SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Railbreak’ & ‘Sorcerian’, Plus the Latest Sales
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for June 17th, 2024. This is a fairly quiet Monday, and perhaps that isn’t surprising with all of the rumors out and about of an impending Nintendo Direct. Indeed, there’s a chance it has even been announced between when I write this and when it gets posted. Perhaps our pal Mikhail will slide that news in if it happens. We have no new releases today. It happens. We have two reviews today. That also happens. We have some sales! That always happens. Let’s get to all of that, shall we?
Reviews & Mini-Views
RAILBREAK ($19.99)
As regular readers know, I’m not really into horror games in general. Just not my thing. Survival-horror in particular isn’t something I’m into outside of a few of the Resident Evil games. As such, I have very little experience with the Outbreak series. Judging by how many installments there are however, they seem to have found a decent-sized audience. Well, the latest release in the series on the Switch is a spin-off in a genre that is much more enticing to me: an action-packed rail shooter. You know, like that one SEGA game. Alex Kidd or something.
You can choose from several different survivors, each with their own parameters. Head out on your own, bring a buddy for co-op, it’s up to you. If you’re playing handheld you can use touch controls which is a lot of fun, or you can use the analog sticks to point and shoot. Less fun, but it’s fine. There are six scenarios to play through and a handful of extra modes, which adds up to a fairly meaty experience as this kind of thing goes. The gameplay itself is pure House of the Dead-style undead blasting, with (intentionally) terrible voice acting and gore for miles. The pacing is brisk, and you don’t get much time to pick up the many items and power-ups that are strewn about.
Visually, the game looks okay. The character models can look a little plasticky and cheap, and it sometimes feels like the Switch is struggling when things get hot. There are probably better places to play this game, in other words. But if this is your only option, it gets the job done well enough. Honestly, my first impression of the game wasn’t great. I think I was expecting too much. Once I gave it a little time, I found myself enjoying just how… sincere it is? ‘Sincere’ feels like the right word, yes. It knows exactly what it wants to be, and it goes for it like Wile E Coyote after the Road Runner. Like that beleaguered hero (HE IS A HERO), it never quite catches what it’s after, but the journey itself is entertaining.
Railbreak provides an alternative to the House of the Dead Remake for fans of that series on Switch. It offers a decent amount of content, and the core action has a nice feel to it whether you’re playing alone or with a friend. The presentation is where it struggles, and it feels like it might be a bit much for the hardware. I also feel like playing with the sticks is a bit of a pain, but you can obviously only use touch controls when playing solo. If you want a quick hit of zombie-gunning fun, this will do.
SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5
EGGCONSOLE Sorcerian PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)
Just once I would like to see a Sorcerian reissue get localized into English. The last time this game saw an English release, and the only time, was with the MS-DOS release in April of 1990. That’s unfortunate, because Sorcerian is both historically important and a lot of fun for a game of its time. Sadly, it has a fair bit of text that you’ll need to be able to read in order to understand the quest goals and puzzle clues, and it’s all in Japanese. There’s a nice little guide in the wrapper that can help you get started with the game, but it’s not really enough this time.
Sorcerian is a good game, albeit one very much of its era. The problem is that like all EGGCONSOLE releases, nothing has been translated in-game from the original Japanese version. Given how much text is involved with this game and how important it is to completing the game’s quests, that’s going to be a hard deal-breaker for many. If you can read Japanese, by all means – the game is enjoyable, and the quality of the wrapper here is as good as other the other releases in the EGGCONSOLE line-up. Everyone else should give this one a pass.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Some Shovel Knight sales, presumably to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the game’s release. Buy ’em if you don’t own ’em, they’re all pretty good. If you can only get one, Treasure Trove is essential. A few decent games in the tiny outbox, so give that a look too while you’re out and about.
Select New Sales
Fur Squadron ($3.14 from $6.99 until 6/22)
Bloo Kid ($3.49 from $6.99 until 6/24)
Bloo Kid 2 ($3.49 from $6.99 until 6/24)
Cyber Shadow ($9.99 from $19.99 until 6/28)
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon ($9.99 from $19.99 until 6/28)
Shovel Knight Dig ($12.49 from $24.99 until 6/28)
Shovel Knight Treasure Trove ($19.99 from $39.99 until 6/28)
Freud’s Bones: The Game ($3.89 from $12.99 until 6/29)
Among Us ($3.00 from $5.00 until 6/30)
Brutalism22 ($2.99 from $9.99 until 6/30)
Frogvival ($2.99 from $9.99 until 6/30)
Bakeborough ($1.99 from $5.99 until 6/30)
Where is Drake? ($2.99 from $9.99 until 6/30)
Venatrix ($1.99 from $14.99 until 7/1)
Block Buster Billy ($4.99 from $9.99 until 7/1)
NIGHTGHAST ($1.99 from $3.49 until 7/1)
Exit Slum 11 ($1.99 from $2.50 until 7/1)
Cats & the Other Lives ($14.99 from $19.99 until 7/3)
Rough Justice ’84 ($11.99 from $19.99 until 7/5)
Godlike Burger ($2.99 from $19.99 until 7/5)
Unrailed! ($4.99 from $19.99 until 7/5)
Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes ($2.24 from $14.99 until 7/5)
Warpips ($2.99 from $19.99 until 7/5)
Inkulinati ($18.74 from $24.99 until 7/5)
My Horse Stories ($2.99 from $7.99 until 7/5)
Baking Time ($1.99 from $4.99 until 7/5)
Froggy Bouncing Adventures ($3.99 from $4.99 until 7/5)
Xeno Crisis ($7.99 from $19.99 until 7/6)
Tiny Little Farm ($1.99 from $9.99 until 7/6)
The Forest Quartet ($1.99 from $9.99 until 7/7)
Sigi ($1.99 from $4.99 until 7/7)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 18th
Batman Arkham Trilogy ($35.99 from $59.99 until 6/18)
Freedom Planet 2 ($19.99 from $24.99 until 6/18)
Frogsong ($11.24 from $14.99 until 6/18)
It Takes Two ($19.99 from $39.99 until 6/18)
Mortal Kombat 1 ($27.99 from $69.99 until 6/18)
Penny’s Big Breakaway ($19.79 from $29.99 until 6/18)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more… whatever we can find. Sales, for sure. It doesn’t look like there are any new releases lined up yet, and I don’t know if I have anything in the review queue. Well, that’s a problem for Future Shaun. Present Shaun is going to head out and play some games. I hope you all have a magnificent Monday, and as always, thanks for reading!
