Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 5 Awesome Games We're Staying Indoors With

Play it on: Switch
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy
Current goal: Free the monkeys from their toil

I’ve never been a big Super Monkey Ball guy but I keep coming back to Banana Rumble on the Switch. It’s just the right amount of frenzied energy, colorful whimsy, and straightforward challenge that I need to relax at the end of the day without falling asleep. I also love taking a break during the middle of the day to breeze through a few courses. Nothing comes too easy and the tough snags never last too long before it’s onto the next level or world. I love that every course is basically the length of a TikTok and that a new spin-dash move lets me try to cheat the game in weird and silly ways by occasionally trying to pop up and over 90 percent of the tough parts. I haven’t dug much into the multiplayer yet, which I hear is a letdown, but so far this summer it’s one of those right time, right place games that’s giving me exactly what I need. The older I get, the more my aging millennial smooth brain appreciates when a game gives me clear, bite-sized goals and the tools to get there and then leaves me alone to have fun. — Ethan Gach

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Finally experience the seminal hero shooter

Apparently they fixed Team Fortress 2? They fixed Team Fortress 2! Or are fixing it, whatever. The point is, the game is finally a playable state after being plagued by bots for years. It was what Twitter is becoming under Elon Musk’s stewardship. And I’ve never actually played the game, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering I was a wee ten years old when it came out, and could barely play flash games on my brother’s laptop, let alone install a full game.

Over the past two console generations, hero shooters like it have exploded in popularity. I’ve played many of them and though I’ve liked ‘em, I’ve often fallen off because the same thing always happens. What begins as a fun romp gets patched to hell (RIP Overwatch) to meet the demands of a ravenous community (RIP Rainbow Six Siege) or gets gouged by corporate greed (RIP Apex Legends). Nothing ever just is…except for Team Fortress 2, though neglect eventually claimed it in a completely different way. Now it’s back though, and while I’m not expecting it to become a new mainstay in my gaming routines, I am incredibly excited to see one of the brightest and most original games of its time back on its feet. — Moises Taveras

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: Kick stuff, and in the game

It’s very important not to have favorites when you’re an impartial games journalist, so Devolver is definitely not one of my favorite publishers of indie games. The problem is, the company keeps releasing exactly the sorts of games I love—original, peculiar games with a creepy edge. Children of the Sun, Pepper Grinder, Wizard With A Gun, all in just the last year. Let alone Cult of the Lamb, Inscryption, Loop Hero, Gungeon, The Swords of Ditto, Minit. Oh, and the first thing I ever wrote about on Kotaku, Carrion. But I’m still capable of balance: Gris was a grimly overrated pile of mawkish crap made by adult men trying to pretend to be a sad girl.

Which is all to say, I want to play Anger Foot this weekend not because I’ve read any reviews telling me I should (I just looked, and they’re amazingly unhelpful, spreading from 4s to 10s), nor indeed because I’ve hyped myself for it—I genuinely have no idea what you actually do in the game, and think I might have watched a trailer for it a few months back. It’s just because it’s from Devolver, and that seems to be a team that has good instincts when it comes to what to publish. Apart from Gris. Gris was bathetic dross. Oh, and also because it’s very obviously a game about running around and kicking people.

It sounds an awful lot like Mullet Madjack, and oh boy must Anger Foot developers Free Lives have freaked out when they saw another kick-based rapid RPS coming out two months ahead of theirs. Still, there’s definitely room for more of that sort of madness in my heart. — John Walker

This week I’m taking a brief break from Final Fantasy XIV to do some puzzle solving in the Riven remake. I confess that I have never played the original Riven, nor have I played its predecessor, Myst, but the new remake felt like the perfect time to give these seminal puzzle games a shot. I’ve played about an hour so far and am kicking myself for not getting in on these games sooner, because it’s exactly the type of thing I love.

The beginning of Riven drops you onto a mysterious island filled with complicated puzzles blocking your way forward. The game gives little explanation and doesn’t hold your hand through a tutorial at all, which makes for a much more magical experience. So far I’ve greatly enjoyed the eureka moments of finally realizing how to solve a puzzle, oftentimes in a way that required a complete reframing of how I was tackling the problem. One such moment came when I was presented with a locked wooden door. I spent a lot of time trying to find a key before I realized I could just undo the hinges and push it open.

One of the great joys of playing puzzle games in my apartment is how much of a co-operative experience they are. My fiancee is also a puzzle fiend, and she might be enjoying Riven even more than I am so far. If you’ve never played a puzzle game that’s ostensibly single player with a loved one I highly suggest it. Like the saying goes, two minds are better than one, and having two perspectives on Riven’s puzzles is a great way to make the experience just a little easier. Not to mention is just nice chatting with someone and theorizing about what the hell is going on. For that reason, I expect a couple late nights on the couch will be in store this weekend as we unravel more of Riven. — Willa Rowe

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Buy it from: Amazon | Humble Bundle
Current goal: Stand on more pseudo-cars and stomp zombie heads to maintain a higher Power Level than my pal

2014’s Dying Light found its way into my Steam library…at some point. I never thought I was gonna play it, to be honest. And no shade to Dying Light or Techland. But like, ugh, another open world game? And I typically like my zombies/infected/undead/whatever in something more akin to Resident Evil, The Last of Us, etc. Dying Light looked too fast and what I saw of the weapons and such one would acquire later on were. Um. Silly? Goofy? At a minimum, they weren’t my cup of tea.

But then my bestie wanted to run this game with me in co-op and, though my tactics and habit of saying “oh, watch out!” mere seconds before I throw three or four molotov cocktails in a row at a horde have certainly been a trial for her, it has been a good time! In fact, as I navigate this very complicated, reflective, instructional, and essential part of my life, Dying Light is asking me to think about how I communicate with others and how I could do better. I do need to think and speak before acting. I do need to plan ahead more carefully. I need to realize where I’m throwing Molotovs and acting downright recklessly in a way that can and does harm people? Literally (in the game) and metaphorically (IRL). Especially around those I cherish most. I have to be better. Shouldn’t I have learned that by now?

Jeez. This is a fucking zombie game and I’m doing that thing where I just project my emotions into my hobbies. So. Uh. Game stuff! I am resisting those silly weapons (a baseball bat that electrocutes zombies? wtf?). Instead, I’m running around with just a bow. I love bows and crossbows in games. They require me to lead my shots, are a test of timing and accuracy, and with how fast things can get in Dying Light, nailing back-to-back headshots that drop enemies is very satisfying. Though I could use a fancier bow. That’d be cool, game. Can you give me a new bow? — Claire Jackson

And that wraps our picks for this weekend. Happy gaming!