What You Playing? – April 2026
Intro
The Selective Hearing team spent April 2026 battling through Resident Evil Requiem, grinding ranked matches in Street Fighter 6, building massive creations in Pokémon Pokopia, and revisiting arcades in Austin.
Allen
What Have You Been Playing in April?
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Kena Bridge Of Spirits
- Arcade UFO
What Are Your Thoughts?
SPOILERS AHEAD
Resident Evil Requiem
Decided to get a few more playthroughs to get the platinum trophy for Resident Evil Requiem. Going through on casual difficulty with enhanced guns and no healing wasn’t too much of a problem. I did hit a bit of a wall when I was trying to get Marie’s Doll to show up on a certain level. I spent a lot of time doing trial and error on the zombie grinder part, trying to get a certain amount of blood drained.
Playing the insanity difficulty was a breeze with Leon’s infinite RPG. I did end up killing myself a few times when I would try to headshot with the rocket launcher. The best tip I was ever given was to just shoot the floor at the zombie’s feet.
Grace’s sections proved a lot harder, as it felt like I was just running and gunning all over the place. It was even worse in the ARK section when you don’t have the Requiem to use.
I still talk about how beautiful the game is graphically and how much fun it was to play with others. Still on the top of my list of games so far for 2026.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
With the announcement of Kena: Scars of Kosmora a few months ago, I found the previous game, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, on sale randomly at Walmart for $20.
I certainly see the game’s charm; it is really interesting how the graphics and the character models look. I feel like it’s a cross between a Pixar movie and one of the 3D cartoons my godson watched as a kid.
However, there is a jankiness around open-world games with a bit of platforming that I really wasn’t ready to experience. Combat feels very shallow, with barely any hit stop, just keep whacking away. The bow mechanic is pretty solid, but I feel like I rely on it more like I was playing Horizon Zero Dawn or something.
Some of the puzzles have been interesting to solve, so that’s good. However, every time I load up the game, I just don’t feel inclined to make any progress. I might have to put this one on the back burner.
Arcade UFO
While I was in Austin covering the TWICE: THIS IS FOR Concert, a friend and I decided to spend time at Arcade UFO to get in some game time.
Lots of great and well-maintained cabinets to enjoy. We spent some time playing Initial D Zero Arcade Stage and Bishi Bashi Channel.
I spent a lot of time getting some Pump Action as well. I played most of the K-pop catalogue that had IVE, STAYC, G-IDLE, and Everglow. The panels and the steps were very responsive, better than some that I’ve played in the past.
I also spent some time at a sit-down Street Fighter 3: Third Strike cabinet. It may have been years since I last played Third Strike. I was super rusty with my timing on parries and in hitting my combos; it felt like I was playing faster than the game. Once I got into my rhythm, I was doing well. Unfortunately, I was scaring away anyone else who wanted to challenge me. I was just playing on the computer until the very end.
I would have loved to play the other games, like the arcade version of Pokken. I still enjoyed my time there. I recommend hitting up Arcade UFO if you are ever in the Austin, TX area.
What Are You Looking Forward to in May?
May might be an off month for me as I have a lot of non-gaming-related things to do. The only game on my radar is Mina the Hollower, just love the old school look, and it’s from Yacht Club Games.
Mina the Hollower’s Real Hook Isn’t Nostalgia, It’s Ambition – Final Preview
Greg
What Have You Been Playing in April?
- Street Fighter 6
- Pokémon Pokopia
Pokémon Pokopia
A month and many hours into Pokopia, and I am already mid-game, completing all the various quests to find out what happened to all the humans on Earth. I think I’ve unlocked all the current lands, so now it’s just a matter of getting the environment levels up to sufficient numbers to trigger the next storyline moment.
Right now, the opening area of the Wastelands is probably my most developed, with an environment level of nine. Most of my Pokémon are housed close to or around the central area where the Pokémon Center is. But as I start setting up more habitats and housing, this will change to spread them out a bit across the various labour camps I plan to implement to cover my resources.
In every other area, I am slowly terraforming and moving things around to complete the various challenges. I’m thinking the other areas are going to take a while to make them look pretty.
But so far, it’s been fun getting all the different Pokémon to spawn and do my bidding against their will.
Street Fighter 6
I’m still grinding rank in Street Fighter 6 with my boy Sagat. I’m slowly getting closer to Gold 5. I know some of you, more expert players, will scoff at that scrub rank. But hey, I don’t take this shit as seriously as you guys. I got Pokémon to enslave first and foremost, and when I got them set up, I got time to go in for a few rounds of Street Fighter.
I’m looking forward to when Ingrid goes live. I think I’m gonna give her a go. Her playstyle looks so messed up compared to the other characters. It could be fun.
What Are You Looking Forward to in May?
I will be buying 007: First Light so I can get my James Bond on. Or at least make an attempt to get my James Bond on. Early previews make it look like it’s open-ended as to how you can take the missions on. Unga Bunga appears to be an option if you just don’t care about the whole stealth aspect of being a spy.
BigFreaky
What Have You Been Playing in April?
- Pokémon Pokopia
- Ghost of Yotei: Legends
What Are Your Thoughts?
Pokopia
I definitely cooled off on playing Pokopia after a mad amount of time in March. I’m patiently waiting for updates or DLC, which I hope comes sooner than later.
During this time, I decided to work on my Palette town and my cloud island.
I built this monstrosity on my cloud island to house many Pokémon quickly… and it’s proven to be a bad idea. I will either have to start over or relocate everyone because it seems I’ve maxed out the memory limits of even the Switch 2.
Greg also visited me on my cloud island, and we enjoyed the view from my mega elevator terrace. We shared a nice drink together!
The terrace as seen from below.
The upstairs pool at the “APA” hotel (version 1), which I started building in Palette town.
This was the rough beginning. I’ll have more updates to show later.
Ghost of Yotei: Legends
More Grind, More Grind!!
Legends is fun, but not quite as much of a breakthrough as the first. I’ve been levelling up all the classes and getting lots of neat gear. I hope to finish up all the challenges and the upcoming Raids.
What Are You Looking Forward to in May?
Not sure anything big will come to Pokopia yet, so I’ll continue to work on making the lands in my own image. I still have lots of train stations to share, along with other goodies.
More Ghost Legends. Trying to rank up and beat the bosses and raids.
Pokémon GO: Go Fest 2026, 10th anniversary!! I am going to Japan!! I can’t wait to play Go Fest in Japan once again!!
I will be going to arcades in Japan as well and am ready to play Pokémon Frienda. Kind of a lottery game that is a bit hard to explain. But I’ll also share more next month.
Sorry for a short report this month, been busy making the Japan trip happen! I’ll be back to normal very soon!
