New Releases: October 19th-25th, 2022

This week, the first three Metal Gear Solid make a return, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 races toward release, and Frontwing’s latest visual novel (GINKA, pictured) arrives on Steam. Here’s the full list of what’s arriving at retail and digital marketplaces:

PlayStation 4
Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express (digital, $39.99)
Animal Hospital (digital, $39.99)
Archetype Arcadia (digital, $26.99)
Crymachina (physical & digital, $59.99)
Demons of Asteborg (digital, $TBA)
Endless Dungeon (digital, $29.99)
Gargoyles Remastered (digital, $14.99)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (physical & digital, $49.99)
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue (physical & digital, $49.99)
Mail Time (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (digital, $19.99)
Pickleball Smash (digital, $31.99)
Postal: Brain Damaged (digital, $TBA)
Spirit of the Island (digital, $24.99)
Stray Souls (digital, $29.99)
Swapshop (digital, $4.99)
The Gap (digital, $21.99, $18.69 PS+)
The Jackbox Party Pack 10 (digital, $29.99)
TrinityS (digital, $13.99)
Warm Snow (digital, $19.99)
World of Horror (digital, TBA)

PlayStation 5
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (physical & digital, $49.99)
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue (physical & digital, $49.99)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (physical & digital, $59.99)

Switch
A Perfect Day (digital, $19.99)
Acrylic Nails! (digital, $4.99)
Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express (digital, $39.99)
Another World Mahjong Girl (digital, $9.99)
Archetype Arcadia (digital, $26.99)
Bish Bash Bots (digital, $17.99)
Bubble Shoot Farm (digital, $10.00)
Cats and the Other Lives (digital, $19.99)
Choice Clash: What Would You Rather?
Coffee Talk Bundle (digital, $TBA)
Composer World (digital, $19.99)
Crymachina (physical & digital, $59.99)
Dinosaurs: Mission Dino Camp (digital, $39.99)
Dreams of a Geisha (digital, $19.99)
Druidwalker (digital, $2.99)
Garden Buddies (digital, $14.99)
Garden Guardian (digital, $4.99)
Gargoyles Remastered (digital, $14.99)
Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition (digital, $19.99)
Golf: Hole in Two (digital, $2.00)
Hentai Tales Vol. 1 (digital, $2.79)
Hidden Cats in London (digital, $2.99)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged (physical & digital, $49.99)
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue (physical & digital, $49.99)
Jujubos (digital, $4.99)
Lamphead (digital, $4.99)
Latte Stand Tycoon+ (digital, $9.99)
Mail Time (digital, $19.99)
Makoto Wakaido’s Case Files Trilogy Deluxe (digital, $12.99)
Metal Gear Solid (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (digital, $19.99)
NeonPowerUp! (digital, $4.99)
Pickleball Smash (digital, $31.99)
Revenge of Banana (digital, $3.99)
Shalnor Legends 2: Trials of Thunder (digital, $14.99)
Soviet Project (digital, $3.19)
Spirit of the Island (digital, $24.99)
Springtime Hike (digital, $4.99)
Squid Commando (digital, $19.99)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (physical & digital, $59.99)
Super Ultimate Fighters (digital, $2.00)
Swapshop (digital, $4.99)
Tales of Mathasia (digital, $7.99)
The GhostX : Sniper Simulator (digital, $12.99)
The Jackbox Party Pack 10 (digital, $34.99)
Warm Snow (digital, $19.99)
Witchy Life Story (digital, $19.99)

Xbox One
Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express (digital, $39.99)
Gargoyles Remastered (digital, $14.99)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged (physical & digital, $49.99)
Harmony’s Odyssey (digital, $14.99)
Horror Tale 2: Samantha (digital, $6.99)
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue (physical & digital, $49.99)
Metal Gear Solid (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (digital, $19.99)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (digital, $19.99)
Mummy Pinball (digital, $2.54)
Pickleball Smash (digital, $31.99)
Spirit of the Island (digital, $24.99)
Stray Souls (digital, $29.99)
Swapshop (digital, $4.99)
The Gap (digital, $21.99)
The Inheritance of Crimson Manor (digital, $19.99)
The Jackbox Party Pack 10 (digital, $29.99)
Warm Snow (digital, $19.99)

PC
Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express ($39.99)
AirportSim ($31.49)
Aquarium ($TBA)
Cattails: Wildwood Story ($TBA)
Cavalry Girls ($TBA)
Cavern of Dreams ($11.69)
Cities: Skylines II ($49.99)
Citizens: On Mars ($TBA)
Conquistadorio ($TBA)
Crymachina ($59.99)
Dark Envoy ($TBA)
Early-blooming black lily ($TBA)
Endless Dungeon ($29.99)
Fears to Fathom – Ironbark Lookout ($3.99)
Folk Hero ($9.34)
Forgive Me Father 2 ($16.99)
Garden Buddies ($TBA)
Gargoyles Remastered ($14.99)
GeoDepths ($TBA)
GINKA ($TBA)
Hexarchy ($15.99)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged ($49.99)
Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue ($49.99)
Laika: Aged Through Blood ($17.99)
Lethal Company ($TBA)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection ($19.99)
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 ($59.99)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – Master Collection ($19.99)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – Master Collection ($19.99)
Moonlight In Garland ($TBA)
Ripout ($TBA)
Soul’s Spectrum ($7.19)
Stray Souls ($29.99)
The 7th Guest VR ($29.99)
The Gap ($19.99)
The Jackbox Party Pack 10 ($29.99)
Topple Tactics ($TBA)
Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint ($TBA)
Yog-Sothoth’s Yard ($TBA)

Rob’s pick: For nearly four decades, the release of a new Mario platformer has been an obligatory experience. Arriving before either The Legend of Zelda or Metroid, 1995’s Super Mario Bros. was one of the first instances of a game crafting a miniature world, complete with a tutorial area, underground caverns, aquatic stages, and castles. Underscoring the visual variety was a continual sense of discovery, with power-ups, hidden bonuses, and techniques all waiting to be uncovered by players. And somehow this week’s release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder manages to sustain that feeling, delivering a drip feed of surprises. The title isn’t hyperbole. This time, they’ve even doubled down on the mushroom metaphor, with Mario getting all trippy and inanimate objects coming alive. We need more digital psychedelia.

Gaming would also be a better place with more efforts like Laika: Aged Through Blood. Sure, some of the moment-to-moment motorcycling stunting and slow-motion shooting is a bit rigid. You try, die, and respawn at a checkpoint often. But the game’s storytelling feels fresh, with its anthropomorphic cast injecting a bit of freshness into the dystopian revenge tale. Beícoli’s soundtrack is both otherworldly and impassioned, offering a much-needed break from the cliched music styles found in action games. (sorry, bro-step shooters, I still love you).

Ryan’s pick: Sometimes you feed on a tree frog. Being able to hear that line sung again one more time in MGS 3: Snake Eater makes this week’s pick a very easy decision. The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol.1 has 7 different games, which is a lot of content and a massive amount of nostalgia. There is one caveat I noticed in the game’s description which states that all the games are the classic versions of the game, save for minimal edits made to copyrighted content. So far it seems like there are only guesses as to what the edits are, but still, I think there’s going to be so much to enjoy with this collection that it will be difficult to notice those edits for most. If you missed some of the older Metal Gear Solid games, I definitely recommend you give this a try, as the storytelling and bosses are excellent.

With Halloween approaching there’s a surplus of horror themed games releasing each week as of late, and this week the co-op procedurally generated FPS horror game RIPOUT. I ended up really enjoying my playthrough of the other recent procedurally generated FPS game Remnant II, and this one equally looks pretty polished and looks like it could be a good one to play with a friend. I’m a bit curious about the mechanic where enemies are able to reconfigure themselves by attaching other smaller mutants to their bodies. I think that if that mechanic is done right and you couple that with procedural generation and loot that the game could potentially provide a good grind.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I am looking forward to seeing what people think of CryMachina. It’s going to be an enormously niche title, of course, but it’s a taut sci-fi action JRPG with an interesting art style and some interesting themes and discussion points around what it’s like to be human. Like FuRyu’s many other narrative-focused JRPGs, this one is niche, but interesting.

I’m also really interested in Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue. I like death games, even though the genre is perhaps starting to get a little too crowded. This one has plenty of potential, though, and Aksys do tend to pick interesting visual novels to localise.

Finally, I am really interested in Agatha Christie – Murder on the Orient Express. Why? Because… well, because everyone who has any interest in crime fiction knows how that story plays out. Given that… are we going to be able to solve the mystery immediately? Or are the developers going to throw some surprises in there, changing the story? If so, will we enjoy the changes that the developer does make? There are just so many questions about this particular project.