New Releases: August 25th-31st, 2022

Mirroring the eccentricity of the manga and anime, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid gets an interactive adaptation this week. Kobayashi, Tohru, and Elma form up as tag-team partners in an STG that will test the prowess of shooter superstars. If dodging bullets isn’t your thing, perhaps devouring pellet might interest you. Pac-Man World Re-Pac offers a remake of the original PlayStation 1 platformer. Meanwhile, How to Build a Magnificent Kingdom (pictured) tasks Princess Ariadne with restoring her once mighty empire.

PlayStation 4
Aliens: Fireteam Elite – Pathogen (DLC, $14.99)
Aquadine (digital, $19.99)
Back 4 Blood: Children of the Worm (DLC, $14.99)
Commandos 3 – HD Remaster (digital, $TBA)
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed (physical & digital, $39.99)
Dusk Diver 2 (physical & digital, $49.99)
F1 Manager 2022 (physical & digital, $54.99)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (digital, $24.99)
Inscryption (digital, $19.99)
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath (digital, $39.99)
Nexomon + Nexomon: Extinction: Complete Collection (physical & digital, $39.99)
NHRA Championship Drag Racing: Speed for All (physical & digital, $49.99)
Pac-Man World Re-Pac (physical & digital, $29.99)
Phantasy Star Online 2 (free to play)
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis (free to play)
SD Gundam Battle Alliance (digital, $59.99)
Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation – The Endless Seven-Day Journey (digital, $39.99)
Soul Hackers 2 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (physical & digital, $39.99)
The Company Man (digital, $TBA)
Tinykin (digital, $22.49)
Zengeon (physical, $29.99)

PlayStation 5
F1 Manager 2022 (physical & digital, $54.99)
NHRA Championship Drag Racing: Speed for All (physical & digital, $49.99)
Soul Hackers 2 (physical & digital, $59.99)

Switch
Alien War (digital, $3.99)
Aquadine (digital, $19.99)
Back Again (digital, $2.99)
Createscape Town～Nyanzou&Kumakichi: Escape Game～ (digital, $4.90)
Criminal Expert (digital, $9.99)
Dusk Diver 2 (physical & digital, $49.99)
Enduring Mountain (digital, $5.99)
Escape Game & Card Search Game R01M (digital, $1.00)
Forest Camp Story (digital, $12.60)
Haak (digital, $18.90)
Hidden Shapes: Black Skull + Old West (digital, $3.99)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (digital, $24.99)
Idol Manager (digital, $24.99)
Kofi Quest (digital, $14.99)
Like No Other: The Legend of The Twin Books (digital, $18.99)
Mahjong Minimal (digital, $1.99)
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath (digital, $39.99)
Moorhuhn X – Crazy Chicken X (digital, $6.99)
Narona Sports (digital, $5.99)
NHRA Championship Drag Racing: Speed for All (physical & digital, $49.99)
Pac-Man World Re-Pac (physical & digital, $29.99)
Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (physical & digital, $30.99)
Robby’s Adventure (digital, $1.99)
SD Gundam Battle Alliance (digital, $59.99)
Tee Time Golf (digital, $24.99)
The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands (digital, $6.29)
Tinykin (digital, $22.49)
United Assault – Normandy ’44 (digital, $9.99)
Viki Spotter: Undersea (digital, $4.99)
WorldWide FlightSimulator (digital, $24.99)

Xbox One
Aquadine (digital, $19.99)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite – Pathogen (DLC, $14.99)
Back 4 Blood: Children of the Worm (DLC, $14.99)
F1 Manager 2022 (physical & digital, $54.99)
Commandos 3 – HD Remaster (digital, $TBA)
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed (physical & digital, $39.99)
NHRA Championship Drag Racing: Speed for All (physical & digital, $49.99)
Pac-Man World Re-Pac (physical & digital, $29.99)
Opus: Echo of Starsong – Full Bloom Edition
Richman 10 (digital, $14.99)
SD Gundam Battle Alliance (digital, $59.99)
Soul Hackers 2 (physical & digital, $59.99)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (physical & digital, $39.99)
The Company Man (digital, $TBA)

PC
BROK the InvestiGator ($TBA)
Commandos 3 – HD Remaster ($TBA)
Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed ($39.99)
Earthling’s Undertaking ($14.39)
Endgame: Survival ($11.89)
F1 Manager 2022 ($49.49)
Gunfire Reborn – Visitors of Spirit Realm (DLC, $TBA)
How to Build a Magnificent Kingdom ($TBA)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist ($24.99)
Immortality ($TBA)
Jade Order ($4.24)
Killrun ($4.49)
ORX ($TBA)
Overloop  ($TBA)
Selene ~Apoptosis~ (free)
Soul Hackers 2 ($59.99)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection ($39.99)
The Bridge Curse Road to Salvation ($17.99)

Rob’s pick: I was weebed at a young age. Growing up near San Francisco, there was a steady influx of test market toys from Japan, which seemed far more interesting that those ugly Star Wars figurines a lot of kids played with. This week’s release of SD Gundam Battle Alliance is taking me back to the salient years. Not only are some of the game’s stages reminiscent of a playground sandbox (without the requisite cat poop), but combat feels more like playing with tiny toys than the complexities of most mobile suit simulations.

For those who have stuck with the franchise over the years, Battle Alliance imagines a ‘G Universe’, where Gundam timelines have converged. It’s a customary setup for unifying a property, allowing for everything from the original Mobile Suit Gundam to Iron Blooded Orphans to mingle. Pulpy and sporadically comical banter help make the conceit work.

While there’s a sprinkling of stats upgrades and strategies like attacking from behind, it’s the accessible action that is the real star. From lobbing grenades, spraying foes with machine gun fire, or shielding before letting loose with a melee combo, battles feel occupying, almost like a 3D weapon brawler. Another perk is that it runs great and looks fantastic on Switch. I also have my eye on Gunfire Reborn – Visitors of Spirit Realm. The base game gets a lot of play on my Steam Deck. It’s an FPS roguelike that feels like Borderlands without the incessant attempts at humor.

Ryan’s pick: The Cowabunga collection is calling my name this week. I was just talking about the infamous swimming level in the NES version of TMNT last week, and how brutally difficult it was to traverse that electric seaweed. Donatello was the true MVP of that game, as his attacks were able to go through floors, giving him a big advantage over the rest of the squad. I tried getting that one pizza on the other side of an impossible jump for hours in the first level of that game. I’m willing to look past this first NES game, as some of the others in this bundle were quite fun, including the Konami NES version that was made to resemble the arcade game. Turtles in Time on SNES was equally amazing, leveraging the new graphical ability to send enemies flying at the screen back then. There’s just a lot of great games available in this bundle, so I’m going to have to go for it.

My favorite dragon Tohru also is making a debut this week in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon ☆ Breath, so I wanted to give this game a quick mention. I really liked the series, so I’m pretty curious to see how this shmup plays out. It appears like a lot of the characters from the universe have made it into this game, and the fact that there is original voice acting for it makes me feel like it’s worth a look. I don’t think the game will necessarily be able to hold its own when compared to other more robust shmups, but if you liked the series I think it should provide enough content to keep you interested. Playable in the game are Tohru, Kanna, and Elma. I was kind of hoping Lucoa was playable, but I’m sure I can have just as much fun playing as the other three.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Technically it was released earlier, but I only just found out about it today. I’m going to recommend Write ‘N Fight, a 2D fighting game in which various authors across history fight it out Street Fighter-style. I like it because there’s a screenshot of Ernst Hemmingway punching H.P Lovecraft in the balls. That’s how you sell a game to me, friends. Because, while I love Lovecraft’s cosmic horror with a passion, dude was nasty racist and does deserve some bruising in the nether regions by ol’ Papa.

Of the games actually releasing this week, I know Rob and I were divided a bit on Soul Hackers 2, but I found it philosophically interesting. What happens when you replace God with AI, as this game posits? What does that do to our concept of self, the soul, spirituality and morality? Perhaps the game doesn’t address its philosophy as intelligently as SMT spinoffs in the past (Digital Devil Saga I forever love you), but it’s still a good time for the brain, as far as I’m concerned.

I’d also like to give a shout out to Idol Manager, which was released on PC last year, but feels better on Switch. Idol Manager takes one of the more seedy, exploitative ideas of “human resources” and makes a surprisingly interesting simulation game out of it. One that’s both mechanically challenging, and – and this really did surprise me – quite unflinching about how abusive the industry can be. Don’t let the promo art fool you, this is closer to a criticism of AKB48 than a celebration of it, and I find that admirable and interesting.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I’ll admit I’ve never read or watched Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, but show me a bright, colourful shoot em up with lots of bullets on screen, and you immediately get my attention. From what little I do know of Dragon Maid, a shmup seems a slightly odd choice for a game adaptation, but that just makes Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon☆ Breath all the more intriguing. At the very least, you’ve got a playful sense of humour and what look like some decent scoring mechanics. And, y’know, clothing damage, it seems.

I’m also a little curious about I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, a game that combines a deckbuilding RPG with a life sim to tell the stories of a kid growing up on an alien planet. It’s a game where card battling isn’t just about defending yourself from alien creatures, but also passing exams and just living life in an extrasolar colony, and where those decisions and events in turn form cards to build your deck. It sounds more than a little ambitious, but if the pieces can come together, it could be one of the most unique takes on two rather busy genres.

Lastly, Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 brings two of the best games from Nippon Ichi’s earlier days to Switch. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure was, I believe, the first NIS game to get a Western release, with its musical inspiration and extra-cute design being enough to make it stand out from the usual RPG of the ‘90s. La Pucelle: Ragnarok, meanwhile, is a juiced-up re-release of an underappreciated PS2 tactical RPG that, in some ways, was a precursor to Disgaea (despite having a later release in the West). Some of NIS America’s Switch ports have been a little buggy—or a lot buggy, in some cases—so I’m a little wary on that basis, but if it can stay functional all the way through, Volume 3 will be the best Prinny Presents yet.