It’s a pretty good week for new Switch releases, with a couple of system exclusives joining the multitude of multi-format titles – all of which are promising.
Those exclusives are Shin Chan – also known as the mouthful that is Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey – and Lost in Play.
Shin Chan, of course, stars the comical five-year old. This adventure game turned heads when it was revealed during a Japanese Nintendo Direct, mostly due to its vibrant graphics, so it’s pleasing to see it gain a western release. Fishing, photography, and bug catching – it involves all these things and more, centred around a seven-day trip.
Lost in Play, meanwhile, is an imaginative cartoon-like adventure in which a brother and sister explore a magical realm. It’s intended to rouse your inner youth, recalling the days of playing outside with only your imagination to guide you. Voyage offers a similar experience – a short side-scrolling adventure with hand drawn visuals, in which a duo must work together.
Then there’s Arcade Paradise, a rags to riches story set in 1992, in which the protagonist inherits a laundromat and sets about turning it into an arcade. All the arcade games are playable, spanning all different genres. There are some decent puzzle games, in particular. It takes the form of a management game, in which the laundromat must be run while profits are put back into the arcade.
Reviews of Two Point Campus – a university management sim, where education must be balanced with entertainment – went live last week. Word has it that it’s even better than Two Point Hospital, with scores being a mixture of 8s and 9s.
“Its wholesome ‘invest in students and they’ll invest in you’ strategy is a beautiful way to put a positive spin on an otherwise NPC-exploitative genre. Dampened only by some technical issues, it still manages to be a standout amongst its peers and shine brightly at the top of the class,” said Nintendo Life.
Super Bullet Break may sound like a shooter of some kind, but it’s actually a deck-based strategy game in which the titular ‘bullets’ are female characters – out to save an online world taken over by a rouge AI. It’s said to be inspired by classic gacha games.
From Devolver Digital comes Cult of the Lamb, and this too has an original premise – to form a cult, cleanse the nonbelievers, and perform rituals within a randomly generated world. The twist here being that it features cutesy critters. Eurogamer gave it their ‘recommended’ badge while comparing it to The Binding of Isaac and Forager.
Other releases include a new version of Jeopardy, the escape room horror Oxide Room 104, and the pixel art RPG Book Quest from eastasiasoft.
New Switch eShop releases
It’s time to spin academia on its head! Got a yearning for learning? Or just keen to build an educational masterpiece? Campus is jam-packed with new creative tools to help you build the university of your dreams.
For the first time, build in the great outdoors as you develop your own delightfully educational campus environment, housing the top teaching facilities in the land. Whether you prefer building on simple foundations, or placing every tree, you can build the university you want.
Lay down pathways with new easy-to-use tools. Plant glorious collections of outdoor flora. Place benches, fountains, sculptures, hedgerows – even picket fences. The only limit is your imagination (and your in-game bank balance).
Welcome to Arcade Paradise, the 90’s retro arcade game and light-management sim combo! From cleaning toilets and picking up gum, to doing the laundry; the road to Arcade Paradise isn’t easy, but the reward will be worth the grind!
Take on the role of Ashley and manage the day-to-day tasks of running the family laundromat. Rebel against your father’s wishes and create a games arcade to give the sleepy town of Grindstone something to really get excited about as you wash rags, invest the profits and build your very own Arcade Paradise!
The more arcade cabinets you install, the more players will spend, with over 35 fully playable games to unlock! But remember, you don’t have time to just stand around setting the highest scores… the toilet won’t clean itself and there’s trash to take out!
Relive 90’s gaming nostalgia on your journey from rags to arcade riches!
Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- – £33.99
Hiroshi has to go on a business trip to Kyushu, so now the entire Nohara family has decided to stay with an childhood friend of Misae’s in Asso, Kumamoto.
But when they arrive at Kumamoto Station on their way to Asso, they meet a strange man who offers them an even stranger camera on the condition that they’ll act as his witnesses…
With his new camera in hand, Shinnosuke can enjoy his summer vacation in the beautiful Asso fields and mountains to the fullest. The scenery is even crawling with creatures that he would never find in Kasukabe. And there are townspeople to help and new friends to make.
That said…don’t these kids look an awful lot like the ones he knows from home?
One cool summer night, Shinnosuke witnesses a giant creature outlined against the light of a full moon. Next to the creature is a strange man with a wide smile.
It’s the same weird man who gave him the camera at the station…
And he calls himself the Professor Akuno. Following this encounter more and more strange things start to happen around Asso…
Start your own cult in a land of false prophets, venturing out into diverse and mysterious regions to build a loyal community of woodland worshippers and spread your Word to become the one true cult.
Japanese NEKOSAMA Escape The Sento – £7.49
The 7th Japanese Escape Games series!!
Game system
This game is an escape-the-room game (mystery-adventure game).
*Point the screen with a cursor to solve riddles, and this game goes on.
Cat Slide Tiles is a 3D puzzle game with a cute and colorful aesthetic that brings Kitten Tom trying to get his way cleared to get home.
The game presents a simple gameplay: slide blocks from the terrain to create a path that leads the kitten from point A to point B. There are three keys in each scenario, the kitten must take all the keys to open the door that leads to the next path. The difficulty will gradually increase as you progress through the levels.
Take Tom to his destination, he really needs you to get home before dark.
It’s 1962.
Your name is Wiktor Staszewski, and you’re a son of a researcher exiled to Siberia.
You were waiting for this moment for a long time, the ruins that became your father’s obsession. With your mentor by your side, you’ve set off on an expedition to follow in his footsteps.
Will you finally understand your father’s obsession or let it become yours?
Or perhaps you’ll perish on the way, as the tensions increase and conflict tears your expedition team apart?
BE A JEOPARDY! CHAMPION
Now entering the studio is YOU. Compete against your friends — and past contestants — using actual TV episodes hosted by Alex Trebek. Jeopardy! PlayShow combines your Nintendo Switch™, your mobile device, and your very own voice for the most realistic gameshow experience you’ll ever have.
Feel Like a Real Contestant
Simply buzz in and say your answer from your couch to be a part of the game like never before. And with Party Mode, you can host head-to-head, multiplayer competitions in your living room. It’s everything you love about the show: Categories, Clues, Wagers, Daily Doubles and even signing your name to the podium.
Super Bullet Break is a one-of-a-kind strategy deck builder filled with a wild bunch of cute and colorful characters – ‘Bullets’ – each and every one of them unique in their own way. Rescue online games from total destruction in a world where online multiplayer games have been taken over by a rogue AI! Can you save the world, defeat enemies in strategic turn-based battles, and beat Super Bullet Break?
We offer you an exciting game in which you need to compare different images closely with each other and find what they are the same, and what may vary. You need to show all your attentiveness and perseverance in order to find all the differences that are there.
Destroy enemy spaceships and achieve the highest record!
Take the role of a young man who witnesses the theft of his family’s magic book, which leads to a visit by his grandfather’s ghost compelling him to embark on a dangerous journey to retrieve it. Explore the surrounding towns and wilderness, gather information from townsfolk, strengthen your character with new weapons and gear, track down the culprits who stole the magic book and discover the truth behind it all!
Book Quest is an action adventure RPG presented in retro pixel art style featuring cinematic cutscenes and dialogue. Throughout this medieval fantasy, gameplay alternates between top-down and side-scrolling perspectives. Dodge roll and execute melee attacks, collect key items, solve environmental puzzles, equip new gear as you progress and engage in unique mini games as you travel between map locations! This is a nostalgic adventure suitable for all ages, whether you’re a long-time gamer who recalls the genre classics or a newcomer just learning the ropes.
origamihero games 2D Platformer Collection – £3.79
Save the citizens of Kitty Town Kicas in Smash Star, rise to the top of the world of science after hitting rock bottom in Unstrong: Legacy, and find treasures and lost teenage sons in Treasure Hunter Man 2!
Go on a feel-good adventure with a brother and sister as they explore dreamscapes and befriend magical creatures. Lost in their imagination, Toto and Gal must stick together and solve puzzles to journey back home. This whimsical puzzle adventure game will make you feel like you’re playing a cartoon!
Lost in Play is a journey through childhood imagination with thoughtfully crafted puzzles and colorful characters. Play as a brother and sister duo on an adventure to find their way back home. Between reality and fantasy, the siblings explore the enchanted forest of a horned beast, start a rebellion in a goblin village, and help a team of frogs free a sword from a stone.
Cleo – a pirate’s tale – £11.29
Cleo is a 14 year old cynical girl, living a repetitive life with her father in a bar. She knows everything about the epic adventures of pirate legend Captain Cabeca, but in her everyday life, she is just surrounded by boring fishermen and unsuccessful pirates, hanging around at the counter.
But when Cleo finds a strange pirate-logbook and sees a ghost, who gives her a mysterious hint, her boring life is about to get turned upside down. She is thrown into a dangerous adventure and finds herself in a world of lies, deceit, greed and bad breath – the world of pirates – and most of them are looking for the same thing:
THE TREASURE OF ETERNAL MEMORY.
Kotone is an average woman who works an average job, with a below average relationship with her parents.
If only she could enter a world like Asaph Online, filled with fantastical creatures and frightening monsters. But Asaph Online is only a game. At least, that’s what Kotone used to think. Until a mysterious force summons Kotone to that world.
Now, Kotone isn’t just Kotone, but the dark witch Viola – and, freed from her obligations, she finally decides to have some fun!
Viola is the name Kotone gave to her character. Upon awakening in Asaph, Kotone inherits Viola’s appearance, her magical powers, and her name.
She’s a deeply sadistic, dangerous woman… but even she has a soft side.
Voyage is a cinematic adventure game capturing the essence of shared exploration.
Whether you decide to play by yourself or cooperatively, the journey will revolve around two survivors in search for answers of a long-forgotten past.
Embark on a voyage, unravel a mystery and find a way home together.
Marmoset is a mystery-filled survival game set a century after the events of World War III, a little 15-year-old Luna and her friend AI (Artificial Intelligence) Chimbra embark on a grand and dangerous adventure to reclaim their old home, the Caves of Marmoset, for without them the City of Marmoset can have its days numbered.
Combining escape room gameplay and action, Oxide Room 104 is a bone-chilling single-player body-horror game set inside an old motel. Abducted, at the mercy of a ruthless scientist, and stalked by a horrible creature, you must try to escape using common sense, just as you would in real life. Can you get out of Oxide?
It all starts when you wake up in the bathtub of a motel room, naked, wounded, and unsure what has happened. You remember that the deal had gone wrong, but now the only thing that matters is trying to escape from that horrifying place no matter what. From this moment on, everything you do will lead you to one of the endings. And we warn you that, out of all the ways it could end, there’s only one good way out…
Next week: RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, Cursed to Golf, Slaycation Paradise, PROJECT: KNIGHT 2 Dusk of Souls, Arenas Of Tanks, Strike Buster Prototype, Smash Boats, Pretty Girls Four Kings Solitaire, Zumba Garden, We Are OFK, My Divorce Story, The Room Two, Dyna Bomb 2, Hobo: Tough Life, Little League World Series Baseball 2022, Hell Blasters, Robo Revenge Squad, and Irresistible Mistakes.