 10 eShop games worth buying. You know what this is, it's the series where I dive into the eShop, I play a bunch of games, some good, some crummy. I find the best ones and then I show them to you. And guess what? This is episode 30. 300 eShop games that I have reviewed in this series alone on my channel. And I can't thank you all enough. Everybody that's been watching my channel since I started making these videos back in 2017. Every time I make one of these, I worry it's going to be the last. I worry that's the one that people are going to stop caring about the eShop now, but every time there's some of the best performing videos on my channel, which keeps me making them, which means we keep sharing the love for these beautiful indies on the console to a bunch of people who might have missed them. I can't tell you how much that warms my heart. Not gonna lie, I had something really special planned for this episode, but I'm also an idiot. I thought this was episode 29. Something special is still coming. I've changed gears and I'm gonna do it in its own video instead. In the meantime, we can still celebrate it in the comments down below and by hitting the like button and subscribing. I haven't made one of these videos in about four months, so there was a lot of good games to choose from, but we gotta hear a word from our sponsor, so that's good to have. Be right back. All right, mates. We're doing a little bit of cooking today. We got HelloFresh. We got cheesy marinara turkey patties. You might be wondering how I managed to play and review all these video games. Well, that's because I save so much time in the kitchen with these fresh ingredients delivered straight to my doors, making my meal times super easy. I didn't have to go grocery shopping for any of this. It just is here now. With the cost of grocery skyrocketing, HelloFresh is cheaper than ever and it's 70% cheaper than eating out of the restaurant. HelloFresh has 40 weekly recipes to choose from. The reason why Kim and I love HelloFresh so much is because it teaches us how to cook. Every week we can go on the app and we can look at all the delicious meals. They have like over 40 options and we can pick the ones we want to eat for the following week and then they just show up. All right, I got my meat cooking. I got my couscous, my veggies. Look at this. Look at this. Look at that guy. Please go to HelloFresh.com and use code beatemup60 to get 60% off and free shipping. Why is it trying to jump out at me? Look at that. Look what I did. And if you want to do the same thing, all you got to do is go to HelloFresh.com and use code beatemup60 to get 60% off plus free shipping. And you really should do it now because this is burning my hand. Do it. I'm not putting this down until you do it. I know it's actually really burning my hand. Thank you. Back on with the video although I'm going to eat first. You know how in romcoms when the charming protagonist just takes your breath away at first sight? Looking at you Ashton Kutcher. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, well, Pradeus is the kick-ass, heart-pounding, first-person shooter version of that. This is Ashton Kutcher if he had a gun. I decided to play it on Twitch one night and both me and my chat were blown away. Yo, that's actually sick. That feels great. This is absolutely a banger. Yo, I really, really like this game. Pradeus is described as a first-person shooter of old, reimagined using modern rendering techniques. Essentially, it's old-school doom or quake, but better than ever. Stacked full with dynamic lighting and particle effects, complex levels, fast-paced combat using loads of different weapons, secrets hidden all over, and to top it all off, a rock and roll soundtrack. Did I just say rock and roll? It is Episode 30. I am getting old. A sick rock metal soundtrack composed by Andrew Herschalt who recently worked on Doom Eternal's music. If you've ever played Doom or Quake, you know what you're in for here. Reach the end of each level while turning everything in your path to mulch and paste. The controls are tight and responsive. It's a joy to play, especially in the larger, more overwhelming battles, but it's the sounds and music that really shine for me here. Every reload animation is heightened by the satisfying clicks and clunks of the weapon. Each shot sounds as devastating as they clearly are, and when that soundtrack picks up in the heat of the moment, I honestly hope the waves of enemies never end because I want to finish the whole song, god damn it. Good game. Do you guys ever do this where like you watch something really scary on TV? Kim and I do this all the time. We watch something scary and then like we can't go to bed right away, so we have to watch something nice and pleasant to kind of purge that out and do a little refresh or reset. Like, I don't know, watching The Nanny. You seen that show? Fran Drescher? It's a good show. Well, after the doom and gloom of Proteus, that's exactly what we're doing right now by buying a one-way ticket to Railbound. Immediately this game reminded me of Mini Motorways, which we took a look at in the last eShop video. You know the one that I thought was Episode 28? Railbound caught my eye with its charming art style and delightful animations. Then the brain teasing gameplay got me hooked as coincidentally both Kim and I stayed up late at night trying to solve the harder puzzles together. I thought I'd say something funny, but I didn't. Unlike in Mini Motorways, where you have complete freedom to build roads wherever you want haphazardly, Railbound challenges you to get each of these carriages to the train in their numbered order. There may be multiple ways to solve each level, but as you progress it gets harder and harder, with some bonus levels only having one way to solve the riddle. And it taking me literally half an hour or more to figure out, leaving me truly feeling like an idiot stinky diaper baby moron man. Thankfully, most of the hardest levels like that are just optional, with the game being pretty short without completing them. It's a simple, light, and relaxing puzzle game with no cutscenes, load screens, or story. And it just is cute and fun. Like me. Oh god, cut that. Alright, I'm going to put the switch down for this one. I need both hands to explain to you morons why you should play Persona 3 Portable or Persona 4 Golden if you haven't already. Buckle up, strap in. I've got a lot to say. I've always felt like there are so many people out there that don't think they would like these games, but would love them if they gave them a chance. And I feel like that because that's what happened to this guy. First up, if you're all confused about where to start, because there's like five Personas and then you've got Shin Megami, Shinmi, Shinmi, Gemai, you can't even pronounce that. I know you can't, you little idiot. Like, where do I start? Where do I begin this journey? First up, forget Shinmi, Gemai, Tensai. You can't even pronounce it. Why would you play it? Second, the Persona games are like Final Fantasy games. You don't have to play every single one. You love Final Fantasy 7, right? You do? Okay. Well, have you played 4, 8, 13? No? See? Nobody cares. Thirdly, all we really have to worry about right now is Persona 3, 4, and 5. Next, each of those three games has a special bonus edition that released after the original release that added extra content in. Whole new characters, often playable characters as well as NPCs that you can talk to and build relationships with. Extra dungeons and a ton of more post-game content. So if your question is should I have played Persona 4 or Persona 4 Golden, do you want to play the one that's probably only going to be 80 hours rather than 120 hours? You'll want the one with more content. They usually feel more finished. The last thing I'll say, just play Persona 5 Royal. It's the best one. I'm playing through Royal right now and it's just amazing. So start there. However, that has a physical and we're not talking about that today. So forget that one. We're going back to 3 and 4 and why you should play these on Switch. All these Persona games I'm talking about are JRPGs that feature both turn-based battles, Pokemon-esque catching mechanics, and life sim elements. You spend each day in an in-game day and night cycle where you manage your relationships, high school grades, part-time jobs. All of that alongside exploring surreal other worldly places, battling creatures who you can either defeat or capture to join your team. The stories in these games are often really dark following unsettling events and exploring the inner psyche of the human mind while somehow still being super goofy and filled with really fun activities and things to do in your downtime. The soundtracks are always straight fire and the anime cutscenes heighten the storytelling in such a cool way. Every element to these games are fully fleshed out and expanded on so it's really rewarding to explore every corner it has to offer. Persona 4 Golden though is just sick. Alright, it's the best version of the game. It was my favorite JRPG for a long time and now I think Persona 5 might be passing it. Alright, that was a lot of Persona. I love Persona. I could say a lot more. I feel bad that I haven't said a lot more, but we gotta move on. So, play Persona. As a little kid, we all pretended to be the hero and protagonist of our own made-up stories and adventures. For me, I wanted to be just like my iconic hero Link, wielding a sword and shield and off-seeking adventure. Well, you know who else had that same dream? This little tiny Gator right here. This little guy. The only difference between me and this guy is that I'm not an alligator. Little Gator wants to be a hero. All the way down to the silly pointy hat. There are many references to Zelda in this game, which I of course loved. But Little Gator is anything but a Zelda game. You play as this small wonky legged fella exploring bright colorful islands defeating cardboard cutouts of monsters and making as many friends as possible. It's so cute. It's a very casual game, only a few hours long and you're encouraged to take the game at your own pace. Going wherever you like, climbing all over everything and helping out characters around the world. It all comes together way more fun than it might sound on paper. It's sort of a heartwarming, peaceful fun, but the abilities like ragdolling and shield surfing, it often becomes a lot more laugh out loud fun. The music is relaxing, the riding is charming and you'll be struggling not to smile like a crocodile every time you play this game. Again, it's an alligator, not a crocodile, but alligator doesn't rhyme with a smile. Rogue-like games have been around since the late 70s, if you can believe that. And while they are so commonplace now, 10 years ago, not so much. And Rogue Legacy was one of the first to start redefining and streamlining the concepts of what makes a rogue-like great. Now, all these years later, we get treated to Rogue-like 2. Rogue Legacy 2, I meant to say Rogue Legacy 2, sorry, scratch that. I honestly think this is one of the hardest rogue-lites I have ever played. With my first 30 minutes of gameplay, seeing over a dozen deaths. Most similarly compared to Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy has procedurally generated dungeons and Metroidvania elements. In the first game, we only had a Knight character equipped with a sword and shield, but this time around, we got a Ranger, Barbarian, Mage, even a Chef. And each have their own advantages and disadvantages, but all of them are equally as good at getting me killed. I'm really not good at this one. An interesting addition to this series that I haven't seen done before in this genre is pixel-perfect platforming and movement mechanics. You can get an extra bounce jump off of enemies or things around the environment, as well as utilize and deal with many other hazards and objects around the world as you struggle to stay alive and not be overwhelmed. In other games like Dead Cells, you typically only have to deal with the enemies. In this game, you have everything being thrown at you at once, all the time, everywhere, always, at once. That was a good movie. At the end of each run, it does this cool thing where it shows you your exact path you took and what you killed. Then you can use any gold you found to repair the castle, which will unlock other classes, stores, abilities, upgrades to health or mana, and much more. Also, the art style is quirky, but I like it. It had to take some time to grow on me, but I do really appreciate it now. Maybe it's just been my mental health state over the last couple of months, but more and more, I've been finding myself enjoying relaxing games, like Little Gator or soothing games like Melatonin. Melatonin is a mix of the Warrior Wear series and like a rhythm game. I guess to beat around the bush, it's literally just rhythm heaven. You play as this guy who, after consuming what looks like the world's unhealthiest dinner, passes out and begins having some weird dreams. Each different dream has a different theme and different rhythm games to play, and each having their own fantastic tractor bop along to. You know, there's really not much more to say about this game, and I feel like the more I show you, the more it's just gonna spoil it. The pastel art style is a vibe, there's 20 fun levels and each have a hard mode. I'm still humming some of the tracks from the game, and there's even a level editor if you want to try making your own. So check it out. In the day and age of a thousand video games being released in the day and age of a samurai, it almost seems impossible to find something original in the genre. But Trek to Yumi is absolutely a unique and stunning new way to experience feudal Japan. I originally played this game on my PlayStation 5. I pointed that way because my PlayStation 5 is right there. You don't believe me? I'll show you. Look. I don't know why you don't believe me. It's right there, you see? Because you're a Minzak. It's... What do you mean you don't see it? It's this! When I originally played it on that PlayStation 5, I was blown away by the gritty black and white visuals and intense swordplay. It's a fairly linear side scroller, but it has some extra freedom and wiggle room here and there, even leading to different paths and hidden areas. While the gameplay may first appear to be a hack and slash-like style game, it's actually anything but. Careful timing, blocking and parries are all crucial to the combat, so too is learning the enemy attack patterns. Think something similar to the harder fights in Ghost of Tsushima just set on a 2D plane. But even then, you still have a stamina bar to worry about, so you really do need to pick and choose your offensive and defensive moves carefully. Thanks to this daunting art style, all of the fights in the game appear far more cinematic than they have any right to, and pulling off a few blocks and parries before landing, killing blows can be super satisfying. This blood-filled samurai John Wick adventure is about five hours long and double that if you want to try and 100% it. So I would say for 20 bucks, this game is worth its price. That's why we're here. You know, games worth buying, worth their price, that's the whole thing. Throughout my break in January, out of all the games I played, it was inscription that left the biggest impression on me, and I've been dying to talk about it. I'm not intended. I love card games, and my first thought going into this one is that I was about to experience another rogue-like card game, and I was excited to discover new mechanics and build the best deck possible and get addicted to it. But very quickly, I realized things were not as they seem. It started when I noticed that one of my cards seemed like it was trying to communicate with me. The words on the card were calling out for help, and on further inspection, I realized it was indeed sentient and wanted to help me plot a scheme to escape the hostage situation we were both apparently trapped in. You see, I wasn't allowed to leave this room or the game. Neither were the cards. This is when it began to sink in, things like the points I earned for winning battles were given to me as human teeth, and I was allowed to tilt the scales in my fever if I offered up my own teeth or even my body parts. Every defeat just meant we reshuffled and had to start again. That's when our capture asked me to grab something from the other side of the room, and it's here where I found many clues and objects scattered about. With no way out of this room, I was forced to keep playing in hopes of finding a way out. Through all the craziness that happens, there is legitimately a really fun card game in here too. In fact, at times I wish some of the craziness would slow down so that I could just enjoy the card game. I debated putting this Konami game on the list, well mostly because I suck at it, but for only one dollar, you'd have a hard time arguing this isn't worth its price, even if it is baseball. It's called Baseball Power Pros, and it actually has an impressive amount going for it. From competitive online tournaments and battles complete with a ranking system, character customization, offline versus modes, I was surprised to even find messages when I logged in talking about in-game tournaments and bug fixes. This game's still getting continued support for only a dollar. It's a pretty simple to play, but really hard to master kind of game, or, you know, hard to be good at, at all in my case. I tried a few online games and got absolutely destroyed. I mean, I couldn't hit a ball, and they would just keep striking on me over and over and over. It was humiliating, but I could tell it's because I'm just, you know, bad at it. I tried to escape to the safety of offline modes, but good lord, I guess I just don't understand baseball. But it is actually a good little baseball game, and I'm legitimately shocked it's only a dollar. I can't remember the last time we had a game on these lists that were worth it. For a dollar. Uh, Zach, for this, for this next one, I need the music here. I need the music to start coming in right now. Like, just bring the music up so you can't even hear me talking. Stop it. God, I love this game. Take a look at this. All right. Now, stop. Now, shut up. Buckle on in again, because it's story time with wood, baby. I'm about to explain some stuff to you. I don't need, I don't need you talking back, all right? First up, Metroid Prime Remake. Just shadow dropped on the switch. Out of nowhere. Second, yes, I said remake because that's what it is. I'm not trying to spark a heated debate about what makes a remaster or what makes a remake. I don't care about any of that, and I usually don't even engage in the conversation because it's stupid and I have a wife. But this is a remake, and I need you to know it. If you hear a GameCube game is getting remastered for the switch, you think, oh, it's getting upscale to 1080p, and that's the remaster. If you think that's what this is, oh, you are wrong. The team at Retro Studios completely remade every asset, graphic, visual effect, and more from the ground up to bring us a one for one remake of the original classic. Even comparisons online show just how different these two releases actually are. With additional details and assets added in to improve the overall look, the lighting being completely reworked and so much better. From the moment you land on Talon, it's so breathtakingly beautiful. In fact, it's probably one of the best looking switch games we have on the console to date. And that is the respect that this game deserves, because if you're going to ask me, is this worth $40, I'll tell you. Boy, oh, I'm surprised it wasn't 60, and I would have paid that. My buddy Bob and I, over on the Nintendo podcast, even did some deep diving research and found a thread about the development of this game. And sure enough, it was intended to be a one for one remake with the team using all the original animations and meshing because, and I quote, we don't want to mess with perfection. I feel like I actually haven't even talked about the game yet, so how about I do that? Metroid Prime is still my favorite of all the Metroid games, both 2D and 3D. It really took that 2D Metroidvania concept and perfectly presented it in 3D, with a giant expansive world to explore, loads of hidden secrets and areas, upgrades and abilities stashed behind every corner, and huge boss fights to acquire even more that allow you to explore more of the map than you could before. My only complaint is the same complaint I had back in the day, and that's backtracking. I feel like a nice new addition to this now in 2023 could have been adding in fast travel between the save points, but that aside, it's well worth the $40 price. And especially so now that it has a physical, and yes, I know my role that all these games on my eShop videos have to be digital only, but when I started writing this video it was digital only and it was for like three weeks, it's not my fault that I write slow and I didn't have time to finish the video. Also, I would have put it in here anyway because I don't know where else I would have got to gush about this game. I hope they do the second one next, but I like the first one more. And that is not only 10 eShop games worth buying, but 300 eShop games worth buying. I got chills saying that actually. It really does mean a lot to me, you know, and while I was saying that just then I couldn't help but think about the fact that it's just been me on my Switch playing games, finding ones I like, writing about why I like them, and then making a little video for you guys. I have editing now. Zach helps me put the editing together and does an amazing job and has probably made half of these damn things for me. At the start it was just me, now Zach's helping edit, but as far as the creative process goes, just me in a camera playing some Switch games and you know, channel with one and a half million subs and several hundred thousand people watching me talk about the games that I like, but also they're indie games, small teams of people. Some of these games were made by the same amount of people that make these videos. God, I'm getting really sentimental, I don't know why. And we've done 30 of them now and 300 and it's a huge milestone and I'm going to keep going, you know. I don't know for how long on these series, but as long as you keep watching them, I'll keep making them. They mean so much to me. They really do. I appreciate you guys. Thank you for watching them. I love you all and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.