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The next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter will be from Nintendo’s Switch-exclusive fighting game ARMS, and they’ll arrive in June.

The news was revealed as part of today’s surprsie Nintendo Direct Mini which revealed a whole host of new games coming to the Switch. For the rest of the announcements, check out our roundup.

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The fighter will be announced and released this June, but we have no word on which character from the game will be featured in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. During the announcement, a picture of the entire roster flashed on the screen. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about which particular fighter will be joining the fray in the coming few months.

Nintendo flexed its ‘dad joke’ game when the company mentioned that due to the fact that this fighter’s arms can extend, they will, in accordance, have to extend their development time on the fighter.

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Last week, creator Masahiro Sakurai was discussing the possibility of stopping production on Smash Bros. DLC entirely due to the spread of COVID-19 and mentioned that, even with an announcement, it may not be possible to develop the character. Here’s hoping we can avoid that eventuality.

In lieu of a release, a free game trial for ARMS will be available for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. It’s free to play from today for those with an active subscription and will start on the 26th of March and last until the 4th of April.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer from IGN. Follow him on Twitter!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has just gotten a new 1.1.1 update, but it’s actually last week’s 1.1.0 update that enabled an upcoming event. As detailed in the surprise Nintendo Direct Mini broadcast, the first seasonal event is now just days away, with another to come later in April.

Bunny Day, Animal Crossing’s equivalent of Easter, runs from April 1-12 and sees Zipper the bunny visit your island. Eggs will be hidden for you to hunt down through means like digging and fishing, and new limited-time items from the egg series will be craftable during the annual event.

You can get a glimpse of some of the items you can make in the Animal Crossing portion of the Nintendo Direct, which begins at the 8:23 mark.

Another new update for New Horizons will be released at some point in April that will enable the event for Earth Day, which falls on April 22. Specific details were not shared, but the Nintendo Direct did feature the likeness of a returning Animal Crossing character, Leif.

There was a ton of news shared during the Direct, including the release of the Borderlands and BioShock Collections on Switch.

Nintendo surprise-released a new Nintendo Direct Mini presentation, and packed inside the announcements came another unexpected treat: a handful of surprise game releases, ready to buy right now through the Nintendo Switch Eshop if any of them strike your fancy.

Four new games hit the Eshop alongside the Direct Mini: Shinsekai: Into the Depths, Good Job, Panzer Dragoon: Remake, and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. The presentation also mentioned that Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer is coming soon, so we may see that appear on the store in the near future.

Shinsekai is a lovely underwater exploration game from Capcom that was a timed exclusive for Apple Arcade last year. Good Job is a puzzle game that has you working your way up the corporate ladder of a company. Panzer Dragoon and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy are both remakes or ports of classics.

And while not exactly a new game release, the presentation also surprise-released a demo for Bravely Default 2, the upcoming RPG from Square Enix. So altogether you have plenty to play today.

Other announcements from the Nintendo Direct Mini include a number of 2K compilations–namely Borderlands, BioShock, and XCOM–the next fighter reveal for Smash Bros, and details on the April update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In a surprise Nintendo Direct, 2K has announced that the BioShock: The Collection, Borderlands Legendary Collection, and XCOM 2 Collection are all arriving on Nintendo Switch on May 29.

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In a segment of the Direct dedicated to 2K games, Nintendo revealed that three key series from the publisher are landing on Switch in May, and it’s a massive launch. BioShock: The Collection contains all three BioShock games as well as DLC packs, including the fantastic Burial at Sea expansion for BioShock Infinite and the Minerva’s Den storyline for BioShock 2.

Borderlands Legacy Collection features Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and The Pre-Sequel, as well as add-on content. If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll know that there’s a ton of DLC for Borderlands 2 in particular, making this a very chunky offering.

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XCOM 2 Collection features the base game along with the War of the Chosen expansion pack, which adds some persistent boss enemies to the game along with some bonus new mechanics, and some extra DLC.

In a press release, 2K revealed that all three collections will be available as physical versions, but the cartridges will only contain a small section of the game, with the rest requiring an internet connection to download. BioShock: The Collection’s cartridge contains the opening acts of all three games, the Borderlands cartridge contains just the first game, and the XCOM 2 cartridge contains the first two missions of the base campaign.

For more, check out our reviews of BioShock: The Collection, Borderlands, and XCOM 2, and all the big announcements from today’s Nintendo Direct Mini.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Nintendo has released a 28-minute Nintendo Direct Mini that featured such announcements as an ARMS character headed to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the release date for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, and so much more.

You can find a breakdown of each announcement, as well as the full Nintendo Direct Mini below.

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Next DLC Fighter Will Be From Arms

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While Nintendo didn’t announce which character from ARMS will be joining the fight, we now know the first character from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s new Fighters Pass will be a character from the Nintendo-exclusive fighting game ARMS.

This newest fighter will be announced and released in June 2020 and could be Ribbon Girl, Ninjara, Master Mummy, Min Min, or any other.

Spring Man is already an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Release Date

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Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition will be released on Nintendo Switch on May 29, 2020.

Originally announced in September 2019, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition will allow players around the world to replay the title that first launched on the Wii in Japan in 2010.

BioShock: The Collection, Borderlands Legendary Collection, and XCOM 2

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2K has announced that BioShock: The Collection, Borderlands Legendary Collection, and XCOM 2 Collection are all headed to the Nintendo Switch on May 29, 2020.

Bravely Default II Demo Available Now

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A new trailer was released for Bravely Default II alongside the announcement that the game’s demo is available now!

Bravely Default II was announced at The Game Awards 2019 and is set to be released in 2020.

New Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass Details

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Nintendo released a few more details about Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Expansion Pass, which will add The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra to the latest Pokemon adventure in 2020. The Isle of Armor will be released in June and Nintendo revealed that trainers will be fighting/training in a dojo that will earn players the legendary Pokemon Kubfu.

Trainers can then challenge the Towers of Two Fists that has both the Tower of Darkness or the Tower of Waters. Players can only choose one and can only use Kubfu. Kubfu will evolve into Urshifu when one of the towers is conquered. If Darkness is conquered, it will learn the Single Strike Style. If Water is conquered, it will learn Rapid Strike Style.

Also, when you complete The Isle of Armor, your starter Pokemon’s evolved form, so Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon, will gain a Gigantamax form and learn G-Max Drum Solo, G-Max Fireball, or G-Max Hydrosnipe, respectively.

There will also be new outfits, league card customization options, and much more! The Isle of Armor will be released by the end of June 2020 and The Crown Tundra will be released this Fall.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons First Season Event – Easter!

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Between April 1 and April 12, Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ residents will be able to participate in Bunny Day, in honor of Easter, to find eggs hidden by bunny visitor Zipper and craft exclusive items with them. The next even after Bunny Day will be Earth Day in late April.

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Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Now Available on Nintendo Switch

2003’s Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is now available on the Nintendo Switch.

Jedi Academy features the original’s story mode and a 16-player multiplayer mode with character customization.

Star Wars Episode I: Racer Speeding On to Nintendo Switch

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1999’s Star Wars Episode I: Racer is headed to the Nintendo Switch later this year.

Star Wars: Episode I: Racer was re-released on PC on GOG in 2018.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics Announced

Four-in-a-row, Mancala, Slot Cars, Sliding Puzzle, and Texas Hold’em are all included alongside many others in this collection title headed to Nintendo Switch on June 5, 2020.

Burnout Paradise Remastered

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Burnout Paradise Remastered will be arriving on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Burnout Paradise Remastered was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2018 and is the updated version of the 2008 original.

Catherine: Full Body Arriving on Nintendo Switch This July

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Catherine: Full Body will be arriving on Nintendo Switch on July 7, 2020.

In our review of Catherine: Full Body, we said “Catherine is a timeless classic, and Full Body does a great job of adding meaningful new content and plenty of small tweaks that breathe fresh life into it.”

Panzer Dragoon: Remake Available Now

The Panzer Dragoon: Remake is available now as a timed console exclusive on Nintendo Switch.

Shinsekai: Into the Depths Available Now

Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a deep-sea exploration game that is available on Nintendo Switch today. Players must collect resources to upgrade gear, craft items, and dive deeper and deeper into the watery abyss.

Ring Fit Adventure Update Available Later Today

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A free update will be released for Ring Fit Adventure later today that will add a new Rhythm Game mode, and option to switch to a female voice and to change the language of the in-game voice, and more. The Rhythm Game mode features a few tracks from such games as Super Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Good Job! Available on Nintendo Switch Now Available

Good Job! is a “madcap action-puzzle game” that has players performing “hilarious and challenging tasks around a sprawling office building to get the job done by any means necessary, alone or in two-player mode!”

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order Expansion Pack 3 Details

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order’s newest expansion pack – Pack 3: Fantastic Four: Shadow of Doom will arrive on Nintendo Switch today. This newest addition adds the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom as playable characters and a new story campaign.

King’s Bounty II to Be Released on Nintendo Switch In 2020

King’s Bounty II, a new sequel to the King’s Bounty series that began in 1990, is headed to the Nintendo Switch with more realistic graphics, in-game choices that truly matter, a new character development system, and much more.

Ninjala Brings Eight-Player Ninja Action to Switch This May

Ninjala is a free-to-play, up to eight-player ninja battle game that allows players to “sprint across stages, disguise themselves and wield an arsenal of skills, like heavy-hitting hammers, fast and flashy katanas, and tricked-out yo-yos.” Ninjala will be released on Nintendo Switch in May 2020.

Trials of Mana, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, and More

Many more games were featured in a montage with the following release dates/windows:

• Trials of Mana – April 24, 2020
• Fuser – Fall 2020
• The Elder Scrolls: Blades – Spring 2020
• Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus – May 2020
• Vigor – Closed Beta on April 9, 2020
• Burnout Paradise Remastered – 2020
• Saints Row: IV – Re-Elected – March 27, 2020
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III – June 30, 2020
• Mr. DRILLER DrillLand – June 25, 2020
• Minecraft Dungeons – Spring 2020

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

Here’s some good news for anyone looking for free stuff to stream: Showtime has temporarily extended its free trial to 30 days for new customers. Sign up before May 3, and you’ll get a whole month to binge all the movies, original series, comedy specials, and documentaries you want. Cancel before the first bill arrives, and you won’t have to pay a dime. It’s a no-risk way to add a heap of content to your media diet for the next month as we’re all stuck inside.

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Even setting aside the movies available on the platform, which currently include titles like The Happytime Murders and Green Book, Showtime has an impressive array of original programming to sink your teeth into. The big one at the moment is Homeland, a show about a CIA agent involved in life-or-death terrorist plots. Its excellent final season is airing now; this trial lets you watch the entire series, including new episodes as soon as they arrive.

Aside from that, there’s Billions, a gripping drama about two powerful, morally-compromised men whose singular goal is to destroy the other. Shameless, a dramedy about a poor family in Chicago, has been a longtime favorite. Then there are shows like The Chi, On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Ray Donovan, Kidding, The Affair, Black Monday, The L Word, and a whole bunch more. This free trial gets you access to hundreds and hundreds of hours of entertainment.

How to Stream Showtime

As for where to stream all this content, it’s available pretty much everywhere you’d expect a streaming service to be. You can watch it on showtime.com, or on the Showtime app available on the following devices:

• iPhone and iPad
• Android phones and tablets
• Xbox One
• Oculus Go and Quest
• Apple TV
• Roku
• Fire TV and Fire Stick
• Amazon Fire tablets
• Chromecast and Android TV
• Samsung Smart TVs
• LG Smart TVs
• Facebook Portal TV

The only notable omission that springs to mind is the PS4, but you almost certainly have at least one other compatible device. So start your free trial and begin streaming.

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Epic Games has announced that it will be publishing the next games from gen DESIGN (The Last Guardian), Playdead (Inside, Limbo), and Remedy Entertainment (Control) through Epic Games Publishing, its new multiplatform publishing effort with a developer-first approach.

Epic shared the news alongside a video featuring Remedy’s Sam Lake, Playdead’s Arnt Jensen, and gen DESIGN’s Fumito Ueda that begins to explain how this new publishing effort will help these creators build their dreams.

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The Epic Games approach to publishing “fundamentally changes the developer/publisher model, and aims to have the most developer-friendly terms in the industry, so that creators can focus on making great games.” This will be made true in the following ways:

• Full Creative Freedom and Ownership – Developers will retain 100% of all intellectual property and full creative control of their work.
• Fully-Funded Projects – Epic Games Publishing will cover up to 100% of development costs, from developer salaries to go-to-market expenses such as QA, localization, marketing and all publishing costs.
• 50/50 Profit Sharing – Developers earn a fair share for their work — once costs are recouped, developers earn at least 50% of all profits.

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“We’re building the publishing model we always wanted for ourselves when we worked with publishers,” said Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games.

gen DESIGN was founded by Fumito Ueda in 2014. Ueda worked at Sony Computer Entertainment’s SIE Japan Studio and led development on Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian.

Playdead was founded in 2006 by Arnt Jensen and Dino Patti. Their first game, Limbo, was released in 2010 and Inside was released six years later in 2016 and we gave it a 10/10. Playdead’s third game was first teased in 2017 with its first concept art.

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Remedy Entertainment was founded in 1995 and is responsible for such titles as Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and IGN’s Game of the Year 2019 Control.

“gen DESIGN, Remedy, and Playdead are among the most innovative and talented studios in the industry, with strong visions for their next games,” said Hector Sanchez, Head of Epic Games Publishing. “They will have full creative control, while Epic will provide a solid foundation of project funding and services.”

While there is no new information on these studio’s new games in this announcement, Epic Games Publishing does tease that “additional information, development partners, and games will be announced in the coming months.”

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

Control, which I called Great in my 2019 review ahead of its win as IGN’s Game of the Year, left me the way most memorable games should: satisfied with its self-contained story, but wanting more from its universe. Its first major DLC expansion, The Foundation, does just that yet again. It excels at being as weird and wonderful as the base game, but it’s certainly more of what I loved rather than something totally new. Not that that’s a bad thing.

The Foundation’s story sticks wonderfully true to Control’s ending, which is great because it’s available instantly upon completing the campaign. Jesse Faden is now acting head of the Bureau… and life goes on. She has a job to do and more problems to tackle, but of course these problems just happen to be of the extradimensional variety. Despite quelling the Hiss’ spread at large, the very foundation of the Oldest House is at stake, and Jesse’s new adventure mostly trades in the stark workplace minimalism for a cavernous underground tunnel system that is no less ominous.

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The grays and… other shades of gray of the Bureau are replaced by bright-beige rock walls and mounds of red sand pulled straight out of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Crait. Even if there’s only so much you can do with the limited color palette, the Foundation’s aesthetic never wears out its welcome or becomes so same-y enough that it gets confusing to navigate. And developer Remedy finds plenty of reason to incorporate both the Bureau and the Astral Plane in surprising ways I won’t spoil. But their inclusion feels earned and only deepens the connection of this new location to the world I’d already grown to love.

And it all looks stunning, especially running on a high-end PC that allowed the ominous, ray-traced lighting of Control’s world to truly shine. The Foundation’s more organic setting allows Remedy to play around with scope, producing some pretty impressive, imposing abysses. I looked into a handful of depths of total black or skylights of brilliant white and often wondered just how big this location might be.

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Beneath the Surface

Thankfully, The Foundation retains Control’s penchant for superb writing and fascinating world-building, even if its cast of characters isn’t quite as large. Again and again, The Foundation pulled off the neat trick of answering questions I didn’t even know I had, but that only served to make me love this world even more. Who knew the mystery of who created the Bureau’s power cores could be so interesting? Remedy did, and its consistent insights into the Oldest House proved to be just as gratifying.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=The%20Foundation%20offers%20interesting%20answers%20to%20questions%20I%20didn’t%20even%20think%20to%20ask.”]The Foundation’s four to five-hour story also challenges some of the storytelling norms I accepted in Control’s main campaign. Jesse and the Board are now at odds with one another, complicating the relationship of Board and Director by showing a more vulnerable side of the Board. The ominous, monolithic figurehead is more fragile, both literally and emotionally, in The Foundation than I’d ever imagined. Seeing how Jesse responds to that is frequently a treat; she’s both more confident after everything she’s gone through, but also more at home in this world than ever, which is a significant about-face from her initial mistrust of it.

Earth Shattering

At the heart of Jesse’s objective is tackling four challenges to help root out the Hiss from the Foundation. Those challenges often feature combat gauntlets replete with a new type of Hiss that’s invaded the Oldest House. Wielding axes they can toss and use for close-ranged combat, these Hiss are a worthy addition to the limited enemy lineup of the base game. They share some behaviors in common with Control’s aerial enemies, which forced me to keep Jesse nimble and frequently moving and/or in mobile shield cover to have a hope of surviving.

A pair of new abilities reflects her new level of experience, and the order in which you get them is your choice. The real demonstrable change that choice makes is which of the objectives you tackle first, but either way you’ll be taking them all on. One power lets you destroy crystals growing in the environment blocking your path, while the other lets you grow these same crystals in other locations to create platforms or, better yet, impale the Hiss to dust.

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I definitely leaned toward using the latter because of its dual purposes, as the real benefit to breaking crystals comes down to picking up a few extra gun and personal mods hidden around the environment and I never felt like it was being stingy with those anyway. Taken together, though, these crystal powers offer a nice bit of variety to making your way through the large-scale environments, and Remedy even finds a nice way of tying in the impact of Jesse getting the second ability into her relationship with the Board. Nearly everything felt like it mattered in the world of Control, and that continues to be true with the DLC.

Similarly, The Foundation’s best and worst bits often echo what worked and what didn’t in the original Control. A deeper understanding of the Bureau, and this new location, comes from locating all the hidden collectibles filled with eclectic, funny writing. And the optional Altered Item encounters are once again some of the most unexpected delights around, offering unique twists on boss fights and combat arenas in ways that make me wish there were another dozen to tackle. Meanwhile, occasional slowdown still occurs when the action gets too heated and enemies are filling the screen, but on a high-end PC those moments were rare.