Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 12th, 2022. Some interesting stuff on that Indie World Showcase yesterday, even if it didn’t have some of the big names some people may have been hoping for. We also got a few surprise game drops, and that’s never a bad thing. Anyway, it is Thursday, and that means a lot of new games. I actually prepared a lot of this ahead of time just in case the presentation had a lot to cover, and it was looking pretty dire. Fortunately the shadow drops have combined with the few cool-looking things that were already on the schedule to give us a nice line-up to look at. We’ve also got those lists of sales that you all enjoy to finish things up. Let’s get started!
New Releases
The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story ($49.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Well, this is something different from the usual Square Enix fare. This is a live-action mystery adventure. The Shijima family has had some bad luck in the last hundred years or so, with a highly improbable series of inexplicable deaths afflicting them. A mystery writer named Haruka visits the family and soon gets pulled into four different murder cases, each one from a different point in time. Can she find the answers behind these perplexing deaths? Use the clues and a bit of deductive reasoning to solve the cases, as novelists are wont to.
Dungeons of Dreadrock ($10.00)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Oh hey, it’s Dungeons of Dreadrock. Considering my main issue with this game in its mobile form was that the touch controls were a little fiddly, you can probably imagine how I feel about this button-ready edition of the game. If you like clever puzzles and dungeon-crawling, and especially a fusion of those two things, you pretty much have to play this. It might be a law, but I can’t guarantee that. There are one hundred levels to this dungeon, but expect plenty of tricks that will keep you chewing for quite a while. I’ll have a review of this soon, but you can check my review of the iOS version and just imagine it slightly more positive if you need to know immediately.
OPUS: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition ($24.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
The third game in SIGONO’s OPUS series is the best yet, and considering the overall quality of the first two games that is saying something. This is a narrative-heavy adventure game, and the story is truly something special. Whether you opt to just stick to the main plot or engage in the considerable side content, you’ll find a well-crafted tale with an excellent atmosphere and some excellent characters. Explore a star map, take a few chances, and solve some musical puzzles as you make your way through this journey of self-discovery in a solar system far away.
Mini Motorways ($14.99)
SwitchArcade Highlight!
Regular TouchArcade readers will no doubt be familiar with Mini Motorways, the up-until-now Apple Arcade exclusive follow-up to Mini Metro. Well, it’s now available on the Nintendo Switch for those who want to own it in a slightly more permanent fashion. The game itself is brilliant, if not quite so much as its predecessor, and it takes nicely to the Switch. I’ll have a full review of this one once I get a chance to put more time into it.
Soundfall ($29.99)
Rhythm game plus looter-shooter plus dungeon crawler is a small but powerful genre, and now we can add another one to the ranks. Soundfall puts you in the shoes of a Guardian of Harmony as you battle the forces of Discord. Play alone or pull in some friends in either local or online multiplayer. There are five different characters to choose from, and ten different environments to explore. Following in the footsteps of things like Crypt of the NecroDancer, you’re encouraged to move to the beat here. If you can do that, your actions will be more effective. With more than five hundred pieces of gear and a bevy of unlockable abilities, there’s lots of room here to find something that fits your strategy.
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees ($14.99)
Time to get into the swing of things with the latest from Broken Rules. Play as a lost gibbon who is on a journey into unknown lands. You’ll have to learn the ropes as you play, getting a grip on how to move from branch to branch at high speeds. You get a rather brief one-hour campaign, but once you’ve finished it you can mess around in the free-form liberation mode as much as you like. Early reports are that this one is running a little rough on the Switch, so you may want to wait for more impressions to come out before taking a leap on it.
Source of Madness ($19.99)
Care for another dark side-scrolling roguelite action game? The folks at Thunderful and Carry Castle have a new challenge for you. Explore a Lovecraftian world and uncover its cosmic secrets as you battle nightmarish procedurally-generated enemies. Oh hey, that’s not something you see every day. Otherwise, it mostly checks off the boxes you would expect. Skill trees, loot, magic, and a variety of other character building options are all here, plus the usual spicy difficulty that keeps people coming back to games like these. Early reviews seem positive if not overwhelmingly so, but I haven’t had a chance to put my hands on it myself yet.
Attentat 1942 ($15.49)
This is a relatively short point-and-click style adventure that tells the story of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia from the point of view of those who actually experienced it. The developers have assembled dialogue, authentic footage, and other details from actual eyewitnesses and survivors. Professional historians were involved to make sure everything was properly authentic. As an experience or indeed an educational tool, there is a lot of value here. As a game… well, I don’t think that was really a major focus here, but I might as well make it clear that there isn’t a whole lot mechanically to this.
Arcade Archives Pro Tennis: World Court ($7.99)
And now a little something to break up all of the action and shooting games that have been hitting the Arcade Archives of late. Namco has made a bunch of great tennis games, and 1988’s Pro Tennis: World Court is certainly one of them. As this was one of Namco’s earlier kicks at the can, it’s a rather straightforward affair, but it’s a rather nice game of arcade-style tennis that is fun to play alone or with friends. Hamster has done its usual fine job bringing it over to the Switch, naturally.
Flippin Kaktus ($11.99)
A 2D platformer with retro-inspired visuals, a 1980s vibe, and a high level of difficulty? Ehn, originality isn’t everything, I guess. Anyway, you can deal with your enemies as noisily or quietly as you like as you make your way through eleven stages filled with bandits and other dangers. I hope you like pop culture references, specifically to retro games and 1980s movies, because this game has a whole bunch of them for you to enjoy. This game has big five-dollar Switch platformer energy, but is regrettably a little more expensive than that. Up to you if what it’s pitching is worth that ten-plus price.
Infinite Links ($14.99)
This would have been a terrific name for a follow-up to that RPGolf Legends game from a while back. But no, this is just another one of KEMCO and EXE-Create’s somewhat generic JRPGs. Kronos and Serene get mixed up in some business involving magical artifacts called Talismans and, through a wacky series of events, end up having to save the world from destruction. Aw heck, those are spoilers. Sorry, everyone. The gameplay gimmick is a Skill Board where you can equip Talismans to unlock skills and abilities, kind of similar to a couple of the Final Fantasy games. With all the amazing RPGs just over the horizon I don’t know if I personally would spend fifteen bucks on this, but the magic of the universe is that I am not you and do not control your life.
Seven Pirates H ($39.99)
The fourth game in the ecchi RPG series that includes Monster Monpiece, Moero Chronicle, and Moero Crystal, Seven Pirates H largely follows in line with those previous games in terms of tone and content. The theme, however, shifts to the high seas, following pirate Parute Kairi and her band of monster girls as they seek treasure on the Monsupi Sea. It originally came out on the Vita in 2016, but this is the first time it’s being localized for the West. As long as you’re okay with the unabashedly lewd approach the game takes to… pretty much everything, this is easily the best in the series. Faint praise, I know.
Summer Days ($4.99)
Summer games, having a blast. Summer games, coming so fast. Meet two girls, crazy for thee. Meet another girl, cute as can be. Summer Days, a yuri-themed play, to oh-oh, those summer nights. Well-a, well-a, well-a, tell me more, tell me more, can you choose your pursuit? Tell me more, tell me more, are there any swimsuits? Summer Days, from Gamuzumi, but really more about those summer nights. Tell me more, tell me mooooooooooore!
Vesper: Zero Light Edition ($9.99)
A 2D puzzle-platformer with a strong atmosphere and silhouette-like visuals? Ehn, originality isn’t everything, I guess. As these things go, this is a fairly well-made one. You play as a little android who is being hunted by his fellow machines. He has to make his way across the broken world in order to gain the power of Light that may well be the savior of his people. The main gimmick involves using a weapon called a Drive Gun to manipulate light and shadows. You can make dark areas to hide in, use the light to power machines, or even take control of your foes. The pace is a bit on the contemplative side, but if that doesn’t bother you then do give this a look.
Get-A-Grip Chip and the Body Bugs ($2.99)
Get-A-Grip Chip is back with yet another adventure that will… do I have to read this? Alright, fine. Another adventure that will “hook" you. Explore a human body’s digestive system and deal with the threat of the titular Body Bugs. With just twelve levels, this is a lighter bite than the first game. But it’s priced accordingly, so I think it’s fine. As with the first game, the gimmick here is that you can’t jump and must make judicious use of your grappling hook to get through the various obstacles in your path. There are some secrets to find and leaderboards to rank on if you’re looking to get even more bang for your buck.
Japanese NEKOSAMA Escape -The Mountain Cottage- ($9.99)
Yes, we’ve got a second one of these already. It’s an escape room adventure game, and doesn’t really do too much to escape the standards of that genre outside of replacing all the people with cats. While the first game was set in a Japanese inn, this time it’s a mountain cottage. Still plenty of cats, of course.
Dog’s Donuts ($3.99)
I don’t know that you should really be feeding dogs a bunch of donuts. They’re not very healthy. Video games let us play in ways reality would never allow. They also sometimes let us play in some very familiar ways, and that’s what you’ll be doing here. Use your launcher to shoot donuts at the right angle to reach the dog somewhere else in the stage. There are forty levels to clear in this physics puzzler.
Aery – A New Frontier ($9.99)
Geez, they are still churning these out. If you played all the other Aery games and felt like you just didn’t have enough of what they were dishing out, here’s another one. Fly through eight stages of chill observation and listen to someone drone on about some stuff from an intro philosophy textbook.
Red White Yellow Stingray ($16.00)
Oh hey, it’s… it’s Red White Yellow. Again. But this time it has new music. This really does seem to be exactly the same game as the recent rerelease Red White Yellow Zinger, just with a different musical artist in the spotlight. The artist in question is HYLE. If you really like her stuff, then perhaps this is the Red White Yellow for you. Or you can wait until next month and see if we get Red White Yellow Dream On featuring Aerosmith or something.
Maximillion Fortress ($3.49)
Hmm. Today is a little rough in the undercard, isn’t it? Nothing to it but through it. This is a 2.5D side-scrolling platformer where you play as a knight who is on a quest to rescue a kidnapped princess. You’ll unlock additional characters as you go. I’ll be frank: this doesn’t look like a very good game, but at least it has the courtesy not to charge you much money.
Top Speed 2: Drag Rivals & Nitro Racing ($9.99)
T-Bull has yet another one of its CSR Racing-style drag racers ready for consumption. As with the previous ones, you’re not doing any actual racing here, just hitting the button a couple of times at the right points in the race in order to pull ahead of your opponent. There are more than seventy cars in this one, with various modes and maps to play in. I’d sooner play CSR Racing 2 on my phone for free, but if you want to pay ten bucks for a game similar to it then T-Bull is happy to provide yet again.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
With as many new releases as we had today, perhaps it’s a blessing that there isn’t much going on in the sales lists today. A very low-priced NBA 2K22 squeezing out a few more sales before this year’s version arrives. A couple of decent games in the outbox. Check the lists but keep a bit of money in your pocket as we’ll certainly have a healthy list of new sales tomorrow.
Select New Games on Sale
Circa Infinity ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/19)
Syndrome ($4.99 from $24.99 until 5/19)
Aloof ($1.99 from $9.99 until 5/20)
NBA 2K22 ($9.59 from $59.99 until 5/23)
NBA 2K22 75th Anniversary ($32.99 from $99.99 until 5/23)
Chess Royal ($1.99 from $2.99 until 5/24)
Simple Mini Golf ($1.99 from $3.49 until 6/1)
FPV Simulator ($3.99 from $7.99 until 6/1)
Racing Karts ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/1)
Mini Car Racing 2 ($2.39 from $5.99 until 6/1)
Magic Code ($2.49 from $12.48 until 6/1)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Friday, May 13th
Bloodshore ($11.24 from $14.99 until 5/13)
Brotherhood United ($1.99 from $8.99 until 5/13)
Charge Kid ($1.99 from $2.49 until 5/13)
Cubers Arena ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/13)
Demon’s Tilt ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/13)
Dreamo ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/13)
Driving World: Aspen ($5.99 from $11.99 until 5/13)
Emergency Driver Simulator ($6.99 from $13.99 until 5/13)
Epic Word Search Collection ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Epic Word Search Collection 2 ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Fifty Words by POWGI ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Freedom Finger ($1.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
G-Mode Archives25 Topolon ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/13)
G-Mode Archives29 Zanac ($1.99 from $4.99 until 5/13)
Legends of Amberland ($7.99 from $19.99 until 5/13)
Livestream: EfHI ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/13)
Monster Truck Arena ($6.99 from $13.99 until 5/13)
Pic-a-Pix Deluxe ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Pic-a-Pix Pieces ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Squabble ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/13)
Super Crush KO ($5.99 from $14.99 until 5/13)
Tales of Djungarian Hamster ($7.99 from $9.99 until 5/13)
Tools Up! ($3.99 from $19.99 until 5/13)
Uchu Shinshuchu ($4.00 from $8.00 until 5/13)
Unbound: Worlds Apart ($11.39 from $19.99 until 5/13)
Word Puzzles by POWGI ($4.99 from $9.99 until 5/13)
Word Search by POWGI ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
Wordbreaker by POWGI ($3.99 from $7.99 until 5/13)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of the releases for the week, plus a bunch of new sales. That will likely be it, but it should be enough. I’m back on my Game Boy nonsense again and have scooped up a few more cheap cartridges in the last week, so that’s my evening sorted out. It can’t be Switch all the time, after all. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!
