusively for Sony’s handheld,the portable RPGwas a greatly enhanced port of the already beloved Persona 4,with new party membersand demons to recruit, significant additions to the plot, and more fleshed-out characters.
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As the most definitive way to play the game, it was a shame that only a niche audience could play it. That was until it was launched as a surprise release on Steam in early 2020. It immediately broke sales records on the platform and was an extremely lucrative venture for Atlus and SEGA. It was such a success, it prompted an even wider release on pretty much every other platform in early 2023.
6Tetris 99
Tetris 99is a game that absolutely no one asked for but actually ended up being something really special. Released as a surprise during a Nintendo Direct at the beginning of 2019, Tetris 99 was Nintendo’s unique answer to the ever-pervasive Battle Royale genre.
It’s basically what it says on the tin - you are pitted against 99 other Tetris players as you use a variety of defensive and offensive block-placing strategies to become a Tetris God. The game was used to push Nintendo’s new online service, and players were granted access at no additional fee as a way of promoting their new online initiative. It paid off, as it’s stillone of the most played multiplayer games on the platform.
5P.T.
Rather than an actual game,P.T.was more of a glorified tech demo of what an eerily atmospheric horror title from the brilliant minds ofHideo Kojimaand Guillermo Del Toro would look like. Announced (and then quickly released) at Gamescom 2014, players could hop onto their PS4s to experience a short-lived horror escapade.
It had amazing photo-realistic visuals, which added to its incredibly creepy atmosphere. It turns out it was all an elaborate promotion for the nextSilent Hillgame starring Norman Reedus. Unfortunately, plans fell through, and the game never came to be. It led to the bizarre occurrence of Kojima removing the demo from PSN entirely, which led to many fan remakes of this short-lived horror piece.
4Hades
BeforeHadescame along and became the darling action indie juggernaut that it is, Supergiant Games already had a fantastic pedigree and brilliant backlog of classic games under its belt. As soon as the game was announced at the Game Awards in 2018, fans could immediately get their hands onan Early Access version of the game.
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Hades was met with a very positive reception right out of the gate and was praised for its beautifully vibrant visuals, frantic top-down combat, and its brilliant story and characters based on Greek mythology. The popular action roguelike game was surprisingly polished and content-rich for an early access title, ultimately leading to its successful sales and critical acclaim upon full release.
3Metroid Prime Remastered
After much speculation, and the rumor mill running rampant for several years before its inevitable announcement,Metroid PrimeRemastered for theNintendo Switchcouldn’t have come soon enough. Announced and dropped during aNintendo Directin February 2023, fans new and old could finally get their hands on one of the best shooters in history.
As a proper remaster, the graphics have been updated and improved to meet modern standards, while further control options and animation upgrades to its cutscenes were added. The gameplay is virtually wholly unchanged, which is at should be - Nintendo knows not to mess with perfection.
2Hi-Fi Rush
Hi-Fi Rushis an example of a shadow-dropped game done right. Coming out of nowhere during the Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct in January 2023, this awesome rhythm-action title was released just after its announcement trailer was dropped during the stream.
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Despite releasing onGame Passto huge success, it didn’t stop the game from climbing up Steam’s charts at an impressively rapid pace. There’s an argument to be made that Game Pass is a brilliant promotion tool for smaller games - clearly, the wider community saw the buzz and acclaim the game was getting elsewhere and wanted to dip in to see what all the fuss was about. What they found out is that Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic action game with vibrant visuals, satisfyingly snappy controls, and a killer soundtrack.
1Apex Legends
As big of a game as it is now, it can be hard to remember thatApex Legendscame completely out of nowhere to the surprise of absolutely everyone. Riding on the battle royale coattails ofFortniteandPUBG, Respawn brought their first-person shooter pedigree to the widely popular multiplayer genre.
It enjoyed an extremely successful launch and managed to attract a huge player base from the word go. As a free-to-play live service title, the game has had countless updates throughout its many seasons and still regularly tops many ‘most played’ charts across a variety of platforms.
