Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has become the Yakuza series’ fastest-selling game to date, passing one million units sold within its first week on sale.
Publisher Sega and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio are celebrating by giving players some free downloadable content too. The Celebratory T-Shirt Set will be released “at a later date”, with Sega advising fans pay attention to its social media channels to learn when the pack will be available.
It’s also unclear what the pack entails, but Infinite Wealth leans into the ability to change characters’ outfits in battle, and goes even further in the post game, so Ichiban, Kiryu, and the team will likely be able to don a ridiculous looking t-shirt in battle and elsewhere.
Infinite Wealth arrived January 26 as the eighth mainline entry in the Yakuza (renamed Like a Dragon) series, but as a direct sequel to its somewhat reset Yakuza: Like a Dragon. It continues that game’s story and turn-based combat, though brought in some classic Yakuza influence by featuring longtime protagonist Kiryu alongside newcomer Ichiban in dual protagonist roles.
In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Sprawling, enthralling, and packed with dynamic brawling, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth isn’t just the best turn-based Like a Dragon game, it’s one of the greatest games in the entire series.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
During the recent Xbox Developer Direct, we were treated to a deeper look at how Obsidian’s upcoming RPG, Avowed, will handle player choice via a close look at a certain sidequest. But that left us wondering: what’s the natural endpoint of a game emphasizing choice? Will Avowed have multiple endings?
I was able to learn the answer to that by speaking to game director Carrie Patel not long after the direct, where she confirmed that yes, Avowed will indeed have multiple endings. Obviously! “I mean it’s an Obsidian game,” she said. “What else would we be if we didn’t have a few different endings?”
Patel didn’t specify further about how many endings there would be or how different they would be from one another, but we did talk further about how player choice could be expressed in the game, and how players will experience it. Patel tells me that it’s not just about pushing dominos – one event happens somewhere every time the player does something. What matters more is player expression, and how the player understands and interprets the world reacting to them, especially in a game where parts of the world are open and players may not see every single reaction or interaction.
“You have to approach it with a degree of range, both in the spread and placement of those consequences and also the nature of those consequences,” she says. “Some things need to have surprising but believable outcomes. If everything plays out exactly as you expect, it could feel a little boring. And at the same time, not every quest needs to have world-ending consequences. Some absolutely do have huge impacts for the characters in the world around you, but sometimes the story you’re experiencing is just a very deeply personal one for the characters involved. And that’s okay too.
“I think the great thing about RPGs is there’s a lot of room for that spread in terms of the tone and type and scope and nature of content. And so you’re giving players a big world where they can find a lot of very different experiences that all sort of add up to their experience as the protagonist of this game.”
Sweet liberty! One of my favorite PS4-era shooters is back with a whole new perspective and it’s up to me and my friends to defend Super Earth in glorious co-op! After going hands-on with Helldivers 2 for three hours, I’m sold on the bold pivot from the original’s top-down view to the sequel’s new third-person perspective, the appetizing roster of deadly gadgets, and the outrageous comedic tone that expertly channels the low-budget action film vibes that pair perfectly with the developer’s live-service ambitions. I’m a bit concerned at the moment that it won’t have enough content to go the distance long term, with only two enemy factions (so far as we know), procedurally generated levels that can feel a bit one-note, and no real live-service roadmap at launch, but with such a strong, effortlessly fun foundation, it’s definitely off to good start. With all the over-the-top gore and patriotic pageantry of Starship Troopers, Helldivers 2 is the kind of wonderfully silly shooter that me and my friends could easily lose many Friday nights to.
By far the biggest way Helldivers 2 switches things up from the original is by moving to the third-person perspective, and so far I’m pleasantly surprised how well that transition works. I was initially skeptical about the change given how much the bird’s eye view was part of the original’s DNA, but it only took a matter of seconds for my concerns to disappear. Getting closer to the action feels great and allows for some really hilarious moments, like when I accidentally called in an airstrike that took out the rest of my team or when I found myself surrounded by absolutely terrifying robots and used my jetpack to leap to safety. Plus, you get to see the hideous bug creatures and murder-loving automatons closer than ever before, which is a nice bonus – each faction had lots of variety too, from chainsaw-armed androids who slowly closed in for the kill to heavily-armored beetles who charged at me with reckless abandon.
As I fought through armies of lethal insects, I got to try out a whole bunch of helpful gadgets that played a central role in my success. On one mission, I deployed a turret to keep the area clear of hostiles, while in another I threw down a bubble shield to give the team some much-needed cover, and in another I made use of the “guard dog,” a floating robot who followed me around to lay down suppressing fire. Unlocking new toys and communicating with your team to ensure you’ve got everything you might need is absolutely necessary to survival. For example, some enemies are so heavily shielded they can only be put down by explosive weapons capable of tearing through the steel, so you’ll want to have at least one player who can call down the Recoilless Rifle, a rocket launcher that’ll make short work of anything that stands in its way. It’s especially cool that any equipment summoned can be shared with anyone on the team, encouraging teamwork and allowing your friends to benefit from your untimely demise by looting your corpse.
It’s especially cool that any equipment summoned can be shared with anyone on the team, encouraging teamwork and allowing your friends to benefit from your untimely demise by looting your corpse.
And that’ll happen more often than you might think, because Helldivers 2’s enemies are no pushovers, especially on harder difficulties. Death is an intentionally common occurrence, because instead of being a beefed-up hero with lots of health and enough firepower to take down hundreds of enemies unscathed, you’re put into the feeble boots of a grunt who makes a better sandbag than a soldier. At the beginning of each level, your team is given 20 revives, where your killed-off character is replaced by an equally unimportant peon anytime you fall in battle. And with friendly fire always on and bad guys far outnumbering my ragtag crew of four, dying at some point or another felt like a certainty. This was especially true when we attempted to complete a level on the hardest difficulty and were utterly grinded to a pulp, which was hilarious and a complete blast even in humbling defeat. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I can actually best one of these levels once my character’s been properly leveled.
The numerous deaths my crew suffered played right into Helldivers 2’s comedic setting as well, which features a satirical futuristic version of Earth where people are treated as disposable. That hilariously dystopian backdrop added the perfect level of pseudo-patriotic B-movie cheesiness that made me smile through all that dying.
If there’s anything that concerned me about my time with Helldivers 2, it’s that after three hours I felt like I’d played a whole lot of the content available in the game, which makes use of procedural generation to drop players onto the surface of various planets to complete generic objectives like launching an ICBM or destroying a specific military target. With no story mode or alternate game modes, I’m curious how much there will be for players to do beyond grinding the same missions ad nauseum, especially with no clear content roadmap laid out as of yet. That said, with only two enemy factions at the moment, it seems likely the third one from the original Helldivers could be added into the mix at some point, which could easily keep the good times rolling.
The good news is that, even if content is light initially, what I played of it was more than enough to get me excited about laughing with friends as we blast our way through killer robots, and I can’t wait to play more.
Often cited as the world’s most valuable media franchises, Pokémon is a household name that’s been a Nintendo staple since the Game Boy. The beloved series is home to hundreds of amazing creatures, with each new generation bringing loads more to discover. Every console released by Nintendo has had dozens of Pokémon games released for it, and the Nintendo Switch is no exception.
As we head further into 2024, now is a great time to explore the Pokémon offerings on Switch and catch up before new games are released. Below, we’ve compiled every Pokémon game that has been released on Nintendo Switch, and will keep an eye on any upcoming Pokémon titles that may arise.
How Many Pokémon Games Are There on Nintendo Switch?
In total, twelve Pokémon games have released for the Nintendo Switch. This includes both mainline titles and the spinoffs that have released for Switch. For mainline entries with two versions, we’ve counted each as one release. The Pokémon games offered through Nintendo Switch Online are not included in that number but can be found below.
All Pokémon Switch Games in Order of Release Date
Pokkén Tournament DX – 2017
Pokkén Tournament was originally released for the Wii U in 2016. A year later, Nintendo and Bandai Namco prepared a deluxe version of the game for Nintendo Switch, adding new characters and updated visuals to take advantage of better hardware. This three-on-three battle system is a blast to play with friends both in person and online.
Pokémon Quest turns all your favorite Pokémon into miniature cube form. This free-to-play title features a fun and simple combat system where you send Pokémon on expeditions. There are so many different abilities to equip to your Pokémon, which you’ll use at encounters of all kinds,.
Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! & Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are remakes of the beloved 1998 Pokémon Yellow. These titles were the first mainline Pokémon games ever to release on a home console, since none made it to the Wii U. Set in the Kanto region, all 151 original Pokémon appear with varying forms from previous mainline installments. With heavy accessibility features, these remakes were a great first step for the series on Nintendo Switch for newcomers and veterans of the series.
Pokémon Sword & Shield marked the first installment in the series to feature aspects of an open world. Dubbed the Wild Areas, these regions allowed for free traversal and battles with wild Pokémon. Gyms also made a return for the first time since X & Y. Additionally, Sword & Shield introduced the eigth generation of Pokémon, which included Dynamax and Gigantamax forms of previous Pokémon.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a remake of the 2005 titles Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team & Blue Rescue Team. Surprisingly, this is the first Pokémon spinoff remake ever, with development handled by Spike Chunsoft. The gameplay consists of completing jobs in different dungeons and unlocking new Pokémon along the way.
The other Pokémon release of 2020 was none other than Pokémon Café ReMix. This title features similar gameplay to other puzzle games like Disney Tsum Tsum, which requires you to connect Pokémon together to solve puzzles. In Pokémon Café ReMix, you and Eevee own a café and must serve the Pokémon who come for food or a drink! This charming title is free-to-play via the Nintendo eShop.
New Pokémon Snap – 2021
After more than 20 years, the Nintendo Switch is the console that finally received a sequel to Pokémon Snap. Developed by Bandai Namco, you traverse around different biomes and areas with an on-rails camera to capture pictures Pokémon in the wild. You can unlock new courses by taking good pictures in New Pokémon Snap, leaving for a sizeable amount of content to unlock and discover. You never know what you might find during each session!
This free-to-play title marked Pokémon’s first entry into the MOBA genre. You command and control a team of five Pokémon in head-to-head battles against other players online. There’s a solid amount of Pokémon to choose from, so you can adjust your team to best fit your needs. Pokémon Unite went on to be featured in different eSports tournaments, with multiple championships held for the game.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Pokémon Shining Pearl are remakes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, which originally released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS. As the fourth generation of Pokémon, Diamond & Pearl feature a wide variety of Pokémon to battle against and discover. The remakes feature a new chibi art style that was created to stay faithful to the original titles while still remaining fresh.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus is often praised as one of the best Pokémon games available on the Switch. This original title takes place far in the past, somewhere in the Hisui region. With a focus on exploration, you can freely walk all around the map to capture Pokémon, explore different environments, and so much more. Pokémon can be spotted wandering around all over the map, which requires you to be strategic if you’re looking to avoid battle.
The latest mainline Pokémon titles officially kicked off Generation 9, bringing along an entire new approach to gameplay and world design. In Scarlet & Violet, an open world awaits with freedom to explore wherever your heart takes you. The DLC pass, titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, is now wrapped up, making it a perfect time to check out Scarlet & Violet.
One game and one movie later, the sequel to Detective Pikachu is finally available on Nintendo Switch. Tim’s father is missing, and it’s up to Detective Pikachu to solve the case! This sequel features new puzzles and investigations, where you can investigate scenes and use your notebook to get to the bottom of the mystery. If you’re a fan of both Pokémon and mystery games, this is a great title to consider.
Available Pokémon Games With Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
The Nintendo Switch Online subscription service has additional Pokémon titles if you’re looking for more after completing the Nintendo Switch library. Here are the five Pokémon games you can play with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership:
Pokémon Trading Card Game
Pokémon Snap
Pokémon Puzzle League
Pokémon Stadium
Pokémon Stadium 2
Upcoming Pokémon Titles on Nintendo Switch
At the time of writing, Nintendo has not confirmed any additional Pokémon games will be released on Nintendo Switch. With the Nintendo Switch 2 likely releasing in 2024, we might not see anymore new Pokémon titles make their way over to the Switch.
Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.
Roughly a year after its original release, it looks like Xbox console exclusive Hi-Fi Rush is indeed headed to new platforms.
Hi-Fi Rush was released in early 2023 and received strong praise for its distinct art style and unique rhythm-based combat. We wrote in our review, “I swear Hi-Fi Rush could be a premier cartoon series. It’s got best-in-class animation, endearing heroes to cheer for, and villains you love to hate, all wrapped in good-natured humor.”
Hi-Fi Rush Anniversary Update t-shirt texture (platform exclusive designs) datamine seem to suggest that PlayStation/Switch port is happening
Hi-Fi Rush was held up as a solid example of Xbox’s console exclusives strategy, but newly-datamined t-shirt textures appear to suggest it won’t be a console exclusive for much longer. They include a red t-shirt that says “Rock Out! Anywhere” — an apparent reference to the Nintendo Switch — and a blue t-shirt that says “I’m here Baby,” which fans have interpreted as a nod to the PlayStation.
Xbox and Epic Game Store get references as well, with the former being a green t-shirt that reads, “Shadow Dropped” — a nod to Hi-Fi Rush’s surprise release in 2023. The in-game t-shirt are part of a broader collection released as part of Hi-Fi Rush’s one-year anniversary update, which quickly spread among fans on Reddit. Verge reporter Tom Warren subsequently corroborated the datamine on X/Twitter.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has further fueled the rumors by saying that Xbox can be a “good publisher” across all platforms. “We love gaming. In fact, Flight Simulator was created before even Windows. But, we were number three, number four. And now with Activision, I think we have a chance of being a good publisher — quite frankly — on Sony and Nintendo and PCs and Xbox. We’re excited about that acquisition closing and I’m glad we’ve got it through.”
We’ve now reached the end of our IGN First coverage, and to wrap everything up, myself and Casey thought it might be best to sit down and just have an unscripted conversation about everything that we got to experience at Capcom. There will be some overlap with what we’ve already covered in previews and other extended looks, but this is also our opportunity to talk a bit about the story, things we liked, things we didn’t like, and much more.
We hope you enjoyed this month of coverage, and thanks for sticking around.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit
The information surrounding developer Fntastic’s December game release, The Day Before, just got a lot worse, according to reports from German game outlets GameStar and Game Two.
The two sites published their findings from investigations today, explaining that they spoke with 16 former employees from the studio as well as one volunteer and seven employees from publisher Mytona to get to the bottom of what happened behind the scenes to result in last year’s disastrous release.
According to the reports, The Day Before wasn’t always the highly ambitious game that had been pitched to players for years. It had humble beginnings, with 10 members of a 20-person team originally told that they would be working on a top-secret but small-scale survival game with a wintery aesthetic and cartoonish visuals. These early details promised a game with a short story, but the changes that soon followed eventually snowballed into the project that would become The Day Before.
Alterations demanding switches to more realistic visuals and larger areas reportedly came on suddenly, with the sites’ sources saying that much of the development team was “disappointed” by the changes because they were happy with the original plan. As the public caught wind of this ambitious new project, management at Fntastic leaned in on chasing industry trends.
On-the-fly changes coincided with other game releases as The Day Before developers were told to imitate features such as the character creator from popular titles like Baldur’s Gate 3, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Hogwarts Legacy. Changes were so frequent that there were essentially three versions of The Day Before during its development that were all completely different.
Unrealistic deadlines, overpromises, and unreasonable demands are said to all stem from Fntastic founders and brothers Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev. Some sources say the two company heads would refer to the entire team as a “big family” just to turn around and put pressure on staff with spontaneous firings. These events were often used as a means to “motivate” the team, with one of the team’s five testers fired one week before after one of the brothers found a bug.
IGN has reached out to Fntastic for comment.
A team member’s removal was allegedly attributed to their “lack of will,” but simple mistakes reportedly came with a completely different threat: fines. Sources report instances of fines being handed out for small errors, such as when two individuals were asked to pay $1,930 for turning in “low quality” voice recordings. These practices persisted under relentless periods of crunch, with one employee saying that they never worked less than 16 hours a day: “Over the last year and a half, I haven’t had a Saturday off, and for the last two months I haven’t had a day off at all.”
Drastically extended workdays and zero off days for months seem to be common occurrences among the Fntastic staff, with one source saying they found themselves “begging for a few hours break just to find time for a shower or a meal.”
The Day Before finally came to the world on December 7, 2023 and was quickly followed by wave after wave of controversy. Fntastic has since announced that it would shut down, declaring the project a financial failure. The studio then promised buyers refunds while writing off their shortcomings with a response: “This was our first big experience. Shit happens.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
While there are plenty of two-player board games that are excellent, board games for couples to play together deserve their own special sub-category. A lot of two-player games are pretty hardcore war board games or abstracts, for example, which are difficult categories for couples to agree over. Even if you can avoid such niche picks, two-player games also have a tendency to be fiercely competitive, which might also be a bad idea unless you’re both super forgiving. So here are our picks of the best games that balance the competitive and the cooperative, and the luck with the strategy, just so you can find a sweet spot to enjoy together.
Some of you may remember the movement puzzle games that were popular in the early days of the internet: they’re a clear predecessor to this bright and absorbing board game about guiding finicky cats to safety. Each cat will only travel over one colour of terrain, so it’s your job to work together to build a path for it to reach a raft before a blazing fire cuts it off. Your goal is hampered by the random nature of terrain cards you draw, the likelihood you’ll cut off another cat’s route with each play, and limited communication rules that may see you meowing desperately at one another to try and get a point across. Both challenging and hilarious, the game offers more than 80 scenarios of ever-increasing difficulty.
Sky Team: Prepare for Landing
What better way to say “I love you” than to take a flight together to an exotic destination? That’s what you get to do in Sky Team, with the notable catch that you’re playing as the pilot and co-pilot, and you have to work together to land the plane first. It’s far harder than it sounds: both of you have your own pool of dice and sets of instruments you must attend to using the results. Some of them even require you to balance the two values assigned by each player, a task made even trickier by the fact you can’t discuss strategy during the placement phase. At least that should avoid the potential for arguments when you find the dice pool is running short, the plane is tilting at a dangerous angle and there’s a queue of air traffic in front of you for the runway.
The Search for Lost Species
Boasting an appealing theme and an ever-shifting puzzle dynamic, this app-driven game sees players racing to map the ecology of an island and discover a long-lost animal. This engaging skin hides a logic puzzle of fiendish complexity. Each animal on the island has several rules dictating where it lives: some of them are fixed and some change from game to game, revealed by the app as the players research. They must use these rules, and clues from their island exploration, to figure out what hexes hold which species and slowly pin down the location of the mysterious beast. It’s complex but plays quickly once mastered, and every game is a fresh puzzle thanks to the app. You can even work together against the app, although you’ll have to share one playing piece.
Fog of Love
We have to start a list like this with a game designed specifically to tell the story of a couple in a relationship. However, it isn’t your relationship but one that you’ll create between a pair of fictitious characters and then go on to explore its nuances and ups and downs. Although there’s a certain amount of blue and pink in the visuals it’s also open to same-sex relationships, too. Your couple each get a brew of secret traits and destinies and then go on to play through a number of scenes, making choices based on traits that affect the outcome. As an experimental game, there is no winner here in the strict sense, but you’ll win by enjoying a fascinating journey through an imagined relationship instead.
Patchwork
Patchwork works because it’s a super simple synthesis of several clever concepts in one small package. Players buy geometric pieces using buttons to try and form a quilt with as few holes in it as possible. Each purchase also moves you forward on a time track, which intermittently earns you extra buttons or very useful single-square patches for your quilt, but the person last on the time track always takes the next turn. This lets you set up interesting plays like planning for double turns or trying to leapfrog your opponent to snatch a one-square patch. Gently addictive while it transfixes several parts of your brain at once, it’s no wonder it won a slew of awards and nominations.
Codenames Duet
The original Codenames was a rare breakout hit into the wider world of party games. Players laid out a grid of cards with words on them. Then one player per team had to give out single-word clues to try and link multiple words together in order to help their teammates identify which cards were coded to their side. Codenames: Duet is very similar but it’s been refined for two into a much sleeker cooperative game. Now you’re trying to find fifteen clues between you before a timer runs out. Because you both take turns giving clues, downtime while someone thinks of a clue to give is almost eliminated, bringing a fun slice of party game magic to the table with just the two of you.
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Unlike the other games on this list, The Adventures of Robin Hood is a narrative-driven title where you retell the legend of the famous outlaw across nine scenarios. But it brings all sorts of clever ideas to the formula, making it intriguing and engaging to play. There are no board spaces for starters: instead, you measure your progress across the map with a long base on your wooden playing piece, trying to stay in printed shadows and out of sight of guards. The board is like an advent calendar, with hundreds of numbered pieces you can lift out and flip over to create the feel of a living, dynamic world you encounter by looking up the numbers in the included book. Can you and your partner work together to save Nottingham from the clutches of the evil Sheriff before Guy of Gisborne hunts you down?
Hive
Played with delightful chunky plastic hexes, Hive is a game with an unfortunate tendency to make your skin crawl thanks to its insectoid subject matter. On the plus side, it also makes your brain crawl in all the best ways with its ever-escalating web of interlocking strategies. Each player has a Queen hex and you win by surrounding your opponent’s Queen with your pieces. There are four other types of insects, each with its own movement rules that you must leverage in pursuit of your goal. There are only eleven tiles on each side, which enter play one by one, and the Hive itself must always be a single conglomeration of tiles. That makes Hive easy to transport, set up and play, but the complex interaction of movement rules makes it devilishly hard to win.
Onitama
Onitama gets a lot of mileage out of a very simple idea. It’s played on a grid where each player starts with a master pawn and five students. Moving any of your pieces onto an opponent’s piece knocks it off the board and you win either by knocking out the enemy master or moving your own master to the opposite end of the board. The kicker is that the legal moves for your pieces depend on a random deal of cards: you have a choice of two each turn and the one you pick is discarded and refreshed from an extra card from the side of the board. This creates a fascinating and challenging interplay of cause and effect where you can see the likely path to plan ahead but the ever-changing roster of potential moves muddy the waters.
Five Tribes
You may have played the classic board game Mancala where you grab a handful of beads from a pit and pop one each in the following sequence of pits. Five Tribes translates this concept into a modern strategy game played on a grid of tiles. Each handful you pick up will consist of multiple color pieces and the final tile you drop one on determines what actions you take for that round. However, the changed board state then determines possible combinations for the next player to take, making each turn a mind-bending puzzle of balancing your own needs against your opponent’s opportunities. Add in an auction to determine the first player and you’ve got a modern classic. With two, Five Tribes lets you double your turns meaning there’s a whole other layer of using your first turn to set yourself up for a combo second turn.
The Fox in the Forest
If you’ve ever played a traditional trick-taking game like Whist you might be baffled that such a thing could work with two. Yet that’s what The Fox in the Forest achieves thanks to its three-suit deck in which even-numbered cards work like standard playing cards, but odd-numbered cards all have a special power. The 3-value Fox, for instance, lets you change the trump suit while the 9-value Witch is treated as always being a trump. Its other clever coup is the scoring system which rewards you for winning either the majority or the minority of tricks, making it very hard to eke out a lead unless you can time your wins to perfection. Fast, fun and innovative, The Fox in the Forest is an incredible answer to a seemingly impossible question.
7 Wonders: Duel
While the original 7 Wonders was a smash hit by itself, this two-player refinement is widely regarded as being even better. The core concept is the same: you’re drafting cards to make point-scoring sets representing aspects of an ancient civilization. Different types of cards represent different aspects such as military, technology or wonders of the world, and will give you bonuses and resources when added to your tableau. However, instead of the standard pick and pass drafting of the original game, 7 Wonders: Duel instead has players drafting from a pyramid of overlapping cards, most of which start face down and only become available when the cards atop them are taken. This adds a wonderful element of timing to the draft as you balance taking your best picks against giving more options to your opponent.
Schotten Totten
A classic from back in 1999, Schotten Totten still holds up well today. Its central idea is that you’re battling across nine stones with each player trying to create Poker-style three-card combos on their own side, one card at a time. This creates the most delicious tension as your opponent wonders what meld you’re aiming for, and you worry whether you’ll draw the right cards to complete it. Just like Poker itself, there’s plenty of strategy in playing the probabilities, plus there’s an extra deck of special power tactics cards to spice things up. And if that wasn’t enough for you, you can also use the cards with their amusing cartoon art to play a completely different game called Lost Cities.
Matt Thrower is a freelance with years of experience reviewing and writing about board games.
Hideo Kojima has announced he is returning to the world of spycraft.
During the latest PlayStation State of Play, Kojima joined PlayStation Studios boss Herman Hulst to announce Physint, a new “Action Espionage” game from the creator of Metal Gear. Kojima alluded that it will also be a movie, but clarified on X that the “look, story, theme, cast, acting, fashion, sound, etc… are all at the next level of ‘Digital Entertainment’ that could be called a ‘movie.’”
“PHYSINT (working title)” will be the third, new original IP since the establishment of KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. It is a completely new “Action Espionage” for the next-generation. It will be created using cutting-edge technology and the best talents from around the world, both from… pic.twitter.com/0vnMXJbGNz
A bit redundant, I’d say, since Kojima’s already leveraging movie-calibur production on his current project, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. But nevertheless, Kojima’s return to the genre he revolutionized and popularized nearly four decades ago is worth celebrating.
For nearly 30 years Kojima cut his teeth on the world of Metal Gear, a tactical espionage action series that was synonymous with the PlayStation brand. Metal Gear pushed the boundaries of gameplay and video game storytelling to new heights thanks to a thoughtful approach to cinematic presentation, genuinely fun and inventive gameplay, and ultimately a story about hope and peace. Kojima likely would have continued with the franchise had he not had a very public split from Konami, which retained the rights to the iconic Metal Gear franchise.
When Kojima set up his studio — Kojima Productions — and released his first post-Metal Gear game, Death Stranding, it seemed like the director was trying to find his way forward in games knowing he will never be able to return to the world of Snake and Outer Heaven. Death Stranding had elements of Metal Gear — there was some sneaking, some gunplay — but it mostly carried forward Kojima’s trademark multimedia directing style and love of symbolism and metaphors.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a vague feeling while playing Death Stranding that some of its elements were just slightly penciled over Metal Gear iconography (the whale is made of goop, not fire), but for the most part it was an honest attempt at creating a new franchise distinct from Metal Gear. Where Metal Gear centered on how Snake and Big Boss could utilize the natural world to their advantage, Death Stranding was, to me at least, about how Sam Porter Bridges must find a way to survive through the destroyed world.
The theme of struggle and survival carried into the gameplay. Where Metal Gear, especially Metal Gear Solid 5, was a game where controls could be mastered to the point where Snake could perform even the most precise actions, Death Stranding was clumsy. Snake could CQC through the toughest battles whereas Sam would trip and stumble over a rock. It was fun sometimes, but also very not fun at other times.
All this makes Kojima’s return to the action espionage genre such an exciting prospect. The last Metal Gear Solid game felt like the first chapter in the next-generation of Kojima spy games before it was cruelly cut short. It’s not an exaggeration to say Metal Gear Solid 5 is the best-playing game in the entire franchise, regardless of how you ultimately felt about the story. Between the seamless open-world, excellent combat controls, and attention to the smallest details, MGS 5 still manages to be an astonishing game to play, nine years after it was released in 2015. And we’ll finally get to see how much that kind of gameplay will be improved now that Kojima is ready to make a proper spy action game again.
We’re probably in the most prolific era of Kojima’s career.
So what can we expect from Physint at this stage? Nothing much, other than Kojima will likely continue hiring famous actors to be a part of the game. The working title, “Physint,” is likely a combination of the words “Physical” and “Intelligence” so presumably these two traits will be important in the gameplay, but other than that we won’t know more until after Death Stranding 2 is released in 2025.
One final note – whatever Physint ends up being called, one name it won’t be called is Metal Gear Solid 6. While it’s truly a shame we’ll never really get closure to the abrupt way the series ended, had Kojima stayed at Konami, and with the way AAA game development is at the moment, there’s a chance he would’ve spent the last years of his career making two or three more Metal Gear sequels.
Instead, we’re probably in the most prolific era of Kojima’s career between Death Stranding, the recently announced horror game OD, and now the upcoming spy game Physint. Where some studios will spend the next 10 years on another sequel, we’re at a time where we get to potentially play three new Kojima games in that same timespan. Leaving Konami may have closed the door on Metal Gear, but it opened a path to so many new stories and games. And that to me is more exciting than ever getting Metal Gear Solid 6.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
IGN Fan Fest returns this February with a lineup filled with the biggest names in games and entertainment.
Everything kicks off on Feb. 19 and continues throughout the week with exclusive interviews, trailers, gameplay, sneak peeks, and more. The event continues with two days of Fan Fest livestreams on Feb. 23 and 24, featuring even more reveals and surprises.
Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire are just some of the big movies coming to this year’s show that also includes the hotly-anticipated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, Tracker, and The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Plus, we dig deep into new seasons of fan-favorites such as Abbott Elementary, Invincible, and others.
Fan Fest 2024 also features new and exciting looks at WWE 2K24, Street Fighter 6, G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Brawlhalla, and more of your favorite (and soon to be favorite) games.
New for Fan Fest this year is a huge celebration of popular anime, including Gear Five From One Piece, Oshi no Ko, and Solo Leveling. From the world of comics, fans can expect exclusive reveals from Marvel Comics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II – Re-Evolution, and Spawn: Rat City.
Now in its fourth year, IGN Fan Fest is a celebration of everything fans love from the world of games, movies, TV, streaming, comics, collectibles, and more.
In 2024 IGN Fan Fest promises to be bigger and better than ever, so stay tuned over the coming weeks for first looks at some of the show’s biggest reveals as well as more details about the epic lineup.
