The Nintendo Download update is finally here, kicking off the month of July with all manner of summery delights ready to leap onto your Nintendo console of choice. From slices of retro goodness to all manner of indie curios, you're bound to find something to tickle your fancy. Feel free to leave a vote in the poll below, and a comment or two as well with your potential purchases. Enjoy!
Switch eShop
Shining Resonance Refrain (SEGA, $44.99) – Play as Yuma Ilvern and stop the Empire from exploiting the power of the ancient dragons, including the soul of the Shining Dragon within you. With the help of your in-game friends, realize your destiny, save Astoria and unleash the strength you’ve always had locked away. This remaster features all of the original game’s DLC. The Shining Resonance Refrain game is available on July 10.
ACA NEO GEO SAMURAI SHODOWN V (HAMSTER, $7.99) - "SAMURAI SHODOWN V" is a fighting game released by SNK in 2003. Yoshitora Tokugawa, Mina Majikina and more join the cast of twenty-four warriors. New systems available include the Sword Gauge and Concentration One, for even more sword-swinging action.
Awkward (Snap Finger Click, $11.99) - Awkward is the ultimate test on finding out how well friends, couples, and family know each other. Players are asked to answer increasingly uncomfortable questions in secret, while their companions try to guess the outcome.
20XX (Batterystaple) – 20XX is a roguelike action platformer that you can play with a friend. Jump and shoot your way through ever-changing levels, collect awesome new powers, and battle mighty bosses in the name of saving the human race maybe! Available July 10.
Another World (DotEmu) – With ground-breaking graphics and narrative for its time, Another World™ still offers a superb gaming experience in a deep and unique science-fiction universe. More than twenty-five years after its original release, Eric Chahi's masterpiece is still considered a classic adventure game and continues to inspire the biggest names in video games. Available July 9.
Bomber Crew (Curve Digital) – Bomber Crew is a World-war 2 strategic bombing sim, where completing the objective is just as important as keeping your crew alive, as death is permanent! Available July 10.
Hotel Transylvania 3 Monsters Overboard (Outright Games) – Dracula, Mavis and the gang have been marooned on the mysterious Lost Islands! Available July 10.
Muddledash (slampunks, $5.39) – Squidge up to four players on your couch for competitive fun (party hats are mandatory!). Join your friends on a mad-as-a-squid race to the most bopping octopus party of the year and wrestle the only present out of their wriggly tentacles. Be the first to present it at the octo-party to win! Available July 10.
Neverout (Gamedust, $5.99) – It will lock you down in a room and won't let you escape. Will you survive or ever get out? Your only choice is to find your way to the next room, but watch out, many traps lie ahead. Wander around for hours solving over 60 beautifully crafted levels. Available July 10.
Pato Box (Bromio, $13.49 - normally $14.99) – Test your reflexes as you fight your way through an evil corporation in search for retribution. Available July 9. Read our review.
Rento Fortune Monolit (LAN - GAMES EOOD, $9.99) – Rento is online multiplayer business dice game. It is board game for 2 to 6 players. Available July 8.
The Wardrobe (MixedBag, $12.74, normally $14.99) – The Wardrobe is a 2D point & click adventure game in which you play as Skinny, a teen-skeleton with an impertinent attitude and a sparkling wit, willing to do anything to save his best friend's soul from eternal damnation! Available July 6.
Disease -Hidden Object- (D3Publisher, $7.99) - This is a horror adventure game where the player go back and forth in between the real world and the hallucination world.
Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Two Crude Dudes (FTE Games, $6.99) - Play one or two mercenaries hired by the American government to stop the terrorist organization "Big Valley". Take control of post-apocalyptic New York City away from the Big Valley terrorists.
Kill The Bad Guy (Plug In Digital, $6.99) - Hiding behind the mask of the average man on the street, and furtively blending into the background, many war criminals, ex-Mafia members and other criminals have been literally getting away with murder, or worse. That is, until you turned up to ruin the party. As part of a secret and mysterious society whose members have sworn to rid the world of these Bad Guys, it's your responsibility to make sure justice is served in the bloodiest possible way, using your unpredictability to your advantage.
Miles & Kilo (Four Horses, $7.99) - Miles and Kilo have been attacked by a mischievous specter! With their plane in pieces and a gang of thieving scoundrels running off with the important parts, the unfortunate duo's only hope of escape is to embark on a thrilling chase across a haunted island. Read our review.
Mushroom Wars 2 ($19.99) - Mushroom Wars 2 is an award-winning sequel to the critically acclaimed Real-Time Strategy hit built upon the core gameplay experience that made the original Mushroom Wars so enjoyable. Read our review.
Pocket Rumble (Chucklefish LTD, $9.99) - Pocket Rumble retains all the gameplay elements that make traditional Street Fighter-style fighters great, but reduces the level of execution and memorization necessary to the bare minimum. That way experienced players can learn the game fast and be able to focus on deeper elements of strategy and mindgames, new players can learn the ins and outs of fighting games without being overwhelmed, and everyone can get their skills to a competitive level without too much grinding alone in training mode.
Squids Odyssey (The Game Bakers, $14.99) - Build your team of Squid heroes for epic turn-based battles against corrupted crabs and shrimps!
Super Rock Blasters! (QuadraTron Games, $9.99) - Super Rock Blasters is a fun local multiplayer Asteroids/Space War mashup style arcade shooter where you blast friends into smithereens for points. Play with 2 to 4 friends (or enemies) for fast paced competitive fun!
The Journey Down: Chapter Three (BlitWorks, $19.99) - In the jungles of the Underland, scattered remnants of an ancient culture speak of a great evil that dwells in the shadowy depths of the Kwayerumoshi caves. But even the darkest secrets of this lost age are about to be revealed by the brave actions of three unlikely heroes.
Ultra Space Battle Brawl (Toge Productions, $14.99) - Fight against your friends in a super-silly-yet-most-awesome-intergalactic-definitely-not-baseball-fight-ever! Sit next to your opponent in this couch party battle game that will make your neighbor wish you were not there, or they were there with you making noise and have a really great time together.
Yuso (Vertical Reach, $7.99) - Yuso is a puzzle game where you have to clear the screen of Yuso! The game gets harder as you progress, introducing new colours and gadgets to help or harm you along the way.
NEKOPARA Vol.1 (CFK, $14.99) - "NEKOPARA", a famous PC adventure game that has sold over 2 million copies of series worldwide, is out for Nintendo Switch!
Runbow (Headup Games, $14.99) - With tons of competitive modes for up to nine players online and eight players locally and a massive Single Player Adventure, Runbow is the crazy, color-based platformer you've been waiting for. Read our review.
Burnstar (Gearbox Publishing, $19.99) - Burnstar is a challenging, fast paced action-puzzle game that will get your brain blistering and set your fingers aflame! Use your explosives and powers to cause maximum damage to worksites of Evil Inc., an appropriately named corporation intent on ruining the homeland of Burnstar and his friends. Blaze your own trail, or play co-op for some friendly fire!
3DS eShop
PENGUIN HOP (RCMADIAX, $1.49) - In PENGUIN HOP help your penguin friend hop from each ice landing, but be careful you don't fall in. How high of a score can you get? Endless fun for everyone! New Nintendo 3DS systems only.
Zeus Quest Remastered (Crazysoft, $8.89) - Zeus Quests Remastered is a Greek mythology game with Sci-fi effect where Zeus the God of War is about to save the world from the explosion and for that, he will be travelling the time to fix the explosion and for that Zeus underwent many exciting places and natural scenes of ocean, rain, volcano etc. New Nintendo 3DS systems.
Demos
Hyper Sentinel – Demo Version (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch)
So that's your lot for this week's Nintendo Download. Drop a vote in the poll above if you like, and a comment below with your chosen picks...
Comments 73
HEAVILY considering Shining Resonance. Just wish it didn't release so close to Octopath.
The indie guest characters and pre-order discount convinced me to try Runbow. Pre-ordered Shining Resonance Refrain a while ago; first western Shining release in a decade needs every sale it can get. Speaking of which, where’s the option for it in the poll? It’s even the featured game in the header image! 😞
Not a great week, but Pocket Rumble looks cool!
Pocket Rumble!
I'm so peeved right now. Mushroom Wars 2 was on the eShop the past 2 or 3 weeks listed for $17.99, both when looking at it on PC and on the Switch eShop itself. I was planning on buying a $20 digital eShop card to purchase it, and now it's jumped to $19.99 this morning, so I can't b/c with tax it will be close to $22. eShop has several games listed as "pre-order discounts" usually 5% or 10% off, MW2 never had that or I would have purchased it already.
Man what a bad way to start off my day. I've been discussing the game w/ the devs on Facebook a lot, they never once mentioned a pre-order discount, I think they just jacked up the price. Lost sale.
Shining Resonance for me.
I played 20XX briefly on PC and really liked it. It is essentially Mega Man with randomly generated elements, permanent death, and (I didn't get to try this) co-op. Looking forward to this one, though I'm just a little more interested in Dead Cells for my randomly generated needs, once that's out.
Good stuff but gotta put my cash to octopath and Taiko this month.
Why is it that the list to vote from does not include all the games mentioned in the article?
I really wish they would give us more information about the delay of Sanrio Characters Picross which was supposed to release on June 28.
I simply can't get into any of Sega's Shining games since they abandoned the classic (and still beloved by many fans) turn-based SRPG mechanics. It's a travesty that SFIII for the Saturn (which is right up there with Valkyria Chronicles for Sega's best game EVER in my humble opinion, in terms of quality, storyline, and quantity...over 190 hours across all three interlocking Scenarios) never got to be experienced by most Western gamers. The franchise didn't fail Sega (nor did all the other ones they abandoned); it was the other way around.
Was planning on buying shining resonance, but with Ys and latter next week octopath, I'll have to wait for a sale down the line... Not nearly enough time to play the games I already got, I'm not about to get that backlog larger still...
Pocket Rumble and Pato Box for me in the next few days. Interested in Refrain. Waiting for reviews though.
@rjejr At least you've been able to manufacture a reason to be upset about something. Sounds like your day has started pretty well.
nothing for me this week. already had new plans on spending my money on a game that i've been interested for awhile now.
Just waiting for Hyper Light Drifter.
Pocket Rumble for me, and I was hyped for 20XX until I saw the words "randomly generated" when describing the levels in the Comments section. 🙄
Is that true?
Poll was at 80 votes and 0% for 20XX, which is very surprising. It looks great and I plan on buying it on sale eventually, but the $3 Switch tax is dumb compared to the Steam price. Probably would’ve bought it day 1 if it wasn’t for that. 😕
Getting Runbow again, but looks like I picked a good time to start playing Rare Replay on XBox One. Has more N64 games (a couple greats) than the Switch does anyway
That’s a lot of shovelware
Nothing for me. Counting the days till the Mega Man X Legacy Collections.
Getting another world and samurai showdown v
More indie titles to pad the eShop game count.
"Zeus the God of War is about to save the world from the explosion and for that, he will be travelling the time to fix the explosion and for that Zeus underwent many exciting places and natural scenes of ocean, rain, volcano etc."
What the what?
Gotta love how all the bad 3DS minigames being released now need extra power to run
Was originally interested in shining resonance, but after playing the demo I realized how far the series has fallen. :/
@PanurgeJr "At least you've been able to manufacture a reason to be upset about something."
While admittedly I do tend to overreact, that's just who I am no reason for me to lie about it, I didn't manufacture anything, the thing happened, and I would have preferred it not happened. Contrary to popular belief I do enjoy being happy, I'm just easily annoyed, can't be helped.
@NintendoFan4Lyf "You get charged taxes on the eShop?!"
What's weird is it feels like it changes. I think I get charged tax on PSN cards in store but not on PSN but I don't get charged tax on eShop cards in store but I do get charged tax on the eShop. Though it's possible now both cards in store, or digital online, are tax free, but the digital purchases charge tax.
I'm in New York, it's 8.675% or there abouts, so its' annoying to buy $10 or $20 eShop cards for $9.99 or $19.99 games only to have them cost $10.86 or $21.72 and then have to put the tax on a credit card. $17.99 was a nice price, about $19.54 with tax, so I was covered.
The changing practices are just as annoying though. I'm never sure when buying a card or buying a digital game when I'll be taxed and when I won't. But one way or another I will be taxed, as a New Yorker I'm kind of used to that.
Shining Resonance isn't in the poll. Thats what I have "this week"
Shining resonance (physical release) for me!
@Ryu_Niiyama Is Taiko coming out this month with the localized version? I still need to import that special controller accessory one of these days....
@Dom Shining Resonance Refrain finally made it into an NL article!!1! Aaaaand, then it's missing in the poll.......
Another week with all kinds of cheap games I have never heard of. I think the e-shop really could use some kind of curator feature by now. It's more shuffle ware every week and alot of decent stuff just gets buried under that =( Also, Nintendo sales/ discount are still the worst. Sometimes I think there is a genuine feeling that folks on Nintendo systems will shell out for 'AAA' content no matter what, hence it makes no sense to offer price drops on that kind of content anyways ... almost like folks on Nintendo systems are desperate. Just looking at the sales Playstation has been running since E3 and even this week, it's hard not to feel like the Switch is really getting the short end of the stick here
@rjejr IIRC cards don't get taxed, the final purchase does. Which is infuriating since that means always buying $20-50 more in cards than you need, and Sony refuses to bill PayPal properly (and they're not ever getting my CC again.)
The bigger question is why you voluntarily remain in the last remaining Soviet capital.
@Ralek85 Switch shovelware isn't half as overwhelming as on all other platforms though. I still don't know who actually BUYS it though. Even at my most desperate there's many great games I'd play before most of it.
As for sales, yeah. I think it seems fairly proven that Nintendo games sell without sales because Nintendo hardware is Nintendo hardware. The other two plus PC are locked in a 1:1 battle of beating each other by one penny. Nintendo is kind of its own market doing its own then.
Then again, PS has really been going crazy on the sales. Look at MS's sales this week. They have the so-so anime sale and the deals for members are even worse than Nintendo's. Sony's just liquidating the store all the time to keep that user lock....now that XBox is interesting again, making sure all games are always cheaper on PS is an effective way to prevent anyone from bothering to look elsewhere I suppose. They're turning into Steam which is kind of cool.
@NEStalgia Nope. the patch drops in august last I heard. I'm going to give the joycons a go. If I like it I'll order a pair of bachi to whittle out and fit my joycons in. and put my taiko out front so i can be extra annoying/authentic. lmao (ok maybe not the taiko... all that fuchi hitting is hard on bachi but I'm totally going to alter some bachi for the joycons)
http://taikotime.blogspot.com/2018/06/nswitch-english-version-apparently.html
Assault Gunners HD?!? Thought we were getting it today with a 10% discount?!?
@Ryu_Niiyama Ahh, a patch for the Japanese release.... Hmm...hard call to go digital on my JP account or import then. I don't feel like dealing with import, and yet if I go for the controller accessory I'm stuck doing so anyway. There's always Amazonian scalpers....
Shining Resonance is all I want.
@NEStalgia "The bigger question is why you voluntarily remain in the last remaining Soviet capital."
I thought that was Washington D.C.?
The worst thing about Sony is that it's 2018 and you can't buy anything on a credit card for less than $5, and they constantly have stuff on sale for less than $5. It's so stupid. I even have a Sony credit card, so they're paying the fee to themselves. No joke at least half a dozen things I wanted to buy but didn't b/c I'm not putting $5 on my cc for a $1.99 or $2.99 game. This week it's Darksiders Warmastered.
The whole world is out to get us.
Just Pocket Rumble this week.
@rjejr Close enough, though I think half of DC's crazy is NY's crazy imported. Technically that's what went so wrong in CA and FL too almost a century ago.....invasion by New Yorkistanis. Now they're invading here. I support a wall on the Hudson! Like Arkham....keep them contained inside. Not sure what the heck happened in "no more plastic utensils or straws" Seattle though. They're out New Yorking New York. Let's all share needles for optimum resource usage while we're at it! Oh wait, that's probably an actual legislative bill in CA....
Then again, you live in New Yorkistan and have a Sony credit card. Do you also wear a shirt that says "Punch me" on the front and has a picture of a shooting target on the back? Maybe it's a sadism thing. No wonder you're cranky.
Sony's problem is they're a financial services and insurance company that can't figure out how to run an online shopping cart in 2018. $5 minimum charge would be a dream. I can't get them to charge me at all. Constant "error processing" errors. Randomly one slips through successfully after 40 failures. Meaning I have to buy cards on Amazon and Gamestop to shop on PSN, but of course Amazon only has the $50 & $100 cards these days. I'm not buying $100 to spend $1.99+tax on Darksiders. Of course their problem is PayPal related, but they lost my trust with my CC when they handed it to some [redacted] in Hong Kong that bought $300 of WoW currency and armor with it.
The #1 thing that made me mostly move to XBox was that Sony refused to take my money....no matter how many dozes of times I tried to force feed it to them. I still buy on big sales for exclusives, but that's about it (and Darksiders because for $1.99 why not get it? )
PENGUIN HOP OHHHH YEAHHHH
Been waiting FOREVER for pocket rumble, cant wait to get home and play!
Kill the Bad Guy sounds interesting but I know nothing about it, so I'll need a lot more info. I'll wait for a review of 20XX. Also uh... I couldn't vote for Shining Resonance Refrain :/
NL, you guys don't like this game do you?
[removed]?! What alternate dimension is THIS?!
Definitely getting Mega Man X Legacy Collection. When I has the monies of courses.
What took Pocket Rumble so long? Also, that Shining demo rubbed me wrong. I don’t think I want it.
Shining Resonance Draconic Launch Edition preordered!
@rjejr (put your state as Delaware)
Not yet available in EU this week:
Hotel Transylvania 3 Monsters Overboard
Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Two Crude Dudes
Super Rock Blasters!
Nekopara Vol. 1
Burnstar
Will they ever come? Or will they stay US exclusive?
I'll get shining resonance probably later in the year. Downloaded Nekopara though.
@LunacyJosh Mind your language!
I highly recommend 20xx.
I don't like the random level part, but everything else is BEAUTIFUL. And the controls are very, very responsive.
@Octane This is the internet dude. [removed]
@LunacyJosh Last warning mate.
I actually enjoyed the Shining Resonance demo, for as long as it lasted, but I don't know that I have to have it right now. Probably going to go on the "hope to find it used or on sale" pile as I'm full up on RPGs right now.
Nothing for me this week as I continue to plow through my backlog.
Finished off Battle Chef Brigade last night (picked up for around $11 on sale) and really enjoyed it. I am moving on to Toki Toki 2+ which I picked up on the cheap months ago! Captain Toad will prob be my next purchase.
@NEStalgia To be fair, Microsoft ran a pretty decent E3 sale, which - while not as insane as Sony's - still put Nintendo's shame. Although I was kinda glad to see that they had anything approaching a sale at all Also, Sony has been doing this for a long time. It's not like their first decent digital sales showed up two years ago or so. Even during the PS3 era, they had the best digital deals - well, outside Steam of course.
What I mean though was that even 3rd-party games rarely if ever see the kind of sales we see on other platforms. Yes, Sony is not afraid to discount their first-party exclusives, true, theirs might not be as stable as Nintendo's (though I feel like that is really just good for Nintendo, but not for so much for their customers), but they manage extremely competitive prices across the board, from 1st-party to 3rd-party to indies of all shapes and colors.
Of course, it's also worth mention that Xbox and Playstation allow for game sharing, so you can actually split the cost with a buddy, which in turn means that at times, games - couple of months after the release - can effectively cost 1/4 of what they are on the Switch. Mind you, that is despite the PS4 version almost certainly being the superior one, portability obviously aside.
Anyways, as far as this shovle ware goes, I have no idea who buys that stuff. It becamse painfully evident in the Wii days though, that someone most definitely makes it worth their while time and time again ... because the Wii was flooded with "cheap" games, and that flood never really stopped during the systems life-span, and - insane as it is - much of that was physical as well, which meant folks most have felt confident they would see a return on investment there.
As for Sony trying to lock people in... right on, as they should .... as platform holder should. Still, games like God of War and Horizon and Spider-Man do alot more to - at least - lock me in, than just good sales. Those matter, obviously, as everyone likes to get something they want on the cheap, but that alone is not good enough. I also feel they offer a decent feature set. Share-play alone is really almost enough for me to justify the system, as it allows me to play any and all games online, even if they only offer local play play. I managed to co-op a bunch of games that way, which otherwise I would have never played or only solo. It's a great idea, that I wish more platforms would pick up on - it's fantastic for games like Chariot and so on. Admittedly, the Switch offers great benefits here as well, as it certainly broadens the kind of opportunities for local coop you can get out of it vis-a-vis a stationary traditional home console. Yet, more features are always welcome!
I pre-purchased Shining Renosance and the demo was good but sooooo short. After I beat that I will be on Octopath. I did not see Shining Renosance in the voting poll.
cough*Nekopara*cough
I heard from Amazon and they are finally shipping my copy of Crash N. Sane Trilogy. I should be getting it today.
I just got email from Best Buy saying the release of Shining Force was pushed back to 13 July. Any word on this?
@Dom Do you know if Nintendolife is going to review Ultra Space Battle Brawl? I'm on the fence about picking it up and I'd love to see a review from you fine folk
Dying to get my hands on Shining Resonance Refrain!
@rjejr
It was mentioned online that MW2 was a pre-order 10% off sale. But you are correct in that the store did not indicate it as so. I couldn't get past the fact that it was $14.99 on steam and actually $11.24 onsale for the recent steam sale.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/457730/announcements/detail/1676911120114747843
Why isn't Shining Resonance in the poll? Why Nintendo Life isn't covering the game? Why you all haven't review the game?!
If the serie has no coverage we'll never get more games in the series and I like Shining Resonance!!!
@imgrowinglegs if you like JRPG games, you must keep an eye to Shining Resonance. Its a good game.
@cleveland124 "But you are correct in that the store did not indicate it as so."
Thanks for the MW2 info. I did see that announced on Steam after the fact but that's a really weird place to reach Switch owners I think. $15 on Steam and $20 on Switch doens't bother me too much, I'm willing to pay more for both TV and portable play as I don't game on PC much, but I'm nto paying $20 for it now. Someday there will be a sale. Switch eShop has tons more games on sale than Wii U ever did. I've never heard of half of them, but there's a lot. MS2 will be on sale sooner or later. But it's summer now so I'm good having outdoor fun, as you can probably tell by the 10 day late reply.
@Ryu_Niiyama (put your state as Delaware)
Sometimes when you reply to emails 11 days later they really don't make any sense, though I'm guessing state tax with this one, NY is a killer. Thanks for the advice.
@NEStalgia "Let's all share needles for optimum resource usage "
I read optimum as opium and I'm not sure if that was intentional on your part or an auto-correct.
This is the last of about 30 old emails I've gone through and I'm sorry I missed this one when it happened.
"Do you also wear a shirt that says "Punch me""
No, but I do have a t-shirt that says "Sport is Boring Play Videogames" whenever my out of shape family hangs out with my sisters outdoorsy survive the apocalypse family. Always good for a laugh.
Other good shirts are Voltron. Marvel comics characters, Clint Eastwood as the man with no name, Bruce Lee that says "One Bad MoFo", GeNiUs where the letters are symbols from the periodic table. Dragonball Z, Bronx Zoo memberships, "You Don't Have to Pay to Pray" from our temple, minor league baseball team I caught out of one of those guns, Wolverine. I don't really own any shirts that don't have something on them. My brother-in-law bought me a long sleeve with sweatshirt w/ a sunset coming through a forest that says "Morning Wood".
@rjejr "Do you also wear a shirt that says "Punch me""
"Other good shirts are Voltron. Marvel comics characters, Clint Eastwood as the man with no name, Bruce Lee that says "One Bad MoFo....."
You could have just said "Yes" It would have involved less typing.
@NEStalgia "You could have just said "Yes" It would have involved less typing."
Well you asked, I was just being thorough.
@rjejr Yep the first thing I did was put in a state with no sales tax when i set up my switch. Come get me government.
@Ryu_Niiyama You should have put in "Russia", then the gov't would come and give you a cushy good paying job.
@rjejr Yeah but to sell your soul...
@Ryu_Niiyama Oh, if you have a soul you're disqualified. I'm pretty sure that's in the job listing - must own a gun, but not a soul. (No offense to gun owners, about 90% of my extended family hunts, collects or target shoots, just saying.)
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