Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket contains a secret, full art Mew card and continues the long-running tradition of only letting players grab the mythical pocket monster by completing some interesting quests.
The Mew card, which is part of the Genetic Apex set but comes unnumbered due to its status as an alternate art card (despite there not actually being a regular version), can only be obtained after players complete the Kanto Pokédex.
This means players must acquire the first 150 Pokémon from the original Red and Blue generation, meaning everything from Bulbasaur to Pikachu to Dragonite to Mewtwo. Once players have collected one of each of these Pokémon the 3 Star Mew card will unlock.
The only condition is the cards must also be from Genetic Apex, meaning, for example, that collecting the promotional Butterfree card from the special Lapras ex event won’t count towards the 150 total despite it being among the first 150 Pokémon. Any version of the Pokémon from Genetic Apex will work, however, whether it’s an ex or alternative art or regular or whatever else.
While simple, collecting so many cards may still take some time. One player recently worked out it could take almost two years of daily play to collect every card in the set, though thankfully hitting the 150 necessary for Mew will require considerably less time.
Mew holds a special place in the set as one of just four 3 Star cards, meaning it’s one of the special immersive cards with fully animated artwork. It joins Charizard, Pikachu, and Mewtwo in this category, the three Pokémon which feature on the booster pack covers of Genetic Apex.
Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October as a streamlined, digital version of the beloved trading card game. It has players opening packs, collecting cards, building decks, and battling others; a simple formula that’s already proved popular given it made $12 million in four days.
A Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket player has calculated just how long it takes to complete the first set, Genetic Apex, and those not looking to spend any money can expect to be collecting ’em all for towards two years.
Kotaku spotted a Reddit post from TCGPCollector, who broke down how different methods of collecting resulted in different completion times, revealing that the most optimal way to collect the 286 Genetic Apex cards without spending money will take 655 days.
Those put off by the huge amount of time, which requires players to log in every single day and always have access to a card they need in the often unreliable Wonder Pick feature, can take solace in knowing this number includes the 60 alternate art cards not included in the regular numbered set (which totals 226 cards).
It also doesn’t take into consideration the incoming (but currently undated) trading feature, which will allow players to pick up those last few cards much easier than using the otherwise random odds. Those paying $9.99 a month for the Premium Pass can collect all cards in 437 days, though the subscription would add up to almost $150 in this time.
Those not desperate to collect every alternate art card, identifiable by their artwork expanding beyond the normal borders to cover the entire card, can do so in just 130 days, or 87 with the Premium Pass. Developer Creatures Inc. will presumably release a new set of 200 to 300 cards every three or four months, so those playing every day should just about be able to complete one before another comes out.
Pokémon TCG Pocket, like many other free-to-play mobile games with microtransactions, floods players with dozens of packs on their first day as they complete simple quests and gain large amounts of experience. But this generosity soon dries up as the option to pay real money for packs is waved in front of players, and those not willing to spend can open one new pack just every 12 hours. The Premium Pass lets players open one extra pack a day.
TCGPCollector also provided some tips on how players can optimize their collecting, recommending that Wonder Picks only be used to collect 2 Star rarity cards. Pokémon TCG Pocket cards are classified by rarity, with the standard 226 ranging from 1 Diamond to 4 Diamond.
The 60 alternate art cards range from 1 Star to 3 Stars, followed by three super special gold background Crown cards. Regular alternate arts are 1 Star, ex Pokémon are 2 Star, and the special immersive cards with fully animated artwork are 3 Star.
The most efficient way to collect cards is therefore only to pick out alternate art ex Pokémon in Wonder Picks, though it’s far from guaranteed one will appear in the regularly rotating spots.
Elsewhere, players should only use Pack Points to obtain the 3 Star and Crown cards. These are the points players acquire for opening regular booster packs, obtained at the rate of five per pack. Cards at 3 Star cost 1,500 points, demanding the opening of 300 packs, and Crown cards cost 2,500 points, meaning 500 packs.
It will obviously take a long time to get there, but TCGPCollector is essentially recommending players play the long game and not be tempted to exchange Pack Points for cheap cards they’ll come across in booster packs eventually.
Finally, the last recommendation implores players not to use Poké Gold to buy packs, noting that the Premium Pass and, again, a little patience, is a much better way to spend money. Spending $9.99 on a Poké Gold bundle instead of the Premium Pass, for example, would allow players to open just nine packs compared to the 30 accrued over the course of a month.
Even the best shop bundle, which grants 690 Poké Gold for $99.99, grants just 115 packs and therefore averages out at 87 cents per pack. This is much more than the 33 cents per pack average from the Premium Pass.
The digital, streamlined version of the traditional Pokémon Trading Card Game is keeping players entertained in other ways, with Creatures Inc. having already launched two events including one that allows players to win a Lapras ex.
One of the biggest selling points of the PS5 Pro is that it can boost the image quality of PS4 games, even though they have not technically been “enhanced” for the console by either Sony or developers. And while there are over 3,000 PlayStation 4 games to date, there’s one many of us hold dear to our hearts: Bloodborne. With a sequel now seeming little more than a pipedream, we’re left with only one option – to play through the original again on PS5 Pro to make the most of the console’s Enhanced Image Quality feature.
But does the PS5 Pro actually make Bloodborne look any better? If you’ve pre-ordered a PS5 Pro then you can check it out for yourself, but if you’re still sitting on the fence then check out the video below and see if you can tell the difference.
We’ve also compared some of the other 50-plus games that are enhanced for PS5 Pro at launch, starting with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. We tested it in both Pro modes – Fidelity and Performance – and you can see the results for yourself in this 23-minute gameplay video.
Hogwarts Legacy was one of the big showcase games from the console reveal. We’ve now had the chance to play it on PS5 Pro in Fidelity mode with ray tracing, which promises to improve lightning and shadows, as well as adding better reflections. Take a look at the game running on PS5 Pro.
Finally (ahem), we have 16 minutes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth running in Versatility mode, which enhances the quality of the visuals and delivers better frame-rates.
Can you tell the difference? If so, is it enough to make you pay the extra money for a PS5 Pro? Let us know in the poll below. Meanwhile, make sure you check out IGN’s full review of the PS5 Pro, which tells you everything you need to know about PlayStation’s latest console.
With massive sale events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday on the horizon, the holiday season of savings is kicking off. In the meantime, though, there are still quite a few discounts for PlayStation fans to check out. And with the brand new PS5 Pro up for preorder now with a hefty price tag, there’s really no better time to take advantage.
We’ve gathered up some of our favorite offers below, including some excellent discounts on games like Final Fantasy 16 for $25. That only scratches the surface of what’s available now, though. Below, you can also find other deals on everything from accessories to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now.
Best PS5 Video Game Deals
One of the standout video game deals right now is Final Fantasy 16 for just $24.97 at Amazon—a substantial discount from its original $69.99 price tag and the lowest Amazon price since launch, according to CamelCamelCamel.
It’s unlikely we’ll see a further price drop during Black Friday sales, so this is a prime opportunity to pick it up while it’s still available. Given the demand, this deal may not last long once word spreads, so consider acting quickly to secure a copy.
If you’re itching to get your preorder in for the PS5 Pro, you now can. Preorders are live at a variety of retailers we’ve listed out below, with the upgraded console officially releasing on November 7.
In his PS5 Pro preview, Bo Moore said: “From what I’ve seen, it seems to be capable of achieving similar results to what DLSS has done for PC gaming over the past few years, and I can’t wait to see how developers push the graphical envelope now that the hardware can better keep up with their ambitions.”
“Of course, it’ll be a good while before we see games designed to take advantage of this power from the ground up. But until then, if you choose to invest in its high price, you’ll at least be getting peace of mind that you’re getting the best possible PlayStation experience money can buy.”
It was also revealed during the 9-minute presentation that the new console does not come with a disc drive or the vertical stand. So we thought it best to point you in the direction of these items so you can purchase them now in the event they sell out. The PS5 Disc Drive will cost you $79.94 and the vertical stand will set you back $29.94.
Perfect PS5 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $139.99
SSD prices have been rising in 2024 but, with significant discounts available, now is the perfect time to buy. This is one of the best deals on a 2TB SSD at the moment: You can score the 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530R PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $139.99 at Amazon. This deal isn’t the only one worth checking out right now, either. You can see even more of our favorite SSD deals below.
Best PS5 Headset Deals
There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of the best gaming headsets.
How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles
If you’re looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.
While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you’ll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction, the latter of which poses its own risks.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and we keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
This week’s release of Stardew Valley 1.6 on console and mobile has come with a number of problems, including disappearing chickens. Now, players are reporting performance issues following the release of the update, although the game’s developer has a solution.
In a tweet, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone suggested removing all hats from pets if you’re experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6. “We will address the problem as soon as possible.”
Barone also has some lore to explain the performance issues, tweeting: “There’s rumors of a strange rash affecting pets’ ears in Zuzu City and we just want to make sure those ears can breath for a few days.”
The free 1.6 update, which sparked a fresh 10/10 Stardew Valley review from IGN, launched on PC in March. Barone initially expected the console and mobile ports of 1.6 would be released a month later.
Barone has apologized to disgruntled fans and promised not to return to work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, until Stardew 1.6 is finalized. Haunted Chocolatier, revealed in 2021, doesn’t have a release window.
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.
Nintendo has confirmed that the yet-to-be-announced Switch 2 will be backward-compatible with original Switch games and will feature Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa shared the news during the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, revealing a bit more about the successor to 2017’s Nintendo Switch.
“This is Furukawa,” Nintendo wrote on X/Twitter. “At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
We have a ton left to learn about this new Switch as we are still waiting for its actual announcement, which Nintendo has previously said will happen by the end of March 2025.
The Current State of the Nintendo Switch
Nintendo also shared more about sales of the current Switch and its software, including that it was cutting the sales projection of its current hardware for the financial year ending March 2025 from 13.5 million units to 12.5 million units.
Nintendo had a 17% revenue drop and a 69% profit drop versus the same quarter from its last financial year, and it sold 4.72 million Switch units in the six months ending September 30. That latter figure is down from the 6.84 million units sold during the same period last year.
On the software side from April to September 2024, Nintendo said The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sales have reached 2.58 million, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s have jumped up 2.31 million, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s have climbed to 1.94 million, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s have scared to 1.57 million.
When we already have a theme park simulator as good as Planet Coaster, it can be tricky to imagine what a sequel might add. And Planet Coaster 2, most of the time, does feel pretty similar to the first one. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing since I really liked the original. Adding water rides is exciting and refreshing, and even deeper visual customization is downright impressive, while equally daunting in how the options are presented. But this is still much more of a park decorating sim than a park management one.
Where the recent Frontier games (Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo) have really excelled is in the nearly ridiculous amount of visual customization options available. Hundreds of modular pieces that can be recolored, resized, rotated, and overlapped allow you to create just about anything you can imagine. The terrain editor is more powerful than ever here, and the tools for carving my dreams into the landscape are pretty intuitive. It does feel a bit like being thrown into the deep end, though. I get decision paralysis from the sheer amount of choice, and risk getting bogged down in making each little decoration perfect.
I don’t find that level of fiddliness to be as enjoyable as designing rides or running a park, but the pre-made decor doesn’t quite fill the gap to where I feel like I can skip that step and still get the theming I want. Plopping down an unadorned ride feels boring, and the pre-decorated ones don’t have quite enough variety. What I really found myself longing for was something in-between the extremes of fussing over every handrail and accepting unthemed or pre-themed attractions. But thanks to Steam Workshop integration – always a great addition – I’m sure the community will have me covered after the true detail masters have more time to tinker.
Where I do really like that fine control is when I’m building rides, and the coaster editor is more powerful and easier to use than ever. Creating banks, corkscrews, spirals, loops, and bends of all sizes feels intuitive and almost effortless thanks to the great UI. The option to automatically finish a track with one click when you’re getting close to the end works really well this time around, too, and allowed me to skip the hassle of fishing for the right angle to bring everyone safely into the station.
Sandbox mode presents a beautiful canvas for almost anything I can dream up.
Despite how much I enjoy the act of building my ideal park, the original Planet Coaster was neither challenging nor interesting as a management tycoon game, and that has unfortunately not changed. Even after messing with the difficulty settings, of which there are several, I found it almost mindlessly simple to generate infinite money with a small number of flat rides and a high entry fee. You can now sell what are basically Disney’s Fast Passes as another income stream, in addition to charging extra for a pool pass on water rides. There are deeper systems for guest preferences and even things like sunburn in sunny climates, which is all neat in theory. But when I’m making so much money that I can basically ignore all of it, why would I care? Power management is also new, but why am I building generators in a theme park game? What theme park supplies its own electricity?
Staff management is still mostly hands-off, with some nice new quality-of-life features like being able to select from three different preset pay levels instead of typing in the numbers yourself. The annoying thing this time is that, unless I was entirely missing some core feature, the ride maintenance system seems to be broken currently. No matter how many mechanics I hired – at one point I had one per ride, plus a couple extra to cover breaks – I was constantly getting notifications about rides being in poor condition or breaking down. Once they had broken down, my staff was pretty quick to address the issue. But I’m not sure what they were doing the rest of the time. Am I supposed to manually dispatch them every time a ride drops below a certain repair level? Because they don’t seem to pay attention to that until it’s too late.
I couldn’t really get my head around the scheduling screen, and the in-game tutorials are not much help. In fact, they seem to start from a point of assuming you already know how to play Planet Coaster, skipping over a lot of the basics.
Thankfully, the sandbox mode is still the star of the show for me, presenting a beautiful canvas on which to realize almost anything I can dream up. The underwhelming management layer doesn’t detract from the joy of laying out everything with ease and total freedom, building whole attractions from scratch, and getting to ride my custom coasters in glorious first-person. All of the reasons I already loved the first Planet Coaster are not only alive and well here, they have all been improved in some way. So if I sound a bit down on this sequel, it’s only because I don’t feel the need to go back over every single thing that was already great about this series, but you can check out my review of the first Planet Coaster for a refresher.
Customizable pools, flumes, splash rides, and even water coasters open up the opportunity to create totally new kinds of parks, which kept me from feeling like I was playing the same game again but a little bit prettier. I do wish the pool editor would simply let me paint a shape rather than fiddling with polygons and a somewhat iffy rounding tool. But getting the shapes I wanted was really just a matter of time.
There’s also a career mode that features a handful of increasingly complex scenarios and challenges to master. It does an okay job of introducing some new concepts, like those water rides, but I still think it’s missing some major steps to onboard someone who might be new to the series. Also the dialogue is just… ugh. I think I would rather listen to cats dancing on stainless steel sheeting than these painful little skits that wouldn’t pass muster in most modern childrens’ cartoons.
Water rides kept it from feeling like I was playing the same game.
What I did like about these scenarios, similar to those in the first game, was that they show off the kinds of things you can do with the tools available to you, serving as a source of inspiration for my own parks. I was never going to stick with them once I’d earned enough stars to move on (it’s just not as fun to finish something someone else already started than it is to build from the ground up), but I definitely stole a lot of cool ideas.
Performance is also very respectable. Even at 4K, I was getting 60+ fps on my RTX 4070 Super most of the time, though a bit below that in the absolute most elaborate parks. I was able to do really silly stuff like recreating the Erdtree from Elden Ring using what must have been hundreds and hundreds of golden pyrotechnics, and the level-of-detail swapping refused to let my shenanigans, however ridiculous, banish my park to slideshow territory.
Stardew Valley 1.6 added a hidden experimental multiplayer feature to the mobile version of the game, developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone has revealed.
In a blog post, Barone said the feature is hidden because it may have some bugs or issues, and the nature of the mobile platform “could make a multiplayer session frustrating.”
“Mobile multiplayer works pretty much the same as on other platforms, except there is no farm ‘discovery’ capability,” Barone explained. “You can only connect via IP. You can, however, join a PC-hosted farm from a mobile device via IP.”
The ideal “mobile multiplayer” scenario, Barone added, would be to connect to a PC-hosted farm from a high-end mobile device on a local network (using wi-fi, unless you have some way to connect your mobile device to ethernet). “This would be the best-case scenario,” Barone said, before warning against trying to connect or host using a cell phone network.
“The worst case scenario would be if someone were to host a game from a low-performance phone, on a cell network (you would probably have to create a mobile wi-fi hotspot for others to connect to locally), and they were on a train or something, going through tunnels,” Barone went on.
“And then the host is also getting calls, causing the app to be interrupted repeatedly. This would result in a potentially frustrating multiplayer experience.
“However, if you want to try these things out, there’s nothing stopping you… Just be aware that there are inherent connectivity issues that can arise when attempting to host a multiplayer game from a mobile device.”
Stardew Valley 1.6 finally released on console and mobile this week, eight months after the update launched on PC. It did so alongside another big update that changed the hugely popular farm and life sim further.
Unlocking the mobile version’s hidden multiplayer feature requires inputting a riff on the Konami Code (the famous series of inputs used to unlock cheats in Konami games).
As Barone explained in the blog post, on the title screen, players will notice that the Stardew Valley logo has four groups of leaves attached to it. Tap the leaves in this order: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → then press the ? button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Exit the ? menu and you’ll have a co-op button on the title screen.
The free 1.6 update, which sparked a fresh 10/10 Stardew Valley review from IGN, launched on PC in March. Barone initially expected the console and mobile ports of 1.6 would be released a month later.
Barone has apologized to disgruntled fans and promised not to return to work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, until Stardew 1.6 is finalized. Haunted Chocolatier, revealed in 2021, doesn’t have a release window.
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.
One of our favorite Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deals has returned at Woot, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. You can get three months of the service for just $36.49.
Game Pass has a nice rotation of new titles to play every month. If you’re curious about what’s in store for the start of November, we’ve got you covered. The Xbox Game Pass November Wave 1 lineup is:
Metal Slug Tactics (Cloud, Console, and PC) – November 5 Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Unfortunately, for those subscribing to the new Standard tier (available for $14.99/month), this does not give Game Pass users access to day one releases. This means big new releases on the platform like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not be available on that tier.
What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?
Unfortunately with new games joining the catalog it means a few must take their leave. Below, we’ve listed the games that’ll be leaving Xbox Game Pass on November 15.
Dicey Dungeons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Dungeons 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Goat Simulator (PC)
Like a Dragon: Ishin! (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (Cloud, Console, and PC)
If you’re looking for even more savings on all things Xbox, have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals. There, we’ve highlighted all of the latest and greatest discounts on the platform, from incredible game deals to fantastic offers on high-quality headphones. Or, if you’d rather see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and our overall roundup of the best video game deals.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket battles are already being dominated by two decks in particular: the usual suspects of Charizard and Mewtwo.
The streamlined mobile version of the beloved TCG arrived in late October and its meta already appears formed, with most players bringing a Charizard ex or Mewtwo ex deck into the more competitive battle mode.
While the Pokémon TCG usually comes down to more than just raw power, both of these decks are admittedly about hitting hard. Charizard ex has a 200 damage attack, for example, which is enough to knock out any other Pokémon in the game, and Mewtwo has an also very strong 150 damage attack.
There is a downside to these, of course, as they each cost four energy and lose two energy per attack. This means, in theory, it takes two turns before the attack can be used again, but both of these decks also have reliable energy generation that allows players to speed that process up.
Charizard ex is a fire card, so this deck can also bring in Moltres ex. For just one energy, Moltres ex lets the player flip three coins and add a fire energy to a bench Pokémon for every heads, and its 140 hit points as a basic Pokémon allows it to stick around for a long time while charging up a Charmander, Charmeleon, and eventually Charizard on the bench.
This means that, by the time the opposing player forces Moltres ex out of the active Pokémon slot, there is often a Charizard ready to go with upwards of six energy attached, allowing it to essentially wipe out whatever is put across from it.
Mewtwo works in a similar way, though as a basic Pokémon itself, players will often put it directly into the active Pokémon slot. It also has a two energy, 50 damage attack and 150 hit points to keep it around and doing damage, meaning players have enough time to set up a Gardevoir on the bench.
This Stage 2 Pokémon takes some time to set up, with Ralts and Kirlia coming before it, but once it’s on the bench, players can use its Psy Shadow ability to add one energy to the active Pokémon. This again counters the discard two energy cost of Mewtwo’s 150 damage attack, as the standard energy joins the Gardevoir energy each turn to add two at a time.
It’s rare to see a deck that isn’t one of these two in the more competitive battle mode, though one led by Pikachu ex and another led by Starmie ex appear to be just a tier below these two. Both present quick ex Pokémon with high damage, low cost attacks, meaning if players can deploy them quick enough it’s hard for opponents to build a strong board.
Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October on iOS and Android as a digital version of the beloved trading card game. It lets players open packs, collect cards, build decks, and battle others, a simple formula that has already proved popular given it made $12 million in just four days.
