New Releases: August 11th-17th, 2022

This week, grow a cute sect in Cult of the Lamb, strap on skates and firearms to gun down opponents in Rollerdrome, or simply renovate that old laundromat into gaming retreat in Arcade Paradise. Alternatively, Animal Trail ☆ Girlish Square’s (pictured) Shirayuki is ready to share a crepe. Here’s a list of everything that is arriving:

PlayStation 4
Arcade Archives: Gun Frontier (digital, $7.99)
Arcade Paradise (digital, $19.99)
Cult of the Lamb (digital, $24.99)
Little League World Series Baseball 2022 (physical & digital, $39.99)
Rollerdrome (digital, $19.79)
Rumbleverse (digital, free to play)
Super Bullet Break (digital, $17.99)
Voyage (digital, $14.99)

PlayStation 5
Little League World Series Baseball 2022 (physical & digital, $49.99)
Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi (physical & digital, $59.99)
Way of The Hunter (physical & digital, $39.99)

Switch
Arcade Paradise (digital, $19.99)
Axiom Verge 2 (digital, $14.99)
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince (digital, $13.49)
Cat Slide Tiles (digital, $3.99)
Cult of the Lamb (digital, $24.99)
Hell Blasters (digital, $14.99)
Japanese NEKOSAMA Escape the Sento (digital, $4.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow (digital, $24.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: Best of the 1980’s (DLC, $9.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: Captains Classics (DLC, $9.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: College Championship (DLC, $9.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: Teen Tournament (DLC, $9.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: The Road to the All-Star Games (DLC, $9.99)
Jeopardy! PlayShow: Tournament of Champions (DLC, $9.99)
Last Threshold (digital, $24.99)
Little League World Series Baseball 2022 (digital, $39.99)
Robo Revenge Squad (digital, $20.00)
Sakura MMO (digital, $9.99)
SENGOKU Princess (digital, $19.99)
Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- (digital, $35.99)
Super Bullet Break (digital, $17.99)
Two Point Campus (physical & digital, $39.99)
Viki Spotter: Space Mission (digital, $4.99)
Voyage (digital, $14.99)
WitchSpring3 Re:Fine Outfit Pack (DLC, $3.99)

Xbox One
Arcade Paradise (digital, $19.99)
Cult of the Lamb (digital, $24.99)
Dyna Bomb 2 (digital, $17.99)
Little League World Series Baseball 2022 (digital, $39.99)
Rumbleverse (digital, free to play)
Tribes of Midgard (digital, $17.99)
Voyage (digital, $19.99)
Way of The Hunter (physical & digital, $39.99)

PC
Animal Trail ☆ Girlish Square ($TBA)
Arcade Paradise ($19.99)
Axiom Verge 2 ($19.99)
Backpack Hero ($TBA)
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince ($13.49)
Catizens ($TBA)
City Eye ($TBA)
Cult of the Lamb ($24.99)
Fashion Police Squad ($TBA)
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered ($59.99)
Neodash ($TBA)
Noelle Does Her Best! ($TBA)
Regiments  ($TBA)
Rollerdrome ($19.79)
Super Bullet Break ($17.99)
Way of the Hunter ($39.99)

Rob’s Pick: Blending cute and creepy in equal measures, Cult of the Lamb has earned my attention, especially after a succession of raves from Matt R. At its core, the game blends the dungeon-based highlights of The Legend of Zelda with the carefree crafting of Animal Crossing. But where Nintendo’s efforts convey unperturbed optimism, Lamb is born from a world-weary zeitgeist. Your endgame is to build up a massive cult. But periodically, dissent may fester within your following, requiring some ‘re-education’ or at worst, some more lethal punishments (yes, it’s rather amusing to see a lamb ordering the sacrifice, this time around). Cartoonish visuals keep things from getting too dark, but if you appreciate games that offer a bit of social satire, this is the Cult to join.

Lately, I’ve been finding myself returning to the first-person shooters of old.  At best, most contemporary genre entries toss in single-player campaigns as an afterthought. However, contemporary  hardware makes retro games like Quake or Duke Nukem 3D run buttery smooth. Similarly,  I’ve been enjoying Fashion Police Squad on the Steam Deck, having a riotous time on the train into work. It’s a solid shooter, with tools like a grappling hook (actually a stretchy belt) and sewing machine weapons that are fun to use. But it also has a sense of humor, as you attempt to remove all the faux pas from Trendopolis. And you get to mess with the wild scooter-riding bros.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): If you have a high tolerance for pain, the Super Bullet Break is worth a look-in. This game is brutally challenging, with one of the nastiest roguelike loops I’ve encountered since… Rogue, but there’s a lot of charm to it as well, courtesy of all the pretty girls you get to recruit along the way.

I’m also a sucker for gacha mechanics (when they don’t come with real-money investment), and the random nature with which you’ll recruit a lot of the girls to the party offers a delightful loop. I wish there was more in-play depiction of them (since that gorgeous art is converted to relatively pedestrian cards once the character has been recruited) but, still, Super Bullet Break is made for people like me and I do appreciate it.

I’ll also give Little League World Series Baseball 2022 a whirl since it seems like a fun little arcade-lite take on baseball. With EA buying the studio behind Super Mega Baseball we do need an alternative for when the inevitable happens and the publisher ruins that series, so who knows? Perhaps Little League World Series Baseball 2022 can be it.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): It seems I jumped the gun a bit on Cult of the Lamb last week, but now that the review embargo has lifted and I can speak more freely: it’s a morbid, darkly funny delight. Roguelike and life sim don’t seem like they should fit together, designed as they usually are around tension and relaxation, respectively. But Massive Monster have brought those pieces together in a way that doesn’t just feel natural and effortless, but cleverly weaves these conflicting moods into something far more than the sum of its parts. The juxtaposition of cute and creepy, of playful and macabre, ties the whole piece together into one of the most compelling games I’ve played in a while.

And because I’m a simple child at heart, I’m also looking forward to Blossom Tales II. The first game was a fun, uncomplicated throwback to The Legend of Zelda‘s 16-bit days, not exactly pushing any boundaries but being a worthy homage with a cute, charismatic heroine at its heart. Blossom Tales II mostly looks like more of the same, but with a new adventure and a new story to tell. And honestly? That’s all it needs to be.

Ryan’s Pick: Rollerdome looks like a blast for a lot of reasons. It has bullet time slowdown, cel shaded graphics, an electronic soundtrack, and blood. It has all of the things that I liked in a game in the late 90s, so I am going to have to give this one a try. The one thing that I feel like could make the game feel a bit awkward would be launching yourself up via a half-pipe and then having to fire at your enemies, but from what I’ve seen it’s done seamlessly. I’m keeping my expectations pretty low in terms of story and narrative, but I think that the action and premise alone are enough to keep me busy.

I will have to also say that Cult of Lamb equally looks enticing. I was just recalling ActRaiser and how to this day there are pretty few games that are able to have simulation and action together into a cohesive game. As of late I’ve been playing Noita which has been giving me plenty of roguelike angst in the form of being caught on fire every 5 seconds, so I am curious to see how difficult this game is in comparison. A roguelike game by itself requires a lot of balancing, so I’m definitely interested in trying this one to see how everything works together.