Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer
I've just finished a playthrough of Still Wakes the Deep on Xbox, and flippin' Nora, it was so enjoyable, I'm kinda tempted to just go right back to the start and do it again!
On the Switch, I've decided to kickstart 2025 with a fresh playthrough of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury; something reasonably lighthearted to keep me busy (and sane while I await the Switch 2 reveal!).
Gavin Lane, Editor
I’ve managed to spend a few hours with Arco so far and it blends mechanics and narrative beautifully - looking forward to playing more. I’ve also been polishing off some of Lorelei’s trickier puzzles - it’s such an intricate game, easily the most impressive thing I played last year.
Beyond that? Oh, the backlogs’s brimming but I picked up Lego Star Wars on sale, so I might dip back into The Phantom Menace with the kids ordering me about. My compulsive collection of shiny studs sucks the fun out of most Lego games, but having the kids there to stop me mindlessly destroying every last plant pot improves the experience immeasurably.
Have a good one, folks.
Jim Norman, Staff Writer
After a holiday break of playing… not all that much, actually, I’m looking forward to spending a bit of time with something chilled this weekend. I’ve been playing through Pokémon Emerald again recently and only have a couple of gyms left before I polish it off. I’m also completely in love with Duck Detective: The Secret Salami at the moment, so I’m hoping to wrap that up too — talk about a hidden gem of 2024 (Duck Detective, not Pokémon Emerald)
!I’ll also likely be playing a spot of Marvel Rivals after a couple of weeks off, but don’t tell my Switch that.
Kate Gray, Contributor
I'm still travelling this weekend, and I also forgot it was the weekend because I don't know what day it is, so... lots of train journeys. That makes it the perfect time to play something new, don't it?
I downloaded 1000xRESIST because every single one of my friends won't stop talking about it, and I played through the first hour with my partner (thinking it was an "experience this together" sort of thing), but I think I might restart it on my own. I hear excellent things.
I also bought a ton of thinky-type puzzle-type games in the Steam Sale, so I should give those a go, but I've mostly been playing Fields of Mistria. I don't usually play Early Access games, and I'm reminded why: I don't like to feel like I'm eating a meal before all the constituent parts are on the plate. It's a very polished and enjoyable game, for sure, but I can see the empty spaces where the sides are supposed to go, and it's a bit of a bummer!
Nile Bowie, Contributor
Howdy, folks. I received a late X-Mas gift from myself in the mail this week: a shiny new Analogue Pocket. I’ve got an extensive collection of physical cartridges for the original Game Boy and finally decided the Pocket and its gorgeous display were worth shelling out for. I’ve started a new playthrough of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, a game I have fond memories of playing as a 90’s kid at summer camp. I’ll be giving other my Game Boy puzzler favourites like QIX, Quarth, and Tetris a go this weekend! I really should restart and finally finish Mole Mania too, an overlooked Miyamoto classic.
Speaking of, I also grabbed the playable documentary-style Tetris Forever during the holiday sale and will finish it up this weekend. I’m quite familiar with Tetris' origins story, that infamous glasnost-era licensing debacle in the old USSR, but it’s retold by those involved with particular candour and detail here. The new Tetris Time Warp mode is a real kicker too! I’ll also be chipping away at Antonblast. It’ll be a retro-fueled doozy of a weekend in gaming for me.
Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor
Turning into chapter nine of Yakuza Kiwami thanks to very solid progress during the holidays. Would probably be further up in the main story had I not spend an insane amount of time collecting cards of ladies dressed up in insect outfits and parts for the miniature car racing customization kits. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is back in rotation after the latest patch made the sprite scaling sections more manageable and will probably give Cho Aniki Collection a spin since I’ve always been a fan of this zany series.
Game of the week is Under Defeat. The physical Switch remastered version arrived just in time for the holidays and it is glorious. For the first time in full 16:9 and with a new twin stick control scheme this is the definitive way to enjoy G.Rev’s Naomi board classic.
Ethan Zack, Contributor
Happy 2025! For better or worse, I have officially boarded the ‘Switch 2’ hype train and my brain is just about fully occupied by excitement for hardware leaks I don’t understand, rumors that are probably fake, and daydreams about games that aren’t even announced.
Unfortunately, the looming reveal of the Switch successor has the side effect of making me reluctant to start any new games on the off-chance that they might look nicer or run better whenever that shiny, new piece of tech releases. As such, I’m dipping back into the legacy stuff, starting with my first-ever playthrough of Super Monkey Ball on GameCube. I knew that Monkey Ball is supposed to be an ultra-replayable, learn-the-level sort of experience, but I was not prepared for how difficult the advanced and expert stages can be. Some of these floors are downright evil, man.
That's what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you're planning on booting up over the next couple of days.
