Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (25th April)

It has been quite the week for Nintendo news, eh?

Things kicked off with a sneaky look at Zelda Movie’s Link (or is it?), then the floodgates opened on Splatoon Raiders news, as we got a release date, price reveal, and a first look at three new amiibo. It was Yoshi’s turn after that, as we shared our hands-on thoughts of The Mysterious Book and checked out the new overview trailer, then, to cap it all off, the Mario Galaxy continued to take the box office by storm.

As if all that wasn’t enough, we shared our reviews of Vampire Crawlers (8/10), ZPF (6/10), Ys Memoire: Revelations in Celceta (7/10), GRIDbeat! (8/10), and Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition (7/10).

Will we Nintendo Lifers be playing any of the above this weekend? Let’s find out…

Jim Norman, Features Editor

I have been dying for an excuse to play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes ever since I missed it a couple of years back, and the new Switch 2 Edition is calling my name. I only just put my notebook away after wrapping up Blue Prince, but I guess it’s time to get it back out again.

Otherwise, I’ve got something secret and exciting on the back burner that you’ll hear more about next week. Oh, the mystery!

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

I am still on the fence about the Neo Geo AES+ and will continue to revisit some of the SNK games I already picked up over the years. Did I ever mention I played every single Metal Slug game multiple times to get screenshots for Bitmap Books? I got such an overdose of the game that I still can’t quite get back into the series, but hopefully that will clear when the new game shows up. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream must be really amazing, but I am still not “living the dream” because my copy has not shown up at the time of writing… fingers crossed it still happens before Monday. I am on the home stretch of GBA’s Shonen Jump’s One Piece, same for Star Fox 64 hard routes.

My game of the week is Pragmata. I reckon I am halfway into this moon ordeal, and it is quite amazing how Capcom put so many intricate, “human” details on Diana’s character. Truly, we are being spoiled for choice on Switch 2.

Gavin Lane, Editor

Having jogged through the brilliant Thank Goodness You’re Here! this week, I’m excited to put some more hours into Pentiment while resisting tapping that Pragmata icon on my homescreen. I’m also diligently avoiding Vampire Crawlers because no, absolutely not. Thou shalt not have me again, fiend!

I’ve had Shenmue III on my mind recently, too. Several years ago I abandoned poor Ryo in Hong Kong near the start of the second game after polishing off the first. Is now the time to dust off the Dreamcast and crack on before the Enhanced third entry lands on Switch 2? Could my old console handle it? Powered on, it already sounds like a leaf blower, but perhaps wheezing its way through Shenmue II is a fitting way to go out. We’ll see! *eyes Vampire Crawlers

Mai Ladyman, Video Producer

I’ve had some time to catch up on some Pokopia lately because I am ashamed to say that I’ve not finished it…..yet. My aim this weekend is to finish it so I can finally get some work done on my different towns and also my Cloud island with my pal who recently got herself a Switch 2. Aside from being a flailing Ditto, I have an itch to return to Yoshi’s Story! Since chatting with Jim about Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, I have a craving for an old favourite of mine. I do love me some Yoshi.

Kate Gray, Contributor

I’ve been playing Tomodachi Life and Pokopia and Slay the Spire 2, but I’ve reached a point with all of them where I’m thinking “hmm… what now?”

I had a nice chat with a man at a games shop and he recommended trying out some AAA-type games on Switch 2, a thing I was absolutely not going to do because the last time I played one of those on a Nintendo console, it was the Wii U, a console that was perfectly designed to make those games look like garbage. But apparently the new Resi runs pretty nicely? And Final Fantasy VII? And I REALLY don’t want to buy a PS5, so… maybe that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend on the Switch 2!

Ollie Reynolds, Reviews Editor

I’m probably going to spend the next couple of days hopping between Alien: Rogue Incursion, Pragmata, and the newly-released demo for Bubsy 4D. I briefly tried the latter recently and, yeah, Fabraz doesn’t disappoint. The way you can string together different moves to navigate the environment is excellent.
Pragmata is proving to be a good time, but I must admit, it hasn’t quite kept my attention as much as I thought it would. Nothing against the game, I just haven’t had enough time to really absorb myself in the experience. Hopefully I can remedy that this weekend.

Those are our plans for the coming weekend. Now it’s your turn to tell us yours, so make sure to get busy with our poll, and let us know all about your weekend gaming plans in the comments!