The Video Games And More You Should Play This Weekend – August 14, 2026

If you've longed for the glory days of 3D action/platformers with cartoony characters, and you also can never shake that feeling that you wish Kingdom Hearts would just have another entry for you to play, then, wow, is this a good week for you. Duskfade wears its inspirations on its sleeve, offering a generally lighthearted romp through a colorful world, and plenty of pretty vistas to catch they eye.

The story is trite and simple, and the action sometimes feels a little floaty by modern standards. But it's all pretty much in line with expectations you might have if these sort of platformers were the games you enjoyed years ago. Set expectations accordingly, and it could be a wonderfully nostalgic ride to fill your weekend.

I admit that Wild Blue Skies did ultimately disappoint me. You can read my review right here where I wrote, "Bowie and pals’ adventure successfully impersonates the Star Fox 64 experience, but it’s an underwhelming impression. Nostalgic moments and satisfying action appear occasionally, but it pays homage to a fault and doesn’t find space to present its own personality. It has the unfortunate timing of releasing and being compared to this year’s Star Fox on Switch 2 – an excellent remake of Star Fox 64. But even if I did not have that game in my immediate memory, I would be hard-pressed to identify anywhere that it has improved on the genre with design lessons learned since 1997, or even risen to meet the ones that already existed even 30 years ago."

Now with all that said, I never want to turn someone away from a game that might apeal to their sensibilities. There is some real Star Fox 64 energy and flavors here and unlike the Switch 2 Star Fox remake from earlier this year, it is all new levels, characters, and story. It may look a lot like the Star Fox universe, but it is undeniably its own thing.

Released earlier this week, August 11, Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a transparent throwback to the Nintendo 64 Rare first-person shooter. If you love GoldenEye or Perfect Dark, take a look at Agent 64. It has low-poly graphics, the ability to hold all the guns you can carry, secret agent stuff, and enemies that roll into your line of fire, get shot while standing up, and then immediately fall over – all the hits basically. It even zooms into the back of the player's head at the start of each level. It's wonderfully nostalgic and doesn't concern itself too much with modern quality of life upgrades (though you do play with both control sticks).

The tabletop world has seen no recent shortage of impressively large and robust board, miniature, and card games that carry a high price tag, but also deliver many hours of premium gameplay and storytelling. It's somewhat less common to find games of that caliber that are also relatively easy to learn and play, even for slightly less experienced players. One of my recent favorites in this regard is Dragon Eclipse, from the prolific team over at Awaken Realms. It's a cooperative campaign game specifically built to be played solo or with a partner.

You tame magical elemental creatures and set out to save your town while gradually unfolding a narrative, exploring a fascinating world, and confronting tactical combat scenarios. It's a gorgeous game laid out on the table, featuring evocative card art, incredibly detailed models/miniatures, and it's one of those games in which you always feel like you're making interesting decisions to push things forward. Beyond the campaign, it also includes modes of play for both competitive action and an interesting roguelite mode. Dragon Eclipse can be tricky to track down, but as of this writing, I've still found several stores carrying copies. It could easily become a new favorite if you're ready for diving deep into something new.