It’s the calm before next week’s storm. A storm generated by a single game, no less – the anticipated follow-up to the almighty Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
But while Tears of the Kingdom has Switch gamer’s wallets and spare time clutched tight, there’s still a handful of promising indies imminent on the eShop.
This week, we can expect Wales Interactive’s latest FMV game – Mia and the Dragon Princess, available for a modest £9.99. Described as an interactive buddy-action movie, it sees barmaid Mia shelter a mysterious woman who turns up out of the blue. It isn’t long until a gang of thugs follow the stranger’s trail.
That’s joined by Demon Skin – a brutal side-scrolling hack ‘n slasher with light RPG and platforming elements, also due on Xbox One and PS4. The PC version didn’t score too highly in 2021. Hopefully, it has gained additional work since.
Indie publisher Sometimes You is also back with two belated console conversions of interactive novels – the dark fantasy Swordbreaker: Origins and the anime-style Weeping Willow.
Then there’s the monochrome minimalistic endless racer Minit Fun Racer, the management sim Urbek City Builder, and the community-based DIY adventure suite Super Dungeon Maker. No Place Like Home might be worth a look too, entailing wholesome post-apocalyptic farming.
New Switch eShop releases
Mia and the Dragon Princess – £9.99
A live-action, interactive buddy-action movie following Mia, a plucky barmaid whose life is thrown into chaos when a mysterious woman turns up at her workplace, on the run from a group of violent thugs and unable to speak English.
Minit Fun Racer is a peculiar little racing game with 100% of developer and Devolver’s profits going directly to charity. Forever.
Hop on your scooter into the twisting traffic of the bustling city and the debris covered sands of the barren desert just in time to watch the sunset. Befriend your local shopkeeper, chase coins, hit big jumps, and accomplish fun goals along each lap until you’ve seen it all!
Minit Fun Racer is a collaboration between Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann.
Demon Skin – is a brutal hack’n’slash set in a rough dark fantasy world, which combines unique combat mechanics, RPG and fighting game elements, and even some platformer features. With the flexible combat system each player can come up with their own unique tactic by skillfully combining stances with various types of weapons to achieve the ultimate efficiency in battle.
The darkness has got into the far off corners of the universe and threatens the world. Only the mighty Order of Wanderers whose members possess superhuman divine powers can resist that threat. One of the Wanderers witnesses a sinister ritual of restoring a powerful ancient artifact. In an attempt to break off the ceremony he gets into a flow of energy released by the artifact and instantly turns into a demon!
Wanderer is now eager to regain his former appearance but to do so he needs the artifact which was stolen afterwards. The hero sets on a path to find it, fighting the hordes of demons along the way.
Arcade Archives TECMO KNIGHT – £6.29
“TECMO KNIGHT” is an action game released by TECMO in 1989.
Take control of two demon messengers who are determined to face fire-breathing beasts, shaking ground, and demon-inhabited wastelands, and face the cursed battles that unfold furiously.
Toziuha Night: Dracula’s Revenge – £4.49
Follow the story of Xandria, the iron alchemist. Seeking revenge, she accepts the dangerous mission to put an end to the evil that resides in Dracula’s castle and torments the people of Transylvania. Fight with an iron whip in this retro-style & Classic-Vania adventure.
This is not the story of a heroine who seeks to protect people. Xandria, for selfish reasons, goes on a dangerous mission to Dracula’s castle.
In Transylvania, the story is told of a legendary alchemist named Vlad Tepes (Dracula), one day he was sentenced to death for having made a pact with a Toziuha, and thus acquiring demonic power. Years later, several alchemists from The Order have been found impaled outside Dracula’s castle, and it seems that somehow Vlad Tepes has been resurrected in search of revenge.
Pixel Paint 2 is a sequel to an extremely popular game by the same name. The rules are quite simple. Put your mind at ease, follow the numbers, and fill out every last pixel with the right color.
It’s your first step in becoming an amazing pixel artist. Choose a theme you like and sink into the wonderful world of pixels.
Welcome to the cute and satisfying world of Color Pals, where brainteasing puzzles meet simple single-screen platforming fun!
Enjoy 50 stages of hue-based trickery as you take the role of a colored cube and navigate 2D maze-like levels to reach a portal on the far side. But be careful! You can only touch walls, floors, ceilings and platforms that match your current color.
Replay stages as many times as it takes, and freely replay cleared levels any time to improve your skills!
Choose however many levels, enemies, secret rooms, traps and items you want. Challenge your friends and the community to master your dungeon or play the countless dungeons of the community.
Weeping Willow is a kinetic visual novel in the genre of detective story, which takes place in the small medieval town of Weidendorf. This town was quarantined due to an outbreak of plague in poor neighborhoods.
The story begins with the mysterious disappearance of the husband of the main character, Baron Von Wolf. A few days later he was found in the local parish of the Scarlet Rose Order, but the baroness claims that she does not recognize her husband. Other people confirms the identity of the impostor and no one believes her. Because of the plague quarantine, the young Baroness is a captive of her own home and begins to seriously fear for her life. After this, a series of dramatic events unfold that will irrevocably change her life.
This short story will delight its players with a fascinating plot tied to intrigues, betrayals, and conspiracies.
Panic in the city due to the “Handstand Phenomenon” in which objects fall into the sky!
A reporter who loves handstand is chosen to cover the event.
While covering various parts of the city, she tries to find out the mystery behind the “Handstand Phenomenon”!
Invercity is a puzzle-platformer that features “Handstand”.
The game has two important mechanics: “Handstand” and “Inverted Broadcast”.
In Urbek, you will be able to build a city of your own design! Manage its natural resources, improve the quality of life of the population, and build its neighbourhoods in your own way.
The growth of your city will be organic. Some constructions will appear according to the surrounding conditions. For example, buildings with more than two floors will appear in densely populated areas and with basic services.
You can place other buildings by yourself, but they need some conditions. For instance, the local market needs to be close to the farms. The university should have some high schools nearby, which, in turn, require nearby schools.
When it comes to designing your city, you have a variety of viable options. There are no buildings that are superior to others. Every decision will have its pros and cons. Bourgeois houses consume more food and need resources that cost more to produce, but will improve the quality of life of the residents there. On the other hand, improving the productivity of industries will produce more resources, but will diminish the quality of life for residents living in the area.
Pathfinders are eager to know more about human History. They have studied different civilizations of the past.
With the support of the scientist Albert New, they travel through space and time, visiting these ancient people in person.
Their objective is to collect relics from each civilization and create a museum of human memories.
To achieve this, they will have to go through dangerous paths, facing obstacles, entrapments, and enemies.
Your role is to memorize these obstacles and draw a safe path for them.
Terra Flame is a horizontal shmup inspired by the 90’s.
Game features:
Implemented a system that can switch between three types of weapons in real time.
Includes arcade mode and caravan mode.
In this narrative-driven platformer game, you play as a child that runs away to fight the monster she thought was causing trouble in her family.
Uncover the mysterious truth as told through original hand-drawn cut scenes, completely without text. Use a sword and shield to combat sinister enemies while exploring the levels.
Will you be able to reach the goal of confronting the monster and saving your family?
Ever dreamt of being a space potato? Now’s your chance! Space Gladiators is a 2D hand-drawn roguelite platformer following a bunch of captives fighting their way out of a planet prison. Defeat hordes of aliens in the gladiatorial arenas and earn your freedom!
You’ve been captured and sent to entertain aliens as a gladiator in a faraway planet called Tartarus. You will have to advance through randomly generated biomes with deadly traps and monsters blocking your path. Choose your opponents in the arenas, beat them for items and coins and you might be able to earn your freedom!
The latest addition, Fortress S, includes a story mode in which you can go on a journey to collect 29 different tanks, a battle mode for up to four players simultaneously, and a classic mode that retains the original turn-based actions.
There’s also a music player with classic BGM, including the Sky Map theme song, and ten different sorts of minigames to keep you pleasantly entertained.
Menseki: Area Maze Search – £4.49
In previous Menseki games, you used logic to find your way through the maze, but now you must find hidden shapes using your sharp intuition!
Menseki: Area Maze Search is a Japanese logic puzzle game where you must find hidden shapes such as squares, rhombi, isosceles triangles, and more!
Connect the dots within a grid to form the hidden shape and find the solution. There are two addictive puzzle modes: “Shape Search” and “Triangle Search.”
The Mingals are approaching the borders of Dorgan when the royal army appears on the other side of the bridge. Among the soldiers, there’s our hero in shining armor, whose name is Swordbreaker. He has to either win with everyone or suffer a shameful defeat and condemn the whole kingdom to extermination.
But all this will happen a bit later…
As for now, the young adventurer lives a peaceful life and can’t even imagine what is waiting for him ahead… Strange events take place in the territory of the kingdom of Dorgan. People talk about the mysterious strangers in the northern marshes; someone saw mysterious objects falling from the sky; other people heard a strange hum from under the ground. And one can only guess how many unknown creatures are hidden in forest thickets and dark caves… All this attracts the young man to throw himself into the abyss of incredible adventures.
The game will tell about the adventures of Swordbreaker, which happened to him long before the events of the first game. How will his fate be sealed and will he become the adventurer we know? Or will his life take a completely different turn? All this will depend only on the player…
Make sweet ice cream, popsicles and waffles using your creativeness in one of the best dessert decorating games right now.
Explore different molds, creams, syrups and ingredients to create sweet works of art.
The screws are all scattered around, and you need to collect them all! This is a frenetic and fun platform game, inspired by classic games from the Golden Age of the Mega Drive.
Japanese Escape Games The Prison Underground – £7.49
The 16th Japanese Escape Games series!!
?THE 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.
Help him overcome the underlings and punish the crafty thief.
Jump over floating platforms, deadly traps, and fierce foes. Defeat the sneaky wizard at his own game and recover your stolen treasures.
No Place Like Home is a cute and relaxing sim where you play as Ellen Newland. A girl who decides to visit her grandfather, on Earth, for the very last time before she moves to Mars. However, she soon discovers that her grandpa is missing and that his farm was recently destroyed.
Next week: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Dokapon Kingdom Connect, Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2, Pixel Driver, Little Disaster, Sakura Gamer, Garden Simulator, Local News with Cliff Rockslide, Leap From Hell, Elemental War 2, Murderous Muses, Pretty Girls 2048 Strike, Poosh XL, Cabin Escape: Alice’s Story, and Forever Lost: Episode 2.