
Kotaku Weekend Guide: 3 Great Games Keeping Us Grounded
Image: HAMMER95
Next week is a big one. Assassinās Creed Shadows launches on the heels of new reporting that Ubisoft is looking to spin off the franchise into a standalone company backed by Chinese conglomerate NetEase. The 2025 Game Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco with talks from people behind some of the biggest hits and blockbusters. And the first day of spring officially arrives less than two weeks ahead of the Nintendo Direct for the Switch 2, which some analysts think will cost over $400 and ship in June. Before all that arrives, weāll be taking a breath this weekend and spending time with these great games, which range from new indies to older gems.
Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, PC
Goal: Take down Boss_Wallducker.
I like boomer shooters just fine, but Mullet Madjack has me hooked in a way other games in the subgenre rarely have. Originally released last year on PC, the arcade FPS roguelite just hit Xbox Game Pass this week and is scratching my 3D Hotline Miami itch (happy 10-year anniversary to that gameās sequel, by the way). While the shooting is snappy and the weapon upgrades are neat, itās the hyper-stylized art and fun level design thatās kept me entranced. The premise is simple enoughāsave a minor internet celebrity from robber baron robots in a futuristic world that feels like The Matrix huffing neon glitter glueābut itās a perfectly alienated fit for the sicko event horizon our online culture currently finds itself sucked into. Never has a game met the moment with a vibe so pure (and engagingly deranged). ā Ethan Gach
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Goal: Brew a decent cup of tea.
Iām excited to try Wanderstop, the new game about, as its Steam page puts it, āchange and tea,ā for a few reasons. One is that itās the first game from Ivy Road, a studio founded by Davey Wreden. Wreden previously created The Stanley Parable and The Beginnerās Guide, both highly original games that were fully committed to their own distinctive visions. On the surface, in the trailers that Iāve seen, Wanderstop looks like it could be a fairly conventional ācozy game,ā another chill, low-key release in which you soak up the pleasant vibes while running a business of some kindāin this case, a tea shop. However, given Wredenās involvement, I suspect thereās more to Wanderstop than that, and that sooner or later the gameās gonna throw me a curveball. Which is what I want! I want to be surprised, caught off guard, to have my expectations undermined.
The other reason Iām excited is that Iāve seen the game receive a pretty wide range of critical reactions, from lukewarm praise to enthusiastic raves. (I havenāt read these reviews yet because I want to go into the game knowing as little as possible, but itās clear to me that thereās a good assortment of opinions on it out there.) I believe that most games should receive a much wider range of critical reactions than they do, but given that mainstream game criticism sadly still tends overwhelmingly toward consensus, when a game does receive a decent spread of critical responses I tend to sit up and take notice, because it inevitably means that the game is doing something interesting.
It doesnāt mean that Iāll love it; it just means that even if I donāt like it, Iāll probably at least think it failed in an interesting way, and Iād typically much rather play a game that tries something distinctive and doesnāt quite come together than a game that plays it safe and succeeds. Of course, itās also possible that I will end up loving Wanderstop. I intend to find out one way or the other this weekend. But right now, this moment before Iāve even started it, is sometimes one of the best parts: to be on the cusp of beginning a new game, and not having any clue of just what to expect. ā Carolyn Petit
Play it on: 3DS
Goal: Remember where everything is in Kalos
PokĆ©monās sixth generation has always been a weird one for me. I love the lore of the Kalos region and the Mega Evolutions battle gimmick, but despite that, Iāve never gone back to the 3DS games after all these years. With PokĆ©mon Legends: Z-A coming out this year, however, it feels like the right time to return to my old copy of PokĆ©mon Y and refresh myself on what came before. Game Freak was definitely still getting used to making games in 3D with X and Y, and as a result, a lot of the visual character the PokĆ©mon had exuded in earlier games was drained from them in favor of mostly pretty lifeless 3D models. Back when the games came out, it still felt like a huge deal to finally see PokĆ©mon in 3D on a handheld, but despite this visual shift, X and Y were a breaking point for me as I finally grew tired of the original PokĆ©mon formula.
Today, PokĆ©mon Y is a relic of a bygone era in a series that has started to think outside the box in recent years, which makes it kinda quaint to go back to after games like Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet have taken some pretty big leaps. That said, the simplicity of old PokĆ©mon still has its charms. If Iām going back to reacquaint myself with Kalos, Iād rather not have something dense and cumbersome. Itās fine! Itās pleasant! I canāt complain too much about hanging out with my Raichu in a place we havenāt visited in a decade. ā Kenneth Shepard