Polygon

Pokémon Go is having a Jangmo-o Community Day event on June 21 from 2-5 p.m. in your local time.

As expected with a Community Day event, Jangmo-o will spawn in huge numbers with a high chance to appear shiny. There are also several other bonuses and perks, which we’ve list out below.

How do I catch a shiny Jangmo-o in Pokémon Go?

As per old research by the now-defunct website The Silph Road (via Wayback Machine), Shiny rates on Community Days are about 1 in 24, which means that if you keep playing throughout the three-hour window, you should find quite a few shiny Pokémon.

If you’re short on time or Poké Balls, you can pop an Incense, then quickly tap each Jangmo-o to check for shiny ones, running from any that aren’t shiny. Notably, any Jangmo-o you’ve already tapped will face where your player is standing, so that should help identify which ones you may have already checked.

What Community Day move does Jangmo-o’s evolution learn?

If you evolve Hakamo-o into Kommo-o from June 21 at 2 p.m. until June 28 at 10 p.m. in your local time, it will learn the charged move Clanging Scales.

If you miss out on evolving it during this period, you will likely be able to evolve it during a Community Day weekend event in December to get Clanging Scales. If you don’t want to wait, you can use an Elite TM to get the move.

How does Kommo-o do in the meta?

For PvE (raids and gyms), you’re better off using literally any of the other dragon-types. Kommo-o is a little disappointing stat-wise when compared to its pseudo-legendary dragon brethren, so stick to those (Garchomp, Salamence, Dragonite) or the actual Legendary dragons (Rayquaza, Black Kyurem, Origin Forme Palkia) instead.

In terms of PvP, Clanging Scales is actually pretty powerful, so Kommo-o will actually be pretty decent, especially in the Ultra League. Give it Dragon Tail with Clanging Scales and Close Combat for it to be most effective.

How do I make the most of Jangmo-o Community Day?

The following bonuses will be active during Jangmo-o Community Day:

Tripled XP for catching PokémonDoubled candy for catching PokémonDoubled chance for level 31+ trainers to get XL candy from catching PokémonIncense lasts three hoursLure Modules lasts three hoursJangmo-o special photobombs when taking snapshotsOne additional special tradeStardust cost halved for trading

That said, you should definitely pop a Lucky Egg and an Incense and try to nab some powerful Jangmo-o.

If you can Mega Evolve Charizard X, Ampharos, Sceptile, Altaria, Salamence, Latias, Latios, Rayquaza, or Garchomp, you’ll score additional Jangmo-o Candy per catch.

There will also be “Community Day Continued” Timed Research until June 28 that will reward more Jangmo-o, including ones with special themed backgrounds. This research will keep the increased shiny rate for Jangmo-o, even after the three-hour event is over, so make sure you complete them for extra chances to get a shiny.

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28 Years Latermight be the third entry in the horror series, but the moody film feels like it could be a standalone work – right up until its final moments.

The post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story from director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Alex Garland (Civil War) plays with time and perspective, only revealing the importance of its first scene with a cliffhanger ending that sets up the next film in a new planned trilogy. If it’s not obvious: We are getting 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple in January 2026. And the first movie tees it all up.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for 28 Years Later.]

While most of 28 Years Later follows Spike (Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old leaving a quarantined island for the first time to hunt some infected, the film opens in the immediate aftermath of the Rage Virus outbreak with a group of terrified kids watching the Teletubbies. When the infected inevitably break in and start biting everyone in the house, one kid named Jimmy (Rocco Haynes) manages to flee into a nearby church where his vicar father has decided to embrace the plague as the fulfillment of divine will. The vicar gives his son a golden crucifix and welcomes the bloodthirsty horde with manic glee while his child hides beneath a baptismal font grate.

We see Jimmy again as an adult (played by Jack O’Connell of Sinners) when he rescues Spike from the hungry infected who’ve come to claim his fish dinner. Still carrying the crucifix, which he wears upside down, he’s also sporting a tiara, a tracksuit, and plenty of glitzy rings. Apparently, in the intervening decades, he’s become the leader of a cult that dress in matching apparel and fight the infected with impressive martial arts skills rather than the more pragmatic bows used by Spike’s people. Boyle says the look and character name were inspired by BBC host Jimmy Saville, who was accused of being a serial sex offender.

Jimmy’s story will be fleshed out in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which was filmed back-to-back with 28 Years Later and will be released on Jan. 16. 2026. Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman) with a script from Garland, the film is named for the memento mori constructed by Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). In an IndieWire interview, Boyle said that both Kelson and Jimmy will be huge characters in that film alongside Spike, and that it will explore “the nature of evil.”

Expect Jimmy and his cult to be pretty twisted given they were almost assuredly responsible for the tied up and branded man left for the infected who Spike and his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) find on their hunt. Jimmy is also meant to be a manifestation of Garland’s views of the regressive ways people view the past, cherrypicking and misremembering elements.

Garland plans to write the script for a third film in the trilogy, which will be directed by Boyle. It will return to where the franchise started by focusing on Jim, the bicycle messenger played by Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later.

“You have to acknowledge the first film, but to a minimal degree, but we tried to make a standalone film in its own right,” Boyle told Polygon. “But Cillian, for instance, who’d be the most obvious way to make the thing feel continuous with the first film, is a very important feature of the trilogy — but not just yet.”

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Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

After nearly 15 years, the Final Destination horror franchise returned to theaters last month with Final Destination: Bloodlines from Freaks writer-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein. The film about death pursuing an entire family is available to rent for the first time this weekend. A Minecraft Moviearrives on Max so you can see it without the risk of getting covered in popcorn by Chicken Jockey enthusiasts, or find new ways to get in on the trend at home. The robot romance Love Mearrives on Paramount Plus, while sci-fi horror fans will find the Dead Space-inspired Ashon Shudder.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch on streaming this weekend!

New on Netflix

KPop Demon Hunters

Genre: Family musicalRun time: 1h 35Director: Maggie Kang and Chris AppelhansCast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong

Sony Pictures Animation gets into the magical girl genre with a film about a K-pop trio who hunt demons when they’re not on stage. But when the demons form a boy band, the heroes will have to fight for their fans and their souls. The film is packed with original songs featuring performers from around the world.

New on HBO Max

A Minecraft Movie

Genre: Fantasy comedyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Jared HessCast: Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Danielle Brooks

Jason Momoa steals the show as the owner of a failing game store who enters a portal to the Minecraft Overworld along with two recently orphaned siblings, and has to wrestle a baby-zombie chicken jockey, learn the rules of the game, and cuddle Jack Black in order to return home. It’s not as earnest as The Lego Movie, but it is packed with silliness and references to the world’s most popular video game.

From our review:

At first, the CG interpretations of Minecraft settings, animals, monsters, and villagers are overwhelming: A carnival of nightmare visuals marches across the screen. The villagers are alarmingly fleshy, their eyes too moist for comfort. A sheep’s chewing motions are exaggerated and uncanny. Eventually, though, the alarming effect fades. Some designs are perfectly pleasant to look at, like the piglins, creepers, and iron golems. Once the story is in motion and the characters are moving through elaborate in-game environments, there’s so much going on, and the Minecraft architecture is so familiar, I stopped being concerned and started having fun.

New on Hulu

Out Come the Wolves

Genre: Horror thrillerRun time: 1h 26mDirector: Adam MacDonaldCast: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan

A planned couples hunting trip gets awkward when a last-minute cancellation means three people are sharing a cabin and dealing with their past romantic entanglements and unresolved feelings. But the outing takes a much more vicious turn when the group is attacked by wolves who develop a taste for blood and hunt them through the forest.

The Quiet Ones

Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Frederik Louis HviidCast: Reda Kateb, Gustav Giese, Amanda Collin

Inspired by the true story of the largest heist in Danish history, this tense film follows a boxer who leads a group of men from across Europe in a plot to steal $10 million. Of course, everyone involved has their own secrets and complicated reasons for wanting to do whatever it takes for wealth.

Sally

Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 43mDirector: Cristina Costantini

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983, but she largely avoided interviews. The National Geographic documentary provides a new look at her life and career, including the 27-year romantic relationship with professional tennis player and science educator Tam O’Shaughnessy that Ride hid until her death.

Skincare

Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 36mDirector: Austin PetersCast: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Nathan Fillion

A famous esthetician (Elizabeth Banks of Pitch Perfect and The Hunger Games) fights to defend her success after a rival skincare studio opens across the street and her email is hacked. As the threats against her become more ominous, she needs to defend her reputation and maybe even her life.

New on Paramount Plus

Love Me

Genre: Post-apocalyptic romanceRun time: 1h 32mDirector: Sam Zuchero and Andy ZucheroCast: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun

In the year 2500, humanity is extinct, and a lonely weather buoy (Kristen Stewart) and a satellite (Steven Yeun) try to form a very human relationship with the questionable help of an influencer’s social media feed. A sort of adult version of Wall-E, the charming film fuses stop-motion robot models, live action, and animation for a mix of dark satire and classic science fiction.

From our review:

Love Me’s mockery of the artificiality of influencer lifestyle blogging feels pretty dated — this is the kind of thing Black Mirror has been doing for going on a decade now, and it isn’t any fresher here. And the ultimate message more or less amounts to “Be yourself,” which feels like a fairly rote conclusion for such an enjoyably odd, specific movie.

New on Shout TV and Shout Movies

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Genre: Comedy adventureRun time: 1h 32Director: Terry Gilliam and Terry JonesCast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam

John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Palin share their memories of making their very silly and iconic retelling of the story of King Arthur and discuss its lasting legacy during a 24-hour stream to celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary. This quest for the Holy Grail includes coconut shells, a killer rabbit, and knights that must be appeased with the gift of shrubbery.

New on Shudder

Ash

Genre: Science fiction horrorRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Flying LotusCast: Eiza González, Aaron Paul, Iko Uwais

An astronaut (Eiza González of 3 Body Problem) wakes up from a coma on a distant planet with no memory and surrounded by bodies. She has to decide if she can trust her supposed rescuer, played by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul. The truth comes back through dream sequences inspired by video games, including Dead Space, Silent Hill,and Death Stranding.

New to rent

Eye for an Eye

Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Colin TilleyCast: Whitney Peak, S. Epatha Merkerson, Golda Rosheuvel

A teen mourning the death of her parents moves to Florida to live with her grandmother, where she witnesses an act of horrible violence. She then finds herself the latest victim of The Sandman, a vengeful spirit that haunts the dreams of bullies to make them suffer the pain they’ve inflicted on others.

Final Destination: Bloodlines

Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 50mDirector: Zach Lipovsky and Adam SteinCast: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon

This revival of the long-running franchise, where death comes for people who’ve escaped its grasp through laying elaborate traps, quickly became the most successful film in the series at the box office. This version follows the family of a woman whose premonition in 1969 saved her life, as her descendants, who shouldn’t exist, improbably die one by one.

Friendship

Genre: Black comedyRun time: 1h 41mDirector: Andrew DeYoungCast: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara

Making friends as an adult is hard and particularly awkward in this A24 film starring Paul Rudd and I Think You Should Leave’s Tim Robinson. New neighbors bond and have adventures, including mushroom hunting and tunnel exploring, but as the relationship sours, it sends both of their lives spiraling out of control.

Inside

Genre: Psychological thrillerRun time: 1h 45mDirector: Vasilis KatsoupisCast: Willem Dafoe

An art thief (Willem Dafoe) gets locked in a luxurious New York penthouse and abandoned by his accomplices, slowly going insane as he tries to figure out a way to survive and escape. With no food, a malfunctioning thermostat, and a collection of priceless artwork, he reflects on his own life in a darkly funny tale.

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The cat and bunny people of Final Fantasy 14 Online are finally getting the headgear options they deserve, the MMO’s developer announced Friday in a new Letter from the Producer Live stream. Hrothgar and Viera characters will soon be able to display the headgear they’re wearing as part of Patch 7.3, Square Enix confirmed.

Hrothgar and Viera have had limited headgear options since the two races were introduced to Final Fantasy 14 in 2019’s Shadowbringers expansion. But since the furry friends have “unique heads” — with cat ears and bunny ears, respectively — some cosmetic headgear hasn’t been available to them.

That will change soon, and Square Enix is promising that “further support for headgear, including helmets, will be added in future updates.” Hopefully, Square Enix is prioritizing the paid cosmetic outfits that its selling that Hrothgar and Viera can’t currently wear.

Of course, as important as hats for feline and lupine fantasy friends are, that’s not the only thing FF14 producer/director Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi revealed during Friday’s Letter from the Producer.

Patch 7.3, known as The Promise of Tomorrow, will feature the main scenario quest that serves as the finale of the Dawntrail story. It will be released in early August, developers said.

Elsewhere, FF14’s devs teased a new allied society scenario featuring the Yok Huy; a new level 100 expert dungeon, The Meso Terminal; an unnamed new trial with normal and extreme difficulty versions; a new 24-player alliance raid, San d’Oria: The Second Walk; a new Unreal trial versus Seiryu in The Wreath of Snakes; and a new Deep Dungeon, Pilgrim’s Traverse.

Of course, all that pales in comparison to the six-year nightmare of Hrothgar and Viera going mostly hatless finally coming to an end.

Final Fantasy 14 Online is available now on Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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First place is one of the most dangerous places to be during a Mario Kart match. A lead can prove temporary as the game regales everyone else some of its most powerful items, many of which will be aimed directly at the front of the pack. First place, meanwhile, is relegated to garbage weapons like bananas and green shells.

In this sense, Mario Kart World is like any other iteration of Nintendo’s chaotic racer. The difference is that players are trying to exploit this design, which can lead to some absurd races now that lobbies hold 24 players. As we’ve witnessed with our own eyes, rather than showcasing a fight for dominance, Mario Kart World can sometimes devolve into a struggle for mediocrity.

The tactic isn’t adopted across the board. Some Mario Kart World players are learning new wall-riding techniques that make the racer look more like Tony Hawk, and the feather is empowering some fans to create their own amazing shortcuts.

But it’s also becoming increasingly common to see people take things slow, happily lagging behind the competition with the confidence that 24th place can transform into first place after a good item box draw. In a video with over 360,000 views, YouTuber Shortcat spends 46 minutes encouraging players to bag their races, because it’s a good strategy that can ensure you’ll place well by the end of the match. Ideally, you go along at a leisurely pace until you get a really good item, like a star. Once you have it, you’re supposed to hold on to it until an opportune time, like the last lap of the race.

It’s wild to watch in action. You can see people stop accelerating altogether for a few seconds so they’ll fall behind. Some players don’t go for extremes, and instead simply aim to be near the middle of the pack, especially as the match progresses.

“He played that race SO SLOW and won?!?!” one YouTube commenter says of Shortcat’s gameplay footage. “It felt like watching a grandpa play. He didn’t even do anything crazy he just took the two shortcuts. That’s ridiculous, thanks Nintendo.”

Elsewhere, while players cop to adopting the strategy, they don’t really seem happy about it. “It really is ridiculous,” says JupiterClimb, as he narrates a match where he’s shown in last place. “Just absolutely flagrant. Just fully parked, not even trying to play the game,” he says, describing what other people are doing during the race.

Look, I love Mario Kart World, but bagging needs to be nerfed BIG TIMEWhat is the point playing online when you do better by playing badly??? Here I am throwing 2/3 laps to get an easy win, with others going for the same strat Only gonna become more common until a patch pic.twitter.com/56vANBBHRG

— JupiterClimb (@JupiterClimb) June 16, 2025

“With 24 players this is the only way to keep it competitive,” one reply reads. “Even in dead last you should feel like you have a chance go win.”

It’s a complex issue, especially when you consider that people who do try and compete normally also dislike that the game treats them like a digital punching bag. It’s not fun when you’re doing well and get hit by five different things in a row. But if that happens, and you end up near last place, Mario Kart World’s design also means you have a real shot at regaining better placement if the trouncing didn’t happen near the end of the match. In this clip, you can watch as one racer goes from first, last, to then first again over the course of about 20 seconds. The player still calls the whole thing “broken.”

It’s also not a concept unique to Mario Kart, arguably. In running, there’s something called progression runs, where athletes will start off at a slow to moderate pace and then speed up near the end, which is done to build endurance and avoid injury. Then again, there are also controversial instances of competitors who intentionally slow down during a race, as it can be difficult to discern the motivation behind the tactic.

One of the most common forms of sandbagging in a Mario Kart World race involves waiting for a drop of the lightning item, which hits every single rival on the track. The race then becomes about managing lightning attacks from opponents, and optimally timing when you unleash it.

“Right now a lot of people hold their dodge items in around 10~17 [place],” reads one YouTube comment on Shortcat’s video. “But doing so means more people behind you are likely to use an early shock, so you have to predict when it’s going to happen. It becomes a bit of a 50/50 guessing if it’ll be used early or not, so it’s usually better to just slow down and avoid it altogether.”

With time, it’s likely that players will develop all sorts of tactics and shortcuts that we can’t even imagine at present. Perhaps sandbagging will fall from grace as a preferred method once people find better ways of staying in first. For some, it doesn’t seem like a particularly big deal now that Mario Kart World has shortened the amount of time players get stunned after getting hit by an attack.

People also complained about sandbagging in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and insisted that it ruined the game. Perhaps Nintendo agreed with this assessment, because in 2023, the best-selling Switch racer [got an update that seemed to nerf the tactic.](http://"made it so that you can't acquire strong items when taking an Item Box by stopping or driving in reverse, or taking an Item Box that is in the same location multiple times during a race.") Specifically, Mario Kart 8 prevented players from acquiring strong items if they stopped or drove in reverse, or if they picked up the same box multiple times during a race. But that patch dropped many years into Mario Kart 8’s lifespan, amid a generation when Nintendo was still getting a grasp around games as a service.

Will things be different this time around? Switch 2 is a new generation, and a new opportunity for Nintendo to display its adeptness at maintaining live-service games. We could get a version of Mario Kart World that feels more actively in conversation with player concerns.

Or, just as likely: We’ll have to accept that Mario Kart’s accessibility is directly tied to Nintendo’s willingness to level the playing field so that anyone, regardless of skill, has a legitimate chance of doing well during a race. So long as that design ethos holds true, sandbagging can never go away completely.

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Ryan Coogler’s vampiric box office hit Sinners is coming home to Max this summer. The film, starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld, will make its streaming debut on July 4.

The Black Panther and Creeddirector reunited with Jordan for Sinners, in which he plays identical twin gangsters Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the movie follows the brothers as they return home to Mississippi with the goal of using their ill-gotten money and booze to open a juke joint. But more is waiting for them than old flames and the Ku Klux Klan; their blues music attracts the attention of dark creatures, and the partygoers have to fight to survive until dawn.

Sinners also stars Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and Delroy Lindo. The movie bowed in theaters on April 18.

A lot has been said about Sinners, from bad faith reporting about its box office numbers, its subsequent success domestically and internationally, its Twilight Zone inspirations, and its place in the pantheon of Black vampire films. However it comes up in discussion, through cultural conversations about vampires or recommending other media to consume after watching it, Sinners is now a staple in pop culture, no matter what flaws fans may find.

Whether Sinners will come to Max before it’s rebranded HBO Max is still unclear.

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Last month, Marvel and DC dropped a bombshell: The rival comic publishers will release crossover one-shots featuring Deadpool and Batman teaming up later this year. DC will publish Batman/Deadpool#1 from Grant Morrison and Dan Mora, while Marvel has tapped Zeb Wells and Greg Capullo for Deadpool/Batman#1. The backup stories and their creative pairs for Marvel’s book were announced Friday, and they might end up being more fun than the main crossover.

Daredevil and Green Arrow will team up in a tale penned by Kevin Smith and and drawn by Adam Kubert; Captain America and Wonder Woman will meet in a story written by Chip Zdarsky with art from Terry Dodson; and, perhaps most importantly, super pets and good boys Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto the Superdog will hang out in a story from Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru.

“Two ICONS meeting for the first time! It’s such an honor for Jeff to get to be Marvel’s ambassador in this crossover story with Krypto,” Thompson said. Jeff the Land Shark has been having a moment since he stole the spotlight in Marvel Rivals, and Krypto is due for a starring role in next month’s Superman.

Zdarsky is set to pen Marvel’s ongoing Captain America series, out in July, so him slotting in for the Captain America and Wonder Woman crossover sounds like a natural choice. He’ll be joined by Terry Dodson on art, who drew interiors for Wonder Woman in the mid-2000s. “This has been surreal to say the least! Captain America and Wonder Woman are the best their worlds have to offer, both warriors for peace,” Zdarsky said. “Getting to explore a dynamic and history between them has been genuinely exciting.”

Green Arrow and Daredevil teaming up might be the highlight of the entire one-shot. While more known for his films, Kevin Smith has quite the comics bibliography, and has previously written for both characters. He wrote Daredevil: Guardian Devil in the ’90s (famous for the death of a certain someone in Matt Murdock’s life) and had a 15-issue run on Green Arrow in the early 2000s.

The Daredevil and Green Arrow and Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto pairings are being celebrated with variant covers as well, which you can check out below. Deadpool/Batman#1 will go on sale Sept. 17 and Batman/Deadpool#1 (yep, those are two different one-shots) will be out sometime in November. Details on DC’s crossover one-shot, including who are tackling the backup stories, are yet to be revealed.

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I went into Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game expecting to love it from the jump. Mirror’s Edge and Assassin’s Creed — some of the best parkour games of all time — dominated my formative years. And since Rooftops & Alleys has the same stylish flair as Mirror’s Edge, albeit with a stylish trick-focused twist, à la Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater*,* my hopes were high. However, what I found was a clunky sandbox that puts a premium on patience, as it is about skill.

Released June 16 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, Rooftops & Alleys is a third-person platforming sim developed and self-published by MLMedia, an independent, one-person studio.

I played on Windows PC and encountered issues immediately: My DualSense Edge controller wasn’t recognized. Steam Input was able to fix my problem quickly, but it’s a minor frustration that foreshadowed the game’s sometimes janky feel. Comparison is the thief of joy, but the game doesn’t feel as intuitive as the games it automatically draws comparisons to.

Anyone can pick up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skaterand have a good time kick-flipping away. Mirror’s Edge takes a bit longer to understand, but by the end of the first level, you have a basic understanding of the mechanics that can carry you to the end. Rooftops & Alleys demands a certain level of mastery from the player, which is appealing, as I love the thought of becoming a parkour god in this title. Still, at the same time, it worries me because it’ll be harder to recommend to my casual gaming friends.

But before you can get a grip on its tricks, Rooftops & Alleys fumbles in adequately teaching you how it works. There are two tutorials in the game, and you access them through the main menu. Both tutorials are vanishingly brief and optional, so I’m unsure what benefit they offer in the first place.

No doubt about it, Rooftops & Alleys could benefit from longer, more detailed tutorials as well as a trick tutorial (similar to SSX Tricky’s best-in-class trick book). Any way to explore landing every single trick in the game in a streamlined, intuitive environment would be a boon. As it stands, you must pause the game, access a sub-menu to learn how to perform the trick, then exit the menu to practice it, and repeat. It feels like Rooftops & Alleys has all the pieces for something great, but those pieces don’t coalesce into something great.

This isn’t to say Rooftops & Alleys isn’t compelling in its own odd way. As I continued to experiment with the game and its systems, it slowly began to fall into place for me. With every session, I found myself warming up with the tutorials so that I could have the controls fresh in my mind. Once I chose the map I wanted to parkour through, the game released my hand completely and let me run free — and it was glorious. I spent a lot of time completely failing all of my tricks while I tried to learn the timing. I played around with the map’s time trials, and if you can sense the pattern, I failed those too. But with each failure, I noticed I was improving; my landings became more consistent, I became faster with each time trial attempt, I was better at maintaining my momentum, and I was even starting to have fun.

On one of my best trick rush runs, I attempted a trick toward the end that clipped me through the environment, pretty much dooming my high-point combo. Still, instead of getting frustrated, I just laughed, because I could totally imagine someone in real life landing a backflip awkwardly and getting stuck between some pipes.

This moment was the moment the game clicked for me, and I’ve been unable to put the game down since. The Steam reviews suggest that those who try the game are also enjoying it — that is, once they become accustomed to the controls. Rooftops & Alleys supports multiplayer, and while most of my time was spent playing solo, I hopped into a few lobbies to find plenty of people practicing cool sequences of moves. The open sandbox vibe of the solo play is just as present with others, and there’s something fun about racing your friends through the time trials and even sabotaging them from landing their tricks. (Someone stood in my way during a time trial, causing me to fail at landing a usually easy-to-land cartwheel. I’m not mad, you’re mad.)

This game has clearly found an audience, and as so often happens with these niche games, the community will take the torch and run with it. Every multiplayer lobby I joined had people running, jumping, and failing spectacularly. Rooftops & Alleys isn’t perfect, but it’s got charm. As a solo player, I lament the lack of a narrative mode. Don’t get me wrong, the grind of perfecting your tricks and times is fun but it does get a bit repetitive after a long session. Rooftops & Alleys offers a relaxing (if unpolished) playground and with some additional updates and improved tutorials, it could become something truly special. For now, it’s a niche game with just enough spark to keep me on the grind.

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The announcement of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles came as a surprise to me (I saw the signs though), although the possibility of other titles from this classic JRPG series receiving a modern treatment looked likely after the success of Final Fantasy VII Remake. In a recent interview, the game director Kazutoyo Maehiro explained what moved him and his team to work on a new version of what, for many, is a perfect game.

However, some decisions made by Maehiro and his team over the direction of the Final Fantasy Tactics remake have put the community off. The reactions confirm the murky perspective that we, the players, still have on remakes.

The original Final Fantasy Tactics was developed for the PlayStation and released in Japan in 1997. Despite not being a numbered entry, Tactics established itself as one of the best in the series. The game’s story, focused more on political intrigue and featuring memorable characters like Ramza, the main hero whose participation in the War of the Lions had been forgotten by history. The dry narrative stood out against the series’ high-fantasy settings in previous installments.

Ten years later, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions was released for the PSP. The expanded edition offered a new English translation, additional jobs, the inclusion of characters from other games, like Final Fantasy XII‘s Balthier, and other functionalities. The War of the Lions was almost immediately regarded as the best iteration of the game.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is not changing the original material in the same extent as Final Fantasy VII Remake did. Character sprites look better, but their cute visuals and little leg and arm animations remain intact. The game UI has received a modern makeover, and hey, we can hear Ramza talking now! But in the end, the material with which Maehiro and his team are working with is the original 1997 game, and not the more modern version The War of the Lions, leaving out all the additions from the PSP version in the remake.

Maehiro understands the original Tactics as a complete game, which is true if we think that Tactics was already well-established as a classic before The War of the Lions. astill, their decision was met with huffs and groans. While it’s fair to expect an expanded or considerably changed experience from a remake, no one can seem to agree on whether they want to prioritize the original material or leave room for artistic expression in a remake. When Final Fantasy VII Remake was out, I saw some pretty angry arguments saying “Remake was not Final Fantasy VII” because it deviated from the original. Now, the Final Fantasy Tactics remake promises to return to origin, to the first version, and improve that experience. People don’t like that either.

Considering the age of the core Final Fantasy playerbase, I can’t help but think that turning a title accessible to younger generations is more important than trying to match the community’s idea of what they had in mind for a remake. Keeping the game alive is exactly what motivated Kazutoyo Maehiro to work on this project. He realized that when he played the game again some years ago and thought that more people should have the chance to experience the original Tactics.

In the interview, he said that “I really wanted the younger generation of players who didn’t get to experience the original release to be able to play this incredible game. That’s why we started developing this title.”

If the dispute over remakes revolves around preserving a personal preference at the expense of preserving history or creating room to new experiences, the answer is clear. Whether we like the idea of not being able to use jobs added in The War of the Lions or any other features of that version or not, we can be sure that Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will keep the legacy of Ivalice, Ramza, and even The War of the Lions alive for many years to come.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Blood Message is the first narrative-driven game in development by NetEase, the Chinese publisher behind hits like Marvel Rivals and Naraka: Bladepoint, and it’s swinging for the fences based on its first moody trailer.

The game is a third-person action-adventure game that has a hint of Uncharted meets Assassin’s Creed, which is another way of saying that it looks like a big-budget AAA game where the sheen as important as the gameplay itself. You play as a “messenger” and his son, both of whom are caught up in an uprising that will test their familial ties and country loyalty.

Here’s how NetEase is describing it:

Set during the final years of the Tang Dynasty, players will traverse a treacherous 3,000-li (around 1,000 miles) odyssey back to Chang’an, the heart of the Tang Empire. Cross lethal landscapes including desolate deserts and the vast wilderness of East and Central Asia to survive brutal sieges, unforgiving terrain, and overwhelming odds. The game’s setting in the last years of the Tang Dynasty provides a cultural landmark of Chinese history that frames the story with customs, culture, and rich history of the era.

Blood Message is the latest example of China flexing its growing dominion over prestige game development, and the enormous potential for the medium as cultural export. In the same way Black Myth: Wukong garnered interest by tapping into a popular Chinese novel, Blood Message looks toward Wuxia as inspiration for its setting. It’ll likely be a hit regionally, if not globally, through the sheer strength of its visuals and novel influences.

At the same time, there’s something deeply derivative at the core of Blood Message, a game that wears its intention of courting mainstream appeal on its sleeve. The visuals are impressive, but the art direction looks like something out of an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo. Like, literally. Here’s the reveal for the engine from five years ago; it also looks like an Uncharted action game partially set in a desert landscape full of vaguely cultural artifacts.

Mind you, this isn’t a knock on China. It’s not as if the West is a beacon of creativity at the highest echelons of game development, either. Black Myth: Wukong had a hint of ChatGPT to it, yet I loved that game. And to its credit, Blood Message’s proposal is being met with plenty of praise based on the comments on YouTube.

“NetEase is cooking,” one top comment says. “What Ubisoft could’ve been….Looks phenomenal,” another reads.

Blood Message doesn’t have a set release date yet, but it’ll be out for Windows PC and unspecified consoles.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Honkai: Star Rail just closed out its version 3.4 livestream, teasing what’s to come in the next update, which launches the evening of July 1. Alongside new characters and events, Hoyoverse uses the stream to distribute codes that reward free Stellar Jade and other upgrade materials.

This patch is going to be a big one, not only due to the launch of Phainon, the latest Physical Destruction unit that everyone has been waiting for, but because the Fate/Stay Night collaboration that’ll happen during this patch. You’ll be able to grab Archer and Saber as part of the collab, so make sure to log in if you’re a big Fate franchise fan. Older characters like Silver Wolf, Blade, Kafka, and Jingliu will also be getting buffs this patch, too.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.4 livestream codes

These codes are only active until the day ends, so you’ll want to make sure to use them quickly.

The Honkai: Star Rail reward codes from the version 3.4 livestream are:

FTJ6CVTULSXPZS36CVBUMTZBDTJ7CVACLBGF

These codes will expire on June 21 at 11:59 a.m. EDT / 8:59 a.m. PDT, so use them quickly or you’ll miss out on the free loot. For more codes that don’t expire in just a few hours, you can check out our constantly-updated list of active Honkai: Star Rail codes.

How to redeem codes in Honkai: Star Rail

You can redeem the codes in game by opening the menu and tapping on the ellipses in the top right corner. A “redemption code” option will come up that you can select.

You can also redeem them online through the Honkai: Star Rail code redeem website. You’ll need to select your correct server and login through the website in order to get rewards. You will also need to have a working UID for Honkai: Star Rail. If you’ve never logged into Honkai: Star Rail in any form using your Hoyoverse account, it will not work.

If you’re just getting started in Honkai: Star Rail, you can check out our beginner’s guide and gacha explainer.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

[Ed. note: This review contains minor spoilers for Solo Leveling anime.]

From the moment the demo for Solo Leveling: Arise Overdrive recreates JinWoo’s Awakening from the manhwa and anime, it’s clear the team at Netmarble Neo is doing everything it can to make players feel like the iconic protagonist. And in some ways, the game — to be released in full by fall 2025on PC— succeeds. The action at first glance is satisfying, the combat is flashy and responsive, and the RPG mechanics are rooted in the anime’s lore, especially JinWoo’s signature “level up” ability.

Still, despite the gameplay loop, something about the overall package feels hollow. There are hints at greater potential, like upgrading JinWoo’s Shadow Army or unlocking his Monarch transformation (spoiler warning for anime-only fans), but most of that is locked off in the demo. And while multiplayer could add replayability, what’s available now seems more like busywork than meaningful progression.

The barebones approach to the title isn’t even the worst part: it’s navigating the menu UI that’s the most frustrating. It’s way easier to navigate menus using a mouse than a controller, despite controller being the best way to play the game. It wasn’t until I played more and did some research that I realized some fans believe Overdrive is actually a revamped port of the 2024 mobile gacha game Solo Leveling: Arise, dressed up and stripped of its gacha monetization in service of adding co-op multiplayer. In Arise, Netmarble limits level-up progression for free-to-play users and prices folks out of premium equipment with an outlandish bottleneck, the higher your overall level is. This is to entice players to subscribe and earn free resources in order to hit levels and unlock new characters.

Despite Netmarble ensuring us “Solo Leveling: ARISE – OVERDRIVE is a brand new title separate from Solo Leveling: ARISE and not an expansion, update, or port of the previous game,” it sure as hell feels like a port. It looks like it’s reusing the same assets, some cutscenes, and overall UI. But without those original features implemented, Overdrive sinks into repetitive grind, no matter how much it makes you feel like Jinwoo in the moment.

The core mechanics are steeped in series-specific detail. Players can level up JinWoo after battles, build out a loadout of weapons and skills pulled from or inspired by the franchise, and use loot from enemies to craft gear and enhance equipment called Artifacts. Combat evokes Dynasty Warriors with added flair: a dodge-and-counter system adds tactical rhythm, while quick time events and ultimates inject cinematic flash. There’s a laundry list of attacks and skills you can choose from and equip to try in combat, allowing players to tailor JinWoo to their playstyles: various moves reminiscent of the show, QTE attacks, basic attacks, an ultimate skill with varying cooldowns, and assist-based combat too, letting you recruit three familiar Hunters mid-fight.

JinWoo can also switch between four classes: Assassin, Duelist, Elementalist, and Ruler, which reflect his progression across seasons 1 and 2 of the anime (though Elementalist’s magic attacks feel off-brand). Each class has its own skill tree, and Blessing Stones provide stat boosts and perks like emergency HP revives. Weapons, Artifacts, and even your Shadow Army can be leveled independently, offering a deeper layer of progression than expected.

But while all these systems suggest depth, it’s mostly surface level. After a few solid dungeon crawls, Jinwoo was able to seamlessly use abilities, QTEs, our team of Hunters, and switch between weapons on the fly. Despite the fun gameplay loop and truly feeling like an iteration of Jinwoo from season 1, the button-mashing combat felt unfulfilling and unpolished despite the multitude of level-up mechanics, skill trees, and list of abilities.

Some of JinWoo’s weapons include guns, bows, and the aforementioned magic and sickles, despite never using any of these powers in the series. Environments are very big and lifeless, with not too many differentiating rooms or dungeons. Enemies get progressively stronger as you take down more dungeons, but the difficulty spike isn’t too rough once you learn boss attack patterns. Familiar characters are present but void of personality, contributing flavorless NPC lines. After you get a handle on all the mechanics and level-up systems, you realize the total package is very barebones and without much substance.

Unfortunately, without a monetization loop, what’s left is a game that replaces manufactured stopgaps with a repetitive grind, which isn’t much better. The game delivers the Solo Leveling experience — just maybe not enough of anything else.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

The 2025 anime spring season came on strong. Lazarus, the new project from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe, launched in April, alongside Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. Wind Breaker season 2 brought more intense fighting scenes, while Kowloon Generic Romance proved to be the existential posthuman sci-fi I didn’t know I needed. This season, I also found a small gem: YAIBA: Samurai Legend, available on Netflix and Hulu. This adaptation of the 1988 manga by Gosho Aoyama, known for the long-running series Detective Conan (Case Closed in the US), reminded me that the aura trend that’s become such a big part of anime discourse isn’t fundamental to action anime shows, and that characters are more than their powers.

Aura has become a consistent topic in anime fandom, with fans discussing and theorizing about why one favorite character can “farm” more aura than others. Aura is an aesthetic experience: Not an inherent character trait, but the product of our interaction with their presence. It’s the name of the experience we have when characters act tough and cool in the face of danger. It is a performance. I was overwhelmed by Ichigo’s aura when he first said “Bankai” in Bleach. Aura flows from Hayato Suo’s look in certain scenes in Wind Breaker. The simple sight of X tossing a coin screams “AURA”  in To Be Hero X. But no character has been defined by aura as much as Solo Leveling‘s Sung Jinwoo.

Solo Leveling’s world is filled with hunters — people with awakened special abilities, from manipulating fire to healing — who explore other-dimensional dungeons to find materials, weapons, and other special items that can be converted into wealth. In this fictional world, the rules of video game RPGs apply to the characters’ reality. At the center is the protagonist Sung Jinwoo. In this power-fantasy anime, Sung started as the weakest hunter and became the strongest, unlocking the unique power to level up, which sets him apart from all other hunters.

But as a character, Sung exists for the sake of being powerful.

When Sung enters a battle, he is going to win. I know this because we see him being hit by the enemy’s strongest attack, the same enemy who just killed other high-rank hunters, and Sung won’t even move. He will just look at his enemy, more annoyed than concerned. That’s aura — and it does look awesome. But shows that operate around aura-centered characters eventually feel flat: It’s boring whenever such powerful characters aren’t risking destroying the whole world.

YAIBA: Samurai Legend goes in the opposite direction, with colorful scenarios, jokes instead of dramatic poses, and a little sassy boy as the protagonist. Originally written by Gosho Aoyama, author of the long-running Detective Conan manga series, YAIBA: Samurai Legend was adapted by Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Spy × Family). The series tells the story of Yaiba, a boy who has lived most of his life in the jungle, training to be a samurai with his father. One day, Yaiba falls into a box of bananas and is accidentally shipped to Tokyo. There, he meets and challenges Takeshi Onimaru, the top kendo fighter in the region. After being defeated by Yaiba’s not-so-samurai-y technique of biting his opponent, Onimaru finds the Fujinken, a magical sword that merges him with the God of Wind, and he becomes an oni. Yaiba begins his adventure to find Raijinken, the sword of the God of Thunder, which will let him face Onimaru again.

YAIBA: Samurai Legend is a reinvigorating experience. Funny scenes and action sequences weave together to make this an endearing show. While it presents a familiar plot — “boy goes on a journey to become stronger and face a villain” — it brings the energy and approach from an earlier era of shounen that we might need more of now. As a mangaka writing at another time and for a different audience, like Akira Toriyama, who created Goku in Dragon Ball, and Riku Sanjo, who designed Dai for the Dragon Quest: Dai no Daiboken show, Aoyama didn’t design Yaiba as dramatic and menacing. He’s the powerful protagonist of an action anime show, but he’s silly, immature, and still learning how to be the best.

Yaiba’s story feels out of place compared to most shounen shows aired in recent years. The power fantasy in Solo Leveling builds the idea of a perfect fighter who achieves a superior position no one can challenge. It offers viewers the fantasy of stability and control, instead of the uncertainty of a path to become stronger, like the one Yaiba walks. And aura is the badge one carries when hitting the same spot as Sung Jinwoo.

As a character, Yaiba is the antithesis of Sung Jinwoo. Although strong, Yaiba needs training to reach his full potential. When Yaiba finally finds Raijinken, he easily removes the sword from a rock, something not even Miyamoto Musashi — one of the greatest samurai in Japan’s history, and Yaiba’s eventual master — was able to do. But power isn’t Yaiba’s personality, it’s something he’s developing. Initially, he’s just a courageous boy who wants to have fun fighting strong foes.

While Yaiba can’t control the spirit of the god in the sword like Onimaru did, he experiments and trains to compensate for being too weak to use Raijinken. Yaiba’s greatest strength is his capacity to find creative solutions and to persevere, a characteristic expected from traditional shonen protagonists. He is not interested in saving face by performing the role of the overpowered protagonist. If Yaiba isn’t strong enough to wield the mystical Raijinken, he’s willing to spin it like a circular saw, if that lets him defeat his enemies.

Yaiba’s comical journey to become a stronger samurai doesn’t lack action. Wit Studio creates memorable fighting sequences that not only offer the expected thrill of action shows, but also incorporate the series’ playful spirit. There is no dramatic scene where two enemies silently face each other, until in the blink of an eye, one of them is dead. Instead, we get a fun encounter with a giant slug Yaiba can defeat with salt, and an intense fight against a vampire.

With lots of action and a funny protagonist, YAIBA: Samurai Legend doesn’t come across as a conscious statement debunking or attacking aura. It’s just a reminder that limiting a character only as the outlet for stylish fighting moves is not enough. Yaiba makes a clean cut in the current aura trend and proves that true strength is not in the performance of power, but in the desire to nurture it with a big smile.

YAIBA: Samurai Legend is streaming on Netflix and Hulu.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Pokémon Go’s “Yamper’s Paw Prints” event is all about puppy Pokémon and it runs from June 20-22, making it a very short event.

The event features doubled Stardust for catching Pokémon (which will overlap with the Jangmo-o Community Day event on Saturday) and debuts Yamper and its evolution Bolthund.

Below we detail the perks and bonuses for Pokémon Go’s “Yamper’s Paw Prints” event, including the Timed Research sets, boosted spawns, and Field Research.

Pokémon Go ‘Yamper’s Paw Prints’ event Timed Research and reward

There are a few research sets as part of this event. There are three free sets, which will become available day by day as the event progresses.

Poochyena Timed Research

Catch 15 Pokémon (Poochyena encounter)Explore 1 km (Poochyena encounter)Catch 30 Pokémon (Poochyena encounter)Use 10 berries to help catch Pokémon (Poochyena encounter)Catch 50 Pokémon (Poochyena encounter)

Rewards: Yamper encounter, 3,000 XP, 1,500 Stardust

Additional Timed Research featuring Furfrou and Snubbull will roll out in coming days. We’ll update this guide when it becomes available.

‘Yamper’s Paw Prints’ premium Timed Research

There’s also the usual $1 paid research that gives you four incense and two guaranteed Yamper encounters. While yes, it’s worth it for the coin value, I would personally only buy this if you really are itching for Yamper encounters.

Step 1 of 2

Use 5 berries to help catch Pokémon (Snubbull encounter)Catch 10 Pokémon (Snubbull encounter)Spin 5 PokéStops or gyms (Poochyena encounter)Power up Pokémon 5 times (Poochyena encounter)Make 5 nice throws (Furfrou encounter)Evolve a Pokémon (Rockruff encounter)

Rewards: Yamper encounter, 2 Incense, 3,000 Stardust

Step 2 of 2

Use 5 berries to help catch Pokémon (Snubbull encounter)Catch 10 Pokémon (Snubbull encounter)Spin 5 PokéStops or gyms (Poochyena encounter)Power up Pokémon 5 times (Poochyena encounter)Make 5 nice throws (Furfrou encounter)Evolve a Pokémon (Rockruff encounter)

Rewards: Yamper encounter, 2 Incense, 3,000 Stardust

Pokémon Go ‘Yamper’s Paw Prints’ event Field Research and rewards

Spinning a PokéStop during the event period may yield one of these tasks:

Catch 10 Pokémon (Poochyena, Electrike, or Fidough encounter)Explore 1 km (Houndour, Lillipup, or Fidough encounter)Make an excellent throw (Furfrou or Yamper encounter)

Pokémon Go ‘Yamper’s Paw Prints’ event boosted spawns

These Pokémon will spawn more frequently during the event period:

GrowlitheHisuian GrowlitheSnubbull*HoundourPoochyena*ElectrikeLillipupFurfrou*YamperFidough

*There is an “increased chance” of finding this shiny in the wild as part of the event.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

It’s been a long, protracted journey for Fortnite’s return to iPhone, as developer Epic Games fought for the right to offer consumers more options on how to spend their money in-game (and make more money in the process). For five years, the world’s biggest game disappeared from its its most popular platform in an unprecedented move that set the stage for one of gaming’s tensest legal battles. Now that it’s back, Fortnite has once again become the number one free game on iOS, and it’s showing up with verve.

For those who didn’t follow Fortnite’s legal odyssey, the quick version of the story is that Epic Games took issue with Apple’s storefront. Apple collects a percentage of all sales made on the platform, a fee that drives up the price for Fortnite’s in-game currency. Epic attempted to circumvent this issue by giving fans the option to purchase currency outside of Apple’s storefront at a discounted rate, which did not sit well with the Silicon Valley giant. Apple deemed that Epic broke its rules, ultimately pulling the publisher’s app store account. Rather than acquiesce to Apple’s demands, Epic fought the iPhone maker in court. It won, but not without some headaches along the way, much to the chagrin of the judge who oversaw the case.

It’s been about a month since Fortnite’s return on iOS, and Epic Games has met the moment by showing off why the battle royale belongs on mobile with a new mode called Fortnite Blitz Royale. Matches are designed with phones in mind, and this approach completely transforms the game.

In Blitz, players are still plopped onto an island, but it’s much smaller now. Things move at a lightning pace, and you literally run from a storm a mere minute into the match. Everyone begins with a set power-up, like the ability to run extra fast or ammo that continually reloads. These abilities change and stack as the player racks up kills. Rather than having to scrounge for a good weapon, the game might gift you a mythic simply for surviving longer than the competition. There’s no building. Where a typical Fortnite match could see a player roaming for an extended period of time without finding anyone, the shooting is almost immediate in Blitz.

Epic unveiled the game with a clear eye toward mobile, noting that Blitz was “phone ready” and “perfect” for the platform. And the design certainly lends itself to grab and go sessions where playtime might be limited. You can get a few matches in over the course of 10 minutes. Even if you die quickly, chances are good that you’ll get a few kills along the way.

Anyone who has sought a victory royale before will pick up Blitz easily, but there’s still an undeniable freshness to the mode. It’s everything people like about Fortnite compressed to its stickiest elements — all action, none of the filler. And based on Epic’s four-week schedule for the mode, which includes events tied to Avatar: The Last Airbender and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there’s still plenty coming down the pike to maintain interest.

As you read this, Blitz is the most populated mode in Fortnite, with over four times the number of active players as what you’ll find in Battle Royale. Players are psyched and calling for the mode, which only lasts until July 15, to become a permanent offering.

“Blitz Royale is the best Fortnite has ever been,” reads one top post on X.

At least some of this excitement is the natural consequence of bots inflating the ego of lapsed players, who are thrilled at their newfound deadliness in the mode. It’s hard to have a bad time when you’re handed a golden gun and proceed to dominate the competition. Still, this type of shot in the arm is no small feat for a game that has to find ways to reinvent itself on a monthly basis.

Fortnite’s still got it, and mobile proves it.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

In mid-May, I boarded a cross-Atlantic flight from Paris to New York City. I put on my podcasts, opened up my phone, and proceeded to play Dungeon Clawler for about seven hours straight.

This is a recommendation.

Dungeon Clawler is basically Slay the Spire with a claw machine. In the roguelike/deckbuilder, you play as Sir Bunalot, an unfortunate gambling bunny who has lost a hand to a card shark — literally. The shark in question is the dungeon boss, and your hand (well, paw) is replaced with a mechanical claw.

As you progress through the dungeon, you fight baddies by pulling items from the claw machine. It starts simple, with daggers and shields, and rises in complexity as you can choose from a random selection of rewards to add to the machine after each battle. A run takes about 40 minutes to complete, but dying sends you right back to the start, your upgrades wiped and your claw machine reset.

The synergies don’t quite rise to the level of insanity you can achieve in Slay the Spire, but they’re often satisfying and tactile. For example, you can get a power-up that fills that claw machine with water. This causes wooden or plastic items to float, and metal ones to sink. You may randomly be rewarded with a bath bomb that changes the water to poison, or to lava that does fire damage. Or perhaps you stop by the transmutation room to turn your metal items into plastic — or your plastic items into metal, so that you can take advantage of a magnet that draws in metal items. And so on, and so forth.

You can also unlock additional characters with their own unique claws and abilities.

Having played, conservatively, a ton of Dungeon Clawler, I can say that the game’s opening levels can feel like a slog, depending on what character you’re playing, and what rewards you get. I particularly struggled with a character called Felina, who has a pet cat that essentially acts like spikes, doing return damage whenever Felina gets hurt. It felt like I wasn’t building up strength quickly enough to get through battles.

On the other hand, I thrived with the adorable Count Clawcula, who can’t use any items that block damage, but can heal himself by doing damage. I was able to make a wacky strength build with Clawcula that had me (I guess literally) chewing my way through enemies.

More often than not I enjoyed the process of filling my machine and finding the right balance of items so that I could reliably grab what I wanted without getting a claw-full of junk. I’ve continued playing it after escaping the airplane, despite the siren call of infinite games like Warframe or my beloved Sawayama Solitaire. I’m still unlocking characters and claws.

One thing I appreciate is that Dungeon Clawler lets you unlock new characters even if you haven’t completed your initial run as the starting character, Sir Bunalot. After a couple failed initial runs with Sir Bunalot, I was able to explore some of the weirder characters and continue to get a feel for the game. I got my first win and came back to Sir Bunalot later.

Also worth noting: Dungeon Clawler is a one-time purchase of $4.99 on Steam, iOS, or Google Play with no microtransactions or ads. The synergies are fun, the art style is delightful, and I think my playtime speaks for itself.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

28 Days Later offered a singular twist on a horror trope: Instead of the dead rising up from the graves, the “zombies” of Danny Boyle’s zombie movie would be normal humans transformed by the man-made “Rage Virus.” And they could run.

So, after years and years of Boyle and writer Alex Garland debating whether to follow the maligned 28 Weeks Later with a proper sequel from the original team — and sorting out the complicated rights issues to do so — Boyle tells Polygon that there was really one goal for what to do next.

“The idea of the film in many ways was to be as original as possible,” he says of this week’s 28 Years Later. “Its structure is very unusual. Its progression is even more unusual, and it’s quite startling even at script stage to realize that the last third of the film is going to be this moving examination of mortality in different ways — and commemorate and celebrate that.”

28 Years Later tells the story of a 12-year-old boy, Spike (Alfie Williams), who has grown up in a walled-off island town off the shore of the quarantine zone. He has never seen the outside world; no one in the UK was permitted to leave after the Rage Virus decimated the population, and neighboring countries continue to patrol the perimeter to ensure normalcy for the outside world. Spike’s father, Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), believes it’s essential for his son to grow into the toughest version of himself, a protector. Early on, they venture off into the wilderness to hunt, while Spike’s mother, Isla (Jodie Comer,) suffers from a mysterious illness no one in their microcosm is equipped to treat.

There’s a strong human element to 28 Years Later — Boyle and Garland have said Ken Loach’s 1969 coming-of-age drama Kes was a major inspiration, and the connection is deeply felt — but it manifests in more than just the survivors. Twenty-eight years after the first exposure to Rage, the infected have persisted, transformed, and inched closer to becoming their own, separate species.

“One of the things we’re doing in this is shortening the distance between the humans and the infected,” Garland says. “We’re acknowledging that they’re not different from us. They have an illness which a doctor would look at in a different way to the way we would instinctively react to it. So it’s as much to do with things that appear to be very different but have more in common and can be addressed or observed in different ways.”

From the beginning of development, Garland knew he wanted to take advantage of the large passage of time between the first film and the new sequel — 28 years is a long, long time for a crumbling society. And in extrapolating the direction the world might go, he landed on two possibilities that ultimately informed how the infected we see in 28 Years Later have evolved. “One is: there aren’t any infected left and life has gone back to normal. So that would be one sort of film you could do, sort of post-COVID film as it were. And the other is: no, the infection is still alive. Well, how could it still be alive? These are not reanimated dead people via some sort of supernatural means. They’re people who have an illness or a condition or a virus, in this case. And so, how are they still alive? They need to consume energy, they need to drink.”

The survival instincts — and even the rage that fuels the infected’s never-ending hunt — exist in every character in 28 Years Later, zombie-esque or not. “If you look at the films in detail, it is something that’s within us all,” Boyle says. “There isn’t the sense that it’s an outsider’s disease or something, that there’s some sickness that they just have and we don’t. Every character gets to exhibit part of it, the potential for it within ourselves.”

Boyle and Garland aren’t the types to put a fine point on the themes of their own films, but the writer admits that there is a certain amount of frustration bubbling under the surface of 28 Years Later, and the greater idea that all of this horror is happening to real people on both sides of the line.

“I think these things are interpretive, but for me it would be about the way in which over the last 10 to 15 years, we’ve become increasingly preoccupied by looking back rather than looking forward, back to the way things used to be. But then examining that more, how much of that is about selective amnesia, things that are just ignored about the way things used to be, or misremembered about the way things used to be, or just selectively remembered? Cherrypicked? And so it’s a film about an aggressive state rather than a progressive state, at least in part.”

Out of the development hell that plagued a proposed 28 Months Later came not just 28 Years Later, but a full-blown trilogy of films. The story feels complete with the credits roll on 28 Years, by design, but in that exploration of world-building and commentary, Boyle and Garland clearly found more to say — and it’ll find its way back to that original movie eventually.

“You have to acknowledge the first film, but to a minimal degree, but we tried to make a standalone film in its own right,” Boyle says. “But [Cillian Murphy, star of 28 Days Later], for instance, who’d be the most obvious way to make the thing feel continuous with the first film, is a very important feature of the trilogy — but not just yet.”

28 Years Later opens in theaters on June 20.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Ask five random people to name one Alfred Hitchcock movie, and chances are good they’ll all say Psycho first, whether they’re  classic-movie superfans who could name all his works going back to the British silent-movie days, or they couldn’t pick Hitch out of a crowd in one of his famous director’s cameos. You could argue all day with those people about whether Psycho is Hitchcock’s best movie, but it’d be hard to claim that anything else in his filmography has had more cultural impact or lasting reach, both on horror movies and on cinematic storytelling in general.

But while endless essays have been written about how Psycho’s boundary-pushing, censor-baiting actionchanged moviemaking, and while its biggest twists and famous central shower-murder scene have been so absorbed into pop-culture trivia knowledge that they don’t feel shocking out of context anymore, it’s easy to forget that Hitchcock’s most-discussed movie is still a terrific watch that holds up 65 years after release. With Psycho now streaming on Netflix, it’s easy for Hitchcock-lovers to revisit the movie, or for newbies to finally check out.

The real fun, though, is watching it as a double feature with Hitchcock’s only other R-rated movie, Frenzy, which is also on Netflix now. Watched back-to-back, they’re an incredible lesson in how fast art and culture changes — and how much impact one movie can have on those changes.

Psycho, unrated edition

Psycho wasn’t always rated R — it was released in 1960, eight years before the Motion Picture Association launched the system of film ratings it still uses more or less uses today. The MPA didn’t rate Psycho until 1984, and the ratings organization’s notorious bias against nudity, sexuality, or sexual situations (especially in cases with any hint of queerness) likely came into play with this movie. In the era of phenomenally graphic horror that copies Psycho while getting lovingly anatomical about everything Hitchcock could only hint at, Psycho’s carefully edited, non-revealing shower-slasher sequence seems just as tame as the other once-transgressive, now-quaint elements that gave studio censors fits in 1960, like the gasp-inducing shot of a flushing toilet, or the opening-scene implication that a non-married couple has recently had scandalously non-married sex.

But Psycho isn’t a movie to watch for shocks, not after decades of other movies mining all Hitchcock’s innovations, and putting new spins on them. (Consider the mid-film protagonist-switch in Zach Cregger’s 2022 horror hit Barbarian, for instance, and how it borrows from Psycho’s structure.) Instead, it’s worth watching for the performances, the writing, the clever foreshadowing and tension-building, and above all, the creepy, indelible framing around Anthony Perkins as hotel proprietor Norman Bates.

In particular, the quietly ominous scene where Norman sits down to chat with newly checked-in guest Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) about the “private traps” people build around themselves, then “scratch and claw” at without ever escaping, is a master class in character-building. It’s a terrific, queasy short melodrama that stands on its own even today. It’s also one of the many parts of Psycho that’s enhanced, rather than spoiled, by knowing where this story is going.

And the famous murder sequence still has a frightening power, when it’s viewed within the context of the story Hitchcock is telling. Out of context, it feels dated — but it plays differently when it comes after the slow-burn, intense build of Norman and Marion’s fleeting connection, the framing of the crime she commits before coming to his hotel, and the weight of all the things the audience learns about the stranger who’s watching and evaluating Marian from the moment she enters his orbit.

If you only know Psycho’s most famous, most culturally echoed moments — or if you’ve forgotten the rest of it because it’s been a while since you went back —the film is surprisingly satisfying and unpackable as a standalone movie experience, instead of as an Important Classic or grandfather-of-horror homework experience.

Frenzy, rated R and rightfully so

It’s hard to say the same of Hitchcock’s 1972 movie Frenzy, his only other R-rated project (in this case, justly rated R on release), one of his oddest movies, and another recent Netflix streaming addition. While Frenzy was adapted from Arthur La Bern’s 1966 novel, in many ways it plays as a stealth remake of Psycho for a much less rigid and easily offended age of cinema, and a much more lurid, permissive one.

Hitchcock made Psycho in the waning days of the Hays Code, the moral rules Hollywood imposed on movies to avoid government censorship. The Code mandated that evil acts must always be punished, Sunday school morals must be respected, and women in romantic scenes must always keep one foot on the floor. But even though Frenzy came only 12 years later, it was made in an age heavily influenced by Psycho and other boundary-pushing cinema: the era of exploitation cinema and giallo horror, an era where Frenzy’s protracted on-screen rape led to rave reviews instead of Hollywood blacklisting.

Even so, Frenzy’s beats are familiar from Psycho. Once again, there’s a serial murderer on the loose, a man who appears harmless and even charming, but who secretly murders women out of a tortured mixture of lust, spite, jealousy, and sociopathy. As before, the centerpiece of the movie is a murder sequence that mixes horror and grotesque sexual titillation. Again, mouthpieces dutifully explain the villain’s pathology to each other, and therefore the audience, in laughably stuffy hunks of undigested exposition. And then there’s the investigation of the murder we just watched, though this time, the cops are on the case instead of a PI and a couple of amateurs.

Some of the differences between Psycho and Frenzy are immediately obvious: Hitchcock made the former in black-and-white to save on budget, and it’s small-scale and intimate, shot in just a few settings. Frenzy, made in sometimes garish color, is much more visually expansive, starting from the opening helicopter shot roaming up the Thames and finding a tour group by the riverbank. Where Psycho is largely solemn or scary, Frenzy occasionally veers into extremely odd morbid humor. Sometimes that humor is playful — one of the characters, a Scotland Yard inspector investigating the movie’s central murders, is the center of a running gag where his wife keeps experimenting with fancy, unappealing French food, when he’d prefer simple steak and sausage. Other gags just feel distasteful, particularly the sequence where the killer wrestles with the stiffened naked corpse of one of his victims, and keeps getting a rigor-mortis-ified foot in his face.

But the real difference is in the permissiveness in Frenzy’s filmmaking, and the leering exploitation angles Hitchcock leans into. The director famously wrestled with the Production Code Administration office over small details in Psycho, where the censors complained they could see a hint of Janet Leigh’s out-of-focus breasts during the shower scene, and forced Hitchcock to shorten shots of Norman Bates looking through a peephole as Marion undresses. They also objected to the suggestion of premarital sex at the beginning of the movie. Reportedly, a single shot in the shooting script would have also included a shot of Marion’s corpse that would have briefly shown her buttocks.

Compare all this to Frenzy, where the open sequence features a woman’s naked corpse bobbing down the Thames, bare ass flashing in the sun, breasts exposed as the policeman haul her out. There’s a disturbing, in-depth (albeit somewhat carefully visually coded) rape sequence midway through the movie, and a number of naked female corpses. In Psycho, Hitchcock handles his murders with a certain sympathetic gravitas. Frenzy is a much more leering movie that sometimes feels completely miscalculated — particularly in the ridiculous shot of a woman just after her rape and strangulation. With her eyes bugged out and her tongue protruding at a weird angle, she doesn’t evoke the tragedy of loss, like Marion lying dead in the shower: She looks like she’s making a goofy face at someone behind the camera, like she’s trying to entertain a small, fussy child.

Frenzy isn’t entirely lacking in value: Its “wrong man accused” plot is more complicated and nuanced than most of Hitchcock’s wrong-man movies, particularly since the wrong man in this case is almost as frightening as the killer. Down-on-his-luck military vet Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) is bad-tempered, short-sighted, and abusive toward his supposed closest friends and loved ones. As a noose of circumstantial evidence against him tightens around his neck, his choices are selfish and sometimes cruel. His increasing rage and frustration gives the movie a sense of bite it needs, though, when it sometimes gets too languorous to maintain its tension.

Ultimately, though, Frenzy is most compelling as a movie when seen alongside Psycho, with the two movies in conversation. They’re the perfect illustration of how much and how fast American cinema changed from the 1960s to the 1970s, and how differently Alfred Hitchcock expressed the same goals and tastes in horror over the course of his career. Netflix’s Hitchcock collection is a perfect chance to catch up with his work, but there’s no better illustration of his highs and lows than this particular before-and-after double feature. It’s a film-history education in just two movies, a handful of radically differently styled murders, and a couple of director cameos.

Psycho and Frenzy are both streaming now on Netflix.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Capcom has announced its upcoming games showcase, Capcom Spotlight, which will take place next Thursday, June 26. The announcement was released alongside a short teaser trailer, giving Capcom fans a brief glimpse of the games they can expect to see at the showcase.

Scheduled to last roughly 40 minutes, the live-streamed event will be showing off upcoming games like Pragmata, and Resident Evil Requiem, along with updates for pre-existing titles like Monster Hunter Wilds and Street Fighter 6.

Of particular interest is the long-awaited Pragmata, Capcom’s first new IP since 2023’s Exoprimal. Pragmata was actually announced before Exoprimal, and was originally set for a 2023 release before being delayed. It’s currently scheduled to arrive sometime in 2026, and according to those who got to try out the title at Summer Game Fest 2025, Pragmata‘s combat is exhilarating.

The showcase will also provide a closer look at Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline game in the Resident Evil series. Revealed earlier this month at Summer Game Fest, Requiem will see players step into the shoes of a new protagonist: Grace Ashcroft, an FBI agent who has been dispatched to investigate a string of mysterious deaths at a hotel where her mother also died under strange circumstances eight years prior. Set in Raccoon City (which has been destroyed after the events of 1999’s Resident Evil 3: Nemesis), Requiem will allow players to switch between first- and third-person gameplay. Resident Evil Requiem is set to be released in February 2026.

The Capcom Spotlight showcase begins at 3 PM PT / 12 PM ET on Thursday, June 26, and can be viewed live via Capcom’s official YouTube and Twitch channels.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been everywhere lately. From an excellent movie to a renowned graphic novel to a handful of great games, Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie are consistently reaching new peaks in terms of popularity. So, where is left for the quartet to go after 40 years? Developer Strange Scaffold answers that question by both pulling the Turtles apart and sending them to an unexpected game genre with Tactical Takedown, a bite-sized game that TMNT fans will surely eat up.

As the title implies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown is a turn-based tactics game. Throughout its 20 levels, you control a single Turtle as he battles against the goons the Foot Clan throws his way. Each Turtle gets a set amount of hearts, with most Foot attacks dealing one or two hearts’ worth of damage, and three lives for each level. You’ll always be vastly outnumbered, so mowing down enemies quickly and getting some distance between you and them are crucial to survival.

On a Turtle’s turn, you’ll jump around a battlefield and dish out damage. My favorite Turtles’ moves were the ones that pushed Foot ninjas back. Each level sort of exists on a floating plane, meaning you can easily knock enemies off the map if you position the Turtles just right. Why hit them for one heart of damage when you can just push them off to their doom?

Each Turtle plays differently: For example, Donatello controls the battlefield while Leonardo gains buffs on KOs. It’ll take a few levels to really gain mastery over each Turtle, but once you figure out how to string together their abilities each turn, you’ll feel like a master ninja. You’ll earn a score at the end of each level, correlating with how well you did, and some currency to purchase additional abilities for the Turtles, allowing you to fine-tune their skill sets however you want.

The main antagonist isn’t Shredder, but the comics foe Karai, who’s leading the Foot Clan. Both Shredder and Master Splinter are dead in this continuity, though their presence hangs over the entire game. The Turtles wonder what Splinter’s opinion of them would be now, and, in a tender moment at the end of the game, Raphael says the boys are the best of Splinter. “[Splinter’s] skills. His kindness. He passed it on and watched it grow.” Though the plot is mostly about the Turtles chasing after the Foot and thwarting Karai’s nefarious scheme, Tactical Takedown surprisingly has more emotional moments than I expected coming in.

The teens are reunited by the end of the game after chasing the Foot through various parts of the city (on the subway, through the sewers, across rooftops) and in another tender moment from Raph (who is this guy?? I’m loving it), he gives Leonardo a big squeeze of reassurance. These Turtles in Tactical Takedown still squabble — they’re teens, after all — but there’s a wonderful undercurrent of sincerity throughout their story, which is what makes the TMNT so endearing throughout all these years.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown doesn’t overstay its welcome. Each level takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and you can wrap the whole game up in five hours or less. Its short runtime allows Tactical Takedown not to drag; its combat, while enjoyable, can grow stale over long gaming sessions, and I think making the game any longer than it is would have been a mistake. Instead, Strange Scaffold presents a game that both works in bite-sized chunks when you only have less than half an hour to play as well as a bingeable game if you find yourself unable to put it down.

While Shredder’s Revenge might be the most well-regarded TMNT game of the past couple years, Tactical Takedown shouldn’t be overlooked. It tries something new with the Turtles, and its experiment pays off; hardcore Turtles fans and those who can’t remember which Turtle is who can both find something to enjoy with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown’s enjoyable combat and heartfelt story.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

A new update for Elden Ring Nightreign rolled out on Thursday, adding an extra layer of challenge. The first of the game’s Everdark Sovereigns, stronger and more challenging versions of existing Nightlord bosses, is here, letting players test themselves against a familiar foe — but only for a limited time.

Players can now face the Everdark Sovereign version of Adel, Baron of the Night (aka “Gaping Jaw”) in Elden Ring Nightreign. Defeating that extra spicy Nightlord will reward players with a new item: Sovereign Sigils. These new tokens can be cashed in for special Relics “and other items,” publisher Bandai Namco says. Players’ first win against an Everdark Sovereign Nightlord will earn them multiple Sovereign Sigils, though it sounds like repeat battles will deal out fewer.

If you want to face Everdark Sovereign Gaping Jaw, you’ll need to have already defeated the base version of Gaping Jaw. So hurry up if you haven’t; the first Everdark Sovereign encounter will only be available through June 25, at 5:59 p.m PDT/8:59 p.m. EDT.

Here’s one big catch, though: Everdark Sovereigns are available for Nightreign’s online mode only.

Coming to the Everdark Sovereign rotation in the next few weeks are harder versions of Sentient Pest and Darkdrift Knight. Amped-up versions of the other existing bosses will be added at a later date, Bandai Namco says.

Elden Ring Nightreign is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. If you need some help getting started, check out Polygon’s guides for Elden Ring Nightreign.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Since time immemorial, the axiom’s been that you buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games. Third-party games made by other publishers are worthwhile, but typically those are the sorts of experiences you can find on other platforms as well. For Nintendo’s latest hardware, the Switch 2, things are trending in a similar direction — at least for now.

As reported by The Game Business, stats for early Nintendo Switch 2 show that adopters in the United States and UK are mostly purchasing the console for games like Mario Kart World and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Apparently, most games outside of those developed by Nintendo are selling in “very low” numbers. The Game Business quotes one anonymous publisher saying that the numbers are coming in below their expected estimates.

The one exception is for Cyberpunk 2077, a much-anticipated port for a game that stands out above other third-party options. CD Projekt Red’s futuristic RPG had a messy launch and, through the course of several updates and expansions, has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in the last couple of years now that it resembles the original vision pitched to fans. Cyberpunk 2077 is also packaged beautifully with a cartridge that references something in the actual game. Beyond that, the neo-noir adventure has the benefit of functioning as a showcase for the power of the Switch 2, especially since it wasn’t available for the first console. The success of Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 was practically preordained.

The “very low” sales of other third-party games stands in contrast to the eye-popping numbers for, say, Mario Kart World, where a staggering 80% of console sales had Nintendo’s racer bundled into the purchase. There’s a good chance the other 20% got Mario Kart as well, just purchased separately.

There are a few reasons things could be unfolding this way, beyond the obvious factor that the reason to buy a Nintendo console is for the Japanese developer’s exclusive games. Many of the titles available at launch are ports for games that are already playable on all major platforms, including the first Switch. The Switch 2 and its pricing initially caused some ruckus as users balked at the $449.99 pricetag, which makes it more expensive than some models of the PS5 and Xbox. Combined with higher prices for games accessories like the Joy-Con 2, there’s the real possibility some consumers feel selective in their purchases. The Switch 2 launched during an era where the price of eggs is a regular talking point, and the reality is that the console is a luxury item.

Personally, I’ve only bought Mario Kart World so far, but it’s not because I don’t want other games. It does help that backwards compatibility means my choices don’t feel limited on the Switch 2 — if anything, the improved power is giving me more reason to revisit games I already own. I imagine I’m not alone in that, though funnily enough, many of the older games enticing me are, you guessed it, made by Nintendo.

TGB also points out that consumers might experience friction with the confusing concept around game key cards. There’s evidence that people are accidentally buying the wrong version of a Switch game now that some titles are available on both the current and previous generation. Undoubtedly, some are also bristling at the notion that key cards require you to download the game despite purchasing a physical copy.

Amid all these considerations and asterisks, it’s worth noting that Switch 2 numbers on the whole are promising. The console follow-up was breaking records a mere days after its release, and it’s been weeks since that point. Still, there’s not a simple way to slice the narrative around the console, is there? It’s hard to say how this compares to Switch or competitors when Nintendo had way more units available for purchase from the get-go. Would the PS5 have fared better if people could actually find it in its first couple of years?

The first Switch also had way fewer physical games at launch than its younger sibling. And Nintendo didn’t make review units available for Switch 2 for major publications, including Polygon, which impacts coverage of games, as publications have to scramble to write about more big ticket items in a timely manner. Consumers may not know what’s worth playing beyond Mario Kart World, and this early on, they might not care — the racer hasn’t lost its sheen yet.

As time goes on, the narrative around Switch 2 and third-party options may change. People might buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games, but the first Switch was still a favored repository of indie games. Then again, things worked out that way because of timing. In 2017, most major games were shacked to TVs and monitors. These days? The number of high-powered portable machines is becoming hard to keep track of, and there are only more coming.

Correction (June 19): This story originally stated that Cyberpunk 2077 released for Switch. We have updated to clarify that it has only been released for Switch 2.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

As revolutionary as Nintendo’s original Switch was, it came with a big — or, rather, very, very small — problem: Its tiny Joy-Con controllers were pretty terrible. Sure, they were novel, rumbled in neat ways, and lent themselves, in theory, to multiple playstyles, but they were also far too little, uncomfortable to hold, and not the most reliable when it came to motion controls. After spending a few weeks with the Switch 2, it’s clear the new Joy-Con 2 controllers fix all of those issues, though the viability of mouse controls will depend more on how developers implement them than what the hardware is capable of.

Accusations that the original Switch was too toy-like largely stemmed from its bright, Fisher Price-style color scheme, but there’s no denying the Joy-Con’s glossy, hard-plastic finish made them feel, if not cheap, then not quite like a serious piece of hardware. Nintendo seems to have kept both criticisms in mind when designing the Joy-Con 2. Glimpses of the original console’s colors peek out from the control stick well and magnet rails, but the majority of the surface area is a dark charcoal grey. It immediately distinguishes the Switch 2 from its predecessor and conveys more effectively the idea that this is Proper Hardware instead of a toy.

However, the design also loses a bit of personality as a result, not to mention customization potential. I bought three sets of Joy-Con throughout the original Switch’s lifespan, one on account of drift and two just for the different color combinations. If confining color to a small part of the Joy-Con 2 is Nintendo’s plan moving forward, I can’t say I’ll have much interest in spending $90 for a tiny speck of purple or orange in an area often covered by the thumb to begin with.

The Joy-Con 2 are roughly an inch longer than the original Joy-Con, and while that might not sound like a substantial change, it’s hard to overstate just how much more comfortable that extra inch makes the new controllers (though mileage may vary). The ridge under the shoulder buttons, where the magnet detach button is, forms a natural resting point for your fingers and helps mitigate some of the hand strain that often comes from extended sessions with handheld consoles, like the Steam Deck and original Switch.

The Joy-Con 2’s improved ergonomics also mean it’s more viable to use them detached from the console, even without the grip Nintendo includes with each Switch 2. The Pro Controller is still the ideal choice for more demanding games like Street Fighter 6, but I played the first act of Cyberpunk 2077 using motion controls (more on that shortly) and detached Joy-Con 2 initially for testing, but then just because it felt so natural and comfortable. Holding the controller horizontally for something like Mario Kart World still feels a little cramped and unnatural, but the elongated SL and SR buttons on the magnet rails make it easier to find a usable position without having to contort your hands.

They feel good to hold, they’re easier to use, and they even sound good. Joy-Con 2’s button presses make less of a hard tacky sound and have a softer plunk when pressed, a difference that’s most noticeable with the shoulder buttons. With the original Joy-Con, you could often hear springs compressing and decompressing when pushing the L and R buttons, and the ZL and ZR buttons made an obnoxiously loud click. That might not matter if you’re playing alone, but the noise often stood out if you’re in a room with other people who aren’t also clicking away on their own Switches.

The Joy-Con 2’s other highlight is the new mode that lets you use the right controller as a mouse. It’s surprisingly comfortable – if you don’t hold the Joy-Con like a regular mouse, that is. It’s too narrow from back to front to make using it like a standard mouse viable for more than a few minutes at a time, as there’s just not enough room for your hand to rest. It is, thankfully, more versatile than a typical mouse and works in a variety of situations. I played Civilization 7‘s Switch 2 version with the right Joy-Con 2 horizontally in my lap with no straining or tension problems, and although the Joy-Con was pointing away from the console itself, there were no interface problems or challenges getting the system to acknowledge what I wanted it to do. Slouching in a chair and using my torso as a mousepad worked just fine in Fortnite, and as awkward as it looked seeing folks use mouse controls on their thighs, it felt entirely natural in games like Cyberpunk 2077.

There are a few caveats to how effective mouse controls are, though, the most important being that there is a small amount of input lag depending on the strength of your internet connection. Responsiveness was worse when I tested mouse controls in a room further away from my wireless router. It wasn’t enough to make playing a game impossible. However, the slowness was noticeable and not ideal for games that require faster responses, such as Fortnite or Cyberpunk 2077, and the Switch 2 didn’t recognize Mouse-Con movements if I was roughly two feet or further away from the tablet. Granted, there probably aren’t many situations where you’d be at that distance from the Switch 2 in tabletop mode, but the point is that the efficiency of mouse controls will vary depending on your internet strength unless the console is docked.

It seems that whether mouse controls are worth using will depend on the game and whether you can customize control schemes. Button mapping felt fine in Civilization 7, but took a lot of getting used to with the more involved and oddly mapped Cyberpunk 2077. The R and ZR buttons normally act like left and right mouse buttons, but Cyberpunk doesn’t treat them that way.

After accidentally throwing grenades into crowds more than once, I just switched to motion controls. Motion controls are much more responsive using the Joy-Con 2 than they were on the original Switch. I haven’t willingly used them since playing on the Wii, and didn’t like them even then, but it’s quickly becoming my preferred control style with the Switch 2. Maybe the Cyberpunk 2077 problem was a skill issue, but the more important point is that the Joy-Con 2 give you multiple, viable playstyle options and really help the Switch 2 live up to the original console’s promise of letting you play anywhere, however you like.

The Joy-Con 2 are, like the Switch 2 itself, a marked upgrade over the original, even if they are just better versions of their predecessors. It’s a more tactile pair of controllers that feel and sound good to use, even over extended sessions. Mouse mode’s full potential probably won’t be realized for months or even years, but the fact that it works seamlessly and so well is a promising sign that points to the possibility of new ways to interact with games and a broader selection of titles that might be playable on the Switch 2. Let’s just hope the color schemes get some variety.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Among the tools you have to score goals in Rematch, shooting is the most basic and important one. To help get your shots in the goal, you need to target your aim — the two white brackets on the screen — in the same direction. Otherwise, you can make terrible mistakes, like scoring an own goal.

There are, however, other techniques you can use to make your shots more precise or more dangerous when you’re at the goal area. Below, we’ll explain how to shoot better shots in Rematch, to improve how many goals you score.

How to improve your shots in Rematch

Since it allows you to kick the ball stronger than a regular pass, the Shoot command also allows you to send the ball to the furthest sections of the field. But the most important usage of this command is when trying to score a goal and you want to have more than one strategy to use your shots and secure a point.

Below, you find the best ways to improve your shots in Rematch:

Manage your strength and angle

The Shoot command is the only one that Rematch gives you control over. You can determine not only where the ball is supposed to go, buthow strong it will be and the angle it will follow. To master those, you must learn to read the game’s interface.

When you press the Shoot command, the usual two brackets that function as your aim become a full circle with a small dot in the center. The circle’s thickness represents the strength you’re putting in your shot, while the dot indicates the angle.

The longer you hold the command, the thicker the line becomes. By learning to manage the strength of your shot, you can perform better longer passes or be more precise when shooting for the goal.

Now, if you want to change the angle and make the ball turn a bit in the air,you need to move the right stick on the controller or the mouse toward the direction you want the ball to go while you hold the Shoot command. Doing so will make the small dot appear on the edge of the circle in the same direction you indicated.

Boost your shots with Extra Effort

When Rematch introduces Extra Effort, the game only explains that it boosts your speed for some time. It’s faster than regular sprinting and uses a different, but smaller, energy bar. A side effect of using Extra Effort is that your shots are stronger.

The general rule in Rematch is that your speed affects how far your passes and shots will go. A pass done while walking from midfield can’t go further than the goal area, but if you’re sprinting, it will enter the goal. The effect of Extra Effort on your shots follows the same idea.

Since you’re as fast as possible when in Extra Effort, you can hit harder and make the goalkeeper’s job a true nightmare. Just be careful to not lose the ball when activating Extra Effort because your character performs a light push, putting the ball a little bit ahead of you.

Use volleys, and don’t give the other team time to defend

Performing a volley involves kicking the ball while it is in the air, usually during a cross. Intercepting the ball is not only cool — your character will make a stylish pose to hit it — but extremely useful because it makes the whole play faster and more difficult for the defense to prepare.

To land a volley, the ball needs to be in the air. You can either wait for another teammate to cross it or shoot it onto the wall to raise the ball and set the play.

Regardless of how you put the ball in the air, the next step is to press the Shoot command at the right moment. You want to wait until blue light brackets appear around the ball and quickly press the Shoot command to perform the volley.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

2002’s 28 Days Later objectively revitalized the zombie genre through fast-paced action and human drama. In fact, director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) and writer Alex Garland (Civil War) inspired so many imitators that it’s hard to believe there could be more life to wring out of the survivors of a viral apocalypse being hunted by the infected. Yet with 28 Years Later, Boyle and Garland have once again produced a remarkable, surreal film by stretching and evolving the genre’s tropes.

A bit of opening text explaining that the Rage Virus had been eradicated on continental Europe and contained to Great Britain is all the acknowledgement 28 Years Later gives to the unimpressive 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later. Garland’s script for the new movie keeps the focus extremely tight, following Spike (Alfie Williams), a 12-year-old living on an island accompanying his dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson)) on a ritualistic zombie-hunting mission to the mainland.

The first trailer for 28 Years Laterterrified viewers by juxtaposing unsettling imagery of the initial fall of Britain and the survivors’ island haven, set to Taylor Holmes’ 1915 recording of the Rudyard Kipling military poem “Boots,” which is so eerie it’s been used to teach soldiers to endure psychological trauma. The edit was not just a clever marketing play, as the poem is used in the movie with a mix of footage depicting the defense of Britain from medieval castles through the World Wars to portray Spike and Jamie’s mission as just the latest chapter in a long story of young men marching off to find glory and ostensibly protect their homeland. The repetitive nature of the poem, and the film’s montage of how Spike’s island home has prepared him for his coming-of-age hunt, makes for one of the rare cases where seeing a trailer actually enhances the moviegoing experience rather than spoiling it.

There’s something even more universal in Spike’s story than that of a young soldier marching off to prove his courage. 28 Years Later is a classic British family drama plopped into the middle of the post-apocalypse. Spike gets his first glimpse of the larger world around him and becomes a man not through killing but by discovering the flaws and mortality of his parents. While Jamie has pushed Spike to go to the mainland years earlier than his peers to enjoy the glory of the accomplishment, Spike doesn’t care about being celebrated: he just wants to help his mother Isla (Jodie Comer of Killing Eve) who is afflicted by a mysterious ailment that has left her bedridden and delusional. Williams does a tremendous job despite his age, skillfully walking the line between boy and man as he alternates between wanting to curl up in bed and make silly faces with his mom and trying to protect her from both monsters and hard truths.

Jamie guiding Spike through a dangerous world recalls the terror of Cillian Murphy’s bicycle courier waking from a coma in 28 Weeks Later. While that film’s haunting opening focused on the eerieness of empty urban environments, 28 Years Later sees the island rewilded, populated by massive herds of deer and roving packs of infected as if Britain had been transported back to prehistoric times. Like Garland’s Annihilationthis is a place of horror and beauty. A scene where Jamie and Spike run across a flooded causeway beneath the aurora borealis and a massive flock of crows is as tense as it is awe-inspiring in its empty majesty.

Boyle plays with time and perspective in a way reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s work, blending flashbacks, dreams, hallucinations and the disturbing present like puzzle pieces that eventually snap together to reveal what is going on. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, who utilized an extreme wide-scoped iPhone camera rig to nod to the original miniDV digital sheen, will zoom in on a dripping liquid, skillfully building tension long before it’s revealed just why it’s so ominous. A sharp cut to a unit of soldiers on the run from the infected at first feels like it belongs in an earlier entry in the franchise before the plot crashes into Spike’s story for a hilarious interlude.

Just when the setting starts to feel comprehensible, the stranded Swedish sailor Erik (Edvin Ryding of Young Royals) provides an alternative perspective of how messed up things are and a very different model of the young man leaving home for a greater cause. The discordant notes largely work, with the exception of the very end, which while heavily telegraphed goes beyond 28 Years Later’s earlier dark humor to an absurdism that feels more reminiscent of Boyle’s Trainspotting. It’s clearly meant to set up for the next film in the planned trilogy, but it would have been better as a post-credits to let Boyle and Garland’s moody, very standalone film breathe a bit more.

One of the biggest innovations 28 Days Later made to the genre is shifting from George A. Romero’s lumbering walking dead to zombies so fast their movements are practically a blur of blood and death. Boyle and Garland have it both ways here, with bulbous, boil-ridden crawling zombies that mostly lumber along the ground sucking up earthworms but still can produce the creeping dread as they move towards the unaware with the inevitability of ambush predators. They’re a dramatic contrast to the vicious Alphas, pack leaders that make even veteran hunters like Jamie run for their lives (and who Boyle shoots in all their bloody, relentless, full-frontal glory).

The nature-film aesthetic is also utilized in night vision footage of the infected feasting and reinforced by Ralph Fiennes’ possibly mad Dr. Ian Kelson showing up to refer to a giant infected holding a man’s spinal column like a primatologist talking about one of their favorite silverbacks. Fiennes is always tremendous as an actor, and he makes the most of his brief appearance here as a strangely stoic yet genial presence in a world gone mad.

28 Days Later’s successors like I Am Legend, The Girl with All the Gifts and The Last of Us have also focused on the ways the initial infection evolves, but 28 Years Later stands apart by never searching for a larger cure or answers. Like the original, the film is firmly rooted in deeply personal drama, focusing on the questions of how to remember the dead and what human endeavors will stand the test of time. One of the many evocative and uncommented on shots of the film features a church spraypainted with an apocalyptic message, tagged with the name of a man who presumably came long after. 28 Years Later argues that the world is always ending for someone – what matters is how you handle the end and whatever comes next.

28 Years Later premieres in theaters on July 20.

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