4th April
Hi there, and welcome back to our continuing feature where we share a little about the games we’ve been losing ourselves in. This week, Victoria gets her children to give Super Mario Galaxy a try before they end up watching the oddly questionable movie take; Bertie discovers a game as unusual as he is; Marie offers up a charming Easter tradition she’s built for herself; and Connor stays completely hooked on Old School RuneScape.
So, what have you been playing lately?
One more thing—can you remember what you were playing last week? You don’t have to. The What We’ve Been Playing archive keeps everything neatly recorded for you.
Super Mario Galaxy, Switch
Sometime over the weekend it finally clicked that my kids still hadn’t played Super Mario Galaxy. So, ahead of them inevitably seeing the movie version of Mario’s planet-hopping adventure, I decided to introduce them to what I still genuinely believe is one of the greatest platform games ever made—and I’m enjoying it a lot.
The level design in Super Mario Galaxy remains impressive even almost two decades after release. I really like the way Mario can move across the undersides of planets (even when I sometimes feel a bit nauseous getting around the different angles). I also love the range of abilities he can pick up. And then there are the wonderfully voracious Lumas and the heavenly Rosalina—altogether, it’s hard not to adore this game.
Thankfully, my children seem just as taken with it, and we’ve been spending evenings curled up on the couch collecting star shards and, eventually, rescuing Princess Peach. If I can get away with it, I’ll probably delay The Super Mario Galaxy Movie for a few more weeks, just so my little ones can enjoy the original without spoilers. Fingers crossed!
-Victoria
Esoteric Ebb, PC
I’d been hearing plenty of great things about this, and I also saw Johnny Chiodini—who clearly has impeccable taste—playing it the other day, so I figured I should have a look too. Basically, it felt like a seagull hovering near a bin. Plus, I’m convinced Esoteric Ebb is doing something refreshingly new, the way Disco Elysium does, which I genuinely admire. And Disco is clearly a major influence here. The other key influence is Dungeons & Dragons, and together they make for a pretty strange mix.
Esoteric Ebb is an isometric role-playing game made by a solo developer, and it’s both striking and odd. You can really sense the Disco vibe in the way it gets you to weigh decisions with voices playing out in your head. Those choices connect to D&D-style traits such as Strength and Dexterity, along with more, each giving a different angle on the world while all of them insist on getting your attention. As a result, the gameplay becomes fairly reading-heavy—because even small actions can spark an argument between your competing selves. It’s fascinating, though I’d rather not reveal too much, so I’m saving details for a fuller write-up.
On top of that, I’ve been putting more time into Slay the Spire 2—naturally. I tried the daily quests for the first time and was genuinely impressed. The dailies shift the rules in bold ways to create different challenges, and the one I ran into let me put together my own starter deck, which I’ve never done before. That said, it also twisted the idea by giving me two extra duplicate versions of every card I picked, which was completely ridiculous. Still, I absolutely crushed the spire—it was brilliant.
-Bertie
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, PS5
I can’t say exactly how or when this started, but ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been playing Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy from start to finish every Easter Bank Holiday weekend. This year will be the same. I don’t speed through it, but I do set myself the challenge of trying to finish it as quickly as I can each year.
Last year, I completed it in roughly five and a half hours, give or take. That doesn’t include the unskippable cutscenes. I don’t rush each level—I take my time and aim to enjoy it, unless I hit frustration from my own mistakes. I also don’t try to squeeze the whole game into a single day. Still, I use a notes app and a timer to track how long I play during each session, then add everything up for the total.
The two guidelines I stick to are: it has to be fully completed, and the timing only counts during the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Again, I’m not sure how this turned into a tradition or why I keep doing it, but honestly? I like it. It’s nice to have my own little ritual.
-Marie
Old School RuneScape and Esoteric Ebb, PC
I’ve been having a great time in Old School RuneScape lately—working through a major quest line and, as a result, earning an extremely powerful reward. Recipe for Disaster is a legendary narrative arc in the British MMORPG: a magical chef traps a lot of innocent people inside Lumbridge castle, locked away in a timeless prison. As a brave adventurer, you’re tasked with preparing meals for each captive, which has you sprinting around the world for ingredients, taking on zombie monkeys, trading conversations with pirates, and much more.
The quest chain ends with a showdown against the Culinaromancer himself, as he retreats into his own domain and forces you to deal with several bosses. Among them are Flambeed, the huge fiery desert golem, and a pastry demon called Karamel. Once you defeat them all—including the Culinaromancer—you can open a special chest in the castle’s basement, where Barrows Gloves can be bought. They’re incredible, and I’ll probably put them on my character after about 1000 hours in-game. I’m serious.
Esoteric Ebb has been enjoyable too, even if I haven’t spent loads of time with it. Somehow, I seem to have ended up with a nationalist Cleric, which is genuinely confusing. Still, I stole a crossbow from someone, and it didn’t give any extra Strength or constitution boosts—so it’s just been taking up space in my inventory.
-Connor