The whole world may have been waiting for Hollow Knight: Silksong’s cocoon to finally crack open, but it sure doesn’t seem to have been burdened by that pressure. This excellent sequel to an all-time great has more than managed to live up to the high expectations I had set for it, standing as both a smart continuation of the original Hollow Knight and a fantastic game of its own. It stays close to the formula that made its predecessor so impressive, but still reshapes, refines, and revamps just about every aspect of it in ways both big and small. Silksong is unapologetically challenging, endlessly creative, and impressively thoughtful across both its gorgeous world and the stories that are told there. The metamorphosis may have taken almost a decade, but this butterfly has emerged as one of the biggest and boldest around.

If you never played Hollow Knight, the main thing you need to know is that you seriously missed out, and may want to go back and do that first. It’s a masterpiece of a 2D platformer, filled to the brim with action, exploration, and oodles of interesting lore. Silksong follows in its footsteps but doesn’t require you to have played the original, though it is certainly enhanced by having done so – both because the story has plenty of great little callbacks and references to catch, but also because it feels like an evolution of what Hollow Knight was doing mechanically. It sticks so close to the original’s style and structure, in fact, that a little bit of the sheer surprise has admittedly worn away. But that doesn’t stop it from hiding mysteries, delights, and unexpected twists all over the place that a Hollow Knight fan like myself treasured discovering.

Regardless, your journey across the brand-new world of Pharloom as the wise and confident Hornet stands on its own merits. Hornet is an excellent hero, taken to this land against her will at the start and then driven to do the right thing for its people once she finds out why. I don’t want to spend this whole review comparing what’s changed from Hollow Knight line by line (we’d be here all day), but the difference in tone with her in the driver’s seat, as opposed to your silent Knight, is a big one, and a decision that largely works to Silksong’s benefit.

Hornet is polite but stern, reserved but not cold, and the top-notch writing throughout lets you get to know her through conversations with a charming cast of bug-based characters I grew to love. They range from adorable to goofy to genuinely touching, with standouts like the singing pilgrim Sherma running that whole gamut over the course of their own personal arcs. The larger story is made more explicit as a result of Hornet being able to talk, clearly spelling out the “why” of this journey and certain key events in a way that really worked for me. I found I was more engaged from the jump here than I am in most games where you have to spend hours in a wiki to understand what’s really happening – though there are still plenty of subtle mysteries hiding in the corners of this world for you to piece together yourself. As with so much of Silksong, it strikes a fantastic balance here.

Pharloom is a fascinating place as well: a dying land where hopeful bugs go on a pilgrimage from its lower levels all the way up to the shining peak of a spectacular cogwork city called The Citadel in blind service of their faith – though few actually survive the trek you now inadvertently find yourself on. One of the greatest strengths of games as a creative medium is how they can tie themes and actions together. For example, part of the reason I gave Celeste a 10 back in 2018 was because of how it made you experience Madeline’s struggle to overcome her own personal mountain by making you climb a literal one. Silksong pulls off a similar trick: it’s about being tested and overcoming, about leaving the world a better place than you found it even when that’s hard to do, and about persevering while still making time to give yourself grace in the face of defeat. You don’t need to read a single line of dialogue to feel those themes through the actions you are taking alone.

That’s because, just like Hollow Knight, Silksong will test you. This game is Tough with a capital T – although, the specific word I prefer to use is “challenging,” because it doesn’t just punch you in the face and kick you to the curb for the sake of being hard. It challenges you to overcome obstacles that routinely feel insurmountable at first but are finely tuned to be conquered as your skill, knowledge, and toolset of earned abilities improves. Perhaps an extreme example of this is an area like Bilewater, which has very few respawn benches to rest at and includes some of the most punishing poison water I’ve seen in any game, forcing you to cleanse yourself after falling in it by wasting your precious healing ability while also draining the resource that fuels that ability – a double whammy. I thought this area was unreasonably difficult to navigate when I first tried to force my way through it – but then I took a break, explored elsewhere, and returned hours later with new combat options, items to help mitigate that poison, and a better gameplan that made it a cakewalk.

Pharloom has so many branching paths and optional areas that its roadblocks were able to feel substantial without killing my momentum. If something was too challenging to take down with my current items, upgrades, or skillset, the knowledge that I’d almost always be rewarded for trying another path stopped me from ever getting too frustrated. Rather than slamming your head against every wall you come across, Silksong is best approached by letting it come to you as you move methodically and flow down the most appealing paths you find. Having the map pin system available at launch (as opposed to Hollow Knight, which added it in after the fact) is also a godsend that allows you to keep track of all those out-of-reach ledges and the roads you don’t immediately go down as you explore – and you’re never wasting time by picking the paths that call to you.

I was also routinely lifting my jaw off the floor every time I entered some visually stunning new area, almost all of which had incredible music to match. A vibrant coral canyon filled with flying bugs that look like fish; a blustering snowy peak that had me huddling for warmth; the golden halls of The Citadel itself; and the clockwork innards that power it. Silksong does the thing every great sequel should do: it looks how you remember Hollow Knight looking, but actually makes its predecessor seem flat by comparison. Every dial has been turned up to 11 – there’s more color, more sparkle, and more variety. And whenever I thought I had found the limits of this map, I’d stumble into another new area with its own ecosystem, secrets, and hostile bugs.

Those aggressive enemies and brutal boss fights follow the same “go with the flow” philosophy as the areas around them: if you face them like this is one of the more typical 3D action games Hollow Knight clearly takes some inspiration from, you might find yourself having a rough time. But if you treat Silksong as the platformer it really is, staying patient enough to focus on positioning while dodging and getting damage in where you can, then even its most savage enemies will start to melt. It has become a cliche to call combat a “dance” nowadays, but it truly is the best way to describe some of these encounters. Silksong isn’t the most mechanically nuanced action game in the world, but learning an enemy’s patterns as you fall into a rhythm of dodging a swing, dashing in for a hit, hopping to safety, and then repeating really does feel like a bit of blade-based choreography that rewards spatial awareness over button timings alone.

Another reason the haymakers Silksong throws do more to motivate than frustrate is because, in the grand scheme of difficult action games, this one is actually pretty dang forgiving. A lot of credit for that goes to the healing system, which lets you spend Silk (a resource you earn by hitting enemies) to recover a big chunk of health all at once. This might seem like it would incentivize aggression to gather more Silk, but it actually had me playing it safe and prioritizing precision above all else. If I was ever falling behind in a fight, it was always encouraging to know that I could potentially heal back up to full like nothing had gone wrong if I just stayed alive long enough to get a few pokes in. (Of course, that is sometimes easier said than done.)

Silksong’s big fights and the paths between them don’t mess around, but they generally make sure to put this lifeline within grabbing distance as well, leaving it to you to figure out how to reach out and seize it. Bosses have reliable windows to safely heal in, and platforming areas frequently throws weaker enemies at you that are designed to do little more than stock up your Silk, which gives you a reason to fight even these smaller foes – and to do so thoughtfully, because they may not threaten to kill you outright, but taking a reckless hit limits the relief they provide before some stronger foe lurking up ahead. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the areas with that poison water are pretty much the only ones where their more common enemies can respawn while you are still on the screen next to them – developer Team Cherry might test you with tall orders, but the means to meet them are always available somewhere.

As much as I love the way Silksong challenges me, there are some aspects of how Team Cherry has balanced the difficulty that can leave a sour taste in my mouth from time to time. To be clear, I think the tuning is impressively dialed in overall: outside of a couple late-game fights, I beat nearly every boss in a half dozen attempts or fewer, usually taking just two or three tries, which felt like a sweet spot in terms of providing pushback without ever making me want to throw down my controller. That said, it is a little jarring how many enemies and environmental hazards deal damage in chunks of two instead of one compared to the original Hollow Knight, often emphasized by two distinct hit sounds that make it seem like you’ve done something wrong to cause that extra pain. That can result in feel-bad moments even if the “difficulty” isn’t technically out of whack. Health upgrades also arrive so slowly that it’s a little discouraging when your life total is functionally cut in half by a boss that only deals damage in pairs (including just accidentally bumping into them sometimes).

A similarly rough feeling can be caused by a few areas that put their respawn benches extremely far apart, even turning a handful into “gotcha” traps that savagely pull the rug out from under you when you think you’ve finally found relief. I actually think those traps are hilarious, but desperately searching for a checkpoint when you are first exploring a new area teeters on the line between thrilling danger in uncharted territory and a “what am I doing wrong here?” sense of dread. However, this bench placement isn’t some mistake done without regard; just like a boss has to be learned and overcome, the challenge of the areas that use benches more sparingly is surviving to find one, and finally doing so is as satisfying as taking down any big bug. Silksong is a true-blue platformer at its heart, and mastering its precise movement options across devious, spike-covered obstacle courses was a real treat.

Reaching that mastery is supported by Silksong’s customization options, which expand on the original Hollow Knight and give you more ways to tune your playstyle to your liking. Here you can unlock Crests that change your basic attacks as if you were wielding an entirely new weapon – that might mean swapping the default diagonal downslash for the more vertically direct option provided by the Wanderer Crest, changing to the Beast Crest for a claw-based attack that turns your burst heal into temporary lifesteal, or – my personal favorite – using the Reaper Crest to gain access to wide-arcing attacks that knock extra Silk out of your foes after a heal. There’s not much incentive to swap between these Crests once you’ve found the one you are most comfortable with, but they all feel different enough to provide some genuine playstyle decisions.

The new Tool system that slots into these Crests is also flexible in a way I appreciated. In addition to equipable abilities that cost some Silk to use, all the Tools you find are split into three color-coded categories. Red Tools give you an additional, ammo-limited attack like a throwing knife or mid-air spike trap; blue Tools usually provide some sort of defensive effect like expanded Silk storage or fire resistance; and yellow Tools offer more general support options like making dropped money fly to you automatically or marking Hornet’s current location on your map. This separation is a notable improvement over Hollow Knight’s single-slot system because support effects and combat buffs are no longer fighting for the same limited space, and I was more freely swapping Tools in and out depending on the area or boss I was taking on as a result.

Each Crest has a different balance of the color-coded slots your Tools go into as well, letting you get pretty creative with weird builds that mix and match certain abilities or deprioritize stuff you don’t find yourself using. For example, I often saved my Silk for heals rather than those special abilities, so the drawback of the Architect Crest, which swaps the Silk slot out for a third red Tool, ended up fitting my playstyle nicely for a bit. That said, I do wish the “weapon” styles weren’t permanently tied to a Crest’s Tool slots and passive effects like they are – I would have happily kept using the Architect for its Tool options and unique ability to turn Silk into ammo while away from a bench, but the more rigid, drill-like basic attacks that came with that (while cool) had me returning to the Reaper eventually.

Of course, you have to find all of these different options first, and the laundry list of things waiting to be discovered across Pharloom is extensive. I always try to complete as many side tasks as I can before heading down the “correct” path in games like this, letting myself get distracted by friendly NPCs and the quests they post on boards in the small handful of towns you’ll come across. When I finally reached the end, my in-game timer was at just over 44 hours played and 96% completion. Was that enough Silksong for me? No – I’m still hungry to dive back in and clear off that last 4% (and I already know where most of it is).

There is a bit of a strange bump in the middle of that road, however, as you can “beat” Silksong much faster than what I just laid out. I am going to avoid specifics and spoilers here as much as possible, and if you don’t want to read anything about what “finishing” this game means then you can skip the next three paragraphs, but know this is a big enough deal that it really does feel worth discussing in broad strokes. That’s because the main path is actually fairly achievable if you’re only interested in following the primary quest objective, and the first time I reached the credits was before I even hit the 30-hour mark (and it could have happened sooner than that if I wanted it to). But that initial ending is… mediocre, with an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion to the story that left me more confused than fulfilled.

Based on my experience with the first Hollow Knight, I barely even took this finale seriously, but the trouble is that there’s very little indication you could reach a different one this time around… and you can. In vague terms, doing so requires you to complete a lot of entirely unrelated activities that are framed as completely optional when you run across them. That includes some pretty uninspiring fetch quests that ask you to grind pointless items from specific enemies, as well as one particularly lame one where the required items just randomly spawn in some nearby caves, which is an addition that feels like an uncharacteristic step backwards. You will probably do everything you need to eventually if you are trying to complete all the side stuff anyway, but there is a huge amount of additional content and a stellar alternate ending waiting behind these opaque unlock requirements, and it’s wild someone might miss that because they couldn’t be bothered to complete some boring fetch quest.

This is a similar-ish structure to unlocking the “true” ending of the original Hollow Knight, but the big difference is that the requirements for doing so there were directly tied into your character’s journey of discovery, and the path you had to take was a little more intuitive as a result – here, I was essentially left floundering for a bit as I tried to figure out which checkboxes still needed to be arbitrarily ticked off. Hollow Knight’s alternate ending also only changed the final fight, whereas Silksong conceals what feels like roughly 15-20% of its content behind this false ending. The writing of that conclusion is also great, probably some of the best in the entire story, and it shakes things up gameplay-wise in a pretty delightful way I won’t spoil. I recognize this weird structural decision won’t be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things – all of Silksong’s secrets will be common knowledge soon enough – but it still feels like an odd choice.

That all being said, it is legitimately cool how any two people could take wildly different paths on the way there. It took me 35 hours to find an area a friend of mine found in less than 10, and I unknowingly took such an unusual route to reach Act 2 that I solved a special puzzle area and beat an incredibly fun boss way before I was “supposed” to, giving me access to an entirely different part of The Citadel than I expect most people will initially see. Splintering paths like this are all over the place, and it’s genuinely incredible that Silksong can be approached from so many directions without ever feeling like you are doing something wrong or have gone somewhere you shouldn’t (apart from a punch to the face feeling a little harder than normal).

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Last week, we saw Apple TV’s The Studio and HBO Max’s The Penguin coming out as big winners during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Tonight, the winners will be announced for major categories in the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony. Severance and The White Lotus lead the way in nominations, though The Penguin, The Last of Us, and Andor are also predicted to take home a bunch of statuettes.

If you’re hoping to tune in, here’s how you can watch tonight’s awards ceremony live.

When Are the Emmys?

The 77th Primetime Emmy Awards officially start at 8pm ET / 5pm PT on Sunday, September 14. The red carpet begins at 6pm ET / 3pm PT, with pre-shows kicking off throughout the day. The event is scheduled for three hours, lasting until around 11pm ET (though it almost always runs a tad long).

Where to Stream the Emmys Live

World 1-1. We’ve all run, jumped, and brick-bashed our way through that familiar first stage. It seems so simple and second-nature to us now, but in this modern age of iterative entertainment, it is almost impossible to convey the magnitude of the leap Super Mario Bros. represented compared to everything that came before it. That cabinet, that game, might as well have descended from outer space. Its art, music, smoothness, and most of all, its level design were light-years beyond.

World 1-1 introduced game design principles and a geometry of motion so perfectly calculated that it endures as one of the great works of the art form to this very day. But how was this miracle performed? Well, let us tell you, with the help of its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto.

The closest things to the opening level of the plumber’s first solo adventure up to that point were the stiff-but-serviceable screen-flipping Pitfall! and the gorgeous but terrible side-scrolling Pac-Land. Both were early essays on game design: Pitfall! presented a two-layered jungle with plenty of enemies and obstacles to jump over, but its flip-screen progression, huge non-linear map, strict time limit, and unintuitive treasure placement made it feel more like a puzzle to solve than a world to explore. Pac-Land was simply beautiful to behold and scrolled fairly cleanly in one direction, but the layout of the levels was haphazard and frustrating, and the controls felt maddening.

In comparison, Mario was like exploring a realized, unified, and diverse world. Every step revealed new threats and sights. Leap over enemies or land on them? What’s in those question blocks? There’s a Starman?! Wait, hidden lives? A secret underground treasure room with its own music?! Wait, there’s a FIRE FLOWER?! You can hold B to run or blast turtles with pyrotechnics?! What even is this game????? But in order for all of this madness to be built, it first needed solid foundations, and that’s where World 1-1 really comes into its own — teaching you the basics in the most elegant manner possible.

Super Mario Bros. isn’t nearly as big as it feels. In fact, World 1-1 measures only about 15 screens, including the underground room. It feels much bigger because over two or three screens, the tone of the terrain changes, from the intro section to leaping over pipes to platforming to pits. And yet within that tiny space, you have every power-up in the game, a hidden multi-coin block, a pair of traversable pipes, an invisible 1-UP, two enemy varieties, and a secret fireworks display.

But perhaps the biggest secret of 1-1 is that it’s a school. And the course is Mario 101. In a 2015 interview with Eurogamer, Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka talked about the extraordinary degree of thought that went into the design, beginning with World 1-1’s iconic opening: a tiny Mario facing an empty plane. Then the team considered how to teach the player several skills at once: how to avoid enemies, how to destroy enemies, how question blocks work, and how to tell an enemy Goomba from a helpful mushroom. All three are accomplished within the first steps of this opening level.

“If a suspicious enemy appears,” states Miyamoto, “the player will need to jump over it.” Running forward into the first Goomba just kills you, a lesson a player need only learn once before discovering they’re much safer in the air. Then moving forward, the player discovers some low bricks and question blocks.

“If we have a question block, they might just try to tap that as well,” continues Miyamoto. “If they see a coin, it will make them happy and they’ll want to try again.” Tapping the second block releases a mushroom that slides away, then bounces off a pipe to come hurtling at the character. The low ceiling makes it very hard to avoid, and the mushroom hits Mario, but instead of damaging him, it transforms him into Super Mario. In a matter of seconds, you’ve learned how both rewards and dangers work through the rest of Super Mario Bros.

“We kept simulating what the player would do”, Miyamoto explains. “So even within that one section, the player would understand the general concept of what Mario is supposed to be and what the game is about.” Even small details mattered. The opening screen’s first enemy was supposed to be a Koopa Troopa, but teaching the player the jump and kick movement necessary to overcome one worked less well at the beginning than they’d hoped. So they invented the simple-to-stomp Goomba (late in the game design process, according to Tetzuka) to help players understand the basics first.

Another valuable lesson, holding B to run before a long jump, is taught safely by two gaps later in 1-1. Pointing at this area, Miyamoto says, “Here we are preparing the player for the B-Dash”. He notes that the first gap is a pit with a filled-in bottom, a safe place to experiment and learn about long jumps without risking lives. This jump is followed immediately by a nearly-identical variant, a pit where, if the player falls, they will die, but by applying the skills they’ve just learned, they will easily survive. “By doing that, we wanted the player to naturally and gradually understand what they’re doing”, he continues. “The first course was designed for that purpose: so they can learn what the game is all about.”

Miyamoto further explains that the tutorial nature of early stages usually comes only after the team has crafted more sophisticated levels, so the creators know what skills the players need to develop. “Usually when we have a really fun course, they tend to be the later levels”, Miyamoto confirms. “World 2-1, World 2-2, we create those first and then afterwards come back and create World 1-1. There’s a lot of testing whilst the game is being built. I don’t give them (players) any explanation and just watch them play and see how they do it, and most of the time I think they’ll play a certain way or enjoy a certain part, and they end up not doing that. I think ‘That's not what I intended!’ So I have to go back and use that as feedback”.

The intricately crafted layout creates a satisfying illusion of choice and a constant curve of advancement. Miyamoto sums it up perfectly: “Once the player realizes what they need to do, it becomes their game.”

The level layout is tuned to match Mario’s famous momentum, allowing a skilled player to perform precise jumps, slides, and combinations. An experienced Mario jockey can run forward at the beginning 1-1, squash a Goomba while hitting the first mushroom block, sprint forward, hit a coin block, reverse direction, jump up, catch the mushroom before it hits the ground, and hit the other coin. The team wisely mapped run and fireball to the same button, creating a slight degree of real-world physical dexterity challenge to trading momentum for projectiles. Likewise, the need to hold B to run and press A to jump made long jumps just slightly and satisfyingly more difficult.

Then there’s the music. Unlike most software development teams, the Mario team’s composer, Koji Kondo, was embedded with the developers. The famous Mario theme was composed and edited over and over as the level layout changed to match the pace of the design, and from then on, those few bars of digitized score would never leave our brains again.

And all of this magic was achieved using only the most limited of tools back in 1985. To really understand why Super Mario Bros. works so well, you first need to understand how the NES renders graphics. The animated characters that move around the screen, such as Mario, are sprites, detailed and mobile clusters of pixels. The NES can only handle a few sprites onscreen at a time, so most of the rest of the world, including the ground, platforms, hills, and backgrounds, is made up of tiles and 8x8 blocks. Most of the objects you see in Super Mario Bros. are composed of these chunks. The question blocks, walls, and bricks are all made up of four combined 8x8 tiles, creating distinct 16x16 squares. It’s similar to the process used to build levels in Mario Maker, only more granular. These little tiles were the tools that Shigeru Miyamoto and team worked with to build a masterpiece.

Super Mario Bros is an early NES game, created before advanced memory map chips stretched its graphical capabilities. That meant that to achieve their vision, the Mario team had to push the hardware to the absolute limits of its capabilities. The entirety of Super Mario Bros.’ source code is 40K. That means the entire game, including graphics, fits on about thirteen closely-typed pages. Crammed into that space are 32 distinct worlds, eight boss battles, a second quest, myriad secrets, and a memorable cast of characters.

That restriction meant the design team had to make every bit count, and that led to all kinds of clever tricks to save space. Ever noticed the clouds and the bushes are just the same palette-swapped tiles? Or that the blocks in 1-2 are just recolored blocks from 1-1? Both tricks (and many others) were used to compress space and make room for more features.

Add together the level design, gorgeous visuals, perfect controls, and iconic music, and you have a game that transcends the tropes of older action games. Super Mario Bros. took levels and made them worlds. And Mario just went on from there. World 1-1 to 1-2. An underground kingdom. Then later, forests. Castles. Bridges. Under oceans. Worlds upon worlds.

But none would exist without that very first. Hell, it's arguable that video games as they exist now wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for World 1-1. From the most meagre of pixelated tools, Miyamoto and the team at Nintendo crafted a miracle, and one that’s still as fun to play today as it was 40 years ago.

Jared Petty likes writing about how wonderful and silly video games are. You can find him at Bluesky as Bluesky as pettycommajared.

The Witcher: Season 4 will premiere on Netflix on October 30, the streamer announced Saturday during the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. New key art, photos and the first clip featuring Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia were also released.

The action-packed clip shows Geralt battling a nightwraith. The new photos, which can be seen in the slideshow below, give us our first official look at Laurence Fishburne as Regis.

The Continent awaits. Here’s your exclusive first clip of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 4. Returns 30th October, only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/CTvryeUmRd

— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) September 14, 2025

Liam Hemsworth, of course, replaced Henry Cavill, who left the show at the end of Season 3. Cavill’s Geralt was last seen walking off into the woods with sidekicks Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang).

“This is the beginning of a two-season journey for our family to finally reunite and be together — hopefully forever,” The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt told Tudum.com about Season 4.

The season’s official plot synopsis reads: “After the Continent-altering events of Season Three, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri find themselves separated by a raging war and countless enemies. As their paths diverge, and their goals sharpen, they stumble on unexpected allies eager to join their journeys. And if they can accept these found families, they just might have a chance at reuniting for good…”

The Witcher’s penultimate season is composed of eight episodes that run 50 minutes each. The series will end with Season 5.

In addition to the aforementioned Liam Hemsworth and Laurence Fishburne, the cast of The Witcher’s fourth season includes Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg), Freya Allan (Princess Cirilla of Cintra), Joey Batey (Jaskier), Eamon Farren (Cahir), Anna Shaffer (Triss Merigold), Mimî M Khayisa (Fringilla), Cassie Clare (Philippa), Mahesh Jadu (Vilgefortz), Meng’er Zhang (Milva), Graham McTavish (Dijkstra), Royce Pierreson (Istredd), Mecia Simson (Francesca), Sharlto Copley (Leo Bonhart), Danny Woodburn (Zoltan) Jeremy Crawford (Yarpen), Bart Edwards (Emhyr), Hugh Skinner (Radovid), James Purefoy (Skellen), Christelle Elwin (Mistle), Fabian McCallum (Kayleigh), Juliette Alexandra (Reef), Ben Radcliffe (Giselher), Connor Crawford (Asse), Aggy K. Adams (Iskra), Linden Porco (Percival Schuttenbach), Therica Wilson-Read (Sabrina), Rochelle Rose (Margarita), and Safiyya Ingar (Keira).

For more Witcher coverage, find out how to read The Witcher books in order and watch the teaser trailer for The Witcher: Season 4. And be sure to read our The Witcher Season Volume 1 review and The Witcher Season Volume 2 review before watching Season 4 next month.

If you want a gaming PC that can follow wherever you may roam, a gaming laptop is likely your best bet. While desktop parts will usually still beat out a gaming laptop, the best of them offer excellent performance in the latest games. Best of all, some models are able to offer peak performance while still remaining thin and light, like the Razer Blade 16, which is my pick for the all-around best gaming laptop of 2025 so far. As of April 15, these are back in stock after Razer had briefly taken down the direct link to buy the Razer Blade 16 and other laptops, replaced with "Notify Me" buttons, ahead of when tariffs were supposed to kick in.

TL;DR – These Are the Best Gaming Laptops:

The first thing I always recommend to people hunting for a new gaming laptop is to consider is what PC games they actually hope to play. The second is what settings they hope to play them at. These two questions can guide your purchase to higher- or lower-end hardware and what trade-offs you're willing to make. Now more than ever, gaming laptops come in every shape and size, from thin and light devices to moderately heavy powerhouses like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16. Larger performance-driven laptops (like the ones that come with a 4K display) achieve their enhanced performance with more powerful, and power-hungry, components, which means sacrificing on portability, battery life, and fan noise.

There are countless to choose from a ton of different gaming laptop brands, and finding the best for you can be more than a little daunting. I've tested dozens over the years, and I have a deep understanding of what it takes for a laptop to ascend to greatness for different types of gamers and can confidently say: These are the best gaming laptops of 2025 so far.

Looking for discounts on laptops like these? Check out our guide to the best gaming laptop deals.

1. Razer Blade 16 (2025)

Best Overall Gaming Laptop

Let's get this out of the way: The Razer Blade 16 isn't the most powerful RTX 50-series laptop. Instead, this notebook earns my top pick because of sum of its parts. See, the team at Razer understood that a huge crosssection of laptop gamers carry their machines with them every day, and flat-out making it nicer to use while also being powerful can dramatically enhance the use experience. And, as an extra, if you're willing to invest in Razer's laptop cooling pad, you can unlock the full wattage for performance that goes toe-to-toe with other RTX 5090 laptops.

Make no mistake: The Razer Blade 16 is still a gaming beast. In my review, I threw everything and the kitchen sink at it and there was nothing it couldn't run well on its crisp 1600p OLED screen. While running those games and benchmarks, the system stayed surprisingly quiet. This is a gaming laptop you could use in a school library without attracting attention.

It's true that a high-powered RTX 5080 like the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 also recommended in this guide will get you similar, if not better, performance. What most other laptops can't offer, though, is the Blade 16's level of portability and noise.

Measuring just 0.59 inches at its thinnest point, it's a marked improvement from its predecessor and, well, most gaming laptops with such powerful hardware. It also weighs only 4.7lbs; you won't forget it's there, but it won't leave your back and shoulders sore from lugging it around every day. That portabilty makes it more appealing as a daily carry, so I didn't second guess taking it with me every day even when I might not actually need it.

The Blade 16 does a great job of feeling like the premium product it is. The chassis is milled from a single block of aluminum and feels solid and robust. It also helps with heat dissipation, but solid engineering ensures that the keyboard never gets more than warm while gaming. Its screen is also excellent with impressive factory calibration and multiple professional color modes that allow it to be used for creative applications straight out of the box. It's per-key RGB keyboard is completely programmable, complete with SOCD (Snap Tap) and macro support to better emulate a dedicated gaming keyboard.

On top of that, it also offers great battery life while gaming. Thanks to the new advancements in how the RTX 50-series handles power management, you can play games for around two hours instead of one or less like last generation.

The Razer Blade 16 is an excellent laptop that, while pricey, is something special in this space. If you want a great gaming laptop that will impress you with its portability, look no further.

2. MSI Thin A15 AI

Best Budget Gaming Laptop

3. Gigabyte Aorus Master 16

Best High-End Gaming Laptop

4. Asus Zenbook S 16

Best Work/Gaming Laptop

5. Asus TUF Gaming A14

Best Gaming Laptop for Students

How to Pick the Best Gaming Laptop

Gaming laptops have come a long way in relatively little time. Power, portability, and price have all seen dramatic improvements in just the last five years, and somehow gaming laptops are getting thinner and adding even more features.

Portability and Form Factor

Where will you be taking this gaming laptop? If you'll be taking it out every day, you’ll want something portable, such as a 15-incher or even smaller. Users who just want a laptop to live at home as more of a desktop replacement should go for a 17-inch rig or bigger for the larger screen size and greater power.

Weight is another consideration if you'll be carrying the laptop around all day. Anything more than 5lbs is going to be very noticeable. This can be an issue because gaming laptops have a tendency to be a bit bigger than competing options that don't need larger and more advanced cooling solutions. It's not impossible to find thin and light gaming laptops with great performance, but you should definitely take the time to consider what you're comfortable with and if you're willing to trade performance for portability.

With integrated GPUs, with the integrated graphics on modern processors getting to be so good, it's also possible to find gaming laptops in form factors that just didn't work before. The ROG Flow Z13 is a prime example; it is essentially a 2-in-1 gaming laptop that can double as a tablet for artists and students, but offers impressive gaming performance thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI MAX processor.

The point is, you don't need to limit yourself to bulky clamshell designs in the same way you used to. Depending on your budget and performance needs, there are more options than ever out there.

Power

The newest gaming laptops come equipped with the latest Nvidia RTX or Radeon RX graphics chips. These mobile chips are nearly as capable as their desktop version, plus they support the latest ray tracing, DLSS, and frame generation technologies.

On that front, it can also be important to consider what games you plan on playing, their minimum and recommended specifications, and what advanced features they might support. If the game is equipped with the latest version of Nvidia's DLSS, for example, and supports frame generation, you can probably get away with a lower-powered, lower-cost graphics card since the tech will improve your frame rate even on a cheaper card. As you get into higher tiers of laptop GPUs, prices skyrocket quickly.

Choosing the latest processor isn't quite as necessary, but it's nice to have and can help ensure that it doesn't bottleneck the potential performance of your GPU. If you're looking at a laptop with an Intel processor, be sure that the processor isn't more than a couple generations behind. Both Intel and AMD offer gaming processors with built-in neural processing units for enhanced AI performance. For Intel, these are referred to as Core Ultra processors while AMD dubs its lines AI and AI MAX. Both can offer great gaming performance.

If you only plan to take part in light gaming, a recent Core Ultra or AI Max processor can also take the place of a dedicated graphics card and save you hundreds in the process. Both of these chips feature powerful integrated graphics, and so long as you're willing to adjust settings and resolutions, can deliver playable frame rates. They're also great if you plan on streaming your games through the cloud through services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now.

Price

If you're set on a gaming laptop and just need to decide which one to get under a certain price point, then your choices will be narrowed down based on your maximum budget. If that's you, you'll probably want to explore our full list of cheap gaming laptops we'd recommend instead, but here's our top budget pick right now:

Most gaming laptops are only as portable as the nearest electrical outlet. All that power comes at a price, though. The general rule of thumb about gaming laptops is that their battery life stinks. In general, you should plan on plugging in your laptop before loading a game. Playing on battery power typically lasts an hour or less and also delivers worse performance due to the power limits the laptop imposes on the graphics card and processor. It's just not ideal, but may still be better than lugging around a heavy power brick, depending on what you're playing.

One recent exception to this is Nvidia's RTX 50-series laptop GPUs. These new chips feature enhanced power management features, so you can count on closer to two hours instead of one.

Another consideration when choosing a gaming laptop versus a gaming desktop is its price. It costs quite a bit more to stuff all those components (i.e. the built-in trackpad, keyboard, speakers, and display) into an easy-to-carry shell.

Depending on how tech-savvy you are, You can save some money by choosing a laptop with less memory and storage at checkout and upgrading these components yourself. It's usually much cheaper to do so. However, you'll want to research carefully to ensure that both are upgradable at all and, if so, are easily accessible. Some laptops hide components inside, beneath others, making them especially difficult, if not impossible, for anyone other than an expert to access. Bear in mind, however, that a laptop in general is much less upgradable than a desktop gaming PC. Outside of memory and storage, changing out other components likely means buying a whole new PC.

Gaming Laptop FAQ

Should you buy a gaming laptop or a gaming PC?

When considering a gaming laptop over a gaming desktop, ask yourself: Is the premium price worth it for the luxury of portability? In virtually every case, you'll pay more for a gaming laptop with similar on-paper specs to a well-matched gaming desktop. It doesn't stop with the cost: Just because two graphics cards have the same name doesn't mean that they're the same in all circumstances. Laptop versions of same-name GPUs usually offer reduced performance due to their thermal and power limitations. Gaming desktops provide more bang for your buck, are less expensive to upgrade and repair, and last longer before they go obsolete. See our guide to gaming PCs vs. gaming laptops for a deeper comparison.

Is the CPU or GPU more important in a gaming laptop?

Both are important, but you should consider the graphics card more than the processor. Even though a slow processor can throttle the graphics card and lower your fps, usually this is much less of a concern than simply having an underpowered GPU. Remember, it's the graphics card that renders your games and is the single most influential component to gaming performance.

Do I need a dedicated graphics card in my gaming laptop?

Not always. This depends on what you're hoping to achieve. If you're interested in running the latest games at high graphics settings and resolutions, you definitely need to invest in a laptop with a great graphics card. If you only plan to do light gaming, enjoy older games that aren't very demanding or stream your games from the cloud. A modern processor with integrated graphics can also be a good way to save some money. With that in mind, relying on an integrated graphics card hasn't always been as possible as it is today. As such, I would recommend this only for gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen 7000-series or Intel Core Ultra processors.

Do you need a laptop cooling pad?

Many modern gaming laptops come with ample cooling solutions baked into the chassis. But given their much smaller form factor than traditional desktop gaming PCs, thermal throttling can occasionally be an issue. If you are experiencing a downgrade in performance or your device seems a little too hot to the touch, a laptop cooling pad could be a simple, affordable solution. Laptop cooling pads often feature fans and ventilation slots or mesh for better airflow than when your laptop rests on a gaming desk or your lap, helping to ensure your device is working to its full potential and can even increase its longevity. If you're looking to keep your gaming laptop cool on the cheap, the Havit HV-2056 is an excellent option.

Christopher Coke has been a contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been covering games and technology for more than a decade. He has covered tech ranging from gaming controllers to graphics cards, gaming chairs to gaming monitors, headphones, IEMs, and more for sites such as MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today’s Reviewed, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris on Twitter @gamebynight.

Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.

Randy Pitchford has responded to complaints about the console version of Borderlands 4 lacking a field of view (FOV) slider, suggesting fairness may have something to do with it.

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S players of Borderlands 4 were shocked to discover not only a lack of a FOV slider in-game, but no motion blur toggle, either. The PC version of Borderlands 4 has settings for both — in the case of FOV you can increase the value in degrees up to 110 for both first-person play and vehicle use, and for motion blur you can change the amount and the quality.

The lack of a FOV slider is the biggest issue right now with Borderlands 4 on console, if anecdotal evidence across the internet is anything to go by, with some complaining that not being able to tweak the FOV value is causing them motion sickness.

“Man, I've tried to play it twice today,” said redditor xInsaneAbilityx. “Both times I get that ‘car-sick’ feel after about 15 minutes and have to stop.” “Yeah I’m pretty sensitive to motion sickness and a narrow FOV in first-person makes me really dizzy. Combining that with motion blur just churns my stomach,” added Dallywack3r. “This game feels almost zoomed in, it‘s really not pleasant to play,” said christophlieber.

There are also suggestions the console version of Borderlands 4 lacks a FOV slider in order to maintain certain performance levels. By increasing the FOV, you’re putting the hardware under more strain and potentially impacting things like framerate.

But social media posts from Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford suggest one of the considerations is fairness.

“Quickie for console friends: FOV settings,” Pitchford began. “There's some dreams I have where an FOV setting might affect fairness. I can't really talk about it yet, but I see this is important to you so we're looking at it.”

Pitchford included a vote in his social media post, which, after nearly 25,000 votes, reveals just how important a FOV slider is to his followers. At the time of this article’s publication, the option “FOV slider or GTFO!” had 72% of the vote.

The outspoken Gearbox boss went on to say players “have no idea what the team and I were planning and how FOV slider might affect fairness with such a thing.”

He added: “That said, I've always want to commit to and prioritize what Borderlands should be versus try to turn it into something it should. My hope is for my/our ambitions to be additive, not subtractive.”

Quickie for console friends: FOV settings: There's some dreams I have where an FOV setting might affect fairness. I can't really talk about it yet, but I see this is important to you so we're looking at it. Vote here:

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 12, 2025

So, what is Pitchford actually saying here? The “fairness” quote has caused some confusion. Could it relate to an upcoming PvP mode? If so, why would the PC version have it? Right now, Borderlands 4 is a PvE co-op game, so the line about “fairness” has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Some are wondering if Pitchford is talking about fairness in terms of the performance of the game giving some players an advantage. The higher the FOV, the more the player can see, versus the lower the FOV the more stable the frames are. Perhaps both give some level of advantage?

“What does ‘fairness’ even mean?’ asked redditor buddachickentml. “Basically being impartial to all players without favoritism. Fairness to all,” suggested Wolf-O7. “Funny enough it's completely backwards though. Because console players aren't being treated fairly compared to their counterpart on PC. (Especially since this sort of sounds like a PVP mode the way he makes it seem).” Then, from Airaen: “Yeah, how is it fair that PC players can change the FoV and console players can't?” “Fairness in a PvE game? Will you ban ultrawide monitors?” said on social media user.

Borderlands 4 supports crossplay between all platforms at launch, so Pitchford’s comments are doubly confusing.

As for motion blur, in another social media post Pitchford told console players "we aren't down with motion blur and do not support it." He continued: “If you're seeing what seems to be motion blur, maybe check your television settings for whatever automatic BS it might be doing to your image? It's not us.”

But again, that comment is confusing given there are motion blur settings in Borderlands 4 on PC.

Super Mario’s 40 year history is a testament to all the different ways you can make a little guy run from left to right across a screen. Nintendo’s line of 2D Mario platformers has gone through three distinct eras since 1985 – the original game revived the video game industry and, for a while, the series was a pioneer in side-scrolling platforming. After laying dormant for a few years, the series returned in the 2000s with the New Super Mario Bros. series, games that were steady and safe but soon turned stale. Thankfully the triumphant age of the Switch brought with it Mario Wonder, where Nintendo reinvented what these games could be. Once again, side-scrolling Mario feels genuinely magical.

2D Mario games, when executed well, perfectly balance the limitations of Mario's moveset with building your confidence to make increasingly ambitious jumps. They also introduce power-ups that are difficult to master while still being fun to play around with. The very best ones are those that can completely change your approach to platforming without trivialising the challenge. But the most important aspect of a Mario platformer is the process of dying and trying again – the strongest games perfect this loop, ensuring you develop lifelong muscle memory and, by that final flag, feel like a true platforming god.

With the original Super Mario Bros. game turning 40 this year, it’s time to look back on which games nail those core tenants and which struggle to make it past the first goomba. Here’s every 2D Super Mario Bros. game, ranked.

13. Super Mario Bros. : The Lost Levels

Platformers are at their best when they strike a perfect balance between challenge and fun. With The Lost Levels, Nintendo frustratingly forgot about that second part. The sequel to Super Mario Bros. is straight up mean – so mean, in fact, that it was not released in the West until Super Mario All Stars on the SNES seven years later. Its poison mushrooms and spitefully placed enemies only serve to build frustration, never giving you the satisfying relief of finally beating a level, and making you want to lock your controller in a safe and throw it to the bottom of the ocean.

Video games from the NES era are known for their difficulty, as increasing the challenge somewhat artificially extracted hours and hours of play from games that were inherently limited in scope because of the technology of the time. And there is merit to the idea of a Mario sequel that picks up the difficulty of the first game’s final levels and only ramps up from there, especially compared to today’s relatively easy Mario projects. If you squint hard enough, this is a fun novelty in the Mario library… but one that nobody ever wants to play, unless you really want to be ragebaited by Miyamoto.

12. New Super Mario Bros. 2

If the main gimmick in each Mario game is supposed to aid or increase the difficulty of the platforming, then New Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the series’ biggest failures. The oddly named third entry in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise marks the moment when the series became dull. Lacking ideas and unwilling to take any big risks, Nintendo landed upon coins as the big gimmick for this one. The coins themselves are no different from the coins we’ve had in Mario since 1985, there’s just a lot of them this time. And that’s it.

Putting so many coins into a level trivialises their single use. If you collect 100 coins, you get a life, and losing all your lives means you get kicked back to the start of a level and your checkpoints disappear. By making 100 coins so easy to collect, New Super Mario Bros. 2 removes that vital bit of jeopardy and adds little else to make up for it, with the only new power-up being the coin-farming Golden Flower. Then there’s the overall goal to collect a million coins, which is just tedious. Mario controls beautifully, as is standard for these games, but the feel of the platforming is no different to any other game in the series. So why chase that frustrating goal when you could get what New Super Mario Bros. 2 is good at in any of the game’s better siblings?

11. Super Mario Land

If this was a list of the ugliest Mario games, Super Mario Land would be first with a bullet. The characters, the items, the backgrounds... they’re all so unpleasant. Even modern emulation technology that can elevate the scruffy visuals of the GameBoy can’t quite rescue Mario Land from its ugliness. And this isn’t just a retro tech thing – just compare Mario Land to its sequel on the same console, a game where mushrooms look like mushrooms, Koopas look like Koopas, and Mario doesn’t look like a weird little alien.

Despite those visual blemishes, the gameplay is still pretty solid and fairly recognisable as what a Mario game should feel like. You don’t get the same sense of speed you can achieve when you master the levels of stronger Mario games, but there’s still a good sense of flow when you hit the highest gear the GameBoy is capable of. Mario Land is a serviceable platformer if you’re really in a pinch, but everything it does is done better elsewhere.

10. New Super Luigi U

The Year of Luigi ended up being a financial disaster for Nintendo, but at least we got a fun little Luigi game out of it. This is a stripped down version of New Super Mario Bros. U starring Luigi, complete with his trademark slippier running style and higher jumping abilities. It’s super cool to experience the game through a character with a slightly different moveset, and redesigned levels that provide a bigger challenge.

The fact that the game is more streamlined also has appeal, balancing out the higher difficulty and giving you the satisfaction of making quick progress through the levels. There’s not much else to Luigi U, though. There’s little spectacular about it, nor is there anything it does gravely wrong. It’s a fun addition to an era of Mario platformers that were growing stale and a bit dull, and this doesn’t do quite enough to differentiate itself from that unfortunate trend.

9. Super Mario Bros. 2

Even if you come to it with no knowledge of its background, Mario 2 feels like an odd sequel to the original game. Deeming the actual Mario 2 too difficult for Western audiences, Nintendo basically reskinned the game Doki Doki Panic with Mushroom Kingdom paraphernalia, and the North American and European version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was born. While Mario 1 focuses on sidescrolling platforming, Mario 2 introduces more verticality – a great idea that doesn’t always hold up in execution. Having to find a way to climb and fall through levels means you don’t develop that smooth, flowing muscle memory which makes the best Mario games so great.

Another mechanic introduced in this odd sequel is being able to pull plants out of the ground and throw them at enemies. Some enemies can even be picked up and thrown themselves, rather than the classic Mario move of squishing them. This works really well to make the world feel less like a flat background you’re running through and more like a living ecosystem, but again it just doesn’t feel very Mario. There are great ideas here, but they work against the core of what the first game established. It is, however, a preferable experience to the original, super-difficult version of Mario 2, which finally arrived in the West as the aforementioned Lost Levels.

8. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

You can look at the second entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series in two ways. On one hand, it was a solid evolution of what the first game did, introducing multiplayer and a couple of neat power-ups. On the other hand, later games in the series would do that exact thing better, leaving this one without a unique flavour among the 2D Mario catalogue.

To its credit, there was no better console to introduce four-person multiplayer to the franchise than the Wii, a system that captured the imagination of the whole family. NSMB Wii also introduced the Propeller Mushroom power-up that added some more strategy to the platforming, as well as the Penguin Suit whose sliding ability made the timing of jumps even more important. There’s more here to appreciate today than with New Super Mario Bros. 2, but the latest release in the series (more on that later) overwrites a lot of what the previous entries contributed with better ideas.

7. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Compared to its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 feels like a miracle. Graphically, it’s way beyond anything you’d expect the original GameBoy to muster, with character sprites that appear enjoyably cartoonish and expressive despite very minimal animations. The structure of the game also gives it a sense of scope that handheld titles typically lacked at the time. Instead of travelling from one world to the next, all levels are located on the overworld, which feels like a single town. Whether you’re at the Tree Zone, the Space Zone or the Pumpkin Zone, their individual themes are expressed so well by the limited graphics available to them. On top of that, the fact that you can tackle these zones in any order just makes the world feel a bit more of a genuine place that you can explore.

In terms of the actual platforming, it's a definite improvement on its predecessor in terms of flow and speed, with far more interesting level design to boot, but it just doesn’t feel quite as good as the main console games of the time, or future handheld titles. The new Carrot power up is fun, but is really just an alternate Tanuki suit from Mario 3. Still, the spirit of what makes Mario great is definitely present here, and it more than justifies itself as a unique entry in the series.

6. Super Mario Bros.

The original game in Nintendo’s most important series still holds up after 40 years for one simple reason: because every Super Mario Bros. game since has been built off its back. The series hasn’t deviated from this basic structure because it still feels incredible to play. Mario is so dynamic as a character right from the off, even with the limited skillset of running, jumping and throwing the odd fireball. His ability to build momentum opens up the game beyond just being about getting from one end of a level to the other. A lot of joy can be found in discovering all the secret passages through the Mushroom Kingdom that can both lead you to the Princess in seconds, or make you prove your skills by dropping you head first into the toughest levels without a steady build up.

Over time, Mario’s movement has gotten significantly smoother and his arsenal of platforming tools has expanded, making it hard to place the original higher on this list. Also, being one of the first NES games ever made means it's not the prettiest thing you’ll ever lay your eyes on. However, Super Mario Bros. stands up as more than just a museum exhibit. It's a fun game that will always be worth booting up.

5. New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. had the task of reintroducing the world to 2D Mario after over a decade of focus on the 3D games. And despite kicking off an era of the franchise that's not always looked fondly upon, it does a great job of maintaining the core of what Mario was while making modernising additions. Mario can now triple jump, a move ripped from the 3D games that works so well even with one less dimension. It's the kind of evolution that brings out the best of what made Mario great to begin with, giving you a new tool to make more ambitious jumps and allowing the developers to make more well-hidden secrets and more expansive level designs.

New Super Mario Bros. also introduces the Blue Shell power up, which is sneakily one of the series’ best. It serves as both a tool for destroying blocks and enemies and is the only way to access secret passages which test your ability to control a very erratic power up. The other new additions, like the Mega Mushroom and the Mini Mushroom, aren’t so effective, even if the former made for some iconic box art. They both feel like gimmicks rather than offering a new skill to master.

4. New Super Mario Bros. U

New Super Mario Bros. U is sort of the inverse of New Super Mario Bros. Wii – a game that was harder to appreciate at the time of its release than it is now. The final game in the New Super Mario Bros. franchise carried the baggage of the three previous entries looking and playing almost identically, something that made Nintendo fans exhausted by anything with the word “New” attached to it. New Super Mario Bros. U doesn’t reinvent the formula, but exemplifies the best version of it.

Taken in isolation, it’s much easier to appreciate the game’s polish and its moments of genius level design. Its most famous level, Painted Swampland, inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, is the exact kind of form-breaking inventiveness fans were crying out for (and eventually got more of through Mario Wonder.) With some really lovely visuals, smooth gameplay, and a couple of fun power ups, this is the definitive New Super Mario Bros. title.

3. Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 is a miracle of a game. It has no right looking as good as it does, especially when compared to the first Mario on the NES. Mario 3 is a textbook example of squeezing a console for every ounce of power it has, and is one of the great achievements of sprite art in gaming history. It also helps that it's heaps of fun to play, despite being really hard.

There are so many moments in Mario 3 where you’ll run into an enemy placed specifically to make you mad, but instead of throwing your controller at the wall, you’re only motivated to go again – to run through the level faster, to make that jump even cleaner, to get more air time in the Tanuki suit and sail right over that Boomerang Bro who killed you 20 times before. It's the true successor to Mario 1 on the NES, finding that perfect balance between frustration and satisfaction.

2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Everything about Mario Wonder is so darn joyful. The animation of Mario forgetting his hat as he jumps through a warp pipe is just one example of how much this game pops with personality. The exclamation of “wowie zowie!” when you transform into an elephant, the singing chorus of Piranha Plants... everything is so silly and so cartoonish, perfectly representing the inherent absurdity of Mario’s existence as a plumber beefing with a giant turtle. It’s impossible to play this without a smile on your face.

But it’s not just personality that Wonder boasts. There is a treasure trove of mechanics that are constantly thrown at you. Through the Wonder Flowers, the level design takes on a dynamism no existing Mario game can match, feeding you increasingly insane 2D platforming challenges built around a unique theme every time. The Badge system means Wonder has the biggest library of power-ups in a Mario game ever, allowing you to platform in a way that suits you, or equip something that purposefully hinders your abilities for that extra bit of challenge. Mario Wonder is a sugar rush of a platformer, and one of Nintendo’s crowning 2D achievements.

1. Super Mario World

Super Mario World is the best 2D Mario has ever felt to play. It inherits some of Mario 3’s difficulty, but instead of making it near impossible to beat a level on the first go, it eases up slightly, giving you enough room to fly through a level at top speed while still having the chance to dodge that final enemy. That’s why Mario World is the most satisfying game in the series – you’ll die again and again and again, until you hit that one level you nail on the first go and think to yourself “Wow, I’m really good at Mario.” The Cape power up is so difficult to master but stands as the best power up the series has ever had because the reward for getting it right is such a high. It’s something the modern games have yet to capture, thanks to the difficulty of these games having decreased over time.

Another thing World captures beautifully is the vibrancy and personality of Dinosaur Land, squeezing the SNES’ sprite-rendering abilities for everything it's got to produce astoundingly expressive characters. There’s still a strong case for World being the best looking Mario, as the game feels like running through a Saturday morning cartoon. Super Mario World is the peak of the Mario formula – challenge, fun, platforming flow, and personality all in perfect harmony.

What do you think of our ranking of 2D Mario platformers? Did your favourite rank highly? Let us know in the comments. And for more, check out our ranking of Nintendo's 3D platformers.

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This article contains spoilers for the Foundation Season 3 finale, “The Darkness.”

73 years ago, writer Isaac Asimov casually dropped one of the greatest twists of all time. First published as a novella titled “The Mule,” and subsequently in Foundation and Empire, the second book in Asimov’s landmark series, readers met a clown and troubadour named Magnifico Giganticus. He’s a loveable buffoon escaping the service of the titular Mule, an all-powerful telepathic “mentallic” and conqueror bent on destroying the Foundation – an organization dedicated to preserving galactic knowledge – as well as the Empire they’re fighting against. Alongside two Foundation members, Toran and Bayta, Magnifico traversed the galaxy, always staying one step ahead of the Mule while seeking the Second Foundation, a secret organization that could save everyone.

Well, not really, because in an absolute jaw-dropper that has thrilled readers for generations and set the tone for nearly every fictional rug pull to come, Magnifico is the Mule. It’s a perfect twist, brilliantly executed by Asimov’s prose, as he describes the simple physical changes in Magnifico’s stance and demeanor that “transform” him into the Mule.

73 years later, Apple TV+’s Foundation has finally arrived at this iconic moment, thanks to the Season 3 finale. Back in the second episode of Season 2, Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobel) sent her consciousness 150 years in the future and discovered the Mule (Mikael Persbrandt in Season 2, Pilou Asbæk in Season 3) laying waste to the galaxy, desperate to discover the location of the Second Foundation. Gaal has spent nearly the entirety of the last two seasons trying to prevent this seeming inevitability, even going so far as to create the Second Foundation and put herself in cryosleep, only waking briefly every few years to make sure the plan to stop the Mule was in place.

Gaal does manage to kill the Mule in one-on-one combat in a weird montage that tries to twist the scene of their final battle (which we’ve seen multiple times) into something coherent, as they battle each other both physically and mentally. It’s all a little confusing, and points to how the Foundation TV series has never been afraid of tweaking how the plot of the books is executed on screen.

Still, it’s a thrill watching it happen, confusingly staged action and all, because you know the other shoe is going to drop. The series has also introduced Magnifico (Tómas Lemarquis) and spent most of the season tipping their hand towards a variation on the twist that book readers know is imminent. Heck, they even went inside Magnifico’s mind at one point and found the Mule with his arms wrapped around him. Gaal took the implication that, like many others, the Mule was controlling Magnifico. It was clear to this viewer at least that Magnifico was being embraced by the Mule; a frequent refrain from those controlled by the conqueror is “I’ve never felt such love.” And if you know, you know: The Mule is showing that love to Magnifico.

Then there’s the fact that in nearly every scene where the Mule has been using “his” mentallic powers, Magnifico has been seen, blurry or otherwise, in the background. We’re also told that Magnifico’s instrument, called a Visi-Sonor, can amplify the Mule’s abilities, and even the AI of the all-knowing Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) pointedly stated that something didn’t add up in the Mule’s backstory but didn’t know what it was. Magnifico is the key to everything, and as Asbæk’s character dies in a pool of his own blood, it’s clear that despite Gaal thinking her multiple-centuries mission is over, Magnifico is about to step out of the shadows and reveal himself as the mastermind behind everything.

Psyche! In a wildly insane twist on a twist that one could generously call “overthinking things,” Magnifico is not the Mule. Magnifico, it turns out, is Magnifico Giganticus, a dumb but sweet troubador who lurks menacingly in the background for no particular reason. Don’t worry, there is still a secret real Mule, and that is…Bayta Mallow (Synnøve Karlsen)! If there was any confusion about this particular plot point, while Gaal writhes on the floor in mental agony, confused how someone could be poking around in her head if the Mule is already dead, Bayta enters and literally says, “I am The Mule.”

It’s unfortunate that after 73 years (not to mention 19 episodes) of build-up, this lands with such a thud. Mind you, it doesn’t come out of nowhere; there has been some evidence for Bayta’s true identity running throughout the season. On a purely surface level, the TV version of Bayta is introduced as a social influencer, and what the Mule is doing is social influence on a galactic scale. There’s also the fact that Bayta has always seemed to be in the same locations the Mule attacks, though we only get to see this on a pleasure planet called Kalgan.

There has been other evidence as well. In one scene, Bayta told the Mule to leave a room, which he did immediately. We’ve seen the otherwise maniacal Mule have some humanity to him, but this immediate acquiescence to Bayta definitely seemed odd, even if you could write it off as him leaving a convalescing Bayta and former (and potential future) emperor Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) rather than mental control on her part. She also calmed and won over Randu Mallow (Darren Pettie), a rebellious uncle of her husband Toran (Cody Fern) that she had never met before, pretty quickly. Magnifico bonded with Bayta pretty quickly as well, freely explaining that he loved her, though he never said the key “I’ve never felt such love” phrase.

Probably the biggest piece of evidence for Bayta being the Mule, however, are two relatively deep cut changes from the books. In the Foundation novel series, Bayta is from Terminus, the home of the Foundation. On the show, she’s from somewhere else – a backwater planet, which is what the Mule explained to Hari Seldon a few episodes back. And in the books, Bayta is a descendant of a Foundation family; on TV, that’s Toran, not Bayta.

Basically, the pieces have been in place since the beginning to allow Bayta, a key character from the books, to step up and reveal herself to be the Mule. We even get the final nail in the coffin to drive it home that there’s not a triple twist here, and Magnifico is controlling Bayta who was controlling the Mule, thanks to reshot scenes of the Mule’s backstory. That featured “his” parents trying to drown him on their home planet of Rossem after the Foundation told them to limit their resources. The reshot scenes show they were trying to drown a girl, not a boy – Bayta.

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford says it’s impossible to break the Borderlands 4 servers this weekend through sheer weight of player numbers alone — and he’s so confident he’s publicly promised that Borderlands 4 won’t join the long list of big AAA games whose online systems fail at launch.

Borderlands 4 launched earlier this week and immediately saw a concurrent player count on Steam bigger than all the other prior Borderlands games. At the time of this article’s publication, Borderlands 4 had seen an impressive peak of 252,530 players on Valve’s platform, with the peak weekend playing time to come.

For context, Borderlands 2 set a Steam peak concurrent player count of 124,678 13 years ago, with Borderlands 3 hitting a peak of 93,820 five-and-a-half years ago, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel reaching 68,238 10 years ago. Borderlands Game of the Year Edition has a peak of 23,655.

Pitchford took to X / Twitter to address concern about Borderlands 4’s ability to hold up over this weekend, making a promise gamers aren’t used to hearing from developers.

“So here's the thing with this... We are VERY confident in our backend on-line infrastructure and systems. And we're off to an insane start — record breaking,” he said.

“But we know from past experience that peak numbers will start really hitting over this weekend. You're going to be hammering our on-line infrastructure and some people are nervous if our on-line systems can handle the numbers you will be throwing at us.

“But here's the thing: our on-line team rules.”

Pitchford is taking the opportunity to encourage as many people as possible to play Borderlands 4 this weekend, and so Gearbox is offering the Break Free Pack to all who play the game from September 12-14. This includes 1 Vault Hunter Skin usable by Vex, Rafa, Amon, and Harlowe, and 1 Legendary Ripper Shield, which scales to your Vault Hunter level when redeemed (with a minimum of Lvl 25).

Pitchford said he “wanted to see if we could motivate everyone to log in this weekend to see how far we can stress the system,” which is why the free pack was created.

He continued in typically confident fashion:

“Listen — I'm telling you that it's going to be VERY unlikely you guys can be enough people to break the backend and take our game down. I know there have been some high profile backend on-line systems failing around big AAA game launches, but not this one.

“I am THAT confident.

“That said, IF concurrency *does* break our systems, I'll find a way somehow to reward everyone and to make it up to everyone for showing me that it can break. And, you'll have helped expose something that we will need to make stronger, so... win-win.

“So here it is... I'm throwing down the gauntlet: you cannot break our on-line infrastructure through too many players. You can't. Hacking doesn't count, btw. Just concurrent players in the game is what we're looking for. Play cooperatively; jump into random people's games; log in and out a bunch of times at peak hours... Whatever you can fairly and reasonably do within the game to add pressure to the system, do it!”

For this weekend only, Lenovo is offering a massive $1,700 discount on the Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10 gaming PC equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K processor and RTX 5080 graphics card, now just $2,149 shipped after coupon code "WEEKENDPOWERUP". This is easily the best deal I've seen for a Legion Tower RTX 5080 gaming PC and over $500 less than the previous lowest price. The RTX 5080 graphics card will play even the latest games at 4K resolution with high settings and ray tracing enabled.

Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 10 RTX 5080 Gaming PC for $2,149

For this weekend only, Lenovo is offering this outstanding deal on a Legion gaming PC deal. Right now you can order a pre-configured Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 10 AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D GeForce RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC for just $1,699 after coupon code: "WEEKENDPOWERUP". Free delivery is included. This CPU/GPU duo can run even the latest and most demanding games with high framerates at up to 4K resolution.

Lenovo Legion RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC for $1,699

It might not have the audience of football, baseball, or soccer, but to its proud fans there’s something truly special about hockey. It’s the cold air of the arena, the weight of the puck against your stick, and the feel as your skate glides across the surface of the ice. To their credit, the developers at EA Vancouver seem to get all of that, and it’s led them to create an enjoyable NHL simulation that has earned a dedicated audience. That dedication, however, has increasingly been tested in recent years as the series has failed to truly move forward in any meaningful way. EA Sports NHL 26 continues this dynamic with a game that nails most of the elements that make hockey special, but it never feels like the kind of significant jump over what’s come before that might make buying yet another version exciting rather than obligatory.

If you’ve played a hockey game from EA at any point over the last few years, you have a good idea of what to expect from NHL 26. The lynchpin of the series is Franchise mode, which allows you to take the team of your choosing on a season-long quest to hoist the Stanley Cup. It’s basically the default mode, showcasing what the series is best known for and it still does that all pretty well. Individual games are fast, the controls are intuitive, and EA Vancouver has spent years refining a formula that mostly works. Granted, there are very few other hockey games available right now, and those that do exist don’t have the official NHL players or teams; that lack of competition might be what leads the developers to play things so safe and leave so much unchanged year to year. To be fair, it’s hard to fault them too much for not fixing what isn’t broken.

However, this situation has created an unfortunate trend for the series that’s made each year’s version feel like baby steps, and NHL 26 continues to focus more on smaller tweaks than on substantial changes. As a result, it’s easy to miss adjustments made beyond mirroring the big roster changes we’ve seen over the offseason, such as Mitch Marner being on the Golden Knights after leaving the Leafs, and Matt Dumba appearing on the Penguins following his Dallas departure. As of this writing, EA Vancouver seems to have done a pretty good job making sure everything is up to date, including representing the Utah Mammoth with their new name, uniforms, and arena (following a season under the temporary “Utah Hockey Club” label). Lastly, PWHL has been updated to add the women’s league’s two new teams from the 2025-2026 season, though that mode feels completely unchanged beyond that.

Though Franchise mode seems to be the most popular single-player mode in EA’s yearly NHL games, I really enjoy the customization options and the general approach to the sport found in the narrowed focus of Be a Pro. As someone that grew up playing hockey, there’s something that feels really authentic about focusing on controlling an individual player. There’s a greater need to consider line changes, playing in position, and setting up CPU-controlled characters.

So I was pleased to find that some of the bigger changes this year can be found here, but I’ve found that they aren’t all positive. Some of the biggest improvements come from cutting out what hasn’t worked: NHL 26 has finally dropped the often-mocked and frequently repeated “pricey pond hockey” opening scene that appeared across multiple games. You’ll no longer see the same repeated cinematic sequence with an agent talking about how you’re so passionate about hockey that you’re playing pond pick-up with a bunch of kids. Instead, you’re dropped right into the player maker. And mercifully, EA has also scaled back on the frequent coach meetings from past Be a Pro modes, but the catch is that the replacement might be even more monotonous: press conferences.

The idea of taking part in press conferences is actually kind of neat, and the initial questions help to shape your on-ice personality. The hockey press will ask questions like your approach to free agency, and choosing one option will improve your likeability with teammates, while the other helps your brand. However, the execution gets dull fast once you’ve taken part in several in a row. That might be a little too real: I’ve attended real-life NHL press conferences, and the questions from sports journalists really can be as groan-inducing as they are here sometimes. How do I feel about not winning the division? How do you think?

On top of that, the impact from press conference responses on player stats often feels unfair. At one press conference, I was asked about modeling my career around a specific player, with multiple options to choose from. I apparently picked the wrong one, and it immediately led to a decrease in my brand stat. Even worse, NHL 26 doesn’t always make it clear what answers will have a negative impact on your brand or the feelings of management, so a seemingly innocuous response can have an unforeseeable consequence.

A smart change, though, has made NHL’s most intimidating mode more approachable for me. Putting together a team built out of NHL greats in Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) takes a lot of time and effort. It can also take some real currency, though you are awarded with daily freebies that can help shape a decent team without paying extra. I still don’t necessarily want to take my team up against the passionate players who dominate online with a combination of skill and large wallets, though; sometimes you want to play without the pressure of competing with real people. So it’s a welcome change that for NHL 26, EA has replaced last year’s HUT Squad Battles with a new offline Cup Chase mode that offers a chance to build up a team and try them out in a full single-player campaign with multiple difficulty levels. I was grateful to have the chance to jump into games using my custom team without having to worry about getting schooled by people fiercely protecting their online rankings. And anybody that wants to do so can take that team online just as they normally would in HUT.

Online or off, though, NHL is feeling increasingly behind the annual sports game pack graphically. That’s despite the fact that last year, NHL 25 marked the first game in the series to abandon PS4 and Xbox One and shift focus to current platforms. But NHL 26 still doesn’t feel like it’s really pushing PS5 and Xbox Series X|S to the fullest. The ice itself pops on the screen nicely, and there are lots of impressive details, including wear to the surface as a game progresses, but just about everywhere else is a letdown. The character models are rough, with players, coaches, and fans often looking pretty ugly relative to what we’ve seen in other recent sports games. There are also some weird choices and oversights that are holdovers from past games, like team logos getting cut off on specific screens. Crowd reactions also feel stuck in the past, with awkward celebrations that would be right at home on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Thankfully, I found the audio much more enjoyable. The menus have some great new songs this year, including tracks from groups like Wet Leg and The Hives. I never would have thought of “Catch These Fists” as a hockey song, but it fits undeniably well. In the games themselves, EA Vancouver continues to replicate the authentic sounds of each rink, with team-specific cheers and organ sounds. The commentary is also pretty faithful to the current NHL viewing experience; it feels like watching a nationally televised game, offering the same chatty play-by-play that you’d expect to hear on TNT. That said, I was grateful for the option to toggle it off when it got repetitive.

Possibly the worst audio in NHL 26 belongs to Macklin Celebrini, though. The San Jose Sharks forward can be heard offering career advice in Be a Pro mode, and it’s clear not all hockey players are cut out for acting.

Lenovo just dropped the price on a Legion Tower gaming PC to lower than what I saw during the Labor Day sale. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 10 GeForce RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC is down to just $1,659 after you apply coupon code: "WEEKENDPOWERUP". Free delivery is included. Curiously, this gaming PC is equipped with a laptop processor. This CPU/GPU duo can run even the even most demanding games in 4K resolution at 60fps and beyond.

Lenovo Legion RTX 5070 Ti Gaming PC for $1,659

Max is officially back to being HBO Max. Even though the name has changed (returned?), the library is still full of great films and shows to watch. HBO Max is home to some incredibly high-quality watches, including House of the Dragon, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Sinners. You can tune in to Season 2 of Peacemaker, which will of course be joined by the new Superman later this year.

If you've been hoping to start up an account to dig into that library, we're here to help. We're keeping track of the best price for HBO Max subscriptions, along with any deals as they appear. Let's get into what's available right now.

Our Top Pick: The Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max Streaming Bundle

With just two games, the Nioh series has already cemented its place among the best of the soulslike genre, thanks to its uniquely fast-paced action, deeply customizable builds and playstyles, thrilling boss battles, and a certain fluidity to its combat that feels like Team Ninja’s own signature touch. Based on my five hours of hands-on time with a new preview build, the upcoming third installment is shaping up to continue that trend of excellence, staying true to the core of what has always made the series so successful, but shaking up just enough to challenge veteran players to rethink how they approach its many difficult combat encounters.

Much like Nioh 2, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be an iterative sequel that doesn’t change much about the core systems that were established in Nioh 1; instead adding brand new layers on top of that core to reinvigorate the combat system and force players to engage with it differently. Nioh 2 did this by adding in burst counters and yokai shifts, and Nioh 3 does this primarily by giving the player two styles that they can shift between on the fly: Samurai and Ninja style.

When I first played Nioh 3, back when it was offered up as a limited time demo, I was a little unsure of how I felt about this split. Samurai style, after all, is basically just the way you’d normally play Nioh, minus the ability to use Onmyo Magic; while Ninja Style just felt like a much faster and DPS oriented stance that comes with the substantial drawbacks of no longer being able to use Ki Pulses to regain your stamina, and no longer having the three sword stances to switch between, which are both two staples of Nioh’s gameplay. Not to mention that having two different styles means nearly twice as much inventory management, since they both have their own completely separate sets of gear, and if there’s one game series that already has more than enough inventory and loot management, it’s Nioh.

While loot remains an issue, during my playtime, something clicked with me with regards to Samurai and Ninja style. Not only did I gain an understanding of what each style was good for and when I should swap to one versus continuing with the other, but more importantly, I got a grasp of the sheer amount of options that having two hot swappable styles each with their own equipment loadouts and skill trees brings to the table.

While in Samurai style, you of course have access to the three stances – high, medium, and low – and all of the skills that come from each of those stances. You also are able to to use Ki Pulses to restore spent stamina without having to wait for it to recharge, making it great for sustained offense where you’re able to kind of just plant your feet down and stand and fight against a tough enemy. There’s also a new Arts Proficiency Gauge that fills up as you deal damage and successfully guard, but decreases whenever you get hit. Once it’s full, you’re able to use a powered-up version of your heavy attack, which adds a nice little reward for playing well with a careful balance of offense and defense.

Ninja style on the other hand lets you go absolutely wild. Your dashes go crazy far and are super fast compared to the dodges in Samurai style; instead of stances, you’re able to equip up to three ninja tools; you’re able to very quickly dash to an enemy’s backside to deal extra damage; and most of the weapons take advantage of the fact that Nioh 3 adds a jump button, allowing you to even punctuate your ground combos with a jump cancel, letting you tag on even more damage with air combos. On top of all of this, for both styles, you also have your guardian spirit transformations, guardian spirit skills, Soul Core skills, it’s just a lot of tools to take with you into every battle.

Of course, all of these added options in Ninja Style come at the aforementioned cost of not being able to use Ki Pulses to restore stamina, so I did find myself having to rein in my lust for aggression – it is still a stamina-driven soulslike after all – but I felt a level of creative freedom in combat expression that I typically feel in a good character action game, and I eagerly anticipate getting my hands on the full game and seeing what a high-level character can do once the skill trees start getting maxed out.

Soul Cores also return in Nioh 3, but they’re a bit different this time around. They still appear as random drops from enemies and will let you use that enemy’s signature attack, just to give you yet another option when it comes to how you choose to dispatch your foes. However you have two choices of how to equip them. When you rest at a shrine, you can put them in your Onmyo Box in either the Yin or the Yang position. The Yin position is what I just talked about, you’ll gain some stat increases and the ability of the monster to use in combat. But if you place a core in the Yang position, you’ll instead be able to get spells and items added to your inventory that will refresh every time you rest at a shrine. One of the Soul Cores had a fairly underwhelming skill, but when I equipped it in a Yang slot, it gave me invisibility scrolls that I could use to sneak past tough enemies. It’s a wonderful change to an already excellent system, and I can’t wait to mess around more with it in the full version.

The other big new tentpole feature for Nioh 3 is the addition of non-linear open field-type levels, complete with sidequests, a variety of points of interest with unique challenges and rewards, and wide open environments rife with opportunities for exploration. This is in contrast to Nioh’s typical linear levels with the occasional optional branches off the beaten path that ultimately loop back around. I got to experience one of these in my hands-on time – the frozen region of Kamigamo – and while Nioh 3 doesn’t seem to do anything surprising with its more open level design that hasn’t been done before, the shift was a refreshing change of pace. Right away, the first thing I did was a combat challenge called a Crucible Spike. This was a sealed-off combat arena with multiple waves of enemies that I had to defeat in order to proceed. Clearing the Crucible Spike improved my Spirit Force, which is a new resource that governs your usage of Spirit Skills, and also gained a new spirit skill for one of my guardian spirits.

And that’s really what makes me excited about these open field levels, because these Crucible Spikes, along with other types of points of interests, are strewn all over the map, the challenges are fun, and the rewards are great – which is all the incentive I need to seek them out. Every time you complete one of these points of interest, your exploration level will increase, and each time it increases, you’ll get an extra bonus, from more icons being revealed on your map to give you some direction on where to explore, you may get an added stat bonus while you’re in that specific area, or you may get skill points to spend on your Samurai or Ninja skill trees.

All in all, Nioh 3 is shaping up to be exactly the same kind of iterative step above its predecessor that Nioh 2 ended up being. The style switching between Samurai and Ninja is an excellent addition that adds new layers of depth to an already stacked combat system, and the new open fields offer up even more incentive to explore than ever before, with fun challenges, mini bosses, and secret treasures to discover in every corner. It all ran incredibly smoothly as well, making me forget for a moment that this game is still a ways off, with a planned release in early 2026.

Square Enix has announced a Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade release date of January 22, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X | S.

An announcement for the long-awaited port arrived as part of today’s September 2025 Nintendo Direct. It came with a trailer, promising to bring the first chapter in Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret’s story to the new Switch console, as well as Xbox platforms like Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud, just after the new year kicks off.

Square Enix’s port will bring Final Fantasy 7 Remake to more platforms nearly six years after its original launch on PlayStation 4 in 2020 and a little less than five years since its Intergrade upgrade launched for PlayStation 5. However, players on Switch 2 and Xbox take advantage of more than just the Yuffie-centered add-on story, Episode INTERmission, when Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade arrives in January.

A digital limited early purchase bonus will also be available until January 31, 2026, and grants access to the original Final Fantasy 7 at no extra charge. Those who pre-order on Xbox will be able to play the 1997 JRPG classic the instant their purchase is locked in, while Switch 2 players will have to wait until the January 22 release date.

Switch 2 players, specifically, can also take advantage of a unique offer that lets them in on the recent craze surrounding the Magic: The Gathering and Final Fantasy crossover. Those who pre-order a physical version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade for Switch 2 will net a Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy Play Booster.

Limit Break

Players revisiting Cloud and Sephiroth’s story or playing it for the first time will also notice Square Enix has included what it is calling a new “Streamlined Progression” setting. This will appear in-game in the form of five new options to make the experience easier for players if they choose to utilize them. Available options include HP that is always full, MP that is always full, a Limit gauge that is always full, an ATB gauge that is always full, and 9999 damage for every attack.

Director Naoki Hamaguchi shared a statement regarding the decision to offer streamlined gameplay options for new platforms, explaining that the team wanted to “allow the game to cater for individual players’ different lifestyles and play styles.”

“I feel that the way people enjoy content has become more flexible these days,” Hamaguci adds, “as we see with video streaming platforms, and that people also want the same thing from games, with options to tailor the experience based on the time they have and their levels of interest. I have also had personal experiences where I wanted to play something with the limited time I have but gave up because of the time it takes to level up characters or traverse the game.

“That’s exactly why I think that the Streamlined Progression feature is very effective - to give players smooth access to the story.”

Square Enix also confirms that the entire Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will eventually make its way to Switch 2 and Xbox platforms, as well as PS5 and PC. While we wait for the rest of the story to unfold, you can read up on everything announced at the September 2025 Nintendo Direct here.

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).

Sandara Tang has been working in board game art for some years now, but in 2022 she got sole responsibility for illustrating Flamecraft, and her cozy, charming, yet detailed style helped the game become an instant hit. Now she’s been given an even closer fit for her talents in Critter Kitchen, a game where teams of anthropomorphic animals run a kitchen, competing to create the best dishes to please the punters and, ultimately, a rarefied food critic.

There's a good deal of mechanical variety in here, as there’s some worker placement, some push your luck, some second-guessing, and some optimization, and they all hang together in a cohesive, thematic whole.

What’s in the Box

Critter Kitchen is one of those games with a lot of little bits that you’ll need to sort through and set up before each play. You start with the central board, which is really just a bifold information tracker and card organizer, onto which goes the wooden round marker and above which goes a variety of cards from three different decks, indicating the objectives, food critic, and scoring bonuses available during your game.

Beneath the main board there are boards for the different locations you can visit, which vary with the number of players. Each player also gets a deck of matching location cards, three cardboard plates, and a big critic’s plate, as well as a player screen behind which they can hide their growing stack of ingredient tokens. There are a lot of these, all of which must be punched out and stored in the provided drawstring bag, from which they’re pulled and assigned to locations during play. The final location, The Chef Academy, also has an associated deck of additional chefs for hire, each of which comes with a punch-out token to represent them in play.

Wooden pieces come in the form of three chef tokens for each player, cut and printed to resemble the animals they represent, a mouse, lizard and boar respectively, alongside a chef’s hat token to use on the priority track.

The art, throughout, is superb. There’s really no reason, mechanically, why Critter Kitchen should involve animal chefs rather than human ones, but it is a great excuse to showcase Tang’s delightful art. The cutesy style won’t be to everyone’s taste but if you can get into it, it’s very evocative, making the game’s setting, Bistro Bay, come to life with nothing more than an alliterative name and some incredibly charming, characterful illustrations of its denizens.

Rules and How It Plays

Given the slightly fiddly setup, it’s perhaps a surprise to find that the game runs fast and smooth once play gets underway. One player, labelled the Maître d', spends a moment at the start of each of the seven rounds to fill the shops with tokens drawn from a bag, indicating what can be found there. Mostly these are cooking ingredients that have a quality rating between 2 and 7, but there are also spice tokens that double the value of the matching ingredient, and rumors, which let players find out more about the hidden final scoring requirements. The final location, The Chef Academy, also gets a random “Zous Chef” card.

Given the slightly fiddly setup, it’s perhaps a surprise to find that the game runs fast and smooth once play gets underway.

Each player then secretly chooses a location for each of their three chefs by assigning them a face-down location card from their hand. Each chef has a rating between 1 and 3, with lower values going first but being able to purchase fewer items. When all the cards are assigned, they’re revealed, and the matching chef piece goes on the matching location. You then scan through the locations from left to right, and the chefs in that location from 1 to 3, picking which items from the stock that you want to take back to your kitchen.

This phase of play is an absolute riot. Shops generally only have three items available, so if a 1-value chef and a 3-value chef get assigned to the same shop, the 1-value chef gets first pick of the stock, and the 3-value chef only gets to take two items home. In a crowded field, or if one of the shops has a particularly tasty draw, this means there’s a real risk of a higher value chef going home empty handed although they get a consolation soup – a 1-value ingredient that can be used as a wildcard in place of any other – instead.

Assigning your chefs is thus a tense tightrope walk of trying to prioritize what you need and what you can risk, while second-guessing what other players might do, then praying things work out for you when everyone reveals their cards. The tension doesn’t stop there, though. Sometimes, a player won’t pick what you expect and you get something you wanted but were expecting to lose. Sometimes the queue-based tie-break mechanism kicks in, when two chefs of the same value sit on the same spot, and the player who wins goes to the back of the queue, meaning ties in later shops might work out in your favor. It’s all crossing fingers and biting lips right up until the last two shops in the chain.

The penultimate location is the Midnight Market, where you can’t see what’s on offer until you resolve the location. It’s a risky proposition as it’s not only hard to predict who might be there, but can also be a great way for a 3-value chef to snag some unbelievable bargains, or can lead to them trudging home with a bagful of grot. The final shop is the Chef Academy, where you can grab the unbelievably useful Zous Chef, who acts as a whole extra chef for you next round, with a handy bonus ability to boot.

Competition for the Zous Chef can become fierce, but in a clever twist, any ingredients left over from previous shops get sent to the academy, meaning there’s often a grab-bag of other stuff to pick up here. So you can always assign slow chefs here in the hope they’ll come away with something, but they risk picking up dross and have almost no chance of getting that super-helpful Zous Chef. In Critter Kitchen, every chalice is potentially poison by the time you get there. But while other players often upset your well-laid plans, the hidden location selection means it never feels cruel or targeted, giving the game plenty of interaction without too much negativity.

In Critter Kitchen, every chalice is potentially poison by the time you get there.

What you’re carrying home from this mad dash to the markets are ingredients that you’ll use to serve up three meals after rounds 3 and 6, and then a final plating to please a food critic in round 7. The ingredients needed for the first two scoring intervals are revealed one turn at a time, adding a delicious frisson of uncertainty to proceedings. You’ll get a smattering of points depending on the quality of ingredients you plate up but the bands are wide: a total of 6 quality is enough to get you one point, but 21 quality gets a whopping four. That makes the decisions around what to throw in and what to keep much more difficult, as does a limit on the number of items you can carry over after each plating round.

Most of the points come from the critic’s plate. This needs all seven types of ingredient, and the player with the highest quality in each type gets a point. The critics themselves are represented by a card that offers a specific bonus: you’re recommended to start playing with the mouse critic, for example, who gives extra points for the best cheese course. Once that’s all been assigned there’s an extra tranche of points from the total quality of ingredients you’ve used in your critic plate, then you tally up everyone’s final total to see who’s won.

Scoring rounds take a little while, as everyone figures out what ingredients they want to use, but other than that the game ticks along at a very pleasing pace because of the way your chef locations are decided simultaneously. And despite the apparent chaos of this round, it manages to strike a balance between strategy and excitement: you’ll be rewarded for prioritizing well just as much as you’ll be thwarted by failing at mind-games and second-guessing your opponents. Similarly, the slow reveal of objectives and rumors can sometimes feel frustratingly random, but really helps to keep up the tension and tempo of play.

Where to Buy

• Barnes & Noble
• Lucky Duck Games

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is set to release February 3, 2026 if you buy the more expensive editions, or February 5 for the standard Edition. It’s coming to PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A from-the-ground-up remake of the original PS1 game, the remake brings the epic RPG adventure to modern platforms with modern visuals and storytelling. It’s available in several editions, all of which are detailed below. Let’s dive in.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - Standard Edition

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - Digital Deluxe Edition

• Get it for PS5 - $74.99
• Get it for Switch - $74.99
• Get it for Switch 2 - $74.99
• Get it for Xbox Series X|S - $74.99

In addition to the base game, here’s what digital extras you get with the deluxe edition:

• 48 hours early access
• Luminary’s Livery costume set
• Road of Regal Wretches battle arena content
• Jam-Packed Swag Bag - assortment of helpful items
• White Wolf Costume

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined - Collector’s Edition

• Get it at Square Enix Store - $249.99

The Square Enix Store-exclusive collector’s edition comes with the following physical and digital extras:

Physical Items

• Steelbook Case
• Ship in a Bottle Figure
• Smile Slime Plush

Digital Items

• Luminary’s Livery costume set
• Road of Regal Wretches battle arena content
• Jam-Packed Swag Bag - assortment of helpful items
• White Wolf Costume

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined Preorder Bonus

Preorder Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, and you’ll receive a couple of in-game items to help you on your way. Here’s what you get:

• Trodain Togs
• Seed of Proficiency x3

What Is Dragon Quest VII Reimagined?

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a full remake of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, a JRPG that first launched in 2000 for the original PlayStation console. It’s previously been ported to Nintendo 3DS and mobile platforms, but this is, as the title suggests, a full reimagining of the game.

DQ7 is a famously long game, with an average of 75 hours to complete the main story in the 3DS edition, according to Howlongtobeat, with a completionist time of 130 hours. The PlayStation version has even longer completion times.

The game is a traditional single-player JRPG that has your unnamed character and a team of adventurers sailing around, traversing islands, and completing quests to help people out on each one.

As for the art, Square Enix wrote in its announcement, “The character designs, originally crafted by world-renowned manga artist Akira Toriyama, have been reimagined into a charming 3D art style using dolls actually created in the real world.” That’s wild. The graphics look great, though, almost toy-like in that Link’s Awakening remake sort of way.

Other Preorder Guides

Feel free to check out everything else announced during today's Nintendo Direct, including a new Super Mario Galaxy bundle for Nintendo Switch.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Often cited as one of the world's most valuable media franchises, Pokémon is a household name that's been a Nintendo staple since the Game Boy. The beloved series is home to hundreds of amazing creatures you can catch in-game or collect as trading cards, with each new generation bringing loads more to discover. Every console released by Nintendo has had plenty of Pokémon games released for it, and the Nintendo Switch is no exception.

Pokémon Day brought tons of new announcements about what's next for the franchise. Below, we've compiled every Pokémon game that has been released on Nintendo Switch and the information we have on a number of upcoming Pokémon games releasing on the Switch 2.

How Many Pokémon Games Are There on Nintendo Switch?

In total, 12 Pokémon games have been released for the Nintendo Switch. This includes the mainline games for the 8th and 9th Pokémon generations as well as plenty of spinoffs. For the sake of this list, we've counted mainline entries with two versions as a single release. We also don't include the Pokémon games offered through Nintendo Switch Online, but you can check out that list below.

What Pokemon Game Should You Get in 2025?

If you're wondering which game is worth picking up on the Switch in 2025, my recommendation is Pokémon Legends: Arceus. It's not going to give you that OG Pokémon game feeling, but that's what the older generation games are for. Instead, Legends: Arceus introduces more action and RPG elements to the Pokémon series, offering the freshness of open areas to explore, more control over encounters, and plenty of polish for the handheld.

All Pokémon Games on the Nintendo Switch (in Release Order)

Pokkén Tournament DX (2017)

Pokkén Tournament was originally released for the Wii U in 2016. A year later, Nintendo and Bandai Namco prepared a deluxe version of the game for Nintendo Switch, adding new characters and updated visuals to take advantage of better hardware. This three-on-three battle system is a blast to play with friends both in person and online.

Pokémon Quest (2018)

Pokémon Quest turns all your favorite Pokémon into miniature cube form. This free-to-play Switch game features a fun and simple combat system where you send Pokémon on expeditions. Equip different abilities to your Pokémon to handle all types of encounters.

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! & Let's Go, Eevee! (2018)

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! & Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! are remakes of the beloved 1998 Pokémon Yellow. These titles were the first mainline Pokémon games ever to release on a home console, since none made it to the Wii U. Set in the Kanto region, all 151 original Pokémon appear with varying forms from previous mainline installments. With heavy accessibility features, these remakes were a great first step for the series on Nintendo Switch for newcomers and veterans of the series.

Pokémon Sword & Shield (2019)

Pokémon Sword & Shield marked the first installment in the series to feature aspects of an open world. Dubbed the Wild Areas, these regions allowed for free traversal and battles with wild Pokémon. Gyms also made a return for the first time since X & Y. Additionally, Sword & Shield introduced the eigth generation of Pokémon, which included Dynamax and Gigantamax forms of previous Pokémon.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (2020)

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a remake of the 2005 titles Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team & Blue Rescue Team. Surprisingly, this is the first Pokémon spinoff remake ever, with development handled by Spike Chunsoft. The gameplay consists of completing jobs in different dungeons and unlocking new Pokémon along the way.

Pokémon Café ReMix (2020)

The other Pokémon release of 2020 was Pokémon Café ReMix featuring similar gameplay to other puzzle games like Disney Tsum Tsum, which requires you to connect Pokémon together to solve puzzles. In Pokémon Café ReMix, you and Eevee own a café and must serve the Pokémon who come for food or a little drink. This charming service game is free-to-play via the Nintendo eShop.

New Pokémon Snap (2021)

After more than 20 years, the Nintendo Switch is the console that finally received a sequel to Pokémon Snap. Developed by Bandai Namco, you traverse around different biomes and areas with an on-rails camera to capture pictures Pokémon in the wild. You can unlock new courses by taking good pictures in New Pokémon Snap, leaving for a sizeable amount of content to unlock and discover. You never know what you might find during each session!

Pokémon Unite (2021)

This free-to-play game marked Pokémon's first entry into the MOBA genre. You command and control a team of five Pokémon in head-to-head battles against other players online. There's a solid amount of Pokémon to choose from, so you can adjust your team to best fit your needs. Pokémon Unite went on to be featured in different esports tournaments, with multiple championships held for the game.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl (2021)

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Pokémon Shining Pearl are remakes of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl, which originally released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS. As the fourth generation of Pokémon, Diamond & Pearl feature a wide variety of Pokémon to battle against and discover. The remakes feature a new chibi art style that was created to stay faithful to the original titles while still remaining fresh.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus (2022)

Pokémon Legends: Arceus is often praised as one of the best Pokémon games available on the Switch. This original title takes place far in the past, somewhere in the Hisui region. With a focus on exploration, you can freely walk all around the map to capture Pokémon, explore different environments, and so much more. Pokémon can be spotted wandering around all over the map, which requires you to be strategic if you're looking to avoid battle.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (2022)

The latest mainline Pokémon games officially kicked off Generation 9, bringing along an entire new approach to gameplay and world design. In Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, an open world awaits with freedom to explore wherever your heart takes you. The DLC pass, titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, is now wrapped up, making it a perfect time to check out Scarlet & Violet.

Detective Pikachu Returns (2023)

One game and one movie later, the sequel to Detective Pikachu is finally available on Nintendo Switch. Tim's father is missing, and it's up to Detective Pikachu to solve the case! This sequel features new puzzles and investigations, where you can investigate scenes and use your notebook to get to the bottom of the mystery. If you're a fan of both Pokémon and mystery games, this is a great game to consider.

Available Pokémon Games With Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

The Nintendo Switch Online subscription service has additional Pokémon titles if you're looking for more after completing the Nintendo Switch library. Here are the five Pokémon games you can play with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership:

• Pokémon Trading Card Game
• Pokémon Snap
• Pokémon Puzzle League
• Pokémon Stadium
• Pokémon Stadium 2

Upcoming Pokémon Games on Nintendo Switch

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the next mainline game launching on Nintendo Switch. The game is set in Lumiose City, within the Kalos regions. Tepig, Totodile, and Chikorita are familiar starting Pokémon, from Gen 2 and 5, but will be getting new Mega evolutions. "Rooftop parkour" and new battle mechanics also indicate an increased focused on real-time action.

In the April 2025 Nintendo Direct, Nintendo confirmed that Pokémon Legends Z-A will release simultaneously on both Switch systems, with the Switch 2 edition featuring enhanced graphics and better framerates. Nintendo more recently announced a Nintendo Switch 2 bundle featuring Pokémon Legends Z-A, which will release on the same day as the game itself, October 16. The game is now up for preorder.

Pokémon Pokopia

While we may not be getting a new Animal Crossing game (yet), Nintendo just announced a new Pokémon spin-off game that looks pretty darn similar. Pokémon Pokopia makes you a Ditto with a human appearance, who must work and learn from local Pokémon to build a new community on a small island. The game is set to launch on Switch 2 next year.

Pokémon Champions

Yep, there's more. Game Freak and The Pokémon Company have also announced Pokémon Champions, a new battle game in the spirit of Pokemon Showdown. Coming to mobile devices and Switch, you'll be able to battle with Pokémon you've trained in other games through the Pokémon Home app.

Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.

Here’s some good news for anyone with a soft spot for the Wii and its library: Nintendo is releasing a bundle of Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Nintendo Switch on October 2. As with nearly every original Switch game, it will be fully playable on Switch 2 as well. The reason for the souped-up ports is because these games are the basis of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which hits theaters April 3, 2026. The game collection is available to preorder now (see it at Walmart) either in physical or digital form. Read on for details.

Preorder Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Preorder Bonus

As yet, Nintendo has announced nothing in terms of preorder bonuses for the game. If it does at some point in the future, or if any retailer decides to offer a bonus of its own, I'll add it here.

What Is Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2?

These are ports of Nintendo Wii games. Super Mario Galaxy hit the waggly platform in 2007. The sequel arrived on the same console in 2010. Both games were incredibly well received: IGN gave Super Mario Galaxy a 9.7/10 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 a 10/10.

Both games have gotten some upgrades and improvements in their transition to the new platform. They have improved resolution (up to 4K on Switch 2), a better UI, and a new in-game music player. You also have the option to play using standard controls, or using the Joy-Cons in a more Wii-like manner with motion controls.

In addition to the improvements, Rosalina's in-game storybook is also getting new pages. We’ll have to wait until the game comes out to see exactly what they’ll include.

The crux of the original games is that Mario is sent into space, where he runs and jumps around on planetoid-like environments. Each one has its own gravitational pull, so you can run all around the spheres, making for some interesting platforming challenges. They really are superb games.

Other Preorder Guides

Check out everything else that was announced in the most recent Nintendo Direct or our ongoing list of upcoming video game release dates.

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

With prices on Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards dropping back down to retail levels, prices on prebuilt gaming desktop computers are also following suit. If you're still rocking an RTX 30 series GPU or older, now would be a good time to upgrade. Currently, Dell is offering an Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC equipped with a powerful GeForce RTX 5080 GPU for just $1,969.99 with free delivery. That's $130 less that the best deal I saw during Labor Day and one of the few times I've seen any RTX 5080 prebuilt for under $2,000.

Alienware Aurora RTX 5080 Gaming PC From $1,969.99

It may not have been the first book the Master of Horror ever published, but The Long Walk was the first novel Stephen King ever wrote. Written during the height of the Vietnam War, it’s a fascinating, primal keystone text for understanding the lens through which King sees the world, and all that remains relevant about the text - translated faithfully by director Francis Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner - allows this long-overdue adaptation to punch above the weight its barebones premise may suggest.

The rules for the 50 young men who’ve won a nationwide lottery to compete in the Long Walk are simple: Walk. Don’t stop, don’t sleep… walk. If a walker drops below three miles per hour, interferes with another walker, or otherwise breaks the rules, it’s a warning. Three warnings, and you “get your ticket.” In most cases, that means a bullet to the brain courtesy of the military escort riding along in humvees, led by The Major (Mark Hamill), a roaring parody of machismo and rugged individualism who’s something of a godhead in this ailing world.

The more the Walk winds on though, and as the elements and the limits of the human body come into play, the better that bullet starts to look for the set-upon young men. Lawrence - who cut his teeth on dystopic fiction with I Am Legend and most of the Hunger Games movies - kicks the Walk off within moments of the movie starting, but takes his sweet time before letting the first contestant get eliminated, a moment he punctuates with a cinematic flourish that lands as a real surprise so long after the movie has started. Every drop of rain, hill, dropped ration, and bowel movement that follows become life-or-death modifiers of the march.

The dozens of deaths that occur as The Long Walk goes are covered plainly and unflinchingly, and by the time the Walk has wound down to its final contestants, the ones who “got their tickets” early on look like the real lottery winners. Lawrence rarely lets viewers off the hook, squeezing every drop of blood out of that R-rating and forcing the viewer to be complicit in the violence. Even when we don’t see the carnage, Lawrence puts the focus on the terrified faces of the survivors, highlighting the mounting psychological weight being loaded onto them as their bodies start to fail. The violence doesn’t take long to become numbing, but that’s the whole point here. The director smartly illuminates this by having Cooper Hoffman’s Ray Garraty call out the real horror of The Long Walk early on, vocalizing his fear that both the Walkers and the audience (in their world, and by extension our own) will grow to accept the bloodshed as routine. Simple though it is, the conceit of The Long Walk proves a very elastic premise onto which many types of societal adversity can be projected.

Garraty’s reasons for joining the walk, and why winning matters to him, are a lot more complicated than most of his other competitors, which leaves him more open to forging relationships with the other Walkers, in particular Peter McVries (David Jonsson). Garraty and McVries spend much of The Long Walk musing on the larger existential questions begged by the very existence of the competition, and both Hoffman and Jonsson bring easy naturalism to their performances, which winds up being a real saving grace in the midst of all this darkness. The support and kindness they show each other become infectious, leading to moments of triumph as small as sharing food or letting one lean on the other.

It also makes the times when they’re at odds feel as dangerous as the creeping exhaustion they’re both fighting, as that camaraderie feels more and more like the real secret to getting out of this thing alive (even if the rules state only one of them would be able to make it in the first place). With Garraty’s attention set to how his single wish could change the world if he wins, Jonsson’s McVries becomes the real heart of the film, putting lovely emphasis on the power of living moment to moment and finding silver linings to every thundercloud… even the ones that dump rain on the boys as their shoes begin to fall apart and their feet start to bleed.

Garraty and McVries’ fellow walkers don’t get nearly as much depth, and here Lawrence and Mollner feel a little stuck figuring out how much time to invest in developing characters with presumably such short life expectancies. Even more prevalent characters like Olson (Ben Wang) and Baker (Tut Nyuot), who take to Garraty and McVries’ optimism, are mostly just there to reinforce the co-protagonists’ viewpoints. Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer) is an antagonist in the truest sense of the word, a nervy, annoying nihilist who The Long Walk uses to needle at the competitors, positioning him as a ticking time bomb, poking holes in Garraty and McVries’ attempts to keep morale up, but he never quite goes off the way the movie seems to want you to think he will. Garrett Wareing's Stebbins, a strong, quiet contender for the win, is a much more interesting character in that respect: his usual silence makes any infrequent observations about the futility of hope or his own thorny motivations to walk hit a lot harder. Mark Hamill’s Major is drawn pretty thin, and the fact that he’s got the privilege of being driven around on the back of a jeep while the boys die walking gives you everything you need to understand what The Long Walk’s trying to say through him.

The Long Walk runs relatively short at 108 minutes, but it feels every second of it. The rinse-and-repeat nature of the deaths may hold a lot of emotional weight here, but rarely has the hairsplitting thought of shaving 10 or even five minutes off a cut felt like it may pay greater dividends as the pace does start to drag in The Long Walk’s second half. Gorgeous though the practical locations may be, Lawrence is only able to squeeze so much visual variety out of those long, verdant stretches of road, though he does break up the drone of the Walk with occasional flashbacks to Ray’s home life which explain why he was so adamant to join the Walk in the first place. These flourishes aren’t the only changes Constant Readers will notice. But the detours Lawrence takes from King’s source material are all additive. They stay in the spirit of the book and feel respectful to the story, rather than an attempt to change anything just for the sake of it.

Though the focus and perspective rightly stays on the Walkers, Judy Greer’s Ginny Garraty has a few opportunities to show up in support of Ray and, hey, no shock for anyone who knows thing one about Judy Greer, but she absolutely crushes in these very brief appearances. Greer’s quick shifts through all of the complex emotions a mother in this world may possibly experience, watching her boy take part in this death march, bookend the story, and are as haunting as any bullet or hemorrhage the movie has to offer.