Tag: switcharcade

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 14th, 2023. Today is Valentine’s Day, and I offer you love in the only way I know how: a bunch of reviews, new release summaries, and lists of sales. I hope you like it better than my wife did. In the review bucket, we’ve got Metroid Prime Remastered, Go! Go! PogoGirl, and Nadir. Over in the new releases, the cool dungeon crawler Labyrinth of Galleria is leading the charge. And in sales? I’ll let you discover that on your own. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Metroid Prime Remastered ($39.99)

Had Nintendo just dumped a direct-as-possible port of Metroid Prime on the eShop, I’d have been a bit torn about what to do in this review. In its time, Metroid Prime was an absolute top-notch game. It was worthy of the highest praise and was easily one of the high points of the GameCube library. But that was twenty years ago, and things were very different in a lot of ways with regards to how first-person games should play and control. And hey, two decades is also a long time in terms of graphical progression. Would a straight port of the 2002 original suffice?

Fortunately for me, that is a question I don’t have to answer today. Nintendo, Retro Studios, and the other folks involved in Metroid Prime Remastered were not content to simply throw the original game out there with little fanfare. The game’s presentation has received an incredible overhaul and looks night and day when compared to the already-attractive original. Critically, you can choose from a number of control options including a new dual-stick set-up that makes the game play like a modern game in the genre. There are new accessibility options, and there are a number of new extras you can unlock by playing the game. Some significant changes, but nothing about the game itself has been messed with.

That’s a good thing, of course. It’s easy to forget just what a miracle Metroid Prime was at the time. After the near-perfection of Super Metroid, the IP had skipped over the entire Nintendo 64 generation. When word came out that the series would return on the GameCube as a first-person shooter developed by a team of ex-Acclaim folks in Texas, the faith of Metroid fans could not have been any lower. Rumors of a troubled development only added fuel to the fire. Depending on who you asked, Metroid Prime was either a source of despair or comedy. The laughing stopped as soon as people played it. Those upstarts at Retro Studios had done it: a 3D take on Metroid that felt as Metroid as any game could.

Some of the awe of that original game is reduced here. The sprawling, organic-feeling environments feel a little more confined and artificial by modern standards, but they still hold up quite well as gameplay spaces. And the game still has a way of making your jaw drop at times with how pretty and detailed everything is. From a gameplay point of view, it’s impressive how well Metroid Prime stands the test of time. Arguably almost as well as the best 2D entries in the franchise, and that is saying something. Exploring Tallon IV, collecting information with your scanner, battling a variety of enemies and wild bosses, and slowly powering up into a tiny goddess is as entertaining now as it was when Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was the latest Hollywood hotness.

Take an amazing game, make some sensible improvements, buff up the graphics, and you’ve got an easy game to recommend. Metroid Prime Remastered is a gold-star reissue of a game that deserves that kind of royal treatment, one that any fan of the series should hastily add to their Switch collection. And if you happen to be new to the game, know that it’s a high-quality action-adventure even compared to today’s games, a true masterpiece that I am envious you will be exploring for the first time.

SwitchArcade Score: 5/5

Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder ($19.99)

When you load up Nadir, one of the first things you see is a message from the developers saying that they’re still working on the game. That may be true to an extent for most new games released these days, but it’s a worrisome first impression that unfortunately ends up informing the experience as it stands right now. There are severe balance issues, an assortment of bugs, and serious UI quirks present in this game, and they really do drag down what might otherwise be a rather enjoyable roguelite. It’s all dressed up and has some place to go, but it trips on its own coat-tails and falls right into a puddle.

The good: a cool art style that is well-realized, novel and enjoyable twists on the usual card game mechanics, and a progression system that is on paper quite satisfying. The bad: extreme balance issues that push you into a heavy grind, small fonts that are hard to read in handheld mode, a control system clearly built for mouse and keyboard over gamepads, generally poor explanations of mechanics, and some weird bugs that aren’t fatal but still rather annoying. There’s nothing here the developers can’t fix provided they have the desire and resources, but I can’t review potential futures.

Nadir has some good ideas and it certainly pulls its weight in terms of its presentation, but a number of gameplay issues and technical problems end up tossing this one into the limbo between heaven and hell. There’s certainly the seed of something very cool here, but whether or not the developers will be able to nurture it into reaching its full potential is a gamble you may not want to take up.

SwitchArcade Score: 3/5

Go! Go! PogoGirl ($4.99)

Well, this was quite nice. In a lot of ways, Go! Go! PogoGirl is a very normal side-scrolling platformer. Move from left to right in twenty stages spread across four worlds, hop on enemies to defeat them, collect gems, and avoid hazards. Tale as old as time, really. But your character is on a pogo stick at all times, and between the forced bouncing (always a neat mechanic in this genre) and her array of special techniques, the game feels fresh and fun all the way through. Backing up the solid core mechanics are some enjoyable, interesting stage designs. Secrets aren’t too hard to find but they’re not fully obvious, and there are lots of places where exploration or successful execution of tricky techniques is rewarded.

The Switch has a lot of options available for platforming fans at the five-dollar price point, ranging from excellent to terrible. Go! Go! PogoGirl comes in on the positive end of that spectrum thanks to its enjoyable gameplay and strong level layouts. It doesn’t redefine the genre or anything, but it’s also unusual and well-executed enough that even weary platforming fans shouldn’t get bored with it.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society ($49.99)

One of the best RPGs available on the Switch in its early years was Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk. I tried recommending it as often as I could, and as a result I know dozens of fans of the game. Here’s the sequel, coming to the West for the first time. Gather your party and plunge into a massive labyrinth for some zesty dungeon-crawling enjoyment that provides a stiff challenge and a surprisingly strong story. I’ll have a full review of this one soon, but I can say at the moment that apart from a couple of technical issues I found this game outstanding.

Blanc ($14.99)

Okay, so first thing’s first. This game does not have a single-player option. You have to play with someone else, whether they be in the same room or online. One person has to control the wolf cub, and one person has to control the fawn. You need to work together to reunite the pair with their families, and I’m sure it will all be very emotional in the end. The striking black-and-white visuals really look great, and the gameplay looks like it will scratch the itch for fans of artistic puzzle games.

Souls of Chronos ($19.99)

Here’s an unusual little RPG. It has action-RPG combat, plenty of dungeon exploration, and a choice-based character progression system that actually has an effect on the narrative on top of your stats. A lot of effort seems to have been put into the story, which deals with class issues, poverty, and the difficulties of trying to ride the line between one’s personal interests and the greater good. It’s okay on the whole, but it’s not something I’d tell people to run out and buy without pause. If nothing else, it has a distinct flavor that I can’t say I dislike.

Ten Dates ($15.99)

Hunh, Howie looks a little different from how I remember. This is the follow-up to Five Dates, and it’s another FMV game. Its predecessor leaned into the whole idea of dating during the pandemic, but this one is decidedly post-pandemic and oddly ends up coming across a little more plain as a result. Help Misha and Ryan as they go to a speed dating event by making choices and hopefully bringing them to a happy ending. There are ten different endings to discover if you’re inclined to, so it’s not hurting for replay value as this kind of thing goes.

Spy Bros. ($7.99)

As Toaplan entered its final years of existence, it started experimenting with other genres outside of its usual shoot-em-up fare. One of the odder attempts was something I can only describe as Elevator Action meets Bonanza Bros. meets Gals Panic called Pipi & Bibi’s. You would clear stages and be rewarded with parts of a risque image of a lady. This is a family-friendly remake of that game, and you might be wondering if there was a decent game supporting the horny pictures. The answer is: kind of. It wouldn’t be my first choice for a game like this, but it’s fairly enjoyable. This is also its first home port of any kind, so it may be of interest to fans of arcade esoterica for that alone.

Chess Maiden ($5.99)

This is just another mediocre chess game with support for one or two players via local multiplayer. The gimmick is that if you’re playing alone, your opponent is a maid. Her 3D model just kind of hangs out on the other side of the board. It’s a pretty weird selling point, but in the end it’s still just chess.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Hey, The Oregon Trail. That’s a fun game, and sub-twenty bucks seems like a good value for it. Demon Turf and its side game are on sale again, and virtually the whole Pixel Game Maker Series is discounted too. A selection of WayForward games are on sale as well. There isn’t much in the outbox catching my attention, but that won’t mean it won’t catch yours. Check those lists, people!

Select New Games on Sale

The Oregon Trail ($17.99 from $29.99 until 2/21)
BPM Bullets Per Minute ($18.74 from $24.99 until 2/21)
Demon Turf ($16.24 from $24.99 until 2/21)
Demon Turf Neon Splash ($4.24 from $4.99 until 2/21)
Byte Cats ($7.19 from $11.99 until 2/21)
Negative Nancy ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/21)
Overlord: Escape from Nazarick ($19.49 from $29.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Pearl Vs Grey ($6.39 from $7.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Verzeus ($9.59 from $11.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Thunder Striker ($9.59 from $11.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Dungeon of Nazarick ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Cham the Cat Adventure (48.79 from $10.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Rumble Dragon ($9.59 from $11.99 until 2/21)
PGMS Oma2ri Adventure ($3.41 from $4.95 until 2/21)
Wingspan ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/27)

Spidersaurs ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/27)
River City Girls Zero ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/27)
River City Girls ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/27)
Vitamin Connection ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/27)
Dawn of the Monsters ($20.99 from $29.99 until 2/27)
Mechstermination Force ($7.19 from $11.99 until 2/28)
Gunman Clive HD Collection ($2.99 from $4.99 until 2/28)
Super Punch Patrol ($2.99 from $4.99 until 2/28)
Battle Brothers A TBT RPG ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/28)
Donut Dodo ($3.99 from $4.99 until 3/3)
Commandos 3 HD Remaster ($26.99 from $29.99 until 3/6)
Regency Solitaire ($4.79 from $11.99 until 3/6)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 15th

Aragami 2 ($26.79 from $39.99 until 2/15)
Balloon Flight ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/15)
Broken Universe Tower Defense ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Cattails ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Collapsed ($3.00 from $15.00 until 2/15)
Conduct Together ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Depth of Extinction ($3.59 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Detective Di: Silk Rose Murders ($2.89 from $12.99 until 2/15)
Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/15)
Fly Together ($1.99 from $15.00 until 2/15)
Frogun ($11.24 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Gem Wizards Tactics ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/15)
Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/15)
Hayfever ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Headland ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)

Monster Harvest ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
OMG Police Car Chase TV Sim ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/15)
reky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Rogue Star Rescue ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Slaycation Paradise ($6.79 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Space Raiders in Space ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/15)
Speedway Racing ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Time on Frog Island ($8.49 from $24.99 until 2/15)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a few more new releases, some more sales, and perhaps some news. I probably played through Metroid Prime Remastered more times than I needed to for the review. And I am probably going to play through it again before the week is out. That’s just how it is. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 13th, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve got a few reviews to start off the week with. The excellent shooter Drainus leads the pack, with Helvetii and Colossal Cave pulling up the middle and rear respectively. After that, some new releases. Mostly dubious. We then finish things up with the latest sales and expiring discounts. Let’s get to work!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Drainus ($19.99)

Drainus is a very good shooting game that I can easily recommend to people who might not usually be into shooting games. It’s less about scoring and more about just getting through the game’s campaign. Indeed, there aren’t even any online leaderboards. So if you are a shoot-em-up fan, you’ll want to be aware of that. It feels like a shooter made for a home console versus the arcades, and while that is exactly what it is, it’s also not something we see a lot in this genre. In that sense, it calls to mind games like Ikaruga.

The idea here is that you can drain enemy bullets and fire them back. You have to do this manually, and you have a meter that determines how long you can drain before giving it a break and letting it replenish. As you play, you’ll fill up energy cans that you can then use to buy upgrades for your ship. You can buy these upgrades at any time from the pause menu. To use those upgrades, you’ll have to pick up special pods dropped by certain enemies which will level you up. Taking a hit levels you down, and if you’re on your standard shot and take a hit, you’re out. It’s a surprisingly forgiving game that gives you plenty of input in how your upgrades progress.

With the interesting draining and upgrading mechanics, a striking presentation, and a surprisingly fair level of difficulty, Drainus stands out in a very competitive genre to offer a different kind of deal for players. While it isn’t directly comparable to the likes of Ikaruga in specific ways, I get the sense it will have a similar wider appeal to the one that game enjoyed. On the flip side, the lack of online leaderboards and lower emphasis on scoring mechanics might hurt the game with the hardcore fans of the genre. Overall, however, it’s an amazing effort with a lot of obvious thought put into its design that pays off handsomely.

SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5

Helvetii ($16.99)

Helvetii is one of those games that is on the cusp of something really good, but doesn’t quite get there. It has an attractive presentation and plays well enough. There’s a familiar, well-worn structure to it, following in the footsteps of many roguelite action games before it. You get a few characters to play as, and a story to stitch everything together. It feels very inspired by Vanillaware’s games, and in some ways it doesn’t miss the mark by much. Interestingly, I think it’s the roguelite aspects that sink the ship. The balance is off, and it ends up betraying the game’s better parts. Exploration generally doesn’t feel rewarding, and you’re pushed into grinding until the fairly enjoyable combat system feels exhausting.

I think Helvetii could have been a pretty good action game, and to an extent it can still be enjoyed that way. Its visuals and basic gameplay mechanics are well-done and fit together in a pleasing way. Its roguelite elements are less satisfying, with insufficient variety and a balance that leads to a fair bit of unpleasant grinding, putting undue pressure on the combat system that it simply can’t carry to that extent. There are things to appreciate here though, and I can see folks who are more forgiving of the game’s weak points having a nicer time than I did.

SwitchArcade Score: 3/5

Colossal Cave ($39.99)

This one really stings. Some of the earliest computer games I played were the adventure games designed by Roberta Williams at Sierra. When I heard she and her husband Ken were coming out of retirement to work on another game, and that it was going to be a remake of the pioneering Colossal Cave, my imagination went wild. With such a fertile starting point and some of the legends of the genre working on the game, surely the result would be good? Well, I was quite wrong. I kind of see how it happened, but the how doesn’t change the reality that this game isn’t very enjoyable at all.

Despite Roberta and Ken Williams being involved with this, you really can’t feel it. This is very faithful to the original Colossal Cave. Too faithful in some ways. And where it does break from that near-fifty year old game, it does so to its detriment. Spaces once formed in your imagination are replaced with dull, generic 3D settings. A simple text-based interface is now a fiddly GUI that doesn’t work especially well with a controller. The puzzles are largely unchanged, and the text has now become voiced narration. It’s not all bad if you’re a fan of the original looking for a different angle, I suppose.

Colossal Cave‘s adherence to the original game’s design and puzzles can be somewhat lauded, but it also means that the game feels half a century old and none of the flavor of Roberta Williams’ design sensibilities come through. Meanwhile, the overhaul to the visuals and audio put a proverbial face to the descriptions but in doing so remove much of the game’s intangible charms. It all adds up to a game that is hard to recommend newcomers and veterans alike.

SwitchArcade Score: 2/5

New Releases

Forgotton Anne ($19.99)

I… I feel like this already came out on the Switch four or five years ago? Okay, I did some research. Apparently this is a publisher change. The game is now published by the developer itself. I’m not sure if you have to pay again if you already bought it. Anyway, this was a really good narrative adventure game then and it still is now. If you missed it and you like that sort of thing, allow this to be your excuse to give it a go.

Big Adventure: Trip to Europe ($11.99)

Find hidden objects. Some European travel-related, some not. There are also some minigames to give you a break from item hunting now and then. I don’t have many new things to say about games like these anymore. Ocean Media is just dropping these in batches these days, as you’ll see in a second.

My Lovely Pets Collector’s Edition ($14.99)

Find hidden objects. Some pet-related, some not. There are also some minigames to give you a break from item hunting now and then. I still don’t have anything new to say about this kind of thing anymore. If you enjoy them, more power to you.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

The hot deals today, as far as I am concerned, are for the awesome shooter Sophstar, the cool twin sticker Devastator, and the nifty roguelite Ampersat. I don’t have any strong feelings about the outbox, but do have the usual look through both lists to see what grabs your attention.

Select New Games on Sale

Cozy Grove ($8.88 from $14.99 until 2/20)
Devastator ($2.09 from $6.99 until 2/24)
Capybara Madness ($3.84 from $6.99 until 2/26)
Gunborg: Dark Matters ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/27)
Sophstar ($9.09 from $12.99 until 2/27)
Heidelberg 1693 ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/27)
Lamentum ($6.39 from $15.99 until 2/27)
The Legend of Tianding ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/27)
Hazel Sky ($9.99 from $24.99 until 2/27)
Mozart Requiem ($7.49 from $29.99 until 2/27)
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/28)
Ampersat ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/28)
Fantasy Blacksmith ($6.69 from $9.99 until 2/28)
ValiDate Struggling Singles ($4.64 from $14.99 until 3/1)

Unichrome: 1-Bit Unicorn Adv. ($7.99 from $14.99 until 3/2)
Bike Clash ($4.99 from $9.99 until 3/3)
Hollow World: Dark Knight ($3.99 from $7.99 until 3/3)
Go! Go! PogoGirl ($3.99 from $4.99 until 3/3)
Animal Golf: Battle Race ($7.19 from $7.99 until 3/3)
Camper Van Simulator 2 ($6.49 from $12.99 until 3/3)
Blade of Darkness ($7.49 from $14.99 until 3/3)
Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch ($27.99 from $39.99 until 3/4)
The Quest for Excalibur – Puy du Fou ($14.99 from $29.99 until 3/4)
Smurfs Kart ($26.79 from $39.99 until 3/4)
New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja ($20.99 from $29.99 until 3/4)
Beyond a Steel Sky ($15.99 from $39.99 until 3/4)
Dark Minute: Kira’s Adventure ($2.49 from $9.99 until 3/4)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14th

Ammo Pigs: Armed & Delicious ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/14)
Art Sqool ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
Astronomical Club for Queers ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Boreal Tenebrae ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/14)
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill: S&B ($3.39 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Catlateral Damage Remeowstered ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/14)
Chalk Gardens ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/14)
Elemetals: Death Metal Death Match ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
Gravity Thrust ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/14)
Inukari Chase of Deception ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/14)
It’s Kooky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Lil Gator Game ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Little Bug ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)

P.3 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/14)
Postal Redux ($3.49 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Save Koch ($2.00 from $20.00 until 2/14)
Space Tail: EJLH ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Spirit Roots ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/14)
Spy Chameleon ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Super Soccer Blast: USA vs EU ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Super Sports Blast ($7.49 from $24.99 until 2/14)
To Leave ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Under Leaves ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with several new releases, a couple of reviews, some sales, and maybe some news too. Lots of good games incoming very soon, so I hope you’ve set aside a little bit of money. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 10th, 2023. In today’s article, we mop up the remaining releases of the week. A few decent games, though mostly smaller titles today. We’ve got summaries of each of them to help you make your purchasing decisions, or simply to entertain you if you like seeing Shaun yell at shovelware. After that, we wrap things up with a look at some of the latest sales and the expiring discounts for the weekend. Let’s go!

New Releases

Seventh Lair ($7.99)

The creator of The House in Fata Morgana has created this small visual novel about an indie game creator and some of his associates who get sucked into the world of the game. It’s very tongue-in-cheek and meta-textual, as you could probably guess. If you played The House in Fata Morgana you probably don’t need me to recommend this to you, but I suppose those who haven’t could give this a try to see if they are into what Novectacle is putting down as a creator.

Go! Go! PogoGirl ($4.99)

This is a cute little platformer about a girl on a pogo stick. Bounce around collecting gems in twenty levels spread across four different seasonally-themed worlds. Looks like a rather amusing five-dollar Switch platformer for those who enjoy spending their weekends playing through such things.

Axis Football 2023 ($19.99)

You know, I can’t believe the Switch has been around for six years, wildly successful almost from the start, and Electronic Arts still hasn’t dumped out even a half-butted Madden release on the console. Well, here’s something in time for the big game, if you’re feeling the need. While it doesn’t have the NFL license and clearly isn’t matching Madden‘s budget, it’s loaded with features and plays well enough to pass muster. Frankly, it’s not like Switch owners have many other compelling options for this sport outside of retro throwbacks and actual retro games. It’s nice to have at least one decent option. Maybe someday we can get something similar for hockey, too.

Ragdoll Rage: Heroes Arena ($4.99)

Yes, this is a port of a free-to-play mobile game. Play alone or with another player via local or online multiplayer. Another arena shooter, but this time with large characters and a ton of traps to deal with alongside the opponent. There are weapons to upgrade and various skins to unlock. Try it on your mobile device first to see how well you like it.

Looking for Aliens ($6.99)

This is a hidden object game that follows the adventure of an earthling named Shaun as he tries to prove the existence of aliens. People think Shaun has lost his mind, but Shaun knows Shaun is right. It’s the world that is wrong, not Shaun! Anyway, it works like Hidden Folks or Where’s Wally/Waldo. Just find the stuff it wants you to find. You get twenty-five levels to play, which isn’t bad for the price.

Speedgunner Ultra ($4.99)

Wow, that are some tiny sprites. Too small for my old eyes. It seems to be an homage to the classic Thexder, with you taking the role of a cyborg that can turn into a jet whenever you deem it necessary. The levels look large and labyrinthine, too. It’s all a bit too hard for me to keep my eyes on, but if you’re farther from the grave than I am you might have some fun with it.

Legion of Doom ($4.99)

We don’t have Vampire Survivors on Switch, and I suppose until we do we’ll see various parties take a stab at the idea. This one has five playable characters, more than thirty weapons and twenty perks, fifteen boss monsters, and support for local multiplayer co-op. I haven’t played this yet but I imagine it isn’t up to the likes of Holo Cure or Vampire Survivors. It might be good enough to scratch the itch for a fiver, though.

Puzzle by Nikoli S Hashiwokakero ($4.99)

Another clever puzzle game from Hamster. The idea in this one is that you have to draw bridges between the islands, which are circles with numbers in them. You can only make lines vertically or horizontally, a maximum of two can be drawn between any two points, and the lines can’t overlap each other. The number in the circle tells you how many lines have to be attached to them. So for example an eight needs two lines drawn in all four cardinal directions. Good stuff.

Detective Agency: Gray Tie Collector’s Edition ($14.99)

Another hidden object game from the folks at Ocean Media. A bad guy steals a priceless statue and you have to find him by looking for a cat and a rose and a pair of pliers in various scenes. But hey, at least it’s the Collector’s Edition. Someday you can sell it for a billion dollars or something. Very rare.

Kids vs Parents ($24.99)

Ah, the classic battle. Parents, right kids? Kids, right parents? This game supports multiplayer for up to four players locally, and you’re meant to divide the teams into kids and parents. I don’t think there’s a single player mode to speak of. You play various minigames and you can set the penalty or bonus for the winner or loser. I don’t think they’re legally binding or anything. You’re going to need to wave those Joy-Cons around, so no handheld support. Fifty minigames in all, which isn’t half bad.

Youmandriver ($11.99)

Did someone order a bland, rough-around-the-edges driving game? I don’t know if this is taking the place of the weekly BoomHits game or not, but it somehow looks worse than those. Choose from four different driving styles and complete missions. Watch out for traffic and don’t go too fast unless you’re looking to get into an accident. Sounds fun.

Animal Puzzle World ($8.99)

Well, that’s just Qix with animal pictures. You can buy the real Qix on Arcade Archives for a buck less than this, but it doesn’t have animal pictures. You make the call.

Hair Salon: Cool Stories ($3.99)

Yes, it’s another Cooking & Publishing game where you answer a bunch of questions and then have to answer the questions again with the same answers. Some sort of hair salon theme this time. Low-effort garbage.

Red Bird Adventure: Classic Physics Puzzle ($9.99)

Megame is the latest to try its luck with borderline copyright infringement, it seems. This is pretty nakedly trying to evoke the Angry Birds franchise, but don’t let that trick you into thinking it’s fun. Save your ten bucks, don’t support this garbage.

Falling Elevator – Hyper Casual Demolish Escape Survival Game ($1.99)

An affordable bit of trash from INSTAMARKETINGANDGAMES, a name we know stands for quality. You’re meant to try to save the people in the elevator in each of the fifty stages. Nothing to do with demolishing or escaping and I don’t know if I would call it hyper casual either, but whatever. The title is crafted by liars in an effort to deceive, so I don’t know why I’m overthinking it.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

There are a bunch of sales on the eShop right now, but a lot of them are the same old business from the likes of Bandai Namco and Game Mill. I’ve tried to collect some of the interesting ones here, but it’s still a fairly familiar list. Feel free to have a look anyway, and do check the small outbox on your way through.

Select New Games on Sale

Sail Forth ($16.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Fracter ($2.22 from $6.99 until 2/16)
Roundguard ($6.36 from $19.99 until 2/16)
#Funtime ($3.27 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Freshly Frosted ($7.09 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Space Otter Charlie ($6.57 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Deleveled ($2.18 from $9.99 until 2/16)
The Ambassador FT ($3.27 from $14.99 until 2/16)
For The Warp ($8.79 from $17.99 until 2/17)
Iris.Fall ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/19)
Arcadia Fallen ($16.74 from $24.99 until 2/20)
Stellar Interface: Deluxe ($2.39 from $15.98 until 2/21)
Dream ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Crumble ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/24)
Bot Gaiden ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/24)

Terraria ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/27)
Bloodstained: RotN ($15.99 from $39.99 until 2/27)
Indivisible ($7.49 from $29.99 until 2/27)
Horace ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/27)
Two Point Campus ($27.99 from $39.99 until 2/27)
Super Toy Cars Offroad ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/28)
Effie ($4.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
orbit.industries ($9.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Crossroads Inn: Fantasy Tavern Sim ($12.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Hokko Life ($13.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
This is the Zodiac Speaking ($2.59 from $12.99 until 3/2)
Big Pharma ($4.49 from $29.99 until 3/2)
Cursed to Golf ($14.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Best Month Ever! ($11.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Wavetale ($23.99 from $29.99 until 3/2)

Going Under ($4.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair ($4.49 from $29.99 until 3/2)
LEGO Bricktales ($23.99 from $29.99 until 3/2)
Blaloon Blalympia 2 ($2.00 from $9.99 until 3/2)
Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3 ($19.99 from $49.99 until 3/2)
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl ($9.99 from $49.99 until 3/2)
Togges ($15.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Little League WS Baseball 2022 ($17.49 from $49.99 until 3/2)
Swordship ($13.99 until $19.99 until 3/2)
Lonely Mountains: Downhill ($10.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Kaiju Wars ($15.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Source of Madness ($12.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Hello Kitty Kruisers w/Sanrio Friends ($5.99 from $29.95 until 3/2)
Super Mombo Quest ($3.99 from $15.99 until 3/2)
Dwarf Journey ($1.99 from $7.99 until 3/2)
Sherlock Holmes C&P/DD Bundle ($19.99 from $49.99 until 3/2)

Sales Ending This Weekend

Brawlout ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/11)
Faraday Protocol ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/11)
Milky Way Prince: Vampire Star ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/11)
Crypt of the NecroDancer ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/12)
Extreme Snowboard ($5.99 from $7.99 until 2/12)
LIT: Bend the Light ($5.60 from $8.00 until 2/12)

That’s all for today and this week, friends. It’s been an exhausting one for me, but I’ve pretty much wrapped up what I needed to. Now I play the waiting game, which contrary to popular opinion is not in fact an enjoyable game. I will also play Metroid Prime Remastered, which is in fact a very enjoyable game. All kinds of flavors in life, my dearest readers. I hope you all have a flavorful weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 9th, 2023. Today we start things off by going through some of the highlights from that wild Nintendo Direct yesterday. After that, we’ve got a bunch of new releases to check out. I mean, it is Thursday after all. Finally, we go through the lists of new and expiring sales as usual. Definitely busier than the usual Thursday in some ways but less busy in others. Let’s dig in!

News

‘Pikmin 4’ Kicks Off an Amazing Nintendo Direct

I know I say this a lot, but that was a great Nintendo Direct. The type of articles I do here aren’t really great for full summaries, but I’ll hit the highlights and let you watch the video if you want more. First up, shadow drops. Metroid Prime Remastered, and Game Boy and Game Boy Advance apps for Nintendo Switch Online and Expansion Pack subscribers respectively. All long rumored, now realities.

There were a lot of remakes in the Direct and we’ll talk about those soon, but let’s call out some of the new games. Pikmin 4 will be coming in July, and it looks great. Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a surprise revival for SEGA’s maracas-based music game. Disney Illusion Island looks like it’s almost ready to go, and it looks to fill the multiplayer platforming hole left by the absence of new Rayman or New Super Mario Bros. games. Professor Layton and the World of Steam was teased, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon got an expanded trailer, Octopath Traveler II looks ready to go, and both DecaPolice and Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time look promising.

The developers of Style Savvy have a new game coming named Fashion Dreamer, Bithell Games is making a TRON game called TRON: Identity, and Sea of Stars seems to be coming along well. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code looks promising, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is quite compelling from what was shown, and Omega Strikers seems like a nifty riff on Windjammers. Oh, and that little game called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It’s $69.99, so search those couch cushions for an extra tenner.

Okay, on to those remakes. I’ll just fire off some names. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster. The aforementioned Metroid Prime Remastered. Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, this time for sure. Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection. We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie. Just… all kinds of cool games that I’m utterly thrilled will be available on modern platforms at a reasonable price. Like reliving the mid-aughts, it is.

Finally, expansions, downloadable content, updates, that kind of thing. Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s Wave 3 DLC will be available from February 15th with a new hero and some challenge battles. Wave 4’s story content was teased and it looks like a doozy. The Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC looks fantastic and will be arriving on March 6th. An Expansion Pass was announced for Splatoon 3, with the first of two parts bringing back Inkopolis Plaza from the original game this spring. Fire Emblem Engage‘s Expansion Pass Wave 2 arrives today with some new Emblem characters. Wave 3 will feature more still, while Wave 4 brings the Fell Xenologue story content. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s Booster Course Pass Wave 4 will feature a new character, Birdo, and Yoshi’s Island was revealed as a new course. Phew! Those are the main details, but do watch the whole Direct if you want the full experience.

New Releases

Metroid Prime Remastered ($39.99)

The game that was rumored to appear in every Nintendo Direct for the last five years finally showed up, and it ended up being shadow-dropped right to the eShop. This is a remake/remaster of the original Metroid Prime, complete with additional control methods and a few other improvements to help the game shine its brightest. I’ll be doing a full review of this one as soon as I can make my way through it, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s pretty good.

Game Boy – Nintendo Switch Online (Free)

Lots of surprises today. Nintendo Switch Online subscribers finally have another classic console app to access with the release of this Game Boy selection. The launch titles include Tetris, Super Mario Land 2, Link’s Awakening DX, Gargoyle’s Quest, Game & Watch Gallery 3, Metroid 2, Wario Land 3, Kirby’s Dream Land, and for some reason, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare. You get a few different filters to choose from but otherwise it offers similar features to the other classic console apps. That includes rollback netcode for online multiplayer in supported games, as well as local multiplayer.

Game Boy Advance – Nintendo Switch Online (Free)

And for those who have a subscription to the Expansion Pack, here is the Game Boy Advance app. Everything I said about the Game Boy app goes for this one, but of course there are different games here. The starting line-up is Super Mario 3 (with the e-Reader card levels enabled), WarioWare, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and Kuru Kuru Kururin. No third party games here, which is somewhat interesting. Well hey, if you have the subscription it’s all bonus anyway.

WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros ($0.99)

Yes, that price is correct. Konami wants to bring the Power Pro brand global, and this is their way of doing that. It’s a fun baseball game, though this version is a bit stripped down and focused on its online modes. Still, for a dollar it’s an obscenely good deal for anyone who likes baseball.

Perserverance: Complete Edition ($19.99)

This is a narrative adventure game about a zombie apocalypse, which is an incredibly novel concept that I’m sure will be a breath of fresh air for all of us. We’ve seen Perseverance on the Switch before, but this one includes all three parts of the story in one complete set. Despite my snarkiness about the theme of the game, this one has gotten a really strong reception from folks who have played it, with the story getting plenty of praise.

Rob Riches ($8.99)

This is a decent-looking action-puzzler where you play as a dude who is exploring and plundering ancient temples. They’re full of traps to keep out robbers like you, so you’ll have to out-step and out-wit them if you want to get away with the riches. Collect all the coins in each area and open the path to the next. It sounds so simple, but it gets complicated in a hurry. The isometric viewpoint gives the game a nice little microcomputer feel that will be very cozy for some of you, I’m sure.

Japanese Escape Games The Light and Mirror Room ($9.99)

This is the fourteenth game in this little series of escape games, so you probably don’t need me to tell you much beyond the basic theme. You’ve been sent by a weird guy in a lab coat to investigate one particular floor in a building. Once you head in, you find the way back locked behind you. You’ll have to solve a bunch of puzzles to get out. I’m assuming some of them involve light and mirrors. Just a wild swing there.

Bumblebee – Little Bee Adventure ($9.99)

Oh no, people are getting tired of our cookie-cutter Aery follow-ups! What can we do? Replace the bird with a bee and print it! Yes, this is basically just another Aery game. But you’re a bee. Like Jerry Seinfeld that one time. You’re even still looking for feathers. Couldn’t that have been changed to pollen or honeycombs or something? Ah, I’m probably putting more thought into this than they did. If you want more Aery but with buzz-buzz instead of tweet-tweet, here you go.

Arcade Archives Magical Speed ($7.99)

It seems that Hamster has acquired the rights to another defunct arcade game company’s catalog. Allumer isn’t exactly a household name, but it did have a few modest hits that were distributed by Taito back in the day. To kick things off this week, Hamster is releasing the card game Magical Speed. Originally released in 1994, it’s a variant of the card game Speed that was only released in Japan back in the day. Nice vibrant visuals, but I’m not sure I’m all that interested in this one personally. Still, it’s good to see more obscure releases given a chance to shine again.

Shuttlecock-H ($7.99)

Hm, it has been at least a hot minute since eastasiasoft released a horny game, but here we go. Prepare the Bonk bat. It’s basically a bullet hell game where you can’t fight back, so you have to dodge everything while grabbing the hearts that appear. There are three different women to meet, each with their own story, and you’ll get to see some risque pictures of them as you play through the game. Bonk!

Alice in Wonderland – A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale ($4.99)

A jigsaw puzzle game based on Alice in Wonderland. You get twelve admittedly nice pieces of Alice-themed art to make the puzzles from, and five different difficulty levels to choose from for each. Clearly people are buying these jigsaw puzzle games, or we wouldn’t keep getting them. If you are one of those people, here’s another one for you.

Putrid Shot Ultra ($2.99)

I feel like we saw another game very similar to this come out recently, but I can’t quite place it. Oh well. Another roguelite action game that doesn’t do much to separate itself. Use your magic pistol to fire off a variety of spells and see how far into the crypt you can descend. You’ll earn upgrades as you go to help you keep up with the hordes. Not the most original of things, but for just three dollars I suppose it doesn’t have to be.

Deep Space: Action Fire Sci-Fi Game 2023 Shooter Strike Simulator Alien Death Ultimate Games ($4.99)

The handful of dollars you spend on this steaming pile of garbage from the trash-flingers at Midnight Works could be saved and put towards that fancy remaster of Metroid Prime. Choose wisely.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Probably the biggest sale to pop as of this writing is the one for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its Expansion Pass. If you somehow missed this amazing game and want to get caught up before Tears of the Kingdom hits, this is a great chance. Aside from Radiant Silvergun, I don’t have anything else I feel especially strong about in either list, so I’ll just do the usual thing and tell you to check those sales and see what jumps out at you.

Select New Games on Sale

Gem Wizards Tactics ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/15)
Broken Universe Tower Defense ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Space Raiders in Space ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/15)
Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/15)
Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/15)
OMG Police Car Chase TV Sim ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/15)
Detective Di: Silk Rose Murders ($2.89 from $12.99 until 2/15)
reky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Balloon Flight ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/15)
Ethan: Meteor Hunter ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/19)
Buissons ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/19)
Inside My Radio ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/19)
Stone ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/20)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ($39.99 from $59.99 until 2/20)
The Legend of Zelda: BotW Expansion ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
The Legend of Zelda: BotW Bundle ($53.98 from $79.98 until 2/20)
The Midnight Sanctuary ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/22)
Tiny Metal ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/22)
Tokyo Dark Remembrance ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/22)
Marchen Forest ($6.99 from $34.99 until 2/23)
Fantasy Strike Core Pack ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/23)
Fantasy Strike Collector’s Pack ($49.99 from $99.99 until 2/23)
Pathfinder: WotR Cloud Version ($24.99 from $49.99 until 2/23)
Wing of Darkness ($5.99 from $29.99 until 2/23)
Galacticon ($3.99 from $4.99 until 3/1)
Moonlighter ($3.74 from $24.99 until 3/1)
Moonlighter CE ($4.34 from $28.99 until 3/1)
Children of Morta ($5.49 from $21.99 until 3/1)
Children of Morta Ancient Spirits DLC ($2.49 from $4.99 until 3/1)
Children of Morta CE ($7.99 from $26.99 until 3/1)
Darker Skies ($7.19 from $17.99 until 3/1)
Gunpig Firepower for Hire ($3.99 from $4.99 until 3/1)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, February 10th

Among Us ($3.50 from $5.00 until 2/10)
Drift & Drive ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/10)
Glo ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Growbot ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
H1.Jack ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Hatup ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Hell Pages ($5.39 from $8.99 until 2/10)
Karma Knight ($2.06 from $8.99 until 2/10)
Lamplight City ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Many Faces ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Mutropolis ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Pity Pit (41.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Quintus & the Absent Truth ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)

Radiant Silvergun ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
RIVE: Ultimate Edition ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Sonority ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
SUPERHOT ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/10)
Swap This! ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Swords & Soldiers ($1.99 from $7.49 until 2/10)
Toki Tori ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Toki Tori 2+ ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Trenches ($7.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)
Unforeseen Incidents ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Vesper Zero Light Edition ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the remaining releases of the week, plus what will likely be a healthy list of new sales. I suspect somehow that tomorrow will be rather less exciting than today, but who knows? Surprises come out of nowhere sometimes. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 8th, 2023. It’s one of those days, folks. Big things are happening today, but they’re happening in the future as I write this. We’ll catch up on all of it tomorrow, but for today we have a few new releases to look at along with a small batch of new sales. Will Advance Wars finally resurface? I guess we’ll see. Let’s get to it!

News

Tonight’s Nintendo Direct Featuring ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ and More

I hope I’ve timed this properly. As I write this, the upcoming Nintendo Direct presentation is about sixteen hours in the future. I think this will probably go up before it starts, but if it doesn’t I can’t do much about that. Anyway, there’s a Nintendo Direct today! It will feature about 40 minutes of footage of upcoming Switch games, and it seems very likely that we’ll be getting new information about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at the very least. Hopefully not just news of a price increase. That’s a very lengthy presentation, so there should be some interesting things included. We’ll know by the time I speak with you all next.

New Releases

Daily Dadish ($9.99)

If you’ve enjoyed the Dadish series of platformers like I have, I know you have just one complaint on your mind: why isn’t there a new level every day of the year? Well, Daily Dadish is here to address that. It includes 365 levels, one for each day of the year, and the gimmick is that you can only play each of them for one day. We’ve seen games like this on mobile, but can this kind of set-up work on consoles with an upfront price? I suppose we’ll see, but I can’t help but root for Dadish.

I am an Air Traffic Controller – Airport Hero Haneda ($49.99)

The Airport Hero series makes its debut on the Nintendo Switch with this release. Just as the title indicates, you’re an air traffic controller at Haneda Airport, and you need to manage the incoming and outgoing planes so that everyone can get where they need to go as smoothly as possible. There are sixteen stages to play as you take care of the busy airport’s four runways. A popular series on the Nintendo 3DS and other platforms, and I’ve little doubt it will find a footing on the Switch as well.

Prison Tycoon: Under New Management ($24.99)

Imagine Theme Hospital but with a prison theme instead of a hospital theme and you aren’t far off from what Prison Tycoon aims to do. The original game came out around twenty years ago and despite a critical hammering it went on to be a rather decent success. A couple of years back this remake came out, and now here it is on Switch. The reception to it has been somewhat mixed and I suspect the Switch isn’t going to improve on issues like difficulty balancing, so proceed with caution.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

I suppose the most exciting thing going on in the sales today is that you can get a lot of racers at really cheap prices. I’m not going to sit here and say the Switch versions of games like V-Rally 4 and WRC 9 are top-shelf releases, but for five or six bucks you’ll get a lot out of them. Not much happening in the outbox today, but I will as usual recommend you have a look through both lists just to be sure nothing catches your fancy.

Select New Games on Sale

Space Tail: EJLH ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Astronomical Club for Queers ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Little Bug ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
Chalk Gardens ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/14)
Elemetals: Death Metal Death Match ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
Under Leaves ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
To Leave ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/14)
P.3 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/14)
Inukari Chase of Deception ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/14)
Boreal Tenebrae ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/14)
It’s Kooky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Ammo Pigs: Armed & Delicious ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/14)
Art Sqool ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/14)
Just Dance 2023 Deluxe ($38.49 from $69.99 until 2/17)
Ravenous Devils ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/22)
HyperParasite ($2.69 from $17.99 until 2/22)

OlliOlli Switch Stance ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/22)
V-Rally 4 Ultimate Edition ($6.99 from $69.99 until 2/28)
WRC 9 Deluxe Edition ($4.99 from $49.99 until 2/28)
Overpass Deluxe ($6.49 from $64.99 until 2/28)
TT Isle of Man ($4.99 from $49.99 until 2/28)
Monster Truck Championship RH Edition ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/28)
Super Soccer Blast ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/28)
Super Tennis Blast ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/28)
Super Volley Blast ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/28)
Pure Chase 80’s ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/28)
RiMS Racing ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/28)
Hunting Simulator 2 ($11.99 from $39.99 until 2/28)
Niche Genetics Survival Game ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/28)
Exertus Redux ($2.06 from $4.39 until 2/28)
Adverse ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/28)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, February 9th

Abyss of the Sacrifice ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/9)
Always Sometimes Monsters ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/9)
Bloody Rally Show ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Burger Patrol ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
Dog Gone Golfing ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Dungeon and Puzzles ($3.49 from $9.99 until 2/9)
EDF World Brothers Deluxe ($39.59 from $59.99 until 2/9)
Evil Tonight ($12.74 from $14.99 until 2/9)
Funghi Explosion ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Goblin Sword ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
In My Shadow ($7.20 from $12.00 until 2/9)
Kamikaze Veggies ($9.09 from $12.99 until 2/9)
Miles & Kilo ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/9)
Omega Labyrinth Life ($23.99 from $59.99 until 2/9)

Omega Strike ($2.24 from $14.99 until 2/9)
Samurai Maiden ($47.99 from $59.99 until 2/9)
Severed Steel ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/9)
Sherlock Holmes & Hound of Baskervilles ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/9)
Signs of the Sojourner ($6.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Spinfrog ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Tamashii ($1.99 from $11.99 until 2/9)
The Little Acre ($4.89 from $12.99 until 2/9)
The Sinking City Deluxe ($12.99 from $64.99 until 2/9)
The Unexpected Quest ($5.25 from $15.00 until 2/9)
Tower of Time ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/9)

Trifox ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Tunnel of Doom ($6.99 from $13.99 until 2/9)
Uncanny Valley ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Underhero ($4.24 from $16.99 until 2/9)
Vampire the Masquerade NY Bundle ($5.79 from $28.99 until 2/9)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with some news, lots of new releases, and probably a few sales too. I’ll be enjoying the Nintendo Direct presentation through some ear phones in bed because it happens at 7 AM Japan time. Hopefully nothing too exciting as if I hoot or holler my wife will bonk me with a mallet. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 6th, 2023. In today’s article, we’re kicking off the week with a few reviews. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow, ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree, and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake all get their time in the chair of judgement. Quite the variety of games, to say the least. We also have a number of new releases to check out, but they’re mostly dubious. Finally, the lists of new and outgoing sales. They are also here. I’ve checked and everything. Let’s get to work!

Reviews & Mini-Views

The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow ($14.99)

When it comes to modern point-and-click adventure games, you really can’t go wrong with the efforts from Wadjet Eye Games. This is the publisher’s third release on the Switch, following the excellent Unavowed and Primordia, and it’s another winner as far as I’m concerned. The premise this time sees you investigating the barrows in a small village named Bewlay. From the minute you arrive, things feel a little off. Before long, you’ll come to understand that there is more going on here than you could have expected.

Wadjet Eye has sorted out before how to make this kind of game work on a controller, and the familiar interface returns here. It has done everything it can to alleviate the pain of trying to get your cursor just where it needs to be, though I can imagine some folks still finding it a lot more frustrating than playing the game with a mouse. That’s really the only thing to be aware of if you opt to pick up and play this Switch version of the game, as it otherwise runs and plays fine.

As for the game itself, there are three main points of The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow that make it stand out. First of all, the presentation is excellent. The visuals are detailed but stylish, and for the most part they function well. I also really enjoy the animation of the characters. Combined with some strong voice acting, it helps these quirky people be as memorable as possible. The game audio in general is solid, and it will use it to freak you out or just help establish the mood as needed.

That feeds into the second point, which is just how well this game builds its atmosphere. Almost from the very start, there’s a very real sense of dread set up, and it only gets stronger as you go. It uses the unknown as a powerful element, and also revels in taking the ordinary and skewing it just enough to make it unsettling. The only downside of this is that eventually it has to pull back the curtain to resolve things, and the reality almost never matches one’s imagination. Still, it’s compelling stuff while it lasts.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the puzzles. This is the element that can make or break a game in the adventure genre. Fortunately, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow does a nice job here. Some of the puzzles have ridiculous solutions, but the important thing is that the player can follow the logic to figure them out. I’m experienced in the genre but I wouldn’t call myself an expert, and I was able to figure out everything I needed to without looking up any help. That said, I did have to think about some of them. It’s not just a game you steamroll through. Like the last two Switch releases from this publisher, I would say that its puzzles are just right.

The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow sticks to the standards of the adventure genre enough that you have to have at least some interest in the genre to enjoy it, but provided you do it is an absolute treat. The setting is the star here, and what a star it turns out to be. Add in some reasonably challenging but fair puzzles, excellent production values, and a good interface, and you’ve got another great release from Wadjet Eye Games.

SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5

ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree ($14.99)

For the most part, I don’t have a whole lot to add to our review of the Apple Arcade version of ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree that we posted way back in the Before Times of November 2019. I didn’t write that review, but I agree with its praise of the story, characters, visual presentation, and music. The main difference with this version is that you can use button controls for the rhythm-based combat sequences, and that does make things slightly more awkward. You can also use touch controls, but they don’t work as well here as they did on the mobile version.

The basic idea here is that you are trying to lift a curse that befell the land, and you’ll do that by exploring the world, talking to various characters, solving some very simple puzzles, and engaging in combat. The combat is the unique gameplay element here, as it takes the form of a rhythm game that will be familiar to anyone who has played a game in that genre in the last couple of decades. Hit the buttons as the beats come down the screen and don’t miss too many of them. During the battle the note board will move over for little cinemas to play out, which is neat but also kind of distracting.

It’s good to see this game get a new lease on life after its exit from Apple Arcade. While it wasn’t a game whose name was often uttered when people listed their favorites from the service, it’s one that is well worth playing if you enjoy a good story and think you can keep up with its slightly demanding combat segments. ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree is if nothing else a unique experience, and it’s nice to see it make a relatively unscathed trip to the Switch.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake ($39.99)

How well you enjoy SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake depends on what your expectations are for it. If you’re looking for a follow-up to Battle for Bikini Bottom that feels like it could have come out back in the day, you’re in luck. This is more or less that. If on the other hand you are looking for a SpongeBob platformer that reflects the advancements in the 3D platforming genre in the twenty years since Battle for Bikini Bottom‘s 2003 launch, you’re probably going to come away disappointed.

SpongeBob has messed things up again, though it’s certainly not all his fault this time. But he’s the one who’s going to have to fix it, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter who did what here. The important thing is that to save his friends and the fabric of reality itself, SpongeBob has to venture into seven Wish Worlds. These are places born from the wishes of his friends, and each one of them is incredibly distinct and creative in its design. Each one will have you platforming, fighting, exploring, and engaging in other amusing activities. It’s all very meat-and-potatoes, but wrapped up in that classic SpongeBob charm. The presentation is a winner here, with all of the voice actors delivering solid performances and the visuals pulling off the look of the show.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake looks and sounds like a modern game, but it very much plays like something from the PlayStation 2 era. Fortunately, it plays like a good 3D platformer from that era. I think fans of the show or the classic SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom will be satisfied with this effort, while those hoping for something grander may be unimpressed. It’s good enough to be worth playing for fans of 3D platforming games, even if it may not thrill those who aren’t so into the genre.

SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5

New Releases

Seraph’s Last Stand ($3.99)

A fairly straightforward roguelite action game where you get a new upgrade after every wave of enemies is cleared. It has a striking visual presentation and actually plays fairly well. Easily the best of today’s dubious lot.

NCL: USA Bowl ($14.99)

This one is playable for up to four players via local multiplayer. The idea here is that you are racing your character through the obstacle course that is the field. Mildly amusing but fifteen bucks is probably a little too high for what you get. Perhaps if you have parties with football fans who want to play something silly and light.

Samurai Warrior ($2.29)

Gametry loves using Unity Asset Store templates for its games, and this may well be another one. I’m tired of looking. This is a rather poorly-playing top-down action game with the occasional simple puzzle to deal with. Personally, I’d find something better to spend a couple bucks on, but you do you.

Hentai RPG: Isekai Journey ($8.99)

A match-3 game with some light RPG and visual novel elements. Play the puzzles, get some upgrades, progress your relationship with the three different girls, and enjoy some mildly risque anime pictures. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

Foxy’s Coin Hunt ($2.99)

Gametry has another one for us today, this time an awful Super Mario Bros. knock-off starring a fox. Hit question blocks, collect coins, jump on turtles, all sorts of original stuff. I personally would not spend three dollars on this.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

I’ll level with you: the only thing jumping out at me from either list is the great sale on Wargroove and its expansion. But you should have a look through those lists yourselves, as there are certainly some solid titles in there and one of them may grab you more than it grabbed me.

Select New Games on Sale

Milky Way Prince: Vampire Star ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/11)
Faraday Protocol ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/11)
BeatTalk ($8.99 from $17.99 until 2/13)
Samurai Warrior ($1.99 from $2.29 until 2/20)
Super Cyborg ($2.99 from $6.99 until 2/20)
Foxy’s Coin Hunt ($2.09 from $2.99 until 2/20)
Super Shadow Break Showdown ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/20)
Pankapu ($2.39 from $11.99 until 2/23)
Suicide Guy Collection ($2.74 from $10.99 until 2/23)
Foretales ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/23)
Pompom: The Great Space Rescue ($7.99 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Letters A Written Adventure ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Ruggnar ($9.79 from $13.99 until 2/23)
Piczle Cross Adventure ($4.49 from $9.99 until 2/23)
PictoQuest ($4.49 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Double Kick Heroes ($12.09 from $21.99 until 2/23)

NeuroVoider ($3.49 from $13.99 until 2/23)
ScourgeBringer ($9.34 from $16.99 until 2/23)
Hover ($6.24 from $24.99 until 2/23)
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/23)
Before I Forget ($5.59 from $7.99 until 2/23)
Souldiers ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/23)
Run: The World in Between ($7.49 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Stack Up! (Or Dive Trying) ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Out of Space: Couch Edition ($4.49 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Super Rocket Shootout ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Truck Simulator 3 ($7.79 from $12.99 until 2/24)
Bridge Builder Adventure ($2.84 from $14.99 until 2/24)
Saboteur! ($4.80 from $8.00 until 2/24)
Saboteur II Avenging Angel ($4.80 from $8.00 until 2/24)

Saboteur SiO ($6.59 from $10.99 until 2/24)
Beholgar ($7.99 from $9.99 until 2/24)
Sakura Cupid ($7.99 from $9.99 until 2/24)
Build a Bridge! ($2.84 from $14.99 until 2/24)
Car Factory Driver ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/24)
Dungeonoid ($2.09 from $6.99 until 2/24)
Cook Serve Delicious 2 ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/25)
Cook Serve Delicious 3 ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/25)
Cook Serve Delicious 2/3 Bundle ($2.99 from $24.99 until 2/25)
Longhead ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/25)
Casino Golf ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/25)
Boxer ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/25)
Once Upon a Time on Halloween ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/25)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7th

All-Star Fruit Racing ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)
EA Sports FIFA 23 Legacy Edition ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/7)
Inukari Deluxe Edition ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/7)
Live by the Sword: Tactics ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/7)
Purrs in Heaven ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/7)
Rolling Car ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/7)
UNO ($3.99 from $9.99 until 2/7)
Wargroove ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)
Wargroove Double Trouble Bundle ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)

That’s all for today, friends. I have to make a little trip for administrative reasons tomorrow. I’m hoping to be back in time to write tomorrow’s column, but there is a slight possibility I won’t be able to do it. Provided I can make it, we’ll have more reviews, new releases, and sales to check out. Maybe some news, but who can really tell with this kind of thing. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 3rd, 2023. We start things off with a review of Fashion Police Squad from our pal Mikhail. Gosh, he’s quite the keener. After that, we look at the dozen or so new releases that hit the eShop today. A few interesting games, and a fair bit of dubious stuff. Such are many Fridays around these parts. After that, we’ve got the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Fashion Police Squad ($19.99)

Fashion Police Squad from Mopeful Games and No More Robots is a game I played a good amount of when it hit Steam a little while ago. This new take on a boomer shooter has you solving fashion crimes instead of taking on demons with an interesting aesthetic and nice music. I was curious to see how it would feel on Switch because some games in the genre don’t feel as nice to play on Switch.

Fashion Police Squad feels good on Switch, but there are some issues that also affect the game itself. When it comes to the levels and enemies, a lot of Fashion Police Squad is very creative. The last hour of the campaign can get annoying though. Barring that, I love the unique enemies and character interactions.

I wasn’t a fan of the default control and camera setup in Fashion Police Squad on Switch. I’d recommend trying out the gyro controls and also increasing the camera sensitivity. I had a much better time after that and also when I mapped jumping to the paddles on my 8BitDo controller when playing docked. Barring the gyro, Fashion Police Squad also has good HD Rumble support.

Having now played Fashion Police Squad on both Switch and Steam Deck, the latter is a much better experience for sure when it comes to performance and load times, but this is one of No More Robot’s better Switch releases in terms of port quality. It has touchscreen support for the interface and you can even fire by tapping the screen.

Despite some performance issues on Switch compared to the PC version I played, a nice gyro control implementation helps elevate the Fashion Police Squad experience on Nintendo Switch. It is an easy recommendation for anyone looking to try out a unique take on the boomer shooter subgenre. –Mikhail Madnani

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

Helvetii ($16.99)

Helvetii‘s rich visuals and large characters immediately call to mind the works of Vanillaware, and that’s a bar that may be a little too high for it to clear. Choose from one of three characters and go into battle for reasons I have already forgotten, get as far as you can, die, then try again with perhaps one or two permanent upgrades in tow. I’ll have a full review of this one soon, but I’m personally a bit mixed on it at the moment. Certainly some good aspects, but the core gameplay mechanics aren’t vibing well with me yet.

Trophy ($9.99)

Originally released a little while back as an NES cartridge, this action-platformer comes to the Switch in emulated form. There are nine levels to play through, each one culminating in a battle with a boss of some kind. These bosses can get pretty large, particularly given the hardware the game was built for. It looks like a lot of fun, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet myself.

Chasing Light ($18.99)

If you’re looking for a weird, meta piece of interactive art today, here’s one to check out. You play as the Director, who is trying to make a masterpiece game. It’s not as easy as it seems, and you’ll get to know some of the particular hardships this one faces very well. It takes a couple of hours to blow through and while I can’t say if you’ll enjoy it or not, you certainly won’t forget it.

Sport & Fun: Swimming ($19.99)

This feels like a high price for what you get here. One or two players via local multiplayer can do their best to outswim each other. You have to use the Joy-Con motion controls to play this game, so handheld-only players are out of luck. The idea I think is that you move the Joy-Cons in a swimming motion. You can choose from various characters and swimming styles. That’s about it.

Brightstone Mysteries: The Others ($14.99)

Do you like Ocean Media’s Brightstone Mysteries series of hidden object puzzle adventure games? Well, here another. The Others, to be specific. Anyway, there is some kind of mysterious thing going on in some small town. As it goes. Nothing special here, but if you like this flavor of game this is certainly one more.

Match Ventures 2 ($11.99)

Oh hey, a sequel already. That was a harrowing week of anticipation. It’s another Ocean Media matching puzzle game. Complete the stages and build your castles. You can play this for free on your mobile device, freeing up this twelve dollars for important things like mixed nuts or jam.

Pets at Work ($4.99)

Some pets are trapped in an office and need to escape in this puzzle-platformer. Your goal is to figure out how to open the route to the exit in each stage and then pull it off. Seems like a decent five-dollar game for those who enjoy a little bit of puzzling. You can even pull in a friend via local multiplayer to help you out. Two heads are better than one, I’m told.

Hundred Fires: The Rising of Red Star Episode 2 ($5.99)

The Dollar Store Metal Gear Solid is back for another adventure. Like the first time around, it’s not very good. But it might be good enough for Metal Gear Solid fans pining for something, anything, to scratch their itch. I’m not sure. The six dollar price tag probably helps set expectations, if nothing else.

Tiny Detour ($4.99)

You’re on your way home but the bridge you need to cross is broken. To fix it, you have to take on a variety of tasks that see you venturing into the woods. Mostly a chill little walking game, which is probably all it needs to be for a fiver.

Car Factory Driver ($12.99)

BoomHits is checking in for its weekly release, and it’s another game where you drive various vehicles around a decent-sized area and complete a list of missions. Many of them involve parking, because the kids are all about parking cars these days. I have no facts to support that. I’m just throwing that out there because a lot of these games seem to involve parking lately.

Swap Puzzles ($2.99)

If I sound tired with some of these frequently appearing game concepts, I apologize. But there are only so many ways to write about some of these things. This one, for example. It’s another one of those games where you swap around tile to complete the picture. Like a jigsaw puzzle but all of the pieces are squares. While many games of this sort go for saucy pictures, this one contents itself with some family-friendly art.

Crime Map: Spot the Hidden Differences ($2.99)

Well, I suppose we had to have at least one appearance from one of the eShop Crap Squad members today. Cooking and Publishing has another “spot the differences” game for all you greasy spoon diner placemat fans. But this time it’s mixed with crime.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Not a bad list, I suppose. Some Kairosoft games, a new low price for the enjoyable Jetboard Joust, some new low prices on a few Kemco games. Nothing to knock off a person’s socks, but worth combing through. The outbox is less interesting, with mainly the QUByte retro re-releases filling it out. Check it anyway, just in case.

Select New Games on Sale

Sonority ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Mutropolis ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Lamplight City ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Growbot ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Unforeseen Incidents ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood ($2.24 from$14.99 until 2/13)
A Plague Tale Requiem Cloud Vers. ($41.99 from $59.99 until 2/13)
Kardboard Kings: Card Shop Sim ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Relic Hunters Zero Remix ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/16)
Spinch ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Godstrike ($4.94 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Jetboard Joust ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Mars Base ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Dark Deity ($9.99 from $24.99 until 2/16)
Coromon ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)

Absolute Tactics: DoM ($19.99 from $24.99 until 2/16)
The Jackbox Party Pack 8 ($17.99 from $29.99 until 2/17)
FAR: Changing Tides ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/17)
RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 CE ($10.49 from $29.99 until 2/17)
Struggling ($5.24 from $14.99 until 2/17)
Black Wolf ($1.99 from $2.99 until 2/17)
Super Chicken Jumper ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/17)
Plunderer’s Adventures ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/17)
Until the Last Plane ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/17)
Bubsy Paws on Fire ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/17)
Shiny Ski Resort ($7.00 from $14.00 until 2/22)
8-Bit Farm ($7.00 from $14.00 until 2/22)
Dream House Days DX ($7.00 from $14.00 until 2/22)
Asdivine Cross ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Asdivine Saga ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/23)

Gale of Windoria ($11.24 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Ambition Record ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Ruinverse ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Sherlock Holmes: C & P ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/23)
Guntech 2 ($10.49 from $14.99 until 2/23)
Space Lines Puzzle Arcade Game ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/23)
Chess Brain: Dark Troops ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/23)
Hidden Shapes: BS & OW ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/23)
Chameneon ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/23)
Josh Journey Darkness Totems ($6.99 from $13.99 until 2/23)
SAOMI ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/23)
Cat Slide Tiles ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/23)
Host 714 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)
Animal Puzzle Cats ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/23)
Legendary Heroes ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)

Fashion Friends ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/23)
Geometric Feel the Beats ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)
Milk Inside a Bag… ($5.35 from $7.99 until 2/23)
Swarmrider Omega ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)
Doomed to Hell ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)
Vasara Collection ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/23)
In Extremis DX ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/23)

Sales Ending This Weekend

Chinese Parents ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/4)
Christmas Tina ($20.24 from $26.99 until 2/4)
Circa Infinite Ultimate ($1.99 from $10.99 until 2/4)
Dying: Reborn ($7.49 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Galaxy Shooter ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/4)
Glyph ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Golazo 2 ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/4)
Head Over Heels ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Jim Power: The Lost Dimension ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Luna the Shadow Dust ($14.99 from $19.99 until 2/4)
Necrobarista Final Pour ($16.49 from $21.99 until 2/4)
Nirvana Deluxe Edition ($1.99 from $7.49 until 2/4)

Radical Rex ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/4)
Rhythm Fighter ($12.74 from $16.99 until 2/4)
Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/4)
The Humans ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/4)
The Immortal ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/4)
Thunderbolt Collection ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/4)
Zero Tolerance Collection ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Family Man ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/5)
Hatchwell ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/5)
Haustoria ($1.99 from $12.99 until 2/5)

That’s all for today and this week, friends. We’ll be back next week with more new releases, more sales, more reviews, and I believe at least a little news. I have a whole weekend of paperwork ahead of me, so wish me luck with that. I hope you all have a better weekend than me, and as always, thanks for reading!

A little while ago, we put up a list of our favorite shoot-em-ups in Hamster’s Arcade Archives line-up. There are hundreds of games available thanks the weekly releases, so it can be a little hard to find the cream of the crop if you’re coming in a little late. Shooters were of course mainstays in the arcade heyday, but in the mid-80s another popular genre rose up: the beat-em-up. The brawler. The belt-scroller. So many names, but the important thing is that it involved one or more people beating the stuffing out of a veritable army of opponents as they made their way through various locales. There are many of them in Arcade Archives, but these are the ones we like the best.

Renegade ($7.99)

Let’s start by paying some homage to the grandfathers of the genre. By adding some depth to the proceedings, Renegade essentially added one of the last major component the beat-em-up genre needed. It spawned the Kunio-kun/River City and Double Dragon franchises. And despite being such an early example of a brawler, it’s still a lot of fun to play. The enemies are merciless and you don’t have a lot of room to maneuver, but your extensive list of moves is no joke, either. Sending enemies sailing off the edge of the subway platform or into the water never gets old.

Double Dragon ($7.99)

And here’s the last big piece of the beat-em-up puzzle: simultaneous multiplayer. Double Dragon is an icon of the genre, and for good reason. It takes you on an impressive journey through the streets, a construction site, a forest, and a wild enemy hideout, throwing all manner of bizarre foes at you along the way. You can go it alone or bring a friend, though be prepared for some heavy slowdown if you take the latter route. Still, it’s worth it just to see what happens if Billy and Jimmy manage to take down the last boss together. I really love the way the basic punches feel in this game, and just the way hits land in general.

64th Street ($7.99)

Zipping ahead a bit, we have an effort from Jaleco that doesn’t do a lot to hide its inspirations. For the most part, 64th Street follows the template established by Capcom’s Final Fight. It has a cool 1940s gumshoe vibe to it, and the set piece that makes up the climax is definitely worth seeing. But the real fun in this game comes from its key gameplay twist: you can throw enemies into the background. Sometimes it damages or breaks objects or walls, revealing items. Sometimes it sends enemies sailing into the water. The bosses are incredibly cheap, but the game ends up being a blast anyway.

Sengoku 3 ($7.99)

Releasing in 2001, Sengoku 3 is one of the later NEOGEO releases from SNK. It’s also likely the pinnacle of the genre on SNK’s unique console, offering up a nice selection of characters, excellent graphics, some interesting stages to go through, and wild boss fights. There’s an emphasis on building combos in this game, which isn’t something you tend to see in arcade games in this genre. You can also pick up an assortment of throwable objects and make use of them to defeat your foes. While it loses the unique character-switching mechanic of earlier Sengoku games, this is still the best in the series.

Crime Fighters ($7.99)

Konami created some of the most popular, celebrated arcade brawlers to ever exist. Unfortunately, most of them have licenses attached to them so the Arcade Archives selection is a bit more limited. Still, if you want to see where Konami really got the ball rolling on its particular brand of beat-em-up, here is Crime Fighters. It has many of the characteristics of later Konami brawlers like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons, but in a more prototypical form. A tough one, but worth playing.

Vendetta ($7.99)

A couple of years later, Konami followed up Crime Fighters with Vendetta. Only a short span of time, but it was huge for this genre and Vendetta shows it. Choose from expies of Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, and Jean-Claude Van Damme and head out to defeat the Dead End gang. This game makes the bold choice to remove regular jumps which forces you to think differently about crowd control. In exchange, you’re given a wide array of surprisingly brutal moves to dispatch your enemies with. Up to four players can join in on this one, too.

Zero Team ($7.99)

Most of the games on this list come from familiar names like Technos, Konami, SNK, and Tecmo. Unless you’re particularly well-versed in arcade history, you probably haven’t heard of Seibu Kaihatsu. It’s largely known for its Raiden series of vertical shooters, but it made a few other games that don’t seem to get much attention. Zero Team is its entry into the brawler genre, and it’s another one with four-player support. The gameplay is easy to pick up and very enjoyable, and it’s one of the more colorful and silly games on this list.

Mutation Nation ($7.99)

Mutation Nation is a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s not like it does anything particularly fancy with its gameplay, though its assortment of cool super moves aren’t too shabby. Mechanically, it does what you would expect and not much more. But it leans into its theme really well, with some wild enemy designs that sometimes mutate mid-fight and really cool bosses. It looks really good for a NEOGEO game, and the soundtrack has some nice kick to it as well. This is another really fun trip to take with a friend, but cracking mutant heads solo is a good time, too.

Ninja Gaiden ($7.99)

Of the three games carrying the name Ninja Gaiden, this is probably the least successful and least remembered. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game. It’s actually quite good, albeit a little different in feel from most other beat-em-ups. You have a set of moves appropriate to a ninja, and your journey through a pop culture view of America is hilarious and interesting. Put on your ninja duds and find out the one story of Ryu Hayabusa that you probably don’t know.

P.O.W.: Prisoners of War ($7.99)

Before there was NEOGEO, SNK mostly made games about war. It was a popular thing in the 1980s, and SNK made almost as much bread from it as Capcom did. The biggest hits were vertical run-and-guns like Ikari Warriors, T.N.K., and Guerilla War, but there was one side-scrolling beat-em-up that managed to break through a bit. You play as a P.O.W. who takes matters into his own hands and not only breaks out but actually brings down the whole enemy operation. Another early example of the genre, but a great one all the same. Bring a buddy for maximum carnage.

And that’s the lot, friends. I hope this list helps you find some new games to play, and if you have any Arcade Archives beat-em-ups you would like to recommend, please comment below. We’re all looking for more good stuff to add to our libraries, after all. Thanks again for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 2nd, 2023. We’ve actually got a little news to look at today, and that’s where we’ll start things. There are also a ton of new games, some of them very good (Life is Strange 2, Drainus), and some of them very bad (the usual trash from Midnight Works and VG Games). We’ve got summaries of all of them, plus the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Let’s get to work!

News

Nintendo Switch Online Vouchers Are Back in North America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quAoIKj3DuQ

This news won’t be of much interest to readers outside of North America, but Nintendo of America has brought back the Game Vouchers program for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. You can buy two Vouchers for $99.98, with each of them good for any of the select games in the program. It’s a nice way to save a little money on games that normally don’t go on sale, and it’s good to see them return.

Check Out the New Update for ‘Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’

Capcom has lifted the veil on the latest update for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. You can see the details in the video above, but the gist of it is that there are two amazing new monsters to battle, some expanded anomaly research quests to complete, and some new weekly event quests to embark upon. This update is of course free, so anyone who owns Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak can enjoy it without paying anything more. The update will be available from February 7th.

‘Theatrhythm Final Bar Line’ Demo is Now Available

If you were to peek at my Nintendo 3DS’s play logs, you would see that two of my top played games in terms of hours were Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call. And Theatrhythm Dragon Quest, but we don’t talk about that one so much. I also enjoyed Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory which, let’s be honest, was a Theatrhythm game in all but name. So yes, I am rather looking forward to the upcoming release of Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. It’s out on February 16th, just two weeks from now, but if you’re like me and can’t wait to get a taste, there is now a demo available on the eShop. It offers a generous selection of songs to play and allows you to carry your save and progress over to the full game. Give it a go and see how you take to those button controls.

New Releases

Life is Strange 2 ($31.99)

Here’s the latest in the Life is Strange series, I think, now available for your playing enjoyment on the Switch. It follows the story of two brothers on the run to Mexico with the police in hot pursuit. The younger brother of the two has telekinetic powers, you see. You play as the older brother and need to take care of your brother and his needs as you make the treacherous trip to the border. I’m pretty sure our pal Mikhail is doing a review of this one, so do look forward to it.

Drainus ($19.99)

Drainus is a very cool new side-scrolling shooter that I think stands a decent chance of breaking through in the same sort of way Ikaruga did. The gimmick here is that you can drain enemy shots and fire them back, all the while filling up energy cans that you can use to buy upgrades for your ship. It’s less of a score attack arcade game and more one that you just want to play through and enjoy the ride. I’ll have a full review of this one soon, but I will say for now that it’s a good, relatively approachable shooter that should play well with a crowd that usually isn’t interested in the genre.

The Pathless ($39.99)

First up, I should mention that the above screenshot is from the PC version. I couldn’t get my hands on a Switch screenshot in time. Anyway, this is the latest from Annapurna. It has been out for a while on other platforms, and it’s had a rather sunny reception overall. You play as a hunter who travels to a mysterious island on a quest to dispel a curse that is afflicting the land. Explore the open world, seek out secrets, solve puzzles, and hunt evil spirits that stalk the woods. If you need a little air, call on your eagle buddy to give you a lift. Mikhail is also looking into this one, I think. You all know him and his Annapurna games.

Fashion Police Squad ($19.99)

Well, this is a new way to handle a first-person shooter. Instead of hunting demons or Nazis, you’re going after fashion disasters. Jump, climb, and swing your way around the city, solving fashion crimes and searching for hidden goodies. Rather than use shotguns on your enemies, you’ll instead have to choose the right tool to help fix their fashion fumble. Maybe you need to add a bit of color. Maybe you have to take in the seams. I don’t know, I am not a fashionable person at all. The main character in this game would definitely be hunting me. I wear suspenders, for crying out loud. Do not hurt me, Fashion Police Squad.

Cuddly Forest Friends ($39.99)

Aksys has a cute little game here. It features an assortment of animal friends that you need to take care of. There are more than ten different minigames to play in order to do that, and in helping out the animals you’ll nourish the forest’s Tree of Happiness and make it grow stronger. I’ll be honest: this doesn’t look like something I would pay forty bucks for, but I also don’t think I’m anywhere near the demographic this is aimed at. Perhaps you are, and you should investigate accordingly.

Arcade Archives Phelios ($7.99)

Here is one of Namco’s lesser-seen shoot-em-ups, and one I’m largely familiar with through its port on the SEGA Genesis. You play as Apollo, who is riding Pegasus on a quest to save Artemis from Typhon. Your primary means of attack is through a special charged attack as your standard shot is barely useful at all against the enemies you’ll face. There are seven stages in all. This arcade version actually wasn’t released outside of Japan back in the day due to some concerns about the content in the cut-scenes. Hamster has done its usual capable job bringing the game to Switch, of course.

Active DBG: Brave’s Rage ($19.99)

Oh, I see. Deck building game. Got it. So yes, this is one of those deck building roguelite games. We have a lot of those on the Nintendo Switch already. The gimmick in this one is that you can actually interrupt turns to make moves. The description suggests it is inspired by Final Fantasy‘s Active Time Battle system and action-RPGs, which is a little hard to visualize for a game like this. If it works, however, then I would say that is a cool way to stand out from the pack. I haven’t had a chance to play this yet so I’ll have to investigate further.

Jumbo Airport Story ($14.00)

Hey, another Kairosoft simulation game. In this one you’re running an airport. It has a few new twists thanks to its theme, but structurally it’s fairly similar to most of the other Kairosoft games. As always I will mention that you can get this at a lower price on mobile, and it’s every bit as playable if not more so. But if you really want to own it on your Switch, here it is.

Rhythm Sprout ($14.99)

Here’s a cute little rhythm game where you play as a little sprout off on some adventure or another. Walk along to the music and fight along with the beat, just like you would expect. Some extra modes are available to keep the good times rolling once you’ve finished the story. Also to that end there are unlockable outfits and skins for Sprout. I’m probably going to wait it out for Theatrhythm but if you’re a big fan of the genre and want something to hold you over, this might be a good choice.

Oshiiro ($10.99)

Um, so this is a horror game. You explore a haunted arena and need to exorcise evil spirits using some sort of ghost-busting glowstick. Find the hidden idol symbols and swing the properly colored glowstick at them to clear each stage. I can say with some degree of certainty that I haven’t seen a game like this before, for better or worse.

Monster Girls and the Mysterious Adventure 2 ($21.99)

Where did part one go? Let me check on that. Oh yes, there it is on Steam. Well, there you go. This is the sequel. It’s a Mystery Dungeon-like Japanese roguelike featuring parties of monster girls. Befriend monsters to help you make your way through the procedurally-generated floors of the dungeon. As you make friends, they’ll populate the town and take on various jobs or just chill out somewhere. If you like Mystery Dungeon, you very well may enjoy this take on the familiar format. It has a rather solid reputation over on Steam and I have no doubt it will find an equally welcoming audience on Switch.

Pixel Game Maker Series Cat and Tower ($4.99)

This calls to mind bizarre Flash games from the earlier days of the internet. You play as a cat who needs to climb a tower of platforms. You can move, jump, and dash. The game keeps track of your time, so I suppose you could speed run if that’s your thing. There are extra missions to complete and some unlockable additional difficulty levels. The visual presentation is a hodge-podge of mismatched elements that somehow sings a sweet melody to my soul that I remember just scarcely enough to feel something. Is that worth a fiver? Maybe. Maybe.

Sakura Cupid ($9.99)

The latest Sakura visual novel game. The protagonist is a lazy cupid named Lilim who has been exiled from heaven for being terrible at her job. Rather than being down about the whole thing, Lilim is actually thrilled because she can now chill out and watch anime and read comics all day. She blows it by using a love bullet to try to charm a free cup of coffee and ends up causing a waitress to fall in love with her. All the while one of her old friends from heaven is hunting her to try and bring her back. Quite the mess. Make your choices and find your ending.

Exitman Deluxe ($4.99)

This isn’t what I thought it was, but that’s on me for expecting a modern version of Square Enix’s Exit. This game has a rather simple concept. The ceiling is falling and it will crush you if you don’t squeeze into the gap. Each time the ceiling comes down and goes back up, the gaps move around. How long can you survive? There are multiple modes of play, including local multiplayer for up to four players. Could be fun for a fiver, I suppose.

Harvest Yuuka ($25.00)

With so many Touhou games and so many farming games available on the Switch, how can one make their own game stand out? First, combine the two. Second, release a text-heavy game with only Japanese language support. Yeah, I’d like to see the other farming games do that. Advantage: Harvest Yuuka.

Air Jet Fighter Combat – Europe Fly Plane Attack ($4.99)

Some utter trash from the trash merchants at VG Games. Likely cobbled together from a template of some kind. You could use a fiver better by lighting it on fire.

Kart Crazy Race Simulator Game ($4.99)

More trash from the trash merchants at VG Games. Also likely cobbled together from a template of some kind. You could use a fiver better by lighting it on fire and using it to light another fiver on fire. You’d be down ten but you’d still be better off than you would you be if you bought and played this game.

Shark Attack: Fish Predator Ocean Sea Adventure Survival ($4.99)

Another heap of trash from VG Games. Another game likely originating from a template, and another absolute waste of five dollars. You could use a fiver better by lighting it on fire and using it to light a pile of fivers on fire, because even though you would be out a ton of money, at least you wouldn’t have to play this soulless waste.

Radiantflux Hyperfractal 4.0 ($1.99)

Hey, I remember this from the Wii U. It’s a basic scrolling shoot-em-up wrapped up in an oddly appealing early Windows aesthetic, complete with some diversions like a Minesweeper clone and a paint program. It’s cheap, so that’s one thing going for it. And it is certainly unique. It would be hard not to get your money’s worth at this price point, but I don’t know how much enjoyment you’d really get out of it.

Beat Them Up – Box Simulator – Boxing Battle Fight Combat for Nintendo Switch Ultimate 2023 ($4.99)

Here is Midnight Works with an absolute rubbish-tier beat-em-up that was almost certainly pieced together from a template. Same deal as the VG Games stuff. Don’t waste your money on this garbage.

Box Roulette Simulator – Boxing Battle Fight Combat for Nintendo Switch ($2.99)

And another from Midnight Works, this one a handheld mode-only game of Russian Roulette with a boxing glove instead of a bullet. There’s really not much of a game here at all. There are probably better ways to spend three bucks. A delicious Snickers bar or two, perhaps. An egg, in these trying times. I don’t know. Just don’t spend it here.

The Intership ($3.99)

Cooking and Publishing has to get its lick in today, too. This is a very plain visual novel-style game where you just make a series of choices and try to get all of the characters through to the end. There are multiple endings to find. At least it isn’t one of those question-answering games.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Not a huge list of new games yet at the time of writing, but there are some good ones in there. There are new low prices on Slaycation Paradise and Monster Harvest, plus sales on Monster Hunter Rise and a lot of the individual DLCs for Capcom Arcade Stadium. Over in the outbox, sales from Ubisoft and others are winding down. Have a look through both lists as ever.

Select New Games on Sale

Retro City Rampage DX ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/8)
Shakedown Hawaii ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/8)
Spinfrog ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Aragami 2 ($26.79 from $39.99 until 2/15)
Slaycation Paradise ($6.79 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Hayfever ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Monster Harvest ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Rogue Star Rescue ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Time on Frog Island ($8.49 from $24.99 until 2/15)
Frogun ($11.24 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Kholat ($2.09 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak ($39.99 from $69.99 until 2/16)
Monster Hunter Rise ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/16)

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/16)
Fatal Frame: MoBW Deluxe Edition ($41.24 from $54.99 until 2/16)
Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey ($14.39 from $15.99 until 2/17)
Runefall 2 CE ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/21)
I Love Finding Critters ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/21)
Extinction Eclipse ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/22)
Super Fowlst ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/22)
Super Fowlst 2 ($2.00 from $10.00 until 2/22)
Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/22)
Dadish 2 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/22)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, February 3rd

Aka ($10.39 from $12.99 until 2/3)
Assassin’s Creed Ezio Collection ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Bite the Bullet ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Blue Fire ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Cake Invaders ($2.99 from $5.99 until 2/3)
Casual Challenge Players’ Club ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Child of Light UE ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Construction Site Driver 2 ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/3)
Cyber Shadow ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Don’t Knock Twice ($3.74 from $12.49 until 2/3)
Double Cross ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Family Feud ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Football Manager 2023 Touch ($35.99 from $44.99 until 2/3)
Graze Counter GM ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)

Hungry Shark World ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/3)
I Saw Black Clouds ($7.79 from $12.99 until 2/3)
Immortals Fenyx Rising ($11.99 from $59.99 until 2/3)
Immortals Fenyx Rising Season Pass DLC ($15.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Inertia Redux ($2.06 from $4.39 until 2/3)
Joggernauts ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Legendary Fishing ($4.49 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Lila’s Sky Ark ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Lost in Play ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Mable & The Wood ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Monopoly ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
MotoGP 20 ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/3)
Pill Baby ($7.50 from $15.00 until 2/3)
PopSlinger ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Project Starship ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/3)

Rabbids: Party of Legends ($15.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Restless Soul ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Revertia ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Rule No.1 ($4.19 from $5.99 until 2/3)
Scott Pilgrim vs The World ($4.94 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Super Jagger Bomb ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/3)
The Enigma Machine ($4.79 from $7.99 until 2/3)
The King’s Bird ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Time Rift ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/3)
Trials Rising ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Trivial Pursuit Live 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Unbound Worlds Apart ($6.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Valiant Hearts The Great War ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Wheel of Fortune ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Yum Yum Cookstar ($19.99 from $29.99 until 2/3)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the remaining releases of the week, plus what I am sure will be a healthy list of new sales. Gosh, the games are piling up again already. I hope you all have a great Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 1st, 2023. It’s a slower day today, at least at the time of writing. Now that I’ve said that Nintendo will probably announce a Direct or something. At any rate, there are a few new games to check out today including the rather nifty PowerWash Simulator, and we’ve got summaries of all of them as usual. After that, it’s the usual lists of new and outgoing sales. And that’s where I’ll leave it, because tomorrow is going to be bonkers. Let’s get to it!

New Releases

PowerWash Simulator ($24.99)

The joy of cleaning comes to the Switch in this port of last year’s surprise hit. Use your powerwasher to clean up the neighborhood and other locations, blasting the dirt off everything. You can even clean up Lara Croft’s mansion via the free DLC and can look forward to giving Midgar a shine with some upcoming Final Fantasy VII-themed DLC. And hey, is that a mention of Legacy of Kain I see in those copyright notices? Clean everything, friends. Clean it all. Our pal Mikhail is working on a review for this one.

Puzzle Bobble 2X/Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition & Puzzle Bobble 3/Bust-A-Move 3 S-Tribute ($14.99)

Well, that title is a mouthful and a half. As you might guess from the S-Tribute tag, this is a collection of two SEGA Saturn games running through the Zebra Engine emulator. You get both Bust-A-Move 2 and Bust-A-Move 3 in both their English and Japanese forms, if I am understanding things correctly. On the one hand, there’s probably a little more lag here than in the Arcade Archives releases, but on the other hand you’ll get some extras that were added in for the home versions. At least the price is nice relative to previous S-Tribute releases.

Albacete Warrior ($9.99)

This is a platforming beat-em-up where you play as a Spanish Ninja who uses his chicken friend to… sigh… cockslap the enemies. Because it’s a rooster, you see. The game feels like it was made just to use that joke, so enjoy it. The last boss appears to be a certain notorious president, which is a reference that isn’t as amusing as the many games that use it appear to think it is. It’s janky as heck and I’m not sure if the good parts outweigh the bad parts, but it’s certainly unique.

Gunscape ($14.99)

This game aims to pay homage to first-person shooter classics while also providing players with tools to build their own levels and such. It has support for local and online multiplayer for up to four players, and you can also share your created maps with others online. As long as you enjoy the core mechanics, you could in theory have endless fun here. But that’s a big qualifier, and at least for me one that the game can’t quite manage. It’s not terrible or anything, but it’s not really good enough for me to stick with its creation elements. Maybe you’ll feel differently, though.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Dadish 3 rules if you like platforming, and is well-worth two bucks. Dying Light for twenty bucks is pretty nice. The big new sale is Wargroove at its absolute lowest price yet. The outbox is really big today, with sales from Capcom and others winding down. Have a look through both lists and see what strikes your fancy.

Select New Games on Sale

Wargroove ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)
Wargroove Double Trouble Bundle ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)
Rolling Car ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/7)
Inukari Deluxe Edition ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/7)
Dying Light: Definitive ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/17)
Call of Juarez Gunslinger ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/17)
Dadish 3 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/21)
Warp Shift ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/21)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, February 2nd

Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection ($34.99 from $59.99 until 2/2)
AngerForce: Reloaded ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Astebreed ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Bright Memory IG Edition ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Capcom Arcade Stadium 1+2+3 DLC ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Clustertruck ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Community Inc ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Cozy Grove ($8.90 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Croixleur Sigma ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
DEEEER Simulator: Average Deer Game ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Devil May Cry ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen ($9.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Freshly Frosted ($7.19 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Gas Station Simulator ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)

Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Gnosia ($17.49 from $24.99 until 2/2)
Graveyard Keeper ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Graveyard Keeper UC Edition ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Hakinowa Explorer Plus ($5.99 from $11.99 until 2/2)
Hello Neighbor ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
ibb & obb ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Idol Manager ($19.99 from $24.99 until 2/2)
Justice Sucks ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Kero Blaster ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Kill It With Fire ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Kuukiyomi 3 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/2)
Legal Dungeon ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
LiEat ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Mad Father ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)

Maze Blaze ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man 11 ($9.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man X Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Mighty Goose ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Generation Ult. ($11.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak DLC ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Stories 2 ($19.99 from $59.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Stories 2 Deluxe ($24.49 from $69.99 until 2/2)
Mr Shifty ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
My Downtown ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Noel the Mortal Fate ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/2)

Once Upon a Jester ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
One Way Heroics Plus ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Onimusha Warlords ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Orangeblood ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Party Hard ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Party Hard 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Phantom Trigger ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Potato Flowers in Full Bloom ($14.38 from $17.99 until 2/2)
Punch Club ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Queen’s Garden Sakura Season ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Record of Lodoss War: DiWL ($17.49 from $24.99 until 2/2)
Replica ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 0 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 4 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)

Resident Evil 5 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 6 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil Revelations ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil Revelations 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Roundguard ($6.38 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Sail Forth ($17.39 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Secrets of Magic 4: Potion Master ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Secrets of Magic 5: BtS ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Sherlock Holmes: Devil’s Daughter ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Shinsekai Into the Depths ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
SpeedRunners (43.74 from $14.99 until 2/2)
SpiderHeck ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Strange Telephone ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Streets of Rogue ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)

Strikey Sisters ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Tasomachi Behind the Twilight ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
The Final Station ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
The Good Life ($27.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
The Lost Labyrinth ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
The Sealed Ampoule ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Tinykin ($19.99 from $24.99 until 2/2)
TorqueL PM Edition ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/2)
Totally Reliable Deliv. Service ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Trash Sailors ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Undungeon ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Vertical Strike Endless Challenge ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/2)
YumeNikki Dream Diary ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a ton of new release summaries, with at least sixteen games on the schedule so far. How many will be dubious? We’ll know soon, pals. We’ll know soon. There will also be some sales, because there are always sales. And if the big news we know is coming happens to happen in the next twenty-four hours, you can expect that too. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round for January 31st, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve got a few more reviews for you to enjoy looking through. Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection, Trek to Yomi, and Risen all get evaluated and scored in our usual manner. After that, we have one new release to check out. It’s a good one, though. Finally, it’s the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts. Let’s get to the business!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection ($49.99)

What a pickle this release is. Several months ago, I reviewed Wonder Boy Collection. It included four different Wonder Boy/Monster World games, with one version of each. In that review I mentioned the various other ways you may have already bought some of the included games, but recommended it based on whatever your particular circumstances were. At the time I noted that there was a more extensive physical collection on offer from Strictly Limited Games, but there was no digital version confirmed at the time. Well, the physical version more or less just arrived in the hands of people who ordered it, and here’s the digital version to go with it.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of approach from this publisher. Space Invaders and Turrican took similar paths, and since I am a glass half-full fellow, I was able to see at least some cases where a person might want the earlier cut-back collections. I can’t say that here. There is absolutely no reason to own Wonder Boy Collection with Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection available, unless you absolutely need some Wonder Boy games right now and only have thirty bucks on you. It isn’t just about the games, you see. There are also features and improvements over the previous release that make playing the games a better experience, things that ideally ought to have been patched into that first collection. I’m not going to knock this collection for this whole rude mess, but do be aware that the previous collection should be avoided now.

Moving along, what does this collection offer over the previous one? Well, for starters, you get all six of the Wonder Boy/Monster World games instead of just four. Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Wonder Boy in Monster World, and Monster World IV are all here. You don’t just get one version of each, either. You get just about every non-Hudson version of each game, which unfortunately does mean that none of the lovely TurboGrafx 16 variants are here. Still, having the arcade originals where applicable along with ports as esoteric as SG-1000 and Game Gear makes for a really interesting picture of Wonder Boy‘s history. All up, you’ve got twenty-one different games across all the different included versions. You probably won’t be playing some of them all that often, but it’s good to have them.

You also get some extras, such as an extensive art gallery, manual scans, and maps for each game. The games themselves are emulated through Ratalaika’s usual methods, and apart from the SG-1000 audio being a little off, I can find no obvious flaws in their work. One thing to note is that some games have some gameplay enhancements that are on by default, and some of them may not be welcome depending on your tastes. You can switch them off if you like, which is something you couldn’t do in the previous collection. One neat feature allows you to give the Master System version of Monster World a richer color palette, which really underlines just how nice that game looked to begin with.

Maybe you’re not interested in ports and variants, though. Six fully distinct retro games for fifty dollars might seem like a hard sell. When you break it down to a little over eight bucks per game, however, it’s not that unreasonable. Basically Arcade Archives pricing, and four of the included games are in fact arcade titles. And they are quite good games in most cases. The original Wonder Boy is still a challenging, fun action game. Monster Land is tough but intriguing in how it tries to marry RPG mechanics to a stage-based platforming framework. Monster Lair is half shooter, half platformer. It’s okay. The Dragon’s Trap is a stone-cold classic example of an early Metroidvania. Monster World was the first console-first release in the series, and it’s another solid action-adventure game. Monster World IV is a game whose praises I’ve sung many times before. Even if you only play one version of each, this is a great set on its own.

As before, I should mention that you may already own some of these games via other means. The aforementioned Wonder Boy Collection, of course. That gets you the arcade versions of Wonder Boy and Monster Land, plus the Genesis versions of Monster World and Monster World IV. You may also already own the arcade version of Monster Land via the SEGA AGES line. There’s the notable remake of The Dragon’s Trap from Dotemu and Lizardcube, and the less notable remake of Monster World IV which includes the original version of the game as a bonus. And Wonder Boy Returns Remix, dubious though it may be, is a partial remake of the original Wonder Boy. But I think if you’re a big enough Wonder Boy fan to own all of that, you’re probably in on this set just for all the various ports here.

It’s a shame there is a bit of a cloud over this release due to the previous collection’s existence, because this really is an amazing package for Wonder Boy fans. It’s hard to ask for more without involving Konami, and I wouldn’t have expected that to happen. Having so many ports included is fantastic, the emulation is where it should be, and you get a fair amount of extra to help round out the package. It’s unfortunate that those who bought the prior collection are left with an inferior product, but otherwise this is an anniversary-worthy release.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

Trek to Yomi ($19.99)

If I only gave points for style, Trek to Yomi would be getting top scores. Inspired by the films of Akira Kurosawa, its monochrome visuals and use of various camera angles create an incredibly cinematic feel. It looks great and it sounds great. At first, it seems like it’s going to play well too. And it doesn’t play badly by any means. You basically move through the story, doing some light exploration for extra goodies between fights. It’s the fights where the bulk of the gameplay is found, however. Enemies will close in and you’ll have to use your katana-wielding prowess to cut them down before they do the same to you. They don’t always play fair either, so you’ll have to keep pivoting to deal with attacks from both sides.

So yes, at first it’s all very cool. You play through a prologue set during the main character’s childhood, fight off some bandits, and see some bad stuff go down. The visuals have clearly taken a hit in the process of moving to the Switch, and the sometimes muddy nature of the graphics can make it a little difficult to read the scene. It somewhat breaks the illusion of being an old samurai movie because of these technical issues, but that’s how it goes. We’re Switch owners, we are prepared for sacrifices.

A little time skip happens and you find yourself playing the adult version of your character, surprisingly fighting mostly the same few kinds of bandits you did as a kid. Then another thing happens and you find yourself fighting through the underworld, even more surprisingly meeting those same few kinds of troublemakers. The lack of enemy variety is a major issue, and you end up really only looking forward to boss battles to spice things up. The boss battles are pretty good, though. You have some difficulty options, but they only tend to increase the tedium rather than address it.

Trek to Yomi is something I would hesitantly recommend to fans of Kurosawa flicks or those looking for a stylish action game. It plays most of its gameplay cards too early and ends up being rather tedious for such a brief affair, but it’s worth the squeeze, if only barely, to see its various sights. That said, if you have any other options besides the Switch to play it on, I’d suggest doing so there. This is a game that is all about its visual presentation and the compromises the Switch version makes detracts from that.

SwitchArcade Score: 3/5

Risen ($29.99)

There is a particular flavor to the games of German developer Piranha Bytes Software, and up until now it has been a flavor absent from the Nintendo Switch. The developer makes action-RPGs with a thick layer of jank and opacity to them, with more rough edges than a box of Cap’n Crunch. The games are clunky, unwieldy, and often buggy. It is very easy to paint yourself in a corner due to bad planning, so you’ll have to do some careful thinking and/or research if you mean to get into the games earnestly. But there’s a certain charm to what this developer does, a certain sincerity, ambition, and confidence that makes its games very enjoyable if you’re the right type of player.

Risen on the Switch is more or less the same as the Risen we saw on the PC and Xbox 360 back in 2009. It has been ported as directly as possible without any thought to making enhancements or alterations. Do not come into this thinking it will be approachable or friendly in any way. It was esoteric then and if anything it is more so in today’s context. You’re given very little to go on with regards to how it controls, and those controls are fairly cumbersome. It teaches you practically nothing about how its rather deep skill systems work, so you’ll have to sort that out on your own. There is relatively little direction or guidance, so you’ll have to figure out what to do and how to get where you need to go on your own.

This all may sound unpleasant to some, and if that is you, then Risen is probably not going to be your thing. For a certain type, though, the sound of that kind of chaotic freedom is probably making you salivate a little already. And Risen offers that in spades. After overcoming the initial area, you’ll soon find yourself aligning with one of the factions that vies for control of the island you’ve washed up on. The one you choose will set you on a broad course, but you have a lot of rein in how you handle even the smallest of quests. On top of that, there are all kinds of non-essential secrets and goodies to find along the way, some of which seem to be there just to stoke your imagination and help make the world feel more alive. If you can put up with its quirks, Risen is an excellent RPG.

As for the port, it’s about what we’ve come to expect from THQ Nordic fare. The framerate is wildly unstable, and you’ll get anywhere from twenty-five to sixty frames per second depending on what’s going on. As mentioned, no efforts have been made to pretty things up. It really comes down to how sensitive you are to variable framerates. If that doesn’t bother you, then it’s hard to find much to complain about with this version of the game. If it does, then you’re going to have a bad time.

Risen is certainly of its time and place, but depending on your inclinations there isn’t anything wrong with that. I do wish the framerate in this port had been locked down rather than allowed to run wild, but otherwise this is Risen on your Switch in all of its late aughts glory. It’s not a game that will make things easy on you, especially in the beginning, but if you stick with it you’ll find it gives back a lot more than what you put in.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake ($39.99)

The multiverse is so hot right now. So here’s a new SpongeBob 3D platformer, very much in the vein of Battle for Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob gets his hands on a magical item that causes a bunch of wishes to be granted in some very twisted ways. Now he has to venture into seven different Wishworlds to rescue his friends and save reality as we know it. I’ll have a review of this soon, but if you like SpongeBob or just appreciate a good 3D platformer, you’ll probably enjoy this quite a bit.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

NIS America is having a sale, presumably to commemorate its anniversary, and you can get a variety of good games at fair prices. Disgaea 6 in particular is at a new low price, so you may want to bite on it now if you haven’t before. There are a few other goodies in there, so do have a look. The outbox has a fair bit in it, with sales from Bandai Namco and others coming to a close soon. Check it while you’re at it as well.

Select New Games on Sale

Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/6)
Disgaea 1 Complete ($17.49 from $49.99 until 2/13)
Disgaea 4 Complete+ ($17.49 from $49.99 until 2/13)
Disgaea 5 Complete ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
Disgaea 6 DoD ($29.99 from $59.99 until 2/13)
Pix the Cat ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/13)
Yomawari: Lost in the Dark ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
Yomawari: Long Night Collection ($14.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
Dungeon of the Endless ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
The Princess Guide ($4.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
NIS Classics Vol.1 ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
NIS Classics Vol.2 ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
NIS Classics Vol.3 ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
Void Terrarium ($9.99 from $24.99 until 2/13)

Labyrinth of Refrain: CoD ($17.49 from $49.99 until 2/13)
Prinny CIRBtH ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Prinny 2 DoOPD ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Liar Princess & Blind Prince ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Cruel King & the Great Hero ($16.49 from $29.99 until 2/13)
Poison Control ($4.99 from $39.99 until 2/13)
New Terra ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/19)
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! ($14.99 from $24.99 until 2/20)
Primal Light ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/20)
Warpips ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Destropolis ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/20)
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
The Dark Eye: Memoria ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
AER Memories of Old ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Unrailed! ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Tanuki Justice ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/20)
Golden Force ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Flippin Kaktus ($5.99 from $11.99 until 2/20)
Cyjin: The Cyborg Ninja ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/20)
Nova-111 ($3.99 from $9.99 until 2/20)
Okinawa Rush ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 1st

Adventures of Pip ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
B.ARK ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Captain Tsubasa RoNC ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
Cricket 22 ($24.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Crossroad Crash ($1.99 from $4.98 until 2/1)
Crowdy Farm Rush ($1.99 from $5.99 until 2/1)
Crysis Remastered ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Crysis Remastered Trilogy ($27.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Disney Tsum Tsum Festival ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Dobo’s Heroes ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Doraemon Story of Seasons FotGK ($37.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Doraemon Story of Seasons FotGK SE ($44.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
Dragon Ball FighterZ ($8.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
Huntdown ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Hunting Simulator ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)

Hunting Simulator 2: BH Edition ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Invert ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adv. All-Star BR Deluxe ($48.99 from $69.99 until 2/1)
Mr Maker 3D Level Editor ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
My Hero One’s Justice Deluxe ($19.99 from $79.99 until 2/1)
My Little Riding Champion ($8.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 Deluxe ($17.99 from $89.99 until 2/1)
Pac-Man 99 Mode Unlock ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
QuickSpot ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
RazerWire: Nanowars ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Roguebook ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/1)
SCATch: The Painter Cat ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)

SD Gundam Battle Alliance Deluxe ($59.49 from $84.99 until 2/1)
Shmup Mania ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Striker Modes ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Super Dragon Ball Heroes WM ($8.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
Super Snake Block ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris ($34.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Sword Art Online Hollow Realization DE ($7.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival Deluxe ($40.14 from $54.99 until 2/1)
Tennis World Tour ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
The Jackbox Party Pack 2 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 2/1)
V-Rally 4 ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
WRC 9 Official Game ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)

That’s all for today and this month, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. There are some rumblings that a Direct is upon us, and yes, it does seem like the right time of the year for one. I suppose we’ll see as the week goes on. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 30th, 2023. In today’s article, we start things off with a few reviews. Fire Emblem Engage takes center stage, with Demolish & Build Classic and Wonderland Nights serving as back-up dancers. There are a handful of new releases to check out including Trek to Yomi and Super Benbo Quest, and the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts to sort through. Let’s get to work, shall we?

Reviews & Mini-Views

Fire Emblem Engage ($59.99)

I’m of two minds on Fire Emblem Engage. At the end of the day, this series is about the turn-based tactical battles. They’re better in this game than they have been since, I would say, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. The new Emblem mechanic is a real game changer, and I’m thrilled to see the return of the weapon triangle. Map designs are solid, and the enemy placements are better at putting pressure on you to go on the offense than most of the recent entries. If I were to grade this game on the mechanical side alone, it would easily be walking away with a better score than Three Houses.

But Fire Emblem isn’t just about the battles, and it’s in those other areas where Engage falls behind. It’s a game that is partly about delivering service to long-time fans of the series, to the point that you would almost think it was an anniversary release. Like many games of that sort, the plot suffers for the sake of shoe-horning in those references. Even at the best of times, Fire Emblem stories aren’t the most impressive of tales, but Engage‘s may well be the most meaningless and uninteresting yet.

On top of that, the characters are more poorly developed than the average Fire Emblem game, falling back on silly tropes even more than the norm. Most characters aren’t any deeper than their gimmick, and the conversations with them tend to go down the road of goofy antics rather than showing actual development. All of this is particularly disappointing after Three Houses did a relatively good job with its narrative elements, and those who come to these games looking for a good story are not going to be very pleased with Engage.

The ambitious and occasionally overbearing social elements of Three Houses have been pulled almost as far back as they could be. While there is still a hub area to go back to between battles, it’s mainly home to a bunch of bizarre minigames that confer entirely unnecessary rewards and aren’t all that enjoyable or amusing. I was one of those folks who found the monastery stuff in Fire Emblem Three Houses a bit too much of a distraction and frequently dull, but even I didn’t want them to rein it in this far. Apparently Intelligent Systems wanted to make a more focused experience this time, and I surely can’t argue against the emphasis resting entirely on the battles this time. I don’t know where the minigames factor into that focus, but here we are.

So yes, it all comes back around to those battles. Luckily, they’re really good. The Emblem system sees twelve classic characters coming back as partners for your characters, granting them access to weapons and abilities for a limited number of turns. It’s a lot of fun experimenting with who you want to pair with who, and having to decide when to pop your Emblem state for the best effect is a welcome additional layer of strategy and tension in battles. And yes, it’s good to see old faces like Lyndis and Ike again. Taking advantage of the returning weapon triangle system gives you more of an advantage than ever, so you have to consider who you send after which enemies.

I also want to applaud the inclusion of the Maddening difficulty from the get-go this time rather than adding it as DLC. While only a small number of players are likely to want to play Fire Emblem Engage this way, it really does underline just how well-designed the tactical elements of this game are. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to first-timers, but if you’re looking for some extra bite you will be happy with how thoughtfully Maddening mode has been implemented this time. It’s worth the second trip, and in some sense the story being extremely skippable is almost a benefit for such an approach.

As far as the presentation goes, I think it’s terrific. I know some people don’t like how colorful and bright some of the characters look, particularly the two-toned design of the lead, but I kind of dig how pop it is after the far more staid approach of Three Houses. One of the cool things about the Fire Emblem series is in how it isn’t afraid to change up its visual design, and Engage certainly shows us a new side of the series. From a technical standpoint, this looks and runs a lot better than Three Houses did. Intelligent Systems seems to have handled development itself this time, which may explain why the scope of it is smaller, but what it does it does very well. Battle animations look fantastic, and the Mika Pikazo character art translates to 3D surprisingly well. Add in a solid soundtrack and some strong voice acting and there isn’t much to complain about in terms of how the game looks and sounds.

Fire Emblem Engage is a more single-minded entry in the series than we’ve seen in a while. A lot of the things people may have loved about Three Houses don’t return here, and the battles are left to carry the load. The more focused design is by choice and I respect that, but it didn’t mean the characters and story had to be as diminished as they are. It’s fortunate that the battle mechanics ratchet things up this time, with the new Emblem system and the returning weapon triangle adding compelling strategic layers. Fans of the tactical aspect at the core of Fire Emblem will find a lot to like, but it’s a shame that the overall package isn’t as strong.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

Demolish & Build Classic ($14.99)

This really should have been an easy win. People love breaking things. The PC version this game is based on is years old by this point and really shouldn’t be too tough to get running nicely on the Switch. But no, this is another disaster from Ultimate Games. You’re the operator of a demolition and construction company, and you’ll take on jobs that see you moving around a handful of connected open world maps. Completing jobs gets you money, and you can reinvest that money into new equipment and such. A solid enough premise. Shame the execution botches things so much.

The technical performance here is wholly unacceptable. The framerate starts chopping the minute you start looking around even the emptiest of areas. Even moderately busy sections drop to a headache-inducing framerate. Driving is deeply unpleasant, with textures loading in late and choppy movement despite how empty the maps are. Collision detection is fussy and it’s easy to get your vehicles stuck in places you can’t get them out of, forcing you to respawn them. The usual UI problem rears its head here, with tiny text that is hard to read on the handheld screen and menus that were clearly built to be navigated with a mouse. The game also doesn’t do a great job of teaching you how to do anything, making for a frustrating initial experience. Even once you know what you’re doing, the game has too many issues to get much joy from it.

Demolish & Build Classic is another in a too-long series of PC ports that don’t do enough to optimize or adjust the experience for the Switch. There’s a good idea at its core, but significant performance issues, fiddly collision detection, and a clumsy UI keep it from achieving the promise of that idea.

SwitchArcade Score: 2/5

Wonderland Nights: White Rabbit’s Diary ($6.99)

Wonderland Nights has an interesting idea behind it, but it perhaps doesn’t do enough to obfuscate the mechanical nature of what it asks of you. You play as the White Rabbit, and your job is to assign guests to various events on each day of a gathering of royalty in Wonderland. Each day a vote is held on a particular issue, and who you put together in which place will help determine the outcome. On top of that, putting certain people together will reveal secrets about them and perhaps even unravel new plot elements. At the end of the gathering, you’ll be given one of a large number of endings based on what happened. You can then start again and try to use the knowledge you have gained to tilt the results of the next game in your favor.

At the start of the day, you simply assign the twelve different characters to the six different activities as you see fit. You have a notebook that starts out basically empty but as you discover things over the course of playthroughs will fill out with useful information. After assigning everyone to events, you’ll watch them all play out. The writing itself is alright, but the voice acting is frankly atrocious and drags the narrative down with it. Some of it sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom, everyone sounds like they’re rushing through their lines, and no one sounds very interested in what they’re doing. That’s unfortunate because without the narrative supporting it, this game is just a process of trial and error until you hit the desired result.

The overall plot of Wonderland Nights is reasonably interesting, but the stunningly poor voice acting and simple gameplay mechanics make it hard to stick with long enough to reveal that whole story. It reminds me a lot of one of those old flash games where you combined various items to see the results, playing over and over again until you got the ending you were after. The art has a unique and striking style, but the rest of the presentation is quite weak. It’s a mildly amusing game to poke at, but it could have been a lot better.

SwitchArcade Score: 3/5

New Releases

Trek To Yomi ($19.99)

A side-scrolling action game that is clearly inspired by the films of Akira Kurosawa, Trek to Yomi certainly has a striking presentation. It’s been out on other platforms for a while, so it’s hardly an unknown quantity. The consensus seems to be that it is a decent, brief cinematic experience that has a few flaws keeping it from being all it can be. What we don’t know is how the game has made the transition to the Switch, a question I’ll answer with a review fairly soon.

Super Benbo Quest: Turbo Deluxe ($10.00)

This is a weird action-platformer that is trying its hardest to be as odd as possible. And it largely succeeds at that. Noteworthy for apparently being banned from Steam for changing its name to all kinds of bizarre things. I think you could call it a piece of art, though whether that makes for a fun game or not is an exercise best left to the reader.

Capybara Madness ($6.99)

Weakfish has a 3D platform adventure that leans heavily on ragdoll physics, similar to the likes of Human Fall Flat. At least to my eye, this game really seems to be trying to hit that game’s vibe. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. There are fifteen maps in this one and if you like clowning on weird physics and solving puzzles in unexpected ways, you might find this worth looking into.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

If I can only point out one thing in the list of new sales today, it would be Radiant Silvergun at an absolutely bonkers price of just twelve American dollars. If you loved Ikaruga or just like shooters in general, you need to add that game to your library post-haste. There isn’t too much catching my eye in the outbox, but do make sure you have a look through both lists yourself to be safe.

Select New Games on Sale

Circa Infinite Ultimate ($1.99 from $10.99 until 2/4)
Nirvana Deluxe Edition ($1.99 from $7.49 until 2/4)
Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/4)
Galaxy Shooter ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/4)
Glyph ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Instant Tennis ($2.48 from $9.95 until 2/6)
OlliOlli World ($17.99 from $29.99 until 2/6)
Superliminal ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/6)
The Outer Worlds ($19.798 from $59.99 until 2/6)
Borderlands Legendary Collection ($9.99 from $49.99 until 2/6)
Borderlands GotY Edition ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/6)
Borderlands Handsome Collection ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
XCOM 2 Collection ($7.49 from $49.99 until 2/6)
BioShock Remastered ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/6)
BioShock 2 Remastered ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/6)
BioShock Infinite CE ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/6)

BioShock The Collection ($9.99 from $49.99 until 2/6)
PGA Tour 2K21 ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/6)
Tales from the Borderlands ($14.99 from $24.99 until 2/6)
New Tales from the Borderlands ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
Carnival Games ($7.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
L.A. Noire ($24.99 from $49.99 until 2/6)
Sid Meier’s Civ VI ($5.99 from $29.99 until 2/6)
Sid Meier’s Civ VI Platinum ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/6)
NBA 2K23 ($23.99 from $59.99 until 2/6)
All-Star Fruit Racing ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/7)
EA Sports FIFA 23 Legacy Edition ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/7)
Among Us ($3.50 from $5.00 until 2/10)
Radiant Silvergun ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/10)
SUPERHOT ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/10)

Dungeons of Dreadrock ($2.50 from $10.00 until 2/13)
Postal Redux ($3.49 from $9.99 until 2/14)
Spirit Roots ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/14)
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill: S&B ($3.39 from $19.99 until 2/14)
Car Parking Club ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/17)
Silenced: The House ($2.99 from $4.99 until 2/17)
35MM ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/17)
Amazing Superhero Squad ($4.19 from $6.99 until 2/17)
Behind Closed Doors ($2.99 from $4.99 until 2/17)
Oddworld: Soulstorm ($34.99 from $49.99 until 2/17)
Hillbilly Doomsday ($2.99 from $4.99 until 2/17)
Smashy Road: Wanted 2 ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/17)
Wonderland Nights: White Rabbit’s Diary ($5.59 from $6.99 until 2/17)
Witchcrafty ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/17)
.cat ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/18)
.dog ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/19)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 31st

Boreal Tenebrae ($1.99 from $6.99 until 1/31)
Chalk Gardens ($1.99 from $5.99 until 1/31)
Crash Drive 3 ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Disney Dreamlight Valley Deluxe ($34.99 from $49.99 until 1/31)
Fe ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Floppy Knights ($13.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Fluffy Horde ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/31)
Fury Unleashed ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Garden Story ($11.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Inukari CoD ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/31)
It’s Kooky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/31)
Legendary Eleven ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/31)
Lost in Random ($5.99 from $29.99 until 1/31)
Monster Destroyer ($2.06 from $7.13 until 1/31)
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit ($7.99 from $39.99 until 1/31)
P.3 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/31)
Plants vs Zombies BfN CE ($7.99 from $39.99 until 1/31)
Quell Zen ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/31)
Space Tail: EJLH ($13.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Super Mega Baseball 3 ($13.49 from $44.99 until 1/31)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more reviews, more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. I had a pretty nice weekend, and actually managed to spend some quality time with my family for once. It’s great how rested that can make one feel. But it’s the start of the week and that means back to the ol’ grind. I hope you all have a marvelous Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 27th, 2023. In today’s article, we mop up the remaining releases of the week. There are quite a few, thanks to some slipping out after I went home last night. There are summaries of all of them, plus the lists of the newest sales and expiring discounts of the weekend. Let’s get working for the weekend!

New Releases

ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree ($14.99)

Here’s another game that exited Apple Arcade and is now making its way to other platforms. We really liked ATONE‘s unusual mix of adventure game and rhythm game when we reviewed the Apple Arcade version more than three years ago, so as long as this Switch port doesn’t introduce any issues it’s probably worth your consideration. The strong sense of style really catches the eye, but the puzzles and rhythm battles are what will keep you playing. I’ll have a review fairly soon to let you know how the game plays on our favorite hybrid handheld.

Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey ($15.99)

This point-and-click style adventure game has an intriguing premise. Lancelot Du Lac and Morgana Le Fey have become immortal, the latter has been turned into a dog, and they solve crimes together in 19th century London. The case they’re taking on this time is naturally none other than stopping Jack the Ripper, and they’re assisted in this aim by a local resident. Reception for this one on other platforms is all over the map. Critics didn’t seem to care for it much despite enjoying the story, but Steam user reviews were considerably sunnier. I’d say that if the premise really speaks to you, then give it a shot. But it’s up to you in the end.

Beholder 3 ($19.99)

Another point-and-click adventure, this one the third game in a series that is at least popular enough to have a third game. You’re Frank, a guy living in a totalitarian state who has recently had a career change and is now a spy working undercover as a landlord. You have to break into the apartments of your tenants and search for anything illegal they might be up to. At the same time, you have to try to worm your way up the ladder in the ministry and try to gain power. It’s a treacherous political path you’re walking, and if you’re not careful you could lose everything. If you liked the first two, you’ll likely want to continue onto this one. I wouldn’t start here, though. If you want to play this series, you should definitely start with the first.

Roller Drama ($14.99)

From the people that brought us Football Drama comes Roller Drama, and it’s broadly a similar affair except for the swap in sports. That is to say, it is mainly a narrative choice-based adventure with some management aspects, even going so far as having you manage the actual matches the team plays in. If you enjoyed Football Drama, this is an easy game to recommend. If you didn’t like it, you probably won’t get into this one either. And if you didn’t play it at all and are interested in this because of roller sports, then as long as you come in with eyes wide open about this being primarily a story-based game, I say give it a shot.

Wonderland Nights: White Rabbit’s Diary ($6.99)

Well, that’s a striking art style. This game is obviously based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but instead of following Alice you are instead in the role of the white rabbit. The four nations of Wonderland meet up every year to break bread, and you’re in charge of the schedule. The problem is that there are numerous conflicts and issues between the various parties, and you have to do your best to avoid any messy clashes. Oh, and there’s a wild card in the mix as a strange girl named Alice appears to be poking around. Your choices will determine the very fate of Wonderland. No pressure. I’ll have a review of this one soon.

Match Ventures ($11.99)

Another one of Ocean Media’s matching puzzler games. Do some match-3 puzzles, upgrade the castle and earn new goodies for it, then do some more match-3 puzzles. As you play a story will slowly play out. At least it’s cheaper than Green Sauce’s stuff.

Jewel Match Solitaire Collector’s Edition ($14.99)

Ocean Media goes for another scoop with its Jewel Match Solitaire series. You get a bunch of different solitaire variants to play, some castles to build with the spoils of your victories, and several different card decks to choose from. That’s about all I have to say about this one. It’s solitaire. Do you need solitaire? Here is solitaire.

Farming life ($9.99)

In case you don’t feel like space farming this week, here’s a normal Earth farming game. It looks entirely unremarkable except for the fact that, in true Ultimate Games fashion, the UI seems designed for a mouse and the in-game font suited to a computer monitor, with few considerations for Switch users who might be playing in handheld mode. This is another one of those genres that is so competitive on this platform that I don’t know why anyone bothers putting out middling fare like this. There are so many better choices, and they don’t cost substantially more either.

Hyper Shapes ($4.99)

This is a game that you kind of have to see in motion to properly understand thanks to its minimalistic art style. You’re a dot battling bosses in various stages, and those bosses are also simple shapes. Your means of offense is a ball you can throw, but once you toss it you have to retrieve it to throw it again. All the while, the bosses will be doing their best to wipe you out. Not too bad for a fiver, in my opinion.

nOS new Operating System ($39.99)

This is an exceedingly overpriced novelty app, and you can tell because it is having a day one 95% off sale. You get a calculator, drawing app, day planner, a little puzzle to play, and a few other odds and ends. I’ll grant that at a price of two dollars you might amuse yourself enough to justify the price, but at forty only a fool would buy it. Are you a fool? I don’t think you are, but the power is yours.

Extreme Highway Racing: Real Speed Driver ($9.99)

A thoroughly bland racing game from Megame, a publisher that excels in making thoroughly bland games. I have to believe you can find something better to do with ten bucks than buying this.

Fear in Hospital: Escape Horror Story ($9.99)

A thoroughly bland first-person horror game from Megame, a publisher that excels in making thoroughly bland games. I have to believe you can yet again find something better to do with ten bucks than buying this.

Unblock the Brick: Casual Block Puzzle ($9.99)

A thoroughly bland block sliding puzzle game from Megame, a publisher that excels in making thoroughly bland games. I have to believe you can find yet another better thing to do with ten bucks than buying this.

Anime Girls: Camping Trip ($3.99)

Cooking & Publishing’s latest release is similar to almost all of its other ones. Answer some questions, then answer the same questions again without changing your answers. An absolute waste of four dollars.

Tales of Shinobi Fantasy Magic Anime World Fight RPG Simulator ($4.99)

Not content to drop just one load of trash onto the eShop this week, Midnight Works has another dung pile of a game to try to lure unsuspecting folks. Look at that title. Pure nonsense, as always. This publisher is one of the worst on the eShop, and that is really saying something.

Offroad Moto Bike ($3.99)

Pix Arts may have lost its crown as the worst publisher on the eShop, but it’s still out here doing its thing. In this one you have to drive your bike to the goal on each stage. A rather poor take on this idea, especially considering Trials Rising is regularly on sale for only a few dollars more. Don’t bother.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Let’s deal with that outbox first. Specifically, there isn’t much in there at all. Well, that was easy. Now, to the inbox. Football Manager 2023 Touch is at its lowest price yet, and that’s probably the main game I would highlight. Otherwise, it’s a fair bit of stuff that is often on sale with some decent games to pick from. Check through the list yourself and see what strikes your fancy.

Select New Games on Sale

Sail Forth ($17.39 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Freshly Frosted ($7.19 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Roundguard ($6.38 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Cozy Grove ($8.90 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Once Upon a Jester ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Aka ($10.39 from $12.99 until 2/3)
I Saw Black Clouds ($7.79 from $12.99 until 2/3)
Don’t Knock Twice ($3.74 from $12.49 until 2/3)
Cyber Shadow ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
PopSlinger ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Battle Chef Brigade Deluxe ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Lost in Play ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Football Manager 2023 Touch ($35.99 from $44.99 until 2/3)
Live by the Sword: Tactics ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/7)
Tamashii ($1.99 from $11.99 until 2/9)

Dungeon and Puzzles ($3.49 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Tunnel of Doom ($6.99 from $13.99 until 2/9)
Omega Strike ($2.24 from $14.99 until 2/9)
Uncanny Valley ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Trifox ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Severed Steel ($12.49 from $24.99 until 2/9)
Underhero ($4.24 from $16.99 until 2/9)
Tower of Time ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/9)
Signs of the Sojourner ($6.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
Bloody Rally Show ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
H1.Jack ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Glo ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Hell Pages ($5.39 from $8.99 until 2/10)
Quintus & the Absent Truth ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)
Many Faces ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)

Pity Pit (41.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Hatup ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Vesper Zero Light Edition ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)
Element ($3.59 from $11.99 until 2/13)
Headland ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Conduct Together ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Fly Together ($1.99 from $15.00 until 2/15)
Collapsed ($3.00 from $15.00 until 2/15)
Depth of Extinction ($3.59 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Green Hell ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/16)
Monster Boy & Cursed Kingdom ($13.99 from $39.99 until 2/16)
Ultimate ADOM CoC ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Thief Simulator ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Phantom Doctrine ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Pixboy ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/16)

Loud ($1.99 from $11.99 until 2/16)
XEL ($7.59 from $18.99 until 2/16)
A Juggler’s Tale ($7.19 from $17.99 until 2/16)
Sinless ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Rise Eterna ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Train Station Renovation ($2.84 from $18.99 until 2/16)
Cooking Simulator ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Ultimate Fishing Simulator ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Aeolis Tournament ($2.24 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Agony ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Smashroom ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Wax Museum ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/16)
Hollow 2 ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Armed to the Gears ($2.39 from $11.99 until 2/16)
Danger Scavenger ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)

SpyHack ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Aery A Journey Beyond Time ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
A Long Way Down ($2.24 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Stitchy in Tooki Trouble ($2.59 from $12.99 until 2/16)
Virus: The Outbreak ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Dino Galaxy Tennis ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Barbero ($2.49 from $4.99 until 2/16)
Panzer Dragoon Remake ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/16)
Neurodeck ($2.79 from $13.99 until 2/16)
Pawn of the Dead ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Hot Shot Burn ($2.24 from $14.99 until 2/16)
Tennis Open 2020 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/16)
Orbital Bullet ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/16)
Soulblight ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/16)

Sales Ending This Weekend

Kao the Kangaroo ($17.99 from $29.99 until 1/28)
Fly Punch Boom! ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/29)
Out of the Box ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/29)
Super Treasure Arena ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/29)
Tied Together ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/29)

That’s all for today and this week, friends. We’ll be back next week with some reviews, a bunch of new releases, tons of new sales, and perhaps some news as well. I have another busy weekend of game-playing ahead of me to prepare for some reviews. I hope you all have a great weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 26th, 2023. The big news is that Goldeneye for Nintendo Switch Online finally has a release date, and it’s soon as it could be. We have a ton of new releases to go through today, but I’m sorry to say that only the smallest fraction of them are worthy of your attention. We have summaries of all of them anyway, though. After that, it’s the usual lists of sales. There’s a lot to go through today, so let’s get on it!

News

‘Goldeneye’ Coming to Switch Online Expansion Pack Tomorrow

It was announced a few months back that the Nintendo 64 classic Goldeneye would be making its long-awaited return soon, both on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack and Xbox via Rare Replay. Soon is apparently now, as Goldeneye will be hitting the service tomorrow. Relive your university years and ignore your aching back and the highly accurate framerate as you step into the shows of Brosnan Bond once again. Friends have all scattered? No worries. Like other Nintendo 64 Switch Online games, Goldeneye can be played online. Just update your app tomorrow and you’ll be all set to shake and not stir.

New Releases

Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection ($49.99)

A while back we saw a Wonder Boy Collection release with a handful of games from the series included, with the notable and lamentable exclusion of The Dragon’s Trap. Well, as is often the case where Strictly Limited Games is involved, we’ve now got a considerably more thorough collection for your consideration. This one is almost shockingly complete, even including things like the SG-1000 port of the original game and the Game Gear version of The Dragon’s Trap. You get a whopping 21 versions and variants of the six distinct games in the series, and that’s a whole lot of gaming fun for a reasonable price. I’ll have a review of this soon, but Wonder Boy fans probably don’t need to wait.

Startup Company Console Edition ($12.99)

I think if we’ve learned anything in the last few years, it’s that running a successful startup is pretty tough. Unless you have tons of money and can tank through the problems, I guess. If you want to have a little fun trying your hand at it yourself but your parents can’t give you a few hundred thousand dollars to do so, you might want to play Startup Company. It’s a business management sim that sees you trying to handle the various elements of a brand new company. Reviews of the computer version have been solid, so it all comes down to how well they’ve adapted what was a rather mouse-heavy interface to console controls.

Onion Assault ($7.99)

From the developer of Gunman Clive and Mechstermination Force comes this homage to the veggie-throwing joy of Super Mario Bros. 2/USA. Pick up veggies and throw them at baddies, switches, and other things. Pick up baddies and throw them, too. Pick up tanks and use them to shoot baddies. There are a lot of clever ideas packed into this game’s sixteen stages, and if you enjoyed the previous efforts of this developer I would say this is an easy recommendation.

Mars Base ($19.99)

After everyone moped about the Switch having too many farming sims, this latest farming sim is escaping to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by complainers…. SPACE! So yes, Mars Base is another farming game, but it separates itself from the pack by being set on the Red Planet itself. That involves a few extra challenges not seen in more terrestrial affairs. It sounds like a cool twist, but the reception to the computer version has been surprisingly mixed. You may want to wait this one out a bit to see how this Switch version settles in before taking the plunge.

Arcade Archives New Zealand Story ($7.99)

Taito’s adorable-as-heck platformer was a pretty big hit back in the day, particularly through its many home conversions across countless platforms. You play as a little kiwi and have to make your way through fairly large levels full of hazards, enemies, and gimmicks. It still holds up fairly well, so if you want one of those rare platformers in the Arcade Archives line, this is a great pick.

7 Days to End with You ($11.99)

This is an interesting one. We’ve seen a few games before that play with language, but it’s not something you see often. The premise is that you don’t know any of the words of the language spoken by the people of this world. You have to deduce the meanings of words and try to figure out the little story that plays out over the course of seven days in the lives of two people. Only by fully figuring out the language will you be able to reach the true ending of this story. Fascinating stuff.

pixelBOT EXTREME! ($9.99)

A side-scrolling shooter with an interesting gimmick, albeit one we have seen in some other games before. The idea is that each of your buttons is matched with a color and you need to kill enemies matching that color with the correct button. It adds a little extra element to think about as you make your way through the game’s twenty-five stages. You can play with a friend in local multiplayer co-op, with each of you taking your share of the colors. It looks pretty fun, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. I do wish they would have recolored the buttons in the UI to match the Super Famicom color layout rather than the Xbox one, but since the Switch buttons have no colors associated with them I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

DobbyxEscape: Spooky Escape Adventure ($3.99)

LKMAD makes some nice little hidden object puzzle games at reasonable prices, and this looks like another good one. You get six different locations with some fun challenges to solve, and I really love the more cartoony art style in this game. Not much more to say than that. If you enjoyed Panmorphia or Kosmonavtes, you’ll want to give this a closer look.

Bike Clash ($9.99)

T-Bull has a motorbike racing game for us today. It looks acceptable, I suppose. While it boasts local multiplayer, note that it means local wireless multiplayer. You’ll need two Switch consoles to play that way. Race to be 1st because there is no room to be 2st. Personally I don’t find the games from this publisher to be very good, but there must be some fans out there or else we wouldn’t see so many games come from it. If you are one of them, here you go.

Uphill Rush Water Park Racing ($9.99)

Here’s a port of a free-to-play mobile game. Give it a try on your mobile device to see how well you like it. There are a bunch of levels, some unlockables, a mode where you can create your own ride, and a UI that looks barely modified from its mobile form. Is it worth ten bucks to buy this version over just playing the free mobile game? Probably not, but that’s for you to decide.

Japanese Escape from The Room With Sturdy Door ($9.99)

Already starting to run dry on themes for this series, it seems. So yes, it’s another one of these room escape games, and the gimmick this time is that you are in a room with a sturdy door. Really, really solid door. Just… well-constructed. Can you defeat it? Probably. It’s still just a door.

Yeah! Fighting Girl ($15.00)

It’s another one of those melee battler games with sexy lady characters and very little content. Choose one of five characters and go battle enemies in short stages and arenas. Upgrade some stuff with the cash you earn, then go do it again. Keep going until you’re able to actually beat the game. It’s grind-heavy, and the gameplay isn’t very fun. Definitely no Croixleur Sigma, and that’s not even a particularly high bar of quality. It’s probably going to sell a lot anyway.

Sunwards ($15.00)

Another melee battler game from the same publisher as Yeah! Fighting Girl, and I don’t have much to say that I didn’t already say in that last description. Just one character in this one and while the graphics look a lot better, the gameplay is just as poor. You can find a lot of better games for this price on the eShop. It’s probably going to sell a lot anyway.

Ginnung ($5.00)

Hey, a five dollar Switch platformer that actually costs exactly five dollars. Neat! This one is a precision platformer of sorts with more than fifty levels to play. It follows the Celeste rules where you can do a dash in any direction but need to touch something solid before you can dash again. There are secret routes and hidden collectibles to find if you’re really feeling frisky. This seems fine for the price it’s asking.

Zodiacats ($2.99)

Another one of those games where you need to arrange the tiles properly to display the picture. The theme here is both cats and astrology, and you’ll get information on both as you play. It’s a way to spend three bucks if you are not interested in a couple delicious Snickers bars. I would take the delicious Snickers bars, though. Definitely more happiness to be found in them, and the chewy nougat would ensure they last longer than this game.

Cubic Light ($2.99)

This puzzle game has you placing blocks and changing their colors as needed to light up the whole stage. There are seventy-five levels in total. A decent enough little logic puzzle for the meager price it’s asking. Probably better than a couple of mouth-watering Snickers bars.

Poker Legends: Omaha Champions ($9.99)

T-Bull has another game for us today, and it’s a pretty bland take on Omaha Poker. Single-player only, so you’re just up against CPU opponents. Play in tournaments and try to work your way up the rankings. Feels like you could find a much better free game in this style on the App Store if you searched for ten or fifteen seconds.

Pipeline Panic ($14.99)

A twin-stick action game crossed with base defense, Pipeline Panic sees you defending Earth’s important pipelines from radioactive monsters. You’ll have to fight off creatures using a wide array of weapons while doing the occasional repair job on the pipelines. You can also construct towers to help you fend of the fiends. It looks okay, but I’m not sure why it’s four bucks on Steam and fifteen bucks on the eShop. It would be an easy punt at the former price but at the latter it’s really hard to recommend.

Nature Escapes Collector’s Edition ($14.99)

Another hidden object thing from Ocean Media. They seem to really be going for it this time with the price, but as far as I can tell this is just the same sort of thing they’ve released a dozen or so of up until now. Find the objects, play some mini-games, and revel in the knowledge that you own a collector’s edition. Sure to appreciate in price over time. Might pay for your kid’s college tuition if you keep it in good condition.

Demolition Inc HD ($9.99)

You play as a demolition worker named Mike who has been given the job to do some wrecking on Earth. Oh yeah, Mike is an alien. So you fly around in your UFO and use various tools and weapons to try to set off chain reactions of destruction. It’s physics-based fun in three cities and fifteen districts, with extra modes to mess with after you’ve completed the campaign. This one is well-liked over on Steam and I think it has a good chance of finding fans on the Switch as well.

OddBallers ($19.99)

Ubisoft’s long-delayed multiplayer dodgeball party game appears to finally be ready to release. Up to six players via online or local multiplayer can get in on the fun, whipping whatever you can get your hands on at your opponents in a bid to be the last one standing. There are thirty different arenas to play in, each with its own characteristics, and a whole pile of character customization options. I haven’t had a chance to play this one yet, but I’m certainly hoping it lives up to its potential.

Haunted Zombie Slaughter ($14.99)

TROOOZE has a bland top-down zombie-themed shooter for us, and I really question if the world needs another one of these. Well, this won’t be the last by any means. Feel free to bring in a second player for some local multiplayer co-op if you want to share your misery. Also, I love that mere zombies weren’t enough. No, they had to be haunted zombies. Does that mean there are evil spirits pestering the zombies? Wouldn’t that distract them, making it easier to get away? Questions better reserved for a developer that puts half a thought into its designs, I suppose.

Red Hands – 2 Player Games ($4.99)

I cannot stress enough that you do not need a video game to play Slaps. You just need two humans with hands to play. There’s seemingly no AI opponent in this video game version either, and while you get different hands to choose from, the art is just kind of… amateur. Save your five dollars for pretty much anything else.

Animal Super Craft – Maker Word Simulator Deluxe Game 2023 ($1.99)

In case you needed some lining for the kitty litter box, Midnight Works has a new game available. It’s trash, as usual. I love that they threw ‘word’ in the title. It’s a bloody 2.5D platformer. Good luck pulling in that Wordle crowd, you absolute bozo clowns.

Chain Car Stunt Simulator – 3D Extreme Highway Car Driving Games ($1.99)

DEZVOLT Games? A new challenger has appeared! And they have never heard of VG Games or Midnight Works, no sir! As you can guess from the stupid SEO optimized title, this game is a pile of garbage. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what rubbish comes from this new crap-sack publisher in the future!

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Continuing the recent theme, there isn’t much going on sales-wise. I’d imagine that tomorrow will be better in this regard, but for now there isn’t much action in either the inbox or the outbox. Have a look at both lists anyway, just in case.

Select New Games on Sale

Out of the Box ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/29)
B.ARK ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Adventures of Pip ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Dead by Daylight ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/8)
Dead by Daylight: Ultimate Edition ($41.99 from $69.99 until 2/8)
Save Koch ($2.00 from $20.00 until 2/14)
Speedway Racing ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Cattails ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/15)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, January 27th

Bloodwash ($7.99 from $9.99 until 1/27)
Castle of Pixel Skulls ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Commandos 2 HD Remaster ($14.99 from $19.99 until 1/27)
Devastator ($2.79 from $6.99 until 1/27)
Horned Knight ($1.99 from $5.99 until 1/27)
Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars ($13.99 from $39.99 until 1/27)
Inferno 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Jack ‘n’ Hat ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/27)
Luckslinger ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/27)
Lumini ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/27)
Neon Souls ($3.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Pecaminosa ($5.99 from $14.99 until 1/27)
Port Royale 4 ($24.99 from $49.99 until 1/27)
Retro Highway ($2.99 from $5.99 until 1/27)
SkateBIRD ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/27)
The Bug Butcher ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/27)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the remaining releases of the week, plus a bunch of sales and perhaps some news. Are you excited for the return of Goldeneye? It’s certainly wild to see the first externally-licensed Nintendo Switch Online game is as big a get as that one. I hope you all have a fantastic Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 24th, 2023. We’ve got a few more reviews for you today, all of which were written by yours truly. The main star is Persona 4 Golden, and backing it up are the decent Void Prison and the not-so-decent Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021. After that, we’ve got a couple of new releases to look at, one of which is rather intriguing. Finally, the lists of new and outgoing sales are waiting for you to sift through. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Persona 4 Golden ($19.99)

I mean, yes. I’m going to do it. If this isn’t a full five out of five, what is? While Persona 3 lost as much as it gained in its transition from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation Portable, Persona 4‘s jump from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation Vita was, well, nothing short of golden. It had everything the original game had, plus a whole lot more. And not only did it not have to compromise its visual presentation in the process, it actually was able to improve it. This Switch version uses the Vita Persona 4 Golden as its base, upscaling and upgrading the graphics where it can, adding the option to choose between English and Japanese voices, putting in more granular difficulty options, and including a highly-welcome quick save feature. It’s a total win.

In broad strokes, the gameplay of Persona 4 is similar to that of Persona 3. By day, you’ll do normal teenager things like attend school, hang out with your friends, and study. By night, you’ll explore dungeons and engage in turn-based battles against evil creatures using the power of your Persona. It’s largely up to you how you want to spend your time each day, and it’s important to make the most of it. You have to decide whether you want to devote more time to building relationships or fighting evil, but whatever you choose you’ll have to overcome hurdles at set points on the calendar.

In the particulars, there are a lot of differences between the previous game and this one. The setting is in the countryside rather than the big city, which itself sets a different mood. While Persona 3 saw you trying to explore the massive dungeon of Tartarus to get to the bottom of a mysterious mind-destroying phenomenon, Persona 4 has you trying to solve a series of mysterious murders. The main link between them seems to be televisions, and you’ll soon find yourself venturing into the TV World to battle evil demons and monsters. Instead of exploring one big dungeon, you’re dealing with several smaller ones, each with its own theme. I’ve heard people say that if Persona 3 is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then Persona 4 is Scooby-Doo, and I can’t really argue with that.

Like its immediate predecessor and successor, Persona 4 is an exceptional JRPG experience. The low-pressure time management and relationship side of the game blends perfectly with the role-playing bits, playing off of each other in ways that make sense and bring out the best in both. Pursuing the social links with characters not only rewards you with some satisfying mini-stories, but also strengthens you in the role-playing side. The overall plot is fantastic, and the characters in this game really stand out. There are some character bits that perhaps don’t land as well as one would hope, but on the whole it’s hard not to get attached to this wacky crew. People tend to love these characters even above those in other Persona games, and that’s not for nothing.

The gameplay also holds up its end of things. While it’s down to preference as to whether you like Persona 3‘s single giant dungeon or Persona 4‘s many smaller dungeons more, it’s hard to deny that the latter’s have more personality. I also think that Persona 4 has a marginally fairer difficulty curve, but that might just because Persona 3 trained me well. By default it’s a relatively challenging affair that forces you to actually use your brain a little bit in battles and make some proper preparations for boss battles, but there are so many tweaks and toggles in this version that you can make it as easy or hard as you want it to be. The core loop of leveling up, fusing, and gradually building a powerful team of Personas to use is also a winner.

Persona 4 Golden is shining its absolute brightest in this Switch port, and it was already a truly brilliant game that any fan of the genre should play. The fact that you can get an RPG this great for such a low price is wild, and Persona 4 has always been a great game to enjoy on a portable. If you already played through it on the Vita, I’m not sure you’ll find enough here to make it worth another scoop, but if this is your first time tuning in to the Midnight Channel the Switch version is an incredible way to experience it.

SwitchArcade Score: 5/5

Void Prison ($2.99)

Void Prison feels a lot like the kinds of amusing mobile games we used to see on the regular back in the glory days of iOS. It’s cheap, fun, and while it doesn’t make a huge lasting impression, it’ll be a good friend to you for a week or so. You’re in a circular arena with a lot of unfriendly enemies who teleport in with ever-increasing numbers. You have a gun that you can fire in any direction with the right stick, and you can roll. You can pick up the occasional power-up. Oh, and the enemies can’t hurt you. They can only bump you backwards. Take a bullet, bump. Run into a foe, bump. But if you touch the outer edge of the arena, you’re toast. The goal is to last as long as you can. The longer you survive, the higher in the online leaderboards you’ll place and the more skins and power-ups you’ll unlock. That is everything there is to it, and I do mean that.

It’s a fun game to play, but it gets repetitive after a while because very little changes from session to session. There just aren’t very many variables in play in Void Prison, and the ones that are here feel a little more random than I’d prefer. You can be doing everything right only to have an enemy pop in next to where you are standing and bounce you out without any recourse. Void Prison is best enjoyed as a little snack here and there, a few sessions at a time. In that capacity, it certainly earns its meager keep.

SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5

Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 ($19.99)

Let me start this review by saying that if you enjoyed any of the other mechanic simulator games released on Switch by Ultimate, you’ll probably have a nice time with this one. It’s another scoop of the same gameplay seen several times before. This game isn’t doing anything wrong that all of the other games before it didn’t already do. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Six years down the line, and we’re getting the same old thoughtless PC ports from this publisher. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But when it does, I suspect it’s only by sheer chance. Nothing I can see here suggests that Ultimate considered how this game would play on this platform. The UI is dreadfully clumsy and obviously designed for a mouse. The text is small enough to be nearly illegible at times on the handheld screen. It’s buggy in a lot of weird ways.

It’s hardly surprising that Motorcyle Mechanic Simulator 2021 is as unpleasant to play on the Switch as it is. Most of these simulator games are, simply because they’re built around PC play and the proper considerations haven’t been made for the Switch’s input methods and display. If you can get your head around the terrible controls and user interface, you might have fun taking apart bikes, fixing them, and putting them back together again. But at the very least, I’d wait for a deep, deep discount.

SwitchArcade Score: 2/5

New Releases

Right and Down ($9.99)

This looks interesting. It’s a roguelite card game, and yes I know we have a lot of those, but this one has a gimmick wherein the moves you can make are right or down. Each turn you make that one choice and have to live or die with the results. The dungeons are randomly generated, but everything else in the game is fixed, so you have all the information you need to make the best choice at any given moment. There are several unlockable alternate heroes, tons of artifacts to unlock that can modify your abilities, and a total of nine different dungeons to tackle, each with an additional rule to mix things up. I haven’t had a chance to play this one yet, but it seems like a lot of fun to me.

Garden of Pets ($7.99)

They say that nature abhors a vacuum, and if there is one vacuum on the Switch that can be felt it is the lack of Nintendogs. So here is another game making an attempt to fill that hold, with a variety of different dog breeds to choose from and a number of activities you can engage in with them. You can also decorate the garden space they inhabit. It doesn’t look very fancy to me, but I suppose people can latch on to all kinds of things if they’re cute enough. But just having dogs when it says pets in the title? When will I get my leopard gecko pet-raising sim, hunh?

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Well, not much in either list today. Haiku, the Robot is pretty solid and that is its lowest price yet. Otherwise, I don’t have much to say. The New Year’s sales have truly subsided at this point, but I’m sure all of our wallets could use a rest anyway. For those looking to toss some cash, I’m sure we’ll find some reasons to do so later on in the week.

Select New Games on Sale

Haiku the Robot ($13.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
Pid ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
Furry Hentai Tangram ($2.00 from $2.99 until 1/30)
Hot Tentacles Shooter ($3.34 from $4.99 until 1/30)
Lonesome Village ($14.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
Floppy Knights ($13.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Overwatch 2: Watchpoint Pack ($23.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
LIT: Bend the Light ($5.60 from $8.00 until 2/12)
Mail Mole + Expansions ($9.99 from $14.99 until 2/13)
Package Inc ($4.49 from $4.99 until 2/13)
Alpaca Ball Allstars ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Discolored ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/13)
The Company Man ($12.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Classic Games Collection Vol.2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/13)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25th

Azure Saga Pathfinder Deluxe ($2.99 from $9.99 until 1/25)
Coffee Talk ($8.70 from $12.99 until 1/25)
Jade Order ($1.99 from $2.99 until 1/25)
Rage in Peace ($3.89 from $12.99 until 1/25)
She and the Light Bearer ($2.99 from $9.99 until 1/25)

That’s all for today, friends. I got my fifth vaccine shot today, and it’s my first Omicron one. I have absolutely no idea how hard the side effects will kick my booty, so I can’t guarantee we’ll have an article tomorrow. If I can crawl out of bed, I absolutely will do one. And if I do, you can look forward to more new releases and sales, plus whatever big news hits. I hope you all have a great Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 23rd, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve got a trio of reviews for you. We’ve got my thoughts on Persona 3 Portable and NeverAwake, while our pal Mikhail has a slick write-up of the excellent A Space for the Unbound. After that, we’ve got some new releases to check out, plus the usual lists of new and outgoing sales. Let’s get this party started!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Persona 3 Portable ($19.99)

So hey, I’m the person that likes Persona 3 best out of the last three games in the series. It’s me, I did it. I like the characters, I like their arcs, I like the main plot, and I like the friction in the game that was smoothed out of its follow-ups. It has a gutsy ending, and I think it’s a really cool game. I gave Persona 5 Royal a perfect five, so I guess that’s it then. Persona 3, five out of five, pack it up and head home.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. There are three versions of Persona 3, you see. I guess we can call this the fourth. First there was Persona 3 for PlayStation 2. Never buy the first version of a modern Persona game, friends. The following year saw the release of Persona 3 FES for the PlayStation 2. It added a wholly unnecessary epilogue called The Answer which, as after-the-fact epilogues often do, messed with the excellent ending of the base game. It also added some story bits to the main game, let you take Koromaru for walks, and tossed in some extra content and options here and there. Nothing from the original game was left behind in the process. It’s a great way to play Persona 3.

A couple of years later, Atlus decided to bring out a version of Persona 3 for the highly successful PlayStation Portable. While the impressive handheld often punched well above its weight, it didn’t have quite enough power or disc space for direct PlayStation 2 ports. So Atlus cut back on some elements of the original game, removing animated cut-scenes and swapping out the free-roaming movement for a more visual novel-like presentation. It also removed the epilogue from FES, while at the same time adding a new female version of the main character to give you a different perspective on the story complete with new social links. There were also a number of genuinely helpful quality of life improvements, like giving you the option of direct control over your party members.

That makes porting the game to modern consoles a tough matter. You can either bring over the PlayStation 2 FES and lose the female main character and all of the gameplay improvements of the PlayStation Portable version, or you can bring over Persona 3 Portable and lose both The Answer and the superior presentation of the PlayStation 2 game. There probably isn’t a choice here that will please everyone short of perhaps remaking the game so that it has the best of both worlds. Atlus has opted for Persona 3 Portable, upscaling the visuals and giving it a few tweaks to update it that much more.

I didn’t mind the sacrifices Persona 3 Portable made in its time and place too much, but that was more than a dozen years ago. I wish I could say I could look past the cutbacks, but I can’t. Not completely. It’s less atmospheric. You don’t feel the locations as well in Portable. The characters feel considerably less expressive. On top of all of that, the upscaling done on the backgrounds here doesn’t look very good. This may well be the worst I have ever seen any version of Persona 3 look. I love Persona 3, and I find it quite likely that for many new fans of the series, this will be their first brush with this entry, and frankly I think it deserved better.

That said, at its core this is still Persona 3. Still the same great characters, fascinating plot, challenging bosses, and enjoyable gameplay mechanics. Pushing farther and farther into the towering Tartarus is very satisfying, and you truly feel like you’re ascending an impossibly large dungeon piece by piece. There are lots of Social Links to develop, and some of the stories that spring from them are superb. The overall plot is twisty and at times heart-wrenching, and the ending is quite poignant. It’s a long haul to reach that ending, but I belive such journeys are best made on a handheld. The new quick save feature is perhaps the best new addition for this port, allowing you to quickly end your session whenever you might need to.

The trimmed-down-for-PSP presentation of Persona 3 Portable was an overall detriment to the game in 2009/2010, and it hurts it even more in 2023. Some nasty upscaling works against the stylish UI and excellent character art, and I do at least wish the removed animated cut-scenes had been reinstated for this version. Even with all of that in mind, this is still a great JRPG. Challenging, compelling gameplay mechanics combined with a strong story and a fantastic soundtrack make this an easy pick-up for fans of the genre and series alike, even if one can’t help but wish for a less compromised version.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

NeverAwake ($24.99)

There’s no doubt about it, NeverAwake is a very cool shooting game. I haven’t played anything else quite like it, and the most surprising thing is that for all of the unusual things it does, all of it works really well. The premise involves a girl who can’t wake up, but we’re in the dark about what happened to her at the outset. We have to navigate her nightmares, picking up souls and defeating the terrors that lurk within. The game spans more than eighty levels, which sounds like an absolutely bonkers number for a shooting game, but like I said, NeverAwake is a bit different from the norm.

The levels in NeverAwake are pretty short on the whole. After a couple of minutes at the most, they’ll loop back around to the start. Your goal isn’t to play through them, though. No, your goal is to gather up enough souls to bring your meter to 100%, a process that may take you less than a single lap if you know what you’re doing. Souls are often dropped by defeated enemies, but you’ll sometimes need to extract them by shooting a giant crystal or by defeating a boss. Clearing levels faster earns you better rewards and gives you a better place on the leaderboards.

As in a standard shoot-em-up, the levels scroll on their own. The controls are more akin to a twin-stick shooter, however. Use the left stick to move, the right to fire your regular attack, the left trigger for a useful dash, and the right trigger to use your equipped special attack. You can turn on an assist that helps you aim, or you can just go it on your own. As you play you’ll unlock various extra special attacks and gear pieces that convey a number of benefits, which you can buy with souls and equip in whatever combinations you desire. You’ll also unlock some other extras, with things being handed out to you at a steady pace to keep things lively. Oh, and you’ll also slowly be fed the game’s plot, which is rather intriguing.

NeverAwake plays well, has a fascinating, strong sense of style, and is very unique. Its brief levels meant I ended up devouring the game like a bowl of popcorn, and I had a blast with every minute of it. The story and sense of wonder at what bizarre situation I would wade into next kept me going to the end, and the unlockable challenges and leaderboards brought me back for more still. If you like shooting games, action games, or twin-stick shooters, you’ll want to put NeverAwake on your shopping list.

SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5

A Space for the Unbound ($19.99)

A Space for the Unbound from Mojiken and Toge Productions caught my eye ever since its original reveal. I’m a sucker for narrative driven adventures set in small towns, and the pixel art aesthetic in A Space for the Unbound was just the icing on the cake in every trailer. It features two high schoolers, supernatural abilities, secrets, the end of the world, and more. This is also the first game I’ve played since Sega’s Lost Judgment to tackle some important topics well.

Since A Space for the Unbound is a story-driven experience, I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises or story. I was surprised and pleased with how well it handled many important topics. In its dozen or so hours of runtime, I only found myself feeling annoyed with a few portions of the middle of the experience. I often find myself being let down by the gameplay portion of these kinds of games, and while that aspect is straightforward, it could’ve used some fine-tuning in its pacing there. The story itself elevates this quite a bit, and that’s what makes this an essential.

Visually, A Space for the Unbound is mostly amazing. The pixel art is gorgeous, and a lot of the animations and environments look brilliant. Some elements look a bit off compared to how well-designed everything else is in A Space for the Unbound. On the performance side of things, A Space for the Unbound isn’t perfect on Nintendo Switch, but the performance issues I ran into weren’t a dealbreaker.

One aspect I wanted to highlight for the Switch port of A Space for the Unbound is the support for the Switch’s touchscreen. I love when you can progress dialogue by tapping the screen in handheld mode, and A Space for the Unbound having support for it was great. A Space for the Unbound also looks sublime on the Switch’s OLED screen despite the lower resolution. This is definitely a game worth grabbing a physical release for on Nintendo Switch.

While a few of the gameplay portions in the middle dragged a bit too much, A Space for the Unbound is one of the best narrative driven indie games I’ve played. Despite not having been to Indonesia which inspires the setting, the storytelling, characters, and atmosphere all felt perfect. It reminded me of how I felt playing The Kids We Were and Persona 4 Golden in that sense. If you enjoy memorable stories and great characters, A Space for the Unbound is an easy recommendation on Nintendo Switch. -Mikhail Madnani

SwitchArcade Score: 4.5/5

New Releases

Demolish & Build Classic ($14.99)

Here’s another one from Ultimate Games. You take charge of a construction and demolition company and need to take on various jobs to earn money and grow. There are a number of machines to use, an open world you can explore, a number of missions to complete, and a few different gameplay mechanics to deal with. There’s a certain pleasure to breaking things in any game, and I’d imagine this is no different in that regard.

Kindergarten Buddy Edition ($19.99)

This packs both Kindergarten and Kindergarten 2 into one convenient package, bringing the games to the Nintendo Switch for the first time. These games are absolutely beloved by folks over on Steam, so I’d imagine they will go over fine with the Switch crowd too. You’re in kindergarten, reliving the same day again and again. Interact with the teachers and other students, explore when and where you can, and just see what weird stuff you can find. Be advised that it gets a little bloody, and there’s a lot of crude humor and such. Just like a real kindergarten.

Magic Klondike ($4.99)

This is just a basic Klondike solitaire game that allows you to pick from a variety of card backs and table themes. I’m not sure if anyone needs another Klondike solitaire game at this point, and there are better options if you’re looking for your first one on the system.

Elta7 ($5.49)

This is a roguelite shooter that looks to have twin-stick controls. It seems to have the usual assortment of features for a game of this sort, with its primary distinguishing feature being its futuristic setting that sees you as part of a resistance against an oppressive force known as Skynet. With a premise as original as that, I can’t really see how it could go wrong.

Beach Cafe: Caribbean Sand ($3.99)

Cooking & Publishing has a low-cost escape room-style adventure game for us today. It is set in an abandoned beach cafe and sees you investigating the disappearance of your grandfather. I’ll give them the smallest benefit of the doubt that this isn’t just a template from the Unity Asset Store flipped onto the eShop, but it doesn’t look much better than that.

Frido ($4.99)

A fairly straightforward 3D platformer with ten stages to play. It doesn’t seem to be of the highest quality, but I suppose for the price it’s asking one can expect a little bit of roughness. You play as a robot time traveler who is trying to return to its own time, which is a cute enough premise.

Santa Claus Goblins Attack ($9.99)

Alright, who ordered the month-late bullet hell shoot-em-up with Santa Claus in an old war plane battling an army of goblins? Because that is an oddly specific thing to ask for, but here it is. Other than the bizarre premise, this is a fairly basic vertically-scrolling shooter that features an upgrade system to power up your weapons and shields as you go. I can’t imagine buying or playing this with the wealth of top-tier shooters on the platform, but I’m sure it will be someone’s jam.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Some lesser-seen games in the inbox today. Nothing that jumps out at me in any significant sense, but feel free to take a careful look through the list and see what catches your eye. Not a whole lot in the outbox, but JellyCar Worlds is wrapping up its first post-launch sale and might be of interest to some of you.

Select New Games on Sale

Youkai Poetry ($4.49 from $6.99 until 1/30)
Lily of the Hollow Resurrection ($4.49 from $6.99 until 1/30)
Gaokao.Love.100Days ($6.49 from $11.99 until 1/30)
Reverse Memories ($4.49 from $6.99 until 1/30)
The Jackbox Party Pack 2 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 2/1)
Revertia ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Joggernauts ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Double Cross ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Restless Soul ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Bite the Bullet ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Lila’s Sky Ark ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Mable & The Wood ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Blue Fire ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
The King’s Bird ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)

Luna the Shadow Dust ($14.99 from $19.99 until 2/4)
Rhythm Fighter ($12.74 from $16.99 until 2/4)
Dying: Reborn ($7.49 from $9.99 until 2/4)
Necrobarista Final Pour ($16.49 from $21.99 until 2/4)
Chinese Parents ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/4)
Christmas Tina ($20.24 from $26.99 until 2/4)
Hatchwell ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/5)
Brutal Chase Turbo ($2.79 from $13.99 until 2/6)
The Unexpected Quest ($5.25 from $15.00 until 2/9)
In My Shadow ($7.20 from $12.00 until 2/9)
Toki Tori ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Toki Tori 2+ ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Swords & Soldiers ($1.99 from $7.49 until 2/10)
RIVE: Ultimate Edition ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/10)
Swap This! ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/10)
Trenches ($7.99 from $9.99 until 2/10)
Brawlout ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/11)
Crypt of the NecroDancer ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/12)
Extreme Snowboard ($5.99 from $7.99 until 2/12)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 24th

Blood Will Be Spilled ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/24)
Feudal Alloy ($1.99 from $16.99 until 1/24)
Ghost Grab 3000 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/24)
JellyCar Worlds ($6.79 from $7.99 until 1/24)
Rising Hell ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/24)
Singled Out ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/24)
Switch ‘N’ Shoot ($1.99 from $4.59 until 1/24)
Tyd wag vir Niemand ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/24)
When the Past Was Around ($4.24 from $8.49 until 1/24)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, a couple more reviews, and perhaps some news. Who all is playing Fire Emblem Engage? Are you enjoying it? Let me know in the comments, if you’re that-way inclined. I hope you all have a great Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 20th, 2023. When I went home last night, I expected there to be about a dozen new releases to talk about today. Imagine my surprise when I came in this morning and saw more than twenty. Some great, some highly dubious, some intriguing. We’ve got summaries of all of them, with Fire Emblem Engage obviously leading the pack. Throw in a healthy list of new sales and the expiring discounts for the weekend and you’ve got a packed line-up. Let’s get to it!

New Releases

Fire Emblem Engage ($59.99)

In the realm of Elyos, an evil creature known as the Fell Dragon was defeated one thousand years ago through the cooperation of heroes from across various worlds. The land has known peace since then, but recent signs indicate that the Fell Dragon may have just been pining for the fjords the whole time. This Fire Emblem game puts more focus on the combat and less on the side stuff when compared to Three Houses, which is a decision that some folks may not like but others will be thrilled with. What does Shaun think? I’ll let you know when I review this one soon.

Colossal Cave ($39.99)

I really don’t know what to do with this. When I heard that legendary video game pioneers Roberta and Ken Williams were coming out of their decades-long retirement to make a remake of the seminal 1976 adventure game Colossal Cave, I had assumed they were using the original game as a source of inspiration or jumping-off point for a whole new thing. But no, this is really Colossal Cave in all of its 1976 glory, rendered with decent but not great 3D graphics. The puzzles are familiar. The rules are familiar. Instead of reading the text, you hear the narration. Instead of typing in your actions, you have a more modern way of interacting with the environment and its objects. But this is shockingly faithful to the original, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I’m also not sure if the 3D graphics replacing the text descriptions is a friend or foe. I might have a review, if I can sort my thoughts out.

OmegaBot ($12.99)

In this side-scrolling action game you play as a robot that makes its way through a futuristic, mechanized world in search of a means to end the curse that threatens life itself. As you battle bosses and clear areas, you’ll earn new weapons and abilities to aid you. It’s quite well-made and you can really feel the passion of the developer in its details. Definitely worth checking out for fans of the genre.

Pixel Game Maker Series Pentacore ($9.99)

This game isn’t shy about what it’s paying homage to. It’s a Metroid-like where you have to try to escape a world filled with deadly hazards and murderous monsters. You don’t know how you got here but you have to find a way out. Explore, locate upgrades, and see if you can uncover the method for finding the secret ending. Not a bad little Metroid-style adventure for the price.

Chronicles of Albian: The Magic Convention ($11.99)

Another one of those hidden object adventure games from the folks at Ocean Media. A magical convention is being held at Albian Castle, and the Fairy Godmother Gwendolyn has asked for your help with the preparations. Find hidden treasures, fix everything up, and make sure the castle is up to the high standards of the hoity-toity magicians who will soon be arriving.

Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 ($19.99)

2021, eh? That takes me back. Terrible year, but at least it had a Spider-Man movie. At any rate, this is another one of Ultimate’s mechanic games. Fix the bikes, get paid, upgrade your garage, lather, rinse, repeat. As usual the UI seems designed for a monitor and mouse, with teeny-tiny text that is unpleasant to read on the handheld screen. This is how this publisher has done things on Switch for years, so I guess I shouldn’t expect them to suddenly start fixing things. Maybe they should make Switch Port Simulator 2017 to get the hang of it?

Drift & Drive ($12.99)

Another BoomHits driving game, with more or less the same structure as all of them. Drive various vehicles, complete various missions, and explore a decent-sized area. There’s a focus on drifting here, but otherwise it’s very familiar. I’m at the point where I wonder how many of these we need, but if they keep coming that means that someone must be buying them and enjoying them. So shine on, my friends.

Gardenia ($14.99)

This is a curious little game. It’s a first-person adventure where you’re doing all kinds of things to help out the residents of an island, all while trying to find the source of the pollution and litter that keeps popping up. Your stamina is limited each day, like in a farming sim, and you’ve got various side quests to solve. The game has a bizarre sense of humor that is really quite charming, and that I think that helps it stand out in what is becoming a real crowd of slow life simulations.

Critical Zone ($2.99)

A party game-style brawler for up to four players via local multiplayer. Indeed, I can’t tell if there is any solo play mode here at all. Choose from more than twenty different characters, all loosely based on various historical figures, and fight it out on eleven different planets. Each planet has its own properties, adding some variety to the gameplay. It doesn’t look all that great, but for three bucks I suppose it doesn’t have to.

Deep Space Shooter ($3.99)

A four-dollar vertical shoot-em-up, and it looks and plays like it. You get twenty-four levels to blast through, plus an endless mode to keep you playing after you’ve finished the game. I’ve seen far worse things, but it’s really hard to justify buying something like this when an absolute treasure trove of great shooters are waiting in the Arcade Archives line for just a few bucks more.

Escape to the Ocean ($11.50)

A port of a rather shabby free-to-play mobile behind-the-back auto-runner, albeit with some of the IAP included in the upfront purchase price. Give it a try on your mobile device if you want to get a taste, but at least in my opinion it just doesn’t play very well at all. About the nicest thing I can say about it is that it looks okay visually. There are better ways to spend your money today, no doubt. Worse ways too, mind you.

Xposed Switched ($9.99)

This is basically another game inspired by Taito’s QIX. Carve out portions of the screen to reveal the backgrounds, and when you reach a certain percentage you’ll clear the stage. Notable in that this is the rare QIX clone that doesn’t hide saucy pictures in the background. Instead you get meme pictures, landscapes, evil clowns, and such.

Harem Girl Isabella ($2.99)

Another one of those Gamuzumi puzzle games where you just need to rearrange and rotate the tiles to complete the pictures. Some of them are a little spicy, but there isn’t anything too adult. I tend to prefer puzzles with a little more texture to them, but I suppose if you like the art then three bucks is a reasonable ask for this kind of affair. Probably a spicier version on Steam if you can’t work out how to find naked ladies on Google for free.

Trenches ($9.99)

A survival horror game with an unusual premise, Trenches sees you in the role of a soldier caught behind enemy lines in World War I. You’re unarmed and all you have with you is a trench whistle. The whistle’s sound will guide you to where you need to go, but you have to be careful because if an enemy soldier hears it, you’re as good as done for. Be cautious, be quiet, and try not to lose your cool. There’s no room for a gun-toting hero who takes on an entire army in this game. Seems interesting, if not necessarily my kind of thing.

Demon Hunter: New Chapter ($14.99)

Another Artifex Mundi hidden object adventure game, and another chapter in its Demon Hunter series. This one sees a doctor reach out to Dawn Harlock, claiming he knows about her mysterious past. The truth can be a dangerous thing, something Dawn may come to know all too well. I’m sure if you’ve enjoyed the previous Demon Hunter games, you’ll also have fun with this one.

Through the Years ($9.99)

Oh, BoomHits is doing something unrelated to cars. That’s unusual. This is a very basic simulation game where you start off as a caveman gathering resources and move, portal by portal, through history. I haven’t been able to play it, but I’d expect it to be about on par quality-wise with other BoomHits games.

Menhera Girls Ensemble – Needy Girlfriends – ($19.90)

Wow, that’s… that’s something. ‘Menhera‘ is a somewhat rude word in Japanese and translates to something like ‘nutjob’ or ‘lunatic’, but the eShop description has opted to just go with ‘mental’. That’s a choice. Anyway, this is a visual novel where all three heroines are kind of obsessed with the protagonist, who himself can’t seem to walk away from people in need. Is there any way for this bunch to come to a happy ending? It seems like another game with a poor localization, so even if you’re interested in the concept you may want to tread carefully.

Mischief Dungeon Life Dorothy Edition ($7.99)

Mischief Dungeon Life Clara Edition ($7.99)

Mischief Dungeon Life Janice Edition ($7.99)

Mischief Dungeon Life Satsuki Edition ($7.99)

A bit over a year ago, a visual novel called Mischief Dungeon Life came out on Switch. Twenty bucks, five different ladies to romance, you know how it works. Well, if you want a version of that game that focuses on just one route, here you go. Four of the five ladies from that game have been split off into their own eight-dollar game. This does not feel like an especially good deal to me, but do what you will. I’m not the governor of your piggy bank.

Peachy Boy ($3.99)

Weakfish takes a swing at the single-screen action-puzzler genre with this game. There are thirty levels in total, and your goal in each is to guide Peachy Boy to the key and then to the exit. There are various obstacles, hazards, and gimmicks to deal with along the way. It seems fine enough for what it is.

Arcade Machine: Clown Hunt ($2.49)

A pretty basic shooting gallery-style game where you have to blast away clowns. Play it alone or pull in a friend for some local multiplayer fun. Not much more to it than that.

Simple Mini Golf 3D ($3.99)

More trash from Benjamin Kistler. Leave it in the garbage pail where it belongs.

Midnight Runner – Blade Galaxy Beat Puzzle Legacy 3D Games Ultimate Edition ($2.99)

More trash from Midnight Works. Leave it in the garbage pail where it belongs.

Counter Bottle Shooter – Pro Aim Master Target Bottle Shoot 3D Game Strike Pistol ($3.99)

More trash from VG Games. Leave it in the garbage pail where it belongs.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

So what do we have in the inbox today? The usual sales from Electronic Arts, Capcom, and Ubisoft for starters. That said, there are some new low prices among them so even if they’re the usual fare they are still worth checking out. Also note Huntdown at four bucks. Not a new low price for it or anything, but it is a very good value. Nothing in the outbox is speaking loudly to me, but give it a look anyway.

Select New Games on Sale

Retro Highway ($2.99 from $5.99 until 1/27)
Bloodwash ($7.99 from $9.99 until 1/27)
Super Korotama ($2.49 from $4.99 until 1/30)
Naught ($2.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
Steamroll Rustless Edition ($2.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Oxide Room 104 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 1/30)
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit ($7.99 from $39.99 until 1/31)
Super Mega Baseball 3 ($13.49 from $44.99 until 1/31)
Lost in Random ($5.99 from $29.99 until 1/31)
Fe ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/31)
Plants vs Zombies BfN CE ($7.99 from $39.99 until 1/31)
Huntdown ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen ($9.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 0 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)

Resident Evil ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 4 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 5 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil 6 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil Revelations ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Resident Evil Revelations 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Generation Ult. ($11.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak DLC ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Stories 2 ($19.99 from $59.99 until 2/2)
Monster Hunter Stories 2 Deluxe ($24.49 from $69.99 until 2/2)
Onimusha Warlords ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Capcom Arcade Stadium 1+2+3 DLC ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/2)
Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Shinsekai Into the Depths ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection ($34.99 from $59.99 until 2/2)

Mega Man 11 ($9.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man X Legacy Collection ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Devil May Cry ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary ($11.99 from $29.99 until 2/2)
Unbound Worlds Apart ($6.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Immortals Fenyx Rising ($11.99 from $59.99 until 2/3)
Immortals Fenyx Rising Season Pass DLC ($15.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Valiant Hearts The Great War ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Monopoly ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Family Feud ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Legendary Fishing ($4.49 from $29.99 until 2/3)

Wheel of Fortune ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Trivial Pursuit Live 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Trials Rising ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Scott Pilgrim vs The World ($4.94 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Rabbids: Party of Legends ($15.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Assassin’s Creed Ezio Collection ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Child of Light UE ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Hungry Shark World ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/3)
MotoGP 20 ($2.49 from $24.99 until 2/3)
Poly Link Origins ($1.99 from $2.99 until 2/6)
Evil Tonight ($12.74 from $14.99 until 2/9)
Dog Gone Golfing ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Always Sometimes Monsters ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)
Kamikaze Veggies ($9.09 from $12.99 until 2/9)
Burger Patrol ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
Omega Labyrinth Life ($23.99 from $59.99 until 2/9)
Bakumatsu Renka Shinsengumi ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/9)
Goblin Sword ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
Vampire the Masquerade NY Bundle ($5.79 from $28.99 until 2/9)
Karma Knight ($2.06 from $8.99 until 2/10)
Drift & Drive ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/10)

Sales Ending This Weekend

8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adv. ($3.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Aeon Must Die ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Aery Path of Corruption ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/23)
American Fugitive ($1.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Call of Cthulhu ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Curse of the Dead Gods ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Faircroft’s Antiques TML CE ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)
Finding America: TH CE ($8.49 from $9.99 until 1/21)
First Time in Paris CE ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)
First Time in Rome CE ($10.19 from $11.99 until 1/21)
Go Rally ($14.99 from $20.00 until 1/21)
Grappling Dash ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/23)
Hotshot Racing ($2.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Human: Fall Flat ($5.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
I Love Finding More Pups CE ($5.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)

Invocation: Festival of Souls ($2.02 from $6.99 until 1/21)
Ki11er Clutter ($5.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)
Love 3 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)
Masters of Anima ($2.09 from $6.99 until 1/21)
Metal Unit ($3.99 from $15.99 until 1/21)
Montgomery Fox & tCotDN ($12.74 from $14.99 until 1/21)
Montgomery Fox & tCotMB ($12.74 from $14.99 until 1/21)
Montgomery Fox & tRoVD ($12.74 from $14.99 until 1/21)
Othercide ($14.99 from $29.99 until 1/21)
Shady Part of Me ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/21)
Smoke & Sacrifice ($3.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
SnowRunner ($23.99 from $39.99 until 1/21)
Tankorama ($6.99 from $9.99 until 1/21)
Unsouled ($5.59 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Vampyr ($13.99 from $39.99 until 1/21)

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: SG ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/21)
Bush Hockey League ($9.59 from $15.99 until 1/22)
Family Mysteries 2: EoT ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Family Mysteries 3: CM ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Family Mysteries: PP ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Journey To The Blue Mountain ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/22)
Police Sim 22 ($14.99 from $19.99 until 1/22)
The Kingdom of Gardenia ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/22)

That’s all for today and this week, friends. We’ll be back next week with some reviews, more new releases, a bunch of sales, and maybe some news if it pops up. I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me. I need to wrap up Persona 4 Golden and keep plowing through Fire Emblem Engage. I never expected January of all months to be this crowded. I hope you all have a nice weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 19th, 2023. It’s Thursday, and that means we’ve got a lot of new releases to look at. For the first time this year, I’d say this is actually a really impressive lot of games. Probably more here I want to buy than I actually have money to buy. And tomorrow will add even more to the pile! Oh dear. After the usual summaries, we head over to the sales section to see what’s old and new. Let’s get to business!

New Releases

Persona 3 Portable ($19.99)

Persona 3 is the game that established the tone and style of the latter part of the series, but there’s a good chance those who came in with Persona 4 or Persona 5 haven’t played it yet. It’s a great JRPG, and this enhanced port of the PSP version of the game is a decent way to experience it. You lose some of the presentation punch of the PlayStation 2 version, but it’s far more user-friendly and offers the choice of a female protagonist who has her own social links to master. The upscaling here is a little iffy in places, but it’s hard to go wrong here for twenty bucks.

Persona 4 Golden ($19.99)

Odds are good, however, that you’re more interested in this one. Here’s an enhanced port of the Vita version of Persona 4, also known as the one that got the Western market to pay attention to the series. Another top-shelf JRPG, and this one upscales a lot more cleanly than Persona 3 Portable. I’ll have a review of both of these games soon, but I can say upfront that the ports are well-done and if you like RPGs at all you really should play both of these games.

NeverAwake ($24.99)

This is a twin-stick scrolling shoot-em-up whose eighty-plus stages are all drawn from the nightmares of a young girl. That means you’re going to be fighting a lot of vegetables, dogs, and dentists among other things. But they’re all weirded up, because they’re the nightmare versions of them. Each level is relatively short, giving this a lot of pick up and play appeal. As you put more time into the game, you’ll unlock more power-ups and upgrades to help smooth out the difficulty curve if needed. Heck, it even has a story that is worth paying attention to. This game has gotten a lot of praise on other platforms, and it’s easy to see why.

Graze Counter GM ($14.99)

Here’s a vertically-scrolling bullet hell shooter that, as you could probably guess from the name, places a strong emphasis on getting as dangerously close to danger as you can without getting thwacked. Graze the enemy bullets to fill up your Counter Gauge, which you can then use to trigger some more powerful attacks. Enemies destroyed by those will leave behind stars that fill up your Break Gauge, and when that is full you can enter a special mode that temporarily enhances your abilities. Seven stages to play, more than a dozen unlockable ships to go with the default duo, and a bunch of modes add up to a really slick package for shoot-em-up fans.

A Space for the Unbound ($19.99)

Lots of good games today, I tell you. This one is an adventure game set in a small rural Indonesian town in the 1990s, where a supernatural event threatens the existence of a pair of high school sweethearts. They’ll have to investigate the town, talk to its residents, and unwind its mysteries if they want to get to the bottom of what’s happening to them. Mikhail’s going to have a review of this one for us fairly soon, so do look forward to that.

Void Prison ($2.99)

Void Prison is a very simple game, but a very satisfying one. It’s a twin-stick shooter where your aim is to survive as long as you can. How it differs from the usual game of this sort is that enemies won’t actually kill you they hit you. Instead, they’ll push you. You see, the whole game takes place in a circular field that is constantly fluctuating in size. If you touch the edge, you’re dead. Some enemies leave behind temporary power-ups to give you a bit of a breather, but things get pretty chaotic in a hurry. For the price, it’s a lovely pick-up.

Arcade Archives Tank Force ($7.99)

The follow-up to Tank Battalion and Battle City takes its second spin on the Nintendo Switch after being part of the Namco Museum collection released in the console’s first year. This has all the usual Arcade Archives features, and includes both the two-player and four-player variants of the game. It adds new enemies and boss battles to the familiar formula, but otherwise sticks to what worked in the previous games. Unless you’re very interested in some of the Arcade Archives-specific extras, you’re probably better off buying the frequently-on-sale Namco Museum if you want the best value for your money.

Last Command ($14.99)

This is an unusual mix of bullet hell dodging and the classic Snake game. Avoid the enemy attacks and pick up the Data Points to throw some damage back in return. Collect power-ups to give yourself a better chance at survival, and make use of your dash ability to quickly zip out of harm’s way. It’s a hard one to explain in words, but if you check a video of it you’ll see what it’s like pretty quickly.

A Matter of Principle ($3.99)

Touted as an interactive comic novel, A Matter of Principle follows the lives of Gavrilo Princip and Franz Ferdinand during the events leading up to moment when the former assassinated the latter and sparked the first world war. The art looks good, and I’m sure a lot of folks will find this a very educational experience. The low price certainly helps justify what is likely a one-and-done playthrough. One for the folks looking to study a bit of history today, I suppose.

Smilemo ($9.99)

A challenging platformer featuring a little fellow named Smilemo. Make your way through the stages and collect the vaccine code to defeat the virus that is threatening the world. If you so much as touch anything infected with the virus, you’ll be sent flying back, continually bouncing as you hit previous obstacles. Absolutely infuriating stuff, but it’s easy to see why some have gotten very into it in its computer form. If you want a sadistic precision platformer today, this might be what you’re after.

Car Parking Multiplayer ($29.99)

Bloody audacious, I’ll give them that. This is a port of a free-to-play mobile game, which you might be able to tell by the fact that you can’t play it in TV mode. Thirty dollars. They want thirty dollars for this. They didn’t remove the in-app purchases, and you can still buy consumable coins. Go give it a try on your mobile device of choice, and if after that you feel like dropping ten bucks more than a whole-butt Persona game on this low-effort port, then so be it. I am not the mayor of your wallet.

Zumiman ($3.00)

The poorly-translated game description can’t decide whether the hero of this game is called Zumiman or Zoomyman, but I’m going to keep using Zumiman. Anyway, you control Zumiman. He uses water balloons that explode like bombs and splash the area with water. You need to use these to navigate the stages and defeat enemies. You can probably sort out which game this top-down action-puzzler pays homage to. It has fifty levels and three different difficulty levels to play on.

Minimal Move ($11.99)

This is a puzzle game where you have to use two characters, each with their own unique skill, to solve each stage and make it to the exit. Kaiten can rotate blocks and Ido can move blocks side to side or up and down. You can control both characters alone or pull in a friend for some local co-op multiplayer. If you enjoy block-pusher puzzles, you might want to have a closer look at this. It seems well-made enough, though I haven’t had a chance to put hands on it myself.

Rubber Bandits ($9.99)

A party game for up to four players via local or online multiplayer, Rubber Bandits sees you avoiding traps and escaping from the police as you try to grab as much loot as you can. The reviews for this are solid on other platforms so unless the developers have made some sort of grievous error in porting this to the Switch, party game fans should consider dropping a tenner to add another amusing game to their rotation.

Hack and Shoot Heroes ($3.99)

The screenshots and description almost make this seem like a halfway competent effort, but then you see it’s a Benjamin Kistler game and all hope fades. Choose from six different heroes and try to fend off the hordes for as long as you can. Survive long enough and you’ll get to face off against the boss. There are three stages to complete. You can get different weapons and persistent upgrades, as is the style in this kind of game. Not fancy dining.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Nobody Saves the World has a new free update you should check out if you have the game. And if you don’t, it’s on sale right now. So… you know, do what you will there. Bandai Namco has a bunch of games on sale, and there are also a bunch of indie games discounted. Over in the outbox, the brief sale on Dragon Quest Treasures is coming to an end. Act now or wait until the next sale, which might be a ways off. There will be a lot more sales to consider tomorrow, so don’t blow all of your cash right now.

Select New Games on Sale

Nobody Saves the World ($14.99 from $24.99 until 1/30)
Nobody Saves the World Frozen Hearth DLC ($3.99 from $4.99 until 1/30)
Nobody Saves the World Bundle ($18.19 from $27.99 until 1/30)
Disney Tsum Tsum Festival ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Doraemon Story of Seasons FotGK ($37.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Doraemon Story of Seasons FotGK SE ($44.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
SD Gundam Battle Alliance Deluxe ($59.49 from $84.99 until 2/1)
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris ($34.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Sword Art Online Hollow Realization DE ($7.49 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Captain Tsubasa RoNC ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythm Festival Deluxe ($40.14 from $54.99 until 2/1)
QuickSpot ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adv. All-Star BR Deluxe ($48.99 from $69.99 until 2/1)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Pac-Man 99 Mode Unlock ($9.74 from $14.99 until 2/1)

Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Dragon Ball FighterZ ($8.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
My Hero One’s Justice Deluxe ($19.99 from $79.99 until 2/1)
Super Dragon Ball Heroes WM ($8.99 from $59.99 until 2/1)
One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 Deluxe ($17.99 from $89.99 until 2/1)
The Lost Labyrinth ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Secrets of Magic 4: Potion Master ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Secrets of Magic 5: BtS ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Queen’s Garden Sakura Season ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
AngerForce: Reloaded ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
My Downtown ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/2)
Graze Counter GM ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/3)
Casual Challenge Players’ Club ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Super Jagger Bomb ($3.49 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Rule No.1 ($4.19 from $5.99 until 2/3)

Project Starship ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/3)
Cake Invaders ($2.99 from $5.99 until 2/3)
Dead End Job ($4.24 from $16.99 until 2/8)
Gamedec Definitive Edition ($4.99 from $29.99 until 2/8)
Arise A Simple Story Definitive Edition ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/8)
Splatter Zombiecalypse Now ($2.99 from $7.99 until 2/8)
Rigid Force Redux ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/8)
Truberbrook ($5.99 from $29.99 until 2/8)
Vambrace Cold Soul ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/8)
Windscape ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/8)
Glitch’s Trip ($2.59 from $12.99 until 2/8)
Bridge Constructor Ultimate ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/8)
Bridge Constructor Portal ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/8)
Bridge Constructor Walking Dead ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/8)
Gigapocalypse ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/8)

The Inner World ($2.39 from $11.99 until 2/8)
The Inner World: Last Wind Monk ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/8)
Slime-San ($3.59 from $11.99 until 2/8)
Beautiful Desolation ($1.99 from $19.99 until 2/8)
Silver Chains ($4.99 from $24.99 until 2/8)
Wings of Bluestar ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/8)
Funghi Explosion ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/9)
EDF World Brothers Deluxe ($39.59 from $59.99 until 2/9)
Samurai Maiden ($47.99 from $59.99 until 2/9)
Abyss of the Sacrifice ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/9)
The Little Acre ($4.89 from $12.99 until 2/9)
Sherlock Holmes & Hound of Baskervilles ($6.49 from $12.99 until 2/9)
The Sinking City Deluxe ($12.99 from $64.99 until 2/9)
Miles & Kilo ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/9)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, January 20th

1971 Project Helios ($8.99 from $19.99 until 1/20)
Attack on Beetle ($2.99 from $5.99 until 1/20)
Axiom Verge ($7.99 from $19.99 until 1/20)
Baila Latino ($5.99 from $9.99 until 1/20)
Camper Van Simulator 2 ($7.79 from $12.99 until 1/20)
Cresteaju ($3.49 from $6.99 until 1/20)
Dragon Quest Treasures ($49.79 from $59.99 until 1/20)
Dragon Quest Treasures Deluxe ($53.94 from $64.99 until 1/20)
Espacio Cosmic Light-Seeker ($2.26 from $3.49 until 1/20)
Pocoyo Party ($13.49 from $29.99 until 1/20)
Sine Mora EX ($1.99 from $29.99 until 1/20)
Super Crush KO ($3.70 from $14.99 until 1/20)
X-Force Genesis ($2.00 from $7.00 until 1/20)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with another healthy list of new releases, with the leader of the pack being Fire Emblem Engage. We’ll have summaries of all of those new titles, plus whatever sales and big news items come our way in the interim. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to a slightly shorter SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 18th, 2023. As readers of yesterday’s article may know, I had to go to the fancy hospital today. Nothing too serious, but it ate up a good chunk of my day. Enough that I didn’t have time to do any reviews. That wouldn’t be a problem if it hadn’t been an otherwise slow day today, but here we are. One new release, though it looks like a decent one. We also have the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts to round things out. Such is how it goes sometimes. Let’s look at what we’ve got!

New Releases

Wings of Bluestar ($14.99)

Phew, another indie side-scrolling bullet hell shooter. I haven’t had the chance to play this one yet, but I’ve watched some videos and it certainly looks sound enough mechanically. There’s a heavy story emphasis in the game, and you’ll be treated to plenty of cutscenes and story as you make your way through its eight stages. There are two different pilots to choose from, and their ships have their own properties. You can also upgrade your weapons as you go. Throw in an assortment of unlockables and you have something shooter fans might want to have a closer look at. I know I will.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

A bit of the usual WB Games stuff in today’s list of new sales. It’s never a bad day to pick up LEGO Star Wars, Mortal Kombat 11, or LEGO City Undercover if you don’t happen to have them already. Beyond that, there are several indie games on sale. The outbox has several Arcade Archives games in it that may or may not ever be on sale again, and the cool dungeon crawling RPG Demon Gaze Extra is a great grab if you’re looking for some grinding fun. Check both of those lists as always.

Select New Games on Sale

Rising Hell ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/24)
When the Past Was Around ($4.24 from $8.49 until 1/24)
She and the Light Bearer ($2.99 from $9.99 until 1/25)
Azure Saga Pathfinder Deluxe ($2.99 from $9.99 until 1/25)
Coffee Talk ($8.70 from $12.99 until 1/25)
Rage in Peace ($3.89 from $12.99 until 1/25)
Disney Dreamlight Valley Deluxe ($34.99 from $49.99 until 1/31)
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga ($29.99 from $59.99 until 2/6)
LEGO DC Super-Villains Deluxe ($11.24 from $74.99 until 2/6)
LEGO City Undercover ($5.99 from $29.99 until 2/6)
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 Deluxe ($8.99 from $44.99 until 2/6)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame ($5.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
Scribblenauts Mega Pack ($5.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/6)
Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath DLC ($11.99 from $39.99 until 2/6)
Purrs in Heaven ($1.99 from $6.99 until 2/7)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, January 19th

39 Days to Mars ($10.04 from $14.99 until 1/19)
ACA NEOGEO Aero Fighters 2 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/19)
ACA NEOGEO Burning Fight ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/19)
ACA NEOGEO Metal Slug 4 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/19)
ACA NEOGEO Samurai Shodown ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/19)
ACA NEOGEO Super Sidekicks ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/19)
Acalesia ($2.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)
Best Month Ever ($12.99 from $19.99 until 1/19)
Big Pharma ($4.99 from $29.99 until 1/19)
Buried Stars ($13.49 from $44.99 until 1/19)
Castle on the Coast ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/19)
Cozy Grove ($8.91 from $14.99 until 1/19)
Demon Gaze Extra ($29.99 from $59.99 until 1/19)
Effie ($5.99 from $19.99 until 1/19)
Epic Dumpster Bear 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)

Freshly Frosted ($7.29 from $9.99 until 1/19)
Golazo! ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/19)
Help Will Come Tomorrow ($2.99 from $19.99 until 1/19)
JankBrain ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)
Lanternium ($3.00 from $9.99 until 1/19)
Lord of the Click ($2.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)
May’s Mysteries TSoD ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/19)
Of Tanks and Demons III ($2.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)
orbit.industries ($11.99 from $19.99 until 1/19)
Riverbond ($6.24 from $24.99 until 1/19)
Roundguard ($6.39 from $19.99 until 1/19)
Sail Forth ($17.59 from $19.99 until 1/19)
That’s a Cow ($1.99 from $5.99 until 1/19)
The Amazing American Circus ($5.99 from $19.99 until 1/19)
This is the Zodiac Speaking ($2.99 from $12.99 until 1/19)
Tumblestone ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/19)
Weedcraft Inc ($19.99 from $24.99 until 1/19)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a bunch of new releases, including some little RPGs called Persona or some such. There should also be more sales, and I’ve heard from a little bird that our pal Mikhail may have a review for us. We’ll see how it goes. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 17th, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve got a review of Joymasher and The Arcade Crew’s slick 16-bit action homage Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. After that, there are a few new releases to look at, and the usual lists of new and expiring discounts on the eShop. Not the busiest of days, but the end of the week will make up for it. Let’s get to work!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider ($16.99)

Moonrider is developer Joymasher’s fourth release on the Nintendo Switch, following Oniken, Odallus, and Blazing Chrome. I wish I could say it was exactly on par with the latter, as Blazing Chrome was one of the better stabs at the run-and-gun genre I’ve seen from an indie developer. Moonrider isn’t quite that good, falling closer on the spectrum to Oniken and Odallus. That’s not a bad place to be, mind you. Those are both good games, after all. A solid bit of weekend entertainment.

While the robot ninja motif quickly calls games like Shinobi, Strider, Hagane, and perhaps even Ninja Gaiden to mind, its bones more closely resemble the Mega Man X series than anything else. After an introductory stage you can choose which order you tackle the next batch of stages in, and defeating the bosses in each will give you access to an assortment of extra weapons. You can also find optional upgrades hidden in each stage if you poke around. It’s also quite heavy on dashing and wall climbing. As homages to that mighty franchise go, it’s an enjoyable one. Unfortunately, it’s also just as brief as the average X game. You’ll likely wrap it up within a few hours, even if you’re trying to find everything.

Moonrider has an excellent presentation, and the controls are just as responsive as you would hope. The game throws out a lot of fun little twists as you make your way through its stages that ensure things always stay fresh. While it falls a bit short of the fantastic Blazing Chrome and ends a little earlier than I’d prefer, this is still a fine classic-style romp that fans of 2D action games will have no trouble getting into.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

Mrs. Cat Between Worlds ($4.99)

This is a pretty standard precision platformer, with all the moves and tricks you would expect. You actually get two games here, with fifty levels each. Avoid the hazards, collect the gems, and make your way to the exit on each level. You’re a cat, so that counts for something at least.

RE:CALL ($19.99)

This is a puzzle-adventure game, but I can’t really figure out exactly how the gameplay works from the description. It talks about manipulating your memories to shape the future, but I’m not sure what that entails. It comes from the same developer as the excellent Evan’s Remains, though, so it’s probably worth paying attention to.

Switch Sides ($1.00)

This is a handheld-only game where you have to keep rolling your ball and picking up the goobers for as long as you can without falling off the platform. You have to switch sides regularly to make sure you don’t roll too far in any one direction. It’s a buck.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Not much in the inbox today. The cute bullet hell shooter Cosmo Dreamer has its first post-release sale, and JellyCar Worlds is hitting a new low price. Over in the outbox, Kairosoft’s latest sale is finishing up along with games like Children of Morta, Moonlighter, and This War of Mine. Give both lists a look; it won’t take too much time today.

Select New Games on Sale

Go Rally ($14.99 from $20.00 until 1/21)
Cosmo Dreamer ($6.56 from $8.20 until 1/23)
JellyCar Worlds ($6.79 from $7.99 until 1/24)
BOT.vinnik Chess 2 ($2.39 from $2.99 until 1/30)
Shmup Collection ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/30)
Wingspan ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
Finding Teddy 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Beacon Pines ($15.99 from $19.99 until 1/30)
A Building Full of Cats ($2.39 from $2.99 until 1/30)
Quell Zen ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/31)
Family Man ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/5)
Railbound ($11.69 from $12.99 until 2/6)
Infini ($1.99 from $12.00 until 2/6)

Please, Touch The Artwork ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/6)
A Night at the Races ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/6)
Stilstand ($1.99 from $2.99 until 2/6)
Moorhuhn Remake ($5.59 from $6.99 until 2/6)
Cosmic Top Secret ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/6)
Knights & Guns ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/6)
EQQO ($1.99 from $6.00 until 2/6)
Lydia ($1.99 from $4.00 until 2/6)
Soul Searching ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/6)
Journey of the Broken Circle ($1.99 from $8.00 until 2/6)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18th

Anime Studio Story ($7.00 from $14.00 until 1/18)
Beat Cop ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/18)
Broken Universe: Tower Defense ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/18)
Children of Morta ($5.49 from $21.99 until 1/18)
Children of Morta Complete Edition ($9.44 from $26.99 until 1/18)
Floogen ($1.99 from $3.99 until 1/18)
Gem Wizards Tactics ($1.99 from $12.99 until 1/18)
Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/18)
Gum+ ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/18)
Lost in Play ($12.99 from$19.99 until 1/18)
Mega Mall Story 2 ($8.40 from $14.00 until 1/18)
Moonlighter ($3.74 from $24.99 until 1/18)

Moonlighter: Complete Edition ($5.79 from $28.99 until 1/18)
Ninja Village ($7.00 from $14.00 until 1/18)
Oh! Edo Towns ($7.00 from $14.00 until 1/18)
OMG Police Car Chase TV ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/18)
Pad of Time ($3.19 from $7.99 until 1/18)
Pocket Arcade Story ($8.40 from $14.00 until 1/18)
reky ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/18)
Rock ‘n Racing Off Road DX ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/18)
South of the Circle ($9.09 from $12.99 until 1/18)
Space Raiders in Space ($1.99 from $12.99 until 1/18)
Super Arcade Soccer ($1.99 from $6.99 until 1/18)
This War of Mine: Complete Edition ($1.99 from $39.99 until 1/18)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news. I’ll be going to the fancy hospital again, but I should be back with enough time to spare to ensure we don’t miss a day. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!