Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for April 4th, 2019. Today we’ve got a couple of juicy news nuggets before diving headlong into today’s bucketful of new releases. As usual, we’ve got summaries of all of them. And if that’s not enough, we’ve also got the usual sales information. There’s a lot to sort through here, so let’s get down to business!
News
‘La-Mulana 2’ Hits the Switch in Japan on June 27th
La-Mulana 2 finally released on PC last summer to wide acclaim. We’ve known all along that it would be coming to consoles, but no one seemed quite sure exactly when it would arrive. Well, we’re closer to having the whole picture now, as both digital and physical versions of the exploratory action game have been announced for release in Japan on June 27th. We know the game will definitely release in the West, so with the flag planted in the sand for one region, you have to believe it won’t be that far off in the rest of the world. We’ll let you know when we know.
‘Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid’ Will Add Three Free Characters
As much as I wanted to like Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, it had a lot of issues right from launch. Perhaps the most significant was just how thin its roster was, with only nine characters in a three-on-three tag team fighter. Well, developer nWay has heard the cries, and it’s trying to address them as best as possible. In the game’s first major update, three free characters are going to be added to the game. These are not the Season Pass characters, which will come later. The three characters include: Cenozoic Blue Ranger (from the recent movie), Udonna (from Mystic Force), and Dragon Armor Trini (from the comics). From the way it’s worded, these probably won’t be the last free characters added to the game, either. Yay!
New Releases
War Theatre ($9.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Bizarre, stylish art and turn-based strategy gameplay that looks quite similar to Advance Wars or Fire Emblem? Yeah, it must be an Arcade Distillery game. And given that it’s an Arcade Distillery game of this genre, it means you can probably expect to have a good time here. It doesn’t look like the developer has exactly reinvented the wheel here, but if you liked Mecho Wars: Desert Ashes, you’ll surely want to add this one to your collection as well. But you might also want to wait a bit because Arcade Distillery loves deep discounts shortly after launch almost as much as they love shiny robotic vermin and insects. And friends, they really love their shiny robotic vermin and insects.
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Psst, hey you! Do you like River City Ransom? If so, you might be interested in this game. It’s an adventure game with beat-em-up elements that sees you following the leader of a gang of hooligans as he goes through his final year of high school. It seems to have more thought put into its story than the average River City game, but the gameplay mechanics look to be on point. The more interesting bits of the game come from its more down-to-earth elements, like chilling with your friends or studying to try to improve your marks. I’ll have to play it more before I can give a real thumbs-up or what-not, though.
Smashing the Battle ($9.99)
Okay, up until now I’ve mostly been kidding about the whole “VR game moves to Switch without VR" thing, but this is getting a little ridiculous. Smashing the Battle was an Oculus game in its previous life, but here on Switch it’s just another mediocre third-person action game about half-naked girls in mechanical armor beating things up with oversized mallets. Although the gameplay is kind of rote, there are lots of fun unlockables and such. Plus, the art is very good if you’re into the particular style. I could think of worse ways to spend ten dollars, but it’s not hard to think of better ways, either.
Sephirothic Stories ($14.99)
Well, it’s another EXE-Create RPG published by Kemco. This one manages to pull off full 3D even in the overworld areas, so that’s something, I guess. I don’t know. This is the same as usual. It’s not terrible, it’s not good, it’s entirely forgettable, and you probably shouldn’t pay over ten dollars for it. But I won’t stop you if you really want to. There’s a good week and a half until Final Fantasy X/X-2 releases, after all. If you’re super-hungry for any sort of traditional JRPG, you can probably squeeze this one in with plenty of time to spare.
Royal Adviser ($7.99)
Gee, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about this game seems awfully familiar. Anyway, in this game you play as a royal adviser who I guess has to help whoever it is that reigns in this place. You do this by making a series of choices that have effects on your country’s four stats and… ahh, I can’t even pretend anymore. This is a shameless knock-off of Reigns, with the added quirk of it being a multiplayer experience where everyone is moving towards their own secret goals. I think there’s room for more Reigns-style games and provided you have the players, the multiplayer thing is rather fun, but please make sure you’ve played the Reigns games first.
Pressure Overdrive ($12.99)
You might think this is a racing game, but no, it’s not really much of one. Rather, it’s more of a twin-stick shooter with pseudo-racer trappings. Battle enemy vehicles and tough bosses, earn cash to upgrade your buggy, and head back in for more. After you beat the story mode, an endless mode allows you keep on playing if you want to. I found this game really fun at first but got a little tired of it after about one hour or so. You might take to it better than I did, though. If it helps, the game does include a co-op mode so a friend can join in. But yeah, just kind of a weird, short, repetitive shoot-em-up on a system that has plenty of great ones.
Pitfall Planet ($14.99)
Okay, so you know those Zelda games where there’s more than one Link? Like Four Swords or Tri-Force Heroes? Pitfall Planet has some similarities to those. Two robots have to work together to solve puzzles and clear stages. The game is definitely best with two players, each controlling one robot, but you can also play it by yourself by swapping between the robots. With a 5-6 hour run time, it’s reasonably substantial in terms of content, and that’s setting aside whatever time you end up losing by trying to sabotage each other. It’s a cute game that shines its brightest if you have someone to play with. Otherwise, it’s just okay.
Overwhelm ($9.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Fair warning: this one is tough as nails. I like it a lot, but it’s a very punishing game even by the usual roguelite standards. You descend into a hive trying to hunt down five bosses and secure the crystals they carry. After you kill each one, they’ll mutate the hive in some way, adding new abilities to monsters and changing the way various aspects work. A second player can join in locally, which makes it easier in some ways and harder in others. But yes, this is a very tense little game and I like the way it got my blood boiling.
Modern Tales: Age of Invention ($14.99)
Hey, it’s another hidden object puzzle game from Artifax Mundi, the Kemco of hidden object adventures. And my advice here is similar to that of Kemco-published RPGs. Which is to say, if this is your kind of game, this may tide you over until something more interesting comes along, but I wouldn’t expect anything particularly memorable or all that good here. Anyway, the plot sees you playing as the daughter of a missing scientist in the year 1900. Brilliant minds have been kidnapped from the world expo and you’re the only one who can track them down, apparently. Not my thing but maybe it’s yours?
Mechstermination Force ($11.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
The latest from Gunman Clive creator Bertil Horberg is a real hoot. One or two players team up to tackle a series of utterly wild boss battles. Imagine a highlight reel of the best bosses from games like Contra and Gunstar Heroes, and you’ll have the gist of what Mechstermination Force is all about. I’ll have a full review of this one before too long, so I won’t go into too much more detail here. Suffice it to say, if you like side-scrolling action games, this one will probably tickle you nicely.
Hob: The Definitive Edition ($19.99)
Hob is, first and foremost, a very pretty game. As such, it had to fall to Panic Button to try to make this game work on the Switch. They’ve done as good a job as anyone was going to. The game is still quite pretty. And that is important because beyond its looks, Hob is a relatively plain game. Explore the beautiful world, solve some puzzles, do some light platforming, and yes, there’s also a little of the ol’ slicey-dicey. It’s mostly a mellow game where you can take your time solving things, though, so don’t come in hoping for a lot of swashbuckling. Some are going to like it a lot, some are going to think it’s a big nothing. I cannot tell which you will be, but for my part, I was generally a little bored playing through it.
Sales
Quality not quantity is how I’d describe the inbox at the time of writing. Furi and Black Bird are both great and if you haven’t tried them out yet, what better time than when they’re this cheap? Meanwhile, in the outbox, you may want to grab the conversion of the excellent board game Istanbul at a discount while you can. Otherwise, there’s not too much happening there that won’t come up again in a few weeks, I’m sure.
New Games on Sale
Black Bird ($9.99 from $19.99 until 4/19)
Furi ($8.99 from $19.99 until 4/12)
Frost ($3.89 from $12.99 until 4/18)
Peace, Death! Complete Edition ($2.49 from $4.99 until 4/10)
Truberbrook ($26.99 from $29.99 until 4/23)
Quarantine Circular ($4.79 from $5.99 until 4/25)
Conduct TOGETHER! ($14.99 from $19.99 until 4/25)
Pianista ($19.99 from $24.99 until 4/25)
Superola and the Lost Burgers ($2.39 from $5.99 until 4/21)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, March 5th
Istanbul Digital Edition ($15.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Crush Your Enemies! ($4.00 from $8.00 until 4/5)
Firefighters – The Simulation ($27.99 from $39.99 until 4/5)
Firefighters: Airport Fire Department ($27.99 from $39.99 until 4/5)
Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle ($9.99 from $19.99 until 4/5)
Oh…Sir! The Hollywood Roast ($1.19 from $2.99 until 4/5)
Oh…Sir! The Insult Simulator ($0.79 from $1.99 until 4/5)
Professional Construction ($27.99 from $39.99 until 4/5)
Professional Farmer ($27.99 from $39.99 until 4/5)
Shadow Fight 2 ($9.99 from $14.99 until 4/5)
And that will put the final bit of punctuation on today’s edition. But we’ll be back tomorrow with another bunch of new releases, including Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission. We’ll also cover any news or sales that come along, and if time permits, a review may show up. No promises, as usual. I’ll see you all tomorrow, and as always, thanks for reading!
