Topic: Best of the Wii U eShop (Round 8: 2016 - Part 2)

[M.K.Ultra]

Background
The Wii U eShop will only be open for a limited time so it is worth looking at the games there while there is still time to buy them. I will be going through the list of eShop games chronologically by release date using Nintendo's Game Store site. I will be skipping over Virtual Console releases for now, but I will cover them at the end. I am also skipping games that were released on disc, unless the disc version costs more than the download.
The Games: Round 8 - 2016 - Part 2
Wrapping up 2016 we get our eighth set of eShop titles. There are 40 titles below with info in the following format:
Title (Developer/Publisher, price, availability on other consoles, Metacritic score (Metacritic Rank on Wii U), NWR review score [link to review])

• Defend Your Crypt (Ratalaika Games, $2.99, 3DS)
• Humanitarian Helicopter (Peaceful Games, Free, Wii U only)
• Buddy & Me: Dream Edition (Sunbreak Games, $4.99, App Store, 63, 7 NWR Review)
• Hot Rod Racer (ZeNfA Productions, $0.99, Wii U only)
• Vektor Wars (Super Icon Limited, $7.99, Switch/PS4)
• 3Souls (Red Column, $3.90, Wii U only, 49)
• Dracula's Legacy (Joindots, $3.99, Switch/PS4)
• Overworld Defender Remix (PJ Perretta/Stereo Chromatic, $5.99, Wii U only)
• Dragon Skills (Stargush/Joindots, $7.99, Wii U only)
• Blasting Agent: Ultimate Edition (Ratalaika Games, $2.99, 3DS/Vita/PS4)
• Ziggurat (Milkstone Studios, $14.99, Switch/PS4/XB1)
• Adventure Party: Cats and Caverns (E-Regular Games, $12.99, Wii U only)
• Word Logic by POWGI (Lightwood Games, $9.99, 3DS/Vita/PS4)
• MikroGame: Rotator (Studio de la Torre, $1.99, Wii U only)
• Armikrog (Pencil Test Studios/Versus Evil, $9.99, PS4/XB1, 56)
• Shadow Archer (Ultra Dolphin Revolution, $2.99, Wii U only)
• 140 (Carlsen/Abstraction Games/Double Fine Productions, $7.99, Switch/PS4/XB1, 6.5 NWR Review)
• Axiom Verge (Thomas Happ Games, $7.99, Switch/Vita/PS4/XB1, 89 (10th), 9 NWR Review)
• Tallowmere (Chris McFarland, $4.99, Switch)
• Letter Quest: Remastered (Bacon Bandit Games, $9.99, Switch/Vita/PS4/XB1)
• Jotun: Valhalle Edition (Thunder Lotus Games, $14.99, Switch/PS4/XB1, 79, 8.5 NWR Review)
• SphereZor (James Guard, $9.99, Wii U only)
• Rorrim (Nitrolic Games, $5.00, Wii U only)
• Noitu Love Devolution (MP2 Games, $9.99, 3DS, 79, 7.5 NWR Review)
• Wings of Magloryx (Arbelos Interactive, $9.99, Wii U only)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios, $14.99, Switch/3DS/Vita, 83 (41st), 8 NWR Review)
• Soul Axiom (Wales Interactive, $14.99, Switch/PS4/XB1, 45)
• PSIBO (Nami Tentou, $4.99, AppStore)
• SKORB (Stereo Chromatic, $8.99, Wii U only)
• Bit Dungeon+ (Dolores Entertainment, $6.00, Switch/3DS,Vita/PS4/XB1)
• Pirate Pop Plus (dadako/13AM Games, $1.99, Switch/3DS, 68, 7 NWR Review)
• Super Destronaut 2: Go Duck Yourself (Petite Games, $1.99, Wii U only)
• Ectoplaza (Syndicate Atomic, $7.99, Wii U only)
• Gravity+ (Nitrolic Games, $7.00, Wii U only)
• Twisted Fusion (Leuvision, $5.00, Wii U only, 36, 5 NWR Review)
• Ohayou! Beginner's Japanese (Finger Fun Games, $4.99, PC)
• Exile's End (Magnetic Realms/Marvelous/XSEED, $9.99, Vita/PS4/XB1, 58, 6 NWR Review)
• Teslapunk (klutzGames, $9.99, XB1, 62)
• SDK Spriter (HullBreach Studios, $7.00, Wii U only)
• Scribble (Bear Box Media, $2.99, Wii U only, 72, 7 NWR Review)

Highlights
As the last big year for the Wii U comes to end we see one more big dump of games. There are of 68 games in this time frame, so I carefully selected the better looking games for the poll and the list. If you recommend any games from the second half of 2016 that are not included, just post a comment. Those looking for a good deal might want to pick up Pirate Pop Plus for only $1.99. If that is too rich for your blood then you can download Humanitarian Helicopter for free. The best reviewed game this round is Axiom Verge, which is the only game, other than Guacamelee, to crack the Metacritic top 10 Wii U games of all time! There was a disc version released by Limited Run on this one but it goes for around $100, so the sale price of $8 in the eShop is looking pretty tasty. Although this title is available on all the platforms, according to Zachary Miller, "This Wii U version is arguably the best one".  The lowest reviewed game is the Kickstarted Twisted Fusion which only eked out a 5 from NWR. If you want to try-before-you-buy then get some free demos for 3Souls, Blasting Agent: Ultimate Edition, Word Logic by POWGI, and SDK Spriter. Mr. Bungle's pick of the week is the Wii U exclusive Scribble. For the low price of $3, you can play your own version of Win, Lose, or Draw (Come on Mr. B, the readers weren't even born when that show was on  ). According to the boys from Talk Nintendo, "Scribble hits all of the marks of a solid multiplayer party game". 



Comments
I welcome any corrections to the information I found when compiling the list. The information here is for the US so let me know about differences in other regions. Not sure what to comment, consider questions like:

• Should you get Severed on Vita, 3DS, or Wii U?
• Who publishes Shooting Range by Thornbury Software?
• How do I duck myself?

[Order.RSS]

Some standouts, and some of the deepest lows.
Severed isn't for everyone, but that's one of my favourite eShop games on the platform. Moody, dour first person dungeon crawler with touch-based combat allowing you to slice enemies to bits. I suspect it's best on 3DS, since then you have both screens closer together, whereas on Wii U you'll need to look up to the TV to see the blown out map (rather than the mini map on the touchpad).

Jotun was often called an isometric Dark Souls game. I can't really make that comparison, but it's a cool, weighty action game with hand drawn animations and tough bossfights. Same team went on to make Sundered, and more recently Spiritfarer.

PSIBO is a stylish mash-up of Breakout, Space Invaders, with some Pinball thrown in. Looks great and minimalistic, thumping soundtrack too. Unfortunately it's also deviously difficult, so the only way I could see most of the levels is to skip to them.

On to the lesser ones:
3Souls is an admirable project, a 2D platformer which got episodic updates, and uses just about every Gamepad gimmick a lot. Blowing in the mic, uses the camera, invisible lasers shown on one screen while you move on the other, etc. Unfortunately the platforming itself is very rigid, which makes the game a chore to play.

Armikrog rocks a great clay animation style, but is an otherwise wholly forgettable point & click adventure. The puzzles repeat a lot, the plot could charitably be described as meandering at best, you have no inventory so have fun writing on a notepad, and it commits the cardinal sin of adventure games: not being funny. One of my least favourite games on the system, it's aggressively boring.

Shadow Archer is not bad, but just kind of limited. It looks like an early NES game, where you walk around a field shooting spiders and ghosts with a bow & arrow to get a high score. At some point you either get hit too often or run out of arrows and die. That's it. It's perfectly functional and very cheap, but I struggle to imagine the audience for this.

[NWR_insanolord]

The only game on this list I've played is Axiom Verge, which is excellent.

[Lemonade]

I havent played any of those, but if I remember correctly, Twisted Fusion was talked about on RFN a bunch a long time ago with Jonny. Maybe even the developer was a guest? I cant remember exactly.

[M.K.Ultra]

I havent played any of those, but if I remember correctly, Twisted Fusion was talked about on RFN a bunch a long time ago with Jonny. Maybe even the developer was a guest? I cant remember exactly.

I know the developer, Lewis Pugh, hosts a podcast called Nintendo Voice. I used to listen and was hoping the game would turn out well, but it appears it had too many technical problems.