Amazon has discounted the SanDisk Ultra 512GB Micro SDXC Card down to $25.99. This is an excellent price for a 512GB Micro SDXC card from a well-known and respected brand. It’s fully compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ASUS ROG Ally portable handhelds. It also comes with a SD adapter for devices that only take full-sized SD cards. SanDisk Micro SDXC cards are far and away our most recommended memory cards for the Nintendo Switch console.
512GB SanDisk Ultra Micro SDXC Card for $25.99
If you’ve started compiling a collection of digital games, you probably already know just how limited the Switch’s base storage capacity. The Switch and Switch OLED consoles have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, respectively, with some of it reserved for the OS. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses up 16GB and Breath of the Wild about 13.5GB. If bought digitally, those two games alone would take up all of your internal storage on the OG Switch console. There’s only one expansion slot in the Switch console so you want to make sure you get the biggest card you can afford.
The SanDisk Ultra Micro SDXC card is compatible with virtually any device that accepts the Micro SDXC card standard. That includes the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and the ASUS ROG Ally. It boasts a U1 A1 rating with read speeds of up to 150MB/s. This is the perfect card for the Switch because the Switch console cannot take advantage of higher speeds (its card reader is limited to U1 A1). However, if you want to get a Micro SDXC card for your smartphone, GoPro, DSLR, or any other device that can benefit from faster speeds, you might want to check some other excellent Micro SDXC cards that having a U3 A2 rating.
Friday the 13th: The Game continues to be a legal nightmare for anyone involved. The team behind the Resurrected mod announced that the project’s future is up in the air after receiving a copyright infringement claim.
Announced on the official Friday the 13th: Resurrected Discord and X/Twitter, the team behind the project announced it received a cease and desist letter from an attorney representing Horror, Inc., which owns the rights to the Friday the 13th film franchise. The cease and desist letter, which is attached to the post below, mentions that the fan mod is an “unauthorized use” of the IP, describing it as an “unlicensed, knockoff Friday the 13th video game.”
As you may be aware, we have received a cease and desist from @joshgeller2 who works for @GreenbergGluske and is Horror Inc’s legal representative. With that, the project is most likely over but we do plan to work on other projects. We are still waiting for response from some… pic.twitter.com/Uk2QORRRvg
In the post, the team behind Friday the 13th: Resurrected states the project is has been canceled in response to the letter. They plan to pursue work on another project. The team notes that it’s “still waiting for response from some people we have contacted,” but is currently working on erasing all of the content behind the project, including the official X/Twitter account and the recently launched website.
“It’s a shame that someone wants to fight against a fan-made project with no profit made,” the team behind the project wrote. “It wasn’t our intention to ‘hurt the brand’ as Horror Inc. claims we did.”
Friday the 13th: Resurrected’s development team initially planned to announce a release date next Monday, April 15. The project was designed as a free mod based on the 2017 horror game. The mod would have been free to own and include dedicated multiplayer services and fan-made content, including new characters and skins.
The fan project aimed to revive the horror game after its publisher, Gun Interactive, announced it was delisting at the end of 2023. While the game remains playable for those who bought it before its delisting, Gun Interactive plans to shut down the servers altogether on December 31, 2024. Before its delisting, Gun Interactive was forced to halt development of the new game roughly two years after its release; among the canceled content planned for Friday the 13th, The Game included a werewolf mode, with gameplay similar to Fortnite’s Imposters mode or most notably, Inner Sloth’s social deduction game Among Us.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Sometimes, you want to just escape from reality and lose yourself in a new, fantastical world. And sometimes, you want to do so for hours on end. When you want to set up a long-term board game night or ongoing campaign with a group of likeminded and passionate board gamers, we’ve got you covered with our list of some of the best legacy board games around. Some of these games are also light on difficulty, creating a low barrier to entry for newer players.
Taking place over the span of multiple decades, Betrayal Legacy is a 13-episode campaign set within the same creepy mansion. In it, each player assumes the role of a generational family member exploring the house and enduring the Haunt, where one player may or may not betray the rest of the group. Players have a lot of creative license here, because as you play through the campaign, you’re crafting the story by the actions and choices you make – some of which are permanent and will affect the game next time you play, incentivizing multiple playthroughs.
Frosthaven / Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
The original Gloomhaven may be out of print, but its stand-alone sequel Frosthaven is in stock and ready for adventure. This is a fantasy-themed cooperative game where players take on the roles of adventurers and skirmish their way through various tactical combat scenarios. Consisting of tons of these scenarios, Frosthaven is a long-term campaign best enjoyed if you’re sticking with the same group throughout. Setting up and learning the game takes a while, but it’s worth it for dedicated gamers, and it’s great for repeat playthroughs. For a more less daunting and more streamlined take on the same game world, be sure to check out the more Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion as well. Your gaming group can even use the same characters in both games.
Star Wars: Imperial Assault
Thrust yourself into the Galactic Civil War, where you can play as either the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Choose between two game modes: campaign and skirmish. In campaign mode, you fight against the Empire in a series of continuous scenarios and experience the detailed narrative taking place after the destruction of the Death Star. The gameplay consists of tactical combat where players will utilize over 250 playable cards to outfit their heroes, modify weapons, and develop your character’s skills.
Roll Player Adventures
Roll Player Adventures is a tightly-designed choose your own adventure-style fantasy cooperative roleplaying game. Not exceptionally challenging, Roll Player Adventures is a good pick for entry-level campaigners with hundreds of different cards, tokens, and dice to help supplement your session. You can also create your own character or import a preexisting one. Gameplay is done through dice manipulation with your fast-growing deck of cards, essentially modifying rolls to complete combat encounters or other challenges.
One Deck Dungeon
What do you get when you mix Roguelike video game mechanics with a quick and easy fantasy card game? You get something like One Deck Dungeon. With the game’s Campaign Mode, players can take control of one of five heroes and choose from four difficulty levels to adventure through the dungeon, defeating bosses and learning talents while filling out their character’s campaign sheets. Like other legacy-type games, talents earned will be carried over into future playthroughs, incentivizing you to play on higher difficulties and experience more of what the campaign has to offer!
Mortum: Medieval Detective
More narrative-focused and mechanics-lite, Mortum: Medieval Detective is a cooperative game of mystery and deduction. Consisting of three decks that make up just as many scenarios, the goal of the game is to work your way through the story and solve the surrounding mysteries through classic detective work and keeping track of time via the game pieces. Settle in, as one scenario takes upwards of two hours, and each story leads into the next, creating a fully immersive campaign.
Looking for board games on a budget? Check out our list of the best cheap board games. If you’re more in the mood for something spooky, check out our picks for the best horror board games. And if you don’t have a whole lot of spare time, take a glance at our favorite quick-playing board games.
I get an itch to put on my gardening gloves and get planting when spring comes around. While practicing patience for the right weather, I’ll read up on books and try to learn new techniques – but this year, Botany Manor has helped satiate my excitement. It’s a cozy, first-person puzzle game that puts a blank herbarium book in your hand and asks you to grow different plants until the pages are full. Botany Manor is a short and sweet story that safely sits surface-level, but its witty mysteries engaging enough to keep me happily digging for more.
Botany Manor puts you in the boots of retired botanist Arabella Greene as she returns to her grand, and adorably stylized, English manor in 1890 Somerset. Each “puzzle” is actually a fictional plant waiting to be grown, with clever clues scattered around that help you tend each new seed type. Those can start simple, like the Fulguria needing flashes of lightning to bloom, but clues gradually increase in complexity and quantity in order to bring these whimsical plants to life. Real-world science and the time period both inspire unconventional growing methods, such as needing to play the buzzing sound of morse code for a certain seedling. Botany Manor may not teach you much about actual gardening – though I probably read the word “chloroplasts” for the first time in a very long time – but I enjoyed the surreal nature of it.
For example, picking up the first packet of seeds at the potting bench reveals an imprint of a fictional plant called Windmill Wort, with slots for three clues waiting to be found nearby. From the start, it was evident that these clues would not only help solve this puzzle, but also string together a much larger story about Arabella and the manor she lives in. Heat and wildflower charts on a chalkboard helped me figure out the right temperature to grow Windmill Wort, which then bloomed into a lovely pink flower that literally spins like a windmill to clear up smog, smartly tying into a newspaper I had found that discussed the issues of the era’s recent industrialization.
Some information took an embarrassingly long time to decipher as I ran back and forth from one clue to another while head-scratching theories tested my memory. Chapters in the herbarium tell you what clues you’ve found and where to find more, but it doesn’t save the more specific information from them. So, if you forget what that pamphlet in the attic said, you’ll have to walk back to examine it – which makes Botany Manor feel a lot like a walking simulator. My hands were off the keyboard quite often taking physical notes on my discoveries, essentially writing up my own botany book. I also had to tirelessly retrace my steps several times to reread or flip around clues in case I may have missed something, which could get a little tedious. But it helps that icons will pop up when you walk past an item to let you know you can examine it, and musical cues acknowledge that you’re on the right track.
Between solving plant mysteries, you’ll occasionally visit the front gate to pick up a key or decrypt secret locks to access a new area, which helps cut down on the otherwise repetitive nature of the roughly six-hour campaign. I looked forward to what awaited in each new section of the manor, not only because the clues became progressively more creative, but also because it was always fun to find more pamphlets, bottle labels, advertisements, and other environmental details full of vintage charm. The books about art I stumbled across made the space all the more quaint, too, and were later upstaged by a dreamy painting room that reminded me of my own canvases of houseplants.
Botany Manor beckons you with strange ideas and picturesque scenery in every challenge, but Arabella’s story trails behind. Rather than telling her tale through characters and spoken dialogue, it opts for written notes on pretty stationary and significant items that peer into Arabella’s life to tell its overarching story. I liked Arabella, a strong-willed botanist who has suffered unjust rejection in her field, but these notes and letters fail to dig deep into her emotions. Even letters from family, friends, and groundskeepers have the potential to create intimate moments, but are instead easily forgettable in the hunt for clues. The manor is clearly not abandoned, either, as fire burns beneath the stove in the kitchen, but the space feels as if everyone left at the drop of a hat. It’s a bit odd, but it does work in that it prevents any distractions from the puzzles themselves – and after all, Arabella needs to focus to get this herbarium published and earn her rightful flowers as a woman in STEM.
Ring of Honor wrestler Athena debuted some striking new ring gear inspired by Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 during the most recent Supercard of Honor event.
Fans of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios’ latest video game based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role playing game, went wild for Athena’s epic entrance, with those in the crowd and watching at home commending her Karlach-inspired outfit, which came complete with the iconic character’s twisty horns and signature axe.
— Samantha Béart is Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 ❤️🔥 (@SamanthaBeart) April 6, 2024
Even Samantha Béart, who provided the voice and motion capture for the game’s beloved barbarian, reposted a video of Athena’s arrival and gave her a shoutout. “Oh wow,” Béart wrote on X/Twitter alongside some heart emojis and a gif of the fan-favorite character. “Congratulations to real-life Karlach, Athena, on retaining her title!”
Those on Reddit were also impressed with Athena’s efforts. “Oh wow, this works on so many levels,” one person wrote in a thread dedicated to the wrestler’s new gear. Another added: “This is the mashup I needed this year,” concurring with the original poster, who wrote: “It’s cool to see some Baldur’s Gate 3 representation in wrestling.”
Karlach is a tieflingbarbarian in Baldur’s Gate 3 who seeks revenge on the man who sold her to an archdevil when she was young. She often channels her rage into ferocious attacks while also surviving vicious strikes from others, making her a particularly fierce fighter (and certainly one who would be formidable in a wrestling ring).
Athena, also known to the WWE Universe as Ember Moon, shared a carousel of photos from the event on Instagram. “A massive thank you to Larian Studios and D&D for letting me be my favorite character from Baldur’s Gate 3, Karlach!” she wrote, tagging another user to thank them for the hair, make-up, and body paint.
Saturday and the weekend have officially arrived, which means it is time to round up the best deals you can find this weekend! We’ve searched all over the internet to compile the deals you do not want to miss, which include video games, technology, earbuds, and more. The best deals for Sunday, April 7, include Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the Razer BlackShark V2 Headset, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Nintendo Switch Lite, Beats Powerbeats Pro, and more.
Save 40% Off Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a release that went under many people’s radars earlier this year. At $29.99, this 2D platformer is absolutely worth your time and money. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating, “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown captures not only what made games such as The Sands of Time so good, but it irons out a lot of the little issues that plagued the 3D games.”
Xbox Wireless Controller – Dream Vapor Special Edition for $42.39
This special edition Xbox controller is sure to make a nice addition to any collection. The Dream Vapor edition features a swirly pink and purple pattern, which is a unique offering compared to other official Xbox controllers. At 24% off, this is the lowest we’ve seen this controller yet. Additionally, you can always use an extra controller. Whether you’re playing a multiplayer title or your controller wears down after years of use, having an extra on hand is better for everyone.
Grab the Razer BlackShark V2 for $98
The BlackShark V2 headset has an impressive set of features that should fit all of your needs. First, there is a noise cancellation factor with the earcups built inside the headset. Outside noise is always a problem with most gaming headsets, but the BlackShark V2 Pro limits noise from leaking into your gameplay experience. Audio-wise, the BlackShark V2 Pro has 50mm sound drivers that contain titanium-coated diaphragms. Each driver is divided into three separate parts to create the best-quality lows, mids, and highs. You’re getting excellent sound quality both in and out of games.
Unicorn Overlord for $39.99
Unicorn Overlord just released last month and is already available at Amazon for $39.99. This title was developed by Vanillaware, most recently known for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Over 60 unique characters are available to choose from within Unicorn Overlord, where you command armies in tactical battle. We gave the gave a 9/10 in our review, stating “Unicorn Overlord is a visual delight that’s brimming with creativity, and an absolute must-play for any fan of strategy RPGs.”
Save 41% Off This Cowboy Bebop Vinyl
The Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack is officially available now on vinyl! This 2LP set contains an Amazon-exclusive Red Velvet color variant. Inside, you’ll find the inner sleeves printed with beautiful art from the series. With the soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, this vinyl set is perfect for any Cowboy Bebop fan.
Persona 3 Reload for $39.99
Persona 3 Reload is already one of the biggest 2024 releases so far. The remake brings in new gameplay features, new voice actors, and an impressive slew of technology, including ray tracing. It’s on sale right now at Amazon for $39.99, which marks a new all time low for the title. If you’ve never experienced the story of Persona 3, this is the definitive way to do so.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $39.99
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the latest title in the long-running RPG series. Kiryu Kazama returns following the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, uniting with Ichiban Kasuga in a wild adventure you won’t forget anytime soon. This $30 discount just a few months after launch is a great deal you shouldn’t pass up on, though newcomers should aim to play the previous titles in the series before jumping in.
Save 48% Off Beats Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earbuds
The Beats Powerbeats Pro are an excellent choice if you’re looking for an Apple AirPods alternative. You can get up to nine hours of listening time off a single charge, with over 24 hours available if you use the included charging case. These earbuds are powered by the H1 chip, which allows for easy pairing and instant connectivity when using an iPhone. Overall, it’s hard to beat the value these earbuds provide at just $130.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink for $49.99
Granblue Fantasy: Relink marks the first console RPG from Cygames. Characters from the beloved mobile RPG make in appearance in a brand-new story with many thrills and environments to discover. The big focus of Relink is the multiplayer features, which allow you to tackle over 100 quests with friends around the world. With many post-launch characters and updates planned, you can expect hundreds of hours of fun with a title like this.
HyperX Alloy Elite 2 Mechanical Keyboard for $71.99
The HyperX Alloy Elite 2 is an excellent choice if you’re in the market for a new gaming keyboard. HyperX Pudding Keycaps are included, which are translucent ABS to allow more light to be seen through them. Additionally, dedicated media controls and a volume wheel are included. This keyboard is normally priced at $129.99, so you’re saving almost 50% with this deal from Amazon.
Nintendo Switch Lite Bundle for $179
Walmart currently has the Timmy & Tommy’s Aloha Edition Nintendo Switch Lite available for $179. This bundle includes a turqoise Nintendo Switch Lite and a free digital copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Together, that has a $260 value, which means you can save $80 by purchasing this bundle. If you have not purchased a Nintendo Switch yet, this is an excellent option.
NHL24 for $24.99
NHL 24 brought all-new gameplay and dozens of new features to the hit EA Sports series. This is the lowest price we’ve seen NHL 24 at so far, so if you’ve been on the fence, be sure to pick up the game while this sale is live. There are a total of over 75 new goal celebrations in NHL 24, which elevates the presentation and immersion to new heights.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for $29.99
Woot currently has both the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 versions of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 on sale for 50% off. This collection includes the first three Metal Gear Solid titles, in addition to Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. If you’ve yet to play through these incredible action titles, the Master Collection is the best (and only) way to do so on modern gaming platforms.
Saturday and the weekend have officially arrived, which means it is time to round up the best deals you can find this weekend! We’ve searched all over the internet to compile the deals you do not want to miss, which include video games, technology, earbuds, and more. The best deals for Saturday, April 6, include Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the Razer BlackShark V2 Headset, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Beats Powerbeats Pro, and more.
Save 40% Off Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a release that went under many people’s radars earlier this year. At $29.99, this 2D platformer is absolutely worth your time and money. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating, “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown captures not only what made games such as The Sands of Time so good, but it irons out a lot of the little issues that plagued the 3D games.”
Grab the Razer BlackShark V2 for $98
The BlackShark V2 headset has an impressive set of features that should fit all of your needs. First, there is a noise cancellation factor with the earcups built inside the headset. Outside noise is always a problem with most gaming headsets, but the BlackShark V2 Pro limits noise from leaking into your gameplay experience. Audio-wise, the BlackShark V2 Pro has 50mm sound drivers that contain titanium-coated diaphragms. Each driver is divided into three separate parts to create the best-quality lows, mids, and highs. You’re getting excellent sound quality both in and out of games.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink for $49.99
Granblue Fantasy: Relink marks the first console RPG from Cygames. Characters from the beloved mobile RPG make in appearance in a brand-new story with many thrills and environments to discover. The big focus of Relink is the multiplayer features, which allow you to tackle over 100 quests with friends around the world. With many post-launch characters and updates planned, you can expect hundreds of hours of fun with a title like this.
Save 48% Off Beats Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earbuds
The Beats Powerbeats Pro are an excellent choice if you’re looking for an Apple AirPods alternative. You can get up to nine hours of listening time off a single charge, with over 24 hours available if you use the included charging case. These earbuds are powered by the H1 chip, which allows for easy pairing and instant connectivity when using an iPhone. Overall, it’s hard to beat the value these earbuds provide at just $130.
HyperX Alloy Elite 2 Mechanical Keyboard for $71.99
The HyperX Alloy Elite 2 is an excellent choice if you’re in the market for a new gaming keyboard. HyperX Pudding Keycaps are included, which are translucent ABS to allow more light to be seen through them. Additionally, dedicated media controls and a volume wheel are included. This keyboard is normally priced at $129.99, so you’re saving almost 50% with this deal from Amazon.
NHL24 for $24.99
NHL 24 brought all-new gameplay and dozens of new features to the hit EA Sports series. This is the lowest price we’ve seen NHL 24 at so far, so if you’ve been on the fence, be sure to pick up the game while this sale is live. There are a total of over 75 new goal celebrations in NHL 24, which elevates the presentation and immersion to new heights.
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 for $29.99
Woot currently has both the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 versions of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 on sale for 50% off. This collection includes the first three Metal Gear Solid titles, in addition to Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. If you’ve yet to play through these incredible action titles, the Master Collection is the best (and only) way to do so on modern gaming platforms.
For the average wrestling fan, turning to WWE’s games is a safer way to live out your sports entertainment fantasies than, say, jumping off the roof of your garage through a flaming table. Since the late 80s there’ve been well over 50 such games that have averted countless such ill-advised* attempts to be a pro wrestler at home, all wearing the WWF/E banner. And while it’s as difficult to parse out the incremental improvements from one year to the next as it is to kick out of a Tombstone, here’s an attempt at narrowing down the 10 best WWE games of all time.**
To start with, we didn’t book this list all by ourselves without consulting our roster. The IGN audience participated in a Face-off, giving us a capacity crowd’s worth of data to work with. There are a handful of surprises and no small dose of nostalgia for the Attitude Era that showed up in the results, but without further ado or wrestling wordplay,*** let’s ring the bell.
At number 10 with a win percentage of 65% in our Face-off, we find ourselves in the heady days of the mid-aughts with 2004’s WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw. The game represents a fairly major shift for WWE as well. The Attitude Era was coming to an end and the silly Invasion storyline was getting smaller in the rearview mirror. Meanwhile, the brand split between Raw and SmackDown that happened just a few years prior was popular enough to gamble on rebranding the SmackDown series of games.
The Clean and Dirty mechanic was a weird little blast as well, giving even the kayfabe-iest fans a chance to lean into a gimmick and be rewarded for it. Meanwhile, the stare down and test of strength style mini-games, including a bra and panties match spanking mechanic that snuck in at the tail end of the Attitude Era’s influence, offered a little more of what the live wrestling events featured on TV. You could also create your own belt in a Create-a-Championship mode for when creating yourself in a wrestling game just isn’t enough.
The Royal Rumble of WWE games, SmackDown! Vs. Raw at number 10 feels like the new guy in the promotion that lasts for a respectable run in the ring, but ultimately you forget he was there by the next pay-per-view.
Counting down to number nine, we go back to Y2K and the beginnings of what became the WWE 2K series, with WWF SmackDown! It was a welcome change from previous entries on the PlayStation that went back to the more arcade style action we knew from the N64 games which, not to give too much away, might do a run in and attack this list with a chair here in a few spots.
SmackDown! is also a little notorious for the things it got rid of. With no commentary, you had to wrestle to a bizarre mix of stock house-adjacent music and a steady hum of fan noise (it was honestly a little stressful…) while the bizarre non-entrances for the wrestlers in front of matches felt like a wonky corner-cutting measure more than a creative choice.
On a personal note, however, the hardcore and steel cage match were an absolute must of an inclusion. What are we even doing if, at the height of the Attitude Era, we don’t have unimpeded violence on the menu. I think I got injured just watching the TLC matches with The Dudley Boyz, The Hardyz and Edge and Christian.
All that to say, it’s a solid enough way to kick off a new series. This is a game that would’ve had 2 memorable spots during a Royal Rumble before getting dumped over the ropes by the 15th entrant immediately, so landing at number nine on our list feels right.
For our eighth pick with a 65.8% win rate that’s not even a full percentage point higher than our number 10, we jump ahead to the 2007 edition of WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw. Landing on the Xbox 360, it’s the first WWE game for a 7th generation console, and immediately took advantage of those sweet, sweet joysticks. The analog control system introduced in the game made the action more realistic where important grappleman tactics like throwing a guy into the audience are concerned.
Perhaps the most realistic part of the game though is how wet Triple H is on the cover. This may be my own bias, but nothing says “2007 in the WWE” quite like a soaking wet Triple H screaming on the apron, baby oil from his hair streaking down either side of his chest, having undoubtedly just spit half a bottle of Crystal Geyser onto the front row. It was a sticky, greasy time for the WWE in those days and “soggy Triple H” as the cover image for this game makes the most sense. In fact, the game might’ve gotten bonus points in our Face-Off for being a bigger highlight for wrestling fans than the actual wrestling happening in 2007.
That 2007’s SmackDown! Vs. Raw made this list feels like more of a testament to something being the first. In retrospect it isn’t spectacular for anything more notable than being our first chance to play WWE games on 7th gen consoles. It seems like that nostalgia could’ve been the tie-breaker between this game and the games that finished eleventh or twelfth, just a percentage point or two behind it.
So to sum up, Wet Hunter 2007 in the number eight spot is like the time Diamond Dallas Page entered the Rumble to promote his yoga program. It’s nice to see a guy whose better days you remember.
7-6-5: A Triple Threat Match of The Rock’s Catchphrases
Before we move on to the next few picks, I want to remember how stupidly popular The Rock was in the Attitude Era. That probably goes without saying, but don’t forget that in the real world of Determined Outcome Grappling, SmackDown as a brand was basically The Rock’s spinoff show. Like if The Rock went to be a radio psychiatrist in Seattle while Stone Cold kept running the bar in Boston.**** Having popularized “laying the smack down on candy asses,” the game series moved on to borrow more of Dwayne’s completely over verbiage for the next three games in the series, which also happen to be the next three spots on our list. Because I’m, frankly, a little confused as to how that happened, I’m going to talk about them in one oversized segment. So for our numbers seven through five, we’ve got Know Your Role, Just Bring It and Shut Your Mouth.
So going back to when the WWE was coasting through the peak of its popularity, at number seven, winning 67.7% of its match-ups in our Face-Off, is WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role. Dropping just months after its predecessor WWF SmackDown! in 2000, the game had options galore. While previous wrestling games featured them, Know Your Role had the first properly advanced Create-a-Superstar mode. Crafting your own gimmick complete with individualized taunts really gets what being a wrestling fan is all about: telling yourself “I could do that without serious injury” and believing it.***** Know Your Role, which now that I think about it is a thematically perfect subtitle for a game with the first proper Create-a-Superstar mode, offered you the chance to prove you understand how to be a wrestler.
A year later in 2001, WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It dropped another of The Rock’s mic gems to herald the return of commentary to the action. But while it was the first SmackDown game to feature Michael Cole and Tazz talking you through the matches, it was the last to feature the WWF branding before the World Wildlife Fund landed a frog splash from the top rope of a courtroom. While Just Bring It also includes six- and eight-man match formats, those were subsequently ditched for over a decade and a half, and the game is the meat of a SmackDown sandwich. It’s a midcard gimmick match in the forgettable stretch of a pay-per-view destined to be outshined by the main event. Or, to continue my thread of Royal Rumble allegories, a Mark Henry/Big Show confrontation near the halfway point of the Rumble where they somehow eliminate each other because nobody else is strong enough to get them over the ropes.
Two years after Know Your Role, the SmackDown! Series finally finished The Rock’s signature catch phrases with Shut Your Mouth in 2003. It’s another incrementally better game in the series, with a bump in the graphics so the wrestlers looked more like the wrestlers and, while I personally love being able to climb and jump off the jumbo tron, it’s interesting to find this game along with its two predecessors occupying all three spots in the middle of our list. Perhaps it’s a nostalgia thing and these years were the first the majority of IGN’s audience got into wrestling games. It could also be that this stretch of the series gets mixed up with one another so they all kind of split the vote. Regardless, SmackDown’s early 2000s entries generated some fond memories. Like how maybe you can’t remember which Rumble it was that Kane eliminated himself when the orderlies tried to take him back to the insane asylum, but you can narrow it down to a couple of years window.
Arguably the first officially great WWF game, dropping in 1999 (a year that could be considered the high watermark for pro wrestling’s popularity), Wrestlemania 2000 won over 70% of its matchups in our Face-Off. It’s also a game that makes me feel safe saying that N64 stuff was all unimpeachably great while also taking no follow-up questions on the matter.
While it was the first time you could edit the Superstars, and the idea of putting Chris Jericho in Shane McMahon’s tracksuit would be worth the price of the cartridge just in case it was possible, the truly incredible thing about this game is how the development of it mirrored the business of the time. The Monday Night Wars weren’t really a contest anymore, with the WWF lapping the WCW in popularity by 1999. It would be another two years before the McMahons straight-up bought the competition, but the rivalry between the two companies extended into the video game space in the late ’90s.
WCW/nWo Revenge from developer AKI and publisher THQ was a truly beloved wrestling game from 1998, so the only natural response would be for WWF to ditch Acclaim and swoop in to partner with AKI and THQ. The result is more or less the same game as the popular WCW/nWO Revenge, just with wildly more popular Superstars from the WWF roster. The huge database of move sets and customizable options in the create-a-wrestler area that already existed in the game’s engine from the WCW title actually made it possible to mimic the WCW wrestlers that got left behind, which is such an on-brand middle finger from the WWF to their on-the-verge-of-vanquished competitor. It was a pile on after the bell had already rung.
As far as the actual game goes though, it laid a sturdy groundwork for subsequent titles, including the one that landed at number one on our list. Kind of like the guy that’s already feuding with the champ coming into the Rumble in the twenties somewhere. You just know he’s going to end up winning so they can square off at Wrestlemania.
WWE 2K24 won 71% of it’s match-ups in our Face-Off, earning it a spot on the podium in this Top 10 list, which is wild considering where the series was just a few years ago. WWE 2K20 was such a trainwreck that they just said “nevermind” in 2021 and started from scratch for 2k22. So, if 2K20 was the end of a heel turn angle before a wrestler takes a little time off, 2K22 was his return to the active roster building up to his title run in 2K24.
With a more reliable foundation built with the year off, 2K24 was the third year in a row that has been about layering the bells and whistles back into the gameplay, and as a result 2K24 feels complete in a way that WWE games just haven’t in a very long time.
WWE 2K24 built on the solid foundation of its predecessor by not only polishing and improving every feature across the board, but adding way more than perhaps anyone expected for an iterative WWE game. Ambulance and Casket matches were a welcome change to the grappling action, and the return of special guest referee mode – the first time we’d seen it in over 10 years – was as surprising as Shane McMahon flipping Austin twin birds when he put on the black and white stripes himself.
There’s recency bias with this one, sure, but WWE 2K24 does feel like a feature-complete wrestling package, an accolade previously reserved almost exclusively for our top two on this list.
We have to jump back to the run of successful WWE SmackDown! Games for our number two spot with 2003’s follow-up to Shut Your Mouth, the equally threatening Here Comes the Pain. Winning over three-quarters of its Face-Off match-ups, it might have been the best of the SmackDown! bunch before the series changed to 2K.
The Elimination Chamber showed up in a game for the first time, as did the Bra and Panties match (although the aforementioned spanking mechanic that unlocked a cut scene of the two female wrestlers kissing would have to wait another year). The game also featured Legends for the first time, with all-timers showing up like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Sgt. Slaughter and The Iron Shiek. That you couldn’t pit The Undertaker’s Dead Man gimmick against George The Animal Steele in a Bra and Panties match feels both not surprising and like a missed opportunity, however.
The thing that gives this game a lasting legacy though has to be its career mode. It had an RPG feel to the locker room maneuvering. Players were free to talk to more people backstage and chart a course for your Superstar that felt a little more off the rails. This game is the face that takes a good long run through the Rumble, the one you want to win the whole thing, but comes up short in the end by just under three percentage points.******
So here comes the payoff to my TLC match comment from way back in number nine. On the list of things that tug on my wrestling nostalgia strings like a desperate Bubba Ray Dudley trying to loose a tag team belt 20 feet above the ring, the top two are grimacing through ladder matches and huddling in front of a very small tube TV with three friends, Swanton bombing from the top of a ladder on an N64.
WWF No Mercy has been a benchmark for wrestling games for more than 20 years now and at just a tick over an 80% win percentage, we’ve got the proof that it continues to be everyone’s favorite (or more accurately, at least four out of five people’s favorite). As part of the class of the N64 era (on which I’ve already made my feelings clear), additions like the ladder match and backstage brawls brought more of what was popular in-ring at the time, while the create-a-wrestler function continued to expand and a career mode that branched in all kinds of directions was an obvious upgrade over Wrestlemania 2000.
There’s something about that combination, catching everything that was wild about the height of the Attitude Era and channeling it through easy to get grappling mechanics, that has made this game more enduring than every other one on this list. Modders are still actively adding new wrestlers to the playable roster and even AEW Fight Forever was an attempt at recreating No Mercy’s magic.
The game wasn’t perfect (it chugged as soon as four players showed up) but it nailed the most important thing: capturing the essence of a wildly popular time in wrestling history, which is why we think it’s one of the best WWE video games ever made.
What do you think? Agree with this list? It’s kind of yours actually, on account of you guys voted in the Face-Off, but feel free to disagree with it down in the comments anyway!
*seriously, don’t fucking backyard wrestle
**in this case “all time” refers to the last 40-ish years, which is still a while, but in the grand scheme of things it’s only four decades and “of all time” is mostly just here for the cheap heat
***had to sneak one more in and didn’t feel like deleting this promise
****yep, it’s 100% exactly like that
*****my gimmick was named “Arrogant” Dandy Blaine, and he was a vicious and muscly heel, just like me
******I am aware Royal Rumbles are not scored on a percentage point basis
Singularity 6 is the latest studio to be hit by layoffs, with the Palia developer confirming in a statement sent to IGN that it has laid off around 35 percent of its workers.
Reports of Singularity 6’s layoffs emerged Thursday when workers began posting the new on X/Twitter and other social media platforms. They included at least one environmental artist, an engineer, and other developers woking on Palia.
In its statement, Singularity 6 described it as a decision intended to “deliver the highest-quality gameplay service for long-term stability.”
Following Palia’s release on Steam, we evaluated the support needed to deliver the highest-quality gameplay service for long-term stability. We made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce, which impacted around 35 percent of our talented and hardworking team members. We value their contributions and are committed to supporting them throughout this process, including severance, work-placement and career guidance assistance, and retainment of all company-provided development equipment.
This decision was not made lightly, and comes after careful consideration of our development and business needs to support Palia and its community. We remain committed to delivering passion in imagination, and maintaining the dedication and creativity that our community expects and deserves. We appreciate your understanding and support of our studio and affected team members.
A free-to-play “massively multiplayer community sim,” Palia released to early access in October and Nintendo Switch in December. We called it a premise with “enormous potential,” but it currently has mixed reviews with an all-time peak of a little over 12,000 players on Steam. Back in March, Singularity 6 clarified that Palia is still in open beta and said it is committed to “new content, improvements, and bug fixes well into the future.”
Speaking with Game File’s Steven Totilo, Michael Douse likened major gaming companies to massive oil tankers predicated on their ability to steer toward sucess. Should a company fail to plan accordingly, while giving developers proper financial reserves to pivot, fallout via layoffs is sure to come. Instead of feeling like layoffs are an inevitable aspect of the gaming industry, Douse argues that they are avoidable.
“But to prevent these giant operational failures that we call layoffs…they are an avoidable f*ck up. That’s really all they are,” Douse told Game File. “That’s why you see one after the other. Because companies are going: ‘Well, finally. Now we can, too. We’ve wanted to do it for ages. Everyone else is. So why don’t we?’ That’s really kind of sick.’”
Douse went on to note that none of the company’s issuing layoffs are at risk of going bankrupt, but are instead at risk of “pissing off the shareholders.” This shareholder-motivated business mindset was something Larian CEO Swen Vincke called out during his acceptance speech for Baldur’s Gate 3’s Best Narrative award. Douse echoed Vincke’s sentiments, saying companies should instead curb their greed and plan better so that developers have enough financial reserves available to pivot should they need to steer a game in a different direction.
“[Layoffs] a very, very complex and nuanced decision, Douse said. “But the idea that it’s an inevitability that has to happen, It’s just not true.”
Being nimble is key. Big companies are not nimble
Douse credited much of Baldur’s Gate 3’s achievements, namely maintaining a healthy work environment for its employees to Larian Studios being a privately owned company unbeholden to shareholders. When asked whether Larian Studios would ever go public, Douse said it might give them more money but it would be “antithetical to the quality part of what we’re trying to do.”
“So it wouldn’t make our games better. It would just make us rushed,” Douse said. “If you asked us what Baldur’s Gate III would look like, how much it would cost and how it would feel three years ago, I wouldn’t know. We just took it day by day. As an operation, we created reserves. We scoped up based on what we thought we would need and created reserves and fallbacks, just in case we would have to. Luckily, we don’t have to. We’re just nimble. Being nimble is key. Big companies are not nimble.”
Passive marketing vs socially resonate communication
While Douse doesn’t ascribe to the notion that the video games industry is on the verge of collapse, he does think its traditional methods of marketing on social media websites like Twitter/X are becoming less important.
“I mean, for Baldur’s Gate III we didn’t really do a lot of marketing. People talk about the bear scene as a big marketing beat. It wasn’t. It was a communication: Something we decided to do to showcase one extreme of romance in the game, as opposed to the Karlach scene in the restaurant.”
Douse went on to argue that marketing, while a form of communication, doesn’t generate the social resonance online that people want to engage in meaningful conversations over.
“A game’s success is defined by how socially resonant it is,” Douse said. “It’s not defined by a person who decided this game was successful. Which is a brilliant thing.”
Toward the latter half of the interview, Douse drew parallel to Baldur’s Gate 3’s critical and commercial sucess, despite being a a “fucking CPRG” investors would have otherwise never taken a chance on, to the meteoric success of Palworld — who reached 19 million total players less than two weeks after launch.
“They took a bunch of mechanics they knew people liked, made a game that was unbothered by what a game should be, and they gave it directly to players who decided to buy it. That’s really fucking simple. It’s not rocket science,” Douse said. “The analysts are confused, because they didn’t see it coming. And they want basic data sets and predictability. They’re gonna be confused a lot in the future. Me, too. I like being confused. We work best in chaos.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh
