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Animal Crossing: New Horizons releases for Switch on March 20, and if you’re looking to grab a Switch specifically for it, you’re in luck. Nintendo has announced a new Animal Crossing themed Switch, which will feature custom Joy-Cons, a uniquely colored and textured Switch unit, and the best official dock we’ve seen yet.

The Animal Crossing Switch will be available on March 13, which is a week before the game’s launch. It’s probably the best limited edition Switch we’ve seen so far.

The dock features Tom Nook and his nephews, and it’s very cute. It’s unclear whether the dock or Joy-Cons will be sold seperately.

The images we’ve seen of the Switch also confirm that it’s the new model with better battery life, as it sports the HAC-001(01) serial number. That means you’ll be able to explore your Animal Crossing island on the go for longer.

A unique carry case and screen protector are also coming, for those of us who can’t bring ourselves to buy a whole new Switch.

The console will retail for $300, which is the standard price of the system–the game is not included with it.

If you’re excited for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out our preorder guide to make sure you get the best deal on day one.

Apex Legends dropped their new Season 4 Assimilation trailer today and there is a lot to go over. We finally get a look into Revenant’s backstory, though it’s a very brief look, and we really get to dig deeper into the lore of Titanfall and Apex to uncover why Revenant is causing so much chaos and what he is.

I’m going to be breaking down the trailer bit by bit, so bear with me while I piece things together.

At the beginning of the trailer, we see human Revenant scrolling past several images on a screen and we can catch glimpses of the other robots that Hammond has been working on, like the Spectres. What comes up next is a picture of a Titanfall 2 pilot named Ash who is a Simulacrum pilot. Simulacra are digital copies of a person’s memories, knowledge, and personality. Back in the Titanfall games, it wasn’t really revealed how these Simulacra were made, but the reason for their invention was to preserve a pilot whose physical body had been destroyed. These copies were then downloaded into robotic bodies, to continue using them to live on and fight. Ash was an elite pilot hired by Kuban Blisk, who led the mercenary group Apex Predators.

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This connection is relevant to Revenant as he gets an alert for his next target, which lets us assume that he’s working as a mercenary as well. His target, Marcos Andrade, is a Portuguese con-man and thief for hire. This doesn’t seem super important but Marcos and his wife give their daughter a gift of a silver wolf. We’ll come back to that in a minute. As soon as Revenant crashes the scene of the family dinner, we see his incredible abilities including one that allows him to shift into a “shadow form”, similar to the one we were able to experience in Apex’s   Fight or Fright event. If Revenant is the next Legend to drop for Season 4, we might have seen a few his abilities from playing in the Fight or Fright event. Players who were killed during this mode came back as “shadows” who had the ability to run faster, climb walls without boundaries, and had a melee ability that dealt increased damage.

Reddit user DaVionRainesApex put together a poster of what appears to be leaked abilities for Revenant. Two different sets of tactical, passive, and ultimate abilities are shown because data-miners found he could have two “Stances” for when he’s in his normal form and when he transforms into his shadow form. This is all speculation, of course,  and we’ll find out more about his abilities when Season 4 drops, but it’s an interesting thing to keep an eye on.

Back to the trailer, where we see Revenant take out Marcos and walk by a mirrored wall, seeing his reflection as his prior human self and where a glass shard has embedded itself in his neck. As he pulls it out, something trips in his programming and appears to trigger a malfunction, because  his vision of himself now shows him his true self: a Simulacrum soldier. He starts to panic and lose control of his emotions: betrayal, anger, despair. He was clearly not aware that he was a copy,and maybe had even been copied without his permission. The logo branding on his hand reveals Hammond Robotics, the company responsible for what he’s become. It’s time for revenge.

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So, why would  Hammond replicate Revenant as a Simulacrum without his permission? The Apex Twitter account said that  “Revenant was once the greatest hitman the Syndicate ever had” which implies that maybe the Syndicate commissioned to have Revenant revived if he ever fell, since he was too good at his job. The trailer ends on a powerful close-up shot of Marcos’ daughter looking angrily over her father’s body.

And this is where we return to that scene where she was handed that silver wolf. Wolf in Portuguese translates to “Lobo” but the female version of the word is “Loba.” If this name sounds familiar to you, Loba is the name of a legend who was data-mined back when Apex had launched. This trailer  backs up the theory that Marcos’ daughter will be a future Legend to come to Apex to seek revenge, years after losing her family. So this story trailer could actually take place in the past when Revenant first discovered who he really was and when Loba was just a child.

Assuming Revenant is the next Legend coming to the game, it would make sense for Loba to debut in the next half of the season. Respawn announced there would be a mid-season split between the World’s Edge map and King’s Canyon, but players originally suspected Forge would be coming back somehow. It would, however, make more sense in the story if Loba heard of Revenant’s appearance and decided to take matters into her own hands and drop into the Games herself to take him out. This is all just a theory I’m working on, but it would make for a killer Season 4.

How do you feel about this new story trailer? Do you think Loba will be the next Legend to come into the Apex Games halfway through the season? What are your theories? Let us know in the comments.

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Nintendo has announced an Animal Crossing: New Horizons-themed Nintendo Switch special edition to go alongside your copy of the newest Animal Crossing game for the Switch. The themed Switch will be available on March 13, a few weeks before Animal Crossing: New Horizons is released.

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons-themed Switch comes with a variety of Animal Crossing-themed visual elements. The two Joy-Cons are sky blue and mint green, but adds a nice cream color accent underneath and on the grip accessories. They both also have matching color wrist straps.

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Also, while the Switch’s body is still black, the back of the console features an Animal Crossing-themed back design. Even the dock features a lovely Animal Crossing-themed design that has the three members of the Nook clan.

You can pre-order the Animal Crossing Switch at Best Buy.

Nintendo has released special editions of the Nintendo Switch before, including ones for Pokemon Let’s Go and Diablo 3. But this Animal Crossing: New Horizons edition just might take the cake.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be released on March 20, 2020. It is the latest Animal Crossing game from Nintendo following Animal Crossing: New Life on the Nintendo Switch. It is also the first Animal Crossing game to be released on the Switch.

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New Horizon features a vacation theme where players will travel to an island and set up their dream vacation home. Of course, Tom Nook will be there to put the players in a bit of debt that they’ll have to pay off.

For more check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons wiki for our full coverage, or our list of biggest game releases in 2020.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN and he wants this Switch very badly.

After the impressive and surprising list of DLC characters Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s first Fighter’s Pass has brought so far, the most recent and final addition, Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, feels like an incredibly safe pick – in more ways than one. They’re not as mechanically complex as the likes of Hero or Terry Bogard, and not as fan-servingly exciting as Joker or Banjo & Kazooie. And yet, a bit of vanilla to round out this already vibrant pack of extra fighters doesn’t stop Byleth from proudly standing out among their Fire Emblem peers and the rest of Ultimate’s extensive roster.

As an anime-looking sword-wielder, Byleth certainly has their work cut out for them in trying to convince people to pick them up over any of the other similar options –  and thankfully, they’ve got plenty to work with in that regard. Out of the five other Fire Emblem reps (seven if you count Echo Fighters), Byleth manages to be the only one to showcase the strategic weapon variety that’s core to the series. Using special weapons from Three Houses known as Heroes’ Relics, Byleth can seamlessly swap out their whip-sword for a hefty axe, lengthy spear, or powerful bow, and each has their own unique strengths that make them a ton of fun to smash your opponents with.

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Rather than have them haphazardly attached to various moves, Byleth’s different weapons are smartly mapped to your directional inputs. While their neutral special incorporates the bow, side attacks utilize their spear, down attacks summon the axe, and lighter swipes and overhead moves uses the whip-sword. Beyond each one looking awesome when summoned in a fight, the directional based context gives Byleth a feeling of smart cohesion that’s incredibly easy to pick up and understand.

Byleth’s moveset is also one of the big reasons why this DLC fighter seems  fairly simple compared to the others that have arrived post-launch – for better and for worse. Where Terry’s button inputs could be too technical for some, Hero’s random moves and magic meter could feel too chaotic, and the meters and consumables of Joker and Banjo too much to keep track of, Byleth forgoes all of it. Their “gimmick” essentially lies in the simplicity of a man/woman-at-arms, with a weapon for every situation, providing a different type of challenge in knowing when to use the right one rather than learning how to wield them at all.

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If Byleth does have a gaping flaw, it’s commitment. While each weapon type can deal a staggering amount of damage when they connect, they’ll often leave Byleth wide open to counters from a skilled or perceptive opponent. The bow, known as Failnaught, can be charged up to deal devastating precision damage at long range, but once you’ve charged past a certain threshold, you can’t get out of the move early. Similarly, aiming your attacks downward with the axe Amyr can demolish anyone standing nearby, but the lengthy startup and finish (and the time you’re left vulnerable after landing with a downward aerial strike) means you’ll either have to be very good at predicting an opponent, or drop in on a group of distracted fighters. The slow nature of these kinds of “unsafe” moves might not turn a lot of heads in the competitive scene, but it may entice newer players who aren’t afraid of making mistakes with an easy-to-grasp moveset and tons of strong attacks.

Even without the additional weaponry, Byleth’s Sword of the Creator (which is generally linked to up-attacks, but can also act as a sort of default for many others) holds some very interesting and fun properties. Able to be used like a whip, it gives Byleth’s quicker moves and upward attacks more options, thanks in part to their unique recovery move. While other characters like Zero Suit Samus and Joker can use similar tools to grab or hook onto ledges and pull themselves up, Byleth’s up-B can also latch onto opponents and use them as a stepping stone to launch high up while sending their target screaming downwards once they’ve hit a certain damage threshold – which makes it deliciously evil to use off the stage, yanking poor souls down to their doom before they can react. I was even pleased to find some clever applications when used above platforms, giving me different options to follow up with other moves depending on how damaged my opponent was, or how far my opponent bounced back off the ground below me. That said, smaller ledges have sometimes been my downfall, as the Sword of the Creator has either been unwilling or unable to hook onto tiny platforms to save me from plummeting and the move itself gives no recovery if nothing connects.

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As part of Byleth’s character pack, there’s also the addition of a host of new themed Spirit Battles. These are as ingeniously crafted as ever, and Three Houses fans will appreciate all the fun details – like Dimitri’s Spirit Battle including a tough Ganondorf in place of Dimitri’s stalwart bodyguard, Dedue. That being said, those who haven’t already played through the Three Houses story may wish to hold off on some of the tougher Spirit Battles, which inadvertently spoil some plot points by way of the battle’s surprise mechanics.

As for the stage, Garreg Mach Monastery feels surprisingly bland. While stages that tour around a large location usually offer up an array of different battlefields to fight in and adapt to, each of the monastery’s four areas are flat, walk-off arenas with the bare minimum inclusion of a few small temporary platforms. Even the guest appearances by students and house leaders of each of the three houses seem a bit dull – especially when spotted standing in an otherwise deserted grand hall. Garreg Mach Monastery isn’t exactly a disappointing place for a fight, but when you look at the variety of architecture in other Fire Emblem levels like Castle Siege and the Coliseum, the monastery just feels stale in comparison. Luckily, the inclusion of some of the best music that Three Houses has to offer won’t go unnoticed. The upbeat tempo of Fódlan Winds and The Edge of Dawn mesh perfectly with frantic large battles, while songs like The Apex of the World and Between Heaven and Earth give 1v1s a legendary feel.

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Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge will be released on Sunday, April 12 on digital services followed by a physical release on Tuesday, April 28.

The box art has also been revealed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, which is the same studio that puts out the DC animated films. Check out the box art and more images in the slideshow below.

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The film will be released in three physical releases. A 4K UHD pack that includes a Blu-ray, a Blu-ray pack that includes a DVD, and a standalone DVD. All three versions come with a digital copy for Movies Anywhere.

A batch of bonus features will also be included with the release:

• From Epic Game to Extreme Animation – Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon and the filmmakers reveal the creative process behind adapting the best-selling game to an all-new animated film.
• The Weapons, Wardrobe and World of Mortal Kombat Legends – The artists reveal the design challenges of animating the world of Mortal Kombat, from authentic armor to wildly imaginative weapons and fantasy settings.
• The Savage Sound Design of Mortal Kombat Legends – This hard-hitting audio exploration reveals the art of designing the sonic language of the fight scenes.
• Mortal Kombatants – Dive deep inside the cast of characters to reveal their unique abilities, signature moves and backstories.
• Filmmaker Commentary – Producer Rick Morales and screenwriter Jeremy Adams sit down for an insightful audio commentary that reveals the process of creating a compelling animated film based on one of today’s most popular fighting games.

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The movie will run 80 minutes long and comes from Batman: Assault on Arkham director Ethan Spaulding and Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans writer Jeremy Adams. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon served as a creative consultant on the film, which serves as a loose adaptation of Mortal Kombat (2011) with the plot revolving around a battle to the death tournament made up of champions from all over.

Patrick Seitz returns to the role of Scorpion, which he last played in Mortal Kombat X. Another actor reprising a role is Kevin Michael Richardson. Richardson played Goro in the 1995 movie and returns to the role here. Newcomers include Joel McHale as Johnny Cage and Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade. Read the full cast list here.

For more on Mortal Kombat, read our review of the Joker DLC for Mortal Kombat 11 and see which game won IGN’s best fighting game of 2019.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who remembers when Mortal Kombat 9, Portal 2, SOCOM 4 and Motorstorm Apocalypse came out within days of each other and it was during the PSN shutdown after the hack so nobody could play any of those games online on PS3. What a great time that was.

After being officially announced at E3 2018, Xbox’s The Initiative studio has been rather quiet. With the new console generation seemingly only a few months away, Xbox head Phil Spencer recently met with the team at The Initiative and revealed that the first-ever ‘AAAA’ studio was “challenging themselves to do new things (and old things) in new ways.”

In a short Twitter tease, Spencer shared that he recently met with Initiative studio head Darrell Gallagher and head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty to discuss the future of the ‘AAAA’ development team. Unfortunately, Spencer’s tweet is pretty vague, so we can only guess at what Gallagher’s team is up to.

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Perhaps this means that the studio is working on bringing back/rebooting an old Xbox IP. Further, it could mean that it is hard at work on a new project that has ties to an old Xbox franchise, or the studio could be headed in a completely different direction. Either way, Spencer’s tease will likely be a breath of fresh air for Xbox fans, as The Initiative has been rather quiet over the past few months.

Since its announcement almost two years ago, Gallagher has quietly assembled a talented team of experienced game developers. In August, Gallagher revealed that the studio had hired God of War’s lead producer Brian Westergaard and Red Dead Redemption’s writer Christian Cantamessa.

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The studio has also added Sunset Overdrive director Drew Murray and Tomb Raider reboot director Dan Neuburger.

With the team in place, Xbox fans have been longing to get a glimpse at what The Initiative is working on. However, for now, it seems that fans will have to wait a bit longer.

What do you think The Initiative is up to? Let us know in the comments below.

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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.