What to play this weekend: expanding your world

You’ve completed your quest to make it to another Friday, Watchers! Your reward: some great suggestions on what you could be playing this weekend that will really expand your world, including a celebration of game devs of color, a game about discovering an extra dimension of reality, a whole series of amazing games for less than a single AAA game, and a throwback collection for a console that never existed. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Amplify and celebrate: the Game Devs of Color Expo

September 18th-24th marks the Game Devs of Color Expo, which aims to “amplify the creative power held by people of color in games” by organizing events, uniting the community, and building access for creators who are often marginalized by a majority-white industry. You can check out more about this great expo on their website!

You can also get some great games by devs of color on Steam to coincide with the expo; here’s a list of some personal favorites:

• 1000xRESIST, a fantastic sci-fi narrative game about playing one of many clone sisters in the wake of an alien occupation, discovering that the mother you are all a clone of may not be quite what she seems to be.
• Elsie, a feast of a technicolor roguelike action platformer game. Blast through robots, master magitek weapons, and find the missing Guardians to save the planet Ekis.
• Affogato, an RPG with an intriguing ‘reverse tower defense’ mechanic in which you play a sorceress managing a cafe traveling into people’s minds to defeat their inner demons.

Check out games for sale from the Game Devs of Color Expo on Steam.

Storybook cuteness: The Plucky Squire

This game looks so adorable I just wanna pinch its little cheeks. Join storybook character Jot and his friends, who discover the three-dimensional world outside their book — and have to get back in when the Humgrump, who realizes he’s the villain of the book and thus destined to lose to the heroes forever, kicks them out of its pages! Jot and pals have to jump back and forth between 2D and 3D worlds to solve puzzles and beat platforming challenges; the art for this game is so charming it’s almost unfair. You can check it out on almost any platform, too!

Get The Plucky Squire for $29.99 USD for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and on Steam.

Majima everywhere, all the time: Yakuza 0-6

SEGA’s Yakuza series has been a smash hit here in the US, starting from a rocky localization on the PS2 all the way up to SEGA saying, “you know what? Let’s try that again!” and releasing extremely faithful remasters of the entire series on modern platforms (including a highly-lauded prequel in Yakuza 0). If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend them to fans of RPGs, brawlers, or extremely good crime dramas — revel in the beauty of Kamurocho, enjoy the extremely convoluted plots, and then get ready for just the weirdest and most outlandish side quests (made even sillier by the stoicism of legendary Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu). Oh, and did I mention that all of this will cost you less than a single modern AAA game? Heck, you could buy it for yourself and yourself and 11 friends for less than the price of a single PS5 Pro.

Get the entire original Yakuza series for $54.99 on Steam, or on GamePass on Xbox. (It’s also available on PlayStation, but it’s not on sale right now.)

Dusting off the classics: UFO 50

Partly from the folks who brought you Spelunky and Downwell, UFO 50 is a collection of 50 new games evoking nostalgia for things that never were: games in a distinctly 8-bit aesthetic for a console that never existed: the LX console series by UFO Soft. The result: everything from pick-up-and-play arcade-like experiences to pseudo-JRPGs with narratives and expansive worlds to explore. The breadth and depth of everything in UFO 50 is actually completely wild, and the inclusion of an in-game terminal suggests there are even more secrets waiting to be ferreted out. Some of them even include two-player versus and co-op modes, so grab a friend if you want to.

If you need a suggestion on what one to start with, because 50 games can absolutely induce analysis paralysis: Pilot Quest. It’s bonkers in all the right ways, and includes idle elements that will continue to work while you’re trying out the other games (it uses the fantasy console’s “internal clock” to track how long it’s been since you played).

Get UFO 50 only on Steam for $22.49. (Console ports are planned, but no date on those yet!)

Now tell us, Watchers — what are you playing this weekend? Share in the comments below!