Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 12th, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve actually got a couple of news stories to kick things off with. After that, there are a trio of releases to summarize, and that’s just what we do. The big release of the day is OXENFREE II: Lost Signals, but you might find something to like with the other two games depending on your tastes. We then glide on over to the lists of new and outgoing sales. Really, that isn’t too bad for a Wednesday. Let’s grab our forks and dig in!
News
Wave 5 of the ‘Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’ Booster Course Pass is Now Available
Ring the dinner bell, the latest batch of DLC is now available for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe! This fifth and penultimate wave of the Booster Course Pass for the game adds eight new courses to the game, with one completely brand-new course and seven drawn from other Mario Kart games. It also includes some new racers to hit the track with. If you have the Booster Course Pass or a Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription, all you need to do is update your game and you’ll be on your way.
Digital Eclipse Announces Interactive Documentary ‘The Making of Karateka’
We can all agree that Atari 50 was a pretty darned amazing piece of work, right? It’s a fantastic compilation of games from across several of Atari’s consoles and computers, but more than that it’s an amazing trip through Atari’s history. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in wondering what would get the next such treatment from developer Digital Eclipse, and we now have our answer. Kicking off a line Digital Eclipse is calling the Gold Master Series, The Making of Karateka is an interactive documentary that will take you through the history of this landmark game. It also includes four versions of the game itself, including a brand new remaster that incorporates cutting-room-floor content and more. There’s also a remaster of creator Jordan Mechner’s Deathbounce, a game that originally went unpublished. It’s apparently coming this summer to Switch and other platforms, so… that shouldn’t be too far away. Neat! Almost time to kick that stupid bird in its stupid face again.
New Releases
OXENFREE II: Lost Signals ($19.99)
The much-loved OXENFREE gets a sequel, and it looks to be another fine serving of spooky adventure gaming. While the game can be played standalone, you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’ve played the first. It picks up five years after the events of the first game, following Riley as she returns to her hometown to investigate some unusual radio signals. Weird things are afoot, as she’ll soon discover. This is out on a variety of platforms today, including on mobile via Netflix. So if you have a Netflix subscription and a decent mobile device, you might want to check it out there before committing to any purchase here. Up to you, though.
Death or Treat ($24.99)
This is a rogutelite action game that has perhaps unfortunate timing in that its whole story seems aimed at mocking Mark Zuckerberg. Silly game, that’s not the billionaire we’re dunking on this week! This has been available on other systems long enough for a consensus to form, and it’s not great. Apparently it doesn’t have enough meat on the bones to support its structure, and it gets repetitive and boring well before the end. On top of that, the controls lack that snappiness you like to see in a game of this sort. I haven’t played it yet myself, however, so take all that with a grain of salt and look into things yourself if you’re interested.
EarthX ($19.99)
Another game with somewhat unfortunate timing. You sit in the CEO chair of a space company and need to try to conquer the market any way you can. Start small and eventually work your way up to building a colony on Mars. Apparently this game’s plan for making Mars habitable is to lob dozens of nukes at the poles of the planet until it heats up. This one has been out on other platforms for a while, and the response from the community has been reasonably positive. My concern is that the game is a bit of a resource hog on PC, so the potential for this port to go completely wrong is high. I’m also not sure how well the UI will adapt to a controller. Yes, I’d proceed with caution here.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Most of today’s inbox is made up of some familiar faces, with Activision and WB Games featuring their usual wares. No new low prices among that bunch, but really they’re already so cheap it’s tough to expect more. Some decent stuff in the outbox too, so do give both of those lists a look as always. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more interesting sales by the end of the week, but for now this is what we’ve got.
Select New Games on Sale
Athanasy ($7.89 from $9.99 until 7/18)
The Blind Prophet ($1.99 from $24.99 until 7/18)
For a Vast Future ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/18)
The Treflik Family ($1.99 from $12.99 until 7/18)
The Companion ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/18)
Chippy&Noppo ($15.99 from $19.99 until 7/21)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy ($15.99 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled ($13.99 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy ($15.99 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Crash Bandicoot 4 ($19.99 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 ($15.99 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Diablo II Resurrected ($13.19 from $39.99 until 7/25)
Diablo III: Eternal Collection ($29.99 from $59.99 until 7/25)
Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition ($12.49 from $24.99 until 7/25)
Kargast ($5.99 from $9.99 until 7/26)
Alan Wake Remastered ($17.99 from $29.99 until 7/26)
GUNGUNGUN ($1.99 from $4.99 until 7/26)
Merrily Perilly ($1.99 from $4.99 until 7/26)
Potion Party ($1.99 from $9.99 until 7/26)
Big Dipper ($1.99 from $4.99 until 7/26)
Velocity Noodle ($7.79 from $12.99 until 7/26)
Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate ($8.99 from $59.99 until 7/31)
LEGO City Undercover ($5.99 from $29.99 until 7/31)
LEGO Jurassic World ($7.99 from $39.99 until 7/31)
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes ($9.99 from $39.99 until 7/31)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame ($5.99 from $39.99 until 7/31)
Scribblenauts Mega Pack ($5.99 from $39.99 until 7/31)
Beat Cop ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/1)
South of the Circle ($7.79 from $12.99 until 8/1)
This War of Mine Complete ($1.99 from $39.99 until 8/1)
Children of Morta Complete ($7.99 from $26.99 until 8/1)
Birds and Blocks ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/1)
Birds and Blocks 2 ($1.99 from $5.99 until 8/1)
16-Bit Soccer ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/1)
Gravity Thrust ($1.99 from $4.99 until 8/1)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, July 13th
Asdivine Hearts ($5.19 from $12.99 until 7/13)
Blocky Farm ($4.99 from $9.99 until 7/13)
Cytus Alpha ($19.99 from $49.99 until 7/13)
DEEMO ($11.99 from $29.99 until 7/13)
Disaster Detective Saiga ($17.49 from $24.99 until 7/13)
Dragon Sinker ($5.19 from $12.99 until 7/13)
Escape Game Fort Boyard ($7.49 from $29.99 until 7/13)
Fairune Collection ($3.99 from $9.99 until 7/13)
Fishing: North Atlantic ($12.49 from $24.99 until 7/13)
Football Cup 2022 ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/13)
Football Manager 2023 Touch ($22.49 from $44.99 until 7/13)
Frontier Quest ($4.79 from $11.99 until 7/13)
Garfield Kart Furious Racing ($2.99 from $29.99 until 7/13)
Goroons ($7.00 from $10.00 until 7/13)
Haiku, the Robot ($12.99 from $19.99 until 7/13)
IIN ($7.00 from $10.00 until 7/13)
Let’s Play! Oink Games ($16.49 from $21.99 until 7/13)
Onion Assault ($3.99 from $7.99 until 7/13)
Photon Cube ($2.73 from $13.65 until 7/13)
Sherlock Holmes Bundle ($17.49 from $49.99 until 7/13)
Silver Nornir ($10.49 from $14.99 until 7/13)
Unichrome: A 1-Bit Unicorn Adv. ($5.24 from $14.99 until 7/13)
Vaccine Rebirth ($6.29 from $6.99 until 7/13)
VOEZ ($10.00 from $25.00 until 7/13)
World War: Combat Guardian ($11.99 from $14.99 until 7/13)
That’s all for today, friends. Tomorrow is Thursday, and that means a ton of new releases on the eShop. So far I’ve counted fifteen, but I’m sure others will pop up along the way. We’ll have summaries of all of them like usual, plus whatever sales and major new items roll in during the next day. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!
