What Are You Playing This Weekend? (August 6th)

It’s been a busy week for Nintendo fans, and for us at Nintendo Life! Not only has Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Wave 2 finally dropped, but Game Freak and The Pokémon Company gave us plenty of news on Pokémon Scarlet & Violet! Nintendo also delivered its Q1 financial results, where it reported a drop in over sales.

And while some of us really want more Mario Kart DLC tracks like Baby Park, others of us are feeling very enthused by the new Pokémon details. Lastly, we all have a few games on our Switch that are hard to categorise, so why not check out our list of the best games that don’t really have a genre? Or have multiple genres? They’re just hard to categorise. Unique, let’s say.

Now it’s time to chill out and discuss our weekend gaming plans. A few members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so feel free to give our entries a read and then join in with your own via our comment section. Enjoy!

Alana Hagues, staff writer

It’s been a week of full-on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and that’s set to continue this weekend. At 40 hours, I’m a little ways into chapter 4, and I’m not bored one bit. The sidequests are brilliant, the combat has almost fully opened up at this point, the characters and the story are fantastic, and the music is so good. Every time I start up a Chain Attack, I want to jump out of my seat and cheer thanks to this music.

So, Xenoblade 3 is phenomenal and pretty much impossible to put down, yes, but I think I’ll also challenge my partner at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The new courses are pretty good, so I’m excited to play them online with him (and beat him, of course).

Ollie Reynolds, staff writer

So you know I said last week that I wouldn’t be getting Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in the foreseeable future? Well, I lied. It’s not my fault though! I had such a busy week and I actually kinda forgot that it was my birthday, so I used a bit of birthday money and downloaded Xenoblade a couple of days ago. I’m not far into it, but I’ve just beaten my first Elite Monster, so I guess you could say I’m a bit of an expert at this point. I’m absolutely loving it so far, though; the more mature tone of the narrative is a striking contrast to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which I didn’t really get on with.

Elsewhere, Cyberpunk 2077 has finally gotten its hooks into me. I bought it back on launch day for the Xbox, but it clearly wasn’t ready for prime time yet, so got a full refund through Microsoft. Now that it’s been updated for current-gen systems, I bought it again (at a discounted price, I might add), and wow, it’s a completely different experience! I think it’s such a shame CDPR didn’t give itself enough time to get the game in the right state for launch, because it could have been such a game changer. As it is, it’s an incredible game that kinda feels like a bit of an underdog now.

Kate Gray, staff writer

I’m in Montreal this weekend, cat sitting for a friend, so I only have my Switch… and access to his PS5.

I’m still playing Rune Factory 4 and I just got past what I think is Act One, but I may also give Demon’s Souls a go!

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your weekend gaming plans!