On Friday, February 28, Capcom’s long-awaited successor to the highly popular Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunter Wilds, will release. The 23rd game in the nearly 21-year-old action RPG series, Monster Hunter Wilds will once again have players embody customized professional hunters of their own design as they investigate an attack by a mysterious monster known as the White Wraith. Here, players will embark on solo or cooperative hunts to track down and defeat gigantic creatures from the Forbidden Lands. While this day will be a momentous one for Monster Hunter and Capcom fans alike, February 28 has been an important day for many other influential video games over the years.
Monster Hunter Wilds Getting Big Day 1 Update
Monster Hunter Wilds releases a very large update for players to download ahead of the action-roleplaying game's official launch.
Influential February 28 Games Released in the 1990s
- Star Wars: Dark Forces
- Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
One of the more popular games previously released on February 28 was LucasArts’ 1995 FPS Star Wars: Dark Forces for DOS and Windows systems on PCs. Inspired by 1993’s Doom, Dark Forces was a revolutionary game for both the Star Wars franchise and FPS games overall, as it was the first title to introduce players to Stormtrooper turned Jedi Kyle Katarn and allowed players to look up, down, and jump. While Dark Forces’ story is no longer canon, it was one of the first to explore how the Rebels got the Death Star plans and introduced the Dark Trooper droids, a unit that would go on to appear in several games as well as the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian.
Two years after Star Wars: Dark Forces released, another influential FPS would debut on the United States’ Nintendo 64 consoles: Acclaim Entertainment’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Based on a long-running series of comic books dating back to the 1950s, Turok had players embody a Native American man called Turok as he fought dinosaurs and aliens in a dimension called the Lost Land. Widely praised for its graphics and gameplay fidelity, Turok went on to become one of the most successful series on the N64, receiving two sequels and a spinoff on the console. While Turok has struggled to gain a foothold in the 21st century, it's getting a second chance with the announcement of Saber Interactive’s upcoming game Turok: Origins.
Nightdive Studios released a remastered version of Star Wars: Dark Forces internationally on February 28, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Influential February 28th Games Released in the 21st Century
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants!
- Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
- Horizon Zero Dawn
Following the successful release of THQ’s SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, Nickelodeon's famed fry cook would have numerous games made in his name. One of those games was the Mario Party-esque multiplayer game SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! Released on February 28, 2006 in South Korea. While its 30 minigames were received moderately well by players, it wasn’t the sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom fans desired. That concept wouldn't come to be until 17 years later with 2023’s SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, which released on February 28 in Japan. A spiritual successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, Cosmic Shake managed to successfully maintain the former’s charming gameplay while introducing a fun, new story for fans. Cosmic Shake will also get a sequel of its own sometime in 2025.
SpongeBob wasn't the only kid-oriented property to have a successful release on February 28 in the 21st century. In 2014, European players used plants to fight zombies in 3D for the first time with Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. Based on the hit 2009 tower defense mobile game, Garden Warfare cast players as the plants and zombies themselves in several third-person PVP and PVE gamemodes akin to Gears of War and Call of Duty games. Garden Warfare was received moderately well by critics; it helped broaden Plants vs. Zombies audience and was successful enough to have its story continued in several comic book series and two sequels, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 and Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville.
The Debut of the Horizon Series for American Players
February 28, 2025 will have United States players face gigantic beastly opponents in Monster Hunter Wilds, but it wasn’t the first to do so on this day. In 2017, United States players were able to fight against animal-like machines in a brand-new PlayStation-exclusive game, Horizon Zero Dawn. Here, gamers first met Aloy, a Nora tribal outcast who sets out on a journey to save the world from rogue machines and murderous cultists while discovering the truth of her own mysterious origins. Aloy’s story, world, and engrossing gameplay instantly made Horizon Zero Dawn a PlayStation mainstay, which led to a sequel, a remaster, two spinoffs, two tabletop games, multiple comics, and more. Horizon Zero Dawn will even be adapted into a film by Columbia Pictures and PlayStation Productions.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
WHERE TO PLAY
The unbridled force of nature runs wild and relentless, with environments transforming drastically from one moment to the next. This is a story of monsters and humans and their struggles to live in harmony in a world of duality.
Fulfill your duty as a Hunter by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit.
The ultimate hunting experience awaits you in Monster Hunter Wilds.
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes, all platforms
- Cross Save
- No
- Franchise
- Monster Hunter
- Number of Players
- 1
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
