Simon's Quest
Image: Konami

It's been a pretty quiet few days in the world of Nintendo, but as we're all gearing up for a another weekend of gaming, let's take a peek at some of the highlights of the week.

First up, there's a new Nintendo Lego set incoming! Hooray! This one looks spectacular and is essentially a replica of the Mario & Yoshi sprite from Super Mario World. It's gorgeous, but like all Lego, it's got a hefty price tag. Speaking of Lego, Eiji Aonuma also commented on the upcoming Lego Deku Tree from The Legend of Zelda.

Elsewhere, there are new Splatoon 3 amiibo on the way, so that's pretty cool if you're still into the little plastic figurines, while Genius Sonority released The New Denpa Men for free on the Switch eShop (albeit with some dodgy translation issues to boot).

Finally, we asked the age-old question: Are you ready to move on from the Switch yet?

While you have a ponder, take a look at what we're going to be playing over the next few days...

Gavin Lane, Editor

The announcement tease earlier this week from the Blasphemous devs pushed me onto the eShop where I saw that the sequel, which I've been meaning to play for ages, is 50% off at the moment. There are plenty of other things on my list, but that might just jump to the top.

The only thing that might prevent it is my lack of home internet right now and a need to reserve mobile data for work — in which case I'll be doing what I've done every weekend morning throughout July: a single blast through SEGA AGES Out Run followed by a Virtua Racing chaser.

Never gets old

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

I've been playing quite a bit of Castlevania recently; the original NES games, primarily, but I've also dabbled in a bit of Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow. I love those first few games though, even Simon's Quest; the gameplay is straightforward, but consistently engaging, and the music is simply sublime.

Otherwise, again, I'm not playing a great deal at the moment. It's a quiet time for us all, I think, and I don't know about you, but I'm itching for some new hardware news.

Kate Gray, Contributor

This weekend, I will be playing [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], and having a grand old time with at least one of them. But they're for review, so I can't say anything more.

I also have been dipping my game-toes into a Steam game called The Planet Crafter, which plays a lot like Subnautica-meets-Astroneer. It's very... um... I don't know? It's all about collecting resources, and building things out of them, and then collecting more, but that's ALL I'm doing. There's a terraforming aspect to it, so I think it'll get more fun as I form more of the terras. We'll see!

My partner has just jumped back into Elden Ring, after one of our friends visited (who knows EVERYTHING about the game) and convinced him to keep trying, showed him new areas to go to, and basically helped to unstick him from the bit he was in. So, I've also been watching a lot of that. He just unlocked an outfit made of human skin. It's real nasty!

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

Good stuff on the eShop this week: The Portuguese developed Exophobia is finally out, having followed up all the development cycle of this first-person metroidvania with a heavy dash of 8-bit aesthetics was quite a ride. And jut in the country over, Spanish developed Super Woden GP II was also released, at last brining the sequel to this hardcore isometric racer on Nintendo’s hardware. Skipping SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos because I prefer to grab a physical edition down the line. On the non-Nintendo side of things, it’s all about completing 2015’s Mad Max on PC.

Game of the week is unsurprisingly still Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown - Deluxe Edition. I’m currently hunting for all hidden ace pilots to get their plane liveries but I must pace myself somewhat because I need to work on my Summer Live DJ set which I hope to release in the next few weeks. Show must go on!

Jim Norman, Staff Writer

The Switch is taking a backseat this weekend as I plan to go all-in on the 3DS. I’ve been plugging away at A Link Between Worlds for a little while now, saving another Sage and then turning to something else for a bit. But it’s time to knuckle down and see things through to the end (again).

If I do manage to polish it off, I picked up Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia a few months back and haven’t put nearly enough time into it. Maybe I’ll finally get round to training up a team I can be proud of, or maybe I’ll spend too much time fiddling about in those dungeon-exploring sequences and forget to do any tactical planning whatsoever. It’s definitely going to be the latter, isn’t it?

That's what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? You can let us know what game you'll be maining in the following poll and then take to the comments to share what else you have on the cards.

What are you playing this weekend (27th/28th July)?

(You may select up to 5 answers)