Nintendo has revealed new gameplay details of Donkey Kong Bananza in today’s Nintendo Direct, which has also confirmed that Super Mario Odyssey’s Pauline will be your sidekick character in the game.
Here, Pauline can use her singing talents to transform DK into several new forms — a charging zebra, or a flying ostrich that can drop egg bombs. Pauline can also be controlled by a second player, turning Bananza into a co-op experience where Pauline’s vocals become explosive blasts, helping DK with his destruction.
Using GameShare, this co-op offering can be played on multiple Switch consoles — including Switch 1 — without your co-op partner needing a copy of the game themselves.
Other new gameplay features confirmed today included the ability to skate around on ripped up pieces of the environment, and even stick them together to form new structures such as bridges.
Eagle-eyed viewers will likely have spotted returning characters Cranky Kong and Rambi the Rhino, but did you also spot Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong? You can see them here, in this image below:
Speaking of other familiar elements, today’s Nintendo Direct also confirmed a fresh version of the iconic DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64 would feature in Bananza. (Here’s hoping composer Grant Kirkhope is credited for this version, after previously complaining he had been left out of the Super Mario Movie credits.)
And speaking of credits, today’s Nintendo Direct offered no further clues to the exact Nintendo development team behind Donkey Kong Bananza. Fans had previously speculated that it is the work of the company’s talented Super Mario Odyssey team. Whether Pauline’s reappearance here is another clue remains to be seen.
“Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen,” IGN wrote in our Donkey Kong Bananza hands-on preview. “It really does take advantage of Switch 2’s hardware – the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived.”
Donkey Kong Bananza launches July 17, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.
Developing…
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Pokémon Go will continue its summer events plan by driving a big red truck around seven cities in Europe, beginning in the UK next month.
Manchester will host the tour’s first stop, before subsequent visits to London, Paris, Valencia, Berlin, Den Haag in the Netherlands and finally Cologne, just in time for Gamescom.
Players who make the trip to a host city will get an array of bonuses around the truck location, including Phanphy, Venipede and Wooloo spawns with boosted Shiny rates, plus raids for a costumed summer Pikachu with the possibility of a Location Background. Timed Research, meanwhile, will offer up a Varoom — the engine-like Pokémon. Plus, of course, you get to look at the big red Pokémon Go truck.
Across the host city, other bonuses will be activated — including 3-hour lures and up to 5 Special Trades per day. Nationwide, meanwhile, Timed Research advertising the upcoming arrival of the Road Trip will award the same summer costumed Pikachu.
Earlier this week, Pokémon Go announced an unprecedented $20 event pass featuring the game’s first Golden Bottle Cap item — something that will allow players to increase a Pokémon’s stats until they are a rare 100%. Ahead of the item’s introduction, fans expressed concern the feature could see the game straying into pay-to-win territory, something director Michael Steranka discussed at length in our exclusive interview.
Separately, IGN also chatted with Steranka about this year’s biggest change — that Pokémon Go is now owned by Monopoly Go! maker Scopely, a company backed by the Saudi-founded Savvy Games. How will the change impact the game? IGN put that question to Steranka as well.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
If, like me, you ended up keeping a bit of an eye on MindsEye once its release popped into view like a weird mind portal, you might remember one of the execs behind it causing a fuss with some Discord comments alleging bots were being used to bad mouth the game.
Well, in a twist that’d be strange for other games, but feels pretty par the course for this one, developer Build A Rocket Boy’s now denied that it’s been using bots to say nice things about MindsEye. This wasn’t totally out of the blue. Some folks had spotted some posts about the game with suspiciously similar wording.
Magic: The Gathering keeps churning out set after set, and 2025 is no different. From mainline sets like Aetherdrift and Tarkir: Dragonstorm, to remasters like Innistrad, and Universes Beyond Final Fantasy, it’s a stacked year—and that’s just the first half of it.
With so much to look forward to, the company has still planned a whole host of Secret Lair card drops throughout the year, and it’s getting pretty tricky to stay on top of everything coming as a result.
It’s been a busy year for Wizards of the Coast’s limited-time mini-sets, and while the company sold out of all three Final Fantasy drops in record time (leaving many disappointed), you can still get them via third-party sellers… if you’re willing to pay the inflated costs, that is.
Before we start, it’s worth pointing out that you won’t find Secret Lair drops at the same price as you’d find them directly from Wizards of the Coast (standard $30 nonfoil, $40 rainbow foil), with most being listed anywhere between $80-$150 or above.
This is a huge markup, so if you’re looking to buy, be sure you’re 100% informed of what you’re paying for. You can buy them from eBay, but we’ve always found TCGPlayer, while still eBay-owned, to be the most secure and trustworthy way to nab Secret Lair drops post-release.
There are a trio of Final Fantasy Secret Lair sets, Weapons, Grimoire, and Game Over, each offering unique art and names for Magic: The Gathering cards. Everything is available in standard and foil, alongside the Japanese variants as well.
Here’s how you can grab each, what’s included, and all the key info you need to help you decide whether you still want these to add to your collection via third party seller listings selling at a premium.
Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Game Over (Jun 9) – 5 cards
Spira’s Punishment (Day of Judgement)
Absorb into Time (Temporal Extortion)
Merciless Poisoning (Toxic Deluge)
Unseat the Usurper (Praetor’s Grasp)
Meteorfall (Star of Extinction)
Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Grimoire (Jun 9) – 5 cards
Yuna’s Holy Magic (Prismatic Ending)
Hope’s Aero Magic (Cyclonic Rift)
Noctis’ Death Magic (Damn)
Vivi’s Thunder Magic (Lightning Bolt)
Aerith’s Curage Magic (Heroic Intervention)
Secret Lair x Final Fantasy: Weapons (Jun 9) – 5 cards
Yuna’s Sending Staff (Staff of the Storyteller)
Clive’s Invictus Blade (Blade of Selves)
Cloud’s Buster Sword (Umezawa’s Jitte)
Gaia’s Dark Hammer (Colossus Hammer)
Tidus’s Brotherhood Sword (Sword of Truth and Justice)
Where You Can Still Buy Secret Lair Drops
With each Secret Lair drop being particularly limited in its availability, your best bet is naturally to look on the secondhand market.
While some can be found at Amazon and other generalist stores, these don’t have the same level of quality assurance as specialist retailers like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom, Magic Madhouse, and others.
So what’s been popular in 2025 besides Final Fantasy? As things stand, the most notable heavy-hitters from this year so far include Deadpool, Spongebob, and our furry friends. Here’s where you can still buy the sets at market price.
There’s also a good chance you may need to buy cards individually, rather than in predetermined Secret Lair sets, so consider picking them up piecemeal if the opportunity presents itself.
If you’re lucky enough to have a local game store that’s offering a large collection of Magic: The Gathering singles, it’s worth taking a look—you might end up finding a Secret Lair card lurking in a binder or loose in a box somewhere (perish the thought!).
Secret Lair Release Schedule for 2025
We’ve got the full list below for every Secret Lair drop already released in 2025, alongside the best places to buy each set, or even the individual cards. Let’s dig in.
Animar and Friends – February 3
This five-card set includes art from Jack Teagle for Mulldrifter, All Will Be One, Benevolent Hydra, Forgotten Ancient and Animar, Soul of Elements.
Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing – February 10
This Secret Lair drop includes four cards with artwork from Danish illustrator Jesper Ejsing, including Sun Titan, Deflecting Swat, Llanowar Elves and Breeches, Eager Pillager.
Lorwyn Lightboxes – February 10
Still available from Wizards at the time of writing, Lorwyn Lightboxes are stylised versions of Ancient Ampitheater, Auntie’s Hovel, Gilt-Leaf Palace, Secluded Glen and Wanderwine Hub.
City Styles 2: Dressed to Kill – February 10
Giving an urban theme to Karmic Guide, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Captain Sisay, Selvala, Explorer Returned and Veyran, Voice of Duality, this Secret Lair is long gone.
Arcade Racers – February 10
With gorgeous pixel art, arcade theming, these versions of Big Score, Final Fortune, Heat Shimmer, Roiling Vortex, and Wheel of Misfortune are eye-catching and still in stock.
Aether Drifters – February 10
Aping the design of Hot Wheels packaging, these Aether Drifters include reversible cards for six vehicles including Mechtitan Core and Smuggler’s Copter.
Featuring: Mitsuhiro Arita – February 10
This collection offers four Magic The Gathering cards from longtime Pokemon illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita. Murktide Regent, Lightning Bolt, Shorikai Genesis Machine and Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice look incredible.
Cats vs Dogs – March 17
This double drop pits canines against felines. Both include Escape to the Wilds, Titanic Ultimatum, Rip Apart, Arcane Signet and Basilisk Collar, but with art to signify your chosen species.
Spongebob: Squarepants – March 24
With Spongebob and pals taking cardboard forms, collectors can grab 7 individual pieces, including Plankton, Mr. Krabs, Squidward, and, of course, Patrick Star and Spongebob SquarePants himself as part of the Legends of Bikini Bottom set.
There’s also a Lands bundle for the Nickelodeon favorite, and a meme-focused set of spells, too.
Twisted Toons – March 24
A little Spongebob-adjacent, these full-art, Toon-inspired cards give us Cuphead vibes.
Tragic Romance – March 24
Following a ‘Romantasy’ theme, these cards include Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon, Master of Cruelties, Angel of Despair and Kaalia of the Vast.
They Grow Up So Fast – March 24
This Dragon-centric drop has five cards, each with two versions of Dragonlords like Atarka and Dromoka. Both versions are the same card, but with a young and mature version of each dragon.
Pick’em and Stick’em – March 24
This intriguing set is still in stock, and offers cards and accompanying stickers for players to customise them with. Clever Impersonator, Hedron Crab, Pitiless Plunderer, a Treasure Token and Thalia, Heretic Cathar are included.
Garden Buds – March 24
Billed as the last remnants of an Ashaya, Soul of the Wild Commander deck that was lost to time, these seed-style cards include Harrow, Elvish Reclaimer, World Shaper and Horn of Greed with art from Jordan Crane.
Oishi! Tokens – March 26
Inspired by Japanese food packaging, this set includes four Food Tokens, and is sold out.
Secret Lair x Marvel’s Deadpool – April 1
The Merc with a Mouth’s Secret Lair has sold out, but it’s well worth a look if you can find it on the secondhand market. Fourth Wall-breaking versions of Deadly Rollick, Saw in Half, Blasphemous Act and Vandalblast are here, as well as Deadpool, Trading Card.
Adventures of the Little Witch – April 22
This adorable set has Secret Rendezvous, Serenity, Esika’s Chariot and Realms Uncharted, all with Heikala’s inimitable artwork and use of color.
VROOOOOMMMMMM – April 28
Toru Terada lends his incredible art to Lava Dart, Monastery Swiftspear, Soul-Scar Mage, Underworld Breach, and Mishra’s Bauble. Still available, too.
Everything Is On Fire – April 28
This set is all about bringing the heat, with spicy new art for Chain Lightning, Dragon’s Rage Channeller, Lava Spike, Rift Bolt and Skewer the Critics.
Featuring: Jay Howell – April 28
Jay Howell’s Secret Lab set includes cartoonish versions of Marchesa, the Black Rose, Uncivil Unrest, Treasonous Ogre, Priest of Forgotten Gods and Agent of Treachery, all from the guy who designed the cast of Bob’s Burgers.
Secret Lair X KEXP: Where the Music Matters – April 28
This set of Land cards includes two of each basic land type for a total of 10 in the set, and is inspired by the independent radio station KEXP.
Secret Lair X KEXP: You Are Not Alone – April 28
Another KEXP collab, this one has a series of colorful card varients that lean into a “group-hug” deck theme. Cultural Exchange, Folio of Fancies, Concordant Crossroads, Rites of Flourishing and Font of Mythos are included.
Everyone’s Invited! – May 12
This double rainbow foil Secret Lair drop is still available (for $200, we might add) and includes Shapeshifters, Dryads, Elementals, Faeries, Slivers, Cats and more. Ten foil cards, four foil tokens, one foil display card and 90 reprints.
Slay the Day – May 19
The latest set at the time of writing includes Marwyn, the Nurturer as well as Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, and Slythis, Harvest’s Hand.
Final Fantasy – June 9
What is Secret Lair?
Secret Lair is a limited-time drop of cards that are usually offered as bundles for a day or two at the most before they sell out.
They’ve had some wild theming in the past, but with Magic: The Gathering channelling its inner Fortnite, the crossovers are becoming more and more frequent (in fact, Fortnite has had its own Secret Lair set because, of course, it has).
The cards have new artwork, but are based on existing cards in terms of gameplay functionality, so you can expect to use them in competitive play, so long as the original card is still in the standard rotation.
As of the debut of Final Fantasy’s Universes Beyond set, that list of Standard rotation sets runs until Brother’s War.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay. He’s also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
You are a thirteen year old stuck in the shape of a T, arms aloft forever – what do you do? Well, in To A T, you simply go on living your everyday life. This kid-friendly town explorer is both a low-stakes comic adventure and a commentary on living contentedly with a disability despite daily struggles. As the only T-posing kid in school, you are also the target of three bullies, whose mockery and mimickry give your teen pause before heading out the door to school. This is mainly a story of how those bullies come to understand your troubles and appreciate some of your more far-fetched abilities (turns out spinning very fast allows you to fly, like a helicopter – who knew!) But it also takes a dip into truly silly territory, becoming more of an outlandish movie and less of an actual “game” as things go on.
Stellar Blade, one of the PS5’s most surprising success stories, is reportedly in consideration for the Switch 2.
According to PlayForum (thanks, VGC), developer Shift Up has secured a dev kit for the Switch 2 and has begun intial work for a supposed port of the game. The team has also gifted a whole bunch of Switch 2 units to its employees.
Mattel has revealed three new exclusive toys being sold at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and there’s a definite theme to this year’s lineup. It’s all about girl power, whether you prefer the high-speed antics of Mario Kart’s Pauline or the dark energy of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at all three SDCC exclusives, and then scroll down to find out how you can acquire them for your collection:
Joining Mattel’s growing lineup of Mario Kart toys, Pauline depicts the iconic mayor of New Donk City riding her pink Badwagon kart. The toy comes packaged inside a special display box.
Elvira, meanwhile, is the latest addition to Mattel’s popular Monster High line of dolls. The Monster High Skullector Elvira comes with a faux-leather dress and is based on the likeness of actress Cassandra Peterson. You can even see Peterson posing with the doll in the gallery above.
Finally, also joining the Monster High line is Sweet Screams Twyla. This doll includes an appropriately cotton candy-themed outfit and even comes with a cotton candy-scented bunny companion.
“This lineup of collectibles salutes the fearless, fashion-forward and cherished female characters that continue to break boundaries,” said Nick Karamanos, senior vice president, Mattel Creations & Entertainment Partnerships at Mattel, in a statement. “From gothic glam to gaming icons, these collectibles honor the fan-favorite heroines from the franchises our fans know and love.”
All three items will be sold at SDCC 2025, which runs from July 24-27. Mattel will have an exhibit at Booth #3029, though the toys themselves can be purchased at Mattel merchandise booth (#2945). Select quantities of Pauline and Twyla will also be made available on the Mattel Creations website after the show, but Elvira will strictly be sold in-person at SDCC.
The best thing about Steam’s Next Fests nowadays is that there are so many games. The most terrifying thing about Steam’s Next Fests nowadays is that there are so damn many games. It’s no surprise then, that according to calculations by developer Chris Hanney and the GameDiscoverCo newsletter, the latest summer Next Fest continued a trend of substantial year-on-year demo number growth.
Hanney, a dev on Space Pirate Trainer and Shredders among others, has had a go at pulling the numbers on the numbers of demos uploaded to Steam during each next fest running back to 2019’s Game Awards-adjacent first edition.
If you’re making a Terminator video game, you ideally want to be able to include Arnold Schwarzenegger in all his glory. That, however, isn’t always possible. Why? The developer of an upcoming Terminator video game has offered an explanation.
Terminator 2D: No Fate, due out this September, is a retro game based on 1991 action masterpiece Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It features iconic characters from the movie, such as John and Sarah Connor, the T-1000 and the T-800. Check out gameplay and comments from the developers at Bitmap Bureau in the video below.
But while Terminator 2D: No Fate does feature the T-1000 and the T-800 characters, it does not feature Arnie’s likeness. Speaking to IGN, publisher Reef Entertainment explained why, and in the process lifted the lid on how licenses like these tend to work for video games.
Reef, with the Terminator 2 license to play with, has the rights to use the characters from the movie such as Sarah and John Connor, and on top of that, it has image rights for certain actors who have provided those rights to Studio Canal, which owns the rights to the first two Terminator films, as part of the agreement.
But the rights to use the Terminator itself does not include the rights to use Arnie’s likeness. That’s why Terminator 2D: No Fate uses the endoskeleton for character artwork, rather than Arnie’s likeness.
As well as all that, Reef got in touch with Michael Edwards, the actor who played General John Connor in the iconic opening of Terminator 2, to do a likeness deal for the video game. Terminator 2D: No Fate includes gameplay that sees the player control future war John Connor in a fight against the machines, fleshing out that brief opening scene in the movie into an entire section of the video game.
In the movie, you only see Edwards’ John Connor for a few seconds, but those seconds are memorable indeed; his heavily scarred face and steely gaze looking out over the battlefield tell us he’s seen and done all sorts in humanity’s desperate struggle for survival against the machines. So Reef reached out separately to the 80-year-old actor to do a deal.
(It turns out that in 2021, Edwards reprised the role of John Connor in a fan-made Terminator film called Skynet.)
In short: there’s a difference between signing the Terminator 2 license and having the agreement to use the characters, compared to the actor’s likeness, which is separate.
This isn’t to say it is impossible to get Arnie’s likeness for use in video games. After all, Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm has managed it multiple times, most recently for Mortal Kombat 1’s DLC character Conan the Barbarian. Before that, NetherRealm managed to get Arnie for the Terminator T-800 DLC character in Mortal Kombat 11. But there’s a gulf between the scope of a game like Terminator 2D: No Fate and the Warner Bros.-backed Mortal Kombat series.
And it’s worth noting that while NetherRealm’s Arnie likeness is in, a soundalike voice actor (Chris Cox) was used for his lines. It doesn’t look like the 77-year-old Schwarzenegger is in the business of doing video game voice work.
Here’s Reed Entertainment’s comment to IGN on how all this works in full:
Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t in the game it’s just a T800. We didn’t have his license, unfortunately. But for the rest, you have to ask each actor individually to use his portrait.
What we have is the right to use the characters. So like Sarah, John, T1000, T800, and then certain actors will also provide image rights to Studio Canal, which is included in the agreement. For example; Linda Hamilton is Sarah Connor, which is why you can see Linda at the beginning of the trailer. Whereas our right to use the Terminator itself, it doesn’t include Arnold. When you see the character artwork for that, you’ll see it’s like the Terminator itself rather than Arnold. It’s basically the endoskeleton that we have the right to use.
Michael Edwards played the future war version of John in the opening of T2. You see him, he lowers his binoculars, he’s looking over the battlefield. Someone like that, we reached out separately to him to include his likeness. There’s a definite difference between signing the T2 license and having the agreement to use the characters compared to the actor’s likeness, which is separate.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
There is no option in bus conducting sim Troleu to warn fake pass holders or ask them to leave. You simply exit the conversation and immediately start booting them unconscious, then open the nearest door and either toss or kick them out, at which point they fly off down the street like a crisp packet in a gale. Here’s a link to a Steam page with the demo. Have a great day.
Sometimes, passengers enter the bus with the sole goal of assaulting you. You do a little punching minigame, and boot them off down the street too.
