New Releases: September 21st-27th, 2023

This week, Natsume seeks to restore Harvest Moon’s tarnished name with The Winds of Anthos while Aksys Games tests the limitations of digital marketplaces with the release of Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters and Gain Strong Weapons and Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be a Day When the Heroes Defeat the Devil King (pictured). Yeah, that’s the title.

PlayStation 4
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps and Beans 2 (digital, $19.99)
Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace (digital, $5.99)
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (digital, $49.99)
Hellsweeper VR (digital, $39.99)
Paleo Pines (digital, $25.49)
Paperman: Adventure Delivered (digital, $25.49)
Rainbow High: Runway Rush (digital, $39.99)
Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (DLC, $9.99)
Rin: The Last Child (digital, $TBA)
Shuyan Saga (digital, $11.99)
Terraformers (digital, $TBA)
The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition (DLC, $2.49)
Train Sim World 4 (digital, $49.99)
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Conqueror of Jiangdong (DLC, $TBA)

Switch
Aireo FlightSimulator (digital, $24.99)
Autumn Hike (digital, $4.99)
Avatar the Last Airbender: Quest for Balance (digital, $49.99)
Betomis (digital, $4.99)
Bro Falls Deluxe (digital, $12.99)
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps and Beans 2 (digital, $19.99)
Construction Machine Simulator 2023 : Hard Truck Work Job (digital, $12.99)
Cry Babies Magic Tears: The Big Game (digital, $39.99)
Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace (digital, $5.99)
Days of Doom (digital, $29.99)
Earthshine (digital, $3.99)
Evil Wizard (digital, $15.99)
Evolings (digital, $8.99)
Farm Land (digital, $4.99)
Frag Pro Shooter (digital, free-to-play)
Fragment’s Note2+ (digital, $19.99)
Galaxy Battle (digital, $1.99)
HammerHelm (digital, $14.99)
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (digital, $49.99)
Kind Heart Defenders (digital, $3.99)
Livestream 2: Escape from Togaezuka Happy Place (digital, $24.99)
Lord of the Click: Interstellar Wars (digital, $4.99)
Magic Donut Adventure: Line Match 3 Puzzle (digital, $9.99)
Mermaid Castle 2 (digital, $7.99)
Mineko’s Night Market (digital, $19.99)
Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters and Gain Strong Weapons and Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be a Day When the Heroes Defeat the Devil King (digital, $49.99)
Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission (digital, $29.99)
Osyaberi! Horijyo! Gekihori: Anna Holinski Saves the Universe, Alright?! (digital, $13.49)
Paleo Pines (digital, $25.49)
Paperman: Adventure Delivered (digital, $25.49)
Pikmin 1 + 2 (physical & digital, $49.99)
Playroom Racer (digital, $4.00)
Raid on Taihoku (digital, $10.99)
Rainbow High: Runway Rush (digital, $39.99)
Retro Kart Rush (digital, $4.99)
RoboDunk (digital, $11.99)
Shuyan Saga (digital, $11.99)
Sugar Tanks (digital, $6.99)
Super Adventure Hand (digital, $12.99)
The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition (DLC, $2.49)
The Jelly Adventure (digital, $4.99)
Tick Tack Puppet (digital, $4.99)
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns (digital, $14.99)
Venatrix (digital, $14.99)
Warriors of the Nile 2 (digital, $14.99)
Whateverland (digital, $14.99)

Xbox One
Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace (digital, $5.99)
Days of Doom (digital, $29.99)
El Paso, Elsewhere (digital, $26.99)
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (digital, $49.99)
Paleo Pines (digital, $25.49)
Paperman: Adventure Delivered (digital, $25.49)
Rainbow High: Runway Rush (digital, $39.99)
Rin: The Last Child (digital, $TBA)
Shuyan Saga (digital, $11.99)
Super Snake Block DX (digital, $3.99)
Terraformers (digital, $TBA)
The Crackpet Show: Happy Tree Friends Edition (DLC, $2.49)
Train Sim World 4 (digital, $49.99)
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Conqueror of Jiangdong (DLC, $TBA)
Whateverland (digital, $14.99)

PC
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles $22.49)
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Quest for Balance
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill – Slaps and Beans 2 ($19.99)
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (DLC, $29.99)
dEskape ($7.99)
El Paso, Elsewhere ($TBA)
Fortune’s Run ($TBA)
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos ($49.99)
Last Monarch ($TBA)
LunarLux ($TBA)
Mineko’s Night Market ($TBA)
Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters and Gain Strong Weapons and Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be a Day When the Heroes Defeat the Devil Kin ($49.99)
Paleo Pines ($25.49)
Payday 3 ($39.99)
Pray Game ($TBA)
Project Planet – Earth vs Humanity ($TBA)
Relic Hunters Legend ($TBA)
RoboDunk ($TBA)
Super Adventure Hand ($12.99)
The Bunny Graveyard ($TBA)
These Doomed Isles ($TBA)
Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia ($TBA)
Train Sim World 4 ($44.99)
Two Months of Devil King ($TBA)
WitchSpring R ($TBA)

Rob’s Pick: Dungeon crawls are habitually desolate affairs pushing players through shadowy labyrinths. But Experience’s Mon-Yu: Defeat Monsters and Gain Strong Weapons and Armor. You May Be Defeated, But Don’t Give Up. Become Stronger. I Believe There Will Be a Day When the Heroes Defeat the Devil King challenges tradition not with just a long title, but with the use of vibrant hues for environments and enemies. Color me interested.

Keeping with the massive moniker trend, I also have my eye on Osyaberi! Horijyo! Gekihori: Anna Holinski Saves the Universe, Alright?! While it’s hardly a revolutionary horizontal STG, it’s the kind of game I would have loved during the 32-bit era. Beyond covering newer titles, that’s where I choose to spend my time these days. As such, I’m also interested in El Paso, Elsewhere, which offers some low-poly Max Payne-style action with gratuitous amounts of slow-motion.

Ryan’s pick: This week’s pick was a tough choice, but I’m going to go with Relic Hunters Legend on Steam. Baldur’s Gate 3 very quietly keeps calling me to purchase it on PS5, so I’m a bit hesitant to jump into any longer games for now. That said, this looter-shooter RPG looks like some pretty simple fun, and the isometric view reminds me a bit of Minecraft: Dungeons which I really found relaxing. Another plus for this one is that it does support multiplayer, so it seems like a good one to play when you want to put your brain on autopilot and play something with your friends.

One other game that made me give it a second look was El Paso, Elsewhere. Graphically the game definitely is somewhere in the late 90’s in terms of the 3D models, but this 3rd-person shooter’s slow-motion gun fighting still looks pretty fun and enough to keep me busy. Premise-wise a lot of the tone and imagery remind me of the nightmare scenes from Max Payne, but overall, the noir narrative seems interesting and the fact that you can shoot werewolves in bullet-time is more than enough for me to want to give it a shot.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I want to believe in Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos. Natsume’s Harvest Moon games have been… not great, to say the least, since Natsume she Marvelous parted ways and the “real” Harvest Moon got rebranded as Story of Seasons. But they have been getting better, slowly, and Winds of Anthos shows promise, with pre-release footage suggesting a degree of depth and personality that’s been sorely lacking until now. Could this be the game that finally lives to the Harvest Moon name? I can only hope.