The collaborative relationship between LEGO and Nintendo, two world leaders in family-friendly entertainment that operate in the adjacent realms of toys and games, began with the 1999 release of LEGO Racers on N64. At least one LEGO game has been released on a Nintendo platform nearly every year since, and multiple Nintendo-themed LEGO sets have been released each year since they debuted in 2020.
The LEGO-Nintendo synergy has persisted through the Switch era, and with the Switch 2 now out in the wild, we’re looking back on the legacy of LEGO on the Switch.
As of November 2025, 19 LEGO games have been released on Switch, from LEGO Undercover City in 2017 to the most recent LEGO Party! game in 2025. Of the 19 games, nine are LEGO originals and 10 are licensed collaborations with other intellectual properties.
In April 2017, one month after the console’s launch, the series’ first game to hit the Switch was LEGO City Undercover, which is an original LEGO game originally released for Wii U in 2013. It’s based on the LEGO City series of themed building sets and tells the tale of an undercover police officer tracking an escaped prisoner.
LEGO Worlds is another original game released on the Switch in 2017. Worlds is the most authentically LEGO game available on Switch; it steps out of the series’ usual action-adventure genre into the world of sandbox games (think Minecraft), allowing you to build structures and environments brick by brick.
The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game is, as its name makes clear, an adaptation of The LEGO Ninjago Movie. The game and movie, both based on LEGO’s own Ninjago line, were released in the U.S. on September 22, 2017. The action-adventure game features eight locations and several playable characters from the movie.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes draws characters and locations from Marvel movies and comics alike, with a massive roster of characters that (probably) includes every Marvel hero and villain you can think of. It’s a direct sequel to LEGO Marvel Super Heroes that ultimately pits you against the time-travelling villain Kang the Conqueror.
The first game is also available on the Switch, though you’ll find it further down this list – it wasn’t ported until 2021.
Another LEGO-Disney collaboration, LEGO The Incredibles combines story beats from both movies, the 2004 original and 2018 sequel. The game was released alongside The Incredibles 2 in June 2018. It features over 100 playable characters, including all five members of the Parr family. This game is one of many Disney games currently available on the Switch in 2025.
LEGO DC Super-Villains is a LEGO Batman spinoff focused on a collection of villains from the deep history of DC Comics, including The Joker and Lex Luthor. The villains must navigate the internal threat of personality conflict while pursuing the mysterious Justice Syndicate. It’s notably the first LEGO game to center its story around a player-created character.
The LEGO Harry Potter Collection is a compilation of two games: LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7. The collection includes the complete LEGO Harry Potter experience, pulling characters, stories, and activities from all seven books and eight movies. This collaboration goes hand-in-hand with the many LEGO Harry Potter sets that have released over the last few years.
The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is a movie tie-in that was largely knocked for its lack of originality and innovation. The game blends elements of traditional action-adventure LEGO games with the building elements introduced in LEGO Worlds.
Originally released alongside the movie in 2015, LEGO Jurassic World came to Switch four years later in 2019. It features a 20-level campaign with five levels from each movie that had been released up until that point in time (Jurassic Park 1-3 and Jurassic World). In addition to characters from the Jurassic World movies, you can unlock playable versions of the franchise’s primary directors, Steven Spielberg and Colin Trevorrow.
LEGO Builder’s Journey came to Switch in 2021 after debuting on Apple Arcade in 2019. While most LEGO games incorporate puzzle-solving, Builder’s Journey is all puzzles, all the time. It’s a beautifully designed game that tells its father-son story one geometric puzzle at a time.
First released in 2013, LEGO Marvel Superheroes didn’t come to Switch until 2021. It tells an original story with several of Marvel’s most recognizable heroes – Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, and others – teaming up to foil the apocalyptic plans of Doctor Doom and Loki.
The definitive LEGO Star Wars experience, The Skywalker Saga features reimagined scenes from all nine Skywalker movies: the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, and sequel trilogy. Within this sprawling collection are over 300 playable characters, 23 planets, and 100 vehicles. Compared to past LEGO games, The Skywalker Saga moves you closer to the action by shifting the camera from a zoomed-out third-person perspective to a tighter over-the-shoulder view. Considering the sheer amount of Star Wars LEGO sets out there, it's no surprise this made for one of the best Star Wars games of all time.
LEGO Brawls is the worst-reviewed game on this list, based on Metascore (46). It’s an accessible, Smash Bros.-inspired fighting game originally released for Apple Arcade in 2019. Brawls features well over 100 minifigures/fighters from over 10 LEGO sets, including Ninjago and Jurassic World.
LEGO Bricktales is an original, puzzle-based adventure similar to LEGO Builder’s Journey, though on a larger scale. The game takes you to dioramas set in jungles, deserts, cities, medieval castles, and tropical islands. Bricktales was made by ClockStone Studio, the developer best known for its Bridge Constructor series.
LEGO 2K Drive, from prolific sports game developer Visual Concepts, is a racing game set in the open world of Bricklandia. 2K Drive is a robust racing game that features street, off-road, and water races; story, single race, tournament, minigame, and free-roam modes; and a custom car-builder that our review called "excellent."
LEGO Fortnite is a collection of LEGO-themed games housed within Fortnite. Epic Games and the LEGO Group have created several LEGO Fornite experiences since the collaboration was launched in late 2023. Among the current ways to play are a survival-crafting game called Odyssey, an online social RPG called Brick Life, and a level designer called LEGO Islands.
The franchise’s latest game is LEGO Horizon Adventures, a collaboration between PlayStation’s Guerrilla Games and English support studio Studio Gobo. It’s a retelling of Horizon Zero Dawn, simplified and sanitized for a wider audience, that leans into the combat and platforming mechanics of LEGO action games before it.
The latest LEGO game is a two-player co-op adventure that is short and sweet. In our 8 out of 10 review, IGN praised its meorable puzzle games and fantasticly presented world. It doesn't have the same level of depth as co-op games like Split Fiction, or It Takes Two, but it's a fun game you can play together with someone.
The second LEGO game we got in 2025, LEGO Party is, as you might guess, a party game along the lines of Mario Party. IGN's 8/10 review describes it as "Creative, colourful, and a consistent crack up... purpose-built to turn any boring old night into a block party filled with belly laughs." It feaures 60 minigames across LEGO sets from the Ninjago, Pirates, and Space themes. You can also customize your own minifigure and tackle Challenge Zones with up to three friends.
The Switch 2 has officially arrived, but plenty of games are still making their way to the original system. If you're looking ahead all the way to 2026, a new Batman game was announced called LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight that will be released next year. It will supposedly feature a an open-world Gotham City.
While you wait for new LEGO games, you can check out all of our Switch 2 coverage or let us know which Nintendo franchise deserves a LEGO set most in 2025.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
]]>The Legend of Zelda is one of the most iconic video game series of all time. Starting on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, The Legend of Zelda follows various incarnations of Princess Zelda and Link as they fight to save Hyrule from the evil that is Ganon. While the series has always been popular, the Nintendo Switch has catapulted Zelda into one of Nintendo's best-selling properties with landmark titles in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
Echoes of Wisdom released toward the end of the original Nintendo Switch's life cycle, but Nintendo has already revealed quite a bit about the next generation of adventures in Hyrule. Here's every Legend of Zelda game on the Nintendo Switch as well as new Zelda games coming to the Switch 2.
In total, five Zelda games, three Hyrule Warriors games, and one spin-off game have been released specifically for the Nintendo Switch. This includes both mainline entries and spinoff games that were released from 2017 to 2025. All of these Zelda games are playable on the Switch 2.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the first Zelda title released for Nintendo Switch. Launching alongside the system, this title marked a turning point in the Zelda series, bringing a style of open world gameplay that we'd never seen before. You can traverse to anywhere you can see in the world. Link awakes after a 100 year slumber, where he is tasked by the spirit of Hyrule's former King to save Princess Zelda from Calamity Ganon - a primal evil trapped inside Hyrule Castle.
Read our original review of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or see what we thought of the Switch 2 version .
Hyrule Warriors is an action hack and slash title developed by Omega Force and originally released for the Wii U. Characters from all kinds of Zelda games make an appearance, whether as playable characters or villains. The game was brought over to Nintendo Switch in 2018 in the form of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, and includes all characters, stages, and modes from the original game in addition to Breath of the Wild inspired costumes for Link and Zelda.
Read our review of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition .
Cadence of Hyrule is an extremely unqiue collaboration between Brace Yourself Games and Nintendo. The game combines the roguelike rhythm gameplay of Crypt of the NecroDancer with the world of The Legend of Zelda and its characters. This spinoff offers an incredible soundtrack and beautiful pixelated graphics. Up against Octavo, a musical villain, Zelda and Link team up with Cadence to thwart his plans and save the Hyrule.
Read our review of Cadence of Hyrule .
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a remake of 1993 Game Boy title developed by Grezzo. This charming platformer sees Link castaway at Koholint Island, where he must solve the mystery of the Wind Fish, a legendary being said to be on the island. Unlike some of the more modern Zelda titles, Link's Awakening takes you across many different dungeons and areas to collect the Instruments of the Sirens. If you never got the chance to play the original Link's Awakening, this is the definitive way to experience one of the Zelda series' most unique titles.
Read our review of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening .
The second Switch entry in the Hyrule Warriors series, Age of Calamity is set 100 years before the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Here, you can experience firsthand the events that occured in the fight against Calamity Ganon. All of your favorite Breath of the Wild cahracters are here and playable, including Link, Zelda, the Champions, and so many more. Omega Force created a fun and expansive title, with two waves of DLC you can check out after completing the main story.
Read our review of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity .
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the long-awaited remaster of the classic Wii game. Set at the beginning of the Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword takes Link to the skies as he traverses across the world to save his childhood friend Zelda. You'll uncover the Master Sword was created as part of this journey, among other things. The remaster includes the iconic motion controls you can operate with the Joy-Con and a new button-only gameplay style for those looking to play without motion.
Read our review of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD .
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hit the market in 2023, selling over 10 million copies in just three days as well as quite a few special edition Switch consoles. Set a few years after the events of Breath of the Wild, Link is tasked once again with finding Princess Zelda after Ganondorf is resurrected. Tears of the Kingdom takes to both the skies of Hyrule and the depths below the land. This creates one of the largest maps you'll find in any game, leaving for hundreds of hours of exploration to be had. All in all, it's the best Zelda game of all time and a hard one to follow.
Read our original review of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or see what we thought about the Switch 2 version .
But, of course, Tears of the Kingdom was not the end of this beloved Nintendo franchise on the original Switch. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was announced during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct before launching on the Switch in the fall later that year. While Echoes has the titular Princess take the story's reigns, and features a more 2D art style à la Link's Awakening, it should not be mistaken as a spin-off or side project. This is a full-blown, magical Zelda game, that lets you unlock your creativity to try and save Link and the rest of Hyrule in entirely new ways.
Read our review of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom .
The latest Zelda-adjacent release is a new entry in the Hyrule Warriors series. Nintendo has heavily emphasized that the story is canon, giving us a deeper look at the Imprisoning War in what is essentially a prequel to Tears of the Kingdom. You get to play as a spread of different characters, including Princess Zelda, who has been sent into Hyrule's past and must work with new allies in the fight against Ganandorf.
Read our review of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
If you're interested in checking out some of the older Zelda titles, the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service has loads of Zelda titles from Nintendo's older consoles. Here is every Zelda game currently available on the service:
*On the GameCube library exclusive to the Switch 2
There has been no news of upcoming mainline Legend of Zelda games. We'll be sure to let you know as soon as it's announced, because it's almost certainly in Nintendo's pipeline. In the meantime, Nintendo has announced other plans with the franchise.
First up, Nintendo has officially teased a new LEGO The Legend of Zelda set as a follow-up to the LEGO Great Deku Tree. The next set seems to be inspired specifically by Ocarina of Time and will be released at some point in 2026, when we're also expecting the first LEGO x Pokemon collab.
In addition to the games themselves, Nintendo has also announced they will be bringing Hyrule to the big screen with a live-action Legend of Zelda movie. In terms of details, the movie's director, Wes Ball (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), has expressed his desire to make a more "grounded" Zelda adaptation that feels like live-action Miyazaki. The Zelda movie will be releasing in theaters on March 26, 2027 and Nintendo has officially confirmed the actors playing both Link and Zelda.
See the full list of upcoming Switch games for everything coming to the system in 2025.
Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.
]]>LEGO has teased a new Legend of Zelda set for 2026, featuring Link, Princess Zelda and... an ominous silhouette.
A brief teaser video posted on social media today appears to recreate a scene from N64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where Link and floating fairy Navi face down Ganon. Princess Zelda can also be seen in the background.
🔥Do you realize who you're dealing with?#LEGOTheLegendofZelda pic.twitter.com/NCl84ydZ3a
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 11, 2025
Nintendo of America's social media account accompanied the clip with the tease: "Do you realize who you're dealing with?" This is further confirmation of Ganon's appearance, as the dialogue is part of a longer quote from Ganon in Ocarina of Time: "Pathetic little fool! Do you realize who you're dealing with? I am Ganondorf! And soon, I will rule the world!"
The clip concludes with the phrase "Build the Legend: Coming in 2026" — and that's all we have to go on for now.
A previous leak by BrickFanatics suggested the set will be a diorama featuring Ganon, Link and Zelda in their Ocarina of Time incarnations. Set for launch in March 2026, the box will reportedly include 1003 pieces.
This should mean the new set will be priced lower than LEGO and Nintendo's initial Legend of Zelda offering: the 2500-piece Great Deku Tree which launched in September 2024, priced 299ドル.99. That set was especially large as it offered two builds in one: a version of the Deku Tree as seen in both Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild.
2026 looks set to be a busy (and likely expensive) year for Nintendo and LEGO fans, as the companies' LEGO Pokémon range is also due to roll out in the coming spring. A recent leak suggested one LEGO Pokémon set would comprise a chunky 6,838 pieces, and sell for almost 650ドル.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
]]>Video games are synonymous with the name Nintendo. But which of the hundreds of incredible games that have graced the legendary Japanese company’s numerous home and handheld consoles are the best? Well, here at IGN, we’ve teamed up with our friends at Nintendo Life to try and answer that question. What follows is the 100 best Nintendo games of all time, based on a combination of each site’s expert opinions.
As for what qualifies to make our list? Well, the vast majority you'll see here were either developed and/or published by Nintendo itself. But there's also room for some others, those games that are synonymous with Nintendo consoles or at least a period of timed exclusivity on one of its many home devices and handhelds. For example, GTA Chinatown Wars sits at 99 despite being developed by Rockstar and arriving later on the PSP, because it had a whole nine months of being on the Nintendo DS first and was designed with the DS' stylus and second screen in mind.
From iconic Nintendo in-house series such as Super Mario, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda, to third-party heroes who have made their home on everything from the NES to Switch 2, narrowing down the field was no easy task. These aren’t necessarily the best games to play right now, but a ranking based on a combination of historic innovation, modern ingenuity, and the legacy each has left behind.
Have an opinion on what should be placed where? You can contribute to our public ranking by voting in this faceoff or let us know in the comments below. Over the course of this week, we’ll be steadily revealing our picks, with 20 being revealed each day until the full ranking is complete on Friday, November 14. So, without further ado, here are the top 100 Nintendo games of all time:
More than 20 years on, there’s still nothing quite like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (which, yes, is probably due in part to Nintendo's now-expired sanity system patent). Not only did it have the temerity to jump between wildly distinct time periods, but it also went to great lengths to mess with your mind should you get spotted by enemies too much. Whether it’s an unsettling noise, a slightly skewed camera angle, or the game straight up simulating a ‘blue screen of death’, it made for one of the most memorable experiences in the horror genre. The Lovecraftian aesthetic still sings to this very day, and a certain bathtub scene is just as sure to give you the willies now as it did back in 2002. A remarkable game that deserves a second chance in the spotlight.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
A GTA game releasing exclusively (until its later PSP arrival) for a Nintendo handheld seems like an incongruous proposal. But, in 2009, Rockstar gave the DS Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a standalone story of Triads and tribulations in GTA 4’s modern Liberty City setting. This top-down ode to the series’ roots miraculously converted the open-world cinema we’d come to expect, adapting to its handheld confines through smart touchpad mechanics and a stylised, cell-shaded comic-book-like aesthetic to stunning effect. What could so easily have been a misguided experiment between Rockstar and Nintendo instead became one of the DS’s most essential games.
Simon Cardy - IGN
From the days when the word "polygon" was exclusively found in math textbooks comes Nintendo’s 3D evolution of a mainstay arcade genre: the SHMUP. Taxing the SNES hardware so much, even the Super FX chip included inside the cartridge couldn’t get the action to run even at a targeted 12 frames per second, Star Fox followed the linear stage setups of R-Type and co., but played from a behind-the-ship and first-person perspective. The "talking" animals are here to remind you that you’re playing a Nintendo game, but in the end, Star Fox is a highly technical and experimental harbinger of the future. Far from being just a tech demo, it’s also a really fun game, however, thanks to challenging players to play again and again to perfect their runs and experiment to discover alternate paths.
Peer Schneider - IGN
While it's effectively a re-thread of the original Castlevania, this fourth mainline instalment in the series really does elevate things to an entirely different level of quality. Sure, Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse might be the better game overall, but Super Castlevania IV reimagines Transylvania through a 16-bit lens; the visuals are stunning, with Mode 7 effects adding a new dimension to proceedings, while the music is so good you'd swear it was being streamed from a CD. Subsequent entries would arguably take the franchise to the next level of brilliance, but one thing is clear: Super Castlevania IV remains a masterpiece.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
The Nintendo DS became a haven for visual novel fans; an interactive storybook device that could ease you into a deep night’s sleep. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors was far more likely to keep you up all night, however, with its twisted game of life and death. Chunsoft’s first entry into the Zero Escape series, 999 placed you alongside eight other potential victims inside a sinking cruise liner that tested your puzzle and deduction skills as you unraveled the web woven by a mysterious mastermind. It’s twisted, clever, and a great example of handheld experimentation that he console would become known for.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Three Houses is a Fire Emblem game that got it all so right; it's been hard to readjust to the series in its aftermath. You see, Three Houses gives us the turn-based strategy we're all fiending for, yes, and it does so with style to spare. However, the real draw here, and the thing that makes this one so worthy of note overall, is the focus and effort that’s been placed on the socialising, customisation, relationships, and all that good stuff that happens between scraps. It's a game you could quite happily live in for a bit.
PJ O'Reilly - Nintendo Life
What does Professor Layton hide under that huge hat? Perhaps, a towering cylindrical head of a shape unlike any other in human history. He’d certainly need one to house a brain big enough to solve all of the puzzles thrown his way over the course of his many DS and 3DS adventures. A consistent quality of cosiness mixed with Sherlock Holmes-esque yarns can be found across the Layton series, but we’ve gone with The Unwound Future as our pick of the bunch. Its time-traveling tale, full of memorable twists and turns, thrills just as much as solving one of its dozens of conundrums does, satisfying brains of all shapes and sizes to great effect.
Simon Cardy - IGN
25 years later, WWF No Mercy, the THQ-published wrestling game released on the Nintendo 64, is not only still considered to be the pinnacle of the N64 wrestling game boom, but it's also widely thought of as the greatest wrestling game of all time. Since its release, it's been the benchmark for what any wrestling game, with or without the WWE license, has aspired to be. It's developed a cult-like following, with fans still playing (and modding) No Mercy to this day, updating its 25-year-old roster with modern superstars when the latest 2K game doesn't live up to its standards. It's not often a game still stands strong after a quarter of a century, and it's even rarer when it's a sports game. All of this makes WWF No Mercy not only the greatest-ever wrestling game, but perhaps Nintendo's greatest-ever sports game that doesn't include Mario.
Dale Driver - IGN
Kirby: Planet Robobot, a truly astonishing little game for the Nintendo 3DS that encapsulates all that is best and beloved about the pink puffball. Robobot has everything: a deep roster of unique and useful copy abilities, colorful and creative levels, an interesting one-off gimmick in the robot armor, silly minigames, and a plot that starts with Kirby taking a nap and ends in a giant galactic battle against a superintelligent, planet-sized being.
In addition to all this, Kirby: Planet Robobot is one of the very few games to really make effective use of the Nintendo 3DS's 3D capabilities. While the game itself takes place on a 2D plane, it features a number of levels that have depth as well as length, and look absolutely fantastic with the 3D turned on, as cars drive directly at the player and giant ice cream cones tip over and spill on the camera. While Kirby has since gained other new copy abilities, minigames, and even his first 3D adventure in the years since, most of them struggle to hold a candle in our hearts to Planet Robobot's breadth, depth, and pure charm.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
Apart from Nintendo itself, Rare was the N64’s most important developer, and one place the UK-based studio actually outpaced Nintendo was in the kart racer category. Mario Kart 64 is an undeniable classic, but Diddy Kong Racing just inches ahead as our pick for the best kart racer on the 64. In addition to chaotic split-screen kart racing, Diddy Kong Racing drove the genre forward with three vehicle types (your friend could be in a plane flying alternate routes during the same race you were in a car!), an adventure mode complete with boss battles, and an amazing soundtrack from Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise. Plus, it was the first appearance of Banjo and Conker ahead of their solo platformer outings – and it’s the forgotten, cute, family-friendly version of Conker well before he started drinking, smoking, and swearing.
Logan Plant - IGN
Though it's been ported and remade several times, none of the more recent versions of The World Ends With You has managed to capture how excellent this game was back when it first released on Nintendo DS. We could go on all day about what makes it great: the art style, the deep fashion mechanics, its accurate portrayal of Shibuya and Japanese youth culture, its unusual story with multiple wild twists, its incredible cast of characters, the MUSIC.
But maybe the best element of TWEWY that we've lost in subsequent editions is its battle system, which made unique and brilliant use of both the system's dual screen and its touch controls simultaneously with its D-pad to effectively simulate two different characters synchronizing their attacks with one another in two different realms. Combined with a wide variety of "pins" that could be activated with different types of touch attacks, there was endless room for creativity and growth through multiple playthroughs. Which you definitely wanted to do, if only to hear Calling and Three Seconds Clapping one more time.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
After years of being relegated to supporting roles, our little mushroom-headed friend Toad finally got his own game in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Nintendo, over the years, has done a brilliant job of designing games fit and tuned perfectly to the personalities of each of its mascots, and Captain Toad is no exception. The cute, diorama-like levels proved to be magnificent puzzles for our intrepid explorer to navigate one by one, presenting a slower and cozier pace from other Nintendo challenges, yet still being perfectly, whimsically Nintendo. It's a shame we never got another one of these.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
We could’ve gone with either Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age as our entry on this list, but we’ve settled for the second part of Camelot's two-act RPG adventure, as it is ultimately the better half. Golden Sun was already an absolute feat, with its creative Psynergy and Djinn systems, gorgeous environments and music, and surprisingly robust open world. In the sequel they quadrupled the size of that world, added even more Psynergy and Djinn and classes, came up with more banger songs and environments, and opened the second act with a wild party switching twist that would go on to be subverted further in a triumphant march to the final battle. Golden Sun and The Lost Age are nuts in the best way, The Lost Age even more so, and are among the best GBA games of all time.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
Mario has tried his hand at a lot of different sports over the years, but few have had the staying power of golf. Originally driving off on the NES, before approaching the 3D world of the N64, it’s Toadstool Tour on the GameCube where the plumber really nailed the action on the green. Its sizeable roster of characters and compelling courses offered a great round of multiplayer fun for those looking for a more laid-back time away from the hectic rush of Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, and the furious consequences of Mario Party.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Super Monkey Ball’s brilliance lies in the fact that you’re tilting the stage to roll your monkey around rather than directly moving the character itself, and its table maze concept has never been more finely tuned than in Super Monkey Ball 2. The 2002 GameCube sequel is stuffed with 140 stages to clear – ranging from fun and simple courses perfect for laughing at the silly monkeys on family game night to downright brutal challenges that’ll make you go bananas as you lose hundreds of lives trying to clear them. Mastering everything it has to offer is extraordinarily satisfying, and its physics, momentum, and controls are so pinpoint that a study found that surgeons who warm up by playing Super Monkey Ball 2 are more efficient and precise in simulated surgeries compared to the surgeons who didn’t play. Video games really can save lives!
Logan Plant - IGN
Viewtiful Joe practically attacks your eyeballs with its standout art direction and frantically fun combat. It’s unfiltered Hideki Kamiya at an exciting career crossroads, melding his Devil May Cry action with a colourful paintbrush palette that would later evolve into the likes of Okami and The Wonderful 101. A wholly original side-scroller that threatens to burst out of its purple cube confines if your fingers don’t keep up with its cell-shaded antics, it's an exciting combo of 2D and 3D platform action that felt fresh in 2003, with an intoxicating style that few have come close to matching since. It spawned sequels, but none truly reached the heights of the original, which has stood the test of time as one of the GameCube’s very best.
Simon Cardy - IGN
F-Zero is about cheating death to go faster, and F-Zero GX’s uncompromising difficulty and incredibly high skill ceiling represent a peak of the futuristic racing genre. Like F-Zero X before it, GX forces you to sacrifice your machine’s health bar to get a boost, resulting in tense risk-reward scenarios that get your blood pumping every time. And if you fall off the track while trying to shave off an extra split second, Lakitu won’t swoop in to save you – you’re dead. You must master GX’s tight mechanics and memorize its radical track designs to even stand half a chance against its toughest CPUs, and you hit a high most video games can’t reach when you finally cross the finish line in first place. The cold-blooded challenge only works because GX runs perfectly at 60 fps and looks fantastic with strong art direction that rivals the GameCube’s best, like Metroid Prime and Rogue Leader. F-Zero GX is a masterpiece, and probably the most hardcore Nintendo game since the NES.
Logan Plant - IGN
Ring Fit Adventure is one of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games, thanks largely to a global pandemic making indoor exercise briefly appealing. Unfortunately, like many other exercise programs, most people who started Ring Fit fell off the game before they could discover how much more than just an exercise game it really is. Ring Fit Adventure is genuinely one of the most unique RPGs of the generation. It has a colorful cast of characters, bolstered by surprisingly good writing, a battle system revolving around your own physical movement, complete with skill trees, elemental weaknesses, and even healing items you can craft through more exercise. Plus, its soundtrack is straight work-out bangers, too.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
Nearly every moment of Phoenix Wright’s original courtroom adventure is iconic. From Phoenix’s debut trial against Mr. Sahwit (Or should I say... Mr. Did It!) to cross-examining a literal parrot, the first Ace Attorney fully commits to its completely unhinged world and never looks back. Exposing witnesses’ lies and uncovering the truth of each case is exhilarating, largely because of its excellent soundtrack and lively character animations, and the way Ace Attorney balances its unabashed silliness with genuinely serious, heartfelt moments is nothing short of masterful. It’s also an essential game in its genre, as Ace Attorney’s surprisingly successful sales paved the way for more visual novel and puzzle games to find a footing in the West.
Logan Plant - IGN
Considered by many to be the apex of the 'classic' Castlevania entries, Dracula's Curse remains a wonderful example of a talented group of developers pushing aging hardware to its maximum potential. By the time it arrived in 1989, the 16-bit era was already in full swing and the NES was looking very old-fashioned. However, despite the humble nature of the host hardware, Konami created a stunning action platformer, boasting multiple playable characters and optional routes through Dracula's castle. Indeed, many consider this to be superior to the first 16-bit entry in the series, Super Castlevania IV, which arrived just a short time later in 1991.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
Is there a non-localised game that has garnered more attention than Mother 3? EarthBound’s follow-up could have been more of the same — more satire, more charm — and it is both of those things. But Mother 3’s story of family, capitalism, and corruption will deeply touch anyone who plays it. It’s also a smart evolution of EarthBound’s turn-based combat, using rhythm mechanics to let you flex your skills. Its tearjerking moments may transcend the games, but there’s so much more richness within Mother 3 that it deserves to be played by all. If only it were easier to access...
Alana Hagues - Nintendo Life
A Western counterpart to the Japanese Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Elite Beat Agents got toes tapping as much as fingers thanks to its snackable episodic rhythm hilarity. A star-studded list of tracks, including Earth, Wind & Fire’s September and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance provides the backdrop for the titular government agents to go out into the world and help those in need. Doing so tests your reflexes and challenges even the most hardy of rhythm-action veterans, as you try and keep up with the "tap and drag" mechanics while also fighting against the urge to laugh all the while. Although it never sold enough to become a mainstream hit, it has cemented itself as a cult classic and a vital DS game that encapsulates the handheld’s willingness to experiment and just get weird with it.
Simon Cardy - IGN
There’s no platformer series with better vibes than the Donkey Kong Country games. Rare used technology that transforms pre-rendered 3D objects into 2D sprites, giving the SNES trilogy a wholly unique look that’s still beautiful on CRT televisions, and most agree that Diddy’s Kong Quest (Get it? Conquest?) is the top banana of Rare’s Donkey Kong games. With darker themes as Diddy and Dixie Kong explore King K. Rool’s vile Crocodile Isle, creative locations like a dilapidated theme park or the inside of a beehive, and tons of meaningful secrets and collectibles to uncover, DKC 2 is an outstanding adventure that’s perfectly paced from start to finish. What cements it as an all-timer, though, is its soundtrack, which is easily among the best on SNES. Stickerbush Symphony, anyone?
Logan Plant - IGN
Vibes are precisely the reason to love Super Mario Sunshine. Look, it hasn't aged well in some places. It's got some goofy movement, and some of the levels make you want to rip your hair out (Pachinko, Sand Bird). But the goofiness of Mario being sent to a tropical island and being forced to clean up gunk to avoid going to jail is unmatched. And it makes for some pretty interesting level design, which Nintendo manages to concoct in Sunshine around a variety of conceits that all fit the tropical vacation theme while each feeling distinct. We love the silly Piantas, shooting ourselves high into the air with FLUDD, and skidding through Delfino Plaza on our stomachs like we’re on a slip 'n' slide, and collecting every last one of those pesky blue coins. They've never made another game quite like Super Mario Sunshine. We’re not sure they ever will, but its pure ambitious strangeness has earned it a spot among the Nintendo greats.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
Released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 2, Secret of Mana is one of those rare JRPGs that completely changed people's perception of what the genre could deliver. Even by modern standards, its gorgeous visuals and bewitching Hiroki Kikuta soundtrack have lost none of their impact, while the nuanced storyline and captivating characters grab your attention and refuse to let go. Released at a time when it was rare for a game of this type to be blessed with a global release, Secret of Mana is rightly compared to other SNES role-playing classics. The 2018 remake was welcome, but didn't quite match up to the original, which tells you everything you need to know about how highly this game is regarded by fans.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
A hybrid of turn-based and real-time strategy and RPG gameplay, Quest’s Ogre Battle 64 is very much a prettier and better version of the first game that attempted this volatile mix, The March of the Black Queen for SNES. Mixing 3D maps with DKC-style pre-rendered sprites, Ogre Battle 64 was so jam-packed with content, Nintendo stepped in as co-publisher and sprang for a 40MB cartridge – the second-biggest ever released for N64. The game’s sophisticated systems reveal themselves layer by layer as players figure out how to capitalize on character alignments, balance good and evil actions to maintain their hidden "chaos frame" stat, and evolve characters and classes to become more powerful. While the "Ogre" brand survives in the isometric turn-based "Tactics" offshoot, Ogre Battle 64 remains a true forgotten gem worth playing.
Peer Schneider - IGN
Few games dare to tread where Wave Race 64 went: to try and simulate races on a track that constantly changes. Wave Race occupies a rarely visited genre of racing game – Beetle Adventure Racing or Split/Second come to mind – where the elements and the circuit itself are more formidable opponents than the opposing drivers, human or AI. Other racers challenge you to learn proper cornering – in Wave Race, even going straight is a skill to be learned as the undulating waves try to toss you off your path. Weather hazards, changing tides, and varying wave conditions unlock shortcuts and constantly challenge racers to weave and dive to maximum success. That control learning curve is steep. Wave Race 64 is a hard game to get into – but learn its language and it’s still one of the most technical and rewarding racers around.
Peer Schneider - IGN
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is the sort of game we just don't see enough of these days. A fast-paced, on-rails shoot 'em up with no intentions of taking it easy on you, dear player. This 2009 epic -- a sequel to Treasure's Japan-only N64 original -- serves up high-octane, incredibly good-looking action against some fantastically deranged and tricksy enemy types. Think Space Harrier, in how your character appears hovering on-screen, and then add some amazing level design, top-notch baddies, and excellent use of the Wii's motion controls for targeting. For high-score chasers and lovers of stiff challenges, this one is hard to beat.
PJ O'Reilly - Nintendo Life
A GameCube exclusive, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader was the envy of any owner of PS2 or Xbox in 2001. Virtually an improvement in every way when compared to the N64’s original Rogue Squadron, this slice of rebel alliance fantasy was a feast for both the eyes and ears, even holding up remarkably well today. Its arcade-like approach to dogfighting was a thrill to pilot, whether launching daring Y-Wing bomber runs or reenacting A New Hope’s iconic Death Star assault, Rogue Leader remains the gold standard when it comes to Star Wars space battles (unless you lean more toward the dark side with 1994’s TIE Fighter, that is).
Simon Cardy - IGN
Xenoblade Chronicles X got a highly deserved re-release on Switch, and we can only hope that gamers who skipped it or missed it the first time around give it another go, as it's quite possibly the best the series has to offer, certainly with regards to hot mech-on-mech action. What starts out, and continues for the first half of the game as 'just' another excellent Xenoblade adventure, takes flight — quite literally — once you fully unlock the ability to zoom around and battle in a big fancy robot. Beating most dedicated mech games at what they do best, XCX is every bit the all-timer.
PJ O'Reilly - Nintendo Life
It's remarkable how many amazing JRPGs didn't make it to the West during the lifetime of the SNES / Super Famicom - and Live A Live is perhaps one of the most notable examples. A time-travelling epic which spans multiple scenarios and boasts a varied cast of protagonists, Square's 1994 classic is unlike any other game in this genre; it's a shame, then, that it was considered a commercial flop at the time of its original release. Thankfully, the 2022 remake not only spruces up the presentation but also gives Live A Live a global release for the first time, allowing a much wider audience to experience its amazing qualities.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
Adapting 1984's Punch Out!!! and Super Punch Out!!! arcade games to consoles, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!! saw the boxer lend his likeness to a game that, if you're of a certain vintage, you can only have sweet memories of. Yes, it may not look all that to modern eyes, but it's still got it where it counts, with a simple, tight control scheme that puts bobbing, weaving, blocking, ducking, and punching at your fingertips. Are you ready to take on a roster that includes Glass Joe, Piston Honda, and Mike Tyson himself? Terrifying final boss material.
PJ O'Reilly - Nintendo Life
If, in the early ‘90s, you had been asked to imagine a Mario spin-off platformer, it’s unlikely that you’d land on anything quite like the Wario Land series. The boisterous movement, grotesque power-ups, and vocal sample-filled soundtrack couldn’t be further from the pleasantries of the Mushroom Kingdom, and nowhere is this funky format better presented than in Wario Land 4.
It’s tough and it’s weird, but good lord, does it feel good. The bopping soundtrack and uber-detailed visuals make each level a delight to explore, but it’s in the areas’ explosive second phases where the game really sings. It requires a particularly slick moveset to make escaping a crumbling ancient tomb feel satisfying, and Wario brings it. Nintendo has been behind some of the most prolific platformers we’ve ever seen, but few stand apart for their rulebook-throwing quirkiness as much as Wario’s pyramid-raiding adventure.
Jim Norman - Nintendo Life
Mario games are almost always delightful, but only a select few are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is definitely one of them, chucking out ludicrous jokes left, right, and centre from beginning to end. It represents the Mario franchise at its most self-aware, constantly putting poor ol’ Green ‘Stache down for his supposed lack of appeal next to his heroic brother, while berating Bowser for his sheer buffoonery. And who can forget the magnificent Fawful, who would return in the also-excellent Bowser's Inside Story? But none of Superstar Saga’s storytelling would hit half as hard were it not for the excellent RPG mechanics at its core. Moves learned throughout the game become useful both in and outside of battle, while timed button presses add a layer of immediacy to the turn-based combat. Not a moment feels wasted.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
Mario might have gotten the jump(man) on this game's eponymous ape in the years that followed, but it was Donkey Kong who everyone associated with Nintendo in the early '80s. To entire generations of console gamers nowadays, arcades sound almost apocryphal. Pumping actual, physical cash into a hulking great machine to play a video game for a few minutes? What a strange concept. Spend those few minutes with DK lobbing barrels at you, though, and it's easy to understand, even with its old-school fall damage and somewhat stiff feel. It's a shame that high-score controversy tends to dominate discussion of this coin-op classic these days because, given the chance, Kong is still king. Scaling 100 metres across four screens is a challenge every gamer should undertake.
Gavin Lane - Nintendo Life
While not strictly a Nintendo game, Dragon Quest XI makes our list due to the franchise’s strong ties to Nintendo and the simple fact that it's on the short list of the best pure JRPGs ever made. Announced as an early NX game (the codename for Nintendo Switch) in 2016, Dragon Quest XI made it to Switch in 2019 and proved to be its definitive version, with additional story content, a fully orchestral soundtrack, and an optional 2D mode with SNES-inspired pixel art. Beyond the Switch release’s enhancements, Dragon Quest XI is just a treat for old-school RPG fans with great turn-based combat and a beautiful, vibrant world to explore alongside an unforgettable band of characters. Everything in Dragon Quest XI feels so meticulously designed and lovingly polished, and it’s easy to see that this is the game Square Enix made to celebrate the legendary franchise’s 30th anniversary.
Logan Plant - IGN
Smooth and acrobatic movement is something that many people take for granted in modern games, but there aren't many that show the evolution quite like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. Its predecessor already left countless thousands besotted with its over-the-top weaponry and combat contrasted against the shocking realism of its eponymous beasts, but MH4 broke the shackles of the Earth and let your hunter traverse the verticality of its world. That, and send a surprisingly well-behaved insect to do some of your dirty work whilst you pole-vaulted up to smash the face of a not-so-hapless Gore Magala. Oh, and this was all done on the 3DS, a console about as powerful as a particularly milky cup of tea. Marvellous stuff.
Alex Olney - Nintendo Life
It’s hard to imagine the fighting game world without Street Fighter, but it’s a series that didn’t truly make its mark until Street Fighter 2 Turbo arrived on the SNES in 1993. The legacy roster of Street Fighter that’s still predominantly used today started here, with Street Fighter 2 being the first appearance for series favourites like Blanka, Chun-Li, Guile, M. Bison, and Zangief. It’s only Ryu and Ken that featured as playable characters before this, marking Street Fighter 2 as the true starting point for the iconic cast of characters we’ve loved and played for decades. Along with Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter 2 Turbo created and defined a new genre of video games, and both are still the standard bearers to this day.
Dale Driver - IGN
Is it a Mario game? A Yoshi game? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because Yoshi’s Island is an absolute banger either way. The colouring book aesthetic and beautiful sunset gradients are simply astonishing, looking just as gorgeous now as they did 30 years ago. With the now-iconic flutter jump and egg-hatching mechanics, this cemented the character as a permanent fixture in the platforming genre in his own right. As a latecomer to the SNES, the game demonstrated the developers’ mastery of the console, too, with Nintendo EAD pushing creativity to the max to produce what might well be the company’s finest 2D platformer until Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
Public opinion on Twilight Princess has radically ebbed and flowed over time, but nearly 20 years after its launch, there’s a dedicated subset of Zelda fans who consider it Link’s greatest adventure – and it’s easy to see why. Following formula shakeups such as Majora’s Mask’s three-day time limit and The Wind Waker’s open ocean, Twilight Princess’ quest doubles down on the classic lock-and-key dungeon gameplay franchise traditionalists adore. It’s a worthy pseudo-sequel to Ocarina of Time, with grand, atmospheric dungeons like Arbiter’s Grounds and Snowpeak Ruins, a truly epic story with some of the most cinematic moments in Hyrule history, and the best companion to ever join Link’s side in Midna. Sure, Wolf Link’s bug-hunting segments can be annoying at times, and Hyrule Field is a little too empty, but don’t tell me you can watch Twilight Princess’ final farewell and not feel something.
Logan Plant - IGN
The first direct sequel to a Pokemon game, Black and White 2 built on the foundations of its predecessor through a remixed Unova region filled with pocket monsters of all generations and the returning looming threat of Team Plasma. Capping off arguably the most engaging story of the whole series, the enigmatic N serves as a fantastic rival with an edge not often seen in the mostly sanitised series. It’s relatively dark and epic in scale, all the while pushing the technical boundaries of the Nintendo DS far beyond its ending, offering a real sense of exploration deep into one of the most generous post-games Pokemon ever has.
Simon Cardy - IGN
GoldenEye may have put consoles on the map for first-person shooters, but Perfect Dark managed to take everything that delighted us in the ground-breaking Bond shooter and just ratchet it up to ridiculous levels. It’s as if Rare played Santa and checked off virtually everything on GoldenEye fans’ wishlists: a two-player co-op mode, crazier gadgets, bots, advanced stats tracking, and seemingly endless amounts of customizability and settings. There’s even a counter-operative mode where the second player tries to stop the other from succeeding in the main campaign. The customizability and high ambitions overall could bring the framerate to a crawl, but forgiving fans (count us in) didn’t care and kept slapping each other and blowing each other up in increasingly spectacular ways. A defining split-screen experience in need of a better preservation effort on Nintendo Switch Online (seriously, someone please finally address the native control options).
Peer Schneider - IGN
Donkey Kong ‘94 disguises itself as a handheld remake of the arcade original through its first four stages, but after you dismantle the girders and drop the big ape on his head, the true game reveals itself to be one of the most ambitious reimaginings in Nintendo history. What follows is over 100 stages of pure puzzle platforming inspired by Nintendo’s timeless classic where Mario must climb ladders, flip switches, and hurdle over enemies to reach the elusive Donkey Kong. It’s not just a nostalgia trip, though; DK ‘94 is responsible for introducing some of Mario’s most formative moves – like his triple jump and backflip – a full two years before Super Mario 64 would bring them into 3D.
Logan Plant - IGN
Nintendo took the winning gameplay of its first two ink-’em-ups and added a much-needed set of quality-of-life improvements to make the finest Splatoon experience so far. Did you know Splatoon 3 is the first in the series that guarantees you to be on the same team as your friends? Along with basic matchmaking functionality that finally allowed its phenomenal team-based gameplay to fully shine, Splatoon 3 also brings the biggest single-player campaign to date, a fantastically dystopian roguelite mode, an in-universe collectible card game, and more maps, weapons, and customization than ever before. But beyond its wealth of content, Splatoon is simply the most stylish Nintendo series around and the developer’s shining example of how to consistently support a game for years after launch. Nintendo even held a Coachella-like music festival to send off Splatoon 3, and it was even more awesome than it sounds.
Logan Plant - IGN
After 25 years of rolling dice, playing minigames, and betraying friends, the Mario Party formula reached new heights in 2024’s Super Mario Party Jamboree. It has the greatest set of boards in the franchise, and whether you’re buying game-changing items in a colorful shopping mall or planning around high tide at the pirate-themed lagoon, there are more ways to strategize than ever before. Of course, Mario Party wouldn’t be Mario Party without its crazy luck-based antics, but Jamboree strikes the best balance between skill and chance we’ve seen so far. It also has the biggest character roster in the series, a thrilling set of new and returning minigames that celebrate Nintendo history in surprising ways (You play WarioWare! And Donkey Konga!), and gorgeous presentation, making it an easy choice to crown Jamboree as Mario Party’s defining superstar.
Logan Plant - IGN
For its sequel, Bayonetta made the shift from multiplatform to Nintendo exclusivity as the astonishing follow-up landed on the Wii U with an elegant, slicing backflip and planted its feet as one of the console's few truly essential games. PlatinumGames’ trademark action excess is on full display as the titular acrobatic witch dispatches with all manner of heavenly and hellish entities thrown her way in an ultraviolent style most of us can’t even dream up, yet only program in such polished detail. It’s a masterclass in character action and a prime example of a developer working at the peak of its powers.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Before New Horizons let villagers essentially play God by molding an entire island to their exact specifications, Animal Crossing: New Leaf represented a finish line of sorts for the franchise’s original concept that began on GameCube (Or N64 in Japan). There’s plenty of customization to be found for sure, but New Leaf is more about living as a resident in a quirky community as opposed to building the perfect island paradise. Its inviting, relaxing atmosphere worked its way into our daily routines for years, and whether it was collecting furniture from the largest catalogue in the series to date, chatting with the lively, well-written townsfolk, or simply soaking up the immaculate vibes, there’s an unquantifiable charm to New Leaf’s slice of life that’s still worth revisiting even after New Horizons gave us tons of new toys to play with.
Logan Plant - IGN
After Other M and Federation Force made fans wonder if the Metroid experience they fell in love with during the 8- and 16-bit days was gone forever, Spanish developer MercurySteam pitched Nintendo on a remake of Metroid Fusion. We got a competent Metroid II remake instead – but little did we know then that it was just the warm-up course. Released in 2021, Metroid Dread arrived as a triumphant return to classic 2D Metroid. Challenging, often downright scary, and absolutely gorgeous, it wraps up the Samus Story by paying homage to all that came before. Metroid Dread at times makes you question whether you can beat the next challenge – but those who persevere will come to the most satisfying realization: it was inside of you from the very beginning. It’s not all about speed and dexterity – you overcome Dread... when you no longer fear dread.
Peer Schneider - IGN
WarioWare might be one of Nintendo’s most difficult sells. A back-to-back marathon of seconds-long microgames is hardly the most appealing concept on paper, but it absolutely rules in practice. And is there any better way to see it in action than with the title that started it all? WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! is the tightest entry of the bunch, and the perfect introduction to Wario's wonderful world of weirdness. It’s got it all: Nintendo references, nose picking, a life-like sleepy cat. Throw in some addictive side content and perhaps the most intuitively simple controls going, and you’re onto a winner. The series would go on to make the most of almost every system gimmick Nintendo could throw at it, but when it really comes down to it, microgame mayhem has never been purer than back on the GBA.
Jim Norman - Nintendo Life
Ah, Advance Wars. So ahead of the curve. So perfectly crafted as to be almost impossible to criticise. There aren't too many games out there that stand the test of time quite as well as Intelligent Systems' dinky turn-based classic, and even with a flashy Switch remaster knocking about, we wouldn't think twice about settling in for a night with the exquisitely made Game Boy Advance original. Intense, addictive, strategic to a fault, and with a learning curve that teaches you gently as you go, Advance Wars is the definition of a pure strategy classic for the ages.
PJ O’Reilly - Nintendo Life
Super Mario Kart invented the formula, and Mario Kart 64 drove us into the 3D world, so by the time it came for the GameCube to receive its very own racer, it needed a hook. That hook would come via Double Dash’s dual-driver system that added a creatively fun wrinkle to the already rock-solid foundations of before. It not only presented a new challenge to solo players, but also opened up the playbook for multiplayer frivolity, briefly freeing Mario Kart from its free-for-all shackles with a dose of teamwork. It would go on to become the second-highest-selling GameCube game ever, destined to both forge and destroy friendships with blue shells for years to come.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Essentially the best Ghostbusters game we’ve yet to play, Luigi’s Mansion 3 puts Mario’s often overshadowed brother into the spotlight in his third, and best, haunted outing. The Switch exclusive found new levels of variety inside the already established "suck and snag" formula to great effect, as Luigi’s ectoplasmic doppelganger, Gooigi, fully joined in on the fun this time around, following his introduction in the 3DS remake of the original. Not only did this gloopy green ghosthunter add a welcome cooperative wrinkle to proceedings, but he also brought a whole new bag of puzzle-solving tricks along with him. Luigi’s Mansion finally gave the taller Super Mario brother his own adventure to headline, and this threequel is the best example of why he deserved it.
Simon Cardy - IGN
A sensation of almost unparalleled popularity, there’s arguably never been a system seller of the same scale as Wii Sports since Tetris landed on the original Game Boy. Packed in with every console, this collection of bowling, tennis, golf, baseball, and boxing kept family members of all ages enthralled just as much as it boosted the TV repair business due to free-flying Wii remotes. It’s not complex, nor does it display a level of wild creativity Nintendo is renowned for, but its beautiful simplicity delivered one thing above all: fun. And isn’t that the most important factor of all?
Simon Cardy - IGN
We could throw around adjectives like ‘dreamy’ for a bunch of iconic Zelda locales, but few feel as deserving of the title as Koholint Island. Regardless of whether you play it on Game Boy, Game Boy Color, or Switch, Link’s Awakening remains one of the series’ very best entries, every bit as enchanting today as it was in 1993. It has everything you’d want from a classic Zelda — puzzle-y dungeons, crafty collectibles, a stunning overworld — but it holds such an intriguing mystery at its core that it may just boast one of the most memorable endings to any of Link’s adventures. We might have played it on three different consoles already, but a return trip to the land of the Wind Fish is always a dream.
Jim Norman - Nintendo Life
As much as Nintendo likes to make their games as accessible as possible by including game-balancing and catch-up mechanics, F-Zero X represents that side of Nintendo design that is uncompromisingly focused on player skill and technical prowess. F-Zero X is a high-speed pack-racing tour de force that pits players against 29 other racers on twisting and turning courses. You may be tempted to play bumper cars with that many racers on track (you can spin-attack them), but F-Zero also requires careful balancing of your craft’s energy, which fuels both boost and shield power. That risk vs reward setup is front and center in F-Zero X – and it’s easy to forget about what’s left in the proverbial tank when you’re racing on the outside of a magnetic pipe at 620mph.
Peer Schneider - IGN
This is it. The culmination of Nintendo's game-making expertise up to this point. The Alpha, the Omega. There's nothing left to say. It's the original and the best. Except it isn't the best, is it? After 40 years of iteration — four entire decades of analysis and refinement — it's only natural that the first 'Super' Mario Bros. isn't quite as super anymore. Yet the design principles put down by Miyamoto and Tezuka here made this the go-to, 101 text for an entire medium. We forget, too, how quickly Super Mario Bros.' wonderland weirdness became 'normal' through sheer quality. Just a moment with the NES' angular pad and the strangeness of this little moustachioed man's world, a place where you jump on turtles' backs and hit floating boxes to reveal gliding, size-doubling mushrooms, seemed totally normal. Natural, even! As the developers would go on to demonstrate many, many times (hi, Odyssey), when you make a game this good, anything goes.
Gavin Lane - Nintendo Life
Now a Microsoft studio, UK-based Rare was at one time something of an evil twin of the world’s best development team. Rare’s games were very "Nintendo" – but often with a dark streak and a twinkle in their eye. Banjo-Kazooie (and the underappreciated, but nearly as brilliant sequel Banjo-Tooie) shares a lot of DNA with Mario 64 – but it adds a wicked sense of humor and a visual style that makes it stand on its own two paws. From the taunts of its rhyming antagonist to the ridiculous transformations and the "thaaaaaannk you" flower pots (yeah, we all heard something different), Banjo-Kazooie keeps players chuckling throughout. But it’s the top-tier level design and the collection of musical earworms that make BK truly unforgettable. Whether it’s the oversized organ hitting all the right notes in Mad Monster Mansion or spotting differences among the changing seasons in Click Clock Wood, Banjo-Kazooie is a delight that’s not to be missed.
Peer Schneider - IGN
What if Mario were an elephant? What if King Boo were an opera singer? What if Piranha Plants marched to the beat of their own catchy tune? Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s answer to all of these questions is a confident, "Yes, and?" Wonder was the refresh 2D Mario desperately needed after nearly two decades of competent-but-samey New Super Mario Bros. games, and you can feel the pent-up creativity bursting from all corners of the Flower Kingdom. The imaginative Wonder Flower mechanics add surprise and delight to each stage, and the fresh art style and detailed animations – like the way Mario plucks his hat out of the air when entering a Warp Pipe – make Wonder the best-looking 2D Mario since at least Super Mario World. Aside from its somewhat clunky multiplayer, Wonder feels like the first true successor to the classic NES and SNES Super Mario games, and it proved Nintendo can still make some of the best 2D platformers out there.
Logan Plant - IGN
Nintendo had to do something special with Mario Kart World. Not only was this the first 100% new console entry in the flagship racing series in 11 years, it was also to be the poster child of Switch 2, and the day-one purchase for most people picking up the system. It’s a testament to the devs, then, just how refined the series’ tried-and-tested formula feels. There’s a lot to love about Mario Kart World — the wonderfully frantic Knockout Mode, intense 24-driver races, the all-timer soundtrack — and while it might not have thrown out the rulebook to quite the extent that some were hoping, you’ll be hard pushed to get more smiles from a racer. The perfect introduction to a new console generation and some of the finest driving we’ve seen from Nintendo’s prized plumber.
Jim Norman - Nintendo Life
The Legend of Zelda introduced a whole new way of bringing wonderfully dense atmosphere to the world of video games. Zelda laid a foundation strong enough to succeed against the side-scrolling console trends of the time, to stay the course and deliver...well, let's just say this series went places. Played now, it still holds up thanks to the tight design for each of the dungeons. While it may be nowhere near as complex as Link's latest, the base of that oh-so-addictive adventuring sauce was already being cooked up here.
PJ O’Reilly - Nintendo Life
Super Smash Bros. Melee has essentially single-handedly kept the secondhand market for CRT televisions alive for the last 15 years. Passionate Smash Bros. fans keep lugging the unwieldy boxes around to tournaments all over the world, because that’s just how enduring Melee is. Masahiro Sakurai’s GameCube masterpiece is still the fastest, deepest, and most technical fighting game Nintendo’s ever produced, and top players continue to make new discoveries that push the competitive scene forward. It’s not just for the pros, though – Melee is an amazing game for casual players, too, with a ridiculous amount of modes, items, characters, stages, and unlockables that can keep you busy for hundreds of hours. If you’re not sold on Melee’s legacy, look no further than the fact that Nintendo still sells GameCube controller adapters for each new Smash entry so stubborn fans (us included) can keep playing with 24-year-old hardware because it just doesn’t feel right any other way.
Logan Plant - IGN
Forgotten Land took Sakurai's son and placed him in a 3D adventure of which even the mighty Mario would be proud. The introduction of mouthful mode proved to be a masterstroke, both in building hype through some highly entertaining trailers and in gameplay itself, sitting comfortably alongside Kirby's usual gamut of copy abilities to make for the most rewarding and challenging outing for the food-gobbling good guy thus far. Throw in a top-notch world full of fun puzzles, perfectly pitched boss fights, and plenty of collectibles, and we're in big win city.
PJ O’Reilly - Nintendo Life
In 1996, Square took the beloved turn-based fundamentals of its Final Fantasy series and applied them to a wholly unexpected new world: Super Mario. Technically, the first Mario game to have gameplay in a 3D environment, it was a striking technical achievement for the time, but Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars also managed to perform alchemy and combine what made both of its touchstones so successful. Its party and battle systems were comfortably familiar, yet still complex enough to engage Square RPG veterans, but layered on top of this was a level of charm, colour, and humour that was expected from a Nintendo Mario game. Its legacy remains to this day, almost 30 years later, with remasters, remakes, and spin-offs in no short supply.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Nintendo is, and has always been, big on remakes – so it wasn’t a huge surprise when it announced a return to the original NES Metroid with GBA’s Metroid: Zero Mission. But when it arrived in 2004 amidst a Metroid renaissance started by Prime and Fusion, it didn’t just turn out to be better than the original – it even outperformed the biggest Metroid fans’ raised expectations. Zero Mission isn’t just a prettier version of the game that started it all; it uses familiarity with the original as a way to surprise players with the unknown. While the return to the original location supplies all the nostalgic feels returning players were hoping for, the something old and something borrowed quickly makes way for something new... and something blue. Samus sheds her power suit to add a heavy dose of stealth to the usual exploration and combat-heavy Metroid experience. Add to that a whole new area and an emphasis on not just tolerating, but encouraging sequence-breaking, and you’ve got a timeless classic absolutely worth going back to.
Peer Schneider - IGN
It’s hard to imagine a time when first-person shooters and consoles weren’t a perfect match, but before GoldenEye 007’s N64 release in 1997, any FPS using a D-pad was largely unplayable. But then, Developer Rare did the unthinkable. Not only did it manage to translate a popular PC genre onto a Nintendo 64 controller, but it created a licensed game that was a genuine game of the year contender, seemingly an impossible feat not only back in 1997, but still to this day! GoldenEye became a standard bearer for not only movie tie-in games but first-person shooters in general. Decades later, many pretenders (and even a direct remake) have failed to capture that magical formula.
Dale Driver - IGN
The Wii U was already in trouble just a year after launch, but the hardcore Nintendo faithful who owned it by November 2013 were treated to Super Mario 3D World. Nintendo took 3D Land’s, well, three-dimensional take on the classic Super Mario Bros. formula and threw every idea they had at it. There’s the Double Cherry power-up that gives you control of multiple Marios at once, clear pipes where you have to wisely choose your path, and, of course, the iconic Cat Suit. Every level introduces a clever new idea, and the whole experience is enhanced when you add more players to the mix, as 3D World has the best multiplayer in any Super Mario game, no question. The definitive Switch version added the wonderfully experimental Bowser’s Fury, which some hope could be a template for an open-world Mario game in the future.
Logan Plant - IGN
These days, Star Fox has a far bigger problem than the insidious Andross' designs on the Lylat system: no series entry has ever recaptured the glory of this on-rails masterpiece from 1997. We've seen some intriguing experiments in the decades since (enough to keep Fox fans' flames burning, at least), but Nintendo EAD utterly nailed the arcade-y shooter formula with this sequel. Adding 64-bit spectacle and wonderfully corny voice acting to the framework of the Super NES original led to a nigh-on perfect realisation of blockbuster movie majesty in video game form. Today, it's still a sensory feast; the N64's spindly, precise analogue stick forming up with a gently throbbing Rumble Pak to deliver cinematic bombast that also has subtlety. Star Fox 64 is a class act. No game is perfect, of course. But Slippy Toad aside, they don't come much closer than this.
Gavin Lane - Nintendo Life
Retro Studios’ second crack at a Donkey Kong Country game turned out to be one of the best 2D platformers of all time. It’s hard to imagine a more cinematic sidescroller than Tropical Freeze, with incredible setpieces like riding on a minecart rail that’s actively being chopped to pieces by a buzzsaw, or frantically climbing up a crumbling iceberg on the frozen-over Donkey Kong island. No level or moment is wasted, and the narrative Tropical Freeze weaves across each world through its excellent environmental worldbuilding is unmatched for a 2D platformer, the best of which is a juice factory that takes you through every step of the process from harvesting grapes to freezing juice into popsicles for the world’s final boss to enjoy. On top of brilliant presentation, Tropical Freeze is hard as nails in the best way, with difficult challenges that require mastery of DK’s weighty, momentum-based physics and high-skill techniques. Oh, and you get to play as Cranky Kong. Cranky Kong!
Logan Plant - IGN
EarthBound is one of the few games that has truly improved with age. Long after the days of weird scratch-and-sniff promos, this is a perfect satire of America and of the RPG genre. It doesn’t just mock blindly, though; it’s also a celebration of the innocence of childhood, and of turn-based combat. Few games are as charming, delightful, or funny as EarthBound, and its discussions on adulthood and the weirdness of growing up are eternally relevant. And without the late Satoru Iwata jumping in to help his friend Shigesato Itoi program the game, we might never have seen its magic come to light.
Alana Hagues - Nintendo Life
The original Mega Man didn’t sell particularly well upon launch, so it’s kind of a miracle that Capcom green-lit a sequel in the first place. It’s a good job it did, however, since Mega Man 2 still stands as the greatest entry in the long-running series. Honed to perfection with buttery-smooth responsiveness and superb power-ups, the levels and bosses remain some of the most memorable of all time, and once you’ve listened to the sublime soundtrack, you’ll feel like you’ve ascended to a higher plane of existence. Figuring out the most optimal route through the eight Robot Masters remains one of the most satisfying accomplishments in all of gaming. It’s tough, but in memorising the intricate placement of obstacles and enemies, you’ll keep coming back for more.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
After a decade-long wait for a new game following Pikmin 3, Nintendo delivered the franchise’s best entry yet with Pikmin 4. It’s hard to confine Pikmin to one genre – it’s got real-time strategy, action adventure, puzzle, worker placement, and even metroidvania elements – but no matter what you call it, you can sum Pikmin up with one word: satisfying. Whether you’re solving puzzles in caves returning from Pikmin 2, exploring the most complex and gorgeous environments the series has seen, or defending valuable resources in the new tower defense night levels, commanding your army of weird plant aliens has never felt better. Throw in your adorable dog companion Oatchi and an entire second campaign to tackle after the credits roll, and you’ve got the definitive Pikmin experience that Pikmin 5 will have a hard time topping.
Logan Plant - IGN
Over the years, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door gained a reputation among hardcore Nintendo fans that matched the tales of the legendary door itself, and its extremely passionate fanbase was finally rewarded with an immaculate Switch remake that justified why this GameCube classic is so treasured. Mario’s quest to gather the Crystal Stars is timeless, with memorable, quirky characters like the smart and sassy Goombella and the mourning sea captain Admiral Bobbery, incredible settings including a wrestling league held on a floating island above the clouds, and sharp, laugh-out-loud writing that beautifully ties it all together. Rogueport stands as one of the most iconic locations in Nintendo history, with a gritty, comedic edge not found in many of the company’s games. As an RPG, TTYD is no slouch either, with its flexible Badge system and the best take on Mario RPG combat, complete with a live audience that cheers when Mario does well – what a showoff.
Logan Plant - IGN
Xenoblade Chronicles isn't just a great game. Everything about it, from its graphics and technical achievements to the music, story, and combat - it all comes together with such balanced cohesion that it feels almost effortless. Its identity is not just in its excellent artistic direction, but also in its peculiar history of being localised in British English as opposed to American English, lending a relative uniqueness that only heightens the voice acting. It's not always taking itself too seriously, but when it does, lordy do you feel it. Monsters a hundred times your size and power loom over you from the very beginning, begging you to come back once you're stronger and able to fell them. All of this, and it was somehow squeezed onto the humble Wii.
Alex Olney - Nintendo Life
The video game world would be very different without Pokémon. Its influence stretches far beyond gaming and anime, but it all started on the humble Game Boy with the very first 151. Pokémon Red & Blue (and Yellow) take the battling and levelling basics of the RPG genre and expertly pair them up with cute creature collecting. For kids getting into games, the pure magic of going on an adventure with your animal friends was enough to birth a mega-franchise. While multiple entries have since surpassed the original, there’s something about Gen 1’s purity that still stands strong today.
Alana Hagues - Nintendo Life
The promise of a 'portable Symphony of the Night' was something Konami offered up twice before Aria of Sorrow appeared in 2003; Circle of the Moon (2001) and Harmony of Dissonance (2002) weren't bad games as such, but they fell a long way short of the greatness of the 1997 epic, which gave us the term 'Metroidvania'. However, the third time's a charm, as the saying goes, and Aria of Sorrow really did live up to the hype. While the visuals and sound are obviously a step down from the PlayStation classic, everything else about this pocket-sized adventure simply screams brilliance. It showcases hundreds of enemies to slay, a massive non-linear castle to explore, and countless weapons and items to collect – not to mention the unique 'Tactical Soul' system, where powers are inherited from fallen foes. Now accessible to a whole new generation via the sublime Castlevania Advance Collection on modern systems, this is one of the best entries in Konami's long-running franchise, which surely speaks volumes.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
The '90s were jam-packed with game developers striving to bring their mascots into the 3D realm, with most believing that these colourful characters were only ever destined to live in two dimensions. Enter Super Mario 64. Not only was Super Mario 64 Mario’s first dabble into a 3D space (something that would become a staple for years to come), but it was also the launch title for the Nintendo 64, making the plumber's first 3D adventure a huge risk for Nintendo. The risk paid off. Super Mario 64 is not only one of the greatest games for the N64, but it’s still, perhaps arguably, one of the greatest 3D platforming games of all time. Not bad for a nearly 30-year-old game that, despite having a familiar face, took an enormous swing.
Dale Driver - IGN
The story of how Majora's Mask got made is buckwild: the team behind Ocarina of Time was challenged to create a new game using the same engine and assets in just one year. They almost made it, finishing in 15 months. In a testament to the power of creativity under strict limitations, Majora's Mask is one of the most interesting, fun, unique, and emotional Zelda games. The repetitive three-day structure, the strict character schedules, the smaller world scale, and the perfect freedom to shift events within that structure let Majora's cast of characters shine in a way that no other Zelda game does.
By the time you're done, you've learned the eccentricities, habits, desires, and fears of every single Clock Town resident, and you've likely become deeply attached to them. Meanwhile, the looming giant moon and overall dark, haunting atmosphere of Majora's add to the emotional stakes, as the consequences for Link not stepping into their lives are too dire to think about for long. Rife with some of the weirdest and grimmest quests in the series, but also some of the most beautiful and moving, Majora's Mask remains a complete standout in the series even 25 years after its release.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
After a sidestep with Super Mario Sunshine, Nintendo decided to go back to its platforming roots for its next 3D Mario, but then flipped those fundamentals completely on their head with Super Mario Galaxy. It’s miniature planet playgrounds play home to a whole host of experimental ideas that went far beyond a simple hop and jump, in no small part thanks to a lack of typical surefooted gravity. This newfound floatiness, clever integration with the Wii remote, and kaleidoscopic colourscape were soundtracked perfectly by bombastic orchestration that never threatened to let your senses rest. It pushed the Wii as far as it could go, proving a perfect example of Nintendo squeezing every ounce of joy out of the technical limitations of its hardware, and it would only be beaten on the platform by its ever-so-slightly more impressive follow-up...
Simon Cardy - IGN
Arguably, no Nintendo game feels as good to play as Donkey Kong Bananza. DK’s destructive, expressive moveset and the underground world’s intentionally-designed breakable layers are a perfect match, and whether you’re punching through a wall of stone or surfing on a chunk of sand you tore up from the ground, Bananza is always foundationally fun and immensely satisfying. It’s a remarkable achievement of synergy between a world and its main character, and it’s endlessly enjoyable to experiment in this dynamic toybox and discover the ways each unique layer reacts to and crumbles before you.
Bananza builds around its phenomenal game feel by taking inspiration from the highlights of the Switch era’s game design philosophy: Breath of the Wild’s sequence-breaking freedom, Tears of the Kingdom’s bonkers mechanical ambition, Super Mario Odyssey’s platforming creativity, and Splatoon’s fresh personality – and it hands all of these newer ideas to its oldest character, resulting in a modern Nintendo masterpiece that’s simultaneously nostalgic for all eras of Donkey Kong and a striking original direction for one of gaming’s most historic characters. It also redefines the original Nintendo relationship: for the last 40 years, saying "DK and Pauline" evoked memories of the giant ape kidnapping Lady and dragging her up 75 meters. For the next 40, it’ll bring back memories of DK and his best friend joyously singing and punching their way down to the planet's core.
Logan Plant - IGN
A Link Between Worlds is quietly one of Zelda’s most important games. The humble 3DS adventure had big shoes to fill as a sequel to the SNES classic A Link to the Past, and it ended up meeting those expectations and then some. This top-down entry struck a perfect balance between old and new, as we revisited the iconic Hyrule map from 1992 while engaging with Nintendo’s first experimental steps that directly led to Breath of the Wild, where Link was free to tackle Lorule’s eight dungeons in any order. To facilitate this convention-breaking change, Link almost immediately gains access to his entire toolkit through its smart item rental system, which is responsible for introducing fan-favorite Ravio, who boldly sets up shop in Link’s house.
We haven’t even mentioned A Link Between Worlds’ ingenious main mechanic: Link merges with the wall and becomes a painting, forcing you to think about a top-down space in three dimensions. This simple concept leads to some of the most inventive puzzles in the series. ALBW also broke Zelda’s growing pattern of slow starts that was widely criticized in Skyward Sword two years earlier. There’s no six-hour tutorial here – you’re swinging your sword in the first mini dungeon within 10 minutes of booting it up. You can see Breath of the Wild’s open-air DNA sprinkled throughout every inch of A Link Between Worlds, and the Zelda series wouldn’t be where it is today without this overlooked gem.
Logan Plant - IGN
By the time Resident Evil 4 rolled around, the played-out formula of the series was in need of a reinvention. Not only did Resident Evil 4 shatter expectations, it quickly became recognised as one of the greatest games of all time when it initially (and exclusively) launched on the Nintendo GameCube in 2005. Resident Evil 4 once again puts you in the shoes of Leon S. Kennedy, who is in rural Spain on a mission to rescue the president’s daughter. Predictably, that plot quickly thickens as he gets pulled into a new threat and a new deadly virus threatens to sweep the world. Coupled with the fresh location for the series was a brand new over-the-shoulder playstyle, a playstyle that still heavily influences the genre to this day.
Resident Evil was (and is still considered) a traditional PlayStation series, and although this wasn't the first of the franchise to be playable on a Nintendo console, it was unquestionably the most impactful. For a full year, the GameCube was the ONLY platform where you could play what is often considered to be the best of the series, and that alone makes Resident Evil 4 a stone-cold Nintendo classic.
Dale Driver - IGN
You can fiercely debate what the best Final Fantasy is for hours, but for us, one Super Nintendo game in particular has to be in the conversation, and possibly at the top. The first game to be directed by Yoshinori Kitase, who would then lead the charge on VII and VIII, Final Fantasy VI was wildly ambitious; even now, it’s almost unmatched in terms of scale. Marking a huge departure from the series’ medieval, traditional fantasy roots, and led by a trio of protagonists, it retains the ATB turn-based battle system’s simplicity with a plethora of customisation options in the form of Espers and the sheer number of party members you can have.
In fact, that huge cast of characters almost all get time in the spotlight, whether taking the lead in the party or swapping perspectives between different groups. The visual and musical spectacle of putting a miniature opera inside a game has never been attempted again. The entire second half runs the gamut from anger to faith to despair to hope. There are so many little optional secrets that breathe life into this world, a world that evolves, transforms, and is torn apart throughout. And who can forget Kefka, one of gaming’s most despicable villains? Final Fantasy VI is, quite simply, timeless, with a political, emotional story that’s forever resonant and impressively customisable gameplay that means no two playthroughs are quite the same.
Alana Hagues - Nintendo Life
After several entries failed to meet sales expectations, Intelligent Systems started developing Fire Emblem Awakening as the tactical RPG franchise’s final sendoff, including every feature they desired to ensure they had no regrets. But they didn’t know at the time that Awakening’s big additions – like its new Casual mode that disabled permadeath and a renewed focus on relationship-building, marriage, and children – would prove to be very popular as it surged to become the best-selling game in franchise history. Deservingly so, as Awakening is a fantastic strategy RPG with great maps and mechanics, fan-favorite characters you feel emotionally invested in, and best-in-class writing and localization that make every dialogue box worth reading. Awakening’s characters may not have had feet, but the game itself gave the Fire Emblem series legs for years to follow.
Logan Plant - IGN
Rarely has a game felt quite as culturally relevant on release as Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020. While everyone hunkered down indoors, separated from friends and family, Nintendo released a game that was all about the outdoors, all about friends, all about being together. We all needed it, and we all welcomed it. New Horizons didn’t reinvent the Animal Crossing wheel, but it sure as hell refined it. Nintendo took the tried and tested formula and threw in enough bells (literally) and whistles to make the experience feel simultaneously new and familiar. Picturing an Animal Crossing game without terraforming and crafting just doesn’t feel right now, and we have New Horizons to thank for that.
We all have stories of the countless hours we spent with the game that first summer — our daily routines of fishing, chopping, and shell collecting, the excitement of finally landing that dream villager, or our learned manipulations of the ‘stalk market’. More than a few of us have hit that island reset button to capture the magic all over again, and the Happy Home Designer DLC only encouraged us to return for another hundred hours. Animal Crossing: New Horizons might forever be remembered for the global context into which it was released, but five years on, there are few Nintendo games that we’d rather cosy up with after a long day of real life.
Jim Norman - Nintendo Life
It’s difficult to imagine another Nintendo game that’s enjoyed such a drastic shift in perception since its initial reveal. Originally showcased at 2001 Space World, The Wind Waker was widely derided for its cel-shaded visuals; a controversial creative choice for fans excited by a previous tease that depicted a more realistic take on Link and Ganondorf. Leave it to Nintendo to deliver a delightful surprise, though. The Wind Waker is one of the most expressive Zelda entries, with Link’s journey across the Great Sea aboard The King of Red Lions providing memories that put most adventures to shame.
Whether you’re plundering treasure from the ocean floor, sneaking your way through the menacing Forsaken Fortress, or simply enjoying the sights, sounds, and music of Windfall Island, Zelda has rarely exuded such a remarkable air of, yes, adventure. While (some) fans may have once scoffed at the visuals, The Wind Waker remains timeless, looking just as beautiful today as it did back in 2002. There’s a reason folks are desperate for a Switch port; this marks a serious high point for the Zelda series. A simply stunning game through and through.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
The DS remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver are the legendary monster-battling RPG series at its finest. Giving the Game Boy Color’s best games a visual upgrade was always going to be a crowd-pleaser, but it also allowed new Nintendo players to grab hold of one of the greatest handheld adventures to ever exist. Much emphasis is often placed on the big postgame reveal of the whole of Red and Blue’s Kanto region existing beyond the Pokemon League's walls, but that shouldn’t take away from just how good the journey leading up to that point in Johto is. With memorable moments such as the Lake of Rage’s Red Gyarados and legendary encounters with either Ho-Oh or Lugia, sticking long in the memory. Simply put, HeartGold and SoulSilver are Pokemon at its very best.
Simon Cardy - IGN
After flipping the gravity switch and creating a masterpiece with Galaxy, you'd be forgiven for thinking Nintendo's finest were treading water with a direct sequel, playing for time while they figured out where Mario could possibly go after conquering the cosmos. Remarkably, Super Mario Galaxy 2 leaves the first game feeling a little vanilla, a little 'safe' by comparison. It throws out ideas and mechanics at breakneck pace, moving gleefully from one novelty to the next, never slowing down, never looking back, never dropping the ball.
Yet its 'more is more' approach never overwhelms, either, only entertains - whether you're riding your dinosaur pal, spinning to create cloud platforms, or warping between galaxies on a starship shaped like your face. Only the first game's touching storybook narrative is missing from the mix, but it's hard to feel its absence with this much going on. And who plays Mario for the story? Galaxy 2 is a riotous carnival on a cosmic scale, a game that throws a thousand ideas at the wall and, in doing so, demonstrates what sets Nintendo apart from practically every other developer on the planet: improbably, every one of those ideas sticks.
Gavin Lane - Nintendo Life
While the 2024 remaster polished up Metroid Prime’s visual luster, it’s a testimony to developer Retro’s original design that little else had to be changed to make a 2002 game feel as if it were designed today. The (then) controversial decision to flip a genre-defining third-person 2D series into what on the surface looked like a first-person shooter quickly proved to be the right choice. More than any Metroid game before it, Metroid Prime made us feel like we were locked behind Samus’s visor, isolated and cut off, focused solely on survival and finding a way out. As Samus, players had to face an ever-escalating alien threat head-on while indianajonesing through temple ruins and using some of the coolest special powers (morph ball!) to get the next door open. It was – and is – vintage Metroid, and at the same time something truly new and special.
Peer Schneider - IGN
Some NES games haven’t aged well. Super Mario Bros. 3 is not one of them. This is one of those rare games that, if it were released now as a ‘retro throwback’, we wouldn’t bat an eyelid. In fact, it would probably rank amongst our favourite games of any given year. The third entry refined and expanded upon everything that made the 1985 original so special. You’ve got multiple themed worlds that still look great, incredible power-ups like the Super Leaf and Tanooki Suit, and a handful of charming minigames to mix things up a bit.
But where SMB3 truly shines is in its movement, which feels almost impossibly slick and responsive no matter the situation. With gameplay and presentation that would go on to influence every subsequent entry, all the way up to Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it’s really no surprise that we consider this the very best game on NES. It’s a remarkable feat, and one of the finest achievements from Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.
Ollie Reynolds - Nintendo Life
"Everyone Is Here!" Those three words paired with the seemingly impossible return of Solid Snake set the Nintendo world on fire, and the hype burned brightly throughout Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s escalating series of utterly mindblowing character reveals. What started as the ultimate museum of Nintendo and Smash Bros. history quickly transformed into a celebration of video games as a whole. When the Smash logo kicked in at the end of a Nintendo Direct, you knew something special was imminent – anything felt possible, because everything truly was possible. Banjo & Kazooie. Fatal Fury and Tekken. Persona 5 and Dragon Quest. Minecraft Steve, whose reveal may have literally broken the internet.
With Ultimate, Smash director Masahiro Sakurai and Nintendo pulled off a genuine miracle in game development that may never be repeated again. It’s overwhelming to think about how many phone calls had to be made and how many corporate executives had to say "yes" to make all these guest appearances happen, a feeling only magnified when we first saw the Mickey Mouse keychain indicating Sora finally got his invitation.
But on top of the flashy reveals and playground fantasies made reality, Ultimate is just a phenomenal fighting game, with great action that scales between two and eight players, a staggering amount of content to dive into, and an unbelievable attention to detail across everything from character movesets that reference other games to possibly the best collection of video game music ever assembled. Ultimate is the crowning achievement of the Super Smash Bros. series, Sakurai’s impressive career, and one of Nintendo’s greatest accomplishments of all time.
Logan Plant - IGN
When Mario Kart 8 launched on the floundering Wii U in 2014, no one would have guessed that it would go on to become the fifth best-selling video game of all time thanks to its Deluxe rerelease on Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is far more than a drag-and-drop port, however, as the additions it stacks on top of an already amazing gameplay foundation result in the best kart racer ever made, and one of the finest Nintendo games of all time. There are a whopping 96 tracks to choose from, including some of the best the series has ever seen, like the three-part descent down Mount Wario that feels ripped straight out of an action movie. It’s got a huge roster of characters along with guest appearances from other Nintendo franchises such as Zelda, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing – not to mention the stunning renditions of Mute City and Big Blue that make us long for a new F-Zero in HD.
Speaking of graphics, Mario Kart 8 remains one of the best-looking Nintendo games ever, with great art direction and minute attention to detail that makes every moment shine, like Mario’s mustache fluttering in the wind or the iconic Luigi death stare. If you’re having friends or family over, your best bet is still to break out Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You’re practically guaranteed to have a great time – until someone hits you with a blue shell and passes you at the finish line, at least.
Logan Plant - IGN
A Link to the Past seemed like an anachronism when it debuted in Japan in 1991 – and players playing it for the first time today may be surprised how sophisticated – and modern – it still feels more than 30 years later. Its all-star EAD design team created a compelling quest that effectively creates the illusion of an open world, with each new item Link discovers acting as both a weapon and a key – a path to becoming stronger, solving puzzles, and unlocking new areas. But the moment players discover the Magic Mirror, the brilliant design fully reveals itself. The world map exists twice, and the small differences matter greatly. An instant hit back then and an undisputed classic today, A Link to the Past created the template for gaming history’s best action-adventures.
Peer Schneider - IGN
Following an explosive introduction to Ridley, Super Metroid first takes you on a reunion tour of the original Metroid’s greatest hits, where you see what’s changed on the planet Zebes. But once Samus Aran descends to Brinstar and the perfect atmospheric music kicks in, you know you’re about to experience an all-timer. And Super Metroid never lets up for a single second, taking players on a practically flawless journey whose groundbreaking non-linear design continues to inspire metroidvania developers more than 30 years later (it’s even in the name!). Its mood is magnificently eerie; its sprites and colors still astonish to this day; its unexpected secrets are supremely satisfying to uncover; it’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word. While the credits rolled after the empowering, emotional finale against Mother Brain and the adrenaline-fueled escape from Zebes, our collective understanding of the action-adventure genre looked a lot like Maridia’s glass tunnel: completely shattered.
Logan Plant - IGN
Thirty years after its debut on the SNES, Chrono Trigger still remains not just one of the best Nintendo games of all time, but one of the best games ever made, period. It's immediately charming in its detailed sprite work and lovely, varied environments. And its soundtrack is arguably one of, if not the finest work of Yasunori Mitsuda, with sweeping orchestral moments, earworm dungeon themes, and tender emotional peaks. The story itself is familiar at first, with a typical young boy hero caught up in a magic adventure beyond his understanding. But the plot quickly twists and turns, jumping between several time periods, introducing surprising cast members like a frog man, a robot, and one of the villains, and skillfully conducts one of the most surprising twists in gaming that the player can choose to resolve...or not, depending on how they want to play Chrono Trigger.
The ATB battle system and the mixture of scripted and environmental encounters feel natural and fresh, without becoming obnoxious or grindy. Chrono Trigger has a number of hidden sidequests that give more insight into the lovable characters making up your party, if you want them, a few legendary items to find, and a long list of alternative endings. And yet, there's nothing about Chrono Trigger that overstays its welcome or feels like filler. Every era, every beat, every path is exact in its placement and timing, concluding at last in one of the most epic RPG final boss fights in history. RPGs themselves will continue to grow and evolve, era after era, but it's difficult to imagine what could dethrone the perfect harmony formed by all the excellent components of Chrono Trigger working together.
Rebekah Valentine - IGN
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reinvented the combination of action, puzzle-solving, and exploration gameplay already perfected in A Link to the Past for a new generation. While its predecessor’s 2D style has aged just a tad better than Ocarina of Time’s polygonal world, it remains one of gaming’s most notable achievements. Ocarina of Time takes the series’ trademark puzzle dungeons and gives them new depth – literally – by transforming them into 3D playgrounds. Rather than just replicating Mario 64’s innovations, it de-emphasizes platform jumping and instead invents a lock-on combat system that has been featured in nearly every action game since. Add to that horseback riding, a rich atmosphere underscored by unforgettable music and sound, and genre-defining puzzle design, and it’s easy to see why many Nintendo fans consider it the crowning action-adventure achievement.
Peer Schneider - IGN
Ever close your eyes when you’re trying to sleep and all you see are the same seven shapes seemingly imprinted on the underside of your eyelids? You aren't alone. Scientists say that every person in possession of a Game Boy in 1989 suffered from this very condition. What is there to say about Tetris that hasn’t been said already? A simple, yet masterful puzzle game centered around slotting a series of falling shapes into groups of lines while battling the ever-increasing speed of the Tetriminoes and your finger reflexes. Although first created by Alexey Pajitnov four years prior, it was its arrival on the Game Boy that truly made it reach a global audience and become a sensation rarely seen, if ever, equaled. And despite being four decades old, there’s still nothing quite like it. That simplicity and ability for anyone to just pick up and play - helped by numerous versions and reinventions over the years - have made Tetris stand the test of time and remain, to this day, amongst the purest fun you can have with a video game.
Simon Cardy - IGN
Deciding on the greatest 3D Mario game will always be a matter of personal taste. Some hold the nostalgic invention of Mario 64 close to their hearts, while others yearn for the out-of-this-world creativity delivered in spades by the Galaxy games. Our pick is Super Mario Odyssey, the Switch’s only original 3D Mario, but one so complete it warrants a generation of its own to savour. Granting everyone’s favourite parkour plumber a new hat companion, Cappy, that expands his pool of abilities massively, he’s an absolute delight to control as he dashes, double jumps, and hops into the brains of all manner of outlandish creatures from T-Rexes to Chain Chomps.
Set across multiple expansive worlds full of secrets and collectibles, and soundtracked by an outrageously enjoyable funk-infested soundtrack, it's a true evolution of a time-old formula. Whether dodging taxi cabs in the vibrant metropolis of New Donk City with its odes to platformers past, or bouncing around the sherbert-sweet pastels and gelatinous joys of the Luncheon Kingdom, it's a complete wonder from start to finish. Mario has never looked, sounded, or played this good. At least, when it comes to three dimensions..."
Simon Cardy - IGN
It's incredible to think that Super Mario World launched alongside the SNES, because it remains not just one of the platform's shining lights, but one of the best video games of all time. Following the sublime Super Mario Bros. 3 was never going to be an easy task – and the fact that the sequel would be on an entirely new system could only have made things even more challenging for director Takashi Tezuka and producer Shigeru Miyamoto. However, the team at Nintendo EAD produced a 2D platformer that's positively bursting with life and gleeful invention; this is a game that confidently builds on what came before it, yet manages to break fresh ground and set a new standard in the genre.
Super Mario World arguably established a series tradition that still holds true today – it introduces gameplay mechanics and features which are seen only fleetingly before the game moves onto the next fresh idea. There's ridable Yoshis, Switch Palaces, Ghost Houses, multiple exits, underwater sections, The Star Road... the list goes on. This is all bound together in an explorable, node-based overworld which rewards repeat play and encourages you to find all 96 stage exits – a task which, even 35 years later, is a badge of honour for any self-respecting Nintendo fan.
Damien McFerran - Nintendo Life
For some of us, that first bite will always be sweetest.
Breath of the Wild came after nearly two decades of Eiji Aonuma and co. following Ocarina’s familiar recipe. A new Zelda was still a treat, but it was essentially the same dish with different seasoning (a novel time-loop narrative, gorgeous cel-shaded stylings, some sword waggle), and tiredness had crept in with the timeline. Could the 'wonder' be restored? Could the series evolve without losing the elements that made it 'Zelda'?
Nintendo answered those questions emphatically in 2017, and it was hard to imagine going back to the old template. 'Zelda but open-world' covers it only in the grossest, most reductive sense, ignoring the impeccable polish needed to avoid bogging down the adventure with dreary waypoint checklists or creating a playground of pure jank. The underlying physics system and the emergent interactions it affords work in tandem with Hyrule's meticulously designed geography. A dozen distractions draw your eye from any point on the map -- a peculiar rocky outcrop, a grassy knoll, a mountain peak that pierces the rays of the setting sun -- and each one offers an irresistible micro-adventure should you make a detour.
It was a perfect showcase for Switch, too, proving that the little tablet could handle games of the grandest scale. Hyrule went everywhere with you, and your in-game instincts and ponderances blossomed beyond the screen, creeping into your daily life. Hmm, that tree on the hill, a prime Korok hiding spot! But how to glide over there...
BOTW or TOTK, then? They're both essential, of course, offering variations on the same delicious dish. Three-quarters of Team NL would take the Wild over Kingdom and the kitchen sink, though. An extraordinary video game.
Gavin Lane - Nintendo Life
Breath of the Wild may be the more important game, but we firmly believe The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the better one, and that Link’s epic adventure across the skies, lands, and depths of Hyrule is the greatest Nintendo game of all time. This wildly ambitious sequel introduced an unbelievable amount of inventive, well-executed ideas that built on Breath of the Wild’s groundbreaking formula while also improving upon some of its predecessor’s shortcomings, once again raising the bar for Nintendo’s legendary franchise.
Link’s new set of abilities is so creatively and technically impressive that it made developers across the world both jealous of and inspired by what Nintendo managed to pull off. Whether it’s ascending through nearly any ceiling in Hyrule or using Ultrahand to build the Zonai machine of your dreams – or simply a bridge made up of 20 logs – Tears of the Kingdom’s buffet of complex, polished mechanics encourages player experimentation and ignites the most personal, improvisational, and magical open world masterpiece we’ve ever experienced.
Breath of the Wild’s unmatched organic discovery returned and was only enhanced by Tears of the Kingdom’s wider enemy variety and more fleshed-out Hyrule – including its terrifying, inverted basement known as the Depths – and the quest reached its zenith with a climactic finale that’s a worthy sendoff to the grand journey Link has just taken. But in the end, the journey of Tears of the Kingdom is shaped by our imaginations, where every success is a triumph, every failure’s a story worth telling, and every solution feels uniquely yours.
You could argue the significance of other Nintendo games over Tears of the Kingdom. But no game better showcases the most important elements of Nintendo’s core design philosophy, that’s allowed them to push this medium forward over more than 40 years of game development: innovation, creativity, a focus on fun for everyone, and a fearlessness to try weird things. Right now, Tears of the Kingdom is Nintendo’s crowning achievement, but there’s no doubt in our minds that something will eventually dethrone it. That’s just what they do.
Logan Plant - IGN
So, there we have it. IGN and Nintendo Life's Top 100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time. What would your number one pick have been? Any games we missed completely that you feel had to be on there? Let us know in the comments.
]]>There are still a few weeks to go before Black Friday officially starts, but if you’re looking for some early savings on games right now, look no further than Woot.
The Amazon-owned online retailer is offering discounts at the moment on a select few Switch 2 games, including Donkey Kong Bananza (down to 61ドル.99), Mario Kart World (down to 69ドル.99), Tears of the Kingdom (also down to 69ドル.99), and more.
It’s worth noting that while these say they’re the International Version, all Nintendo Switch games are region-free so they'll work fine with your Switch 2.
This sale event (see here in full at Woot) is also set to come to an end on November 8, so if one of these deals catches your eye you’ll want to move fast to secure it. Deals like these tend to sell out quickly, too, which is worth keeping in mind.
If you’re looking to pick up Donkey Kong Bananza, in particular, it’s worth noting that we’re very big fans of it. In our glowing 10/10 review, IGN’s Logan Plant said it’s, "a truly groundbreaking 3D platformer, with satisfying movement, powerful abilities, impressive destructible environments, and clever challenges that all come together in complete harmony to create Nintendo’s first Switch 2 masterpiece."
As we enter into the month of November, Black Friday sales are already starting to kick off, which means there are bound to be plenty more gaming deals popping up soon and over the next few weeks.
While Black Friday doesn’t officially start until November 28, several retailers drop deals all throughout the month leading up to it. If you’re on the hunt for new games, accessories, or even console deals, we’ll be tracking the best discounts as they appear over the busy holiday season.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
]]>So I'm going to be that guy and start bringing up Christmas 2025 before Halloween has started, but for good reason. Ever thought "My Christmas tree needs more Nintendo?" Well Hallmark just dropped their Mario, Pokémon and the Legend of Zelda tree ornaments and I want to buy all of them.
Not ready to get festive just yet? How about a beast of a power bank from Anker that can handle Macbooks, Xbox ROG Ally X and Switch 2? Yeah, it's a cracking prime-exclusive deal. In other deals today i've found a craceking deal on a cult classic 4K steelbook and some last minute Steam game deals that you can't ignore, so let's get into it:
Today's deals article marks the only time i've paid attention to anything Hallmark, and it's a worthy sacrifice considering I could have Link, Elephant Mario and Snorlax hanging on my Christmas tree this year. Pricing varies, but I couldn't ignore all of these epic Christmas tree decorations.
There's hardly any power bank brands I trust more than Anker, as every product i've bought or tested has been brilliant. So coming across this prime member-exclusive 32% discount on a 24,000mAh 140W Power Bank for 74ドル.99 is Black Friday territory. This will charge anything from a Macbook or handheld gaming PC to your smartphone, so don't sleep on this deal.
A 4K Steelbook with stunning artwork at 55% off? That once sentence sells this deal, but The Frog (1980) is also a cult classic. 100% worth 17ドル.99 if this kind of film is up your street.
Using code "OMENVIP" will bag players Edens Zero on Steam for just 35ドル.33, down from 49ドル.99. Pretty great deal, right? It's a 3D action RPG based on the Manga and Anime "Eden Zero" by Hiro Mashima, and might just be your way in if you don't have the patience for reading or binge watching a new anime.
It's 4ドル.68 for a steam code, what's not to like? It's a full-length remaster of the original featuring full Steam VR support, native 4K support and surround sound. So now if going to be a great time to take JEHUTY out for a spin.
Another banger for the price of a posh coffee, Unknown 9: Awakening for 4ドル.99 is well worth it. Redeemable on Steam, play as Haroona who's able to pull powers from a parallel dimension known as "The Fold" to dodge bullets, vanish, fire energy Dragon Ball style and more.
30% off Hulu just in time for the world series? Yes please! It contains adds, but a saving is a saving especially when it's commitment free after the offer ends. Just in time for the holiday season, you can have cosey film nights for less this year.
Over 2,000ドル off one of the best TVs of this year, plus you get free stand or wall mount setup and a LG S40T Soundbar and Subwoofer bundle (Worth 229ドル.99), just add it to your basket. If you need a new TV in time for the holidays, this is an absolute banger to have in the lounge.
No more loosing USB-C cables with this bad boy. It pumps out enough power to charge anything from your phone and Nintendo Switch 2 to a Macbook. The 25,000mAh power capacity means it'll store more than enough more to charge two devices at once too. It's a win-win kind of deal.
30% off an Nvidia RTX 5070Ti gaming laptop brings the price of entry for DLSS 4 to way under 2,000ドル. 16GB of DDR5 RAm alongside a Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor backing up the GPU means this 16-inch Lenovo Legion beast is well worth it!
Preorders are now available for Football Manager 26 over on Fanatical, which gives players early access for pre-purchasing. New features such as Premier League and Womens Football is included this time around, to there's plenty to go at in this new instalment.
Releasing today, Once Upon a Katamari introduces tiem travel to the frankly insane cult classic series from Bandai Namco. Roll through Jurrasic, Ice Age and other eras to rebuild the Earth and Moon that the king destroyed whilst playing as The Prince and one of his 68 cousins. Mental.
Set in 1960s Japan, Silent Hill f follows Shimiza Hinako as she deal with her town and home covered in a strange fog, turning her life into a living nightmare. This next instalment focuses more on Psycological horror and finding beauty hidden in terror. I'd find out for myself, but i'll be giving my goldfish a bath instead (I'm scared).
Fancy a solid RTX 5080 build for under 2,000ドル including free delivery? You'll be able to take advantage of DLSS 4 with more gas in the tank than a RTX 4080 Super, which is one of Nvidias best graphics card releases last year. Buyers can look forward to high frame rate 4K gameplay with all the bells and whistles added. We're talking ray tracing and definition sharper than any console can currently output. Check our review out for more information on this epic GPU.
When it comes to gaming laptops in general, picking one within your budget is the first major step. For something worth gaming on, the 1,000ドル mark is the price of entry. That will include a RTX 5060, going all the way up to 3,549ドル for a RTX 5090 build if you really want that mobile gaming flex.
Still running a Nvidia RTX 1000 to 3000 series? This is your chance to upgrade your rig to DLSS 4 and Ray Tracing with Woots RTX 5000 series refurbished sale. The sweet spot with this generation has to be RTX 5080 that includes 16GB of GDDRR6 RAM that can handle 4K gaming and all the frames. Need to upgrade on a budget? RTX 5070 12GB is a great option for 529ドル too.
There's a handful of booster boxes available for slightly less at Amazon this week, but it's a bit of a poor turnout for Magic: The Gathering players. Most of the listing on Amazon are above MSRP and higher than secondary market values, but the carosel above are good deals when compared to TCGPlayer.
TCGPlayer's sellers are keeping away from the sneaker-heads and crypo bro mentality that's hit Magic and Pokémon TCG is 2025 and is keeping prices down. Market value for MTG sealed product goes off what people are willing to pay, and it shows. There's so much here that's at a lower price than big box retailers it's embarassing. But, it's great for your pocket!
Trainers and collectors will get five Destined Rivals Boosters and five Journey Together Boosters in this bad boy, so that's about the right kind of ball park for ten booster packs, plus you're getting the promo Volcanion ex and Blaziken ex promo card and a jumbo version of Blaziken ex.
I think these promo's would work great together in a fire-themed deck. Use Blazikens Seething Spirit to grab fire energy from your discard pile to build up Volcanion. In the meantime Volcanion can burn opposing Pokémon then use Scorching Cyclone for 160 damage then transfer all it's energy to a benched Pokémon. So many possibilities here.
Mega Evolution seems to be a well-printed start to the next era of Pokémon TCG. I'm seeing boosters in convienience stores and some products on physical shelves, not to mention the Booster Bundle (52ドル.89), Gardevoir ETB (88ドル.81) and Three Booster Blister (28ドル.90) available on Amazon. Like the rest of the products in this carousel though, the cheapest is TCGplayer right now.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
]]>Our boy Mario is joining the Thanksgiving festivities, folks! Nintendo of America and Macy’s have announced that a new Mario character balloon will make its debut at the 99th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on November 27.
The balloon in question will be launched to honor the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, which debuted in 1985 in Japan. It was created by Macy’s Parade Studio’s team of artists and measures an incredible 51 feet and 2 inches long, 37 feet wide, and 43 feet and 8 inches tall.
As per the 3D composite image of the balloon the companies released alongside their announcement, below, balloon Mario will don his classic costume and is posed in a flying pose inspired by Super Mario Galaxy.
"Having Mario join this iconic holiday tradition is an incredible way to honor the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.," EVP of Revenue, Marketing & Consumer Experience at Nintendo of America Devon Pritchard said in a statement. "Since he first emerged from a Warp Pipe, Mario has embodied our goal of bringing smiles to faces all over the world. We are excited for Mario fans of all ages to see his new balloon’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade debut."
It appears the character has never been featured in the iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade, which may well have been a rights issue all these years — but it’s great to see Macy’s and Nintendo finally team up to make this fan dream a reality.
"The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has long been a stage for the world’s most beloved characters, and this year we’re thrilled to partner with Nintendo to welcome a new Mario balloon to that tradition," Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade producer Jordan Dabby added in a statement.
"As Mario celebrates 40 years of inspiring players and families worldwide, his flight down the streets of Manhattan is both a historic milestone and a joyful celebration — one sure to have fans everywhere cheering ‘Wahoo!’ this Thanksgiving morning."
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on November 27 from 8:30am to 12pm on NBC. The event will also be available to stream on Peacock.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
]]>If you are interested in catching up on the Metroid Prime trilogy ahead of Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo isn’t making it easy at the moment. We think that should be remedied — and so does Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe.
In the new book, Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, out October 28, 2025, the legendary Japanese developer brings up the idea of a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes remake himself while musing on the multiplayer mode Echoes introduced, saying: "Retro completed the multiplayer mode without compromising on quality... Being of its time, it was designed for local play, so the number of players who actually experienced it might not have been very large. If it is remade, I would be delighted for more people to have the chance to experience it."
Metroid Prime’s 2023 remake for Nintendo Switch, which I scored a lofty 10/10, seemed to be, ahem, priming us for more remakes, with Metroid Prime 2: Echoes being naturally on deck. In the lead up to Metroid Prime 4’s December 4 release date, a series of remake drops seemed like a natural choice. But remakes take lots of time and resources, which made it even more likely, perhaps, that Metroid Prime 2: Echoes would appear on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack’s recently added GameCube selection. But no!
As of right now, you can’t play Metroid Prime 2: Echoes anywhere but off of an original GameCube or Wii disc. It is not easy to play any Prime game other than Metroid Prime Remastered. The Metroid Prime Trilogy for Nintendo Wii was the last time Echoes or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption were made available, and that disc has long since become a hot collector’s item. And you can forget about playing Metroid Prime Hunters for DS, or Metroid Prime Pinball, which are both locked to DS carts – and you can just plain forget about Metroid Prime Federation Force for Nintendo 3DS entirely, that’s fine.
While Tanabe’s comments don’t get us any closer to a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes remake, each day gets us closer to Metroid Prime 4. Who knows, maybe the GameCube games will hit Nintendo Switch Online, or better yet, we’ll see a re-release of the Wii’s Metroid Prime Trilogy with its upgraded controls and widescreen graphics that we scored a 9.5 ala the recent Super Mario collections... or even better, Metroid Prime 2 and 3 Remastered. But maybe we are being too greedy, Metroid Prime 4 is, after all, mere weeks away. And you can get this nifty art book, filled with insights from the Retro and Nintendo teams that assembled a series of Metroid masterpieces.
Samuel Claiborn is IGN's managing editor and a fixes/breaks ancient arcade and pinball machines in his garage. TCELES B HSUP to follow him @Samuel_IGN on Twitter.
]]>To say Call of Duty is an important piece of video game history would be an understatement. It’s hard to think of first-person shooters (or action games in general) without mentioning this series, which has become one of the most successful franchises ever after revolutionizing single-player campaigns and online battles.
For decades, CoD has dominated the multiplayer scene. Apart from creating iconic characters like Captain Price and Alex Mason, the series has also introduced unexpected figures to their ranks, like Spawn, Snoop Dogg, and Lionel Messi. With Black Ops 7 on the horizon, you might want to look back on over 20 years of Call of Duty history.
With entries exploring conflicts from both our past and our possible future, here's every Call of Duty game in chronological order.
Jump to:
Due to quite a few subseries, a reboot, and the many studios that have worked or are working on the series, it can be a bit troublesome to determine how many Call of Duty games have been released.
If we consider only the main entries with single-player campaigns, including all the World War II titles, the Modern Warfare subseries (plus its reboot), and the Black Ops subseries, there are 20 video games in the Call of Duty franchise
That said, things get complicated when you add all the expansions, online experiences, mobile games, and spin-offs. For example, Call of Duty: United Offensive is an expansion for the first game, while Call of Duty: Finest Hour and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One are side stories of the first two entries.
Spin-offs include strategy game Call of Duty: Siege, launched in 2016 based on Infinite Warfare’s universe; Call of Duty: Heroes, released in 2014; and the mobile version of Call of Duty: Black Ops. In fact, many main entries have significantly different editions for mobile/handheld when compared to the major console releases. Examples of this are PS Vita’s Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified and Nintendo DS’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance.
Then there’s the Chinese free-to-play Call of Duty Online, released in 2015 and shut down in 2021. 2019’s Call of Duty Mobile took its place and is still running today.
The unique Zombies modes have become a staple of the series since their first inclusion in 2008’s World at War, and they have appeared in multiple entries since.
Finally, the franchise entered the battle royale and live service genres with Warzone, launched in 2020, which became a huge success. Two years later, it was replaced by Warzone 2.0, a complete overhaul of the game’s map and experience. Warzone Mobile brought the battle royale experience to iOS and Android devices in early 2024.
To avoid confusion, it’s worth mentioning that the reboot of the Modern Warfare series will be numbered with Roman numbers. Also, Black Ops 4 is not added to the list below for its lack of campaign (it’s a multiplayer-only experience).
For the sake of simplicity and accessibility, we recommend 2019's Modern Warfare reboot as a solid starting point for Call of Duty campaigns. Starting here creates a straightforward path through the rebooted Modern Warfare trilogy, as all three games are available on modern Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as well as PC. Plus, unlike the Black Ops subseries, each game was released within the last five years, meaning none should feel too dated.
Beware of minor spoilers for the stories, characters, and relevant events of each game in the list below.
The franchise's first game was developed by Infinity Ward and published in 2003. This is the first of many entries in the series focused on World War II, following the steps of other household names like Medal of Honor.
In the first Call of Duty, you play three different campaigns as different soldiers from three countries: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union.
The North American soldier, Private Martin, starts his training in 1942 and participates in the invasion of Normandy in 1944, while the British Sergeant Evans fights in Operation Tonga that same year. Evans will later be helped by Captain Price, a recurrent name in the franchise. On the other hand, the Soviet Alexei Ivanovich Voronin’s campaign takes place in the Battle of Stalingrad.
The sequel of the original title repeats the settings and nations but with some different perspectives. Instead of three campaigns, you experience four: one from the perspective of a North American soldier, one from the Soviet Union, and two from Britain.
As Private Vasili Koslov, you have to defend Moscow from Nazi German soldiers, while North American Bill Taylor joins the army that assaults La Pointe du Hoc during the infamous D-Day. The British soldiers, Sergeant John Davis and David Welsh, participated in the conflict in North Africa. Davis is led by Captain Price.
A few years after Call of Duty 3, the team at Treyarch came back and delivered their last entry based on the conflict the series has been breathing off since its beginnings. This time, however, the campaign was only divided into North American and Soviet forces.
You follow American Marine Private C. Miller during the Makin Island raid in 1942, and later in the Battle of Peleliu, in which American forces confronted the Japanese army. The Soviet section takes place in the Battle of Stalingrad, but this time on the Eastern Front as Private Dimitri Petrenko.
The first main game in the series not developed by Infinity Ward, Call of Duty 3 was Treyarch’s first attempt at recreating World War II events.
Taking place in 1944, armies from Britain, Poland, the United States, Canada, and France fight against Germany's Nazi forces in the village of Chambois, France, during the Battle of Normandy.
This is the only main entry you cannot play on PC.
Almost a decade and a half after the first game, studio Sledgehammer Games returned the franchise to World War II. This was the first time in the main series there was only one protagonist in the campaign: Ronald "Red" Daniels, accompanied by his loyal squad. As Red, you fight Nazi German forces across the European theater, from Normandy to Germany.
While WWII has some brief flashback sequences in 1940, which would set it as the first game in the series chronologically, the core of the title takes place in 1944.
In the latest entry set in World War II, developer Sledgehammer Games tried once again to bring Call of Duty to its roots and explore this historical event from a different perspective.
Contrary to 2017’s WWII, you are presented with multiple characters on different fronts. The main objective is to learn more about Phoenix, a secret Nazi project that could change the tide of the war in favor of Nazi Germany.
Vanguard also has flashback sequences for different protagonists starting in 1941, but the majority of the campaign is set in 1945, near the end of the war.
Developer Treyarch changed eras with Black Ops. Going from 1961 to 1968, you’ll experience the events of the Cold War and part of the Vietnam War for the first time in the series.
The main protagonist, Alex Mason, works with the CIA and is tasked to remember events that would help find Soviet sleeper agents. These agents are around the United States, and they plan to release a dangerous chemical weapon called Nova 6.
Developed by Treyarch and Raven Software, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War helps connect the original Black Ops and Black Ops 2. While the main protagonist this time is nicknamed "Bell," you get to choose your name, gender, and other details like dialogue lines.
Set in 1981, you team up with characters from previous games, including Alex Mason, Frank Woods, and Jason Hudson. Under CIA’s Russell Adler, your elite team is supposed to catch a Soviet figure that goes by "Perseus" who is planning to attack the United States.
The sequel to the original Black Ops presents two timelines. On the first one, you follow Alex Mason’s footsteps several years after he and his team successfully stopped Nova 6. It’s 1986, and Jason Hudson asks Mason to aid with the search for Frank Woods, who disappeared in Cuando Cubango, Angola.
The second timeline is centered around David Mason, Alex’s son, who’s looking for Raul Menendez in 2025. Menendez is the leader of Cordis Die, a terrorist organization that provoked the Second Cold War.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 takes place in the early 1990s, beginning in 1991, after the events of Black Ops 2's late-80s storyline. The story is centered around the Gulf War, wherein Frank Woods and his team of rogue agents are hunted by a shadowy group that's infiltrated the CIA.
Historical figures represented in the game include former U.S. president Bill Clinton and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
The last entry to have a number after "Call of Duty," Modern Warfare is the first time the series abandoned its classic Allies vs Axis conflict for something more recent.
In 2011, Yasir Al-Fulani, the president of a fictional Middle Eastern country, was executed by Khaled Al-Asad, the leader of a revolutionary party. Meanwhile, Russia is going through a civil war provoked by Imran Zakhaev, an arms dealer.
A squad commanded by Captain Price and formed by protagonist John "Soap" MacTavish have to stop an international crisis.
Set five years after the events of the previous game, Modern Warfare 2 tells the story of Vladimir Makarov, an Ultranationalist who continues the work of Imran Zakhaev. It turns out this extremist party gained control of Russia, so Makarov gained the power to start committing terrorist acts against the United States.
Well-known faces like the Captain Soap and Captain Price join forces with Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson, Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, "Nikolai", and other agents to stop Makarov’s secret plan.
The end of the first Modern Warfare trilogy brings the pursuit of terrorist Vladimir Makarov to its climax. Captain Price’s team re-arranges itself with Yuri, an ex-Spetsnaz known by Nikolai. Captain John "Soap" MacTavish is also present for the final mission.
Makarov captures Boris Vorshevsky, the president of Russia, who was going to establish peace with the United States. After threatening the president’s daughter, Makarov acquired nuclear launch codes, becoming an international danger once again.
In 2019, Infinity Ward rebooted the successful Modern Warfare series by reusing some classic characters in a new timeline. Well-known faces like Captain Price are present in a new conflict with Russia.
Set in the same year it was released, a fictional republic called Urzikstan is invaded by a Russian army. While this attack is going on, a terrorist organization called Al-Qatala, also from Urzikstan, begins with operations against different countries in the world. Captain Price, alongside his Task Force 141 and the Urzikstan Liberation Force, try to de-escalate the conflict.
Taking place in 2022, Modern Warfare II follows the story of the MW reboot, featuring returning characters from Task Force 141 and the Urzikstan Liberation Force leader Farah Karim.
Al-Qatala is still a threat, but all eyes are on Quds Force, an Iranian revolutionary group commanded by Hassan Zyani. Zyani is supported by Al-Qatala and a Mexican cartel from the fictional city of Las Almas, and he plans terrorist acts against the United States after the assassination of General Ghorbrani, an Iranian forces leader.
Picking up after the events of 2022's Modern Warfare II, MWIII once again stars Task Force 141, including recurring characters John Price, Simon "Ghost" Riley, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, and John "Soap" MacTavish. Ultranationalist terrorist Vladimir Makarov, the villain from 2011's Modern Warfare 3, once again serves as the antagonist.
A standalone entry with few connections to previous titles, Call of Duty Ghosts was developed by Infinity Ward in 2013. As its name indicates, it focused on the special operation group called Ghosts, a U.S. team tasked with secret missions.
It’s 2027, and after a decade of conflicts in the Middle East and an oil crisis, a South American force called the Federation of the Americas initiated a war against the United States. Working with your new team, you have to stop Gabriel T. Rorke, the former leader of Ghosts.
Advanced Warfare was the first entry to take place several decades beyond its release date. It was also the first game developed primarily by Sledgehammer Games.
Set in 2054, you control Jack Mitchell, a member of the United States Marine Corps who later fights in the private military corporation known as Atlas after suffering an accident. On this occasion, the enemy forces are a Chechenian separatist group called KVA led by Joseph "Hades" Chkheidze.
It was one of the first entries to feature futuristic changes in gameplay due to its setting, like the fact that soldiers now wear exoskeletons, which bring them unique abilities.
The end of the initial Black Ops trilogy was also set in the future. More specifically, in the year 2065, when a Third Cold War between the Common Defense Pact and the Winslow Accord is happening. Robotic drones, cyborg supersoldiers, unpiloted air forces, and other technological advancements take center stage.
A black ops team composed of you (simply referred to as "The Player"), Jacob Hendricks, and your cybernetics division will be tasked with preventing the conflict from reaching a more dangerous state. You investigate a strange event in Singapore and look out for the 54 Immortals, a crime organization.
No Call of Duty game went further into the future than Infinite Warfare. Around the 2080s, the United Nations Space Alliance was created after humans had spent all the natural resources available on Earth. Beginning the colonization and exploitation of resources on other planets, this alliance is defended by the Solar Associated Treaty Organization, a military force that battles the totalitarian regime Settlement Defense Front from Mars.
It's official: Black Ops 7 is next up in the Call of Duty franchise. A reveal trailer was shown at the June Xbox Showcase, starring Milo Ventimiglia as David Mason. Michael Rooker is also set to reprise his role as Mike Harper from Black Ops 2.
The seventh Black Ops game is launching on November 14. It will be set in 2035, over 40 years after Black Ops 6, and brings back co-op campaigns. Activision did its best to curb cheaters throughout the Beta period, and Seth Macy's impressions during the multiplayer Beta include that the gunplay "works exactly how I want it to." Since that Beta period, we've seen the massive launch of Battlefield 6, stoking a potential battle between the two classic shooters this fall.
Outside of games, Activision recently struck a deal with Paramount to produce a live-action Call of Duty movie. David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount, has said he’s a big Call of Duty fan who’s put "countless" hours into the franchise. Little is known about the direction the movie will take, but Ellison did refer to Paramount's recent success with Top Gun: Maverick as a "guiding star."
Axel Bosso is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything related to video games (he's behind some of the Wikis you might have used over the years)!
]]>On October 16, Tomonobu Itagaki’s Facebook account revealed that the video game developer had passed away at age 58. Tributes to the Dead or Alive creator have been pouring in from fans and fellow game developers alike, especially in his home country of Japan.
The following post was made in Japanese on Itagaki’s Facebook.
"My Last Words:
The flame of my life is finally about to be extinguished.
The fact that this message has been posted means that the time has finally come. I am no longer of this world.
(I entrusted this final post to someone important to me.)
My life was a series of battles. I kept winning.
I caused a lot of trouble for others too.
I’m proud that I fought to the end, following my convictions.
I have no regrets.
Except I am extremely sorry that I could not give all my fans a new game.
That's the way it is.
So it goes.
Tomonobu Itagaki"
Joining Tecmo in the early 1990s, Itagaki created Dead or Alive, working on seven titles in the fighting series, including its move into beach volleyball. He also played a key role in reviving Ninja Gaiden, with 2004’s Xbox-exclusive Ninja Gaiden reboot and subsequent games. However, he made a dramatic exit from Tecmo in 2008, suing the company for damages in Tokyo District Court, a matter that was eventually settled.
He subsequently went on to found Valhalla Studios with former members of Team Ninja and directed Devil’s Third, which released in 2015. In 2021, he established Itagaki Games, with the aim of producing a new work, but unfortunately this never happened.
Tributes poured in from fellow game developers. On the Facebook post, Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada commented: "No way Itagaki-san- You said to me we’d go out for a drink next time" — which apparently was their last exchange. Harada followed this up with a lengthy post on Twitter / X in English, describing the full history of his sometimes rivalry-fuelled relationship with Itagaki. Despite working for different companies on competing fighting game franchises, Harada recounts that Itagaki referred to him as a "comrade-in-arms."
Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda lamented Itagaki’s passing at only 58 years old: "Rest in peace Itagaki-san, the fighting game legend who shaped an era."
Team Ninja Studios also posted the following response on X / Twitter in both English and Japanese: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Team Ninja's first leader, Tomonobu Itagaki. We will carry on the philosophy and creativity that Itagaki-san began and continue to create games that many gamers will enjoy."
Former Super Robot Wars series producer Takanobu Terada recalled that "although we had no professional connections, Itagaki reached out to me quite a while ago and said ‘let’s meet’ and we ended up having dinner together." Terada also recounted that Itagaki encouraged him, saying: "please keep on enthusiastically creating things."
Likewise, former Dragon Quest producer Ryutaro Ichimura reminisced about fond memories of discussing the future of the game industry with Itagaki over food and drink. He recalled Itagaki’s warm words of encouragement, and remembered when Itagaki asked him for his autograph to give to a relative who was Ichimura’s fan.
"I felt Itagaki’s kindness in that moment, which made me even more of a fan of his," he said. Hearing of Itagaki’s passing, Ichimura noted that "it didn’t feel real at first but once the truth hit me, I couldn’t stop crying. Carrying Itagaki’s words with me, I want to keep pushing forward and continue to create new works without any regrets."
And Kirby and Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai also took to social media to comment, simply saying: "May his soul rest in peace."
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
]]>Japanese video game developer Tomonobu Itagaki has died aged 58.
Itagaki, best known for creating the Dead or Alive series and for reviving the Ninja Gaiden franchise in 2004, had asked a close friend to publish a 'final words' message on his Facebook page in the event of his death. It went live hours before his passing was confirmed by friends.
Last Words
The light of my life is finally fading.
The fact that this message has been posted means that the time has finally come. I am no longer in this world.
(I am entrusting this final post to someone important to me.)
My life has been a series of battles. I kept winning.
I have caused a lot of trouble, too.
I am proud to say that I followed my beliefs and fought to the end.
I have no regrets.
However, I am filled with regret that I was unable to deliver a new work to all my fans. I am sorry.
That's how it is.
So it goes.
Itagaki Tomonobu
Team Ninja, the studio Itagaki put on the map with the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises, issued a statement on social media:
"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Team Ninja's first leader, Tomonobu Itagaki. We will carry on the philosophy and creativity that Itagaki-san began and continue to create games that many gamers will enjoy. Our deepest condolences for his loss."
James Mielke, co-founder of Tigertron and BitSummit, took to social media to say: "RIP, senpai. You will always be a ninja."
"Today I lost someone who was truly like a brother to me," Mielke said. "I am gutted to the core. I guess I can say so now that it's on his Facebook page. He even listed himself as my actual brother on Facebook. Anyone who knows me knows how close we were. RIP, senpai. You will always be a ninja."
Tekken chief Katsuhiro Harada posted on X / Twitter to express his disbelief at the news.
No way, Itagaki-san
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) October 16, 2025
you said, "Let’s grab a drink sometime," didn’t you?
I don’t believe it. I don’t.
saw Tomonobu Itagaki has passed away— a rare breed of ronin auteur developer; uncompromising, chaotic, unforgettable
— James Montagna (@JamesPopStar) October 16, 2025
I grew up inspired by his work and had a few chances to encounter him in the E3 halls... May his influence burn in every creator who still believes in going all in pic.twitter.com/rl26OwyKOL
RIP Tomonobu Itagaki, the legendary creator of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. Here's a video from 17 years ago where I interviewed him about Ninja Gaiden II for Xbox 360. pic.twitter.com/Wqgzo6cFad
— Danny Peña (@godfree) October 16, 2025
I'm shocked & saddened to hear of the passing of Tomonobu Itagaki, who helmed not just the Dead or Alive series but, more notably to me, the Ninja Gaiden revivals on Xbox & Xbox 360.
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) October 16, 2025
Ninja Gaiden – especially NG Black – remain perfect. I reviewed NG2 for OXM. RIP Itagaki-san 🥷 pic.twitter.com/fKAtrt0pTW
Rest in peace, Tomonobu Itagaki. Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden made an undeniable impact on gaming. I only crossed paths with him a few times, but he could not have been nicer. pic.twitter.com/noQFQCe2rk
— Ed Boon (@noobde) October 16, 2025
Born in 1967, Itagaki joined Tecmo in 1992, originally to handle the graphics for Tecmo Super Bowl. Itagaki's brash nature wasn't fully seen until he started on his own Dead or Alive series in 1998, which featured female characters with strategically-placed "bounce" physics and more than a passing resemblance to SEGA's Virtua Fighter, a series he has mentioned being a fan of.
When Dead or Alive 2 arrived for the Dreamcast, the graphical leap shone a light on Itagaki and Team Ninja, and the outspoken developer — who became well known for wearing shades at all times — never shied away from commenting on industry trends. Itagaki's Ninja Gaiden launched as an Xbox exclusive in 2004, breathing new life into the hardcore action game franchise. He went on to release Ninja Gaiden Black, considered by some to be one of the greatest action games of all time. Nintendo DS game Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, and Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2 followed.
Itagaki split from Tecmo as part of a heated and very public breakup on June 2, 2008. After resigning from his role, he released a public statement alleging unpaid completion bonuses, with a complaint filed in the Tokyo District Court on May 14, 2008.
He later founded Valhalla Game Studios with several Team Ninja members and released Devil's Third. Itagaki stepped down from Valhalla in 2017 and went on to form Itagaki Games in 2021. At the time, Itagaki said he had spent the prior four years teaching game development to a younger generation. However, he felt that he wanted to "make a game again and just established a company for that purpose."
Itagaki's death comes just days before the release of Ninja Gaiden 4, an action sequel he had no involvement with.
Image credit: Tomonobu Itagaki / Facebook.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
]]>Love them or, more likely, hate them, Minecraft's Creepers are now an iconic part of Mojang's beloved sandbox game. But the explosive creatures probably wouldn't be included today, the developer has said, if it were to design them from scratch now.
Speaking in a new developer video discussing game balance and fairness, chief creative officer Jens Bergensten said that Mojang now followed a strong principle when adding any new item, biome or enemy to Minecraft that could cause players grief. In a nutshell, if anything causes the player to suffer, it should be because players brought it on themselves.
"We want to avoid treating players in a way that feels unfair," Bergensten said. "So we have this guiding principle that bad things [can] happen, but they're technically the players' fault. What we mean by that is either the player caused it, or the player had a chance to prevent it."
That means enemies have to feel fair — so players can choose to take them on if they want or have a decent chance of mitigating the danger if not. Situations that negatively impact a player should also never feel too random.
Bergensten listed various examples of things that have been added in the past that haven't felt as fair as intended — such as Iron Golems protecting villages by attacking Creepers (and getting said villages blown up), or Endermen randomly stealing blocks that could have some pivotal signifiance (such as a painstakingly-built Redstone circuits).
This doesn't mean that Mojang won't add in tougher challenges, though the developer said it was now careful to make difficult content feel like something players were opting into — such as when actively making the choice to enter The End and take on the game's climactic Ender Dragon.
But how about the Creeper? It can be encountered from the very beginning of the game, it can instantly kill players and destroy builds, and it sometimes feels like it appears at random. So why does it still exist like it does?
"Even to this day, it's one of the monsters in gaming that I'm still a little bit afraid of," Bergensten admitted. "If you would follow the rules that we have today, we would probably not add the Creeper because it would actually be so controversial to have a monster just show up and destroy what you've built."
And yet?
"The Creeper is very iconic though," Bergensten concluded — which is true enough.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
]]>When a franchise reaches the hulking size of Pokémon, it finds its way into everything. The Pokémon Company’s games have touched almost every genre, we’ve seen its characters rendered in almost every art style, and we’ve seen them battle a pantheon of gods and monsters. A universe of Pokémon games exists outside of the core series, and this month we’re treated to a new major spin-off from the franchise in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
Some may bristle at Z-A being labelled as a "spin-off," as developer Game Freak itself considers Legends a "main series". But, for the purpose of simplifying this list, we're considering any game that isn't part of the "core" mainline series (Red and Blue through to Scarlet and Violet) as a spin-off. By moving away from the classic turn-based RPG formula, spin-off games allow us to see different shades of the Pokemon universe and experience it in a new light. While the core Pokémon games can be boiled down to the competitive side of things, they’re also about building an emotional attachment to your team, immersing yourself in this strange, utopic universe and, most importantly, being enchanted by the lore of the world and interacting with myths and legends. The best spin-offs focus on those other aspects and enhance that sense of wonder.
With Z-A just around the corner, this is the perfect time to celebrate all the different ways the pocket monsters have deviated from their usual turn-based RPG roots, and rank the top 10 Pokémon spin-off games.
As already mentioned, the best spin-offs approach Pokémon from a fresh direction. Instead of playing as a trainer, in Pokémon Ranger you’re... well, a Ranger. Your job is essentially taking care of your local community. If a Pokémon is distressed, you’re tasked to calm it down. If one goes missing, you have to go find it. If there’s a fire, you can use a nearby water Pokémon to help put it out. Cute missions like these are strung together in a run, which replicates the sort of little tasks you’d see in cosy games. And they’re funny, too! Pokémon has always been fun, but rarely has it displayed actual comedic chops in the way it does here.
While Ranger definitely has its fans, it’s not higher on this list because the missions can get... repetitive. The main gameplay loop is literally about loops – you have to physically draw circles around the Pokémon you want to temporarily capture for each task using the Nintendo DS’ stylus. This has more depth than it sounds, but even the most challenging captures don’t feel completely satisfying. It’s an example of a really fun idea that doesn’t quite fully hold up in execution. Nonetheless, Pokémon Ranger benefits from that funny dialogue and some cool worldbuilding, allowing you to experience the universe from a very different, more vocation-focused perspective.
During the Nintendo 64 era, the Pokémon Stadium series was the best visual representation of our beloved little monsters we had in the video games. Taking advantage of Nintendo’s first 3D system, we were treated to detailed, tactile character models and unique attack animations that brought the worlds of the games and the anime as close together as they had ever been. Though lacking in significant story beats for lore-hungry fans, Pokémon Stadium 2 in particular was a dream for the most competitive members of the fanbase, offering a myriad of battle formats. It also introduced Earl’s Pokémon Academy, which both taught battle strategies and tested newfound skills.
But there’s more to Stadium 2 than just the stadium itself. Let’s not forget the endlessly entertaining Pokémon mini-games and quizzes of the Kids Club, or the returning magic trick introduced in the first game: importing the exact same Pokemon you had raised in GameBoy games straight into the Nintendo 64. Taking your favourites on a cross-console journey to the big Stadium hit upon one of the core appeals of the series: strengthening the lasting connection you have with these digital creatures. Even as graphics have improved, nothing has compared to the thrill of seeing your original GameBoy starter duke it out on the TV screen for the very first time.
When Pokémon Colosseum arrived on the GameCube in 2003, it was an important first: finally, a 3D Pokémon game that featured a full storyline. With its double battle format, lack of random encounters, and a compelling plot, it was an exciting evolution beyond Stadium’s battle-focused format. While it’s a similar style of RPG to the classic games, instead of starting out as a young trainer with a level five starter looking to become the Pokémon champion, you’re dropped into the shoes of a more experienced protagonist who uses the decidedly cool (and level 25!) Espeon and Umbreon. Your adventure begins right after escaping from the nefarious Team Snagem with stolen technology, a story set up that, along with a Star Wars-inspired desert community setting, ensures Colosseum occupies its own distinct space in the Pokémon library.
Colosseum was where Shadow Pokémon were first introduced to the franchise. These are Pokémon who have been "closed off from their hearts" and need to be purified before they can properly be used in battle. This system offers a unique slant on Pokémon’s classic collect-and-train gameplay, forcing you to balance levelling up your team with purifying it, too.
Improving on the solid foundations of Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness deepens the lore around Shadow Pokémon and has become a bit of a cult classic amongst fans. It lends new weight to the idea of Shadow Pokémon, explored through the addition of Shadow Lugia – the only pocket monster to get a full, dark redesign, and said to be the ultimate Shadow Pokémon, unable to be purified.
Set five years after the events of Colosseum, you’re tasked with taking down the Cipher criminal syndicate and purifying Pokémon across the Orre region. While inheriting Colosseum’s gameplay style, complete with the excellent doubles battle system that brings Pokémon a little closer to feeling like a party-based JRPG, Gale of Darkness differentiates itself from its predecessor by casting you as a rookie trainer. This change means the experience falls more in line with the typical Pokémon journey, which arguably robs the game of a bit of originality. However, the 3D world and continued exploration of the Shadow Pokémon phenomenon makes up for any feeling of repetition, with each new story beat deepening the worldbuilding and adding more layers to the Orre region. All that, in tandem with the excellent battle system and that carefully balanced purification mechanic, makes Gale of Darkness a Pokémon spin-off worth seeking out.
Developed by Koei Tecmo, Pokémon Conquest is a crossover with the historical Nobunaga’s Ambition franchise, a line of strategy games that have a very different feel to Pokémon. This crossover introduces a variety of elements you’d never expect to see in a Pokémon game, including historical figures from Japan’s Sengoku period, such as daimyō Oda Nobunaga himself. It also combines Pokémon’s traditions with very non-traditional characters, art style, and dialogue. This makes for an unusual game, but it becomes easy to accept such a strange mixture as soon as you jump into a battle.
Pokémon fits the strategy game genre like a glove. Conquest’s type match-ups, interactive battlefields, and each Pokémon’s hidden abilities all make for a compelling strategy battle system that can, at times, feel even more engaging than the core series’ turn-based combat.
Conquest may not scratch the itch of those looking to immerse themselves further in the traditional world of Pokémon, as the game probably takes place in its own universe with its own rules. However, its completely fresh approach makes it a genuinely unique prospect in a franchise that can often fall foul of delivering the same experience over and over again. It’s a real shame that the franchise has never returned to the strategy genre since.
What better way to immerse yourself into the world of Pokémon than to become one yourself? Blue Rescue Team kicks off the Mystery Dungeon sub-series with one of the coolest ideas Pokémon has ever had: What if you played as a human who was transformed into an amnesiac Pokémon and now works as a bounty hunter in a little community, all while attempting to work out how on earth you became a Pokémon to begin with? It’s a completely ridiculous premise, but one that’s endlessly charming in practice.
In some Pokémon games it’s easy to feel as if the story is simply happening around you, rather than you having any agency in it. Blue Rescue Team doesn’t just bring you closer to the mythos of the Pokémon world, it makes you feel like you’re at the very centre of it, with each of your actions crafting new lore that’ll be etched into the history of this world. Its roguelike gameplay sees you explore randomly generated dungeons, rescuing stranded Pokémon, delivering items, and completing other simple tasks. This approach has its merits and faults (and the dungeon crawler design is certainly an acquired taste), but Blue Rescue Team’s story makes up for any shortcomings by being imbued with such a strong sense of wonder.
The great thing about a fictional world as fleshed out as Pokémon’s is that you could be tasked with doing any job and it would still be interesting. Working as a wildlife photographer in the Pokémon universe is a vocation guaranteed to further immerse you in the world, allowing you to get much closer to its magic (thanks to the power of a camera’s zoom) and see Pokemon like you’d never get to see otherwise.
By framing its Pokémon as wildlife rather than collectable fuzzy warriors, whose lives are filled with adorable small interactions between each other, Snap makes it feel like the world of Pokémon still lives and breathes even after you power down your console. That approach meant Pokémon Snap was a cosy game before cosy games really became a thing, with relaxing gameplay and a calming set of tasks you can tick off in each play session. As is true of real wildlife photography, many of your snaps will be of common creatures you’ve seen dozens of times before. But every now and then your camera lens will catch a rare glimpse of a legendary or mythical Pokémon, which immediately evokes that sense of wonder that powers the best games in the franchise.
It’s become a meme to say that the summer Pokémon Go dropped was the closest we ever got to world peace, but the fact this simple augmented reality mobile game became as ubiquitous as it did is a testament to something only this franchise could do. Any adult Pokémon fan will tell you that, if a genie came to them as a child, their number one wish would be for Pokémon to be real. Go is the closest we’ll get to that, barring any Jurassic Park-style scientific abominations.
An incredible idea that could only be realised through mobile phones, Niantic’s pioneering design sees you explore your actual surroundings in search of digital Pokemon, which can then be battled at virtual gyms that are linked to real-world locations. Its physical requirements – you actually have to walk around to find randomly-spawning new Pokémon – genuinely manifests the adventurous spirit of Pokémon in your own neighborhood. It is wish fulfillment for those who dreamt about running around catching Pokémon, building a connection with these creatures, and exploring the world around you with wide-eyed wonder.
Mobile gaming comes with so much baggage, often representing the worst of the gaming industry, but Pokémon Go is its most pure innovation.
The Mystery Dungeon sub-series has evolved over the years, and Explorers of Sky is one of the best examples of how it's improved and expanded. An enhanced version of 2007’s Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness, it takes everything that makes the Mystery Dungeon series great, combines it with one of the best stories the franchise has seen, and adds a number of much-appreciated quality of life improvements.
Despite starting with a familiar premise (you’re once again a human-turned-Pokémon),Explorers of Sky quickly morphs into a time-bending tale, true to the new lore introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. It’s a story that actually showcases the mystical abilities of the world’s legendary creatures, rather than leaving them as descriptions in a Pokédex entry. And while this story is mostly a retread of Explorers of Time, five new Special Episodes enhance the tale with additional storylines that explore the lives of side characters.
All of the feelings we associate with a good Pokémon game are successfully evoked here, right down to your partner genuinely feeling like your best friend. Mystery Dungeon excels here because your partner Pokémon is someone you can actually speak to, and that communication really cements your bond. When the credits roll, you really feel like you’ve gone through something life-changing together, a feeling many Pokémon games try to create but don’t always succeed at. The Mystery Dungeon games offer a peek into the Pokémon world unlike any other strand of the franchise, and this is the best of them. We’re way overdue a new one, and this is the one to beat.
Lifelong Pokémon fans will forever be chasing the high of booting up Legends: Arceus for the first time. The opening cutscene sees you meet Arceus, the Pokémon god himself, before being plunged back in time to the ancient Sinnoh region. But the moment that really sets fireworks off in your brain is the instant you take control of your character and throw a Poké Ball.
Legends: Arceus is the first "Open Zone" game in Pokémon history, and that new approach to world design made it feel like the franchise had finally been unshackled from the classic-formula mainline games, which had become increasingly restrictive since they transitioned to 3D. Having the freedom to run up to a Pokémon in the overworld and capture them without having to endure multiple battle turns felt like tasting seasoned food after years of eating only boiled chicken. Legends: Arceus’ modernised design makes for the most satisfying and immersive gameplay loop the Pokémon series has ever had, and that’s paired with dozens of captivating lore revelations. Your task in Legends: Arceus is to construct the first ever Pokédex, to use the first ever Poké Balls, and create the bond between man and monster that forms the basis of every other game in the series – it’s a prequel to the entire franchise, and just as brilliant as such a position would demand. With a wondrous setting and compelling gameplay, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the very best, like no spin-off ever was.
And those are our picks for the 10 best Pokémon spin-off games. Did we miss your favourite, or would you rank one of these games higher or lower? Let us know in the comments.
]]>Marvel actor Ralph Ineson, who played Galactus in this year's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, has weighed in on Ubisoft's decision to reportedly cancel a post-Civil War Assassin's Creed game starring a former Black slave as its star.
According to a Game File report published this week, Ubisoft walked away from the project last summer while the idea was still early in development, due to concerns surrounding the current U.S. political climate and the negative backlash to Black co-protagonist Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Ineson previously featured in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag as pirate Charles Vane, an ally of the game's hero Edward Kenway. Black Flag notably also featured Adéwalé, a former Black slave whose character went on to star as the playable protagonist of Freedom Cry, one of the Assassin's Creed series' best DLCs that was later re-released as a standalone game.
"Once again, f*** off," Ineson wrote on X, reposting details of the reportedly-cancelled game. (The message follows another, even more succint recent post — "F*** off" — directed by Ineson at a report concerning AI "actress" Tilly Norwood.)
While Ineson hasn't worked on the Assassin's Creed series in some time, it is interesting to see the actor comment on the brand amid the swirl of expectation that a new version of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is in development. Indeed, a recent report suggested that the project would include additional material, and Edward Kenway actor Matt Ryan has dropped a couple of hints he's back involved.
Could Ineson also be back recording more for the Black Flag remake? Or is he just annoyed at the project's cancelation as a fan of the series?
Ubisoft previously declined to comment about the project when contacted by IGN earlier this week.
Image credit: Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Disney.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
]]>Quick, gather 'round everyone. New Mario levels just dropped.
You heard me. New levels. In Mario. Specifically, in Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, a game that first released in 1986 and which, you'd think, everyone had already discovered every single secret in.
Nope. There was still more to find. And a speedrunner named Kosmic managed to uncover over 20 previously unseen (and at times very glitchy) playable levels in the game after a lot of community help, experimentation, patience, and jumping off springs.
Kosmic has recorded his full journey in a 40-minute video here, and I highly recommend watching it because he does some crazy stuff and has a detailed explanation of how and why this works the way it does. But very, very basically, in the original Super Mario Bros. and its sequel, The Lost Levels, the game determines what level and world to send you to at the end of each level based on what object you "use" to clear the level. Grabbing a flagpole increases the "Area" number by 1 (the "2" in "1-2") while grabbing the axe on a castle bridge increases the "World" number (sending you to "2-1" after beating "1-4", for instance).
Then there's Warp Pipes. For years, the Mario community has known about the infamous "Minus World" glitch - an infinitely-looping water level accessed by entering the Warp Zone in 1-2 in such a way that the zone doesn't fully load, and the pipes aren't set up yet to send you to the correct world and area. In the original Super Mario Bros., doing this and then entering the far left or right pipes sends players to a level designated "World -1", or Minus World. In The Lost Levels, this glitch was removed, with the pipes instead sending players to whatever destination is currently loaded into its memory. But if you enter the pipe while moving, the Warp Zone can load after you've entered, and you can trick the game to send you to the very beginning of the Area that the pipe wants to send you to.
That's all pretty complicated, and honestly it's making my head spin too. Again, Kosmic's explanation is the best one, but the even shorter version is that using a combination of flags, axes, and pipes, you can manipulate the game into sending you into increasingly unhinged areas. You can force the game to load wacky stuff like World 2-5, 2-9, and so forth. And in The Lost Levels, quite specifically the Super Mario All-Stars edition, this weirdness is compounded by the fact that the game has save states accessible from the menu that will save your access to these weird worlds, but will load them in differently if you're accessing them from the menu instead of from the previous world.
Kosmic was able to combine all of this to start loading world after world beyond The Lost Levels' lettered bonus levels. First, from B-4, he made it to B-5, then B-6, 7, and 8. With some difficulty, he reached B-A, B-B, B-C, and B-D. Up to this point all these levels were largely just repeated versions of other levels, albeit with some occasional weirdness. But after B-D, it was unclear what was going to load.
The answer was B-E. At first, it just seemed sort of silly. Then, Mario briefly went to jail:
The only way out was to save and quit. Kosmic escaped, headed to B-F, which started a series of repeat normal levels. From here, he went all the way to B-L, after which point a spring and a giant pit stopped him from playing further. But he could still load all these levels from the menu for different variations, and B-H resulted in this:
Things only got weirder from there:
In total, Kosmic found over 20 "new levels", which ranged from nearly identical to existing levels, to total messes like what you see above. Eventually, playing them just crashed Kosmic's game, and they're probably not that fun from a platforming perspective, but they were cool to see.
So why did it take 39 years to find these levels? Kosmic has theories:
"Fewer people played Lost Levels compared to the first game. This trick is deep into the game, like in bonus worlds, not even in the main worlds. To see the full extent of the glitch, it only works on the All-Stars version, and it gets a bit technical...but the main reason I'd say is it's actually really hard."
Kosmic demonstrates this in his videos. The most difficult part about it involves entering a pipe when the Warp Zone isn't fully loaded in, which requires being very precise with your movement as well as where the camera currently is. Some levels are easier to manipulate than others, but for this glitch to work there's one particularly tricky Warp Zone that Kosmic had to pull some very specific tricks to master.
Congrats to Kosmic and the entire Super Mario Bros. community, who now have a bag full of weird new levels to mess around with and the certainty that it's never too late to discover something new about a classic video game.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
]]>It's taken 14-and-a-half years, but Minecraft YouTuber KurtJMac has finally reached the Far Lands.
In an attempt so bodacious it even has its own Wikipedia page, KurtJMac kicked off his journey back in March 2011 after Minecraft creator Markus Persson suggested it was "impossible" to get there. And while KurtJMac may not be the first person to have reached the outer edges of the procedurally generated world, his attempt is one of the most famous, taking almost 15 years to achieve and crossing the line on October 4. He even holds a Guinness World Record for the Longest Journey in Minecraft without using cheats or exploits, and has raised over half a million dollars for charity.
The Far Lands technically no longer exist, having been patched out of Minecraft ages ago, but they were discovered after a terrain generation bug created a strange wall-like structure, essentially signalling the very edge of the world. You can see the moment KurtJMac realized he reached the Far Lands on his YouTube channel at 3:43:27 on the video "FLoB-a-Thon — Day 69 — THE FAR LANDS." He thought he was getting close — unless his balloons had been waiting there for over a decade! — and after acknowledging the game felt "a little bit laggy," the mythical wall came into view.
"Ohhhhh!" he cried when he saw it. "Who had their bets on Ocean Biome?! Good gravy!"
"We may not be the first people to have reached the Far Lands," KurtJMac continued, "but in my book we are absolutely the first to have brought along such an amazing community, a generous community, and I would not have changed any of it to have gotten here any sooner. And I very much appreciate all of you being here."
So what happens next? As KurtJMac put it: "I'm just gonna ever westward, forever forward!"
Last week, Minecraft announced a major new game update, Mounts of Mayhem, that will be spearheaded by the addition of, well, a spear. The sharp-tipped stick is the first new weapon added to Minecraft in some time, and the first new tiered item — one that is available in progressively more durable variants — added since the hoe, back in 2010. It'll introduce some interesting new gameplay possibilities, including jousting.
For now, Minecraft fans can busy themselves with the game's latest update, The Copper Age, which is out now and adds those adorable friendly copper golems.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky .
]]>Microsoft has added a number of new games to Xbox Game Pass today as part of a major shakeup that has seen the Ultimate tier increase in price.
As IGN has reported, Microsoft has hiked the price of Ultimate from 19ドル.99 to 29ドル.99 a month, while renaming and upgrading the other tiers. As part of the justification for the price rise, Microsoft added Ubisoft+ Classics for the first time ever to Ultimate, and the games that are part of that subscription are now a part of Ultimate. (It's worth noting that Amazon still has the old price, if you want to stock up).
On top of that, Warner Bros.’ smash hit Hogwarts Legacy is now available across Ultimate and the new Premium tier (which replaces Standard), but it’s not in the new Essential tier (which replaces Core).
Premium gets more than 40 new games available today, including Blizzard’s action role-playing game Diablo 4 and the aforementioned Hogwarts Legacy. Microsoft said Premium gets new Xbox-published games within a year of their launch, but, interestingly, that excludes Call of Duty titles. So don't expect to play Black Ops 7 day one as a Premium subscriber when it comes out this November.
Essential, meanwhile, is a curated catalog of over 50 games playable on both console and PC. The Essential library is now fully playable on PC, featuring games like Hades, Cities: Skylines – Remastered, Stardew Valley, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
Here’s the full list available today, October 1:
Ultimate – Available Today
• Hogwarts Legacy (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed II (PC)
• Assassin's Creed III Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Freedom Cry (PC)
• Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (PC)
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed Liberation HD (PC)
• Assassin's Creed Revelations (PC)
• Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection (Cloud and Console)
• Assassin's Creed Unity (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Child of Light (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Far Cry 3 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Far Cry Primal (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Hungry Shark World (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Monopoly Madness (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Monopoly 2024 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• OddBallers (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Prince of Persia The Lost Crown (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (Cloud and Console)
• Rabbids: Party of Legends (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Rayman Legends (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Risk Urban Assault (Cloud and Console)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Skull and Bones (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• South Park: The Stick of Truth (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• STEEP (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• The Crew 2 (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• The Settlers: New Allies (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Tom Clancy's The Division (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Trackmania Turbo (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Transference (Cloud and Console)
• Trials Fusion (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Trials of the Blood Dragon (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Trials Rising (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• UNO (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• WATCH_DOGS (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Wheel of Fortune (Cloud and Console)
• ZOMBI (Cloud, PC, and Console)
Premium – Available Today (also in Ultimate)
• 9 Kings (Game Preview) (PC)
• Abiotic Factor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Against the Storm (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (PC)
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (PC)
• Age of Mythology: Retold (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Ara: History Untold (PC)
• Arx Fatalis (PC)
• Back to the Dawn (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• BATTLETECH (PC)
• Blacksmith Master (Game Preview) (PC)
• Cataclismo (PC)
• Cities: Skylines II (PC)
• Crime Scene Cleaner (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Diablo (PC)
• Diablo IV (PC and Console)
• An Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire (PC)
• The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (PC)
• Fallout (PC)
• Fallout 2 (PC)
• Fallout: Tactics (PC)
• Football Manager 2024 (PC)
• Frostpunk 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Halo: Spartan Strike (PC)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Manor Lords (Game Preview) (PC)
• Minami Lane (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Minecraft: Java Edition (PC)
• Mullet Madjack (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• My Friendly Neighborhood (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• One Lonely Outpost (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Quake 4 (PC)
• Quake III Arena (PC)
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC)
• Rise of Nations: Extended Edition (PC)
• Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Sworn (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S)
• Terra Invicta (Game Preview) (PC)
• Volcano Princess (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Warcraft I: Remastered (PC)
• Warcraft II: Remastered (PC)
• Warcraft III: Reforged (PC)
• Wolfenstein 3D (PC)
Essential – Available Today (also in Ultimate and Premium)
• Cities: Skylines Remastered (Cloud and Xbox Series X|S)
• Disney Dreamlight Valley (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Hades (Cloud, PC, and Console)
• Warhammer 40,000 Darktide (Cloud, PC, and Console)
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
]]>Minecraft has announced a major new game update, Mounts of Mayhem, that will be spearheaded by the addition of... the spear!
The sharp-tipped stick is the first new weapon added to Minecraft in some time, and the first new tiered item — one that is available in progressively more durable variants — added since the hoe, back in 2010.
After so long jabbing at skeletons with a sword, you might wonder why the spear is being added now. Well, thankfully it sounds like there will be some interesting new gameplay possibilities as a result of the spear's addition, and in particular: jousting.
As in real life, you'll be able to wield your nearest spear on foot, or on your nearest horse, which is where part of that Mounts of Mayhem title comes in. The other part? Well, that comes from the fact that it isn't just you getting to play around with a spear... Mounted Zombies (who also now ride Zombie Horses) will get spears also.
In an update video revealing the spear's mechanics, developer Mojang explained that the weapon can be used for slow, long-range jabs or stronger charge attacks that deal damage based on how fast a player is moving. On horseback, at a gallop, your spear is going to do significant damage to any enemy standing in your path. However, the same is presumably true of those Mounted Zombies.
Crafting or upgrading your spear using different materials will allow you to create a bog-standard wooden spear, but also fancier golden, stone, copper, iron, diamond and even Netherite alternatives. However, while the item's durability might increase, fancier materials will be heavier — making the spear's attacks slower. It's an interesting trade-off.
Mojang has confirmed that your mounted combat can extend underwater, via Mounts of Mayhem's new tamable aquatic mob, the Nautilus. You can even wield spears while soaring through the skies with Elytra wings.
Will spears be part of the next Chicken Jockey meme whenever the Minecraft Movie sequel comes around? Perhaps. Until then, players can begin testing Mounts of Mayhem features "soon," Mojang said, ahead of a full release further in the future.
For now, Minecraft fans can busy themselves with the game's latest update, The Copper Age, which is out today and adds those adorable friendly copper golems.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
]]>The LEGO Minecraft builds are both attractive and simple, and although most of the builds depict pre-conceived designs, other sets enable the sort of free play that both LEGO and Minecraft are famous for.
Minecraft's retro, pixelated appearance lends itself to brick form, especially with how alternating color patterns create the impression of shadow, texture, and three-dimensionality. Below we've gathered the best LEGO Minecraft LEGO sets that you can purchase in 2025. You can also check out our picks of the best LEGO sets overall.
Now that the Minecraft Movie is a box office success, there are also specific movie-themed sets available now that feature minifigures from the film.
Inspired by A Minecraft Movie, this set comes with Steve, Garrett, Henry, and a great hog, But most importantly, it comes with a baby zombie riding atop a giant chicken–the infamous ""Chicken Jockey" that's been going viral and wasting theater employees' precious time.
This diamond cave set may on the smaller side, but it has a price to match and charm to spare. A mechanism allows you to trigger falling rocks for roleplay scenarios. But the main draw, of course, is the Warden himself, who looks appropriately blocky and menacing.
Straight from the End biome, this set allows you to play out a climactic battle, in which you battle the Ender Dragon for its egg. The End Ship has a fully realized interior concealed by a roof, and it contains a brewing station and health potions so you can keep your energy up for the battles ahead.
A pixelated chunk of domestic bliss, The Mooshroom House is situated on an island, and it includes a farm and a composter. The set comes with a ton of accesories, including a fishing rod, a netherite sword, a crafting table, a boat, and a minifigure of Steve.
Set in the game's savannah biome, the best interactive feature of The Armadillo Mine Expedition is the box of TNT; when you 'explode' it, it takes out part of the terrain to reveal the precious metals under the surface. A massive cave spider crowns the set, joined by two armadillos and a wolf.
Very zen and very beautiful, the Cherry Blossom Garden is the perfect place to relax, so long as that pesky zombie doesn't manage to get in! The first LEGO set to feature Sunny as a minifigure, the set also includes two sniffers (an adult and a baby) and a small bridge that connects its two halves together.
The Windmall Farm provides a farm-to-table LEGO experience. You farm the wheat in your garden. Then you crush it into flour via the windmill, which turns by rotating a wheel in the back. Lastly, you can go to your tiny kitchen and use your eggs, milk, and sugar accessories to bake some plastic bread and cakes. Yum.
Shaped as its name implies, the Frog House has a fully realized interior and a roof that detaches, allowing for easy access and roleplay.The set comes with a zombie, a drowned, three Minecraft frogs, and a slime to feed them.
A battle scene on the border between the Crimson Forest (check out the mushroom trees) and the Basalt Deltas, this set also includes an Orc Warrior and a Ghast that shoots discs from its mouth.
This workshop for the Armorsmith contains an anvil, furnace, and cauldron along with a number of weapons, including two swords, two shields, a golden axe, and an enchanted trident.
It's an accurate fascimile of the Crafting Table in the game, but it also contains Easter eggs and miniature builds of 12 different biomes., including Cherry Grove, Ice Spikes, and the Taiga. Its release commemorates 15 years of Minecraft, and as such, it pays tribute to its entire legacy. If you're an adult fan who's going to buy one Minecraft set, this is the one.
There are currently a total of 30 LEGO Minecraft sets available at the LEGO store as of September 2025.
Crossing LEGO with Minecraft is charmingly redundant. One is based around physical building blocks. The other is based around digital building blocks. And now, we have physical blocks of those digital blocks. So If you're a digital builder who's looking to branch out into the physical world, Minecraft LEGO provides an easy gateway for that transition.
Stardew Valley creator Eric 'Concerned Ape' Barone has warned fans that it will "be a while" before the highly anticipated Stardew Valley 1.7 update is ready.
Barone confirmed we'd get a Stardew Valley 1.7 update last month at the Stardew Valley concert, although at the time, he stressed there was "no release date, no estimate, but it's happening."
Now, however, Barone is working to contain the excitement, responding to fans asking for "maybe a sneak peak [sic]" to say "more will come, I just don't want too much hype at this point."
Last time, PC players were able to jump into the free 1.6 update several months before those on console and mobile, but for 1.7, Barone says he will "do my best to minimize the delay between [releasing on PC and other platforms] so as not to have the same problem as last update" and keep Haunted Chocolatier on track, too.
Back in May, Barone admitted that he "didn't want to just be the Stardew Valley guy," explaining that was why he's currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. We shouldn't expect a release date anytime soon, though — there's "still a lot to be done," Barone recently admitted, particularly as he feels it's "got to be better" than Stardew Valley.
We enjoyed our time with the farm simulator when we reviewed it way back in 2016, awarding it 8.8 "Great" in our original Stardew Valley review. When we revisited the game in 2024, however, we hailed it a 10/10 "masterpiece," writing: "Stardew Valley is not only the best farming game I’ve played, it is one of my favorite games of all time. That myself and others keep returning to this eight-year old gem each time it gets even the smallest update speaks to how it’s truly a masterpiece in the genre it both reinvigorated and has come to define."
It's not too late to get stuck in before Update 1.7. Our Stardew Valley Beginner's Guide is fully updated for the 1.6 update, which added new crops, new fish, and plenty more - including the Raccoon Family Quests that unlock a new shop and valuable rewards. For veteran farmers who have maxed out all their skills, our Mastery Points guide can advise on next steps, and if you're headed to Ginger Island, here's where to find all Golden Walnuts.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky .
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