We are blowing through January faster than a big blowy fast thing that’s been blowing faster than usual right now, and the delicious slices of gaming goodness continue to drop across Switch consoles.
Many of today’s game designers have, like me, grown up with Japanese Y2K style – the style of the late 90s and early 2000s that gave us not only fear of the end of the world due to a calendar change, but also the WipEout series, futuristic PlayStation 2 ads, and fashion that incorporated everything from glitter to holographic fabrics and cute crop tops.
In a media landscape that seldom shies away from homages and sequels, I’ve waited a long time for the influence of childhood favourites such as Dance Dance Revolution and Space Channel 5 to pop back up. After all, plenty of Western developers have taken inspiration from Japanese role-playing games, giving us Sea of Stars, Undertale and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, to name a few. Recently, I found some really cool games by Western developers that are living the Y2K dream with me, so it was time to dive into their inspirations and compare some childhood anime with some nerds.
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties hits the Switch 2 next month and if you weren’t already excited about the game, to top it off, there are a bunch of retro Sega titles you’ll be able to revisit.
Earlier this month, Nintendo announced it was bringing the ‘My Mario’ line to the West on 19th February 2026.
This line is supported by a “range of partners”, and now, ahead of the launch, Mattel’s Fisher-Price brand has officially revealed three Mario-themed ‘Little People’ sets. Here’s a look and some information about each one:
Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s big 3.0 update is now live, and with it a bustling hotel where you can decorate rooms and attract villagers from the game’s massive roster of over 400 animals for a visit. But while these visiting pals can wander your island, see the sights, and even participate in activities like Group Stretching, there’s one thing they can’t do: stay forever.
The reason this is coming up is because you can invite new animals onto your island in various other ways. If they visit through the Campsite, they can be persuaded to stay. If you encounter them during Island Excursions, you can similarly invite them to come back home and live next door. You can even steal villagers from friends if you visit their towns while that animal is already moving out. But for some reason, the hotel works differently. Animals staying for a vacation won’t move to your island, even if you have a vacancy, no matter how much you beg.
A number of players (me included) are upset about this! The hotel is the best method yet of meeting a lot of different animal villagers, since there are eight total rooms and they can all be full at any given time, meaning eight potential chances to find the villager of your dreams. These little guys will also roam around the island and do most of the things normal residents do while they’re there. They even have dialogue about how they wish they could stick around longer!
What’s even more tragic is that former island residents can come visit you via this feature, and they’ll have unique dialogue talking about how much they miss living on your island. But there’s no way to get them to return permanently. They’re just there for a little relaxation, and then gone again.
As much of a bummer as this is, the Hotel is still a pretty good way to get familiar with what villagers are even out there, so you know when they come around the campsite or when you stumble over them on an Island Expedition that you want to bully them into moving in. Besides, you’ve surely banked enough Nook Miles by now to go on hundreds of Expeditions until you find the friend you want, right? Right?
From dumbbells to gaming headsets, there are some great discounts you should take advantage of heading into the weekend. Many deals, including Best Buy’s Winter Sale will be wrapping up over the next few days, so be sure to take advantage of all the savings while you still can. Take a look at all the best deals for today below:
TL;DR: Best Deals Today
Audible Premium Plus for $0.99/mo for First 3 Months
There are only a few days left to score an Audible Premium Plus subscription for only $0.99 per month for the first three months. If you don’t have an active Audible membership, chances are good you’ll be eligible for this promotion. After the three months are over, you’ll be charged the usual subscription of $14.95/mo, but you can cancel at any time.
As an Audible Premium Plus member, you’ll enjoy access to 500,000 of the top audiobooks; Premium members only get 10,000 audiobooks to choose from. Additionally, you’ll receive 30% off other audiobooks you’d like to purchase, get one audiobook monthly that will remain in your library indefinitely (two for Prime members), plus access to other sales and promotions. Given that all of this is only $3 for three months, you don’t have much to lose.
The Belkin Connect USB-C 6-in-1 Core GaN Dock Is 50% Off
Woot has knocked 50% off the current Amazon price of the Belkin Connect USB-C 6-in-1 Core GaN Dock 130W. This compact little dock is perfect for those looking to take a workstation on the go or who are tight on space at an office. It’s packing up to 96W of power delivery via USB-C port to keep your device charged, be it a laptop, tablet, or even a handheld gaming PC, while five extra ports are available to connect all your peripherals. Two USB-A, a USB-C 3.2, an HDMI 2.0, and a Gigabit Ethernet port are all available to plug a mouse, keyboard, display, and more.
40% Off the Dreamegg Sunrise 1 Alarm Clock
If you’re like me and don’t want to drop $150+ on a Hatch Alarm just yet, the Dreamegg Sunrise 1 is an awesome alternative that costs less than $100. But what makes things even better is it’s 40% off on Walmart and Amazon (for Prime members), making it just $60. While it won’t have as many features as a Hatch, you do get a simulated sunrise coupled with the sounds of nature for a more gentle, natural wake-up. Beyond the sunrise feature, the clock offers several other adjustable colors. Additionally, the sound machine feature allows you to select from over 29 relaxing sounds, ranging from white noise to meditations.
Razer BlackShark V2 X Gaming Headset Back to Lowest Price
The Razer Black Shark V2 X Gaming Headsets are back down to their lowest prices on Amazon right now. Whether you’re after the PC, Xbox, or PlayStation version, all of them have gotten a nice markdown. Each headset easily connects to your console or PC via a 3.5mm jack, and once you’re connected, the 50MM drivers deliver some impactful, clear audio to put you in the center of the game’s action. With well-cushioned, breathable earcups and a relatively lightweight design, you’ll even be comfortable rocking this headset during longer gaming sessions. It’s a great budget gaming headset that’s well worth the current price tag.
Big Savings on PowerBlock Adjustable Dumbbells
Need dumbbells in a few different weights, but don’t want to break the bank to get them? While these might not be Bowflex’s adjustable dumbbells, Woot has a killer deal on PowerBlock’s adjustable dumbbells right now, so you can get them for only $239.99. That’s a fraction of what Bowflex sets will cost. With the EXP Adjustable Dumbbell Set Stage 1 starter set, you’ll get weight options between 5 and 50 pounds in adjustable increments of 2.5 to 5-pounds. All of which is easily adjustable by turning a dial. If you’d like to lift even heavier, two expansion kits are available for $119.99 each.
Save $500 on the Acer Nitro 60 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC
Skip the headache of building your own rig and opt for an awesome value pre-built PC instead. The Acer Nitro 60 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC is $500 off on Best Buy, making this awesome gaming PC just $1,800. It’s one of the best prices available for a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics equipped rig. Plus, given that this graphics card is likely at its end of life, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a standalone RTX 5070 Ti priced reasonably. Beyond graphics, an Intel Core i7-14700F processor, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB PCIe SSD are packed in. It’s clear that this gaming PC is ready to tackle some high-fps gaming and a whole lot more.
Hisense 65″ Class U6 Series MiniLED QLED UHD 4K Smart Fire TV (2025) Hits Lowest Price Ever
Looking for a great gaming TV that won’t break the bank? The Hisense 65″ Class U6 MiniLED 4K TV is an awesome option. Best of all, it’s even cheaper than Black Friday, costing you just $530. That’s the lowest price it has ever hit. Now, just because this TV is affordable doesn’t mean it’s lacking. With a 4K 144Hz refresh rate and VRR support on two HDMI ports, this TV is ready to keep up with your PS5 and Xbox Series X. The mini LED panel with local dimming delivers solid contrast, while the overall picture quality is bright and vibrant. Anyone looking for a reliable budget TV should take advantage of this deal.
Save $11 on Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for Switch 2
Right now, the Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for Switch 2 is discounted by $11, which is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen. Sure, Nintendo’s handheld might not seem like the ideal console for playing this dark, moody, and graphically intense RPG. However, during our review of Cyberpunk 2077 for Switch 2, reviewer Tom Marks found the experience “impressive,” adding, “If you haven’t had the pleasure of exploring Night City before, this seems like a solid way to do so.”
3 for $33 4K UHD Movies
Great news! Amazon’s three for $33 4K Blu-ray sale is still live (it ends on 1/19). That means you can score an awesome deal on select 4K UHD titles. All that you need to do is add three movies to your cart, and when you go to check out, the price will drop to just $11 each. Whether you’re looking to add a few classics to your physical media collection, like The Shining or 2001: A Space Odyssey, or want some newer titles, like Jurassic Park: Rebirth or Sinners, there’s a huge selection to choose from. It’s a great time to buy.
Save $60 on the JBL Flip 6 Portable Bluetooth Speaker
The JBL Flip 6 is ridiculously cheap on Woot. This brand-new Bluetooth speaker is almost 50% off, now priced at just $70. It’s going for $60 more on Amazon, so that’s one heck of a deal that’s sure to sell out fast. Boasting a 12-hour battery life, IPX7 waterproofing, and a versatile design, it’s a portable option ready to go with you anywhere. Most importantly, the audio performance is impressive thanks to a 2-way speaker system ready to deliver loud and clear sound.
Best Buy Video Game Winter Sale
The New Year’s Sale may be over, and now we’re on to the Best Buy Winter Sale. Luckily, the savings are similar, bringing solid discounts on tons of popular titles. From Borderlands 4 for Xbox Series X getting 40% knocked off its price tag, to NINJA GAIDEN 4 for PlayStation 5 seeing a $30 price drop, there are some pretty awesome deals worth checking out.
A Pokémon card store in Manhatten has become the latest target for thieves looking to steal merchandise featuring the lucrative pocket monsters — and this time, customers were held at gunpoint.
Speaking to ABC News, staff at the Poké Court outlet in the Meatpacking District have said that $100,000 worth of stock was stolen in just three minutes, as a team of three robbers burst into the newly-opened store during its first community evening event.
As one thief smashed glass cabinets to obtain expensive items, another held shoppers at gunpoint. A third, meanwhile, kept watch at the door. “It was a free event and then three armed men just came in and brandished guns in [customers’] faces,” store owner Courtney Chin said. The shop has since employed a security guard.
ABC News reports that similar thefts have occured in Boston, Los Angeles and Seattle, as the latest in a long line of card shop robberies targeting Pokémon items.
“If you look at any local card shop around the country, there’s a good chance they’ve gotten robbed,” Chin added. “I’ve seen videos where the robbers will tunnel in through the walls, or through the ceiling.
“We can’t let a few bad apples like this ruin the hobby for everyone else,” Chin concluded. “We want to create a safe space for the community and it really sucks that like 50 people had to basically get held up and held hostage.”
Image credit: ABC News.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Now that we’re in the new year, it seems this set might have actually leaked ahead of the official reveal. As the rumours suggested, it appears to be a diorama based on the “final battle” between Link, Zelda and Ganondorf in the N64 hit, Ocarina of Time.
Escape from Ever After: When Storybooks Meet Corporate Hell
Hey Xbox players! With Escape from Ever After launching fairly soon, we thought now’s the perfect time to dive into what makes this game tick. So, if you’ve ever wondered what happens when classic storybook heroes get stuck in a soul-crushing office job, you’re about to find out.
Escape from Ever After is a Paper Mario-inspired RPG that takes the hero’s journey and tosses it straight into corporate bureaucracy. It’s equal parts adventure game, turn-based combat, and workplace satire—and it’s weirder than it sounds.
Meet Flynt Buckler, your typical storybook hero out to settle the score with his nemesis, Tinder the dragon. But when he finally reaches her castle, things get weird. The fire-breathing villain he expected? Nowhere to be found. Instead, her once-majestic fortress has been gutted and rebuilt as a soulless office complex, complete with fluorescent lighting, mandatory coffee breaks, and employees trapped in the worst kind of grind.
Turns out Ever After Inc.—a megacorporation from the real world—has discovered storybooks make for excellent cheap labor. Dragons file TPS reports. Knights optimize synergies. Heroes attend team-building exercises. And there’s no dragon to slay that can fix this mess.
So Flynt does the only logical thing: he joins the company. To take down Ever After Inc., he’ll need to climb the corporate ladder from within, rallying other trapped storybook characters and figuring out how to rewrite the rules before it’s too late.
Combat That Keeps You In the Fight
Escape from Ever After builds on classic turn-based RPG combat but keeps you engaged every single turn through timing-based action commands. When Flynt throws his buckler or an enemy winds up for an attack, you need to nail your button presses. Perfect timing means extra damage on offense and flawless blocks on defense. Mess up your inputs and you’ll pay for it.
It’s the kind of system that makes every turn feel active rather than passive. No sitting back and watching animations play out—you’re always involved.
More Than Button-Mashing
Raw damage only gets you so far. Enemies have their own tricks: armor that shrugs off weak hits, metal shields that deflect certain attacks, poison that chips away at your health, and battlefield hazards that punish careless aggression.
The Research system lets you study enemies mid-battle, permanently revealing their health and weak points. That information gets saved to your Bestiary, giving you an edge in future encounters. The more you learn, the smarter you can fight.
Build Your Party Your Way
Between fights, you can customize your team through the Trinket system. Each character can equip trinkets that unlock new abilities, passive bonuses, or utility effects, limited only by their Trinket Points. Want a glass cannon? Stack damage. Prefer a support build? Load up on buffs and healing.
You can also upgrade individual attacks using resources scattered throughout the world. These systems reward experimentation over min-maxing, letting you find builds that match your playstyle.
Every Book Tells a Different Story
Combat is only half the game. Escape from Ever After is structured around distinct storybook worlds, each with its own genre and atmosphere. One chapter might be a cozy fairytale forest under threat of corporate development. The next could dive into noir mystery or Lovecraftian horror.
Exploration pays off. Hidden items, optional quests, environmental puzzles, and side stories are tucked into every corner. And it all connects back to the Castle—formerly a fairytale landmark, now the headquarters of Ever After Inc.. It’s your hub between chapters, where you’ll meet recurring characters, take on side missions, manage upgrades, and watch the megacorp’s influence spread.
A Story About Fighting the System
Beneath the humor and absurdity, Escape from Ever After tells a story about what happens when someone realizes their entire world has been quietly rewritten by forces beyond their control. Flynt starts out confident in his role as a hero, only to discover that “hero” and “villain” don’t mean much when everyone’s just another cog in the machine.
To fight back, he’ll need to make uncomfortable alliances—including with Tinder herself. The game balances sharp satire with character-driven moments that land harder than you’d expect from a game about storybook characters stuck in corporate hell.
Worth Turning the Page
Escape from Ever Afterthrives on contrast. It’s storybook whimsy meets office dystopia, classic RPG mechanics meets modern design sensibilities, and lighthearted satire meets genuinely thoughtful storytelling.
We’ve spent years building this world, and every character, combat system, and storybook chapter was designed with one goal: giving players something worth discovering. Whether you’re here for the timing-based battles, the exploration, or just the absurd premise of fairytales stuck in corporate hell, we believe there’s definitely something in here for you.
Thanks for reading, and we can’t wait to see you jump into the chaos!
Escape from Ever After is an adventure RPG inspired by the classic Paper Mario games, where fairytale and storybook characters must fight back against capitalism!
When Flynt Buckler, a classic fairytale adventurer, storms the castle of his evil dragon arch-nemesis Tinder, he finds the once intimidating fortress has been converted into… corporate offices? The villainous dragon is nowhere to be found and her castle is full of mindless coffee-sipping, report-filing drones. What happened?
It turns out that storybooks are an untapped market ripe with valuable resources, cheap labor, and profit to be had—so naturally, real-world conglomerate Ever After Inc. found a way to intervene! With Tinder’s Castle as their new corporate headquarters, Ever After Inc. is hellbent on taking over every storybook they can. With no choice but to get a job, Flynt Buckler must team up with his former nemesis Tinder in order to climb the corporate ladder and take down Ever After Inc. from the inside!
Dive into storybook worlds packed to the brim with colorful characters, captivating locales, and electrifying secrets! One moment you’ll be fleeing Lovecraftian terrors while solving a noir murder mystery, and the next you’ll be up against villainous versions of The Three Little Pigs as they try to bulldoze a fairytale forest for their real estate developments. The rules are always changing!
Face off against hordes of wacky enemies in snappy turn-based gameplay! Perfectly-timed action commands allow Flynt to finish off his foes with style, and an assortment of items, badges, and partners ensure there’s always a trick up his sleeve.
Fight in a fun, fast-paced battle system that rewards experimentation and strategy
Build and customize your party—every character has unique skills that can be equipped and upgraded throughout your journey
Engage in office banter, help your storybook coworkers, and decorate your office as you climb the corporate ladder
Explore vast storybook worlds brimming with sidequests, treasures, and secrets
Stories within stories: experience a charming and lively narrative where the rules are constantly changing
A jazzy, big-band soundtrack that keeps the energy pumping throughout
Last week, we asked you to enter the frame of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and share epic moments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
toko_luke95shares Maelle stance following a flurried attack
sorathlunashares Lune wielding a red elemental stain, ready to attack
rorottinoshares Verso and Maelle playing on the piano, with the Paintress in the distance
PhotoModeColinshares Sciel prepping a moon-charged card in combat
gh_holy_mashshares Esquie floating through the map – whoo and also whee!
CapturesKhshares Renoir framed by the Paintress’ glow
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Portraits SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 21, 2026
Next week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stays in frame. Share portraits of your favorite characters using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
—a megacorporation from the real world—has discovered storybooks make for excellent cheap labor. Dragons file TPS reports. Knights optimize synergies. Heroes attend team-building exercises. And there’s no dragon to slay that can fix this mess.
