Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for May 15th, 2024. In today’s article, we’ve got a little bit of everything. A pinch of news, a smidgen of reviews, a couple of new games, and the usual lists of new and outgoing sales. Truly, a blessed Wednesday. The review in question is for Rainbow Cotton, by the way. I wanted to get more reviews out today, but that’s how things go. Anyway, that’s probably enough of a preamble. Let’s get to the gaming goodness!
News
‘Super Mario Land’ & Other Game Boy Launch Titles Join Nintendo Switch Online
Ever since Nintendo added Game Boy games to the Nintendo Switch Online catalog of retro games, some people have wondered why Super Mario Land wasn’t among them. Well, here you go. Out of the blue yesterday night, Nintendo added three games to the Game Boy selection on its retro game service, and they’re all from the handheld console’s launch. Super Mario Land, Alleyway, and Baseball are the games in question, and they’re certainly nostalgic. Update your app and you’ll be good to go.
Reviews & Mini-Views
Rainbow Cotton ($19.99)
There are lot of things going on with this game. I’m happy to see another Dreamcast game make its way to the Switch, as we don’t have many. It’s also nice to see the Cotton series fully rereleased on modern platforms, outside of that pachinko collection people like to bring up as a gotcha. This is also an exceptional remaster of the original game, to the point that it is definitive in my opinion. It looks better, it plays better, and it’s (mostly) localized. Wins and up and down the board there.
The problem is that I don’t think Rainbow Cotton is a very good game to begin with, and while the remaster is certainly better than the vanilla version, the core issues haven’t been solved. And that’s not surprising, because I don’t think there really was any way to solve them short of rebuilding the game from scratch. Rainbow Cotton is a rail shooter, and a very average one at that. It has some weird collision issues, much like its predecessor Panorama Cotton, it’s visually messy, again like its predecessor, and it’s just kind of boring.
That’s not for lack of effort on its part, as its five stages feature branching paths and plenty of colorful vistas. The boss battles are decent. But the enemy encounters generally come down to the same thing: keep shooting the pots. Yes, avoid the enemy shots and take them out where you can. But keep shooting those pots, because you need the power-ups. The new lock-on feature added in this remaster helps a lot with this, but it’s just tiresome in general.
If you enjoy rail shooters or Cotton a lot, you’ll probably find enough in Rainbow Cotton to enjoy to make it worth your while. It’s as good as it can be, given the source material. That’s really the catch here; this is an excellent version of a deeply flawed game, and despite its fixes and improvements it’s not really enough to save it from being the worst shooter in the Cotton series. Not entirely without its charms, but not a game I can muster much enthusiasm for either.
SwitchArcade Score: 3/5
Select New Releases
Awesome Pea 3 ($4.99)
This third and apparently final Awesome Pea game makes a couple of big changes, and I think it’s kind of an unusual move to make for the last part of a trilogy. First, the faux Game Boy monochrome palette has been ditched in favor of a standard set of colors. Second, the traditional platformer gameplay has been traded for a precision-platformer style set-up. You get sixty-nine stages to play, which is a nice amount for the money. You know, the whole five-dollar Switch platformer energy. It’s here. Do you want some? Sidle up, my friend.
That Damn Goat ($15.99)
I’m including this more to warn people away, I suppose. It’s a split-screen king of the hill-style game where you battle to control the crown, for up to four players. There is no single-player option at all, so you need to have at least one other person in the room to play. The gimmick is that there is a weird goat flying around causing havoc. Look, it’s a funny gimmick as that sort of thing goes, but it’s not quite enough to get the game cooking the way it needs to.
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Not too much on sale yet today, but if you wanted a little deal on that Top Racer Collection, there it is. I also really like Gimmick, and I think it’s an even better deal at half-price. The outbox is probably of more concern this time around, with some solid deals on the likes of Gloomhaven, Overrogue, and Citizen Sleeper to consider. I recommend checking through both lists with your usual diligent approach, dear reader. Treats abound.
Select New Sales
Top Racer Collection ($15.99 from $19.99 until 5/21)
Bone’s Cafe ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
Gimmick! Special Edition ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/22)
Gerda: A Flame in Winter ($7.99 from $19.99 until 5/29)
Ravenous Devils ($2.49 from $4.99 until 5/29)
HyperParasite ($1.99 from $17.99 until 5/29)
Xiaomei & the Flame Dragon’s Fist ($8.99 from $14.99 until 6/4)
Halftime Heroes ($1.99 from $4.99 until 6/4)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, May 16th
A Highland Song ($12.59 from $17.99 until 5/16)
April’s Diary ($10.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Beacon Pines ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
Citizen Sleeper ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
CrashOut Xtreme ($6.99 from $9.99 until 5/16)
Cross Tails ($20.99 from $29.99 until 5/16)
Dead in Vinland: True Viking ($5.59 from $27.99 until 5/16)
Death Road to Canada ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Flooded ($6.49 from $12.99 until 5/16)
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between ($6.49 from $12.99 until 5/16)
Gloomhaven: Mercenaries Edition ($7.99 from $39.99 until 5/16)
Harpoon Shooter Nozomi ($6.98 from $9.98 until 5/16)
Hiveswap Friendsim ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Human: Fall Flat ($5.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
KnifeBoy Rebooted ($5.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Kraken Academy ($5.39 from $17.99 until 5/16)
Lazriel The Demon’s Fall ($9.10 from $11.47 until 5/16)
Marenian Tavern Story ($9.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
Mechstermination Force ($1.99 from $11.99 until 5/16)
Metro Quester ($14.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
Musashi vs Cthulhu ($4.49 from $4.99 until 5/16)
No Longer Home ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Overrogue ($8.99 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Panzer Dragoon Remake ($2.49 from $24.99 until 5/16)
Paradise Killer ($5.99 from $19.99 until 5/16)
Pesterquest ($7.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Pogo Joins the Circus ($6.99 from $9.99 until 5/16)
Raging Bytes ($9.74 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Retro City Rampage DX ($4.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Retro Revengers ($7.90 from $9.90 until 5/16)
Rising Dusk ($7.90 from $9.90 until 5/16)
RPGolf Legends ($14.99 from $29.99 until 5/16)
Silver Nornir ($8.99 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Super Sean 007 ($6.99 from $9.99 until 5/16)
The Jump Guys ($9.09 from $12.99 until 5/16)
The Lost Ashford Ring ($10.49 from $14.99 until 5/16)
Unables ($8.70 from $12.99 until 5/16)
Witch’s Potion: Water Sort Puzzle ($2.49 from $4.99 until 5/16)
That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the Thursday releases, and even with our new abbreviated format there should still be plenty to look at. I’ll have summaries of the noteworthy games of the lot, plus whatever sales and major news items roll in over the course of the day. My stress levels are pretty high right now, but they’ve almost hit a level where I’m numbing to it all. Is that good? Bad? I don’t know. But at least I can play Alleyway in HD now, and isn’t that what it’s all about? I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!
