Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 6 Games We're Obsessed With Right Now
We’re reaching the end of yet another week, and that (hopefully) means we’ve got a solid 48 hours of gaming bliss lined up. Perhaps you too are looking forward to spending some time this weekend gaming, but aren’t sure what to pick.
There are a lot of games out there for sure. 2024 has offered up a healthy selection of great new games worth checking out. So we’ve rounded up a couple of them here, plus , another from a couple of years ago, and a nice 20-year throwback as well.
So if you’re looking for something worth checking out, any of these games will be time well spent.
Animal Well
Play it on: PS5, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Get some sleep
I’m on such a Metroidvania burn just now, currently spending an inordinate number of hours with last year’s Afterimage on my Xbox, alongside Tales of Kenzera: ZAU on PC, which has all just been shoved aside by the extraordinary Animal Well.
Ethan reviewed the game for Kotaku, and he rightly said “you’ll obsess over it.” As it happens, I play a lot of games that look like Animal Well, so its gorgeously lit pixel art—while stunning—isn’t particularly novel. (I’ve recently been loving, but am terrible at, Ants Took My Eyeball, for instance.) I also play absolutely every Metroid-like platformer I can get my hands on. So what is it about Animal Well that is making me not only so happy, but also staying up so ludicrously late at night despite having 7am starts every morning?
I think it might be the yo-yo. But less facetiously, it’s the spectacularly tactile nature of the platforming. The little blob you play as bounces so perfectly, and with each gained ability feels leagues ahead. I deeply love how the game gives you a frisbee, but doesn’t tell you that it’s possible—well, vital—to ride on it. With every new item, there’s experimentation to discover its full potential. And yet, with all this, it doesn’t incessantly ruin all your fun with incessant boss fights! What a thing to behold. — John Walker
Dread Delusion
Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Venture further out into the world
I’ve said this here on Kotaku before, but so many role-playing games use the same Tolkien-esque building blocks in creating their worlds. And, look, there’s nothing wrong with that. I love dwarves and orcs and wizards with long gray beards as much as anyone. But it does make it all the more thrilling when you come across a world that feels truly original. I’ll never forget the excitement of venturing into Morrowind, finding a world with hints of familiarity, but that was also wondrous and strange. I’ve only barely stepped foot into Dread Delusion, a new first-person open-world RPG which just came out of early access this week, but already it’s giving me a similar feeling that I’m venturing into a world unlike any I’ve seen before.
There are familiar elements here, of course: swords and spells, sure, and vaguely Warcraft-esque flying airships to boot. But there are also crimson skies, and towering mushrooms, and enemies who defy description. The fact that the tech powering Dread Delusion makes it all feel reminiscent of late-90s Might & Magic games only adds to the wonderfully textured atmosphere.
Thankfully, while the world itself is alien, the core RPG mechanics feel pretty approachable, and there’s plenty of flexibility in determining just what kind of character you want to create. As I said, I’ve only just scratched the surface of Dread Delusion thus far, but I’m very much looking forward to getting lost in it for a while this weekend and seeing what new wonders await over the horizon. — Carolyn Petit
Metal Gear Solid 2
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Prepare for a European Extreme mode run
Having revisited the first Metal Gear Solid and its spin-off, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, I got the impulse to move onto Metal Gear Solid 2, one of the many games I played to death in the 2000s.
Read More: Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions: The Kotaku Review
MGS2 is almost too perfect for me. It’s a combination of one of my favorite genres (stealth) and a mind-bending narrative that sometimes feels painfully predictive of where society would end up. Besides, the Master Collection, which I must reiterate is an extremely flawed and disappointing collection of some of the best games of all time, does contain European Extreme mode, a super-hard difficulty that came with MGS2: Substance. I had started a playthrough of that mode way back in the day, but my copy of Substance soon went perpetually missing (damn stealth camo) along with my singular PS2 memory card.
So I’m thinking it’s time to hit that difficulty mode with all I got, but I’ll need to prep first. MGS2 is a product of its time, so I’ll have to get used to the older mechanics and could use a run or two on normal, hard, and maybe extreme. Plus, those wonderful VR missions are in abundance.
Read More: 18 Cool Things Metal Gear Solid 2 Doesn’t Outright Tell You
The Steam Deck feels like a good platform for this, especially as I have a trip coming up this weekend. Why stare out the window at the lovely scenic view of the Metro North rail when I could just stare at a gaming machine?
— Claire Jackson
Hi-Fi Rush
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Clean up corporate’s mess
In the wake of the sad news of Tango Gameworks’ closure, I decided to revisit the studio’s rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush. It still whips, and some of its best parts shine even brighter now. And now that I’ve seen credits, there’s still a fair bit of mess to clean up in the aftermath. I saw doors I couldn’t open throughout each level and figured I’d have reason to replay them. But I wasn’t expecting it to actually factor into a post-game plot. I’m excited to revisit those levels, smack enemies around on the beat, and wonder wistfully about the sequel Tango Gameworks was getting ready to pitch before it met its untimely demise at the hands of corporate greed. — Kenneth Shepard
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Finally play this thing!
A few months ago, I bought the latest Prince of Persia game on sale using some store credits. Everything I read about it made it seem like an awesome and well-made video game. So once it arrived at my house, I placed it on my entertainment stand and….that’s where it has remained. About the same time it arrived, I got distracted by other games and life. But now, as my pile of “Cool Stuff I Need To Play Before December” grows larger, I’m going to try and go back and knock Prince of Persia off my backlog. Will I accomplish this task? Or will other games, life, and the universe screw me over and keep me from playing the video game I want to play? Tune in next weekend to find out! — Zack Zwiezen
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Play it on: Nintendo Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Start it and try not to lose my mind
There’s about a dozen games that I want to dig into right now because May has been a surprisingly rich month for releases, but I think I’m going to spend the weekend digging into Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. The latest game from Simogo, which created the entrancing Sayonara Wild Hearts a few years ago, seems poised to positively break my brain from all the praise I’ve heard about it, especially from my colleague Willa who gave it a glowing review this week. I have purposefully learned or seen very little of it, and Simogo seems like they were of the same mind, because little of the promotional material has given away anything about the title, save for its name and a premise I’ve not been able to get a clean grasp on. I’m excited to make time for it this weekend and solve some batshit crazy puzzles for the first time in a long while, and it sounds like you all should too. — Moises Taveras
And that wraps up our selection of games we’re into this weekend. Hopefully we’ve inspired you to return to an old classic or try something new and cool.
