New Releases: April 13th-19th, 2023

This week, Disney Speedstorm races onto hardware as a paid experience, before becoming a free-to-play title at a yet-to-be-announced date. For those who prefer more traditional marketing strategies, this week’s Square’s Final Fantasy becomes available in either a bundle or via a piecemeal approach. Similarly, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (pictured) will be getting a re-release, with the compilation bringing together all ten games in the franchise.

PlayStation 4
8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure (physical & digital, $29.99)
Cannon Dancer – Osman (digital, $29.99)
De-Exit – Eternal Matters (digital, $19.99)
Disney Speedstorm (digital, $29.99-$69.99)
Farm Slider (digital, $4.99)
Final Fantasy (digital, $11.99)
Final Fantasy II (digital, $11.99)
Final Fantasy III (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy IV (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy V (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy VI (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy I-VI bundle (digital, $79.99)
God of Rock (physical & digital, $29.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (physical, digital, $59.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1 (digital, $39.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2 (digital, $39.99)
Minecraft Legends (physical $49.99, digital $39.99-$49.99)
Puzzle Quest 3 (digital, $TBA)
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story (digital, $29.99-$39.99)
Ultra Pixel Survive (digital, $4.99)

PlayStation 5
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars (physical, $44.99)
Blade Assault (physical, $34.99)
Cult of the Lamb (physical, $34.99, $49.99)
God of Rock (physical & digital, $29.99)
Minecraft Legends (physical $49.99, digital $39.99-$49.99)

Switch
Belle Boomerang (digital, $7.99)
Cannon Dancer – Osman (digital, $29.99)
Castle of Shikigami 2 (digital, $34.99)
Castle of the Underdogs Ep1 (digital, $7.99)
Castle Renovator (digital, $14.49)
Clea: Complete Collection (physical, $39.99)
Cult of the Lamb (physical, $34.99, $49.99)
Disney Speedstorm (digital, $29.99-$69.99)
Fabraz Presents Vol. 1 (physical, $34.99)
Farm Slider (digital, $4.99)
Final Fantasy (digital, $11.99)
Final Fantasy II (digital, $11.99)
Final Fantasy III (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy IV (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy V (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy VI (digital, $17.99)
Final Fantasy I-VI bundle (digital, $79.99)
God of Rock (physical & digital, $29.99)
Isekai Junior Manager (digital, $19.90)
JarataireRPG (digital, $1.00)
Jump Challenge! (digital, $6.86)
LogiKing LEVEL2 (digital, $4.99)
Lost Dream Darkness (digital, $4.99)
LOST EPIC (digital, $13.49-$16.50)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection (physical, digital, $59.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1 (digital, $39.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2 (digital, $39.99)
Minecraft Legends (physical $49.99, digital $39.99-$49.99)
Mixx Island: Remix Plus (digital, $13.99)
New Tanks (digital, $4.79)
Sable’s Grimoire: A Dragon’s Treasure (digital, $5.99)
Sokolor (digital, $4.99)
Tape: Unveil the Memories (digital, $19.99)
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story (digital, $29.99-$39.99)
The Pathless  (physical, $39.99)
Tray Racers! (digital, free)
Ultra Pixel Survive (digital, $4.99)
Urban Flow Prime Edition (digital, $15.49)

Xbox One
Asterigos: Curse of the Stars (physical, $44.99)
Basketball Pinball (digital, $2.99)
De-Exit – Eternal Matters (digital, $19.99)
Disney Speedstorm (digital, $29.99-$69.99)
Farm Slider (digital, $4.99)
God of Rock (physical & digital, $29.99)
Minecraft Legends (physical $49.99, digital $39.99-$49.99)
Puzzle Quest 3 (digital, $TBA)
Secret Agent: Cold War Espionage (digital, $9.99)
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story (digital, $29.99-$39.99)

PC
Archmage Rises ($TBA)
Beyond the Long Night ($TBA)
Boundary ($22.49)
Breachers ($29.99)
De-Exit – Eternal Matters ($TBA)
Desktop Dungeons: Rewind ($TBA)
Disney Speedstorm ($29.99-$69.99)
Fabledom ($14.39)
God of Rock ($29.99)
Hunt the Night ($19.99)
Meatgrinder ($TBA)
illWill ($TBA)
Is It Wrong to Repay the Debt in a Dungeon? ($TBA)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection ($59.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 1 ($39.99)
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol. 2 ($39.99)
Minecraft Legends ($39.99, $49.99)
Moons Of Darsalon ($TBA)
Pets Hotel ($TBA)
Screaming Chicken: Ultimate Showdown ($13.49)
Shardpunk: Verminfall ($10.79)
Suffer the Night ($TBA)
Survival: Fountain of Youth ($TBA)
Teravit ($TBA)
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story ($29.99, $39.99)
Trinity Fusion ($22.49)

Rob’s pick: Moons of Darsalon feels like an amalgam of gaming classics. At it core, the game channels Lemmings, as stages task you with guiding groups of civilians to safety. But instead of being completely susceptible to harm from a lack of intelligence, these NPCs have some smarts and will try to obey your commands. But when your character finds a gun and jetpack, Darsalon mix more cerebral managerial duties with murdering mods of aliens.

The fusion of puzzling and shooting doesn’t always work. But the occasional glitch or frustrating death is overpowered by developer Daniel Manzano’s sense of ambition, with each stage tossing some new element into the equation. Aesthetically, there’s a lot to like too, with clouds of gritty dithering layered over garish colors, making the game look like dystopian Claymation.

Of course, I’m up for the Final Fantasy remasters. But as the single biggest influence of console-based role-playing, the series deserves better. No, I’m not talking about the font, but the inclusion of supplemental material that chronicles the development process of each entry. Perhaps Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration spoiled me, but I’d love to see that same level of historical preservation applied to other celebrating publishers like Enix.

Ryan’s pick: Just this past weekend I started playing through some older Mega Man games and was just about to purchase some of the PS2 era games for that series as I really enjoyed that era (aside from the NES games of course). That said, I’m going with the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. While this series was a bit of a departure from normal Mega Man platforming, the grid-based action RPG mechanics are more than enough to keep you busy. If you opt to buy the entire collection, you’ll also be getting 10 different titles to play, so in terms of value it’s definitely worth a try, especially if you are a Mega Man fan or a collector.

I really had a fun time playing Minecraft Dungeons so I think that Minecraft Legends is also worthy of a mention. It was like an enjoyable and less-stressful version of Diablo but in the Minecraft universe. Controls, level-design, and sound were all really well done and in general they did a great job of bringing that universe to a different gameplay style. I have the feeling that I’m also going to enjoy Minecraft Legends, as I’m really interested in the strategy portion and how you can wage battles against other settlements. I also have high hopes for the scale of Overworld and for large battles with all sorts of different characters taking part.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): It seems that there is no limit to the number of times I’ll let myself get excited for re-releases of the early Final Fantasy games. I already have all the pixel remasters in my Steam Library. And yet, here I am, counting down the days until I can get these on my Switch. They are, of course, all-time classics, with narratives that, to this day, can inspire and engage, and classic turn-based JRPG combat that set the standard for the entire industry. As an added bonus, the console ports of these games have a better font than the PC release, that that will genuinely make a difference.

I do have to admit that I’m also interested in seeing how Disney Speedstorm turned out. Back on the N64 I was quite enamoured with Mickey’s Speedway USA – a game that came out quite late in the console’s lifespan. That one was developed by Rare, and I doubt Speedstorm will have quite that same level of quality, but as long as it lets me hoon around as Donald Duck, I’ll have a good laugh with it.