The first month of 2024 is coming to a close, and we’ve already been enjoying some fine games here at Kotaku. We hope this year has brought you some pleasant gaming experiences as well.
This weekend we’re looking at a handful of great titles from January, as well as a pretty stellar game from last year. From RPGs to brutal 3D fighters, here’s a look at the varied spectrum of games we’re playing this weekend.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows
Current goal: Fill out my intergalactic fish tank
Look, 2023 had a lot of amazing frickin’ games, okay? So yes, I am only just now playing through one of our GOTY choices. In the coming months you can also look forward to my ice-cold takes on Zelda and Armored Core VI.
Hat tip to developer Respawn Entertainment for improving upon 2019’s Fallen Order in every way. Survivor features some of the most satisfying 3D platforming I’ve experienced in games; the Soulslike combat remains solid; and playing on PS5 spared me most of the jank that plagued the PC version on launch.
But what I really love about Survivor is this cast of characters that Respawn has introduced into the Star Wars canon, foremost amongst them adventurous fisherman Skoova Stev. Shout out to all the Big Daddy stans out there.
This delightful wee lad tasks you with collecting fish across the planets of Koboh and Jedha to place into the growing aquarium back at your home base of Pyloon’s Saloon. Each fish earns you an anecdote from Stev, another stirring chapter in an epic tale from his own past. Forget this new Grogu joint, give us a Skoova Stev fishing show Lucasfilm! — Eric Schulkin
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Hang out with my digital friends in Hawaii and Japan
Being new to the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Infinite Wealth. I was concerned that I’d be lost having not played any of the other entries, but that simply wasn’t the case. Instead, what I was treated to was a wonderful narrative with fantastic characters and exemplary turn-based combat.
Read More: Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth: The Kotaku Review
This weekend, I’m hoping to dive back in and spend more time with the game’s many wonderful side activities. Quirky, full of life and never short on getting laughs and joy out of me, Infinite Wealth’s characters and the ways you can spend time with them through the game’s Bond system (which feeds into the fantastic combat, granting you cool and powerful combined attacks) are excellent. Sadly, in my time with the game for review, I fell behind on these activities and I’m hoping to fix that. After that, I’m thinking it’s time for me to figure out which game in this series I’m going to play next, because Infinite Wealth has me hooked. — Claire Jackson
Cool! All the previous Yakuza games are on Game Pass
Not sure where to start with the Yakuza series? Good news: While Infinite Wealth isn’t on Xbox’s on-demand service right now, you can jump into the long-running Japanese gangster series with your Game Pass subscription.
Tekken 8
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Beat the story
With the recent releases of Granblue Fantasy Versus, Mortal Kombat 1, and Street Fighter 6—along with the other fighting games that came out in the last few years—we’re in something of a golden age for fighting games. Bandai Namco will round this list out with Tekken 8 on January 26 and, based on the reviews alone, it sounds awesome. Seriously, fighting game fans are eating real good.
Read More: Tekken 8 Will Fix A Potentially Dangerous Feature After Outcry
The eighth mainline entry in the decades-spanning fighting game franchise, Tekken 8 has some new mechanics that make the game more approachable for beginners while providing added depth for veterans. I experimented with some of these features in the demo that’s available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, including the Heat system that can extend combo strings and maintain offensive pressure. It felt solid, but because the demo is limited—you’ve got just a handful of characters and stages at your disposal—I wanted to wait to get the full experience. Now that the weekend is coming and the game’s release is upon us, I’m getting fired up to jump in, pick my main, and get bodied in online matches. You gotta lose before you win, so I look forward to taking a lot of Ls. It’ll make the first W taste so sweet. — Levi Winslow
Another Code: Recollection
Play it on: Switch
Current goal: Explore the mysterious mansion
The Nintendo DS’ library was vast and rich, packed with epic adventures, wonderful platformers, great racing games, and more. The experiences I remember most fondly, however, were those that felt uniquely DS, that made playing the handheld feel something like curling up with a good book. I’m thinking of games that were both cozy and captivating and that often used the DS in some pretty unique ways, games like Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory. Now, Trace Memory (and its sequel, Another Code: R – A Journey into Lost Memories, which was never before released in the U.S.) have been entirely remade and released on the Switch as Another Code: Recollection, and I eagerly picked it up to see if it could recapture that wonderful feeling I once experienced with Nintendo’s dual-screen handheld.
Of course, however, Another Code can’t faithfully reproduce everything that made the original Trace Memory unique, because some of that game’s puzzles incorporated the DS’ unique hardware into their solutions. The best it can do, it seems to me, is tell the same story, albeit with very different visuals, maybe introducing fresh new puzzles to change things up but also losing some of what made the original game so distinctive. At this point, I’m only a few hours into Another Code, and it’s proving to be a pleasant enough adventure so far, with comfy vibes and alluring atmosphere as I explore the mansion that serves as its central location. This weekend, I hope to spend more time with it, and see if I think it can distinguish itself enough to live up to the distinctly DS game that inspired it. — Carolyn Petit
And that wraps our picks for the week. What games are you playing this weekend?
Leave a Reply