May 14 – May 20

Section: 

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-5877.jpg)   Greg “DoubtingThomas396” Decker

It seems that the universe is having a bit of a laugh at my expense this week. After announcing in last weeks TWA comments that 2018 has been a mediocre year for games, the industry seems to have pulled out all the stops to make me look like an entitled jerk.

To atone (or to punish the universe right back, depending on your perspective), I’ll give you not just my pick of the week, but my top ten picks of the week. In actual order from least to most interesting!

10) Asimov Laws seems to be going for the Nier: Automata motif in which a questionably-dressed android rocks some bad-arse combat moves and levels herself up while committing the player to multiple playthroughs. The difference is that Asimov Laws is a rogue-lite, which means a playthrough won’t take twelve hours and I will, therefore, be more likely to actually do it.

9) Tell Me Everything will probably be talked about extensively on a podcast near you. It takes the concepts that were hinted at in Her Story, but puts you in the roll of the interrogator instead of just some person watching the tapes. Build your questions from a list of available keywords, and choose your phrasing wisely, lest your investigation hit a dead end.

8) Omensight looks absolutely gorgeous, with an interesting murder-mystery plot. It would likely have been my game of the week if not for the fact it sounds like it will play like a reboot of Majora’s Mask.

7) Fox n Forests has some unfortunate cover art, but looks like the sort of classic platformer that I expected would be making more of a comeback after Shovel Knight hit it big. This time you play as a fox who can control the seasons, which sounds fun when you think about freezing your enemies, but less so when you realize it works by voluntarily turning the whole game into an ice level.

6) Monstrous has a hard-to-google title but has some terrific art direction, and earns points for being a third-person melee-combat game that isn’t trying to be Batman.

5) The Watchmaker is a puzzle-adventure about, well, a watchmaker who finds that time itself has gone off the clock, and he’s going to strap a steampunk time machine to his back and set things back to rights. The hook, for me, is the way the game tracks your age instead of your health. I’m keen to see whether that means a bunch of timed puzzles, or something more interesting.

4) Forgotten Anne has the look of something that will be an indie darling. Hand-drawn characters, and classic cell-animation for the cut scenes, look to finally realize the dream of playing a Miyazaki film without all that fuddling about with Laser discs and quicktime events.

3) Wizard of Legend takes that pixel-art style we’ve come to know and love from games like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Party Hard and lets you cut a swath through procedurally generated dungeons as the wizard we all think we’re going to be at level one, but aren’t actually until level 25.

2) Walden: A Game answers the question “is there anything they won’t make a video game out of?” with not just "No", but a "Hell No." Following the events of Henry David Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond, the game challenges the player to live deliberately. I look forward to watching the speed runs on Twitch.

For my game of the week, though, I’m going to let my son pick. Ice Cream Surfer caught his eye on the Switch Store. It’s a former WiiU game – a phrase which applies to roughly forty percent of everything released on the Switch so far – and it’s a side-scrolling shoot-em-up in which you play one of a handful of colorful characters riding a flying ice-cream novelty to defeat an army of vegetables who want to steal everybody’s dessert. Even though I can’t eat chocolate for medical reasons (I’m half dog, if you must know, and no, I don’t want to talk about it), and ignoring the fact that roasted broccoli is pretty darn delicious, I still have to go with any game that commits to a premise like that. Hopefully it will find an audience now that it’s on a system that actually has an audience. Ice Cream Surfers gets my hotly-contested pick for game of the week.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/picture-111373-1511547841.jpg)   Chris "C" Cesarano

It is a cruel Tuesday that drops two games upon me following an April drought. Battle Chasers: Nightwar finally hits the Nintendo Switch, which means I can finally redeem my Kickstarter code for the JRPG-inspired, turn-based dungeon-diving romp. I'm more than eager to see how the former Darksiders devs do with a smaller scale and separate genre. The recent Gameumentary on the title certainly got me hyped.

My actual pick for the week is Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time. I don't expect this game to be amazing. There's plenty of critically-acclaimed journo-bait titles out there looking to smack me in "muh feels" or convince me how mature and grown up this industry has become. I don't care. Ever since I saw the first short on Netflix, I've been enchanted. So imagine what The Enchanted Parade film would do to me with actual enchantment going on! I don't care what your feelings on anime are, this series has something for everyone. I dare you and your kids not to have your pants charmed right off.

It's because of that charm that I chose Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time. It's not about the gameplay; it's about any excuse to dive back into that wonderful world alongside Akko, Lotte, and Sucy.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Moonshot” Threepaper

Walden, a game is the kind of artsy game I’m glad exists but will probably never touch. Also dropping is episode 2 of The Council, a mystery adventure game with interesting conversation mechanics but horrible script and voice acting.

Monster Slayers is a deck-building roguelike. While I am unschooled in what makes a deck-builder good, it impressed the hard-to-please folks at Quarter to Three.

My vote this week goes to a game that may not be the best on the list, or even fully functional, but just simply intrigues me the most. Ottoman Empire: Spectacular Millennium is an FPS set in the titular empire. It has time travel, vampires, werewolves, dinosaurs, swords, guns: you name it. It looks pretty enough for an indie game, but I have no idea if the combat will be any good. Turkish developer CDIS Lab has high hopes for the project, as it has plans for a trilogy of games to lead to a novel, then a TV series, then a movie, then an animated series. I can’t tell if this is going to be the next IP juggernaut, vaporware or just a hot mess, but if you want in on the ground floor, this is your week.

Here's the list, now in release-date order!

PC

  • 05-14

  • Airplane Sky Voyage
  • best game eu
  • Bing Bong XL
  • Bomb-Bomb
  • Creepy Road
  • Drift 4000
  • EXAELLA
  • Hyperspace Dogfights
  • Labirinto 2
  • Light Cube
  • Mad Frost
  • Pivot XL
  • Righty Tighty XL
  • RKN Simulator
  • ROA
  • Stonewall Penitentiary
  • Wizard of Legend
  • Z.W!
  • 05-15

  • 1943 Deadly Desert
  • Arakion: Book One
  • Asimov Laws
  • BitBreaker
  • Casual Penalty
  • Click.O.Fast
  • Cube - The Jumper
  • DeFaster
  • Entropy 2120
  • Fantasy Versus
  • Forgotton Anne
  • Fury Race
  • Gopnik Simulator
  • Horizon Chase Turbo
  • Knife Flipping
  • Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time
  • Nova Wing III
  • Omensight
  • Overhead
  • Professor Madhouse
  • Psycho Squirrels
  • Sandmade
  • Slayer Of Traitors
  • Spartan Fist
  • Splitter Critters
  • The Adventure of Magical Girl
  • The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek
  • The Last Front
  • Zombie Teacher
  • 05-16

  • ARENA 8
  • Degrees
  • Floor Kids
  • Gachi Gang
  • HUBE: Seeker of Achievements
  • JungleShoot
  • Mad Dagger 2
  • Monstrous
  • Mountain Racing
  • Putinoids VS Navalnyats
  • RKN: Roskomnadzor Banned Internet
  • Run away 2
  • SPACE BLASTER 8 BIT
  • Spheroid
  • STAY
  • Towards The Pantheon
  • Trivia Vault: Business Trivia
  • 05-18

  • Adventure in Kana Village
  • AntVentor
  • ATTACK OF THE KILLER FURRIES
  • Balloon Strike
  • Barrel Boot Camp
  • BATTLE ZOMBIE SHOOTER: SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
  • Bitcoin Trading Master
  • Block Competition
  • Bomb Party
  • Bullet Hell ADVANCED
  • Cereal Soup
  • Climber
  • Community College Hero: Knowledge is Power
  • CORRUPTION
  • Dark SASI
  • Dinosaurs Prehistoric Survivors
  • Eden Rising: Supremacy
  • Elixir of Immortality II: The League of Immortality
  • Fairune Collection
  • FAR: Lone Sails
  • FAST BEAT LOOP RACER GT
  • Flapping Over It
  • FOX n FORESTS
  • FPV Freerider
  • FRAMED Collection
  • Future Proof
  • Glow Ball - Not A Billiard Puzzle Game
  • Goblin Walker
  • Hentai Puzzle
  • Hunt With Friends
  • Imperialism: The Dark Continent
  • JESUS vs MUHAMMAD
  • Koloro
  • LOGistICAL: Caribbean
  • Mahjong Riichi Multiplayer
  • Manaya
  • Masters of Puzzle
  • Mirror Drop
  • Mutants Must Die!
  • Ottoman Empire: Spectacular Millennium
  • Paradox of the Cryptomancers
  • Pinball 2018
  • Piopupu
  • PRESENT FOR MANAGER
  • RaKoval~Nya: Escape Edition
  • Rapid
  • S.T.R.E.T.C.H.
  • Sable's Grimoire
  • Sakura Sadist
  • Setup Developer Tool 2018
  • Six Generals
  • Snake, snake, snake!
  • Soccer Nations Battle
  • Space Chip
  • Space Elite Force
  • Super GTR Racing
  • Taco Gun
  • Telegrum Clicker
  • Tell Me Everything
  • The Epic Bang Theory
  • The Forest Below
  • The Great Race
  • The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence
  • The Outlaw, The Drunk, & The Whore
  • The Watchmaker
  • Torture Chamber
  • Two Inns at Miller's Hollow
  • Ultimate Racing 2D
  • Wild West Saga: Idle Tycoon
  • Wolf Balls
  • X-ray hospital
  • ZombieThon
  • Zup! X
  • 05-19

  • Owen to have fun!
  • Seek Etyliv
  • SwordBounce
  • 05-20

  • Goat Life
  • Math Problem Challenge
  • Math Speed Challenge
  • Save The Villy
  • Super B-Dino's adventures

PS4

  • 05-15

  • Animal Super Squad
  • Asemblance: Oversight
  • Azure Reflections
  • Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters
  • Dragon's Crown Pro
  • Forgotton Anne
  • GoNNER
  • Hitman: Definitive Edition
  • Horizon Chase Turbo
  • Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time
  • Magic Knight Grand Charion
  • Monster Slayers
  • Omensight
  • Walden, a game
  • Welcome to Hanwell
  • Wizard of Legend
  • 05-17

  • FOX n FORESTS
  • The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek

Xbox One

  • 05-15

  • Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters
  • Descenders
  • Forgotton Anne
  • Hitman: Definitive Edition
  • Wizard of Legend
  • 05-16

  • Divinity: Original Sin 2: Definitive Edition
  • Lily's Epic Quest
  • 05-17

  • FOX n FORESTS
  • The Council - Episode 2: Hide and Seek
  • 05-18

  • Monster Slayers
  • State of Decay 2

Switch

  • 05-15

  • Battle Chasers: Nightwar
  • The Adventures of Elena Temple
  • The Mystery of the Hudson Case
  • Wizard of Legend
  • 05-17

  • Fairune Collection
  • FOX n FORESTS
  • FRAMED Collection
  • Ice Cream Surfer
  • Invisiballs
  • Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Super Burger Time
  • The Banner Saga
  • White Night
  • Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
  • 05-18

  • Henry The Hamster Handler
  • Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
  • Little Nightmares: Complete Edition

3DS

  • 05-15

  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
  • 05-17

  • Block-a-Pix Color

RIFT

  • 05-14

  • Shatter EVERYTHING
  • 05-15

  • Fadeholm
  • 05-17

  • SchoolJump
  • The God

Vive

  • 05-14

  • Shatter EVERYTHING
  • 05-15

  • Fadeholm
  • Larkin building by Frank Lloyd Wright
  • 05-17

  • SchoolJump
  • The God

Comments

Curious about State of Decay 2.

Hope it delivers.

I really with there was a discount for Dragon's Crown Pro seeing as I've bought Dragon's Crown on PS3 and Vita already.

Yeah, I'm waiting for that to go on super-duper sale I think.

Man, looking back at the list I wish I mentioned Strange Journey Redux and Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition. Greg's right. Even if a lot of this stuff is rereleases, it's an awful lot of stuff to go back and (re)play.

The trailers for Hyrule Warriors are disconcertingly effective.

Every time I see one, I think “ooh! That looks fun. Maybe I should grab a copy.” I usually have a copy in my shopping cart before I remember that I owned it on the WiiU for about a week before getting disgusted and trading it in.

Dragon Warriors games are not for me, but the trailers make them look like they are.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5...

MachiaVillain launches on Steam this Wednesday for $19.99.

It's billed as a cross between Dungeon Keeper & Prison Architect. Looks to have a ton of personality.

Really close to diving in at launch. Just need to hear about code stability, etc.

Aaron D. wrote:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5...

MachiaVillain launches on Steam this Wednesday for $19.99.

It's billed as a cross between Dungeon Keeper & Prison Architect. Looks to have a ton of personality.

Really close to diving in at launch. Just need to hear about code stability, etc.

I am not sure how I missed that one, but now I have eleven games to buy this week.

That game seems like something I would really like, but I'm not sure I can get past the art style.

Far looks like an neat experience. Anyone picking up?