‘NBA Playgrounds’ Tops The Five Games You Need To Play This Week


It seems like every week, there are more games for more platforms than the last. So, every week we cut through the noise to find the five games worth your hard-earned gaming dollar. Starting, this week, with a basketball game for the casual fan.

Pick Of The Week

NBA Playgrounds, Tuesday ($20, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC)

Pretty blatantly NBA Jam — the greatest arcade basketball game ever made and yes we will fight you over that — with the serial numbers filed off and a claymation-esque caricature look, NBA Playgrounds lets you pick two NBA stars to go two on two with another set as you tour the greatest playground courts around the world and perform ridiculous dunks. And before you ask, yes, it supports couch co-op. In fact, it supports four-player couch co-op, which was such a priority that they’ll have to patch in a bunch of online multiplayer features. That may be a drawback for some, but if you want to game with some friends, this might be the perfect title.

Human Fall Flat ($15, out Tuesday for PS4 and Friday for Xbox One)

The goofy physics puzzle game that’s been so amusing on YouTube is finally making its way to consoles. It’s a fascinating game mostly for the design; as the trailer shows, you can do pretty much anything in the game to solve the puzzles, and the open-ended construction lets you get excessively, sometimes violently, “creative” in your solutions. And also in the Mr. Bill-like indignities you visit on the poor human. Hey, video games are cruel.

Strafe, Tuesday ($20, PS4, Xbox One and PC)

No, you’re not dreaming, the cheesiest “mature” game 1996 never inflicted on us is arriving this week. A tribute to and affectionate parody of pretty much everything that made video games both great and terrible in the late ’90s, this roguelike FPS is all about the shotguns, gore, and rocket-jumping, and will likely introduce a generation of gamers to the simultaneous glory and utter stupidity that was gaming in the Clinton years.

Minecraft, Thursday ($30, Nintendo Switch)

We’re mostly just including this as a warning to any parents reading, so they know why suddenly their kid is hassling them for a Switch. Yes, the ubiquitous building game is coming to yet another platform, will probably sell another few million copies, and set off yet more YouTube videos about building your junk in real life. Hey, people should live their best lives.

BUTCHER, Tuesday ($15, PS4 and Xbox One)

Finally, if you prefer your relentless violence pixel-based and sidescrolling, BUTCHER (yes, all caps, they are very insistent on that) follows… well, it doesn’t matter. Your little pixel buddy has a machine gun, a bad attitude and wants off a spaceship that is full of moody lighting, clanking anvils, and other stuff straight from a heavy metal album cover. What’s funny is this game is a lot better than the games it’s paying tribute to in the first place, but you can see for yourself on consoles this week.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

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