Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for December 9th, 2021. As we creep ever closer to the end of the year, things are starting to slow down in the land of gaming. Well, in quantity anyway. In terms of quality, today is pure fire. Loop Hero, Monster Rancher, and Super Impossible Road lead a pack of downright decent offerings. We’ve got summaries of all of today’s releases, plus the usual lists of incoming and outgoing sales for you to chew on. Let’s dig in!
New Releases
Loop Hero ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
This game is terrific. Absolutely terrific. You’ve got these prodedurally-generated maps, and your hero basically runs laps around them. You’ll place down cards that the hero earns along the way that add events, buffs, enemies, and more to the map. The longer you play, the stronger your hero gets but the more dangerous things become. It’s up to you to decide which lap will be the last one, but there are benefits to pushing your luck. Build up your power carefully and you may just be able to break the Lich’s time loop. The world is counting on you! I’ve been playing the wheels off this one and will have a review for you on Monday, but I can already give it an enthusiastic thumbs up.
Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX ($29.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Back in the day, there were a lot of games that tried to follow up on the success of Pokemon with their own take on raising and battling monsters. One of the better ones was Monster Rancher, which had a great gimmick where you could spawn a monster by putting any music CD in your PlayStation. This collection gives you the first two games in the series with a few enhancements. Obviously, you can’t jam CDs into your Switch’s cartridge slot, so instead the game has a built-in music database that you can search to generate monsters. Yes, you can have your Arrow Head monster without digging out your copy of Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors. I’ll have a review of this one soon.
Super Impossible Road ($19.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Mobile fans will probably know this one well enough. Impossible Road has been around for a while, and Super Impossible Road came rolling into Apple Arcade a little bit ago. Well, now you can play it on your Switch. Guide your extremely fast ball along the precarious paths, speeding up when you dare and seeking shortcuts if you’re brave enough. This is a great port that has some nice multiplayer options. Up to four people can play locally on a splitscreen, and up to eight players via the internet. It’s a cool game and I feel like the additions here make it worth considering over the Apple Arcade version. I’ll be reviewing this one as well.
Arcade Archives Dragon Buster ($7.99)
Whoa, what is that big green lizardy thing breathing fire? It’s a Dragon, Buster. This 1984 release is one of those Namco games that was obviously influential but doesn’t really feel that good to play in the here and now. Clumsily battle your way through 2D action stages and battle the dragon waiting at the end. You can have some fun with it, but you’ll have to be patient with its quirks. This was very early in the genre’s history, after all. Hamster has done its usual fine work with it, even going so far as to add an optional toggle that fixes the hero’s sprite to look more like he was intended to.
Kubinashi Recollection ($11.99)
Hey, it’s a game with Touhou Project characters. Heroine Sekibanki is a type of Japanese youkai known as a rokurokubi, specifically a nukekubi. What that means is that she can detach her head and use it for all kinds of purposes. It can serve as a springboard, a weapon, and even a means of item retrieval. Sekibanki can multiply her heads, and players who want an easier time can play with nine heads. Oh, I guess I should mention that this is a puzzle-platformer. To be frank, it has five-dollar Switch platformer energy. Touhou games always seem to go for a little more than they feel like they should. It’s fun, though.
RICO: London ($49.99)
This is a follow-up to the original RICO, and if the reviews on other platforms are to be believed, it is not a very good game. Apparently, it cuts features from the original game and doesn’t add enough to compensate? It also has a number of technical issues, which perhaps isn’t that surprising. At more than double the price of the first game, that’s not that great. The content is also extremely thin here, with what feels like a small handful of rooms shuffled and juggled ever-so-slightly to keep you grinding through a rather brief campaign. There are a couple of other modes that help things a little, but overall this doesn’t feel quite ready for prime time.
Wytchwood ($19.99)
You play as the witch of the woods in this crafting adventure game. Gather ingredients, grow your own, and craft all kinds of oddities. Research and create spells and other concoctions as you explore the countryside. Use your sorcery to protect yourself against the creatures and characters you meet. You know, the usual witch stuff. Sometimes you have to be the one to teach folks lessons, after all. It certainly looks nice, but I haven’t been able to play it yet so that’s really all I can say.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
I expect this list to be rather larger in the eShop by the time you read this, but as I am writing it this is all we have. We will, as ever, catch up tomorrow. For now, you can take advantage of nice discounts on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, Crash Bandicoot 4, and Rune Factory 4 Special. Prospective coders may want to grab FUZE4 for that low price of a fiver, and fighting game fans will surely want Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid if they don’t already own it. Not too much worth getting fussed about in the outbox, but have a look through yourself in case ol’ Shauny is losing his marbles.
Select New Games on Sale
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 ($21.99 from $39.99 until 12/16)
Crash Bandicoot 4 ($29.99 from $39.99 until 12/16)
Rune Factory 4 Special ($23.99 from $29.99 until 12/22)
Wind Peaks ($7.49 from $14.99 until 12/22)
The Red Lantern ($19.99 from $24.99 until 12/22)
Power Rangers: BftG ($12.99 from $19.99 until 12/23)
Crayon Shinchan Kasukabe Runner ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/27)
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae ($7.14 from $11.90 until 12/29)
FUZE4 Nintendo Switch ($4.99 from $19.99 until 12/29)
Pony World 3 ($3.49 from $6.99 until 12/29)
Ball laB ($3.99 from $4.99 until 12/29)
Kickerinho World ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/29)
2in1 Application Driver & Sniper ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/29)
Toast Time: Smash Up! ($1.99 from $9.99 until 12/30)
Graviter ($1.99 from $7.99 until 12/30)
Space Commander: War & Trade ($5.99 from $9.99 until 12/30)
Colsword ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/30)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, December 10th
20 Ladies ($3.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
4×4 Dirt Track ($5.99 from $11.99 until 12/10)
99Vidas: Definitive Edition ($1.99 from $9.99 until 12/10)
AAA Clock ($1.99 from $9.99 until 12/10)
Arcade Space Shooter 2 in 1 ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Art Sqool ($1.99 from $12.99 until 12/10)
Bargain Hunter ($8.74 from $12.49 until 12/10)
Bunny Adventure ($2.10 from $6.00 until 12/10)
Car Driving School Simulator ($6.99 from $13.99 until 12/10)
Carnage: Battle Arena ($4.49 from $14.99 until 12/10)
Chess Knights: Viking Lands ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
City Driving Simulator ($5.99 from $11.99 until 12/10)
City Traffic Driver ($8.99 from $11.99 until 12/10)
Dogurai ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
Driving World: Italian Job ($7.79 from $11.99 until 12/10)
Dungeon Solver ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Flatland Vol.1 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
Flatland Vol.2 ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Gemini ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Hardcore Maze Cube ($1.99 from $2.49 until 12/10)
How Buddy’s Parents Met ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Job the Leprechaun ($2.24 from $2.99 until 12/10)
Knight’s Retreat ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Knights & Guns ($7.49 from $14.99 until 12/10)
Mercury Race ($5.99 from $7.99 until 12/10)
Minigolf Adventure ($2.49 from $4.99 until 12/10)
Moto Racer 4 ($1.99 from $14.90 until 12/10)
Parking Madness ($2.10 from $6.00 until 12/10)
RazerWire: Nanowars ($5.99 from $9.99 until 12/10)
Reptilian Rebellion ($2.24 from $2.99 until 12/10)
Rift Adventure ($1.99 from $7.99 until 12/10)
Shapeshooter ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Sky Races ($1.99 from $3.49 until 12/10)
Space Elite Force 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
Sports & Wild Pinball ($9.99 from $14.99 until 12/10)
Super Hiking League DX ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
The Office Quest ($4.19 from $11.99 until 12/10)
Time Tenshi ($10.49 from $14.99 until 12/10)
Tinker Racers ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
Tower Climb ($2.10 from $6.00 until 12/10)
TTV2 ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
UBERMOSH:OMEGA ($1.99 from $4.99 until 12/10)
UBERMOSH:SANTICIDE ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Up Cliff Drive ($2.10 from $6.00 until 12/10)
War Dogs: Red’s Return ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
Zen Chess Collection ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/10)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a look at the remaining releases of the week, such as they are. I’m sure a couple of unscheduled games will trickle in, but it’s looking like a rather small bunch for the moment. Well, at least we’ll have the sales. Lots and lots of sales. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!
