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After moving away from developing games internally, Disney is inviting developers to pitch ideas for games using its extensive library of properties.

Sean Shoptaw, the Senior Vice-Principal of Games and Interactive Experiences, spoke at the 2020 DICE Summit in Las Vegas, detailing the new approach Disney is taking with regards to having its properties represented in games again.

“I’m here for one specific reason: to empower you to do really unique things with our [catalogue],” Shoptaw said during his keynote. “We want to tap into the power of creatives across the industry.”

Shoptaw invited developers in attendance to “come and play” with the properties Disney owns, which has grown extensively after the company purchased 21st Century Fox last year (along with its gaming division). He emphasized the desire for original stories using established characters and franchises, citing Insomniac’s Spider-Man and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as good examples of how successful this approach can be.

Working with other publishers isn’t new to Disney. The company has had a decades-spanning deal with Square Enix for Kingdom Hearts, as well as an exclusive one with EA for Star Wars adaptations. This appearance at DICE is the first time since stepping away from internal development that Disney is detailing its strategy for video games going forward.

Best Buy has a new Animal Crossing: New Horizons bundle up for pre-order. For $65, you get the game and a plush Bell Bag that can hold your change, small knick-knacks, or Animal Crossing Amiibos when they’re misbehaving. You’ll also get the Tom Nook “phone and tech” badge that comes with all New Horizons pre-orders at Best Buy, which probably makes this the best pre-order offer available at this time.

As you can see, the drawstring pouch is incredibly cute. Sure, it’s not extremely practical, nor is it filled with actual currency you can use in real life, but it only tacks on $5 to the price of the game. The Bell Bag costs $20 separately, which seems like an absurd price that Tom Nook would set.

Though the Animal Crossing-themed Switch console is currently sold out, there’s still plenty of nice New Horizons merch available to pre-order ahead of the game’s March 20 release on Nintendo Switch. Make sure to check out our New Horizons pre-order guide if you’re not interested in the Bell Bag bundle.

Meanwhile, UK Animal Crossing fans can pre-order New Horizons bundles from Nintendo UK that come with adorable decorative character pillows.

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th century legend set during the time of King Arthur, in which a Knight of the Round Tale enters into a deadly pact with an otherworldy being known as the Green Knight. It’s been adapted to the screen twice so far, and this summer, a new version arrives. It’s simply titled The Green Knight and the first trailer has been released.

Dev Patel (The Last Airbender) stars as Sir Gawain in this new version, with Sean Harris (Mission Impossible: Fallout) as King Arthur and Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as the Green Knight. The movie looks like a striking blend of fantasy and horror, with lots of weird, stylish imagery and a frankly terrifying Green Knight. Check the trailer out below, and see the movie’s equally weird poster at the end of this story.

The Green Knight is directed by David Lowery, whose previous movies include the 2016 Disney remake of Pete’s Dragon and the 2018’s crime drama The Old Man & The Gun, which starred Robert Redford in potentially his final performance. The Green Knight also stars Joel Edgerton (Bright), Alicia Vikander (Tom Raider), and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk), and releases on May 29.

For more check out, GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming movies of 2020.

Microsoft announced that its ambitious game streaming service, Project xCloud, would begin limited testing on iOS devices, following months of Android-only testing. The company warned that it expected spots to go fast, and sure enough, it’s already reached capacity.

Microsoft spokesperson Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) gave the word on Twitter. He did note that this is initial capacity, so more will probably be added from the waitlist as the test continues. In the initial announcement, Microsoft said that the limited space meant it would be cycling through registrants, and so those who got in early may not keep their access for the duration of the testing.

This initial test is only available in a few territories–namely the US, UK, and Canada–and doesn’t enable Xbox console streaming like the Android version of the test. It’s also limited to a single game, the Halo Master Chief Collection. To participate you need an iPhone or iPad running iOS13.0 or later, a Gamertag, a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox One controller, and a data plan that supports 10Mbps-down bandwidth.

Microsoft is ramping up its cloud gaming plans, most recently announcing a partnership with Samsung to bring xCloud to its mobile devices. Though it hasn’t detailed how this will tie into its plans for Xbox Series X, cloud gaming is definitely a big part of the future for Microsoft–to the point that Xbox head Phil Spencer says its chief competition will be Amazon and Google.

1. The Three Musketeers

Sonic the Hedgehog has been around for nearly 30 years and there have been a lot of variations on the character in that time. His key characteristics are generally summed up as “runs fast,” “is blue,” and “has attitude.” The Sonic we see in the live-action-meets-CGI Sonic the Hedgehog, thankfully, abandons the emphasis on ’90s buzzwords for something a little more real and vulnerable. Sonic in 2020 is quick with a quip and a pop culture reference, but he’s also just really excited to be here.

Sonic the Hedgehog foregoes pulling much from the video game and cartoon takes that came before it, choosing instead to set up something new for the character. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) in the film is something of a Superman character: an orphan with incredible power he’s not quite sure how to handle. It’s an interesting setup that the movie should have leveraged more, especially after a very brief opening that shows Sonic being chased from his home planet by a bunch of unknown bad guys for unknown reasons, who never come up again.

That backstory serves to get Sonic out of the video game world and into ours, where he’s been hiding out for years, observing everybody in the small town of Green Hills from afar and wishing he could reveal himself and end his loneliness. In his frustration, Sonic accidentally taps into his latent super-speed-induced powers, and the resulting explosion alerts the US government to his existence. Cue an ET-like story of shady G-men hunting an alien, who then happens across a friendly human–local sheriff Tom (James Marsden), or Donut Lord as Sonic knows him from afar–who helps him evade the men in black and their maniacal, mechanically inclined leader, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey).

Sonic the Hedgehog is really a buddy comedy about Tom and Sonic, and it’s at its best when it leans into that dynamic. Schwartz is a perfect choice for this version of Sonic, who’s a little irreverent and intensely tuned in to American pop culture somehow, but also earnest and upbeat. Schwartz’s Sonic is more of a Michaelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than the combination of Bugs Bunny’s mouth and Road Runner’s feet that first hit the small screen in the ’90s. It’s something of an expansion of Schwartz’s Parks and Rec character, the lovably enthusiastic but clueless and entitled Jean Ralphio, with Schwartz keeping the former parts and jettisoning the latter to make Sonic relatable but not annoying.

Marsden, meanwhile, avoids the formulaic position of the put-upon straight man in the comedy duo, instead quickly embracing the absurdity of making friends with a cartoon hedgehog and pretending Sonic is just a regular person in disguise. Marsden brings an easygoing likability to the team-up, selling that Sonic isn’t as exhausting to be around as one might expect, and the two quickly establish a rapport that’s a lot of fun to watch, whether they’re just hanging out or actively fighting off Robotnik’s many ridiculous robotic threats. Schwartz and Marsden are having a good time, so you are, too.

Surprisingly, Sonic the super-fast CGI hedgehog alien feels pretty down-to-earth in comparison to the movie’s villain. Carrey is in full ’90s effect as Robotnik, channeling the kind of intense goofiness that defined his more famously overwrought roles, like Ace Ventura, the Riddler, or the Grinch. It’s hit-and-miss–Robotnik is so far over the top that you wonder why any other human being would put up with him, and he chews so much scenery that you have to wonder if the filmmakers were concerned people would lose interest in Sonic if they weren’t constantly bombarded by Robotnik’s weirdness. Compared to the more effortless humor that develops between Sonic and Tom, Robotnik feels out of sync with the rest of the movie; a bit of a tonal anomaly that’s running at a slightly different speed.

Robotnik does have a few genuinely funny moments, but they’re mostly the surprising ones that play against his established bully personality or show some vulnerability–like when he screams in the face of his assistant, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub), but is actually giving him a loud and unnecessarily confrontational compliment. For the most part, though, Carrey’s goofball intensity is aimed squarely at the younger kids in the audience, and his biggest moments feel transplanted from a different movie–as well as a bit tiring.

The movie is mostly about Sonic, Tom, and Robotnik, but a few other characters pop up to bring some laughs as well. Though she doesn’t have a big impact on the story, there are some good moments between Tom and his veterinarian wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter), who gets to join in on the adventure toward its end. Maddie’s sister (Natasha Rothwell) acts as pure comic relief in trying to convince Maddie to divorce Tom, and she gets a few of the script’s better lines in her short screentime. It’s a bummer that both characters don’t get to play a bigger part in the story, but what time they do get adds to Sonic and Tom’s dynamic.

Sonic the Hedgehog manages enough genuine humor, likable characters, and well-built action to be a fun ride, even though it is definitely intended more for a younger crowd than the aging fans of the game franchise. A couple of standout setpieces portray Sonic moving at a normal rate through scenes where everything else is stuck at a near-standstill, just like those Quicksilver moments in a couple of recent X-Men movies, and they carry some inventive slapstick gags that go well with the special effects. His one-liners are also deployed just often enough, and with just enough awareness, that they’re funny without beating you over the head with try-hard references.

The movie is also knowingly reverential of the Sonic franchise without being beholden to it. Callbacks to the iconic music of Green Hill Zone or Sonic’s foot-tapping idle animation from the game are enough to raise a smile, but the references avoid being glaring. Sonic the Hedgehog is a movie that knows its fans are in the audience and gives them quite a few nods, but mostly in subtler ways that work in the story, instead of dropping a bunch of pandering, neon-clad reminders that You Are Watching A Sonic Thing.

As video game adaptations go, Sonic the Hedgehog is among the stronger ones. It’s smart enough to stand on its own, making use of longstanding aspects of Sega’s supersonic mascot and his franchise, while making sure that what really shines through are its characters. That restraint goes a long way to making Sonic the Hedgehog a light, funny movie, and while it definitely skews young, longtime Sonic fans should have just as much fun finally seeing the Blue Blur on the big screen.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

The Sonic the Hedgehog movie is expected to have a strong start at the box office. Variety reports that the CG/live-action film is projected to make between $40 million and $45 million for its opening weekend, which includes the President’s Day holiday in the US on February 17.

Sonic should have no trouble unseating Birds of Prey, which was last weekend’s No. 1 movie with $33.2 million for its first weekend. Sonic goes up against a raft of newcomers this weekend, including the thriller Fantasy Island, the Will Ferrell/Julia Louis-Dreyfus movie Downhill, and the romance The Photograph, all of which are expected to open below Sonic.

The Sonic movie is directed by Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler (Gopher Broke). It was originally expected to hit theatres in 2019, but Sony moved the movie to 2020 in response to the social media backlash against the original design of Sonic.

The film reportedly cost $87 million to produce, before marketing expenses are factored in. The movie features the voice of Ben Schwartz as Sonic, with Jim Carrey playing the evil Dr. Robotnik. James Marsden also stars as a police officer who befriends Sonic.

Sonic is gearing up for a big 2020, with Sega planning on announcing Sonic news on the 20th of every month.

In other video game movie news, Sony Pictures has announced it will produce a movie based on the world’s most popular FPS, CrossFire.