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Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most beloved games ever made, and one of the weirdest. From comical mis-translations to offbeat mini-games, and plot-points you’d sooner expect in an Adam Sandler film, the J-RPG is sometimes memorable for all the wrong (or right?) reasons. As we prepare to return to Midgar for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, here’s 21 of the strangest parts of the original, in the slideshow or article below.

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Riding a Dolphin to Junon

The nineties were a little obsessed with dolphins. Between the Flipper reboot, Ecco, and Jones the hacker from 1995’s Johnny Mnemonic, we had our fair share of heroic bottlenoses. Final Fantasy 7’s contribution to this trend involves a young Junon resident Priscilla and her pal, Mr. Dolphin. Needing a way to ascend former fishing town Junon to the Shinra base above, Priscilla and her aqua mammal comrade offer to take Cloud and the gang on Mr. Dolphin’s back. Heeding the call of Priscilla’s trusty whistle, Mr. Dolphin gives you a massive head start on the base of the Shinra tower, making the rest of the infiltration a cinch.

Getting Threatened For Angering a TV Producer

While visiting the Shinra presence in Junon, you inadvertently arrive during a military parade. As the city is crawling with soldiers and officials, the best way to avoid detection is to blend in, forcing Cloud to steal a Shinra uniform and march as part of the fanfare. This is all well and good, except the game frames this as part of a live TV broadcast, complete with a ratings meter to measure your score.

The aftermath can go one of two ways: either you do a great job and ratings sky-rocket, leading the producer to give you a hefty bonus, or you screw it up and the network executive orders someone to mail you a letter bomb. Not only a bit of an overreaction but also a stark reflection of a time when offhand references to terrorism didn’t carry the same heft.

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The Date With Barrett

A drug trip of what a cyberpunk amusement park might look like, your time at the  Golden Saucer is one of the highlights of Final Fantasy VII. Among all the various mini-games and character moments, there’s a dating sequence where, depending on the choices made, Cloud can end up having a romantic evening with Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, or if you’re very lucky, Barrett.

Each date has its own set unique dialogue, and for the most part, there’s a sense of genuine connection. Aerith expresses a longing to meet the “real” Cloud, Tifa talks about wanting to tell Cloud she has feelings for him, while  Yuffie plants one on his cheek. Barrett tries to get him to admit which of the women in your party he actually likes, before suggesting Marlene – who is 4-years-old – could be the object of Cloud’s affections. A tongue-in-cheek joke likely made worse by poor translation, it makes an odd situation all the more bizarre.

Battling Palmer the First Time

Cid’s backstory that unfolds when you visit Rocket Town is somber, yet it’s capped off by pure slapstick comedy. After Shera tells her and Cid’s heartbreaking story  you find Palmer trying to steal Cid’s plane, the Tiny Bronco. Palmer’s the head of Shinra’s Space Development Division, and he and Cid have no love for each other.

The ensuing battle is a relatively normal second-tier boss fight, until Palmer makes the wise choice to retreat instead of facing death, and promptly gets hit by a truck. The scuffle happens on a country road so it makes sense there’s traffic, but the timing is more than a little at odds with the bittersweet story you just heard.

Helping Tifa Win a Slap-Off

Tifa Lockheart is a gaming icon. One of Cloud’s oldest friends, and a ride-or-die companion, she’s synonymous with the lineage of Final Fantasy  7 and the franchise as a whole. It’s not the RPG’s greatest moment, then, when Tifa becomes involved in a slap fight against Shrina brass Scarlet.

As Tifa and Barrett make their desperate escape from Shinra captivity, Tifa comes face-to-face with Scarlet atop the Mako Cannon in what should be a tense one-on-one battle. Instead, we’re given a tactless brawl of insults and slaps before Tifa’s eventually hauled out of there. It’s very much a credit to Tifa’s character otherwise that this incident was largely swept under the carpet of history.

The Golden Saucer Show

Aside from the loose dating sim that leads into seeing Enchantment Night at the Golden Saucer, the actual date itself is a memorable outing, to say the least. The fireworks are good, and the tram looks comfortable, but the live theater leaves something to be desired.

A fantasy show is in residence, involving a wizard, a dragon, and a knight, but the actors don’t do a lot of performing. Instead, it’s up to you, as Cloud, to save your date as the rest twirl around the stage. You’re asked to choose between the dragon, the king or the knight, and given the winner a little kiss, leading to a proclamation that love has triumphed. Shakespeare this is not, and it’s not even two scenes.

Cid’s Abuse of Shera

Learning about the mission that ended Cid’s career as a space captain is a downtrodden affair. Shera was willing to sacrifice herself so Cid’s launch could go off without a hitch, but Cid, unable to let her do that, caused an emergency shut-down, effectively dooming the space program and ending any chance they had of being involved in it.

It’d all make for some heady romance if not for Cid’s complete for Shera’s mental well-being. Over and over, he hurls abuse at his partner and assistant, calling her names and insulting her work. Sure enough, right after she’s finished narrating the flashback, the first thing Cid asks is why she hasn’t yet served tea to their guests. Cid might be one of hell of a pilot, but he’s a lousy husband.

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Cloud Cross-dressing

The entire section involving Don Corneo at Wall Market is an oddity. Ever the unwitting hero, Cloud is volunteered to dress in women’s clothing in order to get close to Don. Gathering the necessary items is a seedy fetch quest involving suggestions of nefarious items and a euphemism or two, and if you manage to obtain the ‘best fashion’, you catch Corneo’s eye.

Tifa’s the unlucky object of Don’s affections before you step in, so at least you know he’s just a creep in general. Your reward for doing this perfectly is the line “all right pussycat, come to daddy”, which never gets any less icky no matter how many times we play.

The Original English-Translation is Kind of a Mess

There’s no doubting the kind of resources that went into Final Fantasy 7. This was an expensive, work-intensive project that required everything Square could put into it to ship. That said, the original English translation was hit and miss.

We’re not just talking about the occasional strange line or typo. The tone and meaning of certain scenes are altered by misunderstanding the Japanese intention, and some characters and names are divorced from their roots in other cultures. Cait Sith is supposed to be Scottish, based on the cat sith in Celtic mythology, but you wouldn’t know that from the original localization. Ultimately, though, the odd language has added to the RPG’s charm over the years, making a play-through all the more unique, as well as serving as a reminder that issues of time-constraint aren’t new in game development.

Cloud is Invisible During Cut-Scenes

Final Fantasy 7 was made during a time of high innovation. The jump from 2D to 3D in-home consoles was revolutionary, with Square’s new multi-disc PlayStation RPG right at the fore-front. However, the move into the third dimension was far from seamless, and many tricks were performed to make sure everything functioned – for the most part, at least.

One of the subtlest cheats the masterminds at Square got away with was making Cloud invisible during in-game cut-scenes. Whenever any dialogue is occurring and Cloud is off-screen, he isn’t actually off-screen, his sprites have just been turned off. If you turn the invisibility off using a hacking tool for one of these scenes, you’ll find Cloud just standing still as everyone talks like he isn’t in the room. Nobody’s quite sure why this is, though it’s been speculated it was done for stability purposes. It’s helped speedrunners get the overall record down, in any case.

Choco/Mog Summon

The cinematics that came with summoning one of Final Fantasy 7’s heroic beasts was the stuff of legend for years post-launch. Indeed, many now, such as Ifrit, Bahamut Zero, or Knights of the Round, are still exhilarating to watch. Perhaps to lower expectations before getting a Shiva or a Leviathan, the first summon players are given is the delightfully unusual Choco/Mog.

A moogle riding a chocobo headlong into whatever enemy they’re aimed at, Choco/Mog does epitomize Final Fantasy’s affection for comedy, cuteness, and not taking itself too seriously. The summon has become something of a running joke to see just what players can manage to defeat using the adorable animal cavalry.

Getting a Golden Chocobo for Knights of the Round

No Final Fantasy is complete without chocobos, and Final Fantasy 7 made the most of the yellow-feathered birds. One of its ongoing side-missions is to race and breed chocobos in order to create the ultimate in choco-evolution – a golden chocobo. These glowing creatures can gallop over any terrain, making them an invaluable asset to any explorer looking for the rarest materia.

As luck would have it, the best summon in Final Fantasy 7, Knights of the Round, requires a golden chocobo. There are four islands dotted around the world map that make use of various colors of chocobo, and the Knights reside in the northeast, in a round island that taunts anyone flying overhead. A glorious steed of gold will get you there, and what makes this odd is the lack of celebration or challenge. The most powerful summon in the game is just yours for the taking, a fitting pay-out for all that choco-breeding.

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Skipping the Raid on Midgar

Remember that programming trivia about Cloud being invisible? There’s one major spot where that quirk can actually affect in-game events. During the raid on Midgar, in the cut-scene where Reeves calls Hojo from the conference room, if you hold Down, Right and Run, Cloud will exit the room and the game will skip to the Hojo fight, ostensibly blowing over the entire raid.

Aside from being a neat trick and saving you time if you’re a speedrunner, there’s no real benefit to this. The items and bonuses you’d otherwise receive are gone and you’re missing some good opportunities for grinding pre-Hojo. There have been reports of this happening accidentally, though, so if you’ve ever had this happen, rest assured your game isn’t broken (not in a conventional sense, at least).

The Game Becoming Castlevania-lite to Find Vincent

Given that he’s gotten his own spinoff, it’s safe to say vampiric side-character Vincent Valentine has his fans. The missions to enlist he and Yuffie are both strange, yet Vincent’s is easily the strangest. Essentially, Final Fantasy 7 briefly becomes a Castlevania knock-off as Cloud wanders a dusty old mansion, finding his way down to the basement to kick the lid off the red-dressed goth’s coffin to awaken him from his slumber.

The end of the world is an inconvenience for everyone, even vampires who’d rather be left alone to sleep and be morbid. Vincent joins you to take it to Sephiroth for waking him up, and he hasn’t gotten much shut-eye since, the poor chap.

Cait-Sith and Red XIII

Most of the Final Fantasy 7 cast are fairly normal, but Cait Sith and Red XIII are definite exceptions. A remote-controlled robot cat riding a giant stuffed moogle, Cith Sith’s the most eccentric member of the game’s party. Working as a fortune-teller in the Golden Saucer, Cait Sith steals from Cloud before wanting to switch sides, then kidnaps Marlene to get the party to keep him around. Using Cait Sith in combat is a literal gamble, as he only has two Limit Breaks, Dice and Slots, which can very easily go either way for enemies.

Red XIII’s story is equally strange. Given the numeric title as an experiment by Hojo, he’s discovered by your team after Hojo kidnaps Aerith in the hopes of breeding her and XIII. Once you’ve made sure that doesn’t happen, Red XIII, or Nanaki, as is his birth-name, becomes a firm member of the team. Having a wolf/lion-like animal around doesn’t make espionage easy though, and at one point Red pretends to be a Shinra soldier and gets away with it. He must be a convincing human when on his hind legs.

Exploring Wutai

Borrowing its name from a Chinese mountain famed for its Buddhist monasteries, Wutai is the home of Yuffie and provides a wonderful, if strange, excursion from the main plot. Working without materia, the initial exploration and encounters can be a little tough, especially the boss right, Rapps. But it’s the second part, where Yuffie goes solo, that things get odd.

The Wutai Pagoda is a Pokémon gym-style gauntlet in which Yuffie must prove herself to earn her Level 4 Limit Break and the Leviathan materia. She faces five bosses, each more difficult and offbeat than the list. First there’s Gorky, who could be an extra on the Gargoyles animated series, then we have Shake, an over-sized penguin, and the freakishly thin Chekhov, who gives way to Staniv, a mace-wielding chunk of flesh who has a menacing red mask lodged in his chest. Finally, there’s Godo, who seems to be a malformed religious statue given life. It’s all the stuff of nightmares, tucked away inside this cheery traditionalist refuge.

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Rude From the Turks Freezing Mid-Battle

Recurring enemies Rude and Reno of the Turks have a way of showing up when you least expect it, including on sunken ships like the Gelnika. Upon finding the well-dressed henchmen, the standard face-off occurs, although here odds are more in your favour than usual.

Rude has a number of attacks and spells in his repertoire, yet in Gelnika if he goes beyond his shoulder tackle, he freezes up and won’t attack for the rest of the fight. Not the most intense clash to begin with, it’s easy to finish him off before he has a chance for this to happen, so keep an eye out on your next play-through.

Regen Fully Healing the Party if You Pop the Lid on PS1

One of the side-effects of the first PlayStation having an open-top CD system is that you could accidentally pop the lid while playing, potentially damaging your progress. To combat this, the PlayStation always loaded games in chunks, so just closing the lid would usually resume play as normal. In Final Fantasy 7, you could use this to your advantage if you’re low on healing items and your party’s taken a hammering.

If you use a Regen potion mid-battle and open the lid on your PlayStation, the regen’s healing effect won’t end until your party-members are fully replenished. Then, you can close the top back down, and carry on like nothing happened, your squad back to tip-top shape.

Lucky 7s – Getting 7777 Health Allows You to do a Super Attack

If by chance, one of your characters hits 7777 health in battle, you’ll get the Lucky 7s mini-event, and the party-member will do 63 attacks, inflicting 7777 damage each. It’s not easy to do, but people have developed strategies if you want to see it for yourself.

There’s been no explanation around this from its developers – it might be some sort of reference to the game’s title that went unnoticed because it’s so rare to happen. If you do manage it, get ready to heal after your victory dance, as the character who gets lucky goes down to 1 HP afterward.

Ghost Aerith

The two-and-a-half-decades since Final Fantasy VII have seen all sorts of grasping at straws to prevent Aeris’ death or resurrect her. Some have theorized that because she had ultimate weapons and a level 4 Limit Break means it could be possible she resurrects later on in the experience, but in truth, this is just so these features are uniform across all characters. A popular theory to keep her alive involved being mean to Tifa the entire time, leading to Tifa pushing Aerith out of the way, or leveling up the ‘Cure’ materia to get Restore and bring her back to life. None are true.

There is an opportunity to see her ghost, though. If you go back to Midgar after she’s died, and visit her church, you can see her tending to flowers beside a boy and a girl. Moving up triggers her disappearance, but if you run fast enough, you’ll skip that and she’ll just sit there, gardening.

Funky Mini-Games

With new technology at its finger-tips, it’s clear Square had a lot of fun putting together the various challenges of Final Fantasy 7. The mini-games jump from genre-to-genre more-or-less constantly until you start getting towards the end,  their range stretching from harmless fun to downright bizarre.

The most outrageous is the snowboarding mini-game, which precedes the first SSX by several years. Although only a snippet of actual extreme sports, it’s a remarkably fluid piece of design that still holds up, and someone at Square knew this would be a selling point as a screenshot of Cloud hitting the slopes was on the back of the box in Europe. In contrast, there’s performing CPR on Priscilla when she’s attacked in Junon. Her grandfather teaches proper technique, and then you’re tasked with measuring Cloud’s breaths to continue. Auspicious for the time, and charming in retrospect, but peculiar nonetheless.

What’s your favorite weird Final Fantasy 7 moment? Shout out in the comments.

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Anthony is an Irish freelance writer and heavy metal fan. He loves weird horror, professional wrestling, and hopes to one day beat every Pokémon game using only a Polteageist. Tell him about your favorite RPG on Twitter.  

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Disney is making major changes to its upcoming slate of theatrical releases. Perhaps the most surprising shift involves Artemis Fowl, which will now bypass movie theaters entirely and instead debut on the Disney+ streaming service.

This is the latest setback for director Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of the YA fantasy novels. After spending years in development hell at Disney, Artemis Fowl was originally scheduled to release on August 9, 2019, before being pushed back to May 29, 2020. Disney will reveal the new streaming release date at a later time, suggesting that May 29 release is no longer in the cards.

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Artemis Fowl is the most significant example yet of a major 2020 movie shifting from a theatrical release to streaming in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, Universal revealed Trolls World Tour, The Invisible Man, The Hunt and Emma were all headed to video on-demand. Meanwhile, other blockbusters like Onward, Birds of Prey, and Sonic the Hedgehog had their theatrical runs cut short and pivoted to VOD releases.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and when it’ll be safe to reopen movie theaters in the US, it is doubtful Artemis Fowl will be the last example of a major 2020 blockbuster switching to streaming. Disney’s New Mutants (which was supposed to be released on April 3) seems another likely candidate for VOD as Disney curiously did not provide a new release date for it in their announcement Friday.

For more on the pandemic’s growing effects on the entertainment industry, check out our breakdown of every film and TV project delayed so far, and learn why AMC is facing major financial troubles as a result.

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And to prep for Artemis Fowl’s long-awaited release, here’s how you can bundle Disney+ and Hulu.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Ubisoft has revealed the Operator changes for Rainbow Six Siege in Update Y5S1.2. In this update, five Operators are being adjusted–Ying, Jäger, Mozzie, Buck, and Goyo–with Ying getting a noticeable buff to up her utility in combat. A few guns are getting balance changes too.

In a the update’s patch notes, Ubisoft writes that the update replaces Ying’s claymore (which recently replaced her frag grenades) with smoke grenades, a change the developer hopes will “increase the level of synergy she deploys when spearheading” the attacking team’s assault, specifically when it comes to circumventing Mira’s Black Mirrors or Goyo’s Volcàn Shields.

The update also ups the damage on Ying’s T-95 LSW light machine gun from 43 to 46 and the number of Candelas she has from three to four. Both changes should help her both disorient and deal out damage more quickly, which in turn will likely increase her utility both as the first one to breach an enemy’s team defenses and her likelihood of winning a one-on-one duel.

The other four Operators don’t have as many changes, though their respective adjustments will still likely have an influence on their in-match meta. Both Jäger and Mozzie’s changes, for example, are aimed at keeping players from roaming as much. Meanwhile the adjustments made to Buck and Goyo are more straightforward buffs and nerfs.

Jäger has gone from an Operator with level three speed and level one armor to one with level two speed and level two armor in order to encourage players to stick a bit closer to their teammates and not roam as much. Mozzie loses his Super Shorty, the extremely powerful shotgun that assisted in the defender’s ability to safely roam and escape from ambushes with explosive firepower.

Buck gains claymores at the cost of his frag grenades and gets a nice buff to his Skeleton Key’s magazine size and total number of rounds, which allows him to continue to be one of the game’s best breach attackers while removing the offensive power he shares with Sledge (who has fallen in utility thanks to Buck’s usefulness). “By removing his frags and giving more gadget ammunition, we expect players to have to operate a choice between an excellent downward attacker and a versatile soft breacher,” Ubisoft wrote. Goyo loses one of his Volcàn Shields, dropping the total number from three to two–a change that’s likely to be more immediately felt on the professional esport side of the game, not in casual play.

Rainbow Six Siege Y5S1.2 Operator And Weapon Adjustments

Ying

• Added smoke grenade
• Removed Claymore
• Increased T-95 LSW damage to 46 (up from 43).
• Added one Candela (4 Candelas in total)

Jäger

• Changed Operator from 3 speed/1 armor to 2 speed/2 armor.

Mozzie

• Removed Super Shorty.

Buck

• Removed frag grenades
• Added Claymore
• Skeleton Key
  • Increased magazine capacity from 5 to 6.
  • Increased total amount of rounds from 21 to 26.

Goyo

• Removed one Volcàn Shield (from 3 to 2)

Guns

• M-12
  • Added Razor Holographic sights to Caveira’s M-12.
• TCSG12
  • Reduced weapon damage from 84 to 55.
  • Increased total ammunition (from 51 to 61)

Ubisoft has clarified its stance on balancing Rainbow Six Siege for the game’s professional players, specifically what it meant by earlier stating, “if professional players are not happy with our proposed features, then that means we are going in the right direction.” In a blog post for the in-game Operator adjustments in update Y5S1.2, Ubisoft said it merely wanted to convey that it’s the developer’s job to push Siege’s playerbase out of its comfort zone on occasion.

“It is true that part of our balancing efforts is to push every player, professionals included, out of their comfort zone,” Ubisoft wrote. “This does not mean we are going about things to be intentionally frustrating for these players, but instead make adjustments to ensure our professional players are the best at the game as a whole, and not a specific update or meta. We also have to consider the entire player-base, and while some aspects of professional play will trickle down to general matchmaking, not all do (Goyo for example).”

In regards to Goyo, the Ember Rise Operator has a low pick and low win rate. Apparently, not many casual players see much utility in placing booby-trapped deployable shields–which makes a lot of sense given that they can be just as big of a detriment to Goyo’s fellow defenders as to the opposing attackers.

However, Goyo is quite popular at the professional level, so Ubisoft is removing one of the defender’s shields in hopes it stems some of the frustration of going up against him. Given Goyo’s already low pick-rate and average success at the non-professional level, this change shouldn’t have too much influence on his performance outside of esport competitions.

“We will improve our communication around balancing changes to include additional context and explanations for instances where we make a decision on an important topic and are in disagreement with our professional players,” Ubisoft wrote. “This will provide everyone with a common starting point for discussion. Please note that this is not feasible for every topic, but we will do it for the more critical topics.”

Update Y5S1.2 makes adjustments to five Operators–Ying, Jäger, Mozzie, Buck, and Goyo–with Ying getting a noticeable buff that should help raise her utility, both when spearheading the attacker’s offensive and when facing off against a defender in a one-on-one fight.

The Resident Evil 3 remake sticks very close to the original’s action-focused take on survival horror. While this can give you a greater feeling of control in your struggle to survive the hordes of undead, the game can often feel like it leans too heavily on action, resulting in encounters that aren’t very scary. While Resident Evil 3’s campaign is brief, and the game doesn’t have much in the way of bonus content, completing the story on Hardcore difficulty opens up a new difficulty mode that feels closer to a survival horror experience–presenting RE3 at its best.

After completing Hardcore mode, which is the hard mode available from the beginning and which has more aggressive enemies, RE3 will open up a bonus difficulty called Nightmare. Essentially a “very hard” mode, it includes tougher enemies and less ammo and reshuffles item locations. Those changes are already a lot to deal with, but what makes Nightmare mode so interesting are the remixed enemy encounters. In addition to throwing more zombies at you, tougher monsters appear much earlier, and Nemesis is far more aggressive and faster than before. My Nightmare mode playthrough, which rounded out to about four hours, offered a more worthwhile approach to RE3’s survival horror, that actively placed more pressure on me as it went on.

One of the reasons why survival horror is so effective is that it actively creates an air of uncertainty, of not knowing what awaits around the corner. This feeling will inevitably be diminished once you’ve gotten an understanding of the dangers in each environment, especially on repeat playthroughs. What I appreciated most about Nightmare mode is that it almost immediately lets you know that things aren’t going to be the same this time around.

This sentiment was exemplified shortly after leaving the subway for the first time. I rushed into an alleyway after taking out my first zombie and almost ran head-on into a crowd of eight undead looking for their next meal. What was a short encounter with a couple of distracted zombies in other modes is now a moment where your run can meet a quick and violent end, and it offered the first of many rushes that I seldom felt in my earlier playthroughs.

The repositioning and reordering of enemies not only makes for more claustrophobic encounters, but some areas now prompt detours based on the increased danger. This reordering is especially evident when Nemesis comes into play in the Downtown area. Like Mr. X from RE2, Nemesis is a disruptor, and just when you feel you’ve gotten a handle of the undead and the layout of the area, the villain makes a sudden entrance and forces you on the run, turning the common enemies and the tight corridors of the areas into genuine threats once again. Nightmare mode ratchets this up considerably with the undead in higher numbers, and in some cases, they will block pathways when you’re trying to make a break from the unstoppable bioweapon.

In addition to all these changes to the gameplay, Nightmare mode also adds bits of narrative that speak more to the current emotional state of the characters not seen in the standard modes. But in an interesting twist, it also shows off unseen events. By far, my favorite moment in RE3 is the revisit to the RPD station. During this sequence, you get to see Brad Vickers’s last appearance in the game, now as a zombie. In the default difficulties, this encounter ends in the courtyard, with you going about your business inside the station. But in Nightmare mode, the harder difficulty gives Brad more time to shine, as he stalks you through the station on more occasions. And just like his appearance in the original RE2, Brad is one tough zombie, and it’ll take more rounds than usual to put him down.

In my five playthroughs of Resident Evil 3 remake, I had the most fun with the game in Nightmare. As I mentioned in my full review, I felt that RE3 struggled to maintain the balance between survival horror and action gameplay. Nightmare mode, however, pushes the game further to survival horror, putting significant pressure on you to pick your battles and conserve ammo–which is when survival horror is at its best. And if you’re still looking for more of a challenge, the game’s final difficulty–Inferno–will unlock after finishing Nightmare mode, pushing the challenge even further.

Even with some of the bonus items and weapons I managed to scrounge up after my first run through the game, Nightmare mode still presented a significant obstacle to complete. Many encounters in this difficulty are genuinely clever, and it makes me wonder why they weren’t included in the standard modes. I usually groan at taking on harder difficulties, but Nightmare mode turned out to be a pleasant surprise from a game I thought I knew in and out, and it ended up showcasing the remake at its best.

Marvel’s Secret Wars is available to subscribers of Comixology Unlimited and can also be purchased on Amazon and Comixology. 

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In a fantastical realm dominated by war, feudal lords scheme and betray one another in order to curry favor with an all-powerful monarch. And while they plot against one another, a vast wall is all that stands between them and a literal army of undead monstrosities. Humanity’s greatest struggle for survival has arrived, and only a brave few heroes remain to keep hope alive. Sounds an awful lot like Game of Thrones, doesn’t it? But in this case, we’re talking about Marvel’s Secret Wars.

Binge It! The Magicians Is a Modern Heartfelt Fantasy for Adult Nerds

Secret Wars is a 2015 miniseries from writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribic. It’s not directly connected to 1984’s Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, though the two books do share certain characters and plot elements. While countless Marvel stories put the fate of the world or the entire universe in jeopardy, Secret Wars opens with the complete and utter destruction of the entire multiverse. Even the combined might of the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-Men isn’t enough to stave off the inevitable death of everything. Instead, it’s Doctor Doom of all people who manages to save humankind from total oblivion.

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In Secret Wars, Doom has achieved true omnipotence, finally gaining the power to match his boundless ego. Doom uses that power to salvage fragments of dozens of different dead universes, stitching together a solitary, hodgepodge planet called Battleworld. Battleworld is divided into domains, each ruled by a baron who answers only to God Emperor Doom and his army of Thors. Only Doom himself and a handful of heroes remember reality as it once was. But as they say, what is dead may never die…

As far as Marvel crossovers go, Secret Wars is hard to top. It has a compelling premise with a clear hook regardless of your familiarity with Marvel’s comic book universe. In fact, Secret Wars serves as the climax of Hickman’s Marvel work up to that point, building on years of stories in books like Fantastic Four, Avengers, New Avengers and Infinity. But the beauty of Secret Wars is that it only demands as much commitment as you’re willing to give. You can spend weeks going back and reading all the comics that set the stage for this grand Marvel epic. You can branch out and read the numerous Secret Wars tie-in comics that flesh out the Battleworld environment and its key players. Heck, there’s even a comic called X-Men ’92 that acts as a sequel to the iconic animated series. Or you can just read the nine-issue Secret Wars story. Your choice.

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Secret Wars makes for a great gateway comic for fantasy/sci-fi fans who want to dip their toes into superhero comics. As discussed earlier, the plot is very reminiscent of Game of Thrones, and some of the most memorable scenes in the series focus on Doom’s barons squabbling and jockeying for power. This book is the genesis of Hickman’s hilariously sassy interpretation of Mister Sinister. It’s definitely a book that can scratch that Game of Thrones itch as we all wait for George R.R. Martin to wrap up his saga.

But it’s the Dune influence that truly stands out. In both tone and subject matter, Hickman’s comics work shows a strong Frank Herbert influence. It’s no coincidence that Doom has proclaimed himself God Emperor in this story, just like the tyrannical Leto II Atreides in 1981’s God Emperor of Dune. The Dune books are heavily preoccupied with the idea that even godlike power has its limitations. Just because a spice-empowered Paul Atreides can peer into the future doesn’t mean he fully comprehends that future or has the power to alter it to his whim. In Secret Wars, Doom has all the power he could ever want, yet all he can do with that power is create a glorified life raft of a world in an endless sea of entropy. One particularly revealing scene shows us that Doom, in all his self-loathing, can’t even muster the power to fix his disfigured face.

In addition to delivering great Game of Thrones-style drama and one of the finest character studies of Doctor Doom ever published, Secret Wars is a powerful meditation on hope in the face of overwhelming odds. In that way, the book feels only more resonant in 2020. No matter how many cosmic devourers and power-hungry despots come along, life always finds a way to persevere. And even someone as twisted as Victor Von Doom is still capable of redemption.

More From Binge It!…

• Netflix’s The Letter for the King Is YA Game of Thrones, and It’s Great
• The Outsider Is a Supernatural Crime Drama That Should Please Stephen King Fans
• The Gross, Horrifying, Weird World of China Miéville’s Bas-Lag Trilogy
• Outlander Is the Hottest Time-Travel Show Ever Made
• The Magicians Is a Modern Heartfelt Fantasy for Adult Nerds

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Binge It! is IGN’s recommendation series. Movies, TV shows, books, comics, music… if you can binge it, we’re here to talk about it. In each installment of Binge It!, we’ll discuss a piece of content we’re passionate about — and why you should check it out.

Spawn’s arrival in Mortal Kombat 11 was something we’d been expecting for a while, but after a long wait, the beloved Image Comics superhero arrived in NetherRealm Studios’ gruesome brawler last month. IGN had a chance to speak with NetherRealm Studios creative director and Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon about how Todd McFarlane’s favorite Hellspawn wound up in the MK11 roster.

IGN: How does the process of working with Todd McFarlane differ from working with DC?

Ed Boon: Both Todd McFarlane’s team and DC have been very cooperative and collaborative. Each want to see their characters represented accurately in our game. Because Spawn is by nature a super violent character and is in an M-rated Mortal Kombat game, naturally there were fewer limitations to work with him. Todd did make it clear that he did not want us to hold back, and from that standpoint there were very few limitations put on the Mortal Kombat team.

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IGN: Spawn’s always been a lot more M-rated than some of the other IPs NetherRealm has put into Mortal Kombat, was there anything you wanted to try that got shot down?

EB: Actually, Alien, Predator, Jason and some others were up there too. ☺ But for Spawn, yes… there really wasn’t much that we wanted to do that got shut down as far as actual content was concerned. There were a couple of minor adjustments we made to stay within the character and history of Spawn, but those changes were not related to toning anything down. It was almost like Spawn was one of our characters… I bet we could have incorporated him into our story if we had the opportunity. ☺

IGN: Whose idea was it to give Spawn a sword? We realize Medieval Spawn totally is a thing; we’re just used to seeing Al Simmons lugging around giant machine guns.

EB: During the creation of our fighting characters, ideas come from all over the place. Often times the concept artist illustrates something that inspires someone from another group, and vice versa. The idea to have Spawn use a sword in our game probably came from our design group. They often request props and weapons while trying to define how a fighter will play. Part of the challenge of introducing a guest character in a game that already has 25 or 30 existing characters is introducing something new to the mix. Everybody knows that Spawn has his signature chains, but we felt that adding the swords as well would make him that much more interesting to play.

IGN: Todd McFarlane himself revealed that Spawn would be in Mortal Kombat 11 way back in 2018, shortly after the game itself was announced — do you have any top secret upcoming projects of Todd’s you want to spoil? (Just kidding… mostly) 🙂 

EB: LOL … maybe he was just showing his excitement because he WANTED Spawn in Mortal Kombat 11. But no, I don’t have anything to spoil.

IGN: Keith David voices Spawn, reprising his role from the HBO animated series — did you get a chance to work with him? How did he react at the news he’d be playing Al Simmons again?

EB: I have met Keith. He really is a good guy. Very cultured. I was not at the recording sessions when he did the voice of Spawn for us, but I immediately identified his voice when I heard the results of the recording sessions. He was also gracious enough to appear at our Final Kombat esports championship here in Chicago. He really is a great sport, and I hope we can work together again in the future.

IGN: Whose idea was Spawn initially? Did NetherRealm approach McFarlane, did McFarlane approach NetherRealm, or was it in response to fan demand?

EB: I honestly believe it was a combination of all three. We have always wanted to have Spawn in one of our Mortal Kombat games. I’ve heard a number of times that Todd McFarland expressed interest in seeing Spawn in Mortal Kombat. As far as the fans are concerned Spawn is probably one of the most requested characters ever to be in the franchise. He really is a perfect fit.

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IGN: McFarlane Toys is making MK action figures, and you’re putting Spawn in Mortal Kombat – tell us about that relationship?

EB: In the simplest of terms, I would describe it as a full circle mutual admiration collaboration. 😉 NetherRealm has always been huge fans of the McFarlane figures. The proof is in the pudding. If you walk around our studio you will see their action figures littered across many team members’ desks and workstations. We genuinely are big fans of the quality of their work. I couldn’t think of better timing as far as all of this cross pollination of intellectual properties and expertise in our various forms of art.

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There you have it! Spawn and Mortal Kombat, a match made in… Well, maybe not heaven, but some kind of afterlife.

While Spawn in Mortal Kombat makes sense aesthetically and stylistically, IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman thought he also worked well technically! You can check out his full review of the DLC here.