Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Batman! Yes, that is the sound of Batman: Arkham City coming to PlayStation Plus in April for PlayStation 3 owners. Arkham City garnered praise from gamers and critics alike, as evidenced by its cumulative 96/100 score on Metacritic. With the recent announcement of Batman Arkham Knight, this is a great way to catch up on Batman’s adventures.
PlayStation 4 owners can join up with friends and take down an evil corporation in a new 2D action game, Mercenary Kings. As you explore the island CLAW (that’s the evil corporation) has taken over, you’ll discover weapon parts that you can take back to your base and use to fashion together some new spiffy gear.
There are two other PS3 games this month: Stealth Inc. A Clone In the Dark and Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. Stealth Inc. is, as you can probably guess, a game where you should stick to the shadows. The only way to make it out of the lab alive is via some sneaky platforming, so proceed with caution. Castle of Illusion is a proper remake of the Sega Genesis version, not just an HD upgrade. There are new levels to navigate but the goal is the same — save your #1 mouse (that’s Minnie) from the evil witch.
While Vita owners can also enjoy Stealth Inc. (the benefits of Cross-Buy!) this month, they’ll also get Velocity Ultra, an arcade-y space shooter where you’ll teleport around and save other ships, and Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD, a classic tower-defense style game where you’ll need to save baby Tiki-people.
April PlayStation Plus Preview
Mercenary Kings (PS4)
Free for PS Plus members
In this frantic 2D action game, you are part of the Mercenary Kings, the most skilled team of warriors-for-hire on Earth, but when your comrades have fallen and the fearsome forces of CLAW have seized an island-wide top secret Laboratory Base, you must do what it takes to stop them. But you’re not going in unprepared! Your back-up is made of a crew of rogue geniuses and experts of their field! Able to craft & customize guns’n’blades or upgrading body armor, you’ve never been this ready to join the fight.
Batman: Arkham City (PS3)
Free for PS Plus members
No escape from Arkham City…the sprawling super-prison in the heart of Gotham City, home to its most violent thugs and infamous super villains. With the lives of the innocent at stake, only one man can save them and bring justice to the streets of Gotham City…The Batman.
IGN: “Batman: Arkham City is a brilliant game”
Stealth Inc. A Clone in the Dark (PS3)
Free for PS Plus members
Stealth Inc is a fast-paced stealth platformer featuring brutal hazards, ruthless enemies, fiendish puzzles and red pixels galore. Jump, sneak, and be chunked through 80 levels. Will you make it out alive? Armed with only your wits and a pair of top of the range Stealthing Goggles, it’s your job to sneak your way through a deadly facility that’s determined to extinguish your fragile little life. With no weapons and no armour, being seen means instant death.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3)
Free for PS Plus members
Mickey Mouse returns to star in Castle of Illusion, a fantastical re-imagining of the Sega Genesis classic. With all-new HD graphics and gameplay, Castle of Illusion brings Mickey and his world to life in this magical Disney adventure! When the evil witch Mizrabel kidnaps Minnie, it’s up to Mickey to brave the dangers of the Castle of Illusion to rescue Minnie. Gather your courage and traverse enchanted forests, take on hordes of rebellious toys and navigate mazes of living books. Play as Mickey and save Minnie from Mizrabel’s evil clutches!
Velocity Ultra (PS Vita)
Free for PS Plus members
Featuring a new anime-influenced art style, touch screen to teleport, bombs on right stick, explosive visual effects, a Platinum trophy and PlayStation Trophy Leaderboards, Velocity Ultra improves on the 2012 Game Of The Year and PSN Gamers’ Choice Awards release in every area (except music ‘cos that rocked the first time around).
Pixeljunk Monsters Ultimate HD (PS Vita)
Free for PS Plus members
Tikiman the Forest Defender is in trouble. Hordes of monsters are sweeping through his realm, hoping to chow down on his offspring – and it’s up to you to defend them. By placing weapon towers at strategic points around the landscape, you can destroy the invaders and save the little ones. Collect treasure along the way to build up your arsenal and pay for new towers – countless waves of monsters are out to get the babies, so you need to be prepared to battle!
If you’ve got feedback on PlayStation Plus make sure you take the poll above as well as leave a comment below. To chat about all things PlayStation, including this update, you can head over to the PlayStation Community Forums. You’ll also find other topics you can contribute your thoughts to, or you can start your own discussion.
I already own Batman, but Mercenary Kings looks awesome. I also feel like I am one of the few that has played Velocity, so that’ll be nice to see what the hype is all about before the next one comes out. Also, the screenshots for the Mickey game actually look kinda cool. It isn’t Kingdom Hearts, but I’ll take what I can get.
Batman Arkham Knight for PS+ US
and PES 2014 from PS+ EU right??
ohhh man, I only have US PS+ account, I want PES2014 :(
Hmm…Arkham Origins would
Will Mercenary Kings be available on the Vita in the future (don’t mean remote play)? Looks like it would be awesome on the go.
Dear Sony,
Please release a 128GB Vita memory card.
Sincerely,
A PS+ subscriber who is overwhelmed by the amount of free games offered and wants to put them all on one memory card.
Hmm…Arkham Origins would’ve been a better choice since that game is perfect to be offered for free…anyway good month overall…although you guys could’ve put the PS3 version of Velocity Ultra…oh well looking forward to Stealth inc…I almost bought it…also that Mercenary Kings game looks a helluva fun…it’ll be waiting in my download list….great video as always.Peace and thanks Sony.
I understand that Indie games are a part of Vita’s library, BUT, as a PSP owner, i remember to play some AWESOME games in the past, like: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, God of War, Metal Gear, Dragon Ball Z ( A good one), Megaman, Naruto, Jeanne da Arc and so much more awesome quality games.
Tha’s what i’m trting to say…
We need also these kind of games.
I’m not against Indie games, i just want a balance on it.
Some Indies and some AAA.
That’s all.
bad luck, only Stealth Inc. for me.
I already have the other two
Batman: Arkham City? Nice! I already have Arkham Asylum, and have teetered on the edge of buying Arkham City to complete the set, and now I don’t have to. Sweet.
Makes up for the PS Vita titles, definitely. I can’t wait for Sony to finally stop trying so hard to force the indie scene on everyone. No one wants ports of $5-10 Android/PC games on their Vita.
Hey Sony….this is off-topic but ahh I forgot to say…you guys need to fix those trophies on Burial at Sea – Episode 2…they pop and everything but they don’t sync and don’t appear in my profile….a lot of people is having this same problem and looks like it ain’t Irrational’s fault.Please fix this.
hmm, no sale info yet?
looking forward to that batman!!
Que buenos juegos !!
Batman: Arkham City (PS3)
Stealth Inc. A Clone in the Dark (PS3)
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3)
=)
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Soy Plus como mi otra cuenta de Argentina !! ;)
Looks like all Vita for me this month and the PS4 title for when I inevitably buy a PS4.
Really great update! I was waiting to see what April has to offer and I am not disappointed in the slightest.
I never got to play the Batman games so this is a welcome addition with Arkham City.
Pixel Junk HD looks like lots of fun as well. Actually all of the games look like I’ll enjoy them (ok maybe not stealth and velocity cause I’m really bad at playing those types) but I’ll give them a whirl anyways.
Thanks Playstation.
If you have a PS3 and your getting/have a PS4 for Arkham Knight be sure you download Arkham city if you have never played it, definatly one of the best games in 2011 along with uncharted 3.
As long as I get one game a month I’v never played PS+ pays for itself! Merc Kings here I come!
Does Mercenary Kings have local multiplayer?
Thank for for making Batman: Arkham City free for an April’s Very Own.
Damn, This is like the third month in a row of nothing for me. Little disappointing. Hopefully next month will be more interesting.
Pretty good line-up. For me, only possibly Batman since I never bought any in that series.
Kristine: we really love the video Plus announcement so please do that every month.
Well for me I have almost everything besides mercernary kings for the PS4. But this is great for those that don’t have any of these games.
I don’t think Uncharted 3 is a good game for the IGC. I was anticipating the game when I had PlayStation Plus but the files were way to big for me to download. It was kind of a let down. Thanks for adding Castle of Illusion though. I hope you guys take out Dyad that game is way to harsh on the eyes. Some games that I would like to see on PlayStation Plus are Cuboid, Braid, Explodemon, Akimi Village, Puzzle Dimension, Limbo, Cubixx HD, Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Amy, Papo & Yo, Derrick the Deathfin, Arkedo Series, The Unfinished Swan, Rain, and Skydive: Proximity Flight. These are all for PS3.
Second month in a row where I already own the main PS3 game offered, so unfortunately this will be a very light month for me. Gives me time to catch up on my backlog a bit, though. Hopefully I’ll have better luck in May.
No pes 2014 ? :/
I wrote out a huge writeup but I’ll just break it down a little more.
This is a crap month for me. Seriously, not one single title for me as I played Batman twice in the last couple of years. You can spare me about letting me have access to your sales, because I scrape money together to be able to afford the subscription to begin with.
The worst part about it is though, I kept clicking yesterday hoping for our April update. Which we never got and we got no explanation why. If you’re going to say you’re going to do something at a certain time every month, it’s kind of your job to do it, or provide a real good excuse on why you didn’t.
Arkham City being our big game is awful. It’s 3 years old and the game of the year edition gives you all the DLC and is probably only 10 bucks now. Hopefully May will be better, just had to vent as this month is a huge letdown.
Never played Batman Arkham City heard it was good i`ll be the judge of that…
Awesome games for the month of April (even though I own the ps3 ones as usual) but their is one major MAJOR PROBLEM.
For those of us that own Vita’s storage space is tough to come by even if you breakdown like I did and just buy the super expensive memory card you still will eventually run out of storage space. We need a bigger better CHEAPER memory card or let me play my Vita games through my ps4. Heck bring the Vita TV thingy to the U.S. I’d buy it now if it means I can avoid buying another 16gb memory card.
looking forward to mercenary kings! (=
Wow can’t believe people are saying Velocity Ultra is bad….lol…ignorance nowadays.
Meh.. IMO it’s a very dissapointing month for my PS Vita..
more lame crap coming to psn just great
Thank you for making Batman: Arkham City free for an April’s Very Own.
Aww yeah, a Lil something for me and for my son; I still have more trophies to get on Arkham city n my son loves Mickey mouse n played the demo for that game a few months ago n loved it. Good show PlayStation team!
Another fantastic lineup of games. Pixeljunk Monsters is probably the best game on the list. Thank you very much. And thanks for such a wide variety. I know Arkham City is the highlight here, but I have more time for things like Pixeljunk Monsters and Mercenary Kings.
Batman AC is one of my favorite games but it’s been out for almost 3 years.. and you can get the GOTY edition from U$ 19,99… so offering this game is almost useless.. why not Arkham Origins??
Once again, this month looks awesome!
Hopefully soon we see Twisted Metal make its way to the IGC! I already own it personally, but I want others to enjoy it.
So the moral of the story here is… Don’t buy indies or PSP games, they’re all that’s ever going to come to PS+ for Vita users.
I’ve already had pretty much everything these past few months. Come on guys.
Woah! Mercenary Kings is pushing the boundaries of the PS4 capabilities… Sarcasm aside pretty weak month for me since I own most of the offerings. Great content though for those who haven’t played Batman or Mickey. Gives me time to catch up on the other great games and Infamous SS, so no worries.
Ouch for PS4! Even though Mercenary Kings will be a blast to play. Still suck for people who only own a PS4, they only get 1 game.This is why I didn’t buy Castle of Illusion, I knew it was going be free sooner or later.
another weak month for Vita owners, psp and indie games kinda make me upset. I didnt bought my vita to get android or outdated games. My only hope is that we have a big sale with great deals to compensate, like on January.
Yawn. Pretty boring update other than Batman.
The announcement video is better than the game list :)
PS Plus is goooooood way to save money and experience different old/new/bad/good games.
And this month I and both my sons will have something to share between Batman and Mickey Mouse!
@ surf360 you are correct. I just realized I already I have Arkam City and I’ve flipped it twice. I was thinking the free game was Arkham Origins. Thanks for nothing Sony.
We want pes, we want pes We want pes, we want pes We want pes, we want pes
Honestly, you think Sony would pay attention to its customer base, when the majority of the people who own a Vita and subscribe to PS+ have been saying for months and months that we are not interested in 8-year-old PSP games or indie titles that have been available on Android or iOS for months, and are available for less than ten bucks.
Most gamers have more than one device for playing SOME kind of games on. Many have a home console and a smartphone, at the very least, and many of those also have a handheld console. All of us, pretty much, have a computer or Mac.
So, it doesn’t make much sense to keep shoveling indie titles on us. If we wanted indie games, there are tons of platforms to get them on, usually at a lower price, and many times with more features or exclusive features.
I will likely never intentionally buy a single indie title for my Vita, if I can get it on Android or PC, which 99% of the time, I can.
At least you didn’t try to foist off the Angry Birds Trilogy on us, though. And, the discounts and PS3 titles have more than made up for the lack of strong Vita titles. I’m still happy with my subscription.
Gotta say I’m disappointed with this month’s line-up. It’s been great for the past six or seven months. I liked getting two retail PS3 games like we were towards the end of 2013 and the beginning of the year.
Arkham City, as great as it is, is pretty old. It’s not even the GOTY version, which is already going for $20 or less. I don’t mind getting older games like that, but I’d like a retail game that’s more recent to go with it. I was hoping for something like Saints Row IV, Metal Gear Rising, or Fuse.