Jim Butcher has been writing The Dresden Files books for over 25 years now. I first started reading this series back in the early 2000s and found myself immediately enamored with story and overall vibe. It's got magic, it's got mystery, and it's all wrapped up in a neat little detective format that is hard to put down. If you're looking for some contemporary fantasy to binge read, I highly recommend diving into this series.
As of January 20, 2026 The Dresden Files has 18 novels in the series. The latest title, Twelve Months, has finally arrived almost six years after the previous entry.
I would consider myself a fan of The Dresden Files but I'll be the first to admit that I don't really remember what happened back in book 17. This six year gap between books is the longest break we've ever had and it has me seriously considering starting the series all over again before reading Twelve Months. Whether you're new to the series or just diving back in after a while, here's a quick rundown of the series reading order so far:
Unfortunately, The Dresden Files books are not currently available as part of a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
For those who don't remember where exactly we are in Harry Dresden's story for Twelve Months, you can check out the official synopsis from the Penguin Random House website:
"One year. 365 days. Twelve months.
Harry Dresden has been through a lot, and so has his city. After Harry and his allies narrowly managed to save Chicago from being razed to the ground, everything is different—and it’s not just the current lack of electricity.
In the battle, Harry lost people he cared about. And that’s the kind of loss that takes a toll. Harry being Harry, he’s doing his level best to help the city and his friends recover and rebuild. But it’s a heavy load, and he needs time.
But time is one thing Harry doesn’t have. Ghouls are prowling Chicago and taking out innocent civilians. Harry’s brother is dying, and Harry doesn’t know how to help him. And last but certainly not least, the Winter Queen of the Fae has allied with the White Court of vampires—and Harry’s been betrothed to the seductive, deadly vampire Lara Raith to seal the deal.
It’s been a tough year. More than ever, the city needs Harry Dresden the wizard—but after loss and grief, is there enough left of Harry Dresden the man to rise to the challenge?"
Although we had to wait almost six years for book 18, it's looking like there's going to be less of a wait for book 19. We don't yet have a release date for the next entry in the series, but we do already have a title from the author himself. According to the upcoming works section of Jim Butcher's website, the next title in the series is Mirror Mirror. The Goodreads page for the book says it's expected at some point in 2027, which may mor may not be accurate.
That's currently all that's planned for this series as of right now. As much as I'd like a redo of the absolutely terrible Dresden Files TV show that came out back in 2007, it doesn't seem like any such thing is in the works.
Sony's InZone Buds have a lot going for them: they're good-looking, lightweight and designed to deliver immersive sound when gaming on PlayStation 5 and PC. These Buds aren't cheap, typically priced from $150 to $200 a few years after launch, but that could be worth it for a great pair of cross-platform, low-latency and truly wireless in-ears. Unfortunately, there are some (small) red flags here too - including restrictive Bluetooth support that prevents use with some popular phones and a charging case that lacks some creature comforts. The overall package is competitive, though, and these Buds still rank among the best gaming earbuds we've tested.
They're very Sony, aren't they? Their shiny white coating, overengineered corners and severe angles could only belong to gaming earbuds, and while I don't adore the aesthetic I admire the boldness. They're made for using at home, so why play it safe?
The case is chunkier than for most earbuds but given they're gaming buds you shouldn't be transporting them every day, and they will still fit in your pocket when needed.
It feels disappointingly cheap: the buds and receiver dongle wiggle even after they've snapped into place inside the case, and the lid is a bit wobbly, as if the hinges need tightening. Nothing fell out, and it won't open of its own accord, but I'd expect something sturdier at this price.
The same applies to the USB-C transmitter dongle, which you plug into your PC, PS5, Switch or Steam Deck. It worked wonderfully for low-latency audio and it never dropped connection (more on that later in the review), but it feels thin and flimsy.
When plugged in it will move side to side if you nudge it, and I was constantly scared I'd accidentally knock into it and snap it. That's less of an issue if it's plugged into your PS5, but could be a problem on handheld consoles or on a PC that's not tucked out of the way.
Thankfully, the InZone Buds redeem themselves when you put them in your ear.
The fit is slightly looser than most earbuds because they don't extend far into your ear canal, but they never felt like they were going to fall off, and it makes them comfortable. The tips never irritated my ear, even when I took them off and put them on repeatedly. I wore them constantly, including for six hours at a time, without once needing a break – an excellent sign.
The whole point of these buds is low-latency audio when you're gaming, avoiding the normal delays of Bluetooth. They deliver wholeheartedly: I couldn't notice a delay, even a small one, between what happened on screen and my ears. It's something of a novelty to have low-latency wireless audio, and for me that novelty doesn't wear off.
The buds never dropped connection to the USB dongle, and always paired instantly.
And these earbuds sound great whether you're gaming or listening to music. The audio is balanced and rich: on music and podcasts, vocals sounded natural and nothing was overemphasized. Bass thumps without overwhelming you.
They house the same drivers as the Sony WF1000XM5, some of the best-sounding earbuds money can buy – if I'm picking nits, then these buds sounds slightly less precise and immediate because of the looser fit in your ear, but it's a negligible difference. You won't get the same immersive soundstage as high-end over-ear headphones, but they're more than good enough for most people.
I played Arc Raiders and Fortnite on PC to test directionality and clarity, and both Astrobot and Ghosts of Tsushima on PS5, to see how cinematic they sounded while gaming.
No matter what I was playing, I loved what I was hearing: in Arc Raiders, explosions were deep and booming, and I could easily distinguish between multiple sets of footsteps, door breaches, and gunshots happening at the same time. The cutesy plink-plink of Astrobot's sound effects was lively and crisp, and the background music of Ghosts of Tsushima was urgent, enveloping, atmospheric.
I was particularly impressed with their directionality in shooters: in Arc Raiders I could always tell exactly where a nearby enemy was from their footsteps.
The active noise cancelling was just fine. It blocked out quieter sounds around my house, like the hum of my dishwasher. The looser fit, however, allows more sound to passively leak in compared to, say, Sony's E9 In-Ear Monitors, which I recently reviewed. But ultimately I only noticed when I was wearing them with no sound, and it didn't make me enjoy the InZone Buds any less because when I loaded a game and turned the volume up, I felt like I could slip into my own world.
The ambient sound mode – a transparency mode – is supposed to let in background noise, which to me is more important than noise cancelling for at-home earbuds. When I'm gaming I might want to listen for the doorbell, or hear somebody call for me in the next room. But even when I turned ambient noise up to maximum using the InZone Hub, I couldn't hear somebody talking 10 feet from me when I was playing a game at 50% volume.
It's annoying but, on balance, a minor gripe in the context of the excellent low-latency audio.
These buds' battery life is one of their biggest strengths. Sony advertises 12 hours before they need to return to the case and I got close to that, hitting more than 11 hours each time. In wireless earbuds terms that is a marathon, longer than every other device on our best gaming earbuds list.
They lack both fast and wireless charging, and the case itself holds less charge than competitors – but the single-charge lifespan makes up for it. Whenever I finished a long session, I plugged in the buds and knew they'd last as long as I needed them to next time.
For software, the InZone Buds are supposed to work with two different programs: the InZone Hub on PC and the Sound Connect app on smartphones. I say "supposed to" because I couldn't get the app to work on my phone.
The buds connected to my Android phone via Bluetooth LE fine, and I enjoyed watching YouTube and listening to music, but for whatever reason Sony's app couldn't find them, so I couldn't adjust EQ levels or tweak any settings. I reinstalled the app and reset the buds with no joy. Sony's online support isn't much help and it's all badged with "Headphones Connect" – a previous name for the app, which doesn't give me much confidence.
And as I mentioned in the intro, regular Bluetooth is not supported, so they'll only connect to your phone if it supports Bluetooth LE. They also won't connect to your Switch or Steam Deck without the dongle, which is annoying: I'm fine playing more casual games, such as Balatro, with a bit of Bluetooth latency, but that's not an option with the InZone Buds.
The PC-only InZone Hub is intuitive and packed with options, giving you more customization than most earbuds. The equalizer presets seem smart (I mainly used one that boosts footsteps and gunshots), and you can tweak the dynamic range to make quieter sounds easier to hear.
The "Spatial Sound" is designed to give you a 3D effect and I played with it on at all times. I felt it gave me a slight advantage knowing where my opponents were, without compromising the audio quality.
Sound field personalization and sound tone personalization tune your audio through hearing tests and photos of your ears. For me they sounded different, but not noticeably better – although I can't begrudge Sony layering more customization onto buds that are already generous in their settings.
Lastly, you can adjust your microphone volume and even let it adjust automatically based on what else is happening. The mic was loud by default and all my teammates could hear me clearly, but my voice was slightly cracklier than with a dedicated microphone. That's to be expected with earbuds.
Sadly, you cannot use the InZone Hub anywhere other than PC, which makes them feel like PC-first earbuds, although the default set-up still sounded good on my PS5, Steam Deck, and Switch.
Samuel is a freelance reporter and editor specializing in longform journalism and hardware reviews. You can read his work at his website.
Ever consider replacing your gaming headset with a pair of earbuds? Here's a chance to do so on the cheap. For a limited time, Steelseries has dropped the price of its blemished box Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds for PlayStation 5 or PC to just $125.99 with free shipping (normally $200 new) after you apply a 10% off coupon code "EXTRA10". This is lowest price I've seen for the best dedicated gaming earbuds of 2025, even beating out Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
I don't see as many gaming-specific earbuds as I do gaming headsets. In fact, this is Steelseries' first product release in the category. The package includes a wireless 2.4GHz USB-c dongle that you plug into your PC or gaming console for reduced latency compared to using standard Bluetooth earbuds. Each earbud contains a 6mm neodymium magnetic driver that can simulate bass and spatial audio effects. No headset is complete without a built-in microphone, and the Gamebuds has a decent one, although not nearly as good as an extendable boom mic.
Previously, only PC gamers could take advantage of custom audio presets through the Steelseries GG software, but now console gamers can do the same through the Steelseries Arctis Companion mobile app.
The Gamebuds can be used outside of gaming, of course. Like any good pair of in-ear buds at this price point, the Gamebuds features Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and active noise cancellation. Three different sized eartips are included for a more customized fit. The battery lasts about 10 hours and the charging case extends it to 40 hours.
I have a pair of these myself and quite like it. I prefer these over standard headphones on hotter days, because my ears sweat profusely when I use traditional over-ear headsets. Not so with these Gamebuds.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
It's been another big year for Netflix. Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters, Frankenstein, Wake Up Dead Man, and a lot more kept audiences glued to the streaming service in spite of price increases and the addition of ad tiers. It was enough to draw even more new subscribers to Netflix by the end of 2025, up 23 million from the last data we got from Netflix a year ago, when the subscriber numbers were at 302 million.
Netflix reported its full-year earnings for the 2025 fiscal year today, reporting $45.2 billion in revenue for the full year (up 16% year-over-year), and with ad revenue rising over 2.5x to over $1.5 billion. View hours were up 2% year-over-year, and total subscribers were at 325 million.
It's especially notable to be getting subscriber numbers of any kind, as Netflix announced it would no longer be reporting these numbers beginning with fiscal 2025, and we haven't heard updates since last January. But it's clear that Netflix has a lot to brag about this year, given that its strategy of price hikes and ad tiers seems to have, annoyingly, worked out well for them.
This comes as Netflix prepares to, pending approvals, acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $82.7 billion. As discussions proceed, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has pledged to keep Warner Bros. films exclusively in theaters for 45 days, saying, “When this deal closes, we will own a theatrical distribution engine that is phenomenal and produces billions of dollars of theatrical revenue that we don’t want to put at risk. We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows. I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office.”
Also as a part of the Netflix numbers today, we learned that the company has been amping up its AI use internally, implementing AI systems for subtitle localization, ad customization, and more. It's an unsurprising move after Netflix already announced it would implement AI-generated ad breaks this year, and after its co-CEOs remarked in 2024 that audiences "don't care much" about what technology delivers their TV and film.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Fortnite appears to be getting The Office content in Chapter 7 after rumors suggested Epic Games was working on a crossover.
Fans of TV and video games were thrown for a loop earlier today when Epic shared a not-so-cryptic tease on social media. It’s the kind of thing that would seem completely nonsensical to the uninitiated, but those who are even peripherally aware of the NBC comedy will recognize “Build. Beets. Battle Royale.” as a reference to one of the most memorable quotes from The Office.
Build. Beets. Battle Royale. pic.twitter.com/erCDcS0ZSS
— Fortnite (@Fortnite) January 20, 2026
A meeting between Fortnite and The Office, though never considered to be impossible, is unexpected, but some recent rumors had players believing confirmation was only a matter of time. Popular Fortnite content creator Shiina said they heard The Office could soon show up just last week. At the time, they suggested a rumor about “a nostalgic duo from a live-action TV series” was tied to the show but neglected to share more.
Which members of the Dunder Mifflin crew could be recreated in Epic’s battle royale mega-hit remains a mystery, but references to names like Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert, and Pam Beesly seem the most likely. It’s also unclear when exactly we’ll learn more about the potential Fortnite crossover, but some fans are already taking the tease as an opportunity to share their excitement.
— Jorge_Most (@Jorge_Most) January 20, 2026
— FNAssist (@FN_Assist) January 20, 2026
Shiina, meanwhile, has already posted an update since the Fortnite The Office tease reared its head. Their new video comes with the suggestion that the classic workplace comedy is coming soon, with content for Regular Show and Ed, Edd n Eddy also in the works at Epic. Players may want to take all of today’s information with a grain of salt, but with Fortnite’s track record for wild crossovers in mind, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Fortnite launched into Chapter 7 in November with an Avenger-style team-up event. Crossovers added since then include skins for Kim Kardashian, Bleach, and South Park. We’ll hopefully learn more about everything included in The Office teaser in the near future.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
If you're in the market for a comfortable yet stylish gaming chair that won't break your budget, then check out Andaseat's New Year Sale, which runs through the end of the month. AndaSeat, one of the more well-known gaming chair companies - is offering discounts of up to $150 off its popular Kaiser and Novis gaming chairs that stacks with our 10% off IGN exclusive coupon code "AndaIGN". This chairs are stocked in US warehouses and are usually delivered within a week. Good ergonomic office chairs are comfortable, sure, but they're expensive and look pretty boring. These racing-style chairs complement the gamer aesthetic while still offering the comfort you need for those multi-hour sessions.
The Kaiser 4 is AndaSeat's flagship chair. The price normally starts at $549 but the New Year Sale discount and IGN code drops it to $458.10. It has all of the build quality and creature comforts you'd expect in a premium quality gaming chair, like a unibody 2mm tubular steel frame with reinforced aluminum wheelbase, a generous amount of cold-cure high density foam for the seat bottom (a bit softer, in my experience, than the overly firm Secretlab seat), 24-degree pop-out lumbar with 4-way adjustability, 6D armrests, 135 degrees of recline with rocking toggle, included magnetic armrests, headrest, and more. This chair sounds a lot like the Titan Evo, and you'd be right; the design, features, build quality, and materials are pretty similar, but for nearly $130 less.
New to Andaseat's lineup since October of 2025 is the Kaiser 3E, which is a more economical model that retains the build quality and most of the features of Andaseat's top end Kaiser series. The Kaiser 3E is catered towards anyone who wants a high-end gaming chair but wants to keep a budget of around $400. The base model usually starts at $409, but the New Year Sale discount and IGN code drops it to $323.10.
The Kaiser 3E features the same upholstery options, cold cure form, and unibody metal frame as the Kaiser 4 with either a steel or aluminum wheelbase depending on the size you get. You also get lumbar support, although with fewer adjustment options, and a magnetic headrest. The other feature you do lose out on are 4D armrests (instead of 6D), but that's it.
Released in early 2025, the Andaseat Novis gaming chair is for the truly budget-minded. It normally retails for an already great price of $249 – but it's down to $206.10 after the New Year Sale discount and IGN code. The Novis boasts excellent build quality, upholstery, and cold cure foam cushioning as the higher end models, which make it just as comfortable to sit in. It does, however, have a stripped down featureset, like a non-adjustable lumbar system, 2D armrests, a nylon wheelbase (for the smaller size), and less aggressive styling. It also doesn't include the headrest.
If you don't care for the distinct styling of gaming chairs, Andaseat also carries a line of task chairs dubbed the X-Air and X-Air Pro with some innovate features of their own. Unlike the hard mesh found on most office chairs, the X-Air features a softer suede-like material that feels more comfortable against bare skin, so it's even ok to wear shorts. The Pro model also comes in a couple of unique colorways that you probably won't find anywhere else. As befits a good task chair, the X-Air offers plenty of adjustability options as well as dynamic lumbar adjustment, 5D armrests, and a 3D headrest.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Netflix has confirmed plans ramp up AI use at the company, with plans to expand its tools for subtitle localization and advertisement creation for its subscribers in 2026.
The streaming giant touched on its plans for the new year as part of the Q4 2025 earnings report published today. While some of its programming plans remain under wraps, the company says audiences can expect artificial intelligence to play a larger role in its content rollout in the months ahead.
Netflix’s doubling down on AI follows its experimentation with the controversial technology in 2025. Examples of planned internal tools include the creation of custom ads, subtitle localization, and merchandising, all of which subscribers can expect more of in 2026.
“We continue to harness AI to enhance the experience for our members, and we’re expanding these capabilities to support our creative teams and advertisers,” Netflix said. “In 2025, we began testing new AI tools to help advertisers create custom ads based on Netflix’s intellectual property, and we plan to build on this progress in 2026. We also introduced automated workflows for ad concepts and used advanced AI models to streamline campaign planning, significantly speeding up these processes.”
“In content production and promotion, we’re using AI to improve subtitle localization, making it easier for our titles to reach more viewers around the world. Additionally, we’re implementing AI-driven tools to help with merchandising, which improves our ability to connect members with the most relevant titles for them to watch.”
Custom ads have and will impact those in Netflix’s $7.99/month “Standard with ads” tier more than those in the Standard and Premium tiers, though how the company plans to “build” on AI use in this regard remains unclear. Subtitles generated with AI support, however, could affect every tier Netflix watcher, regardless of their subscription level.
The streamer’s interest in AI-generated content isn’t much of a surprise. Last May, it confirmed plans to integrate the technology into its midroll and pause ads by 2026. Just a few months later, the company commented on how viewers feel about artificial intelligence, saying that audiences “probably don’t care much about budgets, and arguably not even about the technology used to deliver it,” at the time.
Meanwhile, Netflix said today that it amassed an additional 23 million subscribers through 2025. With reporting from last January putting its total count at 302 million, today’s update has it at around 325 million.
For more on Netflix, you can check out our explainer on all of its available prices and plans. You can also see how its plan to purchase Warner Bros. could impact movie theaters in the future.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
HP has the best deal around on an RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop as reported earlier, but you can also make this deal work with an upgraded RTX 5080 GPU as well. Right now HP is offering the OMEN MAX 16 RTX 5080 gaming laptop for just $1,929.99 when you add any HyperX accessory to the same order. You also get free shipping. The RTX 5080 is an absolute monster of a mobile GPU that surpasses the previous generation's top performer, the RTX 4090.
Follow these directions to get this deal:
* Note that I'd recommend upgrading to the 2560x1600 OLED display for +$130.
You can add any HyperX accessory and get the $150 discount. It doesn't have to be the item I selected, which I only chose because it was the cheapest item I could find. There are dozens to choose from.
The OMEN MAX 16 is an upgrade to the OMEN both in terms of build quality and cooling potential. The OMEN MAX 16 is almost entirely constructed of aluminum, including both the top lid and chassis. The exception is the palm rest, which is still plastic so that it doesn't get too toasty for your hands. The OMEN MAX 16 also features a new Tempest Cooling Pro design that combines vapor chamber cooling, redesigned fan configuration, and an improved thermal interface material to maximize heat transfer. Not only does this keep the laptop cooler during gaming marathons, it also allows for the current-generation graphics cards to perform optimally without throttling.
The OMEN MAX 16 offers a robust cooling design that allows it to accomodate a more powerful GPU like the RTX 5080 without throttling it. The RTX 5080 mobile GPU is roughly 15%-20% more powerful than the RTX 4080 mobile GPU that it replaces. In fact, it's slightly more powerful than the RTX 4090, which was the previous generation's flagship card. You should be able to run any game out there at consistent 60+ fps framerates even if you decide to upgrade to the higher resolution 2560x1600 OLED display.
Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.
Anime is awesome. Board games are also awesome. Put the two together, and you get tabletop fun that not only shows off some of the hottest anime series out there, but can also capture the wild nature of the animated media and their associated tropes.
While there are plenty of games that have animed-themed versions like Naruto Monopoly or Dragonball Z Yahtzee, this list instead focuses on games that use the IPs they feature as a theme rather than simply being an anime reskin, and games that do a great job in replicating the look, feel, or tropes of this beloved art form.
Just as a side note before we get into the list itself, this will only feature board games and won’t go into the plethora of solid anime TCGs that exist, like Digimon and One Piece, or TTRPGs either. Those are out there, and I recommend seeking those out, too, if that is more your style.
Fast-paced matches with hot-looking anime characters, each with dynamic and unique mechanics? Sign me up! Re;Act from Brother Ming Games puts players in the roles of artists who've been granted powers based on their respective art forms and are pitted against one another in a 1v1 showdown. Described as “Yugioh meets chess” by the creator Ming Yang Lu, where the importance of positioning from chess crosses over with the interrupts and actions of Yugioh, where you will declare your intentions by playing a card before allowing the opponent to play a reaction, acting akin to a trap card. From super-powered Calligraphers to Dancers, Animators, and Painters, Re;Act: The Arts of War is shonen anime in a box and a blast to play.
Crack packs, build decks, and outfit yourself with the coolest deckbox out there in Millennium Blades – a board game about competing in a card game. Players are pro TCG players who are all vying to win the most points by doing well in the game’s three tournaments. Outside of the actual tournaments, which see you playing cards to score points, there are real-time trading and buying phases where you will trade cards with other players or the store, and buy packs of cards using Monopoly-esque money.
Just like the real world, the meta of the game will change as the game progresses and force you to adjust your approach and swap out cards. There are so many clever nods and homages to other games and anime that give Millennium Blades a wonderful identity, but don’t let its silliness fool you – it's a tense and highly strategic game with plenty of content, so you'll never play the same game twice.
This may be splitting hairs a bit since TECHNICALLY, Power Rangers, aka Super Sentai, isn’t anime, but their motif and idea can be found in plenty of anime, and Super Sentai and its sibling Kamen Rider are just as much a part of Japan's entertainment history as anime, and so Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid is on this list.
Heroes of the Grid is a cooperative boss battler in which the Ranger players attempt to take out the chosen monster of the week and big bad like Rita Repulsa before their forces overwhelm Angel Grove. Each Ranger has a unique deck and the respective zords they play with to get the job done, and with the plethora of expansions this game has, you can use your favorite ranger teams and villains. Heroes of the Grid is a great co-op board game with teamwork and strategy being front and center. It's sure to delight Power Ranger fans.
One of the most stylish anime fighting games of the modern video game generation is the Guilty Gear series by Arc System Works. The same anime flair carries over into the board game adaptation, Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game, which was released last year.
This 1v1 dueling game features 20 characters from Strive, each with their own decks to play that highlight the styles and moves from the video game counterpart. It uses the Exceed card game system, so positioning of your character is crucial in Strive with attacks requiring different spacing to pull off and rewards keeping the momentum and pressure on. Set-up is fast and matches are over quickly, making this a great quick board game to act as a filler between bigger ones or playing a bunch of rounds. Like we said in our review, this game captures not only the look of the source material but also what we love about fighting games. Fans of Guilty Gear or of fast-paced card games will find something to like with Guilty Gear Strive: The Board Game.
Perfect for anime conventions or parties with friends, One Piece: Luffy’s Bento Panic is a silly party game based on the hit anime featuring Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, and the rest of the Straw Hat Pirates. In Bento Panic, players take on the role of their favorite Straw Hat and celebrate a recent victory in the best way they know how – with a feast! Sitting in a circle, using their hands, all at once, players show a different gesture to declare their action from their turn, either pulling food tokens from the blind bag, stealing food from a neighbor, blocking a steal, or eating food. Points are scored by eating sets of food tokens, with the game only ending when Luffy wakes from his food coma a third time. Luffy’s Bento Panic makes a great party board game, since everyone takes their turn at once. And like we mentioned in our review, even folks who aren’t necessarily fans of One Piece will have a good time with this one.
For nearly as long as anime has existed, super robots and combining robots have been a part of it. AEGIS Combining Robots: Second Ignition lets players assemble teams, led by powerful Commanders with special abilities, of mecha from five different classes – Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel and Support – and duke it out to try and be the team that comes out on top.
While the mechs are strong by themselves, things really heat up when they start combining, turning the game from a strategic tactics game into something reminiscent of the fights out of GunBuster or GaoGaiGear. Manage your energy and pick the right time to combine your bots and grasp victory. For folks who prefer a more cooperative approach, additional modes are included, letting you and a friend take on buffed boss bots that will put your teamwork to the test.
With 100+ mecha, each with its own skill loadout and standee, AEGIS gives you plenty of options for how to make your team, and Second Ignition is compatible with the first game, AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game, which just saw a reprint, giving you even more options. Fans of mecha and tactic games should give AEGIS a look.
As crew members of the spaceship Bebop, in Cowboy Bebop: Space Serenade, you play as bounty hunters racing to take down nefarious criminals, all based on the legendary anime Cowboy Bebop. Space Serenade is a semi-cooperative deck builder that's reminiscent of games like Star Realms, where you play cards for their resources and effects to buy new ones to add to your deck or to try and capture your targets.
Each of the four playable characters from the show – Spike, Ed, Faye, and Jet – comes with a set of cards special to them in addition to the generic ones that compose your starting hand. From there, it's a race to collect bounties and earn victory points to prove that you are the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. This game features plastic miniatures of your characters and cards depicting scenes from the anime, creating an authentic and fun deck builder for fans of the genre and source material.
Adopting the shoot-’em-up genre of video games for the tabletop, the Bullet series puts you in the role of different anime-like heroes as you avoid quickly approaching bullets and survive long enough to be the last one standing. The Bullet series is a real-time, pattern-matching puzzle game, and instead of shooting at the other players, you frantically attempt to remove the incoming bullets from reaching their own life points.
Over the course of three-minute rounds, players blindly pull bullet tokens from their bags and spend action points to help rearrange the tokens on their boards into patterns that allow bullets to be destroyed. At the end off each round, the destroyed bullets are moved to the player on their left to be added to the mix, similar to dropping Tetris blocks on your opponent. Bullet is a fast-paced game whose real-time countdown component and puzzle-based gameplay make it a refreshing anime addition to your board game shelf.
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians concludes its 8-episode second season on Disney+ tomorrow. And now, the show’s composer is revealing that he took inspiration from one of the most legendary names in movie music: John Williams.
Bear McCreary, who’s also scored major series like Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D along with video games God of War, Forspoken, and Call of Duty, Vanguard, says his work on Percy Jackson follows in the footsteps of the “big and orchestral” music created by Williams.
I spoke with McCreary about his work on Percy Jackson and the Olympians and asked if he was trying to innovate when creating music for the series.
“Innovative is not what I was going for,” McCreary says. “I'm writing in this sort of traditional John Williams kind of style. John Williams wrote Star Wars when he was 44 and he was not trying to innovate. He was trying to reference what he grew up with. So he wanted to share with the world the music that he and George Lucas loved when they were kids. It was big orchestral thematic music. That was 50 years ago."
“When I am writing music that is big and orchestral, I'm writing the music of my childhood so that kids who are tuning into Percy Jackson at age between 5 and 10 who don't know Indiana Jones musically - they aren't as familiar with these sounds as we are. And so I realized enough time has passed [and] I would love to share with kids today how much I love the music I grew up on, as John Williams shared with kids in the '70s how much he loved the music he grew up on. So oddly, innovation was the last thing on my mind.”
McCreary, who also composes the score for the Prime Video series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, says that writing themes for Percy Jackson was not quite as difficult as creating music for Middle-earth.
“There was a lot of ideating [with Percy Jackson],” McCreary says. “Not as much in comparison to Rings of Power simply because of the scale of the show. In the case of Percy, I had to write fewer themes out of the gate, but that doesn't mean there was less pressure on each theme to carry its weight. And the big question was whether it should sound like Greek instruments, because these are gods known from Greek mythology. I'm glad I had time to play with that.”
McCreary says that even though the music from Percy Jackson and the Olympians has roots in epic cinema, he still wanted to make sure the show’s themes resonated with modern audiences.
“We were very much telling a modern story about modern kids,” McCreary says. “And there's a lot of modern sounds. But fundamentally, it's a very thematic, old school score. And I would say the trifecta of the three main character themes - Percy, Grover, and Annabeth - are all delightful in a way. Percy is this classical hero theme. Grover is the classic comedic sidekick character theme, and Annabeth is like this ‘lyrical potential love interest down the line’ theme. It’s delightful for me to get to play around with those tropes.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is streaming on Disney+.
Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
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