July 9 – July 15

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

Looks like the post E3 doldrums are passing, and we’re starting to get some interesting titles in the mix again. This, after I spent too much in the Steam sale and added a dozen games to my already bloated queue. But you don’t want to hear about my “problems.” You want to hear about games. Well, I live to serve, and have scoured the release list to bring you games that I think are worth your time.

If nothing else, you’ll know what to avoid, right?

Most obviously, Octopath Traveler drops this week. It’s not my kind of game, falling more into my wife’s wheelhouse, and she fell asleep three times during the first twenty minutes of the demo, so maybe making this one of the three titles to promote at E3 wasn’t Nintendo’s brightest moment.

Speaking of giant, Japanese RPGs, if you want to play as someone with spiky, white hair, a chartreuse windbreaker and a sword that is edging its way beyond compensatory territory, Shining Resonance: Refrain comes out on pretty much anything that plays video games. It’s been on my wishlist for a while, because dragons, but it’s not my pick this week because “...”.

Richy’s Nightmares comes out to scratch that itch that LIMBO gave you before it ran off with INSIDE and its wanton color palette (Black, white and red? Who do you think you are? A newspaper?). If you like atmospheric, monochrome puzzle platforms featuring children in peril, this might be for you. Also, therapy. Not judgin’; just sayin’.

If you like trisyllabic online shooters that start with D, but can’t get over how they killed Captain Reynolds in that other one, you can go play Defiance 2050. It has giant bugs to shoot, and loot to grind, and it’s had at least 2048 more sequels to get things right than the other leading loot-based-online-shooter that starts with D. Also, this one is free, so the microtransactions sting a bit less.

I have lots more (Undead and Beyond! Rifter! Packed Train!), but I’d better stop there and jump to my pick for the week. Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker comes to the Nintendo Switch this week, and quite frankly it’s got me much more excited than Smash or Mario Party or anything else Nintendo thinks is important in 2018. Would I rather a sequel? Sure, but I’m happy to re-buy this little gem and take it with me on the go. Captain Toad makes his second appearance as Game of the Week.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Ice to see you” Threepaper
Finding gems among the myriad titles in the PC release list is like playing a hidden-object game – fun fact: hidden-object games comprise around 30% of any given week’s offerings.

What can we dig up this week? In gumshoe and horror-movie style, I’ll split up from what Doubting T has mentioned, so we can cover more ground.

Bomber Crew is a FTL-like crew simulator, except this time your crew is operating a WW2 bomber.

Insane Robots is a card-battling game where you fill circuits with attack or defence chips to do those things. The twist comes with being able to play glitches that empty your opponent’s circuits, or locks, which protect or conceal your own. Does that sound compelling, card-battle fans, or will you shrug and go back to Hearthstone?

On the “indie release from a sole developer” front, we have the Portaleseque The Spectrum Retreat, where you try to escape a freaky hotel using colours – you have to be the same colour as a door to pass through it. It’s a fuller version of Spectrum, which won a BAFTA Young Game Designers award in 2016, so: pedigree.

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a brawler where you play a roided-up chook, smashin’ and shootin’ through missions and gettin’ loot. The trailers seem designed to attract Let’s-Players rather than show off the precision of the fighting mechanics.

So what can I recommend? Homo Flimsy, the ragdoll goalkeeping simulator? Battle Royale Builder, which is actually just a peaceful building game that’s trying to game the search engines?

This week I’ll go with the part-Descent, part-Kerbal Ice Caves of Europa, where you pilot a drone through said caves, collecting samples and uncovering a sci-fi conspiracy plot. The promise that you can use a controller makes me think that the flying isn’t tortuously exacting … so maybe not too much like Descent, then. GOTW for being something different.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-1395.jpg)   Colleen “momgamer” Hannon

Looks like great minds think alike on this week’s offerings. I’ll also echo the suggestion for Ice Caves of Europa. I watched the teaser trailer, and the feeling of calm discovery peppered by moments of unusual (and probably deadly) interest made me want to find out more.

Star Valor is a universe to explore, mine, scavenge and build your way through. It’s early access, but if you’re willing to risk that to assuage your 4X yearnings, it might be something to look at.

For GOTW, my PS4 is going to get some 2d love. We’ll start with Chicken Assassin: Reloaded. Some days, you just want to bash your way through waves of 2d jerks, and this one looks like it’s all about that. Another winner is Blacksea Odyssey, an old-school 2d shoot-em-up that reminds of one of my arcade favorites, Life Force.

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

PC

  • 07-09

  • AceSpeeder3
  • Anti-Human Alliance Falsemen
  • Bug Splatt
  • Deadly Silence
  • Ecchi Cards
  • Fairyland: Power Dice
  • Golf Galore
  • HellMaze
  • Mines and Magic
  • Panic Room 2: Hide and Seek
  • Remyadry
  • The Chronicles of Quiver Dick
  • The SOL Device
  • V.T.
  • XZ: XL
  • 07-10

  • Animal couple
  • Berry couple
  • Bird couple
  • Butterfly couple
  • Cat couple
  • Color by Numbers - Flowers
  • Curse in our heads
  • Defiance 2050
  • Dig or Die
  • Dog couple
  • Echoes of the Fey: The Last Sacrament
  • Fruit couple
  • Headsnatchers
  • Hentami: Vendetta
  • Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard
  • Ice Caves of Europa
  • Indie Pogo
  • Intelligence: Dinosaurs
  • Meme couple
  • Muddledash
  • O.C.D. - On Completeness & Dissonance
  • Pitch Perfect Ear Training
  • Planet Coaster: Vintage Pack
  • Richy's Nightmares
  • Roguebreaker
  • Shining Resonance Refrain
  • Shred! 2 - Freeride Mountainbiking
  • The Enthralling Realms
  • The Skeleton
  • Vegetable couple
  • 07-11

  • Battle Royale Builder
  • Bricks In The Box
  • Dehumanized
  • Dust and Salt: The Battle for Murk
  • Eat Your Words
  • Knight King Assassin
  • Ones and Zeroes
  • Pegasus-5: Gone Astray
  • SOS Atlas
  • Summer Memory of Bell
  • TAL: Arctic
  • The Red Moon
  • Tomato Way 2
  • Touhou Koukishin: Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity
  • 07-12

  • Beard & Axe
  • Brath: Brain and Math
  • Cricket Captain 2018
  • Drive Switch Evade
  • Dungeons of Tal'Doria
  • FlowDot
  • FortOfTheNight
  • Garage Master 2018
  • Ghostly Matter
  • Gold Digger Maze
  • Homo Flimsy
  • Icons: Combat Arena
  • Insane Robots
  • Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale
  • Kill The Monster
  • Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai
  • lilPizzaBois
  • NightmareBullet
  • Perseverance: Part 1
  • Primitive Survival
  • Ray of Light
  • Rifter
  • Robots 2 Unknown World
  • Scrunk
  • The cursed love
  • The Free Ones
  • The mutton horn - Jump jump!
  • The Searcher Wild West Adventure
  • The Spiral Scouts
  • Undead & Beyond
  • Voxel Race
  • Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
  • 07-13

  • 1000 Stages
  • Apex Hunters
  • Ball Grabbers
  • Battlefield Armor
  • Boobs Saga
  • CAP-FIG-CID
  • Celestial Hacker Girl Jessica
  • Chicken Rider
  • Chocolate makes you happy 7
  • Danger Zone 2
  • Doujin Jigsaw Puzzle
  • Downtown Mafia: Gang Wars
  • Epic Loon
  • Falling Blocks
  • Fish Catcher
  • Fitzzle Regal Tigers
  • Harpoon Cat
  • Her
  • HyperZen Training
  • Immortals
  • Lilipalace
  • Mars or Die!
  • Mecha-Tokyo Rush
  • MiniCar Race
  • Pac Adventures 3D
  • Packed Train
  • Prototype Mansion - Used No Cover
  • Quible Sphere
  • Rolling in the Reef
  • RUSSIA BATTLEGROUNDS
  • Slash or Die 2
  • Slime CCG
  • Snake couple
  • Super Destronaut DX
  • The Castle Disaster 2
  • The Spectrum Retreat
  • Thievery
  • UnHolY DisAsTeR
  • VideoGame Construction Set
  • Wasteland Rampage
  • Yahrit!
  • Yeli Orog
  • ZEscape
  • 07-14

  • DayD: Through time
  • GAY BATTLEGROUNDS
  • Outside the Lines
  • Star Valor
  • The Strangers
  • 07-15

  • Barbarroja

PS4

  • 07-10

  • 20XX
  • Blacksea Odyssey
  • Bomber Crew
  • Defiance 2050
  • Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
  • Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard
  • Insane Robots
  • Shining Resonance Refrain
  • The Spectrum Retreat
  • 07-11

  • Super Destronaut DX
  • 07-12

  • Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai
  • 07-13

  • Earthfall
  • 07-14

  • Chicken Assassin: Reloaded

Xbox One

  • 07-10

  • Bomber Crew
  • Defiance 2050
  • Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard
  • Shining Resonance Refrain
  • 07-11

  • 20XX
  • Super Destronaut DX
  • Warhammer: Vermintide 2
  • 07-12

  • Danger Zone 2
  • Ghost 1.0
  • 07-13

  • Earthfall
  • Epic Loon
  • Gekido: Kintaro's Revenge
  • Insane Robots
  • The Spectrum Retreat

Switch

  • 07-09

  • Another World
  • Pato Box
  • 07-10

  • 20XX
  • Bomber Crew
  • Hotel Transylvania 3: Monsters Overboard
  • Hunting Simulator
  • Muddledash
  • Neverout
  • Shining Resonance Refrain
  • The Lion's Song
  • 07-12

  • ACA NeoGeo: The Super Spy
  • Fill-a-Pix: Phil's Epic Adventure
  • Ghost 1.0
  • Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!
  • Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Express Raider
  • Radio Hammer Station
  • Star Story: The Horizon Escape
  • Super Volley Blast
  • 07-13

  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
  • Darts Up
  • Epic Loon
  • Octopath Traveler
  • Super Destronaut DX

3DS

  • 07-13

  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Vita

  • 07-11

  • SUPER DESTRONAUT DX

RIFT

  • 07-09

  • Waba
  • 07-10

  • Kitten'd
  • Stifled
  • 07-13

  • Dungeon Rush
  • Synth Riders
  • Virtual Fighting Championship

Vive

  • 07-10

  • HoloLAB Champions
  • Kitten'd
  • Stifled
  • Waba
  • 07-12

  • VRGROUND : Crazy Farm
  • 07-13

  • Bring to Light
  • Dungeon Rush
  • Synth Riders
  • Virtual Fighting Championship

Comments

I missed Captain Toad on the WiiU so that may be one we pick up for some couch coop in our house. It’s got a short demo for anyone who’s curious.

It’s been a while since I looked at one of these lists. The PC release list is kind of sad.

Got the Captain Toad demo this weekend. Trying to decide if I'm going to jump in for $8 off Amazon Prime before Friday.

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a brawler where you play a roided-up chook, smashin’ and shootin’ through missions and gettin’ loot. The trailers seem designed to attract Let’s-Players rather than show off the precision of the fighting mechanics.
We’ll start with Chicken Assassin: Reloaded. Some days, you just want to bash your way through waves of 2d jerks, and this one looks like it’s all about that.

Okay, how exactly did Greg let this title get through with nary a mention?

garion333 wrote:
Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is a brawler where you play a roided-up chook, smashin’ and shootin’ through missions and gettin’ loot. The trailers seem designed to attract Let’s-Players rather than show off the precision of the fighting mechanics.
We’ll start with Chicken Assassin: Reloaded. Some days, you just want to bash your way through waves of 2d jerks, and this one looks like it’s all about that.

Okay, how exactly did Greg let this title get through with nary a mention?

One or all of these possible explanations may apply:

  • I like to subvert expectations
  • I assumed I already owned the original (I don’t: I confused this one with Rocket Birds)
  • I didn’t want to highlight another remake in the same post
  • I figured Felix and Momgamer gave it it’s due.
  • I was too distracted playing Blood and Bacon

While nothing tickles my fancy this week, I want to say thanks for providing some curation to the "wall o titles"

I hope Octopath Traveler is good. Love the art style.

I've been waiting for Captain Toad all summer.

Aristophan wrote:

I've been waiting for Captain Toad all summer.

Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Mario my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Captain Toad?