New Releases: June 18th-24th, 2020

From the return of SpongeBob SquarePants, Burnout Paradise, and Duke Nukem, this week a few familiar titles return. But these are the only prospects for nostalgia, with two collection of Namco classic heading to consoles and PC. Additionally, a trio of Quantic Dream’s titles are being ported to PC, potentially bringing David Cage’s interactive storytelling to new audiences.

Header image: ATRI -My Dear Moments-, PC

PlayStation 4
Arcade Archives Naughty Boy (digital, $7.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 (digital, $19.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 (digital, $19.99)
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (digital, $13.49)
The Last of Us Part II (physical & digital, $59.99)

Switch
Aery – Little Bird Adventure (digital, $6.99)
AntVentor (digital, $7.99)
Blood and Guts Bundle (digital, $44.99)
Burnout Paradise Remastered (physical & digital, $49.99)
Conjurer Andy’s Repeatable Dungeon (digital, $6.79)
Destrobots (digital, $9.99)
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour (digital, $4.99)
Endless Fables: Dark Moor (digital, $14.99)
Hakoniwa Explorer Plus (digital, $11.99)
Klaus (digital, $14.99)
My Butler (digital, $9.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 (digital, $19.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 (digital, $19.99)
Night Call (digital, $19.99)
Ninjala (digital, $TBA)
One Way Heroics Plus (digital, $14.99)
Paint (digital, $9.99)
Pokémon Café Mix (digital, $TBA)
Polandball: Can Into Space (digital, $2.54)
Push the Crate 2 (digital, $4.99)
Radio Squid (digital, $4.99)
Railway Empire – Nintendo Switch Edition (physical & digital, $39.99)
Ruiner (digital, $19.99)
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (physical & digital, $29.99)
Super Soccer Blast (digital, $7.99)
Sword and Sandals: Spartacus (digital, $12.99)
The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters (digital, $13.49)
Working Zombies (digital, $19.99)

Xbox One
Hard West Ultimate Edition (digital, $15.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 (digital, $19.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 (digital, $19.99)
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (physical & digital, $29.99)
The Bard’s Tale: Remastered and Resnarkled (digital, $19.99)

PC (via Steam unless noted)
3dSen PC ($TBA)
Adabana Odd Tales ($16.19)
ATRI -My Dear Moments- ($18.89)
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 ($TBA)
Beyond: Two Souls ($17.99)
Bishoujo Battle Cyber Panic! ($TBA)
Breaking Lockdown ($2.54)
Cricket Captain 2020 ($24.99)
Danger Scavenger ($TBA)
Detroit: Become Human ($35.99)
Flying Red Barrel – The Diary of a Little Aviator ($TBA)
Heavy Rain ($17.99)
Little Witch Nobeta ($TBA)
love wish 2 ($TBA)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 ($19.99)
Namco Museum Archives Vol 2 ($19.99)
Outer Wilds ($16.65)
Q – A Neon Platformer ($12.74)
Rugby Union Team Manager 3 ($29.99)
Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection (Steam)
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated ($26.99)
Tainted Grail ($24.99)
Tengai ($9.99)
Waking ($15.99)

Robert’s Pick: Often, Inti Creates is associated with their rare misstep. Sure, Mighty No. 9 was an unmitigated disaster and to a lesser extent, Dragon Marked for Death can be a tedious grind-fest for soloists. But look past these blunders and the developer has put out a procession of two-dimensional, pixel art gems, from Blaster Master Zero and its sequel to Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX. This week Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 makes its way to Steam, and if you like delightfully retro run-and-guns as much as I do, it’s worthy of consideration.

And speaking of old-school games, I’m also eyeing the Namco Museum Archives. But here’s the caveat. While Japan is getting a physical release or the option to purchase individual titles (Wagan Land comes free) the West is getting two bulky collections without the decoration mode where you can display your purchases. Word is Japan’s eShop also bungled the DLC purchases, so while I love these classic titles, you’ll probably want to wait until the retro-dust settles before committing.

Matt S’ Pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I feel like this is the third or fourth time that I’ve actually listed this as a pick of the week, but Railway Empire. It was great on the TV consoles, and now it’s on Nintendo Switch. I swear it’s not going to be delayed again – I’m playing it right now – and while I can’t break embargo or anything at time of writing, it is my pick of the week.

I love a good simulator. I love taking control of a business, city, or even individual (Sims for Switch when?) and building them up, balancing the checkbooks and micromanaging their successes and failures. Railway Empire falls smack into my favourite sim experience within the sim genre, as it lets me manage transportation networks and while I can’t directly control the growth of the cities that I’m hooking up via rail, I can watch them grow from tiny little hamlets to sprawling monuments to humanity. We live in an era where many of us forget the critical role that train networks have played in growing our nations, and Railway Empire is a good reminder of that.

Given that the Nintendo Switch doesn’t actually have many great simulators on it (the port of Cities: Skylines is just terrible, and Project Highrise, while good, isn’t a classic of the genre), I can see myself playing Railway Empire while on the go for a very long time to come.

Ryan’s Pick: With next generation console releases rapidly approaching, it’s only natural that first-party at both Sony and Microsoft are pushing out their larger games while they can during current gen’s twilight. I believe at some point in the future I will play The Last of Us Part II but not this week. I decree that this week, I shall dedicate my time to nijigen/2D adventures in Bishoujo Battle Cyber Panic! Any game with an exclamation in the title immediately has my attention in the first place, but this Gals Panic-esque PC title is exactly the type of gaming I’m looking for this week.

The premise for these games my friends is very simple. You manipulate your character strategically to unlock the background image for that level’s featured character. Now I know what you’re thinking. C’mon Main Mantis, give me a break man. That doesn’t sound fun or challenging. This is a misconception about these games. The game is designed to give you challenges while you’re trying to unlock the images, so there is definitely strategy involved in how you go about unlocking the backgrounds. This particular game allows you to use your character, well-known Lieutenant Ai Ichigaya to draw squares on the map to unlock sections, so you’ll need to pay attention to enemies placement and plan your patterns out if you want to unlock the entire image.

This genre is great for folks who are completionists, as you can pretty much clear the levels quickly, but if you are a nijigen fan like myself, you’ll want to put in the extra effort to unlock the 50 different mobile military Rikku☆Jiasu character backgrounds. I suppose that’s what really makes these games fun for me. This, and the enemies are designed to be irksome while you’re trying to unlock things, and progressively get worse as the game goes on. Some of them can be serious turkeys, which eventually get me laughing at how they can become the bane of your existence, when all you’re trying to do is unlock bishoujos. And there you have it! Let us venture forth and rescue that Bishoujo Battle Team!!

Matt C’s Pick (editor, Shindig): I fell in love with Adabana Odd Tales the moment I saw a screenshot pop up on my Twitter feed. It is, hands down, one of the most beautiful-looking visual novels I’ve ever seen, with a vibrant, hand-painted art style that teases a dreamlike, fantastical atmosphere. That’s appropriate, because it’s a game about a young woman’s journey through the realm of Japanese fairy tales as she seeks to fix distortions created by “bookworms” that eat the words right out of the stories.

Adabana Odd Tales will take players into the worlds of beloved folk stories like Momotaro, Hanasaka Jiisan, Urashima Taro, and Urikohime to Amanojaku, while delving into the mystery of the bookworms. It comes from the same creators as the excellent Kindred Spirits on the Roof, so you know you’re going to get an engrossing, moving story, too.

In a completely different vein, I also want to give SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated a mention. I grew up on SpongeBob and those PS1 and PS2-era platformers, yet I somehow missed the original Battle for Bikini Bottom. I don’t know if it’ll be good, or if it’ll stand the test of time, but I do know that I’m going to love it regardless.