There's a fresh mode to try in Fortnite this week, thanks to another crossover with Epic Games' beloved Fall Guys beans.
Crown Jam will go live this Friday, January 23 and feature three-versus-three arcade action that blends elements of basketball and football with the usual Fall Guys obstacle-based chaos. There's even a touch of Rocket League in there too, as you zoom around an arena as a trio (albeit on foot), while attempting to score.
IGN has bean able to reveal the first gameplay footage of the mode today — catch a look at all the dodging, dashing and dashing action below as players attempt to yeet balls through hoops, and work up Hype along the way to unlock special abilities.
Participation in the mode will unlock Fortnite rewards such as a Jam Track and a pair of Back Blings. Over in Fall Guys, meanwhile, the Slam Dunk Costume will be available for free via the in-game shop in celebration.
It's been a little while since Epic Games added an all-new limited-time mode to Fortnite, which already juggles various permanent variants of its signature battle royale experience. Crown Jam will be playable until February 9, so you have just under a month to get yeeting.
Marvel and Jurassic World star Chris Pratt has hit out at Tilly Norwood, insisting the panic within Hollywood about the potential impact of AI “actors” is “bulls**t.”
Tilly Norwood is a viral AI-generated creation pushed as the next Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman. It was created by Eline Van der Velden, the founder of AI company Particle 6 Productions. Van der Velden sparked a backlash last year when she announcing new talent studio Xicoia, which Deadline reported was already in talks with a number of talent agents interested in signing Tilly Norwood.
The Hollywood community was quick to condemn Tilly Norwood and its creators, as well as warn producers against dealing with it. Scream’s Melissa Barrera wrote: "Hope all actors repped by the agent that does this, drop their a$. How gross, read the room.” Matilda’s Mara Wilson said: "Shame on these people. They have stolen the faces of hundreds of young women to make this AI ‘actress.’ They’re not creators. They’re identity thieves." The Fantastic Four’s Ralph Ineson, who played Galactus in the MCU movie, was more direct, posting “F**k off” on X / Twitter. The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) ended up releasing a statement, warning producers against using “synthetic performers” without complying with its contractual obligations.
Now, while promoting his new movie, Mercy, Pratt insisted AI wasn’t coming for his job, despite the existence of AI "actors" like Tilly Norwood. “I don’t feel like someone’s gonna replace me that’s AI,” the 46-year-old actor behind the MCU’s Star-Lord, told Variety. “I heard this Tilly Norwood thing. I think that’s all bulls**t. I’ve never seen her in a movie. I don’t know who this b***h is. It’s all fake until it’s something.”
Pratt went on to describe AI is an “amazing tool” that would inevitably disrupt the movie industry by streamlining production and making it cheaper, but AI wouldn’t “replace the human soul.”
Last year, Van der Velden addressed the backlash to insist Tilly Norwood “is not a replacement for a human being.”
“To those who have expressed anger over the creation of my AI character, Tilly Norwood: she is not a replacement for a human being, but a creative work — a piece of art,” Van der Velden said. “Like many forms of art before her, she sparks conversation, and that in itself shows the power of creativity.
“I see AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool, a new paintbrush. Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting, AI offers another way to imagine and build stories. I’m an actor myself, and nothing — certainly not an AI character — can take away the craft or joy of human performance.
"Creating Tilly has been, for me, an act of imagination and craftmanship, not unlike drawing a character, writing a role or shaping a performance. It takes time, skill, and iteration to bring such a character to life. She represents experimentation, not substitution. Much of my work has always been about holding up a mirror to society through satire, and this is no different."
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
On December 11, 2025, Highguard was revealed at The Game Awards. A PvP “raid shooter” from some of the creators behind Apex Legends and Titanfall, Highguard was admittedly somewhat of a surprise as the last reveal of Geoff Keighley’s show in December, which has typically been reserved for highly-anticipated, single-player games such as Naughty Dog’s next project, Intergalactic, or the next Mass Effect. Rather than a big-budget RPG, Highguard’s trailer displayed a multiplayer game rooted in a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, with SMG-wielding heroes riding horses into battle and magical spears hurled into grounded enemies by floating characters. “A new breed of shooter” flashed across the screen as its Overwatch-by-way-of-Concord action played out.
The online reaction to this trailer has not been kind. Type “Highguard” into YouTube, and you’ll be almost exclusively met with videos headlined something along the lines of “This Game is Cooked”, “It’s Worse Than We Thought!”, and “What Happened?”. What’s happened is that it hasn’t even been released yet. And so I’m here to state what I thought would be obvious: we should actually play games before we definitively decide if they’re good or bad.
I understand not being into the look of a game, but among the gaming community, it increasingly feels as if there’s now almost an underlying need for new releases to be bad if they’re not exactly what we want from one. I can’t help but feel this attitude is completely unhelpful in the long run, engineered with social media and ragebait content algorithms in mind rather than any kind of thoughtful analysis of what’s on show. Such willingness to dunk on a game for which we only have a single trailer and 10 screenshots displays a complete misunderstanding of (or intentional opposition to) “a rising tide lifts all boats” mentality when it comes to game development. More successful games are, ultimately, good for everyone, even if this specific one doesn’t meet your personal tastes.
Of course, it isn’t just the gameplay fuelling this fire, but the relative lack of noise from developer Wildlight Entertainment following its reveal. More than a month later, this teaser remains the only video on the game’s official YouTube channel which, at the time of writing, still only has 1,610 subscribers — somewhat odd for a game that received such a prized reveal slot on gaming’s biggest night of the year (a slot that, notably, the studio did not pay for – Geoff Keighley simply really liked the project a lot more than the wider gaming sphere seems to.) A similar situation can be seen on social media, where Highguard’s official X account is followed by just over 7,000 people and hasn’t posted since that December 12 announcement date. There are no details on characters, abilities, or maps. There’s not even an explanation of how this “new breed” of PvP works, which is unhelpful considering “raid shooter” is not a commonly recognised genre. Highguard itself may well not be bad, but the marketing promoting it certainly could be accused of being sub-par.
Perhaps the development team is aiming to recapture lightning in a bottle and recreate the overwhelmingly successful shadow drop that Apex Legends benefited from. Perhaps, when it arrives, we’ll all be hooked – afterall, it’s directed by Chad Grenier, one of the original Call of Duty designers whose credits include the first two Modern Warfare games, both Titanfalls, and Apex Legends, and he’s joined by multiple other veterans of hugely successful games. But prior success is not a guaranteed key to victory, and yes, perhaps the final product will end up being underwhelming. But even knowing that, it's disheartening to see that this failure has already been presumed by many online; a predetermined fate, if you will.
It's this immediate and complete writing off of a game that irks me somewhat.
You may well feel that Highguard’s action doesn’t look like your cup of tea from the less than two minutes you’ve seen of it, and for all I know, once it launches on January 26, it may well struggle to find a substantial audience. But it's this immediate and complete writing off of a game that irks me somewhat.
I realise I’m largely swimming against a tide of minds that have been made up here. We all know that, on the internet in 2026, it’s much easier to tear something down than reinforce it with optimism. But I can’t help but feel that many of the same people gleefully rubbing their hands together at what looks like another underwhelming game in their eyes, will be the same bemoaning the fact that the games industry is in a difficult spot where layoffs and studio closures seemingly happen on a weekly basis, putting the creatives they admire out of work. If no one is attempting to make new experiences and at least try to deliver on the promise of a “new breed of shooter”, then we’re in a grim place, indeed.
Looking further ahead, Marathon will finally launch in March 2026. It’s been a rocky road for developer Bungie so far, with last year being full of beta tests that were met with little enthusiasm, and plagiarism allegations not helping the studio’s reputation at all. But to its credit, Bungie has been very quiet these last few months, working hard on a new version of the game that takes into account much of the feedback received from its burgeoning community. I, for one, am excited for it, despite not being overly interested in the extraction shooter genre. While many may already see (or, indeed, want to see) the writing on the wall amid hasty comparisons to Sony’s previous live-service shooter, Concord, I remain hopeful, largely due to believing in the shooter pedigree the Destiny developer is bringing to the project, much like the ex-Titanfall and Apex Legends team is carrying forward to Highguard.
Again, I’m by no means convinced that either of these games will be blockbuster hits, nor guarantee that they’ll be amazing shooters in their own right, but I at least want to give them a chance. Because if we’re not getting excited about games, what are we even doing here? “Never judge a book by its cover” is an age-old phrase, but one that seems as pertinent as ever. Maybe in 2026, it should be updated to “Never judge a game by its initial teaser and lack of marketing beats running up to launch”. A mouthful, sure, but we’ll never discover the next great game if we’ve endeavoured to kill it before it even arrives.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
The first Harry Potter film will get a fresh theatrical release this August, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or the Philosopher's Stone, if you're British) originally launched in November 2021, kicking off an eight-movie franchise that earned more than $7.7 billion at the box office.
Now, 25 years later, Warner Bros. plans to make the most of its anniversary with a big screen re-release, commemorative merchandise and events at key Harry Potter locations.
While tickets are not yet on sale, Warner Bros. has said that fans should expect Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone screenings to take place globally from August 27 to September 3. In a press release release shared with IGN, word of re-releases for the franchise's other seven movies was also mentioned, with full details to follow.
All screenings of the first film will include 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes extras "not previously seen on the big screen" — though it's unclear yet exactly what these might be. Additionally, a Shared Reality version of the movie with supplemental visuals will be shown at Cosm venues in Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.
Warner Bros. clearly sees 2026 as a huge year to push its aging Harry Potter movies, with new 25th Anniversary merchandise and collaborations with a swathe of big name brands including Hallmark, Timex, Crocs and LEGO. Warner Bros. Studio Tour experiences in Tokyo and London will also be updated with new content.
The big screen adaptation of JK Rowling's book series ultimately concluded in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. There are no current plans to adapt the franchise's stage play sequel story Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
This year being the 25th anniversary is timely, as it allows one final wring of nostalgia for the Harry Potter films before the franchise's big 2027 reboot. HBO's brand new Harry Potter TV show will debut at some point next year with a fresh cast, and a plan to adapt the seven-book series into at least seven seasons of television, released throughout the next decade.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Luke Ross, creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mods for games such as Elden Ring, Days Gone, and Far Cry, reportedly earns $20,000 a month through Patreon, which acts as a paywall for his work.
Ross extended his VR conversion framework to support Cyberpunk 2077 in February 2022. A few months later, he contacted CD Projekt to ask if the Polish studio was interested in turning the mod into an official port. It declined, Ross told IGN.
Then, on January 9, 2026, Patreon alerted Ross to CD Projekt's DMCA notice for the removal of the mod, which it had already taken down. "I had absolutely no say in the matter, because as is the norm in these cases (at least for Patreon), the Patreon team had already complied with the request and taken down my mod of their own initiative, making it inaccessible," Ross said.
Ross then got in touch with CD Projekt to, as he put it, "negotiate a mutually beneficial solution." CD Projekt then replied to say Ross needed to comply with its terms of service. "No negotiation, no comments on my proposals, no interest for instance in knowing how many of their users would be affected by the sudden removal."
The situation hit the headlines this week when Jan Rosner, VP, Business Development at CD Projekt Red, tweeted to say the company issued the DMCA strike because Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content guidelines.
“We never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” Rosner said. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.
“We are big fans of mods to our games — some of the work out there has been nothing short of amazing, including Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be happy to see it return as a free release. However, making a profit from our IP, in any form, always requires permission from CD Projekt Red.”
Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take issue with his work being characterized as fan content. Rather, Ross insisted, it is independent software and thus does not infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.
“I'm sorry but I don't believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross said. “It is not ‘derivative work’ or ‘fan content’: it supports a large number of games which were built upon different engines, and it contains absolutely zero code or assets from your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equivalent to maintaining for example that RivaTuner violates game publishers' copyrights because it intercepts the images the game is drawing on screen and it processes them in order to overlay its statistics.”
IGN followed up to ask Ross if he has plans to make the Cyberpunk VR mod free, thus complying with CD Projekt’s terms of service. Responding, Ross said that while he wouldn’t rule out doing so, it would be a lot of work.
“I do not rule out releasing the mod free for everyone,” he said. “But it would take time, because my software supports 40+ games and various completely different engines, which makes creating a version that specifically supports only Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial task. Also, the people who have voluntarily given their money to me in order to support my development efforts for the framework might not be happy about seeing the mod being given away all of a sudden to everyone just because I've been bullied into it.”
At this point, Ross said that making the mod free had become a moot point because people were now pirating it — and publishing abusive comments directed at him.
“Anyway, it's kind of become a moot point, because following to the unexpected DMCA strike, after the mod was forcibly removed from my Patreon, people afraid of losing VR support for their favorite games have started pirating and illegally exchanging the mod all over the Internet, brazenly saying that since I was not complying with CDPR's ToS, my work is now fair game and I should be punished by having it stolen. So in a sense CDPR already got what they wanted,” he said.
The following is a snippet of the response to the DMCA strike and Ross' comments about it.
“Ehhh, without the game the mod is useless. I’m glad some people have found ways to pirate his shitty mods, he deserves it,” one person said on social media.
“I’m currently working on transferring this guy's mod files to my PC. I’ll look through and do some tweaking, and then I’ll release his VR mod for Cyberpunk for free,” said another.
“What really bugs me is that instead of just releasing it for free and continuing development with donations, which Take-Two already allows and which would almost definitely still bring in the same money from the VR community, he chose to kill the mod entirely once he couldn’t sell it anymore,” added another. “That’s the part I don’t respect. He already made his money, he had options, and he still chose the nuclear one. End result is players lose the only real Cyberpunk VR experience, VR modding takes another hit, and publishers get painted as villains again even though this outcome was kind of obvious.”
The following is a comment posted on Ross’ Patreon page:
“Upon reading more about this case: they gave you a way to keep it alive, and you decided to be a greedy little bish about it so I'm cancelling my Patreon subscription to you and giving all your mods to anyone I know for free from now on (also there's places online to find all your mods immediately after release for free, I was choosing to pay you, but now you're being a dickhead so I'll just steal your mods from now on and tell everyone where to find them).
“You've made 20k a month for years, for modding these games — they're asking you to make ONE OF THEM free — for a game which is largely done updating and would be version locked.
“Really gross by CD Project Red, and by you — shows where your priorities are you greedy little proud man.”
It seems unlikely that CD Projekt will back down here, which leaves Ross with a decision to make: ditch the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for good, or release it for free, as CD Projekt requests.
Ross restated to IGN that he is open to finding “creative solutions,” and that his work to make AAA games playable in VR fills a void, but he has yet to confirm plans to release the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for free.
“I do not modify the content of the games, or try to sell an experience which is in competition with what the IP creators are producing,” he continued. “To play in VR you always need to own the original game, and the only thing that changes is that the experience is more immersive, visceral and memorable, which can only benefit the IP owners. In the end, when gamers are playing for example Cyberpunk in VR, they are not playing my mod. They are playing Cyberpunk, and loving it. How this could ever hurt the publisher and trigger free-or-kill reactions still baffles me.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
GameStop has said it has shut down a loophole that let its customers rack up store credit by continually trading in then rebuying a Nintendo Switch 2 console.
In a statement posted to social media, GameStop said it had been made aware of a YouTube video boasting of a "GameStop Infinite Money Glitch," and verified that the method had indeed been possible.
"By purchasing a Nintendo Switch 2 for $414.99 and then immediately trading it back in along with the purchase of a pre-owned game, a promotional bonus was triggered that increased the Switch 2 trade credit to $472.50," the company wrote. As demonstrated by YouTuber RJCmedia, this method could then be repeated over and over, potentially earning more than $50 profit in store credit each time.
"In short, our system briefly valued the pre-owned trade more than the new retail cost of the console itself, creating a narrow window where customers could repeat this transaction over and over again to amass infinite trade credit," GameStop continued.
"Effective immediately, the glitch has been patched. Trade promotions have been updated to ensure customers can no longer convert basic arithmetic into an endless revenue stream, and balance has been restored."
While a novel scenario for the company to publicly discuss, it's worth putting the whole matter into context. Firstly, there's no suggestion this method was being widely used — outside of the original video by RJCmedia, there's little evidence the "exploit" was put into practice.
In a statement shared with IGN, GameStop said it had been made aware of the video quickly, which also seems fortunate considering the relatively small size of RJCmedia's YouTube channel.
"Yes, the 'GameStop Infinite Money Glitch' was real (briefly)," a spokesperson for the company confirmed via email. "A promo loophole allowed a Nintendo Switch 2 trade-in to exceed its retail price, which is ironic, given the internet usually tells us our trades suck.
"I can reveal an anonymous person clued us in by sending an email to a completely irrelevant inbox exposing the loophole," the GameStop spokesperson continued. "So if anything this proves we are actually checking our IR inbox."
Finally, and most importantly, this latest matter comes just days after it emerged that GameStop was reportedly planning to shut down around 400 stores, with the loss of numerous jobs. But hey, maybe some of those employees used the "glitch" to earn some money while they still could.
Image credit: RJCmedia.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The founder, director, producer, and writer behind indie title Fallen has responded to claims its reveal trailer was built using generative AI, confirming that it was a "tone pitch" with AI "placeholders [that] briefly escaped the context [they were] meant to live in."
After the Fallen reveal teaser debuted on IGN, commenters were quick to critique it, with one writing: "Woof. Any way to unreveal it?" and another saying: "can't wait to not touch this with a 10-foot pole."
"Are game companies even aware of how controversial using AI art is?" asked someone else in the comments. "Why can't [they] just read the room."
You can watch the trailer yourself below:
Now, creator Brooke Burgess has clarified that while there are AI "placeholders" in the trailer, the gameplay, environments, cinematics, and combat is "real, in-engine UE5.4 work" and "all writing is mine (no LLMs), all audio is bespoke, VO is from my colleague Kasper Michaels, and all creative support [and] implementation was done in close collaboration with my lead."
"I think most of the confusion boils down to context," Burgess told TheGamer. "What ended up being shared as an 'official trailer' was actually our early dev 'tone pitch,' i.e., a work-in-progress UE5 teaser designed for funding discussions.
"There are [AI-generated] placeholders in there, specifically some 2D test assets used to explore mood and presentation (for example, how 'lost souls' and fallen angels in the game might react when spoken to and judged, along with [work-in-progress] HUD elements). That material was never intended as final content, nor as a statement on how the shipped game would be made."
In a separate interview, Burgess told GamesIndustry.biz last week that he was not "waving the flag of AI by any stretch."
"I'm not going to sell my soul and be like, 'Yeah, I'll do it by myself, let me prompt this whole game into existence'," Burgess said. "No, I want to work with really talented people and make something cool. But if integrating it in a way that doesn't affect creativity, but helps to save a little bit of money and gets the game out there to people, and gives us a chance to make something cool and memorable, and then make something else after that — it's something I have to factor in."
He also revealed that "every" prospective publisher has asked how he intends to use AI to "save money."
"Every publisher I've talked to has brought up: 'So, have you thought about how AI might be able to save money on this?'" he added. "Almost all of them. They want to know that you're thinking about it, that you understand the potential."
Fallen is an "epic dark fantasy action adventure game" featuring an avenging angel sent to the depths of Hell for one purpose — "to judge every demon, lost soul, and fallen angel, and bring an end to the cycle of suffering once and for all!" We don't have a release date or even a release windows at this time, but it is expected to come to both PC and consoles.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has said players who spawn late don’t realize they “economically profit way more” than players who don’t.
In an interview with GamesRadar, design lead Virgil Watkins discussed the extraction shooter’s divisive late spawn system, which can see players join games with around 20 minutes left to go. The feeling from some is that this can be a frustrating experience because it gives late joiners less time to complete objectives, and there isn’t as much loot around. But Watkins suggested the data tells a different story.
“We 100% acknowledge the whole thing of, 'Man, I came in to do that trial and now I clearly don't have enough time to do that, and that sucks, so I'm just going to leave,' or whatever. That aspect is definitely not great,” Watkins admitted.
"But similar to the perception of free kits versus what they do, the perception around late joining and what it affords you has been quite interesting. Players are like, 'The loot's all gone,' or whatever else. But players who late join economically profit way more than people who aren't. The session, when they are fresh, does eventually get quieter, and very often they come across the remnants of fights or can maybe take out bigger drones or hit high-ticket areas more readily than other players. So that's been a very interesting thing to look at."
So what is the goal behind the late join system? According to Watkins, it helps mitigate deserted raids. Indeed, Embark distributes loot in such a way so “there should be plenty of stuff for players to do” even if they join late.
It will be interesting to see if Watkins’ explanation here turns sentiment on late spawns around. Since Arc Raiders’ explosive launch, its late spawn system has come under fire from some who feel it needs to be overhauled. There’s frustration on both sides, with those who have to face late spawns having been in a game from the start also expressing concern.
“It's crazy that my team can clear a section of Stella Montis, place traps near the popular entrances, and start looting... only to have a full team of three, heavy shield, volcano running players spawn 50 FEET AWAY from us in a random room in the corner of the area... spawning basically on top of us, at 15 MINUTES REMAINING,” said one fan last month. “There is no counter, there is no chance of winning, they bypassed our traps as they spawned in the room next to me.
“The ONLY players who should be spawning in five minutes into the raid or later are FREE LOADOUTS. Tarkov got that system down with the player Scavs, and it works very well. The initial spawn should be player loadouts only, then free loadouts come in at 25, 20, and 15 minutes remaining. Does that sound reasonable?
“I'm not crazy right? I've spawned literally on top of players who were looting and have gotten extremely unfair free kills because of it. Even reworking the spawning mechanic wont fix it, as you shouldn't have to worry about a random full geared 3-man at 15 minutes remaining after 5 minutes of silence after your team wiped out 12 players.
“Spawning in a 20 with gear sucks. Most of the PVP is gone, half the loot is already extracted. It sucks for everyone else too, they are low on meds, shields are nearly broken, and now 3-9 completely fresh, geared players have arrived at unexpected locations you just cleared.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Surprise! Nintendo has released an unexpected free update for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, adding Dixie Kong and a new Turbo Attack mode for the game on both Switch and Switch 2.
The Switch 2 version of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD gets additional improvements, meanwhile, with improved loading times, higher resolution visuals, and the ability to play in co-op with a friend who doesn't have the game themselves via GameShare.
Swapping out Diddy Kong for Dixie allows you to benefit from her higher, further jumps. Turbo Attack, meanwhile, tasks you with clearing levels at breakneck speed and within a tough time limit. In other words, Nintendo seems to have added something here for both new players and veterans.
A free update is rolling into #DonkeyKong Country Returns HD!
Swing into action as Dixie Kong in both single-player and two-player local co-op, and race through high-speed versions of each level in Turbo Attack. Plus, players on #NintendoSwitch2 can enjoy enhanced resolution,… pic.twitter.com/k66mpkhaOC
While today's update has dropped out of the blue, Nintendo has been updating its many games originally released for Switch with fresh features, and improvements for those now playing on Switch 2. Some of these have included paid upgrades — such as last week's Animal Crossing: New Horizons update — while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD's new additions are free.
Today's full Donkey Kong Country Returns HD patch notes lie below.
Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: Ver. 1.1.0 (released January 20, 2026) patch notes:
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch:
You can now play as Dixie Kong. Her action when jumping is different from when Diddy Kong jumps.
When playing alone, as you grab a barrel, you can switch between either Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong as the character that appears.
When playing with two people, P2 can switch between Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong by pressing the stick (the L Stick in the case of playing with both Joy-Con 2 or Joy-Con controllers) on the world map.
A Turbo Attack mode where you can race through the stage at high speed has been added.
If you clear the course once, it will appear at the same time as the Time Attack mode.
If you can clear it within the time limit, you will acquire a turbo medal.
Now supports Brazilian Portuguese language.
You can switch the language in the “Language” setting in the “System” menu of “System Settings.”
Several other issues have been addressed and image quality enhancements have been made to improve the gameplay experience.
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2:
Now supports “GameShare (Local User).”
You can select “GameShare (Local User)” from “2 Players” on the game start screen or the menu screen of the world map.
Optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs for improved image quality.
The loading time is now shorter.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri will be held on January 25 as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the manga that kicked the franchise off in 1984. However, that’s not all. The free event (set to be livestreamed) this Sunday will bring fans exciting new announcements for a franchise whose future has been in limbo since the death of creator Akira Toriyama back in 2024. A new video game reveal has been confirmed.
The first Dragon Ball anime started in 1986, but it was Dragon Ball Z (1989-1996) that was many overseas fans’ entry point to the series and played a major role in popularizing Japanese anime abroad, especially in the U.S. At home, the influence of Dragon Ball could be felt in subsequent shonen series like One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. Dragon Ball is also known for its video games, letting players perform their favorite Saiyans’ flashy attacks. Almost every major console since the NES days has had at least one Dragon Ball game, even if not all of them made it outside Japan.
However, the future of Dragon Ball has been uncertain since the death of its creator, legendary manga artist Akira Toriyama (who is also known for his character design work for games like Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger). Toriyama passed away in 2024, leaving many saddened that we will never experience any new Son Goku adventures from the pen of the original creator.
Dragon Ball’s 40th anniversary event will not only celebrate the franchise’s iconic characters but will also reveal what’s next for Toriyama’s beloved creations. Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri’s main event will be held at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo on January 25, 2026. The in-person event will feature several exhibitions, a whole host of merch booths, game areas and more. For those who can't make it, the main stage announcements, talk shows and performances will be livestreamed on YouTube by Toei Animation.
The event will kick off with some exclusive announcements from Son Goku’s Japanese VA Masako Nozawa and Dragon Ball series executive producer Akio Iyoku. It’s possible that this could be a new anime series or OVA. Dragon Ball Daima aired in Japan in 2024, but Toriyama’s death made it unclear whether the series would get a follow-up. Rumors of a Dragon Ball animated movie, set to release in 2027, have also been circulating around fan communities for a while, and Sunday’s event might finally show if there is any truth to this gossip. Given the international success of films from anime series like Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man in recent years, now could be a good time for a Dragon Ball movies announcement.
What we do know for certain is that Dragon Ball is getting a new video game, something that has been teased since late last year. At 11am (JST) on January 25, Dragon Ball games producer Masayuki Hirano, Sparking Zero! producer Jun Furutani and others are set to reveal the new game. The most recent games in the franchise are team fighting game Dragon Ball Sparking Zero! (which kamehameha’d onto consoles in 2024) and FTP mobile title Dragon Ball: Gekishin Squadra (2025). Although Sparking Zero! was praised upon release for its huge cast of over 180 playable characters (delivering a big nostalgia hit which truly allowed fans of even the most obscure characters to make their dream team), the game has unfortunately suffered with balancing issues, bugs and online mode instability.
Although many Dragon Ball titles have been fighting games, the series has also flirted with other genres such as strategic card games (2024’s Dragon Ball Super Card Game Fusion World), card-based RPGs (Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu on the DS) and even a MMORPG (2010’s Dragon Ball Online) in the past. It’s possible that the new game might explore a different genre (perhaps an open-world RPG?), or it could be a fighting game set in a different arc of Dragon Ball, possibly featuring the chibi cast of Dragon Ball Daima.
Sunday January 25 will certainly be a big day for Dragon Ball, and diehard fans won't want to miss the livestream.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 6, “The Other Player,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.
After Mr. House boldly predicted that there was “another player at the table” last week, it was inevitable that this week’s sixth episode of Fallout Season 2 – titled “The Other Player” – would lift the veil on who that mystery agent is. Naturally, fans had already put together an accurate guess: The Enclave, the faction of scientists that have been a major antagonist force across the Fallout games. But while that’s an exciting reveal, it arrives as part of a scattershot chapter that rapidly runs between storylines in an effort to re-spin this season’s many plates, add new pieces to the board, and shift the gears. It’s a transition episode that demands a little extra patience, and while it certainly achieves the heavy lifting it needs to, it does feel like a minor stumble after last week’s dramatic stunner.
Frances Turner was promoted to series regular this year, but across the first five episodes of the season there was no significant change to Barb’s position in the show, despite her direct involvement with Vault-Tec’s plans. That changes this week – she even gets her own title card! – with an episode that reveals why a dedicated family woman would be so keen to see her child’s future go up in a mushroom cloud. The pivotal scene, in which Michael Emerson returns as Dr. Wilzig, is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic minute. Trapped in an elevator, her family at metaphorical gunpoint, Barb has no choice but to agree to The Enclave’s demands and put the apocalypse into motion at that fateful board meeting. Turner, who conducts the scene almost entirely in silence, communicates Barb’s fear and reluctant submission through her eyes alone. It’s the true highlight of her tenure on the show so far.
I will admit that I’m slightly disappointed that Barb and Vault-Tec aren’t behind the bombs, if only because her villainous turn was so unexpected. The Enclave, on the other hand, is a predictable shadowy figure, but I’m willing to concede considering the faction’s fascist, power-hungry, destroy-everything-that’s-not-us nature makes it a more logical option. And this reveal doesn’t override Vault-Tec’s “annihilation in search of profit” plan, a perfect skewer of American capitalism, as for all we know the company will still go through with it, even if the strings are being pulled from elsewhere.
But what of Barb’s Cold Fusion deal with Mr. House? She pulls the diode out of a drugged Hank’s neck and, considering the episode's big reveal, it would seem that she and Cooper could now work together to foil those who want to tear them (and the world) apart. But we know House will eventually get his hands on Cold Fusion, if only because Vault-Tec has The Automated Man mind-control devices in its New Vegas vault, the tech that House offered in exchange for it. I expect there’s still more than a few twists left in Barb’s tale, and I’m excited to see how her actions will usher both House and The Enclave into the bigger picture.
Talking of The Automated Man devices, the curtain is finally pulled back on Hank’s “civillization” project: using House’s microchips to turn the wasteland’s entire population into polite, courteous, productive citizens – the very picture of an idealised Vault-Tec commercial. While this is an amusingly creepy and undeniably sinister agenda, it is a little… soft as far as this season’s reveals go. It’s certainly fitting that chirpy, family-first Hank’s evil plan would be to turn everyone as nice as all-American apple pie, but it’s too straightforward to be genuinely interesting. Perhaps all that will change when we learn just who Hank is truly working with – that thread from all the way back in Episode 1 is yet to be connected.
The mutant is keen to work with The Ghoul – does he know our gunslinger by reputation, or did they know each other in former, more human lives?
Much more fascinating in these scenes is Lucy. Holding Hank at knifepoint, she decides to take him back to Vault 33 to stand trial. In the face of all the violence she’s witnessed in the wasteland, she still abides by the rules of the society she was born into. Lucy has, of course, struggled to hold onto herself during her travels with The Ghoul, but it’s unclear if her reluctance to impose a harsher punishment on Hank is a case of her reclaiming her own morals, or emotional trauma causing her to default to Vault-Tec’s facsimile of pre-war societal norms. It’s most likely a bit of both – when faced with the NCR and Legion troopers who threaten to tear each other to pieces, she opts to turn on their control chips to halt the violence, despite understanding the technology is a fate more sinister than death. It’s clear that she struggles to do the right thing in a world that doesn’t abide by the simple rules of her vault.
It could be argued that Lucy’s actions here show a lack of growth. Despite all her new experiences, she’s still the naive woman from Vault 33. But that would be to ignore the emotional complexity of dealing with her own father. I expect there’s more to come here, and that, in time, Lucy will make the right choices. She did, of course, make the surprising decision to punch The Ghoul through a window after he betrayed her, and that was after she’d been cured of her drug addiction.
On the other side of that punch and now impaled on a lampost, The Ghoul once again uses a period of incapacitation to reflect on his own humanity, which is rapidly slipping away from him now he’s unable to take the drugs that prevent him from turning feral. The memory of his family is the only thing that anchors him to Cooper Howard, and it’s tragic to see him muttering the name of his daughter as he succumbs. Thankfully he has a savior in an unnamed hulking super mutant, yet another Fallout icon that fans have been waiting to see, voiced by none other than the games’ narrator, Ron Perlman.
The super mutant’s arrival is undeniably cool in concept, but there’s unfortunately not much to celebrate – he’s little more than a big green face atop a hulking mass of rags, and so isn’t a triumph of CGI and practical filmmaking in the same way as the deathclaws were. Nor is he particularly interesting, merely a prophetical mouthpiece announcing that a war with The Enclave is on the horizon. More interesting is the information we’re denied; the mutant is keen to work with The Ghoul – does he know our gunslinger by reputation, or did they know each other in former, more human lives? And with The Ghoul’s refusal to be recruited, what is the consequence for both himself and the wasteland’s upcoming conflict? I suspect The Ghoul will eventually have no choice to make a stand, but as to if Perlman’s mutant returns in a more satisfying role, that remains to be seen.
Finally, another disappointment: after interesting questions were finally posed about Vaults 32 and 33 in the previous two episodes, this week’s return to Reg’s Inbreeding Social Club and their reckless water guzzling feels like time wasted on a joke wearing thin rather than a funny catalyst for something bigger. That feeling may be eventually proven wrong as there are some breadcrumbs – Barb’s flashback reveals that Vault-Tec knew the water chips would fail, and so it seems like Vault 33 is at the mercy of an experiment. But breadcrumbs are not building blocks, and this storyline has greatly suffered from both not providing new bricks each week, and failing to build atop the very few it has delivered. Is this water shortage and the inevitable rioting it will cause connected to the Forced Evolutionary Virus experiment that Norm discovered last week? There’s no evidence of that this week, and there’s just two episodes left to do anything with that knowledge. I’m all for a slow burn, but the structure of this storyline is more akin to the showrunners constantly blowing out and relighting the fire, rather than letting it gently crackle.
“Even though we don’t have the ins and outs of every story, we know canonically the major beats of Dunk and Egg throughout their lives. So we wouldn’t necessarily run into the same trouble as the flagship did,” Parker informed The Hollywood Reporter.
“George has outlined 12 more of these stories that he’s shared with me. These stories take them all the way through their lives,” Parker said. “Some of these are just a paragraph, but they give you a sense of where they’re going to go and the people who come back in and out of the story.”
As much as Ira Parker would love to make more seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – “I would do 12 of these,” he said – the showrunner conceded that “I would say HBO’s plan is for us to do the three novellas, and that’s it.”
With the series premiere now behind him, Parker shed light on Season 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is now in production. If anything, Parker said, Season 2 – which adapts the second Dunk and Egg novella, “The Sworn Sword” – could potentially be smaller in scope than Season 1.
“It’ll still be six episodes. I think the scope will be same, maybe even smaller. The budget has stayed the same, but everything is more expensive due to inflation. Plus, book two takes place in a drought, so we can’t shoot exteriors in Belfast,” said Parker.
“We have to go to a sunny location with no water, which costs money — that’s a major expense that we did not have in season one. I’m having a lot of fun season two. It’s going to be a different season, and, I hope, for the better.”
Looking for a decent pair of noise canceling headphones for under $30? That's not impossible. For a limited time, Amazon is offering the Baseus Bass BH1 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones for just $27.99 after you apply coupon code "BFBH1NC1". Even better, you do not need to be an Amazon Prime member to get in on this deal. Don't be fooled by the low price tag; the Baseus Bass BH1 has just about every feature you'd want in a quality pair of ANC headphones.
Baseus Bass BH1 Noise Canceling Headphones for $27.99
The Baseus Bass BH1 is an over-ear style headphone packed with an impressive feature set for its price. The earcups each house 40mm dynamic drivers with bio-cellulose diaphragms capable of producing great sound quality even at higher volumes, and SuperBass 2.0 digital processing helps simulate a rich and punchy low end. The headphones incorporate a four-layer active noise cancelation technology that suppresses background noise by up to 45db. That sounds impressive.
The Baseus BH1 features the latest Bluetooth 6.0 protocol with Multipoint connection, which allows you to pair to up to two devices simultaneously for fast switching. The earcups are padded with memory foam and upholstered in vegan leather for long term comfort. The battery lasts up to 80 hours on a single charge (55 hours with ANC on) and a ten minute charge over USB-C will give you ten hours of playtime. For the price, these headphones are definitely worth trying out, especially since Amazon offers a super easy 30 day return policy if you end up not liking them.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Here's your chance to score an outstanding deal on one of Samsung's biggest and boldest monitors. For today only, Woot! (which is owned by Amazon) is offering the second generation 55" Samsung Odyssey Ark 4K Mini-LED gaming monitor for a low, low price of $1,199.99. Amazon Prime members get free delivery, otherwise pay just $5 for shipping. This is a brand new monitor with full 1 year Samsung warranty. It currently sells for $2,700 retail at Samsung direct. I've seen it for as low as $1,500 a few years ago during Black Friday, but this deal absolutely trounces it.
55" Samsung Odyssey Ark Gen 2 Gaming Monitor for $1,200
The Samsung Odyssey Ark is truly a one of a kind monitor. It boasts a gigantic 55" screen size with an aggressive 1000R curve, native 4K (3840x2160) resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, and 1ms gtg response time. The quantum dot mini-LED panel features 1,056 local dimming zones, Quantum HDR 32X technology, HDR10+ support, and 95% DCI color gamut.
A gimmicky yet nonetheless very cool feature is cockpit mode. Basically, you can pivot the monitor to portrait mode where the screen literally curves over your head in a super immersive "cockpit-like" experience. It could be useful in certain types of gaming scenarios but not something you'd taking advantage of on a daily basis. Did I mention it looks very cool?
Other features include an impressive 2.2.2ch 60W sound system that consists of four corner speakers and two central woofers, HDTV-like smart functionality, integrated KVM, and an external control pad. At the retail price of $2,700, this wild monitor would be a pretty tough sell. At $1,200, however, this could be a steal.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Any game built around gacha mechanics needs to have a certain hook to keep things interesting in the long term, especially if there’s potential to invest your hard-earned dollars into it. For all their systemic sins, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad and Persona 5: The Phantom X at least piqued my interest by expanding on already-revered lore, allowing me to intertwine myself in their beloved worlds. The much more enjoyable Zenless Zone Zero, on the other hand, pulled me in with a mix of high-octane combat, endearing character development, and Y2K flair. Arknights: Endfield is the latest competitor in this genre’s fierce attention economy, offering not only an engrossing sci-fi open world to explore, but another mechanically moreish addition: base building and automation. After approximately twenty hours of Endministrating, it’s clear there’s a lot more to uncover here beyond its sticky login loop, but crucially, I’m keen to expand my horizons in search of character motives, upgrades, and ultimately rewarding depth.
In Arknights: Endfield, you play as the Endministrator (or Endmin for short) who, after a 10-year absence and an unfortunate case of amnesia, returns to the world of the living to reinhabit the planet of Talos-II. Taming the wilds is no small task, though, and on top of trying to remember who you were before your big sleep, you’ll also face off against a range of evil entities, including leather-clad maurauders, shifting zoomorphic creatures, and other mythic, well-dressed baddies. It’s an intriguing premise, unfortunately told through an exposition-heavy opening with awkward stop-and-start pacing. Still, if you brave its dialogue-dense beginning, Arknights: Endfield eventually opens up, delivering visually enticing battles and a captivating atmosphere that help make up for it.
Your job primarily involves adventuring with your team to the surface of Talos-II to hunt for resources, solve simple environmental platforming puzzles, and eventually clear out whole areas which you can access in the metagame to build and automate machinery. To do this, you’ll use a team of up to four Operators who, under your control, fight and collect items to push the lengthy story ever onwards. Early on, you’ll have a limited pool of story-specific characters to play as, like the masked Endmin, the empathetic mission-oriented Perlica, and the spirited Chen Qianyu, though eventually you’ll be able to use a specially earned gacha currency to pull new characters, too. It’s not the most imaginative gameplay, with many of the puzzles involving finding and pressing a few buttons on a small map to find success, or trawling through the same few groups of bad guys to push through an area. Still, this is all set against a striking cyberpunk backdrop that makes it surprisingly easy to sink hours into.
As you can imagine, there is an eye-watering array of currencies to consider here — a painful staple of the genre. On top of the usual gacha pulling, which allows you to randomly unlock unique characters and weapons, there’s also a paid Battle Pass that rewards you with resources that can be filtered into systems that help speed up progression, that is, if you can figure them out. It’s hard to say from only the week I’ve spent with it so far whether this feels balanced or not, but I’ve not run into any significant roadblocks that would encourage me to pull out my wallet in the early game – though only time will tell, and based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not overly confident I won’t eventually find a few.
A lot of effort has been put into worldbuilding and character design.
While my humble crew was more than enough for me in the beginning, once I’d earned the currency needed to try out the character lottery firsthand, my feelings began to shift. In my first pull, I drew Estella, an adorable beanie-wearing warrior who compelled me with their nonchalant attitude and stylish techwear garb. Soon after that, I fell in love with Da Pan, a hungry panda whose leather jacket and belt combo gave him the aura of a dad navigating a midlife crisis. I’d like to say I stopped becoming attached to the characters as I kept pulling more. Alas, the range of unique designs, alongside their quippy one-liners, was effective enough to tug on my heartstrings. While I wouldn’t pay for currency with my own money beyond what is provided organically, I was happy to see that, if I did, developer Hypergryph has put a lot of effort into its worldbuilding and character design.
It helps that a character’s personality also tends to shape how they move in battle, and throughout my time with Arknights: Endfield, the flashy combat quickly became my favourite aspect. Hits are delivered with vibrant visual payoff, so much so that even my silly mistakes looked like intentional moves. As you explore, you’ll encounter groups of various enemies camped out, like violent blobs of possessed water or sword-wielding bandits, all of which feature level indicators hovering above their heads. Once ready to engage, you run directly at them, weapons brandished, and start swiping away.
Instead of controlling the Edmin alone, you switch between all the members of your team in battle, applying button-mashing combos that feel engaging in motion. Each character has a dodge, a light attack, and a special attack that string together nicely, delivering well-choreographed combos. Once you knock back an enemy and start to juggle them, you can call in your compatriots to deliver electrifying blows that feel slick – the Endmin’s sword slashes away with golden strikes, while Da Pan delivers belly bounds and butt slams with his towering form.
Outside of combat, the rest of your time is spent investing in the infrastructure of your base. Unlike the complex, automation-based gameplay of beloved factory management simulators Factorio and Satisfactory, Arknights: Endfield’s base building is much more tame, at least early on. And, thanks to lengthy explanations delivered by NPCs, it’s a process that ensures even the most build-averse players can learn how to create a functioning base of operations.
First, you’ll plant electric pylons and connect them with relay towers to supply electricity to the area. Though soon enough, you’ll also be able to implement mining as well as machinery that can refine and process raw materials. As someone who hasn’t always enjoyed the intense, efficiency-focused approach of similar automation games, Arknights: Endfield provides a friendly alternative that’s ripe for community collaboration – something I hope develops post-launch.
There’s still so much to see before I deliver my final score, like expanding the factories, fully automating my production, and leveling up my team and gear – and that’s before I uncover the truth behind the Endmin’s amnesia. So far, though, I’ve found myself comfortable in its world, and I’m keen to get stuck in and see how far I can push before I hit an inevitably uncomfortable grind.
Jim Butcher has been writing The Dresden Files books for over 25 years now. I first started reading this series back in the early 2000s and found myself immediately enamored with story and overall vibe. It's got magic, it's got mystery, and it's all wrapped up in a neat little detective format that is hard to put down. If you're looking for some contemporary fantasy to binge read, I highly recommend diving into this series.
As of January 20, 2026 The Dresden Files has 18 novels in the series. The latest title, Twelve Months, has finally arrived almost six years after the previous entry.
Twelve Months (The Dresden Files, #18) by Jim Butcher
I would consider myself a Dresden fan, but I'll be the first to admit that I don't really remember what happened back in book 17. This six year gap between books is the longest break we've ever had and it has me seriously considering starting the series all over again before reading Twelve Months. Whether you're new to the series or just diving back in after a while, here's a quick rundown of the reading order so far:
For those who don't remember where exactly we are in Harry Dresden's story for Twelve Months, you can check out the official synopsis from the Penguin Random House website:
"One year. 365 days. Twelve months.
Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different—and it’s not just the current lack of electricity.
In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that’s the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time.
But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires—and Harry’s been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal.
It’s been a tough year. More than ever, the city needs Harry Dresden the wizard—but after loss and grief, is there enough left of Harry Dresden the man to rise to the challenge?"
The Future of The Dresden Files
Although we had to wait almost six years for book 18, it's looking like there's going to be less of a wait for book 19. We don't yet have a release date for the next entry in the series, but we do already have a title from the author himself. According to the upcoming works section of Jim Butcher's website, the next title in the series is Mirror Mirror. The Goodreads page for the book says it's expected at some point in 2027, which may mor may not be accurate.
That's currently all that's planned for this series as of right now. As much as I'd like a redo of the absolutely terrible Dresden Files TV show that came out back in 2007, it doesn't seem like any such thing is in the works.
Sony's InZone Buds have a lot going for them: they're good-looking, lightweight and designed to deliver immersive sound when gaming on PlayStation 5 and PC. These Buds aren't cheap, typically priced from $150 to $200 a few years after launch, but that could be worth it for a great pair of cross-platform, low-latency and truly wireless in-ears. Unfortunately, there are some (small) red flags here too - including restrictive Bluetooth support that prevents use with some popular phones and a charging case that lacks some creature comforts. The overall package is competitive, though, and these Buds still rank among the best gaming earbuds we've tested.
Design and Comfort
They're very Sony, aren't they? Their shiny white coating, overengineered corners and severe angles could only belong to gaming earbuds, and while I don't adore the aesthetic I admire the boldness. They're made for using at home, so why play it safe?
The case is chunkier than for most earbuds but given they're gaming buds you shouldn't be transporting them every day, and they will still fit in your pocket when needed.
It feels disappointingly cheap: the buds and receiver dongle wiggle even after they've snapped into place inside the case, and the lid is a bit wobbly, as if the hinges need tightening. Nothing fell out, and it won't open of its own accord, but I'd expect something sturdier at this price.
The same applies to the USB-C transmitter dongle, which you plug into your PC, PS5, Switch or Steam Deck. It worked wonderfully for low-latency audio and it never dropped connection (more on that later in the review), but it feels thin and flimsy.
When plugged in it will move side to side if you nudge it, and I was constantly scared I'd accidentally knock into it and snap it. That's less of an issue if it's plugged into your PS5, but could be a problem on handheld consoles or on a PC that's not tucked out of the way.
Thankfully, the InZone Buds redeem themselves when you put them in your ear.
The fit is slightly looser than most earbuds because they don't extend far into your ear canal, but they never felt like they were going to fall off, and it makes them comfortable. The tips never irritated my ear, even when I took them off and put them on repeatedly. I wore them constantly, including for six hours at a time, without once needing a break – an excellent sign.
Sound Quality and Noise Cancelling
The whole point of these buds is low-latency audio when you're gaming, avoiding the normal delays of Bluetooth. They deliver wholeheartedly: I couldn't notice a delay, even a small one, between what happened on screen and my ears. It's something of a novelty to have low-latency wireless audio, and for me that novelty doesn't wear off.
The buds never dropped connection to the USB dongle, and always paired instantly.
And these earbuds sound great whether you're gaming or listening to music. The audio is balanced and rich: on music and podcasts, vocals sounded natural and nothing was overemphasized. Bass thumps without overwhelming you.
They house the same drivers as the Sony WF1000XM5, some of the best-sounding earbuds money can buy – if I'm picking nits, then these buds sounds slightly less precise and immediate because of the looser fit in your ear, but it's a negligible difference. You won't get the same immersive soundstage as high-end over-ear headphones, but they're more than good enough for most people.
I played Arc Raiders and Fortnite on PC to test directionality and clarity, and both Astrobot and Ghosts of Tsushima on PS5, to see how cinematic they sounded while gaming.
No matter what I was playing, I loved what I was hearing: in Arc Raiders, explosions were deep and booming, and I could easily distinguish between multiple sets of footsteps, door breaches, and gunshots happening at the same time. The cutesy plink-plink of Astrobot's sound effects was lively and crisp, and the background music of Ghosts of Tsushima was urgent, enveloping, atmospheric.
I was particularly impressed with their directionality in shooters: in Arc Raiders I could always tell exactly where a nearby enemy was from their footsteps.
The active noise cancelling was just fine. It blocked out quieter sounds around my house, like the hum of my dishwasher. The looser fit, however, allows more sound to passively leak in compared to, say, Sony's E9 In-Ear Monitors, which I recently reviewed. But ultimately I only noticed when I was wearing them with no sound, and it didn't make me enjoy the InZone Buds any less because when I loaded a game and turned the volume up, I felt like I could slip into my own world.
The ambient sound mode – a transparency mode – is supposed to let in background noise, which to me is more important than noise cancelling for at-home earbuds. When I'm gaming I might want to listen for the doorbell, or hear somebody call for me in the next room. But even when I turned ambient noise up to maximum using the InZone Hub, I couldn't hear somebody talking 10 feet from me when I was playing a game at 50% volume.
It's annoying but, on balance, a minor gripe in the context of the excellent low-latency audio.
Battery Life and Software
These buds' battery life is one of their biggest strengths. Sony advertises 12 hours before they need to return to the case and I got close to that, hitting more than 11 hours each time. In wireless earbuds terms that is a marathon, longer than every other device on our best gaming earbuds list.
They lack both fast and wireless charging, and the case itself holds less charge than competitors – but the single-charge lifespan makes up for it. Whenever I finished a long session, I plugged in the buds and knew they'd last as long as I needed them to next time.
For software, the InZone Buds are supposed to work with two different programs: the InZone Hub on PC and the Sound Connect app on smartphones. I say "supposed to" because I couldn't get the app to work on my phone.
The buds connected to my Android phone via Bluetooth LE fine, and I enjoyed watching YouTube and listening to music, but for whatever reason Sony's app couldn't find them, so I couldn't adjust EQ levels or tweak any settings. I reinstalled the app and reset the buds with no joy. Sony's online support isn't much help and it's all badged with "Headphones Connect" – a previous name for the app, which doesn't give me much confidence.
And as I mentioned in the intro, regular Bluetooth is not supported, so they'll only connect to your phone if it supports Bluetooth LE. They also won't connect to your Switch or Steam Deck without the dongle, which is annoying: I'm fine playing more casual games, such as Balatro, with a bit of Bluetooth latency, but that's not an option with the InZone Buds.
The PC-only InZone Hub is intuitive and packed with options, giving you more customization than most earbuds. The equalizer presets seem smart (I mainly used one that boosts footsteps and gunshots), and you can tweak the dynamic range to make quieter sounds easier to hear.
The "Spatial Sound" is designed to give you a 3D effect and I played with it on at all times. I felt it gave me a slight advantage knowing where my opponents were, without compromising the audio quality.
Sound field personalization and sound tone personalization tune your audio through hearing tests and photos of your ears. For me they sounded different, but not noticeably better – although I can't begrudge Sony layering more customization onto buds that are already generous in their settings.
Lastly, you can adjust your microphone volume and even let it adjust automatically based on what else is happening. The mic was loud by default and all my teammates could hear me clearly, but my voice was slightly cracklier than with a dedicated microphone. That's to be expected with earbuds.
Sadly, you cannot use the InZone Hub anywhere other than PC, which makes them feel like PC-first earbuds, although the default set-up still sounded good on my PS5, Steam Deck, and Switch.
Samuel is a freelance reporter and editor specializing in longform journalism and hardware reviews. You can read his work at his website.
Ever consider replacing your gaming headset with a pair of earbuds? Here's a chance to do so on the cheap. For a limited time, Steelseries has dropped the price of its blemished box Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds for PlayStation 5 or PC to just $125.99 with free shipping (normally $200 new) after you apply a 10% off coupon code "EXTRA10". This is lowest price I've seen for the best dedicated gaming earbuds of 2025, even beating out Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds for $125.99
I don't see as many gaming-specific earbuds as I do gaming headsets. In fact, this is Steelseries' first product release in the category. The package includes a wireless 2.4GHz USB-c dongle that you plug into your PC or gaming console for reduced latency compared to using standard Bluetooth earbuds. Each earbud contains a 6mm neodymium magnetic driver that can simulate bass and spatial audio effects. No headset is complete without a built-in microphone, and the Gamebuds has a decent one, although not nearly as good as an extendable boom mic.
Previously, only PC gamers could take advantage of custom audio presets through the Steelseries GG software, but now console gamers can do the same through the Steelseries Arctis Companion mobile app.
The Gamebuds can be used outside of gaming, of course. Like any good pair of in-ear buds at this price point, the Gamebuds features Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and active noise cancellation. Three different sized eartips are included for a more customized fit. The battery lasts about 10 hours and the charging case extends it to 40 hours.
I have a pair of these myself and quite like it. I prefer these over standard headphones on hotter days, because my ears sweat profusely when I use traditional over-ear headsets. Not so with these Gamebuds.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
It's been another big year for Netflix. Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters, Frankenstein, Wake Up Dead Man, and a lot more kept audiences glued to the streaming service in spite of price increases and the addition of ad tiers. It was enough to draw even more new subscribers to Netflix by the end of 2025, up 23 million from the last data we got from Netflix a year ago, when the subscriber numbers were at 302 million.
Netflix reported its full-year earnings for the 2025 fiscal year today, reporting $45.2 billion in revenue for the full year (up 16% year-over-year), and with ad revenue rising over 2.5x to over $1.5 billion. View hours were up 2% year-over-year, and total subscribers were at 325 million.
It's especially notable to be getting subscriber numbers of any kind, as Netflix announced it would no longer be reporting these numbers beginning with fiscal 2025, and we haven't heard updates since last January. But it's clear that Netflix has a lot to brag about this year, given that its strategy of price hikes and ad tiers seems to have, annoyingly, worked out well for them.
This comes as Netflix prepares to, pending approvals, acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $82.7 billion. As discussions proceed, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has pledged to keep Warner Bros. films exclusively in theaters for 45 days, saying, “When this deal closes, we will own a theatrical distribution engine that is phenomenal and produces billions of dollars of theatrical revenue that we don’t want to put at risk. We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows. I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office.”
Fortnite appears to be getting The Office content in Chapter 7 after rumors suggested Epic Games was working on a crossover.
Fans of TV and video games were thrown for a loop earlier today when Epic shared a not-so-cryptic tease on social media. It’s the kind of thing that would seem completely nonsensical to the uninitiated, but those who are even peripherally aware of the NBC comedy will recognize “Build. Beets. Battle Royale.” as a reference to one of the most memorable quotes from The Office.
A meeting between Fortnite and The Office, though never considered to be impossible, is unexpected, but some recent rumors had players believing confirmation was only a matter of time. Popular Fortnite content creator Shiina said they heard The Office could soon show up just last week. At the time, they suggested a rumor about “a nostalgic duo from a live-action TV series” was tied to the show but neglected to share more.
Which members of the Dunder Mifflin crew could be recreated in Epic’s battle royale mega-hit remains a mystery, but references to names like Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert, and Pam Beesly seem the most likely. It’s also unclear when exactly we’ll learn more about the potential Fortnite crossover, but some fans are already taking the tease as an opportunity to share their excitement.
Shiina, meanwhile, has already posted an update since the Fortnite The Office tease reared its head. Their new video comes with the suggestion that the classic workplace comedy is coming soon, with content for Regular Show and Ed, Edd n Eddy also in the works at Epic. Players may want to take all of today’s information with a grain of salt, but with Fortnite’s track record for wild crossovers in mind, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Fortnite launched into Chapter 7 in November with an Avenger-style team-up event. Crossovers added since then include skins for Kim Kardashian, Bleach, and South Park. We’ll hopefully learn more about everything included in The Office teaser in the near future.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
If you're in the market for a comfortable yet stylish gaming chair that won't break your budget, then check out Andaseat's New Year Sale, which runs through the end of the month. AndaSeat, one of the more well-known gaming chair companies - is offering discounts of up to $150 off its popular Kaiser and Novis gaming chairs that stacks with our 10% off IGN exclusive coupon code "AndaIGN". This chairs are stocked in US warehouses and are usually delivered within a week. Good ergonomic office chairs are comfortable, sure, but they're expensive and look pretty boring. These racing-style chairs complement the gamer aesthetic while still offering the comfort you need for those multi-hour sessions.
Kaiser 4 Gaming Chair (2025 Refresh) for $458.10
The Kaiser 4 is AndaSeat's flagship chair. The price normally starts at $549 but the New Year Sale discount and IGN code drops it to $458.10. It has all of the build quality and creature comforts you'd expect in a premium quality gaming chair, like a unibody 2mm tubular steel frame with reinforced aluminum wheelbase, a generous amount of cold-cure high density foam for the seat bottom (a bit softer, in my experience, than the overly firm Secretlab seat), 24-degree pop-out lumbar with 4-way adjustability, 6D armrests, 135 degrees of recline with rocking toggle, included magnetic armrests, headrest, and more. This chair sounds a lot like the Titan Evo, and you'd be right; the design, features, build quality, and materials are pretty similar, but for nearly $130 less.
Kaiser 3E Gaming Chair for $386.10
New to Andaseat's lineup since October of 2025 is the Kaiser 3E, which is a more economical model that retains the build quality and most of the features of Andaseat's top end Kaiser series. The Kaiser 3E is catered towards anyone who wants a high-end gaming chair but wants to keep a budget of around $400. The base model usually starts at $409, but the New Year Sale discount and IGN code drops it to $323.10.
The Kaiser 3E features the same upholstery options, cold cure form, and unibody metal frame as the Kaiser 4 with either a steel or aluminum wheelbase depending on the size you get. You also get lumbar support, although with fewer adjustment options, and a magnetic headrest. The other feature you do lose out on are 4D armrests (instead of 6D), but that's it.
Novis Gaming Chair for $206.10
Released in early 2025, the Andaseat Novis gaming chair is for the truly budget-minded. It normally retails for an already great price of $249 – but it's down to $206.10 after the New Year Sale discount and IGN code. The Novis boasts excellent build quality, upholstery, and cold cure foam cushioning as the higher end models, which make it just as comfortable to sit in. It does, however, have a stripped down featureset, like a non-adjustable lumbar system, 2D armrests, a nylon wheelbase (for the smaller size), and less aggressive styling. It also doesn't include the headrest.
X-Air and X-Air Pro Mesh Chairs From $323.10
If you don't care for the distinct styling of gaming chairs, Andaseat also carries a line of task chairs dubbed the X-Air and X-Air Pro with some innovate features of their own. Unlike the hard mesh found on most office chairs, the X-Air features a softer suede-like material that feels more comfortable against bare skin, so it's even ok to wear shorts. The Pro model also comes in a couple of unique colorways that you probably won't find anywhere else. As befits a good task chair, the X-Air offers plenty of adjustability options as well as dynamic lumbar adjustment, 5D armrests, and a 3D headrest.
Can't decide what chair you want? Check out our guides.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Netflix has confirmed plans ramp up AI use at the company, with plans to expand its tools for subtitle localization and advertisement creation for its subscribers in 2026.
The streaming giant touched on its plans for the new year as part of the Q4 2025 earnings report published today. While some of its programming plans remain under wraps, the company says audiences can expect artificial intelligence to play a larger role in its content rollout in the months ahead.
Netflix’s doubling down on AI follows its experimentation with the controversial technology in 2025. Examples of planned internal tools include the creation of custom ads, subtitle localization, and merchandising, all of which subscribers can expect more of in 2026.
“We continue to harness AI to enhance the experience for our members, and we’re expanding these capabilities to support our creative teams and advertisers,” Netflix said. “In 2025, we began testing new AI tools to help advertisers create custom ads based on Netflix’s intellectual property, and we plan to build on this progress in 2026. We also introduced automated workflows for ad concepts and used advanced AI models to streamline campaign planning, significantly speeding up these processes.”
We continue to harness AI to enhance the experience for our members, and we’re expanding these capabilities to support our creative teams and advertisers.
“In content production and promotion, we’re using AI to improve subtitle localization, making it easier for our titles to reach more viewers around the world. Additionally, we’re implementing AI-driven tools to help with merchandising, which improves our ability to connect members with the most relevant titles for them to watch.”
Custom ads have and will impact those in Netflix’s $7.99/month “Standard with ads” tier more than those in the Standard and Premium tiers, though how the company plans to “build” on AI use in this regard remains unclear. Subtitles generated with AI support, however, could affect every tier Netflix watcher, regardless of their subscription level.
The streamer’s interest in AI-generated content isn’t much of a surprise. Last May, it confirmed plans to integrate the technology into its midroll and pause ads by 2026. Just a few months later, the company commented on how viewers feel about artificial intelligence, saying that audiences “probably don’t care much about budgets, and arguably not even about the technology used to deliver it,” at the time.
Meanwhile, Netflix said today that it amassed an additional 23 million subscribers through 2025. With reporting from last January putting its total count at 302 million, today’s update has it at around 325 million.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
HP has the best deal around on an RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop as reported earlier, but you can also make this deal work with an upgraded RTX 5080 GPU as well. Right now HP is offering the OMEN MAX 16 RTX 5080 gaming laptop for just $1,929.99 when you add any HyperX accessory to the same order. You also get free shipping. The RTX 5080 is an absolute monster of a mobile GPU that surpasses the previous generation's top performer, the RTX 4090.
Final price should be $1,929.99 for the laptop plus the cost of the accessory
* Note that I'd recommend upgrading to the 2560x1600 OLED display for +$130.
You can add any HyperX accessory and get the $150 discount. It doesn't have to be the item I selected, which I only chose because it was the cheapest item I could find. There are dozens to choose from.
The OMEN MAX 16 is an upgrade to the OMEN both in terms of build quality and cooling potential. The OMEN MAX 16 is almost entirely constructed of aluminum, including both the top lid and chassis. The exception is the palm rest, which is still plastic so that it doesn't get too toasty for your hands. The OMEN MAX 16 also features a new Tempest Cooling Pro design that combines vapor chamber cooling, redesigned fan configuration, and an improved thermal interface material to maximize heat transfer. Not only does this keep the laptop cooler during gaming marathons, it also allows for the current-generation graphics cards to perform optimally without throttling.
The GeForce RTX 5080 mobile GPU is better than the RTX 4090 mobile
The OMEN MAX 16 offers a robust cooling design that allows it to accomodate a more powerful GPU like the RTX 5080 without throttling it. The RTX 5080 mobile GPU is roughly 15%-20% more powerful than the RTX 4080 mobile GPU that it replaces. In fact, it's slightly more powerful than the RTX 4090, which was the previous generation's flagship card. You should be able to run any game out there at consistent 60+ fps framerates even if you decide to upgrade to the higher resolution 2560x1600 OLED display.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Anime is awesome. Board games are also awesome. Put the two together, and you get tabletop fun that not only shows off some of the hottest anime series out there, but can also capture the wild nature of the animated media and their associated tropes.
While there are plenty of games that have animed-themed versions like Naruto Monopoly or Dragonball Z Yahtzee, this list instead focuses on games that use the IPs they feature as a theme rather than simply being an anime reskin, and games that do a great job in replicating the look, feel, or tropes of this beloved art form.
Featured in this article
Just as a side note before we get into the list itself, this will only feature board games and won’t go into the plethora of solid anime TCGs that exist, like Digimon and One Piece, or TTRPGs either. Those are out there, and I recommend seeking those out, too, if that is more your style.
Re;ACT - The Arts of War
Fast-paced matches with hot-looking anime characters, each with dynamic and unique mechanics? Sign me up! Re;Act from Brother Ming Games puts players in the roles of artists who've been granted powers based on their respective art forms and are pitted against one another in a 1v1 showdown. Described as “Yugioh meets chess” by the creator Ming Yang Lu, where the importance of positioning from chess crosses over with the interrupts and actions of Yugioh, where you will declare your intentions by playing a card before allowing the opponent to play a reaction, acting akin to a trap card. From super-powered Calligraphers to Dancers, Animators, and Painters, Re;Act: The Arts of War is shonen anime in a box and a blast to play.
Millennium Blades
Crack packs, build decks, and outfit yourself with the coolest deckbox out there in Millennium Blades – a board game about competing in a card game. Players are pro TCG players who are all vying to win the most points by doing well in the game’s three tournaments. Outside of the actual tournaments, which see you playing cards to score points, there are real-time trading and buying phases where you will trade cards with other players or the store, and buy packs of cards using Monopoly-esque money.
Just like the real world, the meta of the game will change as the game progresses and force you to adjust your approach and swap out cards. There are so many clever nods and homages to other games and anime that give Millennium Blades a wonderful identity, but don’t let its silliness fool you – it's a tense and highly strategic game with plenty of content, so you'll never play the same game twice.
Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid
This may be splitting hairs a bit since TECHNICALLY, Power Rangers, aka Super Sentai, isn’t anime, but their motif and idea can be found in plenty of anime, and Super Sentai and its sibling Kamen Rider are just as much a part of Japan's entertainment history as anime, and so Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is on this list.
Heroes of the Grid is a cooperative boss battler in which the Ranger players attempt to take out the chosen monster of the week and big bad like Rita Repulsa before their forces overwhelm Angel Grove. Each Ranger has a unique deck and the respective zords they play with to get the job done, and with the plethora of expansions this game has, you can use your favorite ranger teams and villains. Heroes of the Grid is a great co-op board game with teamwork and strategy being front and center. It's sure to delight Power Ranger fans.
Guilty Gear -Strive- The Board Game
One of the most stylish anime fighting games of the modern video game generation is the Guilty Gear series by Arc System Works. The same anime flair carries over into the board game adaptation, Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game, which was released last year.
This 1v1 dueling game features 20 characters from Strive, each with their own decks to play that highlight the styles and moves from the video game counterpart. It uses the Exceed card game system, so positioning of your character is crucial in Strive with attacks requiring different spacing to pull off and rewards keeping the momentum and pressure on. Set-up is fast and matches are over quickly, making this a great quick board game to act as a filler between bigger ones or playing a bunch of rounds. Like we said in our review, this game captures not only the look of the source material but also what we love about fighting games. Fans of Guilty Gear or of fast-paced card games will find something to like with Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game.
One Piece: Luffy’s Bento Panic
Perfect for anime conventions or parties with friends, One Piece: Luffy’s Bento Panic is a silly party game based on the hit anime featuring Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. In Bento Panic, players take on the role of their favorite Straw Hat and celebrate a recent victory in the best way they know how – with a feast! Sitting in a circle, using their hands, all at once, players show a different gesture to declare their action from their turn, either pulling food tokens from the blind bag, stealing food from a neighbor, blocking a steal, or eating food. Points are scored by eating sets of food tokens, with the game only ending when Luffy wakes from his food coma a third time. Luffy’s Bento Panic makes a great party board game, since everyone takes their turn at once. And like we mentioned in our review, even folks who aren’t necessarily fans of One Piece will have a good time with this one.
AEGIS Combining Robots: Second Ignition
For nearly as long as anime has existed, super robots and combining robots have been a part of it. AEGIS Combining Robots: Second Ignition lets players assemble teams, led by powerful Commanders with special abilities, of mecha from five different classes – Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel and Support – and duke it out to try and be the team that comes out on top.
While the mechs are strong by themselves, things really heat up when they start combining, turning the game from a strategic tactics game into something reminiscent of the fights out of GunBuster or GaoGaiGear. Manage your energy and pick the right time to combine your bots and grasp victory. For folks who prefer a more cooperative approach, additional modes are included, letting you and a friend take on buffed boss bots that will put your teamwork to the test.
With 100+ mecha, each with its own skill loadout and standee, AEGIS gives you plenty of options for how to make your team, and Second Ignition is compatible with the first game, AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game, which just saw a reprint, giving you even more options. Fans of mecha and tactic games should give AEGIS a look.
Cowboy Bebop: Space Serenade
As crew members of the spaceship Bebop, in Cowboy Bebop: Space Serenade, you play as bounty hunters racing to take down nefarious criminals, all based on the legendary anime Cowboy Bebop. Space Serenade is a semi-cooperative deck builder that's reminiscent of games like Star Realms, where you play cards for their resources and effects to buy new ones to add to your deck or to try and capture your targets.
Each of the four playable characters from the show – Spike, Ed, Faye, and Jet – comes with a set of cards special to them in addition to the generic ones that compose your starting hand. From there, it's a race to collect bounties and earn victory points to prove that you are the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. This game features plastic miniatures of your characters and cards depicting scenes from the anime, creating an authentic and fun deck builder for fans of the genre and source material.
Bullet Star Board Game
Adopting the shoot-’em-up genre of video games for the tabletop, the Bullet series puts you in the role of different anime-like heroes as you avoid quickly approaching bullets and survive long enough to be the last one standing. The Bullet series is a real-time, pattern-matching puzzle game, and instead of shooting at the other players, you frantically attempt to remove the incoming bullets from reaching their own life points.
Over the course of three-minute rounds, players blindly pull bullet tokens from their bags and spend action points to help rearrange the tokens on their boards into patterns that allow bullets to be destroyed. At the end off each round, the destroyed bullets are moved to the player on their left to be added to the mix, similar to dropping Tetris blocks on your opponent. Bullet is a fast-paced game whose real-time countdown component and puzzle-based gameplay make it a refreshing anime addition to your board game shelf.
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
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