Fans of all things retro will probably appreciate this week’s eShop line-up. No less than four of the fifteen titles originated from the arcade.
Unsurprisingly, a couple of these are Hamster re-releases – 1993’s ACA NeoGeo World Heroes 2 and Arcade Archives Kid Niki Radical Ninja (£6.29 each), a colourful IREM action game from 1986.
Then we have a double-whammy of Psikyo shooters – STRIKERS 1945 II for Nintendo Switch and ZERO GUNNER 2- for Nintendo Switch (£6.99 each). Nintendo Life awarded the latter an 8/10 earlier this week. “When you consider how much the Dreamcast version of Zero Gunner 2 changes hands for on the secondary market these days, the fact that you can download a superior version on your Switch for a tiny fraction of that cost is worth celebrating,†they said.
As for the week’s big hitters, there’s Square-Enix’s traditional RPG Lost Sphear (£39.99) – which has gained a mixture of 7s and 8s – and Celeste (£17.99), a challenging pixel art platformer from the creators of Towerfall. Polygon gave it an 8.0: “Celeste feels like a very capably made platformer, easily on par with other masocore greats.†They said, referring to such games as Super Meat Boy and Spelunky.
We’re also going to give Earth Wars (£4.00) a shout out. It’s a rebranded version of Earth’s Dawn, a well-received Japanese action RPG that still sells for £25 on Xbox One and PS4. It looks like the difference in price is due to a change in publisher. At four measly quid it’s quite the bargain.
Here’s a quick rundown of the remaining Switch releases:
Super One More Jump – £4.99
From the studio behind Death Squared comes yet another intense 2D platformer designed to test your mettle.
FANTASY HERO ~unsigned legacy~ – £8.99
A rather lavish looking action RPG from Arc System Works.
Tennis – £6.29
Just in time for the Australian Open. Can be played either with the Pro Controller or by swinging the Joy-Cons in the appropriate manner.
Dustoff Heli Rescue 2 – £13.49
Desert Strike reborn for the Minecraft generation.
Island Flight Simulator – £17.99
The Wii U and PS4 versions from 2016 received a kicking, so don’t hold out much hope.
Tachyon Project – £8.99
This twin-stick shooter didn’t gain the most favourable of reviews back in 2015.
ChromaGun – £17.99
Take aim with a paint gun and command colour-coded worker droids to solve puzzles.
Shu – £7.69
This cutesy 2D platformer looks like a decent enough alternative to Rayman Legends.
Switch owners can also find the following on offer from today: NBA 2K18, WWE 2K18, Bulb Boy, Chess Ultra, Sparkle 2 Evo, Tennis In The Face, The Bridge, Violett and The Jackbox Party Pack 3. An INVERSUS Deluxe demo is now available, too.
There’s only one 3DS game due this week, but it’s a corker – Pokémon Crystal Version (£8.99), which is also getting the code in the box treatment for around £10.
Next week: Sky Force Reloaded and Samurai Shodown II.
