It's the end of another week, which means it's time for another Play Log!

This week, the quantity of different titles I spent my time on is less than in previous weeks, but that just means I spent more time on the games I did play.

Additionally, this week is a pretty special one in that over the weekend, I rolled credits in two games on back to back days! That's practically unheard of for me these days!

All that said, here's the chart breaking down where I spent my time this week:

• Ordered by first play of the week.
• All Switch/Switch 2 play data on my console is sourced from the Nintendo Store mobile app.
• All 3DS play data sourced from the 3DS Activity Log application.

As might be expected from a game that launched last week, Splatoon Raiders led the way by a large margin, with my 6+ hour Sunday session being almost as long as the time spent in all other games this week combined. That didn't stop me from making time for events in both CrossWorlds and Tetris 99, and squeezing in some more Samus Returns on Saturday.

I have a lot to say about each, so let's get right into it.

Splatoon Raiders (NS2)

• Played on Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun for an approx. total of ~13 hrs 45 mins

Hmm. I wonder which game I spent the most time with this week.

Yeah, it's no surprise that Raiders ended up being far and away my most played game of the week. That's just what happens with new releases that get their hooks in me the way this one did.

It's also one of the two games I beat this week, downing the final boss on Sunday night amidst that 6 hour binge. I won't go into spoilers here, you'll have to wait for my review for my full thoughts, but I will say that Splatoon is much like Kirby in that it never misses with its finales.

Also, I just want to mention how the prospect of beating a game within a week and half of its release is pretty much unheard of for me these days. Sure, Raiders isn't a particularly long game, but still. You underestimate my ability to take forever to finish games (which is what made this past weekend so cathartic). Heck, I probably could've finished it sooner if I didn't get dragged down a rabbit hole of Smash Bros roster and ranking videos out of nowhere midweek (though I did get some fun ideas for some future Rambling posts).

There seems to be a lot of post game, too, so I can't imagine I'm anywhere close to done with this one. It'll be keeping me busy for a while to come, especially with August being a quieter month on the release calendar.

I don't have much else to say that I didn't already say in last week's play log or that I'm saving for my full review, which I should hopefully get to at some point this month (I still need to review Rhythm Heaven first, so it won't be a top priority just yet). I will leave you this, though: I can't recall a game that's made me feel like more of a total badass than this one. The amount of clips I've taken of cool moments throughout the game is admittedly a bit much, but it's just so satisfying to just shred through a hoard of Salmonids using the build I've meticulously crafted as I progressed through the game.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (NS2)

• Played on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for an approx. total of ~2 hrs

Ah, CrossWorlds. One of my favorite games from last year. For a while there, I would say I liked it more than Mario Kart World. Nowadays, now that I've played World again and have been reminded of what I loved about it, I'd probably say I overall prefer World over CrossWorlds, but it's still a tight call. As much fun as World is, I still believe CrossWorlds is a more cohesive, refined, and complete package, simply due to Mario Kart World trying something vastly different from previous entries, and CrossWorlds being a pretty standard sequel to Team Sonic Racing. It's everything I wanted out of that game and then some, but it's not like it's drastically shaking up the foundation of Sonic Racing, even if many of its new ideas are great and help it stand out.

Another point in favor of CrossWorlds over World for me is the consistent post-launch support it's been receiving from SEGA since it launched. Between free SEGA crossover characters, larger paid expansions featuring third-party crossovers, online events, and frequent balancing updates to keep things fresh, CrossWorlds easily has the upperhand in terms of post-launch content so far. (Don't get it twisted, I love both games, I just think it's interesting to compare them given the proximity to each other in which they released)

They even recently announced a second year of content for CrossWorlds, all before we got that 1.7.0 update for World that added new Knockout Tour routes, hopefully suggesting that we are starting to turn a corner in terms of World's post-launch support.

All that said, the reason I was drawn back to CrossWorlds this week was the drop of the latest paid DLC, being the TMNT pack, alongside the accompanying Festival event. While the events that accompany free characters have become less of a priority for me, I always make sure to show up when the big paid DLC packs drop, as not only are we getting new characters, but a new track as well, and that's way more exciting to me.

Alongside all 4 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as playable characters came the New York City track, which weaves through the sewers before heading through a streetway under siege by a giant insectoid monster. Even knowing next to nothing about TMNT, it's a really fun track that has some cool visuals, fun alternate paths and shortcuts, and some good music to go along with it. It's way better than the previous Nickelodeon course, Bikini Bottom, which is far and away my least favorite crossover course so far.

So yeah, I basically just put on some YouTube videos in the background and grinded out all the event rewards, which was a pretty quick process this time thanks to some generous multipliers and some of the cleanest races I've had in the game for a while, including one where I got so far ahead that I was genuinely concerned it was a communication error or something as I was frontrunning un-threatened for pretty much the entire back half of the last lap.

I'm always glad to have an excuse to play CrossWorlds, as it's a genuinely fantastic kart racer, probably the best non-Mario Kart game in the genre that I've ever played. And with a whole new season pass with 6 new expansions to come over the next year, on top of one remaining pack in the current season pass, it's a game I will continue to come back to for a while still to come.

Tetris 99 (NS on NS2)

• Played on Wednesday for approx. ~1 hr

So, probably a good chunk of that hour I spent in Tetris 99 on Wednesday was actually just having the shop open to reference while writing my post on the currently ongoing event, but I did actually play a few rounds too. If I hadn't I probably wouldn't have included it here, as I wouldn't have actually 'played' it.

I mainly just wanted to see what some of the themes I had missed and finally had the opportunity to acquire were like, mainly Xenoblade X and Fire Emblem Engage. Xenoblade because I've heard X has incredible music, and Engage because I just love that game's soundtrack despite having never played it. And yeah, the music for the Xenolade X theme was awesome, and makes me want to seek out some of the soundtrack online at some point. And Engage, well, yeah, it was Engage music alright. Though for some reason when trying to see the music that starts at 50 players left, I suddenly forgot how to play the game effectively and couldn't reach the top 50 for the life of me. And the one time I did, I immediately died, so I didn't even get to hear the music.

So I just ended up playing a match against CPUs instead, which was far easier and far less obnoxious. After that I finally allowed myself to move onto playing something else (Splatoon Raiders), but I could've had much more time if it weren't for that. Ah well.

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

• Played on Saturday for 3 hrs 21 mins

This is the other of the two games I beat this weekend, completing Samus's mission to SR-388 on Saturday night. And, wow, I can see why Nintendo felt comfortable giving this team the keys to finally make Dread a reality.

Samus Returns is just excellent, and made me realize that Metroid has slowly been becoming one of my favorite Nintendo franchises over the years. Every game I've played in the series, I've loved (perhaps with the exception of the original NES game, but I didn't hate it).

Super Metroid was the first one I played through to the end, back in early 2020, and it blew me away. When Dread released in 2021, it ended up being my Game of the Year that year. Heck, I even enjoyed the original Game Boy version of Metroid II, despite its archaic design and reputation as one of the franchise's lower spots. The fact I beat that game without using a guide is still up there as one of my proudest gaming accomplishments, and it remains one of my favorite Game Boy games.

To that point, Samus Returns is a remake of Metroid II, but it feels more like a full-blown reimagining... which, to be fair, is exactly what it says on the back of the box.

Literally says "full reimagining", and, yeah, it definitely is more than a simple remake. While the basic beats remain the same - the setup, core story, and structure of defeating X amount of Metroids to progress to the next area - there are so many new elements in Samus Returns that didn't exist in Return of Samus, and likely wouldn't have been possible on the Game Boy. Between brand new abilities, set pieces, cinematic cutscenes, and completely new boss fights, Samus Returns feels like a fully fleshed out version of Metroid II, no longer held back by the Game Boy's heavy hardware restrictions, and is easily the definitive way to experience this chapter of the Metroid story.

I want to talk about the end game, but to avoid spoilers, I'll leave that for the full review I plan to write, where I'll go into my full thoughts on the game. I do plan to continue playing it to collect all the items, but after that, I'm probably done with it. There is a hard mode, but I'm not sure I'm super interested in pursuing that at the moment.

As for what comes next, I already know what I want to play next both in the Metroid series and on the 3DS. At this point, I've played most of the 2D Metroid saga, leaving just the GBA games to go. I'd like to play Fusion next, as the last original title in the saga I haven't played yet, then finish 2D Metroid off with Zero Mission before moving into the other parts of the franchise, mainly the Prime games. As for the 3DS, I plan to make Zelda: A Link Between Worlds my next focus on that platform, as one of the biggest games on the platform I have yet to playthrough. Don't know when I'll get around to starting those, but hopefully soon!

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And that should do it for last week's play log! A bit shorter this time in terms of total number of games, but I still had a lot to say. Having less games to talk about allowed me to spend more time talking about what I did play, which was nice, though, not that having more games to discuss would've stopped me, I sure love yappin'.

At this point, it's looking like it'll be a while before I pick up my next new game, as there's nothing currently on my radar for this month, and I currently don't plan on grabbing Fire Emblem next month. So, I've got some time to catch up on some stuff.

As for my plans for this week, I'll probably keep playing Splatoon Raiders as I look to complete its post game challenges, but I'd also like to squeeze in some Tears of the Kingdom time. This gap of new releases I'm interested in could serve as a massive opportunity to make significant progress in that game. I'd also like to start Metroid Fusion this week if I have the opportunity, which is the next Metroid game I want to play, as well as continue item collection cleanup in Samus Returns. HowLongToBeat.com lists Fusion as a ~5 hour game, and considering my Samus Returns playthrough of around 12 hours was about on par with the site's 11 hour estimate, I'd be willing to bet I could get through it pretty quickly. Then again, this is me we're talking about, so, really, anything's possible.

This week also sees Zero Racers and D-Hopper, previously unreleased Virtual Boy games, arriving on Nintendo Classics, so I'll definitely be checking those out. Additionally, Pokemon Pokopia's first DLC arrives this week, so I may have to find time to finally return to that game.

Regardless of what I end up spending my time on this week, I'm sure I'll have more impressions and fun stories to share come this time next week.

Until then, happy gaming!