Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for April 1st, 2020. It’s April Fool’s Day today, but I’m not in a mood for it today so you won’t find any pranks in this article. What you will find is a full review of Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Mini-Views of a trio of recent releases, some news bits, summaries of today’s new releases, and a full list of sales. Wow, that’s much better than crashing disappointment! Let’s enjoy it!
News
Obsidian’s Awesome RPG ‘The Outer Worlds’ Set to Hit Switch June 5th
Obsidian Entertainment knows their way around RPGs, and they show that pretty much every time they have a chance to finish making one. The latest release from the company, The Outer Worlds, is a cool game with a bit of a Fallout vibe to it. It was announced to be coming to Switch a while back and seemed like it was going to release in March. Unfortunately, the ongoing situation with COVID-19 resulted in a slight delay. Well, the game now has a new release date: June 5th. It will arrive in both digital and physical form on that day, so you can pick your favorite flavor. I mean, if you can get anywhere that sells physical games at that point, anyway. A day one patch will arrive along with the game, so make sure you have some free space on your card either way.
‘DOOM’ and ‘DOOM II’ Get Updates and New Content
This was already covered in a separate story here on the sight, but just in case you only read the SwitchArcade for your Switch news at TouchArcade, I’ll cover it here. Both DOOM and DOOM II got updates today that fix a bunch of bugs, improve performance, improve aspects of the UI, and add another new piece of add-on content called No End in Sight. Hey, you know what else has no end in sight? The additions to these ports. Ha ha, I got paid to write that. What a world we live in.
Take Out Your Stringfish Frustrations in the Next ‘Super Smash Bros.’ Event
It’s Wednesday yet again, and that means we’ve got our usual information on the upcoming weekend event in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Perhaps to little surprise, it’s focusing on the recently-released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, offering up four new spirits to collect that are drawn from the new game. As is often the case in events with new spirits, you’ll have five days instead of the usual three to get it done this time around. The event kicks off on Friday and will run through next Tuesday. Remember kids: manila is my favorite flavor!
Reviews
Saints Row IV: Re-Elected ($39.99)
I remember when Grand Theft Auto was a new game. The zany, over-the-top new release from those goofy folks at DMA Design. I was particularly high on the developer at the time as I had found its Super NES title Uniracers incredibly awesome, leading me to have a keen interest in its next game in spite of its topic matter not being something I’d ordinarily be into. Some of my friends and I fired the game up at a LAN party not long after it released and had a great time creating all sorts of carnage. There was a story there, but we didn’t really pay it much heed. That wasn’t the point.
When Grand Theft Auto 2 came out, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I was probably busy playing Dreamcast or something. The third game hit with the force of a tidal wave, and like most other gamers I was drawn into the gleeful mayhem that its street-level open world offered. There was a story there, but I didn’t really pay it much heed. That wasn’t the point. Vice City went much the same way, though the story this time was a little more interesting. San Andreas seemed to set aside some of the zany humor in favor of trying to tell a more serious story, and received a great deal of praise as a result. Grand Theft Auto was growing out of its more comical side and becoming one of those prestige brands.
That’s fine, but what if you liked the sillier side? Thankfully, one of the many imitators of Grand Theft Auto noted the demand for such a game and leaned hard into its more irreverent elements. Had it not, I suspect that the name Saints Row wouldn’t come up in modern contexts except in historical reviews of Grand Theft Auto‘s many failed progeny. But it went in hard on the idea of a big stupid open world action game, and unlike virtually every other series of its sort, it’s still alive now. Apparently, anyway. Where is that fifth Saints Row game? Well, we’ll worry about that another day, I guess.
Saints Row IV is the stupidest game in the series by far. The third game had a humorous streak to it, but this game can barely keep a straight face for more than a few minutes. The opening sequence sees the leader of the Saints on a mission to stop a terrorist strike against Washington. Unable to stop the launch of a nuclear missile, the leader grabs on to the missile and tries to defuse it in the air. Assuming their leader is going to die in the process, the Saints crew bid overly-dramatic farewells to you as Aerosmith’s I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing plays in the background. The missile is defused, and you fall right into the chair behind the desk in the Oval Office. That’s the tone.
You’re elected the President of the United States due to your popularity, and through various circumstances also gain super-powers. So yeah, you’re a super-powered American President gang leader who has to save Earth from aliens. Heck yeah. Those super powers greatly change the nature of the game, putting a greater focus on wild over-the-top action and less on the vehicular chicanery of the previous games. Some criticize this shift as it makes the game a lot easier, and it does. But it’s just so much fun that I can’t really be too upset about the lower level of challenge. It’s not really why I play these games anyway.
This Switch version runs a lot better than the port of the previous game, and it also includes all of the extra DLC that was released. It’s a ton of content in total, and if you’re the sort that needs to get 100% completion you may well be barfing Froot Loops by the end of it all. Personally, I feel that the Switch is altogether too light on both Grand Theft Auto-style games and superhero games, so the more that Deep Silver wants to shove on my plate, the better. I’m glad that criticisms of the Saints Row the Third port were clearly heard and addressed here.
Anyway, if you’re familiar with the game and are just wondering how the Switch port is, it’s good. If you’re not familiar with the game and are wondering if it’s fun, it is. If you’re wondering if it tells a serious Oscar-worthy story, well no, it doesn’t. It’s unashamedly goofy, and any time it has to pick between being silly-awesome or being serious, it goes for the former. If that bothers you, move along. Otherwise, this is a solid bit of action with lots of memorable moments and is a worthy pick-up for all good adults.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Mini-Views
Dezatopia ($19.99)
This is a really fun shoot-em-up with an interesting multi-weapon mechanic. Your ship has different weapons that point in different directions, and you can flip them on and off as you like. If you leave them off they’ll charge up a more powerful shot, and each one you have running at a time will slow down your ship’s speed. Ideally you’ll only want to use them when they’re needed. If you usually find shoot-em-ups intimidating, you may find this one to be a bit less threatening thanks to its varying paths offering multiple levels of challenge. The graphics have a unique look to them that I really dig, and the music is hot. A very nice shoot-em-up all-around, and one that certainly caught me off-guard.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Hyperspace Delivery Service ($9.99)
This game is very much the “Oregon Trail in Space" experience that it claims to be. There are a lot more mini-games, and the presentation certainly outclasses that classic bit of edutainment, but the core idea of trying to survive on a ruthless journey by carefully managing your supplies and avoiding risks where you can is alive and well here. It plays well enough as a Switch game, though you will occasionally have to resort to a software keyboard for certain things. I suppose the issue here is that in spite of the shift in settings and the decent mini-games, Hyperspace Delivery Service just doesn’t feel like enough of its own game. That doesn’t stop it from being fun, but it does keep it from being anything special.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition ($14.99)
I really wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The set-up is interesting enough, the characters are fine, and the battle system does the job. It’s a perfectly playable ode to classic JRPGs. But it’s not much more than that, I’m afraid. It doesn’t feel as slap-dash as a lot of the JRPGs Kemco publishes, but similar to Hyperspace Delivery Service it’s so busy paying its homage that it never quite grows wings of its own. Die-hard fans of 1990s JRPGs will find it sufficiently entertaining to be worth the ticket price, but others will probably want to wait for a sale.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
New Releases
Totally Reliable Delivery Service ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
This hilarious game comes from the good folks at We’re Five Games, who mobile gamers would remember as the developer of Morphite. You play as a delivery person in a wild open world with silly physics and lots of strange sights. You have to deliver packages to some very interesting locations by whatever means possible, and as you would expect things only get better if you pull in some friends to play with. Right now the game supports two players locally and four players online, but four-player local play will be coming in a later update. Depending on your current context, you’ll either have little use for a goofy party game or a tremendous need, but rest assured: this is a good one.
Wurroom ($0.99)
Even the game’s description is careful about managing expectations with Wurroom. This isn’t so much a game as a brief interactive art piece, offering a 10-minute plunge into a world of fascinating stop-motion animation. You play as a hand and can interact with specific objects in each screen. I suppose you could say there are some rudimentary puzzles here, but only barely. And again, it’s all over in about 10 minutes. Very striking, to be sure, and the price is more than fair as long as you know what you’re getting into. It kind of reminds me of the weird animated shorts that used to play late at night on Canada’s YTV back in the 1990s.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Lots of new sales today, though plenty of them are things that are on sale every few weeks or so. If you have to grab something, Earthlock is a nice RPG, Ninjin is a fun action game, and it’s hard to go wrong with the Trine games. Perhaps it’s the outbox that should grab the bulk of your attention today, with a lot of great games like Octopath Traveler, Tangledeep, Donut County, Blossom Tales, and Night in the Woods ending their discounts soon. There are rumblings of some kind of spring sale in the grapevine right now, so you may want to keep a little money just in case something pops off soon.
Select New Games on Sale
Earthlock ($5.98 from $29.90 until 4/13)
Troll and I ($2.99 from $29.99 until 4/14)
Hexologic ($1.49 from $2.99 until 4/14)
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots ($1.99 from $9.99 until 4/14)
Party Arcade ($14.99 from $19.99 until 4/20)
Degrees of Separation ($1.99 from $19.99 until 4/14)
Deer Drive Legends ($9.99 from $19.99 until 4/14)
Bear With Me: The Lost Robots ($2.49 from $4.99 until 4/14)
Trine: Ultimate Collection ($19.99 from $49.99 until 4/14)
Trine 4: Nightmare Prince ($14.99 from $29.99 until 4/14)
Beast Quest ($14.99 from $29.99 until 4/14)
Override: Mech City Brawl ($23.99 from $39.99 until 4/14)
Stones of the Revenant ($5.99 from $9.99 until 4/20)
Death Squared ($2.24 from $14.99 until 4/21)
Morphite ($2.99 from $14.99 until 4/21)
Super One More Jump ($0.99 from $7.00 until 4/21)
Croc’s World ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/21)
Storm Boy ($0.99 from $5.99 until 4/21)
Jewel Fever 2 ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/21)
Airfield Mania ($0.99 from $5.99 until 4/21)
OTTTD ($1.19 from $7.99 until 4/21)
War Tech Fighters ($9.99 from $19.99 until 4/21)
Pacific Wings ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/21)
Whipseey & the Lost Atlas ($0.99 from $5.99 until 4/21)
Yellow Fins ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/21)
Jewel Rotation ($0.99 from $5.99 until 4/21)
Treachery in Beatdown City ($14.99 from $19.99 until 4/14)
Fury Unleashed ($17.99 from $19.99 until 4/15)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, April 2nd
99Moves ($0.98 from $2.99 until 4/2)
99Seconds ($0.98 from $2.99 until 4/2)
Abyss ($0.98 from $2.99 until 4/2)
Adam’s Venture: Origins ($35.99 from $39.99 until 4/2)
Adventures of Bertram Fiddle Ep.1 ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Adventures of Bertram Fiddle Ep.2 ($3.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Animated Jigsaws: Wild Animals ($4.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Another Sight ($25.99 from $39.99 until 4/2)
Archlion Saga ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Blossom Tales ($7.49 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Car Mechanic Simulator ($2.24 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Cyber Protocol ($0.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Darts Up ($0.98 from $2.99 until 4/2)
Defenders of Ekron: Definitive ($6.99 from $13.99 until 4/2)
Don’t Knock Twice ($6.24 from $12.48 until 4/2)
Donut County ($6.49 from $12.99 until 4/2)
Everdark Tower ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Gnomes Garden 3 ($2.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Grand Brix Shooter ($1.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Gurgamoth ($1.49 from $9.99 until 4/2)
HexaGravity ($0.99 from $1.99 until 4/2)
Joe Jump Impossible Quest ($0.99 from $2.99 until 4/2)
Johnny Turbo’s Arcade – All Titles ($2.71 from $7.99 until 4/2)
Knights and Bikes ($16.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
Light Fall ($5.99 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Mad Games Tycoon ($25.99 from $39.99 until 4/2)
Monster Puzzle ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
MouseCraft ($7.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Night in the Woods ($11.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
Oceanhorn ($7.49 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Octopath Traveler ($29.99 from $59.99 until 4/2)
Pianista ($19.99 from $24.99 until 4/2)
Piczle Lines DX 500 More Puzzles! ($4.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Rally Rock ‘N Racing ($3.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Rascal Fight ($10.19 from $11.99 until 4/2)
Red Death ($3.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Risk of Rain 2 ($14.99 from $29.99 until 4/2)
Robothorium ($1.49 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Runner3 ($1.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
Shakedown: Hawaii ($14.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
Silent World ($4.49 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Space Dave ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Star Ghost ($4.49 from $8.99 until 4/2)
Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast ($7.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Super Cane Magic Zero ($17.49 from $24.99 until 4/2)
Survive! Mr. Cube ($2.99 from $14.99 until 4/2)
Tangledeep ($9.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
The Bridge ($1.49 from $9.99 until 4/2)
The VideoKid ($0.99 from $4.99 until 4/2)
Throne Quest Deluxe ($4.19 from $5.99 until 4/2)
Touchdown Pinball ($1.98 from $2.99 until 4/2)
Venture Kid ($1.49 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Vortex Attack EX ($5.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
What Remains of Edith Finch ($13.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
Where the Bees Make Honey ($0.99 from $9.99 until 4/2)
Wulverblade ($3.99 from $19.99 until 4/2)
That’s all that’s good for today, friends. Tomorrow is Thursday, and that means we’ll have lots of new releases to check out and summarize. We’ll also likely have some sales to check out, and maybe even a nugget of news or two. I hope you all have a great Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!
