Welcome back, Yoshi’s Crafted World!
Following on from a sample of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond‘s soundtrack last week, Nintendo Music has now followed this up with the 2019 Switch title Yoshi’s Crafted World.
This follows on from other Yoshi-themed albums like Yoshi’s Story from the N64 era and Yoshi’s Island on the Super Nintendo. This latest soundtrack update contains 53 tracks and has a runtime of 1 hour and 11 minutes.
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Download it now!
Nintendo’s been busy getting in its final updates of 2025, and alongside a system update for the Switch 2 and Switch this week, it’s also put out a new update for its battle royale racer F-Zero 99.
According to the official patch notes, this includes “new additions”, various adjustments and changes, as well as the usual fixes. Some of these new additions includes “new secret tracks” and a music player has also been added to the title.
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The post Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is Available Now for the PlayStation 5 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed us by, but thankfully there are still plenty of toys and gifts getting discounts before Christmas. If you’re looking for an awesome Hot Wheels set to buy for a kid (or yourself), the Hot Wheels version of Bowser’s Castle has just dropped to its lowest price ever on Amazon. It includes Bullet Bill a massive loop, and storage for up to 38 vehicles.
As someone who has logged a lot of Mario Kart hours, I can honestly say this thing looks pretty fun to play with. My own son isn’t quite old enough to start messing around with Hot Wheels stuff, but my nephew would go crazy for this thing. He probably wouldn’t care at all that it’s Mario Kart-themed, but he would be smacking that launcher like nobody’s business.
At $41.99, this is the lowest price we’ve ever seen it go for on Amazon. It’s worth noting, however, that it only comes with one Hot Wheels car. You’ll get a 1:64 scale die-cast Kamek in a classic Kart. So if you want to build a larger collection of Mario Kart characters, you’ll need to buy the separate Hot Wheels packs for buy them individually. I’d recommend going with the four pack route, but it costs almost as much as the track itself.
The discount on the track itself is already pretty good, but it’s also included in Amazon’s latest promotion. For a limited time, you can save $25 when you spend $100 on a ton of different gifts included here. The list of toys, games, and other random gifts is pretty massive and there’s some surprisingly good stuff in here. You could easily spend $100 on Barbie dolls or board games, for example, and get the extra $25 off.
The promotion works similarly to the ‘3 for 2’ sales Amazon has run in the past. All you need to do is add $100 worth of eligible items to your cart all at once and the $25 discount will be automatically applied at checkout.
Jacob Kienlen is a Senior Audience Development Strategist and Writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has considered the Northwest his home for his entire life. With a bachelor’s degree in communication and over 8 years of professional writing experience, his expertise is spread across a variety of different pop culture topics — from TV series to indie games and books.
I am sure the words “new” and “Ace Attorney game” have functioned as a sleeper agent’s activation words for some of you, and these are words that Capcom themselves have sort of put together, but let’s slow down before we get carried away. As spotted by Mega Man fansite Rockman Corner, Capcom have released their integrated report for 2025, which for the most part is boring, corporate nonsense. Here comes the but. But! It also appears to suggest that the developer is thinking about new ways it can further develop series like Ace Attorney, as well as Mega Man and Devil May Cry.
Following the cancelation of Perfect Dark and the dissolution of its dedicated studio, The Initiative, two of the project’s leads have found a new home at Take-Two Interactive, and more specifically at 2K.
As reported by Jason Schreier on Bluesky, Perfect Dark studio head Darrell Gallagher and director Brian Horton have been hired at 2K to start a brand new studio. No details have yet emerged as to what the new studio will work on, or if any other former Perfect Dark employees joined them.
When asked, a 2K spokesperson provided the following confirmation of the hire:
With a combined six decades of AAA game-making experience across franchises like Tomb Raider, Call of Duty, Destiny, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Hitman, Deus Ex, and more, we’re thrilled to confirm Darrell Gallagher and Brian Horton have joined 2K for their next all-new venture. We don’t have additional details to share at this time, but look forward to sharing updates on their work in the future.
This comes after the cancelation of Perfect Dark by Xbox earlier this year as part of a larger wave of devastating layoffs. The project had previously been a troubled one, with multiple studios being brought into help and a number of internal revisions as studio leads tried to figure out what the game should be.
While The Initiative was closed down upon the game’s cancelation, Crystal Dynamics had also been working on the project. Per Schreier’s reporting and corroborated by IGN’s own sources, leadership from both studio sides of the project spent two months after its cancelation shopping it around to publishers in an effort to save it. Take-Two Interactive allegedly was one of the interested parties, but the deal fell through, and Crystal Dynamics underwent layoffs (it’s second round of three this year).
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Cassette Boy is a game that looks to follow in the footsteps of perspective puzzlers like Fez and Tunic, two games I bring up because of their explicit use of space to hide more, tantalizingly secret space. Out of the two, it’s much closer to Fez, being a 2D world you can rotate to gain new, three dimensional perspectives. Where Fez is a platformer that switches between different, still 2D planes, Cassette Boy lets you switch between front on and more isometric views, and in its world, anything that can’t be seen, doesn’t exist.
It’s “one of Switch 1’s prettiest games yet”.
We already know that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a technical showcase on Switch 2, and we’re sure many of you have spent the weekend exploring Viewros on the new console over the weekend. But for those of you who are still clinging on to your Switch 1 and wondering whether Samus’ brand new adventure holds up on the old system, fear not.
Digital Foundry has taken a look at the Switch 1 release of Metroid Prime 4 and is pretty much in agreement with us on the surprising quality of the release. You can read their impressions on their shiny new website, or listen to the trio talk about the game on this week’s DF Direct Weekly (up top).
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The team at Chaos Manufacturing is thrilled to announce our debut game, Sol Shogunate–what we call a “samurai space opera.” So, what does that mean? Sol Shogunate is a single-player third-person action RPG where you play as the ultimate samurai in an alt-future setting that pays homage to the majesty of feudal Japanese tradition.
The “space opera” part has two meanings. Space opera is a sci-fi subgenre that speaks to sci-fi universes filled with drama and adventure. But it’s also a nod to the strong musical component that is at the core of our game. We’re marrying combat, story, and music into an experience that we hope players will remember long after the credits roll.
In Sol Shogunate, players step into the role of Yuzuki, the last surviving heir of a once-powerful samurai family. Following her family’s massacre, she’s on a bloody quest for vengeance. Her story becomes far more than a personal vendetta, however, as she unearths the buried histories and lies underpinning the powerful shogunate that dominates the solar system.
Yuzuki’s adventure starts on our moon, where gleaming megacities have been constructed inside lunar craters, towering above sprawling industrial districts. These cities use artificial gravity to create the illusion of Earth-like environments, including neon-soaked entertainment hubs with high-speed rail lines that cut across the surface and space elevators that stretch into orbit.
Yuzuki is the ultimate samurai, genetically engineered to dominate the battlefields of tomorrow. The way of the sword in Sol Shogunate honors samurai tradition while embracing futuristic engineering possibilities. Players can infuse attacks with various types of energy to break through defenses, stagger enemies, and create tactical openings. This is an RPG, too, and players will experience progression including gene splice upgrades that allow players to tailor Yuzuki’s abilities, from enhanced perception to bio-ceramic armor–including the gold lacquered kintsugi effect you can see in our announcement trailer–that transforms her into a living weapon.
Music is at the heart of Sol Shogunate. We believe a great soundtrack can turn a thrilling action sequence into something more, experiences we hope players will find unforgettable. We are collaborating with Japanese rock acts like AliA to build major encounters that feel like interactive music videos, with every strike amplified by driving, emotionally charged tracks.
Sol Shogunate is our team’s love letter to Japan’s history, art, and culture, and each metropolis is inspired by a different era of Japanese history. Each biome holds secrets tied to the shogunate’s rule and to a long-forgotten war that set the stage for Yuzuki’s fate.
Exploration is built around verticality and discovery. To navigate these zones, players will traverse vertical districts using gravity assist gear, and even uncover hidden layers within each biome, discovering clues that will unlock mysteries about Sol Shogunate’s rich backstory.
Sol Shogunate is early in development and we’re going to release it only when it’s ready for you to unleash your inner Space Samurai. The team at Chaos Manufacturing is excited to share more with you in the future, so be sure to follow @SOLShogunate on X to follow along on our journey!
The post A Sneak Peek at “Samurai Space Opera” Sol Shogunate Coming to Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Tomb Raider will be at The Game Awards this week. Which Tomb Raider, you ask? The game or the show? We don’t know! Maybe both!
Lara Croft RETURNS for a moment you cannot miss.
📺 Catch Tomb Raider live at @thegameawards on December 11. #TombRaider #TheGameAwards https://t.co/rV1WzCVvSp
— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) December 8, 2025
This comes from tweets both by The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley and the official Tomb Raider account. As Keighley puts it, “As just revealed in our The Game Awards Vote in Fortnite map portal, tune in Thursday night for a look at the future of one of gaming’s most iconic franchises, Tomb Raider. This is one you won’t want to miss.”
So, what could be shown? There are a few possibilities. The first and most likely is that we’re about to see the Tomb Raider game that’s been in development at Crystal Dynamics for several years now. First announced in 2022, we have yet to actually see this game in action, though we did get a look at the Lara Croft redesign last year.
One could forgive Crystal Dynamics for being so quiet the last three years, though, as the studio has been through it. Shortly before the announcement, Embracer Group purchased the studio and the franchise from Square Enix. Then, it sold both off to Middle-earth Enterprises in 2024. Amazon is still publishing Tomb Raider, but Amazon has had its own issues with the struggles of its New World MMO, its Lord of the Rings MMO, and mass layoffs. Amazon said over a year ago that the game would reveal was “not too far away,” leading one to wonder what exactly was meant by that. Meanwhile, Crystal Dynamics has undergone three waves of layoffs this year, including 30 individuals last month, an unknown number of workers in August following the cancellation of Perfect Dark by Xbox, and 17 people earlier in the year, as well as 10 others back in 2023.
That’s the game side of things. On the TV side, we know there’s a live-action Tomb Raider series in the works at Amazon in partnership with Story Kitchen, starring Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner as Lara Croft. The show will, per Story Kitchen, “reinvent the franchise on a massive scale” and will interconnect “live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”
But again, it’s been in the works for a while with no updates. We first heard of its development in January of 2023, and it was officially confirmed later that year. There were reports in April of this year that the TV show was “dead” in part due to Tuner’s busy acting schedule and in part due to Jennifer Salke, who greenlit the show at Amazon, being “booted” from her job. There were also allegations that a script hadn’t been provided yet. But then, in September, Amazon re-confirmed the Tomb Raider series was happening and would start shooting in 2026, with Turner still to star.
That’s…a lot going on! With all that background, it seems most likely we’re going to see the game, as the series hasn’t begun shooting yet. However, it’s possible we’re due for a look at Turner as Lara Croft. Given the vagueness of Keighley and Crystal’s tweets…why not both? In the meantime, at least we have the anime…I guess. We didn’t much care for the first season.
The Game Awards will take place on Thursday, December 11, at 5pm PT/8pm ET. Here’s our guide on what else to expect at the show.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
