New Releases highlights the top new game releases coming soon, and two of this week’s picks were only just announced: Picross S4 and XCOM: Chimera Squad. Meanwhile, ’80s movie buffs can get their nostalgia fix with Predator: Hunting Grounds, and ’90s RPG players can revisit Trials of Mana. Nintendo Switch also gets its own port of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto.
Picross S4 — April 23
Available on: Switch
The latest in the nonogram series has nearly 500 puzzles to solve across standard, Mega, Color, and Clip Modes. What’s more, you can unlock giant bonus puzzles if you link your saves from Picross S, S2, or S3–one for each game, to be exact. Sadly, the series still doesn’t offer touchscreen controls, though.
XCOM: Chimera Squad — April 24
Available on: PC
Chimera Squad is a spin-off of XCOM 2, and it changes up the formula in several ways. For one, your squad includes human and alien soldiers thanks to a new alliance. Those squad members are discrete characters with unique abilities, and they each get their own turn in combat, rather than a macro-phase for you and the enemy’s full team. Perhaps the biggest change, however, is the removal of permadeath: if a soldier bleeds out, you can simply restart a mission. It’ll cost just $10 / £9 on launch day, but beware that the price jumps up on May 1.
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Predator: Hunting Grounds — April 24
Available on: PS4, PC
XCOM isn’t the only alien adventure coming this week. Hunting Grounds pits four player-controlled soldiers against a lone Predator player. They can choose to hunt the fireteam as a Scout, Hunter, or Berserker Predator, each with their own abilities and alien weapons. The soldiers also have their own classes and loadouts, which they’ll need if they hope to complete their objectives and survive in the jungle.
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Trials of Mana — April 24
Available on: PS4, PC, Switch
The original Trials of Mana first launched in 1995, but it never came to the West until recently. While the action-RPG has been fully recreated in 3D, you’ll still carry out battles in real time in the field. Trials features six characters, each with their own stories that weave together. You form a party of three at the start, so you’ll have to replay the adventure to see all parts of the story.
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Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 – Road to Boruto — April 24
Available on: Switch
As the name implies, this arena fighter stars Naruto’s son and a new generation of ninjas. On top of all those new characters, Road to Boruto also includes all the previously released DLC packs. Switch is getting the complete package that previously launched for other consoles.
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Unfortunately, this episode of New Releases doesn’t have anything for Xbox One owners, but that won’t be the case next week. We’ll be digging into the Xbox One and PC launch of Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered, plus the return of the COG soldiers with Gears Tactics.
