Game Topz (gamtopz@gmail.com)

What a journey this one is. A title first dropped as a joke in South Park to make Butters look uncool becomes an Apple Arcade game and somehow against all odds is actually fantastic. Hello Kitty Island Adventure () might look like Animal Crossing in screenshots, but that’s really just one facet of the game. There’s a bit of The Legend of Zelda in here, and it even reminded me of A Short Hike at times. How is a game based on Sanrio characters as clever and fun as this? Really a well-done effort all-around. Let’s look at exactly what it is. The first thing you’re presented with is a fairly limited character creator, after which you will find yourself on a plane with various Sanrio characters. You have the chance to talk to everyone, after which Kitty causes a mess, Badtz-maru drops a movie reference that everyone who has played this game has taken a screenshot of, and everyone is forced to parachute down to the island below. It once played host to a theme park, and you’re all ther...

Hello everyone, and welcome to the week! It’s time once again for our look back at the noteworthy updates of the last seven days. It’s an interesting assortment of games this time around, hand-picked for your Monday viewing pleasure. I do hope you enjoy it. Of course, you can keep an eye out for updates yourself by participating in the TouchArcade forums. This weekly summary is just here to fill you in on the things you might have missed. Let’s go for it! Jetpack Joyride , Free Is it pirate time? I don’t know if it’s pirate time in general, but it is pirate time in Jetpack Joyride . Collect Golden Skulls and get some cool unlockables like the Captain Black Hole Beard, Comet Chaser, and Lunar Looter. As ever, you have to move quickly because the next event is always just around the corner with this game. Get those doubloons while you can, yar-har-har. Summon Quest , Well, look at what we have here. In what I must say is a significant update, Summon Quest gets itself a spiff...

When I interviewed David Galindo and Vertigo Gaming back in May , he said he definitely wants to return to mobile in the near future, but doesn’t want to just do a simple update for an old game. This was when I asked about ports of 2 and 3. The original Cook Serve Delicious is still playable, but hasn’t been updated in over half a decade on iPhone and iPad. If you’ve never heard of it, read our coverage of the iPhone and iPad versions here and iPad review here . I love the original game and its music, so when Vertigo Gaming announced Cook Serve Delicious: Re-Mustard as an enhanced remaster and new title for next year, I was very happy. Check out a screenshot from the upcoming release below: As of now, Cook Serve Delicious: Re-Mustard is confirmed for PC and consoles, but hasn’t been announced for mobile yet. This is a prime candidate for Vertigo Gaming to try its hand on premium games on the platform. I wouldn’t be surprised to even see it come through Netflix Games as we alread...

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On () from Pokemon developer Game Freak launched on Apple Arcade earlier this year, and it remains one of the best additions to the service in 2023. Shaun even included it in his best Apple Arcade games feature which you can read here . Over the weekend, Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On on Apple Arcade was updated with PvP support including worldwide matchmaking. I didn’t even know this update was in the works and it is the nicest surprise. You can queue up for matchmaking from the menu and wait to be matched with randoms or invite players to play with. Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On has been getting updated with new horses and balance adjustments since launch, but this PvP update is its biggest one yet. If you never played it on 3DS, Pocket Card Jockey was (sadly) one of the best 3DS eShop exclusives , and this enhanced remake for Apple Arcade is the best way to play it now. Read my review of the game here and my interview with Game Freak here . Check out th...

When I interviewed Feral Interactive earlier this year , I asked about potential new mobile and Switch releases for 2023. I was essentially told “Yes, but no clues" for both mobile and Switch. Fast forward to Friday and Feral Interactive put out a teaser as it usually does, but this time there were two teases on it. We usually see Feral Interactive post a teaser for a port or new game release coming to one platform. This time there is a clue for a Switch game and one for a mobile game. You can view the clues below in Feral Interactive’s radar image. I gave up on trying to decipher Feral Interactive’s teasing a while ago, but feel free to speculate in the comments below. I have no idea what to expect with either tease, so I’m going to speculate a bit about what I’d like to see Feral Interactive bring to both platforms. If you look at the Steam publisher page for Feral Interactive here and the developer page here for macOS releases, there are a few notable releases that are yet...

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo ($18.99) from Square Enix was one of this year’s biggest surprises. I loved the mystery-adventure game in my time with it for its story, characters, and atmosphere. Read Shaun’s review of the Switch version here . I also featured it as one of the best Switch and best mobile games of 2023 so far as well. Late last week, Square Enix pushed out the Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo 1.1 update on all systems bringing in some much-needed quality of life and accessibility features. Watch the Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo launch trailer below: The update adds a fast-forward option for text, a toggle to disable the chromatic aberration post-processing, and adjustments to some text, and more. The fast-forward option and CA toggle fix the few issues this release had. It is even better now, and more accessible. I’m glad Square Enix came back to Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo to update and bring in thes...

So often we view things we grew up loving through rose-colored glasses, and upon revisiting them later in life end up soiling those good memories we once had. This is especially true when talking about video games. There are games I adored as a kid that I couldn’t wait to fire up and re-experience as an adult, only to have a cold bucket of water thrown in my face when I realized that the gameplay just didn’t hold up in the gaming world of today. Video games have had multiple decades of refinement and so much of what we cherish from the ’80s and ’90s “glory days" of video games just hasn’t aged well at all. Sometimes things are just better left as great memories. One particular genre I’ve had a hankering to go back to over the years but have held back on for fear of exactly what I describe above are the classic point-and-click adventure games from the likes of LucasArts or Sierra On-Line. I absolutely adored the King’s Quest , Space Quest , Monkey Island games and more, but they ...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 28th, 2023. In today’s article, we check out the remaining releases for the week. There’s a fair number of them, though the bins are pretty full today. After we check those out, we look at the usual lists of new sales and outgoing discounts. Not the most exciting of days, but at least that new Mickey platformer is finally out. Let’s get to business! New Releases Disney Illusion Island ($39.99) Always be careful of the games whose names you invoke, because it sometimes invites comparisons you’re ill-equipped to live up to. This is a rather pretty 2D Metroidvania-style platformer starring Mickey and his friends that can be played by up to four people in local multiplayer. The platforming bits play out a bit like the last couple of Rayman games, but not as good. That Illusion in the title might make you think it has something to do with the SEGA classics, but no, it’s not quite as good as those either. And as M...

5pb just announced a huge sale on its iOS games for a limited time. The discounts have rolled out, but the most notable one is both versions of the super popular visual novel time traveling adventure Steins;Gate ($19.99) . Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate HD are separate apps. Longtime readers and iOS gamers might remember when we had games with HD versions for iPad. That has carried over to the current version of Steins;Gate on iOS. Right now, both Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate HD are down to $3.99 from $19.99 for a limited time. The historic low price is $2.99, but this is still a fantastic deal if you’ve not played Steins;Gate yet. If you do have a modern console, you can play Steins;Gate Elite which is a remake of Steins;Gate featuring anime cut-scenes. I like both versions and can recommend either, but prefer the original as it feels like the best intro to the genre for me. If you’ve not played Steins;Gate on mobile, read Shaun’s review of it here . It has a fantastic stor...

Cozy life sim Hello Kitty Island Adventure () is this week’s new Apple Arcade release out now. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is the final addition to Apple Arcade for July . Hello Kitty Island Adventure feels like a blend of Sanrio and Animal Crossing with support for multiplayer. The developers have confirmed that it will get new events, friends, and more with game updates as well. Check it out here on Apple Arcade. Watch the Hello Kitty Island Adventure trailer below: Alongside Hello Kitty Island Adventure , notable games on the service have gotten updates this week. We already had the major updates hit for JellyCar Worlds , Mini Metro , and Mini Motorways . Read about those here and here . Subway Surfers Tag brings in summer outfits today with the 1.8 update. SMG Studio’s SP!NG adds in the Play Perfect mode to the game following many updates bringing in new levels. Warped Kart Racers has its major August episode update arrive with Pirate Month, new modifiers, eliminatio...

I don’t have a lot of nice things to say as a whole about 3 Count Bout ($3.99) , the latest addition to the mobile ACA NEOGEO line from SNK and Hamster. It’s one or two ridiculously poor decisions away from being a really solid game, and its biggest problem is one that is magnified by the nature of the usual format of these mobile releases. It is agitating how many things it did a decent job with, only to flush it all down the drain in what I can only assume was an attempt to fish more quarters from unsuspecting arcade goers. This one won’t be pretty, friends. While King of the Monsters and its sequel were essentially wrestling games, albeit between giant monsters, there was clearly room on the NEOGEO for a more familiar game in the genre. By 1993, SNK was making some of the hottest one-on-one fighters around, so it wouldn’t seem totally unreasonable that it could make a good wrestling game. The character designers did their job well enough, with ten colorful combatants that wouldn...

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 27th, 2023. In today’s article, we have the tiniest little nugget of news to look at before we get to the main event of the day, the new releases. It’s another robust Thursday, especially for retro gaming fans. Double Dragon is back with a new game, Yggdra Union, Psychic 5, Batsugun , and Growl are back in the saddle, and we’ve even got some retro-inspired fare like Hyper Meteor . After summarizing all of them, we head into the lists of the latest and soon-to-expire sales for the day. Let’s go! News A Pair of ‘The Legend of Zelda’ Games Have Been Added to Nintendo Switch Online A few days ago, I was thinking that July was about to wrap up without any additions to Nintendo Switch Online’s retro game apps. That would have been the first month since September 2021 without any new games, but Nintendo isn’t usually the sort to drop games without notice and the SEGA app had an update just last month. Fortunately, ...