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SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘The Artful Escape’, ‘PopSlinger’, ‘Cake Invaders’, Plus Today’s Other Releases and Sales

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 26th, 2022. In today’s article, we’ve got several new releases to look at. On the whole, a better crop than we’ve seen the last couple days. As always, we’ve got summaries of every game for you to check out. After that, it’s time for the lists of the latest sales and the expiring discounts. Let’s dive on in!

New Releases

The Artful Escape ($19.99)

SwitchArcade Highlight!

This is a music-themed platformer where you play as a guitar-wielding would-be rock star who ends up going on a bananas adventure. Absolutely bananas. And beautiful as all get-out a lot of the time, too. Lots of the usual running and jumping, but you’ll also need to make use of your guitar to perform various actions. The reviews were decent on other platforms when it hit back in September of last year, and I expect a similar reception on Switch even if it’s not quite up to the same level of technical performance.

Summertime Madness ($14.99)

A 3D adventure game played from the first-person perspective, Summertime Memories is a real mix of good and bad. Its various areas are gorgeous and creative, and taking in the sights as you walk around in them is rather nice. Unfortunately, the puzzles are quite dreadfully designed. Often tedious, occasionally nonsensical, and never all that satisfying to solve. A bit tough to recommend on the whole, but if you are willing to put up with some troublesome gameplay in exchange for some interesting sights you may take to it better than I did.

PopSlinger ($14.99)

Color-coded creatures are attacking, and you have to fend them off with your trusty soda-powered gun. That’s PopSlinger. It leans hard into 1980s/early 1990s aesthetics, and really likes its VHS/CRT filters. There’s an interesting mechanic here where if you take down similarly-colored enemies in a row, you’ll get a boost from a helper character. This one is more memorable for its presentation than its gameplay, but at the very least I can say that it feels original.

Elasto Mania Remastered ($10.00)

So, about twenty years ago there was this little game called Elasto Mania that people liked to play. It was a lot like Trials, which was also becoming popular around the same time. Anyway, a couple of decades of stuff happened, and now we have this remastered version of the game that you can buy on your Switch. If you enjoy the oddly prolific sub-genre of side-scrolling motorcycle platformers, you might want to look into this.

Cake Invaders ($5.99)

Battle invading aliens to protect Earth’s precious Baumkuchen cake supply in this arcade-style action game. Use your minigun to take down your enemies, and reap the rewards of the rainbow Baumkuchen to earn power-ups or add extra hands to your crew. Sure, why not?

Darkness and Flame: Born of Fire ($6.99)

Another fantasy-themed hidden object adventure game. This one has fifty different scenes and more than forty minigames to play. The story sees a young woman wrapped up in a bitter battle between two groups after a mythical creature decides to make her body its home. She’ll have to travel the Fertile Lands and learn to embrace her destiny in order to save the world. Something like that. You know better than I do if this is your kind of thing or not.

Froggy Crossing ($2.99)

This template is for sale on the Unity Asset Store for $21.89 under the title of Road Crossing Game. It’s pretty much a rip-off of Crossy Road, which was already paying heavy homage to Frogger. Pix Arts has kindly compiled this template for the Switch and will now have to sell as many as ten copies to turn a profit. Will you be one of those ten?

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Not a lot in the new list to jump up and down about. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered hits a new low price amid a bunch of other more typical EA sales. Minecraft Dungeons Ultimate Edition is on sale if you want to go big on that one. Maybe a couple of the cheap QUByte releases will catch your eye. As for the outbox, it’s your last chance to get Windjammers 2 with its launch discount. That’s about all I can see, but you should look through the lists yourselves and check if there’s anything in there you like.

Select New Games on Sale

Little Bug ($3.99 from $11.99 until 2/1)
The Last Survey ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Urban Flow ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/2)
RazerWire: Nanowars ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Circa Infinity ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/2)
Unravel Two ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Plants vs Zombies BfN Complete ($14.79 from $39.99 until 2/3)
FIFA 22 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Lost in Random ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Knockout City ($8.99 from $19.99 until 2/3)
Knockout City DE ($13.49 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/3)
Burnout Paradise Remastered ($9.89 from $29.99 until 2/3)
Minecraft Dungeons UE ($29.99 from $39.99 until 2/8)
Puzzle Car ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)


Red Ronin ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/9)
Underland ($1.99 from $7.99 until 2/9)
UBERMOSH:BLACK ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Swarmriders ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Arcade Fuzz ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Puzzletronics ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Shapeshooter ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Missing Feature: 2D ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Spooky Chase ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
Dracula Frames ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Milli & Greg ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Daylife in Japan: Jigsaw Puzzle ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Chess Knights: Shinobi ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Savage Halloween ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/9)
Vasara Collection ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/9)


Space Elite Force ($1.99 from $2.99 until 2/9)
War Solution: Casual Math Game ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
ASMR Journey Jigsaw Puzzle ($1.99 from $3.99 until 2/9)
Space Pioneer ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/11)
Eyes: The Horror Game ($1.99 from $2.49 until 2/11)
Akane ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/11)
Real Boxing 2 ($7.49 from $14.99 until 2/11)
JackQuest: Tale of the Sword ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/13)
YesterMorrow ($13.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Whipseey & the Lost Atlas ($4.19 from $5.99 until 2/13)
Infinite: Beyond the Mind ($6.99 from $9.99 until 2/13)
The Deer God ($5.59 from $7.99 until 2/13)
Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Croc’s World 3 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/15)
Bloo Kid 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/15)


Colt Canyon ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Outbuddies DX ($7.19 from $17.99 until 2/15)
Bridge Constructor UE ($5.99 from $14.99 until 2/15)
Crossroad Crash ($1.99 from $4.98 until 2/15)
AeternoBlade ($3.74 from $14.99 until 2/15)
AeternoBlade II ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/15)
Crazy Strike Bowling EX ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/15)
Wanderjahr TryAgainOrWalkAway ($2.49 from $9.99 until 2/15)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, January 27th

Boom Ball: Boost Edition ($1.99 from $12.99 until 1/27)
Green Hell ($6.24 from $24.99 until 1/27)
Hellbreachers ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
inbento ($2.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Lost Words: Beyond the Page ($7.49 from $14.99 until 1/27)
Lotus Bloom ($2.19 from $2.99 until 1/27)
Many Faces ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Ninjin: Clash of Carrots ($1.99 from $9.99 until 1/27)
Panzer Dragoon Remake ($6.24 from $24.99 until 1/27)
Paradox Error ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)


Project Starship ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Red Death ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
Remothered Broken Porcelain ($7.49 from $29.99 until 1/27)
Rise: Race the Future ($9.89 from $16.49 until 1/27)
Robozarro ($199 from $6.99 until 1/27)
Skatemasta Tcheco ($1.99 from $4.99 until 1/27)
The Little Acre ($2.59 from $12.99 until 1/27)
Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince ($5.99 from $29.99 until 1/27)
Windjammers 2 ($17.99 from $19.99 until 1/27)
Wuppo Definitive Edition ($3.99 from $14.99 until 1/27)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a bunch of new releases including Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2, COGEN: Sword of Rewind, and more. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!