New Releases: November 18th-24th, 2021

This week, the holidays reissues ramp up with everything from Disco Elysium to a trio of 16-bit era Disney titles repeating this week. Cult favorites BloodRayne and its sequel arrive return this week, offering the essential improvements to justify another release. For fans of first-person shooters, this week brings two new titles, with Battlefield 2042 and Nerf Legends arriving on store shelves and digital marketplaces.

Header image: Kirakira Monstars, PC

PlayStation 4
Battlefield 2042 (physical & digital, $59.99)
BloodRayne: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
BloodRayne 2: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
Death’s Door (digital, $19.99)
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (physical, $39.99)
Disney Classic Games Collection: Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book (physical, $29.99)
Farming Simulator 22 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Nerf Legends (physical & digital, $49.99)
Tales of Iron (physical, $39.99)
The Last Stand – Aftermath (physical, $34.99)

PlayStation 5
Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Deluxe Edition (physical, $49.99)

Switch
20 Ladies (digital, $4.99)
BloodRayne: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
BloodRayne 2: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
City Traffic Driver (digital, $11.99)
Death’s Door (digital, $19.99)
Drizzlepath: Déjà vu (digital, $6.99)
Exertus: Redux (digital, $4.39)
H.I.C.H. (digital, $10.34)
Ice Station Z (digital, $4.99)
Kosmonavtes: Academy Escape (digital, $5.99)
My Universe: Puppies and Kittens (physical & digital, $29.99)
My Universe: Interior Designer (physical & digital, $29.99)
NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ (physical & digital, $39.99)
Nerf Legends (physical & digital, $49.99)
NinNinDays2 (digital, $9.99)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (physical & digital, $59.99)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl Double Pack (physical and digital, $119.99)
Pokémon Shining Pearl (physical & digital, $59.99)
RazerWire: Nanowars (digital, $9.99)
Romeow: In the Cracked World (digital, $2.99)
Smoots Golf (digital, $12.99)
Space Moth Lunar Edition (digital, $7.99)
Sports & Wild Pinball (digital, $14.99)
Tales of Iron (physical, $39.99)
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (physical, $29.99)
Whiskey Mafia: Leo’s Family (digital, $4.99)
Would You Like to Run an Idol Cafe? (digital, $9.99)

Xbox One
Battlefield 2042 (physical & digital, $59.99)
BloodRayne: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
BloodRayne 2: ReVamped (digital, $19.99)
DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game (digital, $19.99)
Despotism 3k (digital, $10.99)
Disney Classic Games Collection: Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book (physical, $29.99)
Exo One (digital, $16.99)
Fae Tactics (digital, $19.99)
Farming Simulator 22 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Nerf Legends (digital, $49.99)
Smoots Golf (digital, $8.49)
Space Moth Lunar Edition (digital, $7.99)
Tales of Iron (physical, $39.99)
Total Arcade Racing (digital, $7.99)
Two Hundred Ways (digital, $14.99)
TY the Tasmanian Tiger HD (physical, $29.99)
Undungeon (digital, $19.99)

PC
Alien Marauder ($17.99)
Battlefield 2042 ($59.99)
Exo One ($15.29)
Kimagure Temptation ($TBA)
Kirakira Monstars ($TBA)
King Under the Mountain ($TBA)
Myth of Empires ($26.99)
Pronty: Fishy Adventure ($TBA)
Toy Tinker Simulator ($TBA)
Tunnel of Doom ($TBA)
Undungeon ($19.99)
Unsafe ($TBA)

Rob’s Pick: There’s a side of me that’s inexplicably drawn to titles which ask rhetorical questions. As such, Would You Like to Run an Idol Cafe? earned my attention when it was released on PC last summer. Going in with measured expectations, I would have been content with light-hearted trope-driven comedy and some light fan-service. But what I got was little more than an inaugural entry into a series that will probably run as long as it’s still profitable. There’s not much substance there and the entire experience ends just as it starts getting interesting. On a side note, I’d love a café-themed game that allowed for tourist price gouging. If any developers could craft a sim where you can charge $50 for a sloppy omurice and an accompanying polaroid with gravure idols, they’d have my eternal admiration.

Similarly, nostalgia is pressuring me to give a nod to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. But Sword and Shield demonstrated my once resilient love for the Pokémon franchise slowly ebbing away. I thought I wouldn’t tire of the largely linear treks, simple storylines, and pocket monster collection, but a succession of remakes that barely veer from the originals have caused franchise fatigue. Still if you never played the DS originals, jump in. The Grand Underground component is a welcome new feature. Otherwise, you might until Pokémon Legends: Arceus releases in January.

Ryan’s Pick: I’m at a loss this week as I normally would have chosen the latest Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, however I think that with the release of Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker soon I am probably going to abstain. Lately I have been spending a whole lot of time in Eorzea farming up enough points to buy that illustrious Inferno Jacket before the Moogle Treasure Trove event ends, and I believe I’ve run the Praetorium at least nine times now. Unskippable cutscenes are a special kind of evil. Needless to say, my pipeline for RPGs may be pretty full for the time being.

That said however, I am going to appease the FPS portion of my brain by trying out Battlefield 2042 on PS5. For some reason the largest anecdote about the series for me will forever revolve around my brother religiously buying SlimJims at Wawa in order to collect points for Battlefield 4. I’m not sure how this ties directly to the game being my pic for the week, but I felt like I had to share. I love unscripted mayhem in games, and I have seen an incredible amount of hilarious and amazing things occur during the battles in these games. That said, I’ll be cooling off the RPG portion of my brain for a bit of fun in the Battlefield franchise before devoting a large portion of my time to FFXIV: Endwalker soon.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): If there’s one thing that the game industry knows very well, it’s that nostalgia makes bank—whether that’s revamped versions of old favourites, new games that seek to emulate what we loved about those classics, or simple re-releases that make games from legacy systems readily available on current hardware. This week, we get a selection of all of the above.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl continue Nintendo’s ongoing effort to remake previous generations of Pokemon games. The revamped but still chibi art style stays true to the original games’ roots, while a variety of new features bring the remakes in line with more recent games—no more need to waste precious move slots on HM moves, huzzah!—and add fun little gimmicks like putting stickers on your pokeballs. Though not available until early 2022, Pokemon Home connectivity will also mean being able to transfer Pokemon to and from other Switch Pokemon games, which is always nice when you’re trying to catch ‘em all.

We’ve also got “ReVamped” remasters of BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2. I’ve never played either—in original or ReVamped forms—but there’s a particular appeal in the PS2 era of action games that they hail from. This is a series that’s been on my “I should probably check that out one day” mental list for years, so now’s as good a time as any to see what they have to offer.

And finally, not on the list above because they’re not exactly new releases, but the Xbox backwards compatibility expansion earlier this week made the original NIER available to buy digitally, among many other games. Being able to play on Xbox One and Series X|S is obviously very welcome, but perhaps the bigger deal here is the fact that, for the first time, you can buy it digitally—making it much easier to access than navigating the whims of the second-hand market. And as good as the NieR Replicant remaster is, having the original available, too, is crucial for a work of art as significant and important as NIER.