New Releases: July 25th-31st, 2024

This week, Sword and Fairy Inn 2 (pictured) opens for business, Bitmap Bureau Collection bundles a trio of titles onto physical media, while Tokyo Xanadu eX+ arrives on Switch. Here’s the full list of what’s arriving on PC and console over the next six days:

PlayStation 4
Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow (digital, $19.99)
Earth Defense Force 6 (digital, $59.99, $89.99)
Exhausted Man (digital, $9.99)
Harvest Days (digital, $19.99)
Lakeview Cabin Collection (digital, $17.99)
Sword and Fairy Inn 2 (digital, $19.99)

PlayStation 5
Bitmap Bureau Collection (physical & digital, $49.99)
Deadlink (digital, $28.99, $24.64 PS+)
House of Golf 2 (digital, $TBA)

Switch
Abathor (digital, $14.99)
Aooni (digital, $9.99)
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure (digital, $17.99)
Astoria: Fate’s Kiss (digital, $29.99)
Basketball Anime Girls (digital, $7.99)
Bitmap Bureau Collection (physical & digital, $49.99)
City Takeover (digital, $4.99)
Cyber Racers: Retro Neon Punk Drift (digital, $9.99)
Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow (digital, $19.99)
Death Noodle Delivery (digital, $4.99)
Escape Fear 2: Hide And Seek Horror (digital, $4.99)
Exhausted Man (digital, $9.99)
Faster Than Bolt (digital, $6.99)
Fishing Break (digital, $7.99)
Fit My Dog (digital, $6.99)
Harvest Days (digital, $19.99)
Hellpit 3D Platformer (digital, $4.99)
Hidden Cats in Rome (digital, $3.99)
Hollow Cocoon (digital, $11.69)
Inflatables (digital, $0.99)
JALECOlle Famicom Ver. Pinball Quest (digital, $7.19)
Jewel Fight: Heroes of Legend (digital, $8.99)
Little Army (digital, $4.99)
Midnight Collection (digital, $7.99)
Mists of Noyah (digital, $9.99)
Monument: Invasion (digital, $9.99)
Pair Horror (digital, $12.00)
Puppy Cars: Games for Kids Edition (digital, $10.87)
Ringlorn Saga (digital, $9.99)
Sanbansen Plus (digital, $4.00)
Seven Nights Ghost (digital, $11.99)
Some Some Convenience Store (digital, $24.99)
Speed Overflow (digital, $12.99)
Sportitions’24 (digital, $7.99)
Steel Racer (digital, $4.99)
Summer In Trigue (digital, $14.99)
Tactical Bandits (digital, $11.99)
The Garden Path (digital, $19.99)
The Legend of the Dragonflame High School 3 (digital, $2.69)
Thief Simulator: Heist Master (digital, $7.99)
Tokyo Chronos & Altdeus: Beyond Chronos Twin Pack (digital, $44.99)
Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (digital, $49.99)
Uncover the Triad of Terror (digital, $2.99)
Urban Survival Simulator: The Bum’s Journey (digital, $12.99)

Xbox One
Abathor (digital, $14.99)
Asphalt Legends Unite (free)
Daydream: Forgotten Sorrow (digital, $19.99)
Exhausted Man (digital, $9.99)
Harvest Days (digital, $19.99)
Lakeview Cabin Collection (digital, $17.99)
Nerd Survivors (digital, $6.99)
Paper Flight – Relic Hunter (digital, $9.99)
Roots of Pacha (digital, $24.99)
Sword and Fairy Inn 2 (digital, $19.99)

PC
7 Ways to Die ($44.99)
Aooni ($5.99)
Arc Seed ($TBA)
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure ($17.99)
Artifact Seeker: Resurrection ($TBA)
Cute Suika: Big Watermelon ($TBA)
Dawnmaker ($TBA)
Deathless ($TBA)
Earth Defense Force 6 ($53.99)
Elder Legacy ($TBA)
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD ($17.99)
Mini Airways ($TBA)
Project L33T ($29.99)
Sea of Mutation ($5.39)
Starground ($TBA)
Stormgate ($24.99)
The Garden Path ($19.99)
Tidy Cauldron ($TBA)
Total War: Pharoah Dynasties ($26.79)
Towerful Defense: A Rogue TD ($TBA)
Wéko The Mask Gatherer ($TBA)
Zoo Simulator ($TBA)

Rob’s Pick: Unless you’re a devoted fan of EDF who habitually plays with your buddies online, you probably don’t need to purchase Earth Defense Force 6 at release. While the new game boosts tweaks like moving grenades to a third weapon slot and damage numbers that show weapon effectiveness, once the intensity heats up, it’s largely the same as previous entries. But that said, if you appreciate gunning down legions of gigantic enemies and being able to turn your brain off, you should own at least one EDF title. Between gacha-style weapon drops and the satisfaction of razing a high-rise just to kill a horde of adversaries, the franchise definitely has plenty of simple pleasures. Ryan and Matt, why haven’t we all played together?

If you’re a retro aficionado like me, JALECOlle Famicom Ver. Pinball Quest might be worth a look. Created by Japan’s most prolific ‘ghost developer’ Tose (1000+ games and counting), the original Pinball Quest was the first game to fuse pinball and role-playing. Yes, it’s unabashedly quirky, with gimmicks like being able to teleport your flippers to different parts of the table. But like many of Jaleco’s NES titles, the game definitely has its charms. (edit: Learned that Earth Defense Force 6 requires a third-party sign-in. Forget that! I learned a valuable lesson from the whole Games For Windows Live fiasco. Why are publishers forcing these things on us?)

Ryan’s pick: It wasn’t until recently that I realized I like resource collection and automation in games. Maybe it’s all the gacha playing and their wonderful autoplay features, but it’s quite satisfying to be able to do something else in a game while the game is doing something for you. Starground gets the official pick this week for implementing both resource collection, automation, and dungeon crawling together.  Weapons have the ability to be created modularly as well, so I think there’s a lot going for the game and there may be something for various audiences. This could also be a good choice for game night, as there is also coop available. Speaking of coop, that is a good point, Robert!

My prowess in high-stake, first-person shooters is laughably bad. Just crawling around the whole time like I’m Sam Fischer and then typically dying in what I like to believe is a heated battle against AI mobs. I think my most recent experience while playing Hunt: Showdown was being told by my brother to go wait upstairs in some barn while he attacked the one boss. It was an odd experience, but maybe it’s commonplace for those that typically play this genre. I think that Project L33T may be more my speed versus odd swamp monsters this week. I don’t think I’ll be able to escape the anxiety of trying to loot as fast as possible in menus, as I didn’t know this was something I worried about until I played a few rounds of games in this genre. Give this one a look, as the modern weaponry and customization seems pretty good.