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Welcome to another edition of What Are You Playing? where we all get to chat about our gaming plans for the weekend!
Before we get into that good stuff though, let’s take a look at what went down in Nintendo land this week. We were treated to the release of two new games in the NSO GBA library as Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age joined the service. We also got excited to see that Ace Combat 7 will be flying over to Switch, which cheered us up following the news that GAME will be ending its trade-in programme.
There was also fun to be had in the world of reviews as we went hands-on with Another Code: Recollection and Turnip Boy Robs A Bank — the former of which we enjoyed while the latter was let down a wobbly performance.
Now then, let’s check out what we’re all up to this weekend, shall we?
Jim Norman, Staff Writer
It has taken me a little while to fully gel with it, but Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is suddenly ticking a lot of boxes for me. That movement is just so tasty! Also, I finished Celeste — at least, made it to the big Heart Wall in the DLC and couldn’t bring myself to go through more pain — a few weeks back, and now I feel like I have some kind of super-human reflexes. Sargon is in a safe pair of hands (until I throw him into a boss fight and die repeatedly).
Aside from that, I’d really like to get a little bit of Golden Sun in. Despite the GBA being the love of my life, I never got around to playing either of these back in the day, so it will be nice to finally see what all the chatter is about.
Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer
Unfortunately, I’m afraid the Switch will be taking a bit of a backseat this weekend, as I’ll be booting up The Last of Us Part II Remastered on the PS5. It looks very familiar, but for £10, I can’t complain. I’m toying with the idea of starting a Grounded run, but then do I really want to put myself through the inevitable misery? Hmm…
If I do manage to find some time to break out the Switch, then I’ll likely try and make a bit more progress in Persona 3 Portable. It’s taking me a while to get anywhere with it at the moment and I’m almost tempted to just wait for the remake. We’ll see.
Gavin Lane, Editor
We’re now over halfway through January, or as I like to call it, GOTY Podcast Catchup Month. I’m nearly done listening to the Nextlander chaps’ summations, and have another half-dozen to get through.
Game-wise, I took delivery of LEGO Indiana Jones this week. After getting the Temple of the Golden Idol for Christmas, I’ve been on an Indy kick and decided to rebuy the Wii game I once traded in. My memory is dim, but I seem to remember the incessant whipping of enemies got tiresome. HOWEVER! I’ve now got kids to indoctrinate, and I’m thinking it’ll be perfect once we’re finished with Ghostbusters. I’ll try not to weep every single time the Raiders March plays.
“Why are you crying, daddy?” “Oh, it’s just the John Williams. You’ll understand when you’re older.”
Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor
I can’t believe it’s 2024 and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is finally coming to the Switch! I was going to replay the PC version on a harder difficulty but now I will instead bide my time until this version arrives. Lots of fun to be had with the pixel-tastic Hammerwatch II and more of PS3’s Dragon’s Crown action. Hopefully, I will also complete the GTA 5 story mode this weekend leaving me clear to put The Legend of Steel Empire under judgement.
My game of the week is Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The demo already cleared any possible doubts about whether this would be a winner. It truly is! To think we would start up 2024 with a Metroidvania rivalling the brilliance of Metroid Dread. Well done Ubisoft Montpellier.
Kate Gray, Contributor
This weekend I will be watching a lot of GDQ, but that doesn’t usually make me want to pick up the games they’re playing, to be honest! I think what I’ll end up playing is — and please don’t kill me for saying this — the end of Tears of the Kingdom.
I know, I’m a monster! But I sort of fell off about 3/4 of the way through the game, not because it’s bad but because, I don’t know, sometimes games go on for quite a long time and if you play them “wrong” (trying to min-max them or trying to squeeze out 100% of everything) you can tucker yourself out before you get to the finish line. It’s not about the quality of the game, it’s more like trying to run a marathon and not pacing yourself. Now that I’ve taken a long break, I’m probably ready to sprint that final bit!
Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor
Well, Golden Sun dropped at basically the perfect time, didn’t it? At least for me. Continuing my 2024 goal of filling in my RPG gaps, I’ll be playing through both Golden Sun games over the next few weeks. Before you all shout at me, I have played the original, but I never beat it because I just didn’t click with it. This time around, however, I’m loving it. It’s definitely a little archaic in places, but I love messing around with the class system, and the puzzles are simple yet make you think.
Part of me is also toying with a replay of Final Fantasy VII in the run-up to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth‘s release on PS5 at the end of February. I replayed the Midgar section back in 2020 before Remake hit, so we’ll see how I’m feeling. I can at least speed through this one if I feel like returning to Gaia.
Craig Reid, Video Producer – Pure Xbox
Looks like the world’s gone mad for Palworld, y’know the Pokémon with guns game? Whilst I’ll still be playing it over the weekend it’s also giving me a hankering for some good old-fashioned pocket monster fun. I reckon I’m going to start a new nuzlocke playthrough of Pokémon Sword this weekend – yeah, sounds like a plan. Something about eating Palworld’s version of a Wooloo made me feel bad, so now I’ma protect that little fluff ball.
Happy gaming, folks!
That’s what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Fill in the following poll with the game that you will be maining over the next few days and then slide into the comments to let us know what other titles are on the cards.