Yapyap stands apart from other “friendslop” horror extraction games by giving you plenty of firepower to begin with. Airpower, anyway. You and up to four mates are the boggle-eyed, flap-jawed minions of an enormous, moon-masked wizard. You’ve been summoned to wreak havoc on a rival wizard’s procedurally generated tower. Over the course of three nights per round, you must smash as many fixtures as you can to fill up your quota of Chaos – tapestries, crates, paintings, statues, anything that isn’t nailed down. For this purpose, you are handed a range of magical artefacts.
Some of the artefacts have to be bought with gold, but there’s a tree in the game’s lobby area that grows wands of wind magic, pluckable for free. Wind magic is the Ringo Starr of the four elements, IMO, but the default wands are fun, especially given that you have unlimited mana. There’s a basic ‘Force Push’ style wind spell, used to blow the helmets off zombie knights, a levitation spell to enhance your parkour, and a summonable tornado that will happily engulf the caster.
Nintendo is gearing up for its next Switch 2 release of the year in Mario Tennis Fever, which will serve up tons of multiplayer fun and expensive adventure mode on 12th February 2026.
So, it’s no surprise we’ve got a brand new commercial to prepare us for some time on the courts with our friends and family. But it’s also reminding us of days long gone by, when Wiimotes were in every household and playing a few rounds of golf or bowling with your mum or grandma was a once a week affair rather than just a holiday thing.
Safer Internet Day 2026: Xbox Transparency Report and Tools to Play with Confidence
Bringing the joy of gaming to everyone means protecting the people who play, and that responsibility has been core to Xbox since the beginning. We know that gaming just might be the most fulfilling, socially connected, and powerful form of entertainment today, and it’s crucial we continue protecting the shared moments and experiences that come from playing games together.
As we mark Xbox’s 25th anniversary this year, our commitment remains unchanged. In 2022, we made a promise to stay transparent about the work we do to protect our community and moderate content on our platform by regularly publishing our Xbox Transparency Reports. This year, ahead of Safer Internet Day, we’re sharing more than ever about how we’re innovating protections and providing players, parents, and caregivers with a variety of tools and resources so they can feel confident that Xbox continues to be a place for positive play, for the next 25 years and beyond.
Today, we’re highlighting how we’re continuing to shape the industry standard for safe gameplay experiences, our newly published Xbox Transparency Report, an upcoming Minecraft world teaching digital citizenship and safety skills, and our ongoing work to implement Age Verification.
Shaping the Standard for Safer Play
At Xbox, safety starts with understanding how people play. Since launching the Xbox 360 in 2005, which helped set the bar for online gaming, Xbox has shaped how safety, privacy, and security are built into gaming experiences across the video game industry. Over the past two decades, this approach has evolved to meet the needs of players where they play. It is guided by five core pillars shaped by player and parent feedback, the constantly evolving nature of online harms, and the ways safety by default can help create safer, more welcoming communities from the start:
Age Verification in the UK and beyond: Introduced in the UK and expanding to more regions later this year, age verification on Xbox helps ensure children only have access to age-appropriate content and are limited in how they can interact with others on our platform. Read more about our approach to Age Verification here, and stay tuned for information about Age Verification expanding to more regions later this year.
Child and Teen Accounts: Specialized accounts on Xbox that consider the different needs of children and teens help ensure age-appropriate access for young players, giving them a tailored and protected experience. To set up a child or teen account, visit: Xbox Child Account
Tools to Support Digital Parenting: Through tools like the Xbox Family Settings app, detailed settings that give families control over their gaming experiences can be managed directly from a mobile device, with features like Ask A Parent, which prompts children to request approval for activities and empower parents to make real-time decisions. Download the Xbox Family Settings app or learn more about Game Ratings, how to manage online and privacy settings, get familiar with the Minecraft Parents Guide, and more on the Xbox Family Hub.
Continued AI Innovation Supported by Human Expertise: Constant innovation of automated AI tools combined with human moderators help us detect, review, proactively block and address harmful online behavior more accurately and efficiently than ever. AI quickly and proactively spots potential issues, supported by human reviewers who add context, focus on nuance, and remain central to applying judgment to complex situations.
Commitment to Transparency: As the first in the video game industry to commit to regular transparency reporting, Xbox continues to ensure our community knows how safety is maintained and issues are handled.
New 2026 Xbox Transparency Report Shows Continued AI Innovation & Reduction in Spam
Our sixth Xbox Transparency Report shares insights into the work we do behind the scenes to protect all players from disruptive behavior and support experiences that are fun, positive, safe, and age appropriate. Key takeaways, which span Xbox safety efforts in 2025, include:
Responsibly advancing our AI approach to safety. We expanded the scope of our proactive AI moderation solutions to include 11 additional harmful topics that matter to players, allowing us to identify harmful content more effectively so our human moderators can focus on combatting the most nuanced and complex harms.
An adaptive response to spam. In 2025, our proactive moderation efforts to prevent unsolicited content from ever reaching players resulted in a 90% drop in spam message complaints compared to 2024, and an overall 23% drop in complaints for messages from non-friends.
Improved Player Reporting for More Frictionless Play. Our constant efforts to improve safety processes reach across all of our teams at Xbox. Developer Turn 10 recently expanded reporting capabilities around user generated content in Forza Horizon 5, allowing players to more efficiently file a report for cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct without ever needing to leave their game. Our teams at Turn 10 and across Xbox are excited to continue exploring improved functionality like this for future projects.
You can read more about our efforts to protect players in the full Xbox Transparency Report here.
Practicing Safer Online Decisions with Minecraft Education
On Safer Internet Day next week, Minecraft will launch CyberSafe:Bad Connection?, the fifth installment in the CyberSafe series for Minecraft Bedrock and Minecraft Education. This new world will help young players build online safety and digital citizenship skills through scenario-driven gameplay. Players will explore ways to recognize risks and red flags, learn how to report suspicious activity, and build confidence to keep themselves and their community safe. Bad Connection? builds on the legacy of the CyberSafe series, which has reached more than 80 million downloads since 2022, equipping players with the skills, practice, and confidence to navigate online spaces.
Bad Connection? will be available for free in the Minecraft Marketplace and Minecraft Education on February 10, along with free, downloadable materials for parents and educators to support critical, ongoing conversations about online safety. We also recently shared more about the Minecraft Safety Council, which brings together industry experts to help guide safer multiplayer experiences for the Minecraft community. Meet the council and learn more here.
Our Ongoing Commitment to Safety Today and for the Next 25 Years
Every gaming community is unique and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to keeping players safe. Whether it’s Call of Duty’s ongoing studies on player trust and positive play, new insights from the tenth annual Global Online Safety Survey publishing on the Microsoft On the Issues blog on February 10, or our recent update to our Online Safety Principles developed with Nintendo and Sony Interactive Entertainment, our teams are constantly working to help players enjoy fun, positive, and inclusive experiences.
Our work in player safety at Xbox is ongoing. For more information on Microsoft privacy, safety, and responsible gaming, explore these resources:
Hey, everyone! We’re excited to finally share a gameplay overview for Toxic Commando and announce that the game launches on March 12. We’ve been working hard on this one, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.
For those just catching up, Toxic Commando is our take on the co-op shooter genre, blending intense horde combat with vehicle-based gameplay in open environments. We wanted to give you a deeper look at how this project came together and what makes it tick.
From concept to chaos
The whole thing started with a pitch from Saber Interactive’s CEO, Matt Karch: World War Z meets Mudrunner. Picture enormous hordes of enemies swarming players who need to use a variety of vehicles to survive. We thought it was a cool concept that played to our strengths at Saber, so we dove into research and prototyping. What emerged was something we’re really proud of—a unique blend of vehicle-based gameplay in open environments combined with action-packed fights against massive enemy hordes.
Striking the balance: Wheels vs. boots
One question we get a lot is how we balanced the driving and FPS aspects. The answer? We didn’t want to force you into one playstyle or the other. Our game design encourages exploration, and it’s up to you how much you want to lean on vehicles to tackle missions. There are obvious benefits to driving—mobility, protection, mounted weapons—but we never want you to feel locked behind the wheel.
Our goal was simple: make vehicles fun and beneficial for players who want to use them, then let you decide how much time you spend driving versus on foot. Both approaches should feel viable and, most importantly, fun to play.
Co-op that puts strategy in your hands
Most missions in Toxic Commando are nonlinear. You’ll have multiple subobjectives that can be completed in any order, which means you and your squad can choose to stick together or split up to tackle objectives in parallel. The choice is yours.
Each playthrough also shakes things up with different vehicle spawns and class/loadout selections, so you’ll need to communicate with your team and plan accordingly to create good synergy. We wanted to encourage real player coordination and strategic thinking, adding a fresh layer to the classic co-op shooter experience.
Building a world that feels real (and ridiculous)
When it came to crafting the lore and universe of Toxic Commando, we had a few guiding principles. First, we wanted a world that felt recognizable but was set in the near future—just advanced enough to have some cool tech without feeling like a massive leap from our own reality.
Second, we wanted our characters to be aware of the tropes they’re living through. They’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, dealing with completely over-the-top situations that are both terrifying and—let’s be honest—a bit ridiculous. We lean into that with the dialogue and scenarios, which create some really memorable interactions.
But here’s the thing: while we embrace comedic elements and want players to have a blast, we’re not interested in making fun of the games and movies that inspired us. We approach this with earnestness because we genuinely love this stuff.
Our love letter to ’80s action horror
Speaking of influences, we drew heavily from ’80s films and television. The path to John Carpenter was a natural one: which great director or movies fit into that kind of sphere? John Carpenter’s Escape from New York is probably the most obvious reference, but you’ll also find DNA from Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, They Live, and Prince of Darkness woven throughout. John Carpenter’s involvement went beyond guidance, feedback, and direction on the story—he also composed Toxic Commando’s music. The team also looked at Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead, Lamberto Bava’s Demons, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, and even a bit of The A-Team.
What we love about those properties is the big energy and bombastic tone. It wasn’t about copying specific set pieces or scenes—it was about capturing that feeling. There’s a lack of self-consciousness in a lot of late ’70s to early ’90s action and action-horror cinema that we really appreciated. Those characters aren’t winking at the camera; they’re in over their heads and rolling with it. Our characters know what zombies are, but when faced with a horde, they’re not stopping to break the fourth wall or crack wise about clichés—they’re fighting for survival.
The past fifty years of cinema have given us wonderful examples of ragtag groups of underdog heroes—from Star Wars to Goonies to Guardians of the Galaxy—alongside true masterpieces of horror. We wanted to blend those ideas: what happens when you drop a bickering found family of action-adventure heroes into a horror movie? That’s the core of what we’re exploring with Toxic Commando.
John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is scheduled to be released on March 12. We can’t wait for you to experience this new co-op zombie shooter with a vehicle twist. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you out there!
Alongside those three games, you’ll get five more as part of this bundle, which costs just $14.99 per month when you sign up for the Humble Choice membership. That’s not all, though, as you also get a free month of IGN Plus as part of this bundle. It’s a real treat for PC gamers, so don’t miss out on this month’s excellent selection of games.
If Resident Evil Village has caught your eye, particularly if you’re counting down the days to Requiem, it’s worth noting we’re big fans. Back when it was first released, our review from IGN’s Tristan Ogilvie called it “a genuinely engrossing and increasingly combat-heavy continuation of the Ethan Winters story.”
SteamWorld Build is another pick from this list we enjoyed. Our review from writer Jon Bolding said it’s a “simple but fun city builder cleverly combined with a dungeon-constructing miner that keeps things quick and casual.” It certainly seems like a nice variety of games in this bundle you’ll get to add to your library.
There’s plenty of other perks you’ll get to enjoy as a Humble Choice member as well. Alongside the new selection of games to choose from each month, you’ll also save up to 20% on select games in the Humble Store, and 5% of your membership goes to a charity every month, which is NPower for February.
On top of that, the month of IGN Plus is a nice bonus alongside the games, offering you a chance to give it a test run for free. With this, you’ll be able to get rid of ads on the site, enjoy free games, and more.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Fresh from starring in the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer, Yoshi is headed to Nintendo Switch Online today.
Mario’s ridable dinosaur pal arrives via Switch Online in the form of his item-matching Game Boy puzzle title that’s simply named “Yoshi.” Originally released in 1991, the classic game is available again today for Switch Online subscribers.
Also available today is Balloon Kid, the side-scrolling platformer where you can collect balloons to aid in your jumping and hovering. It was first available in 1990, some 36 years ago.
#NintendoSwitchOnline members can now play these two classic #GameBoy titles on Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch!
If you have access to the Japanese Nintendo Switch Online app, it’s worth noting that the addition of Balloon Kid is substituted with the arrival of Balloon Fight GB — a separate title with a more obscure history. Released only in Japan for the Game Boy Color, this title is a souped-up version of the original NES Balloon Fight that never made it across to the West. The game then later arrived on 3DS via its Virtual Console, though again only in Japan.
Nintendo recently featured Yoshi as the star of its latest Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer, which showed Mario and Luigi befriending the dinosaur and quickly welcoming it to their gang of heroes. Yoshi is expected to play a major role in the upcoming Super Mario Movie sequel following a cameo appearance (really, just Yoshi’s egg) at the end of the prior film.
While The Super Mario Galaxy Movie launches in theaters on April 1, Yoshi’s retro appearance on Game Boy is available to play again via Switch and Switch 2 now.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported on the state of veteran RPG studio Obsidian following an exhausting 2025. Over the course of eight months, the company launched Grounded 2 in early access, followed by both The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed after protracted developments.
Of the three games, only Grounded 2 was qualified as a success — and while further titles in the Avowed universe are planned, a third Outer Worlds title is not in production. Unsurprisingly, this news has disappointed fans of the space-based role-playing game series, who have offered their own opinions on what went wrong.
“I feel like TOW2 paid for the sins of TOW 1 and Avowed,” Godlike013 wrote in a lengthy thread on The Outer World’s main subreddit, suggesting that The Outer Worlds 2 had deserved a better reception. “After two mid games in a row negative sentiment unfairly fell on TOW2 when it is a genuinely good game.”
“I’ll be honest, it’s not surprising in the least,” countered Lafitte1812. “TOW2 is, in every possible way a better game. It’s a night and day difference, and most of my problems have been fixed, but at the end of the day I still don’t really give a damn about the universe, and positive word of mouth alone is only so impactful.”
“I’m not surprised,” agreed CardTrickOTK. “I think it was better than the first in a lot of ways, but when BG3 drops and lets you do some frankly insane things with the companions, I think a lot of people had their standards raised for RPGs, and this game is just okay.”
Several other fans noted the recent launch of other RPGs — and particularly 2025’s beloved Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — as having provided tough competition and even tougher comparisons in some areas such as story and fully-fleshed out characters. Others suggested that the lengthy wait for The Outer Worlds 2 had also raised expectations, which were not met by the sequel.
“The first game was incredible but lacked content,” wrote RUKnight31. “We excused that due to limited budget and dev time for a new franchise. Given the increased resources and development time that went into OW2 we expected to have a lot more content than OW. It didn’t and the obvious ‘business decisions’ that led to chopped content sucked to see.”
A larger number of fans expressed frustration at Microsoft for the game’s pricing fiasco, which initially saw The Outer Worlds 2 set to become the company’s first $80 game — before the company put the initiative on pause and backtracked. While the game ultimately launched at $70, fans say that the snafu dominated headlines and killed hype that the game struggled to win back. Some even pointed out the irony of the situation happening to The Outer Worlds 2, a game which tells the story of people caught up in the actions of megacorporation.
“So capitalism was the true villain all along,” QQBearsHijacker quipped.
“They overshot asking $80 and that turned a lot of gamers off,” RUKnight31 continued. “The backtrack to $70 was too little too late. In this economy $60-$70 is already a lot. Trying to push $80 as the new norm was outlandish for leisure.”
“Did not help at all that the biggest splash this game made on the overall gaming lake was the stupid 80 bucks fiasco that Microsoft tried to push,” agreed ElGodPug. “Like, even after they reduced to 70 (still too much IMO), first impressions are pretty important, and to many it was ‘oh hey, it’s the sequel to that 7/10 game asking us to pay 20 bucks more’.”
“There were a lot of great RPGs this year and unfortunately this one was forgettable,” Philosophers-Bone bluntly summed up. “Not horrible or anything, just didn’t stand out. I’m glad I played it on Game Pass and didn’t shell out $80 or whatever insane price they listed it for.”
IGN’s The Outer Worlds 2 review returned an 8/10, and stated that “once you get past a weak first act, The Outer Worlds 2 sharpens Obsidian’s RPG formula with smarter writing and better combat.” We continued: “[It] doesn’t try to rewrite Obsidian’s RPG playbook, but it’s yet another strong refinement.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Back in 2016, Pokémon Sun and Moon gave us our first look at the Ultra Beasts. They are a weird-looking group of creatures, to say the least, heralding from the ‘Ultra Space’ dimension, and thus appeared rather different when compared to the general squishiness of most other Pokémon designs. Well, according to former Game Freak illustrator Yusuke Omura — who served as Sun and Moon’s lead Pokémon designer — that was kinda the point (thanks, Automaton).
Riffing on a recent X theory about the Beasts’ design origins, Omura explained that the Ultra Beasts’ unusual look stems from many of his previous Pokémon proposals, which were rejected at the time by then-lead artist Ken Sugimori. Apparently, the traits that led to these past rejections served as the backbone for the Ultra Beast look, with the creatures’ disturbing appearances acting like “a manifestation of own resentment”.
It’s time to see which PS5, PS4, PS VR2, and free-to-play games topped last month’s download charts. January saw players continue to scavenge, fight, and extract in Arc Raiders, which topped the US PS5 charts, while players in the EU prepared for the World Cup with EA Sports FC 26. The new fighter 2XKO debuted in the top three on the free-to-play charts.
Check out the full listings below. What titles are you playing this month?
PS5 Games
US/Canada
EU
ARC Raiders
EA SPORTS FC 26
Grand Theft Auto V
ARC Raiders
NBA 2K26
Grand Theft Auto V
Minecraft
UFC 5
EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26
Minecraft
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Forza Horizon 5
EA SPORTS FC 26
It Takes Two
UFC 5
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Forza Horizon 5
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Hogwarts Legacy
Battlefield 6
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Fallout 4
Among Us
EA SPORTS College Football 26
NBA 2K26
Among Us
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
It Takes Two
Battlefield 6
NHL 26
Fallout 4
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Hogwarts Legacy
The Crew Motorfest
Ghost of Yōtei
Split Fiction
Mortal Kombat 1
ARK: Survival Ascended
*Naming of products may differ between regions *Upgrades not included
PS4 Games
US/Canada
EU
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
EA Sports FC 26
Minecraft
A Way Out
Batman: Arkham Knight
Minecraft
STAR WARS Battlefront II
Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V
Batman: Arkham Knight
Gang Beasts
The Forest
Mortal Kombat X
Unravel Two
God of War
God of War
A Way Out
Need for Speed Heat
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
STAR WARS Battlefront II
The Forest
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Need for Speed Heat
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
theHunter: Call of the Wild
Hogwarts Legacy
Fallout 76
Gang Beasts
God of War III Remastered
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Call of Duty: WWII
theHunter: Call of the Wild
Cuphead
Mortal Kombat X
Bloodborne
Firewatch
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
*Naming of products may differ between regions
PS VR2 Games*
US/Canada
EU
Beat Saber
Job Simulator
Job Simulator
Beat Saber
Among Us 3D: VR
Among Us 3D: VR
Alien: Rogue Incursion VR
Metro Awakening
Arizona Sunshine Remake
Alien: Rogue Incursion VR
Metro Awakening
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Swordsman VR
Arizona Sunshine Remake
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Flight Simulator Delivery 2025 VR
Arizona Sunshine 2
Swordsman VR
Pavlov
Pavlov
*PlayStation Store purchases only. Game upgrades or games bundled with hardware not included
