Reviews Featuring ‘Raiden III’ and ‘Annalynn’, Plus the Latest Releases and Sales – TouchArcade

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for June 14th, 2023. In today’s article, we’ve got a couple of reviews to look at. Shoot-em-up Raiden III x Mikado Maniax and arcade-style action game Annalynn get evaluated, and I didn’t dislike either of them. Like yesterday, we’ve just got one new release to look at, and we will indeed look at it. Unlike yesterday, we don’t have that many sales to deal with. But we’ve got the new and expiring lists as usual for you to enjoy. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Raiden III x Mikado Maniax ($29.99)

Raiden III was the first game in the Raiden series developed by the folks at MOSS, a team formed by some of the people who had worked on the Raiden games at Seibu Kaihatsu before it ran into financial trouble. By the time of its release in 2005, Raiden III had the job of reviving a series that had been dormant for several years and hadn’t seen a mainline entry in over a decade. And it had been a pretty big decade for the genre, with the early Toaplan games that inspired Raiden having fully given way to the spicy new bullet hell genre that came to dominate the scene. Raiden III had a lot to lose if it made a big swing and missed, and as such it’s perhaps understandable that it decided to play it relatively safe.

What we ended up with was a perfectly agreeable shoot-em-up. Some new weapons, some new scoring systems to appeal to players who were used to more complex games, and a smaller hit box on the ship to match the contemporary style. There are seven stages in all, and it’s just… fine. You won’t have a bad time playing through it, but little of it is bound to stick with you. For this new release, MOSS has done its best to spice things up. In addition to the standard game, you can play a score attack and boss rush, and the game has full support for online leaderboards so you can compete with other players. There are new unlockable images, tunes, and wallpapers, and a small but well-considered set of options to tweak. It helps, but there’s only so much you can do with a middling base.

While I feel like all of MOSS’s Raiden games fall along a similar line of quality, the fourth and fifth games certainly feel like they take more risks and aren’t afraid to be their own things. Raiden III for better or worse is a game that feels so busy trying not to mess up that it forgot to do anything interesting. This new release adds in some cool features and extras to make it worth hopping in the Fighting Thunder one more time, even if all but the most ardent of Raiden fans would be better off picking up one of the later entries in the series.

SwitchArcade Score: 3.5/5

Annalynn ($4.99)

Another real charmer of an arcade throwback, and I’m starting to feel like this sort of game is enjoying a real renaissance right now. Annalynn sees you playing as the titular character as she scoops up dots in small, side-scrolling stages. An assortment of sneaky snakes are on her tail, but she can turn the tables on them by picking up a red gem and taking her boot to their butts. Grab all the dots and you’re on to the next stage. Maybe pick up some bonus items while you’re at it. If it sounds like Pac-Man, that’s pretty much the idea. You know, except that it’s a side-view game. Oh, and while the levels do scroll, they’re not super-big. A few screens long at most. They’re also packed with various platforms, climby bits, and other gimmicks that make each of the sixteen stages feel distinct.

If you enjoy classic arcade games or modern games inspired by them, you’ll likely enjoy Annalynn. It has a great presentation, fun gameplay, and a sufficient amount of depth to its scoring system to give it a lot of replay value. The lack of online leaderboards makes it hard to get fully into competing, and it’s a feature I hope might be added later on. For now, this is good, fast fun that fans of similar odes to the arcade like Donut Dodo and Galacticon will greatly appreciate.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

Brave Soldier – Invasion of Cyborgs ($4.99)

Yes, the sole release of the day appears to be this five-dollar Switch platformer. Well, to be properly accurate, it’s a five-dollar Switch run-and-gun action game. You can probably guess the arcade classic it says it’s inspired by. You get thirty stages, a number of gun power-ups to collect, and a variety of locales to visit. Seems okay for what it is.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Well, I suppose there really wasn’t much else to go on sale, was there? Not much to call out here, unless you’ve been waiting on a more affordable price for Cosmo Dreamer. I can’t see anything in particular in the outbox I want to highlight either, so I’ll just tell you to check those lists as usual and head on my way.

Select New Games on Sale

Space Tail: Every Journey Leads Home ($6.99 from $19.99 until 6/21)
Penko Park ($6.49 from $12.99 until 6/21)
Overlord Escape from Nazarick ($14.99 from $29.99 until 6/21)
Slime Rancher: Plortable ($12.49 from $24.99 until 6/26)
Bridge Constructor Portal ($2.99 from $14.99 until 7/1)
Cosmo Dreamer ($4.92 from $8.20 until 7/3)
Monmusu Gladiator ($3.59 from $5.99 until 7/3)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Thursday, June 15th

3D Arcade Fishing ($1.99 from $14.99 until 6/15)
Alterity Experience ($5.99 from $9.99 until 6/15)
Amazing Machines ($1.99 from $19.99 until 6/15)
Beholgar ($5.99 from $9.99 until 6/15)
Bibi & Tina Adv. w/Horses ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Bibi & Tina at the Horse Farm ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Bibi & Tina New Adv. w/Horses ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Bibi Blocksberg Big Broom Race 3 ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Bugvasion TD ($1.99 from $9.99 until 6/15)
Clive ‘N’ Wrench ($23.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Crazy Chicken Xtreme ($2.49 from $24.99 until 6/15)
Dark Dungeon Warrior ($2.40 from $8.00 until 6/15)
inbento ($1.99 from $4.99 until 6/15)
King Leo ($1.99 from $19.99 until 6/15)

Monster Dynamite ($1.99 from $19.99 until 6/15)
My Life: Pet Vet ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
My Life: Riding Stables 3 ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
My Riding Stables 2 ($2.99 from $29.99 until 6/15)
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened ($31.99 from $39.99 until 6/15)
Sherlock Holmes: Hound of Baskervilles ($2.59 from $12.99 until 6/15)
Summer Bubble Splash ($1.99 from $3.49 until 6/15)
Treasures of the Aegean ($7.99 from $19.99 until 6/15)
Ultimate Runner ($1.99 from $19.99 until 6/15)
Waifu Space Conquest ($3.99 from $4.99 until 6/15)
Warhammer 40k Mechanicus ($7.99 from $39.99 until 6/15)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and any major news that comes in during the interim. I’ve got my tickets reserved for the new Spider-Man movie, which opens here on Friday. I’m pretty excited about it, especially since everyone has been telling me how good it is. I hope you all have a great Wednesday, and as always, thanks for reading!