The up-and-coming farmlife indie Roots Of Pacha has been pulled from Steam, following a dispute “over the rights” of the game between developer Soda Den and publisher Crytivo. The game is a prehistoric take on Stardew Valley’s crop-growing, dungeon-exploring, people-romancing formula. Its PAX East demo caught our eye earlier this year, and the full release late last month charmed many fans on Steam for the short time it was available.
Yahahaaarrgh!
In case you weren’t aware, Koroks are back in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Much like in Breath of the Wild, many of them can be found across the lands of Hyrule by lifting up rocks, chasing Korok remnants on the ground, and solving minor puzzles, granting you one Korok Seed.
Some, however, need to be physically moved and reunited with their traveling partner. Since these tasks grant you two Korok Seeds instead of one, it requires a little bit more effort from the player. Thankfully, these Koroks come loaded with giant backpacks which you can manipulate and stick to other objects with the Ultrahand ability.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
While The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom encourages players to be as creative as they want using all of Link’s new abilities to solve puzzles and reach new exciting locations, many players have discovered that making a really long bridge is just as effective.
Link is able to make these really long bridges with the help of his Ultrahand ability, which allows players to connect different objects together, including logs, wooden planks, and more. Tears of the Kingdom allows a lot of these items to be put together, and this has helped players solve puzzles, reach new locations in unintended ways, and cross areas with a broken bridge or a lot of water that would seem otherwise impassable.
Speaking of water, @mechafriend on Twitter wants to let players know they don’t need a boat to cross a river as bridges are clearly superior!
a boat? what’s that..? i just built my log bridge i think it’s neat #TearsOfTheKingdom pic.twitter.com/sDvc6RhZUk
— noah!! Playing TotK⚔️ (@mechafriend) May 12, 2023
Bridges can also help bypass the security of a place like the Hyrule Field Skyview Tower, and @TheAndyCortez shows that you can even use Ascend to get to a bridge that you can’t just walk onto.
this game lol #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/f8CrdRsd1Z
— Andy Cortez (didn’t pay) (@TheAndyCortez) May 14, 2023
@AlexLaverde16 shows the power of a “long log bridge” that makes traversing the Sky Islands a breeze.
Long log bridge in tears of the kingdom pic.twitter.com/qVLjaPCKnU
— R2D2_Alex (@AlexLaverde16) May 13, 2023
@AndresPlays93 shows how you can build a tall bridge to make a climbing platform in a place you wouldn’t normally be able to climb.
LONG BRIDGE #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda pic.twitter.com/FGFbiSdVno
— AndrésPlays ? (@AndresPlays93) May 14, 2023
Not all is perfect in the world of bridge building, however, as players must be careful not to end up like @KenjxXz and lose a beautiful bridge that you must watch fall hundreds of feet to the ground.
The moment I lost my portable bridge on Tears of the Kingdom #tearsofkingdom #twitchclips pic.twitter.com/7dAKHWz2SK
— Kenj (@KenjxXz) May 13, 2023
@DansGaming also shows the dangers of a misplaced bridge, cautioning others to be careful of where they place their new creation!
Building a bridge did not go to plan in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom … pic.twitter.com/9DzeuXHSaU
— DansGaming (@Dansgaming) May 13, 2023
This creativity is one of the reasons we love The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a game that wants you to know there really is no wrong answer and that you can solve problems in so many ways you see fit.
In our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review, we said it is “an unfathomable follow-up, expanding a world that already felt full beyond expectation and raising the bar ever higher into the clouds.”
And for help with everything Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide about making your way through Hyrule, in fact, you can start here:
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Fortnite Ranked Play is finally arriving in Battle Royale and Zero Build modes in the upcoming V24.30 patch, which looks to be set to arrive on May 16, 2023.
The Fortnite Team shared the details of Fortnite Ranked in a blog, confirming that players will be competing against others across the globe to reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal ranks. Bronze through Diamond will have three ranks, and Elite, Champion, and Unreal will only have one.
Fortnite Ranked’s first season will be Ranked Season Zero, and it will last until the end of Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 3. When Ranked Season Zero begins, players will be ranked “based on your past match performance, as well as your performance in your first Ranked Battle Royale and Ranked Zero Build match.”
Players will be able to see their current rank on the left of the screen if they have “Ranked” set to “On.” There will also be a progress bar that will show you how close you are to advancing or losing a rank. This bar will increase or decrease based on your match placement and the amount of eliminations your or your team got in a match. Eliminations later on in a match will count more than those earned earlier and the ranks of those players you eliminated will also “be taken into account.”
If you are playing as a team, all members will gain and lose progress “based on team eliminations and team placement calculated at the end of a match.” Also, your team’s rank will be based on the player with the highest rank at the start of the match.
One thing to note is that players who reach Unreal rank will keep it for the entirety of the season it was earned, no matter how they play for the rest of the time. Instead, players can continue to work on their placement in the Unreal rank and prove they really are the best of the best.
A new way to grab the Victory Royale is coming…
Will you rise through the ranks? pic.twitter.com/3RXE50KYCx
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 12, 2023
When V24.40 arrives, Ranked will be supported in Battle Royale’s Solo, Duos, and Squads modes and Zero Build’s Duos mode, and there will be separate ranks for Battle Royale and Zero Build.
As for how you can participate in Fortnite Ranked, new players will need to outlast 500 opponents so they can get a feel of the game. There will also be in-game seasonal cosmetic awards for playing in Ranked matches, and they can be achieved by completing Ranked Urgent Quests. There will be a new Ranked Urgent Quest given to players for every match, but previous quests’ progress does not carry over between matches. The final cosmetic reward for Ranked Season Zero will be the Burn Bright Emote that will show off your current rank to other players in-game.
With the launch of Ranked, Arena mode will be discontinued. Furthermore, your rank in the next Battle Royale Season will be a factor in your eligibility for Epic-hosted tournaments.
Fornite’s V24.40 update will make a few balancing changes that will also be implemented in Ranked, including Material caps being decreased from 999 to 500, harvesting rates being “slightly increased,” and a new penalty for getting eliminated that will see players dropping 50 of each material.
For more, check out the details on Fortnite’s Unreal Engine 5 editor, how Fortnite Creative 2.0 players are already rushing to remake the original Fortnite chapter, and everything to know about the Fortnite x Star Wars update.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
When you have the latest and greatest iPhone, then that means you can play just about any mobile game with ease—thanks to the smartphone’s sheer power and buttery smoothness. In fact, even if your iPhone is a few years old, you’ll still get a great experience gaming on-the-go.
And while there are millions of them on the Apple App Store and Apple Arcade, there’s a very useful list of the most popular games—divided by the most popular free games and paid games available for the iPhone in May 2023 (most of these titles are available as iPad games as well).
Jump to:
From simple match-three games to powerful MMORPGs, we rounded up the top 10 from the top free and top paid games (20 games in total) to help you navigate the App Store easily. There are a lot of winners, below:
Everyone’s favorite board game Monopoly is available to play on the Apple iPhone with Monopoly Go!. It features the same gameplay as the original, but faster, wilder, and more ruthless. Play with your friends and family from around the world, while the object of the game is to buy property, build houses and hotels, collect Monopoly Money, bankrupt everyone, and destroy their properties.
Run your own hospital in Happy Hospital: ASMR Doctor, a medical simulation game. Set at Central Hospital, you can play as a doctor or nurse to help your patients recover from all sorts of ailments.
If you want a larger overview, you can also play hospital administrator to build, maintain, and manage your very own hospital and staff. The more patients you help, the more money you get to upgrade the medical center and make a better hospital.
Royal Match is a match-three puzzle game where you help King Robert restore his kingdom back to glory. The more you match, the more levels you complete, and the more you restore the kingdom. Meanwhile, you can unlock bonus levels and rooms to collect coins to stay alive.
My Doge is a puzzle game where you help the Doge meme by drawing shields and barriers around it in one motion, so it will stay safe from attacking bees and other dangers. There are 100 levels full of puzzles and brain teasers to save the Doge.
Gardenscapes is a swap-and-match puzzle game with hundreds of different levels where you build the garden of your dreams with the help of Austin the butler. It features loads of gardens, fountains, mazes, and more that you have to restore, while you unlock characters and mysteries along the way. You can even connect the app with your Facebook account, so you can be neighbors with your friends.
Immerse yourself in an entirely virtual experience in Roblox, a cross platform game that’s available on Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and Xbox. The app is opart-gaming and part-social media where you can play games, create your own game, or just chat with friends from all around the world with thousands of experiences—think of it as Club Penguin, but for Gen Z.
Set in Windy Chicago, Subway Surfer is an endless running game where you play as Jake, a graffiti artist, as he runs through subways and train yards to escape the inspector and his dog. You must dodge moving subways, poles, tunnel walls, barriers, and more to gain items and power-ups to increase your speed and upgrade your special abilities.
Why go on an actual date when you can play Impossible Date: Tricky Riddle on your iPhone? The mobile game is riddle-based where you solve puzzles and brain teasers to enhance romantic relationships. You can draw, erase, swipe, click, drag, and more actions to fix misunderstandings for couples who are on dates until they find true love.
Aboard the Astral Express with The Nameless, a band of adventurers, you travel across the galaxy to find new civilizations, meet new friends, and have adventures on strange worlds in Honkai: Star Rail—a space fantasy RPG from game developers HoYoverse. Follow the Aeons, a race of godlike beings who can control reality, as they try to fight off an evil force called the Fragmentum.
A few years ago, Activision created a mobile version of their hit video game called Call of Duty: Mobile. This is the fourth season of the first-person shooter with various multiplayer modes, including Team Deathmatch, Domination, Battle Royale, and more. This is a cross-platform game for iOS and Android devices.
Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world and it’s available to play on Apple iPhone for just $7. It’s a sandbox game where players are free to create and explore the world to climb mountains, unearth caves, and mine precious ore to build homes, weapons, villages, and more.
You can also see our guide to how to play Minecraft for free.
Now play Monopoly with your Apple mobile device. This is the classic version of the board game with new graphics and fun animations in a fully immersive mobile experience. Roll the dice and travel around the board to buy up properties, build houses and hotels, collect Monopoly Money, and bankrupt friends and family.
You can even play as classic game pieces, including the scottie, cat, T-Rex, rubber duck, and others. And since this is the paid version at only $5, it’s ad-free with no interruptions or distracting pop-ups.
Geometry Dash is a rhythm-based platformer where players control shapes to jump from point-A to point-B with unique soundtracks for each level. The game even features a level editor where you can create and share your own levels. The app is just $2 and doesn’t include any in-app purchases, so unlocking new icons and characters is completely based on your skills throughout the game.
At $7, Bloons TD 6 is a top-down tower defense where players create defenses made up of hero monkeys, structures, towers, bridges, and traps to stop “Bloons,” balloon-like objects, from exiting each map. Players collect coins to upgrade their defenses.
It’s the game “Who Am I?,” but for the digital age. Created by Ellen DeGeneres, Head Up! is charades with a twist. You place your iPhone (screen out) on your forehead, then a name or title appears on the display, your friends or family have to act out the clues, and then you have to guess the name of the character, movie title, animal, superhero, and more within 60 seconds. You can even play via Apple Facetime or Zoom. Not bad for just $2.
Make the ultimate ice cream sundae with Papa’s Freezeria To Go!. At just $1, play as a worker at a beachfront ice cream shop, as more and more customers come in for a sweet treat during the hectic and hot summer season. Take ice cream orders and build and serve treats, while you earn points and tips for upgrades around the shop.
At $5, Incredibox is a part-game and part-music app where players can create their own music with impressive acapella audio, graffiti-and-drip-style graphics, and beatbox animations. Create the beats, effects, melodies, and voices in drag-and-drop mechanics to enhance your own tunes and sound. You can even save and download your masterpieces to share with your friends and family or just for yourself.
Why live through a pandemic in reality when you can play with one on your iPhone? At $1, Plague Inc. is a strategy game where you must end humanity with a deadly pathogen during a global plague. However, the people around the world are more adaptive than you think, so you have to create and evolve more and more deadly viruses to wipe away all of the people on Earth.
Angry Birds are back, baby! Red’s First Flight is a remake of the classic mobile game from the late 2000s with new graphics, new levels, new features, and more. However, the goal remains the same: Launch Angry Birds to destroy greedy pigs and their structures to reclaim stolen eggs.
At $5, Stardew Valley is an open-world farm simulation game with elements of role-playing. Inherit a plot of land and a small house in Pelican Town from your grandfather, clear and farm the land with crops and livestock, and make money to expand and upgrade your own piece of the farmstead.
Meanwhile, Stardew Valley was the winner of Golden Joysticks’ Breakthrough Award in 2016 with more than 50 hours of gameplay and fun.
There are millions upon millions of apps and games on the Apple App Store, so it might be intimidating to start with just one to play. While the most popular game lists—either free or paid—are a good place to start, there are some other factors you should consider before you tap download. Here’s what to look for in Apple iPhone games.
First of all, if you have a very old iPhone, you should check if it’s compatible with the mobile game. Most games require your iPhone to run, at least, iOS 8 or higher—which is compatible with the Apple iPhone 4S or higher. This iPhone model was released in October 2011, so any iPhone release beforehand will not be compatible with these games.
You should also be aware of how much space you have on your iPhone. The file size for mobile games can go from a few hundred megabytes all the way up to about 20GB, so if you don’t have enough space on your smartphone, then it won’t be able to download completely on your hardware. If that’s the case, you should consider deleting a few apps to free up some space, get a new iPhone with a larger storage capacity, or think about downloading a new game altogether.
Then, you should consider the price. While there are a lot of free games available, free doesn’t necessarily mean completely free. A lot of these free games offer in-app purchases for upgrades. For example, in the game Royal Match, you have a limited number of lives to play, once you lose a life, you have to wait 30 minutes to regain it. However, if you pay, you can unlock the app to get more lives.
Unfortunately, the same thing can be said for a paid game too. Just because you have to pay for an app at first, it doesn’t mean there aren’t additional in-app purchases available. But, if a mobile game is on the pricey side, then it’s likely that the unlocked version will download to your iPhone.
Additionally, you can also get a subscription to Apple Arcade for $5/mo. to unlock all of the iOS games available with no in-app purchases to play on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple TV. If you’re an avid mobile gamer, then this is the way to go.
The final thing you should look out for in an Apple iPhone game is if it looks fun to play. If a game looks like a lot of fun or a challenge, then tap download and immerse yourself in a whole new universe and experience.
Wondering what new iPhone games are coming down the pipeline? Take a look at our guide to all of the biggest upcoming iPhone games to see what’s coming in 2023.
An amazing nod to Zelda history.
Did you know The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has an insane amount of detail right down to the tunes our hero Link hums when he’s cooking up a storm? As highlighted by pixel artist and Twitter user TAHK0, if you listen closely when Link is standing around a cooking pot, you should be able to hear one of many iconic Legend of Zelda songs.
Keep in mind, the tweet above is just a sample of some of the tunes, and there are more based on other entries in the Zelda series. So what are you waiting for? Go and cook up a meal (in-game) for yourself and have a listen. Else, you can always check out the many recordings that have already been uploaded to YouTube, documenting these tracks.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Tears of the Kingdom producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi have shared that they are “interested” in a film adaptation of The Legend of Zelda, especially after the incredible success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The pair were asked this question by Polygon and, while they confirmed there is definitely interest, it’s ultimately not up to them.
“I have to say, I am interested. For sure. But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately,” Aonuma said.
“Maybe the voice of the fans is what’s important here,” Fujibayashi added.
It’s easy to see why the prospect of a movie based on The Legend of Zelda is an enticing one, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie recently became just the 10th animated film to ever cross $1 billion at the global box office.
If you need an idea of what a movie based on The Legend of Zelda could be sure to check out our exclusive debut of the totally real trailer for The Legend of Zelda Movie that totally wasn’t an April Fools’ Day joke back in 2008.
Movie or not, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finally out in the world and is one of the greatest-reviewed games of all time and is sitting at a 96 on Metacritic.
In our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review, we said it “is an unfathomable follow-up, expanding a world that already felt full beyond expectation and raising the bar ever higher into the clouds.”
And for help with everything Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide about making your way through Hyrule, in fact, you can start here:
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
OG fantasy.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Henry experiences his very first Fantasy…
I admit it – I’ve never played Final Fantasy. It wasn’t on my radar as a kid, and by the time I was paying attention, it had jumped to Final Fantasy XIV! Fourteen! A number that high was intimidating, proof that I would never catch up on the many entries’ worth of lore in such a long-running franchise.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
*Insert sequel joke here*.
Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl.
Last time, we took a look at Yoshi’s Island for the N64. In the end, the vote heavily favoured towards the Japanese box art, which went for a lovely embroidered aesthetic over the more traditional approach taken by North America and Europe. With 64% of the vote, Japan won by a near landslide. Well done!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Launching next month.
One of the surprise announcements of the February Nintendo Direct earlier this year was the news We Love Katamari REROLL + Royal Reverie would be coming to the Switch this June.
In an update, the official Japanese website for the game has now provided the Switch specs – revealing the game’s performance and resolution in docked and handheld modes.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
