Hello, gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for December 17th, 2018. The holidays are creeping up on us, and the news feed is starting to trail off for the year. It’s going to be a shorter edition today since there isn’t too much going on, but what’s in here is definitely worth checking out. Let’s get festive!
News
‘Puyo Puyo’ and ‘Puyo Puyo Tsu’ Announced for SEGA AGES
While I wish M2 would release SEGA AGES titles at least as often as they announce new ones, I’m still always happy to hear about upcoming additions to the line-up. This time around, it’s not just one but two games added to the list, with the arcade versions of Puyo Puyo and Puyo Puyo Tsu added to the schedule. That’s the original game that kicked off the popular puzzle series, and its extremely popular sequel. Not all details are known at the moment about these new versions of the games, but they will have online play added in so that you can replicate the competitive nature of an arcade without worrying about people sticking gum on the side of your TV.
New Releases
Mondays often see a new release or two, and this week is no exception. Heck, one of today’s releases is quite noteworthy indeed. As usual, look for the bold SwitchArcade Recommended! to spot the games that we stand behind the strongest.
Firewatch ($19.99)
SwitchArcade Recommended!
The popular adventure game makes its way to a Nintendo platform for the very first time. You play as Henry, a fire lookout who just recently started the job. Mysterious events begin to occur not long after, and it’s up to you to figure out just what the heck is going on. While you’re generally quite isolated, you will frequently talk with a fellow lookout using a walkie-talkie. Firewatch is an incredibly atmospheric game with a compelling story. It doesn’t quite stick the landing as much as you might hope, but it’s definitely still worth experiencing if you haven’t already played it on another platform.
Hyperide: Vector Raid ($3.99)
Inspired by the gameplay of River Raid and the aesthetics of Tron, Hyperide: Vector Raid was originally released as a VR game on Steam last year. A few whacks of the ol’ port hammer, and boom, now you can play it on your Switch. But only in normal reality. I can see where the game is coming from in terms of its inspirations, but in practice it has some issues. It’s really short, and while it seems to position itself as an arcade game, it doesn’t seem to be interested in score attack mechanics. It’s priced right for the adventurous, but ultimately I have to give this one a pass.
Sales
Okay, so there’s almost nothing new for today that’s worth noting. Like, a couple of games that went off sale late last week are back on sale now. But the weekend did bring a short list of interesting sales, so I’m going to list a few of them below. As for recommendations, Yooka-Laylee doesn’t go on sale all that often, so if you’re looking for something vaguely Rare collectathon-ish, today is your day. Similarly, Giana Sisters hasn’t had many (any?) sales since it released, so you may want to pull the trigger and save a few bucks if you’ve had your eye on it.
New Games On Sale
Black Hole ($3.95 from $5.99 until 01/03)
Fear Effect Sedna ($4.99 from $19.99 until 01/01)
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams ($26.99 from $29.99 until 01/03)
Mantis Burn Racing ($9.99 from $19.99 until 01/04)
Oh My Godheads: Party Edition ($8.99 from $14.99 until 01/01)
Passpartout: The Starving Artist ($4.99 from $9.99 until 01/01)
The Jackbox Party Pack 4 ($20.99 from $29.99 until 12/25)
Yooka-Laylee ($25.99 from $39.99 until 01/02)
And that’s all we’ve got for today. A bit of a brisk one, but hey, they can’t all be War and Peace, right? At any rate, we’ll be back tomorrow with what I hope will be a slightly meatier basket of… news… meat… this analogy is breaking down. That’s my cue to beat it, so thanks once again for reading!
