IGN’s Donkey Kong Bananza maps are here! Our interactive maps track essential locations across the game’s various layers, including Lagoon Layer, Hilltop Layer, The Divide, and more. If you’re looking for collectibles, such as Banandium Gems and Fossils, or simply want to see all the Challenge locations, you’re in the right place.

Donkey Kong Bananza Interactive Maps

Obsidian recently made a lot of hay out of how it’s a studio that’s best known for sequels, and with Grounded 2’s early access version already shaping up to be one of the best survival games I’ve ever played, the marketing team should have plenty of fodder for that bit for years to come. This miniaturized survival game isn’t even half complete, with only one act (which took me around 25 hours to beat), just a handful of regions, and plenty of technical issues to iron out, but it already eclipses the already stellar original in practically every way. Stomping through the park atop an ant or spider simultaneously makes travel faster and more interesting while also solving my long-standing inventory gripes with Grounded 1 by letting you offload your loot to a multi-legged backpack; the RPG mechanics of building into specific specializations like warrior and mage have been seriously leveled up and streamlined; and the story, characters, and pacing are a massive step up compared to its predecessor.

If you missed the first one (and you really shouldn’t have), part of what makes both of these games special is their premise, which realizes a dream that pretty much everybody had as a kid: they’re survival RPGs where you and up to three friends play as a group of teens who have been shrunken down to the size of ants and are made to brave a miniature suburban wilderness, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-style. You and up to three friends will battle bugs, build bases out of grass and pebbles, face off against an evil corporation obsessed with shrinking kids for some reason, and get lost in a world that feels magical and epic despite taking place in the most mundane places ever, like the inside of a trash can.

Where the original’s excellent story was the best-kept secret in gaming (mostly due to the fact that story bits were separated by dozens of hours of survival gameplay) the sequel keeps its goofy characters and hilarious dialogue front and center. In true Obsidian fashion, this is one of the most laugh-out-loud-funny games I’ve played in a while; each of the four returning protagonists is way too comfortable with the idea of being shrunken this time and are bursting with smarmy one-liners, and your main “ally” and guide, Sloane Beaumont, gives one of my favorite performances with her vaguely evil stepmother routine that never failed to put a smile on my face.

Moving from a backyard to a park allows for some interesting new areas, my favorite of which is an overturned ice cream cart that has transformed the entire region into a frigid wasteland where unprepared travelers will freeze in their tracks. There’s also a giant statue that acts like a foreboding tower which demands to be scaled, and a garden of cobblestone steps that serves as a vast labyrinth. Beyond these examples, though, there are currently too few areas that feel special and unique – you’ll also find a big bush filled with branches to navigate, a fallen grill that serves as a volcanic area, and a picnic table, but all of those ideas are taken straight from the previous game’s backyard setting and don’t mix things up too much. The first Grounded also has a neat koi pond water area, a bug-bombed zone filled with poison, and a desert-like sandbox, but this new map doesn’t currently have that same level of variety yet. Of course, many of those were added during Grounded 1’s own early access development period, and there are still massive parts of the park currently roped off – so assuming something doesn’t go terribly wrong (and in this day and age, that’s not necessarily a guarantee), it’s reasonable to assume that Obsidian has some big ideas to roll out before 1.0.

A lot of the fundamentals from the first Grounded have returned, including enemies like red ants and orb weavers, weapons like the life-draining mosquito needle rapier, and mechanics like the mutation system and weapon upgrades that will all feel pretty familiar as of now. But Grounded 2 also doesn’t shy away from trying new things and making important improvements, like how you no longer need to carry around a shovel, ax, and hammer since it’s all been replaced with a much better omni-tool that you always have on hand and doesn’t require repairing. That’s just handy!

One massive change is the fact that you can now build into specific classes, like rogue or mage, with armor and weapons available to support different playstyles. This was already sort of an unofficial thing in the original, but now you get equipment specially designed with certain functions in mind and stat bonuses to go with them, which is really freakin’ cool. Getting to choose between turning my nerdy teen into a fast-moving rogue with a deadly dagger or a lumbering brute with a two-handed weapon and ladybug shell armor was exactly the kind of thing I didn’t know was missing, and it absolutely rules.

The biggest addition, though, is that you can now hatch and domesticate insects to use as your own personal exo-stallions, which completely changes how you navigate the wilderness. Instead of building ziplines or trekking everywhere on foot, you can now scramble across the entire map in no time at all and even battle mosquitos and beetles from your mounted beastie. Right now there’s only two mounts available, but they’re both absolutely badass gamechangers: a red soldier ant that can carry a ton of materials and chew through obstructions with its powerful mandibles, and a giant orb weaver that can crawl across spiderwebs and scare lesser bugs away with a mighty spider roar. The ability to dash across the map in less than a minute also means that now when a friend finds themselves in a tight spot, you can summon your warbeast and race to their aid, which wasn’t always a real option in the original.

I love what I’ve seen in those areas, but one place I hope Obsidian will eventually show some more love is base building, which is disappointingly similar to the original right now. Its mechanics are still serviceable enough to get the job done, but too often I’m getting the same old error messages that some object I was trying to place was obstructed when there’s no obstruction in sight, and some building surfaces (like pebble foundation) are so uneven that placing items leaves them so hilariously askew that it’s just unacceptably ugly. It seems like one of the least-improved areas in its current state.

Another thing that could use some love is enemy variety, since the vast majority of baddies you’ll find in Grounded 2 are ripped straight from its predecessor, so I already knew all their moves before I set foot in the park. Occasionally I’ve run into some new creatures, like ice-breathing butterflies that fight with the ferocity and tactics of a dragon, or praying mantises that use their razor-sharp claws to slice me to pieces, but more often than not I was killing the same ants, orb weavers, and larvae I’ve already slain thousands of. For that matter, right now Grounded 2 is even missing lots of the enemies found in the original (or, if they are here, I haven’t looked under the right rock yet), like black ox beetles and wasps – but, again, there’s a pretty good chance Obsidian is saving these monsters (or better yet, revised versions of them) for the later areas that aren’t accessible just yet.

As for how it runs, this is a fairly rough one even as early access games go. Especially since the last one still didn’t perform the best even well after it reached its 1.0 version, I wasn’t expecting it to run flawlessly, but even with those expectations set, this was reliably unreliable. After building a good-sized base and chopping down a bunch of grass, I found that the area near my home regularly had serious framerate issues, my game crashed about once every five or so hours, enemies would occasionally get stuck inside objects, and more. “Unfinished game feels unfinished” is hardly a surprise, I know, but this is still enough of an issue that it’s likely to prove a sticking point for those with a low tolerance for the wrong kind of bugs. I tend to have a fairly short fuse when it comes to this stuff, so it’s a testament to how great everything else is that I’m still so high on Grounded 2 after having to put up with all of it.

When it comes to 2D action platformers, I don’t necessarily need them to be revolutionary. But I do expect a superb execution of the fundamentals – speed, control, and challenge – all of which the upcoming Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is nailing down based on a two-hour hands-on demo I played. That’s not to say it doesn’t have new ideas woven into the formula, it’s just that I came away simply impressed by how this reboot plays like a well-oiled machine.

If you haven’t seen it in action yet, think of it as the classic Shinobi franchise getting the Streets of Rage 4 treatment; a vibrant and expressive hand-drawn art style that looks fantastic in stills and even better in motion. Many of the developers at LizardCube had worked on the Streets of Rage reboot, and it ended up being a great fit because it breathes life into a 2D world in a way few other games have done. A level’s backdrop can give a notable sense of scale, and the illusion of distance in this new Shinobi – what could’ve been a drab shipyard level feels immense when you see the details of huge cranes, ships, and containers in the background. And the interiors painted with neon signs and neo-modern shops and stalls fill the in-betweens with personality. A great sense of style pops in small but effective ways.

A banging electronic trip-hop soundtrack fused with traditional Japanese folk instruments also feeds into its balance of classic and modern sensibilities, vaguely reminiscent of something out of Samurai Champloo. The Art of Vengeance both looks and sounds effortlessly cool.

I went through the opening level that I played earlier this year at Summer Game Fest, which reintroduces series protagonist Joe Musashi as his village and clan are under attack the minute you start. His wife Naoko and understudy Tomoe are introduced as he has to leave them behind to chase down a military invasion led by the antagonist Lord Ruse and a gang of his demonic minions. You’re taught the basics like combos, dodging, wall-jumping, and special abilities, quickly pitting you against a mix of platforming sections to sharpen your mobility and combat encounters to test deftness with the blade and Ninpo specials.

This preview round, however, I cleared two full levels around the midway point, where I had a slew of new abilities and much tougher foes. I had to play both in Arcade Mode which reconfigures levels for a time attack-style version of them, and while the checkpointing was generous, Arcade Mode is all about having a seamless run to earn a high grade in the end. The aforementioned shipyard had pesky drones, guards in riot gear, and enemy ninjas with unblockable dark spells – any combination of these guys made for some tough normal encounters that can get overwhelming if you don’t know who to prioritize. And with clever but trial-and-error platforming challenges, it was a tall task to get through without death (at least on my first try).

I know that on paper, all this may sound like what you should expect from a proper 2D action platformer, but it’s the flow and fluidity of the gameplay that made my time with Shinobi so enjoyable. When I can slice a gang of enemies within a sliver of health and hit the shoulder buttons to pull off a swift and dramatic multi-hit execution, I’m pumped up like I’m stringing a series of glory kills in the new Doom games. The novelty hadn’t worn thin because, like glory kills, it doesn’t get in the way of the flowing fast action, and you get health and Ninpo energy in return as a treat. Hitting your light-heavy combos is all well and good, but when I execute my counterattack Ninpo on a dime to chop down a strong enemy’s health, I’m nodding my head in satisfaction. And Joe’s ultimate ability, which builds up through taking damage, just burns through everything on screen which was clutch in sticky situations that had me popping off when it finished a boss. Even something as simple as going from a platforming section into divekicking a foe to start my combo string in combat sequence is a small but effective thing that shows LizardCube knows what makes 2D action tick.

There wasn’t any real story content to glean from these later levels, but boy, are these stages long. And when they’re capped off with intense boss fights, Arcade Mode can really wear you down – which isn’t a derogatory mark, but rather an indication of demanding Shinobi can be.

It’s not all going from left to right, however. The second level I played was in neon-soaked slums that had three sections to the west, east, and south where I had to find and save children being held captive. This stage leaned more into exploration, where connecting ziplines and jumps to avoid hazards and lurking enemies pushed me to be more precise with movement. Snipers lurking in the distance could one-shot me lest I one-shot them first, goopy slimes moving underground can pop-up for toxic damage, and those damn riot guards are a different kind of challenge in close quarters. The boss fight here was my favorite, which had me thinking more about aerial combos since he could fly across the combat arena – he also had a phase where he would heal up if I didn’t do enough damage in time.

Balancing depth and approachability is one aspect I think Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is getting right from what I’ve played. I have just enough tools to feel equipped for its toughest battles, not overwhelming and not shallow. Thus, the focus is on your mastery of the toolset and reacting to some devastating combat mechanics from enemies. Since it controls incredibly smooth, and is properly paced with a speed to match its style of challenges, the fundamentals of a good 2D action platformer seem to all be here.

The return of our old ninja-themed action games is great to see – well, maybe it’s just this and Ninja Gaiden Ragebound (which also has Streets of Rage 4 lineage via publisher DotEmu). But in the years since both series’ heyday, we’ve seen countless others set the bar higher and higher with games like Dead Cells, The Messenger, and Katana Zero to name a few. To speak for Shinobi specifically, Art of Vengeance feels like an old head coming back to show the youngins that they still got it.

It’ll truly prove whether or not the series still has the juice when Shinobi: Art of Vengeance launches on August 28 this year for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

We’re over halfway through 2025 already, which means it’s time to check in on all of Sony’s PlayStation Studios to see what they’re making and what games are coming to your PS5 in the months and years to come. While the console has received some great exclusives in 2025, including the critically acclaimed Death Stranding 2, none of Sony’s first-party studios have released a new game this calendar year aside from the annual inevitability that is MLB The Show.

So, surely that means plenty of PlayStation’s studios have games coming out soon, or at the very least have secrets up their sleeves, right? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to take a look at here. What are the developers behind PlayStation’s highly-respected library up to now? And how long will it be before we get to both see and play their projects? So let’s dig into what each studio is doing, and when we can realistically expect to see new games from them.

Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog’s attention is now firmly on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, a space-faring game with retro 80s vibes. After leaving the future of The Last of Us HBO show in the hands of Craig Mazin, studio head and creative director Neil Druckmann is now working full steam ahead with his team on the Uncharted studio’s first new series since 2013. But aside from a cinematic-heavy trailer at last year’s Game Awards, we’ve seen very little of this sci-fi story.

What we do know is that it stars Tati Gabrielle as Jordan A. Mun, a bounty hunter who gets stranded on a planet when on the trail of a criminal syndicate called the “Five Aces”. It’s also rumoured to have a deeper combat system than any previous Naughty Dog game, with the reveal trailer giving us a tiny glimpse of its lightsaber-esque gameplay. Oh, and the music is being composed by Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. That’s never not a good thing. Could this be Sony’s big 2026 PS5 game? We can certainly hope, but we would love to see some gameplay before making such assumptions.

It would appear that this isn’t the only iron Naughty Dog has in the fire, though, with Druckmann teasing that the studio has a second, unannounced game in development. Could this be The Last of Us Part 3? Uncharted 5? Something completely different? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Santa Monica Studio

Santa Monica Studio released God of War Ragnarok to huge success in late 2022 and followed up with the surprisingly lengthy free Valhalla DLC in December 2023. What’s next for the studio remains a mystery, although we do know Cory Barlog – who led development of 2018’s God of War – moved on to helm a new project in 2021 after leaving Eric Williams to fill Ragnarok’s director seat. Little to nothing is known about that new project, but given it has been in development for a number of years already, it wouldn’t be beyond unreasonable to expect to see it revealed this year.

As for a new God of War game, well, we likely can’t expect that as quickly. Despite the gap between Ragnarok and its predecessor being only four years, the end of Kratos’ Norse saga signals a new direction for the series, which, naturally, means it’ll require a lot more work from the ground up. We can hope, of course, but don’t expect to see everyone’s favourite angry dad any time soon. That said, we wouldn’t say no to a remake of the original trilogy…

Insomniac Games

Insomniac is arguably Sony’s most prolific studio, having released either a Spider-Man or Ratchet and Clank game every couple of years for almost a decade now. Its most recent launch was in 2023 with the hugely successful Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and so – based on pattern – you’d be forgiven for expecting a new Insomniac game in 2025. But in a worrying sign of the fragile state of the games industry, even a game of Spider-Man 2’s magnitude couldn’t prevent layoffs from occurring last year. That capped off what turned out to be a doubly damaging couple of months for the developer, following a huge data breach and subsequent theft.

The data theft revealed that the studio’s highly anticipated Wolverine game is not expected until 2026 at the earliest, but also that a Venom game may arrive before it. Either way, it’s highly unlikely Insomniac will be springing any surprise games this year, and after all the studio has gone through recently, I think it’s fair to allow it as much of a break as anyone.

Sucker Punch Productions

Sucker Punch is following up 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima with Ghost of Yotei, scheduled for an October 2, 2025 release. As showcased in a recent State of Play stream, the standalone sequel takes us to Hokkaido on a revenge quest to deal with the “Yotei Six” — the murderers of protagonist Atsu’s family. With a non-linear quest structure and more varied arsenal, it’s looking set to be a true evolution of Tsushima’s open-world foundations.

Guerrilla Games

Guerrilla followed up 2022’s Horizon: Forbidden West with the Burning Shores DLC one year later as it continued to build out Aloy’s story. With the West Coast-set sequel ending on a cliffhanger, it’s not a stretch to expect the Amsterdam-based studio to be working on the third part of the trilogy next. We wouldn’t expect any news on that one soon, however – the development time between Zero Dawn and Forbidden West was five years, so we’re likely a little while away from seeing Aloy and her metal dinosaur friends again.

What we’re reportedly more likely to see first is a live service Horizon game that is currently in the works, starring “a new cast of characters and a unique stylized look”. Perhaps this is something we can hope to see more of sooner rather than later, although this year may be a stretch, with Sony perhaps reassessing their live service future following the failure of Concord and the troubles facing Marathon.

Housemarque

Finnish developer Housemarque is following up 2021’s Returnal with Saros, another sci-fi action game. Starring Rahul Kohli as Arjun Devraj, players will be taken to a lost off-world colony on the planet Carcosa in order to investigate its mysteries. An evolution of Returnal’s roguelike rhythm, it’s set to deliver Housemarque’s trademark challenging shooter combat when it arrives on PS5 sometime in 2026.

Haven Studios

Originally due for release this year, Haven Studios’ multiplayer shooter Fairgames is now expected in the Spring of 2026. It’s not been smooth sailing for another of Sony’s planned live service offerings, with Jade Raymond — who only founded the studio in 2021 — leaving the project earlier this year. Work is still ongoing on the online heist game, though, but with little to nothing seen of it since the 2023 cinematic trailer reveal, we’re left waiting to see what its gameplay actually looks like.

Bend Studio

Bend has been pretty quiet since the release of Days Gone way back in 2019, aside from giving us a remaster a couple of months back. But in 2022, a few slithers of detail were revealed about what the Oregon studio is currently working on. It shared that its new game will “build upon the open-world systems of Days Gone” but won’t be announced until “the time is right”. Apart from knowing it won’t be a continuation of Deacon St. John’s story, we really know nothing.

It’s been a rocky year for the developer so far, with reports that a live-service game it had been working on had been scrapped by Sony, as well as layoffs impacting 30% of the team as it transitions to its next project. Whether this new game the reduced headcount is working on has anything to do with those details revealed three years ago, or if the studio is starting again from scratch, is unknown. Either way, we wouldn’t expect to hear anything soon.

Media Molecule

Media Molecule spent most of the past decade working on Dreams, the game creation and curation project that was released in 2020. But as a result of significant layoffs at the studio in 2024, live support for the game has now ended, with MM’s current aim being to ensure “Dreams transitions into a self-sustaining platform”. There has since been no news on what the developer’s next project will be.

Team Asobi

Team Asobi gave us one of 2024’s biggest games with the charmingly creative platformer Astro Bot. An ode to PlayStation history, it won many awards and cemented itself as one of the PS5’s very best offerings. Since then, the Japanese studio has continued to support it with regular updates and levels as recently as this summer. But what next? Well, we wouldn’t be surprised to see another Astro game on the way, given the critical and commercial success of last year’s hit. There’s certainly no shortage of obscure PlayStation characters left to sprinkle through more of those colourful levels.

Bluepoint Games

Following the success of both the Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls remakes, Sony acquired Bluepoint Games as a first-party studio in 2021. We don’t know what its first project since joining the PlayStation Studios family is, though, but we do know that the developer has expressed its desire to create an original game, rather than reimagining another classic. Perhaps we could see a reveal soon, but seeing as Sony confirmed that a live service game, which was reportedly set in the God of War universe, was cancelled at the studio earlier this year, it seems unlikely.

Polyphony Digital

Polyphony has been making Gran Turismo for 25 years now, so it would certainly be a shock to see it veer from that path in the near future. GT7 came out around three and half years ago now, meaning maybe the time is approaching for the reveal of the studio’s next racing sim.

San Diego Studio

Similarly, San Diego is well established as the MLB The Show studio. This year’s entry only dropped in March, so we can expect to see another next Spring if history is anything to go by.

Firesprite

Firesprite most recently developed Horizon: Call of the Mountain for PSVR 2, following the studio’s new-found focus on VR games. What’s next is anyone’s guess, however. A new VR game would be the educated guess, but given Sony’s lack of commitment to creating games for its second-generation headset, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the UK studio pivot to something more traditional.

Recent reports discussing layoffs and unrest at the developer suggested that Firesprite was working on a live-service Twisted Metal game, which has since been canceled. It’s currently believed that the studio is now working on a new game called Project Heartbreak. Details are thin on what this is, though, and so we have no idea of when we can expect to see it.

teamLFG

Formed earlier this year as part of PlayStation Studios, teamLFG was spun out of Bungie to create a new team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and “frog-type games”. As to what a frog-type game is, your guess is as good as ours, but the project has been described as letting players “inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in a brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe”. This one doesn’t seem too far along the production pipeline, though, so we aren’t expecting to hear more anytime soon.

Dark Outlaw Games

Another new PlayStation studio for 2025, Dark Outlaw Games is led by Call of Duty veteran Jason Blundell. Very little else is known about this team or what they’re working on, though.

That’s everything we know about upcoming first-party PlayStation games, and the truth is that very few release dates look to be coming up quickly. Of course, this can and likely will change soon, and with GTA 6 looming on the horizon in 2026, it does make sense that many publishers are waiting for Rockstar to unleash their powerhouse before they make their own moves. That said, that doesn’t prevent 2025 from still looking relatively empty when it comes to PS5 exclusives. Let’s hope that the outlook will look a lot brighter soon, not only for players waiting for new games to play, but for the developers who work so hard to deliver them to us.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.