Welcome to the SwitchArcade Roundup for May 11th! A lot of news about upcoming releases is here, along with the release of Hyper Sentinel on Switch and a BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle trial! This month of May is going to be ridiculous with all the releases coming out, especially in the back half of the month, so save up your money now. It’s going to all disappear really soon. Anyway, let’s get into the news, because there’s some new trailers and release dates to check out:
News
N++ coming to Switch this month
If you never played N+, you missed out on one of the best trial platformers of the 2000s. It even had exclusive levels on the DS and PSP versions. The game got a sequel on the PS4 this decade called N++, and eventually a Steam release, but Blitworks is now set to bring the game to the ultimate platform: the Switch. On May 24th (can the back half of this month get any more ridiculous?) you’ll be able to perform all sorts of acrobatic maneuvers as you try to avoid all sorts of fiendish hazards, in a unique low-gravity environment. Seriously, I’m so excited to play this on the Switch, y’all.
The Banner Saga releases on Switch on May 17th
Good news for turn-based strategy RPG fans: The Banner Saga‘s first episode hits the Switch next Thursday, May 17th! Check out the trailer for the Switch version. If you’re diving into the trilogy for the first time, you might want to play it within short order: the second game is also on its way, and your progress from the first game influences what happens in the second game.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar gets launch trailer
This RPG, published by THQ Nordic, is looking pretty slick, and it’s gotten a strong reputation on previous platforms it released on. It finally releases on Switch in both physical and digital formats on May 15th for $39.99. It’s a JRPG throwback, but it skips the pixel art for a more detailed art style combining hand-drawn animation with three-dimensional graphics. I haven’t played a good JRPG in a while, I might have to pick this one up.
Minit coming to Switch
Developed by a staff including Vlambeer’s Jan Willem Nijman, and published by Devolver Digital, Minit seemed like it would be perfect on the Switch. And since Vlambeer has historically used GameMaker, that raised the hopes of this 60-second adventure coming to the Switch. And, well, at Nintendo of Japan’s Indie World, they revealed that Minit is in deed coming to Switch. I’ve held off on picking this up for other platforms because I want to play it on Switch, and while we’ll have to wait a bit longer, it should hopefully arrive soon!
There was a whole Indie World presentation, but many of these were just announcements of western indie games releasing in Japanese-localized versions.
Blade Strangers adds Shovel Knight and releases new extended cinematic
Yes, another character gets added to the crossover fighting game published by Nicalis. If you’ve ever wanted to beat up a small, crying child with a shovel, now you can do so with Shovel Knight fighting Isaac in this fighting game. I don’t know why you’d want to do that, but I’m not here to judge.
Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 up for pre-purchase, and why you might want to skip the physical edition
You can pre-purchase Mega Man Legacy Collection for $14.99 (including games 1-6) and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 for $19.99 (including games 7-10, but sadly no Mega Man and Bass for some reason, even though that game’s really good and saw English release on the Game Boy Advance). Now, here’s the thing: the games release on May 22nd, with a physical edition. The physical edition costs $39.99, but you can save 20% by pre-ordering on Amazon. However, MMLC2 doesn’t come on the cartridge, it’s a digital download. And the ridiculous thing is that MMLC2 is 3.2 GB, where MMLC1 is 345 MB. Unless you’re really hard up for that $3 or you really, really, really, really, really like physical versions of Switch games, I’d probably just buy them digitally. I had the physical version preordered, but I’m thinking about reversing course, because this is just dumb. I guess there’s issues with putting two games on one cartridge, perhaps (without making them one combined release?), but…c’mon.
New Releases
Hyper Sentinel ($9.99)
This shoot ’em up has been in development for a couple of years, initially announced for mobile before the PC/console releases were planned. Two crowdfunding projects later, Hyper Sentinel is here at last.
Hyper is a great adjective for this game, as it really is exactly that. You fly over a spaceship, trying to destroy all the ground targets, then summoning the guardian boss fight. You have to flip your ship to change direction, and can also use it as a way to avoid damage. You have to keep an eye on many things crossing the screen at once, and it helps to study the action and figure out what’s going on at any given moment. Additionally, you need to learn to step back from the action and charge your shield whenever possible, because you can and will take a lot of damage.
The one tricky thing is that it can be tough to tell what’s an enemy just sitting around, or a hazard, or even a indestructible object. The game does give indicators when you’re down to a few ground targets left, though. The later levels start to throw a lot at you, so you’ll want to master the art of flipping to avoid danger, finding your quiet spots to recharge your shield, and knowing when to use the boost to just get the hell out of dodge.
If you like replaying content to master it, you’ll likely have a good time here: there are multiple modes and difficulty levels for each level, where you can fight through the level with the boss already active, or just to try and survive through the game. I’m glad to see the concept come to fruition after its development, and I’ll be sure to stream this on our Twitch channel soon!
Inksplosion ($3.99)
This looks like Splatoon taken to its logical conclusion, as you blast ink through levels full of multi-color ink explosions, with the arena getting ever more and more colorful and chaotic. This is more about the high score chasing than anything else: I’ve seen reports of versions of the game with achievements making it super easy to rack up a platinum trophy, if that’s a thing you care about.
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Special Trial (Free)
Want to try the latest BlazBlue fighting game, a crossover between BlazBlue, Persona, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY? This is the game for you, and the trial offers 20 characters and online play available until May 14th, before an offline demo will offer four playable characters before the June 5th launch.
The Pinball Arcade (Free)
Unfortunately, some licensed tables had to be removed from Pinball Arcade, but there’s still dozens of other real-world pinball tables for you to enjoy in this re-submitted version of Pinball Arcade.
Keep an eye out every weekday for more SwitchArcade Roundups! We want to hear your feedback on Nintendo Switch coverage on TouchArcade. Comment below or tweet us with your thoughts!
