It's that time, once again, for the North American Nintendo Download Update. We'll dare to suggest that this week has a tasty line-up on offer, from quality download-only and retail arrivals on Switch to a big time release on 3DS, along with a long-awaited Wii U game to tempt us back to our GamePads. There's a lot to consider, so let's get to it.
Nintendo Switch eShop
Thumper (Drool LLC, $19.99) - Previously released on PSN and held up as a strong demonstration of VR gaming, this one now arrives on Switch for hybrid gaming on the TV or on the go. Psychedelic visuals, a pumping soundtrack and a sharp level of difficulty make this an enticing offering; we loved this in our Thumper review.
Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors (HAMSTER, $7.99) - Released in 1995 by Sunsoft, the game sees you take on the mantel of one of eight warriors thrown into a world which we are told "was destroyed by the destructors of the universe". So yeah, it's basically a fighting game set in outer space! Not necessarily considered one of the better games of its era, this ACA game will nonetheless have the usual add-ons and customisation options.
Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical (Flyhigh Works, $7.99) - A spin-off to the 3DS games, this is a rhythm action game where you press the buttons in time to cut down Boing boings (bullets). You'll also need to jump at opportune times in order to avoid fiendish fire beams. We gave this a modest recommendation in our Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical review.
Nintendo Switch Retail Demo
Disgaea 5 Complete (NIS America, free) - This long awaited release of the enormous and quirky strategy RPG includes all of the DLC from the original release. It's willingly written and designed for older players, is utterly bonkers yet at the same time offers impressive depth in gameplay. We're working on a review and will share that before the game is released, and until then there's a free demo to try out. Full game arrives on 23rd May.
3DS Retail Download
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (Nintendo, $39.99) - The third and final major release for this IP on the 3DS (assuming you count the separate Fates parts as one game), this offers something a little different from the others. A remaster / reimagining of Fire Emblem Gaiden, it incorporates third-person dungeon crawling and some first-person sections, in addition to the usual top-down strategic RPG action. We go into the detail and nitty gritty of this game in our Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia review. Available from 19th May.
3DS Retail DLC
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Season Pass (Nintendo, $44.99, twenty-two pieces of content) - The Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Season Pass includes all five DLC packs as they release. By purchasing the Season Pass, fans who want to receive all DLC will save more than 30 percent compared to purchasing all 22 pieces of content individually.
DLC Pack #1 – Fledgling Warrior ($7.99, three pieces of content): Ideal for early- to mid-game adventurers, this pack includes a new dungeon (The Astral Temple) and two new maps, great for gaining more items, in-game currency and experience points.
See the full line-up of DLC for this game right here.
3DS eShop
Drancia Saga (CIRCLE Entertainment, $5) - From the developers of games like Fairune and more recently Kamiko, this is a 'frantic action' combat game with serious retro vibes that bring to mind a host of classics from the 8- and 16-bit eras; if you own the relevant games there are also guest appearances from the likes of Gunman Clive. We'll let you know what we think in a review.
Mysterious Stars 3D: Road to Idol (Collavier, $5.99) - This series of join-the-dots games on DSiWare was not exactly warmly received by our reviewers, but it returns on the 3DS with some added graphical flourishes.
Mysterious Stars 3D: A Fairy Tale (Collavier, $7.99) - This one also arrived on DSiWare and we gave it 3/10, so have our doubts that it's the next big thing on 3DS.
DodgeBox (Bidemend Entertainment, $1.50) - A rather simple game in which you use the touchscreen to control a ball that's, well, dodging boxes.
3DS HOME Themes
Fire Emblem Echoes: Alm’s Army
Fire Emblem Echoes: Celica's Army
Wii U eShop
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (Nordic Games, $19.99) - A pleasing arrival for those that enjoyed Darksiders II in the early days of Wii U and want to experience the first game on the system. Here's hoping this delivers a strong version of a game that's been on a number of wishlists since its original announcement. Available from 23rd May.
PINBALL (RCMADIAX, $1.49) - This seems like a rather basic iteration on the classic game concept, albeit with a twist as you try to hit hotspots to collect points while avoiding a 'danger zone'.
Wii U Virtual Console
Blazing Lazers (Konami, $5.99) - In the TurboGrafx-16 era this was held up as a top-of-class vertical-scrolling shooter, a visual showcase when released in 1989. That will sell the game to some already, and we did enjoy it back in the day in our 2007(!) review for the Wii Virtual Console version.
As always Nintendo of America wants you to browse the eShop and check out the official sales and deals website for discount details.
Quite a lot to choose from this week - let us know what you'll be downloading in the poll and comments below.
Comments (58)
Echoes retail. First.
Just Darksiders for me this week
Thumper looks interesting. I'll check out some reviews for that
The demo is great, definitely getting the full game.
SoV just shipped for me. Going to be nice to finally have the game and see how it is for myself.
FYI, don't play Hard Mode on your first run through. It's apparently a slog, even if you do everything optimally.
And speaking of "optimal", the best classes for the villagers are Grey = Merc, Tobin = Mage, Kliff = Archer, and Faye = Priestess. Their worst are Grey = everything else, Tobin = soldier, Kliff = mage, and Faye = Pegasus Knight.
Gray's just made to Merc, really.
Tobin learning excalibur early makes him a better mage than Kliff who learns it 3 levels latter than in Gaiden and is the only character in the game to have had a nerfed growth (-15% to HP) and no buffs in the department either, on top of buffed enemy stats on Hard making his 2 base speed virtually insurmountable (double attacks happen with a difference of one speed). Archer, meanwhile, actually penalizes speed growth and Tobin's 6 base speed only has a 15% growth backing it in the class, with Kliff's 50% growth in the class being most atypical of archers and his 8 base res allowing him to go head-to-head with mages.
Faye learns physic very early, allowing the pressure to be taken off of Silque. PK has some niche use early on, but Clair pretty much outclasses her in every regard as soon as she joins.
Sorry for the min-FAQ in the comments; just really looking forward to the game.
Is there a physical retail version of Darksiders 1?
Wondering if Darksiders is the last "major" release for the Wii U.
I was so gonna buy Darksiders for Wii U but then Microsoft gave me the 360 version for free last week with my Gold subscription.
Drancia Saga and Blazing Lazers. Even as a pinball fanatic, I refuse to give RCMDIAX any of my money. All of his prior games look terrible and have been reviewed to terrible results, including SUPER ROBO MOUSE, the one game he was hyping up to be his masterpiece.
The discount for the FE: Echoes season pass is way less than 30%. It's only $7/£6.9/€7 which is about 13%. Weird that everything is pretty much coming out all at once.
Blazing Lazers?! That came out of nowhere for me! Downloading....
Thumper rules, but I can't even imagine playing it without VR. It's really good on PSVR.
I'm curious about Thumper, but at that price, I'll hold off. I'll be getting my physical copy Echoes in the mail tomorrow.
Nothing, but still a pretty decent week. I just have enough on my plate at the moment.
Can't believe Darkdiders actually finally released on Wii U. And almost perfect timing too, as both the first and 2nd game are available as a set for the same price as this one game, $20, on both X1 and PS4.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/darksiders-furys-collection-war-and-death/bpr5gfhr9gtz?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HPStwNw-rhuVRYotBqLbxMenqMPe2Q&tduid=(a1887d58837f616de1ef09655ac545c9)(256380)(2459594)(TnL5HPStwNw-rhuVRYotBqLbxMenqMPe2Q)()
https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/games/darksiders-fury's-collection-war-and-death/cid=UP4389-CUSA05347_00-DSFURYSBUNDLE001
It's perfect b/c the Wii U gets to go out the same way it came in, getting 1 game for the same price as a bundle on other systems. It launched w/ Mass Effect 3 for $60, same price as the trilogy on other consoles.
It is good though to actually see a company follow thru and do what they said regarding a game release on Wii U.
I don't get why konami is choosing now, at the end of the Wii U's life cycle, to release T-16 games finally. Perhaps they should get an early jump on the Switch?? Ohhh that's right Nintendo didn't launch it yet!! 😡
Drancia Saga for me this week.
As much as I want Fire Emblem Echoes, I don't know if it's right for me to dip in. I mean, I haven't even moved an inch in Fates and I just got started with the Birthright side not too long ago in my playthrough. In fact, Birthright is pretty much the only side I touched in my Special Edition cartridge.
As strong a week as there has been in quite some time.
No Eurotrash downloads this week, no?
Fire Emblem and expansion pack for me. I'm also picking up the Disgea 5 demo. This is going to make me not buy Arms for the Switch. I know it is a month away but I have a life too. If Fire Emblem came out a month earlier Arms might of happened. It's not my type of game but I was willing to try it. 3DS is running strong.
@readyletsgo
Yeah man, they just posted that Magikarp Jump is out in Italy.
I don't live in North America, but if I did, I'd be downloading Thumper and the Disgaea Demo
Meanwhile not the greatest week for the Switch. A lot of announcements lately so I'm hoping the Thursday updates will increase in variety.
I should be getting both Fire Emblem and Darksiders from Amazon. I still can't get over the fact that this Darksiders game is releasing, and it's stayed at £14.99. I was so sure it would get canned.
Interesting week. I'll download Fire Emblem Echoes later on down the road when I have time to invest in a story based RPG Strategy. I do like Rhythm games so I may go for Dark Witch Music Episode (more research needed).
It's kind of funny that I'm getting the Alm and Celica amiibo before the game, then again I bet there are people who buy amiibo without the games for it (or systems).
Why is Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical listed didn't that come out last Thursday?
@rjejr LOL, that's so horribly depressing and funny all at once Then again, the WiiU now has more third party support post-discontinuation than it did the last 3 years of its life!
Almost tempting to buy one last teal-box!
@StephenYap3 I'm in a similar place with Fire Emblem myself. Although I preordered with a VisaCheckout + GCU deal months ago for Echoes so at $24 plus tax I'll bite.
Looks like more people are gonna grab Darksiders than I thought. I wonder if there will be a review or write-up on it.
@RodSD64 Yes there is!
@Curlynob It seems like you should be able to change your region in the eShop settings temporarily to reflect North America, download the demo, and then change it back.
Drancia is all this week for me
Nintendo of America baffles me. Tg16 VC for WiiU but none for 3ds? Don't tell me they honestly believe that releasing a VC title on the same day as a retail game could cannibalize its sales of the new game, if people didn't want to buy it before it's certainly no incentive. Its clearly obvious the 3ds has tons of life left over the WiiU so why not release VC titles on a relevant system or else say when the switch VC will release and if our purchases of VC titles will transfer.
@improviser There's still Cars 3 and Axiom Verge (don't know if you count the latter at "major" though).
Fire Emblem for me but boxed. Also I can't imagine Darksiders is gonna sell well at all, but at least they kept their promise with it.
Wait wha? Fire Emblem comes out today? Why does it say on mine the 23rd? DX
Still don't have a Switch...sighs
Terraria (3DS) $9.99
Terraria (Wii U) $14.99
forma.8 (Wii U) $7.49
Soul Axiom (Wii U) $7.49
I thought Cooking Mama was coming today?
I would have bought Blazing Lazers in a heartbeat if it was for 3DS. It's an awesome SHMUP.
@gatorboi352 It's worth playing the remaster from what I have heard. Alot of the bugs got fixed and it just looks better all around.
Wow, with the Prime discount, Warmastered Edition is only $15.99 CDN. Pretty cool given that the sequel on Wii U is still $39.99 CDN and that game released in 2012.
Obviously the person who does this list is NOT in the know regarding what's actually being released. Cooking Mama Sweet Shop came out on 3ds this week, but it's not listed here. They miss games like that all the time. That's an insulting bias.
@rjejr Dangit, why you gotta shine the light on THQ like that?
I already picked up warmastered on PC but I'll snag it again for WiiU. Still haven't beat it anyway.
Um...where is Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop?
I pre ordered special edition of Fire emblem on GameStop before it sold out. My pre order hasn't shipped yet, should I be concerned? Pretty sure I just got free pro memeber shipping
Disgaea Demo here I come!
I'll be grabbing Darksiders in the (relatively) near future, if only because I'm afraid physical copies will be hard to find before long. The series has always interested me.
I'm also planning on picking up Fire Emblem Echoes, but it'll be some time before I do so. I haven't even managed to get around to my copy of Conquest yet.
nothing. already got Darksiders, Darksiders 2 and the HD remake of Darkersiders on PC.
I'll buy physical copy of Echoes with the two amiibo, and digital download of the season pass.
So is that $44 dollars just for the fire emblem DLC? WTF
@Ryu_Niiyama "Dangit, why you gotta shine the light on THQ like that?"
Well I did say it was good they finally released it, just bad timing. And the symmetry w/ Mass Effect at launch at Darksiders near the end just stuck out to me.
@daveh30 Get it if you like both rhythm games and being creeped the hell out. Seriously, wear headphones, turn out the lights and crank the bass. You'll have a great time
@NEStalgia " horribly depressing and funny all at once
Well that is what I was going for. Well that and this.
Really wish Darksiders and Nintendo Switch were in the same sentence. And now they are.
@gortsi - any idea where one can get/pre-order Axiom Verge for the Wii U?
As for this week I'm getting Darksiders, FE plus Amiibo, and I'll download the FE DLC. I'm sad that I missed out on the LE version.
I'm getting both the standard and limited editions of Valentia boxed today. Season pass and amiibo too to round out my US Valentia collection. Have both Japanese limited editions too. However, the Alm and Celica themes aren't showing up on the theme shop. Does anyone know when they will be ready for download?
@SMEXIZELDAMAN Yes but you get 22 pieces of content, definitely enough for another full game. Nintendo is very generous with Fire Emblem DLC, Awakening and Fates's DLC packs were quite robust for the money.
@jmbarnes101 it hasn't been announced for a physical version in the US, just the EU for now
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