Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for August 31st, 2020. In today’s edition, we’ve got a handful of Mini-Views to check out. The games in the hot-seat today are Witcheye, Windbound, and Tank Mechanic Simulator. Spoilers: your wallet is probably safe. The next batch of reviews will not offer such mercy. There are also a couple of new releases to check out, and a rather beefy list of new sales to look at. Let’s get to the goods!
Mini-Views
Witcheye ($4.99)
Witcheye has an interesting control scheme whether you play with buttons or touch controls. You’re controlling an eyeball that will keep moving in whatever direction you flick or push until you redirect it or tell it to stop. You have to go through a variety of stages and battle some enemies and bosses. Well, you don’t have to battle most enemies as avoiding them is just fine. Getting all of the goodies will require you to take out your foes, however, and that requires more careful play. I can’t say it always works, but it’s unusual and mostly holds together. For the price, that’s enough for me.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
Windbound ($29.99)
This game is gorgeous and my first hour or so with it was great. You’re on an island and you have basically nothing. You need to salvage and scrape together what you need to build weapons, boats, and other important items. The goal is to travel from island to island, activating keys that open the gate to the next area. Then you repeat the process. And do it again. And again. It’s less enjoyable each time. There are two different modes you can play in, and neither is ideal. The survival mode gives you a lot of incentive to use all of the gameplay systems, but its permadeath feature means you can get a few hours in and lose all of your progress from one bit of bad luck. The storyteller mode removes this issue but it takes away a lot of the more interesting mechanics with it. It’s okay, but it really could have been something special.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
Tank Mechanic Simulator ($17.99)
As is usually the case with Ultimate’s Simulator games, Tank Mechanic Simulator is poorly-optimized, has a terrible user interface, and suffers from a terrible tutorial with plenty of English mistakes. Still, there’s something here once you get into the flow. Excavating tanks and restoring them is a passable way to kill some time, especially if you like tanks. For a few bucks, it would be an okay experience. At its regular price, it’s kind of embarrassing how rough it is. At least you get to jam out to some nice classical music while you putter away in your workshop.
SwitchArcade Score: 2.5/5
New Releases
Pocket Circuit ($3.99)
They say that you get what you pay for, but with video games that’s not always true. Some games I’ve paid very little for have provided me with endless hours of entertainment, while others I’ve spent a ton of money on let me down. But in this particular case, I’m afraid the old adage holds. Pocket Circuit is an enhanced port of a mobile game that you can try out for free if you like. It’s ad-supported. This Switch version does away with the ads and gives a slightly enhanced experience, but it’s still a very simple game that doesn’t even offer any multiplayer action. You just run the races and try to earn stars to unlock better cars to win harder races, and so on. Considering the very low price, it might offer some fun to a younger kid who loves playing with toy cars, I suppose.
Collapsed ($15.00)
Well, you know. Side-scrolling roguelite action-platformer. So the big question is, does this game provide enough enjoyment to be better than just digging out Dead Cells again for another go? And I regret to say that the answer is no. When it comes to a game like this, there are a lot of important factors and Collapsed hits enough of them that it’s not entirely without its pleasures. But does a couple of big things poorly, and the result is a game that doesn’t really call me back the way it should. The loot is too samey. The random elements in general are too thin, making it feel like you’re spinning your wheels. And then there’s the grind… the unholy grind. You’ll clip along fairly well in the beginning only to hit some tremendous walls that are clearly nudging you towards a whole lot of repetition. Not horrible or anything, but also not something I’d recommend.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Wow, lots of sales popped up after we finished up last week. Nothing too wild, but the SteamWorld games are always good purchases. The outbox has Dead Cells, Golf Story, and the kitty RPG Cattails in it, so that’s probably worth noting. Otherwise, it’s a lot of the usual suspects in both the inbox and the outbox. That’s the way things go sometimes.
Select New Games on Sale
SteamWorld Dig 2 ($7.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)
SteamWorld Dig ($2.49 from $9.99 until 9/12)
SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate ($4.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)
SteamWorld Quest ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/12)
Anthill ($3.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)
Giga Wrecker Alt. ($12.49 from $24.99 until 9/12)
Conga Master Party! ($1.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)
Ninja Shodown ($4.48 from $14.95 until 9/12)
88 Heroes – 98 Heroes ($5.99 from $29.99 until 9/12)
Stick It to The Man ($2.39 from $11.99 until 9/12)
Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12)
Holy Potatoes! What The Hell ($12.00 from $15.00 until 9/12)
Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/12)
Decay of Logos ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)
Hello Kitty Kruisers ($20.96 from $29.90 until 9/12)
Curious Expedition ($11.24 from $14.99 until 9/12)
Flipping Death ($3.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)
Red’s Kingdom ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/12)
Storm In A Teacup ($0.89 from $2.99 until 9/12)
Trailblazers ($8.99 from $29.99 until 9/12)
RICO ($13.99 from $19.99 until 9/12)
Animal Hunter Z ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/16)
Dungeon Shooting ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Super Ping Pong Trick Shot ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Ping Ping Trick Evolution ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Bingo ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Caterpillar Royale ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Battle & Crash ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Collide-a-Ball 2 ($2.49 from $4.99 until 9/16)
Dirt Trackin 2 ($5.99 from $9.99 until 9/4)
AntVentor ($5.99 from $7.99 until 9/7)
Darts Up ($0.98 from $2.99 until 9/17)
Abyss ($0.98 from $2.99 until 9/17)
Power Racing Bundle ($11.04 from $16.99 until 9/17)
99Seconds ($0.98 from $2.99 until 9/17)
99Moves ($0.98 from $2.99 until 9/17)
Unitied ($1.49 from $2.99 until 9/17)
Rally Rock ‘N Racing ($3.99 from $9.99 until 9/17)
#NoLimitFantasy Puzzles Dream ($4.95 from $6.19 until 9/17)
Solitaire Spider Minimal ($0.69 from $2.99 until 9/17)
This Strange Realm of Mine ($6.49 from $12.99 until 9/8)
A Hero and a Garden ($3.99 from $4.99 until 9/14)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 1st
Airfield Mania ($0.99 from $5.99 until 9/1)
Animus ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/1)
Animus: Harbinger ($3.99 from $7.99 until 9/1)
Breathing Fear ($1.74 from $4.99 until 9/1)
Bullet Battle Evolution ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/1)
Cattails ($6.74 from $14.99 until 9/1)
Croc’s World Run ($0.99 from $5.99 until 9/1)
Crocs World 2 ($0.99 from $5.99 until 9/1)
Dead Cells ($14.99 from $24.99 until 9/1)
Demetrios ($1.49 from $9.99 until 9/1)
Event Horizon ($0.89 from $5.99 until 9/1)
Golf Story ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/1)
Jewel Rotation ($0.99 from $5.99 until 9/1)
Rack N Ruin ($6.49 from $12.99 until 9/1)
Swordbreaker The Game ($1.49 from $4.99 until 9/1)
Syder Reloaded ($10.79 from $11.99 until 9/1)
Two Point Hospital ($23.99 from $39.99 until 9/1)
West of Dead ($15.99 from $19.99 until 9/1)
WordHerd ($1.20 from $6.00 until 9/1)
Xenon Valkyrie+ ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/1)
Yuoni Rises ($9.09 from $12.99 until 9/1)
That’s it for today and for this month, friends. With August behind us, we’re heading into the busiest part of the year for new game releases. And yet, there are many question marks with regards to Nintendo’s plans for the next few months. Hopefully some of those plans will be revealed in September. I hope you all have a good Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
