by Jason Parker (Ragachak)
Good morning Internet! I’ve been sick and it’s seriously slowed down some of my work. However, I’m starting to feel better, and it’s time to look at what’s on the way for the Nintendo Switch and what dropped just this week! On the more interesting side of news, South-African developer Robot Wizard is teaming with Playdius to revive the point & click genre, with a Fig campaign for Jengo. It’s an absurd, mad-cap celebration of funny words, challenging puzzles, gorgeous art, and a story that pulls no punches in its critique of all things gaming – then and now. The game looks intriguing and I’m a sucker for a good point & click, so I’m very excited to see where this goes. However, I did not receive a lot of “Coming soon” news, so I’m just going to leap directly into the actual releases, and there are some real doozies this week. From the irreverent (South Park) to the classic anime releases (Naruto), let’s get started!
South Park: The Fractured But Whole (4/24): At first, I was sincerely surprised that a South Park game would launch on a Nintendo console, but then I thought back to Bayonetta 2 . . . guess it’s not all that unreasonable. It’s all the hilarity and weirdness that you have come to expect from the South Park series, but with a superhero flair! It follows the adventures of the New Kid, and South Park is mixed up in an epic roleplay involving two superhero factions seeking dominance, to create their own hero media empires. It’s hilarious, awful, and wonderful. There is simply so much to say about South Park, and maybe I can review it at some time in the future to see how it handles on the Switch. I have a few Switch reviews coming before that though. (59.99)
A Robot Named Fight (4/26): Speaking of games I’m working on, Hitcents produced a Switch version of the Metroidvania/Roguelite (Metroguelite?) “A Robot Named Fight”. It has 100% feature parity with the Steam version (so they match up nicely), has seeded runs, new weapon, and power-up combos, and a secret ending, so I’m told! It released last year on Steam, and it’s actually installed on my Switch in the bedroom right now. The mechanical gods have left the lower-order robots behind to cultivate the world, but things seldom go as planned. So you explore this land, which is procedurally generated, destroying fleshy monsters and grabbing randomized power-ups. If you die, you start from scratch. Can you defeat the Megabeast? (12.99)
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy (4/26): Is there anyone who hasn’t played the Naruto Ultimate Ninja STORM games yet? Hell, even I have. It’s now available on the Switch and players can experience the saga of Naruto in stunning detail through the Fouth Great Ninja War story arc, and engage in multiplayer in both online and local 3D arena battles. Absolute tons of characters to pick from, and several of the DLC costumes from the original games will be included for free. There’s so much content to experience here, and though I have not really gotten into the games (I was never a huge Naruto fan), I am interested in seeing it all in one place. Sure, it’s a re-release, but I know a lot of people that would definitely get it again to play on the go, on the Switch. However, I believe in America, it’s only a digital release. (39.99)
