The Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – April 3

I had an okay time seeing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It’s undeniably beautiful, with stunning visuals and extremely polished animation. The action sequences are especially exciting, and it remains fun to see how Hollywood adapts the relatively simple act of power-ups and head-jumping into thrillingly choreographed combat. That said, I found the story to be a bit of a let-down, especially when it came to the characters. I don’t need that much depth in a movie like this, but even Mario had a clear character arc in the first movie that feels absent in this one. It generally feels overstuffed, prioritizing set pieces and game references to the detriment of the narrative. That said, I can’t deny the fun of seeing such an iconic video game character on a huge screen surrounded by lifelong fans, and would still recommend that experience to anyone with any nostalgia for Nintendo’s primary plumber. Given the nature of this publication, I’m betting that’s just about everyone reading this.

For a more positive take on the film, check out executive editor Brian Shea’s review, where he writes. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is still the joyful experience of the first movie and continues to respect the source material in ways most other game adaptations fall short, but it’s the cinematic equivalent of a theme-park ride.”

I very nearly missed the boat on Deadzone: Rogue multiple times. After all, the game launched on PS5, Xbox, and PC last year without me noticing. Then, when it was shown at a recent Nintendo Indie World Presentation, I thought it looked like a somewhat generic sci-fi FPS, and I brushed it off as something I would likely skip. However, when I got my hands on it at GDC in March, I was immediately hooked. When the game arrived on Switch 2, I fired it up, and I simply cannot stop playing it.

In Deadzone: Rogue, you step into the shoes of a man who doesn’t remember anything about the space station he’s on, and with that mystery in mind, you start going on runs. The sharp shooting mechanics, rewarding cycle of gathering loot and resources for upgrades, and bite-sized rooms coalesce into a terrific roguelite twist on the sci-fi shooter genre that sets it apart from other recent games I’ve played. While the loss of a promising run is as devastating as ever, I am almost always immediately jumping right back into another attempt at moving the story forward.

I found myself in a situation earlier this week where I had to sit for a long period of time without anything in my surroundings to entertain me, and I also forgot to bring a book, my Switch 2, or something of that ilk. So, I perused through Netflix’s offerings of mobile games and downloaded one called Lucky Luna. Though this game has been a part of Netflix Games since its launch in 2022, it was the first I’d heard of it. 

The primary reason I downloaded it is because it can be played vertically – I hate playing games horizontally and wish devs would consider a vertical form factor for play (hint hint: Balatro). It helps that the art style is beautiful, with its feudal Japanese caves and dungeons bathed in deep blues and greens. It also helps that its platforming stages can be completed quickly, and you do so by swiping left or right on the screen – how hard or light you swipe will dictate how far Luna moves left or right, making your quest to dodge booby traps, spikes, gaps, and more, a matter of swiping. It’s a simple but ingenious way to move in a platformer, especially on a phone. This gameplay, its inventive level design, and the pick-up-and-play design of Lucky Luna has solidified it as my new mobile go-to when I’m looking to avoid doomscrolling on my phone.

I’ll be spending a big chunk of this weekend leaping, dashing, and getting brutally killed in Super Meat Boy 3D. I adore Super Meat Boy – I think it’s up there as one of the best platformers ever made – and this three-dimensional follow-up mostly lives up to the tight gameplay and enjoyable challenge of its 2D predecessor with some caveats. The camera can have a hard time properly framing certain angles, making jump trajectory hard to parse, for example. Hopefully this issue doesn’t persist, because the game seems chock full of meaty potential and I’m in the mood for a good 3D platformer.

From the publisher of Balatro comes Raccoin, a game about those coin-pushing machines in arcades. I haven’t played much, but I’m certainly having fun so far; it’s impressive to me just how many games can be turned into roguelikes with the right amount of tweaks. Raccoin uses a physics system that has you shoot tokens of different colors onto a flat surface covered in loose change, and wacky modifiers (like coins that multiply when making contact, for example) keep runs interesting and chaotic. If you, like my coworker Alex Van Aken, are specifically a huge fan of these coin pushing machines, Raccoin is a dream come true. But even if you’re in the much wider category of “people who enjoy roguelikes,” there’s plenty of fun to be had for you as well. At the time of writing, it also happens to be on sale on Steam.