New Releases: May 2nd-8th, 2024

Warashi’s vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up arrives stateside this week, with Triggerheart Exelica bringing its dynamic difficulty to Switch. Meanwhile, Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya gives you the ability to run Gensokyo’s gastronomic pub meeting intriguing characters in the process. If neither of those sound interesting, perhaps Mashiroiro Symphony’s (picture) winter-themed romantic comedy might beguile. Palette’s own tale of two cities arrives this week, alongside Sana’s side-story.

PlayStation 4
Armed and Gelatinous: Couch Edition (digital, $14.99)
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 (digital, $5.99)
MotoGP 24 (digital, $49.99)
Save Me, Mr Tako: Definitive Edition (digital, $14.99)
Sclash (digital, $9.99)
The Prisoner of the Night (digital, $14.99)
Who’s Your Daddy (digital, $9.99)

PlayStation 5
Prison Architect 2 (digital, $39.99)

Switch
Adventure Field Remake(digital, $4.99)
All Noobs Must Die – Craft, Survival, Mine (digital, $12.99)
Armed and Gelatinous: Couch Edition (digital, $14.99)
Baking Time (digital, $4.99)
Bomb Cat (digital, $6.99)
Coconut Farm 3D (digital, $4.99)
Corgi’s Travel (digital, $9.99)
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 (digital, $5.99)
DungeonSmash – Medieval Dungeons (digital, $5.99)
Exit Slum 11 (digital, $2.50)
FoxyLand Collection (digital, $9.99)
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of The Haunted Schoolhouse (digital, $11.99)
Freddi Fish 5: The Case of the Creature of Coral Cove (digital, $11.99)
Freddi Fish Collection (digital, $39.99)
Full Metal Sergeant (digital, $8.99)
Hentai Tales Vol. 3 (digital, $2.79)
Knight Sim Life (digital, $9.99)
Matsutake Game (digital, $3.29)
MotoGP 24 (digital, $49.99)
My Horse Stories (digital, $7.99)
Ninja Flip (digital, $4.99)
Ninja Shuriken Master (digital, $5.99)
Outbreak The Fedora Files What Lydia Knows (digital, $19.99)
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs (digital, $19.99)
Pirates Golden Quest (digital, $4.99)
Sclash (digital, $9.99)
Slot & Learn Kanji (digital, $3.99)
SOWON : The Toy Wonderland (digital, $8.99)
Surmount (digital, $14.99)
Swipe Right or Left Geography Binary Quiz (digital, $3.99)
The Night of the Rabbit (digital, $15.99)
The Prisoner of the Night (digital, $14.99)
Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya (digital, $26.99)
Tractor Farming Simulator 3D (digital, $6.99)
Train Your Brain! Spot the Difference with Dog Photos (digital, $3.99)
Triggerheart Exelica (digital, $29.99)

Xbox One
Candle Knight (digital, $9.99)
Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 (digital, $5.99)
Full Metal Sergeant (digital, $8.99)
Midnight Remastered (digital, $1.99)
MotoGP 24 (digital, $49.99)
Pool Slide Story (digital, $10.79)
Ready, Steady, Ship! (digital, $14.99)
Sclash (digital, $9.99)
The Manga Works (digital, $10.79)
The Prisoner of the Night (digital, $14.99)

PC
Abiotic Factor ($19.99)
Chill Pulse ($TBA)
Farm Together 2 ($TBA)
Foundary ($26.99)
Gift ($TBA)
Great Houses of Calderia ($13.49)
Heading Out ($TBA)
Hexguardian ($9.59)
Indika ($22.49)
Mashiroiro Symphony HD -Love is Pure White- ($23.99)
Mashiroiro Symphony HD -Sana Edition- ($17.99)
MotoGP 24 ($49.99)
Plushie from the Sky ($TBA)
Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure ($13.49)
The Political Machine 2024 ($19.99)

Rob’s pick: We’ve probably all played those restaurant simulations that task us with supplying food to a succession of hungry customers. The objective typically revolves around growing your operation, which ultimately can feel a bit futile since it just means things grow more hectic. Agreeably, Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya distances itself away from purposeless growth. The goal here is to bond with your fellow citizens of Gensokyo. From Tanuki tricksters who sporadically pay their bills with leaves to tsuchigumo with a passion for architecture, Izakaya is just as engrossed in personality as it is about serving customers. And that makes a world of difference in the overcrowded genre.

And one thing I need to get off my chest: please stop making Pac-Man an online-only multiplayer game. We need more timeless efforts like the Championship Edition games and fewer titles that will be obsolete in a month or two. Well, at least Matt will be online.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): So, here’s something you probably didn’t know about me: I am a massive fan of Pac-Man. Got Pac-Man merchandise everywhere and regularly play whatever Pac-Thing I can get my hands on. So, while I do agree with Robert’s point that using Pac-Man to chase the popular trend is a sad misuse of the sans-slice pizza hero, I also can’t help myself: I am super keen to play Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs. Please don’t hate me, Robert.

Otherwise, as anyone that follows me on Twitter knows I’m politically active, and I’m also convinced that absolutely everyone involved in politics is a moron. So, sure, I’ll give The Political Machine 2024 a spin. I mean, sure, this upcoming US election is a dictionary definition case of “whoever wins, we lose”, but if the ship is going to go down in flames, at least we can have some fun on the way out.

Finally, I see that two Mashiroiro Symphony HD games are due this week. I’ve never heard of them, but a quick Google search tells me that they’re visual novels with a very pretty art style, and an adults version so, sure. Let’s go with that as another pick this week!

Ryan’s pick: Driving simulator games have always been a special kind of zen for me, dating way back to when the original Driver game came out. This week, Heading Out gets my official pick as it seems like a pretty solid driving game with some interesting narrative added to it. The black and white aesthetic helps to build upon the ‘70s inspired theme the game is going for, so I think stylistically it seems pretty unique. While I don’t think this will be as unnerving as the game demo from the driving game Beware, I think the chase scenes should be more than enough to keep my interest.

One pick that I missed last week, but I still think should be mentioned is Another Crab’s Treasure. This under-the-sea roguelike featuring a hermit crab seems to pull mechanics from a lot of different games in the genre to give it a unique feel. The game touts that it’s both approachable for newcomers and has plenty to appease veteran soulslike fans, so I think this could be a good way to test the waters for the genre or to try while you wait for the upcoming Elden Ring DLC.