A quintet of good physical content has been confirmed to come to the Nintendo Switch this year! The folks at indie publisher Super Rare Games have offered a sneak peek into five physical releases they have planned. If you are unaware, their mission statement is to publish games that were previously only available digitally, often including a physical manual as part of the deal. Long after the satellites and the internet are sent to the lowest circle of hell to keep Satan’s toenail clippings company, these copies of indie darling will endure the erosions of time provided you don’t set them on fire)
ABZÛ is a title developed by Giant Squid and published by 505 Games sharing the art director and composer of the immersive and emotional sequential art pieces Journey and Flower. While Journey saw you roam a vast desert and Flower saw you soar the over fields as the wind, ABZÛ captures the experience of a diver exploring a vast fantastical ocean. Environmental and interpretive storytelling, underwater acrobatics and interacting with animals are the order of the day. ABZÛ will be on sale on April 29th, 2021, 5000 copies will be available, with 2000 of those being steelbooks. Don’t delay, swim today!
Super Rare is collaborating with Daedallic Entertainment to release The Deponia Collection, which contains the four games from the Deponia series: Deponia, Chaos on Deponia, Goodbye Deponia, and Deponia Doomsday. You play as loveable rogue/scumbag Rufus as he navigates his way through all kinds of hijinks in the eponymous planet of Deponia, a land of poverty, refuse and adventure of the point-and-click variety. Rufus’ aim is to get to the orbiting Elysium space colony but his journey will take him to all kinds of places, least of all your heart <3
INMOST is a narratively driven action-adventure puzzle platformer. Published by Chucklefish and developed by Hidden Layer Games, the game is a delve into the ‘inner most’ suffering of three characters – a young girl, a stoic knight, and an older gentlemen – whose cute pixel bodies belie their individual personal tragedies. Through encounters with strange enemies, traps and the unsettling keeper of the castle, you will discover how these three character’s stories intertwine. A 5-hour game, INMOST is a short but haunting experience about perseverance in the face of despair. Can you overcome the trials that lie within the castle?
Super Crush KO is a colourful, minimalist 2D beat’em up. In a perfect world, all your OAP relatives would be playing this instead of Candy Crush. Set in a lovely-looking future, you play as a stylish young girl named Karen doing whatever it takes to save her cat from an alien rival and her menacing robots: punches, kicks, lasers from your laser, etc. no move is too below the belt as long as it gets the job done. This game is essentially John Wick if John Wick was Sailor Jupiter, his dog was a cat, and the seedy criminal underbelly consisted of fabulous neon robots. The nonstop carnage remains the same, but with air dashes, enemy juggling mechanics, an 80s pop soundtrack and a high-score system to keep you coming back for more.
Vigil: The Longest Night is a 2D action RPG by Glass Heart Games in the vein of Castlevania and Salt and Sanctuary. The game features a distinct art style inspired by the art of Chinese paper cutting which contributed towards Vigil becoming the winner of the ‘Best Visual Art’ award at the Tapei Game Show. The style contributes to making the gruesome creatures that stalk Leila’s countryside pop out on the screen, but also makes it look that much better when you slay them with your smorgasbord of weapons. Combat is precise and technical and the environs atmospheric. If you enjoy metroidvania games or the cosmic horror trappings of Bloodborne (as well as the Soulsborne difficulty and stylish fits) I cannot recommend this enough, especially with the new Bounty of the Night update that added a bunch of cool stuff.
Super Rare Games has a penchant for including manuals, art books and other interesting content in their physical releases. We’ll keep our ears open for more information as we continue through the year, but before we do a deep dive on those we’ll likely be diving into inviting waters of an open ABZÛ case.
He/Him
A flamboyant ultra nerd, Dave participates in the Underlevelled Tournament both for the thrill of the fight, and to avenge the orphans lost in the climax of the previous tournament.
Born: London
Height: ???
Weight: ???
Hobbies: street dance, collecting manga volumes, reading, editing
Likes: short-to-medium walks on the beach, pointing out how things can and will be misconstrued as racism, fighting games, RPGs, anime, Hades, alternative hip hop, conscious hip hop, Mara Wilson, overly long bios, ice-cream
Dislikes: insincere media, his own uncanny resemblance to Richard Ayoade, mayonnaise
