Phobia Game Studios has announced they will release their reverse-horror game, Carrion, for the Nintendo Switch.
As an indirect sequel to Phobia’s previous side-scroller, Butcher, Carrion puts you in control of a monstrous tentacle monster set loose in a vast industrial complex. The struggle is less about overcoming your fears and fighting through seemingly unbeatable odds than it is a sort of power fantasy where you stalk, maim, and consume those who imprisoned you.
As you may have guessed, there’s no shortage of gore in Carrion, which seems to rival the Doom franchise in terms of violence. One journalist described it as “delightful and disgusting” after playing the demo at E3 2019, remarking on the juxtaposition of thrill and revulsion your actions in the game invoke.
There isn’t an official launch date for the game yet, but a digital release is planned for sometime during the summer of 2020. In addition to the Nintendo Switch, it will also be available on the Xbox One and PC. It’s unknown when and if Carrion will make its way to PlayStation, and whether it would be for the PS4 or 5.
However, the publisher of Carrion, Devolver Digital, has published games on PlayStation in the past. Those games include Enter the Gungeon, My Friend Pedro, Hotline Miami, and its sequel. With the recent hype over the PlayStation 5 reveal, there’s a chance Devolver Digital may consider working with Sony to release Carrion on that console as well.
Otherwise, the decision to release on the Nintendo Switch is a welcome one, albeit somewhat surprising given Nintendo’s reputation. Nintendo is generally associated with family-friendly and adventure games, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With the console’s popularity, though, there’s no limit to the amount of third-party ports that don’t exactly fit Nintendo’s branding.
The addition of Carrion to the Switch’s library is a welcome one for fans of the horror genre, as it’s library is currently a bit lacking compared to competitors. Carrion is not a very graphically demanding title, so it should run without a hitch when it eventually releases on the portable console.
