4th April

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little about the games we’ve been playing. This week, Victoria strongarms her children into playing Super Mario Galaxy before they watch the rather ropy-sounding film; Bertie discovers a game as strange as he is; Marie reveals a wonderful Easter tradition that she’s created for herself; and Connor’s still absolutely hooked on Old School Runescape.

What have you been playing this week?

Here’s another question: do you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to! The What We’ve Been Playing archive has you covered.

Super Mario Galaxy, Switch

I realised over the weekend that my kids haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy, so before they inevitably see the film version of Mario’s planet-hopping escapade, I decided to introduce them to what I still believe to be one of the best platformers of all time, and I’m having a hoot.

Super Mario Galaxy’s level design holds up today, even nearly 20 years after it made its debut. I love the way Mario can traverse the undersides of planets (even if I do sometimes feel car sick negotiating the different angles). I love the different skills he can get. I love the very hungry Lumas and the celestial Rosalina. Simply, I love this game.

Thankfully, my kids seem to be into it as much as I am, and we’ve enjoyed our evenings curled on the sofa collecting star fragments and – eventually – saving Princess Peach. If I can get away with it, I think I’ll leave The Super Mario Galaxy Movie for another few weeks, so my smaller humans can enjoy the game as spoiler-free as possible. Wish me luck!

-Victoria

Esoteric Ebb, PC

I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about this and I saw person-of-impeccable-taste Johnny Chiodini playing it the other day, so like a seagull by a bin, I decided to have a peck. Also, I believe Esoteric Ebb is a first of its kind, a Disco Elysium-alike, which I find semi-remarkable, and Disco is clearly the overwhelming influence here. The other is Dungeons & Dragons; they make for a strange pairing.

Esoteric Ebb is an isometric kind of role-playing game by a solo developer and it’s beautiful and weird. The Disco theme comes through in how you deliberate over things with voices in your head. Here, they’re tied to D&D attributes like Strength and Dexterity and so on, each with a different outlook on the world and all of which will squabble internally for your favour. The experience of playing the game, then, is a lot of reading, as even the simplest interaction can trigger an internal Parliamentary debate among your bickering selves. Intriguing, but I don’t want to say too much in order to keep my powder dry for a longer piece.

I’ve also been playing more Slay the Spire 2 because of course I have. I dipped into daily quests for the first time and was rather swept off my feet. Dailies rewrite the rules in bold ways to present unique challenges, and the challenge I attempted let me build my own starter deck, which I’ve never done before. But it twisted that idea by ensuring that every card I chose for it, I also received two other duplicates of, which turned out to be ridiculous. I absolutely obliterated the spire; it was great.

-Bertie

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, PS5

I’m not exactly sure how or when this tradition started, but ever since I was a teenager, I’ve played Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from start to finish every Easter Bank Holiday weekend. And this year will be no different. I don’t speedrun it but I do challenge myself to see how quickly I can finish the game each year.

Last year I got it down to around five-and-a-half hours, ish. This isn’t including the unskippable cutscenes. I don’t try to rush each level, I take my time and try and enjoy myself, assuming I don’t get irritated if I’ve made a wrong move. I also don’t try to cram the entire game into one day. But I do use a notes app and a timer to track how long I play each session for, and add them up to get my overall time.

The two rules I set myself are that it has to be 100 percent completed, and that the timing only counts over Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Again, I don’t know how this became a thing or why I do it, but do you know what? I enjoy it. I enjoy having my own little tradition.

-Marie

Old School RuneScape and Esoteric Ebb, PC

I’ve had a really amazing time in Old School RuneScape recently, finishing a massive quest chain and earning myself an incredibly powerful reward as a result. Recipe for Disaster is a legendary narrative arc in the British MMORPG, in which a magic chef locks many innocents within Lumbridge castle in timeless captivity. You, as a hardy adventurer, have to create meals for each victim, which sends you flying across the world to gather ingredients, kill zombie monkeys, speak to pirates, and so on.

The quest chain concludes with a battle with the Culinaromancer himself, as he retreats to his realm, forcing you to fend off multiple bosses. These include Flambeed, the giant flaming desert golem, and a pastry fiend called Karamel. After you take them all out, and the Culinaromancer himself, you can access a special chest in the basement of the castle where Barrows Gloves can be bought. These are amazing and will be on my character for probably 1000 in-game hours. I’m not joking.

Also, Esoteric Ebb is great too, though I’ve not sunk too much time into it. I have somehow slipped and made myself a nationalist Cleric; I don’t know. But I stole a crossbow off someone and it gave me no strength nor constitution bonuses so it’s been sitting in my bags.

-Connor