Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for February 25th, 2021. We’ve got a ton of new games to look at today, and time is short. I had to head into the hospital today to get my stitches removed, and I even got some positive test results as a bonus. That has left me with less time than usual for a bigger workload than the norm, but we’ve got summaries of every new game anyway. Let’s get right to it, shall we?
New Releases
Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection ($29.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Do you ever find yourself playing the old Ghosts ‘n Goblins games and thinking that they’re just too darned easy? Well, have I got the game for you! Classic Capcom producer Tokuro Fujiwara returns to bring his baby back from the grave, and he’s clearly not gotten soft in his age. This game is stupid-hard. Yes, even more so than the previous games, if you play on the normal difficulty. There are difficulty options but if anything those have only made Fujiwara more ruthless. I’m a fan of this series and I’ll be honest with you: this one’s a little too hard for my liking. But if you’re made of sterner stuff than I am, feel free to step up to the formidable challenge that awaits in this ghoulish action revival.
Clocker ($3.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
This is a puzzle adventure game involving time manipulation, and it is very good. There are two characters you’ll control, a father and a daughter. The father can use his pocket watch to move through other character’s timelines. The daughter is chasing her father, and has the power to resume any frozen timelines. Basically she’s chasing after her dad’s messes. A couple of the puzzles are a bit weird to sort out with logic and the translation is a little rough in places, but in general this is a solid experience for a low price. The story is interesting, the presentation is nice, and there are even a couple of different endings to aim for. It’s a little on the shorter side, but for four bucks I’d imagine one would expect that.
Demon’s Rise: Lords of Chaos ($7.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
The second in Wavelight’s series of excellent turn-based strategy RPGs makes its way to the Switch. This installment sees you playing as the forces of darkness, with 25 inventive character classes to form your team from. Otherwise, it follows closely in the footsteps of the original game. Lots of battles with some interesting mechanics, plenty of gear to collect, and a bevy of side-missions to entertain you when you feel like taking a break from the main campaign. This is a full-fat game in terms of content, so you can look forward to dozens of hours of tactical enjoyment for your eight bucks. I’ll have a review of this one sometime next week if you need more details, but you can always look up my review of the iOS version if you want to know the general vibe.
Mike Dies ($9.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
You know what, I’m going to stick my neck out a little. This is a much better game than I first gave it credit for. Kind of somewhere between a puzzle platformer and a Metroidvania, and obviously from the title you can expect to die a lot. But there’s a lot going on here if you give it a little time to unfold, and I think if you’re the sort of person that wants your games to be “interesting", you’ll really appreciate what this one is laying down. And yes, there are a lot of amusing ways to die as you make your way through its bizarre areas. Strangely, it never feels very punishing about it. Give it a shot if you’re willing to take a chance on something quirky.
Littlewood ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
You are the hero who saved the world by doing battle with the wicked Dark Wizard! A guiding light for all the realm! But… what do you do now that evil is defeated? And why can’t you remember exactly what happened? Explore the world of Solemn to try to get your memories back. To do that you’ll need to create a town and attract all manner of Townsfolk to move in. The more people you meet, the more you’ll remember. You’ll need plenty of materials, some skill at crafting, and a helpful spirit to deal with the requests of the Townsfolk. If you enjoy games like Stardew Valley, you’ll want to give this game a go. It’s quite good, and if you don’t believe me you can take a quick peek around the internet to see all the praise it has received on other platforms.
Arcade Archives Guerrilla War ($7.99)
SNK’s excellent 1987 overhead shooter Guerrilla War finally makes its way to the Arcade Archives line-up, lumbering in well after most of its peers from the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. Play as two unnamed rebel commandos (in the Japanese version Che Guevara and Fidel Castro) as they seek to overthrow an unnamed dictator (it’s Batista) who rules over an unnamed Caribbean island (it’s Cuba). Even without its bold story elements, this is a solid top-down shooter and arguably one of the best of the genre in its era. The only problem is that it’s already available in the aforementioned collection with numerous other games, so unless you really only want this game in particular you’re better off going for the set. Hamster’s done nice work here as usual, however.
Lawnmower Game: Racing ($4.99)
Yeah, this has the smell of Ultimate Games about it. Here’s the thing: this game is stupid, but it knows it. And to its credit, it is priced appropriately for a gag game. Pick your favorite lawnmower from four different types and race on twenty-six different tracks. You might be mower-racing through city streets, or through a winter wonderland, or even in a cartoon fantasy world. Regrettably, it is single-player only. You race against a few AI opponents. Ludicrous, but if you’re in the right mood and don’t mind burning a fiver you’ll probably get a few laughs out of it.
Legal Dungeon ($9.99)
What a wild world of video games we live in, friends. Fifteen years ago it looked like video games were going to go with narrower and narrower concepts as time passed, and here we are today with me telling you about game that is literally about organizing police investigation documents. There are eight different cases on your virtual desk, and you need to comb through all of the paperwork and make a verdict on each of them. Does that sound fun to you? Or just weird enough to try? Dive into the Legal Dungeon and see if you can make sense of this fictional legal system!
Hellpoint ($34.99)
Hellpoint‘s developers clearly love both space horror and Dark Souls, because the fusion of those elements is almost exactly what Hellpoint is chasing after. I wish I could tell you that it is enormously successful at this, because there just aren’t enough great space horror games these days. Unfortunately, it is only moderately successful at it, which is better than not being successful at all, I suppose. It’s very rough compared to the games it is paying clear homage to, but not so rough that you can’t overlook things and have a good time with it. I’ll have a review of this one soon, but I can say right now that it’s really only for the hungry Souls fan looking for something “close enough" to play.
Forward to the Sky ($48.99)
Mmm, no. Forward to the Sky is an action-RPG, or at least that’s what it fancies itself as. There are some battles to fight, puzzles to solve, and platforming challenges to overcome. There are six discrete levels, with the last being a boss battle. It all wraps up in a couple of hours, leaving you to wonder what you paid nearly fifty whole dollars for. This feels like something I’d be on the line about recommending for ten bucks, so… yeah. It has its moments, with the puzzles being a bit better than the rest of its parts. Overall, however, this is a rather weak effort that at a glance would seem to be something far more polished and substantial than it truly is.
Castle Kong ($6.99)
PauperBoy needs to rescue PrincessGirl from the wicked BaronMan in this homage to Nintendo’s classic game. There are four different stage types with twenty-two levels, and it’s all about the jumping, dodging, and occasional pitchfork skewering. It looks okay for what it is, I guess? I’m not sure how much I’m into a game that hews so closely to the structure of Donkey Kong in the here and now, but if that’s your jam I’m happy someone else out there felt the same and was able to make a game to scratch that itch. The shop description makes a reference to the King of Kong movie, which is now almost fourteen years old. Wow! That’s as old as Donkey Kong Country was when King of Kong came out.
Under Leaves ($12.99)
This is a chill game about finding hidden stuff in pictures. Like a classy Where’s Waldo/Wally, really. There are nine different locations with pretty hand-drawn visuals, and twenty-nine animals who ask you to search for hidden items for them. There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this one, to be frank. I think it looks a little light on content for the price it’s asking, but if you need something calm to relax with and have the money to burn, I suppose it’s this or Aery today. Perhaps it might be nice to zone out with?
Steam Prison ($65.49)
There are a couple of decent choices for fans of otome visual novels today. Steam Prison is your typical tale of class struggles, set in a world where the fancy people live in the Heights and the not-fancy people live in the Depths. So uh, yeah. Don’t expect a lot of subtlety here. Our heroine is a sassy snob from the Heights who works as a police officer. One day she and her partner have to venture into a prison area in the Depths, and what she finds there may be dangerously handsome and smoochable. The art is really nice in this one, but otherwise it looks like it colors inside the lines of the genre without much deviation.
Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ ($39.99)
This is another add-on story for Code: Realize, and like most of these sorts of things it’s really meant for those who want a bit more time with the characters they fell in love with in the original game. The story takes a winter theme here as snow falls on Steel City. Cardia meets new friends and enemies taken from the pages of literature, and attempts to get them to smooch her. Some will smooch her. Others will fight with each other. Many will fight for the right to smooch her. That’s just how things go in this world, it seems. So yes, more twisty romantic entanglements with hunky boy versions of characters we all know and love. But now it’s holiday-themed!
Codebreaker Puzzle 1000! ENG & JAN ($9.49)
The ‘JAN’ in the title means ‘Japanese’, and that’s a new one for me. At any rate, you get 2000 puzzles to solve here, but only half of them use roman letters. The rest use Japanese kana. It’s a little like a crossword puzzle in that you’re trying to fill in words on the grid, but there’s a twist in that squares that have the same number in the corner have to use the same letters. It’s a nice way to freshen up a familiar style of puzzle while also making it work without needing written clues. If you like word puzzles, you’ll certainly get ten dollars’ worth of enjoyment out of this one. Not much in terms of presentation, but games like this rarely enjoy such delights.
Radon Blast ($3.99)
I was going to just type “avoid missing ball for high score" here and leaving it at that, but it would have messed with the formatting. So let’s go on for a bit more, I suppose. This is a brick breaker. The main way it stands out from most brick-breakers is that your paddle is at the side rather than at the bottom of the screen, but it’s hardly the first game to do that. The levels are apparently randomly sorted, and there are the usual power-ups. The bricks are arranged to look a lot like certain things that this developer may or may not have the rights to put in their game. Well, what can you do? Avoid missing ball for high score.
The Lost Cube ($9.99)
Patterned after titles like Super Meat Boy and Celeste, The Lost Cube is a tough platformer that sends you through 60 levels of jumping, guitar pick collecting, and a whole lot of dying. There are even a couple of boss fights thrown in for good measure. I’m not sure that it nails the visual style it’s going for in quite the same way its sources of inspiration do, and it has a bit of an odd look to it as a result. That said, the level designs seem good and as long as the controls are decent there’s probably some fun to be had here for a certain type of player.
Aery – A Journey Beyond Time ($9.99)
By this point, I’m sure you know what to expect from an Aery game. This is the fourth one, and it offers very similar gameplay to the previous titles. You fly your bird-god thing around and observe the things that are going down throughout human history. There are twelve stages, each one covering a different part of human development. There’s no violence and it’s all very chill, so… probably a bit selective about which parts of human history it’s showing. Anyway, if you’re into this series you probably don’t need to hear my blathering, and if you’re new you should probably start with the first game before hitting this one up. There’s an established formula here, and it’s clearly working for many players.
Blastful ($3.99)
This is a twin-stick shooter that seems pretty light on content. There are ten different enemy types, five different weapons, and procedurally generated visuals. Like… it doesn’t look terrible, and it’s only four dollars. But at the same time, on a platform with as many options in this genre as the Switch has, I’m not sure that’s really enough. I can’t even fall back on the old “if you only have four bucks to spend today" routine, because if you’ve got four bucks you can buy Clocker. So we’ll add the extra condition that if you only have four bucks and also don’t like puzzles, this may be something to look into? Glad I could be helpful.
Dotori ($11.99)
Take control of Rico the Squirrel in this cute 2.5D platformer. This released on computers a while back, but it doesn’t seem to have gotten much attention. The Steam reviews are positive at least. You can run, jump, and throw so it seems a bit light on special gimmicks. There are hidden acorns in each stage for you to search around for, and some special bonus stages to unlock that will put your skills to the test. This looks somewhat promising, even if it appears to stick pretty close to genre conventions. I’ll have to give it a closer look, and if it ends up surprising me I’ll let you all know, friends.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Oh hey, the Witcher games are on sale. If you’ve waited until now to buy in, trust me: you’ll want the whole package. Those are some hot-fire DLCs, so if you’re jumping in just save yourself the anguish and grab the Complete Edition. Beyond that, there isn’t too much going on yet today. I’m sure I’ll have a massive list waiting for me in the morning, though. The outbox sees sales from Bandai Namco and Capcom expiring, among others. Those games will probably back around before too long, but if you want them cheap and immediately, act accordingly.
Select New Games on Sale
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ($23.99 from $39.99 until 3/2)
The Witcher 3: WH Complete ($35.99 from $59.99 until 3/2)
Thronebreaker: Witcher Tales ($9.99 from $19.99 until 3/2)
Sir Lovelot ($7.99 from $9.99 until 3/2)
iota ($6.39 from $7.99 until 3/3)
Cyber Protocol ($1.99 from $9.99 until 3/4)
Nirvana Pilot Yume ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/4)
OMG Police: Car Chase ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/4)
Clumsy Rush ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/4)
Drift Racing Madness ($4.79 from $5.99 until 3/5)
Word Mesh ($2.09 from $6.99 until 3/8)
M.A.C.E. Tower Defense ($1.99 from $3.99 until 3/8)
Monster Blast ($2.39 from $7.99 until 3/8)
Wreckin Ball Adventure ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/10)
Aperion Cyberstorm ($8.99 from $14.99 until 3/10)
Can Androids Pray: Blue ($4.19 from $6.99 until 3/10)
Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story ($1.99 from $7.99 until 3/10)
Merchant of the Skies ($9.89 from $14.99 until 3/10)
Double Pug Switch ($5.39 from $8.99 until 3/10)
Geki Yaba Runner ($1.99 from $2.99 until 3/10)
Hakinowa Explorer Plus ($8.39 from $11.99 until 3/11)
One Way Heroics Plus ($10.49 from $14.99 until 3/11)
Super Space Serpent Secondary ($7.49 from $9.99 until 3/11)
Amazing Brick Breaker ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/11)
Croixleur Sigma ($7.99 from $19.99 until 3/11)
Star Sky ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/11)
A Street Cat’s Tale ($6.39 from $7.99 until 3/11)
Kero Blaster ($3.99 from $9.99 until 3/11)
TorqueL: Physics Modified ($1.99 from $4.99 until 3/11)
Angels of Death ($8.99 from $14.99 until 3/11)
Orangeblood ($15.99 from $19.99 until 3/11)
Mad Father ($7.99 from $9.99 until 3/11)
Zombie’s Cool ($1.99 from $3.99 until 3/11)
Astebreed ($5.99 from $19.99 until 3/11)
YumeNikki Dream Diary ($9.99 from $19.99 until 3/11)
Vertical Strike ($2.49 from $4.99 until 3/11)
Steam Tactics ($5.99 from $9.99 until 3/16)
Escape From Tethys ($5.99 from $9.99 until 3/16)
Norman’s Great Illusion ($2.99 from $4.99 until 3/16)
Active Neurons ($2.99 from $4.99 until 3/16)
Active Neurons 2 ($2.99 from $4.99 until 3/16)
Aircraft Evolution ($5.99 from $9.99 until 3/16)
Need a Packet? ($4.19 from $6.99 until 3/16)
Sky Ride ($1.99 from $7.00 until 3/16)
Top Speed: Drag & Fast Racing ($1.99 from $7.99 until 3/16)
Flip Over Frog ($1.99 from $7.50 until 3/16)
Goonya Fighter ($11.59 from $14.49 until 3/16)
Crawlco Block Knockers ($6.29 from $8.99 until 3/17)
Moero Crystal H ($31.99 from $39.99 until 3/17)
Without Escape ($2.49 from $4.99 until 3/18)
Iris School of Wizardry ($16.74 from $24.99 until 3/18)
Robozarro ($3.49 from $6.99 until 3/18)
Takotan ($3.49 from $6.99 until 3/18)
Waifu Uncovered ($4.99 from $6.99 until 3/18)
Spiral Memoria ($16.74 from $24.99 until 3/18)
Kitty Love ($16.74 from $24.99 until 3/18)
Ayakashi Koi Gikyoku ($16.74 from $24.99 until 3/18)
Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace ($15.99 from $19.99 until 3/23)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, February 26th
39 Days to Mars ($10.04 from $14.99 until 2/26)
Castle Kong ($4.99 from $6.99 until 2/26)
Caveblazers ($4.49 from $14.99 until 2/26)
Cooking Festival ($7.69 from $10.99 until 2/26)
Devil May Cry ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Devil May Cry 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Devil May Cry 3 SE ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Disney Tsum Tsum Festival ($19.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Doraemon Story of Seasons ($24.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Dragon Ball FighterZ ($9.59 from $59.99 until 2/26)
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ($9.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Dungeons & Bombs ($3.99 from $4.99 until 2/26)
God Eater 3 ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
How to Take Off Your Mask ($11.99 from $14.99 until 2/26)
Jump Force: Deluxe ($29.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Katamari Damacy REROLL ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/26)
Little Nightmares Complete ($7.49 from $29.99 until 2/26)
Mr. Driller DrillLand ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/26)
My Hero One’s Justice ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
My Hero One’s Justice 2 ($29.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
Namco Museum ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/26)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Naruto Ninja Storm Trilogy ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/26)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 ($29.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Ni no Kuni: WotWW ($12.49 from $49.99 until 2/26)
One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/26)
One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 ($29.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
One Piece Unlimited World Red ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/26)
Pac-Man CE 2 Plus ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
RAD ($5.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Ramp Car Jumping ($1.99 from $10.49 until 2/26)
Run the Fan ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/26)
Super Dragon Ball Heroes ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet ($14.99 from $59.99 until 2/26)
Sword Art Online Hollow Realization ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Taiko no Tatsujin Drum ‘n’ Fun! ($14.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythmic Adv. 1 ($20.99 from $29.99 until 2/26)
Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythmic Adv. 2 ($20.99 from $29.99 until 2/26)
Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythmic Adv. Pack ($34.99 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive ($12.49 from $49.99 until 2/26)
Vampire: TM – Coteries of NY ($8.99 from $19.99 until 2/26)
Vampire: TM – Shadows of NY ($9.74 from $12.99 until 2/26)
That’s all for today, friends. So far my hospital visits are yielding no results, and given what we’re testing for that’s a good thing. Let’s hope it keeps up. I’ll be digging into the Darius Cozmic Revelation set today as it just came out in Japan. Like there isn’t enough new stuff to play without digging into the classics, eh? Well, that’s how I am. Tomorrow will be another wild one, with Bravely Default II leading the charge. Anyway, I hope you all have a great Thursday and as always, thanks for reading!
