Studio Khara president Hideaki Anno will become a board director of animation studio, Production IG. This change in position will go into effect on August 21, 2025.

The news appeared on Studio Khara’s website on July 18, 2025. Aside from the information on Anno’s future as a director of Production I.G., it did not provide any further details.

Production IG. is an animation studio that was founded in 1987. It has produced animated projects popular around the world and not just in its native country of Japan. A small sample of its works includes the xxxHolic series, Ghost in the Shell series, Psycho-Pass, Kuroko’s Basketball, Sengoku Basara, and FLCL. It also worked on the O-Ren Ishii backstory animation sequence in the 2003 film, Kill Bill Vol. 1.

As for Hideaki Anno, while he is the founder and president of Studio Khara, he’s arguably most well-known for his work at his previous studio, Gainax. He worked on the aforementioned FLCL, but his signature work is Neon Genesis Evangelion, as well as the franchise that spawned from it. His more modern works include Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, and Studio Khara recently announced an anime adaptation of Sugar Sugar Rune.

Executor’s Remembrance quests in Elden Ring Nightreign shine a light on one of the game’s more mysterious characters. On top of providing you with great relics, these quests offer more context to Executor, the other Nightfarers, and Limveld as a whole. Completing the Executor Remembrance quest consists of gardening and self-reflection (only partly joking), but luckily, does not require beating the final Nightlord.

Here’s our Executor Remembrance quest walkthrough for Elden Ring Nightreign, explaining how to start Executor’s Remembrance quest and how to complete each task along the way.

In Donkey Kong Bananza, you can scan amiibo to add an extra flavor to DK and Pauline’s journey into the underground. The game supports new Donkey Kong and older amiibo figures that, once scanned, give you special clothes and powered-up objects to help you smash through the terrain.

Below we list what the amiibos do in Donkey Kong Bananza and how to use them, plus explain how to get the Diva Dress for Pauline.

Donkey Kong Bananza amiibo rewards and unlock list

Scanning different amiibo earn you slightly different rewards.

These Donkey Kong-related amiibo will give you four golden KONG tiles per scan, which function as explosive structures to help you clear out a path:

• Donkey Kong and Pauline
• Donkey Kong (Super Mario)
• Diddy Kong (Super Mario)
• Donkey Kong (Super Smash Bros.)
• Diddy Kong (Super Smash Bros.)
• King K. Rool (Super Smash Bros.)

Notably, the Donkey Kong and Pauline amiibo will give you the Diva Dress, an outfit for Pauline that increases the drop rate of music discs. (See below for more on that, since it’s not just a reward for scanning the amiibo the same way these tiles are.)

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road still isn’t ready yet, as Level-5 delayed the release date again. It now will launch on the Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on November 13, 2025. The company cited the amount of content present as a reason for the extra time needed, and it also shared a trailer showing off the latest additions and footage.

This marks the third time Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road ended up delayed to a new 2025 release window. It first was expected to show up in June 2025. Then, Level-5 said it would appear on August 21, 2025. 

This particular Inazuma Eleven installment has a long history of being delayed, starting back when it was called Inazuma Eleven Ares and ended up delayed out of Summer 2018 to Fall 2018. It was in 2019 that it was turned into Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes. Along the way, platforms changed as well. At one point, even mobile versions were planned.

Here’s the new Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road trailer that confirmed the new release date and shared the extra content we’ll see when it does launch.

Many players will likely spend a good deal of Donkey Kong Bananza’s opening testing just how far the Switch 2 game will let them go. Much of Bananza is made up of destructible voxels, and DK can crumble this merry world with the abandon of a toddler playing with its food. Eventually, though, most of us will get back to the objective: there are bananas to find, fossils to collect, and challenges to beat. Then there are the players who are barely progressing at all, because they’re spending all their time clearing out levels in full.

Good Smile Company opened up pre-orders for a Hatsune Miku “World is Mine” 2024 version figure. It was first announced back in 2024. She won’t ship until October 2026 in Japan and Q1 2027 in the US. It will cost ￥27,800/$181.99.

This will be a rather tall figure, as it stands at over eight inches tall (214mm). Or rather, sits, as Hatsune MIku is positioned in a crimson armchair for the figure with a vase filled with red roses at her feet. She’s pointing toward the viewer while sitting with a smug smile on her face. She’s wearing the same white dress with black ribbon around the neck as in the music video for the track. She also has a crown on her head. 

Here’s a closer look at it from different angles.

How many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza is a slightly more complex subject than you might initially think. Every layer is structured differently, some with multiple sublayers, and all with varying numbers of Banandium Gems to grab. The way Bananza is structured means that you’re free to tackle it all at your own pace, though, and can (usually) hop back to an earlier layer to grab collectibles you might’ve missed the first time.

Below, we list how many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza, including how many additional sublayers each main level has.

How many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza?

Donkey Kong Bananza has 17 layers in total. However, they vary in size and complexity, and how long it takes to get through them depends on your playstyle.

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Over the last couple of days, the internet has swarmed around a mortifying moment during a Coldplay concert when the event crew zoomed in on the audience the hopes of finding a cute couple that could inspire cheers from the crowd. Instead, the camera caught what appeared to be an illicit moment between two executives who immediately turned away from the spotlight in embarrassment. The apparent scandal, which is all over the web, has now been transformed into a video game where the entire point is to find the couple in the crowd.

Created by Jonathan Mann, known for his long-running “song a day” series, Coldplay Canoodlers is a short, if not inspired, take on the viral kiss-cam moment. Players move their mouse around the pixel art crowd, where the game will randomly place the couple. Every time you pinpoint the couple, the actual footage of the viral moment will play and your score goes up. The game then resets and the couple will regenerate somewhere else for you to find. It’s like if Where’s Waldo? was made by tabloids.

The Sims 4‘s latest expansion pack, Enchanted By Nature, launched earlier this month, adding fairy-Sims, magical ailments, and charming new clothing and furniture items to the game. As a lifelong fan of The Sims franchise, I decided to dive back into the game after a few months of not touching it, fully prepared to be disappointed.

Most veteran players of The Sims 4 can probably understand my trepidation. The Sims franchise recently celebrated its 25-year anniversary, and the last 10 years have been focused on The Sims 4, which was released in 2014 with barely any content at all. The game launched without franchise staples like pools or color customization options, and even toddlers were missing — your little bundle of Sim-joy would simply morph into a school-aged child upon aging up. EA remedied this by adding content to the game over the next decade via free base game updates and new DLC in the form of expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, and kits. As cool as many of these additions were in theory, many of them were disappointing in practice, usually due to bugs and underwhelming content. 

For a good chunk of its existence, The Sims 4‘s gameplay loop has looked something like this:

Voltage announced the next AmuLit otome Switch game from the company is called Neon Clash: Echoes of the Lost. It will launch in Winter 2025. It will appear in both Japanese and English. It's been in development at the studio since 2023.

Exact details about the characters and love interests in Neon Clash aren’t available yet, but we do have art of the heroine and one romance option. It will tell a more modern story set in the “near future” and involve different mafia members. It also seems like it will follow the AmuLit trend of not shying away from darker or more dramatic elements that started in Even if Tempest, there will be conflicts between various factions.

This will mark the second AmuLit Voltage otome game to debut on the Switch in 2025. Red Bell’s Lament showed up in June 2025. That involved a group of vampire hunters heading into the realm of vampires on a rescue mission. Other AmuLit titles include Even if Tempest and its sequel Even if Tempest: Dawning Connections. This latest entry will mark the first game to take place during a more modern time.

James Gunn’s Superman nails a lot of elements — its earnest take on the Man of Steel, a scene-stealing Jimmy Olsen as an unexpected heartthrob, and a fiercely driven Lois Lane. But just as worthy of praise is Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, who captures the character’s signature pettiness with pitch-perfect precision.

Luthor sees himself as the smartest person in the DC universe, and in Superman, he might also be the richest. But he’s also extremely insecure and petty, especially when it comes to Superman. Gunn leans heavily into those elements with his Luthor, paralleling one of the character’s most notorious reveals from Bruce Timm’s 2004 animated series Justice League Unlimited.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Luthor’s plots in Superman and Justice League Unlimited.]

While I spend more time than I’d like to admit watching Dropout’s stable of excellent, improv-heavy comedy shows, last year’s Gastronauts is one of the few Dropout programs I haven’t yet checked out. After the new trailer for Gastronauts season 2 made my gut bust with laughter (and rumble with hunger), I think that’s going to change when it returns next month.

Hosted by Jordan Myrick, Gastronauts is a comedic cooking show where Dropout alumni judge dishes made by top-tier chefs. They aren’t fancy dishes you’d expect from a Top Chef challenge or everyday meals you make at home. Instead, Gastronauts chefs concoct whatever the show’s judges ask for, like a “meal of crumbs served in a man’s beard” at Emily Axford’s request or Katie Marovitch’s “the blandest meal you can imagine,” as revealed by the season two trailer.

Good Smile Company teased one of its PlayStation 30th anniversary merchandise, as it confirmed it will release PSP acrylic stands and shaker keychains based on the Sony handheld. Each of these items will have a hollow center where the screen is, and that will be filled with acrylic pieces designed to look like PSP UI icons. Four items will be available. 

The items are both based upon the PSP-1000 model. One will be the standard black one, while the other looks like the Ceramic White model. The acrylic stands will be ￥1,760 (~$12) each, while the keychains are going to cost ￥1,320 (~$9). We don’t know how big they’ll be yet, as sizes weren’t mentioned. However, the initial images did show that the PlayStation merchandise will feature designs on the front and back of the items.

Here’s the official art showing the examples of both items. The larger images just show the PSP acrylic stands, but the bottom of the page showed the shaker keychains. While the stands have monochromatic UI icons, the keychains will have color pieces that represent the square, triangle, circle, and cross buttons.

Remedy has announced the content and update plan for its three-player co-op Control spinoff, FBC: Firebreak.

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Back in 2022, Square Enix released a Final Fantasy VII Buster Sword alarm clock in Japan, then later sold the FFVII item worldwide. Now the 21,780円 device is back in Japan. It returns on July 19, 2025. A rerelease hasn’t shown up on the US storefront yet, but it did cost $199.99 when available here.

This clock is over a foot tall, due to the size of the weapon. Its tands at over 13 inches. The Buster Sword is jammed into the clock base, with the digital time lit up with LEDs on the blade and Materia glowing in the same color. Depending on the song you set as the alarm, the color of the lights will change.

As a reminder, here are all five songs that will act as the alarm for the FFVII Buster Sword clock.

Dave Filoni’s Disney Plus series Star Wars: The Bad Batch followed a group of clone troopers enhanced with specialized genetic mutations as they resist their orders to kill the Jedi and flee the army. At first they try to just lay low and get by doing mercenary work, but The Bad Batch winds up getting drawn into the fight against the new Galactic Empire with the help of a mix of new friends and major characters from Star Wars: The Clones Wars.

Subaru and Subaru, the new sequel manga to Initial D and MF Ghost by Shuichi Shigeno, will soon launch in Kodansha's Young Magazine. However, prominent leaker Ryokutya reported that Shigeno provided an update to his own health condition in the manga magazine. [Thanks, Ryokutya.]

At the end of the manga premiere, the veteran manga artist reportedly revealed that he has a heart disease. Due to this condition, Shuichi Shigeno cautioned that the serialization of Subaru and Subaru may not run smoothly.

Subaru and Subaru will take place the year after the races in MF Ghost. Fumihiro Joyu will hold a new racing series with a new qualification method to replace MFG. The new title will star two characters who have the same name Subaru, but with different kanji letters.

The first protagonist will be Subaru Sato, a female driver from Gunma, whose relations with Initial D's Mako Sato are still yet to be known. She will receive training from Bunta Fujiwara and participate in the new racing series with a Subaru BRZ.

Peter Connelly, who composed music for the games Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and The Angel of Darkness, has been jailed for 16 months over a fraudulent Covid Bounce Back Loan.

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Sucker Punch's upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive Ghost of Yōtei is getting its own official popcorn bucket, but it's proven so popular it has already sold out online.

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The next round of Everdark Sovereigns will be added to Elden Ring: Nightreign on 31st July, with four enhanced Nightlords available to beat.

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Nostalgia Country is an Ancient Ruin in Donkey Kong Bananza that takes you back to the world of Donkey Kong Country.

This Ancient Ruin switches your perspective from a 3D world to a sidescrolling platformer, but as it’s still Donkey Kong Bananza, there are three Banandium Gems for you to collect. One of the Banandium Gems is particularly difficult to find, but luckily it can be found as soon as you walk in.

Here’s where to find all of the Banandium Gems in the Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin in Donkey Kong Bananza as well as where the Ancient Ruin is located.

Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin location in Donkey Kong Bananza

The Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin will be found naturally as you progress through the story in the Hilltop Layer. After you pay to clear the debris, the hole will open up and you’ll find the Ancient Ruin at the bottom.

For most of the past decade, large parts of the games industry have been operating with a single, deceptively simple sounding guiding principle – that if you want to make real money, serious money, you have to make it big in live service.

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HoYoVerse shared the 5.8 Genshin Impact Special Program, and it confirmed the debut of Ineffa, shared a Yelan paid outfit and free Bennet costume, and teased Lauma and the Snezhnaya region of Nod-Krai for 6.0. The new update arrives on July 30, 2025. It also marks the debut of the Sunspray Summer Resort event and return of Citlali, Chasca, and Mualani.

We already knew Ineffa was on the way to Genshin Impact in 5.8 due to drip marketing. She’s an Electro character and robot. Her banner will appear alongside the Cryo returning Natlan unit Citlali. The second half of the update will feature Anemo character Chasca and Hydro unit Mualani.  

Ineffa is a big focus of the major trailer for the update, and there are hints at her past in it. At the end, Snezhnaya, Marionette, Nod-Krai, and Genshin Impact 6.0 events are teased.

No Sleep for Kaname Date - From AI: The Somnium Files feels like a filler season of an anime. The characters are generally interesting and the experience is fine, but it feels like a way to fill time while a bigger, grander, more meaningful experience is on the way. I enjoyed myself through this more brief adventure. Just I couldn’t shake it feeling like it went through the motions of what we’d expect from an installment, rather than doing something truly fresh and new like AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative.

The reviews are in for Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo's first major release for Switch 2 since the launch title Mario Kart World. And for the most part, they are ecstatic.

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Robocop: Rogue City was easily one of my favourite games of 2023. It was a perfectly presented love letter to the Robocop franchise. One that paid particular homage to the dick shooting, squib-tastic, satire strewn Paul Verhoeven original in all of its excessively gory, 80's action movie glory.

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A little while ago, Nintendo said smartphone racer Mario Kart Tour would stop receiving new content updates. But, even though that was the official line back in 2023, Tour racers do in fact have some new content to look forward to after all.

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Sucker Punch's Nate Fox would "love to see a trilogy rerelease" of the Infamous games, but the studio only works on one game at a time - and right now that's Ghost of Yōtei.

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Final Fantasy 14 will end support for the Windows 10 operating system on 14th October, 2025.

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As you might've read elsewhere on the site, I really rather like Donkey Kong Bananza. It's a tremendously creative and clever take on DK as a character, and does a great job of both expanding the existing DK universe and building something all-new for a younger generation - one that's also about to get to know DK's world properly for the first time, given this is all just in time for an upcoming movie. It's brilliant.

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Netflix has greenlit a live-action TV show adaptation of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

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Nintendo is gearing up for another one of its Switch Online playtest programs.

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A new indie publisher has been established in Frankfurt, Germany - Artex.

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A Plus Japan, Shanghai Bokura Technology, and Tencent announced it will hold a closed beta test for Blue Protocol: Star Resonance. Sign-ups will start on July 24, 2025. That’s also when we’ll learn more about when and where it will take place. The full game is also expected to launch in 2025.

At the moment, there’s only a new trailer going over what to expect from both Blue Protocol: Star Resonance and the closed beta test experience. This is a new take on the MMORPG originally created by Bandai Namco for consoles and PCs. Classes will include the Frost Mage, Heavy Guardian, Marksman, Shield Knight, Stormblade, Verdant Oracle, and Wind Knight, and we’ll explore locations on Regnus like the Asterleeds Region, Carniman, The Lost Andra, and Misthoen.  

Here’s the video showing off Blue Protocol: Star Resonance gameplay and announcing the beta.

Nintendo announced its stores in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto now carry seven new kinds of Donkey Kong merchandise. These range from a Diddy Kong plush pouch to towels. A large Donkey Kong plush is also planned, but isn’t available alongside the other items on July 17, 2025. 

The Diddy Kong item is the most expensive at the moment at 3,520

円 (~$24). The most affordable are two different styles of hand towels featuring DK for 990円 (~$7). 

Here’s the full list of everything available now and their prices:

Premium Collectibles Studio announced it will show off the Street Fighter Chun-Li statue at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con, with the announcement teasing all three costume variants of the large figure could appear. This would mark the first appearance of them. Previously, the product page on the company website only included a placeholder image and option to submit an email to sign up for the waitlist.

We don’t know exactly how tall the 1:2 Street Fighter Chun-Li statue will be, or how expensive each of the three figure variants will each be. The first teaser video didn’t offer any reference items to provide a sense of scale. It did show that all three will feature her in the same time of pose she makes when a fight starts and she’s preparing to attack. 

As for the outfits for each of the Street Fighter Chun-Li figures, each statue will wear a costume calling back to past appearances. The Battle option is based on the Battle costume seen in Street Fighter V. Alpha looks like her Street Fighter Alpha appearance. Classic looks like the style she wore starting in Street Fighter II. 

Here’s Premium Collectibles Studio’s teaser video:

An Italian YouTuber has been subjected to a police raid for reviewing handheld devices with pre-loaded retro games.

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On July 16, 2025, the much hyped Fire at My Heels: Kitasan Black SSR Speed Support Card debuted in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, and the PC version of the game hit a new all-time peak player count milestone on Steam as a result. The new record is 87,453, according to SteamCharts. It is also showing as the top seller in the US on Steam, and number two globally.

The Kitasan Black SSR Support Card is known for being one of the best Speed options in Umamusume: Pretty Derby. It’s held its position as a beneficial addition to a deck in Career in the Japanese version over the last three years. Part of this is because, as you uncap and max out the card, it increases the odds of her appearing for Speed training and offering the Friendship bonus. There are also mood bonuses, her Professor of Curvature velocity bonus on a turn is helpful, and she can also provide hints for skills like Corner or Straight Recovery.  

Hololive Vtuber Usada Pekora brought back her mom, referred to as Pekomama, for her latest stream. For over an hour on July 17, 2025, the two talked with viewers and other members of Hololive. Her mother appeared in honor of Pekora’s sixth anniversary, as the performer debuted with the company on July 17, 2019. 

This Usada Pekora and Pekomama stream ended up being purely a chatting one, with the two talking with fans of the Vtuber, then later with special Hololive guests for over 80 minutes. After talking together for about a half hour, other performers from the company started calling in. Shirogane Noel, La+ Darknesss, Kikirara Vivi, Tokino Sora, Otonose Kanade, and AZKi each stopped by to chat with her mother. 

Here is the full stream. It is only available in Japanese.

Following yesterday's cheeky teaser trailer, the Mortal Kombat 2 movie's ready for its full reveal, with two-and-a-half minutes of silliness, a little bit of splatter, and plenty of Johnny Cage.

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