What to play this weekend: Stunning new platforms, a horrifying haunted house, and a fantastic sci-fi freebie

Happy Friday, Watchers! We’re on our first weekend of April, somehow, despite utterly chaotic weather and an equally chaotic week of plunder, new game phases, and PTRs. But this weekend’s video game highlights include a pair of platformers ready for your gaming pleasure, a horror RPG with a haunting labyrinthine house, and an award-winning action RPG ready to amaze (and available for free!).

Freedom Planet 2 (platformer)

The colorful crusades of Freedom Planet 2 have entered the console world this week. FP2 is the sequel to the highly rated 2014 platform game of the same name, where you played as one of three cartoon anthropomorphic animal characters: Lilac the dragon, Carol the wildcat, or Milla the basset hound. The original Freedom Planet was designed to be an homage to Sega Genesis platform games.

Originally released for PC, FP2 is is available on every major console as of this week. This follow-up title continues your adventures with Lilac, Carol, or Milla, in addition to former antagonist Neera Li, as you travel and defend the sprawling world of Avalice via fast momentum-based combat. Enjoy different skills based on your character choice, multiple game modes, and a veritable rainbow of powerups as you attempt to stop war from breaking out in the wake of a vengeful water dragon.

Get Freedom Planet 2 for $24.99 for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Steam.

Pepper Grinder (action-adventure platformer)

The bright romps of Pepper Grinder make you feel like you’re in an anime. You are the titular Pepper, a pirate with an unparalleled weapon — Grinder, her super-powered drilling device. At the onset, Pepper is shipwrecked, her treasure purloined by the naughty Narlings. Spin up your trusty Grinder to bore through earth and propel through water in pursuit of the Narlings to restore your riches.

Movement through the title is incredibly unique due to your drill. You leap and arc, burrow and float your way throughout the vivid world, picking up new drill bits and cashing in your adventuring rewards to power-up Pepper. It’s not a long game, but completely delightful.

Get Pepper Grinder for $14.99 for Nintendo Switch and PC on Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store.

Withering Rooms (horror RPG)

Now for something completely different… Withering Rooms hs been in early access and is freshly released today for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. It is a novel combination of elements set in “a procedurally generated Victorian mansion that changes each night,” inspired by roguelites, Souls-likes, and horror. Kind of a mouthful, right?

And yet, the combination fits this title. Mostyn House (the eerie structure that comprises the title setting) rearranges itself overnight. Your explorations as Nightingale carry you into hedge mazes, tombs, caves, and more throughout the property, fraught with undead, ghosts, witches, and madmen. Develop your build through your journeys as you attempt to escape the house, or more daunting, control it.

Get Withering Rooms for $24.99 for PlayStation 5, $23.99 for  Xbox Series X|S, and $14.99 for PC on Steam.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition (RPG)

Bonus round! This week’s free game on the Epic Games Store is The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition. The collection is pretty hefty; normally retailing for $60, this bundle contains the highly-rated first-person RPG, plus all subsequently released DLC: Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos. However, the Spacer’s Choice element itself is a visual remaster — indeed, powerful enough that reviews on other platforms commented on how much it taxed their GPUs prior to a few helping patches. That said, our own Matt Rossi found the original a visually stunning game, “fantastic both in terms of subject matter and quality.”

And it’s hard to turn away from the price tag of free for a gorgeous space colony conspiracy. Embrace your choice of flaws in favor of power-ups in other areas — for example, taking a creature phobia may mean a debuff when facing said creatures, but gives you a perk for a different aspect of the game. How you develop your character drives how the story develops — after all, “in the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.”

Get The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition for free on the Epic Games Store.

Tell us, Watchers — what are you playing this weekend? Share in the comments below, and maybe we’ll feature your new interest in next week’s round-up!