Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for November 9th, 2022. It’s another quiet Wednesday as I write this, so I took the opportunity to finish up a couple of Mini-Views for you to read. The biggest event today is the Indie World Showcase, but that’s still several hours in the future for me so I can’t say much about it or any potential shadow drops that came with it. We do have a couple of new releases to look at, and some new and outgoing sales too. Let’s check it all out!
News
Don’t Forget to Check Out Today’s Indie World Showcase
As mentioned in the introduction paragraph, I’m writing this before the presentation and you’re probably reading it after. I have no idea what was included in the twenty-five minute Indie World Showcase, but I’m sure we’ll talk about some of it tomorrow. If you haven’t caught it yet, you can give it a watch via the video above. I’m sure there are at least one or two things in it I’ll need to figure out how to pay for tomorrow.
Reviews & Mini-Views
Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home ($19.99)
It’s a little rough around the edges, but Space Tail has a lot to offer fans of puzzle-platformers. You play as a dog named Bea who, through a series of events, ends up stranded on another planet. She’s separated from her friend and wants to find them, but it’s far from a point A to B exercise. Bea isn’t just an ordinary dog, but she is a dog. That means you’ll be using her senses and dog ways of communicating to get by, and that adds a novel spin to things. The puzzles are a mix of familiar and relatively novel set-ups, and I felt like years of mobile gaming set me up well to solve them. The presentation is really going for it, with decent visuals and a solid soundscape.
Space Tail tells an emotional story, offers up some fairly enjoyable puzzles to solve, and makes good use of its unusual canine protagonist. The occasional frustrating puzzle or out-of-nowhere death hampers things a little, and the interesting communication mechanics unfortunately tend to come down to simple trial and error. There’s certainly something a person could really connect with here, but you’re going to have to put up with some irritations along the way.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
Dragon Prana ($14.99)
This isn’t likely to come as a surprise to anyone, but KEMCO and EXE-Create have turned out another relatively inoffensive generic JRPG with Dragon Prana. Following loosely in the line that includes Dragon Sinker and Dragon Lapis, Dragon Prana has a faux-retro presentation and a very familiar story about various fantasy races having to overcome their differences to defeat an ancient evil. In addition to the usual framework of towns, dungeons, and turn-based battles, you’ve got a job class system with Final Fantasy X/XII-style unlock boards. Nothing we haven’t seen before in a KEMCO/EXE-Create joint, but it all works the way it should.
With so many great JRPGs on the Switch, it’s hard to recommend middling fare like this. I could understand if the price was more competitive, but as is I feel like you wouldn’t have to look too far or spend much more to find something more interesting on the eShop. That said, if you’re looking to try a KEMCO game or just want an RPG that isn’t going to make you think too much, there are worse things to buy.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
New Releases
ARK: Dinosaur Discovery ($9.99)
If I’m understanding it right, this is a semi-educational game that teaches you about the dinosaurs that inspired the ARK games. There are sixty-four dinosaurs you can find and interact with, and there are lots of scientific facts and other bits of information for each of them. I mean, you can ride the dinosaurs. That’s a big selling point all on its own. I can’t speak to how well it runs on the Switch, something that has been a concern with previous ARK games. If you like the sound of it, you might want to wait for some hands-on impressions before picking it up here.
Super Woden GP ($11.99)
This is an isometric racing game that calls back to 90s classics like World Rally. You can play through a campaign that sees you collecting more than seventy vehicles as you race your way around the world in various events, or pull in some friends for local multiplayer for up to four racers. This looks surprisingly decent, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet so I can’t say for sure if it’s good or not.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
A small list, but some good stuff in it. The DEEMO games are always worth grabbing, and the Fantasy Strike DLC is having a rare sale. The outbox is a lot bigger, with a wide assortment of indies wrapping up their latest sales. Have a careful look through both lists as always, folks.
Select New Games on Sale
DEEMO ($14.99 from $29.99 until 11/15)
DEEMO -Reborn- ($15.00 from $25.00 until 11/15)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 ($3.99 from $19.99 until 11/21)
Bass Pro Shops The Strike CE ($7.49 from $9.99 until 11/28)
Cabela’s The Hunt CE ($7.49 from $9.99 until 11/28)
Fantasy Strike Core Pack ($9.99 from $19.99 until 11/29)
Fantasy Strike Collector’s Pack ($49.99 from $99.99 until 11/29)
Dadish ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/29)
Dadish 2 ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/29)
Super Fowlst ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/29)
Super Fowlst 2 ($2.00 from $10.00 until 11/29)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, November 10th
Aery A Journey Beyond Time ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Ambition Record ($10.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
ANIMUS ($2.55 from $7.99 until 11/10)
ANIMUS: Harbinger ($2.55 from $7.99 until 11/10)
ANIMUS: Revenant ($7.35 from $22.99 until 11/10)
Armed to the Gears ($2.39 from $11.99 until 11/10)
Asdivine Saga ($10.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
BigChick ($1.99 from $4.99 until 11/10)
Bite the Bullet ($2.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Blob Quest ($2.49 from $4.99 until 11/10)
Blue Fire ($7.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Bugsnax ($12.49 from $24.99 until 11/10)
Bullet Battle: Evolution ($4.79 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Cooking Simulator ($1.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Counter Crossline: Crime War ($11.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Counter Delta: Bullet Rain ($6.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Counter Recon 2: New War ($11.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Counter Recon: The First Mission ($4.79 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Danger Scavenger ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Dark Water: Slime Invader ($4.79 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Darker Skies ($8.99 from $17.99 until 11/10)
Dead Rain: New Zombie Virus ($8.79 from $10.99 until 11/10)
Demong Hunter ($2.55 from $7.99 until 11/10)
Dungeon and Puzzles ($3.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Dungeon Limbus ($4.79 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Gas Station Simulator ($14.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Gigapocalypse ($6.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Girls Tank Battle ($3.51 from $10.99 until 11/10)
Green Hell ($2.49 from $24.99 until 11/10)
Haunted Dawn: Zombie Apocalypse ($4.79 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Haunted Zombie School ($6.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Hollow 2 ($1.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Innocence Island ($9.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Justice Chronicles ($10.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Kuukiyomi 2 New Era ($2.49 from $4.99 until 11/10)
Last 4 Alive: Escape from Zombies ($4.94 from $10.99 until 11/10)
Lila’s Sky Ark ($4.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Megaquarium ($9.83 from $24.59 until 11/10)
Mini Island Challenge Bundle ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Modern War: Tank Battle ($11.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Monster Viator ($7.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Nosferatu Lilinor ($13.71 from $17.14 until 11/10)
Octodad: Dadliest Catch ($2.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Ogre: Console Edition ($16.86 from $22.49 until 11/10)
Overcooked All You Can Eat ($19.99 from $39.99 until 11/10)
Panzer Dragoon Remake ($2.49 from $24.99 until 11/10)
Pawn of the Dead ($1.99 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Piczle Cells ($1.99 from $4.99 until 11/10)
Piczle Colors ($3.00 from $12.00 until 11/10)
Piczle Lines DX ($3.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Piczle Lines DX 500 More ($2.49 from $9.99 until 11/10)
Piczle Puzzle & Watch ($1.99 from $7.99 until 11/10)
REDDEN: 100denarii ($3.59 from $7.99 until 11/10)
Retro City Rampage DX ($7.49 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Ruinverse ($8.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Shakedown: Hawaii ($9.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Sherlock Holmes: Devil’s Daughter ($14.99 from $29.99 until 11/10)
Signs of the Sojourner ($7.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Space Genesis ($6.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Space Stella: Unknown Planet ($6.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Superpanda 2 ($1.99 from $3.99 until 11/10)
THE Bass Fishing ($9.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
The Enigma Machine ($2.39 from $7.99 until 11/10)
Thief Simulator ($1.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
Train Station Renovation ($2.84 from $18.99 until 11/10)
Tunnel of Doom ($9.09 from $13.99 until 11/10)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion ($5.99 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Warpips ($15.99 from $19.99 until 11/10)
World War: Tank Battle ($6.74 from $14.99 until 11/10)
Zombie Planting ($4.94 from $10.99 until 11/10)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a bunch of new releases, the latest sales, and some sort of summary of whatever was in the Indie World Showcase. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!
