Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (29th June)

Image: NintendoRight then folks, the weekend’s here, which means it’s time to shake off the stress accumulated by the working week and settle down for some sweet gaming.

In the world of Nintendo, this week saw the launch of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD for the Switch; a game that has undoubtedly caused a bit of controversy surrounding its price (along with another release landing in 2025…). We reviewed it, of course, and thought it was pretty darn good. Speaking of new releases, the file sizes for multiple upcoming Switch games were revealed via the Japanese eShop, and a couple of them were surprisingly large.

Elsewhere, a version of Super Mario 64 has been created for the Game Boy Advance in what is undoubtedly one of the weirdest and most impressive accomplishments we’ve seen in recent memory. Aspyr announced another new Star Wars remaster for the Switch, and Shigeru Miyamoto recently addressed concerns surrounding his age at Nintendo’s recent shareholder meeting.

For now, let’s see what team Nintendo Life is getting up to this weekend, shall we..?

Jim Norman, Staff Writer
I’m hoping to sink a little more time into Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD this weekend. It’s certainly my least favourite of the trilogy, but with such a high level of quality, that’s no bad thing. I know that the mission structure doesn’t work for everybody, but I enjoy popping into the mansions for 10 minutes at a time, carrying out my silly little tasks and then getting out of there. It’s bite-sized, but it’s sweet.

Elsewhere, I am so close to the end of my first ever The Last of Us Part II playthrough and I have somehow made it this far spoiler-free. I’ll definitely be polishing that one off this weekend and then probably feel bright, happy and not at all emotionally distraught on Monday morning. That’s how the end of this one goes, right?

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

I’m still on a bit of a Metroid kick at the moment, but since I can’t quite bring myself to renew my NSO subscription at the moment, I’m sticking to my 3DS. I’m currently jumping between Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid: Fusion, and Super Metroid. Naturally, each is an all-time great.

Over on the PS5, I’m still working my way through the System Shock remake, and I think it might be my favourite game of the year..? It’s such a unique experience, but at the same time, you can see how it eventually influenced the likes of Bioshock and Prey. Wonderful stuff.

Kate Gray, Contributor
I’m playing a game for review again! How exciting. This one has actually blown me away so far, so I’m excited to write about it.

But other than that, I’m waiting for my partner to finish playing the new remake of Riven so I can play it with him watching! I just played and finished Myst (for the first time) and now I feel like one of my gamer sins has been erased. Now I can finally call myself a real puzzle-adventure-game lover. I guess I should finish The Witness next… sigh.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributor
While EA Sports FC 24 and Virtua Striker 4 ver. 2002 remain on the menu, it is Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare that takes the top spot for non-Switch related action this week. This turned out to be Space Above and Beyond (ask your grandparents) the video game, becoming my favourite single-player campaign in the whole franchise while at it. Switch is however where the main course this weekend is with NeoSprint, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Monster Hunter Stories and the stunner Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble all ensuring June comes to an end with a bang.

Game of the week is DarkStar One. Space flight/fight/trading games are few and far apart, so when this old gem came about on the eShop I kept it on my radar. Turns out that it is a huge and enjoyable take on the iconic Elite and revered Freelancer with some nice QoL updates and, unlike the original release, in lovely 16:9. Unsure I will ever find the time to complete it, but for the time being I will happily keep jumping from star system to star system to see what happens next.

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.