The Switch goes toe-to-toe with Xbox One and PS4 this week, gaining almost every new big-name release, along with a few surprises. Hello, tropical island survival game Stranded Deep.
From Bandai-Namco there’s Family Trainer (aka Active Life), part of the long running series of fitness-based mini-game collections. This 15-strong compilation has been a long time coming – it launched in Japan late last year. Expect to pay £44.99. Instant Sports Paradise – also out this week – looks set to provide similar keep fit thrills, arriving for just over £30.
Sticking with sports, there’s the arcade-like Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, featuring twenty characters from the Creed and Rocky movies. COG Connected warned that it’s a little on the casual side before dishing out a 59% review score.
Kitaria Fables seems to be going down well with critics, being a cutesy action RPG with crafting and farming. Digitally Downloaded found it to be fun and wholesome, making comparisons to Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.
Monster Harvest, meanwhile, mixes Pokémon with Stardew Valley. But Why Tho? praised the presentation but wasn’t entirely sold on the execution.
Then there’s KeyWe, a co-op puzzler in which two kiwis are tasked with keeping a postal room ticking over. Early reviews of the PC version suggest it delivers the goods.
Rustler hasn’t been as fortunate. The idea of a medieval old skool GTA (“Grand Theft Horseâ€) sounds great, but Nintendo Life warns of a short campaign and weak humour. The Switch version allegedly suffers from performance issues too. “There are glimmers of good stuff here, a few fun pop culture references, those beat-boxing bards and a good-looking world to stomp around in, but the game underneath is just so underwhelming and uninspired and, in the end, it all feels like a big step back from its most obvious inspirations,†they said.
NIS Classics Vol.1 flies the flag for JRPGs this week, combining Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered and Soul Nomad & the World Eaters for £35.99. Nostalgia appears to play a large part of the package’s appeal, leading to mixed reviews – everything from 5/10 to 8/10.
Other new releases include the inexpensive minimalistic puzzler Alveole – which we reviewed on Tuesday – Golf Club: Wasteland, with its post-apocalyptic tale to tell, first-person sci-fi/viking horror romp Apsulov: End of Gods, and Ooops! 2 – a belated CGI movie tie-in that appears to be ripping off Overcooked, of all things.
New Switch eShop releases
KeyWe – £19.99
Welcome to KeyWe, the cute and chaotic co-op postal puzzle game where the mail must flow, and it’s up to you to keep things running! Play as Jeff and Debra, two small kiwi birds and the newest hires at the Bungalow Basin Telepost Office.
With no hands to help them, the two must work together to jump, flap, peck and butt-slam their way across an interactive landscape of levers, buttons and bells to get the mail delivered on time. From the Dropoff Depot and the Shipping Floor, all the way to the Telegraph Desk and the Cassowary Coop out back, the Telepost is a well-oiled mail-processing machine…well, usually.
Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions – £31.49
Are you ready to become a boxing champion? Step into the ring and show off your boxing skills in a knockout arcade experience. Fight as one of 20 iconic characters from the Creed and Rocky movies. Take on world-class opponents across a variety of thrilling locations, or challenge your friends and family in intense, head-to-head matches.
Rustler – £24.99
Grand Theft Horse – Wreak havoc in a medieval world. The Great Tournament is offering the hand of the princess as a prize. Go from local brigand to champion. Or don’t. Guy (that’s you) and his friend (conveniently named Buddy) are out to win the prize with holy hand grenades, pimped out horses, and their own personal minstrels in tow. It’s madness and mayhem with true comedic flair.
Monster Harvest – £14.99
Develop your own farm, build, and customise your own house, craft your own furniture, make some delicious jams and mutate your crops to create loyal and fierce companions you can take into battle!
Discover and Battle Planimals
During your journey through Planimal Point you’ll discover strange Slimes which can mutate your crops in ways you would never have imagined! Depending on the season, the Slime or the crop you mutate, you’ll be able to create up to 72 different mutations!
Planimals are loyal mutated crops that stay by your side through thick and thin. They’ll be a key companion to you as you adventure across Planimal Point, taking part in thrilling turn-based battles and exploring dungeons as you try to bring down the evil SlimeCo.
Alveole – £4.49
Alveole is a short experimental project that explores the possibilities of the player in a restricted environment, where there is only one game mechanic, elevated to the absolute.
Galaxy Squad – £7.69
The game combines node-based exploration with random events, with hardcore tactical battles. All your characters are randomly generated, and you can evolve them however you want, creating your ultimate crew.
Ravva and the Cyclops Curse – £4.49
Take the role young summoner apprentice Ravva as she calls upon her 4 unique companions in a desperate struggle against the Cyclops Lord! After Ravva’s mother is suddenly stripped of her summoning powers and inflicted with a terrible curse, Ravva is faced with the perilous task of saving her and restoring peace to their homeland. Traverse dark forests, desolate wastelands and spooky castle halls, using the talents of your unusual minions to cast elemental spells and clear away obstacles. Merciless enemies under the Cyclops Lord’s command will try to stop little Ravva at every turn, but with enough wit and determination, she will prevail!
Inspired by 8-bit platformers, Ravva and the Cyclops Curse combines clever level design with vibrant pixel art and precise controls to pay homage to those genre classics while offering a new and fresh experience. Endearing characters, fluid animation and brain-teasing puzzles fill 10 challenging stages as you journey to the Cyclops Lord’s castle. Discover power-ups, scores and secrets hidden along the way!
Instant Sports Paradise – £31.49
Summer is here! With family and friends, INSTANT SPORTS Paradise takes you overseas, under the sun of a paradise island. Share a multitude of sporty and fun experiences without leaving your home.
CRASH: Autodrive – £8.99
CRASH: Autodrive is a narrative adventure set in the near future where nobody drives and self-driving Autocabs rule the city streets. It’s just a normal day when four strangers get into an Autocab, but they are quickly thrust into danger when the car impossibly hits a cyclist. When they exit the car, they discover they all know the victim and they all have a motive for murder! Even the car’s artificial intelligence!
You play as Emily, a young woman from a small town trying to make it in the big city. You will get to know your fellow passengers, and the car’s A.I. as you investigate clues, solve puzzles, and use the clues you find to contradict lies, explore new conversations, and piece together the mystery of who killed Thomas Sinclair!
Stranded Deep – £22.99
Explore underwater and on land as you hunt for supplies to craft the tools, weapons, and shelter you’ll need to stay alive. Stay sharp: hunger, thirst, and exposure conspire against you as you brave treacherous elements and the dangerous creatures of the Pacific.
Live long enough, Stay Alive!
12 Labours of Hercules IV: Mother Nature – £7.19
The legendary hero Hercules and his wife Megara are back, ready to embark on their next adventure! The Gods are outraged at their defeat and have summoned a fearsome beast who can match Hercules’s god-like strength. The beast has trampled the countryside, turning lush gardens into desert wastelands! Restore the world’s beauty by using everything at your disposal, from Megara’s magical abilities to even a fire hydrant! Team up with friendly allies like King Midas and Epeius with his famous Trojan Horse to save Mother Nature from destruction.
Ooops! 2 – £14.99
Stay busy juggling increasingly exciting and complex recipes in this fast & furious cooking game based on the colourful and successful feature film Ooops! 2 !
Slip into the role of Dave or Kate and provide the hungry mob on the ark with ever-changing tasty treats.
The wonderful animals on the ark are hungry. As cook for the whole horde of beasts on the ark you’ve got your hands full stuffing all those jaws. Prepare fascinating dishes out of fabulous ingredients and unlock popular characters from the movie. Play as Dave, Finny, Hazel, Leah, or even as Chief Clyde and Patch.
Stay busy juggling increasingly exciting and complex recipes and master the widely varying levels. There are many variations of backdrop settings from the movie and numerous original film sequences straight out of the cinema! Ooops! 2 is fabulous game fun for the whole family!
Lamentum – £13.99
Guide Victor Hartwell, a young aristocrat on a desperate journey to cure the deadly disease that afflicts his beloved wife, Alissa. Their last hope resides in the darkened halls of Grau Hill Mansion whose Earl has uncovered ancient secrets and forgotten sciences. He claims he can heal Alissa, but… at what price? Grau Hill mansion will open its doors and immerse you in a world of nightmares where you may be trapped forever.
Lamentum is a pixel art survival-horror game set in New England in the mid-nineteenth century. To solve the dark secret at the heart of Grau Hill Mansion, you will have to immerse yourself in a nightmare world full of terrible creatures.
Choose well in whom to trust, every decision you make may alter the course of the story.
BOT.vinnik Chess – £2.69
Improve your chess knowledge with the help of BOT.vinnik, a soviet digital teacher.
The Magister – £13.49
The Magister is a murder-mystery card-battler RPG.
Build and customise your deck to fight in battles, or use ‘Tactical Diplomacy’ to pacify those who stand in your way.
Gather clues and discover motives as you investigate the death of your predecessor and unmask the guilty culprit.
Farmers Co-op: Out of This World – £9.79
Farmers Co-op: Out of This World is a couch co-op for up to 4 players. Your people are starving back home, its up to you and three other farmers to grow as much produce as possible and send them back to your home planet.
White Girl – £6.79
Four players real-time battle royal!
This game is a battle royal game which in-game time goes by in real-time. The main game mode is randomly matching world battle mode, but you can also play friend match mode if you want to play with friends casually.
Update the AI girl and fight against other players!
By gaining cards called “piece of memory”, you can update your girls and/or attack opponents’ girls. As the girls get updated, their bodies gain various color. The colors are expressed in three values, which are “R”, “G” and “B”. The values themselves become the girl’s status and her appearance.
Cosmic Express – £7.39
All aboard the Cosmic Express, a delightfully brain-melting game where the puzzles are out of this world! Your job is to lay down the train tracks across a series of tiny space stations. Each alien has a home of their own, and there’s only room for one extraterrestrial at a time in the passenger car. It’s cute, harder than it looks, and guaranteed to give you hours of challenging fun across hundreds of levels.
Animal Puzzle – Preschool Learning Game for Kids and Toddlers – £8.99
This animal plug-in peg puzzle educational game has been specially developed for young children of kindergarten age and for pre-schoolers.
The puzzle game contains many great, funny and unique animal motifs suitable for children.
Please note that this puzzle only supports touchscreen functionality. The menu and the scenes can only be played with the touch controls!
Armed Emeth – £13.49
Valess, a boy earning petty cash in a commune of drifters is suddenly met by Lock, a stand-alone golem. Upon discovering that the leader of a criminal organization has an enormous bounty on his head, Valess receives a golem of his own from Lock and decides to join him on an adventure into the unknown where numerous bounties await. Thus begins their journey of grit and oil across several continents!
As well as upgradable golem equipment, there are also Edea Stones imbued with life force, specialized passive skills and special ammunition for a variety of circumstances. Visit Bounty Centers to find out information on active criminals and monsters, including their rewards, locations and special characteristics. Visit each commune and take on as many bounties as you can to find fame and fortune!
MiniGolf Tour – £9.89
Mini golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, or putt-putt, is a sports game in which participants compete by shooting a small ball into special holes with putters. The goal of the game is to cover the allotted distance in the minimum number of strokes.
Do you like sports and outdoor activities? Then this golf is perfect for you! Try to complete dozens of challenging levels and show everyone who is the best in minigolf!
Apsulov: End of Gods – £26.99
Apsulov: End of Gods is a future Viking horror and sci-fi adventure unlike any other.
The humans dug deep below the earth to find the mercy of the gods. What they found was never meant to reach the surface. Not on Midgard, nor any of Yggdrasil’s realms.
You wake in a facility built to research the worlds of Yggdrasil. Survive lurking dangers as you journey through a world of technology and mythological artifacts, where chaos rules over the human realm. It is in this chaos that you find your purpose and destiny.
Weapon of Choice DX – £5.39
Weapon of Choice DX is a high-energy, run ‘n’ gun where each playable character is unique with their own special weapon and abilities! Blast insane aliens, find new player characters, and choose between branching paths!
The world is being taken over by gene-combining beings from beyond the stars!
Hideous new creatures are popping up everywhere, and it’s up to the Solus Operatives to grab their unique weapons and split some disgusting alien skulls!
High-resolution and carefully hand-drawn art style breathes life and originality into this bizarre game world.
Dynamically branching levels are tied together by an intriguing story with multiple endings, giving the player tons of replay-ability and chances to master each operative’s Weapon of Choice.
Kitaria Fables – £19.99
Kitaria Fables is a delightfully cute action adventure RPG with farming and crafting! Armed with a sword, bow and spellbook, fight back against a rising darkness threatening the world. Discover diverse regions in search of relics and resources, tend to your farm to grow your own provisions, and take on quests solo or with a friend in local co-op mode!
Luna’s Fishing Garden – £7.19
Cassie wakes up on an island that belongs to Luna, a mysterious fox spirit. A few moments later, she is tasked with creating the biggest garden ever!
Luna’s Fishing Garden is a short, cozy fishing and building game. Become a part of a fairytale, catch fish, trade with the fox spirit, and create the garden of your dreams by planting new trees, placing water objects, and bringing animals to the archipelago.
Progress at your own pace and enjoy catching fish, planting and watering trees, and settling animals on the islands. After you have completed the main plotline, you are welcome to stay and build your garden any way you want to. You can’t lose in this one.
With beautiful pixel art and relaxing soundtrack, Luna’s Fishing Garden is designed to take your worries away and immerse you in the colorful water world. Meet island spirits and complete their tasks, or simply relax and observe the world around you.
Sokobond – £7.39
Logical, minimalist, and beautiful. Sokobond is an elegant puzzle game crafted with love and science from the designer of Cosmic Express and A Monster’s Expedition.
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build – £7.39
Even monsters need a friend! Continue exploring the world of A Monster’s Expedition as you roll yourself up a fresh set of pals in a series of cheery and accessible puzzles. In this wintery garden, snow and space are both limited – it’ll take a sharp mind and a big heart to hug them all.
Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1: Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered / Soul Nomad & the World Eaters – £35.99
For the first time ever, Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered and Soul Nomad & the World Eaters are coming to Nintendo Switchâ„¢! With unique gameplay mechanics, memorable characters, and up-scaled artwork, this is a must-have for Strategy RPG fans and NIS fans alike!
FAMILY TRAINER – £44.99
Get ready to take on the great outdoors anywhere because FAMILY TRAINER is back on the Nintendo Switchâ„¢! From kayaking to obstacle-filled races, you will engage in real-life exercises to complete a variety of fun minigames. Improve your hand-eye coordination and work up a sweat with the Joy-Conâ„¢ and Leg Strap!
Play over a dozen single and multiplayer challenges. Simple controls allow for easy-to-pick up games that anyone can enjoy. With FAMILY TRAINER, you can bring the adventure wherever you go!
Pippu – Bauble Quest – £3.49
Pippu is a heroic little creature from the world of the Beandrops. One day her planet is visited by hostile aliens called the Obkins, who travel from place to place stealing precious treasures to power their dangerous and wacky machinery.
Run, climb and swim your way through 14 worlds to bash the baddies and save your planet.
Angel’s Punishment – £24.99
Nintendo Switch Exclusive Game
In this game you play as an Angel who got his wings taken away from him by archangels when he refused to follow his superiors’ orders of not interfering in the cruelties of the evil beings on Earth.
Golf Club: Wasteland – £8.99
The rich fled to Mars but venture back to a desolate Earth for a round of golf. Each hole in the wasteland offers its own little story and possible puzzle to sink the perfect shot. Play through destroyed brutalist monuments, crumbling shopping malls, and abandoned museums as neon signs and poignant graffiti take swings at current events, Silicon Valley culture and humanity.
Extreme Car Driver – £10.79
Drive 15 Awesome Cars & Trucks through tricky raised road courses, packed full of narrow ramps, bridges, slaloms, see-saws, tunnels and jumps! This is no ordinary “driving gameâ€. It’s the ULTIMATE Precision Driving Simulator Experience!
Endless Fables: Shadow Within – £13.49
All their childhood, Pamela and Hans’ sister – Agatha – tried to convince adults about what had happened to Hans, but unfortunately terrifying truth was taken for childish imagination and silly nightmares. In time, both friends began to doubt their own memory and accepted the thought that Hans was dead.
That is, until Pamela receives a letter from Agatha. Friend convinces Pamela, that Hans managed to contact her recently. Without hesitation, Miss Cavendish returns to the town of Mittenwald to finally close the most painful chapter of her life.
And so, in a quiet town where nothing bad has happened for years, she will encounter a mystery in which dreams mingle with reality. Every step she takes will be watched by a shadow behind the mirror.
Will she get to the nightmare realm where Hans is still fighting for his life? Will she be able to stop the mysterious figure hidden in the shadows? And will she risk everything in the fight for the safety of her friends?
A Night at the Races – £8.99
You’re invited to the arcades tonight. Compete illegally with other players for the top of the global leaderboards. You need the prize money to survive.
Virtuous Western – £4.99
Welcome to the old western frontier, where justice is served from the barrel of a gun! A nasty gang of outlaws has come to town, and they’ve stolen our hero’s favorite steed.
Use your trusty revolver to shoot down enemies, or find other ways to use the environment to your advantage.
Drop stuff down, blow stuff up, and even manipulate your foes to take each other out with friendly fire! Jump, dodge, and collect bullets.
Prove that you’re the toughest gunslinger in the wild west!
Block Puzzle – £4.99
Block Puzzle is the classic puzzle game in its best version of all time!
Drag the blocks onto the board to fill the squares. Try to fill blocks in a vertical or horizontal line to clear that line until no more blocks coming.
Next week: BloodRayne Betrayal: Fresh Bites, Sonic Colours: Ultimate, RICO: London, WarioWare: Get It Together, Frontier Quest, From Earth to Heaven, GLO, Ultra Age, Boulder Dash Deluxe, Residual, Dice Legacy, Hindsight 20/20 – Wrath of the Raakshasa, LoveChoice, and Knights & Guns.