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Image: Nintendo / Capcom

We're now into April and despite the internet's best attempt to fool us, the best the pranksters did was to provoke a wry grin. In other news, Balan Wonderworld became the biggest bot bait of the year (so far), the Castlevania game so bad that Konami couldn't bring themselves to call it Castlevania was announced for a standalone Arcade Archives release, and prolific plumber, and princess-rescuer Dr. Mario Mario was finally laid to rest.

Now, though, it's time to discuss our (long) weekend gaming plans. 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!

Liam Doolan, news reporter

This weekend I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into Monster Hunter Rise. Since it arrived on the scene last week, it's become a nightly ritual for me to go out hunting, so I intend on continuing that over the next few days. I've not been the biggest fan of the series in the past, but this latest entry is really growing on me.

Apart from this, I'll be booting up Among Us to try out the new Airship map. I have played a handful of games already with some friends and it's been great fun so far. I'm looking forward to finally getting a go as the Imposter, assuming the servers hold up. That's all for me - enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Thomas Whitehead, deputy editor

For this extended holiday weekend I plan to be suitably lazy and do plenty of gaming. On the Switch this’ll primarily be Monster Hunter Rise, predictably; I’m still relatively early in the story so will have some extended hunts, and may delve into multiplayer too. I also grabbed Huntdown and XCOM 2 Collection on sale, so they'll get playtime.

My other current platform of choice is Xbox Series X, so I’m wrapping up a Gears 5 run before switching to Prey. Also definitely planning to try out Narita Boy on Game Pass, it looks (and sounds) fantastic.

Kate Gray, staff writer

I am finally playing a Nintendo Switch game FOR FUN and not for review: Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town! It's pretty perfect, as far as SoS games go, and it's restored my faith in XSEED. I get the feeling that they put their A team on this, because the art is lovely, the dialogue is fantastically varied, interesting, and organic, and — oh yeah — I actually bought the DLC for it. And by "the DLC" I mean that I paid two quid for the ability to dress up like a cow. I regret nothing. I'm cute as heck.

Haven't decided who I'll marry yet, though. The chibi art makes everyone look a bit like an 8-year-old, which is pretty off-putting. I do love Popuri, but she recently told me that she thought farming was boring, and that's MY WHOLE DEAL.

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

Hey folks! Hope everyone's doing well. I'm looking forward to a nice Easter break, and I'll be spending quite a bit of it continuing my playthrough of Super Mario Sunshine. I've unlocked all of the levels and beaten Bowser and his dear son, so now I'm mopping up the remaining Shine Sprites. I forgot how ruddy difficult some of them are!

I'll likely stay on the Mario train and make a start on Super Mario Galaxy when I'm done with Sunshine, with maybe a sprinkling of Super Mario World on the side. I'm sure I'll move onto a different franchise eventually… maybe. Probably not, though. [I thought Mario was dead?! - Ed]

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic — maybe because I’ll be getting together with friends and family for the holiday? Regardless, I’m hankering to whip out some of my older games and sink myself back into those memories over the weekend, possibly alongside my fellow gaming-inclined family members. It’s a bit of an oddball collection across a variety of systems — and I think it’s just because they’re some of my all-time favorite games that my brain is craving — but I can’t stop thinking about playing me some Pokémon Sapphire, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Luigi’s Mansion, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo Land (I know, I warned you — this is a very weird list), Super Mario Odyssey, Link’s Awakening

It’s bound to be a very random, nostalgic Easter weekend.

Gavin Lane, editor

Hopefully I might get a chance to make progress in Paper Mario: The Origami King over the next few days/nights. The look of the game and the writing are pulling through the perfunctory-feeling combat, and I'm enjoying it.

I've still got a pile of GBC and GBA games which arrived recently but I haven't been able to play, too, including Ninja Five-O, Hamtaro Ham-Ham Games, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog (hey, it's supposed to be good!). Fingers crossed I can check one or two of them out.


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