New Releases: February 22nd-28th, 2024

This week, Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator lets you build the backyards of your dreams, while The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island (pictured) sends Shiren the Wanderer back into those devious, procedurally crafted dungeons. Not feeling either of those activities? Then, Sympathy Kiss is here to challenge your work and love commitments.

PlayStation 4
502’s Arcade (digital, $9.99)
Arcade Archives Face Off (digital, $7.99)
Flooded (digital, $TBA)
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator (digital, $39.99)
Mr. Run and Jump + Kombinera (digital, $TBA)
Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand (digital, $7.99)
Promenade (digital, $22.49)
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (digital, $29.99)
Strange Horticulture (digital, $14.99)
Tokyo Revengers: Last Mission (digital, $TBA)

Switch
502’s Arcade (digital, $9.99)
Aery – Stone Age (digital, $6.99)
Alwa’s Legacy + Alwa’s Awakening (digital, $21.99)
Apex Heroines (digital, $24.99)
Dead End City (digital, $14.99)
Dino Race – Dinosaur Ride Ranch (digital, $12.99)
EGGCONSOLE HYDLIDE3 PC-8801mkIISR (digital, $6.49)
Geometric Sniper Z (digital, $3.99)
Gleylancer and Gynoug: Classic Shmups Pack (digital, $10.99)
Hike Adventures (digital, $7.99)
Inkulinati (digital, $19.99)
Kings Odyssey (digital, $4.99)
Kings Odyssey: Dwarves Tale (digital, $4.99)
Kings Odyssey: Rise of The Necromancer (digital, $4.99)
Lion Simulator Survival: RPG Animal Battle (digital, $12.99)
LUNARiA -Virtualized Moonchild- (digital, $24.99)
Make it! Taiyaki (digital, $3.00)
Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons (digital, $9.99)
Pocket Fishing (digital, $12.99)
Promenade (digital, $22.49)
Sandstorm Strike Force (digital, $9.99)
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island (digital, $59.99)
Slimeboo (digital, $2.00)
Spear Master (digital, $9.99)
Squirrel Stapler (digital, $7.99)
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (digital, $29.99)
Sympathy Kiss (digital, $44.99)
Quadroids (digital, $11.99)
The Bike – Moto Ride Simulator (digital, $11.99)
The Jump Guys (digital, $12.99)
Toy Rider (digital, $5.99)
Truck Sim 2024 (digital, $9.99)
Unlife (digital, $10.99)
Wira & Taksa: Against the Master of Gravity (digital, $16.99)
Woodturning 3D (digital, $4.99)
Yohane the Parhelion – NUMAZU in the MIRAGE – (digital, $29.99)

Xbox One
502’s Arcade (digital, $9.99)
Aery – Stone Age (digital, $6.99)
Broadsword Warlord Edition (digital, $29.99)
BroodStar (digital, $8.99)
Demons of Asteborg (digital, $7.91)
Flooded (digital, $TBA)
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator (digital, $39.99)
Inkulinati (digital, $24.99)
Pecaminosa: A Deadly Hand (digital, $7.99)
Promenade (digital, $22.49)
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (digital, $29.99)

PC
100 Robo Cats (free)
9-Bit Armies: A Bit Too Far ($TBA)
Bootstrap Island ($TBA)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake ($TBA)
Cats and Seek : Cats Hidden at Dino Park ($TBA)
CorpoNation: The Sorting Process ($10.39)
Dicefolk ($TBA)
Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator ($24.99)
Gods Against Machines ($TBA)
Inkulinati (digital, $14.99)
Pacific Drive ($26.99)
Primitive Society Simulator ($TBA)
Promenade ($22.49)
Pull Stay ($TBA)
Rail Route ($18.64)
Regency Solitaire II (digital, $13.49)
Rock Star Life Simulator ($TBA)
Ruff Ghanor ($19.99)
SCP: The Expedition ($8.99)
School Labyrinth ($6.01)
Shadowkin ($TBA)
Shashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography ($TBA)
Sokobond Express ($13.49)
Sons of the Forest ($29.99)
Solium Infernum ($33.99)
The Tribe Must Survive ($15.99)
Terror At Oakheart ($TBA)
Windowkill ($TBA)

Rob’s pick: Barring the 2013 pachinko machine, it’s been fourteen long years since the last new Shiren the Wanderer entry, The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate. During that period, roguelikes have exploded in popularity, and we’ve seen quite a few worthwhile efforts. Yet, Shiren remains one of the sub-genre’s best franchises, offering a wonderfully simplified experience that still satisfies the urge for a tactical dungeon crawl. Even with a full schedule of games to review, I’ll revisit the series’ early entries.

This week’s release of Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island feels delightfully celebratory. Spike Chunsoft has managed to bring back talent from previous releases dating back to the Super Famicom and DS entities. Where it wasn’t possible to round up series veterans, design decisions were made to honor past contributors, such as late composer Koichi Sugiyama. Best of all, it’s not quite as prickly as Dice of Fate, making this new entry an ideal in-road if you haven’t had the chance to relish Shiren yet.

Ryan’s pick: Long before Kyle Katarn became a Jedi, he was a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance in one of my favorite FPS of all time STAR WARS: Dark Forces. The game immediately takes me back to 1995 and my 486DX2 processor and having to run the game via a boot disc in DOS. I’m really glad this one is getting a remaster, as I feel like over the years I’ve mentioned this game at least once a year when talking about retro-inspired FPS games. I think it will be pretty apparent you’re playing an old FPS when you try it, but it’s still part of the STAR WARS universe with some pretty interesting lore, plus there’s also a bunch of sequel games to check out after you finish it.

A few other game releases that I noticed this week were the action-RPG release of Tokyo Revengers: Last Mission and the eccentric beat’em up Pull Stay. I honestly don’t know how many more gacha games I’ll be able to handle before I need a total recall, but being able to play as Mikey or Draken has me interested in trying this free-to-play game. With a relatively finite cast I’m curious how this game will be received, but as a fan of the show I think it’s worth a look. Lastly, please give Pull Stay a glimpse. It’s a self-described beat’em up with Tower Defense mechanics at its core, but that’s not all. Most importantly, it seems to embrace absurdity, and that is exactly what I’m looking for.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I must admit that I am totally and thoroughly exhausted with the roguelike genre. Indies and mid-tier developers have done their best to saturate this genre to the point that the entire world is sick of it. But I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. The classic roguelike formula, backed by the simple but lovable characters will hopefully bring the roguelike back to its core strengths and remind us all what it was that we loved about those games in the first place.

Elsewhere, it might not be in the running for game of the year or anything, but Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons sounds good to me. Picross and Story of Seasons, smooshed together? That’s got every potential to take the cute and charm quotient off the charts.

Finally, I’ll be spending a good chunk of my time this weekend immersed in the retro. Nintendo dropping Blast Corps onto the N64 app was a wonderful bit of news. That was one of my favourite single-player experiences on the classic console. I’m looking forward to getting nostalgic with that.