A typical Nintendo Life household

The weekend is upon us, dear readers, and rather than relax our weary minds with some rest we plan to exercise our thumbs and senses with some gaming shenanigans. And why not? A sharp mind is always important, whether it's planning strategies for turn-based battles or assessing an environment before charging in with guns blazing, gaming keeps us on our toes.

So naturally that's what a large part of the Nintendo Life team will be doing. Below are our assorted weekend gaming plans, which are as diverse as ever.

Mike Mason

I'm still trotting through the small town of Greenvale to review Deadly Premonition (PS3) for Push Square, but I'm also hoping to use some of the UK's long weekend to re-play Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. It's been a couple of years since I last played through, and I'm badly getting that itchy-tasty urge to take on Los Illuminados once again. It'll only be about the twentieth time...

Tom Whitehead

A while ago I raved about ZombiU to anyone that would listen, because I think it's awesome despite its bugs. And yet I never beat it, because a certain area — starting with A — had me stuck and I got distracted by other games. I've now passed the bottleneck and I'm back to creeping around London to collect letters; I still think it's fantastic.

Beyond that I have review duties, so will be launching my own 'cShop' conquering studio in Publisher Dream, finishing off a bit of Mario's Super Picross and, lucky me, swinging about on vines for a big 3DS release arriving later this month.

Jon Wahlgren

Nintendo invited us to participate in its early Animal Crossing: New Leaf Mayor program and, not ones to pass up a good Nooking, we joined in. I'll be dedicating most of my game time for the next month to shaking trees and selling garbage to local merchants. With some stipulations I can talk about pretty much whatever my experiences are, and will be doing so weekly here on Nintendo Life.

Not that I'll be giving up my other fascination. Having slogged through Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon just last week, I've been spending a lot of time with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on 3DS as well. I'm only on two-star solo quests at the moment but I took down a Great Jaggi yesterday and am ready to go slice bigger things.

Andy Green

As it's a public holiday on Monday I should be able to find plenty of time for gaming this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting back into Fire Emblem: Awakening and I could very well just spend three days playing that, but I might boot up the Wii U for some Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate as well.

I'm still not overly sure what I'm doing on that game as I seem to just go on quests and then throw tat in my item box when I'm done... But for some reason I'm quite addicted. They should rename it Monster Hoarder 3 Ultimate just for me. I'm much better at hoarding than hunting.

Orla Madden

This weekend I'll be dedicating all my spare time to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. I've been playing it a lot this week, mostly online, and have moved up to HR2! I didn't realise how big the game would be, it's my first Monster Hunter experience, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

At the moment I'm trying to forge a particular armour, from a Barioth if you must know, and so far I have the Chest and Legs done. If you wish to join me on a hunt at any time, be sure to follow me on Twitter and we can organise something! I'm still a Rookie, so don't expect anything spectacular!

Philip J Reed

Kirby Mass Attack: Picked this one up recently because I never got around to it. I've only played through the first world and I'm still kind of getting the hang of it, which feels like a strange thing to say for a Kirby game but there we are.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate: I've had my save file hovering around 40% for what feels like forever, so I think it's time to plow through and give the Belmont clan the closure it's been seeking so earnestly.

Super Mario World: I buy this game every time I can, and I never regret spending more money on it. When I played this game as a child I fell in love, and playing it now as an adult I'm amazed that it's lost literally none of its magic. This is a genuine gaming masterpiece, and though I beat it the weekend after it was released on the WiiU VC, I think I need to go back and find all the exits. This was the first game I ever deliberately 100%'ed, and now I get to do it again so many years later. Unless I suck now. Which I probably do.

LEGO City Undercover: Finished the story mode (which had a shockingly epic finale for a game about Lego people!) but now I get to drive around the city building ramps and watering flowers. The fact that that actually sounds like fun to me says loads about how fantastic this game really is.

Ron DelVillano

I'll finally be playing Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning for review this weekend. I've got a relatively long road trip planned for most of the weekend, so I should have plenty of time to grow some crops and woo some ladies.

I'm also going to be giving my PS3 a solid workout this weekend playing Spec Ops: The Line, Wet, and Heavy Rain (in anticipation of Beyond: Two Souls). All three are games that I wanted to play as they released, but I'm now finally getting around to them.

Morgan Sleeper

I went ahead and picked up Fire Emblem: Awakening last week, and I haven't been able to put it down since. It's an absolutely incredible game, and far and away the most engaging dating sim I've ever played. People keep telling me that there are "classes" and "growth levels" and all sorts of "systems" (or something), but as far as I'm concerned, it's springtime in Ylisse and love is in the air! I'm playing on Casual, but I've still had to re-do a few battles for romantic reasons; sorry Chrom, Sumia's mine!

Aside from playing matchmaker in Fire Emblem and seeing grids every time I close my eyes, I've got some first-class running and jumping to look forward to on the Wii U this weekend. Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario World are a double-hit of comfort-platforming goodness, and I'm loving getting to play them on the GamePad! I'll also be keeping up with the excellent Rayman Legends Challenge App and the daily chance it gives me to bring up the rear for Team Nintendo Life. Look for me on the leaderboards, a few thousand spots to the left of Thomas, Dave, and Gaz!

Gaz Plant

Bit.Trip Presents... RUNNER 2 - Future Legend of Rhythm Alien - It can't just be me who never gets bored of Charles Martinet introducing the game with that hefty title and a random product endorsement? Even if it is, I am loving this game. From start to finish it has been a joy to play, and now I've hit World 5, I'm enjoying it even more. The perfect sequel.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - I'll be honest, I got bored of this. Having burnt through 4 previous adventures in a row, I was all Layton-ed out, but after a 4 month break from the series, I'm really enjoying delving back into this one. With only a few chapters left, I'm really excited to find out just what's happening in Monte d'Or!

Lego City Undercover - Yes I've finished it. But there's still so much to find! And so many jokes to revisit! Although it's best to steer clear of those French Parrots...

Ken Barnes

Virtua Striker 3 v.2003 (GameCube) - I recently acquired a Gamecube and a stack of games of varying quality, and this one - despite being average at best - has got me strangely hooked. Gotta love Sega's late 90's/early 2000's arcade titles.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (360) - Neon. Shiny. Looks like Tron but with more guns. I can't really ask for more than that.

Fire Emblem Awakening - I will finally get the chance this weekend to start playing this. It's been sat in my 3DS' cartridge slot for two weeks, and hasn't been touched yet. Shocking state of affairs.

Martin Watts

I'm hoping to finally delve into Fire Emblem: Awakening this weekend. I've not experienced much of the series before, having only spent a little bit of time with Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, but after playing the demo, I just had to get it.

Otherwise, I might set aside some time for Star Wars: Episode I - Racer on the N64.

Tim Latshaw

I finally picked up a Wii U last weekend, so in addition to fiddling around more in Nintendo Land, I'll also be trying out Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Wait, is that right? Who named this thing? Eh, whatever. I loved the first game and have the same hopes for this one.

Lee Meyer

I'm going to roll the dice and attempt to complete Crimson Shroud.

Dave Letcavage

Don't hold me to anything yet but I might finally get around to indulging in a little game called Xenoblade Chronicles. Its been staring me down from my shelf for some time now though I've been too intimidated by its demanding level of commitment to initiate conversation. I think I just need that final push.

And if I end up passing on Xenoblade yet again, I'll probably get in more time with Double Dragon Neon and Scott Pilgrim on XBLA. Lately I've been on this obsessive modern beat-em-up kick and I can't seem to fully satisfy my craving for street-brawling mayhem. Oh, and of course I'll be spending more time with the addicting Rayman Legends Challenges App.

Rory Cocker

Outside of Nintendo Life duties, I've been getting stuck into my PS3 backlog. I'm a very late adopter; I only picked up a PS3 at the end of March, so I'm going back and playing all the noteworthy exclusives. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was absolutely incredible, and I'm really enjoying getting stuck into Gran Turismo 5. The PS3 has also allowed me to play through ICO for the first time ever, which was worth the admission price alone. Wow. What an absolutely stunning game. I urge you all to go and play it, immediately. It instantly climbed into my all-time top three. Possibly even top two.

I'm also kind-of-but-not-really playing through Heavy Rain. I say kind of because I got sidetracked by other games and life in general. In all honesty, it hasn't grabbed me like I thought it would. You may think that's down to the QTE-fest that it is, but no. Admittedly, some of the actions are pretty dorky, but what's really putting me off is the ridiculously damp script and wooden acting. I just don't feel invested in the characters at all.

Some of the conversations are laughably stiff. I'm just sat there thinking "NOBODY TALKS LIKE THIS!" It's also painfully obvious that a good chunk of the voice actors aren't native English speakers, which is particularly jarring in Ethan's case. I'm going to power on through it eventually, though. I've been told that it only gets better as it goes on, and the characters of Scott Shelby and Norman Jayden have definitely piqued my interest.

I also thought Journey was kind of bad, but I'm not allowed to say that.

Phewee, that's a lot of games. Now it's your turn, so share your weekend game plans and your deepest darkest secrets — more the former, really — in the comments below.