New Releases: May 16th-22nd, 2024

Mid-’90s nostalgia is strong this week, with one of Looking Glass Studios’ biggest hits and an overlooked 3DO title arriving on consoles. Meanwhile, on PC a port of Ghost of Tsushima is coming, while AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ (pictured) offers a chance to enjoy some of summer’s most salient moments.

PlayStation 4
Doug’s Nightmare (digital, $5.99)
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (physical & digital, $39.99)
Paper Trail (digital, $19.99)
Please Fix the Road (digital, $9.99)
PO’ed: Definitive Edition (digital, $19.99)
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER (digital, $14.99)
System Shock (digital, $39.99)

PlayStation 5
INDIKA (digital, $24.99)
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (physical & digital, $39.99)
Wuthering Waves (digital, free-to-play)
X-Force Under Attack (digital, $9.99)
XDefiant (digital, free-to-play)

Switch
3 minutes Mystery 2 (digital, $6.99)
8th Millennium: War Against the Pagan Gods (digital, $29.99)
A Simple Life (digital, $0.99)
Adrenaline Rush: Highway Extreme Traffic Racer (digital, $7.99)
Arcadia: Colony (digital, $14.90)
Astroblaze DX (digital, $3.99)
Beastwatch: Meat & Mayhem (digital, $11.99)
C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield (digital, $39.99)
Doug’s Nightmare (digital, $5.99)
Duck Creator (digital, $0.99)
Dungeon Arsenal (digital, $5.59)
Erra: Exordium (digital, $19.99)
Eternal Light (digital, $22.49)
Express Courier Pro: Urban Bike Delivery Simulator 2024! (digital, $9.99)
Finger Suck (digital, $0.99)
FoxyRush (digital, $4.99)
Internet Generation (digital, $14.99)
Little Cat Doctor (digital, $3.99)
Loving Life (digital, $0.99)
Monster Outbreak (digital, $14.99)
Morbid: The Lords of Ire (digital, $29.99)
Musashi vs Cthulhu (digital, $4.49)
Mutant Express (digital, $11.99)
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (digital, $39.99)
Overmorrow (digital, $15.99)
Paper Trail (digital, $19.99)
Please Fix the Road (digital, $9.99)
PO’ed: Definitive Edition (digital, $19.99)
Pool Party (digital, $19.99)
Puzzle World: Cute Cats (digital, $3.49)
Puzzle World: Neko Girls (digital, $3.49)
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER (digital, $14.99)
Return (digital, $13.99)
Sekimori Game – Saien (digital, $19.99)
Slide Puzzle World History (digital, $1.99)
Spellcats: Auto Card Tactics (digital, $8.99)
Sunland Town (digital, $4.99)
Sweetest Monster (digital, $4.79)
Tokyo Cooking (digital, $16.99)
Toon Toon Racing (digital, $7.99)
Trust No One (digital, $3.99)
Ultimate Traffic Sign Quiz (digital, $1.99)
Undemon (digital, $14.00)
Undercat (digital, $14.99)
Zombie Night Defense (digital, $3.99)

Xbox One
Anime Studio Story (digital, $10.79)
Claws & Feathers 3 (digital, $5.99)
Doug’s Nightmare (digital, $5.99)
Musashi vs Cthulhu (digital, $4.49)
My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (digital, $39.99)
Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters (physical & digital, $39.99)
Not Not – A Brain-Buster (digital, $3.99)
Paper Trail (digital, $19.99)
PO’ed: Definitive Edition (digital, $19.99)
Spellcats: Auto Card Tactics (digital, $8.99)
Survive on Raft (digital, $15.99)
System Shock (digital, $39.99)
The Ramen Sensei (digital, $11.99)

PC
AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ ($TBA)
Anchors: Blockade Zone ($TBA)
Arctic Eggs ($6.99)
C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield ($39.99)
Combo Card Clashers ($TBA)
Die by the Blade ($19.99)
Genopanic ($TBA)
Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut ($TBA)
Histera ($ free)
Isles of Sea and Sky ($TBA)
Little-Known Galaxy ($TBA)
Morbid: The Lords of Ire ($29.99)
One-inch Tactics ($TBA)
Paper Trail ($19.99)
Pool Party ($19.99)
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER ($14.99)
RKGK / Rakugaki ($TBA)
Seablip ($TBA)
Spellcats: Auto Card Tactics ($8.99)
Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago ($TBA)
Vigor ($ free)

Rob’s pick: From de Blob to The Saboteur, adding color to drab grey environment was one of my favorite game mechanics of early 2000s gaming. This week, RKGK / Rakugaki revives the trend, tasking players with leading the resistance against an overwhelming force of oppression. But unlike Jet Set Radio and Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, RKGK / Rakugaki offers a more linear trek that emphasizes third-person platforming and stylish parkour.

Like Ryan, I’m also looking forward to AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~. In my opinion, there just aren’t enough visual novels with cute girls clad in yukata, basking in the warm glow of paper lanterns. Toss in a variety of yummy summer festival foods and a shrine maiden with a silly side, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for escapism.

Ryan’s pick: One-shot death mechanics have been prevalent since the inception of games, and if the right balance is struck, the experience can absolutely still seem fair while maintaining a high level of difficulty. Die By the Blade looks to offer a unique approach to this through the medium of swordplay, allowing players to slash it out using various Japanese swords and melee weaponry. I must have played the tutorial boss at least 75 times in Elden Ring to get that vanity sword and shield, and I feel like this game may also scratch that same kind of itch in that you may have to fight that same foe many times to finally get the right timing or get lucky. If you like games that reward precision and timing and don’t mind blood, this could be your game.

Arctic Eggs does not promise much. But what it does promise is that you can cook some eggs, cigarettes, and bullets for people in order to escape Antarctica. I can only really suggest this one if you can appreciate the occasional dip into the pool of absurdity, so please look elsewhere if you’re looking for something a bit more serious than cooking things in a frying pan for people. As a parting suggestion, the visual novel AMANATSU ~Perfect Edition~ did catch my eye as well. It features animated bust-ups and Japanese voice acting and may be worth a quick adjustment of the glasses if you are a VN connoisseur.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): If you’ve never played Sweetest Monster yet, then this is a visual novel you really should check out. It’s quite brief and very indie, but it also ramps up to a moment that’s almost as high impact and intense as anything in Saya No Uta. I just don’t know how THAT SCENE (people who have played the game will know what I mean) could possibly fly with Nintendo. It’s not just for the art (though surely there’s one art piece that got cut from this version). It’s that the entire scene is just so messed up and written so explicitly that it’s not like just cutting the art piece is going to dull the game’s edge.

And if the developer did remove or heavily sterilize the writing, then there really is nothing left to the game. So, I’m very curious about what exactly was done to bring this to Switch, and that’s why this game is actually my top pick this week.

For my other pick this week, I’m actually looking forward to going very, very retro. Warlords I & II and Warlords III actually just got released on Steam in a surprise drop. I haven’t played these truly vintage strategy games in many years, and… I reckon they’ll be amazing games to have sitting there on my ROG Ally.