What to play this weekend: hunting monsters, solving puzzles, and retro games edition

We’re about to head into spooky season, so this week I’m going to give you the rundown on a couple new games, one of my favorite Metroidvanias of this year that’s on sale, and a really good sale to scratch your monster hunting itch.

Happy Friday, Watchers, and welcome to the last weekend of September.

Release of the Week: The Plucky Squire

The Plucky Squire takes the adventures of a cartoon storybook character named Jot, and unleashes him into a Zelda-like world that takes place not only in the storybook, but in the “real world” of the room the book is in. Allowing the player to swap from the 2D world to the 3D world sets this game apart and gives it a really nice aesthetic. While it’s definitely aimed towards a younger audience, it has a charm that’s hard to deny.

Get The Plucky Squire for $30 on PC at Steam, Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo Switch.

Release of the Week 2: UFO 50

Brought to us by the creators of Spelunky, UFO 50 brings fifty brand new games in a retro 8-bit style across a variety of genres. Each of these games is a full game, not a demo or a minigame — though their length may vary. The amount of love and care put into UFO 50 explains why it took developer Mossmouth seven years to release the title, but it was well worth the wait.

Get UFO 50 for $25 on PC at Steam.

Steal of a deal: Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak

Monster Hunter Rise was the newest mainline release of the Monster Hunter franchise, taking us away from the setting introduced in World and bringing us to a new setting of Kamura Village. While the setting may have changed, and new additions added (dog companions named palamutes, and a tower defense mode called Rampage) it’s still the same old monster hunting you’ve known: track a monster, kill a monster, make armor from the monster, hunt more monsters. Sunbreak takes the Hunter to a new location to hunt new monsters with crazy new powers (based on European mythology: a vampire, a werewolf and Frankenstein’s Monster).

So get out there and carve yourself some new armor and weapons!

Get Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak for $20 on PC at Steam.

Steal of a Deal – Part 2: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

There’s a few genres that I am a huge fan of: Souls-likes, Zelda-likes, Action RPGs and Metroidvanias. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown wasn’t even on my radar until the demo came out, and once I finished said demo, I immediately bought the full game. The Lost Crown has great animations, a huge map, lots of insane boss fights — but most importantly, it just feels good to play. Even better, the new DLC that deals with the one boss we didn’t kill in the base game is only $5 at full price!

Grab Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for $24 on Steam.

Now tell us, Watchers — what are you playing this weekend?