Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 18th, 2024. It’s a Thursday, and a fairly busy one at that. We start off with a bit of news about a new game coming next month, then head into those new releases for today. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is but the point of the spear, with lots of interesting games vying for your hard-earned money. After that, we’ve got the new and expiring sales for the day. Lots to do, so let’s get to it!
News
‘Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club’ Announced for August 29 Release
In the last week or two, Nintendo has been teasing a new game with some character named Emilio. Not Emilio? Emio? Right. Emio. There was a lot of speculation, with some thinking it was a game from Bloober Team and going ballistic about the thing they made up in their imagination. Well, it turns out that we’re getting a new Famicom Detective Club game, coming from Metroid Man Yoshio Sakamoto’s team. The last new entry in this series was around… three decades ago, so that is very cool. Also cool? It’s out next month! August 29th, available digital and physical. If you like Japanese-style adventure games, you know what to do.
Select New Releases
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition ($29.99)
It’s really hard not to compare this with NES Remix on the Wii U and 3DS, but let’s try. This is a game that gives you one hundred and fifty mini-challenges for thirteen different NES games, all of which will see you trying to perform a certain task as fast as you can. It works well as a party-style affair for up to eight players locally, and you can certainly have some fun with the weekly challenges. Bafflingly, no online leaderboards outside of the weekly things. We’ll have a review of this early next week, in case you need further details.
SCHiM ($24.99)
A schim is apparently the soul and spirit of an object, and you’re playing as one that has gotten unfortunately separated from its human. You need to get back to him as soon as possible, because bad things will happen if you don’t. The thing is, you have to move around the environments jumping from shadow to shadow. Things are in motion, and so are their shadows, so there seems to be an element of timing involved. Seems interesting, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.
Satryn DX ($6.99)
This is a twin stick shooter that is obviously more than a little inspired by Robotron 2084, but I don’t see Robotron 2084 around here anywhere so I say bring on the homages. There are twelve different types of enemies, nine power-ups, some hazards for good measure, and you even get a nice little online leaderboard. Another great arcade throw-back from publisher Flynns Arcade, and one I am greatly looking forward to digging into for my review.
YEAH! YOU WANT “THOSE GAMES,” RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2 ($9.99)
An interesting companion piece to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, to say the least. The clever idea behind the first one was enough to sell it to many (including me), and so here we are with round two. You get two hundred and fifty stages spread across five types of mini-games that will seem curiously familiar to those who watch mobile ads. There’s the one where you remove pins so that gold or what-have-you falls down! The one that’s a behind-the-back runner with mathematical components in front of you! The one that’s an isometric game where you have to battle enemies and pick up items in the right order for superior numbers! And more! Plus: online leaderboards! Almost everyone has them today. Almost. Shall I review? I shall.
Over Horizon X Steel Empire ($14.99)
The Ratalaika Brown Bag wrapper strikes again, this time covering three shoot ’em ups from Hot-B. You get the impressive (and rare) NES horizontal shooter Over Horizon, the Genesis/Mega Drive Steel Empire, and the Game Boy Advance port of Steel Empire. The usual options seen in Ratalaika’s reissues are here, but I’ll have to put more time in into the games to see if the usual inexplicable bugs are as well. These are fun games, and I prefer the MD Steel Empire to the remake that is already available on Switch. Yes, I’ll be reviewing.
Arcade Archives Football Champ ($7.99)
This week in Arcade Archives, we’ve got Taito’s popular take on soccer. You know, if it had been last week’s game it probably would have sold more. Euros and all. Well anyway, this is a 1990 release and as such it’s outside of that early era of arcade sports games where people were still trying to figure things out. It works like you would expect, and it’s good fun if you have someone else to play against locally. Solo? Probably not my pick from the Hamster line-up, but you’re the boss of your own wallet.
EGGCONSOLE Seilane PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)
Here’s a bold move. If you think the RPGs in the EGGCONSOLE line have been impenetrable due to the language barrier presented by unlocalized Japanese, wait until you try out this adventure game. Yes, it’s a game entirely about dealing with text, in a language you probably don’t understand. Nice pictures, though. I will probably review this out of an adherence to tradition, but seriously… if you can’t read Japanese, don’t bother. Minus points to the publisher for carefully brushing all the Japanese text out of the North American eShop screenshots.
Epyx Rogue ($7.99)
Oh, excellent. This is where I get to make jokes about whether or not Rogue is a roguelike. This, I presume, is the Commodore 64 version of Epyx’s version of Rogue. It has actual graphics instead of letters and symbols, but it’s a decent approximation of the real thing. Well, the real thing as it was at the time. Pixel Games UK gets around the keyboard-heavy gameplay by offering up a handy wheel of actions. I’m going to give this one a closer look, because it checks off too many of my personal boxes to do anything else.
Rivalia: Dungeon Raiders ($14.99)
Take control of four characters as they, would you believe this, raid some dungeons. You might think there would be a multiplayer option here, but no. You just control all four characters. Six procedurally-generated levels spread across three different biomes. It’s been out for a couple of years on other platforms and the overall consensus seems to bet that it’s kind of middling. Functional but not very exciting. But perhaps it’s what you’re after today, I don’t know.
Fueled Up ($19.99)
Here’s a party game that can be enjoyed by up to four players any which way you want. Online? Yes. Local multiplayer on one system? You bet! Local wireless? Naturally. So what are you doing? Trying to keep your space ship running, no matter what the problem. This will require a lot of scrambling around and dealing with sudden chaos. Well, you know how this kind of thing goes if you’ve been paying attention to the Switch for any real amount of time. Maybe you need a new party game like this.
Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus ($19.99)
This is a gorgeous Metroidvania-style game whose development team includes at least one person associated with AM2R, the fan-made Metroid II remake that got yeeted into the next galaxy. Early word on it is that the game is quite good if perhaps a little too orthodox an example of its genre, but I believe our pal Mikhail is in the process of evaluating it and should have some official TouchArcade opinions on it soon enough.
Jello ($13.99)
I feel like that name might be a trademarked term, but whatever. Forget it, Jake. It’s the eShop. At any rate, we’ve got another one of those physics-based platformers here, this time with you taking the role of a little slime. Unconventional movement is the order of the day, as you get around by stretching and propelling yourself. I haven’t been able to play this one yet, so I’ll leave it there for the time being.
The Gravity Trickster ($13.99)
A puzzle platformer that promises gravity trickery and delivers it. Guide your robot to the goal, scooping up all the goodies you can along the way. I’ll cut to the chase on this one. If you remember a PlayStation 1 puzzle game called Kula World or Roll Away, you’ll find this game to be remarkably similar in how it works. This is an intentional homage to that game, so if you’ve been pining for some kind of follow-up, this might be as close as you get.
Ancient Phantasma ($14.99)
Here’s another KEMCO RPG from the mobile back catalogue, this time Magitec’s Ancient Phantasma. I’m not a big fan of this particular developer’s games, but it might be the break from the usual EXE-Create fare that some of you need.
Zombie Derby 2 ($4.99)
The thrilling continuation of the Zombie Derby saga that I know you’ve all been waiting for.
I want to eat umaibo ! ($9.99)
I mean, me too. I should go pick some up. I like the cheese ones, but the teriyaki burger flavor one is nice sometimes too. For those who couldn’t possibly know, Umaibo are a brand of very cheap salty snacks from Japan. They come in a bunch of flavors, and because they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of ten cents each, they’re well-loved by people of all ages and social standings. This game seems to be almost as cheap, taking the mascot of the brand and throwing him into an auto-runner. Beyond the exciting action, you also get an encyclopedia filled with all kinds of Umaibo information. In Japanese. Have fun!
Throw it! Dinosaur Panic ($3.99)
What you’ve got here is basically a dinosaur version of a coin dozer. That might be amusing enough for some of you to get your four dollars’ worth.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
No Man’s Sky has a big update incoming, and to celebrate it’s at its lowest price yet. Meg’s Monster is also at a new low, and it’s a must-have for anyone who likes a good story. Neither list is all that big today, so I’ll leave it to you to scan through them and see what grabs you.
Select New Sales
No Man’s Sky ($23.99 from $59.99 until 7/30)
The Last Campfire ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/30)
Metal Dogs ($9.90 from $22.00 until 7/31)
Bear’s Restaurant ($9.09 from $12.99 until 7/31)
Fishing Paradiso ($10.49 from $14.99 until 7/31)
Meg’s Monster ($10.49 from $14.99 until 7/31)
Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece Cloud ($35.99 from $89.99 until 8/1)
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory ($23.99 from $59.99 until 8/1)
Eschatos ($13.49 from $14.99 until 8/1)
New Star GP ($11.99 from $29.99 until 8/1)
Dungeon Arsenal ($3.49 from $6.99 until 8/1)
The Bridge Curse: Road to Salvation ($14.99 from $29.99 until 8/2)
Slime Girl Smoothies ($7.49 from $14.99 until 8/2)
Rainbow Skies ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/2)
Chaos Galaxy ($9.99 from $19.99 until 8/2)
Boo Party ($4.99 from $9.99 until 8/2)
Mugen Souls ($25.99 from $39.99 until 8/2)
Omen of Sorrow ($8.99 from $19.99 until 8/2)
Dungeonoid 2 Awakening ($5.39 from $8.99 until 8/2)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, July 19th
Asterix & Obelix Slap Them All 2 ($9.99 from $24.99 until 7/19)
BurgerTime Party! ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
Deadcraft ($5.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
Freedom Planet ($4.49 from $14.99 until 7/19)
Gal Metal ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
Graceful Explosion Machine ($2.59 from $12.99 until 7/19)
Heroland ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
Loop8: Summer of Gods ($9.99 from $39.99 until 7/19)
Lucid Cycle ($2.09 from $6.99 until 7/19)
Mugen Souls Z ($25.99 from $39.99 until 7/19)
New Joe & Mac Caveman Ninja ($8.99 from $29.99 until 7/19)
Nocturnal Visitors ($3.99 from $4.99 until 7/19)
Noob The Factionless ($15.99 from $39.99 until 7/19)
Phantom Breaker Omnia ($3.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
Senran Kagura Peach Ball ($8.99 from $29.99 until 7/19)
Sense: Cyberpunk Ghost Story ($5.99 from $19.99 until 7/19)
The Prisoner of the Night ($10.49 from $14.99 until 7/19)
Violet Wysteria ($8.99 from $14.99 until 7/19)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow to finish out the releases for the week, plus catch up on any sales and big news items that arrive in the next twenty-four hours or so. My schedule for my day job got a little rearranged this week, so I have to work very late tonight. That means I have to finish this quickly so… I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!