Welcome back to Forgotten Gems, my column about games that have faded but shouldn’t be forgotten. Last time, I took at a look at the unexpected return of one of Square’s most unique 16-bit RPGs, Live a Live. While there may be no happy ending this time, hopefully you’ll still enjoy this look back at an entire game series that almost all but faded from public discourse: Goemon, Konami’s Mystical Ninja.

Namco has Pac-Man. SEGA’s got Sonic. Nintendo has Mario. Konami’s got… Frogger? Twinbee? The Parodius Octopus? It’s honestly a bit surprising that one of the most prolific game developers of the ‘80s took so long to develop a stable of recognizable characters; let alone a core company mascot. Before it became known for the exploits of the Belmonts and Solid Snake, Konami dazzled us more with clever concepts like Time Pilot, Gyruss, and Track & Field, as well as competent game adaptations of animated shows like TMNT or the Simpsons.

Enter the Ninja

But the roots for Konami’s own Mario were already taking hold in 1986 when it released Mr. Goemon. Based on Japan’s 16th-century Robin Hood, the outlaw Ishikawa Goemon, Mr. Goemon is an unusual platformer. For one, it took its art style from famous woodblock prints depicting kabuki enactments of the folk legend, but more importantly, it played very differently from platformers of the age. Whereas bumping into enemies in its contemporaries would mean losing a life or taking damage, Mr. Goemon is an oddly-controlling, hectic jump ’n’ run in which you can push and shove your enemies as you infiltrate enemy fortresses. Goemon can use a “kiseru” pipe to smack his enemies or toss gold coins and other pick-ups, including the famous Japanese maneki-neko cat figurines.

If all that sounds unconventional and confusing, you should know that these kiseru pipes weren’t just for smoking. They became quite the rage among Japanese warriors, who would carry iron or brass pipes and use them as weapons when they didn’t have access to their swords. As for throwing those oval koban coins, gourds, and nekos – that’s vintage, economical video game character development on display right there. Being an honorable outlaw, Goemon allegedly gave to the poor – thus, he has no need for money and happily tosses around symbols of good luck, such as hyotan gourds and cat figurines.

Mr. Goemon was not a hit. But Konami clearly liked the idea of “owning” a truly Japanese video game hero enough to greenlight a completely different Goemon game for home consoles and computers before Mr. Goemon was even in arcades. Released in July 1986, Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu lays the foundation for an entire series of unique platformers in an alt-history, mechanized Japan. “Ganbare!” is a Japanese rallying cry, and is best translated as “go for it!” or “keep it up!” and would become intrinsically linked with the Goemon series for many years. But one thing was still missing that would come to define the Goemon games – and made it one of my favorites on the Super Famicom: co-op gameplay.

With 1989’s Ganbare Goemon 2 for the Famicom, Konami found its success formula. The game combined the three-quarter-view town sequences of the second game with the side-scrolling jump and fight action of Mr. Goemon. It also added the defining co-op mode where a second player could join the fun as the supremely weird Ebisumaru, a combination of the Japanese thief Nezumi Kozo and Konami producer Ebisu Etsunobu.

Goemon 2 kicked off a series of 20 full-fledged Goemon platform and RPG games, not including some lesser spin-offs and mobile minis, spanning 20 years of game development and some truly creative efforts by multiple Konami studios. It’s a series known for its silly sense of humor, for taking you on a trip of the sights and sounds of a not-quite-historically-accurate Japan, for dozens of memorable tunes and fully vocalized songs, screen-tilting, screen-warping, screen-flipping Mode 7 effects, 3D mech battles, and for a range of clever mini-games – including a playable 16-bit version of Konami’s own Gradius.

Which brings us to 1991, when Konami undertook the unlikely step to bring the most Japanese mascot in gaming to the west.

American Ninja Warriors

We can’t be sure what made Konami consider the sixth game in the series, Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki, for a western release in 1992, a year after it debuted to acclaim in Japan. Perhaps it was the impressive graphics that make it one of the best Mode 7 showcases to date, or the incredible soundtrack that really puts the Super NES sound chip through its paces. But most likely, it was an attempt to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the impending US release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which also seemed to be the inspiration for the newly minted English title: The Legend of the Mystical Ninja.

This sudden spark of courage did not extend to trusting overseas audiences to engage with or understand Goemon’s historical origins. The game received an infamously terrible localization treatment. Japanese food items like onigiri rice balls became pizzas. And our heroes Goemon and Ebisumaru were unceremoniously renamed to Kid Ying and Dr. Yang, with a typo-laden manual contributing even more cringe-worthy Asian stereotypes, like naming the monkey “Fur Man Chu”. It’s not that Goemon isn’t an inherently silly game – one of the sequences removed from the localized version was Ebisumaru baring his butt and farting at the end of a dance performance – it’s that its silliness is so uniquely and unapologetically Japanese that randomly dubbing it with Chinese terms and concepts just stunningly misses the point.

But localization aside, Goemon’s first western showing went over pretty well. EGM rated the game 8, 8, 9, 8 and lauded it for its gameplay, co-op mode, and soundtrack – while expressing some consternation over its presentation. “The graphics are too cheesy for me, with lots of pastels,” said the legendarily mystical Quartermann. Konami never disclosed official sales numbers for the title, so we’ll never know whether its distinct visuals and themes or lack of awareness kept it from achieving bigger success in the US, but we do know that whatever courage had led to the publisher giving Goemon a shot quickly dissipated.

Goemon’s further Game Boy and Famicom/NES outings wouldn’t see stateside release, but more egregiously, Mystical Ninja’s direct sequel, Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu! remained forever a Japan-only delight. In this humble writer’s opinion, Goemon 2 is the best co-op platformer on the Super NES, adding drivable vehicles, a third playable character, and a Super Mario World-style overworld map to the mix. Bolstered by critical success in Japan, Konami took the series even further.

Goemon 3 wasn’t a linear sidescroller like its predecessor: instead, the ninja head-on pursued another legendary inspiration. Goemon 3 is a top-down, The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past-style action adventure that has players switch between characters – now also including Yae the Kunoichi – to access their different powers and progress on the world map. The next game, Kirakira Douchuu, went back to the setup of Goemon 2, but put the different characters’ unique abilities to effect with separate maps and character-specific quests. But the series had peaked with Goemon 2 and my personal interest in it waned, even as it continued on PlayStation and with a Ebisumaru-led spin-off title – both 2D games.

In 1996, General Manager of Konami Nagata Akihiki told Next Generation magazine: “There are some Japanese games we cannot release worldwide because they are too specific for the home market – Goemon, Parodius, and games which use Japanese characters, for example.”

The Legend of Goemon 64

It wasn’t just me who had moved on. Gaming was about to take a significant leap towards polygonal 3D. And having exhausted 2D gaming in all its formats and genres, Goemon was ready to evolve and pull off an impressive feat: a fully 3D action-adventure in the style of Ocarina of Time… in 1997, before Ocarina of Time. The plot of this new Goemon game reads almost like self-referential commentary on the first Goemon game’s coming to the west: the Momoyama Shogunate is planning to westernize Japan and steal all its castles.

What followed was Goemon’s second outing in the west – and one that many Nintendo 64 fans may fondly remember. Announced early on as a Nintendo 64 flagship title, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon struggled in development hell. As a young reporter and a big fan of the series, I kept a close watch of the game and used all my persuasive powers to ensure that Goemon wouldn’t be called Kid Ying again (success!). Konami producers would frequently talk about the struggles of recreating their series as 3D games and having to dial back their ambitions when moving from development hardware to the final N64 spec. The lack of a dedicated sound chip and need to handle music via the CPU led to pared down visuals as Konami was unwilling to sacrifice audio fidelity and go with sampled, mono tracks, a la Shadows of the Empire. The challenges with getting the game to run at a decent framerate meant abandoning the planned two-player co-op mode. Konami even had to cut some of the Japanese voice-overs from the US/PAL versions to get the localized version to fit on a 128-megabit cart. It was bad news for a while – but with a happy ending.

The final game was an enjoyable 3D take on the Goemon 3 / The Legend of Zelda formula and it sold more than 200,000 copies in Japan and the US. Even though only a quarter of those sales were stateside, Konami seemed emboldened to keep trying and brought both the Game Boy adventure, also called Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, and the N64 sequel Goemon’s Great Adventure to the west.

The Downfall

And that was the end of the song. After the second N64 game bowed at 50k units sold, Goemon returned to being a Japan-only series. You can see the rest of the lineup of games – from digital board game outings to two attempts at redesigning and modernizing the character on our playlist:

Konami didn’t know what to do with Goemon, failing to endear players to the more Dragon Ball-like, edgy character designs and disappointing the remaining player base with some cheap shovelware mobile games. Even long-time partner in crime Ebisumaru got the boot. And despite a showing at E3 2002, an attempt by Working Designs to bring Goemon’s PS2 outing Bouken Jidai Katsugeki to the west as Mystical Ninja Goemon Zero failed.

The last hurrah for the series came in 2005. Konami brought back fond memories with a GBA conversion of the two first (and best) Super Famicom games in a Japan-only double pack, followed by a forgotten gem of a Nintendo DS game, Ganbare Goemon: Toukai Douchuu Oedo Tengu ri Kaeshi no Maki. Utilizing stylus controls and a very pretty sumi-e watercolor graphical style, Goemon once again paid homage to The Legend of Zelda series. I imported the game and shared my very favorable impressions of the game back then, thinking, for a brief moment, that Goemon was back – and that Goemon was forever.

But Goemon is gone. We’re quickly approaching the two decade mark without a new game release – not counting two Pachislot arcade slot machines released back in 2009 and 2011 under Konami’s new, old focus on gambling hardware.

It’s a very rare occurrence that a series 29 titles strong just ends and disappears. After all, Nintendo and Konami added the even more obscure Super Famicom shooter Pop’n TwinBee to the Nintendo Online service in 2020 – wouldn’t the already localized Goemon SNES or N64 games be solid selections for the service?

There are still occasional signs that Konami hasn’t completely forgotten about its memorable mascot. On December 7, 2018 a Mii Swordfighter costume featuring Goemon’s trademark spiky hair, red outfit, and kiseru pipe were added as paid Wave 3 DLC to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Let’s hope that little cameo wasn’t his last.

As for whether Goemon will ever return in an all-new game outing? Unlike the real Goemon Ishikawa who was famously boiled alive for trying to assassinate warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, our blue-haired video game hero got off easy and at least ended on a high note. The series is cooked for now, but who knows, maybe Konami’s recent successes with the Hudson-made Momotaro Dentetsu on Switch could bring Goemon out of retirement. If Momotaro, ripped from the pages of Japanese fairy tales, can sell more than 3 million copies with a digital board game that celebrates Japan (yes, it sold better than Zelda: Breath of the Wild in Japan), perhaps Konami’s OG mascot can at least headline a feudal comedy take on Mario Party.

Ganbare, Goemon!

Where can you play the Goemon games today?

While Nintendo hasn’t added any of the Goemon games to its Nintendo Online service on Switch yet, Mystical Ninja did see multiple re-releases on the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS Virtual Console in the west. The Japanese Super Famicom games were also available as VC downloads -- and Mystical Ninja was even included with the Super Famicom Mini console as a regional exclusive. With the shutdown of Nintendo's 3DS and Wii U eShops this month, all nine remaining Goemon Virtual Console releases will no longer be accessible.

Which leaves hard copies. Unfortunately, because of the low sales volume and limited runs, SNES and N64 cartridges can command a high price on eBay. Even a loose Mystal Ninja cart will sell for $60 and upwards. The Japanese games are quite a bit cheaper, but unless you read Japanese, I wouldn’t recommend pursuing them. There are occasionally moments where a character will ask you to retrieve a certain item to progress that can be tricky.

The sad reality is that out of all 30 Goemon games released, only a single one is available to play on modern platforms, and it's, ironically, the oldest one of the bunch: Mr. Goemon. Hamster made the old arcade game available to play on PS4 and Switch as part of their Arcade Archives series.

Peer Schneider joined IGN as editor of N64.com/IGN64 back when games still had manuals. If you enjoyed his column, Forgotten Gems, be sure to check out our other regular IGN columns, accessible from the News section of the IGN navigation.

Kirby's Dream Land 2 has joined the Nintendo Switch Online collection along with BurgerTime Deluxe, Side Pocket, and Xevious.

Nintendo shared its March 2023 NES, Super NES, and Game Boy Updates for its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service in a YouTube video that turned the spotlight on the new additions, which are available on both the Basic NSO and Expansion Pack tiers.

Players will be able to explore the Rainbow Islands in Kirby's Dream Land 2 and feast on arcade action in BurgerTime Deluxe, both of which are joining the Game Boy library, while also putting their skills to the test in Side Pocket, now in the SNES collection, and Xevious, in the NES library.

Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games were added to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service in February, with classic Game Boy games available to those with the Basic NSO subscription, and Game Boy Advance games going to Expansion Pack subscribers.

The Expansion Pack for Nintendo Switch Online caused some controversy when it launched last October with players initially unhappy with the performance of the service, however, the games did play at 60Hz in all territories and more improvements have been made since.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The most popular game in our IGN Deals reporting for 2023 so far is Metroid Prime: Remastered. In fact, no other game this year even comes close. In our Metroid Prime: Remastered review we scored it a 10, saying it "honors a lauded classic and brings it up to code, fixing outdated controls and adding a slick coat of polygons and textures that make this masterpiece of a shooter shine once more." And I agree whole-heartedly with that assessment.

It's truly one of the greatest games of all time, but what if you're new to the Metroid series? Great news: you can play many of the greatest Metroid games right now, on your Nintendo Switch. Should you? Yes, absolutely, are you kidding me? Metroid rules! For the vast majority of Metroid games on Switch, you can play them with a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online, and a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online with Expansion Pack unlocks even more. In fact, Metroid Prime Fusion is now available if you have the Expansion Pack, and man... that is a good game.

• Play the Metroid Series on Switch chronologically
• Play the Metroid Series on Switch in order of release

All the Metroid Games You Can Play on Switch Right Now

• Metroid (NES) (NSO)
• Super Metroid (Super NES) (NSO)
• Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy) (NSO)
• Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) (NSO + Expansion)
• Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch)
• Metroid Prime: Remastered (Nintendo Switch)

Where to Buy Metroid Prime: Remastered (Physical or Digital)

Getting a physical edition online is tough, but you can get it digitally and start playing as soon as it's downloaded from most retailers. Amazon, even though it still has physical copies of Metroid Prime: Remastered, seems to be taking a little longer than expected with delivery.

Where to Buy Metroid Dread (Physical or Digital)

Metroid Games Available With Nintendo Switch Online

The basic Nintendo Switch Online membership costs $19.99 for 12-months and gives you access to some of the greatest NES and Super NES games, along with other games you might not really care about. But most importantly, Metroid for NES and Super Metroid for Super NES are available, right now, with a base Nintendo Switch Online membership, and you also get access to Metroid II: Return of Samus. Yes, Game Boy is part of the base NSO membership, something I was only recently made aware of.

Metroid Games Available With Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

For $49.99 a year, you get access to Nintendo 64, SEGA Genesis, and more recently, Game Boy Advance games. Obviously there aren't any Metroid games on N64 or Genesis, but on Game Boy Advance you can now play Metroid Fusion. Metroid Fusion, apart from being amazing, released the same year as the original Metroid Prime.

How to Play the Metroid Games Chronologically

You won't be able to play through the entirety of the Metroid series on Switch, at least not at the time of writing, but if you feel compelled to play through the available Metroid games chronologically, here's how to do it. Does it matter too much if you play them chronologically? Nah. But in case you want to follow the overarcing story:

1. Metroid (NES)
2. Metroid Prime: Remastered (Switch)
3. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)
4. Super Metroid (Super NES)
5. Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)
6. Metroid Dread (Switch)

How to Play the Metroid Games on Switch in Order of Release

This would be my pick for how to play through the Metroid games 0n Switch. There's definitely a story to follow along with, but I like seeing how the series has evolved and how much of it retains those same elements from the earliest entry on NES. I put Metroid Prime: Remastered at the end, but the original came out in 2004.

1. Metroid (NES) 1986
2. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy) 1991
3. Super Metroid (Super NES) 1994
4. Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) 2004
5. Metroid Dread (Switch) 2021
6. Metroid Prime: Remastered (Switch) 2023

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

In 2008, a handful of frustrated developers at a tiny, Quebec-based Ubisoft subsidiary (of sorts) called Longtail Studios led a valiant, if doomed, unionization attempt that was well ahead of its time.

In recent years, unionization in the games industry has become a hot topic. Multiple games companies have unionized, either in part or as a whole, and the overall attitude toward unions industry-wide (as measured by the annual Game Developers Conference survey, at least), has slowly become more positive. This wave of interest in unions comes as a possible solution to growing concern about games industry working conditions, amid reports that multiple major AAA companies foster toxic work environments, crunch lasting weeks or even months, and hostile conditions for women and minorities. And while some major companies like Activision-Blizzard have been openly hostile toward such efforts, others, such as Microsoft, have been surprisingly permissive.

But it wasn’t always this way. IGN spoke to seven sources familiar with the story of Longtail Studios, six of whom were involved in some way with a unionization drive at the studio in 2008-2009. Despite their movement’s ultimate failure at the time, those we spoke to feel that Longtail’s story is worth telling, both as a clear example of why worker protections might be desirable in the games industry to begin with, as well as a testament to how far unionization in the space has come in a short amount of time.

Ubisoft, But Not Quite

Longtail Studios was founded in 2003 by Ubisoft co-founder Gérard Guillemot. It was initially based in New York City, but soon after spun up two satellite studios: one in Quebec, and later, another one in Prince Edward Island, which eventually moved to Halifax. For the first five years of its existence, Longtail was a tiny studio of less than 100 employees focused on early mobile and DS games such as Sprung, Heartbreakers, My Bridezilla, Hollywood Hustle, and TNA Wrestling. Later, it expanded into console games, beginning with Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game in 2009 for the Nintendo Wii, and later still moving into Wii U development with ESPN Sports Connection and Rocksmith 2014.

Though not officially affiliated with Ubisoft, Guillemot’s Ubisoft funding and familial ties to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot kept it close at hand to the much larger French studio. In many ways, Longtail was like a second Gameloft: founded by a Guillemot brother, largely funded and run by Ubisoft’s friends and business partners, and focused on the mobile market that Ubisoft proper had not yet gained a strong foothold in. Ubisoft officially published a number of Longtail-developed games, but the day-to-day ties went much further than that. Longtail’s Quebec production studio shared a building with Ubisoft Quebec, and sources tell me Ubisoft leads would often come and go from the Longtail office. The two companies even shared a Christmas party at least once. One source who worked there at the time described it as “Ubisoft with a different name.” Multiple sources recalled early pay stubs stemming from Ubisoft, not Longtail, before it eventually switched, and one source shared their original job offer letter with IGN, signed off on by “Estelle Jacquemard, Ubisoft Entertainment Inc. Quebec, Projet Longtail.”

“Between us, we would describe [the relationship between Ubisoft and Longtail] as ‘incestuous,’” one source recalls. “We were often reminded by management that Longtail and Ubisoft were two different companies. They would get angry if we referred to Longtail as Ubisoft and we were forbidden from saying we worked for Ubisoft. But, we were paid through Ubisoft in the beginning (I don't remember when it stopped), we worked in the same building (different floors), shared some equipment, and the owner was one of the Guillemot brothers (Gérard). We also developed some games for them (Grey's Anatomy and a few titles in the Imagine series).”

Sources who worked at Longtail during these early years recall an often-frustrating work environment. Decisions, they say, were largely made by creatives at Longtail’s New York office, who then expected Longtail Quebec – where most of the programmers, artists, and designers were based – to execute. They described little to no opportunity for upward mobility within the company, and very little training or guidance from more senior individuals – something that proved stressful for a studio largely composed of young, inexperienced developers just getting their start in the industry.

Many of the workers, multiple sources told me, weren’t trained to make the kinds of things New York was asking for, and these large, challenging, or even impossible asks often came on tight turnarounds, resulting in crunch and delays. Two sources recalled that as time went on, this relationship resulted in Longtail becoming fraught with infighting, with one programmer describing the environment as follows:

“Game designers were told that programmers were lazy and incompetent, so they shouldn't listen to us when we said that what they asked was costly, time consuming, or sometimes even impossible on the hardware we were targeting,” they recall. “They were expected to push for what they wanted (or what their boss wanted) using every argument they could to make it happen, including twisting our own technical arguments around and questioning our competence. When the result was (predictably) a barely playable mess, we would get blamed for it.”

Others in different departments, such as QA, said their workload was more variable, with periods of crunch closer to deadlines interspersed with long stretches of little to no work. One recalled groups of QA testers playing Warcraft, StarCraft, and Unreal Tournament in the office, saying, “This was the weirdest job I ever had.”

Since the ‘90s, Quebec has offered significant tax credits for multimedia businesses set up in the province. It’s a financial plan that Ubisoft had a major hand in forcing through, and has been a significant factor in Quebec becoming a major game development center globally. It’s been a historically controversial program in the province, and at Longtail it sparked a lot of speculation. Among those involved in Longtail’s unionization, there was a widespread suspicion that Ubisoft had largely set up Longtail to take advantage of these government grants and tax credits rather than because it needed a new studio to make games, all while failing to invest that money back in the studio. Multiple former employees recalled signing papers for a government organization called Emploi Québec – which offers grants to companies in exchange for providing specialized training to workers. The paperwork, they remembered, was effectively a statement that the workers had received training on the job to improve their skills, but none of those we spoke to recalled receiving any such training.

Across the board, pay at Longtail Studios was rather dismal. While everyone I spoke to agreed that programmers were paid roughly an acceptable living wage for Quebec at the time (one programmer told me they were paid about $40,000 CAD), all other roles were drastically underpaid, and raises were hard to come by – especially for QA, who made close to minimum wage (in 2008, roughly $17,680 CAD a year). One person told me their first role after leaving the games industry doubled their pay, with no expectation of overtime. Another reported being promoted out of QA into a designer role and not getting a raise, and thereafter receiving annual raises much lower than the rest of the designers even when their performance evaluation was positive. And another source recalled being offered $30,000 CAD a year to move to Quebec from another city, only to find when they had arrived that their offer had mysteriously dropped to only $19,000 CAD a year. Since they had already moved, they had no way of fighting the change. That said, several agreed that the health benefits at Longtail were quite good.

Whatever was going on behind the scenes, there was a pervasive belief among my sources that Ubisoft had founded Longtail not because they were interested in making good games or building a sustainable studio, but first and foremost as a way to receive additional funding from the Quebec government and ultimately funnel money back to Ubisoft. They felt strongly that the relationship between Longtail and Ubisoft was questionable at best, and that the studio conditions were neither healthy nor sustainable – especially when compared to the wider games industry.

A Longtail Union

With poor working conditions, insufficient pay, a stressful environment, little transparency, and seemingly no change in sight, a handful of Longtail employees sought other solutions. In 2008, a pair of individuals began reaching out individually to their coworkers in an effort to convince them to start a union under Quebec’s Alliance de la Fonction Publique du Canada (AFPC). One of them, Mathieu Lemire, was initially hired as a young, green QA tester and was later invited to join the game design team. The other, Boris Perron, was a programmer, and one of the older and more experienced employees at Longtail. The two quickly became the leaders of the movement within Longtail, and became known around the studio for being vocal about working conditions and issues at the company. IGN spoke to them both, and both agreed to be named in this piece.

“I knew I would have to fight in order to get any respect and fair work conditions,” Lemire says. “Unionization was the only way I could successfully gain something, for me and for others who were like me. In order to fight in equal terms against a company far stronger than any individual, you have to organize and do this together. With a union, you can negotiate and even organize a strike without being completely obliterated. If you try anything by yourself, any company exploiting you can just say, ‘No,’ and ‘You’re fired.’ I knew I could not do this by myself, so I seized the opportunity.”

Lemire and Perron connected with then AFPC-representative Jean-julien Mercier, who also spoke to IGN and agreed to be named in this story. The three split the task between them, with Perron focusing on the programmers, and Lemire trying to bring in the designers, artists, and QA. Mercier, hoping to avoid rousing suspicion that either was involved, visited a number of Longtail employees at home to get them to sign union cards. The group made good progress for a while, seeing a lot of interest from the programmers and artists especially, but Lemire describes the response from QA and game design as “anemic.”

“They were scared like crazy and nobody wanted to sign a card,” he says. “In 2008, technology businesses were vastly hostile to unionization. In the video game business, it was even worse than that. Everybody was afraid of losing their job.”

As the two continued their efforts to speak to their colleagues one by one, problems began to arise. Lemire expressed that he grew frustrated with Mercier, who he didn’t perceive as providing clear guidance or direction. Mercier, however, tells me that at the time he was still very new to the job, with a young child at home, and was doing the best he could. And at some point amid this struggle, Longtail management got wind of what was going on. Lemire and Mercier both suspect that a specific individual they approached to sign a card ultimately outed them to management — a suspicion that would later be confirmed at least in part at Lemire’s trial in 2010 when one of the leads from Longtail New York testified he was tipped off to the union attempt by an employee.

Lemire and Perron’s involvement would only be further confirmed to Longtail management when, in late 2008, they appeared on a public television program in Quebec discussing unionization in the games industry. Lemire recalls that those in charge of the program listed on their website that he worked for Ubisoft, despite him asking them not to include that information, but the damage was done. Someone at either Ubisoft or Longtail noticed, and Lemire recalls being called into the director’s office and being scolded severely – initially for inaccurately claiming he worked at Ubisoft, and then as the conversation went on, for discussing industry working conditions without their consent.

Perron was a bit luckier, as roughly around the time the segment aired, he found a job elsewhere and left Longtail, leaving Lemire to spearhead the movement alone. But not long after, the worst happened: Lemire was fired.

Longtail, Folded

Officially, Lemire was fired for poor work performance, but its occurrence so soon after the television appearance and Longtail catching wind of his efforts was regarded as suspicious by everyone I spoke to. Initially, Lemire accepted his defeat quietly, but what happened the following month spurred him into further action.

All throughout 2008, Longtail Studios had been restless – new projects had dried up, and employees were worried about the studio potentially closing. One lead I spoke to recalls being told after Lemire was fired that his dismissal was an isolated event and all other jobs were safe. But in December of 2008, roughly a month after Lemire was fired, Longtail underwent layoffs. From its peak of roughly 80-100 employees, Longtail eliminated 38 positions, approximately half of its then-current staff, including a large number of those who had been involved in the union efforts, and almost its entire art team.

At the time, Longtail claimed it was due to the economic crisis and a lack of game sales. Employees who were there recall the announcement being short, with no chance to ask questions, and a list of names hung up on the wall to indicate to employees who had lost their jobs. One lead told me they were given no input on who was let go, and were only told five minutes beforehand that the layoffs were happening. Those who were being laid off were given eight weeks, per Quebec laws on collective dismissals, and stayed with the studio wrapping up one last project through the start of February. Then they were gone.

“The Christmas party that year was…something,” recalls one employee who survived the layoffs. “The layoffs were announced in December and the people that were losing their jobs were still invited. It wasn't an open bar, but there were plenty of booze tickets and they had rented those carnival games where you punch a target and it measures your strength. People got extremely drunk and at least one guy broke his hand.”

The following April, Ubisoft posted a 14% year-over-year sales increase for the prior year, with CEO Yves Guillemot saying the company had “the second best profitability among comparable companies in its industry.” Its casual games business grew 40%, with the company hiring roughly 1,300 new employees in the interest of “preparing for the next generation of handheld as well as home consoles.”

Mercier notes that prior to the layoffs, over 35% of the eligible studio members had signed union cards, which in Quebec is enough to force a full studio vote. He says they had been delaying in hopes of getting over 50% to sign, which would automatically grant Longtail a union without a vote. But not only had Longtail lost its two union leaders, the layoffs had mysteriously impacted every other strong supporter of the union effort as well.

“They cut our head off,” Mercier recalls. “We didn’t have any strong supporters anymore. I was left with nearly starting again to zero, but the conditions never materialized to let the campaign run again…They wanted to make sure that the cancer couldn’t grow.”

Without Perron or Lemire, with their headcount decimated, and fear of retaliation higher than ever, this was the final nail in the coffin of Longtail’s union efforts. Longtail, such as it was, briefly soldiered on. The Quebec studio was formally folded into Ubisoft the following year (a move that also resulted in a few more employees being laid off), and development efforts within Longtail itself shifted primarily to its Halifax location…which was then also folded into Ubisoft in 2015. The ultimate absorption of Longtail happened just as its sister studio Gameloft was gobbled up by Vivendi amid Vivendi’s attempt at an Ubisoft takeover, and may have been a preventative measure to keep the same thing from happening in Halifax. It’s unclear what happened to the New York branch of Longtail Studios – presumably it was shuttered or similarly wrapped up into its informal parent company, as the last game released by Longtail Studios, Trivial Pursuit Live!, came out in 2015 and Longtail’s website ceased to function in late 2018.

A Last Ditch Effort

But even after their efforts failed, Lemire, Perron, and several others rallied one last time to hold Ubisoft and Longtail accountable for their treatment of employees. When Lemire learned about the layoffs in the wake of his firing, he was inspired to try and rekindle the unionization flame, if not at Longtail, then elsewhere in the industry. So he filed a claim against Longtail with the Quebec Commission des normes de travail, alleging he had been wrongfully terminated for unionization activity.

“If we could just raise awareness, maybe catch the attention of the government or some journalists, we could still get something from this fight and maybe even inspire other workers from the video game business to fight for their rights and dignity,” Lemire tells me. “At that point, I wasn’t even expecting to win. It would have been a bonus, but my objective was to raise the curtain on the abuse in the video game industry.”

But Lemire wasn’t the only one who took Longtail management to court. A group of laid off employees also banded together for multiple other cases in the same court, though theirs alleged wrongful termination rather than termination for unionization specifically. Multiple employees who were involved recalled receiving emails from a government program specifically designed to help those recently laid off find new positions, advertising their own exact jobs back to them. One source sent IGN a copy of a job posting they were sent by Emploi Quebec, which provides assistance to those impacted by collective dismissal. The job posting was the exact same job they had just been laid off from at Longtail.

But as before, Lemire and his colleagues’ push for accountability quickly unraveled. Mercier recalls asking AFPC if they would provide legal representation, but his request was denied. As a last ditch effort, he opted to represent Lemire himself, but admits to me that he had little experience and struggled to put together a case due to Lemire’s history of being outspoken in the workplace. Longtail claimed Lemire was incompetent and a poor employee – though multiple other employees I spoke to pointed out to me that Lemire’s conduct had seemingly been tolerable to Longtail until the union situation arose. The judge, admitting he was unable to assess whether or not Lemire had been competent at his job, gave Longtail the benefit of the doubt and ruled in its favor. Lemire’s case was crushed, but he hoped his trial would at least inspire the cause of his former coworkers.

His hopes were in vain. Lemire’s loss took the wind out of the others’ efforts, and Mercier told one of their group that because it was classified as a collective dismissal, he had no argument he could present the court in their favor. He filed initial paperwork on their behalf, but then declined to be involved further, a move that left many of those I spoke to feeling bitter and hurt. Lemire tells me he called Mercier after he left, telling Mercier he had betrayed him and the others, and that Lemire would never forgive him. The two haven’t spoken since.

“It’s painful to me,” Mercier recalls. “They were very good people, but unfortunately I was left with no option. We didn’t have any legal arguments. They played the anti-union playbook properly. It was seriously one of the worst moments of my career, and I do believe it’s still the worst moment of my career, having to look these people in the face and tell them that I could do nothing.”

With Lemire’s loss and Mercier gone, most of those involved in the case gave up, but one stuck it out all the way to trial. It was there that Longtail, fully funded and represented by large Quebec law firm Langlois Kronström Desjardins, claimed that the layoffs were a lawful collective dismissal. Per trial documents seen by IGN, Longtail argued that Canada was feeling the effects of the 2007 global financial crisis, and with game development moving more and more toward 3D worlds, its Longtail teams of mostly 2D developers and artists – which had made up the bulk of the layoffs, if not all – weren’t able to keep up. Mobile games, it said, weren’t profitable. It was pivoting back to console.

The remaining employee argued back, pointing out that many of the positions (such as UI artists) were relevant in 3D development and their skill sets were still useful. They claimed that they were terminated not due to the economy or their skills, but due to “corporate restructuring and business reorientation,” saying that their team in particular was targeted for “having a negative attitude.” They noted that because Longtail was rehiring for the same role, it hadn’t been necessary to terminate them. But Longtail denied these claims. The judge pointed out that Longtail hadn’t explicitly hired anyone to replace the employee in question, saying their suspicions were insufficient. Without a lawyer, a “preponderance of evidence,” or funding to press the matter, the second complaint was also lost.

Following their dismissal and the trials, multiple sources I spoke to said they struggled to find work in the games industry in Quebec. Several believed that word of their unionization attempt and subsequent court case had spread in the local industry, discouraging companies from hiring anyone involved. One person I spoke to who left of their own accord after the layoffs told me that when they told their manager they were leaving, the manager explicitly told them that if they wanted to, they could stop them from getting another job in the industry. All but one of the people I spoke to for this piece left the games industry for good in the years immediately following their departure from Longtail.

The Unionized Future

The story of Longtail Studios is a sad one, and not exactly encouraging at a time when unionization efforts across gaming are ramping up as workers push for better conditions industry-wide. But one hopeful note that struck me while writing this was that despite their struggles and ultimate loss, my sources still fundamentally believed that games industry unions were not just possible, but critical to a better future for the industry.

“Years later, I still think this was the correct thing to do,” one source said. “In fact, I could not do otherwise. Too many employees had poor conditions to be tolerated. Unionizing could also have been a way to expose all the corruption in our government and in Longtail/Ubisoft by forcing a more transparent budget. We should always fight against corruption and exploitation, no matter what the circumstances are. When facing unethical big businesses and shady government deals, unionizing is the only way to keep the forces in balance. It's true that we suffered heavy losses when doing so, but there are lessons to learn from this. So yes, I would still encourage others to unionize for themselves and for others.”

One especially heartening note came from my original source. In their initial email to IGN, they told us they were inspired to mention their experience at Longtail because they had heard about Microsoft’s recent messaging around taking a “neutral approach” toward a possible Activision-Blizzard union (should the acquisition go through), and its later voluntary recognition of a ZeniMax QA testers union and ad in the Washington Post expressing the positive impact of unions. While there is never a guarantee Microsoft might not change its mind down the line, my source was astonished at how the narrative had changed in a decade and a half.

“In hindsight, I dunno…at the time [unionizing] just made sense. I was making around $30,000 CAD a year when the North American average was almost double,” they told me. “We knew that the salaries were paid in part by the government (public funds) and we just wanted to have good conditions and be paid fairly. Conditions weren’t bad, but it just made sense to protect what we had. It was frowned upon when you said, ‘No’ to overtime, those types of situations had to go away. I regret signing that card in a way.

“That’s why when Microsoft said that they were okay with their studios unionizing it’s HUGE news! That’s a giant company saying it’s okay. Big corporations, ahem, game companies don’t like it when they don’t make tons of profits. They don’t really care about employees. They care about profits. I love the people that work at Ubisoft, many are still friends. I absolutely despise dishonesty and exploitation. I lost my career. I’m still affected by it and I’m still crying everytime I talk about it. I’m mad crying.

“I don’t want anybody to go through this because they tried to unionize. They shouldn’t be scared of it. I want to encourage the whole industry to talk about it out in the open. Make it normal! Unions were created for a reason! Better conditions and a fair slice of the pie.”

Interviewee responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Thank you to Erwan Lafleuriel and IGN France for providing translation on all French documentation for this piece, and thank you to Vincent Chevarie and Renaud Loiselle Dupuis at Au bas de l'échelle for their assistance in interpreting Quebec labor law.

Nintendo has taken the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon offline as it attempts to fix a security issue “related to online play”.

As spotted by VGC, the following maintenance post related to the Wii U games’ online functionality appeared on the Nintendo website at 4:30 GMT (8:30 PT) on Friday, March 3.

“This network service is currently unavailable due to urgent maintenance required to fix a vulnerability related to online play," it said. "We do not yet have information on when network services can be restored. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

The security vulnerability is almost certainly ENLBufferPwn, which could allow an attacker to take over your console just by connecting to them online.

This exploit affected many of Nintendo’s games on the Switch, along with Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS.https://t.co/GWR6alQVy4

— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) March 3, 2023

At the time of writing both games are still offline, and no timetable has been given for when the issue will be resolved.

Nintendo did not identify the cause of the security concern. However, established dataminer OatmealDome suggested in a tweet that the games could have been taken offline out of fear of a network vulnerability called ENLBufferPwn.

According to the twitter thread, the insidious vulnerability allows attackers to take over another player’s console simply by connecting to them online via multiplayer matchmaking.

OatmealDome notes that multiple Wii U, Switch. and 3DS games have been patched to protect users from attack, but that “Splatoon 1 and Mario Kart 8 did not receive any".

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Metroid Fusion is joining the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library next week.

Exactly when the game will arrive is a little unclear, however, as a tweet from Nintendo (below) has a March 9 release date, while a press release from the company states March 8. IGN has reached out for clarification on this release date.

Metroid Fusion will be the first additional Game Boy Advance game added to the Switch Online collection after Nintendo launched the service alongside six titles in February. As the fourth game in the 2D Metroid Saga, the entire collection will now (sort of) be available on Switch, with the exception of the original game's remake Zero Mission.

The SA-X, an unstoppable X mimicking Samus, is on the loose, and it could be just around the corner…

Adventure to planet SR388 as interstellar bounty hunter Samus Aran in Metroid Fusion, coming to #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members on 3/9! pic.twitter.com/gJAcAaavcI

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 3, 2023

IGN awarded Metroid Fusion a 9/10 in our review, and we also placed it on our Top 25 Nintendo Game Boy Advance Games of All Time list.

"Intelligent Systems put together a fantastic adventure on the Game Boy Advance that not only will please those Samus fanatics that were itching for a continuation of her 2D adventures, it will most likely generate interest in gamers unfamiliar with the series to seek out Samus' previous games," we said at the time.

Users will need both Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack before they're able to download Metroid Fusion and the rest of the Game Boy Advance Games, but all of this can be done from the Switch Online app on the console itself.

Also available in the collection is Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega MicroGames, Kuru Kuru Kuruin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Minecraft has revealed new details about its upcoming 1.20 update, which is now titled Trails and Tales.

The new version is set to introduce a handful of fresh features, including a new biome, a new friendly mob, and more. The developers said this expansion is "all about self-expression through representation, storytelling, and worldbuilding."

Arguably the biggest addition is the Cherry Blossom Biome, a new biome bringing a matching colored wood set and leaves along with it. Pigs, sheep and bees will inhabit the Cherry Blossom areas.

Beyond that, Trails and Tales will introduce a new friendly mob in the form of camels. Players will be able to ride camels and use their Dash ability to cover ground quickly. Plus, two players can ride a singel camel at the same time. There's also a brand new ancient animal called the Sniffer, which will sniff out buried seeds and help players find decorative plants.

The new items in Trails and Tales largely revolve around customization. Players will be able to create hanging signs, chiseled bookshelves, armor trims, and more to reflect their own personal style. The developers also hinted that the new archeology system could uncover "exciting hints of a forgotten past", meaning this could be a lore-heavy expansion. Version 1.20 is set to come out sometime in 2023.

For more, check out the 10 best Minecraft house ideas to build yourself, or read our list of the 10 best survival games.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

It's time for another Question Block edition of the weekly NVC column. This week, we're answering what seems like an easy one, but it turns out it's NOT easy. Shane Dowley wrote us at nvc@ign.com and asked the following question:

"For new Switch buyers, what would be your top 5 essential games that you would tell them to buy?"

First off, we answered this during this week's episode of NVC, but we're getting a little more formal with the answers. Much as Wheel of Fortune automatically gives players in the final round a free R,S,T,L,N and E, we answered this question with the most common games as give-ins: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey. The remaining picks are below.

Reb Valentine

Assuming you have some other device to play multi-platform games that are nonetheless superb on the Switch already (like Hollow Knight or Celeste), then obviously you need a trove of Switch exclusives. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an essential cornerstone of the Switch library for its ability to suck you in for hundreds of hours alone as well as incorporate joyful, social play. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle introduces a genre many Nintendo enthusiasts might be less familiar with by painting it with a familiar and family-friendly veneer (and it is, I argue, better than Sparks of Hope!). Luigi's Mansion 3, easily one of the best games on the system, deserves a spot on sheer charm. And there's literally nothing in the world like Ring Fit Adventure, one of the most unique RPGs I've ever played and with absolutely no peer on any other system anywhere. For my fifth pick, obviously you'll need the NSO Expansion Pass for all the games it comes with (yes, even though I regularly quip that no one actually plays them), but more importantly for the Mario Kart and Animal Crossing DLC.

Peer Schneider

I usually start my recommendations with SteamWorld Dig, but I’m gonna mix it up this time! Switch has a strong lineup of wonderful co-op multiplayer games – some ported from other platforms like Diablo III, New Super Mario Bros. or Donkey Country: Tropical Freeze, but many are unique to the system. My number one Switch Essential pick – and a co-op delight – is Luigi’s Mansion 3. Seriously, it’s fantastic. Next up, it’s Splatoon 3. It’s just a ridiculously good competitive shooter. You can lose hundreds of hours to this game in competitive and co-op modes, or just have fun for a weekend with the campaign mode. For my final three picks, I’m going with a trio of top-tier remakes/remasters: the charming handheld classic The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, multi-scenario Square JRPG Live A Live, and most-likely prettiest game on Switch forever Metroid Prime Remastered.

Seth Macy

This is a tough one, and so I'm going to cheat right off the bat by recommending the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pass. It costs as much as a game – granted, a game you have to buy every year – but it has so many great games included with the service it's totally worth it now. After that, I have the controversial pick of Minecraft for Nintendo Switch. Yes, you can play Minecraft on a TI-89 calculator at this point, but it works so great on Switch and there's something extra special about playing it handheld. After that, things get trickier for me. I'm going to say Bayonetta 2, even though it's originally a Wii U game. It's better than its sequel and just feels so damn good to play. Metroid Prime Remastered is also another absolute must-play, and while you probably can't get it as a physical cart anymore, it's on the eShop (and cheaper that route, too). Finally, and this is just me being weird, I'm going to say if you have a Switch, you should also have Axiom Verge 2. You don't need to have played the first to enjoy the second, and it's probably my favorite Metroidvania of the last decade. It's super good!

So what are your picks for the five essential Nintendo Switch games (that aren't Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Mario Odyssey)? Start the arguments in the comments!

While the latest trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gave fans plenty of new things to get excited about, it also appeared to show a classic enemy from the N64's Ocarina of Time.

The infamous ReDead monster can be seen nestled between a Lizalfos and what appears to be a giant Bokoblin in a gameplay trailer shared during February 8's Nintendo Direct.

The trailer only showed the ReDead for a couple of seconds, but those familiar with previous Zelda games will understand how it fits into a darker version of Hyrule.

While they've also appeared in Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker, ReDeads are arguably most known from Ocarina of Time, where they haunt Castle Town's ruined market place following the time jump.

Appearing as zombie-like creatures with spooky wooden masks, ReDeads would release a terrifying scream that paralyses Link before they skulk over and attack.

While ReDeads' appearance have changed a little over the years to suit each game's art style, their attacking behaviour has remained the same, meaning Tears of the Kingdom players will likely have to come face to face with one of the Zelda series' scariest enemies once again.

The ReDead is just one of several surprises features in the new trailer for Tears of the Kingdom, but IGN has you covered with a list of the more interesting inclusions here. Nintendo shared plenty more itself about the Breath of the Wild sequel, of course, including its $70 price tag, its collector's edition, and new Amiibo.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Nintendo has announced that it is adding Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service, and they're coming later today.

Revealed as part of today's Nintendo Direct event, Nintendo said that classic Game Boy games will be available as part of the basic Nintendo Switch Online subscription, while Game Boy Advance games are coming as part of the premium Expansion Pack upgrade for Switch Online.

Game Boy games included at launch include Tetris, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, Gargoyle's Quest, Game & Watch Gallery 3, Alonme in the Dark: The New Nightmare, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Wario Land 3, and Kirby's Dream Land. You can use the Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, and Game Boy Color filters.

The launch lineup for Game Boy Advance includes Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega MicroGames, Kuru Kuru Kuruin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.

More games are coming in the future for both platforms. The trailer teased: Metroid Fusion, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Fire Emblem, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, and Golden Sun.

The Expansion Pack for Nintendo Switch Online launched last October, and made N64 and Sega Genesis games available for subscribers. Its launch wasn't the smoothest in gaming history with players reporting lag while playing the classic games, but those games did at least play at 60Hz in all territories.

Improvements have since been made, and the library has also expanded to include The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Game Boy games only add to the library of nostalgia.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Superman's son Jon Kent is spinning out into a new DC Comics series called Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, but there's a big piece of the story DC hasn't revealed until now. The series will feature Jon crossing over into the Injustice: Gods Among Us universe.

Adventures of Superman is one of several books included in DC's line-wide revamp of the Superman franchise this year. Up till now, DC only revealed that the series will feature a rematch between Jon and Earth-3's Ultraman (a villain who's busy trying to murder the Supermen of the multiverse) and that Jon's powers are beginning to flare out of control. Now we know that Jon will be further tested by meeting a version of his father who was driven to become a despotic tyrant instead of a force for good.

This is an auspicious crossover, considering that series writer Tom Taylor also penned the bulk of DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2 comics. Taylor has helped greatly flesh out a universe where Superman is driven mad by the deaths of his wife and unborn child. So what happens when he meets his son from another universe?

"Injustice for me is a very troubled time," Taylor told DC.com. "I had so much fun on that book. Obviously, I was on it for years. I think I was originally hired for fifteen chapters, and I wrote over 150. But there's a lot about Injustice that that rubs me up the wrong way. I don't believe Superman, no matter what happens to him, can become that person. I don't believe Wonder Woman becomes that person. So, for me, it's a really interesting Elseworld, and throwing Jon Kent as sort of that beacon of hope and in a way, quite an innocent character and a character who wants the best for the world, throwing him into that world where his father has become a dictator gives us so much to play with. I've been talking about this story to all my friends who will listen for months, long before we knew where we were going with this."

Taylor revealed that Jon will arrive in the Injustice universe during the period of Injustice 2: Year 5, meaning it takes place shortly before the events of the second game. He also noted that while Jon's encounters with the Injustice Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman will be key moments in the series, there's another character who's relationship to Jon becomes key.

"I guess the biggest one—and I wasn't going to give this away, but you know what, for anyone reading this I will—there is a different Damian Wayne in the Injustice world. Literally his best friend is essentially not on the side of the angels in this world. That is going to give us a very fun and entertaining dynamic and quite a tortured dynamic to play with."

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1 is slated for release on March 17, 2023.

Taylor is also hard at work on a new volume of Titans, one which repositions the team as the replacement for the Justice League after the events of Dark Crisis. Similarly, Marvel is about to introduce a new team of Avengers when that series relaunches later this year.

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

In a hilarious fake trailer, Saturday Night Live has cast The Last of Us' Pedro Pascal in HBO's Mario Kart and tasks him with taking Princess Peach to Rainbow Road.

The trailer, which you can check out below, is roughly three minutes long and also features appearances by Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, and Luigi.

HBO's adapting another iconic game pic.twitter.com/YtsIswwSBb

— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) February 5, 2023

In this world, it's been 10 years since Mushroom Kingdom fell and the only thing left is "hope." Pascal's Mario, who introduces himself with the iconic line, "It's a-me, Mario," is asked to take Princess Peach to Rainbow Road in an attempt to save humanity, and he's given a kart to do so.

Instead of Clickers, our heroes have to face off against Goombas, but luckily they have shotguns with red shell ammo to keep them safe. We even see Mario eating a mushroom and, when Princess Peach asks why he's eating poision, he responds with, "It makes me feel big, okay?! I need to feel big, because Bowser is out there, and he's the main bad guy."

The trailer is full of other Easter Eggs, the death of a major character we won't spoil here, and even more.

One of the funniest bits also notes that this new series is from the "master storytellers behind Mario Kart 1-8." As everyone knows, we all flock to the Mario Kart franchise because of its riveting tales.

Pascal's appearance on Saturday Night Live arrives in the middle of The Last of Us' first season. We gave the latest episode a rare 10/10, saying, "A masterfully told love story set in a world designed to leave them unwritten, episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us is a sensational hour of television."

For more, check out our breakdown of the real version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, why we said this third episode is adaptation at its finest, and the latest on Pascal's return as Din Djarin alongside Grogu in Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Welp. Nintendo won't be on the floor at E3 2023. Neither will Xbox. Sony… well, we knew Sony and the ESA haven't been hitching horses for a while now. So that means the "Big 3" are no-shows at what we had all hoped was going to be a triumphant, perhaps even jubilant, return of the most legendary gaming show of them all. I'm not going to write about "Is E3 even relevant?" or "do we still need a show like E3?" Those pieces have already been written, often by people much more talented and wise than I. Instead, I just want to say, as a fan of video gaming, how I am truly bummed out to see E3 once again falling to the wayside. Some of the greatest E3 moments of all time come from Nintendo, and while they stopped doing live conferences in 2012, their E3-timed Directs have been some of the most memorable parts of E3 without technically being part of E3.

While Nintendo wasn't doing live press conferences, its presence on the showfloor was always massive and one of the places you absolutely, positively had to visit if you were among those lucky enough to attend E3. Usually Nintendo would have a Treehouse live event immediately following its Direct, and we'd be treated to several hours of live gameplay of games we only just learned about. It was all so exciting and fun, and this year it's gone.

Will we get a Direct during the E3 window? I'm kind of thinking we won't. I may be wrong, and I hope I am, but Nintendo's biggest game in half a decade drops at the start of May and anything they're holding for the holiday season wouldn't really benefit from a June reveal. So not only is Nintendo not going to have a physical presence at the LA Convention center, but I don't think we're going to see a Direct during E3, either.

I do feel safe in saying Nintendo has had more memorable E3 moments than anyone else. It was a Nintendo E3 moment that birthed one of the most enduring online memes with the "Reaction Guys." (related: it was a previous Nintendo E3 uh… moment… that spawned the first half of that meme).

E3 2005: A Nintendo Revolution

While not quite as legendary as the previous year's E3 presentation, 2005 saw the first, official reveal of the "Nintendo Revolution," which would go on to become the Nintendo Wii. Watching Satoru Iwata casually reveal the prototype, which he was hiding in his jacket, is just one of those magical Nintendo moments. But the crowd really gets going when Iwata announces Virtual Console and the promise we'd have the opportunity to play games from every Nintendo console. "The idea of a single device transporting us back to the first Excitebike, Earthbound, or Punch-Out!! should make us all feel young again."

E3 2014: Robot Chicken and Smash

Watching this presentation again is so weird. If I'd never seen it before, and someone were to describe it to me, I'd think they were making it up. It's this beautiful, absurd fever dream put together by Robot Chicken and features a choreographed fight sequence between Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime leading to the reveal of the new Super Smash Bros. I'd forgotten how awesome this was. Go and watch it again. You'll see.

E3 2018: Every Fighter… Ever

The presentation itself lacked the memorable moments between segments, and watching it again, this is a pretty by-the-books E3 Direct. It's pretty much indistinguishable from any other Nintendo Direct. However, E3 2018 saw the announcement that every fighter ever to have appeared in Super Smash Bros was coming to Ultimate. It didn't seem possible, and yet not only did they come through with the promise, they added EVEN MORE as the years went on. This E3 holds a special place in my heart, since it's the one and only E3 I've been to, and I was within grabbing distance of Shigeru Miyamoto. Grabbing Mr. Miyamoto is frowned upon both by IGN and Nintendo, so I had to compose myself. I also feel like, while Nintendo had an incredible 2017 with the release of the Switch and Breath of the Wild, 2018 was the year the Switch absolutely cemented its place in popular culture, and I think Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a lot to do with that.

E3 2015: Nintendo Muppets

Not technically Muppets, I know, but they were created by The Jim Henson company. The melding of two titans of creativity gave us one of the best and bittersweet Nintendo digital E3 presentations of them all, as it would be Satoru Iwata's final showing as Nintendo's president. It was also 2015, when things were looking pretty awful for Nintendo as a company. The Wii U never caught on, and is largely considered a failure as a console, and the first game featured, Star Fox Zero, is… well, it had some interesting ideas. But the whole presentation is just so full of heart, it captures the feeling we Nintendo fans hold inside of us better than any other presentation.

E3 2004: Pretty Much Everything About It

I mentioned it earlier, but the Reaction Guys meme was birthed at this Nintendo E3 press conference. The first photo in the meme was taken in 2003, when Nintendo announced Pacman vs. for GameCube. But I'll get to that second photo in a bit, because, man. Where even to start? I guess at the beginning. Logical enough. The whole thing kicked off with someone most of us didn't recognize, an imposing figure by the name of Reggie Fils-Aime. "My name is Reggie. I'm about kicking ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games." Legend! The reveal of the biggest President in gaming was a pretty interesting way to start things off, but then we got the reveal of the Nintendo DS during the same presentation. It wasn't quite the Earth-shattering moment of other console reveals, but in hindsight, maybe everyone should have clapped a little louder.

The most incredible Nintendo E3 moment of all time happens at the end of the presentation. It's important to point out, E3 2004 was still very much a business-focused event, and a fair portion of the presentation included sales figures and bar graphs. Iwata came out after the DS presentation and talked at length about Nintendo's successes and how the DS was going to change things up, once again, but then he mentioned Nintendo's next console. There's an audible gasp from the crowd when he says "home console," by the way. He goes on to confirm Nintendo is working on a new console, one that will "create a gaming revolution." It was our first hint at the Nintendo Revolution, and man was it exciting.

At the very end, Reggie thanked the crowd and casually offered a look at just one more world players could soon visit. As the trailer rolled, it seemed both new and somehow familiar, but as the camera spun around a realistic Link riding Epona, all doubt was removed and the crowd went bananas. That was the source of the second part of the "Reaction Guys" meme, and you can feel it from watching footage taken with the crowd in place. The conference hall just explodes with joyous energy, with people screaming out in disbelief at what they're seeing in front of their eyes. Seriously, if you've never watched video of the reveal taken from the crowd's perspective, I highly recommend doing so. Even if you aren't a fan of Zelda, or Twilight Princess, the energy is just so pure and real, it's impossible not to smile. And then Miyamoto comes out with a Hylian shield and Master Sword!

Even if Nintendo does an E3-timed Direct this year, without the following excitement from those who get to experience Nintendo's offerings on the show floor, I think we're all worse off. It's a huge blow for fans who've dreamed their whole lives, as I did, of getting their hands on games announced only hours before. I'm hoping the return of E3 as an in-person event is merely experiencing growing pains and the blowback from negative economic conditions. For Nintendo fans, I really hope Nintendo returns to E3, and I hope everyone gets to experience the magic in-person at least once.

Of course there are a lot more Nintendo moments to love and share. What are yours?

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation Plus games for February 2023 are OlliOlli World (PS4 and PS5), Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4), Evil Dead: The Game (PS4 and PS5), and Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PS4 and PS5).

As revealed on the PlayStation Blog, all four games will be made available at no extra cost to PlayStation Plus subscribers on February 7.

OlliOlli World is a skateboarding action-platformer that lets players traverse a wild and wacky colourful world on, well, a skateboard. Players can take on different missions, customise their look, meet eccentric characters, and explore vibrant locations in a skateboarding utopia.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Rollercoaster-like courses and a wealth of moves make OlliOlli World a huge amount of fun to play, whether you’re just cruising or out to become a true skate god."

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a considerably different type of game, taking players back in time to 1930s America in a remake of the original PlayStation 2 and Xbox title to experience a blend of mystery solving and gangster gunfights.

IGN gave this one an 8/10, saying: "Oozing with 1930s atmosphere, Mafia: Definitive Edition is a successful rejuvenation of the best story in the series."

Spinning in another direction, Evil Dead: The Game is a gruelling multiplayer horror game where players must survive a night of horrors in intentionally ridiculous action. IGN said this one was great too, calling it "an asymmetric multiplayer game of cat and mouse that’s compelling and exhilarating" that's sometimes rough around the edges.

Finally, Destiny 2: Beyond Light will grant players access to the year four expansion of the sci-fi shooter and all previous content. While we gave Destiny 2 itself an 8/10, IGN's review of the expansion fell to a 7/10, saying it sometimes breaks new ground but otherwise remains frozen in time.

These four games will be available at no extra cost until March 6, with last month's games - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Fallout 76, and Axiom Verge 2 - will be leaving the service on February 6.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Between hunting for weapons, fighting bosses, and completing Hyrule's many side quests, gamers who choose to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its entirety can spend upward of 50-100 hours preparing for its final boss. Of course, some players choose to abandon the game's guidance and instead speedrun beating the final boss without preparation, and that's exactly what Twitch streamer Player5 did — 50 times in one day.

On January 15, Player5 managed to beat Breath of the Wild 50 times in just under 23 hours. The full stream is replayable on his Twitch channel, where they also claimed the current Any% world record for Breath of the Wild speedruns.

"I decided to do it early January, although a friend of mine TheRealNoman had the idea probably ~1 year ago," Player5 told IGN. "I also had seen Simply run SM64 1200 star (10 120 star speedruns in a row) pretty recently, so I figured it would be a fun challenge."

I just beat BotW 50 times in 24 hours 😪 Thanks everyone who stopped by and kept me awake for this! pic.twitter.com/YBZXnQBez0

— Player 5 (@Player5SR) January 15, 2023

As pointed out by GamesRadar+, Player5's fastest completion time during this marathon was 24:16, with a relatively similar average time of 25:23. However, achieving this precise timing wasn't easy.

"The hardest moment was trying not to get annoyed by the small mistakes I was making around the 18-20 hour mark," they said. "I knew I was capable of much better, but getting tilted just makes everything worse."

Player5 was confident in the consistency of an Any% run through Breath of the Wild, and their marathon challenge run only served to prove it.

"I guess I also learned that I'm still able to play well even after 20 hours of constant playing," they said.

Player5's impressive run is the latest addition to Breath of the Wild's long history of speedruns and challenges, which includes this player who completed the game without crossing their path once and this YouTuber who opened a chest that no other player could open for four years.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Mac Walters, the lead writer on Mass Effect 2 and 3 and production director on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf who had been with BioWare for nearly two decades, has officially left the company as "with a new year comes new adventures."

Walters took to LinkedIn to share the news, and he described how these past 19 years have been a true "life-changing experience" and that the choice to leave was very tough.

"With a new year comes new adventures," Walters wrote. "As some of you already know, at the end of last year I decided to leave BioWare. These past 19 years have been a life-changing experience to say the least, and it made the choice to go very difficult. I’ve worked with so many wonderful people and had the privilege to be a part of the most amazing teams and projects. It’s hard to fathom it all, and I know I’ll be reflecting on it for years to come.

"Thank you to everyone I’ve had the joy of working with, and I wish everyone at BioWare the very best in everything you do. It’s truly been a pleasure."

Walters first joined Bioware in September of 2003 as a writer for Jade Empire and his second position was a senior writer on the original Mass Effect. He would then take on the role of lead writer for Mass Effect 2 and 3 and would move on to Anthem as its narrative director after the Mass Effect trilogy came to an end.

He returned to the world of Mass Effect with Andromeda as its creative director after Anthem, he then served as a creative director for Bioware until June 2019, and then he became the project director for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Most recently, he was working as a production director on Dragon Age Dreadwolf, which still has no release date. We did recently get a new in-game cinematic trailer, however, that sets the stage for the upcoming RPG.

As for what the future holds for Mac? His linked in says he is on a "career break" and a "personal goal pursuit." After all he's done for the world of video games, it's safe to say he deserves it. Thanks, Mac.

For more, check out our review of every BioWare game and see where Mac's games rank on our list of the top 100 games of all time.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Welcome to the inaugural issue of our new, weekly Nintendo Voice Chat column. We're kicking things off by tackling a user-submitted question for our Question Block segment. Listeners of the show are no doubt familiar with the fact we will run into... time constraints... where we can't give your questions the time they deserve. What better way to tackle this problem than to pick one of our favorite user-submitted questions of the week and answer it here?

Super Ninfriendo Tracy Vincent asked: "Is there a game that came out in your youth, but you didn’t get around to it until much much later? Why did it take you so long to play it – and what are your thoughts when you finally did. Do you think you would’ve enjoyed it more or less had you played it around when it was originally released?"

Kat Bailey

It wasn’t always easy getting hold of NES games during Nintendo’s 8-bit heyday. Castlevania was one of many popular games from that era that never seemed to be on store shelves – not even the gas station where I rented Battletoads and Batman over and over again (Beetlejuice was also there, but not Konami’s equally spooky and far superior platformer). One of the few hints I saw that Castlevania even existed was through my dog-eared copy of the Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies, which barely even included screenshots. Still, Castlevania was to be one of the best NES games among my circle of friends, with Simon’s Quest being particularly popular. Castlevania continued to bounce around in the back of my head until I headed off to college a decade later, where I discovered a copy of Symphony of the Night in a random record store. I picked it up for $25 (a steal!) and decided to see if Castlevania indeed lived up to the playground hype.

Short answer: Obviously, it did. Of course, what I didn’t know was that Symphony of the Night was a radical reinvention of the Castlevania series, thereafter splitting fans between those who preferred “Metroidvanias.” Years later, I sat in a Japanese hotel room with Jeremy Parish – ironically one of the people to popularize the term “Metroidvania” – and watched as he blew through a Famicom Disc System version of the original game, pointing out all the unique details that made it special as he went. Would I have loved the original Castlevania if I had played it growing up? Almost certainly. It remains a striking achievement on the NES, with its soundtrack being a particular highlight. I may have even finished it, which is a feat I’ve yet to accomplish as an adult. One way or another, though, Castlevania remains a classic. Maybe one day Konami will bring it back.

Reb Valentine

Growing up, I pretty much only owned and played Nintendo devices – GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, etc. So I missed a lot of the classic games that came out on other hardware. But my senior year of college, I finally purchased a beat-up, outdated, used PlayStation 2 on Amazon, and that’s how I was finally exposed to a lot of classic RPGs (that have since made it to Switch) like Kingdom Hearts, Chrono Cross, and most importantly – the Final Fantasy series. I played Final Fantasy 7 for the first time over a decade after it came out, and honestly, I didn’t love it. By 2012 it was seriously dated – movement was clunky, it wasn’t nice to look at most of the time (have you seen Cloud’s goofy arms?), and ugh, the writing! I didn’t understand why people raved about it!

I did eventually get into other Final Fantasy games, playing Final Fantasy X that same year and liking it much better, and then I picked up Final Fantasy 6 a few years after and loved that one. But FF7 never landed, and I never even finished it. That said, after hearing about the big twist of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, I played that all the way through last year, and I think I get it now. Had I played FF7 when it first came out, before people had hyped it up as one of the greatest games of all time and before thousands of other games figured out how to make characters move in 3D environments infinitely better, I think I would have fallen in love just as everyone else did. I’m glad Remake exists both as a challenge to the very idea of a Remake, but also as a gateway to help me understand what made that original so special in the first place.

Seth Macy

This will sound like crazy talk, but I never played Metroid in a serious capacity until adulthood. Which is kind of weird because I distinctly remember playing it on a demo kiosk at a JC Penney sometime in the 1980s, making it one of the first NES games I ever played. Being a Nintendo kid in the '80s also meant it was almost impossible to overlook anything made by Nintendo. I knew about the 'JUSTIN BAILEY' password, and even knew Metroid was a girl! (note: I actually knew the main character's spoiler ending but didn't know until much later her name was actually Samus).

So as to why I didn't play it in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System, I just don't know. It was an earlier game, which probably led me to pass it over when picking out games to rent for a weekend, and to the best of my recollection, none of my friends close enough to loan me a game owned a copy for themselves. I actually played Super Metroid and Metroids Prime 1 and 2 before I got around to the original, and I gotta say, I'm glad I waited. It's still a solid game, one that holds up today. It's not the flawless user experience of modern games of the genre, but with a good guide and a few free hours in the day, you can make your way through it fairly easily.

I was pretty excited to discover it still held up when I finally did get around to playing it, and I've played through it several times since then. Full disclosure, I still haven't gotten the best ending. As to whether or not I would have enjoyed it more or less as a kid, I can say its setting and art style definitely appealed to me as a kid, but the game itself probably wouldn't have.

As I said before, it's pretty easy to get through now, but back then, I would have found it much more difficult. Not only because of my crappy kid reflexes, either, but because access to game help was nowhere near as easy as it is today. Back then there wasn't a gaming vocabulary for a "Metroidvania." The concept of impassable areas, ones you could only traverse with later upgrades, just wouldn't have clicked with me and I would likely have become frustrated with the game series and never experienced the glory of Super Metroid and the first Metroid Prime.

Peer Schneider

I’m a kid of the '70s, so I literally grew up with video games. From the Fairchild Channel F’s blocky magic to Atari 2600 and then home computers like Commodore 64 and Atari 800, I devoured – this time, not literally – thousands of games in the '70s and '80s. But my big blind spot happened in my late teens, when everyone was going nuts over console gaming’s second coming: the NES.

The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game franchise of all time. Yet somehow I missed both the original game and Zelda II when they first came out. My first steps with Nintendo were definitely in the arcades – Donkey Kong in particular delighted and pissed me off at the same time – yet I somehow never felt the need to go and buy a Nintendo Entertainment System. It honestly wasn’t even on my radar, and that entire era of gaming initially passed me by. I think I was still playing Winter Games and The Eidolon when the Zelda craze kicked off.

It wasn’t until a few years later when I picked up the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for my Super Famicom that I discovered the greatness of Link’s adventures. My mind was blown. I had hit pause on gaming for a few years and I couldn’t believe how good games at home looked and sounded… and they PULLED ME BACK IN. Now, I had played games like Ultima that let you explore expansive worlds freely, but it never came with such great visuals and tight controls. It was the combo of (seemingly) free, open world exploration and the use of tools and weapons that made me instantly fall in love.

I would eventually go back and play the many NES games that preceded my SNES favorites. In hindsight, I bet if I had played The Legend of Zelda when it first came out, I would’ve figured out a way to get a NES or even a Famicom Disk System and spent way, way too many hours exploring its world. Going back years later just isn’t the same, as you already understand the language of the game, know the use of many of its items, and even attack patterns of recurring enemies. I’m sure it would’ve been love at first sight, but I don’t have any regrets. A few years without games meant that I was able to focus on college applications, figure out my life, and actually get to where I am now.

As commonplace as it's become to see big, bold speculations about a futuristic metaverse in games industry discussions, game developers themselves don't seem too hot on the concept.

The 2023 State of the Game Industry survey has just been published, canvassing over 2,300 game developers for their situations and opinions on topics such as platform development, working conditions, and interest in technology. One of its more interesting questions this year was specifically about the metaverse:

"Which of these companies/platforms do you think is best placed to deliver on the promise of the metaverse concept?"

The platform that ultimately got the most votes was Epic Games' Fornite with 14%, followed by Meta (Horizon Worlds) at 7% and Microsoft (Minecraft) also at 7%. Five percent of developers said Roblox, and even fewer brought up options like Google, Apple, Second Life, Sony, Tencent, Amazon, and VR Chat.

But nothing got anywhere near as many votes as an answer that isn't a platform at all: "None - The metaverse concept will never deliver on its promise," which took away 45% of the vote, up from 33% last year. So almost half of all game developers surveyed don't think the metaverse promise is worth much at all.

Why?

While IGN doesn't have access to all the survey answers, GDC and Game Developer did publish a handful of comments submitted by respondents that can help shed some light. In particular, the question "What does the metaverse need to become sustainable?" included a lengthy response from one survey taker that, per GDC, "seemed to represent the voices of a significant majority of respondents." The response focused on the metaverse as a VR experience, noting that VR environments were currently missing levels of interactivity, affordability, control standardization, and hardware quality necessary to make the metaverse a reality.

The respondent also pointed out that even with all that, there still wasn't a clear definition of what the metaverse was supposed to be.

“The ‘metaverse promise,’ as it stands, is nothing," they wrote. "The people trying to sell it have no idea what it is, and neither do the consumers. Remember what happened, and keeps happening, with cloud gaming a decade ago?"

Other respondents' comments noted that the metaverse already existed effectively, and companies just kept rebranding it, and one comment suggested it simply shouldn't exist at all.

The metaverse has been discussed a great deal, certainly, and plenty of money has flowed in to make it happen in recent years. But companies like Meta have also lost a lot of that money as their bets have failed to pay off, leading even industry leaders to question whether or not the cost is worth it.

Alongside the metaverse question, the survey also asked developers about interests in other technology, such as blockchain. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they weren't interested in it at all, and 56% were outright opposed to its use.

Additionally, developers were asked about workplace culture and policies. Sixteen percent said that their companies had facilitated changes to healthcare policies related to reproductive care in the last year in a question asked in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and nine percent said their companies had improved their trans-inclusive healthcare policies.

Working hours has always been a big topic in these surveys, too. In this year's survey, 29% of respondents said they worked an average of 36-40 hours per week. 33% worked less on average, while 38% worked more. But when asked about the maximum hours per week they had worked in a single week, 46% said they had worked over 50, and 16% had worked over 70 hours in a single week.

Among reasons cited were self-pressure (74%), management pressure (14%), and peer pressure (11%), while 36% said they didn't feel they worked excessively (54% of respondents did not report ever working more than 50 hours in a single week).

The full report is downloadable here and includes responses on other topics such as platform interest, and industry opinions on unionization and consolidation.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Awesome Games Done Quick, the week-long 24-hour video game speedrunning marathon that raises money for charity, has just raised over $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

According to Game Done Quick's official website, AGDQ 2023 featured 150 speedruns and raised a total of $2,644,770.41 from 39,857 donations from 21,519 donors. The max donation was $100,000, the average donation was $66.36, and the median donation was $25.

🏁TIME🏁
#AGDQ2023 has raised a total amount of $2,642,493 for @preventcancer!

Thank you to everyone who made this marathon possible, and to all of you for your amazing generosity & support 💙

See you all next time at #SGDQ2023 from May 28th to June 4th ⏱️ #ThankYouMike 👏 pic.twitter.com/h3lkCmg0J7

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 15, 2023

AGDQ 2022 set a new Games Done Quick record by raising over $3.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and while this year's event didn't quite break any new records, it's still an incredible accomplishment the team accomplished that will make a difference for so many.

The next big event from Games Done Quick will be Summer Games Done Quick 2023 from May 28 to June 4. Last year, SGDQ raised a total of $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders.

Throughout the event, which ran on Twitch from January 8 - 15, speedrunners from around the world showed off their amazing skills for a good cause. There were a ton of incredible moments during the marathon, including when @NotImJhay set a new world record for Super Mario Galaxy 2.

In case you missed it or want to see it again (who wouldn't??), BIG GGs to @NotImJhay for getting the WR in Super Mario Galaxy 2! GGs to HardcoreGaming, @SuperT302, and MutantsAbyss for the great race as well, whew! #AGDQ2023 pic.twitter.com/vQgCluJ9rP

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 10, 2023

You can check out all the speedruns from Awesome Games Done Quick 2023 on Games Done Quick's YouTube Channel, where you can see such games as Pokemon Yellow, Final Fantasy VII, Portal, and many more completed in a speedy fashion by some of the best players in the world.

Prior to AGDQ, Games Done Quick announced that its founder, Mike Uyama, would be stepping down from the company after 13 years. Since the first event that was held in Uyama's mother's basement in 2010, GDQ has gone on to raise over $41 million for such charities as the Prevent Cancer Foundation and Doctors Without Borders.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

A new speedrunning world record has been established in Super Mario Galaxy 2, with Twitch streamer Jhay managing to beat their own record by just over four seconds.

In case you missed it or want to see it again (who wouldn't??), BIG GGs to @NotImJhay for getting the WR in Super Mario Galaxy 2! GGs to HardcoreGaming, @SuperT302, and MutantsAbyss for the great race as well, whew! #AGDQ2023 pic.twitter.com/vQgCluJ9rP

— Games Done Quick (@GamesDoneQuick) January 10, 2023

The new record was set during the Awesome Games Done Quick stream, which saw Jhay take on Mutantsabyss, Hardcoregaming, and Supervipert302 in a speedrunning race. Jhay's Any% with Bank run — a reference to the Bank Toad who is required to unlock the game's final galaxy — was completed at 2:54:51.33, which was 4.4 seconds faster than his previous record of 2:54:55.

Jhay celebrated his new record by tweeting in all caps, "I just got WR live at GDQ in front of 80k people how in the actual universe. I have peaked in life. Galaxy forever."

I JUST GOT WR LIVE AT GDQ IN FRONT OF 80K PEOPLE HOW IN THE ACTUAL UNIVERSE

I HAVE PEAKED IN LIFE

GALAXY FOREVER 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 pic.twitter.com/N6wGvpmeEm

— Jhay 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@NotImJhay) January 11, 2023

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is one of many speedrunning events taking place during Awesome Games Done Quick, which is running all this week on Twitch. Other notable events include runs through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and other popular games.

Awesome Games Done Quick will run until Saturday, January 14, with all proceeds from viewer donations benefiting the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.