• Image: Nintendo*

The weekend is finally upon us, and we’re ready to play some games... once we’ve recapped this week’s big news, of course!

In the absence of a major Animal Crossing announcement, this week felt a little quieter than last, but there was still plenty to get excited about. The Pokémon Legends: Z-A Mega Dimension DLC scored a December release date, and we got a new Mystery Gift event in the process. A new Nintendo Store app was released on iOS and Android, the Resident Evil Pro Controller opened for pre-orders with a scary price tag attached, and Nintendo’s latest financials saw Switch 2 off to a staggering start in its first four months.

It was also new Zelda week, so we shared our full thoughts on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, checked out the tech specs from our friends over at Digital Foundry, and learnt of the free updates that are already planned for the future.

Aaaaanyhow, what’s everyone up to this weekend?

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

I’m very excited for Resident Evil Requiem at the moment, so I’ve gone back to the old favourites: Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, and yes, Resident Evil 6. Considering the appearance of Alyssa Ashcroft in the upcoming title, I’d love for Capcom to provide a legitimate way to Resident Evil: Outbreak on modern consoles, but alas, I don’t think it’s happening anytime soon.

We’ve also got Yakuza Kiwami and Kiwami 2 on the horizon, so I’ve gone back to Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut for a little bit. Truth be told, alongside Street Fighter 6, this might actually be my favourite launch game for the Switch 2.

Have a good one!

Jim Norman, Staff Writer

I’m in the fun little position of being between games after wrapping up Pokémon Legends: Z-A earlier this week, and not wanting to splash out on anything else ‘AAA’ until Metroid comes a-calling. BALL x PIT is still eating up my every free moment (obviously), but maybe now it my chance to sneak in something smaller before the year’s up. Absolum has been looking at me from my wishlist for a while now, so perhaps it’s finally time to dive in.

Oh wait, I just remembered that I’ve had Clair Obscur on pause while I put Pokémon in the rear-view mirror. That’s the weekend’s plan sorted, then.

Gavin Lane, Editor

I’m hoping to polish off Blippo+ this weekend. I’ve found myself playing/watching a little bit every morning over breakfast, as if I were channel-hopping before school as a kid. It’s a cracking little piece of software - look out for a review sometime soon-ish.

Beyond that (and keeping with the early ’90s theme), I found myself redownloading Fortnite just to get a look at the Simpsons stuff. After dying twice in a row extremely early doors, I enabled gyro and made it to #2 on the third jump from the bus. First loser! It’s a weird thing, Fortnite these days, but I did enjoy most of those 20 minutes. Maybe I’ll dip back into that.

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

Hades II proves that every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow, just like in real life. While there has been zero progress since last weekend (except, of course, making Melinöe stronger with each demise), I hope to turn the tables this weekend. Lots of high adrenaline arcade action as well, when Arcade Archives 2: Tokyo Wars’ bare-bones single player experience quickly turns into a frenetic split-screen multiplayer extravaganza (I miss Wii U’s Tank! Tank! Tank! …) and both Toaplan’s Arcade Collection volumes.

UFO 50 report: 50 of 50 games played! The final five titles are all absolute stunners! ‘Combatants’ (clever pun!) is all bout real-time tactics with fighting ants, ‘Quibble Race’ finally made me understand Japanese obsession with horse racing simulations, ‘Seaside Drive’ is purest shmup bliss, ‘Campanella 3’ is the final game in the series and goes full Space Harrier and to wrap up this package the multi-genre, ‘Cyber Owls’, which I hope to complete this weekend. What an incredible package, part of me wants ‘Super UFO 50’ to happen, with SNES-style graphics and music… one can dream!

My game of the week is Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Being a huge fan of this spin-off series and the added hardware strength of the Switch 2, I see nothing but a very good time ahead. Are you a person who finds the whole Musou gameplay strangely soothing and great stress relief? Just me?

Nile Bowie, Contributor

I’ve got to admit, Pokémon Legends: Z-A has hooked me far more than I expected it would. The criticism about the sameness of the environments and the rather wooden NPCs is completely fair, but I still find it hard to put down. I particularly enjoy hunting for Alpha Pokémon and having an oversized critter following me around. The battle system feels fresh and fluid — and occasionally challenging, which makes for a nice change. I was genuinely taken aback by how good the Mega Dimensions DLC looks. It really seems to cater to high-level play, though I’m not exactly thrilled about the price point.

I’m also completely addicted to BALL x PIT. It gets me into that flow state I love, scratches the Vampire Survivors itch, and does something new and mechanically interesting that you don’t often see in other Survivors-likes. It’s such a fresh and satisfying gameplay loop.

I’ve also been playing Luigi’s Mansion via Nintendo Switch Online. I missed it back in the day, but I can definitely see what people mean about the spooky atmosphere of this first entry compared with the next two in the series. The original just nails that haunted house vibe a bit better than Luigi’s Mansion 3, which is objectively a better game in almost every respect.

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Well, that’s what we have planned for this weekend, but what about you? Let us know your picks in the following poll.