Given the time of year, the next two weeks are looking surprisingly busy for the Switch. With a first-party release on the agenda (Fire Emblem Engage) it’s doubtful anyone would disagree.
This week is the quieter of the two – no major releases, but lots of intriguing indies.
From JoyMasher – creators of Oniken, Odallus, and Blazing Chrome – comes Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, another 16-bit style action game. This one doesn’t appear to take direct inspiration from a certain retro game (Blazing Chrome, for instance, was brazenly inspired by Contra III) but rather the side-scrolling genre as a whole. Motorbike stages should help induce variety.
Children of Silentown takes the form of a modern point ‘n click adventure, meanwhile, casting you as twelve-year-old Lucy. After reoccurring nightmares and reports of townsfolk going missing, Lucy believes she’s brave and brainy enough to unravel the mystery. Puzzle elements feature heavily, eventually resulting in the final chapter being one colossal multi-screened brain bender. We awarded it 7/10 earlier this week.
Terror of Hemasaurus is another new title that we’ve reviewed, albeit on Xbox One. It’s a modern take on Rampage, with a global warming theme. Lots of gore, swearing, and carnage too.
A few gaming sites have given NeoGeo brawler revival Breakers Collection the review treatment. This is one of QByte’s bigger releases, with lots of additional work on rollback code and other modern features.
“While its menu presentation is somewhat less explosive than the game itself, the level of thought that’s gone into its modernisation through crucial up-to-date features can’t be spoken of highly enough. This kind of treatment should be standard when revisiting bygone classics, yet so often it isn’t. Breakers Collection, to that end, gets it very right,” said Nintendo Life.
Incidentally, a couple of other one-on-one brawlers also grace the Switch this week. Fight of Steel: Infinity Warrior is based around customising your own killing machine. The Steam version amassed a ‘positive’ reception. Dragon Fury looks pretty ludicrous in comparison. “Characters will greet (insult) each other before the match start, and say bye-bye afterwards – it was a pleasure to kick you in the balls,” reads the product description.
Then there’s Chasing Static – a low poly horror adventure set in North Wales – and Lone Ruin, a spell-based roguelike twin-stick shooter that promises lots of replay value. Also look out for the 8-bit style escape room puzzler NEScape, career-based top-down racer Go Rally, Playsm’s pixel art RPG Drago Noka, and the visual novel Suhoshin – also out on PS4 this week.
New Switch eShop releases
Children of Silentown – £17.99
Lucy is afraid of the forest, just like any other child: every night, the echoing roars rob her of her sleep. Not even her dreams are a safe place where she could play.
People disappearing is nothing uncommon in the village, but this time, Lucy is old enough to investigate on her own. Or so she thinks.
Children of Silentown is a point & click adventure game telling a mysterious and endearing story. Explore the town and its dangerous surroundings, meet its quirky inhabitants, solve puzzles and master minigames.
Accompany Lucy on her adventure to get to the bottom of what is haunting the strange Silentown… if you dare.
Breakers Collection features both of the original games (Breakers and Breakers Revenge) and a brand new content for the cult-classic among the fans of Fighting Games, that was first released in 1996 for the Neogeo and Arcades and after released with a sequel in 1998 with additional playable characters, balance adjustments and new gameplay elements.
Breakers Collection is an action-fighting game, with a roster with many playable characters (10 in Breakers Revenge), that were all known by the fans from around the world.
The special actions are also similar to other fighting games from the same era, although the dashing and back-stepping techniques tend to differ between characters.
In this collection, the player will have the opportunity to play the classic Versus Mode local or with online lobbies, Arcade Mode, Ranked battles with Rollback Netcode (GGPO), Team Battle, Art gallery, Training mode and more!
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider – £13.99
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a side-scrolling action platformer that channels the golden age of classic 16-bit action games in a full-throttle quest for revenge.
REVENGE OF THE MOONRIDER
In the oppressed world of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, humanity finds an unlikely hero. After building an army of super soldiers as weapons of war, the authoritarians unwittingly seal their own fates by bringing online the ninja warrior known as Moonrider. Conceived as a tool to preserve the totalitarian state, the Moonrider instead rejects its intended purpose and wages a relentless battle for vengeance against its creators and fellow super soldiers.
GEAR UP AND PREPARE TO BATTLE YOUR CREATORS
The design of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider puts the best classic action-game elements in the laser-precise sights of its starring ninja, ensuring snappy, responsive combat that’s supremely challenging.
Powerful modifier chips are hidden and guarded throughout the adventure, allowing you to customize the Moonrider’s fighting style while gaining killer advantages and abilities.
BEAUTIFUL PIXEL GRAPHICS COMPLEMENTED BY AN INCREDIBLE SOUNDTRACK
The gorgeously desolated world of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider flawlessly channels the halcyon days of the 16-bit era through intricate pixel art, inspiring a striking gauntlet across eight deadly stages. From start to finish, you’ll enjoy seamless platforming action for a tight, focused experience that never lets its blade get dull.
Complementing these beautiful pixel graphics is an incredible soundtrack with a timeless, nostalgic vibe. The result is the quintessential retro experience.
Lone Ruin is a spell-based roguelike twin-stick shooter with a focus on replayability. Play as an explorer who seeks a mysterious ancient power and venture in a ruined magical city, built atop a source of magic used by olden mages to power and transform themselves. Dive deeper and deeper, battling your way through twisted creatures, utilising your very own magic abilities to ultimately reach the center of the Lone Ruin.
An ancient city enveloped by magic. What once was a buzzy civilisation and people living in harmony with the magic surrounding them has long since been driven mad and twisted beyond recognition by the very magic that used to help sustain them. What could have corrupted this city? Having heard the legends, you, a gifted spellcasting explorer, arrive at these hostile ruins a millenia later with the goal of seeking this ancient power and finally cleansing the city of the corruption it was consumed by all those years ago. The answer probably lies in the center of Lone Ruin… if you can make it there.
Lost Dream Stars:
Play as the fox and traverse the land collecting quest items and competing puzzles! Are you ready to save the world with the help of the stars?
The World:
Like all the games in the series, this one has many unique and different levels to explore as well. Run through the Frosted fields, Magical forests, Foggy mountains and many more levels!
Soundscape:
The whole game is filled with highest quality sound clips all the way from birds to water flowing alongside the calming music made to fit the scene.
Each level is a new and exciting challenge starting from easy and getting harder as you go on. Jump over gaps in the road with ramps. Crash into roadblocks to move them out of the way. Get flipped over by crazy hydraulic bollards and loads more.
Flipped On a simplified car obstacle course physics simulation game.
Take control of your car and go have a blast!
Scrap Riders is a pixel art adventure game set in a futuristic cyberpunk universe.
You are Rast, a member of the outlaw biker gang called the Scrap Riders. Fight your way through the wastelands and large corporate-controlled metropolises.
Embody this smuggler with a caustic sense of humor to survive in this post-apocalyptic world…
ACERBIC POST-APOCALYPTIC HUMOR
The world is a cruel place where only the powerful enjoy privileges. To be free, you must live in the wastelands. And resources there are few…
Meet with other members of your gang and talk to village inhabitants.
Eliminate rival gangs and corrupt police officers to accomplish the missions that will earn you greater street cred with the SCRAP RIDERS.
Ride your motorcycle and fight for the survival of your gang.
Investigate and uncover the conspiracy behind the cargo thefts.
But above all, be strong!
Warp7 is an endless arcade space game where your only spaceship must warp seven times within seven minutes. You travel through seven weird regions of space towards the final warp gate where you pause to apply microchips (upgrades) to you spaceship.
Yuri is a young man who has recently started working as a guard. After a long absence, he has returned home, but a series of dramatic events disturbs the tranquility of the village as people begin to mysteriously die off. Yuri is asked to investigate, but he quickly finds out that the problem is bigger than he initially thought.
The surface is overrun with huge giants and dangerous pests, leaving an uninhabitable world in their quake. Humans have nowhere to live on the surface, and so… they live on the backs on dragons! Develop your very own village, gather various materials, and create new items with your very own hands. Relax and enjoy a safe and peaceful village life away from the surface below atop a giant dragon!
Fight of Steel: Infinity Warrior – £11.29
Fight of Steel: Infinity Warrior is a new fighting game with ultimate freedom. Players will have the opportunity to customize their own fighter from the appearance to fighting moves. Build your own STEEL Fighter Now!
Earth is on the brink of a climate catastrophe! The Church of the Holy Lizard hatches a dubious plan to save humanity from its own reckless disregard of the planet – unleash a monster to kill, destroy, and inflict terror!
Embark on a rampaging trail of total devastation across multiple stages as one of four recently defrosted monsters. Roar with delight as you stomp terrified citizens and pulverise buildings in an apocalyptic, retro arcade blast of awesome monsters, satisfying destruction, and farcical fatalities!
Terror of Hemasurus is the latest game from Super Blood Hockey creator, Loren Lemcke.
Burrow of the Fallen Bear: A Gay Furry Visual Novel – £17.99
The Burrow of the Fallen Bear’s seal is getting weaker and adventurers from the Furland Kingdom are coming to explore the house of one of the most fearful and violent assailants in the land. Guide a feline rogue named Krile on his journey to prove his worth and be chosen to save the Furry Heroes!
Burrow of the Fallen Bear is a furry-themed visual novel with multiple romance options layered within an exciting medieval adventure. Along the way, you’ll meet 3 potential companions with unique backstories and motivations. Each character comes to life with animated sprites.
Japanese Escape Games The Abandoned Schoolhouse – £7.49
The 12th 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.
Solve the mystery of sleeping machines and learn more about their creators. A diverse and open world full of thrilling puzzles and secrets awaits you.
Pit yourself against a huge variety of pre-made rally tracks across stunningly realistic deserts, arctic snowscapes, forests and arid outback landscapes. Each course delivers a fresh challenge, from glass-like ice to treacherous rocks and everything in-between.
NEScape combines the look and feel of an authentic 8-Bit Legit retro game with the modern day element of escape rooms.
It’s you against the clock in an intense race to escape the room before time runs out!
Do you have the mental fortitude to assemble the clues and connect the dots so that you might overcome the challenges and see what lies on the other side of the door?
Being able to track your success by seeing the room change over time adds a unique experience to escape room games.
Will you escape in NEScape?
3.. 2.. 1.. Fight!
Welcome to Dragon Fury, home of Non-Stop ACTION!
A one of a kind Fighting Game.
In the dead of night a fierce storm rages across North Wales. Miles from any town, Chris Selwood seeks refuge in a remote roadside café.
Shortly thereafter Chris experiences a horrific sight as he finds the café waitress pinned to the ceiling by something with fierce glowing eyes, he passes out waking up to the dusty old abandoned remains of the café.
Inspired by 80s Sci-Fi horror and contemporary surrealist cinema, Chasing Static delivers a unique take on the narrative adventure genre through new audio driven gameplay mechanics and non-linear exploration.
Next week: Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 3 Portable, A Space for the Unbound, Rubber Bandits, Mrs.Cat Between Worlds, Wings of Bluestar, Void Prison, NeverAwake, Graze Counter GM, Smilemo, Minimal Move, Peachy Boy, Trenches, and OmegaBot.