Next week is looking incredibly busy for the Switch – we can expect Bravely Default II, Persona 5 Strikers, and Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection, as well as smaller titles such as the Crazy Taxi tribute Taxi Chaos and Focus’ sacrificial hack ‘n slasher Curse of the Dead Gods.
This week is pretty busy too, especially if you’re looking for something different and offbeat.
Capcom Arcade Stadium dropped shortly after yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, featuring 1943: The Battle of Midway as a freebie. Every game has online leaderboard rankings, save states, and a rewind feature. 32 Capcom titles will be available at launch, including Street Fighter II, Strider and Commando, purchasable in packs of ten. Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts is the exception, available as a standalone purchase.
Speaking of arcade games, we reviewed Speed Limit on Tuesday and found it to be both compelling and challenging. It takes elements of arcade classics, ramps up the difficulty, then charts your progress as you live, die and repeat – caught in a time loop, the idea is to whittle down your playtime to 30 mins, which requires hours of practice.
The psychedelic PUSS! looks and sounds rather bizarre, being a cat and mouse avoid ‘em up with mind-melting visual effects. The Metacritic currently stands at a reasonable 67%, including a 7/10 from Nintendo Life. If you frequent YouTube, you may have seen some influencers losing their mind over this one – yes, it’s one of those games.
JRPG Azur Lane: Crosswave mixes typical anime flair with naval battles, giving chance to customise your fleet before braving the seas. That’s joined by fellow JRPG Fallen Legion Revenants, which features 2D side-scrolling combat and countless storyline altering dialogue choices. Reviews of Revenants are starting to surface – critics claim it isn’t vastly different from its predecessor, and that the pacing is a little off. This has led to a somewhat lukewarm 61% Metacritic.
Astrologaster is faring better. It provides a unique and humorous look at 16th century London as seen through the eyes of stargazers. Pocket Tactics called it “a great afternoon of fun.â€
Another game getting decent reviews is #DRIVE – a stylised racer with ‘80s supercars that’s intended to be easy going. Finger Guns felt it deserved an 8/10. “A game like this perfectly suits the Switch: the funky colour palette, the chill beats, it’s all there,†they said.
Other releases include a (vastly) belated conversion of the indie darling Thomas Was Alone – the physics puzzle/platformer with a story to tell – a re-release of the NeoGeo Pocket’s SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, the genre-jumping adventure Anodyne 2: Return to Dust – which sports PSone style visuals, and eastasiasoft’s 2D shooter Void Gore.
A couple of games with infuriating typos in their titles, too – My little IceCream Booth and Black Jack World Tour both need to stay behind after class.
New Switch eShop releases
Capcom Arcade Stadium – Free to Start
Shooters, fighting, action—all your favourite genres in this exciting collection! Capcom Arcade Stadium brings back all the nostalgia of the arcade, while adding in new and exciting features you’ll wish you had back then!
Just Like the Good Old Days
From 3D-rendered arcade cabinets to scanline filters, there’s everything you need to recreate that arcade atmosphere. Fully customizable display settings let you craft your own personal experience and truly relive the glory days of arcade gaming.
Brand New Ways to Play
With gameplay rewind, speed adjustment, and the ability to save and load your game at any time, your old favorites will feel new all over again!
Every game has online leaderboard rankings, so you can see where you stack up against players all over the world!
Capcom Arcade Stadium, where retro appeal meets cutting-edge features for a fresh take on Capcom’s classics!
Included Title
1943 – The Battle of Midway –
Players: 1-2 Co-Op
Genre: Shooting
Versions: Japanese & English
Azur Lane: Crosswave – £44.99
Change the tide of battle in this 3D action-shooter, recruit over 50+ ship girls from the hit mobile game, Azur Lane!
Soak up 4 game modes, including including Extreme Battle Mode. Customize your fleet with different different ships and equipment!
Fallen Legion Revenants – £35.99
The world is covered in miasma, and the remnants of mankind have taken refuge in a floating castle ruled by a madman. Swap between the charismatic politician Lucien and the vengeful ghost Rowena, and make political maneuverings in the castle above as you fight off monsters in the wasteland below.
Cathedral – £12.59
Wake up in a world with no recollection of how you got there. A world full of secrets, hidden rooms, dungeons and towns; Cathedral features a vast world, meant for exploring!
Control a nameless protagonist from a different world and team up with the spirit known as Soul and set out to demolish the demi-god known only as Ardur.
Astrologaster – £8.99
Play as ‘Doctor’ Simon Forman – unlicensed medical professional and astrologer – and help him win a medical licence. Astrologaster is a narrative-based comedy game.
Explore Forman’s life, his work, and his relationships with his clients. Make story choices by performing astrological readings. Choose strategically or make decisions just for fun – but be aware that your choices will have consequences (and unpredictable side effects!)
13 clients come to see you 5-7 times seeking advice for personal, professional and medical problems. By examining the stars in the sky, you diagnose and determine answers for your clients’ problems. As well as affecting the storyline, these choices will alter your clients’ satisfaction levels. Satisfied clients will write you letters of recommendation, and with enough of these letters you can obtain a medical licence from the University of Cambridge.
So-called “real†(licensed) doctors call Forman a quack and fraud. Help Forman prove these medical establishment elitists wrong!
Speed Limit – £9.99
Speed Limit is a non-stop genre-warping arcade experience that never slows down. No cuts, no lapses in the chaos, Speed Limit is an old-school action extravaganza boiled down to its core elements: Hard. Fast. Addictive.
As soon as you think you’ve learned how the game works, it changes to a completely different genre, taking you through the history of the golden arcade era.
Fight through a nail-biting side-scrolling shooter, race to the finish in an explosive top-down car chase, take flight in a thrilling fake-3D dogfight, and expect the unexpected. Speed Limit seamlessly changes styles, transforms the gameplay, and offers new challenges the moment you feel comfortable.
A Genre-changing Rollercoaster
Running. Driving. Flying. Dying (many, many times!) – From the moment you click play to the moment you die, you are in control.
And you will die. A lot.
My little IceCream Booth – £2.99
Start your own icecream business with your own little icecream booth on a beautiful beach! Sell the delicious icecream and make your customers happy! Serv them delicious icecream in various flavours and various dips, toppings and syrups. Start your ice cream booth now and download the game!
My little IceCream Booth is a casual ice cream shop tycoon game where you need to fullfill each customers request by stacking up the requested icecreams with the various ingeredients. Choose between 6 flavours of icecream, 5 toppings, 6 syrups and 6 dippings.
Rodent Warriors – £8.99
Story!
– A “legend story” that unfolds as you make progress in the game
– End game scenes in classic retro game style that can be discovered after many hours of game play
Automation!
– Control the game as much or as little as you want!
Dynos & Ghosts – £4.99
Save the Dynos colony from the deadly ghosts. You drive a nano-robot whose aim is to crunch the ghosts and their power ups, while sparing the dynosaurs.
Served by beautiful graphics, sounds and animation, this arcade game introduce a new type of gameplay that will bring you hours of fun!
Crazy Oce – £4.39
Oce is a drop of dew, that comes from the pronunciation of Hindi dew.
Oce went out as usual, but this time it was very strange, the space vortex suddenly appeared, taking Oce to a new space.
It ’s weird here, not only has the gravity rules changed, but it is also full of triggers and traps!
However, Oce will not sit still but flee from here!
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust – £19.99
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust combines the thrilling scale and cinematic storytelling of 3D games with the tight design and easy-to-pick-up satisfaction of 2D action adventures. Explore gorgeous and haunting locales, speak with strangers, and make both friends and memories along the way.
Nano Dust infects the islanders of New Theland, distorting their emotions and desires. You play as Nova, a Nano Cleaner tasked with seeking out the sick and shrinking inside their bodies to suction up the Dust.
Traverse cities, valleys, and wastelands then shrink into the varied mindscapes of characters, from snowy, aurora-lit valleys to perilous volcanic construction sites with art that re-imagines the 16-bit and 32-bit console eras.
Glam – £15.29
In this game you play as Glam, her goal is to rescue her mother from the realm of Caterina. She is being held captive by the evil witch to prevent Glam’s and her mother’s power to unite
Glam has the most unique ability in the video game history She can grab branches and swing by using her hair. Controls are simple: three buttons and a joystick. Master your, swinging and jumping skills on the epic obstacles courses where each death is a lesson.
The levels are made with various items and enemies, each level rewards your climbing skills and agility. The levels are packed into 11 chapters, each chapter has its own unique peril: hanging cubes, goblins and skulls, sliding and spinning platforms, false floors, cannons, crates.
Teamwork is crucial in local co-op mode, where you will have to work together to reach the portals to unlock the next level. 60 challenging levels are waiting for two of you to explore.
Black Jack World Tour – £3.60
Feel lucky today! Now, you can play BLACKJACK World Tour, your favorite 21 card game – anywhere and anytime.
Bet without spending money, and enjoy a unique experience!
If you are a fan of casino table games, you will love our black jack.
Today, luck is on your side. Develop a good strategy and achieve victory!
Become a professional real blackjack 21 blitz player by betting just like in other casino table games without risking your real money!
Night Vision – £8.09
Night Vision let’s you see in complete darkness!
Night Vision works by using the IR (infra-red) camera built into the right Joy-Conâ„¢ (how cool is that!). See anything in complete darkness upto 0.5 metres away. White and reflective things show up better and further away, but hey, why not experiment yourself.
Escape Route – £1.79
Escape Route is an intense and engaging stealth game. Your focus here is to try and reach the destination while trying to avoid detection. It’s not easy to do that, and you must do everything you can in order to maintain your stealth and engage your enemies in combat. There are different weapons you need to deal with, like machine guns, press machines, noise detectors, lasers and so on. You need to use all your skills to figure out exactly how to master every level.
You get 25 levels to go through, each one with its own range of unique challenges. Do you have what it takes to become the ultimate stealth attacker?
Doom & Destiny Advanced – £10.79
Venture with the most nerdy anti-heroes of all times, face a crazy adventure, defeat a mad businessman and save the universe, one fetch quest at a time.
Embody 20 different heroic spirits, equip gear, master skills and character combinations to fight in turn based combat 700+ different enemies and, while you progress into an over 30 hours main quest, feel free to explore 1000+ locations looking for more than 100 hidden secrets.
Doom & Destiny Advanced is a brand new adventure. It’s a stand alone game, set in the Doom & Destiny universe. In short, it means that you don’t need to play the first Do&De, but if you did, you’ll enjoy the wacky world and funny characters even more!
Boom Blaster – £4.49
Boom Blaster is an outstanding, brain-blasting, groundshaking, oldschool mega Run ‘n Gun game!
A group of space prisoners took their chance to escape. But their road to freedom would not be so easy. Meet all kinds of classic monsters and deadly enemies — from small acid insects to huge one-eyed bosses with guns and bad temper.
Each character has a unique set of skills and abilities. Use them with a vast selection of weapons such as machine guns, grenades, lasers, flamethrowers, rockets and much more!
All these features are spiced up with memorable chases, epic flights, gunfights and hundreds of ways to amputate tons of monsters limbs!
#1 Crosswords – £3.49
Are you a fan of crosswords? Do you enjoy spending time solving challenging word puzzles? #1 Crosswords is the game for you!
In #1 Crosswords you’ll find a story mode with 100 crossword puzzles to solve for all difficulty levels. On top of that you can always play the daily crossword, which is the same for everyone in the world, and as many random crosswords as you want.
A game made from crossword fans for crossword fans!
PUSS! – £10.79
• Bossfights! The real Bullet Hell!
• Free your future partners and they’ll help you fight evil!
• Compare the results of your run with the results of other players on the leaderboard
• The levels are tougher than they look at first sight. They also appear in a random sequence!
• Various skins for your cat :3
WARNING!
This game contains flashing graphics that could potentially trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy
Thomas Was Alone – £9.99
Thomas Was Alone is the award winning, critically acclaimed platformer about friendship and jumping and floating and anti-gravity. Guide a group of sentient rectangles through a series of obstacles, combining their skills to reach the end of each level.
Discover the story of the world’s first sentient AIs, and how they worked together to, well not escape… “escape†is a strong word. Perhaps “emerge†might be better. “Emerge†has an air of importance about it, while keeping the various plot twists and origin stories you’ll discover under wraps. We didn’t even mention the bouncing. That would be overkill.
Listen to reactive and atmospheric music originally composed by David Housden. Negotiate puzzles meticulously designed by Mike Bithell, and immerse yourself in the characters journey with a BAFTA award winning voiceover read wistfully and amusingly by Danny Wallace.
Also includes Thomas Was Alone: Benjamin’s Flight, the additional level pack that follows the tale of Benjamin and his father’s incredible invention. Meet a new companion and a familiar face in the events leading up to Thomas’ emergence.
Ski Jump Challenge – £5.39
Get ready for true winter madness!
Presenting Ski Jump Challenge, the game that’s so playable, you’ll never want to stop playing.
It’s so easy anybody can play it and so realistic that you can control all the actions of your ski jumper.
– Create your jumper profile and develop their skills!
– Level up and improve take-off and landing technique.
– Compete on close to 90 ski jumping hills (with more coming soon) in career mode, unlock new countries and hills, spend your hard-earned money on fancy ski suits, skis and helmets!
– Train before every competition, try your skills in all conditions and get ready to compete!
– Challenge your friends in multiplayer mode!
You can feel like you’re watching a real ski jumping competition thanks to detailed graphics, advanced physics system and realistic sounds! Ideal for Winter Olympics!
Offroad Mini Racing – £5.99
Drift, slide, skid! Offroad Mini Racing is the isometric 3D perspective car racing game that makes racing funnier than ever.
As an experienced racer, you will have to manage driving your car on bumpers and jumps, narrow roads and even ice.
Avoid collisions and don’t let you be overtaken by the fast computer driven cars.
The game is built on the best vehicle physics engine available for real driving sensations and a very effective computer driven cars artificial intelligence system.
It features high definition 3D graphics, along with rock music and realistic Sound FX.
If you like car games, this one is different, this one is for you!
Void Gore – £4.49
From the creators of Project Starship comes a new and nightmarish arcade shoot’em up experience. Void Gore casts you as an ace pilot descending through the levels of hell and getting rich in the process. Earn coins as you take down supernatural horrors in pulse-pounding vertical scrolling style, then spend them on upgrades to keep yourself alive and prove your skills against online leaderboards!
Survive waves of enemies to reach the next layer of malice and despair, collect power-ups, face increasingly challenging foes and add to your score multiplier as you chain multiple kills. Survive as long as possible and prove your skills as the ultimate pilot. It’s all just a simulation, after all… or is it?
#DRIVE – £9.89
#DRIVE is an endless driving videogame inspired by road and action movies from 1970s. As simple as possible, allowing the player to pick a car, pick the place and just hit the road. Just be aware not to hit anything else.
No matter where we drive, no matter what we drive or how fast we drive. We simply chose to drive. And you?
BRUTAL RAGE – £6.29
BRUTAL RAGE is a scrolling beat’em up.
Cross the city and beat all enemies on your way.
Use your skills and weapons to realize epic combo!
When you’re ready use your rage to crush your enemies.
Discover the story of cops wrongly accused for a crime they didn’t commit!
Embark on a brutal path of blood for retribution.
Escape from the prison and prove your innocence.
Find out who trapped you!
Burger Master – £4.49
Burger Master is a fun game where you need to create the best burger joint in town. In order to do that, you must do your best and bring in the best skills you have to fulfill the needs of your clients. This is an intense, fun and exciting game that constantly tests your cooking skills. There are 3 worlds in the game, with 60 different levels in each world. That gives plenty of opportunities to test out your experience and push it to the next level.
As you play, you can use one of the 3 power-ups like Customer Happy Time, Coin Magnet and Automatic Hinting. All of these play a great role as you try to become better and better. There are 21 customer types, each one with their own unique requirements. You can even unlock ingredients, power-ups and characters as you go along.
If you love great cooking games, try out Burger Master today and have fun preparing some amazing burgers!
SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium
It’s history in the making when 2 premiere arcade game giants settle the score. The greatest fighters of all time will be crowned when 18 of SNK’s and Capcom’s most popular characters collide. It’s the best of both worlds: fighters, techniques and formats.
Next week: BRAVELY DEFAULT II, Persona 5 Strikers, Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection, Dry Drowning, AnShi, Hellpoint, Horned Knight, Baobabs Mausoleum Grindhouse Edition, Dungeons & Bombs, Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos, Taxi Chaos, Johnny Bonasera Full Season, Curse of the Dead Gods, Retrace: Memories of Death, Active Neurons 3 – Wonders Of The World, Steam Prison, Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~, Castle Kong, DOTORI, Blastful, Clocker, Demon’s Rise – Lords of Chaos, Forward To The Sky, and Aery – A Journey Beyond Time.