New Releases: June 27th-July 3rd, 2024

This week, the youngest Forger and the rest of the family appear in SPYxANYA: Operation Memories while NeoSprint updates the classic Kee Games/Atari racer. If neither sound appealing, TSUKIHIME -A piece of blue glass moon- (pictured) makes a stateside appearance, nearly three years after the remake appeared in Japan.

PlayStation 4
34 Sports Games – World Edition (digital, $29.99)
Exo One (digital, $16.99)
Gigantosaurus: Dino Sports (digital, $39.99)
Hot Blood (digital, $9.99)
NeoSprint (digital, $24.99)
Nocturnal Visitors (digital, $4.99)
Pocket Bravery (digital, $19.99)
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered (digital, $19.99)
SPYxANYA: Operation Memories (digital, $TBA)
The First Descendant (digital, free to play)
TSUKIHIME -A piece of blue glass moon- (digital, $49.99)
Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate (digital, $49.99, PS VR2)

Switch
34 Sports Games – World Edition (digital, $29.99)
A Street Cat’s Tale 2: Outside is Dangerous (digital, $13.99)
Air Sea Modern Conflict (digital, $11.99)
Aqua Puzzle Adventures (digital, $5.59)
At Your Feet (digital, $15.99)
Boat Driver: Ship Parking Simulator (digital, $4.99)
Cape’s Escape Game 9th Room (digital, $4.80)
Climbing Over It with a Spear Only Up (digital, $6.99)
Construct Farm (digital, $9.99)
Dead Station 2 (digital, $4.99)
Echolocaution (digital, $5.00)
Eggconsole Topple Zip PC-8801 (digital, $6.49)
Escape from the Tower (digital, $2.99)
Flying Tank (digital, $14.99)
Food Truck Simulator (digital, $19.99)
Fortress Challenge – Fort Boyard (digital, $35.99)
Frogue (digital, $4.99)
Gigantosaurus: Dino Sports (digital, $39.99)
Good Guys (digital, $0.99)
How to Sing to Open Your Heart Remastered (digital, $14.99)
Hot Blood (digital, $9.99)
Last Night of Winter (digital, $7.99)
Make it! Yakitori (digital, $3.00)
Mega Ramp Car Jumping (digital, $4.49)
Merge Block Puzzle (digital, $3.59)
NeoSprint (digital, $24.99)
Nocturnal Visitors (digital, $4.99)
Offroad Masters: Motocross Races (digital, $3.99)
Planetarian: Snow Globe (digital, $4.99)
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet & Snow Globe (digital, $14.99)
Radiant Tale -Fanfare!- (digital, $49.99)
Room Renovator: Furniture Decor Simulator (digital, $4.99)
Shogun (digital, $4.99)
Switch Race (digital, $0.99)
Synaxarion: Great Martyr Theodore the Tyro (digital, $0.99)
Tchia (digital, $29.99)
The Battle Cats Unite! (digital, $19.99)
TSUKIHIME -A piece of blue glass moon- (digital, $49.99)
Ultra Hard! Spot the Difference Challenge (digital, $2.99)
Whacking Hell! (digital, $9.99)
Wild West Tycoon Empire (digital, $9.99)
Yori’s Journey: Forgotten Origins (digital, $9.99)

Xbox One
34 Sports Games – World Edition (digital, $29.99)
Fortress Challenge – Fort Boyard (digital, $35.99)
Gigantosaurus: Dino Sports (digital, $39.99)
Last Night of Winter (digital, $7.99)
NeoSprint (digital, $24.99)
Nocturnal Visitors (digital, $4.99)
The First Descendant (digital, free to play)

PC
Battle Crush (free)
Conge’s Crunch Time ($9.59)
Crystal Soul Chambers
Cthulhu Mythos ADV
Fingun Forever! ($3.74)
Gigantosaurus: Dino Sports ($39.99)
NeoSprint  ($22.49)
Oh Deer ($4.99)
OUTBRK
SpyxAnya: Operation Memories
The First Descendant (free to play)
Urban ($9.99)
Warchief ($19.99)
Z-APE: Tower Defense ($4.49)

Rob’s Pick: I enjoyed the first season of SPYxFAMILY and I’m trying to not let the slight disappointment of the Code: White movie dampen my spirits for SPYxANYA: Operation Memories. Conceptually, creating a photo diary as Anya Forger should be absolving, allowing for more creative opportunities than any kind of by-the-book action with Loid or Mama Yor. I just hope developer GrooveBoxJapan can capture some of the comical nuances of the source material, like the rivalries with Damian Desmond and at least one compromising photo of Twilight interacting with Fiona Frost.

I’ve been playing a bit of NeoSprint and while I’m not completely captivated by the reboot, I’m surprised at how well developer Headless Chicken preserved the feel of driving, with steering and acceleration coming very close to the original arcade experience. While most of the world might have forgotten about the Play, Create, Share initiative found in LittleBigPlanet Karting, I’m all for giving console (and PC) players the tools to design their own tracks.

Ryan’s pick: The Super Sprint series takes me way back to both the arcade and NES era, so I think I’m going to go with NeoSprint as my official pick this week. Thinking back, it definitely took me at least a few laps before I could even begin to dial in the controls for it on the console version on NES (which had a different style Tengen cart compared to other NES games), but overall it was a pretty fun single and multiplayer racer that was satisfying once you could get into the rhythm of the controls and cornering. Adding in track building and different modes provides a bit more replay value for this new addition to the series, so I think this isometric racer could be a fun one to check out and play in short bursts.

The free-to-play first-person game The First Descendant caught my eye as well this week. I have played other NEXON f2p games in the past, and quality-wise their content and design are usually high. This said, this looter shooter looks pretty impressive using UE5, and I think that it equally has some potential due to its ample cast of husbandos and waifus. As a fairly seasoned gacha player I’m curious to see how fast and repetitive the gameplay is, and also what else is considered premium content outside of character skins. One other thing that seems to help with these types of games is also how generous the developer is with the game currency and promotions, so that’s one other thing to feel out if you’re going to try a new f2p.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh buoyyyyy… I have never played TSUKIHIME -A piece of blue glass moon-, and I only have a vague awareness of what it’s about. I do, however, know it by reputation and that it has a fearsome one for being excellent. I am so very much looking forward to experiencing this one for myself and filling in that gap among VN legends.

Beyond that there is also The Battle Cats Unite!. I love Battle Cats. I spent an ungodly number of hours playing the 3DS one, and I am very much in the mood for more. The kind of tower defence experience that Battle Cats is connected with has really fallen out of favour in recent years, so while we were once inundated with them, now this is a sweat little treat.