New Releases: July 18th-24th, 2024

This week, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition brings a collection of challenges culled from 13 different NES titles. Meanwhile, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess tasks players with protecting a divine maiden using a moveset inspired by kagura.

PlayStation 4
Conscript (digital, $21.99)
Exophobia (digital, $TBA)
F1 Manager 2024 (digital, $34.99)
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (digital, $49.99)
Over Horizon X Steel Empire (digital, $13.49)
Retro Revengers (digital, $9.99)
SCHiM (digital, $22.49)

PlayStation 5
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus (digital, 19.99)
EA Sports College Football 25 (physical & digital, $69.99)
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (digital, $39.99)
Furry Shakespeare: To Date or Not to Date Cat Girls? If Made Today (digital, $TBA)
SCHiM (digital, $22.49)
The Star Named EOS (digital, $19.49)

Switch
A Lost Note (digital, $9.99)
AirStrike Command: Tactical Assault Operation (digital, $9.99)
Ancient Phantasma (digital, $13.49)
Auto Empire: Dealer Car Simulator (digital, $12.99)
Backroom Escape: Labyrinth Horror (digital, $4.99)
Basketball Slum Dunk 2024 (digital, $7.99)
Cargo Manager: Forklift Simulator (digital, $4.99)
Chrysolite (digital, $11.24)
Conscript (digital, $21.99)
Diamond Painting ASMR (digital, $4.99)
Ecchi Time (digital, $7.69)
EGGCONSOLE Seilane PC-8801mkIISR (digital, $6.49)
Frogurai (digital, $4.99)
Fueled Up (digital, $19.99)
Hentai Paradise Vol. 1 (digital, $3.59)
I Want to Eat Umaibo ! (digital, $9.99)
Jello (digital, $13.99)
Neon Cop (digital, $0.99)
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (digital, $29.99)
Over Horizon X Steel Empire (digital, $13.49)
Photographic Memory Test (digital, $2.99)
Racing Car Chaos: Extreme Stunt Showdown (digital, $7.99)
Rivalia: Dungeon Raiders (digital, $14.99)
Satryn DX (digital, $6.99)
SCHiM (digital, $22.49)
Shogun Samurai Tycoon (digital, $9.99)
Slot & Learn Country Names in Kanji (digital, $2.99)
Spy Guy Animals Junior (digital, $8.99)
Stylist Girl (digital, $7.99)
Suddenly an Ogre (digital, $1.99)
Super Woden GP II (digital, $12.99)
The Gravity Trickster (digital, $13.99)
Throw it! Dinosaur Panic (digital, $3.99)
Tiny Treasure Hunt DX (digital, $2.99)
Toree’s Panic Pack (digital, $0.99)
Traffic Race 3D 2 (digital, $6.99)
Train Your Brain! Spot the Difference with Fish Photos (digital, $2.99)
Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Purgatory (digital, $14.99)
Which Kanji? So Fancy! (digital, $2.99)
Zombie Derby 2 (digital, $3.74)

Xbox One
Ancient Phantasma (digital, $13.49)
Buried Alive: Breathless Rescue (digital, $12.99)
Conscript (digital, $21.99)
Dragon Bobby – The Story of a Life (digital, $14.99)
F1 Manager 2024 (digital, $34.99)
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (digital, $49.99)
Retro Revengers (digital, $9.99)
SCHiM (digital, $22.49)
Soul Searching (digital, $7.99)
Tennis Club Story (digital, $10.79)
World Cruise Story (digital, $10.79)

PC
Brazen Blaze ($TBA, VR)
Broken Lens ($TBA)
Cataclismo ($TBA)
Critter Crops ($TBA)
Dungeonborne (free)
Dungeons of Hinterberg ($26.99)
Exophobia ($TBA)
F1 Manager 2024 ($34.99)
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn ($35.99)
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess ($49.99)
Last Whisper ($TBA)
Meifumado ($13.49)
Metal Slug: Awakening (free)
Midnight Ramen ($TBA)
Ninja Slayer Neo-Saitama in Flames ($TBA)
Norland ($23.99)
Old School Rally ($8.99)
SCHiM (digital, $22.49)
Space Prison ($17.99)
Superscout ($16.19)
The Operator ($TBA)
Union of Gnomes ($13.49)
USC: Counterforce ($11.99)
Vampire Therapist ($14.99)
Vorax ($TBA)
Weyrdlets (free)

Rob’s pick: 25 years on, I still remember seeing Sega Rally 2 for the first time. Months before the Dreamcast would arrive on US shores, a tiny import shop in San Francisco put the game on display and I was immediately entranced. Weeks later, I managed to save enough to buy the system, I didn’t have much money for additional games, so I played Rally repeatedly with friends almost every night in the summer of 1999. While this week’s release of Old School Rally looks to draw just as much inspiration from Codemaster’s Colin McRae series (which I also played religiously), I’m going to seize any and all opportunities to rekindle those halcyon days of careening around curves. Hopefully, they included a Lancia Stratos-looking car.

Additionally, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess will probably get some playtime this week. Following Orcs Must Die! 2 and Dungeon Defenders, I continue to seek titles that provide an engaging blend hack-and-slash action with tower-defense style placement. Most titles don’t get the balance right, neglecting crucial elements like turret synergy.  Hopefully, Kunitsu-Gami doesn’t neglect the strategic side of things.

Ryan’s pick: Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess gets the official stamp of approval this week for me. Weaving the traditional Shinto kagura dance into an action game with strategy elements is definitely a new approach, and visually everything looks spectacular. My caveman brain is still going to probably be smashing the circle button for dodging as I (and my R-stick potentiometer) continue to recover from Elden Ring, but the hope is that this new genre will expedite the process.

Two other dungeon-themed games caught my eye this week, starting with Dungeonborne. Visually, my brain is drawing parallels to the FPS dungeon diving seen in Skyrim and mixing that with loot drops. Overall, it seems to be a pretty interesting premise and could be a fun one if you enjoy loot farming or are looking for a coop dungeon game. The other game is Dungeons of Hinterberg. The cel-shading in this one gives it a completely different appeal, and the inclusion of puzzles is equally enticing, as I’ll need a bit of that to help keep me busy while I wait for the new Natlan area to release in Genshin Impact.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I’m definitely keen on Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. I must admit I haven’t followed it that closely and didn’t know much about it beyond its theme until I read what Rob and Ryan wrote just above here, but Shinto’s my religion (no, really, I do the shrine thing when I visit Japan and read plenty of books and all the rest. It’s not really a religion you practice so much as simply identify with, and I identify with a lot of its philosophy and outlook on the world), so the aesthetic and theme of the game was immediately appealing. The fact that it’s apparently a tower defence thing is so much the better. I haven’t played one of those in ages.

Otherwise, I totally missed this news too, but Riviera: The Promised Land released on Steam just yesterday (at time of writing), and that game is far too good to stealth drop. This is one of the all-time great GBA JRPGs, and the update for this re-release looks really good. I can’t wait to dip into it.