New Releases: May 7th-13th, 2020

This week, take to the picturesque Islandic mountains as red fox in Spirit of the North, combine different game genres together in SuperMash, or just knock one out of the park in Super Mega Baseball 3. The appearance of a new Vita games is always a treat, so this week’s appearance of EMMA: Lost in Memories on Sony’s beloved portable (and well as PlayStation 4) should make fans of puzzle-platformers quite happy.

Header image: Wanko of Marriage ~Welcome to The Dog’s Tail!~, PC

PlayStation 4
EMMA: Lost in Memories (digital, $TBA)
Fury Unleashed (digital, $19.99)
Huntdown (digital, $19.99)
Infinite: Beyond the Mind (digital, $9.99)
Potata: Fairy Flower (digital, $14.99)
SuperMash (digital, $19.99)
Super Mega Baseball 3 (digital, $44.99)
Thy Sword (digital, $TBA)
Void Bastards (digital, $29.99)

Switch
Cloudbase Prime (digital, $9.99)
Dark Burial (digital, $3.99)
Feathery Ears (digital, $9.99)
Fledgling Heroes (digital, $8.49)
Fury Unleashed (digital, $19.99)
Gerritory (digital, $7.19)
Ghost Files: Memory of a Crime (digital, $14.99)
Gravity Rider Zero (digital, $6.99)
Highrise Heroes: Word Challenge (digital, $1.99)
Huntdown (digital, $19.99)
Infinite: Beyond the Mind (digital, $9.99)
Island Saver (digital, free download)
Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl (digital, $14.99)
Jet Lancer (digital, $14.99)
Lonely Mountains: Downhill (digital, $19.99)
Megabyte Punch (digital, $14.99)
Monochrome World (digital, $7.99)
Pong Quest (digital, $14.99)
Reed 2 (digital, $4.99)
Relic Hunters Zero: Remix (digital, $9.99)
Slayin 2 (digital, $11.99)
Spirit of the North (digital, $19.99)
Stone (digital, $14.99)
SuperMash (digital, $19.99)
Super Mega Baseball 3 (digital, $44.99)
Tennis Club Story (digital, $14.00)
The Bullet: Time of Revenge (digital, $3.99)
Void Bastards (digital, $29.99)

Xbox One
Deep Rock Galactic (digital, $24.99)
Duke of Defense (digital, $14.99)
Fury Unleashed (digital, $19.99)
Ghost Files 2: Memory of a Crime (digital, free)
Huntdown (digital, $19.99)
Infinite: Beyond the Mind (digital, $9.99)
Mecho Wars: Desert Ashes (digital, $4.99)
Potata: Fairy Flower (digital, $12.74)
Sin Slayers (digital, $15.99)
SuperMash (digital, $19.99)
Super Mega Baseball 3 (digital, $44.99)

Vita
EMMA: Lost in Memories (digital, $TBA)

PC
Ato ($TBA)
Before We Leave ($TBA)
Big Tiddy Goth GF Simulator (free)
DRIFT21 ($22.49)
Gunbird ($TBA)
Infinite: Beyond the Mind ($9.99)
Jet Lancer ($14.99)
So May It Be: A Witch Dating Simulator ($TBA)
Spirit of the North ($19.99)
Super Mega Baseball 3 ($44.99)
The Adventures of Ten and Till ($10.79)
Toilet Paper Crisis Simulator 2020 ($TBA)
Wanko of Marriage ~Welcome to The Dog’s Tail!~ ($TBA)

Robert’s Pick: There are two distinct types of sports games: stat-based titles that chase after realism and light-hearted one that focus on fun, tossing authenticity out the window. While I sporadically like the former, I truly love over-the-top games franchises like NBA Jam, Hot Shots Golf, and NFL Blitz. Metalhead Software’s Super Mega Baseball has straddled the two styles. Across two iterations, the series has presented a fairly accurate ball game, but with visuals that are closer to the cartoonish style of Konami’s Power Pros than MLB: The Show.

Growing up on a steady diet of J-baseball games adapted for the West (Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Reggie Jackson Baseball), I’m perfectly fine with a lack of licensed teams and players, as long as a game delivers the fundamentals of the sport. And that’s where Super Mega Baseball shines, with solid pitching and batting mechanics, rock-solid fielding controls, and a buttery smooth 60 fps framerate, even on Switch. The sole downside is the developers raised the price this year, putting it within striking distance of The Show. But if your platform of choice isn’t a PlayStation 4, Super Mega Baseball is definitely a three-bagger.

Ginny’s Pick: Void Bastards. It’s a self-described “strategy shooter”, but for those who aren’t sure what that means, it practically plays out like a FPS with roguelike elements. With a highly distinctive art style that harkens back to old comics (think Watchmen or The Boys, almost), Void Bastards puts you in the hotseat of someone having to make the most of life after being woken up from cryosleep on… a prison spaceship. Dun dun dun.

If you’re wanting something that’s going to engage you on a narratively cerebral level, you probably want to pass here, but the advertising on the package promises (and delivers) a rollicking good time of blasting the heads off things with a bunch of souped-up weapons while you face down all types of terrors. You’re stuck in space, fending off aliens and god knows what else, while trying to deal with other convicts – it’s a tense recipe and the FPS playstyle makes very effective use of that.

Die while trying to shoot the balls off an alien? You’ll respawn with your upgrades, but just as another space convict, ready to face the endless meat grinder of the unknown. With a cracking soundtrack that really helps you feel the punches (bullets?) as you’re gunning through this huge ship with abilities like turning invisible or innate debuffs like backing yourself into a corner, combat and exploration never gets old. Void Bastards is one cathartic game that feels like a fresh coat of paint on an expected formula.

Matt C’s Pick (editor, Shindig): EMMA: Lost in Memories is something quite special. I played it when it first came out on PC last year, and it’s a really heartfelt little game that builds theme and story into its mechanics in a very clever way. At first glance, it looks like a fairly typical puzzle platformer, until platforms start disappearing behind you, and instead of gaining new abilities over time, you start with a full suite that you gradually forget.

Why’s that important? At its core, EMMA: Lost in Memories is a game about memory loss. What happens when you start failing to recognise people you’ve known all your life? When you go out for a walk and forget your way home again? These are very real problems that so many people deal with on a daily basis, yet it’s so hard for the rest of us to even conceptualise. Through its melancholy story and ingenious concept, EMMA: Lost in Memories opens that door just a little bit. I don’t think the PC release got as much attention as it deserved, so hopefully coming to PS4 will give it another shot at the limelight.

I also want to give a special mention to Super Mega Baseball 3. Baseball used to just be some American oddity to my Kiwi eyes, but love it now, and that’s thanks almost entirely to this series. Its intuitive design is brilliant at drilling down to what makes the sport exciting, especially when it comes to those tense duels between pitcher and batter. Super Mega Baseball 3 looks to fine-tune all that as well as adding a long-awaited franchise mode, so I think it’ll be a great antidote to the current lack of real-life baseball to watch.

Matt’s Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): It’s gotta be Toilet Paper Crisis Simulator, right? I mean that’s a shared experience that we’ve all had, and the real-world scenes we’ve all seen have had all the makings of great video game material. It’s had drama. It’s had scenes of complete, visceral horror. It’s had Warriors-style brawling. 1 vs 1000. Unique weapons. The works. I have no idea if the game would have these things too, but it should, and if it doesn’t, I bet you all wish that I was the director of that game now, don’t you?

But okay, serious choice because here I am making recommendations for what you should consider spending your hard-earned money on. Let’s go with Tennis Club Story. It’s a Kairosoft, so that means that 99% of you will instantly know what you’re getting, because at this stage almost all of us have played at least one Kairosoft. While there’s only so much Kairosoft you can take (seriously does anyone out there have all the Kairosoft Switch releases? If so bravo for quite the waste of time and money there), Tennis Club Story sounds like one of the better concepts. After all, who hasn’t dreamed about owning a space filled with row after row of pristine grass tennis courts, with the soundscape heavy with the sound of thwacking balls and a clubhouse filled with cups of tea? No one? Oh well, must be just me then.

Still, Kairosoft do good casual simulators so if you’ve somehow avoided them all to date, Tennis Club Story does indeed release this week, so you may as well make that one your first.

Ryan’s Pick: Snootchie-Bootchies! Jay and Silent Bob: Mall Brawl receives my official seal of approval this week. I’m really glad that they decided to make this game as Mallrats is still one of my favorite movies that came out of the 90’s. Jay and Silent Bob along with the rest of the View Askewniverse return to the dirt mall in this 8-bit beat-‘em-up that will let you play as both characters via solo play or coop.

Head of mall security LaFours had it out for these two in the movie, so I can only hope that he’ll return for some shenanigans in this brawler. The art is giving me some Kunio Kun vibes which is great. All of those games with the chibi character art made gaming in the late 80’s and early 90’s great – even Nintendo World Cup which was Kunio Kun characters playing soccer on Gameboy. Currently they only have three actual characters listed for the game which are Jay, Silent Bob, and Adoughbo. I’m sold.

Graphically I know this one won’t be breaking any records, but I just really like all of the characters in View Askewniverse, so the game is a must-pickup for me. In its description the game does say that players will be able to utilize unorthodox weapon brandishing tactics. I don’t know what that means, but I feel assured that it’s going to be awesome. Whatever my weapon choice will be, I’m sure it’ll be a small price to pay for smiting your enemies.