New Releases: February 21st-27th, 2019

Although this week’s release of Bioware’s Anthem might be the most recognized title, it’s hardly the only noteworthy new game. From Dirt Rally 2.0, the PC release of SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy, to VR-driven, one-on-one interaction with Mashu Kyrielight, there’s a number of alternatives for players who aren’t enamored by always online, loot-farming.

Header image: SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy, PC

PlayStation 4
8-Bit Invaders! (physical and digital, $39.99)
ACA NeoGeo: The King of Fighters 2003 (digital, $7.99)
Anthem (physical and digital, $59.99)
Devil Engine (digital, $TBA)
Dirt Rally 2.0 (physical and digital, $59.99)
Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mashu Kyrielight (digital, free)
Hell Warders (digital, $14.99)
Honor and Duty: D-Day (digital, $TBA, PS VR)
RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore (physical and digital, $39.99)
Stellaris: Console Edition (digital, $39.99)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (physical and digital, $39.99)
The Walking Vegetables: Radical Edition (digital, $12.99)
Trials Rising (physical and digital, $39.99)

Switch
Alchemic Dungeons DX (digital, $7.99)
Almost There: The Platformer (digital, $7.99)
Aragami: Shadow Edition (physical $29.99, digital $26.99)
Arcade Archives: Front Line (digital, $7.99)
Car Mechanic Simulator (digital, $14.99)
Caterpillar Royale (digital, $4.99)
Daggerhood (digital, $4.99)
Devil Engine (digital, $19.99)
Dungeon Stars (digital, $9.99)
Gigantic Army (digital, $8.99)
Hell Warders (digital, $14.99)
I Wanna Fly (digital, $2.42)
Mindball Play (digital, $16.00)
My Arctic Farm 2018 (digital, $9.99)
Pizza Parking (digital, $5.99)
Q.U.B.E. 2 (digital, $29.99)
Quest for the Golden Duck (digital, $4.99)
Rad Rodgers: Radical Edition (physical and digital, $29.99)
Raining Coins (digital, $5.99)
RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore (digital, $39.99)
Rotating Brave (digital, $4.99)
Skyhill (digital, $14.99)
Surfingers (digital, $4.99)
The Golf (digital, $9.99)
The Journey Down Trilogy (digital, $39.99)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (physical and digital, $39.99)
The Lost Light of Sisu (digital, $9.99)
Trials Rising (physical and digital, $24.99)
Tyr: Chains of Valhalla (digital, $9.99)
Warplanes: WW2 Dogfight (digital, $9.99)
X-Morph: Defense (digital, $19.99)
YUMENIKKI -Dream Diary- (digital, $19.99)

Xbox One
8-Bit Invaders! (physical and digital, $39.99)
ACA NeoGeo: The King of Fighters 2003 (digital, $7.99)
Anthem (physical and digital, $59.99)
Dirt Rally 2.0 (physical and digital, $59.99)
Stellaris: Console Edition (digital, $39.99)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (physical and digital, $39.99)
Trials Rising (physical and digital, $39.99)
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (physical and digital, $19.99)

PC
Acid Flip
Anthem ($59.99)
Cam Girls Company Tycoon
City Game Studio ($13.59)
Devil Engine ($17.99)
Dirt Rally 2.0 ($59.99)
Hell Warders ($14.99)
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy ($42.49)
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame ($29.99)
The Witchcraft of Skysword
Trials Rising ($24.99)

Robert’s Pick: My introduction to Codemasters racing games began during the PSOne era with the 1998 release of Colin McRae Rally (and to a lesser extend Rally Cross). Finding the balance between arcade-like accessibility and staunch simulation can be tough, but the title and its follow-ups nailed it. Upon McRae’s tragic passing, the franchise was renamed Dirt and progressively moved away from its rally root with competitions where colossal, petrol-swelling pick-up trucks careened around curves and into each other. It was fun deviation, thanks to Codies programming proficiency, but moved away from the intensity of two guys in a livery-adorned Lancia testing their mettle against a snaking path of soil.

The original Dirt Rally brought things back to basics, extending a demanding interpretation of the sport that was gradually tuned by an eight-month stint in Steam’s Early Access Program. For the sequel, the dev team seems to have a handle on the fundamental, while adding elements like track deformation, turning, team management and a host of new locations, tracks, and cars. While the departure of long-time lead Paul Coleman might be reason to worry, I’m reasonably confident that over twenty years of racing game developer means that Rally 2.0 will be a worthy experience for racing fans.

Ryan’s Pick: Trials Rising is the clear winner for me this week. Trials HD originally grabbed my attention back on the Xbox 360 and I was immediately hooked. I suppose the series resonates with the perfectionist side of me in that I absolutely need to keep trying to figure perfect the difficult jumps and contracts until I get it. The road to perfection is equally as fun, with cringe inducing crashes and the crowd-favorite ragdoll physics. Some of the crashes give me that same feeling when crashing in the Burnout series games.

Trials Rising was announced at E3 last year, and showcased some really intricate and real-life monument/location maps that I definitely cannot wait to try. It appears that many new terrains were clearly made with the player’s plight in mind, and on top of that the track editor also returns with more exploding red barrels, which is completely fine with me. Character customizations and Challenger Mode aside, I am most excited about the new co-op mode which allows you to attempt contracts while riding a tandem-bike with another player. Both will have to communicate to traverse the jumps together and actions must be performed in tandem which seems pretty interesting, albeit a formula for guaranteed hilarity.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Paradox Interactive make my favourite strategy games of all – and yes, while I do love the anime boob games more than anything else, I am also a massive fan of good strategy action. My problem is I can’t much enjoy playing games on PC, so I don’t get to play many of Paradox Interactive’s stuff. This changes this week with the release of Stellaris on PlayStation 4. I am so very, very excited to play this. Grand strategy set in space, from the comfort of my lounge? That there is a rare treat.

Otherwise, it’s a surprisingly quiet week this week after a few weeks where it’s been impossible to keep up with the releases. That’s going to change soon enough. Both The Caligula Effect and Dead or Alive 6 are just around the corner, and one is the smartest JRPG that Yoko Taro didn’t create, and the other has Marie Rose. What more do you need?

Jay’s Pick: I would love to be in the alternate universe where I could sit here and recommend Anthem to everyone. Sadly, though, I’m in the timeline where EA no doubt forced Anthem to be a shameless multiplayer cash grab rather than the Mass Effect successor it should have been.

Think of Anthem like Pepsi Max, it’s got none of the sweet stuff but it does have max flavour… it’s just too bad that the flavour in question is also inferior to its competitors. Anthem is a Diet-MMO, it has all of the worst parts of an MMO with no where near the amount of content to keep players engaged and invested but if you like chasing the dragon, be my guest.

It leaves me in a bit of a quandary. I have no idea what to recommend. It seems like a good week for fans of broom broom dirt track race-y games with Trials Rising and Dirt Rally 2.0 both coming our way but that kind of thing just isn’t for me. This may be unprecedented for this weekly column (but probably not, I know what Matt’s like <winky face>). I’m going to recommend a game based solely on aesthetic. I’m 99% certain I’m going to love RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore, it looks gorgeous and I’m all about that anime aesthetic.

I don’t mind the odd rogue-lite and the longer a game’s name is, the more I trust it… unless Square Enix is involved and the game’s title ends with a combination of random nouns, numerals, and symbols that don’t make any sense; I shudder to think what Nomura would have called it… RemiLore: Girl Lost 358/2 Days and Re;Birthed in the Lands of Unchained Lore Final Remix Prologue.