Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle
Image: Arc System Works

The weekend is finally upon us, so it's time for another edition of What Are You Playing!

We thought that things might slow down a little after last week's Galaxy Movie extravaganza, but nooo. We got a new Pokémon game in the shape of Pokémon Champions (complete with bugs and unusual resolution quirks), a trio of new titles arrived on Nintendo Switch Online's NES library, and Nintendo finally lifted the lid on Rhythm Heaven Groove's Switch release date.

For reviews, we shared our thoughts on Beyond Words, Easy Delivery Co. and the aforementioned Pokémon Champions.

So, let's see what everyone's up to this weekend, shall we?

Gavin Lane, Editor

After gliding through Abzu this week, I hit the eShop and picked up Arkham Knight, Catherine: Full Body, and Pentiment on sale. Backlog be damned!

The spring sunshine in my part of the world is forecast to turn to showers, and Abzu put me in the mind of ThatGameCompany's Flower, so I might fire up the PlayStation and show that to the kids. We've been getting in the mood for Rhythm Heaven Groove in recent weeks, too, and there's a high probability we'll play more Fever along with Wii Sports (golf is the current favourite).

Throw in the customary K.K. Slider visit, and that's plenty for the weekend, although with the recent passing of Yoshihisa Kishimoto, I plan to pay respects with some Double Dragon and Kunio-kun, too. Have a good one, folks.

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

Switching the on-foot and Landmaster control options to dual stick and un-reversing the Y-axis, you can clearly tell that Star Fox: Assault got a bad rep two decades ago that it did not deserve. I shall be wrapping up my recent replay of the tile and am considering picking up a Japanese copy for the superior voice acting. I am also trying to get into One Piece, so I am playing Shonen Jump’s GBA One Piece and will boot up Gamecube’s Battle Stadium D.O.N to give the pirate character selection a go. While on the subject of fighting games, I will spend some of the weekend learning unfamiliar character move sets in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage. Shout-out to Hamster for putting in this week’s Console Archives one of my favourite Nichibutsu’s arcade home ports: Seicross! Please check it out if you’re unfamiliar with this underrated gem.

My game(s) of the week is Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle. It was an honour to review this collection for Nintendo Life back in the day, and as you might assume correctly, I am replaying these fabulous Kunio games because of the unexpected passing of series creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto earlier this month. In my youth, his games allowed me to grow up in the safety of the pixelated dangerous streets that kept me away from the real-world ones. One last "Barf!" for the father of belt-action games. ありがとう、岸本さん。

Kate Gray, Contributor

This weekend, same as last weekend: Pokopia and Slay the Spire 2. I'm really glad I broke my "no Early Access games" rule, because STS2 definitely still needs polish and balance in places, but I'm enjoying seeing how it develops, as one of the insane 300+ hour players of the first game. Also, the placeholder art is amazingly bad. I had most of my cards set to "beta art" in the first game, which is a feature that I think you unlock after playing for way too long, that replaces all the card art with the placeholder sketches or fan-made art. In many cases, I prefer the placeholder sketches! They're cute and silly and dreadful! Yay!!!

Jim Norman, Features Editor

I think I am finally approaching the end of Pokémon Pokopia. Well, I say "end" — all of my areas are still a mess and I still have big renovation plans — but I really mean "credits". There are still many, many hours to go, of course, but I might take the 'end of the chapter' pause to finally hit up the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream demo before its full launch next week.

In short, a weekend full of silly little guys for this silly little guy.


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!

What are you playing this weekend (11th / 12th Apr)?

You may select up to 5 answers: