{"id":131656,"date":"2023-02-05T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-144415"},"modified":"2023-02-05T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T16:00:00","slug":"feature-nintendo-eshop-selects-january-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/02\/05\/feature-nintendo-eshop-selects-january-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Nintendo eShop Selects – January 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
\"Nintendo<\/a>
Image: Nintendo Life<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thank goodness January is over, hey? It always feels like it’s twice as long as it actually is, and it doesn’t help that it’s cold and<\/em> a little quieter on the gaming front. So it’s time to dig deep and take a look back at last month for our monthly eShop Selects picks!<\/p>\n

In New Year’s traditions, we’re breaking our resolution already<\/em> and letting some of those interesting 7\/10s sneak into the vote this time around. Other than Fire Emblem Engage<\/a>, there weren’t too many headliners for the Switch, but there are plenty of little (and big) curios ready to download.<\/p>\n

Let’s not hang about then. We’ll get started with our honourable mentions for January 2023!<\/p>\n

Honourable Mentions<\/h3>\n

There was one clear<\/em> winner this month, but every game eligible this month got at least one vote, so you can’t go wrong with these highlights \u2014 even with their flaws!<\/p>\n

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\"Vengeful<\/div>\n

\"Vengeful<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Publisher: <\/span>The Arcade Crew<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>JoyMasher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>12th Jan 2023 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ 12th Jan 2023 (UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We’ve definitely got a bit of a weakness here for retro-style platformers, and so does JoyMasher, the developer of the excellent Contra-inspired Blazing Chrome<\/a>. The team has followed this up with another banger in Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider<\/a>, which puts you in the shoes of a cybernetic ninja rebelling against its totalitarian creators.<\/p>\n

It looks like something straight out of the SNES and Mega Drive era, and it’s clearly inspired by Shinobi III<\/a>, Strider<\/a>, and Mega Man<\/a>. Oozing with slick neo-retro style, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider embraces the quick precision platforming and sword-slashing of some of our favourite games with aplomb. It helps that it isn’t super<\/em> difficult either, meaning we’ve gone back for a few more rounds just to soak in the nostalgia.<\/p>\n

We gave JoyMasher’s excellent retro platformer a 9\/10<\/a>, so go and check out our review to see why you should pick this one up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"A<\/div>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

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Publisher: <\/span>Chorus Worldwide Games<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Mojiken Studio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>19th Jan 2023 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ 19th Jan 2023 (UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Stunning pixel art is par the course on these kinds of lists, but A Space for the Unbound<\/a> is in another league with its unique visuals and gorgeous backdrops. It’s also a coming-of-age story set in ’90s Indonesia, with a magical twist.<\/p>\n

You’ll start playing Mojiken’s gorgeous adventure game thinking it’s going in one direction, and it’ll sweep the rug out from under your feet multiple times. It’s heartfelt, honest, and a beautiful examination of depression, growing up, and all of the pain that life brings as a teenager. It’s otherworldly. Oh, and you can pet and name every single cat in the game \u2014 what’s not to love?<\/p>\n

A Space for the Unbound got an 8\/10<\/a> in our review, which we wrote while holding back tears. It’s bound to make you cry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Persona<\/div>\n

\"Persona<\/a><\/p>\n

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Publisher: <\/span>Atlus<\/strong> \/ Developer: <\/span>Atlus Persona Team<\/strong><\/p>\n

Release Date: <\/span>19th Jan 2023 (USA<\/abbr>)<\/strong> \/ 19th Jan 2023 (UK\/EU<\/abbr>)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It should be no surprise to see Persona 4 Golden<\/a> at the top of January’s list, and there’s a good reason. Persona 5<\/a> may<\/em> have the game to really explode, but critics were lauding Persona 4 Golden on PS Vita back when it first launched in 2012.<\/p>\n

So what’s the fuss? Well, it’s a fantastically-written RPG set in the sleepy Japanese town of Inaba where a murderer is running lose and shoving victims into TVs via the ‘Midnight Channel’, a strange otherworld where demons lurk. As the protagonist, you and your school friends will need to catch the murderer while juggling school life, social life, and Persona-wielding powers. Persona 4 Golden refines many of the features that Persona 3 introduced to the series, and with a stellar story and wonderful characters to bond with, there’s no surprise this RPG is considered one of the best.<\/p>\n

Every single staff member voted for Persona 4 Golden, making it January’s best eShop title in NL’s eyes. If you need more convincing, our 9\/10<\/a> review should help there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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< Nintendo eShop Selects – December 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

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What was your favourite eShop game last month? (194 votes)<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Persona 4 Golden (Switch eShop)<\/strong>54<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. A Space for the Unbound (Switch eShop)<\/strong>7<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider (Switch eShop)<\/strong>10<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Breakers Collection (Switch eShop)<\/strong>1<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The Excavation Of Hob’s Barrow (Switch eShop)<\/strong>3<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Lone Ruin (Switch eShop)<\/strong> <\/span> 0%<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Onion Assault (Switch eShop)<\/strong>3<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Persona 3 Portable (Switch eShop)<\/strong>13<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Something else (comment below)<\/strong>9<\/span>%<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    How we decide our eShop Selects top three:<\/strong> As we reach the end of every month, the Nintendo Life staff vote on their favourite titles from a list of games selected by the editorial team. To qualify for this list, these games must have been released as a digital-only Nintendo Switch eShop title in that particular month, and must have been reviewed on Nintendo Life; we select the qualifying games based on their review scores.<\/p>\n

    Staff are then asked to vote for three games that they think deserve to sit right at the very top of that list; first choice gets 3 points, second choice gets 2 points, and third choice gets 1 point. These votes are then tallied to create a top-three list, with the overall winner taking that month’s top prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Image: Nintendo Life Thank goodness January is over, hey? It always feels like it’s twice as long as it actually is, and it doesn’t help that it’s cold and a little quieter on the gaming front. So it’s time to dig deep and take a look back at last month for our monthly eShop Selects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}