Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 23rd, 2024. In today’s article, we have a couple of oddball reviews for you to enjoy. One of them isn’t even scored! But why? You’ll have to read on to find out. That’s how they get you. After that, we’ve got a handful of interesting new releases to check out. We finish things up in our usual manner by taking a look at the latest discounts and the sales that are closing out soon. Let’s get on with the day!
Reviews & Mini-Views
YEAH! YOU WANT “THOSE GAMES,” RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2 ($9.99)
My first thought on this follow-up, which I am going to call “Those Games 2“, was that the original game leaned heavily on the sheer novelty of its idea, something that just doesn’t work as well the second time. My second thought was that it doesn’t really matter that much if it’s novel provided the minigames are fun. And you know what? They’re fun enough. You get a few different types here, again inspired by the lying ads that games like Royal Match love to employ. The ones where they dishonestly show a completely different kind of game from the one you actually get when you download, something that should probably be against advertising laws, but nothing matters anymore.
Anyway! The ones you get here have you trying to shoot enemies with a ricocheting bullet, drawing a protective cover for a cat being attacked by bats, swapping lanes in a behind the back runner to generate the highest possible number, removing pins to drop goodies for an idiotic king, and making your way through isometric stages battling enemies and collecting items in the proper order to ensure mathematic superiority. Each minigame type has quite a number of stages to play, getting more difficult as you go. Your performance on each is rated from one to three stars, and you’ll unlock more stages by accumulating them. They really do get quite challenging in the back half, turning what seems to be a joke game into a more interesting puzzler. Just like the first game, really.
While I don’t think there’s really a lot of merit in turning this into a continuing series, Those Games 2 shows that there was at least enough gas in the tank for one more. Much like the first Those Games, you’ll come for the amusing concept and stay for the well-devised challenge of the later stages. Support for both button and touch controls is quite welcome, too. If you’ve wanted to take a swing at heating the king without rewarding those huckster marketers, this is worth picking up.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
EGGCONSOLE Seilane PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)
I’ve reviewed every release in the EGGCONSOLE line so far, so I felt like I couldn’t just let this one pass without saying anything. That said, I’m not giving it a score. We’ve seen several RPGs in the line before that are very difficult to play without being able to read Japanese, but there was at least some fun in there that didn’t require understanding the text. Seilane is different. This is a Japanese-style adventure game, one of those affairs where you need to move from location to location interacting with objects and people using a handy list of verbs and whatever might be in your inventory. While you can still enjoy the sights and sounds of the game (and they are nice for the era) without being able to understand Japanese, you probably won’t be able to get very far.
On the off-chance that any readers do understand the language well enough to get through it, Seilane is a decent, relatively straightforward adventure with some charming characters. You can tell it was aimed at a slightly younger audience, but that’s fine. Not the best work from Microcabin, and I suppose that is a statement in and of itself, but it’s worth a playthrough if you enjoy the genre. But again, this is all predicated on you being able to read Japanese at a fairly decent level. If you can’t, I really wouldn’t recommend picking this up.
SwitchArcade Score: N/A
Select New Releases
Conscript ($21.99)
Touted as a survival-horror game set during the Battle of Verdun in the first World War, Conscript sees you play as a French soldier searching for your missing brother in about the worst possible place to be randomly wandering about. It isn’t shy about showing the ugly nature of war, so don’t expect much glorification of the concept. Indeed, for whatever else this game succeeds and fails at, it certainly demonstrates just how brutal a struggle Verdun was. Due to the subject matter this isn’t going to be for everyone, but for what it’s trying to do it manages things competently.
The Star Named EOS ($14.99)
This is an adventure game with an intriguing premise that sees you using photography to solve puzzles. Not just any photography, however. You’ll be snapping shots of the precious moments of the past, and in doing so you’ll likely uncover more than a few secrets that are buried within them. This one looks pretty good, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet so I can’t really say too much more about it.
Ninja Slayer Neo-Saitama in Flames ($19.99)
A stylish side-scrolling action game based on the popular series of novels and comic books, Ninja Slayer lets you see what it would be like to be the Ninja Slayer. It turns out it’s a lot of ninja killing. Who would have thought? Slice, dice, dash and dart around, and do all of that cool stuff ninja games use to help distract us from the fact that it has been well over ten years since the last Shinobi game. Sorry, that’s nothing to do with this. I think fans of the brand will dig it, as it really does go full-effort on trying to recreate the look of the manga in particular and the Ninja Slayer comes across about as powerful as he should.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Purgatory ($14.99)
Another gamebook-style adventure based on the Werewolf: The Apocalypse property. Sure, keep them coming. It’s naturally set in the World of Darkness universe, and you’re playing as a refugee werewolf named Samira. The in-universe version of Poland’s border crisis sets the stage for a tale of murder, mysteries, and all the monsters you could ask for. But perhaps the real monster is… man? This story follows on from Heart of the Forest, but you don’t need to have played it to jump in here. You’ll just get a slightly richer experience if you have.
Exophobia ($14.99)
One of those chunky-pixel faux-retro first-person shooters you see about here and there. You’re on a spaceship teeming with bad aliens. Or maybe you’re the bad alien, I don’t know. But you have to kill them all using your chunky-pixel gun. You’ll gain new abilities as you go that will not only power you up, but also give you access to areas you couldn’t reach before. Wait… is this a DOOMtroidvania? Anyway, it seems fine. Nothing to run up and down the street shouting about at the top of your voice, but good enough.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
A small handful of new sales to look at today, with the Wargroove games and Eastward probably being the best of the lot. Not too much to worry about in the outbox as Team 17 sales happen fairly often, but you might want to grab Yoku’s Island Express for two bucks just in case that stellar deal doesn’t come back around again. That is an absolutely wild game to get for such a low price.
Select New Sales
Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge ($16.99 from $19.99 until 7/30)
Trackline Express ($8.44 from $12.99 until 7/30)
Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey ($7.19 from $15.99 until 7/30)
Fur Squadron ($3.14 from $6.99 until 7/31)
Wuppo Definitive Edition ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/1)
Aliisha: Oblivion of Twin Goddesses ($13.19 from $32.99 until 8/1)
Wargroove ($5.99 from $19.99 until 8/5)
Wargroove 2 ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/5)
Agent Intercept ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/5)
Eastward ($12.49 from $24.99 until 8/5)
Wildfrost ($13.99 from $19.99 until 8/5)
Super Dungeon Maker ($5.99 from $19.99 until 8/12)
Cobalt Core ($14.99 from $19.99 until 8/12)
Blood Will Be Spilled ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/12)
Swords & Soldiers ($1.99 from $7.49 until 8/12)
Toki Tori 2+ ($1.99 from $14.99 until 8/12)
An Airport for Aliens ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/12)
Space Warlord Organ Trading Sim ($7.99 from $19.99 until 8/12)
Jelly Battle ($1.99 from $2.99 until 8/12)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, July 24th
Ageless ($2.99 from $14.99 until 7/24)
Batora: Lost Haven ($9.99 from $24.99 until 7/24)
Crown Trick ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
Dungeon Village 2 ($6.00 from $12.00 until 7/24)
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights ($10.49 from $24.99 until 7/24)
Going Under ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
Hokko Life ($7.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
Hot Springs Story ($3.96 from $12.00 until 7/24)
Killer Frequency ($12.49 from $24.99 until 7/24)
Monster Sanctuary ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
Overcooked 2: Gourmet Edition ($12.12 from $48.49 until 7/24)
Panic Porcupine ($1.99 from $7.99 until 7/24)
Pool Slide Story ($7.00 from $14.00 until 7/24)
Raging Justice ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/24)
Sheltered ($2.99 from $14.99 until 7/24)
The Escapists Complete Edition ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/24)
The Serpent Rogue ($1.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
TV Studio Story ($7.20 from $12.00 until 7/24)
Worms WMD ($5.99 from $29.99 until 7/24)
Yoku’s Island Express ($1.99 from $19.99 until 7/24)
Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair ($2.99 from $29.99 until 7/24)
Zoo Park Story ($6.00 from $12.00 until 7/24)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with a couple more reviews, more new releases, the fresh lists of sales, and perhaps some news. It’s absolutely scorching here in Japan this week, and I’ve about had my fill of it. Luckily it’s looking like we’ll be getting at least one sub-30 degree day next week, and it’s on my birthday to boot. That’s a lovely present! I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!