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Tears of the Kingdom Brings Back a Classic Legend of Zelda Boss

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is bringing back more familiar (albeit scary) faces as a classic Zelda enemy looks to be a boss in the new game.

As revealed in the new Tears of the Kingdom trailer, that already revealed a ton of story details and gave fans their first look at Ganondorf, Gleeok is rearing its heads for the first time in 16 years.

Though a two-headed version last made an appearance in 2007’s Phantom Hourglass, the three-headed Gleeok shown in the new trailer (below) hasn’t been seen since The Legend of Zelda, as in the very first game in the franchise that launched in 1987.

It’s two-headed variant also appeared in Oracle of Seasons, but this version of Gleeok will be making its return after 36 years. It’s also not the only boss-looking beastie shown in the new trailer, suggesting Tears of the Kingdom is returning to a classic Zelda boss formula instead of Breath of the Wild’s more systematic approach.

The sequel also seemingly includes a classic Ocarina of Time enemy, and while it’s not a boss, the infamous ReDead monster is just as iconic. Nestled between a Lizalfos and what appears to be a giant Bokoblin in February’s trailer, the spook is best known for haunting Castle Town’s ruined market place following the time jump.

Tears of the Kingdom also looks to give players even more freedom than Breath of thr Wild, adding a new Fuse ability alongside Recall, Ultrahand, and Ascend.

We also know that Tears of the Kingdom will have the largest file size of any first party Nintendo Switch game, include classic enemies from Ocarina of Time, and cost a heftier than usual $70 to match its scope, but the main reason fans are excited is because Breath of the Wild is considered one of the best games of all time.

Fans can even enjoy it on a limited edition Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch that was announced alongside the gameplay presentation.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Final Trailer Reveals First Look at Ganondorf

The final trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally gave us a proper look at the King of Evil: Ganondorf.

The three-minute look at the Breath of the Wild sequel was packed with new enemies, bosses, returning characters, and hints at some of the changes Hyrule has undergone in the time since the original.

While he hasn’t been named yet, the character we can only assume is Ganondorf shows up in this trailer. There’s also a character with flowing red hair that stares directly into a blood moon early on in the trailer, but this character bears closer resemblance to Skyward Sword’s Demise rather than Ganondorf.

The final trailer began in the sky, keeping in line with much of Tears of the Kingdom’s marketing so far. We saw some establishing shots of the Sky Islands before seeing Link skydive onto the land of Hyrule below. Very quickly, we see Link running through Hateno Village, a returning location from Breath of the Wild that was previously host to the Ancient Tech Lab.

Interestingly, the trailer then cuts to a shot of the fountain just outside of Hyrule Castle. There’s a settlement of new tents here, indicating that the rebuild effort mentioned at the end of Breath of the Wild is in full swing.

Next, we see some sort of structure rising from the sand in the Gerudo area of the map. It’s still too early to call for sure, but this could be the classic dungeon many Zelda fans have been hoping for.

The last time we saw Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo pulled back the curtain on some of the sequel’s new gameplay mechanics. Series producer Eiji Aonuma showed off four of Link’s new abilities: Recall, Ascend, Ultrahand, and Fuse, which instantly had the internet talking. For a deeper dive on last month’s gameplay, check out ten things we noticed in the Tears of the Kingdom gameplay demonstration.

We’re officially less than a month away from the next mainline Zelda game. Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, alongside a ton of Zelda-themed products. In addition to the game, Nintendo is releasing a special edition Switch OLED, Collector’s Edition, pro controller, case, and amiibo.

Developing…

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Rare Founder Takes to Twitter to Show Off a Host of Lost Gaming Treasures

Long gone are the days of Rare-developed Nintendo exclusives, but founder Tim Stamper still has pieces of gaming history from the studio’s early years. In a few short video clips, Stamper revealed development footage from Project Dream, along with other snippets from N64 classics.

Stamper has taken to Twitter to showcase development cartridges from the past, posting footage from unseen N64 titles – kind of. The clips include canceled projects or games that would live on through other iterations, like Dream 64 and Twelve Tales: Conker 64.

In the series of posts, Stamper shared a photo tagged as Dream 64 and Banjo-Kazooie featuring Captain Blackeye, a pirate who would later show up in the Banjo games. The image includes a SNES and N64, with the latter holding a development cartridge labeled “Latest Version of Dream 64” dated November 21, 1996.

“So it’s true,” Stamper wrote. “Dream 64 does exist after all…!”

The Rare Founder also added a 15-second peak at Dream, which he noted “was probably for the Nintendo Shoshinkai show [in] 1996”. It again includes Captain Blackeye, whose voiced lines harken back to Stamper’s earlier tweet with “so it’s true then, the Nintendo 64 treasure does exist after all.”

In 1997, Rare’s codename Dream game was officially revealed as Banjo-Kazooie at E3. Studio talent has spoken publicly about their time with Dream, and eventually Banjo-Kazooie, over the years. In 2015, the studio even documented the retooled Dream on YouTube, which featured a young boy named Edson in a more RPG-like adventure.

Stamper’s other footage includes an intro snippet of Twelve Tales: Conker 64, which debuted alongside Banjo at the same E3 in Atlanta. Twelve Tales would go down as another canceled project, and Rare’s fiery squirrel would see his first N64 release as Conker’s Bad Fur Day instead. Stamper’s clip shows off another development cartridge and a 48-second sequence of Conker and acorn-like enemies.

There’s a brief look at Battletoads character design documents, too. Another video from Stamper shows him thumbing through the “character design guide” for the beat’em series.

While the Battletoads art and descriptions are a cool little tidbit, the stuff lurking in the background seems just as neat. When Stamper’s video begins, you can see a room filled with binders, presumably all related to his gaming projects. Tim, along with his brother Chris Stamper, remained with Rare until 2007, so there’s no telling what treasures have amassed in that archive.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She’s worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today’s FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

Resident Evil 4 Fans Keep Drawing Ashley as a Tiny Mouse, and It’s Adorable

If you’re a Resident Evil 4 fan or are at all following the game online, you might have noticed some goofy art over the last month involving the character Ashley looking strangely rodent-like. Turns out, it’s a fantastic and hilarious trend that caught on upon the release of Resident Evil 4’s recent remake, where fans are drawing Ashley from Resident Evil 4 as a little tiny mouse obsessed with cheese. And it rules.

It all started with this tweet:

The artist, @Agrimmora on Twitter, followed up by explaining that “I saw a joke drawing that depicted ashley with big ears and this came to my mind, i never got past the boulder chase scene as a kid.”

This is pretty cute and funny, but it gets better: the Resident Evil 4 community has fallen in love with her. It’s been almost three weeks since the initial tweet, and Twitter is still awash in mouse Ashley art…or “Moushley” art, as she’s come to be called.

Moushley has even bled into real life:

The joke has gone so far that there’s now even a mod that lets you put Moushley on Leon’s head and control him like Remy in Ratatouille:

The best part of all this is that even the official Resident Evil 4 Twitter account seems to have gotten in on the joke:

Moushley is an absolute delight, and there’s seemingly no end of adorable interpretations of her as a little rodent under Leon’s protection. Bring on the Moushley memes. And if you haven’t yet experienced the recent Resident Evil 4 remake, it’s none too shabby even without Ashley sporting a notable love of cheese. We gave it a coveted 10/10 in our review, calling it “the most relentlessly exciting Resident Evil adventure of all time that’s been rebuilt, refined, and realised to the full limits of its enormous potential.”

Our Resident Experts ™ are hard at work uncovering Resident Evil 4 Remake’s secrets in our Resident Evil 4 Remake Strategy Guide. Here are some of the most helpful links:

How to Make Money Fast in Resident Evil 4 Remake:https://www.ign.com/wikis/resident-evil-4-remake/How_to_Make_Money_Fast_in_RE4_Remake


Tips to Save Ammo in Resident Evil 4 Remake: https://www.ign.com/wikis/resident-evil-4-remake/Tips_to_Save_Ammo_in_RE4_Remake


Resident Evil 4 Remake Cheats, Secrets, and Unlockables: https://www.ign.com/wikis/resident-evil-4-remake/Remake_Cheats_and_Secrets

All Clockwork Castellan Locations and Checklist: https://www.ign.com/wikis/resident-evil-4-remake/All_Clockwork_Castellan_Locations

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

AEW Fight Forever: Developers Say Game Isn’t Finished Yet, Despite AEW Head’s Comments

AEW Fight Forever, the officially licensed All Elite Wrestling game developed by Yuke’s and published by THQ Nordic, is supposed to be out this year. But a series of comments from AEW leadership and the game’s developers have left fans confused as to the game’s actual development status.

The confusion can be traced back to February when AEW wrestler and executive vice president Kenny Omega said on the Swerve City Podcast (via WrestleZone) that “the game has been done,” but was currently in limbo trying to get an ESRB rating finalized. This was then reiterated by AEW president Tony Khan during a media scrum following pay-per-view event AEW Revolution:

“I can’t say the exact release date,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that go into that, and I don’t want to step on anybody with that. It is coming very soon. The game is finished.”

All of this sounds pretty definitive, but THQ Nordic senior community manager Per Hollenbro has recently taken to Twitch and Twitter to debunk this. On Twitter, he wrote that AEW Fight Forever is “doing really well” but is “not 100% yet,” and called discussion that it was done “just another rumour on Twitter.”

On Twitch (via Wrestle Zone), Hollenbro went into a bit more detail as to why there was so much discrepancy between THQ Nordic and AEW leadership’sperspectives, saying the problem is that the two groups “see it very differently.” He explained that as a publisher, THQ Nordic doesn’t consider a game done until it’s ready to go out the door, including elements such as platform certification, retail distribution, and a lot more. He also said that AEW Fight Forever is “in a good state.”

“I do not believe anybody lied,” he said. “I do not believe there’s any kind of miscommunication in any shape or form. I believe that simply some people look at it differently because they don’t look at it through the eyes of a publisher. A lot goes into it. And for me, as somebody who is part of the publishing house, it’s very different for me what completes a game and what doesn’t.”

Speaking to Kotaku, Hollenbro clarified even further, offering a list of elements AEW Fight Forever still needs to finalize before it can be considered finished, including passing QA tests, localization in seven languages, “polish,” retail and shipping deals, certification, platform optimization, marketing plans, and yes, that elusive ESRB rating. An additional THQ Nordic spokesperson told the outlet that “AEW: Fight Forever will be released when it’s done.”

It’s also worth pointing out that AEW Fight Forever is also in the midst of a trademark dispute with Game Changer Wrestling, which has disputed AEW’s trademark of “Fight Forever” given its own use of the phrase for a 2021 charity event. GCW was granted an extension until May 31, 2023 to dispute the claim, and it’s unclear how this will impact AEW Fight Forever’s title or release date. But needless to say, this dispute is likely not speeding things along.

We’ve already had a number of opportunities to look at what AEW Fight Forever has in store, including a hands-on preview at last year’s Gamescom and a chat with several AEW wrestlers at IGN Fan Fest. For now, AEW Fight Forever is still scheduled for release sometime in 2023.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

PlayStation Plus Games Catalogue Additions for April 2023 Revealed

Sony has announced its PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue additions for April 2023, bringing a mixture of first-person shooters, sports, and horror with titles like Doom Eternal, Riders Republic, and The Evil Within.

According to the PlayStation Blog, over a dozen games join the April offerings for Plus Extra and Premium members on Tuesday, April 18. On May 15, Game Catalog will remove a handful of other titles, including Marvel’s Spider-Man, Resident Evil, and NBA 2K Playgrounds 2.

Among some of this month’s standout games are first-person shooters Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein 2. IGN gave both titles 9/10 review scores, calling Doom a “modernized reboot a breath of fresh air for the genre” and Wolfenstein 2 a “fantastically written and acted story.”

Sporty PVP sandbox Riders Republic and Shinji Mikami’s survival horror nightmare The Evil Within add a little more variety into the mix, plus the ultra-vibrant murder mystery Paradise Killer is always worth a spin. Check out the full list below.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium: Game Catalogue

  • Bassmaster Fishing (PS4/PS5)
  • Doom Eternal (PS4/PS5)
  • Kena: Bridge of Spirits (PS4/PS5)
  • Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (PS4/PS5)
  • Paradise Killer (PS4/PS5)
  • Riders Republic (PS4/PS5)
  • Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS4/PS5)
  • Slay the Spire (PS4)
  • The Evil Within (PS4)
  • Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (PS4)
  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PS4)

PlayStation Premium: Classics

  • Doom (PS4)
  • Doom 2 (PS4)
  • Doom 64 (PS4)
  • Dishonored: Definitive Edition (PS4)

To score access to most of the latest in Sony’s library, you’ll need PlayStation Plus Extra at a minimum. To download the Classics like Doom and Dishonored, you’ll have to sign up for PlayStation’s Premium tier.

As for other Sony services, the platform holder announced its collection of PlayStation 5 PS Plus titles would be removed on May 9. The bundle includes games like Bloodborne, God of War, and Resident Evil 7, and members that redeem the offer can still download the collection even after it’s gone.

If Sony’s latest update isn’t of any interest, keep your eyes peeled for more PS5 news soon, as the company announced its plans for a new Final Fantasy 16 State of Play tomorrow.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She’s worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today’s FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

Deal Alert: The Xbox Core Controller in Electric Volt Is Down to $39.99

Today both Amazon and Walmart are offering the official Xbox Series X|S Core wireless controller in Electric Volt for only $39.99 with free shipping. That’s almost 40% off the original $65 MSRP. Only the Electric Volt color has been discounted down to this price, the rest of the colors are more expensive. Aside from the difference in color scheme, this is the same controller as the one that’s included with your Xbox Series X or S console.

Xbox Core Controller in Electric Volt for $39.99

This controller is based on the Xbox Series X|S controller design, but it will also work on Xbox One. It features textured triggers, bumpers, and back case, making it easier to hold. It also features the disc-like D-pad for more precise input in all eight directions, and the Share button to send your screenshots and video out into the world.

Electric Volt is one of the brightest colors available, and probably the best one to get if you misplace your controllers often. This one features a high-vis yellow top case and analog sticks, with a black hybrid D-pad and face buttons. The bumpers and triggers are also black, but the back case is white.

For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Is Getting Its Final Pre-Launch Trailer Tomorrow

Today marks exactly one month until the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on May 12. To celebrate, Nintendo is giving us a brand new trailer for the game.

The final pre-launch trailer for Tears of the Kingdom will debut tomorrow, Nintendo has announced. The next look at the highly anticipated Breath of the Wild sequel will air Thursday, April 13, at 7 a.m. PT / 10 a.m. ET / 3 p.m. in the UK. Nintendo said the trailer will be roughly three minutes long.

This marks the third official trailer for Tears of the Kingdom since Nintendo announced the game’s name last year. Teasers for the sequel date back to E3 2019, when Nintendo officially unveiled the project for the first time. So far, the trailers haven’t detailed much at all about the story, instead teasing Link’s new traversal mechanics that series producer Eiji Aonuma fully revealed in last month’s gameplay demonstration.

Tomorrow’s new Tears of the Kingdom trailer has a lot to live up to. Many Breath of the Wild fans remember the iconic January 2017 Nintendo Switch Presentation Zelda trailer, which served as the most cinematic look at the game yet leading up to release. The trailer’s musical score was so epic it even made the cut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s soundtrack. Fans have been clamoring for Tears of the Kingdom to get a similarly memorable trailer, and it seems like tomorrow is our best shot yet.

Tears of the Kingdom is easily Nintendo’s biggest game of 2023. The next Zelda is Nintendo’s first $70 title, and it also has the largest file size of any first-party Switch game. Nintendo has been very secretive with Tears of the Kingdom overall, and is currently tracking down the leaker who posted images of the Collector’s Edition art book.

For more, check out 10 awesome details from the Tears of the Kingdom gameplay, or watch our early Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom map comparison.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The RE4 Merchant Exemplifies Everything Great About the Game

The Resident Evil 4 merchant is one of the most absurd parts of a game that’s already jam-packed with completely ridiculous over-the-top stuff — but he also exemplifies everything that makes that game so great.

This guy first pops up in a random window like a sock puppet and then coaxes Leon to meet him around a corner with all the subtle salesmanship of a crack dealer in a 1980s anti-drug PSA. He’s vaguely menacing at first but you quickly realize how goofy he is — and that’s like so much of the resident evil series: it’s scary at first, and then it’s silly.

So many games bend over backward to explain around their own ‘video-gaminess.’

The merchant’s design also distills RE4 visual sensibilities into one guy: his clothes and mask and knapsack almost make him look like he stepped out of a fantasy RPG, but then he opens his coat, and it’s clear his area of expertise is the OTHER kind of RPG — And that’s really the game’s whole aesthetic, this incongruous mix of creepy old fairy tale stuff like villages and castles but also slick futuristic stuff like scientific laboratories and submachine guns with thermal scopes.

In what universe would someone trade an antique goblet covered in hand-inlaid gemstones for an automatic rifle and a spraycan of bactine? Well, in the Resident Evil universe — it doesn’t make any sense, but it works, because video games! You’ll guide Leon through the most arduous, death-defying obstacle course, fighting off unthinkable horrors, and then walk around the corner, and this chucklehead has folded out his little table and put up his spooky lantern he got from Spirit Halloween, ready to buy your dead fish and chicken eggs and sell you a laser sight for your gun.

How did he get there? It doesn’t matter, you’re always happy to see him, and he’s always happy to see you.

I’ve seen theories that maybe this merchant isn’t one man, but a bunch of different guys who dress up the same and spout the same one-liners, but if anything that makes him even more ridiculous, like… what, he’s a scary mall Santa who sells firearms?

So many games bend over backward to explain around their own “video-gaminess,” adding as much context as possible to try to quell any ludo-narrative dissonance that the player might feel when one of the systems that make the game fun to play shatters any sense of realism or immersion. Resident Evil 4 not only doesn’t try to hide its video gaminess, it flaunts it, and whether you’re suplexing a little old lady, stealing an antique jewel off the corpse of a genetically engineered monster, or rearranging all the crap in your purse so you have room for a crossbow that shoots landmines.

What is the merchant doing with all these valuable antiques? Who is supplying him with guns? Do any of the game’s many horrible enemies try to kill him, or is he cool with them? Do THEY buy stuff from him? Most importantly, if his back is killing him, why doesn’t he take his pack off and sit down? Also, he’s apparently friends with The Duke from Resident Evil Village… what do they do for fun?

As far as completely nonsensical things in video games that we take for granted go, the merchant is right up there with finding an entire roast chicken in a castle wall or fitting a rocket launcher in your back pocket – and really, RE4 wouldn’t be the same without him

The Art of Octopath Traveler Revealed by Dark Horse Books

As far as JRPGs go, it’s hard to top the charming visual style of Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler. So of course the series is a natural choice to join Dark Horse’s ever-growing lineup of video game-themed art books.

The Art of Octopath Traveler is adapted from the Japanese art book Octopath 2016-2020. This English translation features a mix of behind-the-scenes creator commentary and hundreds of gorgeous illustrations and pieces of concept art.

IGN can exclusively debut the unfinalized cover of The Art of Octopath Traveler below:

The Art of Octopath Traveler covers the original game and its prequel mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Campions of the Continent. Here’s Dark Horse’s official description of the book:

Discover what lies beyond the horizon! Join the travelers in their journey through Orsterra and discover each of their unique origins. Delve into a fantasy landscape full of amazing creatures and scenery. Ponder the inspired design and artistic passion through hundreds of pieces of incredible art from the creation of the critically acclaimed Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.

The Art of Octopath Traveler is a 224-page hardcover priced at $49.99. The book is scheduled for release in bookstores on Tuesday, December 12 and in comic shops on Wednesday, December 13.

Octopath Traveler 2 was one of IGN’s 44 games to keep an eye on in 2023. IGN’s Seth Macy recently gave the sequel a 7, writing, “Once again, I am smitten by Octopath Traveler and its style – but five years after the original, it doesn’t hit quite as hard. So little has changed about its battles, and this sequel sticks a little too closely to the original systems without expanding on them too much. Especially now that the 2D/3D art style is an established look, the still lovely visuals just don’t stand out as much anymore. That said, the combat system is still quite fun, and figuring out the best course of action to exploit weak points, knock an enemy unconscious, and then unload on them with as much power as you can remains satisfying.”

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.