You know what the main thing that’s holding me back from picking up Elden Ring Nightreign at launch is? The fact it doesn’t have an option for duos. For the most part I’m a single-player only kind of person, and when I play something online I normally like to do so with just my partner. I imagine I’m not the only person this applies to, nor am I likely to be the only one who thought “I don’t really want some rando called xX_fartmaster_Xx third wheeling my partner and me.” Luckily, FromSoftware seem to be at least considering a two-player option for the upcoming Soulslike.
With Shinobi: Art of Vengeance’s release date now just 97 days away (not that we’re counting), both Sega and Lizardcube have been out and about and making sure to satiate our increasing desire for more information on their upcoming side-scrolling adventure.
Of course, this isn’t just any old adventure and, much like Lizardcube’s previous work, such as Streets of Rage 4 and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap (both phenomenal), here we have a reworking, a full modernisation after a long period of dormancy, of the one and only Shinobi. The pressure of pulling apart a classic for the ages and rebuilding it in such a way that it satisfies newcomers and the hardcore, whilst also appearing modern and ‘good’? These folks have been there and done that.
Have you ever immediately wishlisted a game on Steam based on aesthetics alone? I ask because that’s just happened to me with All Living Things, a stop-motion game inspired by The Ripley Scroll, a 15th-century alchemical manuscript. Doesn’t that just seem like a guaranteed feast for the eyes? Developer MOXO self-describes it as an “animated art-book puzzle game”, which feels perfectly apt for it. The general presentation is simple, this strange, alluring art book on a black background waiting for you to click around.
Lightyear Frontier launched into early access a little over a year ago, and it generally seems to have trudged along reasonably well since then. It’s not quite ready for 1.0 just yet, but a new update was announced by developers Frame Break and Amplifier Studios earlier this week that sounds like it’ll be bringing in some much needed changes.
No plans for Game-Key Cards “on titles where we are the manufacturer and publisher”.
Raidou Remastered CE isn’t a standard, numbered Limited Run Games release, but we were still surprised to see that the Switch 2 Collector’s Edition they’re offering retails for a whopping $249.99 USD and doesn’t include a full game on a cartridge.
This edition includes a Switch 2 Game-Key Card, which requires the customer to connect to the internet and download the full game on their console. This feels like it goes against the ‘Forever Physical’ motto of LRG.
But instead of a clean three-hit combo, this set tripped over itself on the way out the gate. Prices were inflated from the start, and now that the market has had time to breathe, this correction is aggressive.
It’s still a solid set. Great art, fun pulls, some nostalgic hits. But a lot of the single prices were built on hype that couldn’t hold.
Collectors thought we’d get another round of rapid value climbs. That didn’t happen. If you’re buying now, you’re catching cards on the way down instead of riding them on the way up.
Just go in knowing what’s worth grabbing and what’s still floating on leftover launch-day fumes.
Illustration Rares
Articuno had a strong start. Prices hit $55 back in late March, which made sense at the time—it’s a fan-favorite Legendary with great artwork.
Since then, it’s taken a 36% dip and now floats around $35. Honestly, that’s still a bit high. I’ve seen near-mint listings at $18.69, and that feels more in line with where this card belongs.
I think it’s a solid pickup if you just want a great-looking bird without the early adopter tax.
Wailord was one of those early hype Illustration Rares that got pumped fast, mostly because it’s Wailord and people have a soft spot for absurdly large water types.
It hit $60 at the end of March, which didn’t last long. It’s now dropped 63.66% to a market value of around $22.49, and I’ve seen copies listed for as low as $14.55. Personally, I think this one’s due for a soft bounce back to $30, but only once the panic listings clear out and the Wailord fans circle back.
My favorite Illustration Rare is N’s Reshiram. The artwork is top-tier, and the character pairing actually adds something meaningful to the card. It started at $39.43, which honestly didn’t feel too far off given the demand at launch.
Now it’s sitting around $17.44. Even the Journey Together stamped variant, which you’d think would carry some extra value, is undercutting the regular one at about $14. That’s a 79.51% drop, and in my opinion, a steal. If you want a chase card without paying chase prices, this is the one.
Special Illustration Rare And Hyper Rares
Lillie’s Clefairy ex SIR was positioned as the face of the set, and for a moment it looked like it might stay there. Prices hit $400, which was wild, considering the only thing more expensive than that in Journey Together was probably regret.
Now it’s sitting around $180 and in my opinion, it’s still too high. It’s a gorgeous card, no doubt about that, but I think we’ll see it hit $150 soon. Not a crash but a correction to something a little more in line with what most people are willing to pay.
I thought Iono’s Bellibolt ex SIR was going to be the top card of the set. It had the rarity, it had the character, and it looked just chaotic enough to become a fan favorite. Instead, it’s hovering around $80, which is fine. Not great, not terrible.
The price feels stable, and I don’t think it’s going to tank like some of the other launch-day hype magnets. If you like it, grab it. If you’re hoping it doubles in value, maybe take a walk.
Salamence ex SIR is probably the best example of what went wrong with Journey Together’s early pricing. At launch, people were paying up to $250 for it like it was the last dragon card ever printed. Now it’s going for about $106, and I think it’ll settle closer to $100.
Still expensive, sure, but at least now it’s priced like a high-tier chase card and not a collector’s retirement plan. The art’s strong, and Salamence has always had staying power, so I think this one holds up better than most.
Full Arts
Iono’s Bellibolt ex is my favorite full art, mostly because I pulled it and immediately convinced myself I was sitting on gold. At launch, it was going for around $80. It’s now comfortably sitting in the $7–$8 range.
Honestly, if you paid anything above $15, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s a great-looking card, though, and I think it’ll stick around this price for a while now that the dust has settled. Just maybe don’t buy it thinking it’s the next Supporter-tier Iono. It’s a Bellibolt. Let’s be reasonable.
Lillie’s Clefairy ex had a bizarre start. Prices climbed past $110 before launch, which had me wondering if people thought it was a Special Illustration Rare by mistake.
It’s now found its lane at around $17–$19, which is where it probably should’ve been all along. I think it’s a great pickup at that price if you’re into Lillie, or Clefairy, or just want something that won’t lose half its value before it hits your mailbox.
N’s Zoroark ex started out a little more grounded at around $30, but even that wasn’t safe from the drop. It’s landed around $12 now, which honestly feels like a fair deal. The card still looks fantastic, and it’s got some collector appeal thanks to N.
But when I say Journey Together prices are crashing, this is exactly what I mean. Remember all those “can’t-miss deals” I was posting at launch? It wasn’t because the cards were underpriced — it’s because they were about to fall off a cliff.
Here’s the Pokémon TCG full Release Schedule so far for this year, too, so you don’t miss anything. Buying singles is the cheapest way to collect right now, but don’t feel like you have to “Catch Em’ All!”.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
I wasn’t expecting it personally, but it seems like the new hotness is Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, ‘ey? Sure, it’s from a studio like Level-5, who’ve made massive games from Yo-kai Watch to Professor Layton. I just didn’t expect a sequel to a 3DS game from over a decade ago to do so well. In fact, it appears Level-5 is so happy with how much money everyone’s given them, it’ll be giving away a free bit of DLC for the RPG at some point in the future.
You ever wonder who the first person to put peanut butter and chocolate together was? Part of me feels like whoever it was must be loaded; I mean, you’ve combined two already great flavors into something that Reese’s would more or less build a whole brand on. And then part of me thinks it plays out like the hypothetical guy who invented the Chicken McNugget in The Wire. A pat on the back from a big shot, and then it’s back to the basement to figure out a way to make the fries taste better. I don’t know the answer; I hope it’s the former. But every now and then, you come across an idea, a combination of things, that’s so good that you wonder how nobody’s ever done it before. And every time my squad and I sprinted back to our time-traveling dropship, stopping only to deal with the Time Reapers that stood in our way, I wondered how the hell nobody had ever said “Hey, what if we combined Overcooked and Gears of War?” pre-Pizza Bandit.
Pizza Bandit’s setup is pretty simple. You’re Malik, a former bounty hunter with dreams of being a chef who is pulled back into the bounty game when he’s scammed out of his pizza shop and his former crew needs his help to get out of a jam. Pizza Bandit’s writing is pretty silly, but that’s part of the charm. I can’t get mad when Albert, the android that upgrades your weapons, tells me he doesn’t know how to apologize for what happened to my pizza shop because he’s just an android, or when my pilot waxes nostalgic about how he misses the fog, or when someone utters the odd nonsensical line. It’s too silly, and the whole setup is just there to, well… set up Pizza Bandit’s wackiness.
See, you’re not just any bounty-hunting crew. You’re a time-traveling bounty hunting crew, and that means you’ll be going all over space and time to get the job done. Don’t ask me how any of this works. All I know is that pizza heals and bullets kill, and that the Time Reapers — nasty little buggers that seem to be invading every timeline — don’t want this pizza shop owner to make any dough. And that’s not gonna fly.
Pizza Bandit’s writing is pretty silly, but that’s part of the charm.
What makes Pizza Bandit unique is that you’re not just shooting stuff. You’re also, well, kinda playing Overcooked. After squading up, my first mission saw my crew (you can play with up to three friends) heading to the Restaurant from N owhere, a hidden outpost run by another bandit crew. Our job: fulfill the pizza orders for other bounty hunting teams, and send them off in time-traveling rocket pods. That meant putting together the right type of pizza, getting it to the oven, making sure we were getting their drink orders right, and adding some extra bullets for when things got spicy, cramming it all into a pod, and doing it on time while fighting off the Time Reapers, who really, really don’t like supporting small businesses.
And that’s where the other part of the Overcooked/Gears of War marriage comes into play. See, the Time Reapers mean business, and you’re not going to talk them out of some time reaping. That’s their whole bag. The only solution, fellow bandit, is incredible violence. I’ve played several builds of Pizza Bandit at this point, and let me tell you, your arsenal is up to the task. You start with your choice of assau lt rifle, minigun, and sniper rifle, but the fun really begins when you start unlocking your secondary weapons by completing jobs. They start simple: landmines, grenades, that sort of thing, but once you unlock the disco ball that attracts enemies and gets them dancing before it explodes? Whew, buddy. And the sentry turret? Perfection. You could slice and dice them Time Reapers with a katana, but have you ever considered using a pizza slicer as big as a man? It’ll change your life.
And the Time Reapers will force you to use everything in your arsenal. You got your standard guys who will just run at you, but there are also Time Reapers that’ll crawl around on all fours, Terminator-looking ones that will leap at you, giant ones with hammers, guys who throw fireballs (these can really ruin your day), the works. You gotta prioritize.
Pizza Bandit is at its best when you’re with a good team, calling out orders. A good match should be shouts of “We need a pepperoni pie!” and “I’m on the Coke!” and “I’m down!” interspersed with lots and lots of gunfire. Simple choices, like when to call down your own, once-a-mission rocket pod full of pizza and supplies, and more complex ones, like where to put it (you can block off a stairway, for instance), spice things up, too.
And here’s the thing: so far, I’ve just talked about Restaurant from Nowhere, which is only the first level. Pizza Bandit isn’t a one-trick pony. One of my favorite levels has you taking over a sushi joint and making sure you have the right stuff on the delivery turntable for your customers. Sometimes that means running downstairs and grabbing a big ol’ tuna, taking that bad boy upstairs, and chopping him up before the Time Reapers whack you and you drop him. Other times that means frying an egg, or making a cucumber roll. You gotta stay ahead of the curve, because new customers are prioritized over old ones, and the Time Reapers aren’t gonna sit there and wait for you to plate your masterpiece.
Sometimes, you’re not even cooking food at all. Another favorite level, Wizard’s Tomb, has you exploring a magically booby-trapped tomb in search of a sarcophagus. You’ll have to navigate the tomb’s traps, solve basic puzzles to reveal the way forward, and take out the arcane heart powering the whole enterprise before getting to the sarcophagus itself, which you’ll naturally transport with jetpacks before booking it back to your ship. It isn’t enough to get any given job done; you gotta get home, too. Just another day in the life of a pizza bandit.
Pizza Bandit is always ludicrous, and its inspirations are obvious, but it’s never less than fun.
There are more, of course: in one, you’ll defend a cabin with Dr. Emmert Browne (Great Scott, Jofsoft, I see what you’re doing here, and I like it!) while he invents the time travel device that makes your whole business profitable. Winning it all means keeping him warm, satiating his hunger with rabbit or venison, and stopping all those nasty Time Reapers (and Wendigos?) who are trying to stop time travel from happening. You’d think that the Time Reapers would understand time paradoxes, but I guess not. Can’t reap time if there’s no time to reap, y’all.
Or maybe you’ll break into an enormous safe with a laser drill, like you’re roleplaying the opening scene of Michael Mann’s Thief with a drill that’s constantly exploding. That seems safe, right? But hey, apparently there’s a magical cookbook in that vault whose recipes can alter reality, and we’re being paid to get it, exploding drill or not. A Pizza Bandit always gets the job done.
And there’s always time to do your best Breaking Bad impersonation and help a couple of guys cook some “magic powder” and hide it inside some chicken. Oh, and you have to kill and cook the chickens. Only fresh, never frozen, baby. Pizza Bandit is always ludicrous, and its inspirations are obvious, but it’s never less than fun.
Between missions, it’s back to Pizza Bandit (your restaurant), where you can acquire and upgrade your weapons, decorate Pizza Bandit itself, use the ingredients you find during missions to bake and share a pie for some stat boosts on your next run, or get some spiffy new duds for your bounty hunter. The milk carton backpack is a classic choice, if I do say so myself, but I’m still saving up for one of the cat ones. The things we do for fashion, am I right? Then it’s right back to it. A bandit’s work is never done.
Sometimes, you don’t know you want something until you get it. I didn’t know I wanted Pizza Bandit until the first time I played it at PAX two years ago. It was one of those games that generated a lot of word of mouth, but it’s one of those concepts that doesn’t seem like it’ll work until you get a controller in your hands and everything makes sense. I don’t know why we’ve never gotten something like Pizza Bandit before, but once I played it, I knew I wanted more. Pizza heals, bullets kill, and Pizza Bandit rocks. If Jofsoft can stick the landing, we’re in for a tasty slice of New York pie.
Now that multiple Nintendo theme parks have been built (with potentially more coming down the road), it’s likely on the minds of many whether they should save up the large amount of funds to make a trip out for this.
Well folks, the weekend is finally here… Wait, what do you mean it only feels like yesterday when we did our last What Are You Playing? Yeah… time flies, huh? The Switch 2 will be here before you know it!
Anyway, this week saw the release of four new titles for the Game Boy app on Nintendo Switch Online, which is awesome. We also finally got an explanation from Shigeru Miyamoto as to why Donkey Kong has gone through such a major redesign. Spoiler: it’s not as dramatic as you might think.
