As long as there have been Pokemon, there has been a meticulous grind attached to their mastery.

Gaining access to the very best battlers required thorough tinkering from the moment they are first acquired; breeding for top IVs, a suitable nature, the correct ability, any relevant Egg moves, subsequent EV training, and an infinitesimally small chance that they will be a shiny…

Despite being targeted toward a younger demographic, the gameplay systems of Pokemon are rich and deep enough to allow various levels of commitment from the player.

At its simplest, you can merely attempt to get from start to finish, clearing the Gym Leaders and beating the Champion. Roll credits, you’re done. Head to your local GameStop and trade it in for a tidy $3 in your pocket (while they resell it for $40). If you want to take things up a notch, you can try to track down all of the monsters in the region and complete the Pokedex. Game Freak have even made it easier than ever by removing most of your favorites. Thanks for that!

It may be hard to believe, but 2023 will mark 25 years since the Pokemon anime first premiered in the west. That’s a quarter century of battles, exploration, and boneheaded decisions by Ash Ketchum.

To commemorate this momentous landmark, we’re taking a look back by rewatching the earliest days of Pallet Town and beyond. Join us on this most marvellous trip down memory lane, and remember to stock up on Super Potions for the journey ahead!

The 2023 Pokemon World Championships event is now in the books, and on the video game championship front, Japan has plenty of reason to celebrate. Sora Ebisawa (Juniors), Tomoya Ogawa (Seniors), and Shohei Kimura (Masters) successfully defended their home turf, with the Japanese players claiming victory in convincing fashion.

Though the Rapid Strike Style of Urshifu is obviously the staple of the metagame, appearing in all six rosters of the finals, the MVP in the end was likely the diminutive Amoonguss. Armed with the dreaded 100% sleep chance of Spore, the menacing mushroom imposed its will — most notably in the Masters Division, where its infuriating defensive play style had the opponent on the ropes early on.

It may be hard to believe, but 2023 will mark 25 years since the Pokemon anime first premiered in the west. That’s a quarter century of battles, exploration, and boneheaded decisions by Ash Ketchum.

To commemorate this momentous landmark, we’re taking a look back by rewatching the earliest days of Pallet Town and beyond. Join us on this most marvellous trip down memory lane, and remember to stock up on Super Potions for the journey ahead!

If you frequent the OG realms of Azeroth, you’ve no doubt seen the buzz surrounding the venerable “HC” (amidst the LFG and innuendo posts that otherwise flood the general chat channel).

Since it was first revealed in June, the notion of a hardcore version of World of Warcraft Classic has got everyone prepping themselves for the devastation of permadeath, plying their trades in the PTR (public test realm) servers while they wait for the real thing.

It may be hard to believe, but 2023 will mark 25 years since the Pokemon anime first premiered in the west. That’s a quarter century of battles, exploration, and boneheaded decisions by Ash Ketchum.

To commemorate this momentous landmark, we’re taking a look back by rewatching the earliest days of Pallet Town and beyond. Join us on this most marvellous trip down memory lane, and remember to stock up on Super Potions for the journey ahead!

The realm of the otome game is a weird and wonderful place. Sometimes, you’ll pursue a variety of pretty, non-threatening suitors after exchanging a series of group texts. Other times, you’ll look to seduce a lovable single father, or a responsible pet owner.

As for Hatoful Boyfriend? You date pigeons. That’s right: YOU. DATE. PIGEONS.

It may be hard to believe, but 2023 will mark 25 years since the Pokemon anime first premiered in the west. That’s a quarter century of battles, exploration, and boneheaded decisions by Ash Ketchum.

To commemorate this momentous landmark, we’re taking a look back by rewatching the earliest days of Pallet Town and beyond. Join us on this most marvellous trip down memory lane, and remember to stock up on Super Potions for the journey ahead!

It may be hard to believe, but 2023 will mark 25 years since the Pokemon anime first premiered in the west. That’s a quarter century of battles, exploration, and boneheaded decisions by Ash Ketchum.

To commemorate this momentous landmark, we’re taking a look back by rewatching the earliest days of Pallet Town and beyond. Join us on this most marvellous trip down memory lane, and remember to stock up on Super Potions for the journey ahead!

Overwatch 2 has a wide variety of different Hero skin cosmetics to collect, with every character having their own set of various themes and outfits to unlock or purchase as you play the game. However, some of these hero skins have only been available for a limited time or have since skyrocketed in value, making them some of the most exclusive items in Overwatch 2 that players would do anything to get their hands on.

In no particular order, we’ve rounded up 10 of the rarest skins in Overwatch 2, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for any hidden gems you may have stored in your Hero Gallery.

Pokemon training can be a lonely endeavor. Scouring the verdant plains in search of willing challengers, gym badges, or in the case of Paldea, literally anything of interest whatsoever.

It’s enough to drive one mad, mad I say! But fear not, weary travellers, for I have gone on a Pokemon journey of a different kind. I have scanned the vast catalogue of pocket monsters not for the fiercest battlers or the rarest beasts. Nay, I have instead elected to narrow down the ten most unreasonably handsome Pokemon for your enjoyment/bewilderment/abject horror.

Sonic Origins Plus for Nintendo Switch

Indulge me for a moment, to give you a brief viewpoint into my origins as a gamer. Though my beginnings were firmly rooted in the treasured catalogue of the Super Nintendo, my very identity was shaped by the notion that Genesis Does.

Sonic the Hedgehog and his ilk embodied everything that a radical 90s kid would cling to immediately, defined by his sleek visage and devil-may-care attitude. Of course, without the actual portfolio to back it up, you could only get so much mileage out of biting wit (hello, Bubsy).

In the short time that Street Fighter 6 has been on the scene, it has already caused quite the buzz amongst fighting game enthusiasts. Mechanically tight, aesthetically vivid, and thankfully not as bare bones on release as its predecessor, it has quickly made an impression as a seminal entry in the genre’s most iconic franchise.

Recently, we shared a list of characters from the series’ past we would like to see return to the ring, but you know where the real money is made? Why, it’s season passes microtransactions feet pics of Juri surprise crossovers, of course! Fighting games are the perfect opportunity to introduce guest characters in unexpected ways, something that the SoulCalibur series has long used to generate additional sales. I bought SC2 for Link, and I’m not ashamed to admit that (my shame is reserved for the reason I bought Dead or Alive 2).

It’s that time of the year that the video game industry’s collective best friend, Geoff Keighley, loves best. That’s right, it’s what was once E3 season, which Geoff has now taken over in the form of Summer Game Fest! The livestream hosted by Keighley himself brought a whole host of new game trailers and announcements to our screens, accommodating everyone from the most hardcore of PC gamers, console connoisseurs and the casual crowd. While the livestream’s a fun old thing to watch, not everyone is able to take two hours out of their day to catch the whole thing. That’s where this post comes in. Here’s a convenient roundup of all Summer Game Fest 2023 announcements, including as many trailers as we can possibly find and cram in.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

Unexpectedly kicking off the show was a new reveal for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The game’s sticking to the series side-scrolling gameplay for the most part, but has been revamped with some slick-looking new visuals. The combat looks to be as fast-paced and frenetic as fans have come to expect from the series.

In an unexpected turn of events, Summer Game Fest played host to revealing a new title based on one of Akira Toriyama’s more obscure works (by his standards, anyway).

Sand Land had a brief run in Weekly Shonen Jump back in 2000, and now, Beelzebub and his crew are back in action. Set in a desolate desert world oppressed by a corrupt monarch, it stars a plucky demon who links up with the local sheriff to locate the mysterious Phantom Lake and free the populace from oppression.

As part of the 2023 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has revealed their newest entry into the tech landscape in the form of the Vision Pro.

Boasting itself as ushering in the “era of spatial computing”, the headset puts an operating system at your fingertips and, I suppose, eyetips. Its features include a 3D camera, immersive spatial audio, and on the gaming front, controller support with over 100 Apple Arcade titles available on day one.

From the earliest days of Red and Blue, Pokemon has massaged a unique wrinkle into its elemental table in the form of dual-typing. These creatures, carrying traits of multiple facets, can have more advantages and weaknesses than your garden variety ‘mon, making them especially interesting on the battlefield.

Sometimes, it makes perfect sense. Lanturn is an anglerfish, and therefore it is water and electric. Litwick, a haunted candle, is invariably ghost and fire. Bungee Gum possesses the properties of both rubber and gum. So far, so good.

After years of hushed whispers, the cat is out of the bag: Konami is indeed bringing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to the next generation.

With reports from VGC on the project’s existence circulating as early as October 2021, it only seemed a matter of time until the word was made official. As part of May’s PlayStation Showcase 2023, we caught a quick glimpse of this reimagining of a PS2 classic.

25. Jujutsu Kaisen

As far as anime with an upward trajectory go, Jujutsu Kaisen is one to watch. It’s also one to watch in the literal sense, because it’s really quite fantastic. Here, we meet the humble Yuji Itadori, an average albeit overwhelmingly powerful boy who becomes embroiled in a war between jujutsu sorcerers and the curses they hunt.

By consuming a piece of the villainous Sukuna, Itadori has been deemed a threat and sentenced to execution. The only way he can postpone this fate is by tracking down Sukuna’s remaining body parts to remove the menace from the world.