Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 13th, 2020. In today’s article, we’ve got Mini-Views of a couple of recent releases, summaries of the handful of new titles that hit over the weekend and today, and the latest list of sales for you to check through. Not the biggest of articles today, but I do hope you’ll enjoy it regardless. Let’s get down to business!
Mini-Views
Blackmoor 2 ($9.99)
Blackmoor 2 was a fun side-scrolling action game on mobile, and it’s pretty much the same good time here. A bit less grindy, but enough of a grind remains to keep things interesting. Choose your favorite character and battle through a bunch of wild stages, collecting coins that you can use to upgrade your character or buy new ones. The button controls are nice, but I never felt the game was all that held back by touch controls so it’s not a huge game changer. Some performance problems keep this one from being all it can be, as there are a lot of lengthy pauses between screens and some odd hitch-ups during gameplay. Even with those issues, Blackmoor 2 is still quite fun and worth picking up.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
Technosphere ($14.99)
Rolling a ball through various obstacles is a risky gameplay concept. If you’re very lucky, you’re going to end up with something like Marble Madness or Katamari Damacy, which both take advantage of the natural momentum of rolling balls and the novelty of trying to keep them under control. But it’s far more likely that you’re going to end up with a game that is a bit annoying to play, and that’s more or less where Technosphere lives. You have to guide a ball around narrow paths, solving light puzzles and performing various platforming challenges. An unwieldy camera makes this exercise a lot more frustrating than it should be, but if you have a lot of patience I suppose you may get something out of this.
SwitchArcade Score: 2.5/5
New Releases
Jump Gunners ($9.99)
Here’s another arena battler for up to four players in local multiplayer. If you’re looking for something to sink your teeth into in solo play, you’ll want to move along. Anyway, the best feature of this game is the gobs of content it offers. You get more than 80 destructible arenas, more than 20 wild weapons, and a bunch of different gameplay modes. You can also customize your characters to give them the look you prefer. Nothing too special, but it’s decent fun with friends. For the price, I think it’s a decent pick-up for those who have regular gaming gatherings.
Sea King Hunter ($9.99)
This seems to be a twin-stick shooting game where you take on gigantic aquatic bosses. You earn coins from defeating them, which you can then use to upgrade your character. A second player can join in on the fun in local co-op multiplayer, and there really isn’t a whole lot more to say about the game than that. The fact that it takes place underwater at least adds a bit of a twist to the movement mechanics. Seems fine for what it is, but I can’t say I’m overly thrilled with the concept.
Extreme Trucks Simulator ($14.99)
Well, you probably know how this song and dance goes by now. You get a selection of unusual yet utterly mundane vehicles like garbage trucks, bulldozers, and so on. You need to take them out on a variety of missions in a bunch of different environments. If you don’t feel like doing missions and just want to haul around in the conveyance of your choice, you can do that too. This is a port of a mobile game from a few years ago, and not a particularly great one. It was free with ad support then, so you need to ask yourself if it’s really worth fifteen bucks here without those ads. Not my thing, at the very least.
Sales
A few sales trickled out over the weekend, with the most notable being a chunky discount on the incredible Dead Cells. The rest of the list is essentially a bunch of usual suspects, so you’ll probably want to focus on those New Year’s Sales instead unless you’re really flush with cash. As for the outbox, it’s your last chance to get the pre-order discount on the upcoming Atelier games, and if you like 2D action games that Oniken and Odallus bundle is a real steal at five bucks.
Select New Games on Sale
Dead Cells ($17.49 from $24.99 until 1/17)
Aborigenus ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/31)
Mushroom Quest ($1.49 from $2.99 until 1/31)
Event Horizon: Space Defense ($3.49 from $4.99 until 1/21)
Spirit Roots ($2.49 from $6.99 until 1/20)
Sweet Witches ($2.49 from $9.99 until 1/20)
Miner Warfare ($6.39 from $7.99 until 1/25)
Doom & Destiny ($9.59 from $11.99 until 1/25)
Teddy Gangs ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Neverlast ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Zomb ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Monkey Business ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/30)
Island Maze ($1.49 from $2.99 until 1/20)
Swaps and Traps ($1.79 from $7.99 until 1/20)
FunBox Party ($0.99 from $1.99 until 1/20)
Hive Jump ($0.99 from $9.99 until 1/17)
Mad Carnage ($0.99 from $4.99 until 1/21)
Tactical Mind ($0.99 from $2.99 until 1/21)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14th
Airfield Mania ($0.99 from $5.99 until 1/14)
Atelier Ayesha ($35.99 from $39.99 until 1/14)
Atelier Escha & Logy ($35.99 from $39.99 until 1/14)
Atelier Shallie ($35.99 from $39.99 until 1/14)
Battojutsu ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/14)
Bubble Cats Rescue ($1.19 from $3.99 until 1/14)
Death Mark ($19.99 from $49.99 until 1/14)
Demon Pit ($7.99 from $9.99 until 1/14)
Dexteritrip ($1.99 from $6.99 until 1/14)
Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper ($3.99 from $4.99 until 1/14)
Enchanted in the Moonlight ($14.99 from $19.99 until 1/14)
Fun! Fun! Animal Park ($11.99 from $29.99 until 1/14)
Funny Bunny Adventures ($3.99 from $4.99 until 1/14)
Ghost Parade ($19.99 from $39.99 until 1/14)
Heroine Anthem Zero Episode 1 ($9.09 from $12.99 until 1/14)
Little Dragons Cafe ($17.99 from $59.99 until 1/14)
Oniken & Odallus Bundle ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/14)
Perseverance ($2.99 from $4.99 until 1/14)
Quad Fighter K ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/14)
Spirit Hunter: NG ($24.99 from $49.99 until 1/14)
Star-Crossed Myth ($22.49 from $29.99 until 1/14)
Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/14)
Straimium Immortaly ($5.99 from $11.99 until 1/14)
Tamashii ($5.99 from $11.99 until 1/14)
XenoRaptor ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/14)
That’s it for today, friends. Unfortunately, a personal situation at home means that I’m going to be headed to Canada on Wednesday for ten days. I’d like to say I was able to prepare a bunch of articles in advance for all of you to enjoy, but there simply wasn’t time. I’ll be back tomorrow with a regular SwitchArcade Round-Up, but after that the feature will probably be absent until I return. Thank you for your patience, and as always, thanks for reading!
