Category: IGN

Buying new video games, hardware, and accessories for your preferred console doesn’t need to make a massive dent in your wallet. In fact, deals happen all the time for items like these, so you can save money while investing in your favorite hobby.

These sales even occur outside of events like Prime Day, Black Friday, or publisher events like Nintendo’s eShop sale in the summer or PlayStation’s Days of Play. And while we’ll always keep you up to date on those sales and what’s included in them, here, we’ll provide you with year-round deals that are worth taking advantage of. Whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below.

TL;DR – Our Favorite Video Game Deals

Meta Quest 2 (128GB) is Down to $199.99

Target is offering a very nice $50 discount at the moment on the 128GB Meta Quest 2. Normally, this VR headset retails for $249.99, but you can grab it for $199.99 right now, which is a great price for such a high-quality headset. We gave it a 9/10 in our review back when it was released, stating that it “improves an already amazing VR headset with better resolution, refresh rate, and a lower price tag.”

Back to Top

Score 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (New Members Only)

Walmart is now offering two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free for any current or new Walmart+ members. If you’re not currently a member of Walmart+, the retailer offers a 30-day free trial (which will make you eligible for the Game Pass offer), alongside plans for $12.95 paid monthly, or $98 paid annually.

For those interested in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer, it is worth qualifying that this code will only apply to those who currently don’t have an active Game Pass Ultimate membership, and Walmart stresses that this is for new members only. If you’re on Game Pass Core, it should be fine to apply to your account. Otherwise, if you’re a current Game Pass Ultimate member, the code won’t be applicable. If you do qualify, it’s a pretty simple process if you’re looking to bag the two-month free trial, here’s how:

Steps:

1. Visit the Walmart+ Offer Page and select ‘Get Offer’ next to the 2 free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate listing
2. On the ‘Offer Page’ you will see a unique promo code, copy this code and keep a record of it
3. Hit the ‘Redeem Offer’ button on the page to go to the Xbox Site
4. Sign in to Your Account
5. Your promo code will autofill — if it does not then paste/type
6. Redeem your offer and receive your 2 Free Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
7. Disable auto-renewal afterward to avoid being charged at the end of the trial — this can be located in ‘Services & Subscriptions’ in your Microsoft account. You should also do this for Walmart+ if you used a free trial to access the Game Pass offer

Back to Top

Score Select Video Games at Walmart for $20 Or Lower & More Game Deals

For those looking to pick up some physical games, there are plenty of discounts to enjoy at the moment. One of our absolute favorite deals right now is going on at Walmart (dependent on your location, unfortunately), where you can find a select few games discounted down to $20 or $10. This includes God of War: Ragnarok for PS4 (which you can digitally upgrade to PS5 for an additional $10), Gotham Knights for Xbox Series X, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga for Xbox. We’ve listed those below, along with more of our favorite video game deals at the moment.

More Video Game Deals:

• God of War: Ragnarok (PS4) for $20
• Gotham Knights (XSX) (No Steel Book) for $10
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Xbox) for $10
• Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch) for $53.05
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) for $51.55
• Assassin’s Creed Mirage Launch Edition (Xbox Series X) for $29.97
• Super Mario RPG (Switch) for $44.80
• The Last of Us Part I (PlayStation 5) for $45.99
• Warhammer 40000: Darktide (Xbox Series X) for $29.99
• Marvel’s Midnight Suns Enhanced Edition (PlayStation 5) for $19.99
• Sonic Origins Plus (Switch) for $29.48
• Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Xbox Series X) for $19.00
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – US Version (Switch) for $50.29
• Persona 3 Reload (PlayStation 5) for $38.88
• Street Fighter 6 (Xbox Series X) for $39.92

Back to Top

Best PC Game Deals

If you’re looking for the latest and greatest deals on PC games, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered there as well. Here, you can find some excellent deals on new releases, like Dragon’s Dogma 2, and highly-anticipated upcoming releases like Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. You can check out more of our favorite PC game deals below.

Score a Spider-Man 2 PS5 Slim Bundle for $449 (20% Off MSRP)

This deal has been one of our favorites for quite a while (since last year’s Black Friday, actually!) and it’s been selling out at a variety of retailers. Thankfully, Best Buy still has some in stock, so if you’ve been hoping to grab one of these PS5 Slim bundles, now’s your chance to do so. Who knows how long it’ll stick around for, so act fast! Normally, it retails for $559.99, but it’s been marked down to $449 for a while now which is an excellent deal.

Back to Top

Get $20 Off a Super Mario Party + Red & Blue Joy-Con Bundle at Walmart

Who doesn’t love a bundle? Right now, Walmart’s offering a nice deal on a Super Mario Party and Red & Blue Joy-Con bundle. It’s currently available for $79 (the price is shown after adding it to your cart), which is $20 off its MSRP of $99.99. Be ready for your next game night with a fantastic game and additional Joy-Con all ready to go.

Perfect for Steam Deck (and More): Get 31% Off the Anker Prime Power Bank & More Deals

When it comes to your favorite handheld devices, making sure you have enough battery power in them is very important. Thankfully, some excellent power banks are discounted at the moment that are perfectly portable and full of plenty of power to keep you going. In particular, the fantastic Anker 737 Power Bank is discounted at the moment to $109.99, saving you $40, and the Anker Prime Power Bank is down 31% to $124.99 for a limited time at Amazon! To see even more excellent power bank options, check out our picks below.

More Power Bank Deals

Back to Top

Perfect for Switch and Steam Deck: 512GB SD Card for $27.99

The best Switch SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, as it’s quite likely we’ll be getting a Switch successor / the next Nintendo console within the next year or so (if rumors are to be believed). Therefore, you’re going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That’s a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we’ve left our top suggestions and deals just below for your convenience. To see even more SD card deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best SD card deals.

More Switch Micro SD Card Deals

Back to Top

Xbox Console & Bundle Deals

The Diablo IV Xbox Series X bundle is still holding on at Walmart, down $92 from its MSRP of $559.99 to $467.99. This has stood the test of time since last Black Friday as one of our favorite console bundles, and is well worth investing in before it’s all gone for good.

Back to Top

Alienware Aurora R15 RTX 4070 Gaming PC for $1399.99

Do you prefer to play on a dedicated tower? Navigating the options online can be a lengthy ordeal. Desk space (or lack of desk space), portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. Utility, function, and fun little extras like RGB capacities or sound-enhancing add-on devices to pair with your PC often make up the list of desired needs. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on before they disappear. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on this Alienware Aurora R15 RTX 4070 Gaming PC, which is down 39% to $1399.99. To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.

WD_BLACK PS5 4TB SSD for $294.99 at Amazon

Looking to completely maximize your PS5 storage capabilities? Then this is the deal for you. For a limited time only, this PS5 4TB SSD is available at Amazon for just $294.99 (see here). It has an MSRP of $699.99 which is rather dramatic, but in reality, this and many other 4TB SSDs have been sitting around $280-$300 recently.

Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (like this one for $9) and install it yourself. You can also check out the best PS5 2TB SSD deals here, or see more of our favorite deals below.

More PS5 SSD Deals:

• Nextorage Japan 2TB Internal SSD with Heatsink for $169.99
• Crucial T500 2TB SSD with Heatsink for PS5 for $151.99
• Silicon Power 4TB XS70 for $269.99
• Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB for $164.99
• Lexar 1TB NM790 SSD with Heatsink for $79.99

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Official Guide for $27 (Save $18)

With these, you’ll have a detailed overview of Hyrule, a helpful walkthrough to get you through the game, and much more. Not only that, but they have gorgeous covers as well, especially the Collector’s Edition. The Standard Edition has an MSRP of $29.99 but is on sale for $18.74, and the Collector’s Edition normally runs for $44.99, but you can get it for $26.85. Plus, if you want to complete the set, the Breath of the Wild guidebook is also down to just $22.49 right now as well.

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 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.

Back to Top

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Sometimes, a video game surprises you by doing something you don’t expect: A plot twist, a novel game mechanic, or an idea you don’t really see anywhere else. And sometimes, a game is precisely what it says it is on the tin: What you see is what you get, for better and for worse. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is the latter. An enhanced port of the 2017 arcade game from developer Raw Thrills, Wrath of the Mutants is a very good beat ‘em up that is beaten down by a lack of content and features. It’s a tasty slice of New York pizza if you like beat ‘em ups, but only a single piece; you’ll probably be hungry again an hour later.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Wrath of the Mutants’ visual style, story, and character designs are ripped straight from the 2012 Nickelodeon TV series. That’s a neat, stylistically distinct period in Turtles history, but its biggest inspiration is actually the 1991 arcade classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. If you’ve ever played Turtles in Time, you should be able to jump right into Wrath of the Mutants because, on a gameplay level, they’re basically the same. You’ve got a standard attack which can double as a throw when you’re right next to enemies, a jump, a jumping attack, a dive kick, and a spin attack you perform by pressing jump and attack at the same time. The only difference I can point to is that spin attacks don’t cost health in Wrath of the Mutants, which is a welcome change since you’ll need to use it often to stay alive.

Turtles in Time remains one of the best beat ‘em ups ever made to this day, so copying its systems isn’t a bad thing, but it does make Wrath of the Mutants feel a little basic when you compare it to modern beat ‘em ups like Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Those used the template of games like Turtles in Time as a base to build action with more complexity, more depth, and more systems that both reward mastery and encourage replayability. That’s not to disparage Turtles in Time or say it doesn’t hold up, because it does, but it also doesn’t feel as fresh when compared to beat ‘em ups designed for current consoles, a feeling that carries over to Wrath of the Mutants.

Considering Wrath of the Mutants is a seven-year-old arcade game that predates either of those modern takes, that’s not particularly surprising. Besides, it was designed to be easy to pick up and play and suck up as many of your quarters as possible without making you hate it, so it’s probably unfair to expect it to add a lot of nuance to the genre. But if you’re being introduced to it for the first time in 2024, as this console and PC port is intended to do for a lot of people, it does feel a lot simpler than what you might be used to. Simplicity isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re looking for more, know it’s not hiding somewhere here.

The Turtles’ kits are essentially the same as they’ve always been, but there are a few things to liven up the moment-to-moment brawling. The first is your Turtle Power, a powerful special attack unique to each character. Once you fill up your meter by whacking enemies with your basic katana, nunchuck, sai, or bo staff attacks, you can unleash your Turtle Power to utterly demolish regular enemies or deal big damage to bosses. You’re even fully invincible the entire time you’re letting loose, which is cool.

More importantly, these moves help establish the Turtles’ personalities. Michelangelo uses his nunchucks to carve up a pizza from midair while yelling, “We got pizza! We got pizza!” I couldn’t tell you why the slices explode when they hit enemies, and it’s probably better not to think about it too hard, but it’s an extremely Mikey thing to do and my co-op partner and I laughed every time one of us did it. Meanwhile Raphael (the angriest turtle in the history of the known universe) just punches the ground really hard a bunch of times, Leonardo spins around so fast he makes a tornado that sucks up his enemies, and Donatello turns into Raiden from Mortal Kombat and summons an electrical storm from his staff that zaps everyone around him. It’s good, goofy stuff.

And then you’ve got your item pick-ups. There are standard pick-ups like things that’ll fill your Turtle Power meter and entire boxes of pizza that will refill your health. But there are also shurikens that take out enemies in a single throw, a power-up that lets you spin around on your shell to dish out the hurt, and the ice cream kitty: an unholy terror who emerges from her cooler and zooms around like the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. All glory to the ice cream kitty!

The best power-ups, though, are the assist characters: Metalhead and Leatherhead, a turtle robot and the world’s most traumatized mutant alligator, respectively. Metalhead launches missiles and Leatherhead deathrolls absolutely everything in sight – and both clear the screen, even if enemies in an area haven’t fully appeared when you summon them. That’s one of those nice quality-of-life things you don’t notice until it’s not there.

You’ll need all these tools because, like the beat ‘em ups of old, there is no dodge or block button (you’ll have to jump or walk out of the way manually), and Wrath of the Mutants throws a ton of enemies at you at once. There’s a lot of variety here: regular Foot Clan ninjas, ninjas with spears, ninjas with lightning guns, mousers, Krang robots with laser guns, Legally Distinct Xenomorphs, the works. You have to approach each of them in different ways, too, so you’re always on your toes.

Managing your Turtle Power meter, health, and items in the environment adds a little bit of depth and rewards you for making smart choices about when to use what, which keeps moment-to-moment decision-making fun. When you use Turtle Power at the wrong time, you’ll feel it, but its presence opens up interesting questions. Do you spend that Turtle Power now so you can start building it up again faster, or save it for a big fight to get the most out of it? Do you grab that pizza now, when your health is relatively low and there’s a lull in the fighting, or do you try to clutch this fight out and save it for you or a friend, just in case? Good beat ‘em ups force you to manage your resources and make split-second choices, and Wrath of the Mutants has that part down.

The boss fights, sadly, are less interesting as a lot of them are too mechanically similar. For example, they all have an area-of-effect attack you have to jump over, which is cool the first few times, but once you realize every boss has it, it’s just kinda there. However, a few bosses shine thanks to unique mechanics – Rocksteady’s flamethrower, Karai’s teleport, Stockman’s ability to fly and drop green goo on you, and so on. It becomes a good challenge to time your Turtle Power right and avoid their scariest stuff by being invulnerable when it happens, but not all of them have these twists, and I wish more of them stood out.

By far the coolest thing about Wrath of the Mutants is how much stuff has been added for this home release. It’s basically double the size of the original arcade game, adding three new levels and six new bosses, including a new final boss. The original voice cast from the TV show also returns, and everyone gives a good performance. The highlights are probably the late Gilbert Gottfried as Kraang Subprime – a casting as absolutely incredible as it sounds – and Kevin Michael Richardson as Shredder, mostly because his voice sounds like it was forged in the fire of a dying star. Don’t get me wrong, though: everyone here is good, and had I not known new lines or characters were added, I would have never been able to tell the difference.

The same goes for the new levels, and I love all three because each one adds something fun. The Amusement Park has you dodging rollercoasters and cardboard monsters popping up in the foreground and background as you explore a haunted house. Enemies literally teleport into the Dimension X stage, and there’s a big eyeball trying to blast you with lightning. And Shredder’s Lair is, well… where you fight the Shredder, and without spoiling things, it’s pretty cool. Not all of the new bosses are as big of a slam dunk, but several – like Karai, Rahzar, and Tiger Claw – are at least memorable. And even the ones that aren’t are funny.

Unfortunately, even with all of that new content, Wrath of the Mutants isn’t long, even by the standards of the short-but-sweet beat ’em up genre. You can finish the whole story campaign in about an hour (roughly the same as Turtles in Time, but half of Shredder’s Revenge), and it’s not particularly difficult on the standard difficulty, though Hard mode might take you a couple tries if you just try to mash your way through. Part of the reason for this is that you can effectively use the two continues per stage (which are split across everyone if you’re playing co-op) and three lives per continue to brute-force your way to the end, but on Hard, you only get two lives per continue. It a small change that makes things harder without feeling unfair and forces you to learn how to avoid damage and memorize the locations of key power-ups and health items. For my money, it’s the best way to play.

Once you’ve beaten Hard, however, there’s not a lot of incentive to keep playing besides high scores because there are no other modes and nothing else to conquer. Bafflingly, you can’t even enter your name on the high score screen; Wrath of the Mutants just records the character, so if you play it with friends and you’re switching Turtles it can be hard to know who got what score on a level.

Wrath of the Mutants’ biggest deficiency is probably its most disappointing: there is no online co-op. There is a local co-op mode for up to four players, and it’s excellent, but that means you’re limited to playing it with people in your house/apartment/condo/RV/sewer-beneath-New-York-City, or via Steam’s Remote Play workaround. This is a game I’d love to play with friends who live across the US and internationally, and it’s lousy that there’s no easy way to do it unless they’re sitting on the couch with me. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a couch co-op evangelist, especially for beat ‘em ups, but it would be nice to have the option to play with friends even if we can’t all be in the same room.

I also ran into a level-breaking bug on Shredder’s Lair that only appeared in co-op where enemies wouldn’t spawn, but we couldn’t progress. We tried restarting the level, but hit the issue again. The only way out was to use the Leatherhead power-up, which made all the enemies on the map visible. Remember how I was talking about quality-of-life things? Once he’d killed them we could proceed, but since we’d already summoned him on the previous attempt, there was no way forward. This isn’t a huge deal because the levels are fairly short and we only spent a few minutes getting back to where we were, but it’s worth mentioning.

All of that said, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t enjoy Wrath of the Mutants. It’s a solid beat ’em up played solo or in co-op, it captures the look and feel of the TV show admirably, and it’s genuinely funny, whether it’s Donnie lamenting that the health items you come across are “floor pizza” or Krang’s robots yelling things like, “Prepare for undesirable outcome!” Ninja Turtles is as much a comedy as it is anything else, and you have to nail that to really get what makes this weird universe tick. And yes, Shredder says the line. You know which one.

Microsoft’s run of custom Xbox consoles continues, this time with an X-Men ‘97 Xbox Series X and controllers.

Amid the continued success of the Disney+ X-Men ‘97 animated show, Microsoft has revealed the Marvel Animation’s X-Men ‘97 Custom Comic Xbox Series X. It’s an Xbox Series X wrapped in an exclusive comic by Marvel writer Rich Douek and artist Paco Diaz, with Xbox Design Lab’s X-Men character controllers to accompany it.

The comic is a two-page story with a full page cover exclusive to the Xbox Series X, and features Cyclops leading the X-Men in a battle against the Sentinels and Master Mold. An Xbox Series X console makes a special appearance in the Danger Room.

The Pokémon Company is selling a giant, 59 inch-long Slowpoke plushie for $450.

As reported by Nintendo Life, the jumbo Slowpoke is now available to preorder online at the Pokémon Center, where it’s pictured taking up an entire single bed and alongside a woman who’s roughly the same size.

No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios has released the biggest update yet for its action role-playing game as it battles to improve its ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam.

No Rest for the Wicked launched on Steam in Early Access form on April 18 to impressive concurrent player numbers, but players complained about a number of issues, including performance problems, localisation issues, and absent quality of life features. Check out IGN’s No Rest for the Wicked Early Access review for more.

Moon Studios, famous for the Ori franchise, said Hotfix 3 improves performance, balance, loot, harvesting, and graphics, and fixes progression blockers while adding new options in the Settings screen. A good few dozen other bugs across the rest of the game have also been squashed, Moon Studios added. It’s worth highlighting the following change: “Automatic Camera Zoom adjustment for handheld devices and Performance Mode.” That should go down well with players on Steam deck, for example.

In a tweet, Thomas Mahler, Moon Studios CEO and creative director, called on Early Access players to “hang tight” as the developer works towards the 1.0 release. “We understand that people paid good money to play Wicked, so they expect a good experience on their machines from the get-go,” Mahler said.

“We already released a few optimization fixes with more dramatic changes on the way! Joining us on our Early Access journey means that you’ll get all the improvements, content updates and fixes until we release 1.0, so just hang tight, we’ll make sure that you’ll get an excellent product (while being able to give us direct feedback, we’re listening!).”

No Rest for the Wicked Early Access Hotfix 3 patch notes:

Performance Improvements:

• Improved area streaming, making the game feel smoother while traversing across different areas
• Dynamic Resolution Scaling is now less aggressive, maintaining higher image quality
• Improved culling for off-screen physics objects and characters
• Fixed culling for bird animations, improving their performance in levels (there’s a lot of them!)
• Additional Shader Optimizations for performance mode
• Fixed a leak which increased memory and CPU usage the longer the game was played
• Optimized rain and other GPU particles
• Opening Cinematics and Ship Prologue Optimizations
• Memory optimizations for character customization textures
• Additional general CPU performance improvements

Graphics Additions and Fixes:

• Adjusting Brightness / Contrast / Saturation no longer breaks HDR rendering
• Fade to Black now actually fully fades to black in HDR mode

Settings Additions and Fixes:

• Added Camera Zoom Adjustment Option
• Automatic Camera Zoom adjustment for handheld devices and Performance Mode

Menu Changes:

• Added a new menu for exiting the game which includes both Exit To Main Menu and Exit To Desktop (localized text for this menu is coming soon!)
• Adjusted Repair menu size to accommodate for text in other languages

Balance Changes:

• Weapons parrying now consumes Stamina (Shields parrying remains unchanged)
• Nerfed Gain Focus On Focus Use enchantment
• Unarmed can now land hits while enemies are on the ground after performing a Backstab

Loot Changes:

• Adjusted Dig Spot rates such that Clay drops more often
• Reduced the number of hits needed for Dig Spots, Ore Veins, and Trees

Enemy Changes:

• Improved behavior for Nith Screamer and Shackled Brute

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the crane not turning correctly in Nameless Pass and blocking players from progressing
• Fixed a chest at Mariner’s Keep elevator locking you in when trying to loot it
• Fixed dig spots sometimes not giving any loot
• Fixed remaining enemies and bosses becoming kaijus
• Fixed Falstead Darak dealing damage during his transition while he is still human
• Fixed certain doors in Sacrament not having interaction hints
• Fixed missing VFX for attacks by the Twin Bruisers, False Ones and Boarskin Axe
• Fixed condition where enemies attack when they should not
• Fixed vendor buy/sell prices on Raw and Refined materials being only ¼ of what they should be
• Fixed missing furniture items at Workbench
• Fixed Mira and Meri’s Spinning Wheel not allowing players to refine wool threads into garments
• Fixed keyboard and mouse buttons not working on Bounties contribute panel
• Fixed an issue where side notifications would occasionally spam players
• Fixed parry tutorial trigger conditions
• Fixed wording of enchanting tutorial to more accurately describe common rarity
• Fixed spot in the Prologue where you can jump off the ship
• Fixed sizing of a railing on the ship in the Prologue
• Fixed spots where you can get stuck in a climbing loop in Orban Glades and Nameless Pass
• Fixed spot in the Black Trench where you can see out of world
• Fixed Angler’s Delight Chowder’s recipe name
• Changed Danos’ confirm button color so it does not look grayed out
• Fixed NPCs not knowing how to hold fishing rods in Nameless Pass
• Fixed missing shadows and incorrect volumetric fog after changing resolution
• Fixed reflection popping in sewers dungeon
• Fixed torches and fire popping in cinematics
• Fixed rain appearing in caves in Nameless Pass
• Fixed missing audio for waterfall in Potion Seller Cave
• Fixed missing audio for Nameless Pass Prisoner chopping and mining
• Fixed an issue where there was a super bright mist in the Twins Boss arena after respawning
• Fixed pink effects appearing in faders at times
• Improved collision in some places at Orban Glades
• Improved faders in Nameless Pass
• Fixed Photosensitivity screen having overlapping text in certain languages

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 released a new update for the Switch that makes a small number of changes.

Nintendo Switch update version 18.0.1 fixes a Wi-Fi bug where networks with certain security settings were not able to be detected. The patch notes, below, provide a guide for those unable to update to version 18.0.1 because of this issue. And finally, in time-honored fashion, the Switch update makes “general system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience.”

Twitter user @OatmealDome, who digs into each Nintendo Switch update as it’s released, said this latest patch makes no changes to the console’s bad words lists. Nintendo often updates this list without detailing what it’s doing in the patch notes.

With the Switch now over seven years old and its successor reportedly due out in March 2025, it seems likely that small-scale updates are all that’s left for Nintendo’s aging console. But there are still a number of eye-catching Switch games announced as coming out, including Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A. And let’s not forget that, officially at least, Nintendo has Metroid Prime 4 down as a Switch game.

Nintendo Switch update 18.0.1 patch notes:

• Fixed an issue where some wireless access points cannot be found when setting up a new wireless network.
  • If you’re unable to update to Version 18.0.1 because of the issue, temporarily change the security settings for your wireless network to use only “WPA2 (AES)” so you can connect wirelessly to download and install the system update.
  • After updating to Version 18.0.1, restore your network’s security settings to its previous settings.
• General system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience.

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.

In its early access state, No Rest of the Wicked is already full of surprises. Mostly those are great, like how one moment I found myself marveling at its slow and precise combat (all but unprecedented in the action RPG genre) and the next I found myself decorating my home like I was in an M-rated Animal Crossing. On the other side, although it’s certainly to be expected from a game that’s clearly labeled as unfinished, there were also some not-so-fun surprises, like various technical issues, a loot and inventory management system that needs some serious tweaking, and some levels that can be a headache to navigate from an isometric perspective. There’s nothing there that feels unsolvable, though, and all of those problems are eclipsed by just how exciting and special this genre-blending pioneer felt throughout my 30+ hours with the content that’s already available.

The setting doesn’t rock the boat too much: You play as a magically imbued warrior and generic chosen one, sworn to fight back an ancient plague that seems to be a pretty serious problem for folks, since they absolutely cannot stop transforming into Lovecraftian horrors at every opportunity. After arriving in the land of Sacra by boat, you immediately set to the task of helping these poor souls out by slaughtering all manner of ghoulish, feral wildlife, infected humans, and murderous bandits, all while suspiciously side-eyeing the zealous, militant church that will almost definitely become the bad guys in the back half of the campaign. It’s not exactly a peachy world to explore, but the compelling characters with top-notch voice performances and depressing vibes of a beautiful world gone terribly wrong are both exceedingly well done and quickly become an extremely alluring reason to press on through each harrowing area and lethal boss. As of now, this story is cut short 10 hours in, just as things are getting interesting, so time will tell if it delivers on that front. So far, though, it’s off to a very strong start.

It definitely helps that No Rest for the Wicked is quite easy on the eyes at nearly every moment, owing to its painterly art style, expressive and memorable characters, and gobsmackingly beautiful foliage. Man, oh, man does Moon Studios sure know what it’s doing when it comes to plants – clearly that experience working on the Blind Forest that Ori enjoys jumping around in has been put to phenomenal use. I will say, though, that at first glance the bizarre humans can be a bit off putting, with their creepily disproportionate, gorilla-like limbs, especially when you jump into the character creator and immediately see a default that looks like a waxed sasquatch. But once I hopped into the world and saw how it fit in with the stylized art, I was quickly put at ease with how I looked from a bird’s eye view.

Combat sets itself apart as much as the art style, as this divergent action-RPG takes the brisk skirmishes of Diablo or Path of Exile (where you’re triggering a cascade of powerful abilities to kill hundreds of enemies in seconds) and replaces them with steady, methodical, and wonderfully deadly swordplay against small numbers of opponents. Instead of running around as a god of the battlefield, you’re a squishy adventurer who will have to master dodge rolls, perfect parries, and the rare combat ability here and there to scrape by, which makes battles much more challenging and demanding of your full attention. We’re not racing back to our corpses to recover lost loot or working with a finite number of healing items or anything like that, but there’s still plenty of difficulty for us masochists to enjoy. That fresh take on the genre works incredibly well, making for a journey that starts out as much more challenging than most, and where every downed opponent feels like a victory just barely snatched from the jaws of defeat. For someone who’s delved all of Diablo 4’s dungeons already, that’s a lot more engaging than mindlessly plowing through armies with ease (though that can be a lot of fun too).

Exploring the early access portion of the land of Sacra makes for an extremely enjoyable time, whether you’re wading into rotting sewers filled with bandits or navigating ancient ruins where one false step will send you plummeting to your death (even if some of those spills are annoying). There’s an impressive number of enemy types packed into the small number of areas currently available, from diseased, split-faced rats to slimy, four-legged aliens who multiply when killed, and flying witches who teleport around the map and lob fireballs at you.

On top of that, there are lots of secrets to discover and hidden loot to claim, a surprising amount of things to climb, leap to, or precariously balance across that aren’t usually present in isometric level designs, and some really clever shortcuts that allow you to quickly get back to Sacra’s one and only safe haven, located in the center of the map, you’re given plenty of reasons to revisit areas and dig into every nook and cranny. The only issue is that, because you can’t move the camera as you explore, sometimes the fixed view makes it a little hard to tell what can be climbed on, or to understand the exact dimensions of any given narrow walkway you’re maneuvering through. That caused me to accidentally leap to my death on more than one occasion.

The RPG mechanics are similarly inspired, allowing for a ton of customization without locking you into a specific subclass or role that dictates your playstyle (at least initially). Since your build is largely determined by the weapons and armor you bring into battle, each of which comes with their own attacks, abilities, and stats, you get a nice layer of RPG mechanics to mess around with however you like. In one stretch I played as a lightly armored assassin with dual daggers that applied an elemental burn; later I switched to a katana and a shield that healed me as I blocked attacks. The buildcrafting is quite in-depth, and there are already so many combinations I had a hard time picking any one and running with it. That’s a good problem to have!

Unfortunately, which options are available are limited by how the RNG Gods treat you, since you won’t always get a decent weapon that aligns with how you want to play. Even worse, you might find a weapon you really like but not have the right stats to wield it, and since there’s currently no way to respec, you’ll eventually lock yourself into a certain kind of loadout playstyle and find all other loot basically useless, unless you’re willing to spend attribute points inefficiently just to change styles. For example, I started finding really great two-handed claymores that required lots of strength to use long after I’d committed all my skill points to dexterity. Theoretically you could hand this loot off to your other characters or to fellow players once co-op multiplayer is added, but most of the time it feels like a real bummer to get cool loot you can’t use. That can really pump the brakes on the fun of experimenting with different loadouts, especially after you’ve been playing awhile.

That’s not the only way in which loot can be unkind, either. No Rest for the Wicked falls prey to one of my biggest action-RPG pet peeves: a small inventory that constantly needs to be managed. Loot drops constantly, and even though your carrying capacities can be upgraded little by little, doing so is a slow process and you don’t gain access to real storage options until hours into the adventure, by which time I’d been forced to sell or abandon dozens of items I’d rather have kept. And since there are tons of different materials needed to level up, enchant, and craft weapons, you’re constantly being told to store up stuff you absolutely don’t have room to carry, which creates an infuriating dilemma.

That kind of thing might work in a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, where something has to stop you from looting every dinner plate you come across (and you have the option to trudge back to camp if you simply refuse to drop your prizes) but here it just doesn’t feel good to pause exploration every couple of minutes to juggle items in my inventory and make gut-wrenching decisions about what to leave behind.

You’ll also find yourself bogged down by the weird way in which healing items are handled. You have to craft them all from raw materials, and they aren’t replenished when you die. This means that if you encounter a particularly tricky part where you’re using lots of healing items and dying a lot, you’ll need to stop what you’re doing, retrace your steps through old areas to harvest herbs and mushrooms, then craft more potions before returning to whichever part was giving you trouble. And if you happen to take damage as you’re foraging and need to use healing items while making these supply runs, you’ll set yourself back even more. (Even Bloodborne’s biggest fans will usually admit restocking health vials is the worst part of it.) It would probably be a better idea to just make healing items more accessible, or make some of them replenish upon death, because it’s always an annoying chore to get through before I can get back to the task of avenging my most recent death.

When you aren’t fighting diseased abominations and stuffing baubles into your cute little fanny pack-sized inventory, you’ll find yourself in the cozy town of Sacrament where the goal surprisingly shifts to rebuilding the place, like you suddenly stepped into a Stardew Valley for goth kids. By bringing back materials to invest in the refurbishing of various local establishments and infrastructure you can turn the place into a veritable oasis of friendly vendors and scenic views, from a warm tavern and diner you can build near the town’s entrance, to an elevator in the center that can quickly ferry you from lowtown to the fancy upper level and back again. You can even purchase property for yourself, then spend way too much time decorating your place and filling it with the loot you don’t have room to carry. It’s very weird to find any of this stuff in such a dark, action-packed crusade, but this ended up being one of my favorite aspects. Every piece of wood or ore harvested from the world could be used to build a new facility, or to upgrade a vendor to expand their inventory and make life a bit easier. Plus, it’s just nice to take a break from the monstrosities trying to chop your head off to chill in your house and craft some furniture. Resting, if you will.

Once you beat the campaign, you’ll unlock a roguelike endgame activity that pits you against a dungeon filled with powerful enemies and enormous amounts of loot (assuming you have inventory space for it). This mode is a lot of fun and makes the early access version of No Rest for the Wicked feel much more substantial. Unfortunately, every run at this activity requires a consumable that you have to grind to earn, and because you’ll likely be using lots of healing items during runs as well, you’ll more than likely have to stop whatever you’re doing to grind out areas you’ve already explored to stock up on items you’ll need to power your future attempts. Between that and juggling my inventory, I found myself spending an awful lot of time staring at menus instead of practicing my perfect parry.

Another caveat is that, while it might be unsurprising for an early access game (or heck, a lot of full launches these days), No Rest for the Wicked has performance and tech issues to iron out. The frame rate is known to dip no matter how powerful your PC is (as evidenced by my own Ryzen 9 and RTX 4090), your character can get stuck in the side of a cliff until you spend some time dodge-rolling to break free, and sometimes massive parts of the environment (like a bridge or part of the ground) are invisible when you approach them until they awkwardly pop into existence right in front of you. Or sometimes they appear to be there when they aren’t: One time I dodge-rolled away from an enemy and went straight through the ground to die in the empty space below. But again, these are the sorts of things one would expect to encounter in early access and then watch as they’re ironed out as development continues, and none of them were such a big deal that I wanted to stop and play something else. Except falling through the map – that’s never fun.

It’s also important to note one of the major things unavailable in this version of No Rest for the Wicked: multiplayer of any type. While this is the very first thing listed on the roadmap of things Moon plans to roll out, its absence is acutely felt by those who, like me, really look forward to playing a game like this with friends. It’ll also be interesting to see how much the balance of combat is altered by adding allies to the mix, because right now the whole campaign feels very specifically tuned for solo play – I almost can’t imagine what a multiplayer version of these quests would feel like. But I’m intrigued to find out!

Metaphor: ReFantazio, the Xbox-exclusive RPG by the team behind Persona 5 among other RPGs, officially has a release date. In a special showcase streamed Monday, Atlus revealed that Metaphor will be out October 11, putting it squarely in the holidays.

The release date was revealed amid a 25-minute showcase hosted by director Katsura Hashino, which showed off the gameplay, music, and other elements. It offered a glimpse of what Persona fans can expect from Hashino’s latest project, which bears some resemblance to Persona 5 but is in other respects very different.

Unlike Persona, which seeks to capture the feeling of being in a Japanese high school, Metaphor is a much more high-concept fantasy adventure. It retains several of the elements of the Persona series, including the turn-based combat and the passage of time, but reimagines them. For instance, instead of a school year that progresses day by day, Metaphor is more of a fantasy roadtrip.

It’s all a bit difficult to describe, but the trailer above should give you an idea of what to expect. One way or another, expect Metaphor to feature the same memorable art and music that made the Persona games so famous.

Hashino has been working on Metaphor since at least 2017, when he left P-Studio to establish Studio Zero with the intention of working on a new IP. He was joined by composer Shoji Meguro and artist Shigenori Soejima among others, all of whom had a hand in shaping the Persona series. Metaphor made its debut at the Xbox Game Showcase in 2023, with Atlus steadily revealing more details in the months since.

Metaphor: ReFantazio will be available on Xbox Series X|S and PC when it releases later this year. In the meantime, Xbox is holding an ID @ Xbox showcase next week, which will be presented exclusively right here on IGN.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

The release date for Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse’s upcoming urban role-playing game, Zenless Zone Zero, might have leaked before its official announcement. The action RPG’s soft “coming soon in 2024” placeholder text may actually mean this summer.

According to Zenless Zone Zero’s Apple App Store page, the anime-inspired third-person action RPG is expected to release on July 3. As of the time of writing, developer HoYoverse has yet to announce an official release date on its official social media accounts. So far, only Zenless Zone Zero’s Apple store page has a listed release date, though the storefront does couch the expected date with supplemental text, saying, “This content may change without notice, and the final product may be different.”

Zenless Zone Zero’s seemingly leaked expected release date may hold some water, considering the whoopsie daisy comes weeks after the free-to-play urban fantasy RPG’s official PlayStation 5 technical test sign-up announcement. Prior to Zenless Zone Zero’s PS5 technical test sign-ups — which ended on April 17 — HoYoverse invited players to Amplifying Tests for PC and mobile platforms. Taking all of this into consideration, it wouldn’t be wild to assume the conclusion of ZZZ’s PS5 technical test serves as the action RPG’s final pitstop before its official release. The sooner we’re able to play as a bazooka-wielding grizzly bear, the better.

Zenless Zone Zero was first revealed in May of 2022. In it, players take on the role of mercenaries for hire named Proxys tasked with defending the last vestiges of the post-apocalyptic world of New Eridu from Bleach-esque monsters called Hollows.

Zenless Zone Zero will also be available on Android, PlayStation 5, and PC. Be sure to check out our Zenless Zone Zero guide to get yourself well acquanted with the game’s sprawling lore and enemble cast of anime-inspired characters.

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh