Get 512GB of Extreme Micro SD Storage on Sale Right Now

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The long weekend is over and the summer season is unofficially underway. If you’re anything like me, you plan to spend the long, warmer days of summer catching up on Switch games. Even if that isn’t your plan, you can still take advantage of Amazon’s Deal of the Day on micro SD cards. If you picked up a new Switch on sale, or you’re considering it, you can save even more when expanding its storage capabilities.

Nintendo Switch Compatible Micro SD Deals

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Google Discontinues YouTube Gaming App

Google will be shutting down the YouTube Gaming app as of May 30, ending its short stint of a dedicated standalone app for gamers. Instead, YouTube Gaming viewers are encouraged to visit a YouTube hub page that will serve a similar purpose. The browser destination is being similarly relocated.

In an FAQ, the company recommends merging your subscriptions to retain most of your streaming preferences. Still, some things will change for YouTube Gaming fans. There is no way to set the new hub page as your default YouTube experience, though Google notes that you can simply bookmark that page. It also says you’ll lose your saved games as the company explores “better ways to organize your game interests on YouTube.”

YouTube Gaming launched in 2015 as an all-in-one hub for gaming live streams. It also functioned as a testing ground for new YouTube features. But the separate app is said to have created confusion among viewers. Of course, nothing is happening to your favorite streamers. They’ll still be operating as normal, so if you just like to watch YouTube’s livestreams, essentially nothing will change for you.

Google is currently in the process of introducing gamers to another new bit of tech, the Stadia streaming platform. The debut event promised integration with YouTube, including the ability to jump directly into game at the same point you were just watching on a stream, or for streamers to play with their viewers live. Google recently promised we’ll be seeing a few key details about Stadia soon, including price, game announcements, and launch info.

Mario’s Angry Sun Looks Weirder Than Ever In Mario Maker 2

One of the most fun aspects of Super Mario Maker is seeing how the game reimagines certain enemies and items in styles they never originally appeared in, such as seeing airship levels in Super Mario Bros. or Hammer Bros. in Super Mario World. That holds just as true for Super Mario Maker 2, which introduces a new assortment of original and classic items to the toolset, including Super Mario 3‘s angry sun. Naturally, we just had to see how the iconic enemy looked in other Mario styles, and we were a little horrified by the result.

We recently had a chance to go hands-on with Super Mario Maker 2 at a demo event in New York, where we got to tinker around with the game’s course builder. We chose Super Mario World as the style for our level, and of course, the first enemy we placed in it was the angry sun, which behaves just as you remember, swooping down to singe you every few seconds. You can take a look at our creation in the video above.

While the angry sun looks as you’d expect it to in the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World styles, the enemy takes on a different appearance in the New Super Mario Bros. U style. As you can see in the screenshot below, the sun’s angry grimace becomes a dead-eyed stare, which somehow makes it even more unsettling as it torments you throughout the stage.

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The angry sun is only one of a myriad of new customization options available in Super Mario Maker 2. Nintendo gave us a closer look at a handful of other new enemies and items during this month’s Mario Maker 2 Direct. And unlike the original Super Mario Maker, you won’t need to wait to unlock them; almost all of the game’s tools will be available from the start, so you’ll be able to jump in and play around with them right away. The game also features a story mode and online multiplayer, the latter of which is a first for a Super Mario platformer.

Super Mario Maker 2 launches for Switch on June 28. The game requires a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to play and share levels online. An individual 12-month membership typically costs $20, but Nintendo is bundling a year’s subscription with a copy of Super Mario Maker 2 for $70, which amounts to a $10 savings. You can read more details about the bundle in our Super Mario Maker 2 pre-order guide.

Super Mario Maker 2 Doesn’t Doesn’t Force A Needless Wait On You

One of the more divisive aspects of the original Super Mario Maker is that it gated its tools behind a waiting period, forcing players to gradually unlock them over the course of several days. While the reasoning behind this decision was to ease players into the game’s wealth of customization options, it put up a hurdle in front of those hoping to use specific enemies or items in their levels. Fortunately, Super Mario Maker 2 does away with this restriction.

GameSpot recently went hands-on with Super Mario Maker 2 at a demo event, where we asked a Nintendo representative if the game features a similar waiting period before players could access the entire tool palette. The Nintendo rep confirmed that “almost all” of the game’s tools will be available from the start, so you’ll be able to jump in and tinker around with most of Super Mario Maker 2’s new toys right from the outset.

One option that you will need to unlock is the nighttime theme. Super Mario Maker 2 allows you to change each type of level into a nighttime version, which will not only give it a starry backdrop, but also change some of the course’s properties; nighttime snow stages, for example, are more slippery than their daytime counterparts, while nighttime sky levels have lower gravity. Fortunately, unlocking the theme is very simple; all you need to do is place Super Mario 3‘s angry sun enemy in the level and change it into a moon. Once you’ve unlocked the nighttime theme, you’ll no longer need to place the moon in a level to access it.

Super Mario Maker 2 makes a few other welcome quality-of-life improvements. In the original game, you needed to shake certain enemies or combine items in order to change their form; for instance, shaking a green Koopa Troopa would transform it into a red one, while combining it with a Super Mushroom would supersize it. This time, however, you’ll be able to choose these different variants simply by tapping on the object and selecting them from the menu. The game also automatically populates the top toolbar with the items you most frequently use, and you have the option to pin certain tools there for easy access.

Super Mario Maker 2 launches for Nintendo Switch on June 28. The game features a load of new elements, including a story mode and online multiplayer. To play and share levels online, however, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but Nintendo is bundling an individual 12-month membership for the service along with a copy of the game for $70–a $10 savings off the typical price of a 12-month subscription. If you already subscribe to the service and spring for this bundle, the 12 months will be stacked on top of your current subscription. You can learn more in our Super Mario Maker 2 pre-order guide.

Sound BlasterX H6 Gaming Headset Review

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There’s something gratifyingly nostalgic about donning a pair of headphones with Creative Lab’s Sound Blaster name on the side. Though the company has been quiet in recent years, there was an age when this brand ruled the roost. With dreams of Sound Blastering my way through Quake firmly in mind, I was eager to see what Creative has been up to lately.

The Sound BlasterX H6 (See it on Amazon / See it on Amazon UK) sits in the middle of the BlasterX line, a somewhat more affordable alternative to the top-of-the-line Sound BlasterX H7. That said, the basic specs are essentially the same no matter which set of cans you wear. Built around 50mm Neodymium drivers, they seem well-poised to move large volumes of air for beefy bass in games and music.

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Enter for a Chance to Win Little Friends: Dogs and Cats

Welcome to Daily Win, our way of giving back to the IGN community. To thank our awesome audience, we’re giving away a new game each day to one lucky winner. Be sure to check IGN.com every day to enter in each new giveaway.

Today we’re giving away Little Friends: Dogs and Cats for Nintendo Switch. To enter into this sweepstake, fill out the form below. You must be at least 13 years old and a legal U.S. resident to enter. Today’s sweepstake will end at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Entries entered after this time will not be considered.

Daily Doodle: The opossum's bonk revealed a big chest!

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Super Mario Maker 2: Building Levels, Destroying Friendships

Super Mario Maker 2 is the giant new sequel to Nintendo’s “build your own Mario” game that launched in 2015, allowing players to create and share original Super Mario levels instead of waiting for Nintendo to make some for them. For Super Mario Maker 2 on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo is adding loads of new single player, multiplayer, and building options.

So how does it all come together?

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Building A Mean Snow Level In Super Mario Maker 2

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Super Mario Maker 2 Feels Like It Can Last Forever

Much of the allure of the original Super Mario Maker stemmed from the seemingly endless possibilities it afforded, even if that didn’t turn out to be quite true. Robust as that game’s course editor may have been, it didn’t allow players to create certain basic Mario elements, such as sloped terrain, and some of the series’ most iconic enemies were notably missing from its toolbox. Even so, the title proved to be a critical and commercial success, and for its Switch follow-up, Super Mario Maker 2, Nintendo has taken the foundation laid down by the original and embellished it in nearly every conceivable way.

We recently had a chance to attend a Super Mario Maker 2 demo event, where we were able to go hands-on with the game and sample some of the new features Nintendo has introduced. Like its predecessor, the centerpiece of Super Mario Maker 2 is the course editor, which features a wealth of tools with which to build your own Mario levels. Along with the full suite of course parts from the original game, Super Mario Maker 2 offers a variety of new customization options, from new course themes and stage hazards to a greater array of enemies and items. All of the features so conspicuously missing from the first title are present and accounted for here, along with a plethora of other tools you may not have even thought of but which now seem indispensable, such as the ability to customize the trajectory of autoscrolling levels.

One of the most profound new features in Super Mario Maker 2 is the option to impose clear conditions–goals that players must meet before they can complete the level. These can run the gamut from collecting a certain number of coins to more specific objectives, such as defeating a particular enemy or reaching the flagpole without taking damage. The game offers a staggering number of clear conditions to choose from, opening up a whole new dimension of design possibilities; you can, for instance, build a course that must be cleared without jumping, completely upending the traditional rules of the series.

As in the original Super Mario Maker, you can design your stages in the style of several different Mario games: the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U, and the newly added Super Mario 3D World. The latter boasts its own unique assortment of enemies and tools that makes it distinct from the other game styles, and switching to it from one of the other options while in the course editor will cause the entire level to reset. Between all of the different themes, items, and clear conditions, there’s a mind-reeling array of customization options at your disposal in Super Mario Maker 2, but the process of building stages is remarkably intuitive, thanks to the ease with which you can lay down course parts and immediately test out your creation.

As with the first game, you can edit your stages using either a controller or the Switch’s touch screen. However, whereas the Wii U GamePad’s built-in display allowed you to use the latter method whether you played on the television or in Off-TV mode, you can only use the Switch’s touch screen when playing the console undocked. If you play the game on a television, you’ll have no choice but to build levels using Joy-Cons or a Switch Pro controller, neither of which feels well-suited. Placing terrain and objects with the control stick is much more cumbersome than doing so by tapping on the touch screen, so if you’re interested in Super Mario Maker 2, you’ll want to pick up a Switch-compatible stylus to have the best experience.

Fortunately, Nintendo has implemented a handful of quality-of-life improvements to the course editor that somewhat help mitigate the control issues. This time around, you no longer need to shake enemies or combine them with certain items in order to change their forms; you can simply tap on them and select their different permutations from the menu. As fun as it was to manually discover all of the possible item and enemy combinations in the first game, this change helps streamline the building process. Moreover, tools are now grouped into categories that you navigate using radial menus. The top toolbar is also automatically populated with the tools you most frequently use, and you can pin specific parts to the bar for easy access.

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Beyond all of the new toys in the course editor, another significant addition in Super Mario Maker 2 is Story mode, which boasts more than 100 pre-made levels fashioned by Nintendo’s designers. Unlike a traditional Mario platformer, Story mode doesn’t whisk you through eight themed worlds on a quest to rescue Princess Peach; rather, it tasks you with rebuilding the princess’s castle, which involves amassing coins by taking on “jobs” from bulletin boards and other characters. Each of these jobs comes in the form of a different level, and completing them rewards you with the coinage necessary to fund the reconstruction process. It’s not a proper Mario adventure, but it does offer a more structured way to experience the game’s pre-made levels than the original Mario Maker did, and the courses we’ve sampled are as clever as you’d expect from Nintendo.

Rounding out the new features is multiplayer. Whereas the original Super Mario Maker was a decidedly solitary experience (unless you passed the controller around to others gathered in the same room), Super Mario Maker 2 gives you the option not only to build courses with a nearby player, but to play any of the game’s stages in Co-Op or Versus modes, either locally or online. As in New Super Mario Bros. U, up to four players can tackle a course simultaneously, which quickly devolves into a chaotic fight for survival as each person vies to avoid stage hazards and accidentally–or intentionally–knocks each other into pits and enemies. That you can play any stage in multiplayer adds yet another dimension to the experience, making Super Mario Maker 2 as much a party game as it is a level editor.

How well the multiplayer experience holds up online remains to be seen, but between all of the new features and tools Nintendo has introduced, Super Mario Maker 2 certainly has the potential to be, if not quite endless, then certainly one of the most compelling time sinks in the Switch’s library. The game launches on June 28, and as with other online-enabled titles for the console, you’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to take advantage of its online features. However, Nintendo is offering a bundle that includes a 12-month membership with a copy of the game for $70, saving you $10 over the regular cost of an individual 12-month subscription. You can read more details about the bundle in our Super Mario Maker 2 pre-order guide.