New Releases: March 30th-April 5th, 2023

This week, GrimGrimoire OnceMore offers a chance to revisit Vanillaware’s fairy tale-esque real-time strategy game, while Infinite Guitars mixes the role-playing and rhythm game genres in intriguing ways. For visual novel fans, Yukiiro Sign and Norn9: Var Commons are poised to captivate Switch owners.

PlayStation 4
Atari Mania (digital, $24.99)
Blade Assault (digital, $17.99)
Citizen Sleeper (digital, $17.99)
Dredge – Blackstone Key (digital, $24.99)
GrimGrimoire OnceMore (physical & digital, $49.99)
Lunark (digital, $17.99)
Meet Your Maker (digital, $39.99)
Road 96: Mile 0 (digital, $12.99)
Saga of Sins (digital, $19.99)
Shukuchi Ninja (digital, $3.99)

Switch
A Light in the Dark (digital, $15.99)
Anyaroth: The Queen’s Tyranny (digital, $13.49)
Arcane Vale (digital, $7.99)
Assault Suits Valken: Declassified (digital, $24.99)
Billy 101 (digital, $4.99)
Blade Assault (digital, $17.99)
Bone’s Café (digital, $14.99)
BookyPets Legends (digital, $19.99)
Dashing Orange (digital, $3.99)
Demon’s Tilt (physical, $34.99)
Doodle World Deluxe (digital, $9.99)
Dredge – (physical, $39.99, digital, $24.99)
Formula Retro Racing: World Tour (digital, $19.99)
GrimGrimoire OnceMore (physical & digital, $49.99)
Kitty Rainbow (digital, $11.00)
Like Dreamer (digital, $11.99)
Lunark (digital, $17.99)
Mothered – A Role Playing Horror Game (digital, $9.99)
Norn9: Var Commons (physical & digital, $49.99)
Orebody: Binder’s Tale (digital, $9.99)
Panda’s Village (digital, $5.99)
Papertris (digital, $4.99)
Pocket Academy 3 (digital, $12.60)
Rafa’s World + Axolotl + .cat Milk (digital, $0.75)
Ratyboy Adventures (digital, $9.99)
Road 96: Mile 0 (digital, $12.99)
Saga of Sins (digital, $19.99)
Shukuchi Ninja (digital, $3.99)
Squares and Numbers (digital, $2.99)
The Adventures of Poppe (digital, $19.99)
The Last Worker (digital, $15.99)
Ultimate Anime Jigsaw Puzzle (digital, $4.99)
Wildfrost (digital, $TBA)
Windjammers 2 (physical, 34.99)
Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon’s Fist (digital, $13.49)
Yukiiro Sign (digital, $38.33)

Xbox One
Aery – Calm Mind 3 (digital, $9.99)
Blade Assault (digital, $17.99)
Dredge (physical, $29,99, digital, $24.99)
Formula Retro Racing – World Tour (digital, $20.49)
Guns N’ Runs (digital, $11.99)
Infinite Guitars (digital, $TBA, Game Pass)
Lunark (digital, $17.99)
Meet Your Maker (digital, $39.99)
Rally Rock ‘N Racing (digital, $7.99)
Road 96: Mile 0 (digital, $12.99)
Shukuchi Ninja (digital, $3.99)
Tales of the Neon Sea (digital, $19.99)

PC
Across the Obelisk: The Wolf Wars ($9.99)
Brinefall ($TBA)
Crab Champions ($TBA)
Dice Kingdoms ($TBA)
GunSoul Girl 2 ($8.79)
Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe ($TBA)
Plasma ($TBA)
Prison Life 2 ($10.79)
Ravenbound ($29.99)
The Great War: Western Front ($34.99)
The Last Worker ($15.99)
Total Tank Generals ($22.49)
Troublemaker ($TBA)
Vectorio ($TBA)

Rob’s pick: Released in 1992, Masaya’s Assault Suits Valken was the pinnacle of sixteen-bit mecha games. The title allowed players to hop into the cockpit of four-story tall whirlwind of destruction, outfitted with multiple weapons and a punch than could obliterate basic enemies. While Konami’s localization removed quite a bit of content, it hardly diminished the impact of the title. Everything from the spritework, stage design, to Masanao Akahori’s thunderous soundtrack are top-notch.

This week, M2 has resurrected the SNES classic, with Assault Suits Valken: Declassified not leaving anything on the cutting room floor. Expectedly, they’re even added a few supplements, like a digital version of the original Japanese manual, cheats, and interviews with the original designers. Yes, it’s premium priced, but it’s a reinvigoration of one of best infantry-stomping outings of the 1990s.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Having never played the original, I am looking forward to getting stuck into GrimGrimoire OnceMore. Vanillaware games are nothing if not consistent in quality, and I am fully expecting this one to be quite the delight as well.

For something completely different, I’m also quite intrigued by Mothered – A Role Playing Horror Game. I don’t know how much *role playing* is in the game, since it looks much more like a point-and-click adventure game, but when I looked into it I found the concept and art to be quite fascinating. It has a small following on Steam, but a very positive rating, and based on the content warnings and the like it also sounds like it might be quite an intense horror experience. As much as I’m enjoying the Resident Evil 4 Remake (and I am enjoying it), that game is very much an action game with some gore and jump scares. I’m in the mood for the kind of horror that chills me to my bones now. Mothered might just offer that.

Ryan’s pick: I really really like the Resident Evil 4 Remake so I wanted to take a quick moment to just say how good it is even though it technically is last-week’s pic. One thing that was pretty noticeable was how they made Leon verbal when he’s fighting, I think it adds a really nice touch to the game. Gameplay-wise it absolutely captures the same feel as when it was released on Gamecube in my opinion. In general if you can stomach the horror portion of the games, they are really well done, plus there is plenty to do after you have played through your first run of the game. Just don’t play the game like me where you play it over and over to get the OP weapon and once you get it never play it again. Shame on me, multiple times.

My pics for games coming out this week are a mix of a few games that looked interesting but at the same time weren’t strong enough to absolutely be my top pick. The first being Crab Champions. You are a crab that jumps around, blowing up other crabs using weapons and sawed off shotguns. It kind of reminded me a bit of Serious Sam in terms of quickly moving and causing mayhem versus 1-1 fighting like in Fight Crab. I can’t say it’ll ever be a blockbuster, but a yell-down crab rampage sounds pretty enticing to me. I also agree with Robert’s choice on Assault Suits Valken: Declassified. This game was originally released as Cybernator for the SNES and the box art immediately sparked some serious nostalgia. If you are into mecha games, this is a pretty solid choice.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): What do you get when you mash up a turn-based JRPG, a rhythm game, and a real sense of style? You get Infinite Guitars, a particularly impressive debut from indie developer Nikko Nikko. Shredding guitar solos in a bemani-style minigame sure is one way to fight giant mechs in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, especially the killer soundtrack and scrappy art style that Infinite Guitars brings to the table.

Lunark looks interesting, too. A cinematic platformer citing the likes of Prince of Persia and Flashback as inspirations, it weaves a cyberpunk narrative—rogue AIs, dystopian megalopolis’, you know the drill—with rotoscoped cutscenes, detailed pixel art, and all manner of traps and puzzles to overcome.