Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 17th, 2021. In today’s article, we’ve got a review for the Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero pack, summaries of the rather dubious assortment of new games that have hit the eShop, and the usual lists of new and expiring sales for you to consider. It’s a smaller one today, but such is how things go sometimes. Let’s get down to business!
Reviews & Mini-Views
Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero ($59.99)
There are a lot of games inspired to various degrees by Minecraft. Most of them have enough sense to try to add their own twist to the idea, though certainly not all of them. Whether that twist proves to be interesting or not is a separate matter. Subnautica‘s take is very cool. It offers all of the joys of slowly cobbling together a shelter and pushing further out into the world, but it has you spending most of your time underwater on an alien world. You’ll have to scavenge materials while exploring the depths, all while being careful that you don’t run afoul of the dangers of the sea. You take those bits back to your home base, cobble together various items, and head out again. As you progress, bits of the story will be revealed to you. Below Zero leans even harder into the story, and you’ll be spending a bit more time on land during your adventure.
You can buy these two games together or separately, and they’re both good enough to spend your time and money on provided you enjoy crafting/survival games. The ports are really good, surprisingly enough. The initial load when you fire up the game is a little long, and there are occasional hitches and stutters while you explore. But overall, both games look good and run well on the Switch. There are moments of incredible beauty in both Subnautica games, and I’m happy that they can now be experienced on a handheld screen. If you have to choose between the two games, I’d recommend the first game over the second. That said, I’m sure playing that original will eventually lead you to the follow-up anyway.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
New Releases
Project: Knight ($4.99)
As near as I can tell, this is a rather modest action-adventure game. You travel through the kingdom, battling enemies, collecting coins, and upgrading your character. There are six different areas to make your way through. It doesn’t look particularly great, but I don’t think it looks bad, either. I mean, the camera looks troublesome and I doubt there’s a whole lot of depth to it, but I’ve seen worse things passed off for a fiver.
Tank Battle Retro ($4.99)
Piotr Skalski takes a swing at another somewhat popular genre of the eShop’s basement, the Atari Combat clone. This version gives you twenty levels to play across twenty maps and has support for up to four players via local multiplayer. One interesting mechanic is that you have a limited number of lives, and each life you lose will make you stronger. That means you’ll be most powerful on your last life, adding an interesting risk/reward element to one of the oldest video game concepts in existence. It’s not much, and it’s probably taken from elsewhere, but it’s something.
Classic Solitaire ($4.99)
And he’s not done yet, folks. Piotr Skalski had time to make a Klondike Solitaire game on his coffee breaks while working on Tank Battle Retro, I guess. It’s not too bad. You get fifteen different card designs and five different backgrounds to choose from. I think there are better solitaire games on the eShop, even at this price, but this one is okay. It doesn’t feel too cheap, and it has enough options that you can tell a shred of thought went into it. Not much more than that, but such is the business.
Turbo Skiddy Racing ($4.99)
Rounding things out is a release from Pix Arts, making this a banner of a day for new releases. This is an isometric racing game that up to four players can enjoy via splitscreen in local multiplayer. There are twelve different cars to choose from, and fourteen tracks to race on that are set across six different themes. This actually doesn’t look awful for a Pix Arts game. As to how it plays? I’m not going to take the bullet to find that one out, friends. But if you do, please report your results.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
A decent bunch of sales came in over the weekend. Both Doom & Destiny games, Miner Warfare, Terraria, Grindstone, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP are the best of the bunch, but have a gander through the list and see if anything else grabs you. The outbox is rather tiny by comparison, and doesn’t have much of note in it aside from a few of the aforementioned titles.
Select New Games on Sale
Doom & Destiny ($7.19 from $11.99 until 5/18)
Doom & Destiny Advanced ($9.59 from $11.99 until 5/18)
Miner Warfare ($4.79 from $7.99 until 5/18)
BFF or Die ($5.59 from $7.99 until 5/18)
Brawl Chess ($4.99 from $9.99 until 5/21)
Deployment ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/21)
Treadnauts ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
Terraria ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/23)
Silk ($1.99 from $12.99 until 5/24)
Hyper Sentinel ($1.99 from $7.99 until 5/24)
Pew Paw ($1.99 from $6.99 until 5/24)
Glyph ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/24)
Clan N ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/24)
Grindstone ($14.99 from $19.99 until 5/25)
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP ($4.99 from $9.99 until 5/25)
#1 Anagrams ($2.99 from $3.99 until 5/25)
Snake vs Snake ($3.59 from $3.99 until 5/27)
Super Jumpy Ball ($4.49 from $4.99 until 5/27)
Quantum Replica ($8.99 from $9.99 until 5/28)
Grimshade ($12.49 from $24.99 until 5/28)
Beautiful Desolation ($17.99 from $19.99 until 5/28)
Mittelborg: City of Mages ($4.49 from $8.99 until 5/28)
Galaxy Champions TV ($1.99 from $6.99 until 5/29)
Colorfall ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/30)
Elden: Path of the Forgotten ($4.79 from $15.99 until 5/31)
Video Poker Collection ($7.46 from $9.95 until 5/31)
Video Poker at Aces Casino ($1.99 from $7.99 until 5/31)
Genetic Disaster ($3.49 from $14.99 until 6/1)
Adverse ($3.89 from $5.99 until 6/1)
#Wish Travel, Puzzles Dream ($1.99 from $5.99 until 6/4)
Viviette ($5.99 from $9.99 until 6/4)
The Lost Light of Sisu ($1.99 from $9.99 until 6/4)
Rabisco+ ($3.99 from $4.99 until 6/4)
Burger Master ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/4)
Bakery Master ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/4)
Mahluk Dark Demon ($4.99 from $9.99 until 6/4)
Power Racing Bundle 2 ($8.49 from $16.99 until 6/4)
Classic Checkers ($3.99 from $7.99 until 6/4)
Super Arcade Racing ($2.99 from $9.99 until 6/5)
Olympic Table Tennis ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/5)
America Wild Hunting ($2.79 from $3.99 until 6/5)
Ace Strike ($2.79 from $3.99 until 6/5)
Fobia ($1.99 from $9.99 until 6/6)
Bounce Mania ($2.79 from $3.99 until 6/6)
Turbo Skiddy Racing ($3.49 from $4.99 until 6/6)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, May 18th
BFF or Die ($5.59 from $7.99 until 5/18)
Caves & Castles: Underworld ($3.99 from $4.99 until 5/18)
Cloudbase Prime ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/18)
Doom & Destiny ($7.19 from $11.99 until 5/18)
Doom & Destiny Advanced ($9.59 from $11.99 until 5/18)
Fishing Star World Tour ($17.99 from $29.99 until 5/18)
Glittering Sword ($3.99 from $4.99 until 5/18)
Miner Warfare ($4.79 from $7.99 until 5/18)
Reknum Cheri Dreamland ($5.94 from $6.99 until 5/18)
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove ($4.79 from $14.99 until 5/18)
Warsaw ($11.99 from $19.99 until 5/18)
Woven ($1.99 from $19.99 until 5/18)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with reviews of the Famicom Detective Club games, summaries of the few new releases on the schedule, plus whatever news and sales pop up along the way. There are a lot of big games that have come out or are coming out soon, so I’ve been pretty busy playing stuff for work. It’s not so bad when the games are good, though. At any rate, I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
