We already know that, of course, scalpers are attempting to spoil the Switch 2 party — which must be particularly frustrating to US consumers who can’t even pre-order the console right now. But fans are pushing back against extortionate listings, and rightly so.
IGN reports that some people are heading to online auction sites and reporting some of the most expensive listings. Simply by searching on eBay for Nintendo Switch 2, you can find listings for the console at over the RRP to varying degrees, with some consoles available for Buy It Now prices of over USD $700.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
The spell book is missing! Help the magician to find it in this action platformer adventure. Use the crystal ball to change between the day and night to make your path, collect tokens and buy useful upgrades. Venture out four different biomes (mountain, woods, winter forest and city) with a total of 32 levels. Warping the day / night cycle changes Ambiental obstacles and enemies’ behavior.
Step into a thrilling turn-based tactics game set in a fictional, dystopian Eastern European state. Lead an elite military squad as you navigate perilous missions filled with danger, deceit, and moral dilemmas.
Fight for your life as you compete against two other contestants in Frankie’s twisted parkour game show. Run, jump, swing and slide your way throughout parkour and obstacle courses while avoiding Frankie, Henry Hotline and many other terrifying enemies.
Start your engines, gearheads – it’s time for Hot Rod Mayhem! Prove yourself as the ultimate little racer by putting your speed and swerving skills to the test in wild races and one-of-a-kind trials! Use perilous pick-ups, like the tricky Marble or the Homing Dart, to leave your opponents in the dust!
Lab Rat is a hand-crafted narrative puzzler masquerading as a machine-generated video game. This satirical adventure stars a metrics-obsessed AI who will monitor, profile, and guide you as you solve over a hundred unique spatial problems. Over time this AI will develop a hilariously misguided understanding of humanity based on your performance and survey response data.
Experience detailed, true-to-life recreations of beautiful and diverse locations around the world. Trek through and explore environments to capture stunning vistas and landscapes with your fully featured in-game camera. Each environment is filled with objectives to reward players that have a good eye for angles and perspectives, and hidden secrets for those who are patient and observant.
Embark on a dreamlike adventure in the iconic Monument Valley, the award-winning puzzle game where architecture defies reality. Guide Princess Ida through surreal monuments, uncovering hidden paths and optical illusions that challenge perception.
Monument Valley 2 invites you on an award-winning emotional puzzle adventure where architecture transforms as you play. Join Ro and her child as they explore stunning, ever-shifting worlds, solving optical illusions that challenge perception and their lives.
Bear Knight Honey Quest is an action platformer about a huggable bear and his trusty sword on a mission to recover the bee queen’s stolen honey. With easy controls, it’s guaranteed fun for the whole family!
Unleash the Farmer within. Dive into the rustic charm of rural living in Farmer’s Life, where you’ll experience the joy and challenges of life on a vibrant farm stead. Plant, grow, and embrace a country living in a vast open world. You choose from diverse mechanics and endless possibilities.
Jeff Minter is back with another unique take on a 1980s Atari arcade game: I, Robot. Reimagined in Minter’s signature assault of colors, shapes and sounds, this new take on the eclectic arcade title is built from the ground up with new challenges, new twists, and a whole lot of llamas.
Enjoy a silly physics-based game about moving on as you box up your life while immersed in casual comfy gameplay and the instant gratification of task-based gamification of packing chores. Be neat, be careful or be a chaos goblin. The choice is yours!
Sunshower – April 16 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere
A colorful, casual arcade action game that follows a robot’s survival in a rainstorm! Use the plant installed on your head to reach for the sky as you achieve high scores and stop the rain from washing away the world.
A co-op roguelike for 1-2 players where you must coordinate attacks with a ping-pong cooldown to defeat hordes of enemies. Can your friendship survive the botanical mayhem of Garden Lands?
When insurance companies dodge the responsibility, it’s up to you to save your daughter’s life. This will require some dirty work and shady clientele, but you have no other choice, right? When the big boss calls once again, bring a bucket and a mop cause you will really need them. Are you up for the challenge?
Play as Leila and traverse through all phases of her life, uncovering her pivotal life moments. By unraveling puzzles imbued with the fragments of her narrative, you’ll comprehend the motives behind Leila’s life decisions. As you delve deeper into her psyche and her emotional landscape, you’ll discover facets of your own self mirrored in the life journey of this seemingly ordinary woman.
Slash, burn, and rage your way through Mandragora, a 2.5D side-scroller action-RPG with deep Metroidvania and Soulslike elements. Light your Witch Lantern, enter the dark realm of Entropy, and tear reality asunder.
A side-scrolling beat ’em up with the heart of a fighting game, supporting cross-platform pixel art anime action with up to 8P online multiplayer and all the characters from Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive!
Terror Mansion is an exciting, first-person horror video game that catapults you into a frightening Mansion. Your main objective is to escape the infested Mansion, finding objects and challenging riddles while exploring incredible scenarios.
A gripping, social point-and-click adventure game that delves into the harsh realities of childhood and the complexities of self-sacrifice. As the third installment of the trilogy from the creator of Little Kite and Repentant, this game takes you on an emotional journey through the lives of two characters bound by fate.
Tempopo – April 17 Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere
When Hana’s garden of musical flowers are scattered across a sky full of beautiful islands, she must turn to the magical Tempopo for help returning them. Chaotic and uncoordinated by nature, the Tempopo rely on Hana’s conducting skills to keep on the right track, and solve each island’s puzzle.
Welcome to Cute Puppy Academy, the ultimate place for puppy lovers! Train, care for, and play with adorable pups! Feed, groom, and teach them tricks to keep their tails wagging. Take them on fun walks, play mini-games, and test their skills. Expand your academy with new facilities, attract more puppies, and become the best trainer in town!
Dive into the enchanting worlds of Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, two beloved JRPGs that have captured the hearts of gamers for generations. This definitive remastered edition features enhanced graphics, audio, and quality-of-life improvements that will satiate that hunger for 90s nostalgia–better than you remember!
Your helicopter crashes in a remote, icy wilderness en route to delivering batteries to a mysterious research facility. Now, you must complete your delivery before you freeze to death or get eaten by a strange presence stalking you.
A retro-style, fast-paced, and addictive shoot ’em up. A throwback to the classic arcade games of the 80s. Great for playing while waiting in line for another game.
You are an ambitious penguin who brandishes a stylish bandana and aspires to be a parkour master. Run, jump, dive, and swim through different and six unique zones containing challenging levels to demonstrate your esteemed parkour prowess.
Whether you’re dancing as Aloy, Varl, Teersa or Erend through a post-post-apocalyptic world made of LEGO bricks, you need a soundtrack that can keep up. Today we’re celebrating the launch of the official LEGO Horizon Adventures soundtrack, a collection of tracks that reimagines Aloy’s journey in a whole new light. To kick things off, we’re debuting a special music video for post-post-apocalyptic dance party by mxmtoon, a synth-powered anthem that perfectly captures the game’s playful energy and mxmtoon’s passion for both music and gaming.
Dancing through a LEGO World
For mxmtoon, the collaboration was personal, playful, and packed with nostalgia. “The very first moment that I started writing ‘post-post-apocalyptic dance party’, I was sitting in my grandma’s living room in Florida. I was just so excited to have the opportunity to write a song that felt inspired by a character that I’ve grown to love and it just felt really natural,” she says. Her love for both LEGO bricks and games, and the Horizon series helped guide the tone of the track from the very first note. “My inspiration behind creating and writing this song is definitely because I grew up loving and playing a bunch of the LEGO games, and I love music. It felt like the perfect opportunity to express both of those interests and loves into one project.”
That blend of influences helped shape not only the sound of the track, but the storytelling within it, referencing nods related to the lore and unique setting of Horizon. “There were so many elements of the Horizon series that were incredibly influential to me when I was writing this song because you’re provided this really rich landscape of lore and world-building through the canvas of Horizon Zero Dawn which was a world I was really familiar with as a fan of the game. It was really fun to involve those pieces of lore and vocabulary into moments of the song, whether you’re talking about the Focus or you’re talking about the landscape of a post-post-apocalyptic world. So it felt really fun just to be like, naturally a nerd about the game and involve all the elements and bits that I loved learning about while I was playing into writing the song.”
The whole process also stirred up a bit of nostalgia for mxmtoon. “It was like being 15 again, writing a piece of music that I was just excited to make, about something I wasn’t quite sure what it would be yet, but eventually turned into a project I’m so proud to be a part of.”
Diving deeper into the soundtrack
While mxmtoon brings the pop, the rest of the musical world of LEGO Horizon Adventures is shaped by composer Homay Schmitz, whose score strikes the perfect balance between adventurous and whimsical. “Right from the start the idea was to keep it light and upbeat rather than going too epic for most of it,” says Homay. “The game has such a playful and lighthearted charm to it, we wanted to reflect that in the overall tone throughout the score. When you go through the game you have all these different environments that change from folkier stomps and claps to slightly funky synth pop to something that has hints of a western desert blues and over to orchestral metal but the through thread was always to keep it fun, bright and adventurous or something you could potentially groove to.”
The game’s visual design also played a key role in shaping the sound. “The very first time I saw gameplay I thought how stunning and detailed everything looked,” Homay points out. “Especially the movement of each of the LEGO elements and the way the waterfall moves. It created a very specific style and there was such a warmth and friendliness about it all.”
Working within the LEGO version of the Horizon universe meant embracing both its emotional roots and its reimagined, light-hearted tone. Homay explains: “Some themes from the original game were carried over to create a sense of familiarity and tie the two worlds together. For example, ‘Aloy’s Theme’, written by Joris De Man, was a choice that made sense to keep for the main character, which is instantly recognisable and was peppered throughout the game. It just had to be infused with LEGO DNA to transform its beautifully haunting quality into something more sprightly.”
That playful twist did not mean abandoning the essence of Horizon. Homay wove familiar motifs into the score in clever, unexpected ways. “One detail I personally found really exciting, though maybe more subtle, was having access to a few of the original game’s sound sources. These included a combination of tuned and untuned percussion put together by composers The Flight, which we were able to incorporate into the new score. Having played Horizon and listened to its soundtrack, I recognised those sounds immediately. It felt really special to use elements from such a beloved game in LEGO form—another way of bridging the two worlds.” Fans might have noticed one more Easter Egg while playing the game, says Homay: “‘In The Flood’ from Horizon Forbidden West was played back by a baby mobile as a lullaby and appears in one of the cut scenes!”
Homay had to get creative while composing some of her favorite pieces on the soundtrack: “If I had to pick a couple it would be ‘Jewel Tones’ and ‘Melodies on the Mesa’. One of which made good use of Boomwhackers, which serve as percussion instruments and are basically tuned plastic tubes, and material wise, fits nicely into the LEGO world. I have also not worked with them before so that was a fun palette to explore!”
Whether it’s Aloy soaring through a LEGO version of Mother’s Heart or battling a Sawtooth made of LEGO bricks, the music punctuates each moment with personality and punch. “Finding the right tone for the first combat cue was both enjoyable but maybe also slightly challenging,” Homay recalls. “I had to strike the right balance between fun and intensity to make it drive enough for the fight but without ever sounding too threatening or too dark in any way. Once that was established though, it set a good marker for the other following combat cues to safely go to battle without it ever getting too intense or unsettling.” Speaking of epic battle tracks, Homay mentions the cue she worked on with composer Harry Brokensha: “The orchestral rock metal mix for the final boss. There are a fair few different genres that can be found overall in the game, which were all fun to work on but I really loved what Harry did with this track, which is probably the most dramatic cue amongst them all but still has all the fun elements it needs in it!”
Homay looks back with fondness on the collaboration with the development teams and the response of the community. “From start to finish, it was an absolute delight to work with such an incredible team! We collaborated closely on the music and had regular catch-ups to discuss the LEGO Horizon world, its themes, and the styles within it.” We are all super excited for the Horizon community to get to enjoy the soundtrack anywhere they go!
The official LEGO Horizon Adventures soundtrack is now available on all major streaming platforms—so whether you’re reliving your favorite in-game moments or vibing out to ‘post-post-apocalyptic dance party’, there’s something here for every fan. Stream the full soundtrackhere today!
Back in the 90s, there were essentially two kinds of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 player. Firstly, the juvenile Mussolinis who monopolised the Blue Blur himself in the callously-defined “single player” mode, and secondly, the absolute saints and/or craven appeasers who consented to be Sonic’s sidekick Tails, and had to spend the whole run struggling to keep pace with the Sonic player’s camera.
According to a FAQ posted to Nintendo’s website, the first batch of invitations will go out starting May 8, 2025 for the My Nintendo Store. There is no information yet on retail pre-orders.
Additional batches of invitation emails will then be sent “periodically” until purchasing on My Nintendo Store is opened to everyone, Nintendo added.
Initial invitation emails will be delivered on a first-come, first-serve basis to “eligible registrants who meet the priority criteria,” Nintendo explained. Invitees will have 72 hours from the time when the email is sent to complete their purchase.
Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order invitation priority requirements:
you must have been the one who purchased any Nintendo Switch Online membership
you must have had any paid Nintendo Switch Online membership for a minimum of 12 months, and
you must have opted in to share gameplay data and have at least 50 hours total gameplay hours.
There is no word on whether Nintendo plans to stick to its already announced pricing for the Switch 2, its games (some of which cost $79.99), and accessories, or increase them. Some analysts have expressed concern that Nintendo may be forced to raise the price of the base Switch 2 beyond $449.99 as a result of the ongoing tariff war, but Nintendo has yet to make an announcement one way or the other.
It’s worth pointing out that Nintendo is bundling Mario Kart World with a Nintendo Switch 2 for $499.99, cutting the cost of the game by a huge $30 in the process. However, Nintendo has indicated this bundle is a limited-time offer.
Nintendo Switch 2 pricing in the U.S.:
Nintendo Switch 2 by itself: $449.99
Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World bundled in: $499.99
Mario Kart World by itself: $79.99
Donkey Kong Bananza: $69.99
Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller: $79.99
Nintendo Switch 2 Camera: $49.99
Joy-Con 2 Controller pair: $89.99
Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip: $34.99
Joy-Con 2 Strap: $12.99
Joy-Con 2 Wheel pair: $19.99
Nintendo Switch 2 Dock Set: $109.99
Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector: $34.99
Nintendo Switch 2 All-In-One Carrying Case: $79.99
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.
Having helmed well-received entries in the Spyro/Skylanders and Crash Bandicoot lines, developer Toys for Bob has form with 3D platformers featuring beloved childhood characters. Perhaps unsurprisingly, according to a new interview, the team would be interested in reviving another fan-favourite series: Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie.
Speaking with Canadian Guy Eh (thanks, Windows Central), Toys for Bob’s co-studio head Paul Yan mentioned the bear-and-bird series as one he’d like to see brought back, highlighting Team Xbox as “a great partner”.
Here at Naughty Dog, we have some exciting news to share with The Last of Us fans, whether you’ve been with us since its debut in 2013 or are just wanting to jump into the games now. We wanted to celebrate our studio, the series, and you, the fans, by making it easier than ever to experience this story.
We’re proud to introduce The Last of Us Complete.
Check out our announce trailer below:
Available today on the PlayStation 5 console, The Last of Us Complete allows players to experience both The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II Remastered in one package. The Last of Us Complete makes it easier than ever to experience the full story on PS5, whether you’ve played both entries, just one, or have yet to immerse yourself in the world of Joel, Ellie, Abby, and all of our characters.
The Last of Us Complete digital download is available now
The complete experiences of Part I and Part II Remastered are the definitive ways to play each of these games. Our team rebuilt The Last of Us Part I from the ground up specifically with PlayStation 5 in mind, offering full DualSense support, 3D audio, and more. The Last of Us Part II Remastered allows you to not only experience an enhanced edition of the sequel, but also dive behind-the-scenes with hours of commentary, and additions like Lost Levels, the roguelike No Return mode, Guitar Free Play, and more.
From our entire studio, thank you so much for your incredible support for The Last of Us and Naughty Dog over the years. This is such an exciting moment for both the franchise and our teams. We are so humbled by your personal stories of what the series has meant to you, have marveled at your incredible Photo Mode shots, and inspired to keep pushing ourselves forward to create more stories and worlds you’ll love.
**3D Audio via built-in TV speakers or analogue/USB headphones.
I don’t usually get excited about Magic: The Gathering deals unless they involve a substantial discount or a chance to pick up chase cards without pawning my fetch lands. But the current Best Buy Deal of the Day has me genuinely interested, and not just because I’m weak in the face of shiny foils and stitched-edge playmats. As with all DotD discounts, this is limited just to today as well, so pick up the cheap boosters while you can. Let’s dig into what’s available, and what I’d recommend picking up.
MTG Discounts On Foundations, Aetherdrift, and More
Let’s talk Foundations. This set isn’t trying to wow anyone with lore about a haunted mansion or a squirrel-led uprising. Instead, it focuses on being playable, readable, and shockingly welcoming. I think that’s a big deal, especially since we’re about to get Marvel and Final Fantasy collaborations through Universes Beyond. New players are going to get dropped into the multiverse with zero context, so a solid on-ramp like Foundations is going to be essential.
Magic: The Gathering Foundations Bundle
If you’ve never touched a deck in your life, the Foundations Beginner Box is a better teacher than half the humans I’ve seen try to explain Magic at a kitchen table. Pre-constructed decks, visual aids, and a guided tutorial make it absurdly approachable. t. There’s also the Foundations Bundle, which is going for $42.49. That’s under market price and loaded with boosters and accessories. It’s great value, especially since Foundations is going to stick around in Standard for five years, giving you time to figure out what the heck a stack is.
Magic: The Gathering Foundations Jumpstart Booster 2-Pack
And then there’s Aetherdrift, which is for people who read the card Blasphemous Act and said, “but what if we did more?” The Aetherdrift Bundle is currently $34.99, which is a solid $16 off its usual price. It includes some of the more unhinged red spells and flashy threats to come out of Standard lately, including Marauding Mako (which is basically Magic’s version of a landshark with anger issues) and Momentum Breaker, a mono-black tool that’s found a home in aggressive Pixie decks. Yes, apparently that’s a thing now.
Magic: The Gathering Ravnica Remastered Draft Booster Sleeve
Foundations also includes some pretty desirable chase cards if you’re cracking packs. I’m looking at you, Rise of the Dark Realms with the new Borderless treatment, and Sire of Seven Deaths, the Eldrazi with seven keywords that feels like it was printed specifically to cause someone a rules headache. And don’t sleep on Banner of Kinship, which casually turns your Goblin deck into a math test your opponent definitely didn’t study for.
Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift Bundle
Yes, I noticed Ravnica Remastered is part of this sale. You can grab a Ravnica Remastered Draft Booster Sleeve for $4.99 (down from $6.99), which is actually one of the cheapest ways to chase after format staples like Crypt Ghast, Spark Double, and Divine Visitation. I think that’s a great price for anyone looking to bulk open product or toss a few into a sealed night with friends.
Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift Collector Booster
Personally, I love Ravnica sets. I’ve always been a sucker for guild mechanics, and Ravnica Remastered is basically Wizards saying, “Let’s throw all the good stuff into one nostalgic blender.” You get a mix of old-school Commander hits like Cyclonic Rift, weird-but-powerful tech like Cloudstone Curio, and alternate art versions that will either delight you or make you question whether you’re playing Magic or flipping through concept art for a lost anime series
Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift Commander Deck – Living Energy
I picked up a few sleeves myself, partly for the shot at Anime Borderless Bruvac, and partly because I have no impulse control when it comes to reprint sets. You don’t need to justify $5 packs when they include Shock Lands and cards with infinite combo potential.
Magic: The Gathering Fallout Commander Deck – Science!
If you’re already building for Commander or just pretending your collection isn’t entirely impulse buys, the Fallout Commander Deck – Science! is on sale for $33.99. That’s $26 off retail, and includes one of the better face Commanders to come from Universes Beyond: Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, who floods the board with Junk tokens if you build around equipment and auras. In my opinion, this deck is an underrated engine, and you get to play cards like Radstorm and Feral Ghoul, which sound like B-side punk albums but are surprisingly effective in-game.
MTG: Ultra Pro Mana 8 Stitched Edge Playmats
I don’t usually care about playmats, but these Mana 8 stitched-edge ones are kinda gorgeous. At $16.49, they’re dramatic in all the right ways without costing you the same as a new commander deck. I think the Lotus one is low-key perfection.
You won’t need a PlayStation account to play Marathon on PC, promise Bungie as their shooter’s marketing blitz picks up speed. Previous games under Sony’s umbrella, such as Helldivers 2, caused frustration and backlash when PC players were forced to register for a PlayStation account just to play online. But it looks like Sony’s recent backpedalling on this requirement will save the upcoming extraction shooter from pissing off PC folks.
People often get snarky about Reddit but I consider the work of user _inferno_44 to be better games journalism than anything I’ve written in a least a month, probably longer. Threecolourcoded spreadsheets blocking out three Schedule I NPC’s daily routines, ox watchin‘ style. Cheers, Persil XL 3-In-1 Washing Capsules Gamer.
They’re surprisingly detailed for something that’s mainly there to get you to hoof around a bit. Plus fixed routines are just good world building for a weed selling simulation such as this. They raise pertinent questions. Does the forbidden spinach blur the ache of sharp routine like existential Alka Seltzer? Or does it encourage such contemplation as to appreciate the hidden rapture in the familiar?
