The Switch gains a bunch of RPGs this week. Even if you closely follow gaming news, we imagine at least a couple of these come as a surprise.
Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster, from Inti Creates, involves collecting resources in side-scrolling stages and then using them to restore a kingdom, with this feature having a more strategic slant. It sounds like you’re able to dive into either part heavily, focusing on one more than the other. While the £15 price point is appealing, early word has it that it’s quite simple mechanically.
Then there’s a re-release of the Mega Drive’s 1992 fantasy RPG Traysia – which, if memory serves, didn’t review too well – a conversion of the 2004 mobile RPG AVILION that has seen a rebalance, the retro-style turn-based strategy RPG Reptilian Rising – which stars a variety of historical figures – and the card-based dungeon crawler Kazuma Kaneko Tsukuyomi, named after the Megami Tensei character designer.
That last one is curiously timed, as it’s up against Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors – a dungeon crawling take on the smash hit, now involving collecting cards, augmenting their abilities, and attacking groups of enemies in a turn-based fashion. Critics claim it’s more polished than Vampire Survivors and almost as addictive, resulting in an 89% Metacritic for the Xbox version.
The latest EGGCONSOLE release is an RPG, too. ADVENTURE OF RANDAR was first released on the MSX2 by Compile in 1989. “Reflecting the gaming standards of its time, the game requires players to grind for experience and features a high encounter rate, making for a formidable challenge,” reads the blurb.
The Switch 2 also gains Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition this week, available for a modest £14.99 and now featuring mouse support. Part one of a two part series, this first-person horror was originally made for VR but has gained a few modified re-releases since, including on the Xbox. Review scores on other formats were in the 7/10 ballpark.
Other releases for this week include the arcade-style scrolling brawler Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, dark puzzle platformer Rumbral, the spear lobbing Castlevania alike Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege – which we awarded an 8/10 – the realm building Drop Duchy – Complete Edition, eastasiasoft’s slimy sliding puzzler GluMe, and the 2D precision platformer Dragon is Dead.
Of course, there’s a new Arcade Archives re-release – Hamster is nothing but regular. This week, it’s the SNK brawler Street Smart from 1989. That’s joined by a Console Archives re-release of the NES’ NINJA GAIDEN III: THE ANCIENT SHIP OF DOOM for Switch 2. European NES owners missed out on this entry back in 1991, although not for long, as Ninja Gaiden Trilogy hit the SNES a few years later.
New Switch eShop releases
Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors – £9.99
Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors – £9.99
In a dark world, a new adventure begins. Explore maps, level up powers, kill monsters. Find treasures.
From the somehow triple-BAFTA‑winning creators of Vampire Survivors, Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors turns the snowballing thrill of Survivors into a hyper turn‑based, card‑driven BLOBBER with rogue-lite elements. Build busted decks, explore familiar dungeons from a new perspective, and unleash world‑ending combos. Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: The outcome is always accurate, we call it hyper for a reason!
Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition – £14.99
Play as rogue Colonial Marine Zula Hendricks in the terrifying first chapter of a two-part saga set between the Alien and Aliens films. Sent to investigate a distress call on the remote planet Purdan, Zula uncovers a secret Weyland-Yutani blacksite overrun by deadly Xenomorphs.
Stalking, hunting, and attacking at every turn, these Xenomorphs’ ferocity is matched only by their unpredictability. Aided by your synth companion, Davis 01, fight and survive using your weapons, skills, and sheer determination against a deadly Xenomorph incursion in this gripping original story.
Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch – £17.99
Brawl your way through the streets and mall in the View Askewniverse as Jay and Silent Bob where you unleash a dizzying array of irreverent combos, special moves, collect and summon assists, in this over-the-top beat ‘em up. You’ll need to harness every ounce of smoke-fueled creativity to get past the throngs of hockey-stick wielding teenage thugs, dookie demons, hipsters with babies, old grumpy danglers and massive, movie-inspired boss battles.
You wake up in a dark, mysterious forest with no memory of who you are or why you’re there. Move through a world filled with abandoned structures and puzzles, perhaps left behind by others. Survivors? Explorers? Discover strange magenta liquids that reveal secrets of the past… and maybe of yourself. But be careful: you might not be alone in this desolate place.
Kingdom’s Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster – £11.69
Kingdom’s Return is an action RPG where you’ll adventure to restore your fallen kingdom. Collect materials in 2D side-scrolling adventure stages, then use them in the strategy part to rebuild your kingdom and power up your characters!
Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacrilege – £9.89
The year is 1698. A mysterious figure named Father Pacer has shattered the peace negotiated after the War of the Grand Alliance, obsessively and violently stealing Catholic relics throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Can the ex-soldier-turned-farmer Rudiger protect his people from a power-mad priest and his horde of monsters and minions? Can he become Saint Slayer?
KAZUMA KANEKO’S TSUKUYOMI – £22.49
An all-new title from Demon Artist Kazuma Kaneko, the visionary mind behind a legacy of groundbreaking games.
Tokyo, 20XX. The colossal bay area megastructure, “THE HASHIRA,” has been severed from the outside world. You are a “Tsukuyomi,” an elite agent of a national defense organization. Your mission: Infiltrate the isolation zone, battle through a tower overrun by eldritch “Jinma,” and ascend to the summit to uncover the terrifying truth.
Drop Duchy – Complete Edition – £20.69
Drop Duchy takes on the iconic geometric puzzle gameplay we all know and love with a fresh perspective: instead of simply clearing lines, you’ll be thoughtfully building a realm using pieces of various shapes and types to overcome enemy challenges.
A mix of deckbuilding, puzzle and rogue-lite, the game offers a new gameplay designed to hone your appetite as a block-stacking tactician. Optimization is key to collecting precious resources, protecting your castle, and building your army.
Traverse an interconnected world and cross paths with factions, each with their own agenda. Use your wits to learn different ways to traverse the sinking city, and in turn discover many possible outcomes for its denizens depending on your actions and choices.
Dragon is Dead delivers 2D platformer action requiring precise dodging and pattern-breaking. Each area is a vertically and horizontally intertwined, multi-layered structure that regenerates in a rogue-lite fashion with different terrain, monster placement, and loot composition on each run. When you die, you lose your gold and temporary buffs, but your gear and runes are permanently preserved and become the basis for the next cycle. Defeating bosses yields rune stones that can be used to craft or awaken legendary gear, and artifacts found during exploration can bring both powerful blessings and dangerous curses depending on the combination, providing new tactical tension each time.
Get ready for GluMe, a sliding puzzle game where you control a slime, and any friends you pick up along the way. Move through top-down grid stages, collecting gems across 80 unique puzzles of growing size and complexity.
New challenges keep appearing: sleeping gray slimes wake when touched, turning blue and sticking to you. Use them to cross pitfalls, but don’t grow too big to fit into tight spots. Find the right order to collect gems and uncover secrets. Reset anytime if you get stuck. Enjoy chiptune tunes and retro vibes!
No need for expensive lessons or a bulky piano!
Joy Piano is an “Edutainment” game designed to help children build a solid musical foundation and feel the thrill of performing world-famous songs.
TAMASHIKA is a fast-paced arcade-style corridor shooter focused on flow, precision, and survival.
Move through shifting environments, react quickly, and stay locked in. Each run is about control, timing, and keeping your mind in one place.
Patterns in the world create a sense of continuity, but everything is in motion. Focus is what keeps you alive.
Reptilian Rising is a retro-style, turn-based strategy RPG where history’s greatest heroes take on the most ridiculous crisis time has ever seen. Assemble a squad of legends – from Cleopatra and Robin Hood to Einstein – and fight across randomly generated battlefields, from prehistoric jungles to dystopian futures.
In the aftermath of the apocalypse, the world is shrouded in an impenetrable darkness, a realm now home to creatures birthed from the Dark Void. As the last of the Dark Hunters, an elite cadre of human warriors, you are entrusted with a daunting task: to seal the Dark Void and rescue humanity from an impending doom.
In Sky Escort, you take on the role of a mercenary navigating treacherous skies to deliver high-stakes cargo. To survive relentless pirate raids, you must fortify your airship with defensive structures, upgrade your vessel in outpost cities, and recruit a legendary crew.
This game is a fully voiced Japanese-style visual novel.
Recommended for
– People who like visual novel type games.
– People who like emotionally intense stories.
– People who like pure love stories.
Planet of Lana II – Supporter Edition – £20.99
The Planet of LanaII Supporter Pack lets you step deeper into Lana and Mui’s world. Enjoy a digital art book and the Novo Language Companion, a guide to the game’s language.
Dive into the world of monster cuisine!
You take on the role of an adorable monster chef on a unique culinary journey. With a food truck as your mobile base, travel through diverse locations from deserts to big cities serving up meals to monstrous customers.
Watch out, you might end up as the meal!
Explore the dark marine abysses in AquaDream, a captivating puzzle game. Take on the role of a brave anglerfish and solve complex puzzles in the heart of underwater labyrinths. Find hidden keys, activate towers to open new passages, and follow ocean currents precisely to avoid deadly traps.
AVILION forever – Retro JRPG – £6.99
The 2004 classic mobile JRPG “AVILION” makes its miracle comeback as “AVILION forever”! Reborn as a solo experience, you can now enjoy this legendary journey anytime, anywhere—no server access required.
Alice in Wonder Underland AIWU – £15.49
Alice awakens in a mysterious room and sets off beyond the door.
Outside lies a world that feels strangely nostalgic, yet entirely unknown.
With over 30 uniquely themed areas to explore ! even places you would never expect !
EGGCONSOLE ADVENTURE OF RANDAR MSX2 – £5.39
This title is a role-playing game originally included in “Disc Station Spring Issue,” released by Compile in 1989. Players take on the role of Lander, a young knight of Gameland, and set off on an adventure to save the Kingdom of Mamorus from the clutches of the demon Nestyurba.
Fast-paced Arena Shooter
Dive into a fast-paced arena shooter where the controls are simple but the battles test your strategy!
Seat diverse guests and serve drinks while balancing unique customer types.
Keep the peace by choosing seats wisely and surviving wild weather disasters.
Handle quirky characters and upgrade your venue to keep the party going.
Team up or go solo to master the art of hectic, high-energy management!
Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss – £19.94
The long-awaited second installment in the Court of Darkness series is finally here!
Experience brand-new romance storylines with a fresh cast of consorts♪
BAD END: If you play, you’ll die? – £5.29
[Features]
* Drastic short story that will branch according to your “choice”.
* Surprising ending included!
Mar 30, 2052, the Technate remains intact. After 17 years of speedily fighting Slaughterhouse AI, Gunnar Harsvin has one last run in him. Can he send one final message to the evil technocrats? Or will time stop him in his tracks?
A twin game to Guts ‘n Grunts Jr, “Sr.” offers new challenges and enemies. Roll, shoot, survive!
Crypt Carnage is a fast-paced, wave-based retro FPS that drops you into cursed catacombs crawling with monsters, armored brutes, and nightmare bosses. Every round is a desperate scramble for ammo, upgrades, and breathing room as the horde tightens the circle and the arena turns into a killbox. Stack power-ups, swap to absurd weapons on the fly, and keep moving—because in the Crypt, standing still is a death sentence.
In Floor 9, you find yourself trapped in a mysterious hotel known as “Hotel Liminal.” To escape, you must identify anomalies on each floor. These anomalies can be anywhere – on the ground, in paintings, or even right in front of your eyes. You must check every corner carefully, as one mistake will send you back to the beginning, to Floor 9. The game offers you a unique blend of eerie atmosphere, puzzle-solving, and survival, all wrapped up in a psychologically thrilling experience.
Join Brian on this terrifying journey as he navigates the eerie remnants of his childhood, uncovering buried secrets and battling his inner demons. Birthday Boy challenges players to explore the thin line between memory and reality in this gripping psychological horror experience.
Dreaming of becoming a world-traveling adventurer, a young boy named Roy left his hometown. Having known neither travel nor battle, the boy’s adventure now begins.
After behind the hometown, he traveled through many mountains and forests. Roy finally arrived at a small county called Kingdom of Salon.
Traysia is a girl waiting for Roy to come back in their hometown, Johanna, a port town.
“Traysia” is a full-scale role-playing game made up of five scenarios, offering a definitive fantasy romance of love and adventure.
Next week: Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta, MotoGP 26, Total Chaos, This is Fine: Maximum Cope, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth, Elementallis, Magin: The Rat Project Stories, Monster Crown: Sin Eater, MULLET MADJACK, PICROSS S KONAMI ANTIQUES edition, Perennial Dusk -Kinsenka, Bandit Trap, CyberBlocker Complete Edition, Winx Club: The Magic is Back, Amnesia: Rebirth, Lord Ambermaze, Constance, Plantera 2: Golden Acorn, The End Comes Tomorrow: Gamebook Edition, Shadows of the Afterland, Octo’s Balloon Challenge, Snail’s Knock Out!, Toad’s Soul Hopper, Pirarucu’s Money Rush, Harvest Café, Horticular, Who tells your story, Survivor Legion, SCP Extraction Protocol, Dungeon Clawler, Tiny Auto Knights, and Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember.