SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Fading Afternoon’, ‘Garage: Bad Dream Adventure’, Plus More Releases and Sales

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for June 6th, 2024. It’s Thursday today, which usually means a ton of new releases. This week, however, we don’t have quite as full a selection. Maybe related to that whole Keighley business, I don’t know. We’ll take a look at what we have, an interesting batch led by Fading Afternoon. After that, we head into the usual lists of new and expiring sales. Some decent stuff in there, too. Let’s get into the games!

Select New Releases

Fading Afternoon ($19.99)

From yeo, the developer behind The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa and Arrest of a Stone Buddha, Fading Afternoon is the story of a middle-aged yakuza named Maruyama who has just been released from prison. What will he do next? That’s up to you. There are multiple endings here, and the one you receive will depend on your actions during the course of the game. There’s a decent-sized city to explore and a handful of mini-games to mess around with. As with this developer’s previous games, you can also look forward to some solid beat-em-up action. I really liked yeo’s previous games, so I’ll definitely be giving this a look.

Seven Days ($34.99)

Okay, I’ll admit that a visual novel wherein all the heroines are dead is a novel set-up. Through various circumstances, our rather average protagonist ends up needing to resolve the lingering issues of the spirits of seven women. Ghosts can only live in the human world for forty-nine days, and a quick bit of math tells us that means each woman gets seven days’ worth of attention. Apart from the unusual premise, this looks like a fairly ordinary romantic visual novel. Maybe it’s for you, maybe it isn’t.

Arcade Archives Rug Rats ($7.99)

A 1982 Nichibutsu joint, and if you know that company name you know we’re in for a quirky one. This is a cleaning game, which in this case means cleaning up all the baddies using your little vacuum cleaner character. Roll enemies up in the carpets and pick up bonus items to earn extra points. You get both the Japanese and Overseas versions of the game here, and they’re actually quite different. Not the greatest of games, but it’s an unusual one that you probably haven’t played before. Isn’t that half the fun of the Arcade Archives line?

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure ($24.99)

This is a cleaned-up version of a messed-up 1999 PC game, but it still looks more or less like a 1999 PC game. You’re trapped in your own psyche and need to find your way out. The creator of this game is a surrealist artist, and he certainly flexes that with the bizarre sights and sounds you’ll come across. The mechanics are a bit hard to nail down, but you’ll be solving puzzles and exploring around, as one does in an adventure game. There’s quite a bit of disturbing stuff in this game, but I’m led to believe some of you are intrigued by that kind of thing. So, you know. Here you go.

HighScore Anomaly Underground ($3.99)

Well, these are getting to be a whole thing now. It’s another one of those games where you have to look for what’s out of place. If you don’t find it, you’ll be sent back to the beginning. If you do, or correctly ascertain that there is no anomaly, then you move up a level. Not a very long game, and not a very involved one either. Four bucks can buy some good snacks, even in this time of inflation. Choose wisely.

Euphoria ($14.99)

A first person puzzle game with a horror-mystery theme. Solve murder cases by examining the scenes, and maybe even recover your identity along the way. Not the fanciest of dining, but it might appeal to some out there. Steam reviews seem more positive than negative, though there are definitely a few people who didn’t care for it. Maybe if you loved Portal and are hungry for some other games of the same vague genre? I leave it in your skilled hands to investigate further, if you’re interested.

The Smurfs – Village Party ($39.99)

Want a party game to play with the family and don’t care for Mario’s antics? Do you love The Smurfs? Then you might be the right person for this new release from Microids. Frankly speaking, this publisher has messed up so many times with its licensed titles at this point that I would hesitate to trust anything from them. I want to say it’s hard to mess up a party game, but they did just that with the Inspector Gadget IP. Well, you get fifty mini-games in here plus a number of playable Smurfs. I leave it up to you if you want to risk getting smurfed out of your money or not.

Rainbow Diamonds ($9.99)

This appears to be today’s five-dollar Switch platformer, but uh oh, it’s ten dollars. Oh well. Forty levels set across four worlds, and that’s really all there is to say about it. Very indistinct.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

Quite the menagerie of titles in the inbox today. Some games worth considering include Shoot 1UP DX, Fearmonium, Garlic, and the ever-recommended Donut Dodo. Not too much in that outbox worth worrying about today, so have a careful look through the new sales and keep in mind that the Keighley summer thing is coming soon. There will be a lot of sales incoming in the next couple of weeks.

Select New Sales

Game Type DX ($2.99 from $5.99 until 6/19)
Shapeshooter ($1.99 from $3.99 until 6/19)
Weapon of Choice DX ($2.99 from $5.99 until 6/19)
Shoot 1UP DX ($2.99 from $5.99 until 6/19)
Pig Eat Ball ($7.49 from $14.99 until 6/19)
Unlife ($6.59 from $10.99 until 6/20)
Fearmonium ($7.79 from $12.99 until 6/20)
Zomborg ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Runnyk ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Bob the Elementalist ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Amabilly ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Castle Morihisa ($2.24 from $14.99 until 6/20)
NeonPowerUp! ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Murder Is Game Over ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)

Garlic ($7.49 from $14.99 until 6/20)
Pirates on Target ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Mochi Mochi Boy ($1.99 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Loot Hero DX ($1.99 from $4.99 until 6/20)
Adventures of Ben: Rabbit Run ($11.24 from $24.99 until 6/20)
Gates of the Mind ($6.74 from $14.99 until 6/20)
Adventure Bar Story ($15.99 from $19.99 until 6/20)
Neko Secret Homecoming ($3.99 from $9.99 until 6/21)
Pretty Girls 2048 Strike ($3.49 from $6.99 until 6/21)
Seven Pirates H ($23.99 from $39.99 until 6/21)
Ravva and the Phantom Library ($4.99 from $9.99 until 6/21)
Turret Rampage ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/21)
RedRaptor ($2.49 from $4.99 until 6/21)
Thunder Kid II: Null Mission ($1.99 from $7.99 until 6/21)
Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary ($2.79 from $19.99 until 6/21)

Barbie DreamHouse Adventures ($19.99 from $39.99 until 6/21)
Mail Mole ($5.99 from $14.99 until 6/24)
Fresh Start ($7.99 from $19.99 until 6/26)
Ponpu ($2.24 from $14.99 until 6/26)
Spells & Secrets ($14.99 from $29.99 until 6/26)
Spirit of the North ($3.74 from $24.99 until 6/26)
Vaporum ($3.74 from $24.99 until 6/26)
Monster Harvest ($2.99 from $19.99 until 6/26)
Stranded Sails EotCI ($3.74 from $24.99 until 6/26)
Aragami 2 ($9.99 from $39.99 until 6/26)
Slaycation Paradise ($2.99 from $19.99 until 6/26)
Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX ($2.99 from $19.99 until 6/26)
Sparklite ($3.74 from $24.99 until 6/26)
Morbid: The Seven Acolytes ($2.49 from $24.99 until 6/26)

Alphadia I & II ($14.99 from $19.99 until 6/27)
Revenant Saga ($6.49 from $12.99 until 6/27)
Revenant Dogma ($6.49 from $12.99 until 6/27)
Illusion of L’Phalcia ($6.49 from $12.99 until 6/27)
Gale of Windoria ($8.24 from $14.99 until 6/27)
Amibition Record ($8.24 from $14.99 until 6/27)
Jinshin ($11.24 from $14.99 until 6/27)
Galacticon ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/27)
Donut Dodo ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/27)
Attack of the Karens ($2.99 from $4.99 until 6/27)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, June 7th

Bish Bash Bots ($14.99 from $19.99 until 6/7)
Crimson Spires ($5.99 form $19.99 until 6/7)
Greed: The Mad Scientist ($7.99 from $15.99 until 6/7)
Outbreak The Fedora Files WLN ($15.99 from $19.99 until 6/7)
Oxytone ($3.99 from $7.99 until 6/7)
Pan’orama ($7.99 from $19.99 until 6/7)
Planet Cube: Edge ($5.99 from $14.99 until 6/7)
Rainbow Moon ($11.99 from $14.99 until 6/7)
Sunny Cafe ($11.99 from $14.99 until 6/7)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with the remaining releases of the week, plus whatever sales and major news items roll in over the course of the day. I am incredibly sleepy today. I fell asleep twice writing this article. I need to take a nap later, or maybe get one good night’s sleep. I hope you all have a thrilling Thursday, and as always, thanks for reading!