PC gamers have been snickering at Crysis Remastered on Switch, asking how it could possibly be a remaster when the Switch doesn’t have the power to run the base game, let alone a revamp.
Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry managed to shed some light, claiming that until the Xbox One/PS4 versions arrive next month, this is the best console version of Crysis to date.
“Stacked up against Xbox 360 and PS3, it has the best image quality, vastly improved overall performance and the most impressive visuals. Yes, it’s still missing features from the PC original and dropping parallax occlusion mapping is a shame but even considering Crysis’ vintage, the basic concept of a Switch port of the game still seems insane, even before we factor in the new CryEngine features added here,†said DF.
From blistering HD to 8-bit pixel art – Panzer Paladin is a retro action game mimicking the look and feel of the humble NES. Review scores are generally high, with both IGN and Nintendo Life opting for 8/10s.
“It doesn’t quite reach the heights of something like Shovel Knight, but it brings a lot of cool ideas to the genre of neu-retro while feeling like it could have been right at home on the original NES,†said IGN.
“Panzer Paladin’s uncomplicated gameplay won’t be for everyone and there are some very minor niggles that hold it back from true greatness. Even so, it has heart, and that goes a long, long way. If you’re into retro throwback games then you should really give this a try; Panzer Paladin is an unpretentious, exuberant action game from start to finish, and a must for genre fans,†was Nintendo Life’s verdict, meanwhile
Rock of Ages 3 has gained generally positive reviews too, although the Switch version of this tower defence title apparently suffers from long loading times. “Yes, Rock of Ages 3 has some mild issues with pacing and the loading times could be better to suit the experimentation that is at the core of the experience, but this is also the definitive version of something that is very funny, ideal for both single-player and multiplayer parties, and, thanks to that most excellent course designer, Rock of Ages 3 is functionally endless,†said Digitally Downloaded.
Then there’s Creaks, a hand drawn 2D puzzle adventure which has come out of nowhere and blown critics away. Both PSU and Push Square felt it worthy of indie GOTY material. “It’s beautiful, enjoyable and everything about it screams quality,†beamed a smitten PSU.
Destructoid struck a sombre tone for their Rainswept review. They dealt a 7.5 to this 2D murder mystery but warned that it won’t please all and sundry: “Rainswept is a heavy game. Its sad piano music and endless poetic rainfall underscoring the human tragedy depicted. If you’re capable of shouldering the game’s baggage, Rainswept provides an “entertaining” tale. I certainly “enjoyed” it. However, if what you’re looking for is a fun murder mystery to sink your teeth into, you might be better off seeking clues elsewhere.â€
We reviewed the carpet bombing arcade shooter Aircraft Evolution earlier this week. It has a degree of depth – special bombs and repair kits must be purchased before a mission starts – and the fact that it’s set over four time periods is neat, but ultimately there isn’t much to it other than swirling through the air and dropping bombs. The level design also becomes sloppy around halfway in.
The same publisher (Sometimes You) also launches Need A Packet? this week – a bleak, and highly abstract, voyage into a supermarket cashier’s descent into madness. It appears to have bullet hell elements.
Plenty of other new releases hit the eShop this week too, including the reverse horror game CARRION – in which you play as an ominous, evolving, red blob– and the open-world cyberpunk RPG Dex. Dex is a peculiar one – at launch it received wildly mixed reviews, ranging from 4/10 to 9/10. Over time it has become something of a cult classic, however.
New Switch eShop releases
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break – £24.99
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break is competitive tower defense and arcade action rolled up with ACE Team’s quirky humor into one giant, creative game for the ages.
Jump into the expansive, gut-busting story for an eclectic adventure featuring bizarre and irreverent takes on legendary characters, or for the first time, create and share your own levels to compete with friends and strangers online in a real-time mix of hectic tower defense and epic boulder-racing arcade action.
Aeolis Tournament – £11.49
Aeolis Tournament is a 3D party action game where up to 8 players compete in various game modes based on a simple one-button mechanic. Characters use an air cannon to control the power of the wind and affect their surroundings. It features physics-based gameplay, a tournament mode and local and online multiplayer play.
Tales from the Dragon Mountain: The Strix – £8.99
Mina Lockheart’s dreams became unbearable nightmares. She dreamt about her grandmother Kate and their old family house being eaten by flames. One day, Mina decided to travel back to their family estate to make peace with her own memories and feelings of loss and loneliness.
But after she arrived, not even in her wildest dreams she could imagine what will happen and where the events will take her. What started as a simple trip of search for inner peace, turned out to be the greatest, unimaginable adventure of her life!
GERRRMS – £8.99
Gerrrms is a party brawl game that puts you in the role of a microorganism fighting against its single-celled opponents.
Take part in the eternal battle of the microbes! Become one of the sneaky bacteria and tech your friends their place in line. This is the best micro brawl game out there.
Play as one of 11 unlockable characters with different personalities.
There are as many as seven game modes!
Brightstone Mysteries: Paranormal Hotel – £8.99
Meet the ancient Egyptian cult in a search of almighty artifact, Marcus Antonius, King Arthur and many others who tried to kept this omni-powerful object hidden away from those who wanted to use its terrible powers for conquering the world and stop the evil from raising from its grave!
CARRION – £17.99
CARRION is a reverse horror game in which you assume the role of an amorphous creature of unknown origin. Stalk and consume those that imprisoned you to spread fear and panic throughout the facility. Grow and evolve as you tear down this prison and acquire more and more devastating abilities on the path to retribution.
Quiplash – £8.99
The team behind the hit party games YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, Fibbage, and Drawful presents Quiplash, the laugh-a-minute battle of wits and wittiness! Use your phone or tablet to answer simple prompts like “Something you’d be surprised to see a donkey do†or “The worst soup flavor: Cream of _____.â€
No rules, no correct answers! Say whatever you want!
Your answer is pitted against another player’s answer in a head-to-head clash of cleverness and comedy (or just “Which answer is least stupid?â€). Other players – and even an Audience of people waiting to get in the next game – then vote for their favorite answer.
SUSHI REVERSI – £11.99
Introducing real-time reversi where sushi rampages across the board!
A maximum of 4 sushi scrambles for isolation plates on a variety of stages which is a big runaway!?
Let’s make full use of items and skills to interfere!
Fibbage XL – £8.99
Fibbage is the lying, bluffing, fib-till-you-win multiplayer trivia party game from the makers of YOU DON’T KNOW JACK! Play with 2-8 players!
Fool your friends with your lies, avoid theirs, and find the (usually outrageous) truth. And get this: your phone or tablet is your controller!
“The mayor of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky is a _____.â€
Baby? Rabbit? Ham sandwich? It’s up to you!
Fool your opponents into thinking your bluff is true and you’ll rack up the points! But be careful, if you pick an opponent’s bluff, they’ll be doing a Fibbage fancy dance.
Hosted by YOU DON’T KNOW JACK’s very own, and very lonely, Cookie Masterson!
Aircraft Evolution – £8.99
Fight through 4 time periods, from the era of the First World War to futuristic battles.
Level up and evolve your aircraft from a wooden plane to a futuristic fighter. Then, refine it by increasing its armor, fuel, speed, firepower and much more. You upgrade as you go, but you can still try to take on a tank armed with plasma cannons using just a wooden plane!
40 different missions are waiting for you. You will be given different objectives: destroy an enemy base, deal with waves of attacking fighters, boss fights and much more. Demolish the enemy with standard bombs, a barrage of cluster bombs, or burn enemies to ashes with napalm. Turn their bases into smoldering ruins and the battlefield into a scorched desert.
Bombs and explosions! More bombs and explosions!!!
GRISAIA PHANTOM TRIGGER 03 – £13.49
Several years after Yuuji Kazami and his friends fought for their lives in a fierce battle, a new generation of heroines gather at Mihama Academy, which has been reinstated as a ‘specialist training school’.
Taking place in the same world as The Fruit of Grisaia, new characters bring an exciting fresh take in the third story of this brand new series!
This thrilling story, which unfolds at the reborn Mihama Academy, will undoubtedly excite not only those who have played previous releases, but those who are new to the series as well!
Creaks – £17.99
The ground starts shaking, light bulbs are breaking – and something rather unusual is happening right behind the walls of your very room. Equipped with nothing but wit and courage, you slowly descend into a world inhabited by avian folk and seemingly deadly furniture monsters.
From the creators of indie classics Machinarium and Samorost comes Creaks, a new puzzle adventure game that delights the senses with its hand-painted visuals, precise animation, eerie sounds, and eclectic original score from Hidden Orchestra. Proceed at your own pace at figuring out the solutions to dozens of carefully designed puzzles, explore the mansion for hidden paintings and uncover the great secret.
Arcade Archives KOUTETSU YOUSAI STRAHL – £6.29
“KOUTETSU YOUSAI STRAHL” is a shooting game released by UPL in 1992.
Bent on world domination, mad scientist Gegeben Funkerun has formed the secret society, “Aizerun Geist.”
Select from four types of main weapons, sub weapons, and bombs, and use them to destroy the steel fortress KOUTETSU YOUSAI STRAHL!
Cyber Complex – £12.59
Welcome to the Cyber Complex!
In the year 2041 global corporations replaced countries and the neuro interface implant became a requirement to work – a requirement to survive…
As a resistance recruit you will receive a modified H4C-Kit and access our mod database. You will get access to the Cyber Complex Simulator to create and test new environments. Learn how to control your H4C-Kit and capture clusters to spawn nodes, evade scanners, and dig deeper into the Cyber Complex!
Join the resistance now!
Neverending Nightmares – £13.49
Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game inspired by the developer’s actual battle with mental illness. In the game, you take on the role of Thomas who awakens from a terrible nightmare only to find that he is still dreaming. As he descends deeper through the layers of hellish dreamscapes, he must hide from horrifying apparitions and outrun his inner demons. He must discover which of the horrors he encounters are a manifestation of his own psychological state and figure out what reality will be when he finally wakes up.
One Dog Story – £11.69
Do You Miss Those Good Old Platform Games?
Do you have a soft spot for extensive storylines and original dialog?
Do you enjoy not just destroying hundreds of enemies, but also exploring new worlds?
One Dog Story is an engaging pixel adventure game with RPG elements, gameplay that’ll get you hooked for hours, and well-developed characters
Retrovamp – £1.79
Inspired by famous 2D platformer games, RetroVamp will challenge every player to reach the top of a vertical map. By sliding, jumping and wall riding you will move around a map filled with obstacles, at every death you will be forced to start from the beginning or from one of the five checkpoints that you can spawn around the map.
Crysis Remastered – £26.99
What begins as a simple rescue mission becomes the battleground of a new war as alien invaders swarm over a North Korean island chain. Armed with a powerful Nanosuit, players can become invisible to stalk enemy patrols, or boost strength to lay waste to vehicles.
The Nanosuit’s speed, strength, armor, and cloaking allow creative solutions for every kind of fight, while a huge arsenal of modular weaponry provides unprecedented control over play style. In the ever-changing environment, adapt tactics and gear to dominate your enemies, in an enormous sandbox world.
Epic Word Search Collection 2 – £6.99
Epic Word Search puzzles are enormous! There are more than 1,500 words hidden in each massive, scrollable grid.
This collection contains:
Epic America Word Search
Epic Monster Word Search
Epic Rock Word Search
Epic Summer Word Search
Checkers – £8.09
From the creators of Chess and for fans of classic board games, we bring you Checkers!
Also known as “Draughts”, the origins of which are so ancient that a board resembling this game was found dated back to 3,000 BC in the city-state of “Ur” of the ancient Mesopotamia.
You can play either against the smart AI (artificial intelligence) player or against another person.
With stunning 3D graphics, you will feel you are playing on a real checkers board and you can play using either the Joy-Con or the touch screen
Checkers has a selection of different boards and pieces to choose from.
Hunt – £8.09
Hunt is a sandbox hunting simulator game where the goal is to hunt as many game in 15 minutes.
Your hunting gear includes a sniper rifle, 9mm pistol, shotgun, revolver and a semi-automatic machine gun
With so many different kinds of animals to hunt no game will be the same
Pick the time to go hunting. If you hunt during the afternoon beware of the bears wandering around, they will attack you and if you are hunting during the night beware of wild attacking wolf packs.
The animals you can hunt are randomly created in different sizes and colors and sizes and your score is based on the kind of animal and its size and colour.
Dex – £17.99
You play as the mysterious blue-haired girl named Dex who is being hunted by a powerful and enigmatic organization for her unique abilities. Explore the misty, futuristic streets of Harbor Prime in this open-world dystopia. Unearth plots and intrigues, forge alliances and take the fight to your enemies on your quest to take down the system!
The world of Dex is designed as a tribute to some of the greatest neo-noir and cyberpunk worlds with a mature storyline, murky atmosphere and distinct characters. Gameplay is a throwback to classic 2D platforming and action games but mixed with deep RPG elements, interactive dialogues and real-time combat.
Customize your character’s skills and equipment to match your desired playstyle – kill from shadows as a silent assassin, fight the power head on as a gunfighter, use persuasion like a sly diplomat or fight from a distance in cyberspace as a hacker. Blur the line between being human and “cyborg” by installing augmentations that grant you superhuman abilities and open up new paths in Harbour Prime like classic Metroidvania titles.
Colloc – £6.29
Colloc is a fun puzzle adventure that begins with the arrival of the fearsome Blackhole#24 and the disappearance of all the colors of Colloc’s land. Our mission is clear: Get the colors back and stop the villain!
During the game we will meet and manage the Collocs, who use chromatic energy to split or merge. These fun and cute characters will be the key to solving the challenge of the 60 levels that we will have to complete to win.
Join the Collocs in this incredible and colorful mission during 6 unique episodes that will leave you wanting more. Save Colloc’s land, fill their world and your life with color. Be a hero solving the most adorable puzzles of the galaxy.
Detective Driver: Miami Files – £10.79
Begin your adventure on Vice Island today! Learn the details of a nefarious plot and use your driving skills to stop it getting out of hand! You will become a Detective, hired to investigate a crime that gets more elaborate with each new detail you learn.
Hamster Bob – £4.49
Set out on an amazing journey together with Bob the hamster and discover a world that you will draw yourself. In the game, Bob will be your companion, guide, and friend with whom you can interact. He will help you understand the story and will keep you up to date about what you need to do, and when you should do it. While playing, you will hear a lot of valuable, educational sentences. Bob will regularly remind you to draw and encourage you to do it!
Mittelborg: City of Mages – £9.99
Mittelborg is the heart of this world and thousands of swords are aimed at it. Monsters, nomads, mercenaries, living deads and rebellious spirits — Chaos does not sleep and besieges the Universe. Collect resources, get ready for tempests, keep guards on the walls and mages at the towers. While lots of blood are spilt, remember what is at stake. It is better to shed a gallon of blood than lose a single leaf from the Tree of Order.
Rainswept – £8.99
Detective Michael Stone arrives in the small town of Pineview to assist the local police force with a seemingly simple case – A couple is found dead in their kitchen. The locals believe it to be a case of murder-suicide, their speculation fueled by rumors of the turbulent nature of the couple’s relationship.
Help Detective Stone, assisted by the driven and empathetic Amy Blunt, discover the truth behind Chris and Diane’s story. But be warned: the further he pursues the case, the more his own past shall come back to haunt him. And the closer his sanity will be pushed to the edge.
Need a packet? – £6.29
“Need a packet?†is a horror-simulator about supermarket cashier, who is gradually losing her mind from routine work. She starts to feel that the cash register is turning into a medieval tower, while dragons and chimeras are flying around and trying to kill Molly.
Events take place on the background of a garbage crisis in the city. Grounds are rotting, recycling factories are overcrowded, water is poisoned and citizens start to disappear in the local forests.
“Beep Beep Beep†– that’s what you’ll hear in your head all day after playing “Need a packet?â€. Go crazy!
Max and the book of chaos – £6.99
The story takes place in an old castle that has become a summer school. But the castle hides a lot of secrets.
A legendary old book that has the power to open portals between dimensions and times lies there. This book is imbued with the power of the dark matter and has been hidden for millennia.
But now someone has unleashed its power.
The portals has been opened and our world has been invaded by hordes of strange, fun and chaotic enemies.
And YES, Max Racoon is our only true hope.
Jisei: The First Case HD – £4.99
A teenager with no name and no home wanders from one city to the next, burdened by the weight of his extraordinary ability. When he is accused of murdering a woman that he’s never met, he sets out to prove his innocence and find the true killer. The investigation quickly takes a turn for the complicated when a strange voice appears in his head, warning him to watch his step.
Search for clues, interrogate witnesses, and find a murderer. Even with your extra abilities, it will still take solid facts and logic to prove your innocence!
Enjoy this cult classic indie mystery visual novel with HD art, backgrounds, and assets!
Up Cliff Drive – £4.49
Drive over hilly tracks, collect stars, coins and pickups to upgrade your cars and get further! Also watch out for various obstacles! But you can also use them to perform some backflips… just watch your head! So, buckle up, driver! Drive from the start to finish in each level and collect coins to upgrade your cars.
Cubicity – £5.00
Welcome to Cubicity, a beautiful cube-based adventure! Get caught up in this unique world, which has its own rules and laws that must be followed if you want to reach the finish line.
Select your character — there are more than enough to choose from!
Gameplay involves solving a wide range of puzzles, with something for everyone! First, you must move your characters into the given formation, then pass a test at the end of each level. Each level gets progressively harder, so you’ll have to keep your skills sharp. There’s only one finish line, and your goal is to get all your characters there, any way you can.
It’s up to you to decide how to solve these challenges — you have complete freedom! To complete your mission, you’ll have to employ logic and strategic thinking. Each level you complete earns you a new reward!
Panzer Paladin – £16.00
The sight of giant swords blazing through the night sky might be hair-raising, but stand your ground! The sinister Ravenous and his legions of brutal demons are poised for battle. Even all the armies of the world can’t stop them, but humanity has one final ace in the hole: cutting-edge power armor called Paladin.
It’s now up to a strong-willed android named Flame to become a Squire, pilot the Paladin and track down all Weapon Keepers and their diabolical leader. The showdown between mankind’s technological prowess and the powerful forces of the occult has begun!
Seize weapons from the denizens of the Netherworld and give them a taste of their own medicine! Show them the power of cutting-edge technology fused with masterful swordplay. Slash, bash and thrust your way through a series of mind-blowing levels around the world, all of it rendered in glorious 8-bit graphics! Hop in your Paladin and take up arms!
Next week: FAIRY TAIL, Nowhere Prophet, Merchant of the Skies, Lost Wing, Dodo Peak, Naught, FootGoal! Tiki Taka, Nicole, Paint your Pet, The Executioner, Megadimension Neptunia VII, Ageless, Interrogation: You will be deceived, They Breathe, Locomotion, Hotel Sowls, Kingdom Rush, Buried Stars, Sentinels of Freedom, Instant Sports Summer Games, Heroes of Hammerwatch – Ultimate Edition, and Cubers: Arena.