Quick thoughts about a lot of new(ish) games
My flight to LA gave me time to sample some Switch 2 games. And I dove into several brainy Steam Deck offerings, as I search for a Blue Prince replacement
My flight from EWR to LAX yesterday was all about gaming handhelds. I’ve been downloading a lot of games and demos, and I had a lot to catch up on. My thoughts…
Sightseeing in Mario Kart World
I thought I was going to be interested in Mario Kart World’s free-roam mode because it’s full of challenging (and occasionally ludicrous) single-player driving challenges.
But something else has grabbed my attention.
I’m enamored with the visual design of an open world that has been organized with the dream logic of the Mario games. As I drove around this Mario world, I found toads out camping and Yoshis out for a roadside stroll. In one city, there’s a Tiffany-like luxury, but with Birdo. There are yachts speeding through harbors with fire-spitting piranha plants on their decks.
In a Mario Kart world, of course there are highway bridges built out of giant green pipes. It’s as if Nintendo’s designers wanted to create a coherently crafted, functional continent and then asked themselves how to Mario-fy it. It makes for some fun sightseeing.
Testing a second screen in The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
I thought video game companies were done trying to make mobile companion apps a thing. Not Nintendo.
After I landed at LAX, I tried the new “Zelda Notes” feature that’s part of the upgraded Switch 2 versions of both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The feature is accessed via the Switch app on a mobile phone, which can then track your position in the Zelda game as it is played on the Switch 2.
I’m not sure why they went this route. Maybe the Zelda team refused to sully their game’s design by making the actual in-game map reveal all of its hidden contents. The Zelda Notes app approach lets you load a map marked with every type of collectible you’re missing. Maybe Nintendo’s marketing division wanted to boost usage of the app? Who knows.
This Zelda Notes option just might help me track down some missing wells in Tears of the Kingdom, plus the remaining spots were Addison the sign guy is hanging out. Finally, I can mop up activities I missed as if I were map-clearing a traditional Ubisoft game. I’m tempted, for now. (Zelda’s Notes also offers up new audio logs in which Zelda—and other characters—talk about areas of the game world; they play from your phone, and there are at least 150 of them for TotK).
Learning the right “wrong” lessons in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
I had no idea it was possible to magnetically connect the Switch 2’s controllers upside down until Nintendo told me via the Switch 2 Welcome Tour game.
“This orientation is not recommended,” they say in the game. Sure, but now I want to do it, and I expect that configuration to be used in an upcoming WarioWare game or some new Zelda dungeon.
It’s not hard to imagine a game where, with Joy-Cons attached upside down, I see the controls and the back of the system, while you, across from me, see the screen. And we communicate about what to do. Maybe it could work for other types of games, as well?1
Öoo, that’s really good
My Steam Deck is stuffed with demos, and there’s another Next Fest happening next week, so I needed to play some just to keep up.
The best I tried is a 2D platformer called Öoo, from Nama Takahashi, maker of magnificent 2021 platformer ElecHead. Both games explore the gameplay possibilities of simple, distinct rules.
Öoo is about a “bomb caterpillar,” or a little circle character’s ability to lay a trail of bombs, detonate them one at a time and use those explosions to break walls and make jumps.
In the upcoming game’s short PC demo, I quickly learned some advanced techniques. I used one bomb’s explosion to hoist a other in the air, so it’d land just in time to make a second, crucial kaboom… and I learned how to use one bomb to send my character straight off a cliff, then make a second explosion to propel get it to safety on the other side. Fun, tight design. The excellent demo is downloadable through Steam or playable with a mouse and keyboard in a browser via Itch.
Backtracking to Emuurom
From Chants of Sennaar in 2023 to Animal Well in 2024 to Blue Prince in 2025, we’ve been gifted a run of all-time great “thinky” games, so what’s the next brilliant one going to be?
I studied the recent “Thinky Direct” to find out. One possible contender is Emuurom, a non-violent Nintendo Entertainment-style game inspired by Metroid, in which your character scans alien flora and fauna, learns their properties and uses that knowledge to reach new places.
Intrigued by the trailer, I tried the PC demo from developer borbware. The demo is great! The demo is also… from September 2021. But this new trailer promises a 2025 release.
Other Thinky Direct demos I liked:
The Button Effect: A promising, minimalist adventure set in a series of rooms filled with buttons. Figuring out what each kind of button does… even figuring out what is a button, is a big part of the demo.
Map Map - A Game About Maps: This demo was a bit rough, but promising. You play as a girl who starts on an unmapped island and needs to mark the location of a tree. Then, on another island, some ruins. Gradually, you get a compass, some gridlines to work with and a step-counter. A shovel, too. The challenge is to accurately map what you’ve found, with points for accuracy. I could only play so far on my Steam Deck, because the demo was made for mouse and keyboard. I saw enough to keep this one on my radar.
A couple more: I didn’t love the demo for He Who Watches, a first-person puzzle game about unlocking rooms with a magical bow and arrow, but that was mostly due to uncomfortable movement options. Other Steam players were much more into it. Shrink Rooms, a block-pushing game set in rooms that shrink Death-Star-trashbin-style, was neat, if you like pushing blocks. I liked it, briefly. My tolerance for “sokoban”s fades quickly.
Item 2: In brief…
🇫🇷 Testimony has concluded in France in the trial of three former Ubisoft executives accused of sexual and moral harassment.
A ruling is expected in early July, according to a reporter from Libération, which has covered Ubisoft’s scandals and this week’s trial.
The executives face up to three years of suspended prison sentences as well as fines.
🤔 Breakout 2025 PC/PlayStation hit Black Myth Wukong is finally getting an Xbox release on August 20, the anniversary of its release, Eurogamer reports.
💬 Samantha Kelly, longtime voice actor for Princess Peach and Toad, said today that Nintendo has informed her that they will be re-casting the role, VGC reports.
💰 Tencent has acquired 15% of Helldivers studio Arrowhead, Eurogamer reports, citing Swedish outlet Digital.
🎮 Sony’s State of Play showcase earlier this week included the reveal of a September remake of Final Fantasy Tactics (PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch), the 2026-slated action game Nioh 3 (PC, PlayStation), a virtual reality revival of the Thief franchise (PSVR2, Meta Quest 2 and 3, PC VR), a new hyper-violent and bizarre Suda51 game—via NetEase—Romeo is a Deadman, and a flashy new 2026 Marvel super-hero fighting game from Arc System Works called Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls (PC, PlayStation).
Item 3: The week ahead
Lots of showcases coming up, as the not-quite-E3 season commences. Unless otherwise noted, links to showcases can be found via the SGF page.
Friday, June 6
The Summer Game Fest showcase (5pm ET) and Day of the Devs showcase (8pm ET) are held.
Saturday, June 7
The Wholesome Direct (noon ET), Women Led Games Showcase (1pm ET), Latin American Games Showcase (2pm ET) and Southeast Asian Developers Showcase (3pm ET), and Future Games Show (4pm ET) are held.
IGN Live begins, a mix of fan festival and online game showcase, running through Sunday.
Sunday, June 8
Microsoft’s Xbox / Outer Worlds showcase (1pm ET) and the PC Gaming Show (3pm ET) are held.
Monday, June 9
The Black Voices in Gaming showcase is held (noon ET).
Steam Next Fest begins, offering access to hundreds of new PC demos through the following Monday.
Tuesday, June 10
Siege X, an overhaul to Rainbow Six Siege (PC, PlayStation, Xbox), Dune Awakening (PC), and MindsEye (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) are released.
Friday, June 13
The Alters (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) and Five Nights At Freddy’s Secrets of the Mimic (PC, PlayStation) are released.
True gamers play Mario Kart in upside down mirror mode, right?
I've been really enjoying Welcome Tour. When I got my Switch 2 I noticed how well made it is, especially when compared to previous Nintendo consoles. And I've really enjoyed learning about all the small design choices they've made that have come together for theirs premium feeling console.
Hot tip... I just started The Alters last night. This one's a BANGER. Not surprising from the Frostpunk folks, but... it was one of those games where I figured I'd take a few minutes to try it before switching to another recent buy, and ended up playing it all night long. (Also a welcome comeback from my kinda lukewarm experience with Frostpunk 2)
It's pretty cool how they weave the protagonist's dramatic life story into the gameplay without it coming across as trite or saccharine. Some of the signposting could be *slightly* better - I'm pretty sure I could've saved myself a day or so in the intro if I'd been able to navigate the tasks well enough to sequence them more efficiently. And thus far it's clear the game hasn't taken the kid gloves off me yet, so it kinda feels wierdly easy -- usually survival games whack you over the head with difficulty right out the gate.
But it's just so gripping, one of those "I *have* to see how this ends" stories that you can't turn away from.