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.

All Cookie Run Crumble codes

These are the Cookie Run Crumble codes available right now:

• COOKIERUNCRUMBLENO1 - 10,000x Crystals, 1,000x Flames of Bravery, 1,000x Lucky Dough, 1,000x Rune Crystals new!

The first Cookie Run Crumble codes is here and it's a good one!!! With thousands of rewards up for grabs, this code celebrates the game reaching the top of Korea's App Store already, 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.

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

© 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.

Grandma been asking us to come find her Pokemon cards for years (Update) from r/PokemonTCG

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 new! (currently not working)
• WELCOME – 100 Squishies new!
• SQUISHY – 250 Squishies new!
• 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.

Pokemon Pokopia developers created the game hoping it would eventually become the best-selling spin-off title in the now 30-year-old series, and it seems pretty inevitable it will be.

Speaking to Famitsu (with translation provided by Simon Griffin and SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything) Koei Tecmo president and CEO Hisashi Koinuma was asked about Pokemon Pokopia – developed by Koei Tecmo studio and Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force.

"From among our spin-off titles I do feel a strong sense of accomplishment," Koinuma explains, "We did work with the aim to make it the best selling spin-off game, but before launch there weren't any real expectations." And while Pokemon Pokopia was pretty highly anticipated – at least anecdotally, around me – I definitely wasn't expecting it'd be as huge as it is.

Koinuma adds, "directly ahead of launch, lots of overseas media played it and rated it very highly, and then I felt it spread from there."

Back in May, Nintendo confirmed that within the first five weeks of Pokemon Pokopia's release, the spin-off title had sold over four million copies. For context, that immediately placed it within the top five best-selling Pokemon spin-offs ever, behind Pokemon Stadium, Pinball, and both Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team and Explorers of Time and Darkness.

Red/Blue Rescue Team currently sits up top at 5.85 million copies sold, which means that Pokopia really doesn't have that long to go to be the top-selling spin-off in the series. And, aside from Mario Kart World which is by far the best-selling Switch 2 game by the virtue of a generous bundle at launch, Pokopia only sits behind Donkey Kong Bananza, which – unfortunately, since Bananza is the best Switch 2 game – it seems like it will have passed by the next time Nintendo reports sales. Especially when Nintendo is releasing a Pokemon Pokopia Switch 2 bundle in some regions.

Leaked Lego Pokemon sets look so much better than the old ones, and it's a step in the right direction.

Avast me hearties! If like me you've ever found yourself thinking a pirate's life is for you, then you've come to the right place, because I'm here bring you the best pirate games you can play right now.

Whether you're looking to live out all your pirate-shaped dreams in some great swashbuckling adventures, or the prospect of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has put the wind in your sails as it has done for me and you want to see what other adventures await you on the high seas, I've charted a course and found some fantastic pirate games that will help you fulfill all your nautical fantasies.

Of course, Ubisoft's remake is included here, but if you're looking for alternatives, I've brought together a great assortment of options. From some of the best open world RPGs, to one of the best co-op games, and even some old school classics that are still playable today, there's picks across most platforms so you can find something for you. So, if you're ready to find your sea legs and hoist your sails, join me as I take you through the best pirate games to play in 2026.

The best pirate games, starting with...

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Bringing back the classic point-and-click adventure that first released back in 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is here for any would-be pirate with a penchant for puzzle-solving. Packed with humor, you follow the story of protagonist Guybrush Threepwood as you try to uncover the secret of Monkey Island (hence the name). As you puzzle your way through a swashbuckling plot, you can expect to encounter many pirates, including an evil ghost buccaneer called LeChuck.

Of course, there's always the hope that you'll uncover some riches, too (because where there's pirates, there's usually treasure). It may be a little more dated as pirate adventures go, but with the special edition re-release bringing in a hint system, updated art style, and full voice over, it's still very enjoyable. If you're after a throwback, this is a great one to tuck into. Plus, if you enjoy it, the series made a more recent comeback in 2022 with Return to Monkey Island; that's a real delight.

Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition

Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition is the revised version of Rare's open world multiplayer pirate adventure, which brings in all of the permanent updates that have come to the game since it initially launched. When it comes to living your best pirate life, Sea of Thieves has plenty to offer. Whether you want to captain your own ship solo or you want to team up with pals to form your own pirate crew, the many islands and oceans are yours to explore – you can even plumb the depths for treasure with sunken sites below the surface of the sea.

With the freedom to create your own custom pirate and set off on voyages to become a legend of your own making, you can spend your time fishing, taking down a mighty kraken, or burying your most prized spoils (don't worry, you can create a map that will lead you right back to your loot). With lots of optional objects and side quests to keep you busy, I've never had a dull time with this one. Plus, you can also shape your own modes with the Custom Seas feature, which introduces a host of tools so you can be the kind of pirate you want to be.

Windrose

Currently out in Early Access, Windrose draws you into an alternate take on the age of piracy in a survival adventure that blends swashbuckling action and naval combat with crafting and settlement building. Taking on the role of a captain who challenges Blackbeard, an infamous figure of legend, you soon get caught up in the conflicts of the high seas, complete with rival clans and empires.

But how you spend your time in Windrose is up to you. With procedurally generated biomes to explore, you can sail across the seas in search of new locations, weigh anchor and venture onto the shores to delve into dungeons, or try your hand at plundering some treasure (which is, of course, a classic pirate pastime). With resource gathering and crafting at play, you can also work to create your own bases in a place of your choosing, and while it's playable solo, you can also venture across the seas with pals in online co-op. You can get sea-ready with our pick of the best ships in Windrose.

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

The Yakuza series has brought us some of the best ARPGs over the years, but it's also home to a character that has all of the traits of a pirate in the making. I'm of course talking about Goro Majima, the eye-patch-wearing, butt-kicking member of the Yakuza who has an on-going rivalry with the leading man, Kiryu. He's always gone his own way with a commanding presence, and that translates perfectly into his distinctly unique and endlessly entertaining spin-off, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii.

After finding himself stranded on an island with no memory to speak of, you play as Majima as he takes over his own ship and reinvents himself as a modern-day pirate. Navigating through the Pacific Ocean, you form your own ragtag crew, work to upgrade your ship, and of course, get your hands on some riches. Naturally, there's always criminals and rival pirates trying to take the wind out of your sails, but that's where Majima's fighting skills in the best Yakuza games come in handy here. If you're after an action-packed pirate adventure with plenty of humor, then look no further. For more, check out our Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii review.

Sid Meier's Pirates!

If you're a strategy fan who's also looking to become a pirate legend, then Sid Meier's Pirates! is a classic spin-off that might just be right up your alley. Yes, it's a bit of a throwback, but it's aged very well and is still fun to play to this day. After a marquis your father is indebted to takes your family away during your childhood years, you set out to exact revenge when you're older and get your hands on your very own ship in the process.

From there, you're essentially free to decide what you do and how you want to do it as you set sail across the Caribbean. Whether you decide to raid villages for riches or be a true privateer who hunts down enemy ships and wanted criminals for your chosen allied nation, you can become as famous (or infamous) as you like. With naval combat, treasure hunting, and various activities to get stuck into, you'll also have to be mindful of your crew, as any good pirate captain should be.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Assassin's Creed Black Flag first made waves back in 2013 thanks to its Caribbean open world setting and its pirate, assassin fantasy. Fast forward to 2026, and one of the best Assassin's Creed protagonists has made a comeback in that very same adventure, only this time, it's been rebuilt on the latest Anvil Engine with a suite of improvements and additions. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sees you play as Edward Kenway, a true buccaneer in the 18th century who captains the Jackdaw.

With appearances from pirates from history and legend, Black Flag is a great way to immerse yourself in the Golden Age of piracy. With improved, action-orientation fighting, naval combat, and plenty of treasures to uncover, it continues to be one of the best pirate games around – even if it isn't always smooth sailing, as we explore in our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review. But if you've yet to tuck into this stealthy, pirate adventure, or you're looking to experience it all over again, Resynced is worth getting on board with.

Set off on more journeys (on both sea and land) with our pick of the best adventure games.

Minecraft's newest update finally brings more ways to rest your blocky behind, as Cushions and Straw Beds headline the new preview.

On the Minecraft website Mojang details what Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players can expect from update preview 26.40.30, which launches today. While it's not going to introduce any game-changing biomes or new mobs to the game, it does introduce a massive new feature in the form of Straw Beds.

Straw Beds are a new type of bed which allow you to sleep through the night while retaining your previous spawn point, which will be perfect for waiting out the night while you're on an expedition. However, there's a catch, as these beds can only be used one time before being destroyed, and of course you won't be able to use these in the Nether or The End. If you use three Hay Bales you'll get Four Straw Beds to use, so it's not the worst trade for something that's a one-time use, plus you can find them naturally in Abandoned Camps.

The update's focus seems to be to help spruce up the Abandoned Camps that were introduced a few weeks ago in update 26.40.27. The new area will now spawn in the Pale Garden and Flower Forest biomes and boast procedural trees, and an issue which saw loot tables list incorrect potion names has also been fixed.

The other new change is the introduction of the Cushion, which you can craft 16 different colored versions of. These don't exactly have much practical use for your hardcore survival mode run, but they're a new item you can sit on and make your home look that much cuter. These currently aren't found in Abandoned Camps, but Mojang lists this as a "known issue," implying these will find a home there after a while.

Frankly, I'm shocked that it's taken almost 17 years (or 15 years after its official 1.0 launch in 2011) for Minecraft to add a way to sleep through the night without resetting your spawn, now that it's actually in the game, it feels like something that should've been a given on day one, so it's good to finally have the option.

Smaller Minecraft updates like Tiny Takeover and Chaos Cubed "feel more sustainable" for Mojang, says lead: "There's always another one right around the corner."

A bunch of new Lego Pokemon sets have been officially revealed, and while some were leaked ahead of time, it turns out the toy company was holding out on us – the best was yet to come.

Alongside (now-confirmed) Rayquaza, Arcanine, and Munchlax display figures, Lego is also releasing what is essentially a Polly Pocket for fans of the original video games; the Iconic Trainer Moments Poke Ball opens up to reveal Professor Oak's lab and a nostalgia-fuelled battle between Red and a random trainer inside. This will be launching alongside an Up-Scaled Red Minifigure, which brings our first player character from the series to life. All these new Lego Pokemon sets can be pre-ordered now via the Lego store, and they'll launch between August 1 and October 1.

In terms of specifics, here's how they stack up compared to the best Lego sets so far as pricing, pieces, and size go.

While I'm not sure how to feel about the Up-Scaled Red Minifigure (or should that be Bigifigure?), I'm all in on the Poke Ball display scene. This is like my childhood turned into Lego; it's a nostalgic look back at the opening of Pokemon Red and Blue, with the lid opening to reveal Professor's Oaks lab (complete with three Poke Balls on the bench to choose from) and trainer Red battling a Picknicker's Pikachu with Eevee. These are utterly adorable minifigure-scale Pokemon that remind me of the tiny toys you can get in those gumball machines – you know the ones? Anyway, because they're all-in-one sculpts that don't need constructing so far as I can tell, they look like the real deal rather than approximations. I imagine that'll please fans who've complained about other Lego Pokemon sets looking a bit… off (like Lego Pikachu and Poke Ball).

As for the others, it's nice to see them in all their glory rather than via a pixelated leak shot. As I mentioned in my piece discussing them when they weren't yet confirmed, these are a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. Fan response was mixed toward Lego Pikachu from the start and the Smart Play range drew some criticism based on its designs as well (even if they had our inner 10 year-old losing it), but these absolutely nail the assignment. They're also a lot cheaper than previous sets like the Starter Evolutions, bringing them more in line with the excellent Lego Eevee.

Basically, I'm obsessed – and I can't wait to see what's next for the Lego Pokemon range.

For more Poke-goodies, don't miss our guide to the best Pokemon merch. Plus, did you see that Razer has evolved its Pokemon PC accessory lineup with these new celestial Espeon & Umbreon goodies?

New Lego Pokemon sets seem to have leaked, and honestly? I think they're a real step up from what we've had so far.

Not content to leave it at last month's slew of Smart Play kits that had our inner 10-year-old losing it, the toy-maker appears to be working on three new Lego Pokemon sets for adults – Rayquaza, Munchlax, and Arcanine. These are all display pieces rather than playsets, and Rayquaza actually comes with the first Pokemon minifigure to date (Zinnia, who first appeared in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire).

I've not seen official PR info or listings at Lego yet, but these sets are being touted as confirmed by our friends over at The Gamer in a post dishing details alongside various Reddit threads like this one from Amiibofan101. Both sources suggest these models will all arrive on August 1, 2026, and they won't be throwaway novelties; Arcanine rivals some of the best Lego sets at 1,190 pieces, while Rayquaza is 1,083 and Munchlax weighs in at 757. Meanwhile, it looks as though they'll hover around the $100 mark; Rayquaza will apparently cost $129.99, Munchlax sits at $79.99, and Arcanine is $99.99.

First look at Rayquaza, Arcanine & Munchlax Pokémon LEGO Sets Releasing August 1st from r/pokemon

So, are these real? I have no doubt that they are. Both Rayquaza and Munchlax have been rumored for a long time, and leaked images matching the current ones have been circulating on reddit for a while. They also perfectly line up with Lego's own preferred layout for product listings,

Either way, I think they look fantastic. I've been a little mixed on the Pokemon range thus far since it was announced (we were wondering what they'd done to Pikachu when it was first shown off, for example), and the new Smart Play line has divided us at the GamesRadar+ office. However, these figures lean into what made the likes of Lego Eevee and the three starter evolutions so great. Unlike Charizard and co, not to mention Lego Pikachu, they're also far more affordable.

If that August 1 release date is accurate, it's gonna be a busy month for fans; the Pokemon Smart Play kits are due to arrive then alongside the first KPop Demon Hunters model, a newly revealed ET figure, and more. We have reached out to Lego for confirmation.

For more cool collectibles, why not check out our guide to the best toys? As for other pocket monster-themed goodies, don't miss the best Pokemon merch.

The Mega Diancie ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a psychic build focused on energy generation that leads to a glass cannon result, with Diancie able to do huge damage that scales to how much energy you've placed on it. It's a bit risky, but when pulled off correctly, you can one-shot pretty much any Pokemon. In a meta filled with other Mega ex Pokemon, it means you can effectively insta-win many matches, though obviously it requires some setup, strategy and luck to get there. If you want to know more, here's how to make the best Mega Diancie ex deck in PTCGP.

Mega Diancie ex already looks like it might become one of the best decks in Pokemon TCG Pocket, but you might want to see what else the Everyday Wonders booster set brings with our best Pokemon TCG Pocket Milotic ex deck build!

Best Mega Diancie ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The Mega Diancie ex deck build listed below is all about using Gardevoir for energy generation.

• Mega Diancie ex x1
• Ralts (Space-Time Smackdown) x2
• Xerneas x1
• Kirlia (Fantastical Parade) x1
• Mega Gardevoir ex x2
• Meloetta (Psychic) x2
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x1
• Copycat x2
• Diantha x1
• Peculiar Plaza x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Psychic

This deck build is effectively broken into three stages of strategy. First, you open with Meloetta or Xerneas, drawing cards and making sure you get the Plaza out for those zero-cost retreats. Secondly, you deploy Gardevoir, who can do respectable damage while also fuelling Pokemon on the bench with massive amounts of energy. Finally, you bring in Mega Diancie ex, who can basically annihilate whatever your opponent has going if you've put down enough energy.

The downsides are that this little bit of setup is vulnerable to disruption, though it's not as bad as it sounds. Rapid card draws from Meloetta and Copycat mean you can get Gardevoir up and running quickly, and Diantha is there to mitigate any early damage opponents get off on you. Plus, the Plaza means that you have basically free control over your own board, and it will never cost you energy again. Finally, Diancie being empowered by energy across your whole board is incredibly good, whereas most scaling attacks before now have been based on energy on that specific Pokemon.

• Pros
  • Meloetta is a strong opener
  • Mega Diancie ex can one-shot anything if given enough energy
  • Good card draw power
  • Zero retreat costs with Peculiar Plaza
• Cons
  • Vulnerable to early disruption
  • Little-to-no healing or recovery
  • Diancie has low health for a Mega ex card

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

While the organizers behind Stop Killing Games remain optimistic about the movement's future, they've been dealt another blow from lawmakers. The Protect Our Games Act failed to reach the required committee votes to move forward in California, but what's really gotten the gaming world's attention is the argument made by the Entertainment Software Association during the hearing. According to the lobbying group, private Minecraft servers are illegal.

"They're illegal, and they're not in any way affiliated with Microsoft," according to Jennifer Gibbons, vice president for state government affairs at the ESA (thanks, PC Gamer). "Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers."

That statement – and Gibbons' later assertion that private servers are tantamount to "piracy" – might seem like a bizarre thing to say, considering that you can download the tools to create your own private server directly from the official Minecraft website. But, unfortunately, that's simply a right that Microsoft is offering to players, and one that it's free to revoke at any time.

"Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers," the ESA says in a statement to PC Gamer. "Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them." That is, indeed, the law as it stands, and one of the key points that Stop Killing Games is trying to change, hoping to require publishers to provide tools to create community servers after an online game shuts down.

According to the ESA, the provision in the Protect Our Games Act "that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher's ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry's commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players."

This is the second major decision against Stop Killing Games this month, as the EU Commission decided against introducing new legislation in response to the campaign. Yet, Stop Killing Games founder Ross Scott believes that the campaign has made such significant inroads with members of the EU parliament that legislation will likely happen regardless of the Commission's decision.

"We are not stopping," according to a similarly optimistic message from Stop Killing Games responding to the California decision. "Not even close. Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly, and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support. We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level. The ESA is about to learn what it is like to fight on many fronts at once. They have to win every single time to keep things the way they are. We only have to win once to change them."

These are the new games for 2026 (and beyond) you need to know about.

The Milotic ex deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket is already establishing itself as incredibly potent, as the ability to put enemies to sleep comfortably falls into all manner of popular builds and strategies. In fact, some are bemoaning the addition of even more sleep cards in PTCGP, but we can't deny that it works for now. If you want to know how to make a strong Milotic ex deck in the wake of the Everyday Wonders expansion set, I'll explain the best build for that below, including how to play it, and all the pros and cons in doing so.

For more deck builds, check out where Milotic falls in the best decks in Pokemon TCGP! Or for more from Everyday Wonders, find out how to make the best Pokemon TCG Pocket Mega Diancie ex deck!

Best Milotic ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Milotic ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a sleep and energy generation powerhouse, and here's how to build a strong deck around it.

• Darkrai x2
• Feebas (Secluded Springs) x2
• Milotic ex x2
• Igglybuff x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Elegant Cape x1
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Copycat x2
• Lisia x1
• Wallace x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Water

The Sleep meta remains strong and gets stronger now that Milotic has entered the fray. This is probably the most straightforward version of the deck, using Milotic and Igglybuff to put opponents to sleep and then having Darkrai do the usual chip damage. We've also seen variants that downplay the sleep for more versatility, bringing in Magikarp and Mega Gyarados ex for greater power. As players start to learn to prepare for Sleep effects as a common occurrence, it may be that ends up being the stronger alternative, but we'll have to see how things shake out.

Otherwise, the deck strategy is straightforward enough. Igglybuff and Feebas get out early, with Wallace allowing you to evolve the latter as soon as possible. Then it's all about riffling your deck to put Darkrai on the bench and maximizing damage. There's no great "killshot" attacks here (nothing that will do more than 80 damage), but with Milotic's passive energy generation, you can get out early and bring down opponents before they have a chance to set up a strategy.

• Pros
  • Strong early game setup
  • Darkrai/Igglybuff is one of PTCGP's most broken combos
  • Versatile build that can be played with ease
• Cons
  • Weak to Electric decks, which are common
  • Players are learning to counter prepare for Sleep
  • No hugely powerful attacks

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

No, it's nothing like the book. Enslaved may be based on a piece of classic Chinese literature (Wu Cheng'en's Journey To The West) but it takes substantial liberties with the source material. Rather, the original text serves as a starting point for a very different kind of adventure – one that, all these years later, might sound familiar. Stop us if you've played this one before: a taciturn, world-weary man reluctantly escorts a smart but naïve young woman across a ruined America. Pockets of human survivors eke out a miserable existence in this overgrown world, no longer the planet's dominant species. The pair's westward journey brings moments of tragedy and hope, as an uneasy alliance steadily blossoms into something more meaningful, before an ending that hangs upon a choice between living a blissful lie or confronting a horrifying truth.

To return to Enslaved after playing The Last Of Us is to be shocked at how many similarities there are between the two. Both feature strangely beautiful future dystopias; both deliberately subvert the traditional pioneer's journey across America; both feature odd-couple central relationships that endeavour to sidestep cliché (and mostly succeed). More pertinently, both display a rare commitment to ludonarrative consistency. Here are worlds that have been meticulously thought through, where every part is congruous to an internal logic.

Almost immediately, you can see the benefit of having your writer and lead actor involved from the start. After a whirlwind opening set-piece, scribe Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later, Ex Machina) establishes the setup with admirable economy: tech-savvy Trip frees herself from a slave ship, leaving via its final escape pod, before placing an electronic headband on fellow survivor and playable protagonist Monkey while he recovers from the crash. This device, as he learns in painful fashion, forces him to do as she says. Your mission is detailed in a single line: "Get me back to my home, and you can go back to yours."

There's a plausible narrative excuse for ensuring your partner's safety, too: we learn that the headband is tracking Trip's own biometrics, and will deliver a lethal jolt to Monkey should her heart stop beating. "If I die, you die," she says, simply. So in a single cutscene, we have our motivations for both joining Trip and keeping her alive. It's abundantly clear that Garland not only plays games but understands that players have limited patience for this sort of thing. Few story-led games cut to the chase this quickly, but then few story-led games involve the writer from the beginning. Enslaved offers evidence for the case that it's better to knock the story into shape while building the game than it is once most of the work has already been done.

Monkey Magic

Enslaved maintains this snappy pacing throughout its opening hours. Trip's skills as a hacker provide a credible reason for a HUD that allows the player to see Monkey's health bar and his shield, as well as Trip's vital signs. Soon afterward, you're tasked with catching a dragonfly mech that Trip then presses into service as a remote camera, swooping over environments to scan them in advance for hazards and enemies. Thus the game excuses the visual overlays that highlight the detection radii of dormant mechs in the area, as well as the sensor triggers for mines, and waypoints that mark your immediate destination.

Indeed, the sequence leading to its capture serves both useful narrative and mechanical purposes. It's an engaging bit of simple parkour that develops the central relationship, starting to defuse the hostility caused by Trip's coercion and to build a rapport between the leads, while also injecting some necessary levity. Nitin Sawhney's versatile soundtrack, meanwhile, adopts a whimsical, light-hearted tone as Monkey grows frustrated by the elusive bug.

Elsewhere, the first mech encounter highlights both Trip's vulnerability and Monkey's awareness of the dangerous world outside the gated enclaves of the remaining human population. Trip can set off an EMP to temporarily disable the robots that attack her, or create an electronic decoy as a temporary distraction, but Monkey's the only one strong enough to dismantle them. This leads to a neat reversal of the masterslave relationship: in Monkey's domain, it's as important that Trip listen to him as he to her, so explaining a radial command menu that lets Monkey tell Trip when to move and when to stay put. In a game assembled so intelligently, it's a pity developer Ninja Theory doesn't always credit its players with similar smarts. When Trip squeals and struggles to cling on after Monkey's thrown over a gap, it's obvious we need to quickly leap across and pull her up, though a text prompt pops up to spell it out. It's the game's most vexing trait.

Still, Garland's influence is immediately apparent – as, too, is that of Andy Serkis. Whatever it is that allows Serkis to tap so expertly into a simian mindset, it's powerfully evident here. Broad-shouldered and hunched, cloth 'tail' dangling from his belt, Monkey is clearly strong enough to beat seven shades of steel from mechanoid opponents, yet he's also athletic enough to swing easily between poles and vines. And that's before you see him move. He scampers up handholds with disarming speed, and has possibly the most satisfying ladder-climbing animation of its era, nimbly skipping several rungs to reach the top in an instant.

Many saw the game's sticky platforming as a flaw, but it's consistent with the character. Monkey's no Nathan Drake, no boulderer scrabbling desperately across conveniently crumbling rock faces. Sure, he suffers a small handful of scripted falls, but not one is his fault: under your command he's a capable – nay, fearless – climber. It wouldn't make much narrative sense if he was constantly struggling to retain his grip, even if this rather limits the sensation of immediate peril. Happily, there's often a good reason for making haste, whether it's a turret trained on your position or the fact that Trip's in imminent danger.

The same applies to combat. The ferocity with which Monkey smashes mechs to pieces is explained in one terse line – "My parents were killed by a mech attack when I was a kid" – and if his moveset initially seems worryingly simple, it expands over time, his staff doubling as a melee and projectile weapon. Ninja Theory would develop more malleable and responsive combat systems for DmC: Devil May Cry, but there's a thrillingly primal satisfaction to the way Monkey wields his staff. As he prepares for battle, he's a coiled spring; suddenly, that internalised rage bursts forth in every blow, accompanied by rumble feedback in the controller and a loud metallic clank. What it lacks in subtlety, it compensates for in sheer audiovisual force, heightened by slow-mo finishing moves as Monkey lets out a cathartic roar.

Nonetheless, Ninja Theory seems aware that perhaps neither the combat nor the platforming would stand up to long-term scrutiny. Thankfully, neither really has to. Light-but-engaging environmental puzzles present a welcome change of pace: a sequence where Monkey unfurls the sails of a windmill is an undoubted highlight. Later, an ostensibly straightforward climbing section is refashioned into a surprisingly challenging race. If some co-operative leverpulling sequences feel contrived in their arrangement and one or two ideas repeat themselves in the second half, there's usually a fresh context in each case – and even if not, Garland's dialogue is more than up to the metaphorical heavy lifting, while Monkey does the physical equivalent.

And when the pace does slacken, and Enslaved can't quite give us something new to keep our thumbs occupied, it usually finds a way to keep our eyes glued to the screen. When the camera's not pointing you in the right direction, it's providing artful framing for some exceptional environment design, proof that post-apocalyptic themes needn't result in palettes formed exclusively of greys, browns and sickly yellows. You get to climb twisted structures of rusted steel, intertwined with flourishing red and green flora. You can explore a mech graveyard, bounding over what looks like modernist sculpture, but at second glance appears to be a gigantic spinal column. If this is what the world looks like when nature and machinery have claimed co-ownership, perhaps we should leave them to it.

You get to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short time – such that by the time you reach your destination, a mere eight or so hours after the game began, it really feels like you've been on a journey.

It added up to positive reviews but, by most accepted metrics, a flop. A high-concept contemporary sci-fi title based on a literary classic from 16th-century China always felt like a tough sell, and so it proved. And yet its cultural legacy may well resonate longer than its limited initial impact. There are clear signs here of the design thrift that will serve Ninja Theory well in the forthcoming Hellblade – a blockbuster on a relative shoestring. And for all that Enslaved borrows from the Uncharted series, it's clear now that Naughty Dog owes Ninja Theory a debt in return. But then the notion of sharing ideas is rooted in a classic allegorical yarn that espouses the virtues of collaboration and mutual understanding – yes, that original Journey To The West. Who said it's nothing like the book?

This article was first published in issue 283 of Edge Magazine. If you're interested in receiving more just like this direct, subscribe to Edge Magazine.

The Mayan Stones in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, aka the Mayan Stelae puzzles, are tied to a locked door that will get you a unique outfit and trinket as a reward. You won't be able to open the door on first finding it - there's Stones in Locations that you haven't unlocked yet - but if you can find the location of all 16 Stelae, then each stone acts like a key in the door that you can use to access the reward beyond. Below I'll lay out the locations not just of the Mayan Stones in Black Flag Resynced, but also where to find them in the original Assassin's Creed Black Flag from 2013.

For more essential collectibles, find out where to get all the Black Flag Resynced Ultimate ship upgrades, or uncover the locations of the different Black Flag Resynced Templar Keys.

Where to find all Mayan Stones in Black Flag Resynced

There are the same number of stones in Black Flag Resynced and the original game. However, while most are in the same places for both, there's a Mayan Stela that's been massively repositioned in the Remake, with one of the Santanillas stones now moved to the new location, "Sacrifice Island". Plus, because the map has changed size in the new game, the coordinates are also different, even though the locations are technically the same.

Here's where to find them all below:

It's important to note that you won't be able to get all the Stones until you complete a main quest mission called "The Observatory." That's because the Long Bay location is inaccessible until then, so your progress will be limited up to that point. That said you can start getting them almost as soon as you're out in the world, and it doesn't matter what order you collect them in.

How to solve Mayan Stone puzzles in Black Flag

To solve the Mayan Stone puzzles in Assassin's Creed Black Flag, you just have to climb on top of the Mayan pillar and hit the "investigate" prompt. Edward's Eagle Vision will trigger, and several rocks or pillars in the environment will be highlighted.

At the same time, a series of connected shapes will appear that you can move, rotate and resize. The goal is to shift these around until you fit them perfectly on the highlighted stones.

Once this has been completed correctly, a section of the ground will start to glow. Walk up to that spot and interact with it to dig up the Mayan Stone.

Mayan Stones reward in Black Flag

After getting all the Mayan Stones, return to Tulum and interact with the locked door marked by the side quest to open it. This will reveal a small platforming section that leads to a raised temple, inside here you'll get your reward: The Mayan Outfit, and, if you're playing the Resynced Remake, the Yax Tun Pendant, a legendary Trinket.

Outfits in Resynced have no effect, they simply provide cosmetic options. However, the Yax Tun Pendant makes the player immune to gunshots when worn. (In the original game, the outfit provided the bulletproof bonus on its own, without the additional trinket.)

Learn where to get adorable Black Flag Resynced pets to be your ship's mascots! or find out how to recruit the different Black Flag Resynced Officers to the Jackdaw and unlock their abilities.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Black Flag Resynced treasure maps and the buried treasure that they lead to are some of the most lucrative searches in the whole game, with plenty of high level rewards for players to find. As a player who's found every treasure map in the game, I'll explain where to find every map, and, just as importantly, where to dig and what the prizes for doing so are. Our guide includes not just all the treasure maps and buried treasures for Resynced, but we've also preserved our guides for the original Assassin's Creed Black Flag from 2013, found on pages 2 and 3 of this guide for your reference.

For more collectibles in the Caribbean, find out where to look for the Black Flag Resynced Mayan Stelae locations, or all the different Black Flag Resynced Ultimate ship upgrades!

All treasure map locations and solutions in Black Flag Resynced

There are dozens of treasure maps to find in Black Flag Resynced, and in the table below we've laid out where to find them, where to dig up the buried treasure they lead to, and what that treasure is, so you know if it's worth the effort.

When you reach a map's coordinates you'll know if you're close because Edward will say something like "I've seen this place before." If he doesn't say anything like that as you walk around then you need to check the map and coordinates again to check you're in the right area. Once you're standing close enough, an icon will appear for you to dig.

It's important to remember that you can't dig up a treasure in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced unless you've found the map first. If you try and go straight to the dig point without a map you won't get the trigger to start digging.

How to fix map pieces in Black Flag Resynced

You can also find map pieces in Black Flag, which need to be reassembled before you can do anything with them. To do that, you need to complete the following:

1. Unlock the hub area Great Inagua.
2. Build the Treasure Dealer upgrade to unlock that vendor.
3. Bring him all pieces of a map and the additional payment asked for (it varies from map to map).

When you find all the pieces and restore the map you'll be able to use it like any other. These are the multiple maps that can be assembled this way, each one of which is found in a different way.

• Weathered Map (6 Pieces). Found in the chests in Smuggler's Dens, except for one, which is sold by the Treasure Dealer himself.
• Yellowed Map (10 Pieces). Random rewards for Fleet missions. Only seem to appear on Schooner missions.
• Digested Map (2 Pieces). Slay and skin the White Jaguar on Great Inagua or the one encountered on the Templar Hunt mission "the Taino Assassin".
• Tattered Map (3 Pieces). Found in lockboxes taken from high level Pirate Hunter ships after boarding and capturing them.
• Preserved Map (4 Pieces). Found randomly by looting Warehouses (low reward chance).

Want more secrets of plunder from Edward Kenway's adventures? If you're working through the story, find out where to find the Sage and Prison Key in Black Flag Resynced, or how to solve the Black Flag Resynced statue puzzle of Tulum!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

What follows on this page and the one past it are all treasure map locations and dig spots for the original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. If you're playing the game as it first appeared, this will show you everything you need to know about finding buried treasure there!

Buried Treasure No. 1

Map Location: Cape Bonavista, on the beach near the ship in the cove

Treasure Location: Cape Bonavista - Face the ship, turn around 180 degrees and head straight for the small cave. At the end of the cave, look down at a small, partially embedded rock.

Reward: 1500 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 2

Map Location: Northern half of Havana, next to the monastery

Treasure Location: Southern tip of Havana, to the right of a fallen palm tree

Reward: Queen Anne’s figurehead design plan, 3000 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 3

Map Location: Southern end of Abaco Island, in the Eleuthera region

Treasure Location: Northern end of Salt Lagoon (in the Gibara region), near a giant rock.

Reward: Design plan, 3000 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 4

Map Location: Southern tip of Andreas Island, north of Havana

Treasure Location: In the middle of a tree cluster on Abaco Island, very close to a stranded ship

Reward: 4000 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 5

Map Location: In the cove of Great Inagua, west of where the Jackdaw docks

Treasure Location: In Nassau, look for the restricted area at the large home near the swamp. Go down the cliff and look for two fallen trees.

Reward: Design plan for grey sails, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 6

Map Location: Slightly left of the center of Mariguana Island

Treasure Location: On a very tiny island at the southern end of Andreas Island

Reward: Design plans for the elite harpoon, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 7

Map Location: At Cayman Sound, on the upper right side of the “U” formation of the island, near some small trees and embedded rocks

Treasure Location: Inside Petite Caverne, on an slightly elevated section near the campfire

Reward: Design plans for heavy shot storage, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 8

Map Location: At Tortuga, run along the northeast edge of the island along the beach, where you’ll eventually come across a corpse.

Treasure Location: After docking at Mantanzas, make your way southeast, through the town. Eventually you’ll come across some Mayan ruins. Between two of the biggest columns you’ll find a small recess and the treasure.

Reward: Elite mortar storage plans, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 9

Map Location: On one of the higher levels of the ruins in Misteriosa, which you can access after completing Sequence 9, Memory 2

Treasure Location: At the easternmost end of Kingston, near some crates and a small portion of a ship hull

Reward: Blackwood wheel design plans, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 10

Map Location: At the northern end of Pinos Isle, on a corpse crushed by a fallen column

Treasure Location: At Cayman Sound, on the upper right side of the “U” formation of the island, near some small trees and embedded rocks

Reward: 4000 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 11

Map Location: At the easternmost tip of Ile a Vache

Treasure Location: Enter the smuggler’s cove known as Jiguey. Inside the hideout is a single tree next to a flat rock formation. Look for the “dig” prompt there.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 12

Map Location: At the campfire in Corozal

Treasure Location: At Ambergris Key, which is accessible only through a swimming via the diving bell. When you surface and find the ruins, the treasure can be found in an alcove opposite the main structure.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 13

Map Location: At Ambergris Key, which is accessible only through a swimming via the diving bell. Look for the treasure map icon on the second floor of the main structure.

Treasure Location: At the largest structure in Misteriosa, climb to the very top. You’ll find the “dig” prompt close to where the flowing water starts.

Reward: Heavy shot design plans, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 14

Map Location: The northeast corner of Santanillas

Treasure Location: Take the diving bell down to the depths of San Juan. Swim until you reach the smuggler’s den. Note the broken planks of wood hanging off one of the tunnels. The “dig” prompt can be found below the planks.

Reward: Elite fire barrels design plans, 3000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 15

Map Location: Dive down Anotto Bay using the diving bell. Swim past the shark patrols to find the smuggler’s den. The map is on the east side of the den.

Treasure Location: Travel to the fort at Principe and look for the two adobe towers next to the cannons. Walk around to the right side of the towers to find the “dig” prompt at the edge of the cliff.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 16

Map Location: During Sequence 8, Memory 3, you’ll end up at Isla Providencia. The treasure map icon will appear during a chase sequence, around the northern half of the map.

Treasure Location: At the northeast beach of Long Bay. You'll have to wait until Sequence 10, Memory 3 to access it. Look for the lookout tower. From the tower's point of view, the dig spot will be to its left, near a bush.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 17

Map Location: At the west side of Petite Caverne

Treasure Location: On the southeastern edge of Tulum, at the base of the largest tree in the immediate area.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 18

Map Location: Northeastern corner of Salt Lagoon

Treasure Location: The coordinates on the map will lead you to New Bone. Note that this town is guarded by at least two ships, so have mortar cannons and a thick hull ready. The treasure is buried near the edge of a cliff to the back and the right of the windmill.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 19

Map Location: At the northern tip of Cumberland Bay

Treasure Location: At Pinos Isle, at the base of the tree, at the immediate right of the large Mayan ruins

Reward: Aquila’s wheel design plans, 3000 Reales

Buried Treasure No. 20

Map Location: Use Kenway's Fleet and send a fleet out to the Eastern British Colonies. Accept the mission titled 'The Empty Cellar'. Provided your ships return safely, you'll receive a map.

Treasure Location: At Cumberland Bay, look for the set of small rocks at the northern tip of the island. The treasure is close by.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 21

Map Location: Use Kenway's Fleet and send a fleet out to Eastern Canada. Accept the mission titled 'Scarlatina'. Provided your ships return safely, you'll receive a map.

Treasure Location: Run along the southern coast line until you see some remnants of a ship. At a nearby trio of trees, you'll find the treasure.

Reward: 4000 reales

Buried Treasure No. 22

Map Location: Use Kenway's Fleet and send a fleet out to the Mediterranean Sea. Accept the mission titled 'Great Reputation II'. Provided your ships return safely, you'll receive a map.

Treasure Location: Inside the smuggler's den in Anotto Bay. Look for the only ladder in the den. Near the base of it is the treasure.

Reward: 4000 reales

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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If you're looking for some Pokemon Prime Day deals then don't worry, I've spent probably too long looking for Pikachu and pals in Amazon's digital shopping aisles to find you exciting savings on all things Pokemon. That includes some of the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories too, along with fun merch, TCG sets and binders, and more.

No doubt more Pokemon Prime Day deals will drop as the next few days go on, but for now these are the best savings I've found that I'd recommend for a fellow Poke Pal. It's just a shame that there are no discounts yet on Pokopia, or even Pokemon Scarlet and Violet to recommend for some gaming fun this summer ahead of whatever Pokemon Winds and Waves brings us in 2027.

Pokopia events take place pretty regularly in the adorable Pokemon life game, and they all offer some great, event-exclusive items and rewards, while others even let you invite new Pokemon to move in.

During both the More Spores for Hoppip and Sableye's Gem Hunt events, players were tasked with collecting items from Dream Islands to unlock new habitat items and invite these new Pokemon to stay forever. This time, though, Jirachi is asking for something a little different, so here's what you need to know about the Pokopia Jirachi event and how to get Shining Wish Notes.

Pokopia Jirachi event dates

The Wish Upon a Jirachi Pokopia event takes place between June 23 and July 8, 2026, when it will end at 5am local time. During the event, you can meet Jirachi and invite them to live in any of your towns.

To do so, you'll need to talk to Jirachi at the Withered Wasteland Pokemon Center, where they will ask you for some Shining Wish Notes.

• Jirachi Lamp - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Moon Clock - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Star Mat - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Star Wall Decoration - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Star Shaped Dresser - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Cloud Table - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Starry-Sky Bed - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Star Closet - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Telescope - 1 Shining Wish Note
• Cloud Cannon - 1 Shining Wish Note

As you can see from the list above, you can get every item available for just ten Shining Wish Notes, so it shouldn't take you too long to complete the Jirachi Pokopia event. What's more, you may already have a Telescope in your inventory, though it won't be the same pretty color as this one as standard.

If you want more of these items, you can keep complete as many favors as you have Pokemon throughout the week-long event.

Pokopia Jirachi habitat information

The items you need to create the Surrounded by Stars Jirachi habitat in Pokopia are:

• Star Closet
• Cloud table
• Starry-sky bed
• Jirachi Lamp

Place these items anyway you wish, as long as they are in a five-block area, and ensure that the lamp is powered on by inviting a Pokemon with the Generate ability to follow you to it. Once the lamp is powered, the habitat will activate.

However, you won't be able to invite Jirachi to move in until the event is over, as they'll be too busy trading in the Pokemon Center.

Be sure to check out our Pokopia Mystery Codes guide for other limited-time items.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 asks you to drop your pickaxe, pick up a sword, and venture into the deep dark (among other locations) with your buddies. This upcoming ARPG has always been lobbied as an approachable dungeon crawler, the sort that provides a pretty cheery alternative to a game like Path of Exile 2 or a way for those who grew up playing Diablo to share love of the genre with their kids. Something Minecraft Dungeons was never great at, however, was having all that many connection points with the core Minecraft experience – you know, visual design aside and all that.

As Mojang approached the development of Minecraft Dungeons 2, design director Laura de Llorens tells me that the team went looking for ways to include more distinct "callbacks to vanilla Minecraft" without diluting what made the 2020 original special. One way is the introduction of an "interconnected world" – not a full open-world, but one that's wide enough to encourage exploration.

Beyond that, Minecraft Dungeons 2 has made some tweaks to its item rarity systems and its character customisation options. Let's start with rarity. Minecraft offers four rarity tiers in Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Epic; the first Minecraft Dungeons game only had three. Minecraft Dungeons 2 arrives with four rarity levels – Common, Rare, Special, and Unique – in an attempt to better capture that sense of item-scale that the vanilla experience is known for.

As for character customization, Minecraft Dungeons 2 has a more expansive system in play. "Instead of one armor slot, you now have four – again, we're calling back a little more to vanilla Minecraft, which also has four." This means you can now equip armor on your head, arms, legs, and torso; with unique variants which can provide "double effects, special enchantments, and all that good stuff," de Llorens teases.

These are small changes that have a big impact on the way Minecraft Dungeons 2 plays, and offer a few more points of connective tissue for fans of the core Minecraft experience. I suspect that the full game will offer even more in this respect, but we'll likely have to wait until September 29, 2026 to discover them all – that's when Minecraft Dungeons 2 releases for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 hands-on preview: I played Mojang's new dungeon crawler, and it may just be one of the most exciting new games of 2026.

The future of Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory are unclear. There are reports this week that Xbox is in discussion to shutter all three legendary studios, and rumors that the teams responsible for South of Midnight, Psychonauts, and Hellblade could buy back their independence. At a time where both first-party creative houses – PlayStation Studios and Xbox Game Studios – have shown little hesitation in closing development houses, the idea that these three could walk away seems unlikely. And while no two situations are alike, it isn't unheard of. Just look at Toys for Bob.

"Toys for Bob was acquired by Activision in 2005, and for many years we enjoyed a long and successful partnership," says studio head Paul Yan, who took on the role following the departure of founders Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford in 2020. It wasn't long before Yan was steering Toys for Bob through one of the most challenging periods in its 30 year history. "Covid hit, and the world turned upside down. There were many changes that happened as a result. One was a corporate mandate [at Activision] to support the large blockbuster IPs – Modern Warfare, Warzone, and Overwatch 2, to name just a few."

Before the studio was drawn into the Call of Duty ecosystem, it was doing industry-leading work – breathing new life into the mascots that fuelled the imaginations of an entire generation of millennials. It spearheaded the burgeoning Toys-to-Life genre with the Skylanders series, "an original IP inspired by Spyro" before being given the opportunity to go a step further.

As Yan explains: "We spent time meticulously handcrafting the first three classic Spyro games for the Reignited Trilogy, and we really got an understanding of the character during this period. And then we moved on to Crash Bandicoot, breathing new life into that series with a sequel, as well as an experimental multiplayer spin-off with Crash Team Rumble." It's a period of prolific creativity, where Toys for Bob was able to leverage its growing confidence and expertise into long-overdue platformers.

And then the world changed. "We learned a lot after we shifted into a support structure to assist other teams with various initiatives, games, feature-sets, and updates. We spread into a lot of territories that we weren't familiar with, or at least hadn't spent a lot of time with. We're very proud of the work that we did there, and of all of the collaboration. But if we're being honest with ourselves, we knew that we were just straying too far from the games that we're passionate about – that we're known for. So at that time, in the back of our mind, we knew we wanted to get back to them somehow."

Soon, Activision began to change too. In 2022, as Toys for Bob was supporting Infinity Ward to get Modern Warfare 2 out the door, Xbox announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard King for $68.7 billion. Former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer went on record to say that he was interested in Toys for Bob dusting off older Activision IP, but nothing changed. As the deal closed in 2023, Toys for Bob were locked into supporting development of Overwatch 2 and Modern Warfare 3. Then the Xbox layoffs hit. One of the Toys for Bob studios was shuttered. A month later, it was all change again – the studio secured its freedom.

"In 2023, Microsoft was in the process of acquiring Activision. This was a long, drawn out process which gave us a lot of time to soul search – to ask ourselves, well, how can we get back to the games we're passionate about making? So we got in front of leadership at both the Activision and Xbox level," says Yan. "We proposed a really bold plan. We asked that Toys for Bob would buy back its independence – taking creative, financial and organization control – to spin-off into a separate company. One where we could get back to the games we were known for, and preserve the tight-knit team and the long tenure that we had built up over the years."

There was a major caveat in the proposal. Toys for Bob needed the security of knowing that it would immediately receive funding for a project. So if Toys for Bob was going to spread its wings, it was going to do it with Spyro: the character that had first freed it from the trap of making Disney licensing games with Activision back in the early 00s.

"The other half of the proposal was that the first game we would develop out of the game would be a new title for Xbox, and that it would be based on a concept that we had been stewing on ever since 2018," says Yan. "We learned a lot about Spyro in this time, and we had ideas on where the series could go and how we could evolve the character. So fast forward a bit, and leadership was very supportive of the move and of the game pitch. And for the last two years we've been quietly working on exactly that title: Spyro: A Realm Beyond."

Built in Unreal Engine 5, in development for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X, A Realm Beyond is in many ways a continuation of the iconic Insomniac era of games – with Toys for Bob leveraging everything it learned through remaking that trilogy and then pushing on beyond it. Given how eager Toys for Bob was to regain its independence, I was curious as to why the studio would draw such a hard line in the sand – that it would get what it wanted, only so long as Xbox funded the group as a third-party entity.

Granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation, multiple staffers at Toys for Bob have told me that it would have been 'near suicidal' to reenter the market without a project in active development, and that the arrangement works for everybody involved: the studio regains control of its future and a degree of security; Xbox gets to revive a legacy IP the community is desperate to see return with little risk; and that this could all ultimately lead to a fruitful partnership between the two in the future.

When I spoke with Xbox's executive vice president and chief content officer last week, Matt Booty didn't wholly shut down the question of whether third-party studios could be entrusted to revive other IP that the publisher has in the vault in the future: "I think the answer is there are options to do all kinds of things, and we're certainly looking at those all the time."

I did ask Toys for Bob associate creative director Lou Studdert why the studio went all-in on Spyro, rather than, say, Banjo-Kazooie, and he was clear about the studio's priorities. "Spyro has a deep place in the studio's heart. Having worked through Skylands and the Reignited trilogy, we've always admired that small but mighty underdog story of the character taking on these overwhelming odds – we see ourselves in that a little bit. And, honestly, it was also a no-brainer."

Yan adds: "Going independent meant taking a massive, massive risk. It's taking a bet on ourselves, but we had confidence in making that move [...] Reignited sold over 11 million copies, so there's an audience that showed up for the series."

As my time with Toys for Bob drew to a close, I asked Yan whether there was ever a world where the studio would have pursued independence without the Spyro sequel in place. "The proposal that we had was complex, and that was part of the equation from the beginning. That in order for us to pursue this, we would go independent. Is there a possibility that could have happened in some other alternate timeline?"

"I can't speak to that, but I can say that those two things together are exactly what we proposed," he says. "That Toys for Bob would spin off and have control over the types of games we wanted to focus on, and that Spyro would be number one."

Spyro: A Realm Beyond is set to release in 2027, although it doesn't have a confirmed release date. Toys for Bob may be developing the title as an upcoming Xbox Series X game, but it's also set to launch for PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

If you have a nagging feeling that the Pokemon card hobby isn't what it used to be, you're not alone – fans are letting their frustrations out at the prevalence of grading culture. The general consensus? It really, really sucks.

I spend a lot of my time reporting on the best card games, and I'm seeing this take crop up more each month. In a reddit thread with 3K upvotes so far, that feeling has boiled over. "Are there still collectors out there who just buy cards because they like them?" Poster deckdossier writes in a thread venting irritation at those who are chasing the most valuable, highest-graded Pokemon cards. "Honestly, the market has become a lot less enjoyable because of this mindset."

Judging by the rest of the thread, this isn't an unpopular take. The top response (with 1.2K upvotes and counting) from SuchSoup4335 reads, "I never liked it, it feels like a huge detriment to the hobby." They're not alone in that assessment; a wealth of comments from the same thread share that sentiment.

I'd have to agree. I never want to yuk anyone's yum, but it feels as though those in deep with the grading game occupy a similar space to resellers (who are arguably ruining the hobby for everyone else – just look at how hard it is to buy Pokemon TCG Pitch Black for an example). In other words, they couldn't give a hoot about the hobby itself and are purely there for profit. It's aggressively transactional, which is off-putting for both newcomers and more established players alike. It's certainly not a pleasant atmosphere; it often feels more like the stock exchange than the easy-going retreat Pokemon should be. When everyone rolls their eyes at a new expansion with comments like "this would be great if I could actually find any cards in store," something's wrong.

Will this change as the 'craze' runs out of steam? I'd like to hope so, but it feels like a self-sustaining loop now. Grade-chasing isn't a new phenomenon, just like resellers aren't a modern blip. The wild popularity of Pokemon cards (along with nostalgia for the franchise) leads to high demand, and high demand leads to opportunities like this for those who just see dollar signs. While the Pokemon TCG remains as popular as it is, I don't see that changing.

Anyway, enough of my thoughts – what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

For more tabletop, why not check out the best board games? You can also get your fill of Pokemon with the best Pokemon merch.

Fans have discovered a voice cameo from late Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

In the pantheon of fantastic Batman actors, it's generally accepted that Kevin Conroy is the GOAT. Conroy voiced the character in the iconic Batman: The Animated Series, before reprising the role in a ton of projects. Notably, he was the voice of Batman in the Rocksteady Batman Arkham trilogy (with Sonic actor Roger Craig Smith taking on the role for Arkham Origins), with his final portrayal of the character being in Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which released two years after he passed.

Dragon Quest actor Shai Matheson – who dubbed Conroy "the greatest of all time" – took over the role for the latest Batman game, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which is a celebration of all things Batman. This includes segments based on the various films, combat inspired by the Arkham games, and generally any bit of Batman history you can find. The credits also noted the game includes voice cameos from Adam West and Conroy in tribute to both actors.

Senior Level Designer Mike Consalvey posted on Twitter after players discovered the voice cameo, fittingly included in the Arkham Asylum level. During the level, you can hear PA announcements, with fans realizing that the recordings are actually of Conroy via archival audio. He said, "I'm glad someone finally discovered the use of Kevin Conroy's voice within the game during the Arkham Asylum level!"

Conroy is mentioned elsewhere in the game on one of its many referential billboards. While a lot of them are goofy or references to unhinged parts of Batman fandom like Crazy Hambuger, Conroy's is a simple, sweet tribute ad for "After hours with Conroy: The voice of Gotham's night."

Have you picked up Lego Batman? Check out our guide on how to redeem codes in Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight

It's time for Spyro to take flight once again. Developer Toys for Bob would never come outright and say it, but I get the sense that Spyro: A Realm Beyond is trying to pick up where Insomniac Games left the character in Year of the Dragon. It's not like the character has been left to gather dust since the year 2000, he has been on plenty of adventures of differing qualities, but there's something about the vivid colors and ambitious approach to play that's being presented here which recalls the glory days.

Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan tells me that the team is "building A Realm Beyond from the ground up" as a brand new adventure, one that's built to offer a new entry point into the long running series and speak to "the longtime fans and legacy of who Spyro is." Actor Tom Kenny (best known for his work as SpongeBob SquarePants) is reprising his role as the titular dragon, having voiced the character in Ripto's Rage and Year of the Dragon, as well as Toys for Bob's 2018 Reignited Trilogy.

It's likely that the confident, slightly arrogant, persona that defined Spyro in the original trilogy will go through some changes for A Realm Beyond. As a new antagonist rises across a new and mysterious realm, an older and more boisterous Spyro will be there to meet them.

Associate creative director Lou Studdert can only talk around whether the hero is entering his teenage years: "You know, dragons age differently than people," he laughs. "You've noticed there are some slight adjustments made to reflect that Spyro is really coming into his own. You can see it on his crest, you can see that his wings have gotten significantly bigger… there's more to come on the narrative!"

With Spyro: A Realm Beyond set to release in 2027, it's too early to dig into all the details. What Toys for Bob is willing to talk about is one of the reasons behind Spyro's increased wingspan: "When we realized that we wanted him to fly, those small wings just weren't going to cut it," says Studdert.

It's been a long time since Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and even longer since the classic Insomniac trilogy first landed, so perhaps a little refresher is in order. Spyro's primary form of aerial traversal was a gentle glide from jumps, and in very rare instances, flight under time-pressure in specific mini-levels. Yan says "I always wondered what it would be like if these two experiences could somehow be collapsed into Spyro’s core ability kit," and that question has been at the very heart of A Realm Beyond's design since.

"We started prototyping this game with flight and with a more unique moveset in mind," Studdert adds. "As we started building it out, finding that fun, we then realized that we'd need a bigger sense of scale to support that moveset – and so the world is far more vertical and expansive." The associate creative director stops short of confirming whether A Realm Beyond will run across wider, interconnected spaces or a full open-world – more detail to come there soon, I'm told.

Taking Flight

For now, Toys for Bob is only willing to confirm that "taking to the skies and owning the airtime" is going to be a massive focus for this adventure, with Yan confirming that you'll be able to "experience the freedom of true dragon flight." The pair tell me that figuring out this fantasy is core to what Toys for Bob wants to achieve with this long-awaited sequel, giving you the freedom to take to the skies at a moment's notice, shifting from charges on the ground to graceful flight in the sky on a whim.

"We want a zen-like fluidity, we want chaining of moves and exploration – for you to really be interacting with the environment as this quadruped who is its own unique beast," says Studdert. "Honing in on that feeling, that experience, has been our north star. We want to push the sense of wonder, adventure, and awe that this franchise uniquely delivers."

The challenge that Toys for Bob faces with Spyro A Realm Beyond is in knowing how far to push the series without diluting what made it so special to begin with. The studio has exceptional knowledge of this universe, having steered the character through the Reignited trilogy remake (which Yan says sold over 11 million copies) and the beloved Skylanders spin-offs. "We felt this when we worked on Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time as well," says Studdert. "What we like to do when we start working on a new project, especially if it is an established IP, is to really hone in on what emotions it brings out."

"That tension is so real, right?" adds Yan. "I'm proud of the team. They are thinking that through very thoughtfully, and listening to the community as we do. Because you have these two extremes: If you stick too much to nostalgia, then you basically just rehash what's been done before; and on the other extreme, if you innovate too much then all of a sudden players don't recognize the series anymore."

"We learned a lot during the development of Reignited. We've carried a lot of those lessons forward into A Realm Beyond – and obviously they are very different projects, we aren't recreating classics this time. But we've built up a confidence in our instincts for what feels tonally right for this character," says Yan, adding, "and I can't wait for fans to see the direction we're taking the series in."

Spyro: A Realm Beyond is a key new game of 2027 where it's set to take flight on PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 is making a big change. When its predecessor launched in 2020, it was a compelling side-quest for Mojang – a dungeon crawler which sought to deliver a more accessible entry point to the ARPG genre than the likes of Diablo and Path of Exile. It was a fun experience, although its limited points of exploration made it something of a divergence from what we've come to expect from Minecraft games. So Mojang is making some changes for the new game of 2026.

"In Minecraft Dungeons, we had a simple game loop," says Mans Olson, creative director. "You played a mission through to the end, you got a reward, and then you went back to your camp. In Minecraft Dungeons 2, we have what we call an interconnected world."

Internonnected, but not fully open. Olson stresses that Mojang "is purposefully not calling it an open world" as the studio is still creating a curated-style of game. "It's more of a guided experience that we think works really well for Minecraft," he says, adding: "But you will be free to explore the overworld; Minecraft Dungeons 2 is a lot larger than the first game."

Design director Laura de Llorens tells me that "you can walk from one end of the world to the other" in the upcoming Xbox Series X game, as the team emphasises the importance of exploration – unique and rare items, along with powerful Talismans, can be found by digging into every corner of the map. Speaking of maps, there's been some other changes to the Minecraft Dungeons 2 UI to accommodate the shift in focus. "Up in the right-hand corner we have a little mini-map, and we also have a very beautiful world map as well."

Given the 'All-Ages' framing of Minecraft Dungeons 2, are there any concerns over players getting lost in this interconnected world? Thankfully, a click of the left-thumbstick will enable a 'Guiding Light' (that can be activated by any member of your party, at any time) which will "always assist you in finding the next step in your quest," says de Llorens.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 may not be an open-world game, but it is inching ever closer to reflecting its ARPG ambitions into the original Minecraft style with this new interconnected world. The game is an exceptionally fun time, as you can learn more about in my Minecraft Dungeons 2 hands-on preview.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 is out for PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X on September 29, 2026.

A detective in a fleece-lined jacket surveys the scene during my first look at The Wolf Among Us 2. Armed with a gruff exterior and a sharp eye, he examines an apartment looking for clues with the aid of police officer Faye, as both law enforcers look to solve a murder. The duo uncover a note which magically forms the name Bigby.

Faye points a gun at the detective, demanding he explain why his name is linked to an apparent crime scene. The detective explains the note is magic, and as Faye looks on in disbelief it's clear that Telltale Games' long-awaited choice-driven fairytale noir is going places the 2013 original didn't – this is a mystery Fabletown alone isn't going to be able to contain.

Return to Fabletown

At Summer Game Fest 2026, I was invited to see The Wolf Among Us 2 in action. Accompanied by creative director Zak Garriss and design director Jess Campbell, I was able to watch the latter play through a small section of the upcoming sequel, choosing how Bigby would act or respond in certain moments of the work-in-progress demo.

It's immediately evident from the dialogue choices that Fabletown's gruffest, sharpest detective Bigby Wolf can be both wise and endearing, a balance that's hard to achieve. "There's something incredibly rich about playing a character, not just a character who's centuries old, but who has the kind of baggage that Bigby has," Zak Gariss explains when I ask about the importance of this setup.

The Wolf Among Us 2 is aiming to give "a deeper look into Bigby, into what makes him tick, into his history, into his scars, in pretty exciting ways, pretty dark ways," Gariss continues. It's a welcome notion given the character's popularity, but another reason behind this is "because great storytelling ultimately comes down to characters". Fabletown is home to some big personalities – a secret community of folklore characters in New York City – which means plenty of conflicting desires, and a whole lot of suspects whenever Bigby has to intervene in a crime.

As Bigby walks around the suspected murderer's residence, with a third-person camera following his movements instead of remaining fixed on a frame like in the previous game, Gariss opens up about the narrative; "It leads to an interlocking series of mysteries that go from something as simple as a murder case to something far more complicated that points to a conspiracy that threatens to undermine the structure of Fabletown."

It's at this point that Gariss talks about how The Wolf Among Us 2 is a noir, with its hard-boiled detective protagonist Bigby and his place in the game's story. "There's always a cost to something, and so Bigby is always going to be standing at the crossroads of having to make an impossible decision around what's the best version of a series of bad outcomes." When I press Gariss on the value of this type of character, he concludes that "within that framework vulnerability abounds, and there's a lot of opportunity to really resonate with the wounds that he's incurring or has incurred, and it kind of carries through the narrative."

But who is Bigby's companion anyway? Gariss tells me that "Faye is a new type of character for the franchise that represents what it's like when a mundy starts knocking on the door, and it's a particularly charged challenge for Bigby because it's a mundy cop." Given that the player can have Bigby tell Faye about the magical secrets of Fabletown, it presents a luscious prospect with serious ramifications down the line, but the demo is over well before I can see a meaningful conclusion.

Once upon a playtime

The Wolf Among Us 2 improves on the original's sleuthing gameplay. The player can move freely around environments, exploring the scenery at their own pace. "We always want the player to feel invited in, deeply respected," Gariss tells me, highlighting the mindset behind the enhanced design.

There's even the option to bypass puzzles should they prove difficult, something I ask Jess Campbell about. "We don't want people having to put the controller down and go look it up online, because that means we didn't do it right," the design director explains. While I can quite enjoy hitting my head against a metaphorical brick wall (or a straw or wooden one, for that matter), I've seen firsthand how frustrating it is for the momentum to stall over a challenge, so it's easy to admire the inclusion of such a feature.

Just as the game's mechanics reach new depths, so too does the narrative. "It is truly the darkest story in Fabletown yet. We're going to go to some dark places," Gariss asserts, refusing to say too much more for fear of spoilers – a restraint I'm thankful for – but he does tease a bit more for the sequel after I ask about an in-game clue seemingly inspired by The Wizard of Oz: "There are many characters that are returning from the first game, reprised by the actors who played them, and it's a reunion [...] but we're also bringing in new kind of legends from the lore, and we're really excited about that too, and that extends – that newness – to some of the places."

Compared to the tight rooms of the original, it's clear even in this work-in-progress demo that the sense of scale is much larger, and will see Bigby whisked between lots of new locations – though, again, quite where is still tightly under wraps.

As our session comes to a close, my last question for the developers is whether players need to have played through the first game in order to enjoy The Wolf Among Us 2. Gariss fields this one: "While this is a true sequel, our Bigby is the Bigby who went through the adventure in the first game – it's six months later in his life – you don't need to have experienced that adventure to jump right in here and enjoy the experience that unfolds. And if you have, you will see context, you will understand, you will see characters that you get to interact with, fight, build friendships with, but it's by no means required, and if you do play Wolf 2, and really love it, you can absolutely go back and experience the first one."

The Wolf Among Us 2 will release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 in 2027, although there's no exact launch date yet. Lucky for us the first game is getting a remaster later this year, so we've got the perfect excuse to revisit Fabletown before the sequel drops.

Want to follow more great tales? Check out our best gaming stories list for more recommendations like The Wolf Among Us!

The many Minecraft biomes are a massive part of what makes the game so enjoyable and diverse today. From the basic origins of just a handful of different biomes, there are now over 20 primary regions, and many more once you consider variations like deep oceans and windswept hills.

There are also loads more biomes being added to the game with each new Minecraft drop, with the Sulfur Caves and Dappled Forest being among the most recent announcements. Here, I've got everything you need to know about those and the existing major Minecraft biomes as of update 26.2.

New Minecraft biomes

Here, I'll tell you about the latest biomes added to the game, that you can find in the current version. So, if you don't yet know and would rather be surprised, skip this part! However, if you want to know more about the latest Minecraft biomes or how to find them, this section's for you.

Sulfur Caves

The Sulfur Cave is the newest biome, added with the 26.2 update on June 16, 2026, and is perfect if you, like me, get a little tired of the same grey surroundings while mining. We may have Lush Caves and The Deep Dark to take our breath away, but there's still plenty of room for something new, and that's exactly what this is.

While it might look like it would fit better in the Nether, the Sulfur biome is so unique to the overworld that it's going to look fantastic when you spot that first red or yellow block during a mining session. These are Cinnabar and Sulfur blocks, and each have an entire family of building blocks relating to them, which will make for some great new Minecraft house ideas.

While you're taking in the sights, though, be careful where you step. Sulfur pools are bodies of water found within these caves, and the presence of Potent Sulfur beneath the water causes pockets of gas. Get too close to this gas, and you'll find yourself feeling a little... funny. You'll also be able to find a new friend or two in these Caves, with new Minecraft mob the Sulfur Cube.

Sulfur Caves can be found at any depth, and Sulfur pools even have a chance to be spotted above ground, indicating a Sulfur Cave beneath. Your best bet at finding one is simply to cave and mine, looking out for the biome's signature yellow or red blocks.

Upcoming Minecraft biomes

This section tells you everything we know so far about any upcoming Minecraft biomes that are set to be added in future drops, so they may not be able to be experienced right now, or you might be able to try them out in Minecraft snapshots or Preview.

The Dappled Forest

Announced during Minecraft Live May 2026, the Dappled Forest is the next new biome to be added to the sandbox game - and this one is really exciting.

Not only does this cute biome add autumnal-colored leaves for the first time without mods, following in the footsteps of the pink-hued Cherry Grove and white-tinged Pale Forest, but it also adds the first new structure we've had in some time: the Abandoned Camp!

The colorful leaves come as part of new Poplar trees, which will add a new family of beige-grey wood blocks for building with. There's also a new red bush variant, which maintains its color no matter where you place it.

The Abandoned Camp, meanwhile, is a small new structure that features a tent, some storage containers, and other handy loot, including a new place to spend the night. However, it's not that safe so take care! Perhaps the most exciting part of the Abandoned Camp, though, is a new building block that players like me have been craving for some time: the wool stair!! White wool stairs will be found as part of the tent structures in camps, but this also means you will be able to turn any wool color into a stair block, which is great news for builders.

All Minecraft biomes

These are all the major Minecraft biomes, excluding variants:

• Plains (overworld)
• Forest (overworld)
• Meadow (overworld)
• Dark Forest (overworld)
• Cherry Grove (overworld)
• Pale Forest (overworld)
• Swamp (overworld)
• Mangrove Swamp (overworld)
• Taiga (overworld)
• Snowy Plains (overworld)
• Ice Spikes (overworld)
• Savanna (overworld)
• Badlands (overworld)
• Desert (overworld)
• Jungle (overworld)
• Mountains (overworld)
• Mushroom Fields (overworld)
• River (overworld)
• Ocean (overworld)
• The Deep Dark (cave)
• Lush Caves (cave)
• Dripstone Caves (cave)
• Nether Wastes (Nether)
• Crimson Forest (Nether)
• Warped Forest (Nether)
• Soul Sand Valley (Nether)
• Basalt Delta (Nether)
• The End (The End)
• End Islands (The End)

As I've mentioned above, there are plenty of variants. For example, Mountains isn't actually a biome in itself any more, since it became Windswept Hills, but now can be used to refer to seven different biomes, including Jagged Peaks and Snowy Slopes. Water biomes, meanwhile, are split into warm, cold, hot, and other variants.

Each Minecraft biome has its own flora, fauna, blocks, and items that be found there, and some are rarer than others, so it's useful to know what you're looking for and how to spot it - or you can just explore and see what you find!

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The Mega Blaziken ex deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket is one of the simplest, strongest deck builds in the meta, as Blaziken is capable of doing massive fire damage and inflicting burns without much setup. The downside is that it discards an energy with every attack, but that's pretty easy to compensate for, as I'll reveal in our deck build below. Here's how to make the ultimate PTCGP Blaziken deck, and burn your way through your opponent's team in a fiery flash.

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

Best Mega Blaziken ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

This Mega Blaziken ex deck is all about hitting hard with fire damage, infused with Castform's early game strength.

• Torchic x2
• Mega Blaziken ex x2
• Castform (Sunny Form) x2
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Lillie x1
• Flame Patch x2
• Copycat x1
• Mesagoza x1
• Hiking Trail x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Fire

Straightforward and to the point, this deck once featured Entei for quick card drawing, but that's been replaced with more powerful builds that allow you to impede your opponent's early game. Instead, you open with Castform for quick burns in the early stages, then use Mesagoza, Hiking Trail and Copycat to keep your hand full until you can get Blaziken on the field. Once Blaziken's out, you keep using Flame Patch to keep it energized until your opponent is taken down.

• Pros
  • Energy efficient in all respects
  • Strong glass cannon build
  • Burns whittle down foes rapidly
• Cons
  • You have to build up to a Stage 2
  • Castform isn't hugely tanky

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The Suicune ex deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket comes in many forms, but this one has been a staple since it debuted, as Suicune's scaling damage, ability to dissuade opponents from putting out Pokemon, and passive draw abilities make it one of the strongest openers in all of Pokemon TCGP. Here, combined with Baxcalibur for energy generation and Chien-Pao ex for bench targeting, the result is a very strong Water deck build that remains durable and versatile, and will probably hold to the PTCGP meta for a while.

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

Best Suicune ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

This Suicune deck teams up with Baxcalibur and Chien-Pao to target the opponent's bench with devastating effects, with a strong control focus to boot.

• Chien-Pao ex x1
• Suicune ex x2
• Frigibax x2
• Baxcalibur x2
• Giant Cape x1
• Cyrus x1
• Mars x1
• Pokemon Center Lady x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Inflatable Boat x1
• Copycat x1
• Starting Plains x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Water

This deck build makes use of Chien-Pao's frankly terrifying ability to hit a benched Pokemon for 130 damage, at the cost of discarding all the energy on it. The set-up is relatively simple though: Suicune ex comes out first to help fill your hand and provide a strong opening, while you build up Baxcalibur on the bench. It then uses the Ice Maker ability to quickly provide Chien-Pao with energy once you bring it forward. If you like to gamble, try added Misty to this build for those quick energy summons.

• Pros
  • To do 130 damage to a benched target is terrifying
  • Suicune ex is a very strong opening play
  • Baxcalibur is a solid tank and incredible energy generator
• Cons
  • Chein-Pao's energy discard means it's hard to be continuously effective
  • Baxcalibur requires Stage 2 evolution
  • Suicune ex is always weakened by an empty bench

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Our electric Oricorio deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket makes full use of the Pom-Pom variant's Safeguard ability, which renders it immune to Ex type Pokemon and thus some of the most powerful foes in the entire meta. Oricorio literally changed the whole meta of PTCGP when it first appeared, as otherwise it could disrupt whole decks and leave them ineffectual on its own. Below I'll lay out how to make the best possible Oricorio deck in Pokemon TCGP, which doubles as one of the most powerful electric type decks.

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

Best Oricorio deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The Electric Oricorio has been a powerhouse since it debuted, as has various sorts of Magnezone. Both combine here for a strong deck build based around defensive immunity.

• Magneton (Genetic Apex) x2
• Oricorio (Electric/Pom-Pom Variant) x2
• Magnemite (Crimson Blaze) x2
• Magnezone (Crimson Blaze) x1
• Teal Mask Ogerpon ex x1
• Magnezone ex x1
• Giant Cape x1
• Cyrus x2
• Copycat x1
• Lisia x1
• Clemont x1
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Electric

This deck build is all about leaving you as resilient to enemies as possible. Oricorio can't be hurt by ex Pokemon, Magnezone can negate half of all attacks that hit it, and Ogerpon provides the team immunity to all status effects, which is very valuable in the current meta that emphasizes sleep effects.

This is a deck that's pretty low on major hitters - the one exception being Magnezone ex - and is more about leaning on the defensive and reducing your foes' options. Play cleverly and use whatever strategies are available to limit your opponent, ensuring that all they can do is use the very systems that you're immune to.

• Pros
  • Oricorio can't be hurt by most of the game's most dangerous cards
  • Standard Magnezone's a strong mix of defense, offense, and energy efficiency
  • Ogerpon leaves you immune to the common Sleep meta
• Cons
  • No heavy hitters until the late game
  • Ogerpon has to take up the bench without serving a combat function

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The Mega Altaria ex deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket has become a staple of the S-tier meta, and is easily one of the most powerful decks out there since it debuted in the Mega Rising expansion. It has all kinds of variations based around adding or subtracting certain cards, but ultimately a Stage 1 card capable of doing 130 damage on two energy is always going to be a powerhouse choice. Below I'll explain the best Mega Altaria ex deck built in PTCGP, how it works, and how you should be using it.

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

Best Mega Altaria ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Darkrai's power to drain sleeping opponents does passive damage until Altaria can come out and finish the fight.

• Darkrai (Mega Shine) x2
• Swablu (Mega Rising) x2
• Mega Altaria ex x2
• Igglybuff x2
• Leaf x1
• Rocky Helmet x1
• Cyrus x1
• Mars x2
• Copycat x1
• Lisia x1
• Training Area x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Psychic

Darkrai might be Dark-type, but its energy needs are universal, so it can slot into this deck nicely. The goal here is simple enough: Use sleep effects from Swablu and Igglybuff to send foes to sleep and inflict chip damage through the Dark Dreams power, all while building up either to Mega Altaria or Darkrai itself. It's a very strong strategy, and we expect to see this build (or some variant of it) staying high in the meta for a while. There's already lots of Altaria builds that have emerged and this one remains the most universally powerful, but there are plenty of variants if you don't have all the cards above or just want to try something new.

• Pros
  • Strong early game
  • Flexible build and strategies
  • Good durability
• Cons
  • Requires a full hand to really make the most out of
  • No healing or status prevention
  • An empty bench leaves Altaria powerless

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Miraidon ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a powerful electric legendary Pokemon who's come out swinging as part of the meta in the Paradox Drive booster expansion, using Magneton and Magnezone as backups to hit the opponent as hard as possible and build a strong mid-game. Below I'll take you through how to make your own Miraidon ex deck, as well as how it operates in PTCGP and the strategy to apply with it.

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

Best Miriadon ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Miraidon's ability to drain energy and come out swinging for massive damage makes it unpredictably dangerous, especially when paired with energy generation.

• Magneton (Genetic Apex) x2
• Magnemite (Crimson Blaze) x2
• Magnezone (Crimson Blaze) x2
• Miraidon ex x2
• Cyrus x1
• Copycat x2
• Lisia x1
• Clemont x1
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Professor Turo x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Electric

Magneton and Magnezone remain unshakeable in the meta for Electric decks, but now that generation pairs with Miraidon's ability to take energy from other Pokemon and immediately replace them in the active spot, with an attack that scales to how much energy it has on it. Meanwhile, Turo allows you to shuffle Miriadon back into your deck, stopping it from being KOd in a pinch and getting the chance to use its ability again later on.

There is some flexibility here in the build. You could lean into boosting Miraidon's low health with something like the Giant Cape, add Teal Mask Ogerpon for immunity to status effects, swap out Magnemite for a tougher variant if you find yourself getting hit too hard in the early game, or throw in the Electric Generator for increased energy output.

• Pros
  • Miriadon is a great, fast glass cannon
  • Turo gives you flexibility
  • Magnezone is a good damage/tank combo that can handle Oricorio
• Cons
  • Miraidon has pretty low health
  • Can be vulnerable in the early game
  • If you can't draw Magnemite, you're in trouble

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The Paradox Drive Espeon card in Pokemon TCG Pocket is incredibly good as a central pillar of various Sleep decks, used with Darkrai to knock foes out and then have them take continous chip damage in the early game. This deck is a modification of the continously powerful Altaria deck build, one that focuses less on Altaria dependence, but still keeps it in reserve. For more details, here's everything you need to know about the best Espeon deck in Pokemon TCGP.

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

Best Espeon deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Yet another variant of the Altaria deck, the addition of Espeon from Paradox Drive makes it all the more focused on the initial sleep.

• Darkrai (Mega Shine) x2
• Swablu (Sing Variant) x2
• Mega Altaria ex x1
• Igglybuff x2
• Eevee (Mega Rising) x2
• Espeon (Paradox Drive) x2
• Cyrus x1
• Copycat x1
• Lisia x2
• Area Zero x1
• X Speed x1
• Poke Ball x1
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Psychic

Doubling down on the power of Sleep, Espeon's ability to put foes to sleep with a 1-energy attack means that you can potentially do 80 damage on your first turn (assuming that you also have both Darkrai cards out), as well as leaving them unable to react. That's a devastating opening play, and buys you plenty of time to set up Altaria before coming in with major damage later on.

We've reduced the number of Altaria cards on the board to 1, as Area Zero allows you to draw more frequently and the upped attack power in the early game balances it out.

• Pros
  • Incredibly powerful early game
  • Very good draw abilities
  • Altaria ex remains as powerful as ever
• Cons
  • Can be ruined by status immunity
  • Low health pools in many cards

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A Zoroark ex deck build in Pokemon TCG Pocket is a powerful Dark type deck that's all about rapidly setting up the early game in what's a general "good cards" build for all things Dark type, with cards like Absol and Nihilego backing up your strategy. Below I'll take you through how to make the best possible Zoroark deck in the current Pokemon TCGP meta, including strategy and pros and cons about how best to handle this sort of deck.

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

Best Zoroark ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

This Pulsing Aura Zoroark ex deck build is focused around generally powerful Dark types in PTCGP, and is composed of the following cards:

• Nihilego x1
• Absol (Wisdom of Sea and Sky) x1
• Mega Absol ex x1
• Zorua (Pulsing Aura) x2
• Zoroark ex x2
• Bombirdier x1
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Poison Barb x2
• Copycat x2
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Hiking Trial x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Dark

This deck is an assortment of general "good card" Dark type Pokemon where Zoroark ex acts as your primary damage dealer from the early game, needing only one energy. Not only that, but Zorua's one attack is about instantly pulling it from the deck to evolve, setting you up from a very early phase to be ready for combat (though damage scales by how full your own bench is).

From that point on the strategy varies depending on what's available to you. This is a pretty flexible deck build, though one that lacks a decisive "heavy hitter" to win you the game. Generally you want to use regular Absol or Zoroa as your opening active card, while keeping Bombirdier and Nihilego on the bench where they're most effective. Poison chip damage from the Barb should whittle down opponents enough to finish them off with Absol ex or Zoroark, and the former's ability to get them to discard Supporter cards should ensure that they have less options than normal.

• Pros
  • Versatile options
  • Strong early game
  • Decent resistance and survival, in part due to a mix of weaknesses
• Cons
  • No major damage dealers
  • Weaker late game

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Mega Sceptile ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket is the centerpiece of one of the most powerful Grass type decks, capable of doing massive damage and inflicting Poison in a single attack. The downside is that it's burdened by an energy discard that makes sustained attacks expensive. Still, if you can make the best possible deck, Sceptile is very strong in the meta of best decks for Pokemon TCG Pocket, as I'll explain below.

For more ideas about how to make a powerful deck, check out the Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks list here!

Best Mega Sceptile ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Mega Sceptile ex basically serves as a Grass equivalent to the Mega Blaziken ex deck build, with similar attack and strategy.

• Pheremosa x2
• Nihilego x1
• Treecko x2
• Grovyle x1
• Mega Sceptile ex x2
• Erika x1
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Poison Barb x2
• May x1
• Copycat x1
• Fragrant Forest x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Grass

This is pretty straightforward: Pheromosa and Treecko buy time early on until you can have Mega Sceptile ex ready to do some significant damage and tear through as the heavy hitter of the deck later. Even before Sceptile is on the field, the inclusion of Poison Barb means that you can whittle down your opponents fairly significantly, or hold them back long enough to get Sceptile running without incident.

This is a deck with a pretty good draw power for Pokemon specifically, with cards like Fragrant Forest and May replacing the usual inclusion of Poke Balls. It's also a deck with a decent amount of survival built in, with Erika adding resistance to an already durable deck. You can swap cards like Erika and May out for Quick Grow Extract or Leaf Cape if you want to switch things up, or consider including the Memory Light tool card, as Grovyle's ability to attack the bench can be really effective in certain circumstances.

• Pros
  • Low energy requirements
  • Powerful poison use if done right
  • Good card draw options
• Cons
  • Dependant on Stage 2 evolution
  • Struggles against Poison-immune decks
  • Sceptile discards energy with every attack

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Mega Lucario ex and Lucario cards generally in Pokemon TCG Pocket have always led to powerful deck builds, and this particular style of fighting type deck is incredibly potent for raw damage in the early-to-mid game. Below I'll lay out how to make the ideal deck build for Mega Lucario ex, as well as what you need to know about strategy and play.

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

Best Mega Lucario ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

This Mega Lucario ex deck build in PTCGP is all about maximum damage as early as possible.

• Riolu (Space-Time Smackdown) x2
• Mega Lucario ex x2
• Hitmontop (Wisdom of Sea and Sky) x2
• Rocky Helmet x2
• Cyrus x1
• Pokemon Center Lady x1
• Copycat x2
• Korrina x1
• Arena of Antiquity x1
• X Speed x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Fighting

This is a pretty straightforward deck wherein your cards build up early on and come out swinging, especially against ex Pokemon as there are multiple cards here that up your power against them. It's relatively straightforward as a strategy too: start with Hitmontop and use the cheap energy costs to start an immediately aggressive play, using the Rocky Helmets to dissuade opponents from attacking you back. Then, once Lucario is set up, bring it to the active spot and begin a series of heavy duty attacks that few opponents can withstand for long.

For clarity, Fighting Pulse, at full power with both Korrina and the Arena of Antiquity, can do an astonishing 190 damage to an opponent. Up to 210 if it's weak to Fighting attacks! That's enough damage to KO the vast majority of Pokemon in PTCGP in a single strike.

• Pros
  • High damage output, especially against ex Pokemon
  • Very strong early game
  • Very low retreat costs
• Cons
  • Not much durability
  • Predictable strategy
  • Struggles if you don't draw Lucario

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Our Mega Scizor ex deck builds for Pokemon TCG Pocket focuses on the exploits of low retreat costs to get the most out of its Bullet Slugger attack, having Scizor bungee in and out of the active zone to keep doing maximum damage on every attack. Below I'll take you through the best build and deck for Scizor in Pokemon TCGP, as well as what you need to know about its very specific strategy.

Our Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks tier list has plenty more options to pick from. Check it out to see all the meta-beating options there!

Best Mega Scizor ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

This Mega Scizor ex deck uses Revravroom's free swap ability and some careful tools for the best impact.

• Varoom (Promo B or Shining Revelry) x2
• Revravroom (Mega Shine) x2
• Orthworm x1
• Scyther (Mega Shine) x2
• Mega Scizor ex x2
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Steel Apron x1
• Metal Core Barrier x2
• Copycat x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Metal

The plan here is that you open with either Orthworm or Varoom if possible, quickly building up energy or setting up your board while putting energy on Scyther and Scizor on the bench. Then, once you're ready, Revravroom can freely swap Scizor in and out of the battlefield to keep making use of its Bullet Slugger attack with maximum damage. Tools like the Metal Core Barrier and the Steel Apron ensure a greater level of endurance than you'd normally get from a deck like this, while Sabrina and Cyrus give you a greater degree of control that allows you to target specific Pokemon.

If you want some ideas for variations, Skarmory is a good option to fold in for the early game, especially with the Tools involved. You can also add zero retreat costs energy generators like Pichu and Mantyke.

• Pros
  • Scizor can one-shot most targets
  • Orthworm and Varoom are strong early game cards
  • Good durability deck
• Cons
  • Scizor has somewhat high energy needs
  • If Scyther is KO'd, you've probably lost

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Mega Absol ex and Hydreigon in Pokemon TCG Pocket have been two of the most powerful Dark type cards in the meta since they were added, both for different reasons. Absol does moderate damage, but has a lot of health and causes opponents to discard Supporter cards with every attack, while Hydreigon is a self-damaging energy generator who can do 130 damage per turn, and it's not even an ex Pokemon! Between them they make up one of the most powerful decks in PTCGP, as I'll lay out below.

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

Best Mega Absol ex and Hydreigon deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Several variants of the Mega Absol deck have been going around, but this variant is Hydreigon and a secondary poison effect.

• Mega Absol ex x1
• Nihilego x1
• Deino x2
• Hydreigon x2
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Poison Barb x2
• Copycat x2
• Pokemon Center Lady x1
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Hiking Trail x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Dark

This pure dark deck is highly aggressive, using cheap energy attacks and poison to go in hard from the outset, as well as using the Fantastical Parade's Lucky Ice Pop item to help alleviate the damage done to Hydreigon by itself, or just to keep Mega Absol from being KO'd and losing you the game. This is a deck where you can't let up on the offence for a moment, and it works because it can tear through opponent's strategies before they have a chance to set up combos or counters to what you're doing.

Put simply, the strategy is to get Absol or Deino out there early, softening up the opponent with whatever cards you have in the active zone before building up to Hydreigon and unleashing its full power. You don't even have to be particularly protective over it, as Hydreigon's absurd damage output somehow doesn't make it a Pokemon ex, so even if it falls you don't give your opponents many points.

• Pros
  • A strong early game
  • Good at disrupting opponents' strategies
  • Versatile with a decent draw rate
• Cons
  • Not hugely tanky, especially with Hydreigon's self destructive tendencies
  • Poison won't do much to survival-orientated decks or those with cheap retreats

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Mega Manectric ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket is the foundation of a very powerful early game electric deck, in which the lightning hound comes out swinging and only gets more powerful with successive victories. Those who run a Manectric deck build in PTCGP are running a glass cannon deck that's invested everything in damage output, but can't necessarily be relied upon for durability and survival. Still, it's a strong deck in any tournament, so here's how to make the best possible Mega Manectric ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP.

Want to know where this sits on our list of Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks? Check out the details at the link!

Best Mega Manectric ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The best Mega Manectric ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket is all about rapid energy generation and aggression.

• Electrike (Promo-B) x2
• Mega Manectric ex x2
• Zeraora x2
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Elemental Switch x1
• Rocky Helmet x2
• Pokemon Center Lady x1
• Electric Generator x1
• Copycat x2
• Training Area x1
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Electric

This deck is a pretty straightforward one when it comes to strategy: rapid energy generation to push you into aggressive play as early as possible and before your opponent can really get a grounding. Zeraora's ability to create energy on itself can get you a good foothold, and Electric Generator and Elemental Switch let you create more energy and move it around. And with Manectric - your main source of damage - only being a Stage 1 that requires two energy to function, you can set up for significant damage before many decks have even got off the ground.

• Pros
  • Good energy generation and early game
  • Straightforward strategy
  • Zero retreat cost on Manectric
• Cons
  • Evolution dependant
  • Glass cannon build means low health pools
  • If Electrike is KO'd, you're finished

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Meowscarada ex in Pokemon TCG Pocket is focused on a grass deck that's all about sly control play and cheap energy costs, as well as some punishment against players who bring in certain common strategies. Meowscarada in all forms has been something of a troublemaker since it entered PTCGP, being generally unpredictable, and this deck build folds all the best elements of that so you can apply it to you advantage in Pokemon TCGP.

For more high level and meta-busting deck builds, check out our Pokemon TCG Pocket best decks list here!

Best Meowscarada ex deck build in Pokemon TCGP

The Meowscarada ex deck build is low cost and disruptive, keeping opponents on the back foot from an early stage. Here's how to make it:

• Sprigatito (Shining Revelry) x2
• Meowscarada (Shining Revelry) x1
• Teal Mask Ogerpon x1
• Floragato (Paldean Wonders) x1
• Meowscarada ex x2
• Erika x1
• Cyrus x1
• Rare Candy x2
• Leaf Cape x2
• May x1
• Copycat x1
• Lucky Ice Pop x1
• Fragrant Forest x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Grass

This is a deck build in which your choice of Meowscarada (regular or ex variant) should differ depending on what your opponent is doing. One is capable of doing massive damage to the opponent's ex Pokemon, while the other can hit the enemy bench, after a small delay.

This is what makes this deck so disruptive, as Meowscarada ex is constantly forcing the opponent to switch around and stay agile or else potentially lose Pokemon on the bench. And at a one energy cost, it's a strong attack - but the problem is that its not always building to something. Tanky or versatile decks can be difficult for Meowscarada to deal with, though ultimately this is a build that can wreck any deck that's too inflexible or lacking in health.

• Pros
  • Good durability and survival
  • Low energy requirements
  • Good at disrupting common strategies
• Cons
  • Small amounts of Pokemon to work with
  • Low damage output and weak late game
  • Requires Stage 2 evolution

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Iron Valiant and Iron Crown in Pokemon TCG Pocket are in many ways the only viable Future focused deck to emerge from the Paradox Drive booster set expansion. Like many deck builds, this is a modification of the Mega Altaria ex build, but this one focuses on a more directly damage focused early game and overt aggression with some of the advantages that come with the Future tag. If that sounds appealing to you, here's how to make the ideal Iron Valiant and Iron Crown deck build in Pokemon TCGP.

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

Best Iron Valiant and Iron Crown deck build in Pokemon TCGP

Taking advantage of the Future card mechanics, this modified Mega Altaria build focuses on a stronger earlier game.

• Mega Altaria ex x2
• Swablu (Mega Rising) x2
• Iron Valiant x2
• Iron Crown x2
• Sabrina x1
• Cyrus x1
• Copycat x2
• Peculiar Plaza x2
• Future Booster Energy Capsule x2
• Poke Ball x2
• Professor's Research x2

Energy: Psychic

The advantage this build has over the standard Altaria build that combines with Igglybuff is that it's a bit more flexible, if arguably slightly less effective than the Iggly/Darkrai combo at its peak. If you start with Crown in the active spot and Valiant on the bench, you can do real damage from turn 1, or just discourage the opponent from putting Pokemon down. Then, of course, it's simply a matter of holding out until Altaria can be ready to go for major damage.

• Pros
  • Strong early game
  • Flexible build and strategies
  • Good durability
• Cons
  • Requires a full hand to really make the most out of
  • No healing or status prevention

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