An indie developer is stepping away from making games after claiming that abuse of Steam’s refund policy has prevented them from profiting on their latest title.
The developer in question, Emika Games, is the solo indie developer behind Find Yourself, Locked Up, and the recently-released Summer of ’58. Each of their games has positive reviews on Steam, including Summer of ’58. However, that hasn’t stopped players from refunding the game, which costs just $9, immediately after playing it. In most cases, that wouldn’t be possible, but because Summer of ’58 takes just an hour and a half to beat, it’s possible for players to request a refund through Steam.
In a statement on Twitter, the developer thanked people for their support but announced that “I’m leaving game development for an indefinite time to collect my thoughts.” According to Emika Games, the large number of refunds for Summer of ’58 has meant that they “do not earn anything to create a new game.” Emika Games’ upcoming title, From Day To Day, has likewise been delayed indefinitely as well, with the developer saying “this game will not see the light of day in the near future.”
If its refund policy was abused, this episode would highlight a major issue with Steam’s handling of refunds. The digital marketplace’s policy lets players get their money back after buying a game as long as it’s been played for under two hours. For larger titles, like Mount & Blade Bannerlord or Halo: The Master Chief Collection, this policy makes sense. However, it can be extremely punishing to indie developers, who, much like in Emika Games’ case, make shorter games that can be beaten quickly. The Epic Games Store has a similar refund policy, which lets users self-refund games if they’ve played less than two hours over the course of 14 days.
With the indie game explosion over the last decade or so, the survival game has gone from a relatively niche genre to one with mainstream appeal. Enormous games like Minecraft, which is among the best Xbox survival games and PS4 survival games, have found audiences with players of all ages, and despite the very basic element they share–avoiding death–survival games are enormously diverse. You can attempt to not starve to death on Earth, attempt to not start to death on Mars, or attempt to not starve to death on an underwater planet filled with dangerous sea creatures. Jokes aside, it’s more than just… Don’t Starve, as the elements, enemy factions, and even other players can spell trouble in the best survival games. We’re rounded up 20 of them below.
One of the premier survival games available on current-gen platforms, Ark: Survival Evolved certainly emphasizes the “survival” element of its name strongly. In addition to the common survival-game mechanics such as hunger and thirst systems, you also must contend with shifting weather conditions that can cause your health to deteriorate even faster, as well as both wildlife and other players. Sticking together can be the key to survival through the game’s tribe system, and you can also tame and train dangerous dinosaurs, which can assist in hunting or even be used as mounts when you have to fend off attackers. If you prefer, you can even rely on farming produce to survive without killing, though your enemies may not be quite as kind to you.
Well, that title gets right to the point, doesn’t it? A take on resource-gathering and crafting that doesn’t waste time with unnecessary preamble or extra fluff, Don’t Starve’s mix of 2D and 3D art–in the signature Klei aesthetic–makes it unlike any other game on this list, and combined with its addictive gameplay loop and punishing difficulty, it will certainly test your ability to adapt and overcome. With procedurally generated worlds, you will never experience the same game twice in a row, and the standalone expansion Don’t Starve Together lets you and your friends try to make it in the cold, unforgiving world as a group. Or, if you prefer, you can try your luck with random players online, which should test just how far strangers can go to avoid actually helping each other.
Zombie games are a dime a dozen, at least at first glance, but there is a reason that Techland’s Dying Light was such a success–and far better than its previous game, Dead Island. Instead of a more traditional movement system you’d expect from a first-person action title, Dying Light makes heavy use of parkour mechanics to allow for daring escapes that really emphasize the danger of a swarm of zombies much better than a game where you can just blast your way through the entire horde. That doesn’t mean you can’t still deliver some pain to the zombies with a variety of weapons like hammers, bows, and shotguns, but the balance of “fight or flight” creates something we just don’t see in many other open-world zombie games, and it exemplifies survival better than many games that take a more traditional approach to the genre.
At first glance, Escape From Tarkov looks like any other multiplayer shooter in the same vein as Call of Duty, but it’s a much more complex game with some interesting twists of its own. In addition to realistic injuries–you must account for things like fractures, hydration, and blood loss–you must carefully protect your scavenged loot because death also means dropping everything you’ve acquired. It’s not exactly an MMO but with a player-driven economy for looted items, the risk-and-reward dynamic in Escape From Tarkov adds an extra layer of tension to every battle, meaning you’ll need to watch out for deteriorating weapons, lest you have a gun jam right before you’re shot in the face. Of course, that can also happen to your enemy, letting you breathe a sigh of relief and live to fight another day.
To survive, you must always be one step ahead of whatever it is that wants to kill you. In the case of The Flame in the Flood, that includes not just predators, but the elements, as well. As you travel in a boat down a river and try to outpace impending rain, you’ll come across towns that you can scavenge for supplies to keep yourself alive during the journey, but this can lead to unintended encounters with the local wildlife. The Flame in the Flood’s dark premise is contrasted by its gorgeous, minimalist art style, as well as a beautiful, Americana-driven soundtrack by Hot Water Music’s Chuck Ragan. Even the most morbid, difficult moments are still somewhat calming, at least up until you die and have to try again.
A survival game that also combines elements of horror and cooperative open-world exploration, The Forest features a “fish out of water” setup in which you’re hunted by genetically muted locals while trying to survive the wilderness. The choice for how you do this is up to you, ranging from creating a robust fortress or sneaking around to take out the attackers stealthily. Like other survival games such as Minecraft, there is a day-night cycle, encouraging you to explore and scavenge while it’s light before retreating to the safety of your shelter at night. With friends by your side, things can be a little less daunting, but you’ll still need to find food if you don’t want to die by starvation–and that’s just as terrifying as the enemies.
Usually, survival games task you with surviving–as in you, either as yourself or a character. 11 bit studios’ Frostpunk, however, is a “society survival game” that sees a world plunged entirely into an endless winter. It’s up to you to keep your civilization from death, managing their resources and establishing the laws that will prevent total chaos and anarchy while still maintaining your people’s health and happiness. The decisions you make can have unintended and permanent consequences, both good and bad. Should you rule smartly, you can even invest in advanced technologies, returning people to some degree of normalcy. Available on last-gen consoles, PC, Mac, and even mobile, Frostpunk is also getting a sequel, though it doesn’t currently have a release date.
You don’t necessarily need some supernatural or science-fiction threat in order for the apocalypse to feel terrifying. In The Long Dark–another game that sees the world plunged into constant winter–in the story mode you must venture out, alone, searching for your companion after you’re separated. The separate survival mode offers more freedom, with surviving as long as possible being your only goal and permadeath looming over every decision you make. With every action you make, you spend calories that must be replenished with food, but the threat of the elements always balances out your need to go find more resources. Multiple difficulty settings mean that you can gradually ramp up the challenge if you’re new to the experience.
How could any survival game list not include Minecraft? Not only is it one of the most influential and successful video games ever made, but it’s also still damn good a decade after its launch. The procedurally generated world is filled–or can be filled–with plenty of unexpected areas, including veins of valuable minerals and clusters of enemies, and it’s up to you to decide how to protect yourself from the monsters and exploding Creepers that threaten your survival. Of course, if you want a break, you can always go into the Creative mode, instead, and focus exclusively on building the structure of your dreams. It might even give you some ideas for how you can protect yourself in the main game!
When it first launched in 2016, No Man’s Sky was a shell of a game. Most of its best systems weren’t even created yet, and the prospect of exploring for the sake of exploring didn’t exactly thrill many players. But Hello Games didn’t give up, implementing base-building, multiplayer, and a variety of other quality-of-life improvements to make No Man’s Sky the ultimate space exploration game. Finding new wildlife, establishing your operations on a planet, and seeing what it has to offer–all while monitoring your life-support systems–now feels satisfying and fulfilling, and continued updates have only made the game even better since then. It’s one of last generation’s biggest gaming redemption stories, and the initial reception shouldn’t turn you off from playing it.
Not a survival game in the traditional sense–you don’t have to tell us–but a game with mere survival at the forefront for nearly the entire journey, Resident Evil 7 reinvigorated a series that had gone so far off the rails, it didn’t even know what rails were anymore. Set largely in one big house, the game sees new protagonist Ethan Winters attempting to evade a family that seemingly can’t die. A twisted secret lies at the heart of this mystery, in true Resident Evil fashion, but the game feels noticeably different than the other Resident Evil games–especially everything from the current century. Running away is not only an option, but often the best option, and ammunition is scarce enough that you actually have to think about whether it’s worth defending yourself or finding another way to get where you need to go.
Melding survival game elements with an open-world RPG, Outward may look like a sword-and-sworcery power fantasy at first glance, but you actually play as a pretty pathetic little weakling. Even a disease can spell the end for you in Outward, alongside thirst, and no playthrough will ever be exactly the same. The game also makes sure you don’t manipulate its systems by constantly auto-saving in a similar manner to an MMO, but with perseverance and some careful planning, you can become a hero. If you want, you can even join a friend–both in person or online–and attempt to not get killed by the most trivial of enemies together.
A survival game that should be right up the alley of any Prison Architect fans, RimWorld follows a small group of colonists–unwilling colonists, we may add–who have crashed onto a new planet and must attempt to rebuild and thrive in their serendipitous situation. They aren’t alone on the planet, with raiders and wildlife alike seeking their heads, but you can also tame your own beasts to do your bidding and set up defensive positions to blast anyone who comes close. Injuries and disease are tracked to specific body parts and you can even get a prosthetic limb if need be, and combat isn’t just based on stats. Instead, there is an actual cover system you can manipulate through your structures’ placement and design.
Rust, created by Garry’s Mod studio Facepunch–has had an interesting journey. In early development, it seemed too eager to imitate other survival games, even including zombies at one point, but it gradually established its own identity as a straightforward and addictive survival game. With an island full of wildlife and other players, the latter of whom can either help or hurt you, you need to always be on your toes, and finding allies you are comfortable with can be the difference between life and death. Thanks to a relatively recent popularity surge caused by streamers, the game has gotten a second wind, and there is even a separate console edition if you don’t have a PC.
Fully customizable and with enough difficulty options for every kind of player, Starbound mixes science-fiction exploration and adventure with survival elements to create a charming and inspired take on the genre. There isn’t a set end-goal, though you can find your own victory by battling enemies or venturing out to take over other planets. On the Hardcore difficulty setting, you’ll need to eat to survive and if you die, you’re dead for good, while Survival difficulty replaces this with an “items drop on death” feature for a little more flexibilty. With mod support further letting you personalize the experience, Starbound is quite literally what you make of it.
Getting mauled to death by land creatures is scary enough, but there is little more terrifying than dying underwater. In Subnautica, you have no choice but to venture into the murky depths of a watery planet in order to survive, and ironically, you still need to find water to drink because salt water will only kill you faster! You’ll have a chance to upgrade your vessel’s hull in order to protect it from the increasing pressure as you venture deeper into the abyss, and you can even establish bases and build other vehicles to assist you in your research and exploration. This isn’t a simple “survive” game, however, with a mystery to uncover at its core, so those who aren’t into the basic “dont’ die” gameplay loop may still enjoy Subnautica. A sequel, Subnautica: Below Zero, was also released in 2021 and takes place two years after the original game.
Enjoy city-building games but wish you had more control over individual people and didn’t have to do with boring old Earth? Surviving Mars might be just what you’re looking for, then, as the game has you build up an early human colony on the titular planet while also having to deal with the people who make up your civilization. Each one has its own AI, meaning you won’t be able to make universal, sweeping decisions that have the same impact on everyone, and their problems can become your problems if you don’t manage them effectively. But it’s more than just survival, as you can discover the hidden mysteries of Mars itself, some of which may not be pleasant.
If you took Minecraft and turned it into a 2D game, it would look a whole lot like Terraria, though the focus is on more than just survival and building structures here. Venturing into the deep caverns of the randomly generated worlds you explore could lead to rare resources and materials to let you craft something truly amazing, or it might just make for a great anecdote about the dangerous areas you encountered, instead. Where Terraria differs from games like Minecraft is by also putting a significant focus on how the game feels, playing more like a retro action game for those who want to focus on combat.
One of the darkest games on this list, because it sheds fantasy and sci-fi for the realistic horrors of war, This War of Mine puts you in control of the civilians caught in the middle of an armed conflict, unable to escape danger and merely hoping to survive by the time the battles have ended. You’ll need to gather basic supplies to survive, but the risk of being caught in the crossfire can deter you from getting what you actually need, and the decisions you need to make aren’t easy. Who is worth sacrificing for the good of the group? Can such a choice even be made?
A surprise hit on Steam that managed to outperform some of the biggest PC games, Valheim scratches the survival game itch without being locked into some of the genre’s core elements. The fantasy game puts you in a procedurally generated world where you can work cooperatively with up to nine other players, and you can build a house and even an entire settlement alongside smaller items like weapons, armor, food, and–seeing as this is a Norse world–mead. The combat is also a little bit more advanced than similar survival games, with mechanics for dodging and blocking attacks, and you can also venture out into the sea and test your skills as the captain of a vessel. Only $20 and with the Hearth & Home update adding even more content to the game, including new furniture and food items, it’s a refreshing take on survival.
The creative team behind the popular mockumentary American Vandal are working on a similar project that skewers video games, and specifically eSports.
Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault have reached a deal with Paramount + for an “eSports mockumentary” called Players, according to Variety.
The show follows a fictional League of Legends professional team looking to win their first championship after a string of near misses. “To win it all, they will need their prodigy, a 17-year-old rookie, and their 27-year-old veteran to put their egos aside and work together,” reads a line from the show’s description.
Yacenda is directing the show, while Funny Or Die’s Joe Farrell and Mike Farah are executive producers. League of Legends developer Riot Games is in on the joke, as it’s also a producer.
American Vandal ran for two seasons on Netflix. The first season was a spoof on true crime, tackling a high school story about painting penises on faculty cars. The second season involves a person putting laxatives in lemonade. Before that, Yacenda and Perrault made mockumentaries poking fun at ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series.
Mario’s 35th anniversary has come and gone, but there’s never a bad time to play the best Mario games on Nintendo Switch. While the Switch lacks the deep Virtual Console library that defined the retro offerings of the Wii and Wii U, Nintendo’s hybrid console has built up a solid catalogue of Mario games over the years. Some of those are completely new games that are still receiving support. Some are Wii U games that got the port treatment. And many are NES or SNES games available through Nintendo Switch Online.
If you’re just getting into the overall-clad plumber’s oeuvre, we’ve got the biggest hits. And, if you’re looking for deeper cuts, we’ve got you covered. Nintendo has been making Mario games for nearly four decades, and many of the mustachioed Italian’s best games are available on Switch–if you know where to look.
The Nintendo Switch is home to some of the best Mario platformers, including the superb Super Mario Odyssey and enhanced ports of earlier greats like New Super Mario Bros. U.
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey
Four years into the Switch’s life cycle, Super Mario Odyssey remains the only entirely new 3D Mario platformer available on the platform. And that’s okay because it rules. In Super Mario Odyssey, the lovable plumber swaps out his standard red cap for Cappy, a living hat that can take control of anything Mario chucks him at. As a result, Super Mario Odyssey has terrifically varied gameplay. In any given level you could be playing as a T-Rex, a frog, a 2D version of Mario, a Goomba or a Chain Chomp (and many more). Add in the fact that the ability to throw Cappy greatly increases Mario’s roster of jumps and moves and you have a Mario platformer for the ages.
Released earlier this year, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury combines an excellent 3D platformer that was previously Wii U-exclusive with a bold new open-world take on the Mario formula. Originally released back in 2013, Super Mario 3D World is maybe the most underrated 3D Mario game. With a lengthy campaign that works just as well in single-player as it does in four-player co-op, Super Mario 3D World is tons of fun. Bowser’s Fury is significantly shorter and some of its ideas feel a little half-baked, but it’s a fun and interesting experiment that’s well worth checking out.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe offers a pretty traditional Mario experience, carrying on in the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” tradition of the New Super Mario Bros. games available on DS, Wii and 3DS. Basically, as we noted in our review, there isn’t much new here. But, it’s still a strong entry in a series with one of the most consistently high bars for quality in gaming.
Super Mario Maker 2 does what it says on the tin: it lets you make Super Mario levels. This sequel builds out the scale of creation, allowing players to move beyond individual levels in favor of entire worlds. Plus, an update added Zelda characters and art, as well.
The Nintendo Switch is home to a pair of Mario Kart games as well as a couple of fun Mario sports titles.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Like a kart boosted by triple mushrooms, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe just won’t stop. Despite being a port of a game already available on the Wii U, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the top-selling Nintendo Switch game, and only Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes close. It’s one of the best racing games of all time, and the fact that it stars Mario and friends is just an added bonus.
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit isn’t a traditional Mario Kart game. Instead, the 2020 racer takes the action into the real world, requiring that players assemble their own tracks, which they then can use to race RC Mario cars around their home. The game trades in the pulled back perspective of previous Mario Kart games for a behind-the-back camera positioned on your plastic car. It’s a unique experiment that isn’t quite as successful as the other Mario Kart game on this list, but still might be worth checking out if–for some reason–you find yourself spending a lot of time at home.
The newest game on this list, Mario Golf: Super Rush is a fun take on the sport, but doesn’t introduce too much that’s novel (aside from Speed Golf, which is pretty cool). But, if it’s your first time playing Mario Golf? This is great fun in single-player and multiplayer, though not as action-oriented as other games on this list.
The debut of the Mario Tennis series on Switch is a marked step up from 2015’s poorly received Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. Aces offers deep tennis mechanics, a suite of modes, and competitive multiplayer.
This Nintendo/Sega collab was released way back in November 2019, half a year before COVID-19 made it to the States and nearly two years before the real-world Olympics actually happened. Despite the weirdness around its name, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is a pretty traditional entry in the long-running series. That said, it’s the best entry yet, with a slew of simple yet fun minigames and accessible design that makes this an easy game for people of all ages and skill levels to pick up and play.
Plenty of great Mario spin-offs have released for Switch, including turn-based tactics games, role-playing games, fighting games, and more.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
This Ubisoft Milan-developed crossover event is a surprisingly great tactics game in which players assemble squads of Mario characters, Rabbids, and Rabbids who look like Mario characters for kinetic turn-based battles. A Donkey Kong Adventure expansion launched a year later, so there’s plenty of content here for strategy fans. Plus, a sequel, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, is due out next year.
Some longtime fans of the Paper Mario series were disappointed that, with The Origami King, Nintendo refused to return the series to its RPG roots. The Thousand Year Door this is not. But what this game does have is clever, funny writing and a unique ring-based battle system. The mechanics aren’t as deep as in early entries, but this game is far from paper thin.
Mario’s brother and perennial sidekick takes on a leading role in this ghost-hunting adventure, wielding a vacuum he can use to suck up ghosts. Rescue Mario for a change in this well-received 2019 Switch exclusive.
Whatever your opinion of Mario Party–the series in which the mustachioed plumber and friends take turns rolling dice, hopping around a board, playing minigames and collecting stars–Super Mario Party is unlikely to change it. The series’ 2018 Switch debut is pretty similar to previous entries in the series, but if you like what the series is, or, at least, think it’s a fine-enough time while hanging out with friends, it’s a good one of those.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a Mario game in the same way Avengers: Endgame is an Ant Man movie. Sure, he’s there , but it’s not really about him. Mario’s relative unimportance to the series notwithstanding, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of the best multiplayer games of all time, with the most expansive roster of any competitive game ever. Part party game, part museum tour, part action-oriented fighter, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is action-packed fun that can liven up any get-together.
A significantly more difficult arcade version of Super Mario Bros., which we discuss in more detail below.
Arcade Archives Mario Bros.
Arcade Archives Mario Bros.
This is the arcade game Mario Bros., which we discuss below. You can pay for this version, or play it as part of Nintendo Switch Online’s collection of NES titles.
Nintendo Switch Online Mario games
Nintendo Switch Online
There are tons of classic Mario games available to play for free for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Switch Online costs $20 per year for an individual membership or $35 per year for a family account that supports up to eight users. If you’re in a nostalgic mood, check out all of the SNES and NES Mario games you can play on the service below.
SNES Online Mario games
There are five Mario games available on Switch Online that originally debuted on Super Nintendo, including the wonderful compilation Super Mario All-Stars.
Super Mario World
Mario’s Super Nintendo debut boasted a generational leap forward in graphics, introduced Yoshi and the spin-jump and is just a ton of fun to play. Plus, it’s got save functionality built in, which sure is nice compared to its NES predecessors.
Super Mario Kart
The first Mario Kart game feels pretty different from every Mario Kart game that followed. While Mario’s racing adventures have been rendered in 3D since Mario Kart 64, Super Mario Kart fakes 3D with Mode 7–an effect used in a variety of SNES games to create faux 3D on a 2D sprite-based plane. As a result, rather than feeling like you’re driving through a 3D space, it kind of feels like you’re steering a toy car around a paper map. If you love Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and want to see the roots of the series, it’s worth checking out. Thankfully, you can do so at no added cost if you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Mario’s Super Picross
This game, a sequel to Mario’s Picross, was originally released only in Japan and the Switch version, puzzlingly, remains untranslated–despite being available on the North American eShop. The tutorial and all text are presented in kanji, so this one is a little difficult to get into unless you can read Japanese or already know how to play Picross.
Super Mario All-Stars
A remaster collection from decades before remaster collections became a common thing, Super Mario All-Stars gathers the NES Mario games (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and Super Mario Bros. 3) and gives them a SNES coat of paint, with new graphics and music.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Despite the name, Yoshi’s Island is more spin-off than sequel. As Yoshi, the green dinosaur introduced in Super Mario World, you platform through colorful stages while caring for Baby Mario. Basically, the game is one long escort mission, but through inventive level design, gorgeous pixel art that foreshadowed the arts-and-crafts style of games like Paper Mario and Yoshi’s Wooly World, a killer soundtrack and exceptional controls, it manages to be one of the best games in the series.
NES Online Mario games
There are even more Mario games (including some you may not recognize) on NES Online.
Super Mario Bros.
The game that started it all. While Mario was introduced in Donkey Kong, and appeared alongside his brother, Luigi, in Mario Bros. and Wrecking Crew, Super Mario Bros. set the template for every 2D platformer that would follow. Aside from the one-off gimmickry of World 7-4, which requires extensive guesswork or an Internet walkthrough to complete, Super Mario Bros. still holds up and Nintendo Switch Online’s suspend save functionality means that you can much more easily see it through to completion.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Originally released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levelsplays a dark joke on players who think they know what to expect from a Mario game. With extreme difficulty and in-game tricks (like poison mushrooms that look like power-ups), Nintendo decided the game was too difficult for North American audiences. As a result, players in the United States got the next game on this list instead, and had to wait until 1993 to play The Lost Levels as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Instead of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, North American audiences got this series outlier as the sequel to Super Mario Bros. This sequel isn’t really a sequel at all. Worried that Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels wouldn’t go over well with Western audiences, Nintendo altered an existing Famicom game, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, by adding Mario characters. The resulting game has mechanics, like picking up and throwing vegetables to hurt enemies and extensive vertical platforming, that would not be iterated on in successive entries. Instead, Super Mario Bros. 2 stands as a bizarre one-off, a numbered Mario game that wasn’t really a Mario game at all.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Platformer fans have long argued over which 2D Mario–Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3–is truly supreme. But if you have Nintendo Switch Online, you can play both superb titles at no extra charge. Problem solved.
Dr. Mario
While younger fans likely know Dr. Mario from the Super Smash Bros. series, the character’s 1990 debut is a magnificent puzzle game that’s well worth checking out. Gameplay will be familiar for anyone who’s tried their hand at Puyo Puyo or, to a lesser extent, Tetris. Dual-colored medicine capsules fall from the top of the screen and must be arranged by color at the bottom to destroy sets of pre-arranged viruses. Match four and they disappear. To complete a level, you need to destroy all the viruses, and in later levels, those viruses venture much closer to the top of the screen. It’s a frantic puzzler with the perfect soundtrack for virus extermination.
NES Open: Tournament Golf
This NES golf game, starring Mario, is a little more difficult to parse than the mascot’s modern outings on the links. Picking this title up after spending some time with the recent Mario Golf: Super Rush, it’s striking how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. Play switches between an overhead perspective, which gives you a sense of the hole in its entirety, and behind Mario’s back, where you line up your shot and hit the ball in time with a moving meter; all pretty similar to the modern game. But completing a hole is much more confusing and there’s no tutorialization to help you understand the rules. If you end up checking this one out, be sure to also look up gameplay videos on YouTube.
Donkey Kong
These days, Mario is significantly more famous than his giant gorilla frenemy. But Donkey Kong gave Mario his big break. This proto-platformer cast players as Mario (then called Jumpman) on a quest to save Pauline (not Peach). As you might expect from an arcade game made in 1981, it’s tough as nails. But, thankfully, Nintendo Switch Online lets you create save states so you can topple Donkey Kong regardless of your skill level.
Mario Bros.
The first game to feature “Mario Bros.” in the title, this 1983 arcade game looks a little different than the platformers bearing those words today. Like Donkey Kong, all the action is confined to one screen, as opposed to the side scrolling action of Super Mario Bros. It’s a fine game, but in the Mario series, it’s a bit of an evolutionary dead-end; mostly worth checking out for historical curiosity.
Wrecking Crew
A fun early Mario spin-off–and the origin of Mario wielding a hammer–Wrecking Crew is an action-oriented puzzle game in which Mario must destroy blocks and breakable ladders while avoiding enemies and fireballs. It’s pretty fun and figuring out how to navigate each space–you may actually need that ladder you just destroyed–is an engrossing challenge.
Discontinued Mario games
Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Didn’t see a game you were looking for in the list? Unfortunately, it may have been discontinued. In celebration of Mario’s 35th birthday, Nintendo launched a pair of limited time games on Switch: Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which collected Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy; and Super Mario Bros. 35, a free battle royale take on Super Mario Bros. World 1-1. As of March 31, 2021, neither is available anymore, though you might be able to find physical copies of Super Mario 3D All-Stars online or in the wild.
Cancellations do not exist in this dojo. Season 4 of Cobra Kai, Netflix’s TV series follow-up to the Karate Kid film franchise, won’t be here until December. And yet, the streaming service has already renewed the show for Season 5, with production set to resume this fall in Atlanta, Georgia.
While Season 4 is still months away, we have some idea about what to expect. It was previously confirmed that Thomas Ian Griffith would reprise his role as the villainous Terry Silver from Karate Kid 3. He’ll be teaming up once again with John Kreese (Martin Kove) to lead the Cobra Kai dojo down a dark path en route to the All-Valley Karate Tournament.
Cobra Kai picks up three decades after the original Karate Kid film, with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) now grown. In the first two seasons, the duo were once again rivals–Johnny resurrected Cobra Kai, while Daniel brought back Mr. Miyagi’s dojo to oppose him. In Season 3, though, with Johnny ousted from Cobra Kai, the two longtime enemies were forced to work together to bring down Kreese once and for all. Now, with the All-Valley coming up, the warring dojos are going to settle their differences at the tournament.
Cobra Kai first premiered in 2018 on YouTube Premium, then known as YouTube Red. That was the exclusive home of the first two seasons, before it shifted to Netflix with the launch of Season 3 on January 1 of this year. All three seasons are currently available on Netflix, with Season 4 premiering in December.
After pitting them against a fascist government, Ubisoft has a new enemy in store for Watch Dogs: Legion players: the undead. A new mode for the game, titled Legion of the Dead, launched today in a free update for players across all platforms. Legion of the Dead tasks small teams of four players against zombie armies as they try to escape the streets of London with as many supplies as they can carry.
Legion of the Dead was previously added to Watch Dogs: Legion this past June, albeit as an alpha release and just for PC players. Starting today, players across all platforms can face down the undead through the streets of futuristic London.
The game mode tasks players with escaping the zombie-ridden city with as many supplies as they can. However, not only are the undead in the way but so are Albion soldiers that have hoarded supplies for themselves. Players will have to navigate around the zombies that have flooded into the city and take on soldiers to gather supplies and new resources, including ammo and gadgets. After collecting a set amount of supplies, players can head to an extraction point and escape the city.
Following a successful extraction, the game will reward players with Z-Creds, a new currency that can only be used in Legion of the Dead. These can be spent on weapons and gadgets that can only be purchased, not found out in the field.
Along with zombies, Watch Dogs: Legion has recently brought Assassins into its dystopian setting. The game’s 5.5 title update added new game modes and a crossover with Assassin’s Creed.
Lenovo is kicking off its Intel Gamer Days Sale event today, and you’ll find some great deals on gaming laptops and PCs equipped with RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 video cards. Best of all, you won’t have to wait too long for most of these configs to ship out. This event runs for only 10 days, and it’s your best chance to score a great deal on a gaming PC before Black Friday. In other deal news, save on the newly announced Forza 5 Limited Edition Xbox controller or the high-end Xbox Elite Series 2 Xbox controller, get the lowest price ever on a pair of Sony active noise cancelling wireless headphones, or pick up the re-released Oculus Quest 2 with double the storage for the same price. These deals and more below.
Lenovo Intel Gamer Days Sale: Save on Legion Gaming Laptops and Desktop PCs
Lenovo’s “Legion” series of gaming PCs and laptops offer the latest and greatest gaming performance at a very reasonable cost. They’re equipped with the newest RTX 30 series video cards, which offer huge speed gains compared to the previous generation’s RTX 20 series cards, along with new technology like DLSS 2.0 (very useful) and ray tracing (not as much). Alongside these new GPUs are your choice of either AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series or Intel’s Rocket Lake/Tiger Lake processors. Lenovo also offers one of the best customer service experiences compared to other prebuilt PC makers, which is especially important if you haven’t built the PC yourself. Lenovo’s sale events can be hard to navigate, so we’ve conveniently rounded up a list of the best Legion deals going on right now.
Lenovo Legion Gaming Laptops
Lenovo Legion Gaming PCs
Intel Gamer Days Sale: Razer Blade 4K OLED RTX 2070 Gaming Laptop for $1399.99
If you want the best looking gaming laptop on the market, then look no further. This Razer Blade laptop is, in our opinion, Razer’s best deal during the Intel Gamer Days Event. It’s an amazing laptop for the price, featuring an anodized CNC unibody aluminum frame and a gorgeous 4K OLED display. There’s plenty of power under the hood too with an Intel Core i7 processor and an RTX 2070 graphics card.
Dell Intel Gamer Days Sale: Save on Alienware RTX 30 Series Gaming Laptops and PCs
It’s not surprising that Dell would throw its hat into the ring for the Intel Gamer Days Sale event. There are some great deals on the latest Alienware m15 and m17 gaming laptops and Alienware Aurora R12 gaming desktop PCs with the new RTX 30 series video cards.
Forza 5 Limited Edition Xbox Controller
This wicked looking Xbox controller went up for sale yesterday for $74.99. Today, it’s on sale at Walmart for $69, although we doubt it will last very long at this price. There’s also of detail given to this controller, like the transparent yellow finish with candy colored splatter, custom-colored, visible rumble motor and lighting effects, color shifting hybrid D-pad, asymmetrical thumbsticks in different bold colors, and textured controller grips. This is one of the best new Xbox controllers out on the market.
Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller
This is the controller to get if you want the most precise and customizable Xbox controller on the market. This professional-grade controller features adjustable tension thumbsticks, shorter hair trigger locks, wraparound textured grips, interchangeable thumbsticks and paddle shapes, custom profiles saved on your controller itself, and included USB Type C cable with charging dock. It boasts up to 40 hours of battery life and is compatible with the Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, and PC.
Sony WH-CH700N Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones and 4 Months of TIDAL for Only $69
When these headphones were first released, they boasted a steep $200 price tag. Today, Walmart has them for only $69, and that’s not even including the free 4 month TIDAL subscription you’d get ($32 value). The CH700N is far and away the best active noise cancelling headphone you’ll find for $100. Other features include wireless Bluetooth streaming, up to 35 hour battery life, and built-in microphone for hands-free calling.
New Release: Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset with More Storage, Same Price
The Oculus Quest 2 has so far been the best value when it comes to VR gaming. It’s hundreds of dollars cheaper than its competitors, it has phenomenal tracking, it doesn’t need to be tethered to a PC, and it boasts a huge library of games (even Half Life: Alyx is easily playable on the Quest 2). It’s also the best VR headset for Beat Saber. Now, Oculus has re-released its Oculus Quest 2 VR headset with double the storage (128GB vs 64GB) for the exact same price. There’s even less of a reason now to pick something else.
Extended: Herman Miller Gaming Anniversary Sale: 15% Off Gaming Chairs
Herman Miller makes the best ergonomic chairs in the industry. They’re also not cheap, with several of their models easily topping over $1000 in price. Penny pinchers might find it a waste of money, but honestly, in this case you get what you pay for. Many of us could spend a majority of our lives stuck to our chair, it makes sense that this would be one of the most important purchases we make. Today, Herman Miller is offering 15% off their top-of-the-line gaming collaborations with Logitech. This is the first time we’ve seen a substantial discount on these outside of Sample Sales and employee-only offers. If you’ve got deep pockets, then you’ll save on what is probably the best gaming chair on the market.
Cobra Kai will keep on keeping on as Netflix announced it has renewed The Karate Kid continuation series for a fifth season.
Season 4 of Cobra Kai isn’t even out yet, but Netflix wants fans to stay in its dojo with the early season renewal announcement. Season 4 is set to premiere in December.
Cobra Kai stars Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso decades after LaRusso beat Lawrence in The Karate Kid. Older and washed up, Lawrence and LaRusso’s rivalry reignites after Lawrence begins teaching karate and re-opens the Cobra Kai dojo.
The series originally premiered on YouTube Red, YouTube’s shelved original programming service. While YouTube Red was eventually shuttered, Cobra Kai was regarded as one of the best shows on the platform and Netflix took over the series starting with season 3.
After years of teases, Destiny 2‘s scariest and most ubiquitous villain, Savathun, has finally made her appearance. She’s not only central to the Season of the Lost, Destiny 2’s current content season, she’s also making huge moves in The Witch Queen, the next big expansion for the game. Bungie revealed some of what we can expect from The Witch Queen in its recent Destiny 2 showcase, detailing one incredibly important new element: We’ll be facing Hive Guardians.
In the story of Destiny 2, this is a massive development. “Guardian” is the term for the sci-fi superheroes the players embody, and they wield specific powers granted by a physics-defying force called the Light. Those powers include the ability to resurrect from death and to use magic to shoot fire or create black holes. Up until now, only humanity has wielded the Light, thanks to its source, the giant machine god-thing called the Traveler, and its Ghosts, the tiny robots that follow players around.
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Now Playing: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen – What You Need To Know
The Hive, meanwhile, are perhaps Destiny 2’s greatest enemy. These eons-old aliens are a billions-strong cult that worships death and exists only for conquest and genocide. Where humanity embodies the Light and, we’ve always assumed, the will of the Traveler, the Hive embodies the Darkness, the other god-like power in Destiny’s universe. A Hive enemy that controls the Light and its attendant powers–including near-immortality–is an incredible threat.
But what Bungie hasn’t told us just yet is how Savathun and her Hive army came by these powers. In fact, that question seems to be a major mystery of the expansion. The description for The Witch Queen on Bungie’s store reads, “The Witch Queen awaits those who are driven to understand her inexplicable control of the Light.” It also sports the tagline, “Survive the truth.”
That instantly leads to some serious deliberations. Where could Savathun have gotten the power of the Light, and what could the “truth” we need to survive actually be? There are a couple of possibilities, but one we likely need to consider sooner rather than later is that Savathun got the Light the same way humanity did: from the Traveler.
That would be a world-shaking revelation for Destiny–definitely a truth we would have to survive. Just about everything in the world of Bungie’s game is predicated on the idea that human Guardians are righteous defenders of the innocent, more or less, and that we’re granted the power of the Light by the benevolent and all-knowing Traveler because wedeserve it. Everything we do is based on the presupposition that we’re the heroes. If the Traveler gave the Light to the Hive, a species who has spent its entire existence bent on the destruction of all other life, it would call into question all the assumptions humanity has made about itself, and all the actions we’ve taken since the series started.
But there’s a lot that’s happened in the story of Destiny 2, particularly since the Beyond Light expansion, that grounds this line of thinking. The Traveler may well be rethinking its past choices because it faces an unprecedented situation–it’s staring down the Black Fleet, the pyramid-shaped spaceships that are the physical manifestation of the Darkness, and it’s standing and fighting, rather than running away. We’re apparently watching the story of the Traveler’s last stand, and desperation changes priorities.
To understand what might be happening, you should check out a key batch of Destiny 2 lore called “Unveiling.” This lore book popped up back in the Shadowkeep expansion, when we first started discovering the pyramid ships and coming to understand the Darkness’s whole deal. Though we’d always believed that the Darkness had nearly destroyed humanity after attacking the solar system way back in Destiny’s history, when the Black Fleet finally arrived once again, it didn’t immediately start destroying everything.
Instead, the Darkness spoke to us, offered gifts, and tried to make us see its side. Unveiling plays on that idea: It’s a lore book written from the perspective of the Darkness but which explains the relationship between it and the Traveler, who are described in the book as the “Winnower” and the “Gardener.” The book gives a creation myth of the universe, where the Gardener (or, seemingly, the Traveler) created life, allowing it to grow unchecked, while the Winnower (or, seemingly, the Darkness) embraced death, paring back that life so that only that which was strong and capable survived. Over time, the Gardener became bored with the situation–the life it created always wound up becoming the same brand of strong and ruthless because of the Winnower’s influence. The Gardener wanted to create all sorts of different life that would be diverse and interesting, and develop in new ways. The Winnower disagreed, claiming that helping weaker life to flourish would ultimately lead to more suffering when the Gardener’s help was finally removed. The two forces made a wager about whose philosophy was better, and that conflict is apparently what we’re playing through now. The Traveler wanders the universe, uplifting life, before the Darkness shows up and attacks. So far, the Traveler has always lost these conflicts and fled. According to Unveiling, humanity and the Guardians are the Traveler’s ultimate answer to the Darkness–we’re its last, best attempt to prove that its view is the right view.
Except, what if we’re not the Traveler’s last, best attempt? Lately, we’ve given the Traveler some pretty good reasons to be concerned about picking humanity to represent it in a final throw-down with the Darkness. After all, the Black Fleet arrived and immediately started offering gifts, and we Guardians took them. In Beyond Light, we started wielding the Darkness’s power alongside that of the Traveler with Stasis. The idea was that we would use the weapons of the enemy to defeat it, but there are lots of lore entries (specifically attached to the gear from the Trials of Osiris) that suggest plenty of Guardians are just falling to the Darkness’s side, growing cruel and corrupt.
The Traveler has tried to counter the pull of the Darkness with gifts of its own. That’s what the mission Harbinger, which rewards us with the powerful Light-infused gun Hawkmoon, is all about. But it doesn’t seem to be enough; Guardians all over the place are running around, wielding Stasis, and even among humanity, people are split on the best course of action.
One might think the Traveler is watching all this and getting a bit nervous.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Savathun. As revealed at the start of the Season of the Lost, the Hive’s Witch Queen is looking to get rid of her worm, the parasitic organism all Hive have inside them. The Hive’s origin myth is all about the species’ pact with these worm gods, which grant the Hive Darkness-borne powers and force them to adhere to what they call the “Sword-Logic.” It’s the same as the Winnower’s philosophy: The Hive try to kill everything they can, as a way of pursuing perfection, or the “final shape” of life in the universe. Anything that can be killed must be killed, by the Hive’s reckoning, including themselves. The idea is the relentless pursuit of strength until nothing exists but the absolute strongest life possible.
The Hive get their power from the worms in exchange for feeding the worms through constant conquest and murder, but the Hive can never stop conquering and killing, because their worms never stop being hungry. Stop feeding the worm, and the Hive who bears it is consumed instead. And the more you feed it, the hungrier the worm becomes. So Savathun asking for help getting rid of her worm, looking to break free from this pact, is a rejection of the Sword-Logic and the life of constant murder and conquest. It seems the Witch Queen is pretty tired of this whole “endlessly killing, conquering, and deceiving” existence, but she can’t stop doing those things without being consumed herself. If she wants to stop serving the Darkness, she needs help, and that’s what the Season of the Lost seems to be about.
So consider the situation from the Traveler’s point of view. You’re making your final stand against your greatest enemy. The Guardians, your greatest heroes, have been tempted by that enemy, and many of them are falling to its influence–or at the very least, are willing to take its gifts and listen to its requests and ideas. Meanwhile, your enemy’s greatest asset, the ever-conquering Hive, has grown tired of your enemy’s philosophy and is jumping ship. For the Traveler, suddenly an opportunity has presented itself to use the Darkness’s sharpest tool against it.
If we believe what’s written in Unveiling (which might be a bit foolish, since it’s a description of the Traveler given by the Darkness), then it’s fair to say that the Traveler doesn’t really care so much about the individual species it uplifts for their own sake, but merely that it’s interested in life in general. It does not, perhaps, have a particular soft spot for humanity. Unveiling paints a picture of the Traveler as caring primarily about beating the Darkness. If the Hive give the Traveler its best shot to do that, then it’ll take that shot.
But that’s also a massive betrayal for humanity and most of the characters in Destiny 2, many of whom haven’t just dedicated their lives to fighting the Traveler’s enemies, but who worship it as a deity, the physical embodiment of the concept of Good. If the Traveler gives the power of the Light to the Hive, a group of beings that are essentially the embodiment of Evil, it flies in the face of everything everyone has ever believed about the Traveler. It would, in essence, destroy Destiny 2’s notion of God. The repercussions would be enormous.
If you ask me, though, that’s the direction Destiny 2 is going. So much of this year’s story has been about the ideas of peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. According to Savathun, her many machinations this year have been about helping humanity, rather than harming it, and the results of those machinations do bear her out, at least to some degree. The Season of the Splicer in particular seemed to show Savathun testing humanity to see if it was capable of forgiving its enemies, and asking for help in destroying her worm suggests that Savathun may actually, potentially, be seeking forgiveness.
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Destiny 2 Savathun Animated Cutscene (SPOILERS)
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At least, Savathun working for our forgiveness seemed like a possibility before Bungie’s showcase for The Witch Queen. Perhaps, though, it isn’t our forgiveness Savathun is after.
We’re clearly going to fight Light-wielding Hive when The Witch Queen launches in February, at least at first. But it seems to me the question for the future of Destiny 2 is whether humanity can get over this. Can we recognize the benefits in making allies out of former enemies when taking on something worse? Can we forgive the Hive, at least enough to co-exist or fight side by side? Can we withstand the abandonment of our god, or the realization that its benevolence has limits?
Of course, time will tell. But it’s worth keeping in mind what else we know of the future of Destiny 2’s story: namely, the titles of its last two expansions. The first is dubbed “Lightfall,” which is self-evidently ominous. The last, straight of the philosophy of the Hive and the Darkness, is “The Final Shape.” At the very least, things are set to get a lot, uh, darker.
In a blog post, Microsoft’s Joseph Staten revealed why Halo Infinite’s campaign was absent from Gamescom and Opening Night Live. Meanwhile, community manager John Junyszek revealed how XP will work in the game’s multiplayer.
Location descriptions from Bethesda’s upcoming game Starfield have been revealed in new developer update videos. These locations include, the United Colonies capital city of New Atlantis, the pleasure city of Neon, and the capital of the Freestar Collective, Akila.
