Week: End Game: On 09.25.2016

It’s another edition of Week: End Game: On! What games are the staff playing this weekend? Read on to find out!

Joshua Johnston

My eight-year-old daughter has started playing Xenoblade Chronicles. On her own.

I’ll probably spend the weekend watching her.

I’m continuing my path through my massive backlog. With Spider-Man wrapped up, I’m still chipping away at some more accumulated games. It’s amazing how many I still have in their shrink-wrap, but it’s hard to pass up a good deal!

Like Joshua, I also got to spend some time playing video games with my kiddo this week. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a bit advanced for my two-year-old, so instead we played the Finding Dory playset for Disney Infinity 3.0. Seeing her eyes light-up as she and daddy played as Nemo and Dory was a terrific moment, and it made me all the more sad that this terrific game won’t see any more updates.

I also celebrated Batman Day last weekend by playing through a ton of Batman: Arkham Origins. The more I play it, the more impressed I am. It definitely lacks some of the polish of Arkham City (and some of the cooler Wii U exclusives that game featured), but it still feels like one of Rocksteady’s excellent titles, and that makes it hard to complain. The setting and story are pretty strong, too!

I am really loving Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, as well. Backtracking can be a bit tedious in the game, but the game has so much heart, and it’s just an absolute blast to play through. That said, I hope to have it finished up by the end of the week. Yo-Kai Watch 2 will be out next Friday!

Robert Marrujo

Does upgrading to iOS 10 and downloading the Mario Run sticker pack count as gaming…?

Okay, probably not, but I couldn’t resist, nonetheless! Personally, I’ve been too busy lately to get a lot of hardcore gaming in, but I’ve managed some playtime here and there. For starters, I got my hands on Final Fight 2 and 3 for my New 3DS. Easily some of the best brawlers you’ll ever play! Giant sprites, giant fights, and giant fun.

I also finally polished off Metroid Prime: Federation Force. You’ll get my full thoughts next week, but I’ll say this: it’s easily worth your time if you like shooters, Metroid, or both. Can I switch things up a bit by talking about something I’m dying to play? Severed on Wii U. It’s an awesome PlayStation Vita game that I can’t wait to experience on a Nintendo console!

In gaming-related (but not game-playing) news, I finally hunted down the Spencer’s-exclusive dark Link Jakks Pacific action figure. Dang, he’s cool. I also stumbled across a new video game book called The Tetris Effect, about (of course) Tetris! I’ll try to have a review of it up soon. Last but not least? I also came across a Cat Mario Jakks action figure at K-Mart. Nice!

Unfortunately, I haven’t had too much free time to play video games lately, but I did start Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. I’ve only put about two hours into the title so far, so it’s still much too early to pass any sort of judgements on it, but the introductory portion is painfully slow. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that considering the fact it’s a JRPG that was originally released in 2000, but the opening chapter was nonetheless a slog. Fortunately the game seems to be picking up– I’ve actually run into some monsters to fight!– so hopefully it only gets better from here.

Aside from that, I purchased Dear Esther: Landmark Edition on Xbox One and played that once through. Dear Esther is the type of title you’ll likely either love or hate because it’s more of an interactive experience than a true game, but I was enthralled by it when it was first released on Steam a couple of years ago. It has lost a bit of its luster since then, but it’s still able to evoke such a haunting atmosphere. It’s certainly not for everyone– the entire experience only lasts between one to two hours depending on how slowly you approach it, and the snippets of story it offers are cryptic to the point of pretentiousness– but if you enjoy exploring in video games, I’d recommend giving it a download!

What are you playing this weekend? Let us know in the comments!