
It's one of the busiest weeks yet on the Switch eShop, which is saying something. We have two retail titles followed by a huge number of interesting download-only games. The 3DS and Wii U don't miss out entirely either, so there's a lot to choose from - let's get to it.
Switch Retail Downloads
WWE 2K18 (2K Games, $59.99USD) - 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.
Party Planet (Mastiff LLC, $39.99USD) - The big offering here is 30 minigames for multiplayer shenanigans, including the likes of Fruit Invaders, Viking Defence and Super Vegan Anaconda - the latter of which wins the award for best-named mini-game of all time. Available from 12th December.
Switch eShop
The Sexy Brutale (Tequila Works, $19.99USD) - 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.
The End is Nigh (Nicalis, $14.99USD) - A game by Edmund McMillen, this follows protagonist Ash and his attempt to navigate a post-apocalyptic world packed with hazards and enemies. A mature hardcore platformer that boasts of "600+" levels and lots to collect, this is sure to be on plenty of wishlists. Available from 12th December.
Dimension Drive (2Awesome Studio, $12.99USD) - 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.
Floor Kids (Merj Media, $19.90USD) - Since its big push in a Nindies Showcase broadcast as a Switch console exclusive, this 'breakdance battle game' has had us intrigued. With a distinctive visual style and fresh music from Kid Koala it's hard to miss, and we'll find out whether the end result lives up to the evident potential.
Teslagrad (Rain Games, $14.99USD) - 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, $14.99USD) - 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.
Plague Road (Arcade Distillery, $10.00USD) - A game of strategic turn-based combat with rogue-like progression. Set in a world engulfed in disease, as a doctor you seek survivors to help but also recruit them to build up your farm or accompany you on your travels and assist you in combat. There are four regions, five 'types' of survivors and plenty of challenges to face as you head for the end goal. We'll look for a cure and bring you a review.
Human: Fall Flat (Curve Digital, $14.99USD) - 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, $9.99USD) - 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, $19.99USD) - 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, $7.99USD) - 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.
ACORN Tactics (TACS Games, $11.99USD) - A turn-based strategy title, this sees mechs go to battle with alien blobs over a 25 level campaign, seemingly also offering some nice customisation and depth. We'll dive in for a review.
Tennis in the Face (10tons, $4.99USD) - 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, $9.99USD) - 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, $19.99USD) - 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.
Plantera Deluxe (Ratalaika Games, $4.99USD) - A rather cute and relaxing game in which you tend to a garden and some animals; it's rather simplistic but can be a pleasurable game with the right mindset. We gave a modest recommendation to the Wii U version.
Touch Battle Tank SP (SilverStar, $4.99USD) - We've seen plenty of tank games over the years on Nintendo's download stores, and now we have one for the Switch. This offers a few different tank types and a whole lot of missions to take on, though surprisingly it appears to be single player-only.
Yōdanji (KEMCO, $4.99USD) - 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.
Red Game Without a Great Name (iFun4all, $2.99USD) - Another title from the developer that promises a significant challenge and plenty of deaths as you try to guide and teleport a bird through some tough stages. We weren't particularly impressed with this in our review.
Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy (HAMSTER, $7.99USD) - 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 Demos
Lost Sphear (Square Enix, free)
Robonauts (QubicGames, free)
3DS eShop
80's Overdrive (Insane Code, $9.99USD) - An OutRun-style racer with music by Vectorwolf, this certainly gives us a nostalgic feeling. There's a Career mode in which you can earn car upgrades, Time Attack, and even a built-in track generator for making your own courses that you can then share. We'll hit the accelerator and bring you a review soon.
Squareboy vs Bullies: Arena Edition (Ratalaika Games, $4.99USD) - 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., $19.99USD) - 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, $1.99USD) - 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 HOME Theme
Pokémon: Winter Hide-and-Seek
Wii U eShop
RTO (nuGAME, $9.99USD) - Previously on New 3DS, this is a gallery shooter in which you control multiple characters to shoot a whole lot of scary aliens, though the developer describes it as an "FPS survival horror game with permadeath".
As always Nintendo of America wants you to browse the eShop and check out the official sales and deals website for discount details; remember that the Cyber Deals end on 12th December.
That's a lot of options for this week - let us know what you'll be downloading in the poll and comments below.
Comments 69
Gunbird!
"WWE 2K18"
Everything else seems decent enough for the week. I'm interested in seeing the response to floor kids in particular.
hmmmmmm to all of them. *Returns to Skyrim
The End is Nigh, Phantom Breaker, and Plague Road!
Nothing this week, or month probably. Xenoblade is gunna keep me busy for a while.
That’s a lot of games, jeez. End is Nigh sounds rad. The Sexy Brutale sounds promising too.
Yikes !
Never thought I would say this again, but big week for me on 3DS. Been waiting for 80s Overdrive for some time, and will probably get the new rail sim at some point too!
Teslagrad & both demos for me.
From the American eShop specifically, I'll be grabbing Floor Kids so I don't have to wait for the Australian release. Also getting a physical copy of The End is Nigh imported.
The Switch eShop is filling up with junk because that's what all digital stores do.
Wow, a lot of games.
The Sexy Brutale and Phantom Breaker both sound fantastic, but I've got enough games to keep me busy right now. They're high on my wish list, though.
I downloaded WWE2K18 unaware of the frame rate issue yeasterday. It really is unplayable and I'm a pretty forgiving guy.
With 2k not saying a word about an incoming patch or even a "We're working on it" I really do feel like I was stolen from.
From what I've seen, even the released version of WWE 2K18 needs some kind of patch for better performance. I was looking forward to it, but I will hold off on it for now.
On the other hand, am excited for The End is Nigh. Had my eye on this one for a long time - have a physical edition coming my way!
@Zach777 I really don't get the hype with Skyrim... Says the guy who cries because he wants to play XC2 but can't stop playing Skyrim.
I hate Bethesda for releasing such an awesome game just 2 weeks before another awesome game.
I hope Riptide GP is as good as it looks (and doesn't get lost in the wave of games this week). Been having a blast with Gear.Club and me want MORE RACERS!!
Really miffed Sexy Brutale isn't getting a physical variant. So looks like The End is Night for me.
Human Fall Flat looks hilairious. Waiting on some reviews first though.
@Captain_Gonru I fully agree
Whelp, looks like I'll add Top Hunter and Gunbird to my backlist. So the Lost Sphear demo is available for NA? I'll be sure to download that.
@Zach777 I'm in the same boat. As fun as these games look, they can't be as fun as shooting fire at dragons and shouting goats off of cliffs...
Good lord that's a lot of games coming out.
Getting Gunbird and Top Hunter ASAP, The Sexy Brutale and 80's Overdrive by the end of the year (or by next week), Phantom Breaker a little later.
Lots of good stuff this week for sure!
I'll be looking at the Lost Sphear demo, it's an RPG that looks really interesting and I think I might like it!
My backlog still needs me. Finally beat Doom and am well into Skyrim and FF6 on the SNES Classic. Then I'll probably get RE Revelations and XC2. Sheesh...the Switch is off the rails!!!
Wow that’s a lot for Switch! Great to see! I wish that 80s Overdrive Game was on there though. Can’t say I’m into cartoon characters so I’m not so sure about that puzzle game. (Joking a bit, but I’m honestly not a huge puzzle game guy anyway)
Top Hunter
Anyone else remember when the Wii U got 22 games in one week? No? Me neither.
Superb week. Gunbird,Top Hunter, Sexy Brutale and Slain for me. Probably only Gunbird straight away though.
Embers of Mirrim is definitely one to watch. I'm surprised NL hasn't covered it in the past as being a platformer it should be the kind of game that appeals to Nintendo fans. It was well received on PS4 and One when it came in the summer. The graphics are very nice too.
WWE is terrible.
Where are the Vs. arcade games Nintendo announced?
and OMG i've played more Animal Crossing Pocket Camp than I've spent playing my Switch (think I'm kidding?)
Downloaded Gunbird which is as awesome as i expected.
I also downloaded Dimension Drive, which seems pretty solid and Phantom Breaker which i'll try next.
@thesilverbrick 22 titles would be a good month for Wii U in its prime. Even then, more than 75% of them would be bottom of the barrel junk not even worth mentioning. That's the difference on Switch, not only is it getting more games, the vast majority of them are at least decent. The terrible games are few and far between and even those can put the Wii U's terrible games to shame.
Nothing from that list, but I picked up Steamworld Dig 2 and Oceanhorn.
@Crono1973 there is a lot of good stuff here. Gunbird, the end is neigh, Teslagrad, Floor Kids and Plantera are all worthy purchases.
Garbage. Not sure what my next Switch game will be after Xenoblade2. I have a pre-order for NinoKuni2 for January (great follow up game for XB-2) - but no big game on Switch.
If they would just give an update on Battle Chasers and Hollow Knight on Switch.
Bought and downloaded WWE. Having a good time with it. I've only played 1 vs 1 matches so far, and in those the frame rate is ok and perfectly playable. The game loads like a tank in molasses, but I was expecting that. For a portable wrestling game with a full-featured character creator, I''m glad I bought it. I do have to join the chorus from other versions, however, in saying the Loot Crate system--even though it's free--is pointless and really hurts the overall experience. Wouldn't say no to future patches.
80s Overdrive looks great, will definitely be giving that a try when I get home.
Sexy Brutale looks interesting... Keeping an eye on that for a sale down the road. Too much to play right now, though. I'm swamped.
Floor Kids for me. Can’t wait to get home from work to relive my childhood.
And hoping for a NA Lost Sphere demo
Might try 80s Overdrive if it reviews well.
Not interested in as many games this week as I have been others, but still pretty impressive.
Slain!!!! I don't care what the reviews say, I enjoy this game. I would also go for 80's Overdrive if it were on Switch. I don't even want to touch my 3DS anymore.
@mjharper
Vulgar Display of Flower?
And my wish list continues to grow and grow and grow.
Son. Of. Man. I can't keep up with all of these releases anymore!
Wow, actual 3DS games. That's a surprise. Even more surprising is the release of yet another Japanese Rail Sim. I hope this means they're going to release yet another Air Traffic Controller too. I hope, I hope, I hope.
Oh, I didn't realize 80s Overdrive is out too. Definitely getting that. Love Out Run!
Only been waiting for at least 2 years for 80's Overdrive, so yeah...I'll be getting that.
@Crono1973 junk? Quite a few of these are pretty great games.
I want to protest. 20 Switch eshop games in one weekly update is too much. What is it, Steam ++++ ? We can't handle all the winning Nintendo, please stop
@ShadJV
7 out of 10 Indy games are junk. If you look back at gaming history this is how the game crash of the 80s happened. Everyone was trying to cash in on the gaming industry by either making crap games or being blatantly renamed copies of pacman and space invaders. This is why i don't care if VC does hurt indies, if I want to buy an Indy title I will, but if there is a better AAA title or retro title I'd skip over the indies entirely.
Gunbird, the demos, and 80s Overdrive for me
Waiting on reviews of Riptide and Plague Road. Both look good but could just as easily be one of those games that look fun in trailers but feel meh to play.
Nothing for me until after Christmas
@GameOtaku: The Videogame crash of the 80's happened because the Atari 2600 could only do so much and people quickly tired of the simple, repetitive gameplay from all developers including Atari themselves. ET was just the death blow; nothing could have saved that situation. The fad ran its course. Gaming had to wait for hardware that could support more interesting play.
Today's Indy scene is much more encouraging than that. You say 7 out of 10 are junk-- Well, that easily goes for all software releases for any platform. At least 7 out of 10 everythings in the world are junk. The Switch has had an unusually great first year so far, but, as with all consoles, it'll reach the point where more junk is released than good games, even by major third party companies.
All I can say is the Indy game Fast RMX is one of the Switch's very best games, and one of the most fun racers I've ever played. Like you, I'd pick a great AAA game over a handful of Indies any day... but it's great to have the choice and the variety there. It's nice to pick up a smaller little gem between those big first party releases.
floor kids, gunbird and teslagrad.
Damn I want:
Dimension Drive (Switch eShop)
Floor Kids (Switch eShop)
Human: Fall Flat (Switch eShop)
Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive (Switch eShop)
Lost Sphear (Switch Demo)
80's Overdrive (3DS eShop)
Riptide GP Renegade. May not be Wave Race or Hydro Thunder but looks like a nice substitute at a reasonable price.
Kinda interested in preordering that physical Lost Sphear off Square Enix, and entering that sweepstakes.
wow. that is a shat-ton of games. I’m actually overwhelmed.
@Rafx There is some info here from the team that helped port it over: https://twitter.com/Blind_Squirrel_/status/938512589868421121
I just looked into Floor Kids. Looks AWESOME.
On the flip side, Plague Road looks gross. The screenshots are so bad that I can barely stand to look at them. Oof.
@bezerker99 Vs. Super Mario Bros is coming out on the last week of December.
The steady flow of games continues. Nothing for me this week, still enjoying Xenoblade. And several other games I need to finish yet.
Holy cow! The Wii U this is NOT!! Gunbird, Top Hunter, Riptide GP, Dimension Drive, and I’m gonna power up my 3DS for the first time in a long long time to grab 80s Overdrive!! Phew!! December 14 & 21 starting to look pretty good too!!
Woah! So much cover art!
@Crono1973 Thanks for you opinion. Don't know who hurt you but ok.
End is Nigh and Vostok are probable buys at some point, ugh I have too many games to play! What a problem!
@Rafx If you don't want to wait for a patch then I'd call Nintendo for a refund. I haven't done it myself but I've heard success stories all over Reddit.
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