Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 29th, 2019. There was a ton of news in the last 24 hours, and I’ve grabbed a giant batch of the best to fire up your gaming instincts. We’ll also be taking a look at today’s three new releases, and thumbing through some wild sales on their way in and out. Yes, it’s another busy day in the world of Switch, and we’ve still got the busiest days of the week ahead of us. Let’s check it out!
News
‘Super Mario Maker 2’ Details – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
A lot of new information came out about the upcoming Super Mario Maker 2 yesterday. Some of it is good. For example, we now know for sure that local multiplayer is included. We also know that everything is unlocked from the start, so you can get right to building whatever you want. Some of the news is not so good. Thinking about doing online multiplayer with friends? Sorry, that wouldn’t be fair to the global leaderboards, Nintendo says. Randoms only. There’s also no way to transfer courses from the Wii U or 3DS versions to the new games because they’re just too different. Eh, not a big deal. Then there’s some information that I’m neither here nor there on, like the fact that there is no Amiibo support included. At any rate, it’s nice that Nintendo is at least being open about all of this stuff well in advance of its release date on June 28th.
The Full List of Games on ‘Contra Anniversary Collection’ Has Been Revealed
Friends, I haven’t been able to put down the Castlevania Anniversary Collection since it came out. Yes, it has a few issues. But what a great reminder of how awesome seven of the included games are, and of how bad The Castlevania Adventure is. With that released, the last of the announced collections is the Contra Anniversary Collection. We already knew four of the games on the set: Contra (Arcade), Super Contra (Arcade), Super C (NES), and Contra 3 (Super NES). The rest of the line-up has been announced, and there are some surprises. For example, we’re getting ten games rather than eight this time. Or… are we?
The newly-announced six games filling out the roster are Contra (NES), Contra (Famicom), Operation C (Game Boy), Contra Hard Corps (Genesis), Super Probotector (Super NES), and Probotector (Genesis). The latter two are the odd European versions of Contra 3 and Hard Corps, where the humans were all replaced with robots. Awesome? But taking all that into account, there are only seven truly distinct games here. Konami also mentioned that they will be putting out a post-release update that adds the Japanese versions of the other six games, so that’s nice. Especially for Hard Corps. To hell with the North American version of that game. To hell. With. It. We still don’t have a specific release date for Contra Anniversary Collection, but I expect we’ll see it sometime in June.
It’s Ladies First in the Latest ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ Event
Yeah, it’s that time of the week again. It feels like it comes around every 168 hours or something. Anyway, the weekend is on the horizon, and that means there’s another Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event brewing. The theme this time is Super Smash Sisters, and there’s actually a brand new Peachette spirit making its debut for it. You remember Peachette, right? She was the unintentional inspiration for Bowsette, who will never have a spirit because this world is not a just or fair one. Anyway, heroine spirits will be appearing more often during the event, which kicks off on Friday and runs through the whole weekend.
‘Detective Pikachu’ Continues on Nintendo Switch
Thanks to the movie, the Detective Pikachu brand is now pretty well-known. But it all started in a 3DS game that presented a first chapter, then made everyone wait a couple of years for a continuation and finally topped that off with a cliffhanger ending that left the main plot threads completely unresolved. Well, it’s been a couple more years, and it seems like the story will finally continue, hopefully settling some of those dangling story bits. Naturally, it will not be continuing on the 3DS, but rather on the Switch. No further details were announced, unfortunately. One big issue I see is that although the movie differed from the game in many ways, I’m relatively sure the ending to that flick revealed the answer behind at least one of the game’s mysteries. Will people still care? We’ll find out!
‘Pokemon Home’ Will Link Your Pokemon Collections
Another bit of news from today’s Pokemon event is Pokemon Home. This seems to be something of a replacement for Pokemon Bank, Nintendo’s cloud-based service for trading and storing Pokemon across games. Pokemon Home is another cloud-based utility that links Pokemon GO, Pokemon Let’s Go, Pokemon Sword/Shield, and the Pokemon Bank. You’ll be able to access everything from a mobile app on your phone. There are other extra features planned for the app, as well. Pokemon Home will launch in early 2020, just in time to be months late for when everyone is going to need it.
New Releases
Happy Words ($9.99)
Oh hey, it’s Scrabble. You know, I’m kind of confused at how Hasbro and Mattel kind of let that all get away from them in recent years. Normally companies like that drop the legal hammer at the first sign of trouble, but maybe the idea behind Scrabble is just too generic to control? Well, whatever. This is Scrabble in everything but name. The letter point values are the same. The point multipliers and their locations on the board are the same. As such, if you like Scrabble and want that on your Switch, this will do the job just fine. You can play by yourself against a computer opponent or enjoy some local multiplayer. It even has online multiplayer. What more can I say?
TerraTech ($24.99)
I saw someone call this “Minecraft on Wheels" and yes, that seems to be a decent starting point. It’s an open-world sandbox where you craft, build, and battle to your heart’s content. And for what it’s worth, it seems to be a fairly well-regarded one. Unfortunately, the Switch version loses the multiplayer component found in all of the versions of the game, and I’d imagine that’s not the only compromise made here. Still, if your preferred way to enjoy crafting games is to mess about with them on your own, you may find a lot to like here. It’s just a shame the developer couldn’t keep the multiplayer component in, particularly given that it’s the same price here in a reduced form as it is elsewhere in full.
Vectronom ($9.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
This seems like a neat game, actually. In each level, you have to move your little cube from the start to the exit. The game uses an isometric perspective, so the path may not always be perfectly clear. On top of that, the pieces of the stage and various elements change along with the beat of the music. You have to assess the right path, get into the rhythm, and safely navigate to the end. The game features drop-in/drop-out multiplayer in case your friends want to get in on it too. I’ll have to spend some time with it before I can give it the clear thumbs-up, but I can at least say that if you think it looks like your sort of thing, you’re pretty safe to pick it up.
Sales
Iconoclasts for 40% off? Yes, please. FIFA 19 appears to be making way for its follow-up, sitting at its lowest price yet. While it’s not a huge list of new sales, it’s not bad considering the bulk of sales tend to be tilted towards the end of the week. For example, the current outgoing stuff. Axiom Verge! Bleed! Horizon Chase Turbo! And many, many more. A lot of these games probably won’t be on sale again for a couple of months, so do grab them if you feel like you’re going to want to play them in the immediate future.
New Games on Sale
Iconoclasts ($11.99 from $19.99 until 6/17)
Tiny Derby ($4.24 from $4.99 until 6/4)
Assault On Metaltron ($1.39 from $6.99 until 6/17)
FIFA 19 ($14.99 from $59.99 until 6/3)
Animal Rivals ($0.79 from $3.99 until 6/17)
Them Bombs! ($9.79 from $14.99 until 6/17)
Almost There: The Platformer ($6.99 from $9.99 until 6/19)
Marble It Up! ($16.99 from $19.99 until 6/7)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, May 30th
1979 Revolution: Black Friday ($3.59 from $11.99 until 5/30)
Asdivine Hearts 2 ($9.09 from $12.99 until 5/30)
Axiom Verge ($17.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
Blacksea Odyssey ($3.24 from $12.99 until 5/30)
Bleed ($3.59 from $11.99 until 5/30)
Bleed 2 ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Dark Quest 2 ($7.69 from $10.99 until 5/30)
Degrees of Separation ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
Digerati Indie Bundle: Ink & Hacky Zack ($2.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Don’t Die, Mr Robot! ($1.34 from $8.99 until 5/30)
Fall of Light: Darkest Edition ($3.74 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Frost ($3.89 from $12.99 until 5/30)
FutureGrind ($1.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
GRIP ($26.79 from $39.99 until 5/30)
Hacky Zack ($2.49 from $9.99 until 5/30)
Horizon Chase Turbo ($11.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
Ink ($2.69 from $8.99 until 5/30)
Instant Tennis ($4.49 from $8.99 until 5/30)
Letter Quest Remastered ($2.99 from $11.99 until 5/30)
Monster Slayers ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
My Lovely Daughter ($9.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Nefarious ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Neverout ($3.74 from $7.49 until 5/30)
Nidhogg 2 ($8.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Omega Strike ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Paranautical Activity ($1.59 from $7.99 until 5/30)
Pipe Push Paradise ($4.39 from $10.99 until 5/30)
Pode ($14.99 from $24.99 until 5/30)
Reverse Crawl ($10.39 from $12.99 until 5/30)
Robothorium ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Semispheres ($4.99 from $9.99 until 5/30)
Shadow Bug ($4.49 from $8.99 until 5/30)
Shikhondo – Soul Eater ($4.75 from $13.99 until 5/30)
Slain: Back From Hell ($5.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Spectrum ($2.99 from $11.99 until 5/30)
Super Cane Magic Zero ($22.49 from $24.99 until 5/30)
The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human ($3.89 from $12.99 until 5/30)
The Coma: Recut ($5.99 from $19.99 until 5/30)
The Jackbox Party Pack ($12.49 from $24.99 until 5/30)
The Jackbox Party Pack 4 ($14.99 from $24.99 until 5/30)
Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition ($1.79 from $8.99 until 5/30)
Timber Tennis: Versus ($1.39 from $1.99 until 5/30)
Troll and I ($7.49 from $29.99 until 5/30)
Uncanny Valley ($3.39 from $9.99 until 5/30)
Unexplored ($4.50 from $15.00 until 5/30)
Vertical Drop Heroes HD ($2.49 from $9.99 until 5/30)
Yuso ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/30)
And that’s all we’ve got for today, friends. Tomorrow will see the release of a bunch of new games, including such notables as Super Cane Magic Zero and Gato Roboto. If rumors are to be believed, we may even be seeing Cadence of Hyrule as a surprise release tomorrow. And when are Nintendo-related rumors ever wrong? Guess we’ll find out soon! Naturally, there will be summaries of all the new releases, along with the news and sales information you crave. Anything beyond that is just the sprinkles. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway. As always, thanks for reading!
