Time looping adventure Outer Wilds has certainly been a long time coming on Switch, first announced way back in 2021. Screenshots suggest the extra time in development has been well spent, showing visuals that are detailed and not hugely compromised – unlike last week’s allegedly disastrous conversion of Batman Arkham Knight.
It’s quite a promising week for the Switch, all told, with half a dozen intriguing titles due. True to its name, A Highland Song takes place in the Scottish wilderness, involving fifteen-year-old runaway Moira McKinnon traversing the craggy mountainous terrane. Reviews for this side-scrolling adventure been full of praise so far, with scores including a 9/10 from EDGE magazine.
From Humble Games comes While The Iron’s Hot, giving a chance to reforge a blacksmith’s village. Twinfinite found plenty to get stuck into in this pixel art affair, brandishing a 3.5/5. You’ll also find it on Xbox Game Pass this week.
A couple of very different RPGs are also upon us. Born Of Bread is a light-hearted cartoony affair filled with oddball characters, viewed from a 2.5D perspective. Reviews have been generally positive. Xuan Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains meanwhile originates from China, being a remaster. The PC version didn’t fare too well critically, so hopefully this handheld iteration has received additional work.
Then there’s Make Way, the DIY top-down racer from Secret Mode. Again, the PC version launched a while ago. Scores were very positive upon release, with critics recommending it for multiplayer frolics. Might be a good one to play with friends over Christmas.
Other new releases include the on-rails shooter Battle Stations Blockade – which PlayStation Country found to be middling – retro-infused puzzler SUNSOFT Mahjong Solitaire, and a belated conversion of Skater XL – promising silky smooth performance. Unlike last week’s Arkham Knight.
New Switch eShop releases
Beings from another age are causing havoc across the land! And with their mischief comes a great threat to everyone. The unlikeliest hero, a golem born of bread, will find himself and his newfound buddies in the middle of a drama that’s thousands of years in the making. Together, they will visit incredible locals and meet fascinating characters.
Strap on your hiking boots, check your oxygen levels, and get ready to venture into space. Use a variety of unique gadgets to probe your surroundings, track down mysterious signals, decipher ancient alien writing, and roast the perfect marshmallow.
Reforge a blacksmith’s world
In the faraway land of Ellian, legendary artisans have gathered for ages to perfect their craft. Now it’s your turn to join them.
Step into the boots of a journeyman blacksmith on a quest to become a master in While the Iron’s Hot, a crafty adventure assembled with mystery, wit, and charm. Forge, smelt, and combine works of metal to grow your smithing skills and discover exquisite new items to create. Explore an island filled with resources, treasures, puzzles, and fellow artisans with their own motives and designs. Rebuild the ruins of Ellian’s long-abandoned blacksmiths’ village to restore its former glory and grow your own crafting capabilities—and ultimately become a true master smith.
Your tricks, your style, infinite possibilities.
Skater XL is the final evolution in skateboarding video games that brings the fun, creativity and culture of skateboarding to the digital world. Created by a team of passionate skateboarders, Skater XL is the most authentic and true to life skateboarding game that has ever been made.
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End – £20.99
You’re not piloting the ship. You ARE the ship:
Sentient ships have been outlawed for centuries. With the help of your holo-companion C.O.R.G.I. and your (mostly) loyal crew, you’ve managed to evade capture. Now there’s an entire galaxy between you and freedom.
A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is a narrative space opera that’ll have you soaring around the universe assembling an unruly crew from an eclectic cast of characters. Take any job you can to keep one step ahead of your abusive ex, and keep flying towards freedom.
Moira McKinnon is running away.
To reach the sea, Moira must first cross the Scottish Highlands—a wilderness of paths, peaks, shortcuts, dangers, and song.
Xuan Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains – £12.99
Popular and award-winning Chinese RPG Xuan Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains arrives on new platforms!
Eastern and Western worlds collide in an epic tale spanning Eurasia, Arabia, Francia and China. Embark on a long journey to locate the Invincible Arts of War as you take the role of Septem, a Frankish Knight unwittingly drawn into the power struggle between disparate cultures.
Xuan Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains presents its narrative using mythological and historically-inspired architectural styles, garb, cuisine and customs, blended with traditional turn-based RPG mechanics and HD hand-painted sprites. Recruit new characters to your party, capture enemies in battle using the Spirit Fusion Pot, then craft new items and monsters from Eastern or Western altars for different resulting appearances and properties. Only by uniting the powers of East and West can you hope to challenge the ambitions of the dark lord who tears at the seams of civilization!
The Smurfs: Colorful Stories – £10.79
Welcome to The Smurfs: Colorful Stories, a place where your creativity and imagination lead to creating unique tales. Visit their village like you are one of them and experience amazing adventures – Smurfs can’t wait to meet you!
Experience the strangely satisfying thrill of watching your mob multiply as you aim and shoot at the gates. Witness your army grow to massive proportions! Strategically deploy your mighty champions to break through enemy mobs and reach their bases. Choose the best combo to win!
Your ball drops like a brick through colorful helix platforms that block its descent, but if you hit a red spot, it’s over! Your ball shatters to pieces and you have to start your fall all over again.
Even traps platforms are no match for a fireball falling at full speed! Choose your strategy: speed up like a madman or stop and wait for your next chance to roll and jump!
Step into the enchanting world of Vege Bubble Shot, a colourful and addictive puzzle game that will captivate your gaming senses. Dive into a fruity adventure where you’ll use your strategic skills to save a delightful vegetable garden from pesky intruders and become a puzzle master!
Take command of various modern jet fighters (F-16 Falcon, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale) and copters (Bell AH-1 Cobra, Eurocopter EC665 Tiger) in this perfect mix between a realistic flight simulator and a mission based air combat game.
Grab your golf club, check the wind direction, aim well, choose the force of impact on the ball and hit it! Hurry up because no one is going to wait for you!
This game is all about speed, precision and decision-making. Compete in tournament mode on random maps with different rules. Score as many points as possible by hitting the ball in the center of the target, be first in a race to hit the ball into the hole before others do, or find the best way to beat everyone in a mini-golf with various obstacles!
– Four main story routes to explore – Each with three unique endings.
Collectable CGs – Six amazing art scenes to collect for each character.
Dictionary feature – Learn more about the ancient Ainu language, and quickly reference the definition of words.
Choose the name of the protagonist – For those who like to immerse themselves in the story, you can choose a custom name for the protagonist.
Playtime – Around 3 hours per route.
SUNSOFT Mahjong Solitaire -Shanghai LEGEND- – £14.90
Shanghai, the undisputed king of puzzle games for over 30 years, makes a triumphant return!
In this addictive puzzle game, you must match two tiles at a time with the same design to remove them from the arranged stack.
Nessy The Robot is a platformer game designed for the 8bit generation. Where you play as Nessy, a little controller-themed robot, on a quest to stop his home, Pixel Park, from total destruction.
Fight your way through zombified robots, slime creatures, and a multitude of other enemies & bosses, as well as a plethora of levels, secrets & easter eggs to discover, collectible gems to… well… collect, as well as characters & dogs to talk to.
Defend The Base: Tower Turret Shooting Range – £8.99
“Jump into the turret and fight off the raiders, gunslinger!”
You are a combat turret operator who must protect our base from attack! Destroy all attackers and the level will be completed. If the battles get tough – you can upgrade your turret and increase its firepower!
A beginner will quickly master the skills of aimed shooting, and a professional will be able to bring their skills to perfection and hone their weapon skills.
Fearmonium is a psychedelic metroidvania with an expressive aesthetic where suspense joins together with humor.
You play as a phobia growing inside the confused mind of a teenage boy named Max. Discover a nightmarish world of his consciousness to explore. Get ready for a psychological world teeming with 2D platform exploration, memorable enemies, unique abilities, and incredible hand-drawn art.
Fearmonium poses the important question of whether fear always causes irreparable harm, or whether phobia can change life for the better.
Hiveswap Friendsim is a quick, loosely-canonical visual novel adventure following the efforts of the unnamed protagonist (that’s you!) to survive and maybe even thrive on the harsh surface of ALTERNIA.
Set in the time of Hiveswap: Act 1 and featuring characters from Hiveswap: Act 2, this episodic visual novel is sure to satisfy Homestuck and Hiveswap fans who are eager for a darker stroll across the Alternian landscape.
This new release for consoles includes all 18 volumes of the episodic series. It is available for purchase either standalone or in the Pestersim bundle, bringing together both Hiveswap Friendsim and its sequel, Pesterquest for the complete MSPA Reader Saga at a bargain price.
The complete MSPA Reader Saga with all 32 volumes included.
Embark on a quest of epic importance in this compilation of both parts of the visual novel adventure set in the darkly funny Homestuck / Hiveswap universe, created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie.
Experience the friend-finding escapades of MSPA Reader as you first crash land on Alternia amongst the cast of the Hiveswap point and click adventure series and then bounce between Earth and Alternia reconnecting with classic characters from the Homestuck webcomic.
Part Two of the MSPA Reader Saga.
Embark on a quest of epic importance in Pesterquest, a grimsical episodic visual novel adventure set in the darkly funny Homestuck / Hiveswap universe.
Canon is looking a little messy, and it’s probably all your fault. Continue your visual novel adventure through the world of Homestuck! Insert yourself into the lives of beloved characters! Get dinner at Olive Garden!
Over 14 volumes, you’ll dive deeper into Homestuck lore and reconnect with up to 20 familiar friends in all-new stories about Homstuck’s classic cast of characters, both extra and terrestrial.
Battle Stations Blockade – £8.99
Take command of a gunboat on an urgent mission to intercept stolen military intelligence and destroy the enemy’s advanced weapon systems! Battle Stations Blockade is an intense 3D rail shooter presented in voxel style. Receive orders and then set out on treacherous waters as you control a pair of gun turrets, shooting down aircraft, destroying boats and battleships, clearing mines, taking out paratroopers and more.
But watch your health! Each turret has a damage meter that will need to be replenished by eliminating targets, or you’ll fail the mission. Complete your assignments to climb in rank and unlock better weapons for your gunboat turrets, enabling you to shoot for even higher scores. Man both turrets in solo play or team up with a friend in local co-op!
Stone Age is a 2D action game.
Control a primitive man and command your companions to gather fruits and vegetables and hunt animals.
If the level goes up, the primitive man will power up. Weapons will gradually increase.
Increase the number of friends, defeat strong enemies, and develop the village!
DREAMERS: A Nostalgic Adventure – £26.99
DREAMERS is an adventure game made for those who cherish nostalgia for video games, with the goal of rekindling the sensations and emotions experienced while playing games during the 1990s. With its calm pacing of the story, melancholic ambiance, charismatic characters, and orchestral soundtrack, the game immerses players in a vibrant low-poly, open-map setting, offering approximately 15 hours of gameplay.
Crystal Chip Collector e – £4.49
“Crystal Chip Collector e” is a fast-paced platforming game with a neo-retro style in which the player must collect lots of microchips at high speed to complete each level before time runs out. Initially, it may seem simple, but later on, finding the fastest route becomes necessary to keep progressing.
Make Way is classic, top-down, multiplayer racing shifted up multiple gears.
Grab track pieces from a pick n mix menu and snap them together to build your first course. Dodge hazards, unleash weaponry, and avoid falling off the edge in a chaotic rush to the finish line, then bolt on new track pieces for the next round.
Scrap across ever-growing courses with increasingly perilous features until a winner is crowned before starting over with a brand-new course.
Next week: Trip World DX, Aztek Tiki Talisman, Zumaji Delux, Hammerwatch Anniversary Edition, Hammerwatch II, Hell Well, Koumajou Remilia Ⅱ: Stranger’s Requiem, Crashy Laps, Stickman’s Arena, MECHBLAZE, Hirilun, Sakura Agent, and Never be afraid Slam Dunk!