Casette Beasts
Image: Raw Fury

Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.

For a slightly quieter one, this week was packed full of highlights here on Nintendo Life. The August Pokémon Presents happened and it will undoubtedly go down as one of the showcases of all time — but we did get a release date for the Scarlet and Violet DLC and two new NSO games, which is good. Quake II finally came to Switch after rumours a-plenty and we even got the surprise announcement that Red Dead Redemption would be coming to Nintendo's little console — who would'a thunk it?

Elsewhere we penned a love letter to one of Tears of the Kingdom's late-game areas, celebrated Dead Cells' five-year anniversary and had a little giggle at the newly-released Pokémon Center Wiglett plush.

As for reviews, we took to the gridiron in Legend Bowl, which we found to show potential but it's in need of some TLC and we also went for some monster-catching combat with Adore which is a lot of fun but let down by its Switch performance.

Now we're ready to chill out with a bit of gaming. Have a read through what some of our wonderful team are up to and then let us know your plans in the comments.

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

So I'll be continuing my playthrough of Luigi's Mansion 3 this weekend. I'm making good progress on it, but I'm taking my time. I love it so much - it's comfortably the best in the series, and it does honestly make me question why Nintendo would bother bringing the second entry to Switch when a superior option is right there, ready and waiting.

Over on the PS5, I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption 2, buying myself some pretty hats, eating tins of beans, the usual. For a PS4 game, it really is an almost overwhelmingly engrossing experience; one that not even some PS5 games can match at this stage. Good on you, Rockstar.

Jim Norman, Staff Writer

Predictable as ever, I have finally come back to Tears of the Kingdom. I beat the main story in the first few weeks so now, after some much-needed time away from the game, I am finally getting around to the other 99% of the tasks that I am yet to complete. That being said, I've hardly crossed anything off my list so far. I'm just having the best time strolling around, visiting any Sky Islands that I was yet to explore, and lighting up more areas of the Depths as I dive down to search for armour.

God, I'm going to be playing this game forever, aren't I?

Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor

I’ve finally started my long-awaited playthrough of Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. The problem is, playing this in the evenings means that I often go to bed with about a thousand thoughts in my head. This is going to be another wild ride, I can tell.

Otherwise, I’m playing Cassette Beasts on and off and really enjoying it so far, and as if I need more on my plate, the Free Login Campaign for Final Fantasy XIV is back so I’ve returned to Eorzea temporarily. The grind never ends…

Enjoy your weekends, folks!

Craig Reid, Video Producer - Pure Xbox

Will you look at that? It’s the weekend once again! You know what sounds like a good way to spend my time away from work? Gaming - I know, shocker. Normally the weekend is reserved for those couch potato moments, controller in hand, snacks and beverages at the ready. Not this time, no. This weekend I’ll be (metaphorically) binning the snacks and pounding some of those sweat-inducing workouts Ring Fit Adventure has to offer. That’s right! I’m going to get absolutely shredded in just two days. You’ll see, mom and dad! I’ll be as thicc as a rehydrated Ganondorf

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

Still having ridiculous amounts of fun with GigaBash, it just never gets old if you’re a Power Stone/Kaiju fan. There is also a great reason why the surprise Arcade Archives Mad Shark release plays a lot like a long-lost Raiden sequel: It was developed by ex-Seibu Kaihatsu staff and it shows, it's a scorcher! Some more PSP action this week with the jump to Ace Combat: Joint Assault (which has nothing to do with natural herbs) and the extremely underrated gem Gladiator Begins. This thing needs a remake/reboot/re-release on Switch.

Mandatory game of the week is Quake II! While Quakeworld was all the rage back in the day, I and most of my mates only had dial-up modems by the time of its popularity peak. But when Quake II hit retail we all had cable and 3D accelerators on our pentium PCs so this was a huge part of my youth playing it online night after night. To see this new version with a huge new campaign plus the Quake II 64 campaign throw-in at this insanely low price is simply irresistible. Sorry Splatoon 3, you’re out, Q2 is back in baby! Pass the Railgun, please.

Do your weekend gaming plans match any of ours? Drop the game that you will be maining in the poll below and then take to the comments to let us know what else you have on the cards.

What are you playing this weekend (12th/13th August)?