The European Nintendo Download Update is here, and it's another busy week. That's especially the case on the Switch, of course, with the system having plenty of intriguing new options. The 3DS and Wii U also have a few new downloads to consider, so let's get to the details.
Switch Retail Downloads
WWE 2K18 (2K Games, €69.99 / £54.99) - This is promised as a fully-featured version of the game, including the full MyCAREER mode and character customisations, along with the season pass and all those extras. The idea of having that on the go is exciting, but we'll pin it down for a full review soon.
WWE 2K18 Digital Deluxe (2K Games, €89.99 / £79.99)
Switch eShop
The Sexy Brutale (Tequila Works, €19.99 / £17.99) - This critically acclaimed puzzle adventure has the twist that you play the same 12 hours over and over again, each time trying to solve and prevent murders in order to get closer to solving the mystery. It's certainly an eye-catching game and premise - we'll let you know what we think in a review.
Dimension Drive (2Awesome Studio, €12.99 / £11.99) - A shoot 'em up with the twist that you have to switch between two sides of the screen. You have limited energy on each side, meaning that you need to alternate back and forth while trying to deal with the various things trying to kill you. It has four difficulty settings and 13 stages (with another 13 to play 'mirrored') along with support for local co-op. Developed by two engineers that once worked at the European Space Agency, we spoke to the studio's David Jimenez a little while ago.
Nine Parchments (Frozenbyte, €19.99 / £17.99) - A game that's been generating a decent amount of buzz, with an isometric view it encourages a mix of ranged and close attacks with wizards, and as you'd expect from Frozenbyte there are RPG elements thrown in. It also supports local and online co-op for up to four players with a recent demo giving us all a taste.
Caveman Warriors (Jandusoft, €9.74 / £8.76 until 28th December, then €12.99 / £11.69) - A colourful brawler with four different characters (and local multiplayer for as many players); it looks rather slick and promises plenty of challenge. We'll check it out in a review soon.
Teslagrad (Rain Games, €13.49/ £12.14 until 28th December, then €14.99 / £13.49) - An action platformer with a nice dose of puzzles thrown in, this makes you engage the brain as you utilise various abilities that riff on magnetism and electricity. It's stylish and quite challenging, and we enjoyed it a lot in our Teslagrad review.
Vostok Inc (Wired Productions, €14.99 / £12.99) - This offers a quirky mix of colourful twin-stick shooting and a simulation approach where you try to rapidly expand your businesses on multiple planets to make a lot of money. It looks like it goes heavy on satire, but the mix of sim elements, minigames and shoot 'em up action with customisable weapons could be a lot of fun.
Human: Fall Flat (Curve Digital, €14.99 / £14.99) - A puzzle adventure game that puts physics and related shenanigans at the heart of gameplay, making it all about manipulating the environment for 'hilarious results'. Local co-op will also be a feature, and we'll check it out for a review.
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive (MAGES, €7.99 / £7.00) - This side-scrolling brawler has four playable characters and showcases moves like burst gauges, dodges and guard breaks. You'll be able to level-up your character as you progress through the game's 8 levels, spending skill points to gain new moves and increase your power. 4 player online and local multiplayer is also promised, as are online leaderboards.
Embers of Mirrim (Creative Bytes, €16.99 / £15.29) - This adventure platformer involves a mythical creature "with the ability to split into light and dark embers", and you control each of those with the two analogue sticks. Here's hoping the execution delivers on what could be an enjoyable concept.
Gunbird (Zerodiv, €6.99 / £6.99) - A shmup classic originally released in 1994, Gunbird was later ported to the Saturn and PlayStation and was followed by a 1998 sequel which saw release on the Dreamcast. More recently, the two titles were bundled together in a PlayStation 2 collection. It's certainly a treat to see this one land on the Switch at a reasonable price.
Tennis in the Face (10tons, €4.99 / £4.49) - This is a physics-based game in the style of Angry Birds and many others, albeit with some charming tennis spins and presentation. Our review will be with you on 8th December.
Riptide GP: Renegade (Vector Unit, €9.99 / £9.99) - We recently had a retail-priced water racing title on Switch, and now this entry arrives as a budget-priced contender. It promises a 'deep career mode' along with local split-screen and online races; we'll see whether it successfully rides the waves in a review.
Slain: Back From Hell (Digerati, €19.99 / £17.99) - A game that was a Kickstarter success and once pegged for Wii U, it brings hugely stylish retro visuals (albeit 'new retro' due to the complexity of animation) and the promise of old-school challenge. Unfortunately we felt level design let this one down badly in our Slain: Back From Hell review.
Yōdanji (KEMCO, €4.99 / £4.49) - This cutesy rogue-like dungeon crawler tasks you with capturing and summoning various Yokai, then using those characters in your runs. It opts for a chunky sprite look and features turn-based battles; we'll check it out for a review.
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) - A 'grab 'em up' in which you hop between two planes, you take control of the titular bounty hunters to take on the evil space pirates. Pick one of the four available biomes (the perfect excuse to have varied elemental themed levels) and off you go punching, grabbing, smashing your way to the end level bosses, who just happen to be wanted criminals on your bounty list.
Switch eShop Pre-Load / Pre-Orders
Mutant Mudds Collection (Atooi, €12.99 / £10.99)
Yooka-Laylee (Team17, €39.99 / £34.99)
Switch DLC
WWE 2K18 Season Pass (2K Games, €29.99 / £24.99)
WWE 2K18 Accelerator (2K Games, €4.99 / £3.99)
WWE 2K18 Cena (Nuff) Pack (2K Games, €7.99 / £6.79)
WWE 2K18 MyPLAYER Kick Start (2K Games, €9.99 / £7.99)
WWE 2K18 Kurt Angle Pack (2K Games, free until 13th December, then €4,99 / £3,99)
Switch eShop Demos
Lost Sphear (Square Enix, free)
Embers of Mirrim (Creative Bytes, free)
Switch eShop Permanent Promotion
Sparkle 2 Evo (Forever Entertainment, €3.99 / £3.59 if you own a Switch copy of Violett, otherwise €4.99 / £4.49)
Violett (Forever Entertainment, €7.99 / £7.19 if you own a Switch copy of Sparkle 2 Evo, otherwise €9.99 / £8.99)
Switch eShop Temporary Discount
The Jackbox Party Pack 2 (Jackbox Games, €14.79 / £13.29 until 14th December, normally €20.99 / £18.99)
3DS eShop
Squareboy vs Bullies: Arena Edition (Ratalaika Games, €4.99 / £4.99) - A beat ‘em up that was once on mobile, you can brawl alone or with a friend to beat up wannabe tormentors. A reasonable game, albeit one perhaps lacking a little overall, we gave it a modest recommendation in our review of the Switch version.
Japanese Rail Sim 3D Travel of Steam (Sonic Powered Co., €14.99 / £13.49) - The return of the niche but relatively popular series in which you drive a train along simulated routes in Japan. This starts are "Shinkanaya Station" and ends at "Senzu Station" on the Oigawa railway.
New Nintendo 3DS eShop
Christmas Night Archery (Petite Games, €1.99 / £1.79) - It looks pretty much the same as other archery games from the publisher on the 3DS, albeit this time there's a Christmas theme.
3DS DLC
Culdcept Revolt - Pandemonium (NIS America, free)
3DS eShop Temporary Discounts
Bird Mania Christmas (Teyon, €0.79 / £0.70 until 4th January, normally €0.99 / £0.89)
Darts Up 3D (EnjoyUp Games, €0.98 / £0.88 until 4th January, normally €2.99 / £2.69)
Football Up 3D (EnjoyUp Games, €1.97 / £1.55 until 4th January, normally €2.99 / £2.36)
New 3DS eShop Temporary Discounts
BOX UP (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
COLOR CUBES (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
CUP CRITTERS (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
GALAXY BLASTER (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
GALAXY BLASTER CODE RED (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
GUIDE THE GHOST (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
SHOOT THE BALL (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
Wii U Virtual Console
Bomberman Panic Bomber (Konami, €7.99 / £7.19) - The run of retro titles on the Wii U via Konami continues with this spin-off, which basically seems to be a hybrid of Tetris and Columns.
Salamander (Konami, €5.99 / £5.39) - Known as Life Force in some territories, this iconic shooter from Konami alternates from horizontal to vertical stages and hits plenty of its marks — attractive 8-bit visuals, memorable tunes, tight gameplay and the option for two-player co-op. We enjoyed it a lot in our most recent review.
Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts
Inside My Radio (Seaven Studio, €3.89 / £3.37 until 4th January, normally €14,99 / £12,99)
BRICK RACE (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
COLOR CUBES (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
CUP CRITTERS (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
I C REDD (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
JACKPOT 777 (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
PANDA LOVE (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
SPLASHY DUCK (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
SHOOT THE BALL (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
TITANS TOWER (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 4th January, normally €1.49 / £1.39)
Plenty to choose from this week - let us know what you'll be downloading in the poll and comments below.
Comments 21
... this week ruined my Paypal balance. :x
GUNBIRD and RODDY & CATHY for me. Supposed to not be buying games so close to Xmas but can't resist old arcade goodness 👍
Also grabbed the two new game demos available today.
Is europe getting a delayed release of "The end is Nigh"? Just like Binding of Issac?
I hope we'll get a continuation of the Japanese rail sim on the Switch as the main drawback from the 3DS version is the small screen.
Give me glorious trains in HD!
Human: Fall Flat looks like it could be fun for me and my girlfriend to play. I'd get Yooka Laylee but that price seems a bit high tbh.
The Sexy Brutale would be most likely but honestly I'm still playing Mario. Nearly 50 hours in and I've still got over 100 moons to find. Might even last me until the 2nd Zelda DLC...
The Mutant Mudds Collection has a very tempting 33% pre purchase offer right now as well. Other than that I am interested in Yodanji, but waiting for reviews and deciding whether I really need it with Xenoblade taking up so much of my time already?
Teslagrad and tennis in the face might be future purchases for me. But not right now
I strongly recommend Gunbird to any shoot'em up fan.
I also have to say, i find it somewhat questionable that Nintendo Life did not put it in this articles headline and higher on the list of releases when it's the best Swich release this week by a landslide.
@EmirParkreiner do you know if Gunbird has a Tate mode would look great on the switch screen
You know, I decided to just forget my hopes of getting a good discount on a PS4 Pro and will just get a bunch of eShop cards to finally download all those titles on my 'Later List', including Batman, Yooka-Laylee, Worms and whatever I can‘t think of right now. Might also add Battlefront 2 and LA Noire to my holiday shopping list.
Originally, I had planned to preload YL but for 40 bucks, nope, gotta wait till Christmas that one. So I purchased Human Fall Flat. For the singleplayer aspect, I‘d give it a 6 (20 bucks for 5 or so hours of playtime). It‘s rather fun figuring out them puzzles with a friend so I encourage to play this game in co-op, which would raise its score to a 8 for me.
Tempted by Gunbird but the setting / style isn't really for me. Dimension Drive is also a possibility.
Yet Christmas is just round the corner and I got a few presents to buy for other people.
You do realise that that second we spend glancing at and then quickly scrolling past the RCMADIAX discounts is a second none of us ever get back.... right?
Pleas do us all a favour and stop listing that turgid excrement.
Any news on Minecraft 3DS? Still not made it to Europe...
Nothing for me, but I’m eagerly awaiting Pinball FX3 on Tuesday.
I've already bought The Sexy Brutale, Nine Parchments, Teslagrad and pre-purchased Mutant Mudds (couldn't get into it on 3DS but willing to give it another go for the incredibly cheap sale price). Also grabbed Floor Kids from the American eShop and am considering Phantom Breaker considering the low price point. Too many games!
@BensonUii I wouldn't encourage people to buy it at that price
@Gs69 It has tate mode...like the other 2 games Zerodiv released!
@GrailUK thanks for that gonna get it right now
@crackafreeze
1. Context?
2. So does the European eshop. For months already.
@GrailUK @Gs69
Yep, all Zerodiv/Psikyo games that need a TATE mode have it (Strikers 1945, Gunbarich, Gunbird, soon Strikers 1945 2 and Gunbird 2). Namco Museum supports it too.
The developers of the upcoming Pinball FX3 even managed to make it possible to play in TATE mode in handheld mode with only one Joy Con connected to the Switch, so you can hold the system vertically without having the other Joy Con adding weight.
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