Welcome, welcome. Yes, it really is June already, which means it's time for another eShop Selects!
But wait, what was that? Other games came out this month? Yep, we know Yes, we know most of you have been playing a certain open-world wonder on Switch for the majority of May. But that's why this month, eShop Selects is more vital than ever in our eyes.
Even though it's been a quieter month of the digital storefront, there are still some fantastic titles tucked away that we enjoyed — we all need a post-Zelda game, after all. Since it's been a quieter month, we've included all eShop exclusives that scored 7/10 or above.
With that out of the way, let's dive in.
Honourable Mentions
This month has been a popular one for late ports, boomer shooters and puzzlers. And we've got all of those bases and more covered — even in the honourable mentions:
- Maquette | Review: 7/10
- Nightmare Reaper | Review: 7/10
- Pulling No Punches | Review: 7/10
3. Fights in Tight Spaces (Switch eShop)
Fights in Tight Spaces is one of the coolest roguelites on the Switch. Its monochromatic with splashes-of-red visuals are a feast and the deck-building combat is unique and surprisingly deep. it's like watching an infiltration or a movie fight in slow-motion, and you're making all of the decisions. It takes a lot to make a roguelite feel truly fresh, but Ground Shatter has proven that there are still plenty of special ideas in the tank for this hugely popular genre. This popular 2021 Steam title has made the jump to Switch quite nicely, earning a well-deserved 8/10 from us.
2. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (Switch eShop)
The "boom" of boomer shooters just keeps on giving, and the follow-up to Space Marine — Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun — is another beautiful example of how to make a stylish, bloody, and addictive shooter. Even with some control and level design issues, we kept coming back for the combat. The titular boltgun is the star of the show, but every single weapon feels excellent to use. We also can't get enough of those crunchy 3D pixels. We awarded this unlikely follow-up with a solid 7/10.
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1. Cassette Beasts (Switch eShop)
Brighton-based developer Bytten Studio has knocked it out of the park with their monster-collecting tribute to '80s music, Cassette Beasts. Mixing Pokémon-like creatures with a vast Zelda-inspired overworld, Cassette Beasts feels like the kind of mature Pokémon game long-time fans have been dreaming of. The mix of sprite work, 2D visuals, funky music, and unusual creatures is just the beginning of what makes this a wonderful RPG, and we've still got thousands of beasts to mix and fuse together before we reach the end of our adventure. The developer has been working on performance patches, but even with those issues, we scored Cassette Beasts an 8/10.
< Nintendo eShop Selects - April 2023
How we decide our eShop Selects top three: As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.
Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month's top prize.
Comments 19
Don't think I picked up any new eShop games in May. I'll likely grab Cassette Beasts and maybe Fights in Tight Spaces eventually though.
I feel like the review copy you guys got of Cassette Beasts and the one I have are worlds apart. Please note that my tolerance with performance on Switch is incredibly high. The game started ok (and that's me being kind) there is a nauseating amount of stutter/lag or whatever you would call it, but it progressively got worse, with visual glitches becoming more frequent, the slowdown would affect the music as well which is such a shame because the soundtrack is fantastic. But my true problem was the amount of crashes I had that seemed to get worse the more hours I played. It does have autosave but without spoiling there are certain fights that I consistently lose progress on because after I've beaten them it will get stuck at the exp screen and the screen will go black, making me unable to save or fast travel, and 9 times out of 10 when I fast travel it will crash. It's been benched for that reason despite me wanting to carry on, but with reviewers giving it very positive scores and marking it down for some minor hiccups is not going to make the devs fix their game.
Please don't buy this game yet, it deserves so much better than the state it is in right now, the game itself is my favourite Pokemon-like yet. It's ridiculously fun, the type system is fantastic, the monster designs are great and the exploration is rewarding and as I mentioned already the soundtrack is banging, the only soundtrack in a game I've liked more so far is from the Persona series. It would have been one of my favourite games without these issues.
For clarity my version is 1.3.0
I'll get Cassette Beasts for sure eventually (although I'll wait for at least the biggest issues @Nintendancies mentioned to be patched before doing so at this point) and probably Fights in Tight Spaces and Maquette, too!
@JohnnyMind
I'll give you a boop when I see it update.
I've been manually checking for updates daily with baited breath I'm dying to play it more.
@Nintendancies That doesn't sound great. Don't mind them taking inspiration from Pokemon but they don't need to try to copy the technical issues.
@BenAV
Works flawlessly everywhere though else it seems, it's a Switch problem again.
Wildfrost and Gunvein.
@Nintendancies No reason it shouldn't be able to run perfectly well on the Switch though so that's pretty poor optimisation by the devs/publisher.
@Ironcore Wildfrost is an excellent game but it released in April.
I grabbed We ❤️ Katamari REROLL, because the series rocks.
Guys, you missed Fuga: Melodies of steel 2.
It's amazing! Just as good, if not better than the first.
Highly recommended as the first was a massively underrated gem
@BenAV
Yep, there's nothing here to tax it. I agree, I will die on the hill that It's more that devs just don't understand the system rather than the lack of power. 6 years in and it's getting more and more grating. They just shove it on there for a quick buck, not really understanding that it works differently than other consoles.
A quiet month relatively speaking for me with regard to the May releases. I only picked up Cassette Beasts which is good. The others didn't grab me enough tbf. EG: I love puzzlers but I have enough on the backlog so no Maquette. Warhammer: Boltgun had no gyro.
EDIT: Fuga 2 is on my wishlist for a later download.
This month was all about Gunvein, which I love but struggle with, and Star Gagnant, which I love and don't struggle with both are fantastic, and both scratch a different Shmup itch.
An unusual pick, but for me my top eshop game of May is Fitness Circuit. It has cute visuals, good sound, good fitness routines, unlockables to keep you motivated. Even though the motion detection doesn't work for all exercises, it's kept me having am enjoyable workout for the last 3 weeks which is the main thing. And at least in the US it seems to be digital-only.
I'll likely pick up Cassette Beasts at some point (at least if some of the issues talked about above are fixed) but it 's on my wishlist for now.
I really wanted Maquette for the amazing soundtrack and I like puzzle games, but unfortunately I watched some gameplay and it gave me motion sickness, so I doubt I can handle the game.
I tried the fights in tight spaces demo but I disliked the whole movement card concept and also didn't like the way they set up the controls, so pass for me on that one.
I love the modern retro fps games we have been getting. Dusk is probably the best of the lot. I wish that my answer was Ion Fury, but the game has too many tiny enemies that fly/crawl all over the screen. There's just never a comfortable engagement distance, and it gets exhausting pointing your reticle every which way, even with gyro. I just ended up sniping w the Loverboy's lock on, which slows the game down harrrrrrrd.
Anyway, rant over.
...wait no I lied: also why hide 60fps behind The Konami Code???
I think it'd be great if the winner of these were awarded an emblem to showcase their triumph!
When the game comes up on one of NintendoLife's many list, it may help it stand out more and be intriguing to those who haven't heard of/played the game yet.
I really liked TemTem but those game crashes really put it on the backburner. I would like to get Cassette Beasts but sound like the same issues. Will wait till it's fixed
I'm finding The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan quite fun, even if it has some problems (navigation with fixed camera angles can be confusing some times). It does a good job laying out the mystery, inviting the player to find clues and put the pieces together. The plot has a kind of b-movie vibe, and that's part of the fun too. I just finished my first play-through and I'm ready to give it another go, making different choices.
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