Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 10th, 2021. In today’s article, we’ve got reviews of three games: New Pokemon Snap, Fly Together!, and Dull Grey. That’s… quite an odd mix, I’ll admit. There are a couple of new releases to look at, though nothing terribly exciting. There are summaries of them, just the same. We finish things up with the usual lists of new and outgoing sales, of which there are many. Let’s wade on in and see how the water is, eh?
Reviews & Mini-Views
New Pokemon Snap ($59.99)
I suppose the nice thing about doing a twenty-years-later sequel is that you can let the progress of technology do some of the heavy lifting when it comes to meeting expectations. That’s certainly one prong of New Pokemon Snap‘s approach. The game looks gorgeous, perhaps the best any Pokemon game has ever looked. There’s also a lot more in here when compared to the original. That game was sometimes criticized for its brevity and relatively low amount of content. You’d never be able to stick that charge to this game. If anything, there might be a little too much here.
As you might expect, the core gameplay hasn’t seen any drastic changes. You go on on-rails tours of various Pokemon-filled locations and need to try to take the best possible pictures of them that you can. Just snapping a shot of most of them takes little effort, but there are special poses and behaviors that can be captured under specific circumstances that will make for more desirable photos. You also have some items you can throw that will open secrets and potentially reveal even more Pokemon and unusual behaviors. There are some fun social features in the game that allow you to share interesting photos online, which gives you another audience to please with your pictures.
The original Pokemon Snap was a fairly simple game, particularly if your aim was only to get through the game. The same can be said for New Pokemon Snap. There’s nothing terribly complicated going on here, but you’ll have to have sharp eyes and a quick shutter finger if you want to excel at the game. At the same time, those who are only interested in having a series of relaxing tours in the world of Pokemon certainly won’t be disappointed. While the first game felt a bit short, this new one has almost two or three times as much to offer. The mechanics can get a little repetitive after a while, but seeing all of these familiar characters in a slightly more natural setting than usual is a solid hook that pulls the game through its slower moments. A great sequel for fans of the first, and a compelling spin on the Pokemon formula for those who missed the original.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Fly Together! ($15.00)
As much as Fly Together! is a follow-up of sorts to Conduct Together!, it reminds me just as much as the mobile classic Flight Control. Your goal in this game is to direct planes filled with passengers to the appropriate airports. Each airport can only handle a single plane at a time, so you have to keep things flowing at all times where possible. The more passengers you successfully land at their desired destinations, the more points you’ll earn. Naturally, you’ll want to avoid such unpleasantries as mid-air collisions, crashing into mountains, and other misfortunes. Each new area brings new gimmicks to deal with, along with the usual issues of air flows and visibility-blocking clouds. You’ll earn coins as you go which can be used to buy new airplanes, of which there are many. It’s an enjoyable juggling act.
What takes it to the next level is when you pull other players into the mix. See, there’s no rule that says you have to do all the work yourself. You can pull in up to seven other players, and each person can grab any plane they want at any time provided no one else has a hold of it. It’s easy to just mind a single plane each early on, but eventually you’re going to need to do more, and that’s when the chaos begins. Additional players can make the game easier if everyone is on the same page at all times. But anyone who has tried to do anything even remotely complicated with a group knows how tricky that can be. There’s just enough flexibility in Fly Together! that various strategies can work, and whipping your team together to find a winning one for each new challenge is great fun.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
Dull Grey ($4.99)
Set in the same world as Railways of Love, Dull Grey is an interesting short visual novel that has a little more going on than you might initially realize. You follow the story of a mother and son who are deciding on the son’s future profession. It’s a big decision in this world, and the mother certainly has her opinions on the matter. Perhaps more grim is that the government also has its opinions, seemingly boiled down to two choices. The game lasts about a half an hour, and in that time you’ll make several choices. All of those choices simply come down to picking one of these jobs or the other. Or… do they? It will probably take you two playthroughs at most to understand something isn’t quite right, especially since the game is upfront about there being eleven endings.
There’s most decidedly a trick to this game, and finding it is the coolest part. The story itself is well-written for what it is, though like Railways of Love it hints at so much more that you won’t be able to see in the game’s world. There are some errors in the English, but nothing too egregious. You only get a bit of art to set the scenes, and a little music to build the mood. As mentioned, each playthrough is quite short. If you want to find a good ending, it will take at least a few playthroughs. If you want to find all the endings, several more on top of that. As most of the text is unchanged after the first couple of playthroughs, you can speed through subsequent attempts. Perhaps not the best value for your money in terms of pure length, but there’s something interesting here for those willing to find it.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
New Releases
Lost Lands: The Wanderer ($6.99)
A relatively low-priced hidden object adventure game, Lost Lands: The Wanderer tells a new tale of Susan the Warmaide as she gets pulled back into the Lost Lands. Rumors persist about a ghost ship accompanied by a giant octopus and captained by a mysterious phantom. The call goes out across worlds to Susan, beckoning her back to the magical land. This game features fifty locations, more than forty mini-games, and a lot of hidden object puzzles to solve. Seems like typical fare, but if that’s what you’re hankering for, don’t let me stop you.
Olympic Basketball ($5.99)
If anyone from Pix Arts is reading this, I must once again stress that ‘Olympic’ is a trademarked term and certainly cannot be used without license in the title of a sports video game in a way that implies endorsement from or the official support of the IOC. If any of those suits find out you’re using the term to sell your terri-bad basketball game, you’re going to get sued into oblivion. They don’t fool around. I have fun riffing on your efforts, so please be careful. Anyway, you can play this poor game on your own, or pull a friend into your misery via local multiplayer. Provided you’re actually reading this article when it was posted, you can buy NBA 2K1 for four dollars more than this if you really want to play some video game basketball.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
The list of new sales has a few things to note in it. Say No! More is at a slightly more reasonable price, and may be worth biting on if you enjoy quirky stuff. If you have a lot of nostalgia for the original, Gods Remastered is quite cheap right now. It’s not on sale often. It’s hardly a rare thing, but 2K Games is having another sale and its games are all quite solid. Well, not WWE 2K18, but you probably know that by now. Not too much to get upset about in the outbox, but check it yourself to be sure.
Select New Games on Sale
Clue: Classic Mystery Game ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/14)
Battleship ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/14)
Say No! More ($9.99 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Hotel Transylvania 3 ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/17)
Adventure Time: Pirates ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Bubble Cats Rescue ($1.99 from $3.99 until 5/17)
Crayola Scoot ($5.99 from $29.99 until 5/17)
PAW Patrol: On a Roll! ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adv. Bay ($27.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Dreamworks Dragons DoNR ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Ben 10 ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/17)
Ben 10: Power Trip! ($27.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Zoids Wild Blast Unleashed ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Jumanji: The Video Game ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Gigantosaurus The Game ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Trollhunters: Defenders of Arcadia ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
UglyDolls: An Imperfect Adv. ($7.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adv. ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Transformers: Battlegrounds ($27.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
L.A. Noire ($24.99 from $49.99 until 5/17)
NBA 2K21 ($9.59 from $59.99 until 5/17)
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 ($7.49 from $29.99 until 5/17)
WWE 2K18 ($19.79 from $59.99 until 5/17)
WWE 2K Battlegrounds ($15.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Carnival Games ($9.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI ($19.79 from $59.99 until 5/17)
XCOM 2 Collection ($19.99 from $49.99 until 5/17)
The Outer Worlds ($29.99 from $59.99 until 5/17)
BioShock: The Collection ($19.99 from $49.99 until 5/17)
BioShock Remastered ($7.99 from $19.99 until 5/17)
BioShock 2 Remastered ($7.99 from $19.99 until 5/17)
BioShock Infinite: Complete ($7.99 from $19.99 until 5/17)
Borderlands Legendary Collection ($19.99 from $49.99 until 5/17)
Borderlands: GOTY Edition ($11.99 from $29.99 until 5/17)
Borderlands: The Handsome Collection ($15.99 from $39.99 until 5/17)
Tales from the Borderlands ($19.99 from $24.99 until 5/17)
PGA Tour 2K21 ($19.79 from $59.99 until 5/17)
Ironcast ($6.49 from $12.99 until 5/19)
Chess Ultra ($6.24 from $12.49 until 5/19)
The Spectrum Retreat ($6.49 from $12.99 until 5/19)
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics ($12.49 from $24.99 until 5/19)
Snooker 19 ($17.49 from $34.99 until 5/19)
Pure Pool ($10.49 from $14.99 until 5/19)
Gods Remastered ($2.99 from $9.99 until 5/21)
Blink: Rogues ($7.99 from $9.99 until 5/21)
One Dog Story ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/22)
Mystery Mine ($1.99 from $3.99 until 5/22)
Numbala ($4.00 from $7.99 until 5/22)
My Hidden Things ($4.68 from $6.99 until 5/22)
BDSM ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Escape from the Universe ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/22)
Hardcube ($2.10 from $7.00 until 5/22)
Taxi Chaos ($27.95 from $34.95 until 5/23)
Air Bounce: Jump ‘n’ Run Challenge ($3.59 from $5.99 until 5/24)
The Game is ON ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/24)
Life of Fly ($8.99 from $14.99 until 5/24)
My Little Dog Adventure ($4.99 from $9.99 until 5/24)
Aery: Broken Memories ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/24)
Windmill Kings ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/24)
Watermelon Party ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/24)
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption ($4.74 from $18.99 until 5/24)
Son of a Witch ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/24)
Legrand Legacy: TotF ($1.99 from $19.99 until 5/24)
Quest for the Golden Duck ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/24)
Rogue Bit ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/24)
Switchy Road ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/24)
Seeders Puzzle Reboot ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/24)
Lost Castle ($3.99 from $9.99 until 5/24)
Port Royale 4 ($44.99 from $49.99 until 5/28)
Pure Mahjong ($2.99 from $9.99 until 5/28)
Tyd wag vir Niemand ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/28)
‘n Velore Verstand ($2.09 from $14.99 until 5/28)
Knowledge Trainer: Trivia ($2.99 from $14.99 until 5/28)
Infestor ($3.99 from $4.99 until 5/28)
C14 Dating ($15.99 from $19.99 until 5/28)
Off And On Again ($11.20 from $14.00 until 5/29)
Grand Prix Racing ($2.99 from $5.99 until 5/29)
Animus ($3.19 from $7.99 until 5/30)
Animus: Harbinger ($3.19 from $7.99 until 5/30)
Demong Hunter ($6.39 from $7.99 until 5/30)
Dungeon Limbus ($11.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Bullet Battle: Evolution ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Counter Recon: The First Mission ($11.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Dark Water: Slime Invader ($11.99 from $14.99 until 5/30)
Abby’s Farm for Kids ($8.99 from $9.99 until 5/30)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 11th
#Funtime ($6.65 from $14.99 until 5/11)
Almost There: The Platformer ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/11)
Arcanoid Breakout ($2.99 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Archery Blast ($2.99 from $3.99 until 5/11)
Ary & the Secret of Seasons ($9.99 from $39.99 until 5/11)
AXS ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/11)
Bear With Me: The Lost Robots ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Beast Quest ($5.99 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Breakfast Bar Tycoon ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Breakpoint ($2.46 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Breathing Fear ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Cozy Grove ($13.49 from $14.99 until 5/11)
Deer Drive Legends ($3.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Degrees of Separation ($5.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Deleveled ($4.93 from $9.99 until 5/11)
Flip Over Frog ($1.99 from $7.50 until 5/11)
Fracter ($3.45 from $6.99 until 5/11)
Get Over Here ($2.54 from $4.99 until 5/11)
Goonya Fighter ($11.59 from $14.49 until 5/11)
Gurgamoth ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/11)
Highway Haste ($4.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Kine ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
LEGO Harry Potter Collection ($12.49 from $49.99 until 5/11)
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/11)
Override 2: Super Mech League ($19.49 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Override: Mech City Brawl ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Pinball Big Splash ($1.99 from $2.99 until 5/11)
Remothered: Broken Porcelain ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break ($7.49 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Roundguard ($8.87 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Shakes on a Plane ($4.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Skully ($7.49 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Sky Ride ($1.99 from $6.99 until 5/11)
Space Otter Charlie ($11.97 from $14.99 until 5/11)
The Ambassador: FT ($6.65 from $14.99 until 5/11)
The Bridge ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/11)
The Hong Kong Massacre ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/11)
Tower of Babel ($1.99 from $5.99 until 5/11)
Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince ($7.49 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Trine: Ultimate Collection ($14.99 from $49.99 until 5/11)
Troll & I ($2.99 from $29.99 until 5/11)
Tumblestone ($1.99 from $14.99 until 5/11)
That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow is looking a bit thin in general, with nothing on the release schedule at the moment. That could change, of course. We’ll have a review or two, plus whatever news and new sales come along in the next day. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
