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What to Expect From Nintendo in 2025

Soon it will be 2025, also known as the year Nintendo finally pulls back the curtain on its next console. After 2024 was filled with shaky rumors, alleged leaks, and nonstop speculation about the Nintendo Switch successor, we know for a fact Nintendo will share more about the next generation in less than 100 days. If that’s not exciting enough for you, the Nintendo Switch still has a few cards up its sleeve and 2025 will finally see the launch of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, eight years after its initial announcement. And, as always, there will surely be some surprises along the way, with some possibly tied to a certain plumber’s 40th anniversary. Here’s what to expect from Nintendo in 2025.

Nintendo in 2025: What’s Already On the Books

Before we get into Switch 2, let’s recap what we already know is coming to Switch in 2025. Nintendo has been incredibly consistent at publishing a Switch game most months for the last two years, and while I’m not sure they’ll keep up that pace to the same degree in 2025, we already know about a fair number of games coming in the next few months.

January 16 marks the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, a remaster of the 2010 Wii platformer that includes the extra levels from the 2013 3DS port. That’s right, this is the third time Nintendo is selling us Country Returns and it’s now been more than a decade since the last original Donkey Kong Country game with Tropical Freeze’s launch on Wii U. Hopefully Donkey Kong’s recent inclusion in Nintendo’s movies and theme parks will eventually result in a brand new video game, but for now you’re getting Country Returns again, and you better like it. As someone who’s bought and played both previous versions, it really is a fantastic platformer and one worth trying if you’ve never played it before.

We’re getting another HD remaster on March 20, but this one is much more exciting. After years of fan demand, Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition is finally landing on Switch, meaning the entire Xenoblade Chronicles series will be available in one place. Xenoblade Chronicles X is the odd one out in the series: It’s not directly tied to the trilogy and it was doomed to originally release on Wii U back in 2015, so this second chance at life will be many players’ first chance to dive into this enormous open world RPG. The visually enhanced Definitive Edition also adds brand new story content longtime fans will surely dissect and theorize about for years to come.

Right now, those are the only firm release dates we have for Nintendo in 2025, but there are a few huge games coming sometime in the coming months. That includes Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Game Freak’s return to the Legends subseries after Arceus successfully shook things up back in 2022. We still know very little about what Legends: Z-A will entail, other than it centers around an “urban redevelopment plan” in the Kalos Region’s Lumiose City from Pokémon X & Y, and that Generation VI’s Mega Evolution is set to return in some way. Pokémon took a much needed year off in 2024 so it’s exciting to see what Legends: Z-A will look like after taking a bit more time in the oven.

One big third-party Nintendo Switch exclusive worth shouting out is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, which is scheduled for release sometime in 2025. It’s the big return of Professor Layton and his assistant Luke after more than a decade out of the spotlight. I’m hopeful it will actually make it out on time – Level-5 has been a bit too eager to announce release windows before games are actually ready, but whenever this finally comes out it will be an exciting return for a series that’s always been heavily associated with Nintendo.

The final TBA 2025 game on Nintendo’s calendar right now is the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. First announced at E3 2017, Prime 4 was MIA for years before its re-reveal at June’s Nintendo Direct. Prime 4 is coming from Retro Studios, developers of the original Metroid Prime trilogy, and it features the return of Sylux, a villain first introduced in the Nintendo DS spinoff Metroid Prime Hunters. The most recent trailer is absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait to see how the full adventure shapes up later this year.

We’ll Know More About Switch 2 in Less Than Three Months

Enough messing around, let’s get into what you’re all here for: the Nintendo Switch successor. Last May, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that Nintendo would make an announcement about the Nintendo Switch successor “within this fiscal year.” Nintendo’s fiscal year ends on March 31, meaning that we’re expecting an official unveiling sometime within the next 90 days or so. Other than Nintendo’s recent confirmation that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the Switch 2, the company has been very quiet about what the console will actually be like.

However, March might not be the end of the story. It’s possible we will get a quick teaser trailer before the end of this fiscal year, similar to the Switch’s reveal trailer in October 2016, followed by a full presentation ahead of the official launch. Or Nintendo might tell us everything we want to know right away, which is the best-case scenario. Either way, I’m confident we’ll get a big presentation at some point this year with all the answers we’re looking for.

Last time Nintendo held a big in-person event in Japan to properly unveil the Switch, which was broadcast live around the world. I’m expecting a slightly different strategy this time as I think Nintendo will stick to its prerecorded Nintendo Direct-style presentation to show the successor off. But I think the information presented will be largely the same, where Nintendo will likely share information on the following:

Name
Release Date
Price
Launch day/window game lineup
Specifications
Unique features

As for what these console details will actually be, your guess is as good as mine. But I can almost guarantee the Switch successor will launch before the end of 2025 as I don’t see a world where Nintendo announces it as early as March and waits until 2026 to release it. And I’m personally expecting the Switch successor to be very iterative of Nintendo Switch, maintaining the hybrid design that made it such a global success.

A new console means new games and Nintendo is definitely cooking up a big lineup for the next console’s first year. Not counting projects it was a co-developer on, Nintendo’s internal development teams only put out one game last year: Splatoon 3’s Side Order DLC. It’s clearly been full steam ahead on Switch 2 games for a while and I’m expecting some heavy hitters at launch and in the first year of Switch 2.

We are well overdue for a new 3D Mario because it’s been nearly eight years since Super Mario Odyssey. That was the last brand new 3D Mario apart from Bowser’s Fury, which was a bite-sized expansion added onto 3D World’s Switch release in 2021. I’m confident Nintendo is setting up the next 3D Mario to be the Switch successor’s must-have game at launch, to get all of the hardcore Nintendo fans snap up the new console right away. And it just so happens that 2025 is the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and given how big Nintendo went for the 35th anniversary in 2020, I think it’s a safe bet that Mario will be front and center at the next console launch.

But what about Mario Kart? We’re even more overdue for a brand new Mario Kart entry given that it’s been 11 years now since Mario Kart 8’s original release. Yes, we got Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Tour, and the Booster Course Pass in the time since, but it’s still been way too long since a wholly original home console Mario Kart. I go back and forth between thinking 3D Mario or Mario Kart is the big launch game, but either way I think we get both before the console’s first holiday season. Right now, I’m feeling a 3D Mario at launch as the big single-player showcase game, with Mario Kart coming just a bit later to get families interested in picking the console up over the holidays.

As much as everyone loves Mario though, Nintendo will want to diversify its launch lineup beyond its most iconic character. I could see some sort of Zelda remake or remaster in the cards to get that franchise represented as soon as possible on the next hardware, with the two most likely candidates feeling like an Ocarina of Time HD remake or a Breath of the Wild remaster that runs at a solid 60 fps.

I think it’s a safe bet that Mario will be front and center at the next console launch.

I’m also expecting Nintendo to unveil some sort of brand new IP to hit the console at launch or shortly after. The Wii had Wii Sports, Wii U had Nintendoland, and Switch had 1-2-Switch, so there will likely be some sort of casual, family-friendly experience to show off what the new hardware can do.

I’m also hopeful we might get a glimpse of Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai’s new mystery game at some point in 2025. Sakurai dropped one of the biggest plot twists of 2024 when he revealed that he prepped his entire YouTube channel in advance and has been secretly working on a new video game since early 2022. It’s been in development for three years now so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a reveal is planned for sometime this year. It’s most likely the next Smash Bros., but I would love to see Sakurai’s take on a more niche Nintendo series like Star Fox or F-Zero.

Speaking of F-Zero, I wouldn’t be surprised if Switch 2 is home to a remaster of F-Zero GX or an entirely new game in the series. Nintendo has been building up hype for the F-Zero series for the last year now, first with the release and continued updates in F-Zero 99, followed by the addition of nearly every game in the series to the Nintendo Switch Online game catalog. I feel like it’s accelerating toward something big for the series and there’s almost no better way to show off new, powerful hardware than a gorgeous, futuristic racing game running at a perfect framerate.

Switch 1 Support Will Continue

All eyes will definitely be on Switch 2 in 2025 but Nintendo will continue to support its 140 million-plus Switch 1 install base with new games. We already discussed the Switch games we know are coming in 2025 but there will certainly be more reveals as the year goes on. I’m expecting Kirby to show up on Switch 1 in some way – it’s been two years since Return to Dreamland Deluxe – either through a remaster of a fan favorite like Kirby Planet Robobot or an entirely new game. I also think it could be time for Nintendo to wheel out some of its smaller series and I’ve got a feeling in my bad knee that Rhythm Heaven could finally make its Switch debut this year in a similar fashion to Rhythm Heaven Megamix showing up on 3DS after the Switch was already out.

Could Next Level Games Show Up?

Luigi’s Mansion 3 developers Next Level Games have put out a new game every three years since 2013. The studio’s last full game was Mario Strikers: Battle League in 2022, meaning 2025 is the year for its next project if this development cycle pattern is to continue. It could be time for Luigi’s Mansion 4 on the Switch successor but given how much Mario I already think is in the cards for 2025, I could also see this game getting unveiled at some point for a release sometime in 2026. While I definitely think some studios will continue developing games for the older Switch hardware, I firmly expect to see Next Level Games’ new project on the next console and wouldn’t be shocked if we get a glimpse of it in 2025.

Nintendo’s Entertainment Endeavors Continue

Finally, Nintendo is much more than a video game company at this point and it has some solid entertainment plans lined up for 2025. Super Nintendo World is set to open in Florida this May and it includes the Donkey Kong Country expansion that’s currently exclusive to Universal Studios Japan. And Nintendo is opening its second stateside retail store when Nintendo San Francisco opens at Union Square sometime this year. scheduled to hit theaters in April 2026 so I’m guessing we’ll get the first trailer for the sequel sometime before the year is up too.

And that’s everything we expect from Nintendo in 2025. Are you ready for the Switch 2 or are you still excited about the Switch 1 games we know about? Let us know in the comments. And for everything else Nintendo, switch with IGN.

Daily Deals: Dragon Quest XI, Gran Turismo 7, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, and More

Even with Christmas over, there are still many great deals available that you can score before they’re gone. Here are the best deals for Friday, December 27.

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition for $44.99

If you recently completed the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, this is the perfect game for you. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Defintive Edition is the newest mainline title in the series, and there is so much it offers. For many, this is one of the best Dragon Quest games out there, and you can’t go wrong picking this up for only $44.99.

Gran Turismo 7 for $19.97

Walmart has Gran Turismo 7 available for $19.97 today, and this is a perfect last-minute gift for the racing fan in your life. This is still one of the PlayStation 5’s best games, with hundreds of hours worth of fun at your hands. You can test and drive over 500 cars in total. Plus, you can even play Gran Turismo 7 in VR with PlayStation VR 2!

Persona 3 Reload for $24.97

Persona 3 Reload is one of the best RPGs of the year. This remake recreates one of the most praised Atlus titles ever, with loads of new quality-of-life and gameplay features. An all-new voice cast debuted with this release, and each cutscene was remade with new assets for higher quality. If you’ve never jumped into the world of Persona before, this is a great place to start, especially at this price.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $39.99

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was one of 2024’s biggest games, continuing the story from 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake. Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII begin their journey outside Midgar, meeting characters like Yuffie, Vincent, and Cid along the way. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. Plus, there are dozens of minigames to discover.

Save on WD_BLACK Xbox Series X|S Expansion Cards

Both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S cannot use standard NVMe SSDs. Instead, you can expand the storage of the internal SSD by plugging in an expansion card. Today, you can save on both a 1TB and 2TB model from WD_BLACK, which is perfect for downloading many more games to your system. If you find yourself quickly running out of storage, don’t pass up this sale.

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for $34.99

You can score Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for only $34.99 this weekend at Amazon. This collection packs in seven different titles, including the beloved Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. At last, you can play these classic titles on modern platforms.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for $39.99

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD is the long-awaited remaster of the classic Wii game. Set at the beginning of the Zelda timeline, Skyward Sword takes Link to the skies as he traverses across the world to save his childhood friend Zelda. You’ll uncover the Master Sword was created as part of this journey, among other things. For $39.99, this is an excellent title to add to your Switch collection.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven for $39.99

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is arguably the best entry point into the SaGa series at this time. Acting as a full 3D remake of the 1993 release, this game features English and Japanese voiceovers, rearranged music, retooled gameplay, and more. If you’re still unsure about Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, you can check out the free demo across all platforms!

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for $44.99

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 follows the story of Rex and the Aegis, who aim to reach the fabled land of Elysium. This massive RPG takes place across the world of Alrest, a land covered in clouds, where there are only a few landmasses remaining. With incredible music, exciting gameplay, and a memorable story, this is a fantastic deal for only $44.99. Simply put, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is one of the best games available on Nintendo Switch. I’ve put over 600 hours into the massive adventure, with all sorts of quests and exploration to be discovered.

WD_BLACK NVMe SSDs On Sale

Finally, you can save on WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSDs. These are perfect for any gaming PC, and you can even use one of these in a PlayStation 5, as long as you have a heatsink attached. The SN850X has speeds up to 7,3000 MB/s acoss all models, which is essential for quick and speedy load times. If you’re purchasing for PS5, there are heatsink models available, though the sale on the standard models makes these SSDs much cheaper.

The Biggest Disappointments of 2024

After 12 months of big hitters such as Helldivers 2, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Dune: Part 2 and Shogun, it’s not unreasonable to consider 2024 a good year for pop culture. But the smooth always comes with the rough, and the past year really has been a rocky one for the things we love and the people who make them.

From layoffs and studio closures to costly consoles, underwhelming adaptations and struggling sequels, these are the biggest disappointments in 2024.

Gaming Industry Layoffs and Closures

The games industry found itself facing a crisis in 2023 as many publishers and studios, both large and small, made scores of staff redundant in an effort to cut costs. But the pains of that year would be repeated in 2024, which has seen an estimated 14,600 job losses – a 39% increase year-on-year. The cuts have seen thousands of talented studio staff thrown into the most difficult job market the games industry has ever seen, with developers attempting to find new roles in a landscape where companies are slimming down.

Among the major companies cutting staff loose have been Riot, Microsoft, Bungie, Unity, TakeTwo Interactive, EA, and PlayStation. Such businesses have reduced their staff numbers for a variety of reasons and factors, be that rising development costs, shifting player habits in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Whatever the reasons, remaining staff at these publishers and studios must continue to work in uncertain times without the aid of their former colleagues.

That is if their studio still exists. Adding to the dismal picture are several studio closures. Perhaps the most prominent among them is Arkane Austin, Bethesda’s immersive sim specialist responsible for the acclaimed Prey. Sadly its most recent release, Redfall, was a critical and commercial bomb – a situation that seemingly sealed its fate. Arkane Austin was shuttered by parent company Microsoft, along with Alpha Dog Games, Roundhouse Games, and Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. Somewhat miraculously, Tango was rescued by Krafton in a last-minute turn of fate, but such good news is rare. Also suffering closure this year was PlayStation’s London Studio, Galvanic Games, Avalanche Studio Group’s New York and Montreal studios, as well as others. To say it’s been a tough year is an understatement.

Trend-chasing Failures

Another developer closed for good is Firewalk Studios, the team behind what is certainly PlayStation’s biggest disaster of the generation: Concord. A PvP hero shooter, its long and costly development meant it arrived long after the genre had peaked in popularity. But, despite being developed by many FPS veterans hailing from the likes of Bungie and Activision, what could have been PlayStation’s next big multiplayer phenomenon struggled to stand out from the likes of Overwatch and Apex Legends thanks to its lacklustre character kits and standard fare objective design. From the outside Concord simply looked like another typical hero shooter, which meant few wanted to see what was going on inside.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that almost no one turned up for its August release – it achieved a high of just 697 concurrent players on Steam during its first week. Less than two weeks later, Sony pulled Concord from sale, refunded players, and shut the game down. By the end of October, Firewalk Studios was closed for business. It all sadly means Concord is gone without a trace. Well, almost – an episode of Amazon’s Secret Level animated series serves as a prequel to the ongoing Concord in-game story that never happened.

A similar, thankfully less tragic story also happened earlier this year with Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. After months of poorly-received marketing, Sucide Squad launched as a critical and commercial bomb. As with Concord, much of Kill The Justice League’s failings were due to chasing trends that players have long since largely tired of – in this case, the Destiny-style live-service shooter grind. It didn’t help that Suicide Squad resembled Crystal Dynamics’ ill-fated Avengers game from a few years back, which similarly annoyed players for being a repetitive multiplayer PvE game. In Suicide Squad’s case, it was a shattering fall from grace for a studio that previously made beloved single-player Batman games. Many of us just wanted more of that best-in-class superhero action with a villainous twist, but sadly Warner Bros’ chase of live-service revenue seemingly got in the way. Not that it paid off – an initial lack of sales and dwindling players has contributed to a significant revenue decline for the company.

Hardware Hiccups

The time-compressing effect of the pandemic years has disguised the fact that, yes, we’re already at the midpoint of the current console generation. Right on cue, Sony delivered its mid-cycle refresh PlayStation 5 Pro, and it’s safe to say that practically no one was pleased by its $700 price tag. That’s not just down to the cost of living squeezing everyone’s wallets – Mark Cerny’s presentation that apparently showcased the console’s ability to render The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered so much better than the base console was basically the “They’re the same picture” meme from The Office in action.

While there’s definitely time for the PS5 Pro to prove why it costs $200 more than the regular PS5, the initial results have been pretty disappointing. Rather than eliminate the need to decide between quality and performance modes, developers have added even more options to Pro-patched games, with confusing names such as ‘Fidelity Pro’ and ‘Versatility’. Remember when you just plugged in a console and it worked? Halcyon days. Plus, all the Pro’s extra power can’t even make Bloodborne look any better.

At least Sony fans got a console, though. After months of rumours that Nintendo was due to announce its successor to the Switch, the company announced a brand new piece of hardware: an alarm clock. Yes, the Alarmo is a $100 clock with game-themed alarms and a motion sensor that can detect when you’ve got out of bed. It’s hardly the Switch 2 we were hoping for. And even when it comes to Nintendo’s history of weird hardware, Alarmo is far from the most interesting or bizarre. A true disappointment from the house of Mario.

Unreliable Reliables

Over in the realm of television, things have largely been bright thanks to the likes of Arcane, Shogun, and Fallout. But 2024 also saw some traditionally reliable shows struggle to maintain their quality. Season 3 of The Bear certainly wasn’t bad – it once again provided some solid character drama and beautifully-shot kitchen nightmares. But, compared to the incredible highs of the first two seasons, this third chapter fell significantly short. Its frustratingly slow pace clashed with the lightning speed of previous years, and the focus being almost entirely on Carmy’s inner crisis forced valuable characters like Sydney into the sidelines.

Similarly, we saw this year’s Star Wars project struggle to hit the highs of The Mandalorian and Andor. The Acolyte was built on a fascinating premise that delved into the galaxy’s past, exploring the late High Republic era. It was packed with Jedi and featured one of the coolest lightsaber battles in the entire franchise, but even that couldn’t save the series from its sloppy and often infuriating storytelling.

The Acolyte’s saving grace could have been Manny Jacinto’s Sith lord The Stranger, who sports one of the most menacing helmets in all of Star Wars. But while deeper exploration of his character could have resulted in a much-improved season two, we’ll never get to see that thanks to Disney axing the show entirely. This isn’t just a Disney problem – Netflix has also continued its habit of cancelling shows after barely giving them a chance to realise their full potential. 2024’s Netflix cull included Kaos and Dead Boy Detectives, which join last year’s Lockwood & Co in the “cancelled after a single season” club.

Awful Adaptations

This year’s Fallout was a stellar exercise of how to adapt a video game for television, with Amazon’s wasteland show being among our TV highlights of 2024. But it seems like Fallout’s success isn’t a guaranteed indicator that every Amazon video game show will be fantastic, as proven by the dreadful Like a Dragon: Yakuza show that landed on the service several months later. Featuring no karaoke, far too little Majima, and far too much melodrama, Like a Dragon totally failed to capture the stark contrast between serious and silly that the Yakuza games thrive on.

It wasn’t just Japanese RPGs that were treated poorly for TV this year, though. Famed Japanese manga Uzumaki also received its long-awaited animated adaptation, and the results couldn’t have gone any worse. The four-part Adult Swim show turned Junji Ito’s monochrome horror into a rushed mess that sprinted to the finale, undermining plot points, character arcs, and scares on the way. The biggest disappointment, though, was the severe drop in animation quality following a visually rich episode one. Uzumaki transformed from beautifully chilling into a low-budget nightmare in the space of a week – it was a rug-pull scarier than anything Junji Ito could write.

Box Office Bombs

Unfortunately, terrible adaptations weren’t limited to the small screen. One of the biggest box office bombs of the year came in the form of Borderlands. Gearbox’s wacky looter shooter was transformed into a hideously miscast Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off for its live-action big screen adventure. Many of the games’ best-know qualities, such as its sweary sense of humour and love of turning humans into piles of goopy gore, were toned down to the point of vanishing completely. The result was bland, recycled MCU-ish ideas geared toward mass marketability. In short: a complete disaster. Unsurprisingly it died an unceremonious death when it launched in cinemas – with Lionsgate’s CEO saying “nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong.”

It’s arguable that an FPS like Borderlands was never going to survive the transition to cinema. A sequel to the most profitable comic book movie of all time and the first R-rated film to pass a billion-dollars at the box office, though? Surely a second Joker was going to be an easy win. Not so much. Joker: Folie à Deux turned out to be a miserably dull follow-up, with director Todd Phillips undoing almost all the good he established in the first film. When not even Lady Gaga can save your kinda-sorta musical from its snoozefest courtroom drama scenes, you know you’re in trouble.

For the classic-mould movie buff, though, almost certainly the biggest disappointment of the year is Megalopolis. The years-in-the-making, self-financed magnum-opus from The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola was (perhaps, if we’re honest, somewhat predictably) an indulgent catastrophe. Some people have seen method in the madness (including our own reviewer, who gave it a 9/10) but for many this opulent fable set in a futuristic, Rome-like New York City was a bloated, pretentious, dull mess. Quite how the creator of the quintessential Mafia movie got here may prove to be one of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

From studio closures to box office catastrophes, 2024 has had some real low points. It’s hard to find a silver lining in some of them, and we continue to hope that the industries that make our favourite things will turn a better corner in 2025. But in other instances it’s the downs that make the ups shine brightly – and you can find many of those bright stars in our roundup of the best reviewed games of 2025.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Infinity Nikki’s First Major Update, Shooting Star Season, Has a Release Date and a Trailer

Infinity Nikki gets its first major update soon, Infold Games has announced.

The Shooting Star Season update lands on December 30 across PC, PlayStation 5, iOS and Android, and runs until January 23, 2025. It adds new adventures, limited-time events, and of course new outfits, which you can check out in the new trailer. Fans can also expect new storylines and platforming challenges. The tagline is: “Let shooting stars guide paper cranes on their journey of fulfilling dreams.”

Here’s the official blurb:

Stories of the past still echo in the wind, as new wishes begin a brand-new chapter. During the season of shooting stars, people come together beneath a starlit sky. May paper cranes carry each precious dream, shooting stars shine upon every heartfelt wish, and may every day of the new year shine as brilliantly as the stars in the sky.

Infinity Nikki, downloaded over 20 million times since launch, is a free-to-play adventure dress-up game developed in China at Papergames and published by Infold Games. It’s one of IGN’s best-reviewed games of 2024, securing a 9/10. We said: “Infinity Nikki has deep open-world exploration, a quirky story, and some of the most beautiful in-game outfits you’ll ever see – you just have to be ready to navigate a maze of menus to get them.”

For curious stylists and outfit collectors, we’ve got a guide to all Outfits in Infinity Nikki, plus all Ability Outfits, to help you avoid a fashion faux pas. As you explore Miraland and search for collectibles, keep an eye out for all the Whimstar locations, and make sure to check in with our Infinity Nikki daily tasks guide. Plus, there are plenty of Infinity Nikki launch rewards to claim, including some very generous promo codes you won’t want to miss.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

IGN UK Podcast 780: The Alternative Game Awards 2024

Mat, Matt, and Jen are here to present the IGN UK Podcast Alternative Game Awards for 2024. Which game had the best animal? Which simply requires you to get gud? Listen to find out.

Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 780: The Alternative Game Awards 2024

Daily Deals: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, WD_BLACK SSDs, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and More

Even with Christmas over, there are still many great deals available that you can score before they’re gone. Here are the best deals for Thursday, December 26.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for $44.99

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition for $44.99

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $39.99

Save on WD_BLACK Xbox Series X|S Expansion Cards

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics for $34.99

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for $39.99

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven for $39.99

WD_BLACK NVMe SSDs On Sale

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Writers Would Love to Write a Zelda: The Wind Waker Film

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit theatres last week and its co-writers, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, are thriving. We spoke to them at length the day before the release about everything Sonic: Big the Cat, their inspirations, whether or not Chaos are real… you know, the important questions. And we also learned about their dream video game adaptations, which include A Boy and His Blob, Golden Axe, and… The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Speaking to IGN, Casey and Miller reminded us that they’re signed on to write a script for an upcoming It Takes Two film adaptation produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and also hinted that they were working on some other unannounced adaptations they couldn’t talk about. But as for things they are definitely not currently working on but would love to?

“We’ve talked about Golden Axe,” Casey suggests. “Golden Axe was another good Genesis multiplayer game.”

Miller throws in A Boy and His Blob, and Casey responds with “the 7-Up game about the dot having a platforming adventure.” He’s referring to Cool Spot, a 1993 platformer starring the red dot from the 7-Up logo. But Miller concludes with a far more exciting suggestion: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

“I think another easy one I think we can answer because the movie’s already happening and we’re already not doing it would be a Zelda,” he says. “I remember always when we played Wind Waker, we were always like, man, I mean, it would probably be weird if they made a Zelda movie to start with Wind Waker versus the more classic Hyrule. But we both loved Wind Waker and it’s so cinematic. Yeah. So after they make this Zelda movie, I guess we’re putting it out there in the world, maybe we can do a Wind Waker spin-off.”

We don’t know much about Nintendo and Sony’s partnership on a The Legend of Zelda movie. We know it’s planned to be live-action, that it’s directed by The Maze Runner‘s Wes Ball, and that it’ll be out before the end of the decade. And, I guess, that Pat Casey and Josh Miller are not writing it.

Keep your eyes here at IGN for our full interview with Casey and Miller coming later this week, as well as all the latest on the Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

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.

The Worst Reviewed Games of 2024

Although 2024 was a quieter year for big releases, it still had some fantastic games. But, at the other end of the spectrum, it had its fair share of stinkers too. Of course, reviews are and always have been objective critiques and whatever you might think of a game is your own opinion. You might have even played and enjoyed some of the games on this list – we all have guilty pleasures, right? But honestly, there were some really bad games released in 2024 that we definitely recommend you avoid…

Five – Mediocre

Looking at IGN’s official review scale, fives are considered ‘Mediocre’ games – the “kind of bland, unremarkable games we’ve mostly forgotten about a day after we finish playing.” They’re far from the worst games on the list and aren’t even necessarily “bad” (that’s 4s and lower), but you’re going to have to work hard to get any real fun out of them..

As the most populous score on this list, you’ll find a variety of different games. There are games like Slitterhead, an absurd action-horror game from a team of ex-Silent Hill veterans where humans must fend off parasitic monsters. Sounds fun but unfortunately it’s just dull. Similarly, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance takes the war against Skynet (great!) and turns it into a mediocre RTS (not so great).

There was also a string of bland strategy games like Millennia, which our reviewer called “Civilization at home” after the McDonald’s at home meme; Sins of a Solar Empire 2, which is a lacklustre sequel to the 2008 4x game in space; and Homeworld: Vast Reaches. Not to be confused with Homeworld 3, Vast Reaches is instead a strategy game built for VR, but feels more like a tech demo than a full game.

There were also several disappointments that received a 5. Games many of us were eagerly looking forward to only to be let down by the final product. The First Descendant is a gorgeous-looking live-service shooter that unfortunately is more looks than substance, and the Until Dawn remake barely justified its existence over the excellent choose-your-own-adventure horror game original.

Developer Supermassive Games didn’t have better luck on The Casting of Frank Stone, a Dead by Daylight spinoff based around one of the killers from the popular online horror game. The sub-six-hour horror adventure is hardly scary and adds nothing to the lore of Dead by Daylight according to our reviewer.

The viral hit Bodycam – which captivated audiences thanks to a trailer featuring super-realistic graphics that looked like footage from a police bodycam – was also more sizzle than steak as the actual game was nothing close to what we saw in the trailer.

Perhaps most noteworthy is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was also one of the first 5s IGN handed out this year. We waited almost a decade for a new game from Batman Arkham developers Rocksteady, and sadly the wait was not worth it. Many were already bummed to hear Rocksteady was not developing a new Batman game but rather a Suicide Squad game, but that could have had potential given how fun and zany those characters are. It could have been Rocksteady’s chance to spread its wings and move away from the grimdark Arkham-verse and go for a more colorful route. But ultimately what we got was kind of a letdown, let’s be honest.

Forgoing the single-player goodness of the Batman games, Rocksteady ventured into the world of live-service with a squad-based looter-shooter in which players and friends team up as members of the Suicide Squad like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark. Unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of anything to makeSuicide Squad satisfying. The beloved combat from the Arkham games was completely absent, swapping crunchy melee for running-flying-shooting gameplay that felt okay, nothing more. Even looter-shooter fans would find the missions in Suicide Squad repetitive and bland. A forgettable experience from the decorated developers at Rocksteady.

Another big miss was Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The newest entry into the Mario & Luigi series developed specifically for the Nintendo Switch “misunderstands what made the Mario & Luigi series great,” according to IGN’s reviewer. The first original Mario RPG to be released this year alongside remakes of Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Brothership has none of their charm and plenty of drawbacks such as the “ridiculously chatty dialogue, overbearing hand-holding, and boring, runtime padding fetch quests.” Bummer.

Rounding out the rest of the 5s is Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, whose original spearheaded the concept of online MMO racing games, but this sequel completely ignores any single-player content in favor of an annoying online-only strategy. There’s also a new SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game, which tries to revive the classic mascot platformer to middling effect, while Unknown 9: Awakening was a “routine action adventure game that probably wouldn’t blow me away even if it was well executed,” according to our review. And let’s not forget Kong: Survivor Instinct, a weird Metroidvania-style game in which you play as a human trying to survive in a city that Kong is destroying

One game that was a personal disappointment was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, a new game based on the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Given the quality of past TMNT games and the quality of the animated film this is based on, the resulting game was unfortunately far short of either.

Four – Bad

With the 5s out of the way, let’s make our way to the genuinely bad games. Literally, our review scale qualifies games that receive a 4 as “bad.” There are only three that received this distinction this year so let’s spend our time going through each of them.

Broken Roads was the first game in 2024 to receive a 4. This turn-based RPG set in post-apocalyptic Australia tried to deliver a more serious RPG experience complete with an ambitious morality system where players decide who lives and who dies. Rather than choosing one of the usual moral alignments like lawful good or neutral evil, Broken Roads gives players a full questionnaire that determines your beliefs in highly specific ways. But the problem is, outside of the questionnaire the system hardly matters.

Per our review, “There are very few conversations involving a moral choice in the first place, and you’re locked out of pretty much all other conversations once you’ve started down a given alignment path, leaving no opportunities to try something drastically different later.”

As interesting as a highly specific morality system is, what good is it if the game doesn’t put it to any use? Even worse, the more you play the faster you realize that Broken Roads is mostly filled with a bunch of fetch quests interrupted by exhausting dialogue. No thanks.

Another game that received a 4 is Endless Ocean Luminous, a remake of the original Endless Ocean first released on the Nintendo Wii. It’s a scuba diving adventure game in which each mission involves diving into a procedurally generated area of the ocean, to catalogue its various sea creatures and landmarks. Unfortunately, all of this becomes repetitive and, frankly, boring real fast.

The procedurally generated maps begin to look strikingly similar to each other almost immediately, and without a huge variety of missions or objectives, you’re effectively going from one part of the ocean to the next, cataloguing creatures until you hit your goal and move on to the next map. Then you repeat for hours. Our reviewer played about 26 hours of the game and were still not close to beating it – maybe that’s why it’s called Endless Ocean – and the kicker is that it was dull for most of that time..

The final game to receive a 4 was one you no doubt saw trailers for. I’m talking about Funko Fusion, an adventure game where you travel through some of pop culture’s biggest movies and TV shows, the twist being you’re playing as the Funko Pops from those various worlds.

Funko Fusion is best compared to the LEGO games, which are simple but enjoyable 3D platformers based on popular bricks. But Funkos don’t have the same charm as LEGO and Funko Fusion is nowhere near as good as even some of the worst LEGO games. The story is all but meaningless, the mission design is repetitive, and you can’t overlook the game-breaking bugs that will stop your progress in its place.

Three – Awful

The good news is that IGN did not award any 2s or 1s this year. Actually, we haven’t given a game a 1 since 2009, but that’s neither here nor there. The bad news is there are three games we gave a 3 to, which in our scale means they’re “Awful.”

The first is Atomic Heart’s Trapped in Limbo DLC. It’s the second of Atomic Heart’s two DLCs and takes place after the events of the main game, and is plagued by two godawful gameplay mechanics.

The first requires players to slide for really long stretches of time, avoiding obstacles and jumping when required. Our reviewer described this particular segment “like playing Tony Hawk with a broken ollie button, and the half-pipe is mined.”

Next, the DLC introduced first-person platform segments but unfortunately Atomic Heart just wasn’t designed for precise, first-person jumping, making them a painful slog right up until the end, which doesn’t take long to get to considering how short this DLC is.

Do you remember there was a new South Park game this year? Me neither, but it’s probably for the best. South Park: Snow Day is the third South Park game in a series that comprises Obsidian’s excellent South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the equally good South Park: The Fractured but Whole, both of which were fun RPGs based on the popular cartoon.

Snow Day ditches the RPG genre and is instead a 3D hack-and-slash, which wouldn’t be so much of an issue if it weren’t for how awkward and clumsy the controls are. Worse still, Snow Day also ditches the one thing the animated series is loved for: the humor.

Per our review, South Park: Snow Day features “appallingly flat writing [that] makes an already bad game not even worth pushing through for a few laughs.”

Our final 3 of the year was handed out to Empire of the Ants’ single-player campaign. A real-time strategy game where players control a colony of ants, this 12-hour adventure is unfortunately a far cry from its potential.

While the trailer showcased hyper-realistic ants moving in real-time, it’s obvious a lot more time was spent on how it looks rather than how it feels to play. With a difficulty curve that goes from easy to impossible in the blink of an eye, the campaign is an exercise in pain tolerance as one moment you’re mind-numbingly bored fighting easy enemies, before suddenly finding yourself defending your nest against a seemingly impossible wave of enemy ants. And without the ability to save mid-mission, failure means you’re starting from the beginning. No thanks.

And there you have it –those are the worst reviewed games of the year according. Be sure to check out our Best Reviewed Games list here as a palette cleanser, and let us know if you played any of the games on this list and how you feel about them.

Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

33 Games Under $10 in the Steam Winter Sale

It’s the holiday season, which means festive activities, family time, and, most importantly, the Steam Winter Sale. With discounts on everything from massive open world RPGs to pixel-art platformers, it can be tough to limit yourself to just a few games. While I’m all for splurging on 2024 releases, if you’re looking to maximize bang for your buck, you could also pick up a solid bunch of slightly older (but still amazing) PC games. For example, right now you can get over 10 copies of Fallout: New Vegas for the price of one S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

A starting point for Steam sales should always be checking your Wishlist, but if you’re looking for something new (or want to make sure you’re not missing an obvious deal), I found 33 of the best PC games for $10 or less.

The Complete Edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for $10

The Witcher 3’s massive open world, compelling characters, and meaningful approach to player decision-making raised the bar for RPGs back in 2015. After The Witcher 4 was revealed at The Game Awards, what better time to play (or replay) one of the greatest RPGs of all time? Especially now that the Complete Edition, which includes the base game and every DLC, is down to just $9.99.

More RPGs Under $10:

If you’re looking for a narrative-driven RPG, I highly recommend Disco Elysium, which is also down to $10. Other RPGs with deep discounts include Bethesda properties like Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, and (of course) Skyrim. Meanwhile, Baldur’s Gate 3 fans who have a hankering for more turn-based combat can pick up one of Larian’s older games, Divinity: Original Sin, for just $3.99.

40% Off Stardew Valley

Leave your office job to inherit your grandfather’s farm and help rebuild (or price out) the local town in Stardew Valley. IGN re-reviewed Stardew Valley after the farming game got a massive update and ended up giving it one of the only 10/10 game reviews for all of 2024. Given that Stardew was somehow my most-played game on Steam and Nintendo Switch, I have to agree that “Masterpiece” is a fair assessment.

More Cozy Games Under $10:

Cozy Grove, which I feel is more like Animal Crossing than Stardew, is on sale for under $5. If you’re the type of person who enjoys organizing, I’d recommend Unpacking, while Spiritfarer brings the management game genre to the afterlife.

DOOM Eternal for $10

The DOOM series was pretty foundational to the FPS genre, and one of the best DOOM games of the modern era has dropped to under $10. In IGN’s 9/10 DOOM Eternal review, Ryan McCaffrey highlights the game’s satisfying difficulty: “This excellent refinement of the already outstanding 2016 reboot makes you an unspoken deal: if you can keep up with it, it will keep up with you.”

More FPS Games Under $10:

For more single-player shooting, you can get six Halo games for $10 with The Master Chief Collection. Multiplayer shooters like Siege and Battlefield 2042 are also under $10 for the time being.

50% Off Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I’ve had, and also the closest I’ve come to throwing my Switch at the wall in frustration (that’s a positive, by the way). Per IGN’s 9/10 review: “The world of Hallownest is compelling and rich, full of story that’s left for you to discover on your own, and built with branching paths that offer an absurd amount of choice in how you go about discovering it.” Now you can find out why there’s always a chorus of comments begging for a Silksong release date for just $8.

More Platformers Under $10:

Like Hollow Knight, Celeste doesn’t shy away from challenging the player, and additional “B-sides” for every level up the ante for even platforming veterans. I recommend Little Nightmares to any horror fan, while the 2020 Ori sequel offers particularly creative puzzles.

Civilization VI for $2.99

With Civ VII set to release in just a couple of months, most of the Sid Meier franchise is on sale. While I prefer Civ V’s map mechanics, Civ VI, in my experience, is better optimized for setting up multiplayer lobbies. Convince your friends to drop a couple of bucks, and you can all lock into an empire-building marathon that will most likely end in some form of betrayal.

More Strategy and Simulation Games Under $10:

Most Total War games and DLCs are discounted, though one of the best deals is the Warhammer base game for $6. And if you’ve ever wanted to travel across the entirety of Europe for $5, now you can (with Euro Truck Simulator 2).

75% Off Overcooked 2

If you’re looking for something cheap you can convince your friends to pick up and play with you, look no further than Overcooked 2. The cooperative cooking game allows up to four players to hop into a campaign that, with arcade-style levels and goofy physics, will probably lead to some screaming. But, as IGN’s Overcooked 2 review describes, this “frantic and inventive co-op game… manages to turn frustration into charm.”

More Co-op Games Under $10:

For larger groups, I also recommend For the King and Castle Crashers. It Takes Two is one of the best games for two-player co-op, and only one person has to buy the game courtesy of Hazelight Studio’s “Friend’s Pass.” And, of course, Portal 2, down to just $2, will always be a co-op classic.

Fatal Fury Series Returns with First New Entry in 26 Years

The Fatal Fury series from SNK began back in 1991 as part of the fighting game boom that dominated arcades across the world, and its popularity led to the series releasing several games throughout the ’90s. In the years since, those classic games have been ported to consoles, but there hasn’t been a new entry in the series since 1999.

Until now, that is. The series is returning with Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves in 2025, ending a drought of 26 years without a new title. It will feature the return of characters from past games, most notably series star Terry Bogard and his protege Rock Howard. Other fan favorites, like Mai Shiranui and Billy Kane, will also be included and get updated designs.

City of the Wolves will act as a continuation of the previous game in the series, Garou: Mark of the Wolves. The T.O.P. system, now called the S.P.G. system, makes a return. It allows you to pick a section of your health bar (either the start, middle, or end), and when your health is in that range, your S.P.G. will activate.

When your S.P.G. is active, you’ll regenerate health, have boosted attack power, your power gauge will fill faster, your REV Meter will fill slower, and you can perform REV Blows. Those last two points are part of an important new mechanic in City of the Wolves called the REV System. REV Blows blend together offense and defense, allowing you to strike hard while also shrugging off enemy attacks.

You can combo into these after REV Arts, which can be used after a special move to perform a stronger version of said move. And REV Guard is a unique type of block that creates more space between you and your opponent than a regular block and also eliminates chip damage from special attacks.

All of these actions build up the REV Meter in the bottom left corner of the screen, and once the meter is full, you’ll become overheated. While in this state, you won’t be able to use REV actions anymore and your guard gauge will decrease whenever you block attacks. If the gauge runs out, your guard will be crushed and you’ll take longer to recover from being hit.

Your REV Meter slowly reduces as time passes, as well as when you walk or dash toward your enemy, land an attack, or successfully use Just Defense or Hyper Defense. The former happens when you block an attack at exactly the right moment, while the latter happens when you do a forward input at exactly the right moment of a multi-hit attack.

This REV System adds a strategic layer to each fight, since you can’t simply use powerful REV actions over and over. You need to keep an eye on your REV Meter and balance aggressive offense with well-timed defense to avoid overheating.

For the first time in the series, you’ll also be able to choose between two different control schemes that will determine the button inputs needed to execute each of these moves. Known as Arcade Style and Smart Style, they’re designed to provide options for players experienced with the series as well as newcomers diving in for the first time.

If you’re excited to dive into Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, it’s available to pre-order and wishlist now ahead of its release date of April 24, 2025 on PC, PS4/5, and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-order bonuses include Terry’s classic costume from Fatal Fury 2 and early access to the game on April 21, three days before release.

The base price of $59.99 also includes Season Pass 1 and five DLC characters. We already know who two of those characters will be: Ken and Chun-Li from Street Fighter, the first non-SNK collab characters ever featured in a Fatal Fury game. This marks the continuation of a collaboration between the two franchises after Terry and Mai were featured in Street Fighter 6.

If you’d like to pre-order, you can visit the official website to pick the platform you’d like to play on. Or if you want to join the community, you can follow SNK on Twitter or Discord.