Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 21st, 2024. In today’s thrilling Tuesday edition, we’ve got a couple more reviews for you to enjoy. I take a look at Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution first, then head into some very strange waters to give you my thoughts on PO’ed: Definitive Edition. After that, we’ve got a few new releases to check out, and then the usual lists of new sales and expiring discounts. Let’s get to work!
Reviews & Mini-Views
Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution ($49.99)
Some games are more enjoyable than they really should be, and that’s where I’m at with Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution. It’s a mediocre action-RPG with some tepid management sim elements fused into it, all wrapped up with the usual Neptunia writing and meta-humor. The story this time around sees Nep becoming the president of a game maker, leading a motley crew of “Failed” Goddesses named Reedio, Jagaa, and Pipih. Jagaa is always going on about “doing the math” or something. They need to increase their Share to get their strength back, but as if the game business weren’t hard enough, they also have to deal with F-Sha, who is trying to eliminate the Failed Goddesses and their cursed game. Something like that. It’s all a lot of silly nonsense, as usual.
The combat is as basic as it gets, with a couple of buttons dedicated to strikes, one for magic attacks, and the ability to swap between your different characters on the fly. By doing this at the right time, you can chain attacks and perform powerful team moves. That’s really all there is to it, and if you’ve played any of the prior action-RPGs in the Neptunia franchise it’s probably sounding very familiar. You’ll explore dungeons, and they feel as budget as they probably are. You’ll also have to manage your company, which amounts to upgrading some things now and then and picking what kind of games you want to make.
So yes, nothing very fancy here. Quite normal by the recent standards of the Neptunia series, and very much a game that is satisfied to preach to the choir. If you’re in that choir, come and get it. This is a good port of the game. If you’re not, nothing here is going to change your mind. I don’t mind playing Neptunia games here and there, and I’m well past expecting them to make any real ambitious strides. And that’s a good thing, because that certainly isn’t happening in this game.
Idea Factory and Compile Heart have a little lemonade stand that works for them here, and I’m not going to knock them for it. Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution is yet another Neptunia game, and it doesn’t have much going on that we didn’t see in the last couple of action-RPGs in the series. The story is amusing if you’re into meta-humor, and while the whole thing feels like it was made on a meager budget, it’s fine for what it is. This Switch version is more solid than some of the other Neptunia ports on the platform, so if you’re a Neptunia fan looking to take this game on the go, here it is.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
PO’ed: Definitive Edition ($19.99)
This is the second game I’ve reviewed this year that originated with the 3DO console, and I’m starting to form a very odd picture of the system in my mind as a result. This is definitely better than Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, if nothing else. But wow, PO’ed is weird. It’s weird, and not just in the obvious ways. You’re a chef who crash lands on an alien planet and you have to use your frying pan and whatever else you can find to fend off butt monsters who fart at you and various other bizarre creatues. You need to find your way through each of the rather oddly laid-out stages in order to escape.
There’s no real attempt here to make the stages feel organic; they’re playgrounds in most cases. Flying in the face of the typical hallway designs of that era of first-person shooters, PO’ed features a lot of large open spaces with tons of verticality. You’re given a jetpack a few levels in, and you’ll need to make good use of it if you’re planning to get anywhere. The jetpack is the best part of the game, without question. You have to control your thrust, so it isn’t just fire and forget like, say, Duke Nukem’s jetpack. You’ll also slowly build up an arsenal of weapons, and you’ll move out of the chef-themed tools pretty quickly.
I don’t fully dislike PO’ed and I think it has some neat ideas, but it really dances on the edge of the butcher’s cleaver here for me. While some of the levels are fun to romp around in, they can also be a real headache to deal with. Not a good headache, either. On top of that, the gunplay doesn’t feel very good. It can be really hard to get a bead on enemies, and it’s a problem they certainly don’t share. You’re constantly getting pelted by enemies you can barely see, and the way your weapons track them makes some weapons nearly useless against some of the more mobile foes. There’s a certain quirky charm to the game, and I’ve played worse in the genre without question. But on the whole, PO’ed is more bewildering than enjoyable.
Nightdive has done its usual fine job with this Definitive Edition, converting the game to its KEX Engine and giving it all the niceties that come with that. Gyro aiming is as ever nice, and there are a number of other options here to enjoy. You can also turn all of those options off if you want to play it like you would have back in the day, more or less. A solid remaster of a game that perhaps isn’t first on anyone’s list, but one that doesn’t deserve to be lost to the sands of history either.
PO’ed: Definitive Edition is just what it says it is. If you’re going to play the game in any form, this is the best way to do it. Nightdive doesn’t miss often with its KEX Engine reissues, after all. But do you really want to play PO’ed? That’s the difficult question. Even in its era, it wasn’t exactly a barn-burner of a first-person shooter. It’s a very bizarre, unique game, and if that’s your jam then by all means give it a go. Hardly essential reading, but I’m sure someone out there is thrilled to see it.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
Select New Releases
One More Gate: A Wakfu Legend Complete Edition ($24.99)
Anyone order another turn-based deckbuilding roguelite? Well, whether you did or not, here you go. One More Gate seems to have gotten a good reception over on Steam, so that’s promising. It also seems to run on the easier side as this sort of thing goes, and whether that’s a plus or minus is something you’ll have to decide yourself. And hey, it’s Wakfu. That has a following, yes? Maybe you are in it. If so, here’s another decent game based on the cartoon based on a game.
Paper Trail ($19.99)
A rather pretty little puzzle adventure that is set in a folding paper world. I feel like I saw this at the Tokyo Game Show one year or another. The game is played from a top-down perspective and many of the puzzles require you to fold the world onto itself in various ways. I haven’t had a chance to play the final version yet, but if it’s anything like the taste I got in its preview version, puzzle fans will likely be satisfied with it.
Conjured Through Death ($14.99)
Whoever wrote the eShop description for this game deserves a bonus or something. They really went for it, and that almost makes this seem like it isn’t just another top-down hack-and-slash RPG. I mean, it is just another top-down hack-and-slash RPG, but gold star for the sales pitch. I haven’t had much of a chance to play it yet, so I can’t speak properly to whether it’s bland or awesome, but I imagine we’ll have our answer soon as it’s launching on multiple platforms.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Hm, this might be the smallest inbox we’ve ever seen. Well, there it is. Two games. Buy one. Buy both. Buy neither. Those are all your options. The outbox is a bit bigger, but only marginally so. I’ll let you look through, as it will only take a second due to the diminutive sizes of both lists.
Select New Sales
Ultra Foodmess ($1.99 from $3.99 until 6/3)
RoboDunk ($8.99 from $14.99 until 6/10)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, May 22nd
Art of Glide ($3.29 from $4.39 until 5/22)
Bone’s Cafe ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
BookyPets Legends ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Defense Master ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
Farmyard Haven ($4.23 from $5.29 until 5/22)
Fear Effect Sedna ($1.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Gimmick! Special Edition ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
HunterX ($8.99 from $14.99 until 5/22)
HunterX: Code Name T ($11.89 from $16.99 until 5/22)
Life is Strange 2 ($15.99 from $31.99 until 5/22)
Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection ($19.99 from $39.99 until 5/22)
Life is Strange: True Colors ($17.99 from $59.99 until 5/22)
Little Goody Two Shoes ($15.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Lonesome Village ($10.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Mouse Trap: The Board Game ($3.99 from $19.99 until 5/22)
Oh My Godheads: Party Edition ($2.99 from $14.99 until 5/22)
PowerWash Simulator ($19.99 from $24.99 until 5/22)
Right and Down and Dice ($8.40 from $11.99 until 5/22)
Suicide Guy: The Lost Dreams ($4.79 from $7.99 until 5/22)
The Game of Life 2 ($5.99 from $29.99 until 5/22)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, potentially more reviews, and maybe even some news. We’ll have to see how things go. I’m going to go shopping for some new glasses tomorrow. I’ve been putting it off for a while, but I’m at the point where I’m taking my current glasses off more than I am keeping them on. Can’t see well either way, but at least one is more aerodynamic, you know? I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!