Disco Elysium Art
Image: ZA/UM

The first week of 2022 has passed, and it was relatively quiet as everyone settled back into their routines. That said there were still some interesting bits and bobs, such as the revelation that producing the grass was a bit of a pain for the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity team. Elsewhere we had Metacritic listing Nintendo's highest rated games of 2021, A PlayStation store in China recruiting Mario and Bowser to the cause, and someone performed an Undertale track for the Pope. Yeah, it'll be a weird year, but at least it's looking like a terrific 12 months for gaming on Switch.

Anyhoo, it's time to chill out and discuss our weekend gaming plans. A few members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so feel free to give our entries a read and then join in with your own via our comment section. Enjoy!

Gavin Lane, editor

Over the past couple of weeks I have added a ludicrous number of games to my backlog thanks to sales, and naturally I haven’t played any of them because my Blasphemous save file is still sitting at 88.35% complete. I’m determined to get it up to 100 before moving on to something else, so that is priority number 1 this weekend.

Assuming I’m up to the challenge, I have Down In Bermuda, Full Metal Furies, Katamari Damacy: Reroll, Saints Row IV, Sine Mora EX, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered to tuck into soon after – all of which will be ignored if the postman pulls his finger out and finally delivers the awesome Lego Sonic set I ordered a week ago. Happy 2022 everyone!

Thomas Whitehead, deputy editor

I didn't go as crazy as some in the sales, but I did pick up a cheeky game or two to tackle. The main one at the moment is Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, I'm very early on but am embracing the weirdness. I also grabbed Figment in a deal, so will aim to get through that before the sequel arrives.

Elsewhere I picked up NieR Replicant 1.2247etc; as a big fan of Automata I'm very much looking forward to seeing what this predecessor / remaster has to offer.

Kate Gray, staff writer

New year, new games — and this weekend I will be playing as much [REDACTED] as I can fit into two days. No, if you're wondering — it's not [REDACTED], and it's not [REDACTED] either. Someone else is reviewing those. Still, I can promise you that this one is very good! Get hyped!

Jon Cartwright, video producer

That's the first week for 2022 done! I didn't play quite as much over Christmas as I planned but did finish the first route of NieR Replicant and I'm well on my way to completing route B. On the Nintendo side I've actually started The House in Fata Morgana after picking it up in a festive sale - for those who don't know this was for some time the highest rate game on Metacritic (ever) and honestly I have no arguments. I'm still in the early hours but the sheer presentation, narrative depth and twists in the writing are leagues ahead in quality over other forms of interactive storytelling.

I've also been revisiting PAC-MAN 99 which I adored at launch but admittedly stopped playing soon after. The player count is noticeably much smaller than Tetris so it can occasionally take up to a minute to find a game but once you're playing it can be hard to stop. It may not have the staying power of Tetris but it's a brilliant game to kill some time.

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

I managed to pick up a Switch OLED Model this week, so I'll be spending quite a bit of time this weekend trying out some classics like Luigi's Mansion 3, Super Mario Odyssey, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze to see how they look on that glorious new screen.

Otherwise, I've restarted the incredible Disco Elysium: The Final Cut. I had to power through some of it for review, so I'm really taking my time to absorb everything it has to offer this time. It may well sneak into my list of all-time favourites when I'm done; the music is just exquisite!

Gonçalo Lopes, reviewer

2022 seems like the sort of date one would expect to read from a science fiction novel. Yet this is our Present, and a great Present for video game aficionados. An unexpected late arrival from the Far East just before Christmas meant I am finally enjoying Eastward and revisiting the horror of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. The eShop is already churning out gems early like Crumble, too.

Game of the week is Megaton Musashi. I feared the language barrier would diminish my enjoyment of the game, but my fears where quickly dismissed after the first in-game tutorial. Might have to jump into the anime soon!

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your weekend gaming plans!