SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’, ‘Where the Water Tastes Like Wine’, and Today’s Other New Releases, the Latest Sales, and More

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for November 29th, 2019. In today’s article, we’re pretty much sliding on in to the latest releases, checking out a few more sales, and then heading home. What can I say? It’s a holiday. That said, the number of new releases wasn’t small at all, so you may want to prepare a tiny beverage to get you through all the words, words, words. Let’s get sweaty!

New Releases

Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 – 4 ($7.99 Each)

SwitchArcade Highlight!

The first four numbered games in Scott Cawthorn’s mega-popular horror series are now available on the Switch. While the gameplay differs slightly from game to game, they all involve trying to stay alive while malfunctioning animatronic animals try to kill you. The gameplay is simple, but all of the games are good at building tension and playing on your paranoia. Many find the story of the games to be the most interesting parts of them, with lots of subtle world building happening in the margins. I like the third one the best, but they’re all fine at what they do. I’ll have reviews of all of them in a little bit.

Strike Force Kitty ($4.99)

SwitchArcade Highlight!

I think I remember the Flash game that this is based on. This is obviously quite a bit more fleshed out and involved than that one, though. It’s kind of a slightly floaty platformer where you control a team of cats. You have to train them to beef up their stats and explore the levels thoroughly to find treasures and extra costumes. Most of those costumes are parodies of characters or real people, so if you’re into dressing a cat like Chun-Li, you are going to have a very good time here. As a straight platformer it’s got a lot of flaws, but there’s something charming about the whole affair anyway.

Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy ($9.99)

SwitchArcade Highlight!

Making its way over from mobile platforms is Nomad’s Deathtrap Dungeon Trilogy. It was under the title Fighting Fantasy Legends Portal or something over there, but I think this title fits what you get a lot better. The trilogy of gamebooks that is best known for its most popular entry, Deathtrap Dungeon, has been fleshed out into a somewhat more robust RPG experience here. It’s a great way to revisit some old classics, and the only real knock I’ve got on it is that it’s three times the price here as it is on the App Store. It’s just as random and difficult as the original books, but if you know that particular flavor of fun, you’ll enjoy this a lot.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine ($19.99)

SwitchArcade Highlight!

Do you like stories? Like, do you really like stories? Do you like them well enough that you’re willing to put up with a lot of stuff that really doesn’t work? If so, you’re probably going to like this game a lot. If not… well, I’m not sure how it will play out for you. This is an interesting narrative adventure with a lot of cool tales to tell in its yarn about traveling across 1930s America. The way you get characters to tell those tales can be a bit tiresome, and the presentation is definitely love-it-or-leave-it. Personally, I think it’s pretty neat. But I also had to be German Suplexed at the last minute to prevent me from giving Game of the Year to Hatoful Boyfriend in 2016, so do with that what you will.

FoxyLand ($4.99)

This is about as straightforward a platformer as they come. Your girlfriend has been captured by a bird of prey, but it’s apparently not that urgent as you have lots of time to wander around levels collecting gems, cherries, and such. I don’t know. It’s okay, I guess. You can try it out for free on mobile if you want to see what it’s like. Not very impressive at all, but I’ve played worse for sure.

Happy Animals Bowling ($4.99)

Two bowling games in two days. Sure, why not. This one features animals as the bowlers, and the lanes are in various exotic locales. There are ten different locations and twelve different characters. Apparently the champion is a pig, and the shop description makes a big deal about him but can’t seem to decide if his name is Piglet Joffrey or Joffrey Piglet, so let’s just call him Carl. There’s a campaign mode where you have to beat all of your rivals and challenge Carl, and a four-player local multiplayer mode. Well, it’s five bucks. It is what it is.

Voxel Galaxy ($7.43)

From the developer of Voxel Sword and Voxel Shot comes Voxel Galaxy, which looks pretty close to those previous games but with a new lick of paint on it. Choose your character and do battle in a voxel-based world, playing cooperatively or competitively with friends. I personally don’t really see a whole lot in this series of games, but if the developer keeps making them, someone must be enjoying them. If you are included in that group, I suppose today is your lucky day!

Arcade Archives Hyper Sports ($7.99)

Konami’s 1984 follow-up to the original Track and Field offers up seven new sports that offer a slightly wider variety of activities to engage in. In addition to the traditional button-mash events, there are a few that are more timing based. Up to four players can join in for local multiplayer. This is still about as fun as it ever was. Extremely simple but that’s pretty much what makes it work. You really have to play it with friends, though. Certain there are more sophisticated takes out there on the Switch, but it’s surprising how little has changed mechanically in this particular sub-genre in the last 35 years.

Sales

Inspired by the deluge that fell yesterday and the general on-going issue of the number of sales increasing as the Switch’s library grows, I’ve made a decision. From now on, I’m going to be curating these lists of new sales a bit. Not aggressively, mind you. But there are games that spend almost as much time on sale as off, and I think it’s not a great use of my time to write them out each time. So here, then, is my curated list of today’s new sales.

Select New Games on Sale

Fishing Star World Tour ($17.99 from $29.99 until 12/19)
Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party!!!! ($49.99 from 59.99 until 12/2)
Summer Sweetheart ($15.99 from $19.99 until 12/13)
Jamestown+ ($14.93 from $17.99 until 12/19)
Wizards of Brandel ($11.69 from $12.99 until 12/5)
Smash Rush ($8.99 from $9.99 until 12/5)
Trover Saves the Universe ($23.99 from $29.99 until 12/18)
Zen Chess Collection ($1.99 from $3.99 until 12/5)
Puzzlement ($0.79 from $1.99 until 12/18)
Ghost Parade ($31.99 from $39.99 until 12/5)
Death Mark ($19.99 from $49.99 until 12/5)
Spirit Hunter: NG ($39.99 from $49.99 until 12/5)
Midnight Evil ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/5)
Aldred Knight ($0.99 from $1.99 until 12/5)
Vasara Collection ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/5)
Quest Hunter ($12.99 from $19.99 until 12/5)

Shakedown: Hawaii ($11.99 from $19.99 until 12/5)
Box Align ($0.99 from $1.99 until 12/5)
Fun! Fun! Animal Park ($11.99 from $29.99 until 12/5)
The World Next Door ($2.99 from $9.99 until 12/3)
Pillar ($3.19 from $7.99 until 12/18)
Mercury Race ($3.99 from $7.99 until 12/12)
Viviette ($6.99 from $9.99 until 12/18)
The First Tree ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/9)
Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax ($3.99 from $9.99 until 12/5)
99Vidas – Definitive ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/5)
Syberia 1 & 2 ($13.99 from $34.99 until 12/18)
Rest in Pieces ($0.99 from $7.99 until 12/7)
Lucah: Born of a Dream ($11.99 from $14.99 until 12/3)
Deadlings ($5.99 from $7.99 until 12/9)
Little Racer ($11.99 from $15.99 until 12/9)
Island Maze ($1.49 from $2.99 until 12/9)
Rawr-Off ($0.99 from $2.99 until 12/20)
Spirit Roots ($3.49 from $6.99 until 12/9)
Breathing Fear ($2.49 from $4.99 until 12/20)
Swaps and Traps ($1.79 from $8.99 until 12/9)
Sweet Witches ($2.49 from $9.99 until 12/10)

Sales Ending This Weekend

Lost King’s Lullaby ($4.99 from $9.99 until 11/30)
Neo Cab ($15.99 from $19.99 until 11/30)
Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands ($0.99 from $9.99 until 11/30)
Vosaria: Lair of the Forgotten ($0.99 from $9.99 until 11/30)
12 Labours of Hercules ($2.49 from $4.99 until 12/1)
Beach Buggy Racing ($3.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)
Beekyr Reloaded ($6.49 from $9.99 until 12/1)
Bit Dungeon Plus ($4.49 from $8.99 until 12/1)
Bloo Kid 2 ($3.99 from $4.99 until 12/1)
Caveman Warriors ($3.24 from $12.99 until 12/1)
City of Brass ($7.99 from $19.99 until 12/1)
Ellen ($5.59 from $7.99 until 12/1)
Furwind ($6.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)
GALAK-Z: The Void Deluxe ($3.74 from $14.99 until 12/1)
Grand Prix Rock ‘N Racing ($3.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)

Guess the Character ($0.98 from $2.99 until 12/1)
Kensho ($7.49 from $14.99 until 12/1)
Lichtspeer: Double Speer ($0.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)
Mahjong Stories: Vampire Romance ($2.49 from $4.99 until 12/1)
Neonwall ($4.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)
Riptide GP: Renegade ($3.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)
Rocket League ($9.99 from $19.99 until 12/1)
Romancing SaGa 2 ($18.74 from $24.99 until 12/1)
Romancing SaGa 3 ($23.19 from $28.99 until 12/1)
Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-A-Fide ($4.99 from $19.99 until 12/1)
Smoots Summer Games ($7.49 from $9.99 until 12/1)
SpiritSphere DX ($4.00 from $10.00 until 12/1)
Super Arcade Soccer ($3.98 from $6.99 until 12/1)
Super Hyperactive Ninja ($2.24 from $8.99 until 12/1)
Timber Tennis: Versus ($0.99 from $1.99 until 12/1)
V.O.I.D. ($0.99 from $3.99 until 12/1)
Valley ($9.99 from $19.99 until 12/1)
Warp Shift ($0.99 from $9.99 until 12/1)

That’s it for today and this week, friends. Well, I think it’s safe to say that we all spent too much money this week. Will we spend more next week? Probably. I mean, SaGa Scarlet Grace is hitting a few days from now, and that’s definitely going in my shopping bag. This year will not end until it actually ends, it seems. Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend, and as always, thanks for reading!