Polygon

Mario Kart 8 — especially in its 68-million-selling Deluxe form on Nintendo Switch — is the definitive Mario Kart, and perhaps it always will be. It has the crispness and technicality of 1992’s Super; the rollicking, combative multiplayer of 64; the accessibility and gloss of Mario Kart Wii. Refined and expanded over 10 years, it includes many of the series’ greatest tracks, too. It is the fifth-best-selling game of all time. Nintendo could have been forgiven for just extending it on to the Switch 2 and making it a forever game.

Instead, the Mario Kart team has attempted to follow the unfollowable with a sort of soft reboot. Mario Kart World asks: What if this scrambled carnival of cartoon imagery and looping race tracks was actually a place? The series’ ninth installment is an open-world racing game, where all the action happens on a single, contiguous map, and tracks flow into each other. This is not a new genre, and it has its fair share of classics already: Test Drive Unlimited, 2005’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Burnout Paradise, and most notably, the Forza Horizon series, which these days is the only racing game franchise that can remotely challenge Mario Kart’s mass-market hegemony.

But Mario Kart is not like other racing games (setting aside its legion of imitators). It has a different form and different priorities, which means Nintendo’s first attempt to hammer its anarchic kart-racing peg into the open-world hole isn’t an unqualified success. The good news is that Nintendo has not lost its focus on what makes Mario Kart great — not for a second. At the absolute worst, Mario Kart World is a superb Mario Kart game with an interesting gimmick and a new, chill solo playstyle.

In the game’s reveal trailer and deep-dive Direct, Nintendo oversold how central exploring the world of Mario Kart would be. It’s a surprise to boot up Mario Kart World and find the much-discussed new Free Roam exploration mode left out of the familiar suite of main menu options: solo, multiplayer, and online; Grand Prix, Battle, and Time Trial. Instead, you press the plus button, the menus melt away, and you segue smoothly into the world, a lone karter in a vast, empty racing playground. This is how Mario Kart World relates to its map: It’s inherent, but siloed.

You can’t play Free Roam in split-screen, the way most people enjoy Mario Kart. You can’t fully experience it online, either. You don’t discover and unlock Mario Kart World’s racing action by exploring its map the way you do in Forza Horizon. To race, you do as you have always done: pick a Grand Prix cup — Mushroom, Leaf, Star, Lightning — or jump into an online lobby and hurtle from one chaotic, shell-slinging competition into the next.

But the races aren’t a series of antic non-sequiturs anymore. They do lead into each other. Typically, a Grand Prix cup starts with a traditional three-lap circuit race, but the next three events are cross-country point-to-point stages topped off with a single lap of the destination stadium. Mario Kart’s tight racing circuits and vertiginous theme-park rides are now interspersed — no, integrated – with bustling blasts down highways, along rivers, across wildernesses, and up dazzling escalators of boost pads and sky rings. In Mario Kart World, you’re always going somewhere.

It’s epic, and a different style of racing from what we’re used to. It’s also strongly favored in both the Grand Prix and online racing, perhaps to a fault — a little more traditional three-lap circuit racing would round out Mario Kart World’sdiet, considering the layouts to support it are in the game. Some Mario Kart purists are chafing against the point-to-point races they call “intermission tracks,” bemoaning the long straightways and random hazards that compress the field and take the emphasis off pure driving skill. But in these sections, Nintendo has simply put the demand for technique elsewhere.

Mario Kart World significantly expands the series’ driving vocabulary. New moves elaborate on the already dense system of speed boosts that are just as vital to success as iconic pickups like the Red Shell or the Banana. You can now hold R when driving in a straight line to charge up a jump, which can be used to trigger wall riding and rail riding, both of which offer huge boosting opportunities. And Mario Kart World’s designers have seeded opportunities to use these everywhere. You can even wall ride on the sides of trucks and buses.

The potential for showy stunt combos and sick tech is immense, and the community will be exploring the possibilities for a long time yet. But even more casual drivers will be constantly engaged, picking out their next opportunity to squeeze out some more speed from dozens of options. It also feels as though combat items like shells have been nerfed a little, while the mushroom boosts are buffed. In Mario Kart World, there’s one rule: Always Be Boosting.

It’s deeply rewarding technical racing that, in true Mario Kart style, can be relied on to win out over cruel luck and chaos nine times out of ten — well, maybe four times out of five. That holds true even in Mario Kart World’s swarming field of 24 racers, but is tested to the limit by the new Knockout Tours. These are long, battle royale-style endurance races that cross the map, knocking out the last four racers at a series of checkpoints. They can frustrate, but they bring a level of visceral tension that classic racing can sometimes lack — especially in the brutal but brilliant online lobbies.

World is an expansive new Mario Kart, broader and subtly deeper than it was before — and, as befits the $80 marquee Switch 2 launch title and sequel to one of the biggest games of all time, it’s a lavish production, built on flawless tech. I’ve never seen it drop from 60 frames per second in any mode or circumstance. It’s gorgeous, full of tactile textures and toothsome, colorful environments, but always foregrounding the adorable and hilarious character art. The dozens of unlockable costumes, vehicles, and “NPC” characters — Cow, Pokey, Cheep Cheep, Coin Coffer, and co. — are drawn and animated with infectious humor and exquisite detail. It’s a delight simply to browse them.

The musical score trumps even Mario Kart 8’s all-time classic. It’s a scarcely believable luxury: hours and hours of banging new tracks and classic Mario themes in a range of styles that runs from nocturnal elevator music through spring break EDM to groovy samba and, of course, shredding jazz-funk, most of it recorded live by God’s own session band. It’s Koji Kondo by way of Quincy Jones, and the day it drops on the Nintendo Music app should be a public holiday.

Amid all this opulence, Nintendo remains committed to streamlined minimalism in Mario Kart’s structure and interface. It’s a firm choice, and probably the right one, as it keeps the series accessible to its immensely broad audience. But in a game of this scale, it can create friction as well as eliminate it. The Mario Kart community will be unsurprised but a little deflated by the basic online amenities; it shouldn’t be this hard to play ranked modes with a friend in the year 2025. At least the network performance is good.

But the biggest challenge Nintendo has faced is in integrating the deep familiarity and simplicity of Mario Kart with the scope of an open world. It results in a lot of compromises. Because you move through the game by ticking off Grands Prix from the menu in time-honored fashion, rather than through progressive exploration of the map, and because Nintendo includes next to no mapping information in the UI, the world Nintendo’s artists have built never becomes a lived-in space you feel you know and can navigate from memory, the way the greatest video game worlds do.

The “world” of Mario Kart World is a triumph of design  — it’s effectively one giant fantasy race track that’s never not fun to drive, in any direction, and it’s somehow crammed with secrets and off-piste challenges as well as multifarious strategic opportunities for racing. It’s just not really a place. I can’t imagine building an emotional relationship with it the way I have with Azeroth, or Hyrule, or, more to the point, Forza Horizon 4’s Britain.

What’s more, Nintendo has determined that all Mario Kart World’s unlocks — those juicy costumes and vehicles — must be accessible through any play mode by collecting the ubiquitous coins and eating the only mildly scarcer Dash Food drive-thru meal items (which all look delicious, by the way). This means there’s no distinct reward for finding collectables or mastering the P Switch challenges in Free Roam, other than hundreds of nicely designed but meaningless stickers.

Free Roam is the freshest thing in Mario Kart World; it’s a shame that Nintendo seems so scared of it. As a much more chill way to enjoy Mario Kart solo, it’s deeply welcome. It’s also genuinely novel, serving up something more akin to a vehicular Mario platformer than to your typical open-world driving game. I love the brisk P Switch missions, which drop evasive gauntlets, mini time trials, coin collection sprints, rail-grinding trick challenges, soaring aerial routes, and more all over the map.

But Free Roam is a little too unstructured and far too cut off from the rest of the game. You can encounter other characters driving around, but you can’t challenge them to a sprint (or interact with them at all); you can visit a circuit, but you can’t trigger a race from there. You can’t really experience it with other players except as a glorified lobby screen in online multiplayer, and this version of the map has the P Switch missions removed. It feels empty and aimless.

I love Free Roam, and I think Mario Kart World’s map is a marvel. I just wish it could have been integrated at a deeper level with the other game modes in a way that would breathe life into this extraordinary location. And I do think that could have been done without swamping the game in the bloat and complication that bedevils so many open-world games, Forza Horizon included. It’s possible that Nintendo will build up this side of Mario Kart World over time or in a sequel; if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe felt like an endpoint for everything Mario Kart had been, World is a great starting point for its future.

But if I had gotten the open-world Mario Kart I think I want, perhaps something more important would have been lost. Maybe Nintendo had the right idea: Why drive to the next race when the drive there can be the race? Why make the distance between players and this joyous game any more than a single, swift, satisfying button-click? That’s classic Mario Kart, and Mario Kart World is nothing if not a classic Mario Kart game. If the integrity and scope of its open-world ambition have to be sacrificed to stay true to the Mario Kart creed, then it’s a price worth paying.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Squanch Games is keeping the party going — it announced Sunday that High on Life 2 is coming in winter 2025. The reveal went down at the Xbox Games Showcase, with a glimpse at some of the gameplay in the second installment in the wacky intergalactic franchise.

The comical trailer shows off the protagonist skateboarding in a futuristic building as Tobacco’s “Constellation Dirtbike Head” blares in the background. Scenes switch, with the player skateboarding and blasting through a couple of robotic monstrosities, all with the handy, talking alien gun. Additionally, scenes show off strange weaponry, such as a flame-spewing lizard and a pair of reality-bending pistols.

High on Life 2 is set to be released on Windows PC and Xbox Series X.

High on Life, released in 2022, was recently ported over to the Nintendo Switch in 2025. That game featured a character who is fresh out of school and unemployed when Earth is hit with an alien invasion. The main character becomes an intergalactic bounty hunter, teaming up with talking guns to stop these invaders’ machinations.

The original High On Life is also playable on Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X through Game Pass.

Now, the story continues this winter with a sequel to the comedic shooter.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Since 2021, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has partnered with iam8bit and Fortyseven Communications to produce Game Maker’s Sketchbook, an annual competition celebrating the brightest artistic minds in the games industry.

This year’s Game Maker’s Sketchbook winners have just been announced, including some pretty incredible works from games like Marvel Rivals, The Midnight Walk, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, among others. Winning submissions are broken up into categories focused on a variety of different skillsets, such as character art, environmental design, and iconography (for those HUD elements and inventory boxes that are just too good to ignore), to name a few.

If you fancy yourself a collector of these sorts of works, iam8bit actually sells many of the winning prints, with the proceeds going to the AIAS Foundation, which focuses on creating an inclusive, interactive entertainment community through collaboration, education, and professional development. Finally you can have Riven’s vexing golden dome hanging on your wall!

The end-product that we see in games gets the lion’s share of attention, with a focus on incredible character models and 3D environments. And yet, it’s important to remember that almost all games have to start in a much more simple place, with just a few sketches of an idea. Despite the mastery at work here, these sketches often don’t get the attention they deserve, so it’s pretty great to see the competition shining a bit of a light on it.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 is going to need a lot of pizza, because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Michelangelo, is headed to the skate park. A new trailer, presented by Tony Hawk himself, was shown at the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, providing another peak at the revamped tricks, characters, and locales.

In the trailer, the orange-clad turtle could be seen underneath a skate park in the Los Angeles sewers, examining a piece of pizza and then spinning on his shell before whipping out his own skateboard. The trailer also showed off a look at the return of Bam Margera, guest character the Doom Slayer, and more skaters ripping up the halfpipe. Other skaters to be featured in the game include Nyjah Huston, Riley Hawk, Lizzie Armanto, Leticia Bufoni, Tyshawn Jones, and more. Pro Skater 3 and 4 will have online multiplayer, allowing players to play with seven additional friends in a virtual skatepark. Fans can also expect fan-favorite levels like Rio, Tokyo, the Foundry, Airport, and Canada to return to the game.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 is set to be released on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Windows on July 11, 2025.

Pro Skater 3 and 4 is a remake of the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 which was first released back in 2001, and Pro Skater 4, which debuted in 2002.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Congrats, patient bug lovers: Hollow Knight: Silksong will be out later this year, Microsoft confirmed Sunday at its Xbox Games Showcase. Microsoft’s Sarah Bond announced that release window alongside the reveal of Xbox Ally, a portable gaming device coming as part of a collaboration with Asus.

Bond said that Hollow Knight: Silksong will be released and playable for the launch of the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two handhelds that will launch sometime in holiday 2025. Silksong was prominently featured in a reveal trailer for the Ally handhelds.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is also scheduled to be released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. It will be available on Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription from day one.

Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced in February 2019, with a playable demo at that year’s E3. It remained under wraps until a new gameplay trailer debuted at Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022. At the time, developers announced that the game would be complete within the following 12 months. But in May 2023, Matthew Griffin of Team Cherry said the game had been delayed indefinitely. In the intervening years, Silksong’s protracted development and the agonizing wait for the game have become a meme.

Originally conceived as a downloadable add-on for 2017’s critically acclaimed Metroidvania Hollow Knight, the developers ultimately reimagined Silksong as a full-on sequel. Silksong stars Hornet, the princess of Hallownest and one of the Hollow Knight’s speedy adversaries in the original game.

According to Team Cherry’s announcement blog in 2019, the game will take place in “a whole new kingdom haunted by silk and song,” which is populated by more than 150 new enemy types. Hornet will also have a different moveset; she is more angular and acrobatic, with nimble, dance-like moves.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus Games announced its next project during the Xbox Games Showcase Sunday, At Fate’s End. It’s an action-adventure game where you’ll fight family via emotional sword-fighting and dialogue duels. At Fate’s End is due out sometime in 2026 for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass. Notably, neither the Nintendo Switch or the Switch 2 were listed as platforms, though that may change in the future.

In At Fate’s End you’ll play as princess Shan, who wields the God Sword Aesus (which already sounds like a very cool sword). She’ll fight her siblings in duels “where combat is waged not only through swordplay, but through dialogue, psychological insight, and hard-won knowledge of shared history,” according to the press release revealing the game. It’ll feature various endings, meaning your family’s future sinks or swims depending on your choices.

Creative Director Nicolas Guérin said the developer is pushing everything it learned from crafting Spiritfarer further. “This is a more intense, more action-driven game, but no less intimate. It’s about how families break apart — and how they might come back together.”

Thunder Lotus Games is perhaps best known for its 2020 management sim Spiritfarer, which cast players as Stella, whose job it is to help spirits find comfort while guiding them toward the afterlife. Thunder Lotus’ previous titles also include Jotun and Sundered, and it launched 33 Immortals into early access earlier in March 2025.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Double Fine Productions’ Keeper was revealed Sunday at the Xbox Games Showcase and will launch Oct. 17 for Xbox Series X and Windows PC. It’ll also be available day one on Xbox Game Pass.

In Keeper, you’ll play as a weathered lighthouse aged by time. It sprouts legs, and you and a bird companion will then explore various environments together. The trailer showcased a forest, an illuminated cave, and a village populated by robotic characters on wheels. Double Fine’s games are known for being full of heart, and judging by its reveal trailer, Keeper will have plenty of it.

Double Fine is perhaps best known for 2021’s Psychonauts 2. It had previously set aside Keeper in favor of completing development on Psychonauts 2. Polygon enjoyed Psychonauts 2, calling it “one of the most imaginative platforming games out there, with an absolute flood of joyous ideas and images” in our review. Its development was featured in the Double Fine PsychOdyssey documentary, one of the best and most honest looks at the process of large-scale video game development.

Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft in 2019 and is known for developing artistically and narratively unique games such as both Psychonauts titles and Broken Age, as well as remasters of games that founder Tim Schafer originally worked on in the 1990s, like Grim Fandango Remastered and Full Throttle Remastered.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Xbox announced two Asus ROG Xbox Ally variations during the summer 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, both of which include more powerful AMD processors and a native Xbox app, among other things. Both Xbox handhelds will launch in the holiday 2025 window, though Xbox didn’t mention pricing during the reveal.

The ROG Xbox Ally X comes with:

AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme GPU24GB RAM1TB onboard storage

The standard ROG Xbox Ally comes with:

AMD Ryzen 2A16GB RAM512 GB onboard storage

The ROG Xbox Ally comes with a native Xbox app that lets you access your Xbox games and cloud libraries, and you can swap between associated apps as well, such as Discord, Battlenet, and “other leading PC storefronts,” Xbox said in an Xbox Wire post.

The news comes after Xbox console games began showing up in the Xbox PC app, prompting speculation that Xbox’s long-rumored plans of creating a single platform that lets you access your Xbox games from console and PC and potentially from Steam as well. It’s also in line with Xbox’s recent push to make accessing Xbox Studio games easier by publishing them on non-Microsoft platforms, such as putting Forza Horizon 5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PlayStation 5.

Polygon previously reported on leaked images of an Xbox  handheld that appeared in Federal Communication Comission filings. The images in the official filings showed what was essentially just a black Asus ROG Ally, but with an Xbox button included. It turns out that was mostly correct, though the ROG Xbox Ally includes a few additional features as well, such as longer hand grips that more closely resemble a standard Xbox controller and impulse triggers. Xbox introduced impulse triggers with the Xbox One, individual motors that can be programmed to vibrate at specific points during gameplay.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Xbox and Activision revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in a dramatic cinematic trailer during the Summer 2025 Xbox Games Showcase. Having two Black Ops games release consecutively is a first for the franchise, and Activision’s Treyarch and Raven studios teamed up to make it happen following 2024’s Black Ops 6.

The Black Ops 7 trailer is a trippy thing, like something you might expect out of Remedy’s Alan Wake series, with scenes of the protagonist appearing to experience a fragmented consciousness, a moment where a cityscape folds in on itself Inception-style, laughing TV sets, red butterflies made of data, and talking robot butlers escorting someone through a suspiciously, eerily calm executive suite. While we’re not entirely sure what’s going on, we do know who’s leading the charge this time: David Mason, the lead from Black Ops 2 whose last appearance was in 2018’s Black Ops 4.

“The year is 2035 and the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by conflict and psychological warfare following the narrative events of Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6,” the game’s official description reads on Xbox Wire. “With cutting-edge technology in hand, the Black Ops team led by David Mason must fight back against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.”

Activision said Black Ops 7 will support solo play and multiplayer squads in a new co-op campaign, and you’ll have “near-future weaponry” to take on the challenge. Black Ops 7 will also include a standalone multiplayer mode with new maps and a zombies mode that continues the Dark Aether storyline.

There’s no Black Ops 7 release date yet, but when it does launch, it’ll be available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Microsoft brought out some big guns at its annual Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, revealing a new Xbox-branded handheld, an important update on Hollow Knight: Silksong, Double Fine’s new game Keeper, the Persona 4 remake, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. There were also plenty of low-key surprises, including the reveals of some sharp-looking indie games.

If you couldn’t watch Xbox Games Showcase 2025 live, here’s a recap of all the game announcements, release dates, trailers, and other highlights from Microsoft’s big games showcase.

Persona 4 Remake

One of Atlus’ more poorly kept secrets is now confirmed. Persona 4 is getting a remake in the vein of Persona 3 Reload.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

After years of silence (and delays) from developer Team Cherry, we finally (finally!) got a new look (technically!) at the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong. Did we finally get a release date though? Nope! But Silksong is going to be out sometime this year, Microsoft says.

Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation

Pokémon developer Game Freak revealed Beast of Reincarnation, an action game previously known as Project Bloom, coming in 2026. Beast of Reincarnation is set in post-apocalyptic Japan, “a land ruined by corruption and crawling with monstrous beasts,” the developer said. Players will explore “ what it means to be human in Beast of Reincarnation, an expansive one-person, one-dog action RPG built around demanding, technical combat.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

This year’s Call of Duty has been revealed: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 stars David Mason, who leads the Black Ops team “against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.”

Clockwork Revolution

inXile Entertainment revealed fresh gameplay of its upcoming time-manipulating shooter (with strong BioShock vibes) Clockwork Revolution at Xbox Games Showcase.

High on Life 2

Squanch Games’ wacky first-person shooter High on Life is getting a (quick) sequel. High on Life 2 is coming to a long list of platforms this winter.

Ninja Gaiden 4

Team Ninja keeps the year of the ninja going with Ninja Gaiden 4, which now has an Oct. 21 release date on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

Gears of War Reloaded

Here’s a new look at Gears of War Reloaded gameplay.

Super Meat Boy 3D

Super Meat Boy is back in bloody action in Super Meat Boy 3D, a proper 3D action-platformer coming early 2026.

Grounded 2

Obsidian Entertainment’s ant’s-eye-view survival adventure game Grounded is getting a sequel. And soon! Grounded 2 is out July 29.

Aphelion

A new sci-fi action-adventure game from Don’t Nod, Aphelion was developed in cooperation with the European Space Agency, so that’s pretty cool.

New Double Fine Productions game, Keeper

Psychonauts developer Double Fine Productions revealed its next project, Keeper, at the Xbox Games Showcase. In it, you control a lighthouse on a stylish 3D adventure.

No Ghosts at the Grand

A “spooky, cozy, musical mystery” that also involves a Renovation Gun, No Ghosts at the Grand casts you as the reluctant heir to a dilapidated hotel that was once renowned for its charm and hospitality. “As you go room-to-room solving restoration puzzles, you’ll also end up uncovering some surreal, supernatural secrets of the hotel’s past,” the game’s official description promises.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle DLC

Bethesda and MachineGames’ DLC for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — The Order of Giants — was revealed with a Sept. 4 release date. This new story chapter takes Indiana Jones to the ancient streets of Rome “where forgotten catacombs twist into something far more sinister. Indy must outwit a dangerous cult and decipher puzzles designed by emperors to uncover the dark legacy of the Nephilim giants.”

Cronos: The New Dawn

Developer Bloober Team’s new sci-fi horror game Cronos: The New Dawn is out this fall, and every new trailer looks more enticing than the last.

Invincible VS

Robert Kirkman’s Invincible is getting a brand-new fighting game, Invincible VS, a 3v3 tag fighter in the vein of Marvel vs. Capcom.

At Fate’s End

Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus Games revealed its next game at Xbox Games Showcase: At Fate’s End is a gripping action-adventure game in which players face their estranged siblings in intense duels.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy

Asobo Studio and Focus Entertainment revealed Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, a prequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem coming in 2026.

Final Fantasy on Xbox

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is coming to Xbox, and Final Fantasy 16 is out now on Xbox.

Planet of Lana 2

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf is coming to Xbox and PC in 2026, promising “an ambitious cinematic puzzle adventure that doubles the size and scope of the original.”

Aniimo

Aniimo is a new free-to-play, creature-catching open-world action-RPG coming to mobile, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X in 2026. It looks adorable!

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Skybound Games revealed Invincible VS, an original 2D tag-fighting game, on Sunday at Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase. Invincible VS will bring together heroes and villains like Omni-Man, Invincible, Atom Eve, Thula, and Bulletproof for highly destructive, three-versus-three action when it’s released in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

And, yes, as demonstrated in the reveal trailer for Invincible VS, Skybound’s new fighting game will be just as bloody as the Robert Kirkman-created Invincible comic book and animated series from which it’s adapted. Based on the game’s debut trailer, it also appears that some voice actors, like J.K. Simmons, will reprise their onscreen roles.

Polygon saw Invincible VS in May and spoke with the developer behind it; we’ll have more information on the game in coming days.

Skybound Games has released only a handful of games based on the Invincible property, including Invincible Presents: Atom Eve, a visual novel that lets players explore the life of Atom Eve, and Invincible: Guarding the Globe, a squad-based idle role-playing game for mobile devices. Invincible’s Omni-Man has appeared in Mortal Kombat 1 as part of that game’s first Kombat Pack, and in Fortnite as a guest character alongside Invincible and Atom Eve.

Skybound’s reveal of Invincible VS comes just days after the reveal of another superhero tag-based fighter, *Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls,*which ups the ante by being 4v4 tag-fighter.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Atlus announced a full remake of its ever-popular role-playing game Persona 4 at Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase. The new version of the role-playing game is officially named Persona 4 Revival and will be released on Windows PC, Xbox Series X, and other platforms.

Microsoft and Atlus did not reveal a release date for Persona 4 Revival.

Although details are scarce, many believe the remake will follow in the footsteps of Persona 3 Reload. That Persona remake included improved graphics, enhanced audio, and a reworked combat system alongside expanded gameplay and story moments. Although the narrative remained the same, some of the social simulation aspects received more content alongside a few quality of life changes to make the game more modern.

This could explain why several of the original voice actors for Persona 4, including Yuri Lowenthal, the English-language voice of Yosuke Hanamura, have come out on social media recently saying they were not asked to reprise their roles for the remake.

Persona 4 was originally released in 2008 for PlayStation 2. An updated version, Persona 4 Golden, was released in 2012 for PlayStation Vita and quickly became the definitive version of the game. Golden has long been hailed as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, with a splash of school life social simulation added to the mix. The mysterious plot entails finding out who’s killing local townsfolk, while you and your friends jump into a metaphysical shadow world, confronting and accepting the flaws that define you.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Game Freak, best known for its work on Pokémon games, unveiled a new look and title for its upcoming project on Sunday during the Xbox Games Showcase. Beast of Reincarnation is headed to Xbox Series X, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5 sometime in 2026.

Beast of Reincarnation has you playing as Emma the Sealer in the far-off future of 4026 as “humanity awaits its inevitable extinction,” according to the trailer’s voiceover. Emma is “the blade that will destroy the Beast of Reincarnation” through some sick-looking, action-focused gameplay.

Emma battles both oversized creatures and robots in the trailer. The combat and parry mechanic shown off resemble what you might expect from a Soulslike, though we’ll have to wait for details to see how Game Freak officially describes Beast of Reincarnation. Both its imagery and environmental themes give off heavy Studio Ghibli vibes.

Beast of Reincarnation was originally revealed in 2023 and called Project Bloom at the time. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to create new IP that is bold and tonally different from our prior work,” Game Freak director Kota Furushima said at the time via a news release. The developer is of course synonymous with the Pokémon series, having developed the original Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow in the ’90s and many, many more Pokémon titles since.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Asobo Studio — the developer behind A Plague Tale: Innocence and its sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem — has revealed the next game in the A Plague Tale franchise: a prequel called Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. The news was shared during the Xbox Games Showcase via a reveal trailer that gave players their first look at the game.

Set 15 years before the events of the first game, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy naturally features a new protagonist. Resonance follows the story of Sophia, a treasure-hunter who is determined to discover the secrets of her past, despite being on the run from an army of mysterious pursuers.

“We wanted to expand and explore the world of A Plague Tale with a character — Sophia — that is very close to our heart, but within a much more action-oriented experience,” Asobo Studio chief creative officer David Dedeine explained in a press release. “This fresh approach comes with intuitive and rewarding combat, as well as a brand-new manifestation of the Macula, the ancient evil. Resonance embraces themes, places and eras that we had never explored before.”

Sophia’s attempt to escape the enemies who are hot on her heels eventually leads her to Minotaur’s Island, a strange environment full of ancient puzzles, mazes, and trials. But she’s not alone — the army has kept tabs on her, and Sophia will routinely have to fight them off as she explores the island.

Human enemies aren’t the only ones after Sophia, however. Minotaur’s Island was named after a myth, but based on the enormous minotaur featured in the trailer, that myth appears to have some basis in fact.

“Expanding the world of A Plague Tale with Sophia — a character already close to our heart since Requiem — is exciting, and we can’t wait to hear what our fans think!” Focus Entertainment managing director John Bert said of the upcoming prequel. “Blending myth and combat in this new opus promises to be a great opportunity for all to embark on a new adventure.”

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is set to launch sometime in 2026 and will be available on Xbox Series X Day One with Xbox Game Pass. It will also be available for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC (via Steam).

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Microsoft’s 2025 Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday promises a look at new and upcoming games from Xbox Games Studios — including studios like Activision Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks, Obsidian Entertainment, and Playground Games — and third-party partners from around the globe.

This year’s Xbox Games Showcase will dedicate a separate presentation to first-person sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds 2. Developer Obsidian Entertainment will offer a deeper look into the sequel to the award-winning Outer Worlds after the main show.

For every big announcement at Xbox Games Showcase 2025, including new trailers and major game announcements, check out Polygon’s StoryStream below. You can also watch the Xbox Games Showcase 2025 and Outer Worlds 2 Direct live right here.

Summer games fest 2025 schedule: All conference dates and timesUbisoft teasing a big Splinter Cell announcement ahead of Summer Game Fest

From Polygon via this RSS feed

As I see it, Hollywood currently has four stables of movie talent:

Movie-movie stars (Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep)HBO-movie stars (Colin Farrell, Steve Carell, Anthony Mackie, and anyone whose TV shows have movie vibes and movies have TV vibes)Streaming-movie stars (Millie Bobby Brown, post-Avengers: Endgame Chris Pratt)Plane-movie stars

As I headed to Los Angeles for Summer Game Fest on a cramped United Airlines flight, I went looking for a movie to stream. I scrolled through new-release options that didn’t fit the mood — a reviled sequel I skipped? A musical that will inevitably suffer on bad headphones? A much-lauded 2024 Iranian film? —  and I couldn’t help but think that plane-movie stars are the entertainment industry’s most important but undervalued commodity.

Jason Statham is the current king of plane movies. Protect Jason Statham at all costs. His latest achievement, A Working Man, got me through some really tough times (by which I mean 20 minutes of turbulence over Missouri).

A plane star like Statham could be confused for a movie-movie star — he certainly leads and succeeds in real movies that open in theaters. He might look rinky-dinkier than HBO-movie or streaming-movie stars, because talent of his ilk rarely graces magazine covers. (Even though you frequently see those magazines at airports. Go figure.) But plane stars deserve as much praise as any of the celebs in the other categories.

A guy like Statham has the physical and mental combination required to captivate viewers trapped in economy-sized seating at 30,000 feet. Plane-movie star roles don’t require nuance, but they do require grit. A plane star balances action, romance, comedy, and charm without flinching, and delivers it with a lack of ego. (Note: Starring in an actual movie called Plane is not a requirement, although Gerard Butler is a plane-movie A-lister.)

With zero Oscars, zero significant franchises to his name, and a commitment to never stooping to television acting, Statham has redefined the merit of plane-movie stardom. A Working Man might even be good to watch while not on a plane. (It’s streaming on Amazon Prime Video, the unlikely purveyor of many quality plane movies and minter of plane movie stars.)

In A Working Man, Statham plays Levon Cade, an ex-black ops soldier who has found a second life working as a construction foreman in Chicago. This binary is extremely important to the plane-star calculus: Levon isn’t some John Wick-like assassin out for revenge, killing nonstop to please action junkies. No, Levon is a regular guy, a working man, so to speak. (See the title). And writer-director David Ayer, adapting Chuck Dixon’s book Levon’s Trade with none other than co-writer Sylvester Stallone, makes sure to establish his future hero as a down-to-earth, clock-in-clock-out dad type. He treats his crew well, his bosses love him, he’s gifted lunch by multiple co-workers’ extended family members who just think he’s swell, and in the off hours, he fights to retain custody of his daughter. He’s working, man!!

When Levon’s boss’ own daughter, Jenny, is kidnapped by Russian sex traffickers while out at a club — truly terrifying/screwed-up — Levon puts down his hard hat and picks up his hand grenades in order to save the day. He’s a reluctant hero (a must-have trope in a great plane action movie) but he can’t deny the call to action, even if it risks capsizing the progress he’s made with the suit-wearing schmuck lawyers who threaten to take his kid away. But who else could break the number of mafia-goon arms necessary to get Jenny back? Not Michael Peña, who plays her affable dad in a welcome dramatic turn.

There is lots of running and gunning in A Working Man, which I will admit pales in comparison to The Beekeeper, Jason Statham’s all-time great plane movie, which is also in circulation on a number of major airlines, and also streaming on Prime Video. In that 2024 film, the plane star plays another basically unkillable special agent who has retired to the Regular Joe hobby of… beekeeping… but once again avenges the everyman, this time an elderly woman who has fallen victim to a phishing scam that has left her penniless.

Ayer also directed The Beekeeper, which goes a bit harder on the comedy — before the credits roll, Statham beats up cartoonish computer brats, spiky-haired assassins, and a wannabe Elon Musk played by Josh Hutcherson — but it’s all calibrated for plane viewing. There’s intimate, small-scale action that still feels cinematic. There are larger-than-life heroes and villains still cut from the American experience. There’s Statham, a fish-out-of-water Brit, who can crack a smile in a moment of sweetness before, two seconds later, beating the bloody hell out of someone who clearly deserved it, because the morals in plane movies are black and white. He is a master of performing it all. Also see: The Meg and Wrath of Man. (But not the Fast & Furious movies, which waste Statham’s plane-movie mojo.)

There are other emerging plane-movie-star titans dominating other plane-movie genre spaces; Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell may have fully shifted over to the category with their rom-com You’re Cordially Invited, which debuted on Prime Video, where but absolutely no one watched it. (But you can catch it on airplanes right now.) Jennifer Lopez also feels destined for this respectable career arc, now that she’s done cashing big checks for Netflix in Titanfall-esque blockbusters. (Prime Video, knowing what’s up, did her a solid in the action rom-com Shotgun Wedding).

But Statham remains the top-tier plane-movie star, and A Working Man could not be an easier layup — so much so that it’s worth recommending a watch at home, if you aren’t planning on traveling this summer. You may need to prepare the right viewing-room conditions, though: Consider a daytime watch of A Working Man on an iPad-sized screen, positioned a few inches from your face, with window shutters mostly closed, so it’s dim but not dark. Statham optimized this one for you.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Pokémon Go is continuing its hype lead-up to the yearly Go Fest event with the “Instrumental Wonders” event that runs from June 7-11.

This event encourages players to raid, with the main perk of this event being an extra 5,000 XP per finished raid. Just like the last event, there will be bonuses with Max Particles as well. You can grab up to 1,600 per day and 800 from Power Spots — which is timed nicely, as Gigantamax Cinderace will be making its debut during the weekend portion of the event.

Below we list the other perks of Pokémon Go’s “Instrumental Wonders” event, including the premium research, Collection Challenges, spawns, and more.

Pokémon Go ‘Instrumental Wonders’ premium Timed Research and reward

Just like the last event, there’s another ticket you can buy for $1.99 to get a Timed Research. If you’re stocking up on raid passes ahead of Go Fest, this ticket is actually a decent buy — so long as you finish the research before the event ends on June 11.

The other thing that may tip the scales in the value of this pass is if you’re shiny hunting for Ferroseed and Falinks, two Pokémon with increased shiny rates during this event. If you want one of those, then this pass ain’t too shabby!

If you complete the research, you’ll also get doubled raid Stardust until the event ends.

Step 1 of 2

Catch 10 Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Use 5 berries to help catch Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Transfer 5 Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Catch 20 Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Use 10 berries to help catch Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Transfer 10 Pokémon (Ferroseed encounter)Spin 3 PokéStops or gyms (Ferroseed encounter)

Rewards: Ferroseed encounter, 2 Premium Battle Passes, 500 Stardust

Step 1 of 2

Catch 10 Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Use 5 berries to help catch Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Transfer 5 Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Catch 20 Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Use 10 berries to help catch Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Transfer 10 Pokémon (Falinks encounter)Spin 3 PokéStops or gyms (Falinks encounter)

Rewards: Falinks encounter, 3 Premium Battle Passes, 500 Stardust

Pokémon Go ‘Instrumental Wonders’ event Collection Challenges

The following Collection Challenges will be live throughout the duration of the event:

‘Instrumental Wonders’ Collection Challenge 1

Catch a TadbulbCatch a HoppipCatch a Galarian StunfiskCatch a Beldum

Rewards: 2,000 XP, Falinks encounter

‘Instrumental Wonders’ Collection Challenge 2

Catch a GolettCatch a FerroseedCatch a ChimechoCatch a Falinks

Rewards: 2,000 XP, Ferroseed encounter

‘Instrumental Wonders’ Collection Challenge31

Catch a FerroseedCatch a Galarian StunfiskCatch a FalinksCatch a Beldum

Rewards: 2,000 XP, 1 Premium Battle Pass

Pokémon Go ‘Instrumental Wonders’ event Field Research and rewards

Spinning a PokéStop during the event period may yield one of these tasks:

Catch 7 different species of Pokémon (Ferroseed or Falinks encounter)Catch 10 Pokémon (Meowth, Chimecho, Ferroseed, or Falinks encounter)Explore 2 km (Ferroseed or Falinks encounter)Win a raid (2 Rare Candy)

Pokémon Go ‘Instrumental Wonders’ event boosted spawns

These Pokémon will spawn more frequently during the event period:

MeowthHoppipChimechoBeldumFerroseed*Galarian StunfiskGolettFalinks*Tadbulb

*There is an “increased chance” of finding this shiny in the wild as part of the event.

Pokémon Go ‘Instrumental Wonders event raid targets

The following changes to the raid schedule will take place as part of the event:

One-star raidsThree-star raidsMeowthGalarian StunfiskBeldumFalinks*Ferroseed*

*These Pokémon have an “increased chance” of being shiny when raided.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Australian director Sean Byrne is one of horror’s premiere mixologists. His debut, 2009’s The Loved Ones, meshed teen romance with gruesome Hostel-style extremism. 2015’s The Devil’s Candy put a heavy metal spin on the haunted-house romp. His new film, Dangerous Animals, in theaters now, raises a question no one was asking about a classic B-movie subgenre: When is a killer shark movie not a killer shark movie?

Answer: When the killer shark is just a weapon in a human killer’s hands.

Despite arriving just in time for the 50th anniversary of Jaws, Dangerous Animals has less in common with it (or with The Shallows or 47 Meters Down) and is more in line with Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Saw (or one of Australia’s modern horror successes, Wolf Creek). Hassie Harrison (Yellowstone) stars as Zephyr, an American surfer floating around the Australian coast looking for the perfect waves — and maybe the right romance. She does not find it in Tucker (Jai Courtney of Terminator Genisys), who abducts her off the beach before dawn and locks her up with another tourist, Heather (Ella Newton), on his shark expedition boat. Tucker is a mega-creep who gets off on shark attacks. Zephyr and Heather are his latest chum.

At 90 minutes, Dangerous Animals is lean and mean fun. Zephyr is no damsel in distress, and quickly plots an escape from what looks like an impossible situation. Tucker has driven them out to the middle of the ocean where he can gets wasted on cheap liquor, dance to disco tunes, and prepare to ritualistically dunk his prey into shark-infested waters. He’s an absolute psychopath, and Byrne lets Courtney completely off the possible-Hollywood-leading-man leash. The actor is frothing at the mouth and twitching in his eyes throughout the deranged picture, with a level of egolessness that manifested slightly when he played [checks notes] Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad. This is better.

Harrison summons her own power in the face of Courtney’s towering physique in Zephyr’s multiple escape attempts. Byrne takes full advantage of the claustrophobic setting of the boat — and the vast emptiness of the sea surrounding it. It’s a geographically coherent but unsettling maze for a cat shark-and-mouse game that rarely succumbs to contrivances to ratchet up the tension. Getting off a boat surrounded by sharks just seems really tough! And for as blockheaded as Tucker seems, he’s devoted much of his life to building the ultimate floating prison.

While Dangerous Animals never goes full Deep Blue Sea with far-fetched shark kills, Byrne, by way of Tucker’s fetish, still sets up some nightmarish attacks. Tucker doesn’t just like to watch sharks tear his victims to shreds, he also videotapes them on a 1990s-era camera for future VHS viewing. So the deaths are slow and savage, with Courtney’s wide-eyed gaze committing as much violence as the razor-sharp shark teeth. There’s blood in the water, and all over this killer’s hands.

In the days of so-called “elevated horror,” Dangerous Animals delivers earnest thrills with a simple-yet-innovative slasher premise. In my mind, the freshest horror movies find a kernel of specificity in a timeless premise. Byrne’s movie isn’t far off from the Halloween formula — big guy hunts down indomitable woman with scary weapon of choice — but whisking us to Australia, sending us to sea, and the what-if of a sightseeing tour guide with a hard-on for shark attacks is the focused lens a filmmaker needs to deliver something new. Sick, but new.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Nintendo replaced a couple of longtime voice actors for Mario Kart World — including an actress who has voiced Princess Peach for the last 18 years. On Friday, voice actress Samantha Kelly uploaded a new Instagram post stating that she is no longer voicing the Mushroom Kingdom’s princess, nor Toad and Toadette, whom she also previously voiced.

In the social media message, she outlined that Nintendo notified her of the business decision on Thursday — the day the Switch 2 and MKW were released.

“Thank you for so many years of friendship and joy,” her post reads. “I’m sad that it’s over, I truly would have wanted to voice Peach and Toad forever. Nintendo let me know yesterday that they decided to recast these roles. I’m grateful that I got to do these voices for so many years. Peach and Toad are such strong and beautiful characters that I pray they live forever no matter who voices them. So much love🩷#princesspeach #toad“

Donkey Kong was also replaced, with the IMDB website for Mario Kart World stating that Koji Takeda is now the voice of the redesigned character. Voice actor Takashi Nagasako has previously been synonymous with DK going back to Nintendo’s Gamecube era, appearing in games like Mario Power Tennis and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

In 2023, Nintendo opted to make a change away from Charles Martinet, the man who had been Mario since 1991. At the time, Nintendo told Martinet that he would instead become an ambassador for the company. Martinet’s last Nintendo role was an appearance in the Super Mario Bros. Movie as an original character named Giuseppe, Mario and Luigi’s father — a fitting role for a voice that has been with us for over two decades.

Polygon contacted Nintendo for a comment and will update the article with any new information we receive.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SamanthaKellyPeach (@samanthakellypeach)

From Polygon via this RSS feed

PlaySide Studios and Fumi Games have revealed the big voice behind the bite-sized main character in their upcoming film noir-esque first-person shooter, Mouse: P.I. For Hire. Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Death Stranding) will be voicing the aforementioned mouse, private investigator Jack Pepper. The announcement was made during Summer Game Fest, and was accompanied by a new trailer for the game.

“I have been following the development of Mouse: P.I. For Hire since it was first teased,” Baker said in a press release. “Its art style, gameplay and 1930s film-noir aesthetic continue to win me over.”

Despite channeling a vintage cartoon aesthetic similar to that of Cuphead, PlaySide Studios has made it clear that Mouse: P.I. For Hire isn’t playing things safe, describing the game as “gritty.” Mouse: P.I. For Hire takes place in Mouseburg, a city with a “seedy underbelly” in “a world where danger lurks in the smallest mouse hole.”

As for the character Baker is voicing, Jack Pepper may look cute, but he’s lived a rough life, serving in the military before eventually taking on the role of a private investigator. The game starts off with Jack investigating a damsel in distress, but it quickly becomes clear that things are not as they seem, and the case ultimately drags Jack into a dangerous world of mystery, corruption, and murder.

“I cannot wait to keep working with the team to bring Jack Pepper to life, and hope to have some exciting things to share as we get closer to launch!” Baker said.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire is set to launch on console and PC sometime in 2025, though a specific release date has not yet been announced.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

If boxing Muppets that look like Crank Yankers wasn’t on your bingo card for Summer Game Fest, you surely missed out! Felt That: Boxing is a comedic boxing game in a world of furry puppets, featuring Ezra “Fuzz-E” Wright, our unlikely hero. It’s up to the player to go the distance with the little guy as he scraps his way through the Tournament of a Million Punches to save an orphanage.

What’s more shocking is that the title will feature music by none other than Flying Lotus, one of the pioneers of the classic Adult Swim bumps. The trailer shows the hilarious but strenuous exercise routine of Ezra as he prepares to get in the ring with a puppet far, far bigger than he is.

Felt That: Boxing comes out of Sans Strings Studio, created by Ryan Corniel and Sébastien Deguy who specialize in bringing “digital puppeteering to new heights.”

Although there is no release date for the sports boxing game, there’s already plenty of excitement around the title and others presented during Summer Game Fest.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

Mario Kart World‘s rewind feature is quietly one of the racing game’s most useful features for learning how its new tricks, jumps, and grinds work. The Nintendo Switch 2 launch game sets you loose to discover rewind on your own, though, with no tutorial or anything explaining how the tool works or when you might want to use it.

Below, we explain how to rewind in Mario Kart World, which modes let you do it, and when you’re better off just taking a mistake on the chin.

How to rewind in Mario Kart World

Press “down” on the direction pad to rewind the previous five seconds and start again. Rewind is useful if you’re trying to learn how to time a jump correctly so you can drive along the wall, if you miss a shortcut, or if you just make a big mistake and would rather not lose eight places after crashing into a wall. It’s handy for evading an incoming obstacle in Battle Mode, too.

GiantBomb’s Jeff Grubb discovered you can even use rewind to escape a blue shell. If you rewind right before the shell makes contact, it’ll explode even without you there to suffer from it.

Bear in mind that rewind doesn’t affect the timer if you’re completing a Free Roam challenge or mode or activity with a timer, such as Time Trials. You’ll start in your previous position, but the timer won’t rewind, and you’ll probably fail the challenge. The better option for fixing a mistake in Free Roam mission scenarios is opening the pause menu and choosing the “retry” option.

Rewind also has no effect on computer-controlled characters, whose positions won’t rewind to match yours. Still, for learning tough courses such as Rainbow Road, it’s worth rewinding and coming in last if only to get the hang of difficult curves without having to start an entire cup over again.

What modes can you use rewind in?

Rewind is only usable in single-player modes and Free Roam, though you can use it in a multiplayer lobby as well – just not in a multiplayer race. The list of modes that let you use rewind is:

Grand PrixBattle ModeVs RaceKnockout TourTime Trials

Did you just get a Nintendo Switch 2? Are you trying to unlock every character and outfit in Mario Kart World? Or maybe you’re trying out The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the first time and you need a walkthrough for those pesky stoplights in the Forsaken Fortress? Either way, we have your back when it comes to helping you sort stuff out.

We have guides explaining how to set up your console (moving data from your original Switch to your Switch 2) as well as guides for things like getting external storage sorted out.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

The nightmare was real, the situation was not.

Revenge of the Savage Planet, an adventure spread across a number of distant — and quite savage! — planets, invites nonlinear exploration. To complete its missions and discover all of its secrets, you must leap into an unknown where the otherworldly flora, fauna, and even the inorganic material are primed to kill you. So, shortly after assembling an underwater scooter that allowed my robot sidekick to whisk me through the depths of alien oceans, I descended into a series of caverns under the Zenithian Rift to see what was going on down there. The specters of death I encountered below weren’t even designed to haunt me.

In Raccoon Logic’s sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet, players are tasked with scanning every object in every nook and cranny to assemble an exhaustive log of materials located on each planet. At first, the task is a walk in the (overgrown killer) park: find a tree, scan a tree. Find a slobbering beastie, scan a slobbering beastie. But a counter on the map charting your scannables becomes the most daunting subtask — can I really find every single micro scannable? I found myself longing after completing the core missions. To really 100% this, there was even more reason to venture into the most uninviting spaces, including a dark underwater cave on Zenithian Rift that absolutely did not look like it contained any scannable items. But I couldn’t not go in there.

It took about two seconds for me to realize… I had made a horrible mistake. While the cave was easily accessible from the water, there were no enemy or collectible breadcrumbs to suggest this was a place the folks at Raccoon Logic intended for me to. I was lured in by curiosity, but the joy of discovery in Revenge of the Savage Planet got the best of me. Now I was stuck. I had stumbled into a graphical anomaly, an in-game black hole that had an entrance but no apparent exit.

In Revenge of the Savage Planet, you can’t beam back to starting locations on the fly or off yourself in order to respawn from your last save. In a clever but likely divisive design choice, the game forces you to navigate to transporters spread across the worlds in order to beam off to your next desired location, which forces traversal and new encounters. But it meant that while bumbling around in the dark, hoping to find a way out of my watery grave, I couldn’t simply die and move on. I was actually trapped, and in a scenario I haven’t experienced in quite some time, feeling IRL like I was actually trapped.

I already don’t do well with underwater levels out of an intense fear of drowning. Luckily for me, most games will throw me the lifeline of a visual countdown to illustrate oxygen levels, ensuring (1) I surface in time and (2) I don’t hyperventilate over the stress of surfacing in time. Revenge of the Savage Planet doesn’t need that because there’s no punishment for enjoying the waters; you’re already in a spacesuit and the challenges you encounter via underwater scooter require a bunch of time-intensive back and forth. Doing it all on limited air would simply not be fun. But that meant, stuck in this tight underwater cave, I would never die. I was in limbo. Or maybe I was in hell.

I spent far too long searching for a route out. Streaks of light bled in from a theoretical escape that I could never reach — any time I thought I was close, I bumped into a new rock and found myself jetting in the opposite direction. Not since I watched The Rescue, the riveting-yet-terrifying documentary about the team of divers who squeezed through cave passageways to free 12 trapped Thai soccer players, had my apparent claustrophobia had its way with my nerves. I can’t quite explain why I pushed myself over the edge to find an in-game solution to this unintentional challenge, except to say that I really wanted to do a good job at Revenge of the Savage Planet.

Most glitches are considered errors by programmers, annoyances by players, and occasionally shortcuts for the speedrunner crowd. Revenge of the Savage Planet’s death cave might fall into the first two categories, but it’s a harrowing experience I ultimately appreciated, a unique screw up that could only happen in a game. I have never felt truly trapped in a film, despite the best efforts of 3D stereoscopic effects and 4DX rumble seats. After finally rebooting Revenge of the Savage Planet, I had to give myself a few minutes to let my heart rate die down before I grabbed the controller. But I got right back to it. Sure, this was a glitch, but in a game where exploration is everything, leaping into a true unknown — one that the creators of the game clearly didn’t intend me to find — was its own form of success.

Revenge of the Savage Planetis currently available for PC, Playstation, and Xbox, and it’s currently on Game Pass.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

There are 40 karts total in Mario Kart World. You’ll start with 11, and you’ll need to unlock the remaining 29 by playing the game.

While these vehicles don’t have the customization that we saw in Mario Kart 8, they do still have individual stats, so it’s not all about just glitz and glam when it comes to picking a vehicle to drive. (Though, yes, some vehicles are just cuter and better than the others, trust me.)

Below we explain how to unlock all the vehicles in Mario Kart World, along with their stats.

How to unlock more karts/vehicles

As you play, you’ll unlock more karts for every 100 coins you collect. Unfortunately, the order in which you unlock the karts is random, so if you’re really burning for the Dolphin Dasher motorcycle, you may end up unlocking a bunch of other karts first.

If you’re playing a single-player mode, like completing Grand Prix, you’ll see a notice pop-up on the main menu screen after the match ends, noting that you got enough coins to unlock a kart.

If you’re playing in online multiplayer, the kart will unlock for you right away with no notice (which you can see when you opt to change your character by pressing the Plus button).

We found this little coin-dropping buggy looping around the DK Pass area in the Free Roam-like multiplayer lobby that we followed around to collect coins quickly:

Mario Kart World kart/vehicle list

Below, you can see a list of all the vehicles in Mario Kart World, along with their stats:

Standard Pipe (default)Rally Kart (default)Standard Bike (default)Rally Bike (default)Plushbuggy (default)Baby Blooper (default)Cute Scoot (default)Mach Rocket (default)Zoom Buggy (default)Chargin’ Truck (default)Hyper PipeFunky Dorrie (default)Hot RodRibbit RevsterTune ThumperJunkyard HogRoadster RoyaleB DasherW-Twin ChopperLobster RollerBiddybuggyTiny TitanDread SledStellar SledReel RacerBumble VFin TwinR.O.B. H.O.G.Carpet FlyerCloud 9Dolphin DasherBlastronaut IIIBig HornLi’l DumpyLoco MotoMecha TrikePipe FrameBilldozerRallygatorBowser Bruiser

Did you just get a Nintendo Switch 2? Are you trying to unlock every character and outfit in Mario Kart World? Or maybe you’re trying out The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the first time and you need a walkthrough for those pesky stoplights in the Forsaken Fortress? Either way, we have your back when it comes to helping you sort stuff out.

We have guides explaining how to set up your console (moving data from your original Switch to your Switch 2) as well as guides for things like getting external storage sorted out.

From Polygon via this RSS feed

The tracks in Mario Kart Word are the real stars in the game and the shiniest one is the Rainbow Road track. The mesmerizingly colorful track is something out of this world — literally. Unlike all the other tracks in the game, Rainbow Road is a secret one, but luckily the path to find it is pretty straightforward.

Below, you find all you need to know to unlock the Rainbow Road in Mario Kart World.

How to unlock the Rainbow Road in Mario Kart World

The Rainbow Road becomes available only after you have unlocked the Special Cup in the Grand Prix mode. It appears as an option for you after completing all the other seven cups. Here’s a list of all cups you need to finish:

Mushroom CupFlower CupStar CupShell CupBanana CupLeaf CupLightning Cup

It doesn’t matter what CC you play the cup on, and it doesn’t matter if you even place in the race. You just need to play each cup.

Like the other cups, the Special Cup has four tracks: Acorn Heights, Mario Circuit, Peach Stadium, with Rainbow Road being the last one.

How to play Rainbow Road in Mario Kart World

Once you have raced through Rainbow Road once and beat the Special Cup, you might want to give the course another try. We have tested and can confirm that you can enjoy this track by replaying the Special Cup in the Grand Prix mode or selecting it in VS Race mode.

According to some Reddit users, Rainbow Road can also appear in online play if you’re lucky. In online races, you can vote for one between three tracks randomly selected by the game, or you can pick “random.” If Rainbow Road comes among the first options, you can just select that — but the track may not be picked, since the game chooses randomly from what the players voted for.

If you are really burning to race Rainbow Road in an online lobby, your best bet is to vote “random” if Rainbow Road doesn’t come up as an actual option, since this can roll maps that weren’t among the initial voting options.

Did you just get a Nintendo Switch 2? Are you trying to unlock every character and outfit in Mario Kart World? Or maybe you’re trying out The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker for the first time and you need a walkthrough for those pesky stoplights in the Forsaken Fortress? Either way, we have your back when it comes to helping you sort stuff out.We have guides explaining how to set up your console (moving data from your original Switch to your Switch 2) as well as guides for things like getting external storage sorted out.

From Polygon via this RSS feed