New Releases: March 28th-April 3rd, 2019

With titles like Yoshi’s Crafted World, Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, and Tropico 6 arriving, the last week of March is bring a number of notable new releases. Retro gaming aficionados might be particularly pleased, with a remastered version of The Bitmap Brothers’ Gods, two new Sega Ages games, as well as a reinvigoration of 2001’s Cell Damage.

Header image: Echo Tokyo: Phoenix, PC

PlayStation 4
Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (physical & digital, $39.99)
Bomb Chicken (digital, $14.99)
Dracula’s Legacy (digital, $TBA)
GODS Remastered (digital, $19.99)
Inferno Climber: Reborn (digital, $13.99)
Legendary Eleven (digital, $14.99)
S.O.N (digital, $TBA)
Seralim 3 (digital, $TBA)
Warparty  (digital, $24.99)

Switch
12 Labours of Hercules (digital, $2.99)
ACA NeoGeo Baseball Stars 2 (digital, $7.99)
Airfield Mania (digital, $5.99)
AngerForce: Reloaded (digital, $8.49)
Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing (digital, $17.99)
Cell Damage HD (digital, $9.99)
Croixleur Sigma (digital, $19.99)
Darkest Hunters (digital, $5.30)
Darksiders Warmastered Edition (physical & digital, $29.99)
Event Horizon (digital, $2.99)
FUN! FUN! Animal Park (physical & digital, $29.99)
GODS Remastered (digital, $19.99)
Goken (digital, $9.99)
Inferno Climber: Reborn (digital, $13.99)
Istanbul: Digital Edition (digital, $15.99)
Junk Planet (digital, $13.99)
Lyrica (digital, $19.99)
Metagal (digital, $4.99)
President F.net (digital, $4.99)
Sega Ages: Alex Kidd in Miracle World (digital, $7.99)
Sega Ages: Gain Ground (digital, $7.99)
Shadow Blade: Reload (digital, $9.99)
She Remembered Caterpillars (digital, $11.99)
Snow Battle Princess Sayuki (digital, $7.50)
SpellKeeper (digital, $4.49)
The World Next Door (digital, $14.99)
Ultrawings (digital, $19.99)
Undead’s Building (digital, $4.79)
UNI (digital, $7.99)
Warparty (digital, $24.99)
Yoshi’s Crafted World (physical & digital, $59.99)

Xbox One
AngerForce: Reloaded (digital, $9.99)
Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (physical & digital, $39.99)
Desperados III (physical & digital, $59.99)
Operencia: The Stolen Sun (digital, $TBA)

PC
Assassin’s Creed III Remastered ($39.99)
Battle Bolts ($TBA)
Boobs vs Zombies ($TBA)
Echo Tokyo: Phoenix ($TBA)
Hentai Beautiful Girls 2 ($TBA)
Ishizue no Tate – AEGIS – ($TBA)
Metaloid : Origin ($10.79)
RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore ($TBA)
The World Next Door ($14.99)
Tropico 6 ($44.99)
Warparty ($24.99)

Robert’s Pick: It’s rare when a Nintendo first- and second-party title doesn’t generate that sublime sensation of gratification. And it’s particularly true for their platformers. Nearly every single Mario Bros., Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, and Yoshi-led run-and-jump has offered an experience that’s worth the full price of admission. Unlike many of their industry peers, Nintendo still obeys the adage that fun must come first. When everyone else is shoehorning in season passes, loot boxes, and needless DLC, they’re taken a delightfully measured approach to all the reprehensible money grabbing.

Some might criticize Yoshi’s Crafted World for sticking too close to formula. Sure, this is another collect-a-thon that errs on the side of leniency. Some might see it as a stagnant routine that’s been employed across multiple console generations. But after (re)playing Good Feel’s (they are behind Crafted World) Kirby’s Epic Yarn, I appreciate a relaxed, exceeding polished experience that doesn’t exasperate me with artificially constructed challenge.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): If Boobs Vs Zombies has Marie Rose of Hatsune Miku, that.

But seriously it would be easy for me to recommend Yoshi’s Crafted World, because that game is an utter delight, and following on from Chocobo Mystery Dungeon and Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists, I’m all up in the delightful games at the moment. I see Robert has already stolen my thunder there, though, so for something a little different, I’m going to go with Assassin’s Creed 3 Remastered.

Not for Assassin’s Creed 3 itself, though. That one is decent enough, but it’s actually the HD Remaster of Assassin’s Creed Liberation that I’m keen on. Liberation was originally a PlayStation Vita title, and while it’s a simmered-down vision of New Orleans compared to what we see in big blockbuster titles of Ubisoft’s premiere franchise, Liberation also stars Aveline, the best Assassin’s Creed protagonist, bar none.

Aveline is a half-black woman, who can shift between wearing different costumes (slave girl, aristocrat, Assassin’s gear) in order to facilitate her movement around the city, and the killing of her marks. Also refreshing for Liberation is that it’s light on the “real world” nonsense that lets down virtually every other Assassin’s Creed title.

Ryan’s Pick: While I’ve never quite heard of a town called Clarencaster, it sure sounds pretty close to the town names where I’m from in Pennsyltucky. Originally from the middle of nowhere, the woods can sure be extremely creepy at night. It gets so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, so having your horror game take place outside and in caves in PA has my interest. Psychological horror games have always gotten my blood pumping in general, so my clear choice this week is S.O.N, also known as South of Nowhere, for PS4.

The game immediately brings back flashbacks from Amnesia: The Dark Descent, as well as Dead Space 2. If I had to pick a favorite between those two I’d go with Amnesia, simply because the lack of any weapons to protect yourself really added to the experience. S.O.N. gives off the same type of vibe as Amnesia for me, with no real flashlight or weapons to use.  The developer RedG Studios was awarded the Unreal Dev Grant for the game, so I absolutely cannot wait to see what type of environments await using the Unreal engine.

Audio in these types of games really is equally as important for building suspense and context, and what I’ve seen so far it really feels like they have done a great job capturing the aesthetic. I’ll definitely be playing this one in the dark, alone with my headset on for maximum effect this week.