This week, expect People Can Fly’s Outriders to arrive in the co-op RPG shooter space. Before that, there’s a retro platformer set in a digital world and a base-building sim sequel where you play as a James Bond-style villain.
Narita Boy
A retro-inspired platformer with hand-drawn animations and pixel art, Narita Boy is set inside a best-selling 80s game called, well, Narita Boy. As the Steam page explains, “Inside the binary code, the digital realm connects with reality. Him has returned and deleted The Creator’s memories. Supervisor program, Motherboard, and her agents have activated the Narita Boy protocol”.
Thus, players will have to venture across the Digital Kingdom to learn about the secrets of a weapon called the Techno-sword and battle enemies called Stallions. There will also be bosses with names like Crab, DragonBot, and Black Rainbow, as well as synth music to accompany you on your journey. Narita Boy will be released on March 30 for Steam, PS4, Xbox ONE, and Switch.
Evil Genius 2: World Domination
A sequel to 2004’s Evil Genius, Evil Genius 2: World Domination will let players be a James Bond-style villain who is trying to build their evil base and conquer the world, with four campaigns, each with their own villain, to play through. Players will get to design the interior layout of their base after picking one of the three island locations and creating specialists and devices to support their workforce of minions, as well as preparing traps like the Pinball Bumper and Venus Spy-Trap for the good guys.
The world domination part of the game will involve sending your goons on missions to expand influence, expanding your criminal network, stealing loot, and trying to build a Doomsday Device. There are also an assortment of dastardly objectives to go for. “Carry out evil schemes to further your plot to build a Doomsday Device and dominate the world! Sell the British Royal Family, Kidnap the Governor of Maine, and literally BAKE ALASKA. With hundreds of potential objectives, variety is the spice of strife,” says the Steam page.
Evil Genius 2: World Domination will be released on Steam on March 30.
Outriders
After Destiny, The Division, and Anthem, we’re getting yet another co-op RPG shooter in the form of Outriders. Set on the planet Enoch, the third-person game will see up to three players traversing the world in search of a signal, with environments including slums, shanty towns, forests, mountains and deserts.
There are four classes, which are the assassin-like Trickster, fiery Pyromancer, close-range Devastator, and long-range Technomancer, and each has their own traits, skills, and class tree. There will also be mods that can boost armour, weapons, and skills, as well as loot to farm. The game promises a combination of “frenetic gunplay, violent powers and deep RPG systems to create a true genre hybrid”.
Outriders will be released on April 1 for PC (Steam and EGS), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia.
