Puppeteered by a hacker or hackers of unknown origin, one of Pokemon's official social media accounts was briefly trying to get fans to invest in a crypto memecoin - on top of the Krispy Kreme donuts and endless merch the account usually peddles, that is.

As spotted by NintendoEverything, Pokemon's Twitter (X) account made quite a strange post last night. "Celebrate 30 years of Pokemon in a whole new way," the now-deleted tweet said alongside a contract address. "Introducing $POKEMON, the official Pokemon memecoin."

Of course, The Pokemon Company quickly regained control of its internet airwaves after around half an hour of the crypto ad going live, just in time for the 2026 Pokemon World Championships that kick off today.

The Pokemon stewards explained what went on in a statement to the outlet: "The @Pokemon handle on X was temporarily compromised earlier for ~30 minutes. We're aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency.

Those posts were not created or approved by Pokemon and have been removed. We have secured the account and are investigating the incident. We're sorry for the confusion and appreciate your patience."

There's no word on who was behind the hacks or how exactly the ordeal happened, but here's hoping any kids ravenous for more Pokemon stuff weren't blindsided by the scheme.

If I had a memecoin for every hacker who used a massive gaming franchise to push their crypto nonsense this month alone, I'd have two good-for-nothing digital tokens, funnily enough. Earlier this month, a leaker known online as CyberLeek leaked tons of in-development footage from GTA 6 online, using the clips as a backdoor to promote and sell their own memecoin, though the scheme seems to be over now. Pokemon's run-in with a crypto schemer was thankfully much less dramatic.

Pokemon Winds and Waves might not have turn-based battles as Game Freak veteran hints the combat system "could change" thanks to Pokemon Champions

Pokemon Polaroid pre-orders are hitting the shelves, and you can now claim your own Pikachu, Sylveon, or Pokeball instant camera. Not only that, but if you're not keen on the $99.99 cameras themselves, there's a whole host of accessories to snap up, starting from just $14.99. Wondering where to buy these adorable snappers? You're heading straight to the Polaroid Store.

This is where we're seeing stock landing en masse right now, and there's still time to scoop up your Pokemon Polaroid pre-order. As evidenced by the fact that empty Pokemon donut boxes are being flogged online by resellers, it's a jungle out there where Poke-merch is concerned.

That's why I've rounded up the first spots you should hit when pre-ordering Pokemon Polaroid cameras and accessories ahead of their full October 5 release date. This should allow you to beat any potential rush and stay ahead of the curve.

No matter what's caught your eye, I'd recommend moving quickly. Polaroid itself promises that you'll only be able to pre-order them "while supplies last." Once they're gone, it looks as though they may be gone for good.

Polaroid Go Gen 3 (Pikachu Edition)

Polaroid Go Gen 3 (Sylveon Edition)

Polaroid Now Gen 3 (Poke Ball Edition)

Polaroid x Pokemon accessories

Pokemon Polaroid FAQ

Looking for more cool Poke-gear? Here's where to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration. The new Pokemon Halloween merch also seems to be super-effective, because it's already starting to sell out.

• See all camera offers at Polaroid

The Pokemon Company International has appointed series veteran James Turner as the new creative director of Pokemon art and design.

Turner shared the news on Twitter. "It feels great to be working in the world of Pokémon again, with a lovely group of people," he says. "I’m very excited about what comes next!"

Though Turner is most recently known for indie hit The Plucky Squire, made by All Possible Futures, a studio which Turner co-led, his history with Pokemon goes back generations.

Per Bulbapedia (and Mobygames credits), Turner worked with Game Freak on multiple Pokemon games dating back to Pokemon Black and White. Not only that, he directed Tembo the Badass Elephant, one of the stranger non-Pokemon games to come from the studio.

Game Freak only recently released Beast of Reincarnation, an action RPG with a more realistic art style. Our Beast of Reincarnation review praises its combat and, very appropriately for the Pokemon studio, its big ol' dog.

Turner was credited as a Pokemon character designer on Pokemon Black and White, X and Y, Sun and Moon, and Sword and Shield. He was also art director on Sword and Shield, and has dabbled in digital movie and effect design as well as 3D map graphics for the series.

Turner's earliest Pokemon credit was 2003's Pokemon Colosseum, for which he handled camera animation and contributed some special effects. You'll also find a few Pokemon cards under his name on The Art of Pokemon.

Our The Plucky Squire review had high praise for All Possible Futures' 2D-meets-3D puzzle adventure. It sees storybook characters explore the world outside their pages, and was a high point for publisher Devolver Digital in 2024. Its art style, which used segmented lines and delivered a charming, illustrated look, is a recurring point of praise across its reviews.

Pokemon Winds and Waves might not have turn-based battles as Game Freak veteran hints the combat system "could change" thanks to Pokemon Champions.

Pokemon Champions director Kazumasa Iwao says that the mainline Pokemon games could gradually move away from turn-based battles, as Champions is available for fans of the current combat system. Pokemon has a vibrant competitive scene, and having a battle-focused game allows Game Freak to experiment with different types of combat for the mainline games like Winds and Waves.

The Pokemon series has a large number of different battle systems from PokePark to Conquest, but the mainline series has stayed mostly the same, with each new generation making changes and building on existing mechanics. Both Pokemon Legends: Arceus and Pokemon Legends: Z-A had entirely new battle formats, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

Fans assumed that Winds and Waves would stick to the traditional turn-based formula, but Game Freak could be about to shake things up. In a video on Game Freak's YouTube Channel, which has been translated by GamesRadar+, Iwao explains, "The Pokemon series has always used a turn-based battle system, but there is the possibility that this rule could change little by little."

While this change might not be happening as soon as Winds and Waves, Game Freak's desire to try out new systems is what led to the creation of Champions, which will preserve VGC-style turn-based battles. "There are people who have battled for decades since Pokemon Red/Green or Pokemon Gold/Silver, so we didn't want to say like 'it's changed now, so please buy and play the new games,'" explains Iwao.

"That wouldn't be good. However, at Game Freak we always want to challenge ourselves by doing new things with the series, but we don't want to throw away the battle system that we've built until now," he continues. "Because of this we thought it would be good to put the battle system we've constructed into one game that you can keep playing, and that's where the development of Pokemon Champions began."

The Pokemon World Championships take place this weekend (August 28 – 30) in San Francisco, and Pokemon Champions will be at the center of the video game battles. Going forward, it appears that the mainline games may no longer put competitive fighting at the center, as Champions becomes the focus of the battle arena.

I spent 12 hours constructing a diabolical Pokemon Champions team to challenge the meta head-on, which has caused so many forfeits I almost feel bad.

I took one look at the 2026 Pokemon Halloween collection and let out a loud groan. Make no mistake: my bank account is in danger.

The official Poke-store tends to hit the mark where quality is concerned, but those hits turn into bullseyes with spooky season. The 2026 Pokemon Halloween collection (which you can see in its entirety at the Pokemon Center) is no different, and there are multiple pages of "oh no, I want it" merch ranging from mugs to cozy sweaters. No matter whether you want to decorate home or you'd like the best Pokemon merch with a touch of the eerie this fall, there's no shortage of options.

Some of the cooler items are already selling out (I've seen themed plushies fly off the digital shelves), so fellow GamesRadar+ Poke-merch fan Rosalie and I have rounded up our favorite Pokemon Center Halloween collectibles for 2026. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Pikachu Pumpkin String Lights as well as the Gengar Cardigan. An eerie ambient glow never fails to deliver on Halloween atmosphere, while the latter looks hyper cozy. They're just the tip of the iceberg though, so I'll need to hide my credit card if I want to have any money left over this spooky season...

For more cool collectibles, don't miss these China-exclusive Pokemon TCG figures (they've ruined my entire day).

• See all the 2026 merch at the Pokemon Center

Over the past couple of weeks, official accounts run by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have repeatedly made references to Pokemon Gold and Silver. Maybe it's nothing more than a nostalgic tribute to some classic games. But I'm over here drinking hopium straight from the tap, and I'm willing myself to believe this is a tease for a HeartGold and SoulSilver revival on Switch.

Earlier this week, Nintendo of America tweeted "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold." Attached is a screenshot from Pokopia, recreating the bit in Pokemon Gold and Silver's intro where you find your rival peeking through a window into Professor Elm's laboratory.

That alone would hardly be a reason to infer anything, but it's not the only suspicious recent tweet. Back on August 10, an official Japanese Pokemon account tweeted an image of the ultimate battle in HeartGold and SoulSilver, where you confront the original game's protagonist in a mountaintop battle against his uber-powerful Pokemon team.

Two tweets counts as a pattern, right? After all, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen hit the Switch earlier this year. Wouldn't it make sense for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company to follow up on these modern versions of classic gen 1 remakes with modern versions of classic gen 2 remakes?

And! – I shout as I start stretching red strings along my conspiracy board – FireRed and LeafGreen are about to get Pokemon Home support. If you've completed the Pokedex in those games, once that update hits, you'll be gifted a Celebi in Home. That's the very same legendary Pokemon that was introduced alongside Gold and Silver all those years ago. Johto fever is running wild, baby.

This is, admittedly, a lot of wishful thinking. But we're now celebrating Pokemon's 30th anniversary, and HeartGold and SoulSilver are often regarded as the best Pokemon games ever made. What better way to see out the year than a new way to play the classics?

For now, Pokemon Winds and Waves are the biggest things on the horizon.

The next expansion set, Pokemon TCG Delta Reign, now has a release date; it's due to launch at the beginning of November. In addition, we now have a better idea of what the set will offer fans.

Hitting shelves a couple of months after the the 30th Celebration set, Pokemon TCG Delta Reign is eyeing a November 6, 2026 release date - but fans will be able to get early access at special prerelease events starting from October 24. The expansion also introduces 'Legendary Stadiums' (two Stadiums played alongside each other), and more Mega Evolution Pokemon ex. That includes Mega Rayquaza ex, which is returning for the first time since the game's XY era.

Here's a breakdown of what you can expect from the set:

• Four more Mega Evolution Pokemon ex (Mega Rayquaza ex, Mega Golurk ex, Mega Malamar ex, and Mega Golisopod ex)
• 6 standard Pokémon ex
• New Legendary Stadium mechanic that combines two Stadiums together, with three Legendary Stadiums available in the set (boosters with Stadiums include both required cards)
• 14 illustration rare Pokemon
• 17 ultra rare Pokemon and Trainer cards
• Six special illustration rare Pokemon and Supporter cards

Pre-orders aren't available for Pokemon TCG Delta Reign yet, but it probably won't be long before they start to appear. While the Pokemon Center will sell this set in November, it's probably going to run out of stock fast. With that in mind, I'd keep a close eye on third-party retailers like Miniature Market in the US and Wayland Games in the UK. Both typically offer the range at standard (or close to normal) prices, though this does mean the cards sell fast.

That's certainly been the case with the current set; it's incredibly difficult to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration right now. As such, I'd keep a very close eye out for Delta Reign pre-orders in the coming weeks.

While we're on the subject of poor availability, Palworld TCG dev promises more stock with a 2nd Edition printing and apologizes again for poor availability.

• See the latest Pokemon card offers at Amazon

I'm feeling sorry for myself, and it's all because of China's exclusive Pokemon TCG figures.

China already has a reputation for getting some very cool Poke-merch, but the latest drop takes the cake. In honor of the 30th Celebration (which is grand enough to feature 27 products as is), the territory has pulled out all the stops for exclusive figurines to go with special Pokemon TCG cards.

While there's been a lot of fuss in the community over 13 adorable Pikachu models that match some of the 30 unique Pika-cards dropping alongside this set, an incredible Charizard commemorative figure based on the original card artwork is just as impressive. Actually, looking at it makes me feel weirdly nostalgic; it's the spitting image of the 1999 card, despite being a 3D model. Due to cleverly-placed linework, it feels like a cartoon come to life.

It's unclear if we'll get any of the above in the US or UK (and if we did, my guess is it'd appear somewhere like Walmart before being snapped up instantly), but I don't feel hopeful. While there's a chance these collectors' items could make the trip across the ocean, I'm not overly hopeful. We've seen figures such as these before, and they've remained China-exclusive. The only exception is in the UK at very select Forbidden Planet stores, which occasionally get Chinese Poke-merch in... but again, it's a small batch so I wouldn't say it's a super reliable method.

Not that they're completely out of reach. These items will launch in China this September 16, and I have no doubt you'll be able to get ahold of the figurines via secondary channels such as eBay… but you'll probably be paying way over the odds for them, not to mention painful shipping costs. Considering how it's already difficult enough to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration, this may be a step too far for many. In other words, these models may stay a daydream for most of us.

Back to feeling sorry for myself I go.

It's a day of ups and downs for card game fans; while it sucks that we probably won't get those cool Pokemon figures here, Palworld TCG dev promises more stock with a 2nd Edition printing.

• See the latest Pokemon cards at Amazon

I knew resellers were shameless and will do their level best to flog anything they can, but I didn't realize they'd stoop so low as to sell empty Pokemon Krispy Kreme donut boxes.

No, that isn't a typo; resellers really are attempting to shift cartons at an absurd price. I've seen some Pokemon Krispy Kreme boxes being listed for as much as $99.99, and honestly, my flabbers are gasted.

It's a similar story with the accompanying Poke-cups featuring Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and more. Getting a full collection can cost you well over $100 via eBay right now.

For context, Krispy Kreme just released a Pokemon collaboration with themed donuts based on the beloved pocket monsters. (More than one of our Editors can confirm that they are, in fact, delicious.) Because this is a limited-time drop and fans are going nuts for the tasty crossover, resellers have sniffed out an opportunity to make some easy cash by selling the remains at a ridiculous markup. Or at least, that's their hope; from what I can tell, very few of them are actually being bought. Faith in humanity restored.

These unscrupulous individuals are well known by fans of the best card games, and I can't say they have a good reputation. They typically scoop up all the TCG packs they can to move on with obscene price-hikes attached (which is part of the reason why it's so hard to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration right now), and this means there's nothing left for actual players. In fact, the war on Pokemon scalpers now includes facial recognition checks in some stores in Japan.

"....so they're not just scalping Pokemon cards, but the EMPTY DONUT BOXES?!!?!? ...is having good things as a 90s nerd just NO LONGER ALLOWED anymore?!" Asks @DaJoestanator on X/Twitter. I can't disagree with that sense of disbelief.

In more positive news, the new Disney Lorcana digital game sounds like a cross between MTG Arena and Pokemon TCG Pocket.

• Skip the trash and find actual Pokemon merch at Amazon

The last thing Naughty Dog released was in 2024, and it was the developer's The Last of Us Part II Remastered. To the former The Last of Us and Uncharted series' designer Benson Russell, that's a problem. Now a game development consultant, Russell recommends his former employer spare its next game from the prolonged development period it's accustomed to.

Naughty Dog's upcoming sci-fi adventure Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet has now been in production for six years. While the game doesn't yet have a release date, by the time it finally launches, we could be trudging toward the PS6 generation – which is why Russell tells FRVR in a new interview he thinks Naughty Dog's lethargic release calendar is "absolutely not" sustainable. He says about the developer, "They're one of the key stakeholders that get PlayStation[s] sold, right? So, when you think about it, they have not put an original IP out on this platform. The only thing they've done is The Last of Us [Remake]."

Russell guesses The Heretic Prophet's protracted production period is the result of "another Last of Us 2 situation," his term for Naughty Dog's eagerness to map a concise story to overstuffed gameplay. "It might need to be edited in that regard."

The former designer also expresses concern about The Heretic Prophet's interstellar setting, a huge change from Naughty Dog's more typical Earthly fare, in which the developer plays with ragged North American landscapes and jewel-tone islands for Nathan Drake to look disheveled on. The Heretic Prophet's seemingly grisly melee combat is also new for Naughty Dog, whose action segments are usually more strategic than aggressive – though, I think that look Crash Bandicoot always has in his eyes is also "aggressive."

Still, in Russell's experience, Naughty Dog can struggle in achieving new ideas. Even in those few years after the first Uncharted game came out in 2007, when Naughty Dog was releasing sequels and spin-offs on a nearly annual basis, Russell recalls the developer struggling to perfect its melee combat. He says, "We wanted brawling and all that kind of stuff, but it was a massive investment."

Now, as The Heretic Prophet heads toward its seventh year of development, Russell reflects on the industry-wide trouble of zombified production periods. The biggest titles reveal a small outbreak of developers dragging their feet – GTA 6 is a decade overdue, Fable has been delayed to 2027 after being announced in 2020, the Max Payne 1 and 2 remake has been under construction for four years and counting, and so on...

"I genuinely think these seven-year projects… you can get them back down to five," Russell says. "I think you could at least cut two years off of them, if not maybe a little more, just by defining yourself, getting that North Star solid right in the beginning. And it's not a difficult thing to do."

Otherwise, Russell argues, developers risk making a mess of their games with team changes, technical changes, and the unavoidable frustration of starting over.

And he has a point. But as studio closures and shrinking funds from publishers continue to threaten game development from the outside, it might not make a difference.

Uncharted difficulty was tuned to "slow the player down if they were too good," says Naughty Dog designer: "We can't charge 60 bucks for a 5-hour game."

The solo developer behind a fan-made Pokemon Emerald remake says they've been working 12-hour days for about two years to bring their project to life, during which time they created a whopping 384,000 animation frames and a whole lot more.

Pokemon Gamma Emerald launched into early access last week. Its creator, UndreamedPanic, describes it as a free, "built from scratch" remake, with this early build containing around three to six hours of gameplay. The project adds some quality-of-life improvements not found in the original Emerald, as well as additions like a day/night cycle and the option to let your Pokemon follow you around like in HeartGold and SoulSilver.

As spotted by Dexerto, on social media, Gamma Emerald's dev is adamant that "this is not a rom," nor is it a mod. "I built the assets like sprites, animations, models, music, UI, entire gamma engine myself. Calling it a mod is literally dismissing all of that haha," UndreamedPanic writes. "This is an original creation from scratch. It took 2 years to build with me working on it everyday for 12 hours a day." In a different post, they add: "I've been working to death."

Part of that was the project's animation – in a separate post, UndreamedPanic says "I did 384,000 frames of animation in the past 18 months," which definitely helps explain where those 12-hour workdays came from. Elsewhere, they reiterate: "I built this from the ground up, 0 rom, all me."

Although Gamma Emerald is in early access, UndreamedPanic said at launch that "I am not gonna fix bugs or look at them for a while, I REALLY need a break from this project." After those years of work, I don't think anyone could blame them for having a rest.

Pokemon Pokopia becomes second best-seller on Switch 2 after its first DLC launch, as Nintendo confirms the cozy spin-off has hit over 5 million sales in 5 months.

Polaroid seems to have said "what if Pokemon Snap, but real," because it's dropping a handful of cameras based on the mega-franchise.

Designed to look like Pokemon or items inspired by the series, this Polaroid collaboration includes three models: a Pikachu design, a Sylveon version, and a more classic camera based on the iconic Poke Ball colorscheme. They'll be available to pre-order soon (on August 25) via the Polaroid store or Pokemon Center, and launch alongside a host of accessories like carry-cases this October.

Rather than being different colorways on the same camera, the Pokemon × Polaroid crossover modifies two separate designs. The Pikachu and Sylveon ones give the smaller Polaroid Go Generation 3 a Poke-makeover, while the Poke Ball model is a modified Polaroid Now Instant Camera Generation 3. However, all feature the same shutter button modelled after a Poke Ball.

The cool thing about the smaller designs is that they feature themed straps modelled after their inspiration; the Pikachu one has a charm made to look like the electric mouse's tail, while the Sylveon Polaroid features a strap borrowing the Pokemon's signature colors in a suitably wavy pattern.

All of the cameras come with film whose frames are based on instantly-recognizable pocket monsters, from Charmander to Bulbasaur. These are all protected by darkslides featuring custom Pokemon silhouettes.

You'll also be able to grab a few Pokemon-themed add-ons soon, or use them with an existing Polaroid camera. All are modelled after a Poke Ball; there's a Poke Ball strap, a camera case, and photo album.

Here's a breakdown of exactly what's available:

• Polaroid Now Gen 3 (Poké Ball Edition): $139.99 / £129.99
•  Polaroid Go Gen 3 (Pikachu & Sylveon Editions): $99.99 / £89.99 each
• Special Edition Film: Custom-themed i-Type Film ($22.99) and Polaroid Go Double Packs ($24.99) with themed frames and custom dark slides
• Accessories: Themed Go Camera Cases ($24.99), Photo Albums ($24.99), and universal Camera Straps ($14.99).

These items will go up for pre-order at Polaroid on August 25, 2026 ahead of a full release on October 5.

If you want more nostalgia-fuelled collectibles, fans agree this new Lego Batman Returns Batmobile looks great.

• See all the latest camera models and accessories at Polaroid

Wonderland codes can give you a helping hand in this adventure, as you explore a creepy park full of surprises. While this place was originally built as a paradise, there are now loud noises and jump scares potentially hiding around every corner, so you'll need to stay strong if you want to survive.

The initial promo released gives you a modest amount of free Gems, which is enough to increase your balance but you'll need to earn more of them yourself before you can start buying items to help you through this scary Roblox experience. If you're brave enough to head inside, then here are the codes for Wonderland and how to redeem them.

If you'd prefer some general promos for rewards that can be used across all of your experiences, then check out the latest Roblox promo codes.

All Wonderland codes

The following Wonderland codes are available to claim:

• RELEASE26 – 100x Gems

The initial code for Wonderland unlocks 100 Gems, which can contribute towards an in-game purchase but isn't enough to buy anything on its own. Hopefully future promos will increase the amount of free Gems available, to give you more purchasing power.

How to redeem Wonderland codes

To redeem Wonderland codes, start off by selecting the SHOP button on the left side of the screen while in the lobby, then on the next screen hit the CODES icon at the end of the top bar. That will open the Redeem a Code menu, so use the Enter a special code here text box to type in a promo before tapping Redeem to collect your reward. Codes for Wonderland are not case-sensitive, so you don't have to use all caps for them to work.

Expired Wonderland codes

• No expired codes

At the moment there are no expired Wonderland codes, as this whole process has only been added recently. Any promos released will eventually stop working though, so claim the codes we've listed as active as soon as you can.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Eventide is as far from the realms of Mass Effect or Dragon Age as it could be. The narrative-driven adventure is grounded in a more realistic setting, for one, with striking "neon noir" detective vibes riffing off The X Files' brand of paranormal investigation, all presented through a vivid watercolor art style. This contemporary Canadian metropolis is "not cyberpunk, but hearkening back to some of the '90s aesthetics," art director Francis Lacuna offers – so you definitely won't be playing an intergalactic war hero.

As the brainchild of three former BioWare developers, developer Studio Reset is living up to its name. After almost two decades working together on some of the best RPGs of all time, creative director Kaelin Lavallee teamed up with fellow Mass Effect and Dragon Age alums Francis Lacuna and Kris Schoneberg to leave big corp life and form their own studio. "I think we were all very eager to try something new," Lavallee says, "to take these principles that we did learn [at BioWare] about characters and world building and crafting stories, and just apply them a bit differently."

Bright lights, big city

"A bit" sounds like an understatement. The Eventide puts you in charge of a team of paranormal detectives with an ever-growing pile of redacted cases to solve – and you yourself are not an actual character.

"You are facilitating their investigation," design director Schoneberg says, describing the player's role as the "unseen hand" tasked with not only selecting a case, but assigning the two most appropriate sleuths for the task. "That choice may become a little bit more difficult as the case list gets bigger," she hints. "Similarly, you start with a few agents, and they have different perspectives.

"When you look at a case and you look at your agents, you kind of do a little mental math," adds Schoneberg. "So you're making decisions about where you're going and who you're bringing. Then you go to that location with those agents, and at that point you do an investigation."

"How you collect the evidence is just as important as the evidence you collect," Lavallee says when I ask about how missions pan out. With interpersonal storytelling and party dynamics being such a focus in The Eventide, right in the veteran BioWare dev team's RPG wheelhouse, my curiosity is piqued. How do we know which duos to assign to a given case?

"You choose an agent based on their background and their expertise, depending on what you want to kind of uncover on a case," Lavallee says. "We don't have stats in the traditional RPG sense. Every character is quite unique in terms of their abilities and what they are able to see. So you can almost think of them like classes, but I prefer to think of them as lenses on the supernatural. You know, how does the supernatural interact with technology? How does it interact spiritually in cultures? How does it interact scientifically, organically?"

The idea of skeptics versus believers is imperative here, too, linking right back to the team being inspired by Mulder and Scully's dynamic in The X Files.

"I think it all ties back to perspective," says Lavallee. "So, in a BioWare game, each of the companions had their own perspective on the world and what should or should not happen." He references how different characters approve or dislike certain actions or dialogue choices, as well as the player's alignment as either Paragon or Renegade in Mass Effect.

"What we were trying to do with this is take that one step further and apply their perspectives to the gameplay itself. So you get both the character's narrative voice coming through in what they want to see and how they see it, their opinions on the world and on the supernatural, but you also get to see it through their eyes."

Or, you can choose the pair of detectives you simply like the most. "That's the thing that I loved about BioWare games," reflects Schoneberg. "When you'd bring those two characters with you, and all of a sudden they'd start having an argument or something." Picture the autonomous Garrus/Tali romance in Mass Effect 3, which happens if the player doesn't romance either character – anecdotally, something Schoneberg herself "had no idea" about while working on the RPG as a level designer.

But there's no player romance in The Eventide, Lavallee admits. "You're also not necessarily playing matchmaker. Maybe something happens organically. Who knows?"

The promise of branching narratives for coupled agents excites me. Romantic or not, The Eventide puts hands-off character development and emergent storytelling front and center. "You don't get the 'approves, disapproves' [character affinity tracker]. You see it live," Schoneberg says.

As a result, each detective's background, personal arc, and who they're paired up to work cases with becomes integral to how the story plays out. "It's very divergent. For me, I think what makes a compelling mystery is the convergence of all of these possibilities. So there is an ending. How you get there is really up to the player," explains Lavallee. "And then, as things start clicking together, you get closer and closer to the truth of what happened. And I think it's that space where the most fun is had."

Team rebuilding

The Eventide is the direct result of the trio's "shared beliefs," according to Lavallee, in terms of "not just what we want to make, but how we could make it and how we would want to if we ever got the opportunity."

It might sound like a risky pivot, but with industry-wide studio downsizing and layoffs sweeping some of the biggest game developers globally, creating indie games sounds comparatively safer for job security. "It used to be that AAA was sort of a safe harbor. You could have a nice salaried job and create something special, and now, that safety net is kind of gone," Lavallee says. The opportunity to make such a quirky, unique game like The Eventide could only present itself to an independent studio, and who better to helm it than Schoneberg, Lacuna, and himself?

"The opportunity to work with developers and people I trust and respect to create a good game experience – that's underappreciated in the world of companies building products to sell," Lacuna reflects. "Taking a risk to make a heartfelt, focused, passionate game – that is the most interesting thing to me [about going independent], and that drew me to work with these two."

Game development has become "a risky business", says Schoneberg. "A way of de-risking it is by working with people that you trust and have worked with before. That's more valuable than anything else."

Studio Reset's independence gives the devs a chance to get back into their craft at a grassroots level. "The assumption there is that you don't want to get your hands dirty anymore. You don't want to get in the engine. You don't actually want to go make something," Schoneberg continues.

"We want to make something, and we're willing to open up the editor, go find a YouTube video, and learn how to do something 20 years into a career. We are willing to do it, and so many people aren't."

The Eventide is one of many upcoming PC games you need to have on your radar in 2026 and beyond.

On February 25, 2027, Pokemon Bank will shut down, leaving seven generations worth of creatures trapped on old game cartridges. It's a sad milestone if you want to keep adventuring with your childhood Pokemon pals, but if you're purely interested in completing the modern Pokedex, you still can – well, mostly. With the app's closure, a small handful of Pokemon will be unobtainable in the modern console games, and nobody's quite sure when that's going to change.

The current hub for digital Pokemon collecting is Pokemon Home, a storage app that allows you to upload your creatures from any of the Switch games. For now, it also accepts transfers from Pokemon Bank, a 3DS app which – through a long, convoluted history of transfers, trades, and Virtual Console releases – allows you to upload Pokemon from every game released prior to the Switch.

There are now 1,025 Pokemon, and 1,018 of them can be uploaded to Pokemon Home via the modern Switch and Switch 2 games. The missing 'mons? Spinda, Deoxys, Celebi, Victini, Zarude, Iron Leaves, and Walking Wake. Currently, you can catch Deoxys in the eShop versions of FireRed and LeafGreen, and once those games are updated with Pokemon Home support in October, you'll be able to upload that catch with all the others.

That gets us to 1,019 out of 1,025. The Pokemon Company recently announced that the October Pokemon Home update will also give a reward to players who've fully completed the FireRed and LeafGreen Pokedex – a free Celebi. Now we're up to 1,020, but the immediate good news stops with just five Pokemon left to go.

Zarude is a relatively modern addition to the series, as it was introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield, and is still distributed via online events about once a year. It's safe to expect another such opportunity will come around soon enough. Similarly, Walking Wake and Iron Leaves have been regularly distributed through events for Scarlet and Violet.

Then there's Victini. This li'l guy dates back to Pokemon Black and White on the DS, and has only ever been available via event distributions. And even those have dried up since 2022. There is an important caveat here, since Victini can be caught in Pokemon Go and transferred into Home that way. But if you want to catch all your Pokemon through the mainline RPGs, Victini is currently off the board.

The real, final outlier – the one who's going to leave your Pokedex sitting at 1,024 out of 1,025 – is Spinda. You can catch this Pokemon without much hassle in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but it's got a weird, unique gimmick: a spot pattern with billions of unique values. That seems to be the reason it's the one and only Pokemon from the Diamond and Pearl remakes that can't be uploaded to Home.

Legends Z-A and its DLC made a wide array of hard-to-obtain Pokemon reasonable to catch once again, but these outliers are all notable exceptions. They've been the subject of plenty of discussion among Pokemon fans on social media, with a lingering question: when will these creatures be catchable again?

Maybe some of them will be reintroduced in Pokemon Winds and Waves. Maybe we'll get to see Spinda again in a seemingly inevitable eShop release of Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. Or maybe The Pokemon Company will simply open the floodgates with a host of event giveaways in the near future. For now, we're all just gonna have to make peace with some incomplete checklists.

Check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games.

If you're hoping to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration cards, I've got good and bad news. The bad news first: everyone is trying to get their hands on the latest set, so stock is very hard to come by. (Which isn't surprising, considering how it commemorates the last few decades for one of the most popular card games around.) Next, the good news: you can get cards if you know where to look.

That's why I'm tracking down all the stock I can find for this hard-to-get release. I've spent a long time monitoring availability for the best card games so have plenty of advice on where to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration if you don't want to break the bank. More specifically, I've listed my go-to stores below. Even though they still struggle with inflated costs, they're your best shot at securing cards at the most reasonable rate.

No matter what, just move quickly; these packs are highly sought-after so get snapped up fast. Don't hesitate if you see cards at a reasonable price, because they might not stay that way - or in stock - for long.

Where to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration in the US

It's rough out there if you're trying to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration, but there is hope... so long as you're happy paying an inflated price. Cards are available right now from both Walmart and Amazon, but the former has the better range (though it's worth noting costs have gone up slightly there since I checked last week). Again, just be aware that there have been price hikes due to demand... and most items are from third-party sellers, so make sure you check their reputation before hitting checkout. I've had a look and they seem reputable enough, but it's always worth double-checking.

Struggling to find anything at a price you're willing to pay? Don't give up hope. Indie retailer Miniature Market has been known to restock cards regularly with previous sets, and while they're still more expensive than normal, it's far closer to usual prices.

Walmart

Amazon

Miniature Market

Best Buy

Target

TCGPlayer

eBay

Where to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration in the UK

Although it's still fiendishly hard to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration in the UK, things are starting to look up. To begin with, Zatu Games got stock last week. Yes, it promptly sold out, but that suggests it could happen any day for other retailers. Keep a very close eye on Wayland Games or Magic Madhouse, in other words.

Make sure you're watching out for Amazon as well. OK, sure, that may seem like an obvious answer. But unlike so many other retailers, it offers an "invite by request" system to foil resellers, which means you have a chance of buying the items at a normal price.

Wayland Games

Amazon

Magic Madhouse

Zatu Games

Smyths Toys

Where to buy other Pokemon TCG sets

While all eyes are on places to buy Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration, that's sometimes easier said than done. Fortunately, demand doesn't mean you have to go without cards. Plenty of older sets are widely available, and stock (as well as prices) for them is stabilizing.

I've set our dedicated software to rounding up the best offers as and when they appear, so you'll find the lowest prices on the latest sets below.

Pokemon TCG 30th Celebration FAQ

Wondering what makes this set so special? As the name would suggest, it celebrates three decades of the trading card game with throwbacks to 30 years of sets. This includes an adorable suite of collectible Pikachu cards, an all-new rarity, and box sets that include everything from figures to themed 'Day' and 'Night' packs with a host of accessories.

If you're looking to play something while you wait for stock, don't miss the best board games or the best tabletop RPGs.

• See all Pokemon TCG offers at Amazon

Pokemon Pokopia has only been out in the wild for a little over five months now, but with the recent release of its first DLC Bubbly Basin, it's managed to hit over five million sales.

That's no small feat, seeing as that marks it as Nintendo's second best-selling game on the Switch 2 – after Mario Kart World, of course, which itself boasts over 15 million copies sold, last we heard officially.

The company confirmed the exciting Pokopia-shaped news yesterday, as per Business Wire, with word of its five million sales coming shortly after the release of Bubbly Basin: the cozy spin-off's first-ever expansion, focusing on islands' water rather than land.

In Bubbly Basin, there's a brand-new underwater town to explore, ocean-themed Pokemon to befriend, mermaid-esque furniture to collect, and various outfits to snag.

It's the first part of Pokemon Pokopia's recent expansion pass, which comes with three DLC: Bubbly Basin and two mysterious additions that Nintendo has yet to fully unveil. As it stands now, the pass is $34.99 and includes 30 rare Pokémetal items if purchased before August 31, 2027.

That's quite a bit of time – and, personally, I wonder how Pokopia will be doing by then. Will it boast even more sales? Probably. It strikes me as the infinite-life sort of sandbox sim game that Minecraft is, with no real limit to playtime.

The capacity to build and explore seems endless (heck, so much so, that I feel like I'm constantly encountering complaints that there's too much to do and it's almost overwhelming to folks).

I'm excited to see what the future holds for Pokemon Pokopia – and for us eager players as well, with the second and third part of Nintendo's expansion pass.

Pokemon Pokopia was bioengineered to be the "best selling spin-off" according to Koei Tecmo CEO, but he had no "real expectations" for the cozy game until it became an international hit

A Pokemon PC port known as Gen1Recomp has been going viral over the past few weeks, thanks largely to mods turning the original Game Boy RPG into a three-dimensional voxel world. The project launched with support for Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, and beta support for Pokemon Gold has just been implemented. Developer BryanThaBoi has also thoroughly answered questions about the project's AI use – though those answers may not be what you're hoping to hear.

Gen1Recomp functions similarly to other PC ports we've seen of classic games. It can play classic Pokemon games pretty much as you remember them, just as an emulator would, but with additional graphics options. Wanna play the game with an ultra-zoomed-out view allowing you to see miles of the map at once? You can do it.

The actual exciting part of these PC ports, however, is the modding potential. Gen1Recomp already has a ton of mods, including some that turn the entire game world into a 3D voxel map, allowing you to see it from an all-new perspective. That's a novelty that's helped shoot Gen1Recomp into stratospheric popularity.

If, however, you don't like your fan-projects to be AI-powered, I'm afraid there's some bad news: Gen1Recomp was made with AI. Or, rather, it was made with help from AI – a distinction BryanThaBoi is very keen to emphasize.

"no, the recomp was not 'made with claude,'" the dev says in a statement on Discord. "was AI used? yes. those are two different sentences and the whole problem is that most people hear them as one. Specifically, using AI = vibe coding. Which is not true. It CAN be true, but in this case it is not."

BryanThaBoi suggests that "vibe coding" is specifically the work of an inexperienced developer who's using AI to paper over the gaps in their own knowledge. That's the kind of thing that the devs behind PS3 emulator RPCS3 were trying to head off when they stopped accepting AI code submissions altogether earlier this year.

But BryanThaBoi insists that his use of AI is different: he's an experienced software developer using AI as an assistant tool, just as he does in his day job. That's the kind of sentiment we saw Valve boss Gabe Newell express when he described AI as a "cheat code" for developers.

"when someone asks me point blank 'is it AI' i have said no, because in the way they mean it, it isnt," BryanThaBoi says. "the second you say 'i use AI' the assumption is vibecoded, hands off, doesnt even know how to develop. thats not what happened here. So it's close to impossible to answer people like this who either have a closed mind about the subject, or dont understand it at all and are just mad any AI touched anything ever."

To those angry about his stance, BryanThaBoi offers a GIF in response. It says "eat a shoe," and you can probably guess what it depicts. I suppose there's something to be said for making your stance clear, but I doubt this response is altogether endearing to anyone who's rejecting AI outright.

These are the best Pokemon games of all time.

Pokemon Bank is officially shutting down on February 26, 2027 - meaning the last proper route to move Pokemon from older generations to the Switch era is being cut off.

Pokemon Day is February 27, and to celebrate, The Pokemon Company has plans to leave our dusty, sometimes life-long pocket monsters stranded on the Nintendo 3DS. But at least it's giving us time to prep beforehand.

"Pokemon Bank, a Nintendo 3DS application that lets players deposit or withdraw Pokémon they have befriended in Pokemon titles on that system from online Boxes, will be ending service," the company writes in its announcement.

3DS players had long been able to store the critters they caught in Pokemon Black and White, Black and White 2, X and Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and Sun and Moon using the handheld system's Pokemon Bank app. Using some creative workarounds, even Pokemon from the GameBoy era were able to be preserved.

Of course, Pokemon Bank was eventually delisted alongside the entire system's eShop in 2023, but since then, fans have been able to transfer creatures over to the Nintendo Switch generations using the more modern Pokemon HOME alternative - as long as you're a paying member, I should add.

"As a result, transferring Pokémon from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon HOME will also no longer be possible," The Pokemon Company continues. "If you have Pokémon stored in Pokémon Bank that you wish to carry over, please move them to Pokémon HOME prior to Pokemon Bank's end of service. Please note Pokemon Bank is not currently available for download."

While Pokemon Bank compatibility is coming to an end, the price of a Pokemon HOME Premium membership isn't changing. To make up for the loss, The Pokemon Company is simply increasing the number of creatures you can store from 6,000 to 9,000 Pokemon starting this October. The Switch ports of Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed are also getting Pokemon HOME support at the same time.

In any case, you have less than 200 days to dust off your old 3DS clams or 2DS bricks, scramble to find a charger that's probably tangled into oblivion, and save your childhood 'mons from being permanently lost in a dark digital void. Does a Jigglypuff still sing if no one can hear it?

$9,000 eBay auction might hold a secret Pokemon game that's been lost for 20 years

The best Pokemon TCG Pocket deck for Hoopa ex is very good in the current meta, with Hoopa proving incredibly strong owing to its ability to target benches and disrupt strategies in the early game, but at the risk of hurting yourself the further you go into the late game. If you're willing to take this high-risk, high-reward strategy, here's how to make the best Dark Hoopa ex deck build in PTCGP, and what you need to know about strategies, pros and cons.

For more deck builds, find out the best decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket here!

Best Hoopa ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The best Hoopa ex deck in the PTCGP meta right now is made with the following cards:

• Hoopa ex x2
• Deino x2
• Hydreigon x2
• Bombirdier x1
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Deceptive Needle x2
• Copycat x2
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Field Blower x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Dark

Dark decks are usually all about favoring aggressive play over anything else, even to the extent of hampering the user, and that's what both Hydreigon and Hoopa ex do, both damaging themselves to either generate energy or do big damage.

It's worth it through: this is a deck that can run very early on 1 energy, and Hoopa's basic attack is incredibly powerful, especially when it comes to targeting the opponent's bench. Meanwhile, Bombirdier is a major advantage for lowering retreat costs, and the Deceptive Needle doubles down on that early advantage by inflicting chip damage on opponents.

Want an alternative Dark build? Check out the best Mega Absol ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket, or the similar Zoroark ex deck.

• Pros
  • Very good early game that also hits the bench
  • Hydreigon remains a low-cost powerhouse
  • Versatile but simple strategies
• Cons
  • Weaker late game, as a result of low health and self-destructive attacks
  • Hydreigon is a Stage 2 evolution

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Each Pokemon has their favorite Pokopia flavors, and knowing which foods fit these categories is essential when feeding fussier Pokemon and trying to increase environment levels throughout your world.

Some Pokemon will ask for any food and are pleased whatever you place in front of them. However, others will ask specifically for something spicy or bitter, for example, and only the right foods will satisfy them. For those occasions, you'll want this Pokopia food guide to hand.

All Pokopia flavors and the basic foods

There are six different Pokopia flavors, and each of the berries, vegetables, and other ingredients belong to specific flavor profiles. When a Pokemon asks for a certain flavor, you'll need to give them food from that category, which isn't always as obvious as you'd think (since when were carrots spicy?!).

So, to help, here's every Pokopia and the basic ingredients that fit their profile:

• Neutral
  • Leppa Berry
  • Lum Berry
  • Watermelon [DLC]
• Bitter
  • Rawst Berry
  • Potato
  • Seaweed
  • Sea Grapes [DLC]
• Dry
  • Chesto Berry
  • Wheat
  • Mushrooms
• Sweet
  • Pecha Berry
  • Bean
• Sour
  • Aspear Berry
  • Tomato
• Spicy
  • Carrot

Meals that you make with these ingredients also fit the flavor profiles above, but the cheapest and most resource friendly way to appease Pokemon hunger is with the basic ingredients listed above.

Mosslax offerings

Once you've awoken Mosslax in Pokopia, you can place offerings on their shrine to increase your rewards. For example, offering dry food grants increased feather drops from Ho-Oh and Lugia. You can offer food to Mosslax once per day, with the effects lasting for that day only. These are the best foods to offer Mosslax for each reward:

• Neutral: increases friendship with other Pokemon faster.
  • Vibrant hamburger steak
    • Combine a bean, a potato, any salad, and any other ingredient in a frying pan.
• Bitter: improves your chance of finding rare items.
  • Bitter hamburger steak
    • Combine a bean, a Rawst berry, a Lum berry, and any other ingredient at a frying pan.
• Dry: increased Lugia and Ho-Oh sightings.
  • Crushed-berry salad
    • Combine a leaf and a Chesto berry at a cutting board, while accompanied by a Pokemon with the Crush specialty.
• Sweet: makes it easier to find ancient artifacts.
  • Fluffy bread
    • Combine wheat, a Pecha berry, and any other ingredient at a bread oven.
• Sour: improved stock appears in shops.
  • Flavorful soup
    • Combine fresh water, an Aspear berry, and any hamburger steak at a cooking pot.
• Spicy: increases the chances of Pokemon turning up at habitats.
  • Crouton salad
    • Combine a leaf and any bread at a cutting board.

With this knowledge, you'll be able to increase your rewards and keep Pokemon happy and well-fed. If you're using this to improve Pokemon homes and therefore the overall Pokopia environment level, but need any more advice on doing so, then our separate guide has all the information you need.

Meanwhile, if you aren't sure how to find any of the ingredients listed above, we've got guides on getting hold of Pokopia wheat and Pokopia tomatoes.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Getting certain Pokopia paint colors - specifically black and white - is no straightforward task, and the game also never tells you how to get them. Then there's other colors, like green, yellow, and pink, which may be obvious depending on a random draw when you started your game, otherwise you might have a tough time getting them.

Whichever color you're after, this Pokopia paint guide will tell you how to get it, so read on - and make sure you've got Smeargle around!

How to get Pokopia paint

To get Pokopia paint, you need to give berries to Pokemon with the Crush Specialty. They'll get to work on the berries, turning each single berry into five bowls of paint after a short time.

If you aren't sure which Pokemon have the Crush Specialty, take a look at our separate guide or use the Pokedex filter in-game.

Here, though, are the base Pokopia paint colors and the berries that require crushing to obtain them:

Other colors then require combining the colors above. For example, if you want lime green paint, you'll need to combine green and yellow paint. This can either be done directly with Smeargle or by crafting Paint Balloons at a workbench. There's more on how to paint further down this guide, but you'll get this recipe after meeting Smeargle in Bleak Beach.

How to get all Pokopia berries

The trouble with all of this is that, while there are plenty of Leppa and Chesto berries about, other berries are slightly harder to come by. Luckily, one seed for each rare tree can be found somewhere in the world, so try not to misplace it when you find it. You'll also get one type of tree randomly assigned to your save game when you start playing Pokopia for the first time, which cannot be changed. This tree will be found in certain places, like the orchard in Withered Wastelands. If you're unlucky, your tree might be Chesto or even Leppa, but you can get any of the other types, too.

Whichever berry you're looking for, though, there's one surefire way of getting the tree you want - and it'll even be ready to harvest right away.

To get every type of berry, head to the developer Dream Island, take a photo of each tree with your in-game camera on Object Mode, then 3D print each tree back at any Pokemon Center.

This way, you'll always have access to as many berry trees as you need, as long as you have one Rare Pokemetal for each single tree you want to print. Upon printing, your fully grown tree will be ready to plant.

If you need to know how to get to this Dream Island, check out our separate guide to accessing the Pokopia Developer Island, which has lots of other stuff you can 3D print, too.

Black and white Pokopia paint

Black and white Pokopia paint, meanwhile, works slightly differently. Since these colors don't come from any berries, you have a chance of getting white or black paint back from Pokemon every time they make you any other paint, at the same ratio of the paint they've made you. For example, if you get ten green paint, there's chance you may also get ten white paint, too. For this reason, it's best to always hand over the maximum amount of berries possible.

Do keep in mind, though, that certain berries result in either black or white paint, as follows:

Again, you're never guaranteed black or white paint, so you'll just have to keep crushing berries with your fingers crossed and you'll get some eventually.

How to paint in Pokopia

There are two ways to paint items and buildings in Pokopia. The first is to craft Paint Balloons at a workbench and throw them at items or blocks. The other is to talk to Smeargle and ask them to paint items or blocks for you.

Either way is simple for painting items, but using paint balloons is probably the best, as you won't need to find Smeargle or take the item to them. Just make sure the correct item is highlighted before throwing the balloon. You can take items to Smeargle if you want something a little more complicated, though, including patterns.

However, when it comes to painting buildings, things are a bit trickier. To paint a building without a color in its name, such as the City Den or a Sand Hut, ask Smeargle to follow you to the building, where they will ask if you want to paint it. However, if you want to paint other buildings, like the yellow, pink, and orange huts, it's bad news.

You can paint these buildings, but you'll need to paint each block individually, which takes a lot of time and paint, as one balloon paints one block. You may find you'd rather destroy the building, take the blocks to Smeargle, and get them to paint the blocks, as Smeargle paints ten blocks for the same paint cost as you can paint one. The downside with this is that you have to rebuild the building from scratch.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

While there is no Manaphy habitat in Pokopia just yet, you can still get this adorable Mythical Pokemon to move into Bubbly Basin - after all, they are the one that started it all.

With the Pokopia Bubbly Basin DLC installed, your attention will be directed to an island off of Bleak Beach which seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Here, you'll find a washed up Manaphy, who'll get your started on the Bubbly Basin storyline before disappearing in search of a home for themselves. If you think this means you need to build a habitat for them, you'd be wrong, but you can still get them to move into your underwater paradise.

I've tried to avoid spoilers as best as possible, but there are some ahead, so be warned.

How to get Manaphy in Pokopia

To get Manaphy to move into Bubbly Basin permanently, simply complete the area's storyline by increasing the environment level to 3 and then building the Ocean Temple as requested by Popplio, Professor Tangrowth's underwater replacement.

I'll let you watch it play out from here, but, just like the base game areas, completing the main storyline results in the appearance of a Legendary - or, in this case, Mythical - Pokemon. From this point on, Manaphy will appear in their new home at all times, but you can't build a new habitat to move them elsewhere. For now, at least.

When it comes to building the Ocean Temple, you're going to need some specific materials, including the Pokopia Ocean Door, Seashell Fencing, and Shiny Pearls, and our guides can help you find them.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Pokopia Ocean Pals rug is a special decorative item that you can find lying around Bubbly Basin, but unlike most items, this one's also part of a quest. During the DLC storyline, flat Pokemon Stunfisk will ask you to find a special rug for them. All they'll tell you is that the rug design features lots of underwater Pokemon, and that it can be found in house in the Bubbly Basin town.

This doesn't give us much to go on, so if you're struggling to complete this request, I've already found the Ocean Pals rug and can tell you exactly where to do the same. So, read on for the exact location of the Pokopia Ocean Pals rug - and a bonus rug to boot.

Pokopia Ocean Pals rug location

The Pokopia Ocean Pals rug is found in a Pokeball, itself found inside a very dilapidated and well-hidden house in the very northwest corner of Bubbly Basin, just behind the play area.

This particular house is hard to find as it's hidden on its own in a cave, seemingly having been buried in all the Pokopia chaos. There are two easy ways to find it:

• Head over the bridge to the play area, and the house can just be seen through some cracks in the cliffs to the left of the slide, behind some Star-Speckled Rocks.
• Head above water when you reach the play area, where you'll find half of the house above ground. Drop down to find the other, sunken, half.

Once you find the house, it's pretty easy to find the Ocean Pals Rug, as it's inside the only Pokeball in the home. With the rug in your inventory, head back to Stunfisk and give it to them to complete your request.

There is another lovely fish-friendly rug found in the town as well, the Swampert Squad rug. If you're trying to give this rug to Stunfisk and it's not working, that's because you've got the wrong one - though it's an easy mistake to make.

Alternatively, if you haven't yet found this blue Pokemon-themed rug, it's in the Pokeball just to the right of the bridge before you cross over from the main Bubbly Basin area. Be careful not to lose it, though, because while no Pokemon has asked for it yet, there's no saying someone won't in the future!

For more Bubbly Basin guides, I've got you covered with help finding the Pokopia Ocean Door recipe and the Windup Inkay toy, as well as how to get the incredibly useful Pokopia Portal Pods for improved storage!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Studio Reset is confident you'll never find a AAA studio making something like its upcoming supernatural mystery game, The Eventide – and its developers would know. The new indie company is made up of BioWare veterans who've worked on games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and The Eventide leads remind GamesRadar+ in an interview that AAA gaming is prone to too much worrying to really luxuriate in the misty X Files vibes they're cultivating.

"Because we are indie, we can take these sort of creative risks that maybe were not available to us in larger companies," says Studio Reset creative director Kaelin Lavallee. "And that's not a knock against larger companies. They have their place and they can do what they do, and they do it well, but at the end of the day, there's a little bit more risk aversion there." So, Lavallee, art director Francis Lacuna, and design director Kris Schoneberg all agree: The Eventide is a creative opportunity they never had before.

A press release describes the paranormal investigation game as "neon-noir." Players will assign two agents with their own unique skills to each strange case that passes their desk in a grungy, but colorfully lit Canadian city.

"As the unseen hand guiding the agency's operations," the press release explains, "players will assign investigators to a growing backlog of unexplained incidents scattered across the city. Each agent brings their own background, beliefs, expertise, and way of seeing the world."

You can get former detective Sam "Brass" Hingle in on a case that requires social discretion, for example, or have cryptozoologist Evelyn "Eve" Atwood put her unconventional biology skills to work.

The game, made in Unreal Engine 5, will purportedly mix "supernatural mystery, mature narrative themes, fixed-camera 3D exploration, agent-driven investigation, and a word-based deduction system to create a detective fantasy around case files, redacted truths, and the uncomfortable space between what happened and what people are able to understand," the press release continues.

This smudgy game made up of frowning characters in long coats sounds like mystical, cigar-puffing fun. Lacuna tells GamesRadar+, "I don't think in any of my previous experiences working on big, multi-million-dollar projects, they would ever greenlight an aesthetic that I am interested in achieving here."

"Like, this painterly [visual] effect would not exist," Lacuna continues, noting, "It exists in the indie world, in the space. It does not exist in the AAA space, and I think that that for me is a great opportunity."

"AAA can throw money at a problem," Lavallee adds, cutting a deeper line between Studio Reset and its developers' BioWare past. "Money, people, and it'll get sorted out. Is it the right solution? Is it the most fun result? Debatable. We can't do that. It's just us" – a team prioritizing creative freedom over all else.

Mass Effect 3 dev demanded answers from the RPG's writing team when she realized her alien husband was hooking up with the Normandy’s most mysterious soldier.

Finding the Pokopia Windup Inkay toy will take you into the deepest depths of the Bubbly Basin - perhaps for the first time. This dark underwater area might look scary, but it's not that hard to explore, and at least when it comes to finding Windup Inkay, I'll tell you exactly where you're headed.

Once you've found it, you can head back up towards the light of day and place the Pokopia Windup Inkay toy as part of the Muddy Playtime habitat, where another sealife Pokemon will join you and friends.

Where to find the Pokopia Windup Inkay toy

To find the Pokopia Windup Inkay toy, follow these instructions:

• Head to the broken bridge in the Imperial area of Bubbly Basin.
• Locate the large, Imperial, descending staircase to the east of the bridge, and go down. Then spin your left stick at the bottom until you drop to the depths.
• Turn back towards the stairs and walk below them, hugging the wall to the north until you see a small cave entrance illuminated by a purple coral (with an orange one inside).
• Follow this tunnel until you reach breakable rocks on your right. Break them to reveal a cave with a Pokeball inside.
• The Windup Inkay is inside the Pokeball, so interact with it, and claim your new toy!

To check you're in the right place, take a look at the map shown on the image above, which also indicates the location of the Windup Inkay. Keep your eyes peeled while you're down here, and you'll also find loads of other important resources and items, including Pokopia Grubby Pearls.

Now you've got the toy, you can build the Muddy Playtime habitat by combining the toy with a Towel Rack and a Floating Log next to some muddy water. You can even change the color of the towel rack by using Pokopia paint. I won't tell you which Pokemon might turn up here, though you might be able to guess at least one.

For more unique Pokemon habitats, check out our other guides on the Pokopia Jirachi habitat and the Sableye habitat, both of which are only available by grabbing event-exclusive items.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Pokopia Seashell Fencing might just be the cutest fencing in the game yet, so I'm sure that you want to place plenty around the Bubbly Basin - and maybe even Bleak Beach, too, thanks to their seaside style.

If, for some reason, these pretty posts don't take your fancy, you do still need to unlock the Seashell Fencing recipe in order to complete the DLC storyline and build the Ocean Temple. It's not at all obvious where to find this recipe, though, so here's how to get it.

How to unlock the Pokopia Seashell Fencing recipe

You can purchase the Pokopia Seashell Fencing recipe from the Bubbly Basin Pokemon Center PC once you reach environment level 3 in the area. It will set you back 500 Life Coins, but since it's essential for the story, that's a relatively small price to pay.

Luckily, you'll already be at level 3 for the story to require these fences, so you shouldn't have a problem grabbing the recipe from the Shop. If for any reason you've gone back down a level, though, you can get it back up using our guide to increasing your Pokopia environment level.

Once you've unlocked the recipe, you can then craft 10 fences with just one Star-Speckled Rock and one Shiny Pearl. We've got a separate guide for you if you haven't figured out how to get Pokopia Shiny Pearls yet.

And with that, you'll be able to craft the ten Seashell Fence pieces required to build the Ocean Temple and have Bubbly Basin looking more fabulous than ever. You'll also need the Pokopia Ocean Door recipe, too, so take a look at our other guide if you aren't sure how to get that recipe - you won't find that one in the shop.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Pokopia Ocean Door recipe is a must-have when you come to building the "beautiful building" in Bubbly Basin - otherwise known as the Ocean Temple. Fortunately, unlocking the recipe is much, much easier than you might expect, so don't panic when you first see the seemingly tough requirements for this large, stunning build.

You may not be able to tell from the image above, but these majestic doors aren't what you're used to - they're huge! You won't be able to use them on a normal house, but build something big enough, like the Ocean Temple, and the Pokopia Ocean Door makes a great feature.

Where to find the Pokopia Ocean Door recipe

The Pokopia Ocean Door recipe hidden in a yellow Pokeball among the sand that needs clearing before you can start building the Ocean Temple.

So, simply clear the build area of debris and you'll have the recipe you need in no time. Once you've got it, crafting the doors are almost as simple, as each one only requires one piece of Star-studded Rock, which is found in abundance across Bubbly Basin.

There's still more to do before you can build the Temple, including gathering a few Pokopia Shiny Pearls. Meanwhile, the Seashell fencing recipe isn't quite as easy - or as cheap - to unlock as the Ocean Door.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Pokopia Starmie Doll was added with the Bubbly Basin DLC, giving players a way to access a new Dream Island based on the new underwater town. You should have no trouble finding the doll if you follow the story, but if you want it sooner - and know where to look - you can find the doll fairly quickly.

Either way, you're going to need a Dowsing Machine, so make sure you've got one in your inventory, as the Starmie Doll is buried where you're very unlikely to find it by mistake. Here's how to get to it, but bear in mind that all of this is only applicable if you've got the paid Pokopia Bubbly Basin DLC.

How to get the Starmie Doll in Pokopia

The Pokopia Starmie Doll is located in a cave to the northeast of the Bubbly Basin starting area, but it's hidden under a mound of Star-Speckled Rock.

The best way to get the doll is to progress the Bubbly Basin story by raising the environment level to 3 and completing Popplio's next request to find their friends. At this point, you'll meet Frillish in a cave, and it's here that you can find the Starmie Doll using Frillish and a Dowsing Machine.

However, you can head to this location with any Search Pokemon and a Dowsing machine to find the doll early. So, doing this depends on whether you want to play through as intended or head straight to the Pokopia Dream Island.

If you do want to get the Starmie Doll as soon as possible, find its exact location below.

Starmie Doll location

The Pokopia Starmie Doll is located in a cave to the northwest of Bubbly Basin, which is at first blocked by rock. You can see the cave entrance in the image above.

With a Search Pokemon in tow and a Dowsing Machine to hand, you can now head to the location above to hunt down the doll. There are a few different pieces of treasure to find here, so keep going until you reach the special doll. You'll find the Starmie Doll buried in a patch of Star-spotted Rock in the first area with minecart rails, just after a patch of pink Mossy Ocean Soil. You'll need to head back underwater and destroy a couple of netting walls on your way there.

In this area, get your Dowsing Machine out and press 'A', then your Search companion will lead you to the correct area. Once you've got it, you can head off to the Basin Dream Island, a great place for picking up Pokopia Grubby Pearls.

There is more than one Starmie Doll on the island, and you can find another one buried underground is shining blocks or by using the Dowsing Machine again.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

If you're looking for Pokopia Shiny Pearls, you first need to look for something a little less shiny. Grubby Pearls are actually the item you're after, and they then need to be cleaned up to reveal the shimmering pearl beneath the muck.

Once scrubbed clean, this pretty item can then be used as a crafting ingredient in a number of Bubbly Basin recipes, including the full set of Marine furniture and Seashell fencing. To find out exactly where to find Pokopia Grubby Pearls and how to turn them into Shiny Pearls, read on.

How to get Shiny Pearls in Pokopia

To get Shiny Pearls in Pokopia, you must first find Grubby Pearls and then take them to a Pokemon that knows the Scrub ability. After a while, they'll clean up your Pearls, returning them to your as Shiny Pearls.

Just some of the Pokemon who know the Scrub skill are:

• Sharpedo
• Stunfisk
• Flygon
• Trapinch
• Tyranitar
• Bonsly
• Hariyama
• Clodsire
• Snorlax
• Onix

To find out which Pokemon you already know who have this skill, you can open your Pokedex and filter by Specialty.

The process of turning Pokopia Grubby Pearls into Shiny Pearls is much the same as using Pokemon to turn logs into lumber or getting Pokopia Paper - only you'll find that Pearls are returned to you at a ratio of 1:1.

Where to find Pokopia Grubby Pearls

The best place I've found to look for Grubby Pearls is in the tunnel to the left of the Bubbly Basin staircase - the opposite side to the Pokemon Center entrance. There are plenty of Grubby Pearls to be found down here, so you should have no trouble getting all the Shiny Pearls you need.

You can also collect Grubby Pearls from the Bubbly Basin Pokopia Dream Island, but you'll need to find the Starmie Doll before you can travel there. Plus, if you're desperate, you can buy three Grubby Pearls from the Pokemon Center shop upon raising the area environment level to 3, and some friendly Pokemon may even gift you Grubby Pearls from time to time.

For other shiny things, check out our guide to all the Pokopia Mystery Gift Codes you can get in-game right now.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Pokopia Portal Pod is an incredibly useful item that players have wanted since the game's launch as it lets you retrieve the items inside from any Portal Pod, anywhere in the world.

Now, instead of trapsing between the Withered Wastelands and the Sparkling Skylands, you can place the most important items in the Pokopia Portal Pod (I'd suggest the most used crafting and building materials), and have easy access wherever you place another Pod. If you need a few of these clever storage devices as much as I think you do, here's how to get them.

How to get the Pokopia Portal Pod

While you can only unlock the Pokopia Portal Pod recipe by increasing your Palette Town environment level, there are other ways of getting Pods, some requiring the Bubbly Basin DLC. Here's every way to get them:

• Increase your Palette Town environment level.
• Pick up two Portals in Bubbly Basin (requires DLC).
• Photograph a Portal Pod in Bubbly Basin (requires DLC) or another player's island and duplicate them at a Pokemon Center 3D printer.

Getting the Pokopia Portal Pod without the DLC

If you have the Bubbly Basin expansion, then read the section below for the simplest method. If not, you can still get the storage pod, it's just requires a bit more effort.

To get a Portal Pod without the Pokopia DLC, you must raise your Palette Town environment level to unlock the Portal Pod recipe. I'm still working on this, and I'll let you know which level unlocks the recipe as soon as I know.

As with all other areas of Pokopia, raising your environment level can be done by inviting new Pokemon to move in and making sure their house is up to scratch. For that and more ways to level up Pokopia environments, see our standalone guide.

If you want a Portal Pod sooner, the only other way to get one without the DLC is by visiting another player's Pokopia Dream Island, snapping a picture with Object Mode, and duplicating the item at a Pokemon Center 3D printer. You may be able to snap a Portal Pod by visiting a Pokopia developer island, and I'll let you now as soon as I've confirmed it's available there.

Getting Portal Pods in Bubbly Basin

Getting access to the Pokopia Portal Pod is easier if you have the paid Bubbly Basin DLC, as two can be found as soon as you access the new area, and you can then use the 3D printing mechanic to make as many as you need.

To get the Portal Pod in Bubbly Basin, simply swim to the house in the far northeast corner of the map, as shown in the image above. Not only is there a Portal Pod inside for you to pick up, but you'll find a second in a Pokeball down the stairs behind where the other Portal Pod is placed.

While this method is easier, it doesn't unlock the recipe, so you'll still need to complete the Palette Town method above for that. However, with this Bubbly Basin Portal Pod, you can use your in-game camera and any Pokemon Center 3D printer to replicate the item as many time as you want.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The original Pokemon Red and Pokemon Green are some of the most beloved games of all time, and for many millions of people around the world, hold incredibly precious childhood memories. You might want to clutch those memories very tightly as you read this, because an AI-generated version of the games' iconic opening scene has surfaced online, and it's every bit the atrocity you would assume.

Courtesy of Twitter user Paulius, who admits "the starter scene is v disturbing," the AI-generated abomination shows an uncanny 3D recreation of Pallet Town being explored in a first-person perspective, and at first everything looks dreary, soulless, and vaguely nauseating, but when the camera enters Professor Oak's lab, the nightmarish effects of the video escalate dramatically. That's when we see exactly what happens when we allow generative AI to chew up and spit out our treasured, lifelong digital companions. For me, the reveal of AI Bulbasaur, then Charmander, and finally Squirtle, was increasingly traumatic.

They're all horrible, but AI Bulbasaur is probably the least offensive. Its red eyes and featureless expression are deeply unpleasant, but probably won't make you lose sleep. Charmander, my all-time favorite Pokemon, looks like it's been put through a meat grinder and reformed by a toddler with two left hands. And then there's poor Squirtle, who spasms out of his poke ball standing unnaturally and wearing an expression I can only perceive as threatening. I fear I'll never be able to wipe that vicious smile or eyes, which appear as portals to black holes, from my memory. Paulius himself describes his AI Squirtle as "forever haunted," which seems about right.

Viewer beware: disturbing content follows.

In case you're wondering what it is exactly about these AI-generated Pokemon that makes them so distressing, it could be the fact that virtually everything you see is generated by Claude AI, using a prompt from "AI whisperer" Matt Shumer. "Mind blowing part: Claude generated all the pixels. Every single one. Zero custom assets," says Paulius, as if he didn't just unleash 72 seconds of viral depression onto unsuspecting internet goers.

The worst part? "chormandur, balbisour, squart," as one user dubbed the AI-forsaken creatures, could one day become "real," if Paulius gets his way.

Only Nintendo can stop him now.

Palworld TCG cards are already selling for up to $4,000 as Pocketpair's tabletop game follows in Pokemon's footsteps, with resellers dominating the market 1 day after launch

This Mega Rayquaza ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is one of the best dragon type decks out there to date, with players experimenting with variations to work out the best build. Right now it seems as though Rayquaza and Dragonair from the Ruler of the Skies set remain a winning combination, resulting in a deck that burns up energy and then brings it right back from the discard pile. If you want to know more, here's how to make the best possible PTCGP Mega Rayquaza deck in the meta right now.

Check out our page of the Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks for more options, and to see exactly how this build hold up against the others.

Best Mega Rayquaza ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The best Mega Rayquaza ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a combo energy deck (like all dragon builds) made of the following cards:

• Mega Rayquaza ex x1
• Dratini (Mega Shine) x2
• Dragonair (Ruler of the Skies) x2
• Gouging Fire x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Ancient Booster Energy Capsule x1
• Professor's Research x2
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• May x1
• Copycat x2
• Professor Sada x1
• Rainbow Cave x2

Energy: Fire / Electric

This is the latest build to arise out of the Mega Rayquaza problem - namely, that this is clearly a very powerful card, if only we could get it to work properly. Here the strategy is to use Gouging Fire as your opening tank, either building up its energy or just letting it absorb damage while evolve Dratini and fuel Rayquaza on the bench.

At the same time, keep using Rainbow Cave to mill through energy, so your discard pile is as big as possible for Dragonair and Professor Sada to pull from. Make sure you save Rayquaza for the endgame, and do everything you can to keep Dragonair alive - they're the key to victory, as energy production is too slow otherwise.

• Pros
  • Potentially huge damage output
  • No type weaknesses for enemies to exploit
  • Gouging Fire is a good early game tank
• Cons
  • Struggles in the early game
  • Risk of using Rayquaza at the wrong time
  • If you lose Dragonair, you'll struggle

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Vespiquen ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket has become the focus on new powerful Grass type deck builds, able to discard your own cards from the bench for the sake of causing your own damage output to double. Not only that, but there's a wide range of powerful Grass types in the meta, mainly focused on durability and resistance, making this as much of a tank deck as anything else. If that appeals to you, here's how to make the best possible Vespiquen deck in PTCGP, as well as the strategies, weaknesses, and more besides.

See how Vespiquen ex fares in our rankings of the Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks!

Best Vespiquen ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The best Vespiquen ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is composed of the following cards:

• Combee (Space-Time Smackdown) x2
• Vespiquen ex x2
• Teal Mask Ogerpon x1
• Shuckle ex x2
• X Speed x1
• Field Blower x1
• Leaf Cape x2
• Professor's Research x2
• Erika x1
• Cyrus x1
• Mars x1
• Copycat x2
• Fragrant Forest x2

Energy: Grass

Vespiquen is your heavy hitter in this deck, capable of doing 140 damage if you discard one of your Pokemon from your bench. That's actually not too bad a sacrifice - your opponent won't get any points from that, and it can actually be a way to remove weak cards from play so your opponent can't use Cyrus or bench-hitting attacks to KO them.

Otherwise, the strategy of play is pretty straightforward. Start with Shuckle ex for the early endurance, building up to Vespiquen on the bench with Fragrant Forest and other draw cards. This shouldn't take long (it's a low energy deck), before you can then bring the big bug out and start hitting for major damage. Meanwhile, Ogerpon ensures you're immune to status effects, including those all-too-common sleep builds we've seen going around.

• Pros
  • Low energy costs
  • Durable deck build
  • Good damage output from Vespiquen ex
• Cons
  • Single strategy
  • Combee is a vulnerability

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Strong Puppy Pile deck builds in Pokemon TCG Pocket have come creeping up through the meta since they debuted, and while multiple variants of this deck exist, they all share a common theme and strategy. This is a deck wherein combining Puppy Pile cards increases their damage, and the diverse types on display means you can exploit type weakness all the more effectively. Below I'll explain how the Puppy Pile deck in PTCGP works, and the best build for getting the most from it.

See where the Puppy Pile deck falls in our Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks page!

Best Puppy Pile deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Puppy Pile in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a mechanic wherein every card in your hand and board with that attack all add to each other's power. Here's how to make the best Puppy Pile deck possible:

• Magby x2
• Growlithe x2
• Rockruff x2
• Fidough x2
• Yamper x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Flame Patch x2
• Professor's Research x2
• Cyrus x1
• Copycat x1
• Puppy-Loving Girl x1
• Bounded Field x1

Energy: Fire

This is a deck where you want to get an early advantage and come out swinging, as none of your cards have the durability to survive more than one moderately powerful attack. For that reason, the best opening draw is Magby, who can then empower your cards on the Bench so you can quickly get them out for a second-turn strike. At that point, you want to keep up the offense and stop your opponents from building any coherent strategy.

Fortunately, Fire Energy means that power can keep being circulated, with Flame Patch and Magby both aiding in this. And more interestingly, this is a deck that can exploit the weaknesses of countless other decks, as you have four different types of attack from the different Puppy Pile decks, while Bounded Field massively increases the damage of those weakness exploits. With a hand full of Puppies and a type advantage, you can potentially do 300+ damage in a single attack.

• Pros
  • Huge damage potential
  • Can exploit a vast array of weaknesses
• Cons
  • Incredibly low durability
  • Wholly dependant on you being faster than your opponent

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

These Cookie Run Crumble codes give you the chance to grab some extra Crystals, Cookie Cutters, and more in the latest mobile game from Devsisters. Having seen such huge success from their other Cookie Run games, Cookie Run Crumble is set to be another hit, only this time it's more passive than ever, allowing you to battle and earn rewards while you go about your day.

So, if having to actually play Cookie Run Kingdom ever bothered you, this idle game is perfect for you, and these rewards will get you on your way to baking the best cookie around, so redeem the CRC codes below.

If you also play Cookie Run Kingdom, then check out our other guide for the latest CRK codes while you're at it.

All Cookie Run Crumble codes

These are the Cookie Run Crumble codes available right now:

• COOKIERUNCRUMBLE1ST - 10,000x Crystals, 1,000 Flames of Bravery, 1,000x Stellar Points, 10x 1-hour Auto-Hunt Coins [expires August 25, 2026]
• COOKIERUNCRUMBLENO1 - 10,000x Crystals, 1,000x Flames of Bravery, 1,000x Lucky Dough, 1,000x Rune Crystals [expires August 25, 2026]

Another Cookie Run Crumble code has been released, and it's another good one!!! With thousands of rewards up for grabs, the two current CRC codes celebrate the game reaching the top of Korea's App Store, so get it while you can. We're sure the rest of the world won't be far behind, so there could be even more celebratory CRC codes on the way.

How to redeem Cookie Run Crumble codes

You cannot redeem Cookie Run Crumble codes in-game, and instead must enter the code and your DevPlay account MID on the official Coupon Redemption page. To find your DevPlay account MID, simply tap on your profile picture in the top left-hand corner of the game, and you'll find your MID beneath your pfp on the profile window that appears.

Once you've successfully redeemed a code on the site, head back into the game and open your inbox to claim your rewards before they expire. To access your mail, you must first complete Quest 89, Stage 2-1.

Expired Cookie Run Crumble codes

• There are no expired Cookie Run Crumble codes.

Since Cookie Run Crumble only launched in late July, there are currently no expired codes. However, we don't expect the first codes to last for long, so be sure to redeem them while you can.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

PokePark Fishing Rally is a real, official Pokemon game that was released for the Nintendo DS back in 2005 – but only in the most obscure circumstances. Since distribution ended around 2006, the game has effectively been lost media, but some fans are hopeful that this might change with an eBay auction that's currently seeking a $9,000 bid.

A seller who goes by catbearpaws recently listed a "Nintendo DS Development/Test Cartridge" with a starting bid of €7,999, or as eBay calculates it, around $9,104 USD. "This listing is for the exact physical development/test cartridge shown in the photos," the seller explains in the listing. "Acquired as part of a private lot, no further history or provenance documentation is available."

The seller notably included an image of this cartridge booting to a screen filled with Japanese text. A Twitter user called Tiramisu090401 soon realized that this text identified it as a part of PokePark Fishing Rally, and other Pokemon fans soon started taking a great interest in the listing (thanks, Dexerto).

PokePark Fishing Rally was released in 2005 through DS Download Play at the PokePark in Japan. You'd visit a kiosk at the theme park, download the game to your DS, and play it until you either turned off your console or 12 hours passed – whichever came first. The game itself would have you catching various underwater Pokemon, and based on their size, rarity, and level, you'd get a rating that could be uploaded to a high score server.

The key question about this eBay listing is whether the cartridge actually contains the data for the game itself, or merely some back-end program – perhaps the transmission of the high score data. It would be a massive discovery either way, as while there were some later distributions of PokePark Fishing Rally, no copies of the game or its ROM are known to exist publicly.

The Lost Media Wiki notes, however, that "a YouTube user named Tim Schuerewegen has uploaded two gameplay video of the game, which suggests that he may have a ROM dump." But those original videos have long since been made private (archives do exist), and the ROM has never been released or even demonstrated publicly.

That makes this eBay listing the most intriguing sign of life for PokePark Fishing Rally in many, many years. Nobody's bitten on that $9,000 opening bid yet – though there is one "active offer," according to eBay – but here's hoping that whoever ends up with the cartridge helps this game escape lost media hell.

Check out our ranking of the best Pokemon games.

Pokemon Pokopia Bubbly Basin's release date is August 5, 2026, with Part 2 due to launch before the end of the year. The latest trailer for Pokopia's Expansion Pass shows off some new Pokemon and a new underwater town. Details about the second part of the DLC have also been announced, and we'll soon be able to get drip for Ditto and the other Pokemon residents.

Starting from August 5, all Pokopia players will be able to learn the Dive skill from Manaphy and start to fully explore and build on areas that are underwater. However, if you purchase the Expansion Pass, you'll also gain access to a new town called Bubbly Basin on this day, as long as you've reached Environment Level 5 in Bleak Beach.

Alongside the underwater city, the DLC will include the new watermelon food type and bubble machines. Surf will also gain a power-up thanks to the new smoothie recipes. Pokemon also promises us that we'll be able to build a Sharpedo submarine to enable further exploration. While the trailer is short, we get a glimpse at eight upcoming Pokemon: Popplio, Carvanha, Corsola, Corphish, Chinchoi, Mudkip, Buizel, and Manaphy.

Part 2 of the DLC won't feature a new area, but we know a little more about what it includes. Ditto always had access to different outfits, but later this year you'll be able to match outfits with your monster pals. Speaking of furry friends, more will visit Pokopia in the second part, though only Snubbull has been revealed so far.

The final part of the DLC will launch next year and feature the pass's second new town; however, that's all the details we have for now. Pokemon Pokopia's Expansion Pass isn't available for purchase yet, and we probably won't find out the price until it launches next week.

Pokemon Pokopia was bioengineered to be the "best selling spin-off" according to Koei Tecmo CEO, but he had no "real expectations" for the cozy game until it became an international hit

While Hideo Kojima is best known for Metal Gear and Death Stranding these days, his older catalog includes many more cult classics – including graphic adventure games like Snatcher and Policenauts. As the latter game turns 32, the beloved director is taking the opportunity to remember just how long he had to wait to finally create it.

"I first came up with the concept [for Policenauts] when I was 26, right after the release of Metal Gear 2," Kojima says in a tweet. That'd be in 1990, which is a year Kojima has already spoken of as a tumultuous time in his own career. Metal Gear 2 was itself delayed so Kojima could help fix an "emergency situation" on an RPG spin-off of Snatcher, and it seems his role didn't stop shuffling once the stealth-action game was out.

"After that, I was transferred to a planning-focused department" at Konami, Kojima explains. "The following year, I moved to the Technical Research Institute. Then the PC Engine version of SNATCHER interrupted things, and the PC-9821 version [of Policenauts] was released when I was 30."

While Snatcher was released in English on the Sega CD (a release that now often commands $1,000 or more on the secondhand market), Policenauts was never officially released outside of Japan. Kojima apparently agrees with one fan saying that "it's a shame most people can’t play it without emulators and the translation patch," since he's retweeted the sentiment.

Many of Kojima's early games are locked up in some sort of limbo or other, as the publishing rights seem to remain with Konami. Kojima and Konami had a famously messy breakup after the launch of Metal Gear Solid 5, and while Metal Gear itself has proven a lasting enough brand for Konami to invest in various remakes and remasters, the likes of Policenauts and Snatcher are seemingly too niche to get the same treatment.

There are plenty of upcoming Hideo Kojima games keeping the director busy.

While the first two Plague Tale games had a lead character in Amicia de Rune, she wouldn't have got far without support. The friends and family she drew into her orbit not only filled in gaps in her skillset, they also underlined that she was a single element in a wider social drama. It's an analogy of sorts for these games as a whole. Examine their mechanics and systems closely and you'll note that the pieces are mostly standard-issue, albeit well-crafted, third-person stealth-adventure fare. But they are part of something bigger, slotting together with plot, script, location design, music and more to produce a harmonious ensemble.

Now here's Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy – a slightly unwieldy title which aims to emphasise that this is more spinoff than direct followup. With Amicia's tale told, we're given a new charge in the form of Sophia (one of the companion characters in A Plague Tale: Requiem) and sent back along the timeline to 1333, 15 years prior to the events of the previous games. As we sit down to play through a full chapter of Resonance we're thus faced with a change of personality, time and backstory, but most of all, it transpires, a change in how we play a Plague Tale game. With all these shifts, can everything still pull in the same direction?

Into the Macula

As far as the setting goes, the change could have been much more pronounced. The dark, mystical power known as the Macula that afflicted Amicia's brother Hugo and brought forth millions of ravenous rats exists everywhere in this universe, so plague tales could potentially pop up in any time and place. Indeed, a teaser at the end of Requiem suggested the possibility of a modern-day treatment of the fiction. Was there ever a plan to make that game instead? Asobo studio head and Resonance creative director David Dedeine responds with a simple "no" – the aim was merely to emphasise the transhistorical nature of the Macula. Not that he rules out a more future-facing project. "We hope one day we will do A Plague Tale 3," he says, underlining that Resonance is more sidestep than continuation. "And it might be the case that we see how the Macula would express itself in a contemporary world."

For now, though, we're planted firmly in medieval Europe, albeit no longer trudging around French forts, farmland and battlefields. Sophia, a life-hardened smuggler and pirate when we met her in Requiem, is in her early 20s here, yet already far from wet behind the ears. With a protégé named Leni in tow, she's on the run from the Venetian army, which has decimated the gang of plunderers she belongs to. Sophia is also bothered by visions relating to the Minotaur of Greek legend, which has led her to the island that was, supposedly, its place of residence. Much of the game will unfold here, it seems, giving it a tighter focus, although it's certainly not a monotonous location. Playing through what will be the fourth chapter in the final game, we wind our way through an enormous ruin, where Sophia and Leni must work through 'trials' left for visitors many hundreds of years before. Fortunately, Sophia has a curious metal orb which acts as a key of sorts to unlock various doors and mechanisms.

If this sounds like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, this chapter of Resonance does have something of that feel. There are even moments that recall The Last Crusade as we consult a diary containing sketches that point to clues in the environment. In game terms, this means a departure from Innocence and Requiem's sneaking and crafting routines that riffed on The Last Of Us, bringing us closer to the kind of adventure you might stumble across in Uncharted or Tomb Raider. It's a concerted change, with a character who's also more comfortable crossing cutlasses than skulking in shadows. "As a starting point, we wanted to move on from the pure stealth gameplay," Dedeine says. "What we have tried to do is really shift into something more action-driven." It's a different challenge in terms of expressing the overall Plague Tale DNA, he adds, in which the interactive elements become one with the narrative direction. "The dynamics between the characters cannot be the same, so you need to find different types of layers of story."

Once we've picked our way into the ruins, a cycle of puzzles, combat and exploration begins in earnest. If we stand in the rays of sunlight that beam through portholes in the great domed roofs, our orb refracts the light to reveal hidden painted symbols like a UV torch. It then acts as an interface when we insert it into a dais with a dial to input our findings. If these trials are largely matters of observation, others demand nerves of steel. Deeper into the level we find that the ancient trial-setters were particularly fond of spike traps, which still function rather too well for comfort. One trek across a long, pressure-padded floor with only a single safe path is surprisingly tense, the orb illuminating the correct route, except where your light source is blotted out by obstacles, leaving you to memorise a section and step forward blindly. The instant, fatal punishment for a mistake is liable to make you jump, infecting your next attempt with a touch of doubt.

Not all chapters will be stacked with puzzles and traps like this, explains lead level designer Valérian Robert. They're there because it's designed to be a trial, and "it has to be brutal, so you can die in a lot of different ways". It's a sign that, as in previous games, the makers of Resonance are working hard to marry action and tone. While progress isn't truly difficult, by the end of the chapter we're having to put some thought into solutions, and being impaled is a real possibility. Nor are Sophia and Leni quick to give up clues with their chatter, although they may chime in eventually. "We didn't want to backseat players," Robert says. "We wanted players to think by themselves, and maybe if they find it a bit too hard, they can have some help." Action-adventure games of this type can become boring if you don't have to do a great deal, Dedeine adds: "We realised pretty fast that when it was like this, you don't feel like you are [on] an actual adventure. The story and the background and the graphics are not enough to give you the breadth of the adventure."

Combat follows a similar ethos. Before we get into the level proper, we're offered a tutorial to bring us up to speed regarding what's expected, which thrusts us into some close-quarters duels. Sophia's weapon of choice is a scimitar, but using it is not merely a case of hacking enemies into submission. Landing successive blows sends enemies into a stun state – the ideal opportunity to pull off a charged dagger strike that will finish weaker ones or bite a chunk out of the life bars of those with stronger constitutions. Guarding and dodging are important for working openings, and the quickest route to a stun is to pull off a parry. There's some colour-coding here as well – yellow-tinged attacks can be parried but not blocked, while red ones must be dodged. Sophia's grapnel, meanwhile, is especially handy for yanking archers from elevated platforms or reeling in foes, while a hefty boot sends most assailants staggering.

With Venetian soldiers soon teeming around the ruins (to a man, they have English accents), it's not long before our first real fight – a quick and vicious affair. Well-practised thanks to her bandit background, Sophia fights like a cornered tiger as enemies gather around her. Her sword swings mean business, while incidental actions are pleasingly direct – a bottle on the ground can be grabbed and spiked at a soldier's head with a single button press. At the same time, she's far from invincible, and death can follow swiftly if you lose the duck-and-jab rhythm or get caught off guard by yellow or red attacks.

As with the puzzles, Dedeine tells us, "when you act correctly, it's easy, but if you are doing it wrong, you can be killed brutally, because that's the tone of the Plague Tale games in general." By the end of the chapter, we're asked to link all we've been taught together and, indeed, the speed with which you can end a group of soldiers is highly satisfying, but it's hardly guaranteed as you juggle several enemies at once. Pulling an archer down is easier said than done when there's a mob around you, especially when its leader is built like an ox and on a rampage with a heavy club.

Ancient combat

If not exactly realistic, there's a palpable sense of weight and aggression to these encounters. That could be crucial in order to maintain the thrill of fighting throughout the game, since the mechanics won't increase in intricacy a great deal. With a title of this scope, Dedeine says, "you don't have the space and the time to make a very deep combat game. We wanted to be sophisticated enough to be interesting and rewarding, but not too complex either in terms of skill or in terms of RPG [elements]." Still, we can expect Sophia to learn techniques that take her beyond brawling. "We introduce at specific moments some sort of supernatural powers," Dedeine says, avoiding any specifics. But even here, Sophia won't become a superhero. "We would have broken the universe's rules if we had gone too far," Dedeine says. "We had to find the right balance between what could be believable and the fun of killing five or six soldiers," Robert adds. "I think we nailed it."

Together, the combat, puzzles and traps, along with some light exploration and relic finding, are already a pleasing combination. The new direction clearly works. Still, once again, there is nothing revolutionary here – somewhat reductively, we might call it Tomb Raider meets God Of War in the Middle Ages. Some puzzles, such as a series involving rotating mirrors reflecting beams of light, could generously be called classics of the form, while responding to flashes of red and yellow in combat is hardly new territory. That's in addition to common genre tropes such as wall sidling, zip-lining and navigating crumbling platforms as we spelunk deeper into the ruins. In this sense, Resonance shares the family trait of leaning on tried-and-tested formulae. As ever with Plague Tale, though, that is literally only part of the story. The combat and puzzles are one arm of a narrative experience, selected to feel at home within this adventure. Around them is a suite of artistic flourishes that elevates the journey.

One thing that catches our attention as we push through the ancient construct is its scale. At one point we step into a huge amphitheatre whose central stage is sunk down perhaps hundreds of metres below. Within it stands a kaiju-sized sculpture of a proud soldier. With the wear and tear on this place, we're sometimes poking about where nobody intended us to go, ducking through cracks to get behind the scenes, only to emerge again facing another implausible feat of engineering. "The scale of the structures was one of the pillars [we decided on] at the very beginning of development," Robert says. "We wanted to demonstrate this whole civilisation, and how big and extraordinary it was. We wanted players to experience this kind of shock when they see the gigantic statues." The intention becomes clear as the level culminates around an enormous effigy of the Minotaur itself, its arms animated by unseen mechanisms as you solve the puzzle around it.

More subtly impressive is Sophia herself, in many ways the polar opposite as a character of Amicia's naïvete, vulnerability and sense of privilege. Dedeine: "When we created her in Requiem, I think the team fell in love with her initially, and it was obvious for us to push her further. Based on her past and the level of involvement she had, she was the perfect character to start the new approach." In the ruins, she is keen to push forward, as awestruck as we are, and even a little blasé about the danger. She's also well prepared for a scrap and not averse to using deadly force. "The biggest difference is Amicia was forced to confront violence to protect herself and her brother," says lead writer Carol-Ann Bañuls, "but Sophia was born into it." In terms of writing the character as a protagonist, there was already plenty to work with from Requiem, Bañuls continues: "We knew she was in control of her emotions [and] strong, so we just had to follow the thread of her story to understand where she came from. She kind of talked by herself. She was so well written in Requiem, it was the easiest thing to do in Resonance."

With Sophia – at least, when she's partnered by Leni – Resonance takes on a different tone to that of Amicia and Hugo's traumatic expeditions. There has always been back-and-forth conversation between characters in these games, but here it feels lighter as the women comment on mosaics and statues and the mechanisms they find. "In this level, Sophia and Leni are still discovering the island, so we wanted to keep [their perspective] close to the player's, this sense of discovery," Bañuls says. It reinforces the sense that we're involved in an Uncharted-style adventure, as the pair approach combat with something close to arrogance and aren't exactly wracked with guilt about offing their opponents.

We shouldn't expect this levity to carry right through the tale, however. One of the reasons for taking this spinoff approach to the new game, Dedeine says, is that the team wanted "to breathe a little bit" after the grime and darkness of Requiem. And yet the shadows couldn't be kept at bay for long. "The lore of the Macula – and appetite in the team for all the drama – actually came back into the story during development." Our demo chapter is one of the lightest tonally in the game, he adds, "but there are levels which are even darker, I would say, than the ones in Requiem. So we have more contrast." Despite their humorous banter early on, then, Sophia and Leni are no Nathan Drake and Sully, which suggests there are further layers to unveil. "[Sophia] is the kind of character you admire for her strength," Bañuls says, "but you fall in love with her when you start to see the cracks in the armour."

Balancing all these elements has been a challenge for Resonance's developers, it seems, with combat and traversal and character personalities and relationships all needing to meld together. "There is a lot of back and forth between the writing and the design as a whole," Robert says, even for the chapter we play, which he explains has undergone the least alteration from the original plan. For example, the introduction of music to a level may give an area a different flavour, so the dialogue needs to be changed to adapt. "We write with the controller in our hands at all times," Bañuls says. "You just have to replay and replay the map." As experienced as Asobo may have become in making these games, then, not everything can be predicted. "Sometimes you have a good surprise," Dedeine says. "Sometimes there are things that everyone was happy with and finally it doesn't work. You need to remove them."

Towards the end of our demo, it's Leni who feels that something isn't working, not least with Sophia herself. In a cutscene, Sophia is spellbound by a bizarre vision that almost leads to her stepping off a precipice, but Leni pulls her back at the last second. And, after a few too many deadly traps, the reality of their predicament starts to kick in, Leni wondering what on earth Sophia has dragged her into. Yet she doesn't know the half of it, and perhaps nor do we, as things are about to get stranger still. In another vision we segue back to ancient Greece and suddenly we're in control of none other than Minotaur slayer Theseus, about to enter a combat trial where we must fend off fellow soldiers in a free-for-all until it's time to begin some kind of ceremony.

When we ask about the ancient Greek part of the tale, our interviewees think for a while to decide what they're allowed to say at this stage – clearly this side of the game is crucial to the story's box of secrets. "With the Greek mythology, what motivated us to go in this direction was the fact that the story of the Minotaur and the mythology was the perfect setting for us to offer a new experience to the player," Bañuls finally says diplomatically. As for how closely they've followed the original myth, that's somewhat comparable to how they treated the real Great Plague in Innocence and Requiem. "We revisited the mythology and what was grounded in the reality," Dedeine says. "Why this myth has been told to the people, and what the reality was behind it." Artistic licence will be involved too, especially in linking the past back to Sophia. "What I can say is that the title of the game is connected to that," Dedeine offers. "There is a resonance between the main character and Theseus, and that's what the story will unveil."

Something else remains a mystery at this point, but here Dedeine can set us straight. "There are no rats," he announces. "Let's break [the news]. There are no rats in Resonance. They are gone." This feels like a shift away from one of the series' signature features, but it's easy to appreciate the rationale. "At the end of Requiem, we did lots of gameplay with the rats," Dedeine says, "and at some point, when you know that you are at the end of a mechanic, you need to stop it. Otherwise we would have bored everyone." There were never going to be rats in Resonance, then, and it does feel as though they belong with Amicia and her style of play. The presence of the Macula will be felt in another form, Dedeine teases, which he can't reveal yet. "There is another expression of what the rats were in Requiem and Innocence, and it's something different. Light and shadow are [still] important because it's the lore, but there is something, I would say, more interactive and interesting than what the rats were doing in terms of gameplay."

We can only guess for now, but whatever it is, we're optimistic based on what we've seen, heard and done in Resonance. For all the change, it is still all about the ensemble of features, all supporting one another, aiming to produce more than the sum of their parts. And in the spirit of celebrating the support acts, as we complete the final trial in our demo and Sophia and Leni head deeper into the ruin for more, we'll leave the last words to our companion. "The second trial. Let's hope it's as easy as the first," she quips sarcastically, recognising the difficulties they've overcome. Yes, and as enjoyable, too.

Want more creepy adventures? Check out our best horror games recommendations!

There's a long-running joke about finding really valuable stuff squirreled away at your grandparents' house, but for one Pokemon cards fan, that's actually come true – and the value of what they uncovered is probably around six figures.

In a post on reddit, InkedSketch describes how "Grandma [had] been asking us to come find her Pokemon cards for years." What they didn't expect was just how valuable this collection was. Once it'd all been gathered together, they found dozens of booster packs from the game's launch worth hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars, incredibly rare sealed 'Fossil' box sets, and even a bunch of high-value toys like a pristine, still in-packaging Pokedex.

"She told us she had some packs from along time ago, and that she had a few 'sharjarzds.'" InkedSketch writes in their post. "We finally decided to look for them at the end of last year. She's in her 80s and has been recently talking about them more, we just thought it was like our own trashed pokemon/yugioh collection that was leftover from when we were super young."

Turns out, not so much. Even a quick glance reveals over 70 sealed 'Fossil' booster packs which are worth hundreds of dollars each on the likes of eBay, three sealed Fossil boxes that clock in at $7K+ individually on some price tracking sites, and 60 original booster packs from the game's launch. I quickly checked PriceCharting and these earn anywhere between a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand depending on their grading.

If that was it, grandma would still be sitting on a goldmine... but we're not finished yet. The haul includes everything from original theme decks and starter sets to individual cards too. I count three holo Charizards, a shiny Gyrados, Raichu, multiple shiny Zapdos, and more. There are even a couple of Mew cards in a binder.

The haul goes far beyond Pokemon cards, too; there are also action figures, the sealed '90s Pokedex toy I mentioned from before, a themed mini skateboard (remember those?), and even a still-in-packaging interactive Poke Ball game that really brought me back to my childhood. It's enough to ilicite an "oh damn" at the very least.

The fan community is suitably stunned. "Literal treasure trove," FisherKelTath00 replies with 2.1K upvotes. "Seriously this is prolly like $250k in product. That’s a ROUGH estimate too," War-Daddie adds.

Some in the comments are even suggesting that this estimate is too modest. "Sincere lowball estimate I think," lucky_719 writes. "The one shadowless Charizard can go for five figures alone if it's in decent shape. The 1st edition fossil booster boxes go for $15-$30k each and the lady has 3."

Either way, it's one hell of a haul that would probably make me evolve into "Nervous Wreck" with a special "breakdown" attack if I found it - this is a literal fortune.

What would you do if you stumbled upon that kinda stash at your grandparents' house? Let me know in the comments below.

For recommendations on what to play next, don't miss the best card games. As for what's happening in the community right now, the war on Pokemon resellers now includes facial recognition checks in some stores in Japan.

• See today's best Pokemon card prices at Amazon

Danganronpa's creator Kazutaka Kodaka has said that a sequel to the high school killing game was initially turned down following the original game's poor release sales. The writer even considered quitting his job, until the opportunity arose to keep working on the series.

Posting on Twitter, and as translated by GamesRadar+, Kodaka recalls how studio Spike Chunsoft – then known as Spike – turned down a Danganronpa sequel when the first game didn't make much money. The visual novel was originally a PlayStation Portable exclusive and so it was reportedly difficult for it to make its development budget back.

"After Danganronpa launched it didn't generate much revenue, so at that time we were told something like, 'we're not making 2,'" Kodaka says. "The team was assigned to different projects and they were spread out across the company."

Kodaka had previously worked on existing series like Clock Tower, Dragon Ball, and Detective Conan, and was eager to continue working on his own games. "My eyes were opened to the joy of working on something original and I didn't want to work on another project," he says. "I couldn't decide what to do and even considered quitting, but then I heard talk of a Danganronpa Zero light novel, so I went straight to my boss. That's how I continued working on the series."

Working on Danganronpa's prequel novel gave the series' first game time to generate more sales, and the beloved sequel was finally greenlit. "Danganronpa was selling steadily and at some point there was talk of making a second game," Kodaka says. "As I was writing Danganronpa Zero, I revisited [the series'] vague setting, so the foundation of the second game's story was easy to craft."

Kodaka continues to say he went from the "gloomy, claustrophobic" atmosphere of the first game to "shonen manga-esque steamy plotlines" for the second, before going into the weeds about how each murder mystery was crafted. Despite the fact that Danganronpa 2 almost never existed, it's many fans' favorite entry in the series, and will receive its own alternative timeline in Danganronpa 2x2 in 2027.

Danganronpa creator's massive tactical RPG has secretly been two games all along, which, y'know, makes sense considering the enormity of 100 routes.

The developers of Myst and Riven have just released an awesome trailer for a game that finally returns to the universe of their stone cold PC classics, but don't get too excited, as Cyan Worlds canceled this one a year ago for unknown reasons.

Cyan Worlds has been pumping out interesting, first-person adventure games and freaky mysteries for literal decades now. That work was supposed to continue in Project Anglerfish, a previously unannounced game that was quietly in production at the studio last year before it got scrapped just as quietly.

A new trailer now gives us a glimpse of what could've been, otherworldly books and all - take a look below.

First-person exploration through twisty-turvy buildings? A book that seemingly flings readers into whole other worlds? Gorgeous graphics, even on a rough build? Sure seems like a new Myst game, alright.

"Over a year ago, the team here at Cyan spent about four months building a prototype for a new game in the Myst universe, codenamed 'Project Anglerfish,'" the trailer's description reads. "The prototype (and this teaser trailer made for it) were purpose-built for publisher-eyes only. For a variety of reasons, this project couldn't move forward at the time, but we're still proud of the work the team did – so we're sharing the teaser for the prototype with you all now."

Project Anglerfish would've been the first brand-new Myst game in ages - not counting the trove of remakes, remasters, and re-re-releases - though it doesn't sound like we'll need to wait too long for more games in its world. "Don't worry, we're still hard at work on other new Myst universe things," the dev adds. "More on that to come."

Cyan Worlds is one of the longest-surviving independent game makers in the world, having been founded almost 40 years ago. Way back when, the developer made a name for itself with the engrossingly lonely and mysterious Myst, which eventually became the best-selling PC game of its time and one of the most hotly debated games around.

The years since haven't been quite as kind to the influential studio, as Cyan let go of around half of its staff last year. Cyan Worlds did just port its gorgeous Myst and Riven remakes to PS5, PSVR2, and Xbox Series X|S earlier this summer, however.

While we wait to hear about these other Myst universe projects, check out the new games of 2026 and beyond.

Indie adventure game Future? No Thanks! Has been delayed at the last minute thanks to Steam needing to look at some boobs and butts.

Molleindustria, the developer of satirical games like Democratic Socialism Simulator and New York Times Simulator has announced on Bluesky (spotted by PC Gamer) that its latest game Future? No Thanks! – which was supposed to be released today – has been pushed back.

The post says, "We were foolish to disregard the only authority on the matter: Steam, which has kept our game under review for more than three weeks in order to properly assess the scale and scope of the nudity contained within it."

As for the nudity involved, the post explains that "Future? No Thanks! deploys dozens of untextured polygons depicting ass and boobs. They appear statically on screen for several seconds. We understand that such sexually charged content warrants a very careful examination."

Molleindustria adds, "We are thankful to Valve's review team for its thorough work in keeping Steam free from obscene and horny content," which is very valid to say about the platform that features multiple NSFW games that very much breach what can be considered 'good taste' (thanks, Vice).

Of course, yes, Steam does platform adult games, something the replies to the post were quick to point out. However, Molleindustria does clarify: "Less jokingly: I believe the delay is due to the mild nudity not warranting an age verification plus Steam not accepting video documentation to examine the content, which is not immediately accessible in the game. Fingers crossed."

The dev also notes, "I literally had to submit a special build with a 'watch the sex scene' button," and that the demo – which is available right now – "is identical and passed the review months ago." However, Molleindustria promises "the game will be released whenever their assessment is complete."

Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game delayed on Xbox just hours before release, but not on PS5 or Steam.

A slew of new information about the development of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl has surfaced online following the discovery of a never-before-seen official Game Freak documentary, almost 20 full years after the release of the games.

This long-lost documentary was once mentioned by Pokemon lead Junichi Masuda in a blog post over 19 years ago, but its contents were never revealed to fans… until now. Earlier this year, an auction listing for a copy of the DVD allegedly appeared online before being snapped up by a buyer. Now, it appears that another copy of the DVD has been obtained, and this time, its contents have been uploaded and shared.

The documentary looked at the development process of the 2006 RPGs, including work-in-progress looks at the games themselves and scrapped Pokemon designs.

It should be noted that the source of this information being a physical DVD means that this is all completely separate from 2024's enormous Game Freak leak (which followed a third-party data breach). Game Freak never publicly acknowledged any leaks beyond confirming that there had been "unauthorized access" to its server in August 2024. However, last year, Nintendo reportedly began taking legal action, having apparently filed a request for a subpoena in an attempt to identify the person responsible.

We're currently in a slightly quiet time for the franchise, with the next duo of games, Pokemon Winds and Waves, not set to release until sometime next year on Switch 2. In the meantime, though, we do have more of the delightful Pokemon Pokopia to look forward to, as the first part of its paid DLC arrives next month, as well as a free update.

Pokemon Pokopia was bioengineered to be the "best selling spin-off" according to Koei Tecmo CEO, but he had no "real expectations" for the cozy game until it became an international hit.

It seems Japan's Patent Office is getting tired of Nintendo's ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld as both the Office and Nintendo spar over a particular, related patent application whose rejection is now under review.

Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 describes Pokemon's typical "in-game monster-capturing system," according to Automaton, which also points out that even Japanese patent law professionals are surprised how the Patent Office and Nintendo are sparring over how "inventive" it is to huck a Pokeball, using language "rarely seen in standard patent practice," according to attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara.

The Office was apparently unimpressed by the fact that "selecting a Poke Ball displayed at the bottom right of the screen causes Ash to throw it; if it hits Pikachu, Pikachu can be captured," but it expressed this while citing a gameplay video from 13 years ago, of the unofficial indie game Pokemon: Generations. The video now has new comments reading, "This game defeated Nintendo in court," and, "You saved Palworld."

But it's not that simple! Nintendo fired back at the Patent Office in a counterargument, telling the Office it "acted extremely inappropriately" by citing a copyright-infringing game like Pokemon: Generations in its rejection of its ball-throwing patent.

The Patent Office then came back with a tommy gun, saying "this argument has no bearing on determining inventive step," but if Nintendo really wanted to talk about copyright infringement, "accuracy should take precedence."

"In that case," it continues, "the notice would need to use cumbersome descriptions such as 'an object in the form of a small animal' instead of Pokemon, 'an object in the form of a boy wearing a red cap' instead of Ash, 'an object in the form of a small yellow animal' instead of Pikachu, 'an object in the form of a small green animal' instead of Bulbasaur, and 'a spherical object with a red upper half and a white lower half' instead of Poke Ball."

"However," continues the Patent Office, "even with such rephrasing, the logical structure of the grounds for refusal remains unchanged."

Ouch – but Nintendo has a band-aid, and it seemingly successfully filed a petition against the rejection. The Patent Office's website now categorizes Patent Publication No. 2026-077713 as having its "rejection decision under review." This patent isn't the one at the center of Pokemon's legal battle against Palworld, but it does belong to the same patent family, and its approval certainly wouldn't help Palworld.

Japanese patent law expert says Nintendo may have strengthened its claims specifically to target Palworld.

In May 2013, YouTuber JolteonPlays uploaded a video showcasing the rough prototype for an unofficial "3D indie Pokemon" game called Pokemon: Generations. To this day, it occasionally comes up among Pokemon fans dreaming about what new games in the series might look like. Today, recent comments on that 13-year-old video have been flooded with praise for a different reason: the existence of Pokemon: Generations has been used to dismiss potentially limiting patents filed by Nintendo amidst its Palworld lawsuit.

As Automaton reports, the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) recently upheld its rejection of a Nintendo patent targeting an "in-game monster-capturing system" – the sort of system that the company's used to argue infringement by Palworld during an extended legal process that has seen developer Pocketpair quietly adjust a few of its own features and designs to be less Pokemon-like.

This does not represent a direct shutdown of Nintendo's case against Palworld, however, as this is just one patent indirectly placed in the same family. (Last year, Pocketpair comms lead said patent infringement was something nobody considered during Palworld's exhaustive legal clearance.)

The JPO cites that exact Pokemon: Generations demonstration in its rejection under "Reasons for Rejection," arguing that Nintendo's patented idea fails to demonstrate adequate "inventive step." Definitions vary between countries, but the World Intellectual Property Organization provides a useful baseline explanation: "The condition of inventive step/non-obviousness is fulfilled if the invention as a whole, compared to the prior art as a whole, would not have been obvious to a person skilled in the art."

I pulled the URL for the Pokemon: Generations video straight from the translated notice of rejection posted to the JPO's logs, and it looks like plenty of other people, including several Japanese fans, have heard the news as well. It feels like some people may be overestimating the impact of this patent rejection on Nintendo or its relevance to Palworld's case, but there's an understandable celebratory spirit in the comments among folks happy to see ideas remain unconstrained by patents.

"You saved the entire industry," one top comment reads.

"To think years later this very footage would be used by the JPO to reject a Nintendo patent claim," adds another.

"The butterfly effect in action," says a third.

An auto-translated Japanese comment adds: "The comments section is going wild, lol. But even JPO must have thought, 'Nintendo, you're crazy...'"

This goes on and on. A huge chunk, if not a majority, of the comments on the video appear to be recent. More than anything, I'm struck by how the JPO's usage of this old fan game has led to this exact discussion. I don't think JolteonPlays ever saw it coming.

Palworld 1.0 has already moved over 1.8 million copies for Pocketpair, analyst estimates, with 65% of players on Steam.

There are no Pokemon players more dedicated, patient, and locked in than shiny hunters, and one veteran is proving just that as he simultaneously uses 58 consoles in the hopes of hunting down an apparently one-in-9-million duck that, worst of all, has a chance of running away and being lost forever.

Shiny Pokemon are the ultimate trophies for Pokemon players. Rare, sparkly, alternate-colored variants of your favorite 'mons – what's not to love? While some players might never happen upon one, and others might only find a small number throughout their time playing, shiny hunters are on a different level – dedicating themselves to tracking down extremely rare targets, ridiculous numbers of the things, and using all sorts of methods to do so.

There may be no better example of this than what I'm about to show you. Behold, what content creator Professor Rex describes as "the world's CRAZIEST shiny hunting setup," and for good reason. He's got 58 consoles – specifically, 25 Wiis and 33 GameCubes – all playing the same copy of Pokemon Sapphire (playable on those consoles using Pokemon Box's Adventure Mode), which he's able to control simultaneously with one controller.

What is all this for, though? You'd think anyone willing to put in so much effort would be tracking down an ultra-rare Pokémon, like a Legendary Pokemon or something similar. Well, he is, sort of, but you're going to have to bear with me – it's a Golduck.

To be exact, Rex claims this is a Golduck that has a "one in 9 million" chance of appearing. He's specifically looking for a level 25 one in the Hoenn Safari Zone – they can appear between levels 25 and 40, but only the weakest will do in this case.

Now, I'll be honest, I'm no mathematician, and myself and my fellow GamesRadar+ co-workers haven't – despite our best efforts – been able to work out exactly how Rex calculated these odds, but given that he writes that the level 25 Golduck can only appear in a 1% encounter slot to begin with, you can start to see where those base one in 8,192 shiny odds start to get inflated.

And, let's just wind things back a moment – he's looking in the Safari Zone for this thing. That means that, on the wildly unlikely chance that this Golduck actually appears, there's a terrifying chance it'll run away from the battle before Rex is even able to capture it. This is all part of Safari Week – an annual community-driven event that sees shiny hunters brave the only areas in the main series games (aside from the Legends titles and Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee) where Pokemon can flee from fights, raising the stakes and leading to some triumphant wins and devastating losses in the process.

You might think this is all a lot of effort for a Golduck with a pink-tinged bill, and yeah, it kind of is. But this is more than just a Golduck – this hyper-specific Golduck represents a mammoth journey of ridiculous odds and an even more mind-blowing setup to actually encounter it… should it appear at all. For Rex's sake, let's hope it does – and more importantly, that it stays in the ball.

I've been a Pokemon shiny hunter for 16 years, but nothing could have prepared me to join 70+ players trying to find as many rare creatures as possible in 60 minutes.

When I was a kid, I'd play a handful of games on rotation. Spyro was one of them. Like most seven-year-olds, I was a pretty big fan of dragons and having one front an adventure game was enough to lure me in. I also enjoyed that I could actually play it without having to ask for my parents' help, a real gamechanger for little Grace.

It was simple, really – gliding around, picking up gems, and roasting butterflies to bring back my dragonfly friend, Sparx. It aged well, too, staying in my rotation for an unprecedented amount of time. Almost three decades on (gulp), I've been through a myriad of console generations and developed a taste for different genres. Yet, I still feel like there's a dragon-shaped hole in my heart waiting to be filled.

Imagine my surprise when developer Toys for Bob unveiled a brand-new Spyro, Spyro: A Realm Beyond, during June's Xbox Games Showcase. That's the same team who remastered the OG titles in the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and the studio even created a new entry into another of my favorite childhood franchises, Crash Bandicoot.

As excited as I am about the return of my purple fire-breathing friend, one question still hangs over my head. How will Toys for Bob bridge the gap between the much-loved '90s Spyro and the modern world? It's a much less forgiving landscape for games these days and it's also mighty competitive.

Take flight

In comparison, playing PlayStation in the 1990s was like living off scraps. I'd grab PlayStation Official Magazine to get demos to play on repeat (here's looking at you, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee). Sure, Toys for Bob successfully remastered the Spyro trilogy, but it also actually made it harder than I remember it being – which was fine for me now, but seven-year-old me would've been mighty sad.

If Spyro: A Realm Beyond wants to appeal to both millennials and Gen Alphas (and the in-betweens), there's a few things I think need to happen. Spyro, at the end of the day, had all the features of a great adventure game from exploration to abundant storytelling to clever mechanics. But, will they translate as well now?

For now, there's not too much to go on. The Xbox Games Showcase reveal lasted just over a minute, with little of the new features on show, although ut there was enough to know one thing for certain. In Spyro: A Realm Beyond you'll be able to utilize free flight for the first time. In 1998, Spyro glided between areas, but as a little purple dragon, he never flew. Introducing that mechanic to a whole new world of Spyro is a pretty big deal.

But, I think it's equally important for Spyro to stay true to what made it great originally. Take the well-rounded level design and the plentiful movement combinations. And while I didn't spot Sparx in the trailer, I hope to still have a companion that you can love as much as you love Spyro.

"The world needs more radically joyful, colorful games," Toys for Bob recently declared. And as the trailer demonstrates, there's going to be a whole lot of color and a whole lot of modernization, blending the old with the new.

While I've argued that there's a lot of competition in modern era gaming from big budget titles to indie's alike, there is one thing I know and that's that there's not much in that niche space of fun nostalgic characters to play as a family. I'm a '90s gamer that is now in her mid-30s with two small kids.

We play Super Mario Party and LEGO games regularly because it's fun for everyone. They love it because the character is fun and vibrant, I love it because it makes me feel all warm and cosy inside. I'm almost a little jealous that my kids will get to experience a Spyro with such vibrancy and clarity. They can't even imagine the way that games used to look, but they also think I grew up with dinosaurs.

Clean the Squishies codes can be used to get a boost in this tidying simulator, as you try to put your local squishy shop back in order. There are cute collectibles all over the floor that need returning to their correct shelves, so work alone or with friends to complete the cleanup.

The initial Clean the Squishies codes provide you with Squishies, which is also the in-game currency used to purchase upgrades. Using it you can unlock Trails and Auras to equip on your character, which boost the cash and Squishies you earn while cleaning up in this Roblox experience. If you're ready to sort, then here are the codes for Clean the Squishies and how to redeem them.

If you'd prefer more general promos that apply across every experience, then take a look at the current Roblox promo codes.

All Clean the Squishies codes

The following Clean the Squishies codes are currently available:

• UPDATE3 – 1,100 Squishies
• WELCOME – 100 Squishies
• SQUISHY – 250 Squishies
• UPDATE1 – 1,000 Squishies

There are currently a few codes for Clean the Squishies that can be claimed, despite them being a relatively new addition to the experience. They all provide the Squishies currency for in-game purchases, to help get you up and running.

How to redeem Clean the Squishies codes

To redeem Clean the Squishies codes, all you have to do is hit the Cog icon at the top of the screen to open up the Settings menu. This has a code... text box at the bottom, so type in a promo and then tap the Redeem button to collect your reward. Codes for Clean the Squishies aren't case-sensitive, so it doesn't matter how you enter them as long as the correct spelling is used.

Expired Clean the Squishies codes

• No expired codes

As they are a recent addition to the experience, there are currently no expired Clean the Squishies codes to be aware of. However, these situations don't tend to last for long, so make sure you've claimed any active codes before they get moved down here.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.