I must admit, Magic: The Gathering’s new Edge of Eternities surprised me. I felt it was going to be a relatively soft follow-up to the game’s most popular set ever, Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy, and yet it feels like another home run.
A great new setting, unique designs, and some big chase cards have seen stock selling out fast, particularly when it comes to Collector Boosters. As a result, you can still find them, but you’ll need to brave the secondary market – and pay over the odds, sadly.
Where To Find Magic’s Edge of Eternities Collector Boosters
Because they contain a higher chance of opening chase cards worth hundreds (and maybe even thousands), Collector Boosters cost more than Play Boosters and are also unlikely to be reprinted. Once they’re gone, there’s a good chance they’re gone for good.
Thankfully, Play Boosters are looking much more likely to be found closer to MSRP for months. The set is standard legal for a long time yet, meaning you can reasonably expect Play Boosters (and the set’s pair of Commander Decks) to be reprinted pretty regularly.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Blizzard’s Story and Franchise Development team (SFD) has voted in favor of unionization with the Communications Workers of America, according to a press release shared today.
SFD consists of Blizzard workers producing in-house cinematics, animation, trailers, promotional videos, in-game cutscenes, and other narrative content across Blizzard franchises, in addition to archival workers and historians.
“After more than a decade working at Blizzard, I’ve seen all the highs and lows,” said organizing committee member and principal editor Bucky Fisk. “For years, Blizzard has been a place where people could build their careers and stay for decades, but that stability’s been fading. With a union, we’re able to preserve what makes this place special, secure real transparency in how decisions are made, and make sure policies are applied fairly to everyone.”
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.
Of all the art styles in video games, none has a stronger chokehold on developers and players alike than the humble pixel. Whether it’s a fantastically detailed modern take on what is possible in pixels, or something made in homage to NES and SNES games of yore, pixel art can be found everywhere — in every genre of game, on every console (no matter how powerful), and in every generation of games, too.
Ra Ra Boom is finally in your hands. I’m excited for you to check out all the hard work and love the team at Gylee Games has put into Ra Ra Boom, which is now available on Xbox Series X|S.
Ra Ra is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up and I thought I’d tell you a bit about some of the enemies that you’ll be beatin’ up. I’ll get into the thinking behind the design behind three of my favorite enemies in Ra Ra Boom.
Making the early choice to add lanes to the environment gave us a fun playground in which to design different combat scenarios for enemies.
The Brute
The Brute is an homage to our favorite roller coaster at our favorite amusement park. We loved the idea of utilizing train tracks as the lanes in the arena. By creating a transforming monster that turns into a coaster cart, it allowed us the diversity needed for a full boss fight.
In Brute mode, we gave a fierce pouncing attack that requires the player to catch his tell before he jumps. That, coupled with a chomp gave The Brute a pretty menacing amount of attacks to begin with. Then he transforms into the coaster and replicates! This forces players to dodge the carts by jumping into different lanes, or take them head on with ranged attacks. We had set out to make a boss fight with different phases, and different options for each player, and I think we succeeded.
Martin
Martin was the very last enemy created for Ra Ra and lives in the Arcade level. As a team, we felt we were missing the opportunity to force the player to do some sort of jumping attack. A flying enemy could solve that. However, the huge challenge with creating floating characters in beat ‘em ups is you have no idea where they are in relation to your own environment.
We found this out the hard way by creating a flying enemy and realizing that it was insanely frustrating to fight. So, we cut it and moved on, until the very end of production.
Thankfully, we had learned a lot through the production process and realized that if we give the enemy some holographic legs, the player can understand where he lives in space because he’s tied to the ground. So, we put a little goofy toddler robot on top of giant legs, laughed at how he looked, and Martin was born.
Bruce
Bruce has been, by far, the most challenging boss to perfect. We’ve gone through many iterations of this boss fight, trying to fine tune the fun. Since the fight was a chase scene, we immediately ran into our first challenge: motion sickness.
It took weeks of fine tuning the parallax background before I could even play it without getting sick! Once that was resolved, the boss fight was really just the chase, with players required only to run away and dodge obstacles. We took this version to GDEX and PAX, and realized quickly that the fight was too simple, and pretty boring to be honest.
This led to the addition of Eugene, a quirky, anxiety driven robot that ran beside your character. Initially, the player used exploding Eugene’s to damage Bruce, but that still didn’t feel like enough. It wasn’t until we slowed down the chase, and gave players back some agency that the fight became fun. After adding a few more phases with attack escalation, we finally landed on a Bruce fight that was worthy of his grand entrance.
Find Your Favorite
And now it’s your turn. Check out Ra Ra Boom today and tell us which enemy you like punching best.
Gear up for 4-player co-op action with a modern twist! Ra Ra BOOM rockets you to a future Earth overrun by rogue AI. Battle waves of enemies and upgrade your ninja cheerleader’s skills as you beat ‘em up, shoot ‘em up, and smash through the chaos!
Even ninja space cheerleaders know you don’t bring a pom-pom to a boss fight. Whether you’re cracking skulls with close combat or blasting bots from across the screen, Ra Ra BOOM has your back. Play it like a classic side-scroller, treat it like a shooter, or mix it up for combos so smooth, even evil AI can’t keep up. The only wrong way to fight is not bringing your A-game—because these overlords don’t mess around.
HOMEWORK CAN WAIT
Who needs perfect grades when rogue AI is trashing Earth? The planet’s in pieces, robots are running wild, and only four ninja space cheerleaders have the moves to save it. Silly when it can be, heartfelt when it needs to be, Ra Ra BOOM delivers a beat ‘em up with a story that hits harder than your math final.
PLAY THE LANES
Why settle for chaos when you can dominate with precision? Ra Ra BOOM’s combat lanes make every fight smarter and slicker. Dodge fire like a pro, pick your targets with ninja-like accuracy, and decide where to strike for maximum impact.
BECOME THE ULTIMATE NINJA CHEERLEADER
Aris, Saida, Ren, and Vee are more than just pompoms and sass—they’ve got branching skill trees that let you mold them into your perfect hero. Customize your squad to fit your playstyle, because the fate of the world—and your team’s vibe—is in your hands. NBD.
Walmart is offering a steep discount on one of the most recently released themed Xbox Series X wireless controllers. For a limited time, the Xbox Wireless Controller Doom: The Dark Ages Limited Edition is on sale for $54 with free shipping. It is sold by Walmart directly and not a marketplace vendor. Even if you don’t own an Xbox, this is still a great deal, since it’s also one of the best PC gamepads for the price.
Get Doom: The Dark Ages Limited Edition Xbox Controller for $54
This Xbox controller is themed after the new Doom: The Dark Ages, which we recently reviewed. Specifically, it’s modeled after the Doomslayer’s blood-splattered matte green armor with 3D elements like silver helmet spikes and plated sheathing across the top case, a blood red thumbstick, and rubberized grips made to feel like leather. The green buttons replace the traditional XYAB letters with Sentinel symbols, and the right trigger is bright orange.
Aesthetics aside, these Xbox wireless controllers are identical to the ones bundled with the Xbox Series X and S consoles. Standard features include textured grips, a hybrid D-pad, button mapping with the Xbox app, a 3.5mm audio jack that works with any wired headset, and a Share button to upload screenshots and videos.
The controller supports both Xbox wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. That means you can use it for your PC or mobile device. In fact, we think this is the best PC controller you can get. If your PC doesn’t have Bluetooth, you can still use it in wired mode with a USB Type-C cable or go out and buy a Bluetooth or Xbox wireless adapter.
Doom: The Dark Ages was released on May 15 and is easily one of the best shooters of the year. The game is a prequel to the original 2016 Doom game and explores more of the lore behind the Sentinels and the Maykrs. It’s available for PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC and it also happens to be on sale right now.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Krafton has issued a response to a recent lawsuit filed by the former leads of Subnautica 2, offering rebuttals to the developers’ claims and alleging they “resorted to litigation to demand a multimillion-dollar payout they haven’t earned.”
This comes in reply to a legal complaint filed by former Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, and fellow co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, last month. In it, the former leads alleged that Krafton went out of its way to hinder Subnautica 2’s development, delay the game, and ultimately fire them from their roles all in an effort to stop them and other employees from collecting a $250 million bonus payment that would have kicked in if the game’s early access released on time later this year and reached certain sales milestones.
In its response, Krafton says the game was planned for a Q1 2024 release. However, “Cleveland and McGuire abandoned their roles as studio-wide Game Director and Technical Director to focus on their personal passion projects and quit making games for Unknown Worlds entirely. And Gill, who remained, focused on leveraging his operational control to maximize the earnout payment, rather than developing a successful game.”
Krafton goes on to allege that by 2023, Unknown Worlds’ development director had commented on the founders being “checked out,” and that Cleveland in particular had stated publicly he had abandoned video games to pursue filmmaking. The release date of Subnautica slipped to 2024 and then 2025. “An internal assessment of the first playable in March of 2024 made clear that the team had failed to deliver on their promise of developing sufficiently new content. But rather than roll up their sleeves and make the game they had promised, the Key Employees blamed others and overhauled the team.” Krafton also says that the leads continued reducing the scope of the game over time.
The response says that by spring 2025, Krafton was trying to stop them from releasing the game, saying it was not ready. However, Krafton alleges the leads tried to release it anyway in order to get their maximum earnout.
“Krafton, fearing how an underbaked EA Subnautica 2 would be received by both existing fans and the broader market, urged Cleveland and McGuire to return to their posts to generate a market-ready product that would not disappoint fans. Cleveland and McGuire declined. In response to Krafton’s request for the Key Employees to return to lead the development of Subnautica 2, Gill stated that ‘[t]here’s no coming back to a job they didn’t have.'” Krafton further alleges that the leads said they would self-publish the game without Krafton, and that they downloaded “massive amounts of confidential information” from Unknown Worlds.
The Key Employees’ insistence on releasing the game immediately was singularly driven by self-interest in obtaining the earnout. At every turn during development, the Key Employees were laser focused on avoiding “a timeline that doesn’t tank the earnout opportunity” and scheduling the release to maximize their payments. Conversations throughout the post-acquisition period make clear the Key Employee’s [sic] focus was on their payday, and not on the game. As early as 2022, an employee who was due to receive a portion of the earnout stated that despite the significant delays in the game, he was confident “Ted [Gill] will concoct a scheme to get us that earnout.” [emphasis Krafton’s]
The response goes on to issue answers to every claim in the founders’ lawsuit, paragraph by paragraph. Krafton asks the court to rule in its favor, deny the founders’ claims for relief, and award Krafton costs, including attorney fees.
This saga began in July, when Krafton seemingly out of the blue announced it would replace Unknown Worlds’ leads with former Striking Distance CEO Steve Papoutsis. In the weeks that followed, reports emerged surrounding the $250 million bonus promised to staff amid questions as to whether that payout would be honored. While the Subnautica leads claimed in various statements and in their lawsuit that Krafton had tried to delay Subnautica 2 and ultimately fired them to avoid paying them the bonus, Krafton accused them of neglecting their duties, saying Subnautica 2 was not ready to launch. That final claim remains up in the air, with leaked documents since verified by Krafton confirming that Unknown Worlds was receiving feedback from the publisher that the game was not ready for early access launch. However, a report from Bloomberg suggests this may not have been wholly true.
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.
Special Illustration Rares from Temporal Forces have seen significant movement since their highs earlier in the year. Cards like Raging Bolt ex, Iron Crown ex, and Walking Wake ex were once among the most sought-after pulls from the set, but all three have dropped from their spring peaks.
Raging Bolt ex is down 11% from its May value of $82.36 and now trades around $73.45, while Iron Crown ex has fallen 13% in the same timeframe, moving from $55.74 to $48.30. Walking Wake ex has taken the hardest hit of the trio, losing 20% since May, with its price sliding from $50.37 to $40.45. This downturn mirrors a wider cooling in the set’s high-end singles as both players and collectors reassess their priorities.
Twilight Masquerade has seen a more mixed picture, with some cards losing steam while others continue to gain. Perrin has eased down 11% from March, moving from $106.43 to $94.87, and Carmine has dipped the same percentage since June, going from $78.70 to $69.99. Both are Special Illustration Rare Supporters that enjoyed early interest thanks to their unique effects, but neither has become a fixture in competitive lists, leading to softer demand.
At the same time, the set’s Illustration Rares and certain Pokémon ex cards are climbing in value as interest from both casual and competitive buyers grows.Gastly has risen 13% since June, from $35.74 to $40.99, helped by its role in Gengar evolution lines and appealing artwork.
Greninja ex has climbed 17% since January, from $18.44 to $21.59, thanks to its versatile attacks and solid HP. Sinistcha ex and Tatsugiri have each moved up 10% since April, now priced at $21.59 and $18.48 respectively, while Eevee has gained 10% from early August to reach $21.59. These changes highlight how certain cards can gain value steadily over months due to competitive experimentation, collector interest, or them just being stunning cards. Let’s break this all down:
Pokémon Card Crashers
For cards that saw heavy demand early on, the market has cooled. Some have slipped due to a lack of tournament use, others because collectors have shifted their focus.
Raging Bolt ex brings explosive plays with Bursting Roar to refill your hand and Climactic Descent to convert discarded Basic Energy into heavy damage. It looked set to become a staple in certain builds, but the high retreat cost and inconsistent setup have made it less reliable in practice. As competitive players experiment with more stable options, extra copies have been hitting the market. The Special Illustration Rare artwork still turns heads in a binder, but with demand slowing, Its price has slipped.
Iron Crown ex offers useful bench support in Future decks through Cobalt Command, adding damage to your other Future Pokémon’s attacks. Twin Shotels provides a reliable way to apply pressure across the board, bypassing common defenses. Despite this, it has not found a consistent place in top tournament lists, and collector buying has eased off. Without strong competitive results to keep attention high, the price has edged down since May.
Walking Wake ex debuted with plenty of buzz thanks to Azure Wave, which ignores effects on the opponent’s Active Pokémon, and Cathartic Roar, which can hit 240 damage under the right conditions. The trick has been making those conditions happen consistently. Decks built around it have seen mixed success, and without the sustained performance to keep it in the spotlight, its Special Illustration Rare price has fallen noticeably from its early high.
Perrin gives players the option to cycle Pokémon from hand into the deck and fetch an equal number in return. It can be a valuable setup tool in certain builds, but it faces competition from other Supporters that fit more universally into current decks such as PRofessors Research. Collectors still appreciate the detailed Special Illustration Rare art, yet its price has eased back since March as demand from both has softened.
Carmine is one of the few cards that can be used on the very first turn when going first, letting you discard your hand and draw five cards. It can enable quick starts, but the narrow conditions for use mean it often sits unused. As the metagame evolves, it’s not become a fixture in competitive decks, and its Special Illustration Rare has seen its value slip since June.
Pokémon Card Climbers
Not every card is moving down. Loads of Twilight Masquerade singles have been gradually climbing in value over months, thanks to a mix of playability, collector interest, and unique artwork.
Tatsugiri is a small but effective utility card for certain strategies. Attract Customers can pull a Supporter from the top six cards of your deck if it is in the Active Spot, offering a low-maintenance way to find key cards. Its single retreat cost and light-hearted Illustration Rare artwork make it a popular pick for collectors as well. Since April, that mix of function and style has helped it hold steady gains.
Sinistcha ex benefits from Re-Brew, an attack that spreads damage based on the Grass Energy in your discard before shuffling it back into your deck. Matcha Splash offers reliable damage while healing your team, which can matter in longer matches. As Grass-focused decks see more experimentation, this Special Illustration Rare has moved upward in value since April.
Eevee is always in demand among collectors, and the Twilight Masquerade Illustration Rare shows a group of them cuddled up on a comphy chair. Ascension allows it to evolve quickly, which can be useful in certain setups, though its main draw is its place in the franchise’s history. Since early August, interest has pushed the price up slightly. I expect this card go carry on growing in value indefinately, albiet in small increments.
Greninja ex offers strong offensive options in Shinobi Blade and Mirage Barrage, the latter being able to hit two targets at once. That combination of damage output and flexibility makes it appealing for a variety of decks. The stunning Special Illustration Rare artwork and Greninja fighting for the starter Pokémon top spot with Charizard adds collector appeal, and trainers are willing to pay a premium to get their hands on one of the most valuable Pokémon cards in the Scarlet and Violet era.
Gastly combines a distinctive Illustration Rare design, showing and also evolving into competitive Gengar deck builds. Mysterious Beam offers potential energy disruption, and Suffocating Gas gives cheap damage when needed. Its appeal has been as much about binder displays as tournament tables, and since June it has been steadily rising in value.
Last Week’s Crashers and Climbers
Last week’s Pokémon TCG market update saw Paldean Fates and Hidden Fates dominating the spotlight, with several Special Illustration Rares and Shiny Vault classics making notable moves. On the climbing side, Mew ex led the charge with a 76% jump since October to $389.45, driven by its strong Restart ability and flexible Genome Hacking attack. Gardevoir ex followed with a 51% increase to $78.99, benefitting from its energy acceleration in Psychic decks, while Charizard ex rose 36% to $160.00 thanks to its powerful Infernal Reign Ability. Hidden Fates heavyweights also gained ground, with Charizard GX up 12% to $482.89 and Umbreon GX up 19% to $188.88, both continuing to appeal to collectors and players alike.
The crashers list was led by Pikachu from Paldean Fates, which plunged 48% from January to $25.00 as play demand faded despite its nostalgic appeal. Charmander from the same set fell 19% to $20.80, while Glaceon GX from Hidden Fates dropped 33% to $40.30 due to declining GX-era relevance. Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX saw a smaller 4% dip to $33.68, and Eevee from Hidden Fates slipped 8% to $33.13. Across both sets, the pattern was clear: high-end, competitive, or visually prestigious cards held or gained value, while smaller, less impactful pulls struggled to maintain early hype.
The Most Expensive Prismatic Evolution Cards You Can Still Pull From Packs
Prismatic Evolutions remains one of the most valuable sets in the Scarlet and Violet era, led by the Umbreon ex SIR at $869, still the top chase card despite dropping from its $1,300 high earlier this year. The Sylveon ex SIR sits in second at $315, bringing powerful control options with its Magical Charm and Angelite attacks. Espeon ex SIR follows closely at $204.99, offering disruption through devolving effects, while Leafeon ex SIR at $209.99 mixes healing and scaling damage. Vaporeon ex SIR holds $200.98 with strong spread damage potential, and Jolteon ex SIR matches the same $179.99 price as Glaceon ex SIR, though Glaceon has dropped 44% since May. Flareon ex SIR at $153.99 remains a hot pick for Fire decks, Roaring Moon ex SIR stays above $140, and Eevee ex SIR closes the top ten at $112.98 with its versatile evolution ability.
Outside the Eeveelutions, the set boasts affordable but striking SIRs like Dragapult ex at $94.99, Ceruledge ex at $93.85, and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex at $83.99. Mid-range options such as Raging Bolt ex ($75.95), Gholdengo ex ($60.00), Palafin ex ($63.54), Iron Valiant ex ($50.99), Iron Hands ex ($45.95), Terapagos ex ($39.00), and Iron Crown ex ($40.60) offer standout art at a fraction of the top card prices. With many of these having corrected down from earlier highs, collectors now have a chance to secure key pieces at stable values before the next upward shift.
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.
Nintendo of America and Interstate Scholastic Esports Alliance (ISEA) have announced a partnership “to make gaming competitions more social, accessible, and rewarding”.
Starting later this year, school-organized tournaments and events for grades 4 through 12 will be able to utilise Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 3, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for competitive play on the Switch and Switch – OLED Model, with the partnership potentially reaching “80,000 elementary, middle, and high school students across 23 states”.
For the past 15 years, PlayStation Plus has served as a welcoming home for indie games, connecting players with some of the most innovative, heartfelt, and personal experiences the world of video games has to offer. The PlayStation Plus Game Catalog (included with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships) puts a huge library of indie games right at your fingertips—but with so many games available, it’s possible for even some of the best to escape your notice.
As we’ve entered the 15th anniversary of PlayStation Plus, we’ve rounded up 15 of the best indies from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. These are games that you might have missed, but you absolutely shouldn’t.
A Space for the Unbound
A Space for the Unbound delves into the lives of teenagers living in Indonesia in the 1990s, at first telling an endearing slice-of-life story about friendship and first loves. Then things start to get weird. As supernatural elements weave their way into the point-and-click adventure of high schoolers Atma and Raya, A Space for the Unbound quickly becomes a powerful, impactful, and highly relatable experience.
Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games | Developer: Mojiken Studio | PS5, PS4
Abiotic Factor
The incident that turned Gordon Freeman into an HEV suit-wearing hero was just another day at the office for everyone else at Black Mesa. Abiotic Factor takes inspiration from the random lab employees stuck at work on the day an errant experiment rips a hole in another dimension, but imagines the experience as a survival game instead of a first-person shooter. Trapped in the facility with up to five friends, you’ll need to seek out resources like food and water, and craft weapons out of office supplies—all while avoiding the otherworldly creatures that are your new neighbors.
Publisher: Playstack | Developer: Deep Field Games | PS5
Another Crab’s Treasure
If Dark Souls took place in Sponge Bob’s underwater town of Bikini Bottom, it might look something like Another Crab’s Treasure. As a hermit crab named Kril, you set out to reclaim your shell after it’s repossessed, and soon find yourself scavenging trash to use as armor and weapons to fight off tough creatures. Another Crab’s Treasure tells a lighthearted tale set in an unsanitary sea, but don’t let the colorful palette and funny characters fool you: It also packs some serious boss battles to put Souls-like fans through their paces.
Blue Prince starts with a death. The baron of Mount Holly Manor has passed away, leaving the 45-room estate to you—but only if you can manage to find and enter its 46th room. That’s a challenge, as each door you open leads to your choice of room, forcing you to plot a new course through its halls, bedrooms, and kitchens with each new day. Blue Prince, a Day One addition to the PlayStation Plus Catalog, is delightfully dense with puzzles, secrets, and mysteries that combine to become much more than they first appear.
Publisher: Raw Fury | Developer: Dogubomb | PS5
Celeste
Madeline has something to prove to herself, and that’s why she’s going to climb a mountain. It’s not an easy feat, however—though the controls of side-scrolling platformer Celeste are relatively simple to pick up, it takes mastery of precise jumps and dashes to ascend through level after level. Celeste uses its excellent platforming to tell a surprisingly deep and emotional story, as Madeline struggles to fight back her inner demons all the way to the summit.
Publisher: Maddy Makes Games | Developer: Maddy Makes Games | PS4
Citizen Sleeper
Sci-fi RPG Citizen Sleeper charges you with finding a way to escape your corporate indentured servitude as a sleeper—a digitized human mind inhabiting a robot body. What follows is a haunting and human story played out through a series of small events, where table top RPG-style dice rolls, coupled with your choices, determine what happens. It’s easy to get lost trying to eke out a living in Citizen Sleeper’s imaginative sci-fi future, one that’s bleak at times, and hopeful at others.
Publisher: Fellow Traveler Games | Developer: Jump Over the Age | PS5, PS4
Cult of the Lamb
Touched by a dark god, an incredibly cute lamb is sent into the world to bring its Word to other cuddly critters. Grow your flock and gather resources to build and manage an ever-growing compound where your followers live, work, and occasionally volunteer to be sacrificed to their fell deity. When you’re not building up a home for your followers, you’ll venture out into the world to vanquish other powerful cult leaders, giving Cult of the Lamb a devilishly delightful mix of colony building and rogue-like gameplay.
Publisher: Devolver Digital | Developer: Massive Monster | PS5, PS4
Dead Cells
Hacking and slashing has perhaps never been so refined—or so expansive—as it is in Dead Cells. The side-scrolling “roguevania” sends you out into various shifting locales to fight through hordes of creatures, and provides you with a host of inventive weapons to do so. Knives and swords are cool, but how about an automated crossbow turret? How about a crossbow turret that sets people on fire? How about a fiery crossbow turret that sprays poison? With a huge number of weapons to unlock and upgrades to earn, Dead Cells will constantly keep you returning to its speedy, intense combat for just one more run.
The gentle rolling seas are calling, and with your fishing boat, you can venture out to haul in a catch and make a decent living. Just don’t worry too much about those twisted abominations that sometimes fill your nets, or the strange shapes that creep in the dark fog. Dredge is sometimes a relaxing fishing game, sometimes a strange tale of supernatural mystery, and sometimes a single boat’s journey into the eldritch unknown; it turns out that fishing and horror work extremely well together.
Publisher: Team17 | Developer: Black Salt Games | PS5, PS4
Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition
Inspired by side-scrolling classics like Metroid and Mega Man X, Hollow Knight sends you deep into a fallen insect kingdom known as the Hallownest to put a stop to an infection that has cursed its people. Exploring the tunnels and cities of Hallownest takes you on a sprawling adventure to fight colossal creatures, meet and battle other bugs, and uncover the mystery of what destroyed a once-great civilization.
Publisher: Team Cherry | Developer: Team Cherry | PS4
Paradise Killer
This dazzlingly bizarre and stylish murder mystery throws you into a surreal world of gods, syndicates, and cosmic corruption. As Lady Love Dies, you’re tasked with solving a murder on a tropical island outside of space and time. The game’s open-ended investigation, vaporwave aesthetic, and synth-laced soundtrack create an intoxicating atmosphere where every clue matters and every accusation is yours to make. Paradise Killer is a bold, genre-defying detective experience and a must-play for ’80s-inspired synthwave fans.
Publisher: Fellow Traveller | Developer: Kaizen Game Works | PS5, PS4
Tetris Effect: Connected
Few games create a more all-encompassing zenlike experience than Tetris Effect: Connected. The classic puzzle game is elevated by captivating visuals and a phenomenal soundtrack that sync perfectly with your play, pulling you into a block-dropping flow state that’s only elevated by the ability to play with up to four other people. Tetris Effect: Connected is the next stage in evolution of one of the best games of all time.
Publisher: Enhance Games | Developer: Monstars, Resonair | PS5, PS4
Moonlighter
Ever wonder what the shopkeepers of an RPG town get up to when you’re not around? In Moonlighter, you play a merchant who goes dungeon-crawling by night to find new wares to sell by day. Your skills in capitalism help to fuel your nightly adventures as you delve deeper into the dungeons, taking on hulking bosses in hopes of finally leaving the shopkeep life behind and making it as a full-time hero.
Publisher: 11 bit Studios | Developer: Digital Sun | PS4
Undertale
Funny, heartfelt, and unexpected, Undertale might be one of the most beloved indie games ever made. It tells the story of a human who falls into the subterranean world of monsters, but flips RPG genre conventions on their heads with a battle system that gives you the option to talk your way out of fights and spare the many creatures who attack you. Emotional, often-hilarious writing and strange, well-realized characters have made Undertale memorable, but it’s the choices you make that will define your journey.
Publisher: 8-4 Ltd. | Developer: Toby Fox | PS4
Untitled Goose Game
A town full of people is just trying to live in peace—unfortunately for them but luckily for you, a goose is loose. Untitled Goose Game finds hilarity in the simple chaos of a goose stealing stuff, honking at people, and generally ruining everyone’s day. Racing around a series of sandbox areas, it’s your goal to get into as much trouble as you can, with a variety of goals to fulfill, puzzles to solve, and angry townspeople to evade and bewilder.
Publisher: Panic Inc. | Developer: House House | PS4
These are just some of the great games that are worth your attention—there are a whole lot more in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. Head to playstation.com to see the full library to find a heap of excellent indies worth exploring.
