Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 5 Awesome Games To Transport Us To A Better Place

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Create even more cool museums to educate the masses.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has occupied most of my past week or so as I was reviewing the massive open-world game. But now, with the review done, I can step away for a bit and go back to one of my favorite games of 2025: Two Point Museum.

This is a fun business sim that just sucks away hours of my life in a flash. And I don’t care. I love fiddling around with my various museums and trying to create the perfect layout, only to change everything a few hours later because I unlocked some new option or feature. Even better, since I last played it, Two Point Museum has been updated a few times and bugs have been patched. It’s a great game that was made even better. Nice! — Zack Zwiezen

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Clear up the Shatterscarp map

I really didn’t think I’d play Avowed so soon. But as I was recovering from a major medical procedure, I was having some weird dreams, one of which included a strange transformation of my home neighborhood (that being none other than Jamaica, Queens, represent!) into some kind of fantasy village? It was…oddly emotional, too. There’s a lot to unpack with my therapist in that one. And it was all drenched in the aesthetic of Avowed for whatever reason. So I woke up with a few questions and considerations for my life and a realization that I guess I should play Avowed now.

And wow, this game is a real gem of 2025. It’s just vast enough in scope to feel like a large fantasy experience without becoming a burdensome open world chock full of empty busywork. The writing is just so beautiful too, with a poetic sensibility woven through its dialogue and characters having thoughtful and relatable discussions about the struggle for survival in the face of political unrest and a public health threat. It doesn’t feel like escapism for escapism’s sake; rather, it’s like a great fantasy novel that you sort of carry with you in your mind even after you close the book, ruminating on various themes and lines of dialogue that spring to life in a magical mirror of our own world.

Also, while I am finding the game a touch too easy (especially since I’m playing on the hardest difficulty), the combat is hella fun. I’ve got this gun-wielding ranger build going on right now (my character’s also a scholar, so I feel like she’s got some Indiana Jones vibes too). I was surprised at how easily my brain could just go into “FPS Mode” and have it work out well here. Combat, when it’s not overly easy, feels exciting and heroic, with a lovely mix of gunpowder, swords, and magic—and guns belong in fantasy. — Claire Jackson

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Experience some mega-powered excitement!

If there’s one word I think is overused in mainstream game reviews, it’s “polish.” It’s become this kind of undefined catch-all, with the phrase “a lack of polish” letting a writer broadly gesture at a game’s apparent flaws and create a vague suggestion of roughness or jank of a sort that, we’re meant to understand, brings the whole game down. It’s not that I think refinement and elegance of design are never important or valuable, but I also don’t think they’re always all that crucial. In fact, there may even be games for which a “lack of polish” contributes to the texture of the overall experience in ways that make it more distinctive and memorable. In any case, I’m not expecting much “polish” from the new beat ‘em up School Hero, but what it lacks in that regard, I suspect it will more than make up for in sheer enthusiasm.

Released on Steam in January and currently possessing just 25 Steam reviews, School Hero only caught my eye because Twitch retro streamer Macaw45 played it recently and was blown away. As he writes in his own Steam review,

This game is full 10/10. It’s got some bugs and jank but it doesn’t matter at all because the combat is meaty, satisfying and fun. The constant levelling up and getting more powerful is also mega satisfying and fun. More importantly the stage design is utterly incredible, with new stuff being thrown at you like every 30 seconds in every level that never ever makes it boring or tedious, it’s always exciting and fun and interesting and good and waaaaay better in this aspect than lots of other recent beat-em-ups.

One thing I love about Macaw is that, like me, he’s often more concerned with a game’s energy and enthusiasm than with its refinement. That doesn’t mean we always agree, far from it, but his responses to games are always genuine and rooted in his own personal tastes, and I appreciate that. Anyway, I watched enough of him playing School Hero to know that I have to check it out for myself. Incredibly, the game is just four bucks. Worth taking a chance on, I think, if you have any affection for old-school beat ‘em up action. — Carolyn Petit

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Bring peace to Sengoku-era Japan

I’ve taken the plunge and embarked on another massive open-world RPG tour through history in Ubisoft’s latest Assassin’s Creed game. Five hours in, Shadows is fun, stunning-looking, and overwhelming in its size and scope. I should be burnt out on this type of game between Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Ronin (both are set centuries apart), as well as the recent TV adaptation of Shogun, but instead I’m finding myself feasting on a genre that we actually haven’t had a lot of recently.

I’m actually kind of hungry for some tedious RPG systems in my open-world game at the moment, a thing that felt particularly lacking in Star Wars Outlaws last year for me. Shadows’ two strongest virtues, however, are its lush landscapes, especially forests, and its snappy combat, which is more of a combo rhythm game than the combat in some of the other recent entries in the series. I don’t know that any of this will be enough to overcome the Ubisoft map game of it all in the long run. For now, though, Shadows has my attention and then some. — Ethan Gach

Play it on: Switch
Current goal: Consistency

The past few months have been tough for my workout regimen. Between travel, getting sick twice, and a lack of motivation, my workouts have been more inconsistent in 2025 than they’ve been in probably two years. I’ve had my copy of Ring Fit Adventure sitting on my shelf for years now, having left the fitness RPG behind in favor of going to an actual gym. But the more days I spend telling myself a home workout is enough, the more I think going back to the game might help me get structure into my routine again. If you’ve ever tried to get into fitness but didn’t know where to start, Ring Fit Adventure is an excellent springboard into more effective workouts. I played the exercise game for several months before I moved into real weight training, and though you can only do so much with its ring and a Joy-Con controller, it’s great for days when you don’t feel like going to the gym or just need something to make you feel like you got off your ass for a little bit. — Kenneth Shepard

And that wraps our picks for the weekend. Happy gaming!