Mario Kart

After another week of non-stop Nintendo news and drama, it's finally time to spend a weekend relaxing with your favourite games. As ever, the team at Nintendo Life will be aiming to do just that, too, with rounds of football, first-party megahits, old-school platformers, and even the odd "saucy" game or two taking place this week. Check out what we're up to, and then let us know what you'll be playing in our poll and comments section below!

Jon Cousins, Japan correspondent

This weekend I shall mostly be carrying on with my FIFA 18 season, along with a couple of other beauties. I finally got round to getting Lumines Remastered, and it is an absolute treat. It really scratches my Tetris style high score puzzle itch with that Mizuguchi audiovisual finesse. I also got The Messenger and it is another indie darling. Slick, super satisfying platforming, a healthy dose of self-aware humour and that soundtrack... My goodness me, that soundtrack!

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend, my goal is to go back to all of the unfinished games in my catalog and finally try to get through them (or, at least, close to it). The games I’ve shamefully picked up, played for five to ten hours, and then abandoned are beginning to pile up - along with my guilt. They include random titles such as Pokémon Ultra Moon, Detective Pikachu, Super Mario Odyssey (don’t judge, I sank about 20 hours into this one, just haven’t finished it yet), half of my Nintendo Labo kits, and the Champion’s Ballad in Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The older I get, the worse this habit of mine is becoming. If anyone has tips for better follow-through on games as an adult, they’d be greatly appreciated in the comments!

Dom Reseigh-Lincoln, reviewer

This weekend I'll be saying goodbye to NBA 2K18 as I finally get my hands on a review build of NBA 2K19. Expect the next couple of days to be filled with dunks and three-pointers as I try and take my beloved Timberwolves to the top of the mountain. Look out for the official verdict on Nintendo Life next week.

I'll also be going back to Yo-Kai Watch Blasters on 3DS, completing Patrols and trying to fill my Medallium up because I love Yo-Kai and there's nothing you can do to stop me.

Gavin Lane, contributing writer

This weekend I hope to have three games on the go. First up, Yooka-Laylee – as a Banjo-Kazooie obsessive, I was delighted when my Switch code arrived but I got distracted after dying a couple of times in the swamp world and it joined my pile of shame. Oxenfree is also in my backlog – the characters got on my nerves in the first twenty minutes but I want to blast through it.

The last game – if it even is a game – is a bit saucy. A couple of months back a clutch of Japanese-only “love-likeness pseudo-talk” titles appeared on the eShop and the blurb alone seemed worth the low price of entry. “A little embarrassing, in a conversation that pounding, romance skill UP!” the eShop promised. Well, quite. Curiosity (plus some unused gold points) led me to download Pure / Electric Love “What Do You Want?” – Eri Kitami. Purely for academic analysis, you understand. Yes. Important journalistic investigation. Ahem.

Next!

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

As will likely be the case for some time now, my spare weekend hours will most probably be spent playing Hollow Knight. I don't seem to manage to set aside quite as much time for gaming as I used to, so my playthrough of the game is trudging along at a very slow pace; people tell me there's upwards of 50 hours' worth of content to get through so I could be here for some time!

Elsewhere, I might spend an evening sitting down with something good for multiplayer. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and FIFA 18 are among the favourites in the house, so one of these could well be finding itself back in the Switch's cartridge slot pretty soon. I've been lazily rewatching the Pokémon anime most nights, though, so I'll have to actually peel myself off the sofa for once to switch the games over. The horror.

Which games are you playing this weekend? (381 votes)

  1. FIFA 183%
  2. Lumines Remastered1%
  3. The Messenger5%
  4. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon2%
  5. Detective Pikachu  0%
  6. Super Mario Odyssey7%
  7. Nintendo Labo1%
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild6%
  9. NBA 2K181%
  10. Yo-Kai Watch Blasters  0%
  11. Yooka-Laylee2%
  12. Oxenfree1%
  13. Pure / Electric Love “What Do You Want?” – Eri Kitami1%
  14. Hollow Knight14%
  15. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe12%
  16. Something else (comment below)45%

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As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days...