Four games, four very different vibes. This week's gaming rotation covers a Pokemon battle sim that can't hold a stable connection, a 2008 Lego game holding up surprisingly well, a haunted mansion that requires anatomically impossible thumb placement, and No Man's Sky somehow becoming the best creature-collector nobody asked for.
Pokemon Champions is slow, laggy, and still kind of interesting
The pitch for Pokemon Champions is straightforward: pure competitive battling, no story fluff, just climb the ranked ladder. The recruitment limits are actually a smart touch, forcing experimentation instead of just copying whatever's dominating the Showdown meta this week. But connectivity issues are killing the experience right now, and the pacing feels sluggish even when matches do load cleanly.
The game launched to a mixed reception, with performance complaints and competitive balance concerns pushing a chunk of players away almost immediately. Eurogamer's Kelsey summed it up plainly: "it's not very good." The saving grace is that Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream arrives next week, which should provide a very different kind of chaos.
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Pokemon Champions is available on Nintendo Switch 2, Android, and iOS. Ranked connectivity problems have been widely reported since launch.
Lego Batman 2008 still has charm, just not voice lines
Lego Batman: The Videogame came out in 2008, and yes, people are still playing it on PC via Steam. What most players miss when revisiting older Lego titles is how much the series leaned on licensed music and physical comedy before voice acting became standard. No dialogue here, just grunts, smug "ah ha" noises, and a Batman who communicates entirely through mime.
Marie, who also hit a personal best on a Jak and Daxter speedrun this week (finishing under four hours fifteen minutes, well inside a five-hour goal), found the game charming despite its age showing in a few puzzle-response animations. There's also a new Lego Batman game on the horizon, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which makes revisiting the original feel timely.
Luigi's Mansion 3 and the three-thumb problem
Here's the thing about Luigi's Mansion 3 on Switch 2: the co-op is genuinely fun, the ghost-vacuum is satisfying, and Luigi's terrified animation never stops being funny. The haunted mansion setting means that animation plays constantly, which is exactly the right design decision.
The control scheme, though. Moving the torch with the right thumbstick while simultaneously needing that same thumb on the face buttons is a genuine ergonomic puzzle. Bertie from Eurogamer put it best: "I do not have three thumbs, Nintendo." It's the kind of control layout that makes you wonder how it survived playtesting, and it's worth knowing before you sit down for a co-op session. You'll want to spend a few minutes getting comfortable with the remapping options before diving in.
No Man's Sky accidentally made the best Pokemon game of the year
Hello Games has a habit of adding entire genres to No Man's Sky without much warning. Earlier this year it was hauling and gravity guns. Now, with the Xeno Arena update, it's creature battling, and the result is genuinely more-ish.
Every procedurally generated creature now has elemental affinities tied to its home planet, plus individual stats that feed into a space-flavored rock-paper-scissors combat system. Win a match and you get to edit your creature's DNA to boost one of its stats. The battle music is described as "fizzingly energetic," which tracks for a game that now has a full multiplayer creature-battling mode sitting inside a space exploration sandbox.
The key here is that Hello Games called it "an entire multiplayer game all of its own," and that framing turns out to be accurate. For players who never engaged much with the pet collection system before, the Xeno Arena gives those creatures actual purpose. For more on what Hello Games has been building, check out the latest gaming news covering the update in more detail.
Slay the Spire 2 is also in the mix this week, with one player attempting a focused Ascension 10 run using the divisive Regent character. Currently sitting at Ascension 2. Progress will be reported.
Four games pulling in completely different directions, which is honestly the best possible state for a gaming week. If the Xeno Arena update has you curious about No Man's Sky again, or if you want to see how Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream shapes up next week, keep an eye on gaming reviews and coverage for the latest takes. Make sure to check out more:
