New Releases: September 23rd-29th, 2021

From filling idle hours with Kirakira Stars Idol Project Memories, revisiting Sanctuary in Diablo II, or enjoying a satirical take on ‘tactical espionage action’ with UnMetal, this week brings plenty of notable new releases. Beyond these titles, Lost Judgment lets players return to Kamurocho and Yokohama, while Centipede: ReCharged attempts to reinvigorate the classic Atari shooter.

Header: Kirakira Stars Idol Project Memories, Switch

PlayStation 4
A Juggler’s Tale (digital, $17.99)
A Gummy’s Life (digital, $14.99)
Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The First Cases (physical & digital, $29.99)
AWAY: The Survival Series (digital, $TBA)
Centipede: Recharged (digital, $9.99)
Chernobylite (physical & digital, $29.99)
ConnecTank (digital, $29.99)
Diablo II: Resurrected (digital, $39.99)
Diablo Prime Evil Collection (digital, $59.99)
Embr (physical & digital, $19.99)
Insurgency: Sandstorm (physical & digital, $39.99)
Lemnis Gate (digital, $19.99)
Lost Judgment (physical & digital, $59.99)
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries (digital, $29.99)
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Heroes of the Inner Sphere (DLC, $19.99)
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Legend of the Kestrel Lancers (DLC, $19.99)
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (DLC, $14.99)
Port Royale 4 – Extended Edition (physical, $59.99)
Rhythm of the Universe: Ionia (digital, $TBA)
Streets of Rage 4: Anniversary Edition (physical, $34.99)
Teacup (digital, $9.99)
The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem (physical & digital, $29.99)
UnMetal (digital, $19.99)

PlayStation 5
Death Stranding Director’s Cut (physical, $49.99)
Ghostrunner (physical, $29.99)
In Sound Mind: Deluxe Edition (physical & digital, $39.99)
Lost Judgment (physical & digital, $59.99)

Switch
A Juggler’s Tale (digital, $17.99)
Antonball Deluxe (digital, $14.99)
Beast Breaker (digital, $15.00)
Blind Postman (digital, $3.59)
Centipede: Recharged (digital, $9.99)
Chef’s Tail (digital, $9.19)
ConnecTank (digital, $29.99)
Diablo II: Resurrected (digital, $39.99)
Diablo Prime Evil Collection (digital, $59.99)
Don’t Touch this Button! (digital, $4.99)
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot + A New Power Awakens Set (physical & digital, $59.99)
DroneRidge (digital, $6.64)
Embr (physical, $29.99, digital, $19.99)
Fantasy Friends: Under the Sea (digital, $24.99)
Fisti-Fluffs (digital, $16.99)
G-Darius HD (digital, $29.99)
Hampuzz (digital, $6.99)
Haustoria (digital, $8.44)
In My Shadow (digital, $10.20)
Kirakira Stars Idol Project Memories (digital, $28.00)
Knockout Home Fitness (physical & digital, $39.99)
MageQuit (digital, $14.99)
Monster Truck Arena (digital, $11.99)
Mountain Bike Hill Climb Race: Real 2D Arcade Dirt Racing Games (digital, $9.99)
Sakura Swim Club (digital, $9.99)
Sea of Solitude: The Director’s Cut (physical, $29.99)
Spacebase Startopia (digital, $44.99)
Splatter (digital, $4.98)
Staxel (digital, $17.99)
Steel Assault (digital, $14.99)
Streets of Rage 4: Anniversary Edition (physical, $39.99)
Suzerain (digital, $14.39)
S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored (digital, $10.61)
The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem (physical & digital, $39.99)
The Plane Effect (digital, $14.99)
Top Down Racer (digital, $4.99)
UnMetal (digital, $19.99)
Warp Frontier (digital, $14.99)

Xbox One
A Juggler’s Tale (digital, $17.99)
A Gummy’s Life (digital, $17.99)
Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The First Cases (physical & digital, $29.99)
Blind Postman (digital, $3.59)
Centipede: Recharged (digital, $9.99)
Chernobylite (physical & digital, $29.99)
ConnecTank (digital, $29.99)
Death Park (digital, $5.99)
Diablo II: Resurrected (digital, $39.99)
Diablo Prime Evil Collection (digital, $59.99)
Embr (digital, $19.99)
Hot Wheels Unleashed (digital, $49.99)
In Sound Mind (digital, $39.99)
Insurgency: Sandstorm (physical & digital, $39.99)
Lemnis Gate (digital, $19.99)
Little Kite (digital, $8.99)
Lost Judgment (physical & digital, $59.99)
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries – Legend of the Kestrel Lancers (DLC, $19.99)
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (DLC, $14.99)
Port Royale 4 – Extended Edition (physical, $59.99)
Sable (digital, $24.99)
Skeletal Avenger (digital, $16.99)
Teacup (digital, $9.99)
The Addams Family: Mansion Mayhem (digital, $39.99)
UnMetal (digital, $19.99)

Xbox Series X
Ghostrunner (physical, $29.99)
In Sound Mind: Deluxe Edition (physical & digital, $39.99)

PC
A Juggler’s Tale ($17.99)
Agatha Christie – Hercule Poirot: The First Cases ($29.99)
AWAY: The Survival Series ($TBA)
Centipede: Recharged ($9.99)
Citystate II ($24.99)
Dungeon Town ($TBA)
Elementowers ($11.04)
Embr ($15.99)
Haos ($4.24)
In Sound Mind ($39.99)
Lemnis Gate ($15.99)
New World ($39.99)
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (DLC, $14.99)
Sable ($24.99)
Steel Assault ($TBA)
Teacup ($9.99)
The Signal State ($19.99)
UnMetal ($19.99)

Rob’s Pick: Remakes of Atari games vary wildly in quality. The Hasbro-era Atari was able to offer serviceable updates to Pong, Centipede, Asteroids, and Breakout. But then after Infogrames took over, adaptations of Yars’ Revenge and Star Raiders did little to honor the source material. Few things piss me more than publishers treating a game like a brand, slapping a familiar title on someone far removed from the original work. (With Nintendo’s transformation of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic into Super Mario Bros. 2 being the outlier).

Fortunately, solo developer Adam Nickerson understands what makes the original games so compelling. His last work, Missile Command: Recharged might have given the original a vector graphics aesthetic. But it preserved the hectic intensity of the 1980 release. This week’s release of Centipede: Recharged adopts a similar approach, rendering the playfield in glowing neon and adding power-ups that provide distinction without fundamentally altering the game.

Expectedly, Lost Judgment also gets a recommendation. 2018’s Judgment revealed Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio eager to inject new ideas into their Yakuza formula. The result was a spin-off that built on their strengths, with a multitude of mini-games driving the hard-boiled procedural along. With the mainline games seemingly favoring turn-based battles, Lost Judgment keeps the fisticuffs real-time and suitably frantic. At the same time, it pushes the two oppositional forces of Yakuza. I love a game that can seamlessly pivot from noir-inspired crime fiction to madcap absurdity so effortlessly. I wish Western developers were on this level.

Ryan’s Pick: The original Metal Gear game on the whole was take it or leave it title within my immediate circle of friends growing up. I feel like this mostly had to do with attention spans, but personally I had a lot of fun playing it after giving it a chance. My original interest in the game was widely influenced by the Metal Gear Worlds of Power book, and it’s been one of my favorite NES games since. UnMetal absolutely has captured a lot of the visual flair from the series, so I really have high hopes that this will be an entertaining and nostalgic homage to the original Metal Gear.

Smart aleck happenstance main characters will always have a large place in my heart, so I feel like I will enjoy my time playing as Jesse Fox in this one. Aside from game references and 80’s jokes, I do like the fact that the game also has a leveling up system where you can gain new skills by using stealth to take out enemies. Graphically the game does show a lot of parallels to the originals, however the pixel art and color choices help to give the game its own fresh flair in comparison to the NES and MSX2 Metal Gear game. One other retro inspired game that I was also a bit interested in was the 16-bit platformer game Steel Assault which is launching on a few consoles. Graphically the game looks great, but if I had to choose between this or UnMetal I’d probably choose the stealth game from a pure content and adventure standpoint.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I’ve had very high hopes for AWAY: The Survival Series ever since it was first revealed a couple of years ago. There’s nothing quite as liberating as a good traversal system that lets you run, jump, and glide through the world, momentum and maybe a few unique mobility gimmicks helping you to use the quirks of the level design to propel you forward. It’s the thing that connects games as otherwise disparate as Spider-Man, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rayman Origins, and Valley as some of my favourites in recent memory.

Now take that idea and dress it up in the joy that comes with playing as a cute sugar glider, in a game framed like a nature documentary. That’s the idea behind AWAY: The Survival Series, and at least on paper, it’s a concept that should make for an experience both serene and exciting. I can’t wait to finally dive in and see how it’s turned out.

That same blend of traversal and sense of wonder puts Sable on my radar, too—just swap out cute wildlife and nature documentary for a mysterious sci-fi adventure that’s overflowing with style. It draws influence from the likes of Akira, Saga, and French comics to create an evocative, arresting art style to go with its journey of exploration and discovery.

And, finally, I also have to second Ryan’s recommendation of UnMetal. As much of an impact as Metal Gear Solid made, and as far as the series has come in the decades since, there’s a lot of appeal in its 2D origins, and that’s something that UnMetal captures well—with a nice dose of humorous parody to go with it.

Matt S’ pick (Editor, DigitallyDownloaded): Let’s go with The Plane Effect this week. It’s a game that’s about being a miserable slave to capitalism, and what it costs us in terms of ourselves and our families.  I sympathise. It’s surrealistic, artful, dark and melancholic, but ultimately this game is all about giving the middle finger to capitalism. Good on the developer. And I don’t have much else to say this week! Next week will be nuts, no doubt!