Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 7th, 2021. In today’s article, we take a look at several new games that hit the eShop today. We’ve got summaries of each of them, and those hungry for adventure games will have at least a few things to consider. On the sales front, things are cooling down in both the inbox and the outbox. Only a small handful of new sales to look at today, and the outbox is relatively quiet compared to the last few days. Let’s check everything out!
New Releases
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Gosh, that World of Darkness license gets around these days, doesn’t it? This is a narrative adventure game set in the Werewolf: The Apocalypse world. I had initially thought it to be from the same people that released those Vampire: The Masquerade games on Switch, but no, this is someone else. But that turns out to be a good thing, because this is actually quite a bit more enjoyable than Coteries of New York. It’s a well-written choice-based adventure that uses elements of the tabletop RPG experience as garnish, giving this a feel all its own. Like a lot of good Werewolf: The Apocalypse stories, there’s an interesting pull of nature versus technology to the tale. It can be a bit heavy-handed at times, but overall this was a good game that I happily played through a couple of times.
Kingdom Tales 2 ($9.99)
Another one of those light strategy games in the vein of Gnomes Garden, and I’m kind of running out of new ways to present them. This one follows the story of two young lovers whose relationship isn’t approved of by the father of the young woman, who happens to be the King of the realm. Oops. Something about some greedy count in there as well. Complete 40 different stages and watch this tale unfold, and then do it faster to get more stars on each of them. Build up the kingdom piece by piece and explore the lands as that will somehow help Finn and Dala reunite? I don’t know. Standard fare as this sub-genre goes, take from it what you will.
Stardash ($9.99)
Here’s a blast from the past for mobile gaming fans. Stardash is one of Orangepixel’s early iOS releases, hitting the App Store back in September of 2011. It was refreshed a couple of years ago, and I’m pretty sure this Switch port is similar to that version. It’s a fun Game Boy-style platformer that can get quite challenging in places, with hidden keys to find and lots of extra targets to aim for. If you don’t mind playing on mobile and have a controller, that’s a cheaper way to do it. But if you’d prefer to play on Switch, this does the job nicely.
Spice and Wolf VR2 ($24.99)
I guess enough people bought the first episode that the developers decided to do another one. This is based on the Spice and Wolf light novel/anime/manga series, and gives you another 30 minute story to enjoy. The first game worked with the Toy-Con VR headset, but I can’t find out whether or not this one supports it. Presumably it does, or that VR would be quite the misnomer. Anyway, there’s no gameplay here to speak of. You’re just sort of sitting in on a little episode as it plays out. Really only for the hardcore Spice and Wolf fans, I think.
Sense – A Cyberpunk Ghost Story ($19.99)
This is a Clock Tower-inspired survival-horror adventure, and if I can say anything in its favor, it has some pretty solid art. The story… eh, it pulls together in the end but nothing to get too excited about on the whole. Unfortunately, both the puzzle design and overall pacing are quite weak by the standards of the genre. It’s a very tedious game for much of its runtime, and the puzzles often hit that bad adventure game zone of being more about reading the designer’s mind than something you can logically parse out. Lots of absurd backtracking back and forth through a limited number of locations, trying to figure out what you need to do in order to allow you to pick up the item you know you need. That kind of thing. It’s a shame because I really do dig the atmosphere and setting.
Iris.Fall ($19.99)
I guess today is the day for twenty-dollar adventure games with nice visuals and so-so gameplay. Iris.Fall leans more into its puzzles, and to its credit they’re fairly well-designed. It’s a bit better of an experience overall than that other adventure game that hit today, but it still feels a little rough around the edges in several ways. The wordless story is very mysterious and feels good in the moment, but after the relatively brief process (a few hours at most) of beating the game, it doesn’t really stick with you. It’s okay but it feels like it could have been so much more if only a few things were done differently.
Arcade Archives Rod Land ($7.99)
This 1990 Jaleco release managed to garner some popularity when it was ported to a variety of computers and consoles. It’s rather impressive that it did so considering its overall style felt like something from a previous era, but fun is fun and Rod Land isn’t too shabby at all. You turn enemies into cakes, then push the cakes on other enemies to defeat them. You can’t jump so you need to consider your position relative to the enemies carefully. It’s more enjoyable with a friend, but if you dig these single-screen arcade action games you’ll have enough fun with it on your own to make it worth the price. Hamster has done its usual job preserving the game, of course.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
That’s the lot. I’m sure we’ll see a fair number of sales between now and when I sit down to write tomorrow’s article, but there isn’t too much to talk about at the moment in the inbox. I mean, that’s a big discount on Sports Party if you’re interested in that game. The outbox is smaller than what we’ve seen in the last couple of days, but there are some things to check out. Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a great shoot-em-up, and RPG fans may want to look at Legends of Amberland and Megadimension Neptunia VII. I’ll also point out Hidden Folks, which is almost never on sale. It plays well on a bigger screen, so I prefer the Switch version to the mobile one.
Select New Games on Sale
Koral ($2.03 from $11.99 until 1/9)
Sports Party ($4.99 from $39.99 until 1/11)
Word Mesh ($2.09 from $6.99 until 1/18)
M.A.C.E. Tower Defense ($1.99 from $3.99 until 1/18)
Monster Blast ($2.39 from $7.99 until 1/18)
Azurebreak Heroes ($4.49 from $6.99 until 1/21)
Subsurface Circular ($4.79 from $5.99 until 1/28)
If My Heart Had Wings ($11.99 from $19.99 until 1/28)
Lovekami -Divinity Stage- ($11.99 from $14.99 until 1/28)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, January 8th
3D Billiards: Pool & Snooker ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/8)
3D MiniGolf ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/8)
BFF or Die ($5.99 from $7.99 until 1/8)
Bring Them Home ($2.00 from $2.99 until 1/8)
Danmaku Unlimited 3 ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Death and Taxes ($7.14 from $12.99 until 1/8)
Freddy Spaghetti ($3.99 from $4.99 until 1/8)
Guns, Gore and Cannoli ($5.99 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 ($7.79 from $12.99 until 1/8)
Hidden Folks ($2.99 from $11.99 until 1/8)
Hidden Through Time ($4.79 from $7.99 until 1/8)
Island Flight Simulator ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/8)
Legends of Amberland: TFC ($12.99 from $19.99 until 1/8)
Megadimension Neptunia VII ($20.99 from $29.99 until 1/8)
Overdriven Reloaded ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/8)
Season Match 2 ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Secrets of Magic: Book of Spells ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Strike: Ten Pin Bowling ($7.49 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Summer Sports Games ($12.49 from $24.99 until 1/8)
The Legend of Ninja ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/8)
Tiny Racer ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/8)
Ultra Foodmess ($2.59 from $3.99 until 1/8)
Warparty ($11.99 from $19.99 until 1/8)
Winter Sports Games ($12.49 from $24.99 until 1/8)
ZikSquare ($1.99 from $6.99 until 1/8)
That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow we’ll check out the rest of the week’s releases, such as they are, and also dig into what I’m expecting will be a healthy list of new sales. If there’s any big news, we’ll probably cover that too. It might be a lighter one depending on when I get back from my hospital visit, though. I hope you all have a great Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!
