Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 11th, 2021. In today’s article, we take a look at several new releases. Friends, I’m not going to fib: this is a pretty dire assortment outside of one particular standout. But we summarize each and every one of them anyway, because there frankly isn’t much else going on in the world of Switch today. We also have a list of new and outgoing sales, with some decent titles to consider in both. Let’s have a look, shall we?
New Releases
Wrestling Empire ($19.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Finally… MDickie… has come to Nintendo Switch! If you’ve played any of MDickie’s wrestling games on mobile or PC, you know this is a game to have your eye on. Inspired by the classic Nintendo 64 wrestling games from AKI, Wrestling Empire allows up to four players to climb into the ring in local multiplayer for some good old slobberknocker action. Solo players can roll up their own character and battle up to 350 opponents in a massive career mode that sees you going through the highs and lows of the road to the championship. Up to 30 characters can be in the ring at once, which makes for quite the fancy rumble. Fans of pro wrestling who have been waiting for the Switch to get a solid entry in the genre need wait no longer: this is the game for you.
Knight With Tactics ($0.99)
This seems like a simple enough concept for a low enough price that even prolific eShop trash-slinger Piotr Skalski can’t entirely mess it up. Or… can he? In each stage, you need to move your knight in such a way as destroy all of the enemies, sometimes picking up a weapon along the way if necessary. It’s boring more than bad, and I suppose there are worse crimes than charging someone a buck to put them to sleep.
Maze With Cube ($2.99)
Seriously, Piotr? Seriously? Alright, fine. You have more than 100 stages of guiding a cube through mazes here. Like… you’re looking down on the maze, and you just move your cube square-by-square through until you reach the exit. I suppose if nothing else it costs about the same as a book of mazes and can at least be re-used. Hey, did you know you can buy Downwell for $2.99? Just… just throwing that out there.
Bullet Trail ($2.99)
Darn it, Piotr! Stop! At least space out these things so that I don’t have to write about a bunch of them in one day. The idea here is a familiar one for many mobile gamers, I’m sure. You have to guide a bullet in mid-air to its targets. Try to take out as many targets as you can with a single shot. Piotr found some kind of new shader for this one, giving it a distinct look that would help it stand out were it not for…
Wacky Run ($2.99)
… this game, Piotr’s fourth release of the day. He busts out that shader and cranks up the heat on it for this behind-the-back platformer with procedurally-generated stages. The game description is pretty pumped about the fact that you can pick up planks and use them for shortcuts. Now that’s what I call wacky. So wacky. I’m just… beside myself at the wackiness of it all. Sigh. Well, that’s all of Piotr’s games for today. Hopefully the rest of the releases for today are of better quality. Wait, did I just set a flag? Oh noooooooo.
Arcanoid Breakout ($4.99)
One new-to-Switch developer is putting out a handful of stinkers on the eShop today, perhaps in some deadly competition with Piotr, and this is the best of the terrible lot. Arcanoid Breakout, which clearly has no relation to Taito’s trademarked Arkanoid or Atari’s trademarked Breakout, is a game where you use a long narrow stick of sorts to hit a ball-shaped object at patterns of bricks to remove them. This shockingly novel concept will surely turn the gaming world on its head with its innovation. You know, copying the gameplay of another game is one thing, especially when it’s something as simple and foundational as Breakout, but ripping off the name of it and its biggest competitor in the genre feels like a step too far for me. Nintendo really needs to be stricter about this kind of nonsense.
Dirt Trackin Sprint Cars ($9.99)
A port of a free-to-play mobile racing game that has traded its IAPs for an upfront price, Dirt Trackin Sprint Cars brings in another dirt racing option for Switch owners. This seems to be a reasonably high-effort port, even going so far as to maintain the online multiplayer mode for up to 15 players. You get 13 different tracks to race on, more than 400 different cars to choose from, and multiple modes of play including a career mode. This game seems to have gone over reasonably well with mobile players, and I’d recommend checking out the free version of on your local App Store for a taste of what you can expect here.
Top Gun Air Combat ($9.99)
Is this really okay? This game has nothing to do with the Top Gun movie, nor does it have any association to Namco’s Air Combat. The game description on the eShop consists of exactly four words, all lowercase: “modern conflict air warfare". Well, okay. This game comes from a developer who has up until now made its bread churning out low-quality SEO-bait on mobile platforms, and if you played it you probably wouldn’t need me to tell you that. It’s very bad, and even if it were a tenth of the price I wouldn’t recommend it. If you really need some aerial thrills, go for Sky Gamblers or the SEGA AGES G-LOC port. Surprisingly, this isn’t even the worst game this developer dropped on the eShop today.
Radio Commander ($14.99)
There’s perhaps something to the idea behind this game, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The idea here is that you are a radio commander for the United States during the Vietnam War. In theory you’re commanding your troops from the perspective a real commander might, dealing with all of the logistical challenges that come with that. In practice, this is a monotonous affair that uses its unique premise to mask what is a very repetitive, shallow strategy game. Points for trying something new, but I can’t see many people getting into the actual gameplay on offer here.
Yumemidori Nostalgia ($19.99)
Otome visual novel time again! The story of this one is that the heroine is a modern-age teenager who follows a butterfly through a gate on Gojukkan Street and ends up back in Taisho-era Yoshiwara. While she tries to find a way back to her own time, she encounters a pair of handsome guys who will vie for her affections. Will she return home? Will she smooch a hunk? It’s all on you, friends. Not much to say about this one. It looks pretty typical by the standards of the genre. Nice art, though.
Grand Prix Racing ($5.99)
Phew, take a look at those textures. Those are some Nintendo 64-level textures right there. Probably no surprise that this is yet another port of a rather shabby free-to-play mobile racer, this one going by the name of Sport Car Racer 3D on the App Store. This is the last release today from the folks behind Top Gun Air Combat and Arcanoid Breakout, and it’s somehow even worse than both of those. It touts realistic physics and sensations in its eShop description, and I really wish there was some kind of standard for what ‘realistic’ means because the gameplay here is awful. Awful, and not realistic at all. While it offers online play on other platforms, here it is just a one-player experience. I guess misery doesn’t always like company after all.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Some decent games in the inbox today, though nothing too rare as far as sales go. Limited Run Games has several of its games on sale, and adventure game fans can catch up on the Secret Files and Lost Horizon releases at some low prices. Two Tribes games are also discounted, so if you don’t have all of its games yet you can go ahead and do that little thing. The outbox isn’t too big but there are some games in there that may not be back on sale anytime soon like Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection and Tokyo Dark. Have a careful look as always, friends.
Select New Games on Sale
Chess Ace ($1.99 from $7.99 until 1/15)
Wrestling Empire ($15.99 from $19.99 until 1/16)
SuperMoose ($6.39 from $7.99 until 1/16)
Secret Files: Tunguska ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/17)
Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/17)
Secret Files 3 ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/17)
Secret Files Sam Peters ($2.09 from $6.99 until 1/17)
Lost Horizon ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/17)
Lost Horizon 2 ($4.49 from $14.99 until 1/17)
Flowlines VS ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/18)
Perfect Traffic Simulator ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/19)
Fantasy Tower Defense ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/19)
Revenge of the Bird King ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/22)
Saturday Morning RPG ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/22)
Cosmic Star Heroine ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Night Trap: 25th Anniversary ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Double Switch: 25th Anniversary ($2.99 from $14.99 until 1/22)
Super Space Serpent Secondary ($7.99 from $9.99 until 1/23)
Blackmoor 2 ($4.49 from $4.99 until 1/23)
Road 3 Pack ($2.99 from $7.99 until 1/24)
Red Colony ($6.29 from $6.99 until 1/26)
Swap This! ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Animal Hunter Z ($3.99 from $9.99 until 1/28)
Viviette ($6.99 from $9.99 until 1/28)
Caterpillar Royale ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Battle & Crash ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Collide-a-Ball 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Dungeon Shooting ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Ping Pong Trick Evolution ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Super Ping Ping Trick Shot ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Swords & Soldiers ($1.99 from $7.49 until 1/28)
RIVE: Ultimate ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/28)
Toki Tori ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Toki Tori 2+ ($1.99 from $14.99 until 1/28)
BINGO ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/28)
Bezier: Second Edition ($4.99 from $19.99 until 1/28)
Moto Rush GT ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Cooking Tycoons: 3 in 1 ($3.89 from $12.99 until 2/1)
Solitaire Deluxe Bundle ($2.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12th
Aborigenus ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/12)
Apocryph: Old-School Shooter ($6.99 from $14.95 until 1/12)
Battlloon ($3.49 from $6.99 until 1/12)
Chiki-Chiki Boxy Racers ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/12)
Damascus Gear Operation Osaka ($2.40 from $19.99 until 1/12)
Diabolic ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/12)
Family Tennis SP ($4.20 from $6.99 until 1/12)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted ($14.99 from $29.99 until 1/12)
Girabox ($1.99 from $2.49 until 1/12)
Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party ($44.99 from $59.99 until 1/12)
Mononoke Slashdown ($4.20 from $6.99 until 1/12)
Necrosphere Deluxe ($3.99 from $7.99 until 1/12)
Nekopara Vol.4 ($11.99 from $14.99 until 1/12)
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee ($9.99 from $29.99 until 1/12)
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath ($9.99 from $29.99 until 1/12)
Pixel Gladiator ($1.99 from $6.99 until 1/12)
Renegade ($3.50 from $5.00 until 1/12)
Samurai Shodown ($29.99 from $49.99 until 1/12)
Samurai Shodown NEOGEO Collection ($19.99 from $39.99 until 1/12)
Swaps & Traps ($1.99 from $8.99 until 1/12)
Tactical Mind 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/12)
The Midnight Sanctuary ($4.99 from $9.99 until 1/12)
Tiny Metal ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/12)
Tokyo Dark: Remembrance ($9.99 from $19.99 until 1/12)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a handful of new releases, including a few more from our favorite new trash-game publisher. Oh boy. We’ll also have whatever news and sales come our way in the next twenty-four hours, and if I can finish up a game or two that I’m working on, perhaps a couple of reviews or Mini-Views as well. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
