Blood Money – Reprisal’, Plus Today’s Releases and Sales – TouchArcade
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for January 31st, 2024. In today’s article, we actually have some new releases that are worth looking at. First time this week! Before that, I have my review of Feral Interactive’s Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal, which I liked quite a bit. After that, it’s time to check out the new games, and it’s an interesting bunch. We finish things up in the usual manner with some new sales and expiring discounts for you to consider. Let’s go for it!
Reviews & Mini-Views
Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal ($29.99)
Confession time: up until I received this game for review, I had watched as many Hitman movies as I had played Hitman games. I’ve only seen one of the Hitman movies, and that one game is Hitman Go. Yes, this Feral Interactive remake of Hitman: Blood Money is my first hands-on experience with one of Agent 47’s mainline games. I think I watched a friend play Hitman 2 a bit back in the day? Well, anyway. I just wanted you all to know where I was coming from with this. I can’t really talk directly about what’s new here beyond what I’ve read about, and I can’t compare it to contemporary games in the series either. I’m sure there are other reviews out there that can speak to those things.
So, how did I like it? Well, I certainly wouldn’t confuse it for a modern game, but apart from the visuals I wouldn’t have guessed it was from 2006, either. Hitman: Blood Money gives you a surprising degree of freedom in how you want to carry out each of the missions. You’re incentivized to do things as quietly as you possibly can since gaining notoriety will make later missions harder, but nothing is stopping you from going in guns blazing if that’s your preference. But even in doing things more stealthily, you have a lot of options. The results of your work are presented via a newspaper after the mission, which is quite clever. I was impressed by how much creativity you’re afforded, and a lot of wild ideas you might not think would work, do. It’s quite enjoyable to replay the missions and find new ways of doing things, trying to better your evaluation.
From my understanding, there are a lot of additions in this remake. You’re able to toggle most of them on and off if you prefer to experience the game as closely to the original as possible, which is nice. A version of the Instinct Mode from later games in the series is here, allowing you to use your Hitman-Sense (they aren’t stink lines!) to see enemies, objects, and various other things with more clarity. There’s also a minimap, and I’m a bit surprised that wasn’t there to start with. It’s very useful, cutting down on how often you have to open up your map and assisting you in dealing with enemies. You also get gyro controls, which is a feature I know many people enjoy. I’m not so big on that in any game, but it seems to work quite well.
On the technical side, the game looks good for its age and it generally runs quite well on the Switch. That should be a given for a game from this era, but you never know. I did notice some occasional hitching here and there. It’s brief and doesn’t cause much trouble, but it’s noticeable and somewhat curious. The controls are mapped agreeably by default and you’re given a wide array of options to customize the game to your liking. Again, I can’t really compare it to other versions of the game, but I found the presentation to be fine outside of those hitches, and the gameplay worked like a charm.
Hitman: Blood Money – Reprisal is a game that was clearly ahead of its time, and that means it holds up very well in this Switch incarnation. Feral Interactive has done its usual solid work here, borrowing elements from later games in the series and giving the player the choice of whether they want to use the big new additions or not. If you’re like me and haven’t played a game in this series before, this seems like a good place to start. If you’re more familiar with the newer games it might be a little hard to go back to this game in some ways, but I think there’s still a lot of enjoyment to be had with its clever-for-its-age structure.
SwitchArcade Score: 4/5
New Releases
Eastward: Octopia ($5.99)
This add-on DLC brings back Sam and John for a whole new, more chill adventure. They’re living the slow life in the countryside, farming, tending livestock, and just having a lovely time in a parallel universe where things aren’t quite as stressful. Build up the town of Octopia and who knows what vaguely familiar faces might show up? Yes, this is more or less Eastward Does Story of Seasons, but that’s fine isn’t it? I think so. You don’t need to play the main game to access it or anything either, as you can jump right into it from the main menu.
Miniland Adventure ($10.99)
This is one of those sandbox survival games, and it’s a decent one in that regard apart from how thin it is on content overall. You start with a little island and at various intervals you get new tiles to put down. As the island expands, so too do the things you can do. The pace is pretty slow and there isn’t as much here as you might see in some other games of this type on the Switch, which makes it a little harder to recommend.
Tale of Immortal ($16.99)
Those who are into modern Chinese movies and fiction will likely be familiar with the Cultivator genre, where someone trains to an absurd degree to bring out their ultimate power. This is an unusual action-RPG style game that leans into that theme, and perhaps to no surprise that means it’s a grindy affair. The English translation is also pretty poor here. But if you want to play something unusual or you like Cultivator stories, you might want to give this a try.
Turret Rampage ($4.99)
We’ve all played tower defense games before, but how many times do you get to be the tower in them? Now you can live the dream, even if the result is pretty just an unorthodox shooter. Enemy waves are incoming, and you have to move between the tunnels they’re pouring in from, pick the right weapon, and do the thing you do. Doesn’t seem terribly deep, but for a fiver it might be a nice slice of action for a quiet evening.
The Bin Bunch
Big Watermelon Match ($3.99)
Kubic ($3.99)
Seven ($3.99)
Sales
(North American eShop, US Prices)
Well, the list of new sales isn’t very big at all today. Dungeon of the Endless is cool, if you don’t already have it. As for the outbox, there are several good games in the list, but I’ll highlight Tinykin as my main pick. I still really like that game a lot. Have a look at both of the lists yourself and see if anything stands out, though. My tastes are not your tastes, after all.
Select New Sales
Dead by Daylight ($14.99 from $29.99 until 2/11)
Dungeon of the Endless ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Cultist Simulator ($3.99 from $19.99 until 2/13)
Pix the Cat ($1.99 from $9.99 until 2/13)
Chasm: The Rift ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Blood Will Be Spilled ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/20)
Feudal Alloy ($1.99 from $16.99 until 2/20)
Little Devil: Foster Mayhem ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/20)
Alpaca Ball: Allstars ($2.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
The Company Man ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/20)
Toby: The Secret Mine ($1.99 from $11.99 until 2/20)
Super Sports Blast ($7.49 from $24.99 until 2/20)
Super Soccer Blast: America vs Europe ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/20)
Spy Chameleon ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/20)
Forklift Extreme ($2.99 from $9.99 until 2/20)
Sales Ending Tomorrow, February 1st
Afterimage ($14.99 from $24.99 until 2/1)
Ary and the Secret of Seasons ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
Bear With Me: The Lost Robots ($1.99 from $4.99 until 2/1)
Beholgar ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Black Skylands ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Cattails: Wildwood Story ($15.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Cris Tales ($3.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
Despot’s Game CE ($11.49 from $22.99 until 2/1)
Double Dragon Gaiden: RotD ($17.49 from $24.99 until 2/1)
God of Rock ($8.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Gordian Quest ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Graveyard Keeper ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Hello Engineer ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Hello Neighbor ($9.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
If My Heart Had Wings ($7.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
In Sound Mind ($3.49 from $34.99 until 2/1)
Lost Words: Beyond the Page ($1.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Lovekami: Divinity Stage ($8.24 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Lovekami: Healing Harem ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Lovekami: Useless Goddess ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Low Story ($3.99 from $7.99 until 2/1)
My Time at Sandrock ($31.99 from $39.99 until 2/1)
My Time at Sandrock Deluxe ($39.99 from $49.99 until 2/1)
Override 2: Super Mech League ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Paleo Pines ($22.49 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Pinku Kult: Hex Mortis ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Punch Club 2: Fast Forward ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Rhythm Sprout ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
River City: Rival Showdown ($19.99 from $24.99 until 2/1)
Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Rustler ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
Skully ($2.99 from $29.99 until 2/1)
SpiderHeck ($8.99 from $14.99 until 2/1)
Streets of Rogue ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Super Trunko Go ($4.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Teslagrad 2 ($11.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
Teslagrad Remastered ($5.99 from $9.99 until 2/1)
Tinykin ($14.99 from $24.99 until 2/1)
Trash Sailors ($4.99 from $19.99 until 2/1)
That’s all for today and this month, friends. Tomorrow is Thursday, and that means we’ll have a decent-sized list of new games to check out. We’ll also have whatever sales and major news items roll in over the course of the day. I’m a bit hungry for junk food tonight. I suspect I am not getting any junk food tonight, however. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!
