Nintendo Download: 29th April (Europe)
Share:
The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region.
As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Switch Retail eShop - New Releases
(Numskull Games, 29th Apr, £24.99 / €27.99) - Battle Axe is an arcade top-down hack & slash featuring high-quality visuals created by veteran pixel artist Henk Nieborg, true to form game mechanics, and music from the legendary VGM composer Manami Matsumae – retro gamers rejoice! - Read our Battle Axe review
Veteran pixel artist Henk Nieborg s old-school throwback,
Battle Axe, seeks to replicate the classic top-down hack and slash action of arcade classics such as
Gauntlet,
Knights of the Round and
Golden Axe. With Nieborg himself on graphical duties and legendary composer Manami Matsumae (Mega Man, Final Fight, Shovel Knight) providing the soundtrack, this one certainly more than manages to nail the look and feel of its most obvious inspirations. However, a lack of content and modes, alongside tired gameplay that doesn t mix things up in any interesting or surprising ways across a fairly brief running time, leaves this feeling like a rather lacklustre effort.
Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue 373
Share:
The weather s really beginning to brighten up and it s glorious. Unfortunately, the world s still no where near back to normal, and while we re feeling more optimistic these days – well, it s still a bit too soon for normality, isn t it? Here s hoping we re finally on a more positive path at least, though, eh?
Sammy Barker, Editor
Now I ve finished my MLB The Show 21 review, I m just enjoying playing the game while I wait for Returnal to release. I feel like I could complement the baseball with a short or easy indie game, so if anyone has any suggestions I m open to something mindless and fun.
23/04/212
Even as we’re hyped about a new console generation of ever more detailed graphical fidelity, pixel art remains a timeless aesthetic. Yet while plenty of indies love to use that style, the real veterans from the 8-bit and 16-bit days are much rarer, which is why retro fans should feel privileged to be able to play a new game from legendary pixel artist Henk Nieborg.
Having previously worked with Bitmap Bureau on the crowdfunded Mega Drive/Genesis sci-fi arena shooter Xeno Crisis, it seemed apt for the partnership to continue with Nieborg’s own passion project. Battle Axe is a fantasy top-down brawler very much in the vein of Gauntlet or Golden Axe. With a bare-bones plot of defeating the evil sorceress Etheldred, you simply pick from a line-up of three heroes – Rooney the Viking warrior, Fae the dark elf, and Iolo the elderly druid – before hacking and slashing your way to the end.