Pokopia
Image: Nintendo

Hello everyone, and welcome to this newfangled concept called 'the weekend'. It's a strange one, but we're here for it.

Before we dive into what we're playing, let's see what's been going on this week, hm? First of all, Nintendo joined hundreds of other companies in North America in suing the government for its extensive use of tariffs. The lawsuit has since been paused, but only pending the results of another case from the Court of International Trade.

It was also MAR10 Day, which means we were treated to a small handful of treats, headlined by the announcement of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book's global release date. Mario Wonder - Switch 2 Edition also got a new Overview Trailer, while it was confirmed that new Mario-themed Lego sets will be making their way to stores in 2027.

Finally, it's been announced that Goro Abe, long-time WarioWare director at Nintendo, has left the company in favour of a role at the Osaka Electro-Communication University.

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

I got both Resident Evil Requiem and Planet of Lana II on their home stretch and both are current personal GOTY favourites. One week late Pokémon Pokopia finally showed up and I’m scared on how many hours disappeared on my first play… I might need to take this one on carefully. The rest of the weekend will be spend debating if I should get a new gaming desktop. Things are gonna get really bad out there thanks to this RAM crisis and I want to make sure that I get a future-proof, no compromises work/play environment at home.
Game of the week is Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. While the main branch grind fest of the Monster Hunter series was perfectly fine for a college student life, at this particular point of my professional life I simply can’t take on such activities. Capcom kindly streamlined the whole thing into a more traditional JRPG series, so I consider the “Stories” spin-off much more manageable. Plus, we get new cool amiibo along with it. Add another excellent Capcom game on Switch 2.

Gavin Lane, Editor

Having finally finished up Star Trek: Voyager - Across The Unknown, I'm tempted to start another journey, but I must resist and crack on with something else. Top of the list is Terminator 2D: NO FATE, a hulking great Collector's Edition of which was very kindly sent my way a couple weeks ago courtesy of Reef, a good excuse to finally catch up with it. Elsewhere, the NS2 Edition of Hollow Knight is tempting me to push up my 86% completion stat, and I still need to get back to Skate Story. Love that soundtrack.

All of the above is liable to go by the wayside, however. Following the barnstorming success of Katamari Damacy with my kids, I took a cheeky look at the eShop to see if We Love Katamari was on sale. Turns out I already own it, possibly due to a previous sale. So that's the weekend — and potentially the rest of 2026 — dusted. Have a good one, folks.

Kate Gray, Contributor

Pokopia.

I was not expecting this game to be so fascinating, game-design-wise. You can absolutely see where it's borrowed ideas from other games — the blocks of Minecraft, through the filter of Dragon Quest Builders, of course; the social dynamics of Animal Crossing (and the SFX, too); the tone of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon... but it all comes together in a really clever, original way. That's great game design! Good artists borrow, great artists steal, right? And they be stealin'. But in a really smart way. It makes me want to be more brazen about stealing ideas for my own game design — not in an evil way, but as a collaborative process. We're all just trying to make great games for each other, and we can share that knowledge and creativity with each other to further the medium!

Also it's just a really good dopamine machine. Hence why I haven't slept a whole lot lately.

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

I'm playing a lot of Pokémon Pokopia at the moment, and I'm absolutely loving it. I genuinely think you could make a strong case for this being the best Switch 2 exclusive right now – it's just so polished and engaging.

This apparently didn't offer up enough cosy vibes, however, so I've been playing Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar on the Switch 2. It's so lovely! Like Pokopia, all of its core mechanics feel very polished and pleasantly streamlined, and it's a joy to play.

Alex Olney, Video Producer

It's hard to imagine being able to peel myself away from Pokopia this weekend, but if I do, I'll almost certainly be having another pop at Blue Prince. Frankly, there are too many games these days, Nintendo. Please eliminate three.

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 (14th/15th March)?

You may select up to 5 answers: