Miraculously meditative and frantic in equal measure, Once Upon A Katamari scratches the same carnal itch that the rest of the series always has. It delivers relentless charm, a wheeze-laugh-inducing sense of humor, brain chemistry-altering music, and soulfully satisfying-but-simple gameplay in psychedelic technicolor. This time-trotting adventure rolls out the red carpet for The Prince, The King of All Cosmos, The Queen, and their cadre of silly little cousins with flamboyant aplomb. And with more levels and a greater focus on replayability, there’s more Katamari to go around than ever before. The first new mainline Katamari game in 14 years doesn’t try to reinvent the misshapen mass of things you roll around, and that’s fine by me, because Katamari doesn’t need fixing.

At first blush, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the original Katamari Damacy from 2004 and Bandai Namco’s latest iteration aside from the obvious jump from 480p to 4K. That’s because developer Rengame understood the assignment: Once Upon A Katamari is just as funny, satisfying, joyful, and energetic as the series has always been.

After showing off his juggling skills with a powerful scroll, the godlike King of All Cosmos flings it into the night sky, yet again destroying the heavenly bodies that inhabit it. It’s up to his son, The Prince, and his cousins to go to Earth and roll up everything in sight to make stars and planets to repopulate the sky. It might not make sense if you haven’t played a Katamari game (or, frankly, even if you have), but this setup has proven as reliable as Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach, and serves as a vehicle for some spectacularly funny stuff.

The King, a flamboyant, self-important, all-powerful – though overall benevolent – god who likes to wear really tight pants is beloved by all, even though he talks down to The Prince and his goofy-looking cousins. Making the most of every last syllable of dialogue, I chuckled at least once just about every time he mused on the nature of the universe or paid himself a compliment with his record-scratch-sound voice. Once Upon A Katamari is a masterclass of comedic writing and localization, efficiently using its humor to set up the goal for each level before the rolling starts without ever letting a joke get stale.

Completing a level will often reveal a quick and silly scene showing The King or The Queen getting up to some kind of shenanigans, like rolling a bunch of wild west outlaws into a katamari after a standoff that pays homage to The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, or The King catching a giant crab and flinging it into the sky. Even failing a level has some cheek to it, as The King berates you for messing up, softening the sometimes frustrating blow of falling short of the goal. Despite this pervasive sense of humor, it never becomes cloying or overly self-aware, reliably delivering a smile at nearly every turn beyond The King’s pompous monologues. The overworld level-select maps are just as full of funny touches, like cats and dogs wandering around the Ancient Greek agora in Spartan armor or a cow sitting at a campfire like a human, warming its hooves next to its owner.

Each level takes advantage of just how much stuff there is to find within the seemingly chaotic splatter of candy, flowers, statues, lanterns, and TVs that camouflage a subtle, effortless sense of humor and direction within the madness. Tumbleweeds chase cowboys around in circles, titanic Super Sentai-style heroes practice wrestling their moves on kaiju over the horizon, bears and cows prepare for an all-fronts war, and mummies make TV shows underneath the pyramids. Again: madness. But even in the immense, sometimes overwhelming, chaos of each level, every object you can roll up is placed with deliberate care for either comedic effect or a satisfying sequence, like an octopus wreaking havoc on a pirate ship or bottles of soy sauce set up like bowling pins that will quickly push you into the next weight class so you can finally pick up that bowl of ramen in the other room.

Controlling your designated roller, you’ll whirl your massive ball of stuff around different time periods like the Jurassic period or Edo-era Japan, picking up anything smaller than your dung beetle-like ball. You might start a level the size of a pushpin or matchstick, but you could end it picking up cities or even planets by the end. The classic goal is simply to get your katamari (which literally means clump or mass in Japanese) as big as possible, but sometimes you’ll need to follow special rules. They could be as simple as collecting as many fish as possible, or as complex as only rolling up sweet items while avoiding savory or bitter things like hot sauce or charcoal because the child who asked you to do so wants to eat something sweet after a big meal.

No matter what you’re picking up, snowballing your katamari into a bigger and bigger collection of books, cannonballs, eggs, and flatware is oddly cerebral. Tapping into the same inexplicably satisfying, brain-scratching sensation you get from games like Tetris or PowerWash Simulator, there’s a zen-ness to decluttering Japanese palaces, Ice Age caves, and the decks of pirate ships washed in a low-poly-day-glo look.

Once Upon A Katamari’s oddly gripping, maximalist soundscape counters this calm with gusto. Different items snap to your odd ball with a satisfying zhoop, with certain things making unique noises like a wailing cat or a street punk scatting, turning your katamari the strangest chorus you’ve ever heard. As you roll up a ball of various odds and ends, Once Upon A Katamari matches your collection with an equally eclectic soundtrack. Inspired by the poppy hodge-podge sound of J-Pop subgenre Shibuya-kei, Once Upon A Katamari’s soundtrack stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the musical giants it’s following as a spectacular album in its own right, with or without a game to accompany it.

The only unifying themes among the notes are paying subtle homage to the Katamari riff (you know: that catchy one that goes na naaa nanana nana na na na na nana naaa) that permanently tattoos itself on your hippocampus after playing any game in this series. Otherwise, Once Upon A Katamari’s soundtrack is a diverse smorgasbord of different sounds and genres, from the energetic techno-rap opening theme, Katamari Time, to the funk-jazz-fusion jam, Power of Katamari Damacy, to the unexpectedly lovely choral title track from one of the series’ original composers, Asuka Sakai, featuring the San Francisco Boys Choir. There’s not a bad track among the 36-song bunch.

But Once Upon A Katamari is happy to oblige your sonic nostalgia for the other games, too, with nearly every track from the series’ 21-year history available in a music selector that has a handful of options to tweak. You can make a playlist of your favorite songs from across the series or loop a specific favorite over any of Once Upon A Katamari’s levels. It’s frustrating that you can’t just play an individual game’s soundtrack in order, and that multiple games are inexplicably clumped together in two separate eras instead of game by game, but the playlist feature at least more or less makes up for those shortcomings. The shuffle feature also has an odd hiccup where whichever song played last starts over when you start the next level. And since some of these levels are shorter than much of the near-100-song tracklist, you might wind up hearing some songs more times in a row than you’d want when choosing shuffle, but you can always select a new song before starting a level to fix that.

Rengame’s surgical approach to recreating the immutable charm of this series deftly avoids the uninteresting pitfalls of hollow nostalgia. Instead of treating iconic levels from the original as gospel doomed to be worn out in every Katamari game like the requisite recreation of 1-1 in the Mario series, nearly every stage here is wholly original. Katamari’s newest custodians toy with the formula with careful precision, supplementing the flow of what I’ve come to expect from a roll-icking good time with new level types and even power-ups to augment your rolling while taking care not to disrupt the delicate balance of calm and chaos that defines Katamari. Combining that with subtle modernizations established in more recent Katamari games, like a clearer scoring system, Once Upon A Katamari threads the needle between old and new surprisingly well.

For example, using both joysticks to control where and how you roll has always been deliberately awkward, with the mass becoming harder and harder to maneuver as you grow exponentially. Once Upon A Katamari makes zooming around at smaller sizes feel a little more precise than it used to, which I didn’t like at first, but this ultimately helped highlight the sense of scale this series has always been good at in bright yellow.

The power-ups add a nice layer to the rolling as well, and let Rengame play with new design ideas that emphasize the puzzle element of efficiently finding your way around – even breaking the trance-like flow for a certain level or part of one to instead experiment with puzzle-like problems to solve. The Rocket power-up, for example, helped me brave a powerful wind storm to pick up a few extra items, but only lasted for a short burst of speed, adding an extra layer of challenge and strategy I wasn’t normally used to. The Radar power-up helped me find specific items to complete a pharaoh’s series of requests in one of the Ancient Egypt levels as he asked for 10 bananas or a dozen eggs. None of these drastically reshape or redefine the rolling at Katamari’s core, but do open up new level design ideas that offer fun diversions from the standard “make your katamari as big as possible” levels.

Once Upon A Katamari is by far the biggest game in the series to date, though still relatively small in scope overall - it took me around 10 hours to complete every main level at least once. Rengame acknowledges and helps buttress this with new collectibles to find in each level and unlockable challenges to keep me coming back with a new approach. In addition to finding cousins who serve as additional playable characters and gifts that unlock new customization options for them, three crowns are hidden in each level, adding extra challenges and legitimately compelling reasons to revisit levels. Having a certain number of cousins or crowns will open up extra levels, too, adding even more reason to roll around the same place a few times. Challenges don’t offer the same rewards, but they’re a nice nod to players like me who regularly revisit completed Katamari games.

That all said, the stages that are available are unfortunately lopsided, with a majority of the levels taking place in Edo Japan – it holds more than double the amount of levels as the next biggest era. I understand that this series has always embraced Japanese culture, but in the context of Once Upon A Katamari’s time travel concept, it feels like a lot of ground was left uncovered across the nine other eras, some of which only host as few as three or four levels.

Rengame also builds on the multiplayer modes established in the other Katamari games with the series’ best take on multiplayer to date. While co-op control of a single katamari isn't available this time around, the PvP mode once again has you and other rollers try to pick up the most stuff. But unlike previous entries, you earn points by depositing your hard-earned stuff in a UFO, giving more utility to the new power-ups and adding a more dynamic flow to competition than just rolling as much as possible. Once your time’s up, The King intervenes to hand out bonus points in a Mario Party-style round-up that awards competitors for stuff like the number of times they’ve used a power-up or rolled up their opponents. It’s nothing revolutionary, but a step up that makes multiplayer feel like more than just an afterthought.

Call it the sentiment of an aging millennial, but I can't help but feel somewhat comforted while playing Plants vs. Zombies: Replanted. It not only updates the original's stellar blend of approachable tower-defense and puzzle gameplay, but it's also a reminder of how quirky and endearing games were in the late 2000s. Developer PopCap Games returns to give this classic another well-deserved moment in the sun, adding new content, quality-of-life improvements, and features from other ports to create a more complete package. That said, Replanted struggles to balance its updates with its attempts to preserve the look of the original. In doing so, it presents an uneven remaster that is the most complete version of Plants vs. Zombies ever released, but also one that feels less polished in the ways that matter most.

The charm of PvZ comes from its cheerful and fun vibes, which feel akin to an afternoon cartoon show you'd watch on Nickelodeon. In keeping with the series, Replanted never attempts to explain how this quirky side of the zombie apocalypse started, or, even more strangely, how the plants gained heightened sentience to fight back. And honestly, that still works out for the best, because vibes alone have helped the Plants vs. Zombies series go far. The tone always stays fast and loose with its premise to keep the absurdity ramping up, which it does plenty.

The Replanted edition brings back everything from the 2009 PC release along with nearly all of the additions from the various console and mobile ports that followed – including material from the discontinued Chinese release of PvZ. Even the local co-op and competitive modes from the console ports make a return, which I missed the first time around. This makes Replanted such a neat opportunity to get reacquainted both with why the original still holds up today and the many upgrades it got over the years.

What made Plants vs. Zombies so engaging was how it blended real-time strategy with the feeling of placing pieces of a puzzle onto a table. It really leans into the satisfaction of finding a particular approach and adapting your units as needed. When the action gets going, and your squads of peashooters and walnuts are holding the line against zombie quarterbacks, 'zomboni' drivers, and other oddball undead, it's so captivating to see play out. Even as someone who played it plenty 16 years ago, I still found myself immediately drawn back in, arranging my plants in the best tactical positions to keep the zombies off my doorstep.

The overall challenge of the original generally stayed fair and easygoing, but there were a few moments of unexpected difficulty spikes, and Replanted doesn't do much to fix that. Granted, many of the sudden challenges that arise are because of how breezy the campaign can be, which made the more difficult stages catch me off guard thanks to the tough new zombie units that came my way. I found the challenges to be reasonable overall, but the difficulty can still hit hard when you least expect it.

Replanted does make efforts to switch things up and add its own stuff that's not been seen elsewhere. One very welcome update for returning players is the ability to speed up battles. You can hit the fast-forward option to speed animations up three additional notches, which adds the challenge of making battles feel a bit more hectic at that heightened pace. It was generally helpful for clearing out the waiting periods in missions, which previously took up a lot of time. However, one downside of this is that changing the speed unfortunately alters the music, too. While I did like the remixed songs with faster beats, it means the classic music that ramped up as the battles escalated has been disappointingly removed from the soundtrack.

One of the more novel additions is the Rest in Peace Mode, PvZ's take on a permadeath run for the main adventure. With fewer defenses protecting your home, even one zombie breaking through your lines will result in an instant fail and send you back to the beginning of a run. As a concept, it fits perfectly with the style of PvZ, and I did feel that familiar tension that comes from the more intense missions. However, letting you bring in all your unlocked plants and seed slots at the start of a run does undermine a lot of the intended challenge, which is an odd choice if this is supposed to be the most difficult mode in PvZ. It's ultimately not as developed as I had hoped, so trying to make a go of the new mode mostly felt underwhelming.

The most interesting and inventive Replanted addition is the Cloudy Day mode, which combines elements of day and night gameplay into a single battle. This twist introduces an interesting change by making the sunny phase focus more on resource gathering and planning, while the cloudy phase is all about building units with the benefit of lower resource costs. It's a clever mash-up of the two battle styles of PvZ, and it kept me very engaged as I tried to maximize my moments in battle when the tide changed. It's by far Replanted's most impressive innovation.

This remaster generally looks great in motion as well, especially when the action heats up with zombie hordes in full force and your plants tossing everything they can to stop them. Unfortunately, the upgraded visuals often stick a little too closely to the style and structure of the original, and their expansion to larger resolutions can sometimes feel very artificial and uneven. This creates instances where the quality can be inconsistent and unintentionally below standard, such as blurry and rough character portraits or animations in menus, and the unsightly grim filter overlay in Rest in Peace mode.

This unevenness also contributes to one of the more bizarre changes: how the original iconic ending music video was handled. Without spoilers, instead of a rousing splash of an ending, this finale is shown as a video within another cutscene, condensed onto a classic tube TV set inside your character’s home. This unnecessary flourish diminishes the final sequence, which was previously on the same level as Portal's fantastic 'Still Alive' ending. It was an unexpected downer to see that celebration of the fun energy of Plants vs. Zombies instead turned into something that feels like I'm just watching a 16-year-old recording of the credits on YouTube in full 360p resolution. This type of decision is largely emblematic of the problems with Replanted overall, as it plays things overly safe as a remaster in order to avoid remaking elements of the main game, which has the downside of making it feel reductive in its attempt to preserve it.

Microsoft has announced Wave 2 of its Xbox Game Pass October 2025 lineup, fleshing out the rest of this month’s titles.

It’s worth noting today’s announcement on Xbox Wire follows Microsoft’s Game Pass price hike and rebranding of some tiers. So, we’re now talking about what’s on Game Pass Premium and Essential, rather than Standard and Core. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass keep their names.

Xbox Game Pass Tier and Price Changes, October 2025:

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate: $29.99 a month, up from $19.99 a month
• Xbox Game Pass Premium: $14.99 a month, the same as the old Standard subscription
• Xbox Game Pass Essential: $9.99 a month, the same as the old Core subscription
• PC Game Pass: $16.49 a month, up from $11.99

So, available today, October 22, on Game Pass Premium, is Commandos: Origins (Cloud, Console, and PC), now with Game Pass Premium. Here’s the official blurb: “Commandos: Origins revisits the six iconic commandos from the original series. Witness elite stealth-tactics gameplay, use your team’s unique abilities to execute complex strategies, and combine your forces in 2-player co-op multiplayer. The battlefield is calling. Do you have what it takes?”

Also now on Game Pass Premium is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S). “Pursue your aviation career with dynamically generated missions, compete against other pilots, and explore the most detailed digital twin of the world to date. Set out on your global adventure with our largest fleet of aircraft as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 takes simulation to new heights of authenticity and realism. The sky is calling!”

Tomorrow, October 23, PowerWash Simulator 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one Game Pass launch. IGN's PowerWash Simulator 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: "PowerWash Simulator 2 smartly sticks to what made the original formula such a blast while throwing in some upgrades to deal with few of its pesky problems."

Also on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass as a day one title on October 23 is Bounty Star (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S). “Bounty Star is an over-the-shoulder 3D action game that marries mech combat and customization with farming and base building. The player takes on the role of a broken but powerful ex-soldier named Clem, a war veteran, talented fighter and expert mech pilot.”

The day one launches continue on October 24 with Super Fantasy Kingdom (Game Preview) (PC) via Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. “Rebuild your kingdom and explore a vibrant fantasy world in this roguelite city builder. Defeat hordes of monsters with a unique team of defenders as you harvest, build, mine, cook, brew, and grow. But if your defenses should fail, be prepared to watch it all burn!”

Halls of Torment (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass on October 28. “Slay hordes of terrifying monsters in this horde survival roguelite. Descend into the Halls of Torment where the Lords of the Underworld await you. Treasures, magical trinkets, and a growing cast of heroes will grant you the power to vanquish these horrors from beyond. How long can you survive?”

Here’s a big one: Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) launches straight into Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on October 29. “The Outer Worlds 2 is the eagerly-awaited sequel to the award-winning first-person sci-fi RPG from Obsidian Entertainment (just look at the exciting number of dashes in this sentence!). Time to clear your calendar – get ready for an action-packed adventure with a new crew, new weapons, and new enemies in a new colony! Pre-order the Premium Upgrade Edition now to get up to 5 days early access, the Commander Zane’s Anti-Monopolistic Battle Pack, DLC Pass for 2 future story expansions, and more!”

And moving into next month, 1000xResist (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, and PC Game Pass on November 4. “1000xResist is a thrilling sci-fi adventure. The year is unknown, and a disease spread by an alien invasion keeps you underground. You are Watcher. You dutifully fulfil your purpose in serving the Allmother, until the day you discover a shocking secret that changes everything.”

Rounding out the lineup is another big hitter: Football Manager 26 (PC) via Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one launch on November 4. “New foundations set the stage for you to define your football destiny. Built on the Unity engine, FM26 is the legacy, redefined and where storytelling evolves, placing you at the heart of the beautiful game. A reimagined interface and more immersive matchday experience brings you closer to the action and combine to elevate every decision and match-defining moment.” This also includes Football Manager 26 Console (Cloud, Console, and PC) on the same day via Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass Wave 2 October 2025 lineup:

• PowerWash Simulator 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 23, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Bounty Star (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 23, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Super Fantasy Kingdom (Game Preview) (PC) – October 24, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Halls of Torment (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 28, Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
• The Outer Worlds 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – October 29, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• 1000xResist (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) – November 4, Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass
• Football Manager 26 (PC) – November 4, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
• Football Manager 26 Console (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 4, Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass

As always, a number of games leave Xbox Game Pass this month. You can save up to 20% off your purchase to keep playing.

Leaving Xbox Game Pass on October 31:

• Jusant (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Metal Slug Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Return to Monkey Island (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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.

Here we go: KPop Demon Hunters is poised to be a global phenomenon. Why are we just saying that now? Well, because Netflix has officially announced that the hit film will work in joint partnership with toy giants Mattel and Hasbro to license a ton of cool toys for HUNTR/X and Saja Boys fans alike.

Once a movie or TV show starts getting toy lines, it’s serious, folks. The global co-master licenses for both companies will allow them to both produce toys, games, collectibles, role-play products, and more.

“Kpop Demon Hunters unleashed a global fan frenzy — we’re talking dancing, singing, and more screaming than anyone was emotionally prepared for,” Netflix’s Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee said in a statement. “HUNTR/X showed us that a truly great trio is more than the sum of its parts. Netflix, Mattel and Hasbro joining forces on this first-of-its-kind collaboration means fans can finally get their hands on the best dolls, games, and merchandise they’ve been not-so-subtly demanding on every social platform known to humanity. As Rumi, Mira and Zoey say — for the fans!”

With Mattel, Netflix plans to develop a full range of products that naturally will include dolls and action figures, as the company is responsible for the legendary and iconic Barbie doll line. Additionally, the collaboration with Mattel will also include playsets, collectibles, accessories, and even collaborations with co-brands. Mattel's first product drop will be a three-pack of HUNTR/X dolls, which will be available for pre-order beginning November 12, 2025.

As for Hasbro, Netflix will develop some new youth electronics products, special feature plush products, and role play products with the company. Hasbro’s first KPop Demon Hunters product to hit the market will be Monopoly Deal: KPop Demon Hunters, which will be a branded version of the Monopoly spinoff game. It is available for pre-order now at Amazon, Target, and Walmart, and will ship January 1, 2026.

Most of the Hasbro and Mattel lines will debut in spring 2026 and be available for the 2026 holiday season and onward. KPop Demon Hunters, which is the most watched original title in Netflix history, is available to stream on the platform now.

Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.

Nintendo and Retro Studios brought Metroid into stunning 3D with 2002's Metroid Prime, rebooting the series in a first-person shooter style through a sometimes challenging but ultimately fruitful relationship between Japanese and Western teams -- each with their own unique backgrounds and perspectives. But it wasn’t always smooth rolling for Samus along the way.

That’s according to a new book: Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, in which Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe comments throughout, sharing memories and insights from his perspective working with the U.S.-based Retro Studios on a Metroid game. This was a significant cross-seas, collaborative effort for Nintendo. Retro was working on a completely separate first-person game before series producer (and Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda creator) Shigeru Miyamoto proclaimed it should be a Metroid game. Metroid Prime was thus born. Tanabe recalls: “Metroid Prime was not a project that was originally planned. It was a title that came about by chance, as a result of Mr. Miyamoto clarifying the direction Retro should take… In a way it could be called a miracle.”

Tanabe frames the relationship between Retro Studios and Nintendo as ultimately hierarchical, with Nintendo having final say. “...Nintendo retained the final decision-making authority, there were many instances early on where our approaches to the specifications did not align, leading to disagreements. Retro often explained, ‘This is how Western studios approach and think about game development.' To help them understand our perspective, I told them, ‘Yes, but the game we are making now is a Nintendo game, and this is Retro’s first time working on one. I’ve been working on Nintendo games my whole career, so I believe I have the most experience in making Nintendo games. So please trust me first.'”

This led to creative tensions, with Retro holding its ground, clearly unwilling to totally cave to Nintendo. “One day, during a video conference about the Meta Ridley battle, our discussions kept clashing, and we couldn’t find common ground," Tanabe continued. "Time slipped away and by the time the meeting (which had started in the morning) finally ended, the sun was setting.”

Tanabe describes a Retro Studios that needed to be introduced to a set of design philosophies unique to Nintendo, for example enemy design beyond bosses was something Miyamoto had strong feelings about. “Many Nintendo developers have learned from Mr. Miyamoto that the appearance of enemy characters should be designed based on functionality… this had not yet been articulated quite so concisely. As a result, it took time for us to convey the concept clearly to Retro.”

You can see the collaboration working well in some cases, for instance, Retro won out in the implementation of morph ball rolling. In Metroid Prime, you generally view the game through Samus’s visor in first-person fashion, but for puzzles and tight spaces, Samus can transform into a rolling Morph Ball at which point the camera zooms out to third-person. Tanabe says of this: “The transition animation for shifting from first-person Morph Ball mode was proposed by Retro …however Retro also suggested a skip feature to reduce morphing time, but Mr. Miyamoto directed that it should be unskippable, as it was one of the opportunities to view Samus in third-person.”

It seems that Retro really pushed hard for the rolling mechanic to be expanded and ultimately won out, in an example of Nintendo relenting in the face of a great idea. Tanabe says: “Retro also proposed the mechanic of rolling through half-pipes in Morph Ball mode. Initially, Nintendo was skeptical, questioning whether it would actually be fun. However, Retro responded, ‘Please try it first before deciding.’”

The exchange of ideas and a willingness for teams to learn from one another paid off ultimately in a game IGN called a "must-have masterpiece” and which, for the 2023 remake, I scored a perfect 10/10. Tanabe reflects: “[The Metroid Prime Trilogy] was made possible by Retro maximizing the hardware’s potential through expert engineering, incorporating countless ideas without compromise to refine game design, and setting new standards for graphics in Nintendo titles.”

Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective is out October 28, 2025 and shares hundreds of pieces of concept art from the trilogy across Gamecube, Wii, and the Prime remake on Nintendo Switch. Comments from Retro Studios accompany Tanabe’s frequent notes, along with text taken from the game’s ample expository logs and scans. Metroid Prime 4, the latest team-up between Retro Studios and Nintendo, is set for Nintendo Switch 1 and Switch 2 on December 4, 2025.

Samuel Claiborn is IGN's managing editor and a fixes/breaks ancient arcade and pinball machines in his garage. TCELES B HSUP to follow him @Samuel_IGN on Twitter.

Do you have time to talk about my lord and saviour, PowerWash Simulator? The unexpected cult hit hooked weirdos like me back in 2022 with its relaxing, satisfying premise; clean dirt off things. Has the sequel, PowerWash Simulator 2, changed the fundamental act of power washing? Has it given new meaning to slowly blasting graffiti off a wall? Will it make you question what it truly means to be filthy in 2025? No. And thank Mr. Clean for that, because it's the simplicity that makes it so satisfying. What you do get is what fans like me - I've got over 400 hours logged in the original - really needed; some quality of life upgrades and lots of new things to wash. I can see myself racking up another 400 hours on this installment easily.

In case you missed out the first time, it really is as straightforward as it sounds. You are given a vehicle or location to clean, a selection of power washers (they all function the same way, just with varying power), soap, and if a level is feeling saucy, some ladders. You choose your washer, your nozzle (I'm a green girl, yellow for detail work, any one who uses white wasn't loved enough by their mother), and you're left to clean at your own pace, sluicing down sections in whatever way you please. One of the real beauties of PowerWash Simulator is that you can't eff it up. As long as you're blasting water at dirt, eventually things will get clean. Even if you never upgraded anything, you'd still get there in the end.

The big headline for the sequel is all the new cleaning jobs to work your way through, and they don't disappoint. There are vehicles like a mobility scooter or a car decorated like a dog; there are buildings like bandstands, public toilets, and grand houses; and there are even new multi-stage jobs where you'll need to clean a particular part of a map to reveal a new area. There is the perfect balance of large buildings and complex structures, for when I wanted to spend a solid hour spraying, alongside smaller vehicles for a quicker splash of dopamine. Less exciting for purists like me is the addition of a home base you can decorate (but alas, not clean) and some pet cats. I mean, everyone likes virtual pets, but unless I can tie mops to their feet I have no interest in them when I'm busy jetwashing a billboard.

You'll understand the beautiful mundanity of this game when I tell you that one of the most exciting innovations is that soap is now free and multipurpose. Not just a blow against capitalism, it actually removes one of the biggest annoyances about the first game. Soap had to be purchased, came in limited quantities, and a different soap was required for each surface. Now you just switch to the soap attachment and any surface, on any job, can be your own personal foam party as it breaks down tough stains. I've gone from a soap dodger to a detergent dilettante. While you're cleaning there are also new icons to help you track down things that still need polishing up, which might sound minor, but as someone who spent hours of their life looking for a 1% speck of dirt on a huge restroom wall, I am hugely grateful for it.

The other new tricks in your cleaning kit similarly make things that were a bit of a fiddle or a grind easier, without letting you skip the work. There's an abseiling rig for large structures like billboards, a cherry picker lift so you're not balancing on ladders to get to hard to reach areas, and a spinning surface cleaner - you know, like school janitors mysteriously push around after hours - to make polishing up large flat surfaces a little less daunting. There are even tiny tweaks, like that tall scaffolding now has a ladder on the outside when you just want to get to the top, no more zig zagging up and down.

What's key is that the improvements aren't about speeding you through the jobs more quickly or letting you skip chunks, because the whole point of PowerWash Simulator 1 and 2 is the meditative flow state you achieve just working away at the grime and graffiti, back and forth, up and down, all with the gentle hiss of water accompanying your progress. It's underrated as an ASMR experience, although you will need to pee every 10 minutes.

If you've yet to discover the wonders of jet washing random buildings and vehicles, good news; there's no lore you have to catch up on. The loose story is delivered through text messages while you're working, but you could skip them all without a problem. They usually explain why you're cleaning, for instance, a street sweeper covered in huckleberry jelly, or will give you weird information about the area. There are some nice touches for devotees of the original, too. A shooting gallery has miniature versions of the landmarks you'll recognize, and the chatter will reference the iconic merman statue or strange temple. It's nonsense, but it's nonsense I appreciated.