Author: Game Infliction

New Switch Anime Fighter Due Out In 2025 “Refused Classification” Down Under

Déjà vu.

The upcoming fighting game adaptation of the manga and anime series ‘Hunter x Hunter’ is due out on the Switch and other platforms in 2025, but it seems it’s been refused classification in one particular country ahead of release.

The country (and classification board) that’s knocked back Hunter x Hunter: Nen x Impact is Australia. The official rating simply notes how it’s been “refused classification”. Automaton-Media reached out to the ACB and has got some extra insight as to why exactly it’s been blocked:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Switch Physical Pre-Orders Are Now Live (US)

Includes a special Capcom vs. SNK comic.

Although we don’t have a release date for Capcom Fighting Collection 2 just yet, the good news is physical pre-orders are already live in the US.

This includes physical editions for both the Switch and PlayStation 4. There’ll also be a 48-page Capcom vs. SNK comic included in the box while supplies last. Here’s a teaser of the comic:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Ex-PlayStation Boss Questions Future Of Consoles, But Not Nintendo Hardware

“They live in their Own Private Idaho”.

As the video game market continues to evolve there’s once again talk about the viability of console gaming. In the same interview with Eurogamer, ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden shared his thoughts about this topic.

While he has raised alarm about the whole “Xbox versus PlayStation” console market and believes it’s important to question the purpose of these systems going forward, in terms of Nintendo’s future, he doesn’t appear to be quite as concerned. As he mentions, Nintendo operates within its “Own Private Idaho” nowadays:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Blade Ball Festivities Update Adds Gingerbread Spin and Holiday-Themed Crate

Roblox sports experience Blade Ball is charging into the holiday season with a Festivities Update to help celebrate winter.

The latest update to developer Wiggity’s strategic dodgeball game, titled V6.5, arrived over the weekend. It comes with a new Gingerbread Hourly Spin and a special festive crate alongside a host of bug fixes, new swords, emotes, and more. It’s unclear exactly how long the Festivities Update-related goodies will be live, so make sure you start getting those spins in sooner rather than later.

The Festive Crate can be found in the lobby and grants access to specific rewards. Wiggity didn’t reveal everything the crate can hold and instead teased just one item: an OP-tier sword called Northstar Reaper. Players who advance to the Gingerbread wheel’s center, meanwhile, will be rewarded with the OP-tier sword, Frostbane.

Blade Ball’s latest update also comes with changes to a few abilities. The team says Calming Deflect and Quantum Arena have both received buffs, while Dragon Spirit, Swap, Golden Ball, Necromancer, and Phantom have been nerfed. Some clan tweaks include the ability to change your clan’s name for 99 Robux, while players are also now able to contribute up to 100 crowns every 10 minutes.

The Festivities Update follows November’s Thanksgiving Event update, which included a number of new themed additions, features, and bug fixes. Highlights included an in-game turkey NPC to visit as well as other unique rewards. That event is still underway and will remain available until December 7.

For more on Blade Ball, you can check out all active codes here. You can check out everything included in the latest update in the full patch notes below.

Blade Ball V6.5 Update Patch Notes

Festivities!

– Festive Crate

– Find the Festive Crate in the lobby to unlock awesome rewards like:

– OP Tier sword “Northstar Reaper” (VFX, Slash) – 0.05%

– Gingerbread Hourly Spin

– Get a free spin every hour!

– Advance to the center to unlock a LIMITED QUANTITY sword:

– OP tier sword (VFX, slash) “Frostbane” (5K Exists)

– Clan Changes

– Contribute up to 100 crowns every 10 minutes

– Change the clan’s name for 99 R$ (under the manager, as the first option).

– Vote 2 abilities to ban in clan wars.

– New OP 2.5K Existing BACKSWORD “Celestial Whisper”.

– Ability Changes

– Calming Deflect Buff

– Quantum Arena Buff

– Dragon Spirit Nerf

– Swap Nerf

– Golden Ball Nerf

– Necromancer Nerf

– Phantom Nerf

– Bug Fixes

– 18 Swords

– 5 Explosions

– 6 Emotes

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Doronko Wanko Lets You Play As The Messiest Puppy Ever On Switch

Wan wan.

Revealed at today’s OTK Games Expo, Bandai Namco has announced that Doronko Wanko, a game which stars the most adorable pomeranian we think we’ve ever seen, is coming to Switch in Spring 2025.

To the British people reading this, yes, okay, stop chuckling in the back. The game’s name actually derives from わんこ Wan ko, which is an informal or cute way of saying dog or puppy in Japanese. Kids use it a lot. And come on, the puppy in this game is pretty darn cute.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Join the King of Meat – Closed Alpha Dec 4 – Dec 14!

King of Meat: Lights, Camera, ALPHA! We’re excited to invite Xbox Insiders on Xbox Series X|S to the world of Loregok for the first time from December 4 through December 14. This confidential alpha will give players in North America and Europe (full list of available regions below) an early look at King of Meat. Step into the role of fearless Contenders battling through ridiculous dungeons, build devious creations, and outshine everyone with dazzling custom appearances. Limited space is available so join now before it fills up.

About the Game:

King of Meat is a colorful combat spectacle that pits Contenders against creative dungeon masterpieces. With a combination of creative co-op combat, user-generated dungeons, and ridiculous customization options, King of Meat brings countless possibilities to express your own creativity. Build your own dungeons to challenge other players, outsmart other Contenders and their cunning puzzles, or team up with your friends and fellow Contenders to defeat skeletons, trolls, and other ridiculous monsters. Or just outshine them all with your dazzling custom appearance.

If you want to learn more, please visit the Official King of Meat Website!

Playtest Times:

Start: Wednesday December 4, 10:00 AM PT (1:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM GMT)
End: Saturday December 14, 1:00 PM PT (4:00 PM ET / 9:00 PM GMT)

How to Participate:

  1. Sign-in on your Xbox Series X|S console and launch the Xbox Insider Hub app (or install the Xbox Insider Hub from the Store first if necessary)
  2. Navigate to Previews > King of Meat – Closed Alpha
  3. Select Join
  4. Wait for the registration to complete and be directed to the Store and install King of Meat – Closed Alpha

NOTE: Limited space is available and offered first-come first-served.
NOTE: This playtest is only available on Xbox Series X|S consoles.
NOTE: This playtest is only available for Xbox Insiders in the regions below.

  • North America
    • United States
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • Europe
    • Austria
    • Belgium
    • Czech Republic
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • Ireland
    • Italy
    • Netherlands
    • Norway
    • Poland
    • Portugal
    • Slovakia
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • Switzerland
    • Turkey
    • United Kingdom

How to Provide Feedback:

If you experience any issues while playing King of Meat – Closed Alpha, don’t forget to use “Report a problem” so we can investigate:

  • Hold down the home button on your Xbox controller.
  • Select Report a problem.
  • Select the Games category and King of Meat – Closed Alpha subcategory.
  • Fill out the form with the appropriate details to help our investigation.

Other resources:

For more information: follow us on X/Twitter at @XboxInsider and this blog for announcements and more. And feel free to interact with the community on the Xbox Insider SubReddit.

The post Join the King of Meat – Closed Alpha Dec 4 – Dec 14! appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Friday the 13th: The Game Developer IllFonic Hit With Layoffs

Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds developer IllFonic has been hit by layoffs as the team has “re-aligned to a refined strategy.”

IllFonic CEO & Co-Founder Charles Brungardt shared the message on X/Twitter saying, “Today we had to accept the harsh reality that the state of the industry has impacted us here at IllFonic.”

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that cuts to our team had to be made as we re-aligned to a refined strategy,” he continued. “There is a lot of talent in this group and if you or your team is hiring, please reach out so people can be connected to open roles. Thank you.”

IllFonic was founded in 2007 and has studios in both Lakewood, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington. It is currently unclear how many people were impacted by these cuts, but these layoffs are taking place just a few months after the release of the studio’s latest game, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.

In our Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game review, we said, “is as silly and entertaining as the movie that spawned it, and that makes for a surprisingly compelling asymmetrical multiplayer game to boot.”

Alongside the previously mentioned games, IllFonic has also developed and supported such games as Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, Arcadegeddon, Dead Alliance, Star Citizen, Armored Warfare, and Evolve.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

Anime Last Stand Tournament Update Adds New Game Mode and a Wave of New Features

Roblox tower defense strategy game Anime Last Stand’s new Tournament game mode is here alongside a quality-of-life update that adds a seamless retry feature, bug fixes, and more.

There’s a lot to go over when it comes to this latest update, but its new mode is the centerpiece. Developer Boss Studio says the mode asks players to deal as much damage as possible over a 20-minute period. The team says leaderboards reset every week, confirming that brackets will be added “soon.” With Tournaments also comes a Tournament Shop, which allows players to spend currency called Tournament trophies on items and new units.

Two new units also arrive with the Tournament update – Pirate King (Celestial) and Soul King (Shiny) (Exotic) – as well as seven new Evolutions: Pirate Lord, Fused Warrior (Blue), Idol (Pop-Star), Flame Breather (Demonic), Noble Caption (Blood War), World’s Strongest (Prime), Kon (Rage). Some of the more substantial changes involve new features, such as seamless retry, which allows players to restart stage instantly. Evolving now increases a unit’s stats, too, with a 5% chance to increase stats twice.

As for those quality-of-life changes, rerolling stats has been tweaked to make it harder to accidentally skip a stat you want. Boss Studio says it has also implemented “some lag fixes” while buffing out a number of other bugs.

In other Roblox news, there are a variety of other popular experiences that have received updates big and small in the last few weeks. The recent Fisch Ancient Isles update added new fish, mechanics, and a megalodon event, bringing some of the game’s biggest changes so far. Anime Vanguards Update 1.5, meanwhile, came with additions such as Familiars and new Units when it dropped on November 23.

Anime Last Stand will celebrate its two-year anniversary come March, but there’s no telling how exactly the team at Boss Studio plans to celebrate. Until then, you can see our list of all up-to-date codes here, and check out the full patch notes for the Tournament and Quality-of-Life update below.

Anime Last Stand Tournament + Quality of Life Update Patch Notes

Additions

  • Tournaments!
    • Tournaments have been added to ALS. Survive for 20 minutes and deal the most damage possible. The leaderboard for the tournament is global and resets every week.
    • These tournaments have a traitless and traits leaderboard which rotate every week. 2 elements [a primary and a secondary] will have a raw damage boost and a new map will be chosen each week.
    • Brackets coming soon.
  • New Tournament Shop
    • Playing the new tournaments gamemode rewards you with “Tournament trophies”. These trophies can be used to purchase items (and tournament units) from the new tournaments shop.
  • 2 New Units
    • Pirate King (Celestial) [ Tournament Unit ]
    • Soul King (Shiny) (Exotic) [ Shiny Soul Capsule ]
  • 7 New Evolutions
    • Pirate Lord
    • Fused Warrior (Blue)
    • Idol (Pop-Star)
    • Flame Breather (Demonic)
    • Noble Caption (Blood War)
    • World’s Strongest (Prime)
    • Kon (Rage)

Abilities

  • “I’ll use EVERYTHING” [ Kon (Rage) ]
    • During his ability “Kon (Rage)” has a -50% SPA reduction and a 100% DMG increase to boss type enemies. Lasts for 100 seconds.
  • “Final Kamehameha” [ Fused Warrior (Blue) ]
    • Line attack that applies 10 electricify ticks, each doing 10x his Damage (100x Total).
  • “Concert” [ Idol (Pop Star) ]
    • Range and damage of all units in her range are increased by 20%. Her ability lasts for 35 seconds.
  • “Demon Bout” [ Flame Breather (Demon) ]
    • “Flame Breather (Demon)” transforms and increases his DoT damage multiplier to 500% [ 5x ] (This doesn’t stack with the initial 300%)
  • “Bankai” [ Noble Captain (Blood War) ]
    • Using this ability applies an extended hemorrhage and does damage equal to 3x his current damage.
  • “Sea Quake” [ World’s Strongest (Prime) ]
    • Using this ability does a larger version of his 3rd attack that does an initial 200m DMG. Afterwards he starts summoning smaller waves every 10 seconds for a period of 5 minutes. These waves deal 40% of his current damage.

Features

  • Seamless retry
    • Retrying a stage now does NOT teleport you to a different game place and instead restarts the game almost seamlessly.
    • This also applies to the “Next” button.
  • Stats increasement on evolving.
    • Evolving a unit now increases their stats.
      • A -> A+,
      • SS -> SSS.
    • And there’s also a 5% chance for that stat to increase twice.
  • Potions
    • ALS is now introducing Drop and Banner luck potions. The drop potion increases your drop chance of evolution items and more. Banner luck potion increased the odds of pulling rarer units from banners.
  • Clan Enhancements
    • Your clan’s name and clan image are now displayed above the player’s name.
    • Leaving a clan now requires you to click “Leave” twice (To prevent accidental leaving from your clan)
  • Visual Updates
    • Trait Animations have been reworked and look much nicer!
    • Added new icons and colours to the UI.
    • Teleport photos have finally been updated up to date as well!
  • New Bundles
    • Three new bundles have introduced:
      • Luck Bundle
      • Drop Bundle
      • Tournaments Bundle

QoL

  • Stat changes
    • Rerolling stats now gives you a confirmation so you don’t accidentally skip a good stat!
    • Stats now have a different % buff for every stat.
  • Lag and Bug fixes
    • Some lag fixes have been put in place. (Focusing on lag purely for next update).
    • A bunch of bug fixes regarding units and other MISC bugs.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

The next Dragon Age game might be another “reinvention”, say BioWare, drawing parallels with Final Fantasy

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t receive any major story DLC. It also ends pretty decisively, save for a few hints about the future of Thedas in a secret post-credits scene. How final is that air of finality? Is Dragon Age going back on the shelf for the forseeable? Fear not, say game director Corinne Busche and series creative director John Epler, for the universe of Dragon Age has many yarns yet to spin. The next game won’t necessarily be an action game with RPG trappings, either, for much like Final Fantasy, Dragon Age exists in a state of continual “reinvention”.

Read more