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Although Nintendo made no mention of the Legend of Zelda’s 35th anniversary during the February 2021 Direct, it did have two Zelda announcements to share during the presentation: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is getting DLC, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is coming to Switch in July. Considering that Skyward Sword itself is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, it seems like a fitting time for Nintendo to dust the game off and give it some modern touch-ups, including a new control method. But while the original controls were a common point of contention, they were never the biggest issue plaguing the game.

As the first full-fledged Zelda adventure designed specifically for the Wii, Skyward Sword made extensive use of the Wii Remote, eschewing the series’ traditional control scheme in favor of motion controls. Many aspects of the game were designed around gesturing with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck; you had to physically swing the controller to slash with your sword, for instance, and firing arrows involved pulling back on the Nunchuk to draw your bow.

Although Skyward Sword generally reviewed well at the time of its release, its motion controls would prove divisive among many (to say nothing of the accessibility issues inherent to the control scheme). I can only speak to my own experiences with the game, of course, but I personally felt the motion controls were implemented well; in the multiple times I played through it, I rarely found myself struggling to execute any of Link’s actions–with the exception of the rotating block puzzles that replaced boss keys, which can all go in the bin. But I was also fortunate enough to experience the game in a setting where I had ample room to swing my controller (and no judging eyes around to see me pretend sword fight).

Skyward Sword HD still uses motion controls, unsurprisingly, but Nintendo has also implemented a new, button-only control method as an alternative. It’s difficult to gauge how well this scheme actually works without some hands-on time, but just from a glance, Nintendo’s solution seems serviceable, if not what most fans probably envisioned. Rather than swinging the Joy-Con to slash with Link’s sword, the button controls map sword slashes to the right stick.

By necessity, this scheme is considerably different from how previous Zelda games controlled, but it does at least allow you to experience the game without motion controls, which is especially helpful if you’re playing on a Switch Lite or have a disability (or just vehemently oppose motion controls). As nice as it is to have this option, however, the primary issue that dragged Skyward Sword down was not its controls, but rather its excessive padding. Some mild Skyward Sword spoilers follow from here on.

The most egregious example is the game’s Silent Realm tear hunts. Partway through the adventure, you return to the surface to track down the Sacred Flames with which to power up the Goddess Sword. Upon your arrival, however, you’re informed by Fi–the spirit that resides in the sword and your companion throughout much of the game–that you must first undertake trials to prove your worth. These trials take you into the “Silent Realm,” a dream-like rendition of the area you’re currently in.

Your objective in the Silent Realm is to collect all of the sacred tears scattered around the area. What complicates this mission is that you cannot use your sword or any other items while here, and the Silent Realm is patrolled by invincible guardians that can strike you down with a single hit, forcing you to restart the entire tear hunt if you get caught. It’s frustrating and an absolute chore to play through, and the game sends you on four of these hunts throughout the course of the story.

Fi is also another detriment to the experience. Like Navi and Midna, Fi offers guidance and frequently propels the story forward, but she interjects incessantly. Chatty companions are nothing new for the Zelda series, of course, but Fi’s robotic personality and penchant for spelling out the obvious in excruciating detail make her particularly reviled.

These aspects did more to hamper Skyward Sword than its controls, which is a shame because the game has some genuinely enjoyable ideas between its moments of frustration. The soundtrack in particular is wonderful, featuring some of the most beautiful and moving tunes in the entire series, and the dungeons are cleverly designed and culminate in some memorable boss battles.

Introducing an additional control method in Skyward Sword HD is a welcome improvement and helps make the game more accessible, but its other issues are more in need of addressing. If Nintendo can trim Fi’s dialogue and pare back the tear hunts, perhaps by reducing the number of tears you need to collect (as it did when it remastered Twilight Princess on Wii U) or not resetting your progress when you fail a trial, then Skyward Sword would be a stronger game overall. It still wouldn’t be without issues; there are other instances where it feels like the game sends you off to do something simply for the sake of prolonging the adventure. But these fixes would certainly help improve the pacing, and it would make it easier to appreciate Skyward Sword’s many genuine charms.

A time jump in a television show can revive a stale premise with new characters, new motivations, and new settings. It’s a way for new viewers to pick up the plot. And it’s a way to skip over the boring parts of a story, and get to the exciting, narrative-turning action.

In the case of the CW’s Riverdale, the latter was the main reason for its Season 5 time jump–seven years after the characters’ high school graduation.

“We did decide very quickly because all of the kids were seemingly going to different colleges and we didn’t want them to all go to, like, Riverdale University,” said showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And in terms of drama, for me, college is a less appealing version of high school stories… This time jump allows us to start with a clean slate, drop in the middle of stories, and then have people catch up.”

On the February 10 and February 17 episodes of Riverdale, we caught up with most of the main characters’ lives post-time jump. Here’s what we know so far. Riverdale airs every Wednesday on the CW, at 8 a.m. EST.

Archie Andrews

Archie completed his armed forces basic training and rose to the rank of Sergeant. He fought in war and was injured while trying to protect his men, one of whom lost both his legs. He returns to Riverdale with orders to revive Riverdale High School’s ROTC program, but quickly discovers that his beloved town has fallen on hard times.

He calls and reunites Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Toni, and himself in a last-ditch bid to save Riverdale. The four of them agree to become teachers at the understaffed Riverdale High School until permanent replacements are hired. Betty and Archie are now seeing each other, and have agreed not to tell Veronica and Jughead. However, it seems inevitable that they’ll find out, and soon.

Mary Andrews

We only hear about Mary’s whereabouts second-hand; Archie says that she’s not living at the family home, because she’s renting it out. We later learn that is not the case; the Ghoulies have been using the Andrews home as a base. It’s unclear whether Mary knows this or has been deliberately misleading Archie.

Veronica Lodge

Veronica became a Wall Street broker, with aspirations to be the “She-Wolf of Wall Street.” She has been married to Chadwick Gekko, another Wall Street broker, for a year. Chadwick wants kids and wants Veronica to settle down, but Veronica wants to be back on the Wall Street trading floor with him. She deals with her frustration by working at Lacy’s, a shady jewelry boutique, behind Chadwick’s back.

Veronica originally left Wall Street to deal with her stress due to “The Accident,” which we later learn was a helicopter crash that nearly killed her. She now regrets the decision to leave. We get confirmation that Chadwick is a controlling, duplicitous man, much like Veronica’s father Hiram Lodge. Veronica will be a temporary teacher at Riverdale High School instead of heading back to New York, which has the positive effect of pissing off Chad and Hiram, simultaneously.

Hiram Lodge

Hiram is responsible for turning Riverdale into a dilapidated shell of its former self, by choking it of resources to increase the value of Sodale, the nearby residential community that he is developing. He is currently trying and failing to purchase the Blossom family’s maple tree properties, but Cheryl refuses to sell. He’s a board member of Stonewall Prep, which tormented Jughead in Season 4. And he successfully coordinates a vote to un-incorporate Riverdale, making it a town in name only. The school is about the last public-serving institution tha Hiram has not destroyed.

Hermione Lodge

Hermione Lodge is now a successful reality star and features in a “Real Housewives” type of show. She is happy for Veronica’s marriage to Chadwick and doesn’t understand why her daughter is discontent.

Betty Cooper

Betty is an FBI trainee who tracks and profiles serial killers–appropriate, given that her brother Charles was also a serial killer. However, she’s had an extreme setback to what ought to be a promising career. She successfully tracked the “Trash Bag Killer” to his home, but because she did not call for backup, she became his prisoner for two weeks, and then he escaped. Now, she’s stuck filing papers instead of being in the field, and she sees a therapist, whom she blatantly lies to. She’s also dating Glen, an FBI Agent and her superior. When she arrives back in Riverdale, her family resents her for having left. As one of Riverdale’s newest teachers, she’ll be taking a leave from the FBI to help out Riverdale and continue hooking up with Archie.

Alice Cooper

Alice is still active in the town’s local politics. But her biggest job is helping Polly raise her twins. Alice is resentful of Betty, who she feels abandoned them in order to attend Yale and join the FBI.

Polly Cooper

Polly is living with her mother and raising her twin girls. She tells Betty and Alice that’s she’s working as a waitress to make ends meet. We discover, however, that she’s actually with the Ghoulies, and in Betty’s words, might be dealing, or tricking, or both. The last we see of her, she’s being chased down by a man in a truck–which may be the last time we see her.

Reggie Mantle

Reggie is currently working as one of Hiram’s goons. We see him briefly at the Blossom estate when Cheryl turns down Hiram’s latest maple proposal, again. He also declines to help his friends, both when Archie needs help getting rid of the Ghoulies in his home, and when Veronica needs help escaping the watchful eyes of Hiram and Chad.

Jughead Jones

Jughead is now a published writer with a successful novel, which marked him as one of the most promising voices of his generation; the novel was based on his time with the Serpents and his relationship with Betty. But since then, he’s fallen on hard times. He currently has writer’s block. His potential gig at the New Yorker fell through. He’s getting evicted from his home. His girlfriend, Jess, is leaving him. And debt collectors are trying to track him down. He recently hooked up with what he thought was a fan of his first book, but it was actually an aspiring author who blackmailed him into reading her book and trying to get it published. He has a large chest tattoo, which definitely has a backstory.

Kevin Keller

Kevin graduated from Carnegie Mellon and is now the drama teacher at Riverdale High School. He’s in a relationship with Fangs Fogerty.

Tom Keller

The sheriff of Riverdale is the only remaining law enforcement.The understaffing has caused huge parts of the town to descend into lawlessness and violence.

Cheryl Blossom

Cheryl continues to be a recluse, as she has been since graduating high school. She taken up painting. Toni alludes that over the past seven years, Cheryl has taken practical steps to rectify her family’s negative reputation and undo some of the damage it wrought. But Cheryl still fears the Blossom family curse, and thus refuses to get close to anyone again, especially Toni, in an attempt to protect them. The last we see Cheryl, she’s using her wealth to protect Riverdale High School from Hiram Lodge by budgeting and privatizing it.

Rose Blossom

The elder matriarch of the Blossom family may emerge as something of a villain this season; she’s training Cheryl to be a master art forger. It’s an out-there plot point that requires more explanation.

Toni Topaz

Toni is the new Snake Queen of the Serpents and the guidance counselor at Riverdale High School. She and the other Serpents bought the speakeasy beneath Pops as their new homebase. Toni is a main character this season and joins Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Archie at their booth in Pop’s. She’s gotten her family to soften on ex-girlfriend Cheryl Blossom, but the two of them are still not together (though she did convince Cheryl to fund Riverdale High. Toni is also pregnant, and she isn’t revealing who the father is.

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea held down the Serpents while its leaders were in college, and now drives trucks for the Serpents as one of their legitimate businesses.

Fangs Fogarty

Fangs also graduated from college, and he also drives trucks for the Serpents. He’s in a relationship with Kevin Keller.

Pop Tate

Pop Tate has retired. His granddaughter, Tabitha Tate, is taking over the Chock’lit Shoppe.

11. Scorpion’s origin

Shudder’s original anthology series Creepshow has its second season premiering on the streaming service on April 1–and it’s already been renewed for Season 3. One thing horror fans will love about Season 2 though is that one tale is a love letter to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead.

The story titled “Public Television of the Dead” pays homage to the classic Evil Dead franchise. During AMC Networks TCA winter tour presentation, director Greg Nicotero spoke about this specific feature. “Rob Schrab wrote that episode,” the director said. “I realized in retrospect that a lot of my episodes were period pieces. A lot of them take place in the ’70s. I have a big affection for growing up in the ’70s and reading Famous Monsters magazine and watching chiller theater.

“So, having directed “Model Kid,” which is the first segment in the premiere, ‘Public Television of the Dead’ is really sort of my kind of big thank you to Sam Raimi because I worked on Evil Dead 2, and I worked on Army of Darkness. I had always had a massive affection for Sam, so I feel like I channeled my best Sam Raimi in that episode, and damn, I had so much fun like getting that camera whipping around and like the evil for his point of view and designing our own version of the Necronomicon. It was really a blast so much fun.”

In addition to this upcoming second season in April, Shudder released a Holiday Special in December, which featured killer Santas and werewolves.

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About an hour into Little Nightmares II, I found a toy duck resting on a hardwood floor. It was the kind of carved, wooden plaything that kids drag around on a piece of twine, with wheels where the real waterfowl’s webbed feet would be. A dim spotlight from somewhere above shone on its reflective wings. Behind it, there was an oaky barrier, formed from leaning one table against another–too tall for my character, a tiny child named Mono, to climb. When I approached, the floorboard the duck was sitting on sunk into the floor. I turned to run just as a metal light fixture swung down from the ceiling, smashing me into the barrier and killing me.

Once the checkpoint reset, I tried again, attempting to quickly run away from the floorboard before the pendulum fell. No dice. Again, it smashed me against the wall.

“I wonder if I can…” I thought, eyeing the nearby toy, “…duck.”

When I respawned, I set the pressure plate off again and crouched down. Sure enough, the light fixture whooshed over my head, hit the barrier, and came to a halt. I climbed onto the light, and used the impromptu step stool to hop the barrier, marveling at the way developer Tarsier Studios had cleverly used a colorful environmental detail as a hint for a puzzle–a joke where a sigh of relief greeted the punchline instead of laughter.

Lasting relief, however, is nowhere to be found on Mono’s journey. From the moment we first meet Mono, alone in the woods, he is vulnerable. His horrifying adventure takes him out of the woods and through a frightening cityscape haunted by humans who have turned into frightening parodies of mundane occupations, like a teacher whose watchful eyes dart at the end of a long, distended neck. Though Little Nightmares 2 tells its story wordlessly, we can easily intuit Mono’s goal: escape. Tarsier’s imaginatively brooding art helps to sell this story. As the player, you may want to play in this world, but Mono’s clear motivation is to find a painless route to safety.

Many of Little Nightmares II’s best moments are structured like jokes: tense build-up released by a climactic surprise. For example, with there being no weapons in the first game, I was shocked when, during the first chapter, the solution for dealing with a vicious pursuer was to pick up a shotgun with my AI companion, Six, and shoot our stalker dead. There are other moments like this, where Tarsier takes what you thought you knew and suddenly upends it, leaving you shocked and sputtering. These moments are especially effective if you’ve played the previous game. But, regardless of your past experience with the series, there is a catharsis inherent in these rare moments when our fragile characters finally get a chance to fight back.

Since the release of the first entry in 2017, the Little Nightmares series has combined the dark and the playful, casting players as little kids in a world of big and powerful monsters. Levels are presented as dioramas. If you move the camera far enough to the left or right, up or down, you can see the black space where the room ends. Walk close enough to the camera and your character will hit an invisible fourth wall. The overall effect is such that you simultaneously feel like a kid–maybe a sadistic one like Sid from Toy Story, but a kid nonetheless–playing with toys in their toybox and like the toys themselves.

Stellar art direction helps sell this. The settings that you jump and climb through have a moody sense of crumbling realism. I particularly enjoyed a platforming section that had me evading a monster by climbing across sprawling bookshelves in a library that, from my tiny perspective, seemed impossibly big. The rain and lighting effects set the tone for the world, one that leaves you feeling vulnerable. While the environmental art aims for realism, the enemy designs are grotesquely cartoonish. In Little Nightmares II, you will be alternately hunted by all kinds of monsters, from a larva-shaped man who clings to the ceiling and chows down on dead bodies to a monstrous schoolmarm with sharp teeth and a veiny neck that can stretch almost endlessly in pursuit of prey. These characters are unsettling in a way reminiscent of the darker Jim Henson works like Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and the visual similarity to puppetry helps sell the dark fantasy that you are a child in a frightening, violent world.

Tarsier uses this unsettling art design to terrific effect. In one of my favorite moments in the game, you don a disguise and sneak through a room filled with dozens of enemies–the most you’ve seen at once at this point in the game. There’s a sense of mounting dread to that scene, as your ruse could fall apart at any second, forcing you to have to outrun a terrifying number of enemies. Little Nightmares II has several moments that tap into a similar dread, effectively building and sustaining an indelibly dark mood that lasts for most of the game.

But mood alone isn’t enough to keep a game interesting for long, and Little Nightmares II fittingly has some great puzzles. Your verbs are fairly limited most of the time–you can run, jump, climb, and both pick up and pull objects. But Tarsier combines those actions with clever worldbuilding to make some truly memorable headscratchers. A personal favorite involved using an X-ray machine to reveal a key within a stuffed animal and then using an incinerator in the nearby morgue to access the hidden object. This puzzle was both a joy to solve and successfully communicated the history of how this building was used before the world became what it is. Little Nightmares II has plenty of inventive puzzles beyond that, and Tarsier’s secret weapon is its thoughtfulness in linking its puzzles to the history of Little Nightmares 2’s richly imagined world.

The addition of weapons results in some memorable sequences (like the aforementioned shotgun-toting confrontation), but it also pushes Little Nightmares II into frustrating territory. Sometimes your character, Mono, will find an axe or sledgehammer on the ground that’s necessary for solving a puzzle or defeating an enemy in your way, but, being a tiny child, he can only drag it along the floor. The scrape of the blade on concrete is pitch-perfect, and the sensation of shifting the weapon’s weight to bring it down on an opponent or obstacle feels satisfyingly hefty. But there are a few occasions where you’re expected to take out multiple enemies in a row without getting hit, and these encounters are more frustrating than fun because of how slow Mono wields weapons. The window for landing a hit is brief, and even though certain enemies take more than one hit to go down, you will always die in a single hit, so you sometimes have to perfectly time several hits in a row or you’ll be sent back to a checkpoint. These moments are irritating hang-ups in your progress that otherwise, by and large, feels pretty smooth.

There is one specific roadblock that’s not so easily overcome. During a puzzle sequence near the end of the game, you must find the correct sequence of doors by listening for an audio cue that gets louder as you approach the right door. In addition to being nigh unsolvable for players who are deaf or hard-of-hearing–barring a series of lucky guesses–this puzzle is a tedious and unsuccessful subversion of the formula Tarsier has followed for the rest of the game. In the several hours leading up to this, Little Nightmares 2 teaches you that if you study the environment closely enough, you can solve any puzzle it presents. That’s not the case here, and the result is a section of gameplay that is both uninteresting and inaccessible. The music was crucial for me in solving the puzzle, and more obvious visual cues or closed-captions would be necessary to make this portion of the game playable for everyone.

That puzzle’s placement in the game hammered home for me that Little Nightmares II was stretching on for a bit too long. After one climactic encounter, which felt like it should herald the end of the game, my play experience dragged on for another hour, including that tedious puzzle and a frustrating final boss fight. This concluding section of the game just goes on for too long, and none of the mechanical ideas introduced in the last chapter are interesting enough to warrant the added length.

Little Nightmares II is a delightfully spooky foray into a horrifyingly gorgeous world. It’s also a bit too long, occasionally frustrating and, in one key moment, inaccessible for players who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. But, overall, it represents a successful follow-up from Tarsier. With inventive puzzle design and some startlingly original levels, it isn’t quite a dream come true, but it certainly won’t have you waking up, bolt upright, screaming, in a cold sweat.

Few games get me as hyped as Final Fantasy XIV, the MMORPG that’s had a wild ride and increasing success over the past several years. Because of it, director and producer Naoki Yoshida, and the team behind the game, have made waves within Square Enix and now have the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI on their hands. But FFXIV’s journey is far from finished, nor is it taking a backseat. Endwalker, which is set to launch in Fall 2021, is the next expansion, and while it’ll conclude the 10-year story arc that’s been the centerpiece since the game’s early days, FFXIV’s scale is only getting larger.

The expansion was revealed and showcased in detail earlier this month, and I have a breakdown of everything you need to know about Endwalker (for one, we’re going to the moon). More recently, I was able to correspond with Yoshida-san via email to get some insight on the lead-up to new expansion–and I think the overall sentiment is that Endwalker and the position FFXIV is in today was never promised, but was always planned for.

“The idea of creating a large-scale saga and bringing closure to it after multiple expansions came about when we were working on A Realm Reborn (2013),” Yoshida-san started. He continued, “However, in order to make that idea a reality, gaining popularity and acquiring the adequate funds and acclaim to continue long-term service would be required.”

“Until the launch of Heavensward, whether we would be able to achieve our goal was largely dependent upon if players were enjoying the game and continuing to play, and it wasn’t until after the release of Stormblood when I finally felt confident that we would be able to make this a reality,” he concluded.

With FFXIV’s growing financial success, some of those ambitions were fulfilled in the 2019 expansion Shadowbringers. It’s often regarded as one of the best stories told in Final Fantasy history–a testament to the work of its lead writer Natsuko Ishikawa, who has also taken on that role for Endwalker. In a previous conversation with Yoshida-san, he talked about to this interconnectedness of Shadowbringers. Its core narrative was built on side content from years ago, and he explained that was left in limbo in case they wanted to revisit it. But it was also an exercise of closure for a meticulous, personal storyline.

As impactful as Shadowbringers was, bringing closure to nearly everything up to this point, and finally executing on that idea from all those years ago through Endwalker, is another level of ambition. Yoshida-san said, “What I’m really excited about is seeing how people will react, feel, and be surprised by what is to come.” And the last time he said that it was about the 5.3 update storyline, which certainly delivered.

As you can probably imagine, planning and development for subsequent patches and expansions happen well ahead of time to keep up with a regular cadence that was established back in 2013–for example, Endwalker’s story was already wrapped up by October 2019. Yoshida-san even dedicated a lengthy segment to explaining the management process in the latest Live Letter From The Producer update stream. In being transparent and communicative with the FFXIV community, he has also shed light on how the team has transitioned to work-from-home conditions, the prioritization of personal life amid a global pandemic, and the changes to the development of new content.

They’ve had to shuffle around priorities with content and push updates back, and it ultimately affected the launch of Endwalker, which was originally planned for Summer 2021. But even in the midst of a dramatic shift, the quality of the game’s updates has been consistent. And it seems that is extending to Endwalker, at least in terms of its breadth.

“We’re scrambling to somehow get everything done by our deadlines, but I can assure you that the volume of the main scenario will not be any smaller than those of previous expansions,” Yoshida-san said. “How the scale and scope of the game end up depends on the effort of the staff, but what l can say is it will be more than 50 hours of gameplay.”

From what we can glean from the Endwalker’s teaser trailer and announcement presentation, there is going to be a lot packed into those 50-or-so hours, especially considering all the lingering story threads. The FFXIV team made no bones about players going to the moon in-game, which is core to Endwalker’s premise, and so many implications were hinted at about the game’s world, too. But that trailer also featured Alisaie and Alphinaud in a big way, long-time characters who finally showed up in a FFXIV cinematic. It got me thinking about the exceptional character development and focus Shadowbringers brought to its core cast, and I asked if that ethos is being carried into Endwalker.

“You’re correct that we did focus on that aspect for our characters in Shadowbringers, and I believe you’ll be able to see how we will dive deep into various characters so that you can get a glimpse of their inner selves,” Yoshida-san stated. While Heavensward and Stormblood largely told stories about factions, politics, and humanity, Shadowbringers brought a new sense of intimacy that made us see FFXIV and its characters in a new light. He followed up, saying, “Just like our players–the Warriors of Light–have gone through this journey to hear, feel, and think, the same applies to the NPCs.”

When it comes to anything beyond Endwalker, it seems that the team doesn’t have time to dive into other projects or plans for now. While this expansion marks an end and a new beginning for FFXIV, Yoshida-san said, “We’re currently focused solely on creating Endwalker, so there’s nothing else in my mind aside from delivering the finale of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark story arc to our players.”

However, he did drop a hint about how they may try new approaches in a post-Endwalker world. Read into it what you will, but Yoshida-san said, “I believe the development staff are most keen on finding out more about the next story, including how long it might be and if we’ll be going in the direction of shorter storylines. It’s still a secret!”

With Yoshida-san calling this “the end of the first saga of FFXIV,” loosely mentioning five-to-ten more years of regular content and alluding to secrets for the game’s future, we at least know that FFXIV has a lot more left in the tank.

FFXIV has been in a unique position as an MMORPG that has hooked a wide playerbase with a sharp narrative that stands tall alongside its single-player counterparts. It is the main appeal of Endwalker, too. For one, I am expecting more wild revelations and stunning moments that the game has consistently delivered. But given the formula we’ve grown accustomed to, I’m also looking forward to how the FFXIV team handles what seems to be uncharted territory for the game, building something beyond the initial vision established back in A Realm Reborn.

The expansion isn’t the only thing FFXIV has in store for the year. Patch 5.5 is a two-part update, set for April 13 and the end of May, that will usher players into the story of Endwalker along with a slew of new content. And between those two updates is FFXIV Fan Fest on May 15 and 16, where we can expect more details on Endwalker and the full cinematic intro.

From the free trial that includes the Heavensward expansion and lets players go up to level 60, and my FFXIV beginner’s guide, it’s as good a time as any for newcomers to see what Square Enix has built over the past several years. There’s also plenty of time from now until Endwalker launches sometime in Fall this year. For current players, looking forward intensifies.

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Arcade1Up is adding to its lineup of legacy cabinets with a new machine featuring 12 games from Midway’s heyday. The Midway Legacy Edition arcade cabinet was revealed alongside the first trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie. Arcade1Up already revealed three legacy cabinets at CES earlier this year–Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Atari–each of which also have 12 games.

The Midway Legacy Edition doesn’t have a release date or price just yet, but you can sign up on the company’s website to receive notifications on availability. The Bandai Namco cabinet is up for preorder for $400, so that probably gives you an idea of what to expect with the Midway model.

The Midway Legacy Edition uses Mortal Kombat II decals on the front, sides, and light-up marquee. Raiden appears on both sides, raising his hand to create lightning. You don’t actually need quarters to play it, but the cabinet does have a faux coin panel on the front to further add to its classic arcade look. The riser has the Mortal Kombat logo on the front and Mortal Kombat II decals on the sides.

Since the cabinet is Mortal Kombat-themed, the six-button controls–one set for each player–are labeled with kicks, punches, block, and run. The pair of red joysticks also have markers next to them indicating different moves in Mortal Kombat II.

The Midway Legacy Edition’s lineup is impressive. Though headlined by three Mortal Kombat games, it also comes with arcade classics such as Joust, Rampage, and Defender. Here’s the full list of games:

• Mortal Kombat
• Mortal Kombat II
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
• Joust
• Defender
• Rampage
• Gauntlet
• Paperboy
• Rootbeer Tapper
• Bubbles
• Toobin
• Wizard of Wor

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