Weekend Gaming Playlist

The weekends are meant to be a time of rest, but we often can’t help losing an hour or so of sleep here and there. Even so, we can all rest assured that even bleary-eyed and yawning, our Nintendo Switch will be there to keep us company. I personally will be spending my weekend wrangling two young children by day, and enjoying some extended play sessions by night – as my wife will be out of town. It’s a good thing I’ll have a couple of rock solid RPGs to keep me company.

Dragon Quest II

I must confess that, despite being a life-long fan of the Dragon Quest series, I’ve only ever rolled credits on one mainline title: Dragon Quest I. This is a shame, considering how phenomenal the remainder of the series is. With the first three games in this iconic RPG series now available on Switch, I’m diving into these revamped retro experiences to relive these fundamental games from my formative years. Considered by many the black sheep of NES-era Dragon Quest, DQII is still a solid retro RPG, and one that I’ve always wanted to finish. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be finishing a journey my childhood self started, reuniting the descendants of the great hero and foiling the machinations of the evil Hargon.

FUZE4

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been quietly tinkering with FUZE4, a game programming platform released for Switch last fall. Rebuilding my long-neglected programming skills is taking a bit of time, but the payoff has been well worth it. I don’t know if I’ll be making the next great RPG in this system, but at the very least I’ll be remaking some simple games I once built on my graphing calculator in high school, alongside modifications to a simple Roguelike that comes as a sample. I have some level of ambition for a larger project once this learning and testing phase is over, but for now, I’m just enjoying stretching some muscles that haven’t been used in a very long time.

Pokémon Yellow

Between the two titles above, I also have my ongoing work on the SwitchRPG vs. Pokémon series. I’m gradually working my way through Pokémon Yellow, considered by many to be the best Generation I has to offer. While the verdict is still out for me in that regard, I am enjoying seeing the little changes between Yellow and its predecessors. I should be wrapping up this title soon, so be on the lookout for the review and updated rankings in the near future.

That’s all for me this weekend. Assuming I survive my children, I’m looking forward to continuing my journey through these classic series and maybe building out some adventures of my own in the future. What’s on your docket for the weekend? Let us know in the comments.