The Video Games You Should Play This Weekend – June 12

The original Onimusha: Warlords is an important game for me. It was my introduction to the power of the PlayStation 2, and for years, it lived as the game that I was never able to see to its conclusion. I played it at a friend’s house with no memory card, so we just kept restarting the game, but we were happy with that because it looked amazing. I finally played it to completion when it was ported to Switch in 2019 and then played through it again for MinnMax’s deepest dive in 2025. When Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny was ported to modern platforms last year, I played through that game, too (and talked to its creators in this interview), and enjoyed it as well.

For those reasons, I am excited for Onimusha: Way of the Sword. I am also excited because Capcom has consistently been releasing very good video games for the last few years. The free demo, which offers about 45 minutes of gameplay, has confirmed to me that my excitement is justified. The game doesn’t really feel like Onimusha 1 or 2, frankly, and instead feels just like a great samurai action game with demons, which I am totally okay with. I am curious to see if it feels more Onimusha in the full game, but even if it doesn’t, I am still eager to hang with Miyamoto Musashi and fight some demons later this year.

Since its reveal, my admittedly cynical reaction to the Star Fox 64 remake has been one of indifference. I have affection for Star Fox 64, but I played it a lot back in 1997 and enjoyed the 3DS remake in 2011. Unlike many Nintendo 64 games, it’s one I think is still fun to play today without the need for a remake. And I was hoping for something new from the franchise for its Switch debut.

Embarrassingly, however, playing through the demo turned me around and made me confront and embrace my nostalgia. Turns out I like Star Fox 64 more than I realized and the updated soundtrack is phenomenal.

The free demo includes the tutorial, which has some fun character interactions as the team trains together in VR, and Star Fox 64’s second level, Meteo, which takes place in a dense asteroid field. Controlling Fox’s Arwing feels great and the new visuals add to the epic scale of space battles. I felt like a kid again, blasting my way through Start Fox 64 for the fifth time like it was 1997 all over again, and now I want to play the whole thing.

Xenoblade Chronicles is the little RPG that could. It launched in 2010 exclusively for the Wii in Japan, then made its way to Europe and Australia before finally being released in North America in 2012. And even then, it was a concession made in response to RPG fans who were frustrated that the game wasn’t available in the United States. It reviewed well when it finally released and, as the myriad sequels and ports have confirmed, it found its audience, and that audience has only grown.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (which, yes, has the word ‘Edition’ in its title twice) is the newest port of the game and was available shortly after being announced earlier this week for Switch 2. This new version is the best the game has ever looked and adds motorcycles to make long-distance travel feel less like a slog. If you never played the game on Wii (or New 3DS or Switch), now is as good a time as any to jump in at the starting line. And if you like it, the two sequels will be getting Switch 2 ports soon, as well.

Of the dozens upon dozens of game announcements during Summer Game Fest, few have stuck with me like 1666: Amsterdam. The next title by Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey developer Panache Digital Games, led by Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets, stars a witch hunting demons disguised as humans with the aid of a talking cat who, it turns out, possesses the consciousness of a human from 1999. I later learned its SGF showing was a re-reveal of sorts, as the game has been in development in some form for the last 16 years and has a tumultuous history that even includes legal battles with Ubisoft. Game Informer editor-in-chief Matt Miller wrote a great summary of the events leading to 1666: Amsterdam’s return that you can read here.

Although the game is set to launch in PC Early Access this year, you can download a free playable prologue on Steam and The Epic Games Store. This approximately 30-minute slice doesn’t feature any of the stylish, spellbinding combat from the trailer, but it does set the table for how Noa, the witch, and Aaron, the cat, meet. It’s very weird, and the presentation is a bit dated, but it’s worth checking out to see how this fascinating and long-in-development game is shaping up.

The celebrated Fights In Tight Spaces is receiving a true sequel, now offering an increased focus on cooperative play with friends. The original deck-building card game looked great, but this new installment overhauls the visual style in some key ways, adding detail to environments while keeping the iconic character silhouettes that helped define the prior entry. The big surprise was Ground Shatter’s move to announce the game and then immediately shadow drop the early access build to play right away, so you can try out your own tight-spaced melees right now.

2020’s There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is an interesting experience. It’s kind of a point-and-click adventure game that is about the medium of video games and playing video games and the fourth wall basically remains shattered from the opening moments. It’s also quite funny.

Crushed In Time is not a sequel per se, but if you played Wrong Dimension, you know that developer Draw Me A Pixel was never going to take things the traditional route for a follow-up. Instead, Crushed In Time follows secondary characters established in Wrong Dimension, Draw Me A Pixel’s take on Sherlock Holmes and Watson. And instead of being a point-and-click in the familiar sense, you actually tug on elements of the environment to solve puzzles. For example, opening a drawer in the opening puzzle requires pulling the door knob off the door, and flinging it to the drawer so the handle can be used as a drawer pull. I haven’t made much progress in my playtime yet, but I like the art style and humor and I am excited to see how it plays with preconceptions about what I think the game will be.

In my opinion, the honor of best Tomb Raider video game still belongs to the 2013 Tomb Raider game, part one of the Lara Croft sub-series, the Survivor trilogy. However, the honor of second best Tomb Raider game belongs to the 2015 sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is now available for Switch 2 with the confusing subtitle, “20 Year Celebration.” The original Tomb Raider released 30 years ago and Rise of the Tomb Raider released 11 years ago. It turns out, this is a Switch 2 port of a version of Rise of the Tomb Raider that released in 2016 that was, at the time, celebrating 20 years of Tomb Raider. Confusion cleared!

In any case, it’s a great Tomb Raider game and this version has all the DLC, including the underrated Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch content in which Lara meets Baba Yaga who lives in a house that walks around on giant chicken legs. It’s very cool. And now you can play it on Nintendo Switch 2.

The big takeaway from Charles Harte’s recent review of Among Us, the new Paramont + TV show based on the popular video game, is that it’s better than you think. My 14 year-old daughter quickly watched the show and offered a similar report and insisted I sit down and watch it with her. And you know what? I am inclined to agree with both of them. The performers (including folks like Elijah Wood, Yvette Nicole Brown, Patton Oswalt, Randall Park, and more) deliver enthusiastic and funny performances, the murder mystery is engaging, and the writers are clearly genuine fans of the property. Its references to the games are important plot and world-building details rather than fan service. One joke about a character trying to get a weapon from the weapons locker, only to discover it was a locker for weird aprons with certain letters covered to make it read like weapons, really made me laugh.

And if you subscribe to Paramount +, you can also watch Star Trek, which is a nice bonus.

Depending on where you prefer to pick up your tabletop RPG releases, the new Ravenloft book is already available online and at many local game stores, with broader release planned for early next week. The original legendary Ravenloft adventure launched way back in 1983, and was one of the foundational modules introducing horror to the game. We’ve seen the setting revisited several times over various editions of D&D. This new version features some gorgeous art alongside a smartly organized collection of content for both players and DMs. There’s new subclasses (like the Reanimator) and species (like the Lupin) to enjoy, as well as clear details about each of the Darklords and their respective Domains of Dread, including the new addition of a Cthulhu locale to mix in cosmic horror. The new book also includes a wealth of adventure hooks to get your group going into a horror-themed campaign, and is a welcome expansion to a long legacy of Ravenloft iterations over the years.