Jim Norman, Staff Writer
I’m forcing myself to take a little Blue Prince break this weekend as I approach the end of the game’s first act — which is to say, I’ve uncovered about 0.1% of its puzzles. This is all so I can focus on an exciting little game that I’m playing for review, which you can keep an eye out for next week.
My puppy’s vaccination still hasn’t kicked in, so I won’t be able to get out and make the most of the sun just yet (please free me from this wee-scented flat!), meaning it’ll be another weekend filling the pre-Switch 2 lull with some Star Wars Outlaws and Elden Ring. What do you mean, “why don’t you just wait for the Switch 2 versions, Jim”? Because I’m impatient, that’s why.
Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, baby! I can’t stop playing this game, and honestly, it’s probably favourite of the year so far. It’s astonishing just how ambitious it is, so if you’re planning on picking it up anytime soon, I implore you to do so with as little prior knowledge as possible.
I’m also dipping into Animal Crossing: New Horizons here and there after starting from scratch. It’s a nice little distraction while I await the launch of the Switch 2, so even if I do wind up neglecting my island come 5th June, I can at least do my best until then.
Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor
Being the team’s first and foremost expert on all things Kunio I plan to continue enjoying Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics. This compilation debuts several Super Famicom exclusive games for the first time in English, including my favourite, Shodai Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, along with some interesting arcade extras like the underrated Neo Geo game Super Dodge Ball.
Meanwhile, on Mira, I have cleared the entire map of normal missions and heart-to-hearts, steadily progressing on building my third ARES 90 skell. I hope to tackle Chapter 13, at long last, and the all-new content beyond this weekend. I don’t really want to stop playing Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition yet and truly hope this gets a Switch 2 upgrade soonish. Also, as I suspected, that Chapter 12 ending still hits hard ten years later.
Lastly, there is this week’s Arcade Archives release. Namco’s 1994 NebulasRay, available at home for the first time… for a price! Seems Hamster quietly jumped on the “let’s hack up the prices and hope no one will notice” bandwagon. I was miffed to see that price tag but still bought it… and you won’t believe what happened next!
Ahem, apologies for the clickbait sentence above. You see, finally, this past week my Game of the Week has been resolved: I have a new TV ready for the Switch 2! I settled for the biggest thing I could fit in the living room, a 75” Samsung QLED whose picture clarity and colours are beyond words! It never occurred to me that playing a shmup like NebulasRay on this is an absolutely insane audio-visual experience. I wish I could go back in time to tell my very young self playing ZX Spectrum on a tiny portable CRT TV (ask your grandparents about them, folks!) that one day I would be playing video games powered by infinitely more powerful technology on a giant home cinema screen! Of course, I would never really do that because Chrono Trigger taught all about the perils of time-travelling.
Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor
Okay, now that I have the Platinum Trophy in Clair Obscur, it’s about time I actually fully dedicate myself to another game, right?
Well, it’s back to space in the Z-A (no, not Pokémon) household with Mass Effect 2 and Citizen Sleeper 2 – an interesting duo considering what Gareth Damian Martin has said about using Mass Effect as an “anti-reference” I promise I’ll actually start the latter this weekend now that I’m done thinking about parries and numbers in the seven-digit range.
But then, the Hello Kitty Island Adventure update dropped mid-week and I suddenly have about 50 things to do there. Sigh. Hard life, right?
Gavin Lane, Editor
I woke up this morning with the Mushroom Hill Zone theme playing in my brain and have the strangest compunction to fire up Sonic & Knuckles. Then, over breakfast, Dee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart just popped in there. Some sort of early-’90s crisis, perhaps?
Beyond that, I should probably just crack on with Xenoblade Chronicles X despite my hesitations with Switch 2 incoming. Something’s keeping me away, though. I found myself at the stroke of midnight recently with 51 Clubhouse Games on the TV playing several rounds of Solitaire – probably the most I’ve played the game in digital form since that PC one where the cards cascaded everywhere at the end…
Yeah, I’m in some weird ’90s rut, for sure. Roll on Switch 2 – then I can get into the noughties with the GameCube lineup. Have a good one, folks.
That’s what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you’re planning on booting up over the next couple of days.
