Category: IGN

Nintendo has announced that Wave 1 of Splatoon 3’s Expansion Pass will arrive on February 28, letting players return to the original Splatoon’s Inkopolis.

Announced in a tweet from Nintendo UK (below), the release date was shared just one week after Nintendo revealed the contents of the first DLC pack during a Nintendo Direct but neglected to specify anything beyond a spring 2023 release window.

Inkopolis, which was the hub area in the original Splatoon, will return in all its glory. Players can go shopping at all the classic stores, walk down their favourite streets, and see performances from Squid Sisters Callie and Marie during Splatoon 3’s Splatfest events.

? Attention Inklings and Octolings!

Head over to Inkopolis when the first wave of DLC from the #Splatoon3: Expansion Pass releases on 28/02!

Buy the Expansion Pass now: https://t.co/k7IbIVScrx pic.twitter.com/JR66QDOnem

— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) February 15, 2023

While Inkopolis as Wave 1 can’t be purchase by itself, players can obtain it alongside the rest of the Expansion Pass content for $24.99.

Though the remaining DLC is yet to be revealed fully, Nintendo did announce that Wave 2 will include a new mode called Side Order, in which players are seemingly tasked with painting a colourless word.

In our 8/10 review of the base game, IGN said: “Splatoon 3 takes everything that Splatoon 2 built and makes it greater with an abundance of smart changes and satisfying new weapons and bosses.”

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

After years of almost nonstop scarcity, you can finally just go to Amazon and buy a PS5 or an Xbox Series X. No “request invitation” button. No inflated third-party pricing. You can just buy one. This day has been a long time coming.

This console generation — the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and, to a lesser extent, Nintendo Switch OLED — has been an unusual one, to put it mildly. Finding current-gen consoles in stock, either in brick-and-mortar stores or online, has been far more difficult than usual. For the average consumer who doesn’t follow Wario64 or IGN Deals on Twitter, finding these devices in stock was nearly impossible any point over the past two years.

Sony recently said the PS5 shortage is essentially over, and we’re finally seeing that bear out. Right now, you can order all of the latest game consoles at one retailer or another, and they will ship almost immediately. It’s about time.

Where to Buy Current-Gen Consoles

Where to Buy a PS5 in the UK

• PS5 + God of War Ragnarok Bundle – £539.99

For now, you can buy the PS5 standalone, without having to resort to a bundle. But, if you were going to buy God of War: Ragnarok anyway, you might as well consider the bundle that costs $559 instead. Back in the old days, game pack-ins came at no additional cost, but those days are over. (Thankfully, it’s a great game; see our 10/10 God of War Ragnarok review). The PS5 Digital Edition isn’t as widely available as the disc version. It still requires you to request an invitation to order from Amazon, or it ships out in a week from Walmart.

Still, it’s a rare thing to see all models of all the current consoles available to purchase online without any major delays. Let’s hope it stays this way.

I suspect several factors are at play here. By all accounts, the chip shortages that kept these machines scarce before are finally easing up. It’s also likely that demand for these machines is slowing down, as usually happens in the first quarter of the year.

All of which is to say, if you’ve been looking for a new console over the past couple of years and have struggled to find it in stock, this is good news. Now the question is whether stock will stay this easy to find going forward. We can only hope.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.

Here’s a great deal for those who are loving the latest HBO hit, The Last of Us. Yes, this is based on the game as many of us know, and many of us might also know that there’s a sequel to that game. The Last of Us Part 2 is a critically acclaimed darling (with a few controversies thrown in), and it can be picked up for just £8.39 if you’re a PS Plus member right now (down from £34.99).

That’s a huge deal and a tremendous discount for anyone who hasn’t been able to check out the sequel just yet. Not only that, but the game also features a few PS5 upgrades included, such as 4K textures and a consistent 60FPS throughout the whole game. For even more gaming deals, check out all the links just below, or follow @IGNUKDeals on Twitter for more instant updates.

TL;DR – Best UK Deals Right Now

Best Gaming Deals: The Last of Us Games Are On Sale Right Now

If you’re not a PS Plus member, it’s actually quite easy to get a 7-day free trial of the service so you can take advantage of this deal. Otherwise, check your emails for any latest offers from PlayStation, as they’re regularly throwing out personal 50% off membership deals for the subscription recently. The Last of Us Remastered or its next-gen counterpart The Last of Us Part 1 is also on sale right now.

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Best Random Deals I Love Right Now

These are the best random-ish deals that I want to highlight, but can’t necessarily fit anywhere else. A favourite of mine today is definitely the unisex hoodie blanket, down to just £12.99. This is a great price considering you’re looking at £20-30 anywhere else for a similar quality blanket. My top tip for when you buy one, wash it immediately on its own, once it’s dry it’ll be 10/10 comfort.

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Awesome PS5 1TB SSD for £83.72 (Great Deal)

Pick up the perfect PS5 1TB SSD for just £83.72 right now, or upgrade even further and drop £185 on a 2TB SSD instead (that works out at £92.50 per TB).

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Amazon Hogwarts Legacy Console Bundle Deals

There’s some great deals floating around at the moment for PS5 and Xbox bundles, and they even include the hottest game right now, Hogwarts Legacy. You can currently get the PS5 with Hogwarts Legacy Bundle for just £516.98 at Argos. (There’s also a bunch of other superb bundles to check out just below as well).

Overall that works out at £479.99 for the PS5, and just £36.99 for Hogwarts Legacy, about £23 off the new game already. Make sure to just click the ‘Money Off Bundles’ section which will take you to all the current bundle offers Argos has got, including the new Hogwarts Legacy deal. See our full 9/10 review for the game here.

Amazing Discounts on Anker Tech Right Now

There’s some great deals on Anker headphones, USB cables and more at Amazon right now. My favourite is definitely on the Soundcore Q45 Adaptive Noise Cancelling Headphones, dropping down to just £97.99. This is a great option for an affordable but amazing set of headphones (instead of dropping £300 on a Bose or Sony set).

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Amazing Password Manager Deal from Keeper (AD)

With Keeper, you can store all of your passwords, credit card info, and other sensitive data in one secure, encrypted digital vault. Plus, they use top-notch encryption technology to keep your stuff safe and have added bonus features like password generation, password sharing, and two-factor authentication.

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Where to Preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in the UK

The best Tears of the Kingdom (or Breath of the Wild 2 as many of us called it for years) preorder deal in the UK is still at Hit for £49.85, or ShopTo for the same price. In case you’re wondering, both ShopTo and Hit are 100% legit UK retailers. We’ve linked out to both of them before, and have had no complaints! I’ll leave all the relevant links down below for Tears of the Kingdom preorders.

Where to Preorder Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition and Amiibo

Preorders for the Collector’s Edition are currently sold out everywhere, including Smyths, GAME, and ShopTo. Amazon currently has a listing up, but has not gone live with it yet.

You can also register your interest in the Collector’s Edition, or the Link – Tears of the Kingdom amiibo (£12.99) from Nintendo right now in the UK. Otherwise, follow and set notifications on for @IGNUKDeals on Twitter as we’ll tweet when more preorders go live.

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Metroid Prime Remastered Is Now on Nintendo Switch

After years of rumors, Metroid Prime Remastered is real. If that wasn’t exciting enough, Nintendo has already released the game digitally. But, if you’d prefer to wait for a physical copy, it’s out on March 3, 2023, and can be preorder right now from the links below.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

The first major Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy patch is here… if you’re playing on PC and Xbox Series X|S. PS5 owners will have to wait a bit longer for an update due to “unforseen issues.”

Warner Bros. released patch notes on its official site, including fixes for performance, cinematics, and saved games. You can find the full patch notes right here.

Xbox Series X and PC players, expect a patch today that resolves a number of bugs and performance issues!

PS5 players, due to some unforeseen issues, we’re targeting later this week to get your patch to you. Thanks for your patience! https://t.co/hPF39oNyGz

— WB Games Avalanche (@AvalancheWB) February 14, 2023

Bug Fixes:

• General
  • Online
    • Fixed issues with achievement data being properly pushed to Wizarding World portal after linking.
  • Gameplay
    • Owl Mail
      • Fixed an issue with mail not properly triggering sequential mission.
    • World Events
      • Fixed rare crash around certain locations where in-game World Events spawning.
    • NPC
      • Fixed a rare crash when respawning NPCs in the world.
      • Fixed crash with some NPC schedules.
    • Characters
      • Fixed issues with flickering occurring with a transparent head while hair is still present.
  • UI
    • Updated localization text for additional content items.
    • Added Build version to first time EULA.
    • Fixed rare occurrence of mission descriptions not being displayed correctly.
  • Cinematics
    • Corrected VFX presentation of robe transformation.
    • Fixed a stability issue when skipping cutscenes.
    • Fixed a crash when playing cutscenes and cinematics.
  • Save Game
    • Fixed error of rewriting last autosave slot.
    • Fixed an issue when restarting from last save around not being able to talk to a vendor after initial conversation. Resolves the following reported issues: HL-412, HL-494, HL-246, HL-1063, HL-590, HL-542, HL-976, HL-965, HL-1158, HL-1184, HL-1089, HL-1240, HL-1031, HL-1490, HL-1433, HL-89, HL-1930, HL-1086, HL-1636, HL-1585, HL-1028, HL-1933, HL-2606, HL-2062, HL-1587, HL-488, HL-498, HL-162, HL-1706, HL-2626, HL-2865, HL-2888, HL-2804, HL-2910, HL-2944, HL-3000, HL-3043, HL-3024.
  • Performance and Stability
    • Improved performance on Fidelity mode.
    • Fixed rare crash around hovering over the map.
    • Fixed issue with wind causing distortion and stretching of world assets.
    • Fixed a rare occurrence with material swapping.
    • Fixed a rare crash with map assets state.
    • Fixed Rare crash occurring with in-game world events.
    • Fixed a memory leak with global lighting system HL-313.
• XSX
  • Performance and Stability
    • Improved crash collection to help chase rare crashes.
• PC Steam/PC Epic Games
  • Cinematics
    • Fixed audio issues missing or not properly playing.
  • Controllers
    • Switch Pro controller support updates HL-346.
  • Upscalers
    • Enable frame generation while DLSS is disabled.
    • Anti-Aliasing and Screen resolution settings disabled when using DLSS and not Super Resolution.
  • Raytracing
    • Fixed issue with RTAO looking worse than SSAO.
    • Adjusted default setting to Medium Quality.
  • Performance and Stability
    • Shader type compilation optimization.
    • Shader compilation performance updates and functionality enhancements.
    • Fixed a crash affecting Text2Speech usability.
    • Resolved issues with world assets abruptly being stretched which resolves the following reported issues: HL-305, HL-265.
    • Resolved an issue with Nvidia GPUs having lower frame rate compared to AMD.
  • DirectX Version 12
    • Please note DirectX Version 12 is required to run Hogwarts Legacy on PC. We do not suggest attempting workarounds to run the game with DirectX Version 11 as this can cause stability issues with launching the game and the player experience.

PS5 owners, for their part, will have to wait until later this week for a patch, WB says. It includes a fix for the Collector’s Edition Trophy, which is obtained by completing Hogwarts Legacy’s various collectibles (of which there are many).

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy has seen strong sales out of the gate, but its reception has been controversial owing to series creator J.K. Rowling’s outpoken anti-transphobic views. Our review noted that the game itself is weighed down by technical issues, but that it’s ultimately a well-executed open world fantasy game.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Amazon is offering the Patriot Viper VP4300 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x 4 Internal Gaming Solid State Drive, which is compatible with the PS5 console, for only $149.99. This makes it definitely the lowest price we’ve seen for a brand name 2TB PS5 SSD, especially since this one even includes a slim aluminum heatshield.

Patriot Viper VP4300 2TB PS5 SSD for $149.99

The Patriot Viper VP4300 is an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 solid state drive with rated transfer speeds of 7,400MB/s read and 6,800MB/s write. That makes it well above the PS5’s recommended 5,600MB/s speed requirement. It also makes the Viper’s performance on par with other high-speed SSDs like the WD SN850 or the Samsung 980 Pro.

The Viper includes two heatsinks: a thicker aluminum one and a thinner graphene one. We recommend using the aluminum heatshield because it offers better cooling, it can be removed if necessary, and most importantly for PS5 gamers, it still fits in the console.

Both the WD SN850X with heatsink and Samsung 980 Pro with heatsink cost $179.99. That’s a great price, nevertheless it’s still $30 more than getting this Patriot Viper right here. Patriot has a good reputation in the enthusiast PC RAM and SSD market, so you won’t go wrong with choosing any of these three brands.

For more SSD deals, check out our best PS5 SSD deals of 2023.

Today’s daily deals include cheap PS5 compatible SSDs, a PS5 Digital Edition console actually in stock on Amazon, a massive 55″ Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor, a handy Elgato Stream Deck controller, a rugged Samsung T7 portable SSD, and more.

PS5 Digital Edition on Amazon Without Invitation

The PS5 Digital Edition is finally available for order on Amazon without having to wait for an invite. The PS5 Digital is exactly the same as the $500 PS5 Disc Edition minus the Blu-ray drive. Unlike the gimped Xbox Series S, it has the same power and performance as its more expensive sibling. We haven’t seen the Digital Edition in stock (without invite) on Amazon for ages, and traditionally this console has been hard to find elsewhere as well.

WD Black SN850X 2TB PS5 SSD From $159.99

Amazon has the newest WD Black Series SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD for the best price we’ve seen. In fact, this is lower than the price we saw on Black Friday. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions.

Samsung 980 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD From $159.99

Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a while now, and it’s still Samsung’s fastest M.2 PCIe SSD. It is fully PS5 compatible in terms of form factor and performance, with blistering speeds of up to 7,100MB/s. It goes toe to toe with other well-known options like the WD Black SN850 and the Seagate Firecuda 530.

Samsung Odyssey Ark 55″ QLED Mini-LED Gaming Monitor for $1999.99

This is the first time we’ve seen Samsung’s flagship 55″ gaming monitor drop in price to under $2K (it was about $2300 on Black Friday). The Odyssey Ark is a 55″ QLED Mini LED gaming monitor with a 4K (3840×2160) resolution and an aggressive 1000R curve for maximum immersion. What’s amazing about this monitor is that despite the garganuan size, the stand actually allows you to rotate this monitor 90 degrees into portrait mode. Samsung calls it “cockpit” mode and allows you to view it as three screens stacked one atop another.

Samsung T7 Shield 4TB Portable SSD for $279.99

The Samsung T7 Shield is a external solid state drive. SSDs are much faster than traditional hard drives, and combined with the USB 3.2 Type-C interface, the T7 is capable of transfer speeds of up to 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write. As a comparison, a traditional portable hard d rive is only capable of transfer speeds of about 100MB/s over USB 3.0. That’s a veritable order of magnitude in difference. The Samsung T7 Shield in particular is more durable than your typical SSD enclosure. It’s rated for IP65 water and dust resistance, and it’s shockproof to 10 feet. The soft touch enclosure on the T7 Shield is less prone to general wear and tear and it’s also easier to grip.

Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 Studio Controller for $119.99

If you’re looking to add a little something extra to your streams, the Elgato Stream Deck can turn your stream into a professionally-slick presentation. The buttons are customizable to whatever you like, so the possibilities are limited by your imagination. This is the lowest price it’s ever been on Amazon, too, so this is a perfect opportunity to take your streaming game to the next level.

Alienware Aurora R13 Intel Core i7-12700F RTX 3060 Ti Gaming PC for Only $1099.99

As part of its President’s Day Sale, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R13 gaming PC equipped with an Intel Core i7-12700F CPU and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU for only $1099.99 after $600 in instant savings. This is the best price right now for an RTX 3060 Ti gaming PC from Alienware or Dell. In fact, it’s even cheaper than any Dell XPS RTX 3060 Ti desktop even though the Alienware R13 has better components.

Alienware m15 RTX 3060 Gaming Laptop $1299.99

As part of its President’s Day Sale, Dell is offering an Alienware m15 R7 gaming laptop with RTX 3060 video card for $1299.99 after $550 off discount. This is currently the least expensive RTX 3060 equipped Alienware gaming laptop at Dell and includes some nice upgrades like a 15″ 2560×1440 QHD display and a beefier 1TB SSD.

HP OMEN 25L RTX 3070 Gaming PC for $1210

Here’s a pretty nice deal on an excellent gaming PC for around $1200. This HP OMEN 25L laptop features a 12th gen Intel Core i7-12700 12-core Alder Lake CPU, GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and 1TB HDD. The RTX 3070 is a very solid video card for this price level… in fact I don’t think you’ll find another prebuilt PC with a better card. It will easily get you 60fps+ at up to 1440p gaming.

$700 Off Alienware Aurora R15 Intel Core i9-13900KF Raptor Lake RTX 4090 Gaming PC

Dell (Alienware) is offering $700 off this totally badass Alienware Aurora gaming PC. No that doesn’t make it cheap, but this is pretty much Dell’s top of the line gaming PC with everything you could ever want. Specs include the new 13th gen Intel Core i9-1300KF 24-core Raptor Lake CPU (equal to or better than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X), GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, 32GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM, 1TB SSD, and 1TB HDD. The PC has been upgraded with Alienware’s best Cryo-Tech 240mm AIO CPU liquid cooling, a massive 1350W power supply, and a clear side panel to show off all of your contents.

GeForce RTX 4090 Starting at $1659.99

Here are some RTX 4090s at or close to MSRP! Everybody knows by now that the RTX 4090 is the undisputed king of the hill. It’s significantly more powerful than any other NVIDIA card out there. It’s laughably more powerful than any AMD card, thanks to its support for DLSS 3.0 and it’s marvelous domination of ray tracing tech.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

You can relive one of the most iconic moments in Assassin’s Creed history, thanks to our latest listing over at the IGN Store. This Assassin’s Creed Revelations diorama recreats the moment that Ezio Auditore comes face-to-face with the remains of Altair, the protaganist of the original Assassin’s Creed. You can check out the epic statue at the IGN Store now.

The statue costs $499.99, and is set to ship in early 2024. It stands at 12 inches tall, 14.5 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, making it an awesome, huge centerpiece for any gaming collection or display. It also has an LED-lit Memory Seal, along with the iconic Assassin’s Creed logo at the base of the statue. You can see the images of the statue in high detail below:

Assassin’s Creed Revelations originally launched in 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game brought together the franchise’s two lead characters up to that point, Altair from the original Assassin’s Creed and Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood. In our review of the game, we said, “If you’ve been following the lives of Altair and Ezio this long, you owe it to yourself to see their last adventure.”

Warning: The below article has spoilers for 2018’s God of War and God of War Ragnarok.

In an early draft of God of War Ragnarok, Kratos was originally going to die at Thor’s hand. According to narrative director Matt Sophos, Thor would kill Kratos during their fight at the beginning of the game.

“It wasn’t a permanent death. He would get pulled out of Hel, essentially, by Atreus. But it’s now been 20 years have passed,” Sophos explained in an interview with MinnMax. However, this outline didn’t stay around for long as it didn’t feel right to the development team. Kratos has come back from death plenty of times in previous games.

Sophos continued, “As we were developing the story, we knew that we wanted the story to be one about letting go and changing…nothing is written that can’t be unwritten. As long as you’re willing to change, then you’re not bound to fate.” In God of War (2018), Kratos was prophesized to die. So if he had indeed perished, then that would’ve undermined the message of the game.

God of War Ragnarok was one of the biggest games of 2022, winning multiple accolades at last year’s The Game Awards, as well as selling 11 million copies so far. The game is also receiving a New Game Plus option sometime this spring.

In IGN’s God of War Ragnarok review, we said, “An enthralling spectacle to behold and an even more exciting one to take the reins of, God of War Ragnarok melds action and adventure together to create a new, unforgettable Norse saga.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

A year ago a game showed up in Nintendo’s February 9 Direct presentation that took me by such surprise I couldn’t quite figure out where and how and to whom to express my elation to. Was there anyone in my circle of friends and coworkers similarly passionate about this forgotten gem of an RPG? You see, I thought Live A Live – brought back to life on Switch this past July – was gone; forgotten. Never to be seen again. Pining for the fjords. A victim of franchise love and loyalty that demands more Final Fantasies and more Dragon Quests from Square Enix. A casualty of that pesky reality at any company that employs creative dreamers: that their creations have to make more than just the money needed to bring their ideas to life. Way more money.

And Live A Live didn’t do that. But the story isn’t as simple as Square (which didn’t merge with competitor Enix until 2003) gambling on a new roleplaying game brand and falling flat. Though it’s impossible to find verified sales information on the game today, Live A Live is commonly cited as having sold 270,000 Super Famicom/SNES carts. But while Square’s games surely weren’t cheap to make, they also commanded a high price. A new copy of Live A Live sold for 9,900 Yen. That’s $100 in 1994 and a whopping $200 in today’s dollars. Final Fantasy VI, which had come out just a few months earlier, was priced at an even steeper 11,400 Yen ($114).

I remember it well because I stood in line to buy both games in Akihabara, Tokyo, on their respective release days. As a student living in an expensive city, these were significant investments. Live A Live was the equivalent of 50 Tonkatsu sando lunches, or more than 100 McDonald’s hamburgers. But it was money well-spent on both of those games. And if the 270k sales figures are true, it was money well-earned too. While the creative talent behind Live A Live is extensive, it likely wasn’t expensive – the game started active development just a year before release and was headlined by first-time director Takashi Tokita. Tokita, lead designer of Final Fantasy IV, would later become the head of Square’s Product Development Division 7, tasked with getting more value out of their ’90s classics by re-releasing Final Fantasy games on GBA and extending the FFIV’s story with The After Years.

Live A Live received plenty of media coverage in Japanese magazines leading up to its release. One of the things that first attracted me to the game – apart from the visual similarities to Final Fantasy and the fact I was a JRPG-devouring machine who considered sleep optional – was the developer’s unique approach to the creative process. I remember reading in Famitsu (Japan’s popular weekly gaming magazine) that Live A Live was constructed more like a collection of short stories from different authors than a classic Square RPG. While composer Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II, Breath of Fire, later: Kingdom Hearts) flexed her musical muscle by imbuing each chapter with a matching – and distinct – soundtrack of its own, the seven initial scenarios each had their own art director. Under the supervision of Tokita and lead designer Nobuyuki Inoue, this group of manga artists left their own signatures on the disparate parts of the whole. The artists were largely unknown at the time, though Gosho Aoyama, who oversaw the Edo Japan chapter, started to turn heads with a new manga called Detective Conan a few months into development.

Which brings us back to the fact that Live A Live certainly was profitable. Created in about a year’s time on a smaller budget, it didn’t come close to Final Fantasy’s multi-million unit sales. But it released to positive reviews by the Japanese press, and I can attest to the lines of gamers waiting for their copy on launch day despite the relatively muted advertising. Final Fantasy VI was everywhere in Tokyo in 1994. You couldn’t ride the subway or turn on the TV without seeing or hearing about FFVI. Live A Live, not so much.

As a Square RPG fan, I didn’t care. I played it and loved it, though I do remember my disappointment that Live A Live didn’t quite live up to the visual bar set by the Final Fantasy Super Famicom outings. But the music, the variety of settings and gameplay systems – the many homages to my favorite movies – made it such a memorable experience that I held on to my copy of the game and dragged it with me from Japan to Germany and eventually to the US.

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always nice when it does. Right now, Nintendo is running a sale that drops prices on a decent selection of games down to $39.99 or less. Anyone who pays attention to such things knows that’s about the best we can hope to see from the Mario company, which refuses to allow the deeper discounts we see on pretty much every other game on the market.

The games on sale this time around include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and also its Expansion Pass, which you might want to pick up before Tears of the Kingdom arrives. You can also find deals on some excellent JRPGs, a few mini- and micro-game collections, and quite a bit more. Let’s have a look.

Nintendo Switch Game Deals

There’s a good chance you can find something worth picking up in this sale. I recommend Link’s Awakening and WarioWare: Get It Together for good fun times. Live-a-Live is an excellent RPG that’s divided into relatively bite-sized chapters, so it’s not like you’re embarking on one ridiculously enormous quest. And the combat system in Bravely Default II is almost perfectly tuned.

If you want more digital and physical options, you can take a look at the full sale at Best Buy. Best Buy generally does a better job of keeping everything in stock than Amazon does.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.