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SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring ‘Easy Come Easy Golf’, Plus ‘Jack Move’ and Today’s Other Releases and Sales

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for September 20th, 2022. In today’s article, we’ve got a review of Clap Hanz’ Easy Come Easy Golf. There are a few new releases to check out, including a pair of visual novels from Idea Factory and a JRPG-style game with style to burn. Beyond that, we’ve got the usual lists of new and outgoing sales. Let’s get to it!

Reviews & Mini-Views

Easy Come Easy Golf ($19.99)

Just to make it clear from the get-go, this is the Apple Arcade game Clap Hanz Golf adapted for Switch and given a new name. Your twenty bucks frees you from the subscription model that meant you were basically renting the game at best, and ensures that whenever the day comes for Clap Hanz to leave the service, the game is still around in some form. Those who are further in the know probably are aware that Clap Hanz is a spiritual successor to Sony’s Hot Shots Golf, which developer Clap Hanz worked on from Hot Shots Golf 3 onward. A series which was conceived by Camelot, who also went on to work on the Mario Golf series from the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color onward.

I didn’t hate Mario Golf: Super Rush, but I can understand people who weren’t happy with it. I appreciate that Camelot might be tired of making the same old game every time and wants to try to mix things up. But I don’t think people are wrong to wish the Mario Golf games would just stick to what works. Well, if you want a golf game that more or less does stick to what works, your day has arrived. Easy Come Easy Golf isn’t precisely the same thing as Hot Shots Golf. It has some grindy cruft as a result of its origins as a mobile subscription-based game. It has a couple of minor gimmicks to differentiate itself. But the general structure and core mechanics are going to be very, very familiar to fans of Hot Shots Golf, and that’s a good thing.

The main gimmick in Easy Come Easy Golf is that you bring a team of golfers with you to each nine-hole course, each one tackling a single hole. Each named golfer has their own stats and specialties, so there’s an element of strategy in choosing which one to deploy where. Said named golfers will also level up as you use them, increasing their stats. You start off with just four named golfers, filling out the rest of your team with no-names who won’t level up at all.

As you play, you’ll unlock additional characters to fill out your roster. Characters aren’t the only things to unlock, either. Because this version of the game includes all of the updates that have been delivered to the Apple Arcade game, there is a ton of content in here. But you are going to have to grind it out, so be prepared for that. That said, grinding in this context just means playing more rounds of golf, and I have to believe that’s what you got this game for anyway. Perhaps importantly, none of the grinding is necessary. The game is happy enough to largely leave the matter of challenge in single-player to the player versus the course rather than versus the CPU opponents. You can also enjoy multiplayer via local or online, allowing up to four players to head off to the links together and see who is the best, or luckiest.

If you’re satisfied with Clap Hanz as a subscription game on Apple Arcade, you don’t need to worry too much about Easy Come Easy Golf. It’s basically the same game. But if you want the game in a more permanent form, or you’re a Switch-only golfing fan who wants something a little light without the goofy chaos of modern Mario Golf, you’ll want to pick this game up. It’s well-made, content-rich, and enjoyable in a comfort food kind of way.

SwitchArcade Score: 4/5

New Releases

Amnesia: Memories ($49.99)

You might remember this visual novel from when it popped up on iOS several years ago, or perhaps from its PlayStation Vita or Steam incarnations. You play as a woman with an unusual case of amnesia who ends up getting tied up with some very unique men. There are multiple paths to play, each with multiple endings, and one additional path leading to the true ending once you’ve finished them all. It’s a very substantial story, so you get a lot for your money. There aren’t any major additions to this Nintendo Switch version, so if you’ve played it before elsewhere you won’t find anything new here.

Amnesia: Later x Crowd ($49.99)

Later x Crowd, on the other hand, may well be new to most of you. This is a fandisk companion to the main game, offering up two games we haven’t seen outside of Japan before. Amnesia: Later is, as you might guess, set after the events of the main story. You can see some of the potential future outcomes, which is always fun. Amnesia: Crowd has a what-if story called Suspense, plus a bunch of minigames and card games to play. I think Mikhail is going to have reviews of both of these for us sometime in the next week or so.

Jack Move ($19.99)

This is a fast-paced sci-fi JRPG-style game, and it’s a rather good one. You play as a vigilante hacker named Noa who is caught up in all kinds of trouble after her estranged father is kidnapped by members of a mega-corporation. Battles are turn-based, and although Noa is your only party member, you can swap out your hardware mid-battle to change her abilities as needed. It’s relatively brief as games in this genre go, wrapping up its story in about a dozen hours, but I’m totally okay with a game that opts to trim all of its fat and get to the point, which Jack Move very much does.

Sales

(North American eShop, US Prices)

A few things to note in today’s list of new sales. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is having a little sale. Not the greatest of games, but not bad. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero has been discounted, along with its Ultimate version and DLC. Both Story of Seasons games are on sale, in case you need more farming games. Not much in the outbox, but you should check it anyway. One never knows what they will find.

Select New Games on Sale

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising ($11.99 from $14.99 until 9/24)
Pinball FX3 Bethesda DLC ($5.49 from $10.99 until 9/26)
Pinball FX3 Universal DLC ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/26)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/26)
Shantae: HGH Ultimate ($14.99 from $29.99 until 9/26)
Shantae: HGH Pirate DLC ($4.99 from $9.99 until 9/26)
Retro Highway ($4.19 from $5.99 until 9/26)
Story of Seasons: FoMT ($25.99 from $39.99 until 9/27)
Story of Seasons: PoOT ($29.99 from $39.99 until 9/27)
Kingdom Rush ($4.99 from $9.99 until 10/3)
Kingdom Rush Origins ($7.49 from $14.99 until 10/3)
Kingdom Rush Frontiers ($4.99 from $9.99 until 10/3)
SkateBIRD ($9.99 from $19.99 until 10/4)
Loot Hero DX ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Tamiku ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)


UltraGoodness 2 ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Autumn’s Journey ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Wild West Crops ($3.49 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Flat Kingdom Paper’s Cut Edition ($5.59 from $7.99 until 10/10)
Taqoban ($3.49 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Castle Formers ($3.49 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Royal Frontier ($4.89 from $6.99 until 10/10)
Cosmos Bit ($3.49 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Flower Shop: Summer in Fairbrook ($6.99 from $9.99 until 10/10)
Ord. ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
How to Take Off Your Mask ($5.99 from $14.99 until 10/10)
Birthday of Midnight ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
The Language of Love ($4.79 from $11.99 until 10/10)
Freddy Spaghetti ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)


Devious Dungeon ($2.39 from $7.99 until 10/10)
Devious Dungeon 2 ($2.39 from $7.99 until 10/10)
Devious Dungeon Collection ($5.19 from $12.99 until 10/10)
LIMBO ($1.99 from $9.99 until 10/10)
INSIDE ($1.99 from $19.99 until 10/10)
Legend of Numbers ($2.00 from $2.99 until 10/10)
Vera Blanc: Full Moon ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Vera Blanc: GitC ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Balancelot ($3.19 from $7.99 until 10/10)
Even the Ocean ($5.99 from $14.99 until 10/10)
A Hero and a Garden ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Micetopia ($1.99 from $4.99 until 10/10)
Paw Paw Paw ($3.99 from $9.99 until 10/10)

Sales Ending Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21st

Catlateral Damage ($7.49 from $14.99 until 9/21)
Clutter 1000 ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
Clutter Evolution Beyond Xtreme ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
First Time in Paris ($6.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
I Love Finding Cats! ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
I Love Finding Pups! ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
Jewel Match Solitaire Winterscapes ($2.99 from $9.99 until 9/21)
Secrets of Light & Shadow ($12.75 from $15.00 until 9/21)
Super Shadow Break: Showdown! ($9.09 from $12.99 until 9/21)
Toodee and Topdee ($9.99 from $19.99 until 9/21)

That’s all for today, friends. We’ll be back tomorrow with more new releases, more sales, and perhaps some news or a review. I’m getting a vaccine shot tomorrow, so I may end up loopy and have to skip a day though. Life is truly a day-to-day mystery. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to wrap up my Tokyo Game Show 2022 writings. I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday, and as always, thanks for reading!