Category: IGN

After a long break, Lara Croft is on the comeback trail. THR reports that a television show about the famous video game adventurer is in development at Amazon, with Fleabag writer Phoebe Waller-Bridger attached to pen the scripts.

Amazon did not immediately respond to IGN’s request for comment.

Not much is known about the new project, which Waller-Bridger is also set to executive produce. It’s not known who will play the role of Lara Croft, who has been previously portrayed by Angelina Jolie among others.

Waller-Bridger rose to prominence thanks to Fleabag, an acclaimed BBC sitcom based on her one-woman show of the same name. The success of Fleabag earned Waller-Bridger an overall deal at Amazon Studios, which also includes another mystery series that may or may not still be on the schedule.

There hasn’t been a new Tomb Raider game since 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but Lara Croft has shown signs of reemerging of late. In addition to new Power Wash Simulator DLC that allowed players to clean her apparently filthy mansion, Amazon recently struck a deal with Crystal Dynamics to make a new game in the series.

Tomb Raider was part of Embracer Group’s $300 million acquisition of Square Enix’s western studios, which also included Deus Ex and Thief among other franchises. You can read our full analysis of the Embracer Group here along with our list of the biggest games of 2023.

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.

The Nintendo Switch has notably less customization features and apps than its Nintendo handheld predecessors — themes aren’t customizable beyond two simple colors, users can’t rearrange their home screens, and it lacks a note-taking feature like the 3DS’ Game Notes app.

But today, indie developer and publisher RedDeerGames released nOS: New Operating System, an app for the Switch that seems to bring back some of these little widgets that the console is missing, all in one tiny OS.

The app contains all of the bits and bobs that come with modern operating systems: a calculator, a gallery, a notebook, a to-do list, an MS Paint-like drawing app, a puzzle game, and customizeable settings. Like any modern OS, users are able to open multiple windows at once, giving them the ability to multitask, though it doesn’t currently have a browser or any other features.

According to the game’s press kit, it’s currently on sale for $1.99 until February 16, though it’s normally priced at a steep $39.99.

Of course, nOS isn’t the only new title headed to the switch this year. There’s plenty to expect from Nintendo in 2023, like the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the recently revealed Pikmin 4.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

YouTuber Mutekimaru Channel is well-known for livestreaming their pet fish playing various games through motion tracking software, which registers the pets’ positions as button inputs. The fish have accomplished some pretty impressive things during these streams — in 2020, they even beat Pokemon Sapphire after a 3,195 hour run. But earlier this month, their fish did what no fish has (hopefully) done before: commit credit card fraud.

During a livestream 12 days ago, the fish were off to a good start in Pokemon Violet, winning a few battles and slowly but surely progressing through the story. About 5 hours into the stream, however, the game crashed, giving the fish free access to the rest of their owner’s Switch.

These fish committed credit card fraud while playing Pokémon. ????? pic.twitter.com/w0TgKgJSUL

— IGN (@IGN) January 25, 2023

From there, the fish went to the eShop and added 500 yen (about $3.85) of funds to their owner’s account, even exposing their owner’s credit card information to viewers in the process.

They also sent their owner a PayPal verification email, redeemed Nintendo Switch Online points for a Nintendo Switch Sports profile picture, and downloaded the Switch’s Nintendo 64 emulator app.

Luckily, according to TechSpot, the YouTuber was able to get a refund after explaining the situation to Nintendo.

We gave Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet a 6 in our review, praising its massive open world and story but criticizing its all too apparent performance issues.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer admits that Microsoft’s $67.8 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been a learning experience, but he remains confident in it going through.

Speaking with IGN, Spencer said he “didn’t know anything” about this type of acquisition when it was announced in January 2022, but having undergone the process and having conversations with key players, he’s more confident now than he was last year.

“The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having,” Spencer said.

“When we announced a year ago, we talked about an 18-month timeframe. We’re 12 months into that. I think we continue to stay focused on getting the deal closed.”

Spencer would have plenty reason to be a little shaken, however, as several government bodies have moved to challenge the deal in the past few months including the United States’ Federal Trade Commission and UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority. The European Union is also reportedly preparing a statement of objections.

The deal, which would see Xbox own several prolific game franchises including Call of Duty and Overwatch, has also been criticised by various U.S. senators, the city of New York, and the U.S. Justice Department. Despite this, Spencer said his “confidence remains high”.

He continued: “We’re actively working with the regulatory boards around the world that need to approve for this, and it’s been a learning experience for me. A lot of time spent, a lot of travel, a lot of conversations, but they’re conversations where I get to talk about our industry and the work that we do and why we do it.

“I think more regulators that are informed about what gaming is, how the business runs, who the players are, and what our aspiration is as Team Xbox is just a good thing for the industry itself.”

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

In an interview with Buzzfeed, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann confidently said the studio is “Moving on” from the Uncharted series saying, “Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we’re able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done.”

If Naughty Dog is done with the Uncharted series, they ended it about as perfect as they could have. After decades of exploring, Nathan Drake settles down with the love of his life, and together with their daughter, can enjoy peace and retirement. Only, why does it feel like there’s a missed opportunity still?

In the first Uncharted game, Nathan Drake was the charismatic treasure hunter with a joke on his tongue and a song in his heart. Drake’s Fortune was a perfect vehicle to showcase the PlayStation 3’s graphical prowess, rendering incredibly detailed jungles and providing exceptional shooting and seamless parkour. However, somewhere along the way the gorgeous vistas and beautiful locales got sucked into the black hole of Nathan Drake’s various mid-life crises. No location is better suited to contemplate your fear of settling down than in a cathedral tucked away in the misty Scottish Highlands.

Once known for its epic platforming, Naughty Dog has become the standard-bearer of character-driven storytelling starting with The Last of Us and the darker, more character-focused Uncharted 4, which followed after. The studio further cemented its ability as world-class storytellers with the premiere of The Last of Us TV series on HBO, which is already being called one of the most successful video game adaptations of all time.

As Naughty Dog became a more storytelling operation, the Uncharted series began zeroing in on Nathan Drake the character, with his adventures across the world serving as a metaphor for the internal drama he was facing, whether it’s his fear of loss, fear of his past, or fear for his future. It was bold, especially considering Nathan Drake’s nickname when he was first introduced into the world — Dude Raider. But in the same way Temple of Doom is some peoples’ favorite Indiana Jones movie because it’s about the adventure and less about Indiana Jones, to me Uncharted as a whole feels like a series comprised of three Last Crusades — the movie that explained, that actually, Indiana Jones’ life was molded by a single childhood event as well as his relationship with his father.

It doesn’t help that the series broke new ground in the spinoff Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The seemingly final Naughty Dog Uncharted game introduced a semi-open world that was fertile ground for all kinds of future adventures. The Western Ghats of India that Chloe and Nadine explore partway through Lost Legacy felt like a revolution at the time and could be utilized in any number of ancient temples, ruins, and more wonderful, made-for-Uncharted locations. To quote Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, why would you show me something if I couldn’t have it then?

Plus, it also showed that Uncharted games could be headlined by a character who wasn’t Nathan Drake. Never mind that Naughty Dog was still firmly in its tormented protagonist era by having new heroine Chloe Frazer face off against — yup — her father.

The real greatness of Uncharted was how it showcased the beauty of our world, and there’s so much world left to explore. To lose Uncharted as a series will deprive gaming of one of the rare game series that takes joy in the diversity of our shared human history and the splendor of oft-overlooked civilizations, whether it’s the mountains of Nepal or the plains of India. With so many cultures that could still be explored through the virtual adventures of Nathan Drake, it’s a shame that towards the end of the series, its gaze shifted away from our beautiful world and inwards towards the soul of its surprisingly tortured protagonist.

Not many game series can claim a definitive ending like Uncharted. The games industry is littered with half-finished (Half-Life?) series that promise to finish the fight, only for the market to declare the series isn’t selling anymore so let’s move on. Not Uncharted though, which was both critically and commercially successful enough to warrant numerous sequels and a proper finale.

If Naughty Dog has closed the book on Uncharted it’s because there are no more Nathan Drake stories to tell, even though there are still plenty of Uncharted stories that can be told.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

You know how it is – you go years without a sci-fi survival horror game set in the distant depths of space, and then two arrive in consecutive months. The first, The Callisto Protocol, a spiritual successor to the Dead Space series helmed by Dead Space creator Glen Schofield and reportedly endowed with a monster development budget, released this past December with notable performance issues and ultimately failed to hit its sales targets. The second, a remake of the original 2008 Dead Space crafted with considerable care and creativity by Motive Studio, arrived this past week and managed to outdo the original in almost every way. Earlier in 2022, Schofield was quoted as being “kind of bummed” about not having any involvement in remaking the seminal survival horror game that put his name on the map. One can only wonder how he’s feeling now.

To be clear, I enjoyed my time overall with The Callisto Protocol, even though I felt a number of issues ultimately held it back from greatness, and I think it does eclipse Dead Space in a handful of areas. I’d say the performances from its lead actors, Josh Duhamel as Jacob Lee and Karen Fukuhara as Dani Nakamura, are slightly stronger than that of the cast featured aboard the USG Ishimura, and The Callisto Protocol also takes the prize for serving up the most uncomfortably convincing level of blood and gristle, with a level of onscreen meat-mulching that would make even the most gore-hungry gamer consider becoming a videogame vegan. That said, in almost every other comparison with both the original Dead Space and now even more so with its remake, The Callisto Protocol comes up shorter than a necromorph with its knees knocked out.

Much like Dead Space, Striking Distance Studios’ prison break game involves prison-breaking the arms and legs right off its mutated inhabitants, but the tools you’re given to get the joint-severing job done just don’t have the same kind of panache as Isaac Clarke’s iconic arsenal of repurposed mining implements. The Callisto Protocol is saddled with an ordinary ordnance limited to pistols, shotguns, and an assault rifle, which feel satisfying enough to shoot but are ultimately indistinct from the firearms featured in any number of other action games. To its credit it does differentiate itself with a melee-heavy focus in its opening hours complete with axes and stun batons, but while going toe-to-toe with two-headed titans isn’t a complete swing and a miss, the slightly fussy timing of the melee mechanic means as a feature it lands as more of a glancing blow than a knockout punch.

By the midpoint of Dead Space, however, Isaac is truly spoilt for choice when it comes to creative killing. The swiveling head of his Plasma Cutter may as well have been engineered by the Gillette razor corporation for how effective it is at shaving the stubborn limbs off necromorphs no matter which way their bodies are angled. The Ripper’s spinning saw blade lets you prune the parts off each freak with vengeful glee like you’re attacking the annoying tree branches coming from over your neighbour’s fence. Meanwhile the Contact Beam literally hoses the decaying flesh right off each necromorph’s bones like you’ve somehow stumbled onto an R-rated patch for PowerWash Simulator. Each of these work perfectly in tandem with Dead Space’s object-throwing Kinesis and enemy-slowing Stasis abilities, giving you a variety of ways to problem-solve your way out of each roomful of angry undead astronauts.

While sadly there’s no Stasis in The Callisto Protocol, there is a Kinesis equivalent. However it’s overpowered and too easily abused, allowing you to lift enemies off their feet and hurl them into the always conveniently placed spiked walls and exposed fan blades, meaning you’re able to clear entire areas of threats with a few hand gestures before they’ve had a chance to notice you. It’s fun to quickly Force-push mutants to their doom like you’re a Jedi who’s running late for a council meeting, but it hardly maintains a sense of tension. There really is no contest when it comes to combat variety and balance; The Callisto Protocol’s Jacob is a blunt instrument, while Dead Space’s Isaac is a sci-fi Swiss Army knife.

Isaac is also pitted against a decidedly more ghastly group of ghouls than what Jacob has to contend with. As I stated earlier, The Callisto Protocol’s vivid depiction of viscera is not to be undersold, but most of its enemies are gross in a reanimated roadkill kind of way. Dead Space’s nasties, on the other hand, are the stuff of proper cosmic horror nightmares. There’s a reason that horror movie maestro John Carpenter would love to make a film out of the Dead Space series, and it’s because game recognises game. Or I guess, moviemaking gamer recognises game inspired by moviemaker’s movies. At any rate, it’s clear that Dead Space’s creature designs are a cut above and they come in more shapes and sizes, from tiny tentacle-sprouting babies to a towering Leviathan that can only be described as looking like the largest arsehole in the universe this side of Uranus. (Sorry.)

The Callisto Protocol’s level structure is equally as narrow as its number of enemy types. It certainly serves up some striking and unsettling locales like its opening prison cell block and fetid waste management, but rarely does it give you a moment to linger. It just sluices you through them in a surge of forward momentum, slamming the door shut behind you at the start of each chapter with no way to backtrack for secrets you may have missed. Striking Distance Studios’ artists did an incredible job at realising each area of the Black Iron Prison, so it’s a shame it largely all passes by in a blur with little reason to ever stop in order to scrutinise your surroundings.

On the other hand, in the Dead Space remake you’re given the ability to shuttle back and forth between the various decks of the USG Ishimura, and you’re incentivised to do so with locked doors that can be accessed as Isaac’s security level increases. Doing so gives you access to precious resources and upgrades, and a multi-part side mission that tasks you with tracking down a number of the ‘RIGs’ discarded by deceased crew members that can eventually be combined into an all-access skeleton key for every room and cabinet on the ship. Further, as you return through previously visited areas, Dead Space surprises you with additional enemy ambushes so that you can never really feel safe, and tucks away some interesting environmental puzzles to discover that bring welcome diversions to all the death and destruction. Dead Space encourages you to truly submerge yourself in its haunted house of horrors, while The Callisto Protocol is effectively a rollercoaster ride; thrillingly brisk in pace but linear in direction.

at least as far as its story goes. The Callisto Protocol’s campaign is done in less than eight hours, and although you do ultimately find out how its outbreak occurred, there’s an abruptness to the credits screen that leaves you with a sense that it’s a few hour-long episodes short of a full season of television – at least in terms of the fates of certain characters. On the other hand, despite the fact there’s clearly more to Isaac’s story as evidenced by the existence of Dead Space 2 and 3, Dead Space resolves the events onboard the Ishimura in an extremely satisfying way, even more so in the remake which makes some clever character alterations to better sell its plot-twisting climax.

To be fair, some of The Callisto Protocol’s shortcomings could well be remedied in time. A NewGame+ mode that was noticeably absent at launch has recently been added as part of a free update, while additional gory death animations, new weapons, and added story DLC is promised for later in the year – although these are coming as part of paid season pass content. There’s plenty to build on in The Callisto Protocol, and I’d certainly welcome the announcement of a sequel, too, just… not as much as I’d welcome the announcement of a Dead Space 2 remake helmed by Motive Studio. Because ultimately while The Callisto Protocol is not without its charms, Dead Space still treats it like it’s a suspicious-looking corpse and stomps all over it.

Tristan Ogilvie is a video producer in IGN’s Sydney office. He’s never fought any machines in real life, although he did once have a tense altercation with a robot bartender in Tokyo. He almost never tweets here.

Like A Dragon: Ishin! was originally released during a very different era for the Yakuza franchise. It hit shelves in 2014 as an offbeat launch title for the Playstation 4, when only the most diehard aficionados of Japanese imports were playing Yakuza games in the West. Ishin! positioned itself as one of the strangest entries in the canon, trading in the rain-slicked noir of the mainline succession for a samurai-western mashup set in the 19th century that’s totally disconnected from the prodigal sagas of Kiryu and Majima. Sega never bothered to localize the game for English speakers, probably because they deemed it too frivolous compared to the rest of the Yakuza lineage. But American gamers are currently in the midst of an ongoing Yakuza renaissance, and that means Ishin! is finally coming to our shores in the form of this spruced-up remake that emphasizes all of its glorious anachronistic excess.

Do not be fooled by the historical vintage: Ishin! is very much a Yakuza game, in the sense that it is balanced precariously between a hard-boiled revenge saga and a dizzy ensemble comedy. I played the remake for two hours, which was bracketed by a story mission where our main character, Sakamoto Ryōma, infiltrates a secretive paramilitary organization filled to the brim with ruthless killers who’ve mastered a deathly, impervious sword-fighting style called Tennen Rishin. (In that sense, Ishin! borrows liberally from some of the oldest kung-fu tropes in the book.) Along the way though, I ambled into karaoke bars, chicken race track circuits, dance halls, and gambling dens – each populated with the exact sort of lovable miscreants that give this series its color. We are deep in annals of antiquity, and nothing has changed; the madcap sidequests, intricate relationship-building subsystems, and ridiculously fleshed out mini games are all right in place. Case in point: I bumped into a sweaty samurai otaku — like the Comic Book Guy for katanas — who promised me a huge prize if I could procure for him a specific type of blade. He didn’t want to use it, of course. He just wanted to see it up close.

All of this is rendered pretty well for a game that’s nearly a decade old. Ishin! does have that uncanny plastic sheen you might remember from Yakuza 0, but Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has done some impressive work in the cutscenes. Ryōma emotes with remarkable clarity, which is important in a series like Yakuza that tells the bulk of its story through long, expository soliloquies. Someday this franchise will need to upgrade its visual chops, but for a re-release of a 2014 curio, Ishin! asserts itself well.

Despite sharing its title with the 2020 reboot Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which pivoted the franchise to a turn-based combat structure, Ishin! retains its brawler roots. Ryōma cycles through four different combat styles, wielding his fists, a blade, or, delightfully, a Wild West revolver. Yes, this is a Yakuza game that gives you a gun, alongside a special ability that lets you enter a dreamy bullet-time like John Marston to better line up your shots. The variant I gravitated towards the most was something Ryōma has dubbed “Wild Dancer,” where he brandishes both his katana and firearm at the same time and drunkenly flails around the arena. One combo ends with him unleashing a hail of bullets in every direction, as if you’re briefly tapping into some latent Devil May Cry DNA. It’s a genuinely innovative flip on the established Yakuza precepts; after years of destroying our enemies with cinder blocks and pool cues, sometimes we want to get the job done by simply aiming down sights.

Again, Ishin! does not dramatically alter the contours of the Yakuza universe. This is a side-story by nature — it’s proudly ancillary — and seems to be best understood as a chance to savor some indulgent fan service injected into a new set of genre trappings. That said, you might be surprised at who pops up over the course of your journey. At the end of my demo, I was introduced to one of the head honchos of this paramilitary battalion. It was a man named Soji, who looked and sounded exactly like Majima. (He even wore an eyepatch.) As part of this remaster, Sega has cast a number of actors who appeared in latter-day Yakuza games to reprise loose facsimiles of themselves in Ishin! I can only hope that this implies the existence of a grand multiverse of Yakuza; from the stone age to the singularity, Kiryu will be beating people up eternally. At last, all is right in the world.

There are suddenly a lot of very good games to play. To talk about them, Cardy, Emma, and Mat have convened in a post-lunch haze to discuss Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 3, Hi-Fi Rush, and The Case of the Golden Idol. Emma has also had the chance to go hands-on with the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy and Cardy tells you why you should go and watch The Fabelmans.

Got a game for us to play or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you’ve eaten for breakfast? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 681: Shadow Drop It Like It’s Hot

• IGN UK Podcast #680: Dead Space and Other Games We Want Remade
• IGN UK Podcast 679: The Last of Us is Very Good
• IGN UK Podcast #678: Wot We Did Over Christmas
• IGN UK Podcast 677: The Big 2023 Preview
• IGN UK Podcast 676: Alternative Game Awards 2022

It’s never a bad time to play a horror board game. There’s something about zombies, ghosts, werewolves, and other nightmares that are a great fit for huddling around a table with your friends. The horror genre is filled to the brim with great games, and below we’ve assembled some of the best.

Each game represents different mechanics, but since jump scares are nearly impossible in a board game, atmosphere is king in the horror genre. So gather your friends, dim the lights, and get ready to experience terror like only a good board game can deliver. These are the best horror-themed board games to play in 2023.

TL;DR: The Best Horror Board Games

• Unmatched: Cobble and Fog
• The Bloody Inn
• AuZtralia
• Unfathomable
• Zombicide: Black Plague
• Horrified: Universal Monsters
• Arkham Horror: The Card Game
• Dead of Winter
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf
• Last Night on Earth
• Mansions of Madness
• Betrayal Legacy
• The Fury of Dracula

Unmatched: Cobble and Fog

• Number of Players: 3-6
• Play Time: 2-4 hours
• Also at Target

Unmatched, a game series in which you can mix and match figures from myth and pop culture to go head to head in a tactical fight, might not seem like much of a horror game. But Cobble and Fog takes the action to the streets of Victorian London with figures like Dracula, the Invisible Man, and Jekyll & Hyde. Each has its own deck of cards that leverages the simple rules framework with flavourful and fun special effects: Dracula, for example, can lure and hypnotise his opponents as well as drain their blood. Between them the four characters here weave a real atmosphere of gothic horror. Cobble and Fog is about the best set in the entire Unmatched series, and so is also a great introduction to its wider charms. See our Unmatched: Cobble and Fog review for more details.

The Bloody Inn

• Number of Players: 1-4
• Play Time: 45-60 min

This Bloody Inn boasts one of the most bizarre themes in all of board gaming: players take the role of innkeepers trying to boost their profits by robbing and murdering their guests. In practical terms, this is done by paying with other cards from your hand to recruit or kill guests, or to build annexes to your inn under which to bury bodies. It’s a classic case of competing priorities, with everything needing a prerequisite to do something else, enlivened considerably by the ghoulish concept and sinister art. And there’s more strategy than may first be apparent, with some annexes and recruited guests giving you discounts on paying for future actions.

AuZtralia

• Number of Players: 1-4
• Play Time: 30-120 min

Real-world Australians may be outraged by the portrayal of their home as a monster-infested island, but it makes a compelling horror game. Players spend the early part of the game building a train network across the continent, defeating Lovecraftian monsters on the way to reach valuable resources and build farms. About halfway through, the pace kicks up a notch as the monsters start to hit back, destroying your infrastructure and potentially wiping humanity out completely, resulting in a loss for all players. It’s a weird combination but it works well, providing a fun theme, exciting combat and strategic route and combo building all at the same time and making the game widely appealing.

Unfathomable

• Number of Players: 3-6
• Play Time: 2-4 hours

Some years ago there was a quite brilliant board game based on the Battlestar Galactica TV show, in which players had a hidden role and the group had to try and out traitors while guiding the starship back to earth. Now it’s been reborn with a horror theme, with a steamship under attack by Lovecraftian monsters as it crosses the ocean. Players are either passengers who need to work together to save the ship or secret cultists who must quietly sabotage any efforts to avert the crises that unfold each turn. The star of the show is the way players put cards face-down into a pile that can either boost or undermine attempts to stave off disaster, leaving the group slivers of information to guess who might be the cuckoo in the nest. The stellar production values we’ve come to expect from publisher Fantasy Flight help a lot, too. See our Unfathomable review for more info.

Zombicide: Black Plague

• Number of Players: 1-6
• Play Time: 60-180 min
• Also at Target

In the original Zombicide released in 2012, you play as a survivor hoping to live through a modern-day zombie apocalypse. Black Plague changes up the formula by transporting you a fantastical medieval world of magic, dragons, and… well, more zombies. You control a paladin, or a knight, or a magician, among other character types as you look to combat the death magic of an evil necromancer. This fantasy version of a typical zombie story is refreshing and novel, and there are a ton of expansions available that add new scenarios, player characters, locations, items, and more. If you want more similar options, check out our picks for the best cooperative board games.

Horrified: Universal Monsters

• Number of Players: 1-5
• Play Time: 60 min
• Also at Target

It’s the monsters’ world, we’re just living in it. In Horrified, it’s your job to thwart the nefarious plans of the most famous movie monsters of all time. Take on Frankenstein and his bride, the Wolf Man, Dracula, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon in this easy-to-learn cooperative game. You’ll take to the streets of a small village under duress from the monsters, and must take on the role of one of several heroes. Each one comes with their own strengths and weakness when it comes to fight off the monsters. If you’re looking for a showdown with horror’s most iconic monsters, Horrified is the game for you.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

• Number of Players: 1-2 (1-4 with two copies of core set)
• Play Time: 10-120 min

If you’re looking for more Lovecraftian flavor, Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a no-brainer. The base game comes with a small handful of scenarios that sends you directly into the jaws of cosmic mystery. You can use the suggested starter decks, or build a custom one centered around your chosen investigator’s special abilities. Gameplay sees you hopping from location to location to search for clues in order to advance the story while attempting to impede the deadly Mythos deck. Your investigator will inevitably take damage and acquire weaknesses over time that can affect future games in the campaign, making Arkham Horror: The Card Game one of the most thematic games on this list. Also check out our list of the best deck-building games.

Dead of Winter

• Number of Players: 2-5
• Play Time: 45-210 min

Dead of Winter is kind of like a board game version of The Walking Dead. The game is described as a “meta-cooperative psychological survival game,” which means that, while it is cooperative, there are elements of competition that carry through the game. Each player controls a group survivors during the zombie apocalypse, and all must work together in order to meet the shared goal. In addition, you’ll be working towards your own hidden goal as well. Sometimes that means hoarding the most medicine, or stockpiling the most ammo. Other times, you might simply want to betray the team and ruin group morale. No matter what, though, there’s no way to trust anyone at the table thanks to the group politics and interpersonal drama Dead of Winter brings.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

• Number of Players: 3-10
• Play Time: 10 min
• Also at Target

The game that popularized the whole “secret roles” mechanic now common to the party game scene, One Night Ultimate Werewolf will have your group flinging accusations and insults around the table. The goal is to learn who the werewolves are and expose them, but that’s easier said than done. There are other characters who can switch roles around, and even see which roles are not in play for the round. Because nobody can be sure who the werewolves are (including the werewolves themselves), each game is a chaotic flurry of accusations and desperate defenses that always end in a good time. Rounds are short, and the free phone app makes setup a breeze, which makes One Night an ideal party game.

Last Night on Earth

• Number of Players: 2-6
• Play Time: 60-90 min

An homage to campy b-movie horror, Last Night on Earth plays out like an early Romero flick. You and your friends control characters that fall into the typical horror archetypes like the cool high school jock or the weird nerdy kid. Each scenario presents different goals that range from escaping town in a truck to killing a certain number of zombies. You can scavenge for items and weapons used to mow down enemies as you explore buildings. Last Night on Earth has proved to be so popular that is has spawned other genre parodies such as old school sci fi and high adventure. If you’re a fan of campy horror, Last Night on Earth is hard to pass up.

Mansions of Madness

• Number of Players: 2-5
• Play Time: 120 min

Mansions of Madness takes the dungeon crawling and asymmetrical gameplay of Descent and Star Wars: Imperial Assault and transports its to the macabre world of H.P. Lovecraft. One player takes on the role of the Keeper and guides the others through one of several pre-written scenarios. As players make their way through the mansion, their actions and choices may affect the monsters they encounter. There are several expansion scenarios available, which helps to make your investment more worthwhile. Set aside a hefty chunk of time, however, as Mansions demands no small amount of attention, making it a perfect game for a dedicated group of horror fans.

Betrayal Legacy

• Number of Players: 3-5
• Play Time: 45-90 min

In the original Betrayal at House on the Hill, players explore a haunted house, room by room, until they trigger the titular betrayal, when an unsuspecting player turns on the rest of the party. In Betrayal Legacy, this formula is stretched out into a campaign-length legacy game that plays out over a prologue and 13 chapters. The story spans decades, and has players playing several generations of families that all fall victim to the hauntings of a house. Haunted house simulator in every sense of the concept, Betray Legacy is as spooky as it is novel.

The Fury of Dracula

• Number of Players: 2-5
• Play Time: 120-180 min

The Fury of Dracula is an asymmetrical game where one player takes on the role of Dracula, and everyone else is a hunter looking to end his reign of terror. The Dracula player secretly moves around Europe each turn, exerting their influence and building up an army of new vampires. The hunters must deduce Dracula’s location and take him out before his army grows too large. While there is combat involved, The Fury of Dracula is mostly a battle of wits; how long can Dracula evade the hunters? How well can the hunters decode Dracula’s whereabouts? It’s a thrilling cat-and-mouse game that is endlessly replayable.

This story contains spoilers for The Bad Batch. If you’re not caught up yet, check out our spoiler-free The Bad Batch Season 2 review.

There’s a blast from the past in the latest episode of The Bad Batch Season 2. Diving into the history of the Jedi Order and those that came before, fans are rightly asking who the “Ancients” are and what they could mean for the wider mythos of the galaxy far, far away.

“Entombed” wasted no time making Wanda Sykes’ Phee Genoa the star of the show, with this treasure-hunting pirate filling that Doctor Aphra-shaped hole in our lives. Much like that morally ambiguous archaeologist, Phee gives us some insight into the state of the galaxy in years gone by. Alongside mentions of the Grand Pearl of Novak and Blade of Zakata Par, one of Phee’s stories stood out more than the others.

Are The Ancients Connected to the Jedi?

Under the guidance of Phee, the Bad Batch journeys to the uncharted Kaldar Trinary and searches for the mythical Heart of the Mountain in Skara Nal. Skara Nal is eventually revealed as a walker-esque weapon of mass destruction, and although nothing about its creators is confirmed, Phee says the “Ancients” predate the Jedi Order itself.

It’s possible the Ancients are the Je’daii Order, who hailed from the planet Tython and eventually evolved into the modern Jedi Order. Remembering that Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) took Grogu to Tython in The Mandalorian Season 2, there’s already a foundation to build on in mainline Star Wars canon. However, this seems unlikely when comparing The Bad Batch’s glimpse of Skara Nal and the dark side creatures of the Kaldar Trinary to the Je’daii’s motives of bringing balance to the Force.

Instead, the Ancients could be tied to Tony Gilroy’s Andor and a throwaway reference to the Rakata species. Here, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) gave Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) a downpayment of a Kuati signet embedded with a blue and white sky kyber crystal. As well as saying it comes from an “ancient world,” he confirms it “celebrated the uprising against the Rakatan invaders.”

Rakata? Like, Knights of the Old Republic Rakata?

Introduced in BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic video game back in 2003, the Rakata are a fish-like species that first mastered hyperspace travel. More than this, the Rakata were a sometimes villainous race that used the dark side to mix their technological prowess with spiritual evil.

As Knights of the Old Republic is set some 4,000 years before Lucas’ movies — and the Rakata existed 30,000 years before that — the timelines marry up with them being the Ancients that Phee refers to. For those who still aren’t convinced, a portion of the 2003 game takes place in a location called the Temple of the Ancients on the planet Lehon.

Notably, the Rakata developed a devastating weapon known as the Star Forge. The Rakata enslaved Force-sensitive creatures and used the dark side emotions of their victims to power machines. Others were used to help build the Star Forge as an automated shipyard that constantly churned out vehicles and soldiers to man the Rakata’s “Infinite Empire.” Knights of the Old Republic ended as players picked between destroying the Star Forge to embrace the light side or taking control of it for themselves on the dark side.

As for the Rakata, the Star Forge corrupted the species and led to a brutal civil war which, alongside a deadly plague that shattered their connection to the Force, brought the empire crumbling down. The Bad Batch shows something has decimated the Kaldar Trinary, and with the Rakata known for stripping planets for their resources, it adds credibility to the theory that they are, in fact, the Ancients.

What the Ancients Mean for the Future of Star Wars

The Jedi Order we know was founded by the shadowy Prime Jedi in the year 25,000 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), so we know The Bad Batch isn’t setting up the much-hyped The Acolyte that’s set around 100 years before The Phantom Menace. Still, that doesn’t mean the Ancients can’t lead to more live-action or animated projects.

It’s speculatory, but because The Bad Batch is set around 19 BBY and coincides with the start of construction on the Death Star, the destructive power of Skara Nal and the Ancients could have a much bigger part than we know. Even though Skara Nal is all but destroyed by the time the credits roll, Phee’s tease of the Ancients is a neat segue into these relics of the Expanded Universe.

Star Wars Rebels Season 2’s “Twilight of the Apprentice” previously teased the Star Forge with an Easter egg inside the Sith temple that looked a lot like the Rakatan’s space factory. There’s been a lot of talk about a live-action Knights of the Old Republic adaptation, and with two potential nods to the Rakata in Andor and now The Bad Batch, it’s a little coincidental.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might’ve skimmed over Luke Skywalker inhabiting the first Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, but way back when, Lucas gave author Terry Brooks an extensive history of the Sith and Jedi for his novelization of The Phantom Menace. Much like the sometimes fanciful stories of Phee, there tends to be a little truth in these forgotten fables. We’ll just have to wait and see whether The Bad Batch’s tease of the Ancients pays off further down the line.