IGN

Here’s some good news for anyone with a deal-hunting streak: Amazon’s Spring Sale 2025 is in full swing (it runs through March 31). All sorts of stuff is on sale, but what we’re focused on here is the board games. They’re kind of hidden away deep within the main store page, but below I’ve picked out the best board game deals available in the sale. I even went ahead and divided them into two categories, depending on how deep you want to go into the tabletop gaming hobby.

Adult Board Game Deals

If you’re into board games for adults, there aren’t a ton of deals to go around in the Spring Sale, but there are a handful that are worthy of a look. Cascadia is a fun game you can whip out on game night with your friends or family. See our 8/10 Cascadia review for more info on it. Forbidden Jungle is a cooperative board game that lets you work together with your fellow players. Cartographers is one of our favorite roll and write board games. And finally, Tamashii: Chronicle of Ascend is a terrific roguelike board game we gave a score of 9/10.

Classic and Family Board Game Deals

Those who want to play family board games or some of the more classic board games on the market can pick from the above sliding catalog. There are ton of deals on these categories of games, with stalwarts like Trivial Pursuit, Perfection, and Sorry! along with newer kid-friendly entries like What Do You Meme, Hedbanz, and Crocodile Dentist.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Bluesky @chrislreed.com.

The Legend of Zelda live-action movie is in active development at Nintendo and Sony Pictures for a March 2027 release. It’s early days yet for the hotly anticipated feature film adaptation of the blockbuster video game franchise – which, after years of rumors, was officially announced in November 2023 – so here’s what we know for sure about the movie so far.

Who Is Making The Legend of Zelda Movie?

The film is being produced by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad, chairman of Arad Productions and former founder and CEO of Marvel Studios. Sony Pictures Entertainment will handle theatrical distribution in addition to co-financing the movie with Nintendo. Jurassic World’s Derek Connolly is writing the screenplay.

Wes Ball, who made the Maze Runner movies and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is directing Zelda. As if he was fated to land the job, Ball actually tweeted about wanting to make a Zelda movie way back in 2010.

At that time, Ball said he envisioned his Zelda as being another mo-cap endeavor like James Cameron’s Avatar. More recently, the filmmaker said he wants his Legend of Zelda to be “this awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s its own thing. I’ve always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”

In a later interview, Ball backed off of his 2010 notion of making it a mo-cap movie. In May 2024, Ball said making an all mo-cap Zelda movie “probably isn’t his choice” since he was just coming off of the CG-heavy KIngdom of the Planet of the Apes. Ball’s aim is to make Legend of Zelda feel “grounded” and “real.” He added, “We’re working hard, and we’re gonna make something great.”

Ball has also said: “I want to fulfil people’s greatest desires. I know it’s important, this [Zelda] franchise, to people, and I want it to be a serious movie. A real movie that can give people an escape. … [The film has] “to feel like something real. Something serious and cool but fun and whimsical.”

A die hard Zelda fan who said he grew up on the franchise, Ball unintentionally stirred up other fans when he refused to tell IGN last year what his favorite Zelda game was.

Who Will Star in The Legend of Zelda?

No one has been cast yet but The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment expressed his desire to land a role in the Zelda movie when he appeared on IGN Arcade. Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer has expressed interest in playing Princess Zelda.

Euphoria star Hunter Schafer is a fan of the Nintendo series, saying, “I love the game, personally. I played it as a kid and I still play it now. Who knows! That would be pretty cool.” pic.twitter.com/lDNB1BkEqJ

— IGN (@IGN) November 10, 2023

What Do Fans Think of Zelda Being a Live-Action Movie?

Fan reaction when the movie was officially announced back in November 2023 was swift and opinionated. Some took umbrage at Avi Arad – the former boss of Marvel Studios who also produced Ghost in the Shell and the early Spider-Man movies – being involved (“Can’t believe they were able to get the producer of the hit film Morbius!!”). Others weren’t thrilled by the selection of Wes Ball to direct.

The decision to make the Legend of Zelda a live-action movie was met with trepidation: “People can say Zelda plot doesn’t work in live action but action films have hardly ever relied on deep, complex plots to engage people.” “Animated would have been the way to go if you ask me.”

IGN editors also expressed their thoughts about why Zelda should be an animated movie instead of live-action. “And while hand-drawn art may be the best fit for a Zelda movie in my opinion, there are plenty of animation styles that would serve as a better vehicle for Zelda than live-action,” IGN’s Logan Plant wrote at the time the movie was announced.

“Think about all the gorgeous animated projects we’ve seen in the last several years: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Dragon Quest: Your Story, the Castlevania anime, or even a claymation look come to mind as visual styles that would perfectly suit the wonderful world of Hyrule. I can visualize what all these versions of Hyrule would look like, but I can’t say the same thing about live-action.”

“There are so many oddities in Zelda that come across as charming when animated, but could easily be seen as off-putting when done in live-action. This is a franchise where a literal enormous pig is the main villain, after all. But Zelda is also full of surprising horrors, from zombies that wrap their entire bodies around Link to try and kill him, to disembodied giant hands that swoop down from the ceiling. I have a hard time seeing a lot of Zelda enemies make it into a live-action movie without seriously frightening the little ones.”

IGN’s Matt Kim also opined at the time that it would be “a trap” if Nintendo and Ball tried to adapt Breath of the Wild for the silver screen: “If you’re going to make a Zelda movie, I’d adapt one of the games where the story is a bit more center-stage, whether it’s the pirate adventures of Wind Waker, the classic sword and sorcery of A Link to the Past, or arguably the most cinematic Zelda game of all-time, Twilight Princess.”

“Game devs have marveled at the power of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s engineering, calling the way its systems interact with each other near-magic. It’s not just showing audiences Link’s cool abilities but playing within an entire world, with its own laws of nature that just simply cannot be conveyed by looking at a screen alone. While there are plenty of fun moments a Breath of the Wild movie could include as fun easter eggs — like Link discovering he gets a stat bonus when he cooks during the blood moon for example — the game’s sense of discovery can never truly be captured on camera. … Breath of the Wild turns players into theoretical physicists, experimenting with how the interlocking rules of the game play off one another – which, unless the director plans on making a movie similar to Oppenheimer, would make for not a lousy Zelda movie.”

For their part, the filmmakers acknowledge the risk inherent in making a live-action Zelda movie. “Regarding the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda, I know we face an extremely high hurdle in producing a film that will not disappoint the global fan base,” Shigeru Miyamoto told Nintendo investors during a Q&A in November 2023. Miyamoto added that he had been developing the Zelda movie with Arad for ten years prior to the official announcement.

When Will the Legend of Zelda Be Released?

Sony Pictures will release The Legend of Zelda in theaters on March 26, 2027. In order to make that date, fans should expect filming to commence in 2026 or maybe even late this year to allow for enough post-production time to pull of the film’s visual effects.

Where Can I Watch the Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer?

There isn’t one as nothing has been filmed yet. However, IGN pranked the Internet on April Fool’s Day 2008 when we released a faux live-action Zelda movie trailer (which can be viewed below). Until there’s a real movie trailer to watch, ours will have to do:

Who do you think should play Link, Zelda and other key characters in the upcoming movie? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re like me, you’ve spent the past few nights unable to get to sleep, wondering – nay, worrying – about how directors Joe and Anthony Russo are going to fit all 27 announced cast members into Avengers: Doomsday. I mean, that’s a lot of superheroes (and villains and anti-heroes), right?

Well, rest easy, True Believers. After applying some Basic Math Technique (an actual class I took in college – and got an “incomplete” in) to this earth-shattering problem, I’m feeling much better about things. Hopefully you will too, as it turns out that when compared to some previous Avengers epics, 27 cast members is basically MCU chump change.

Of course, keeping in mind that the following calculations are estimates (and that Downey, Jr. and Marvel are already teasing that more cast members have yet to be announced), as of right now Doomsday seems to have a leg up as far as giving its various characters time to do some actual avenging.

How Long Will Avengers: Doomsday Be?

The film only started production this week, so there’s no way to know the answer to this yet. But based on the last two Avengers movies, Infinity War and Endgame, we’re going to assume that Doomsday will have a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes (2:45). That’s basically splitting the difference between Infinity War’s 2 hours and 29 minutes (2:29) and Endgame’s 3 hours and 1 minute (3:01).

Next, since both Infinity War and Endgame had about 12 minutes of closing credits (and a post-credits scene in the former’s case), we’ll trim 12 minutes off of Doomsday’s prospective running time as well. That gives us a theoretical length of 2 hours and 33 minutes (2:33) where actual people can appear onscreen.

How Much Screen Time Can 27 Characters Really Get?

More than you might expect as it turns out! If you simply divide the length of 2:33 by 27, that means each character gets on average, if their time is spread out evenly, about 5 minutes and 40 seconds onscreen. (I wonder what their hourly rate is?)

By comparison, Infinity War had approximately 38 “name” characters, and was a bit shorter than our pretend Doomsday run time, resulting in an average of 3 minutes and 33 seconds per character.

Endgame, meanwhile, was a bit longer, and had a whopping 60 “name” characters (on your left!), resulting in just 2 minutes and 49 seconds of screen time per character. On average, of course.

So What Does All This Math Junk Really Mean for Doomsday?

Of course, there’s no way every character is going to get the same amount of dialogue or close-ups or scenes. Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom will almost certainly be the most prominent part of the film, or at the very least will take up the bulk of the screen time with other “classic” players like Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson/Captain America and flashy newcomers such as Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic. And then we also must consider that, you know, actors actually interact with one another in scenes, so Downey, Jr. could be onscreen with, say, Mackie and Pascal all at the same time, with the three sharing their precious minutes.

On the other side of the coin, anyone who has seen Endgame’s big final battle knows that sometimes these Marvel characters show up just long enough for a cool moment or one-liner, and then a handful of group shots. We can’t all be RDJ, you know. So if James Marsden’s Cyclops gets short shrift yet again in Doomsday, don’t feel too bad about it. That seems to be his lot in life in any universe.

So to compare things to the previous Avengers films again, let’s look at how much actual time some players had in Endgame. The folks at ScreenRant and elsewhere already did the legwork on this, so be sure to check out all their facts and figures at the links.

Avengers: Endgame Screen Time

On the high end you have:

• Iron Man/Robert Downey, Jr.: 34 minutes and 45 seconds
• Captain America/Chris Evans: 30 minutes and 45 seconds
• Thor/Chris Hemsworth: 21 minutes and 15 seconds

And on the low end there’s:

• Captain Marvel/Brie Larson: 6 minutes
• Falcon/Anthony Mackie: 4 minutes and 30 seconds
• Doctor Strange/Benedict Cumberbatch: 1 minutes and 15 seconds

The bottom line seems clear: Avengers: Doomsday will probably follow a pattern similar to Endgame. Maybe the players are a little different, but you can sub in a Pedro Pascal for a Chris Evans or, on the other side of things, a Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost) for a Gwyneth Paltrow. And with the Russo Bros. back in the MCU to direct Doomsday and Secret Wars, after so deftly balancing massive casts in both Infinity War and Endgame (and even Civil War before that), the good news is we’ve got a filmmaking team here that have clearly proven their mettle on this front.

Yeah, everything’s gonna work out just fine it turns out!

This interview contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 1 on HBO (and the games, of course).

The “was Joel right?” debate has been ongoing since the first game debuted all the way back in 2013. Did he do the right thing when he saved Ellie’s life, even if that act meant a cure for the cordyceps infection that had devastated humanity might never be found? The question was then later rekindled after the finale of HBO’s The Last of Us Season 1, fueled further by the differences in Joel’s character in the series and the shift from spores to tendrils.

That was two years ago, and still the debate among fans rages on. So with Season 2 debuting on April 13, we took it upon ourselves to go straight to the source. I sat down with creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, as well as series stars Bella Ramsey (Ellie), Gabriel Luna (Tommy), Kaitlin Dever (Abby), Isabela Merced (Dina), and Young Mazino (Jesse) to get their take on whether or not Joel made the right decision in the hospital on that fateful day.

Because, you know, what better way to start your day than a debate about a life-saving murder-spree? (Our interview was at 9 in the morning.)

“We have different opinions about this,” Druckmann immediately offers, followed by a jovial laugh and a “we do, we do,” from Mazin.

But upon further discussion, it turns out that the pair’s opinions aren’t terribly far from each other after all.

“I believe Joel was right,” Druckmann admits. “If I were in Joel’s position, I hope I would be able to do what he did to save my daughter.”

“That’s so interesting, because I think that if I were in Joel’s position, I probably would have done what he did,” Mazin adds. “But I’d like to think that I wouldn’t. That’s the interesting push and pull of the morality of it. And that’s why the ending of the first game is so provocative and so wonderful. It just doesn’t let you off the hook as a player.”

Most of the cast, however, are more non-commital on the subject. After a moment, Ramsey, Merced and Dever all chime in with different versions of “it’s complicated.” Merced, however, takes it a step further, mentioning that she thinks “this season explores that.” The word “that” of course is doing a lot of heavy lifting, considering just how complicated this conversation is.

Luna stands with his proverbial brother Pedro in the same way Tommy stood with Joel. “I’m biased,” he says. “I’m his brother and I understand and you can’t see the scope of the whole world. You can only see your world, and Ellie is his world. And so I mean, I can’t personally fault him as Tommy and maybe not even as Gabe, so I don’t know.”

The musings between the cast were pretty consistent, with everyone agreeing that there is no simple answer to the question. Mazino, who plays Jesse, did dive in a bit further though.

“I feel like he was on autopilot,” Mazino says of Joel’s slaughtering the people in the hospital while saving Ellie. “I think he was kind of just… he blacked out and it was just all hazy until he came to.”

Mazino’s answer here is probably the fairest shake of them all. Can you say, definitively, that if a loved one was going to die and the best answer you were provided in the moment was that it only might save the world, your loved one wasn’t given the opportunity for consent and the surgery was happening immediately, that you wouldn’t have done the same? I can’t. And it’s that back and forth of what you hope you would do versus what you would probably do that makes the story of Joel and Ellie compelling.

“People get to the end of The Last of Us [the game] and there is that question, what would you do? What should you do if faced with the opportunity to save the world, if you sacrifice your child. That goes back to Abraham and Isaac. It’s so profound. The notion of sacrifice to save the world,” Mazin says.

The familiarity only makes it harder. “It’s a difference between, OK, if I had to kill a random person to save who knows how many lives, in the abstract, you would say, well, yeah, that makes sense, of course,” Druckmann adds. “But now, remove it from being a random person and it’s your kid. Now the answer is very different.”

That differentiation takes the conversation from the traditional Trolley Problem — should you sacrifice one person to save a group of people — and makes it a deeper, even more complicated ethical question.

“It’s like death begets death begets death and I think that’s just a perfect example. And yeah, it’s his world. Who cares about the world if your world isn’t there?” Mazino asks.

“Yeah, he saved his world, just not the world,” finishes Ramsey.

Now that you’ve had time to sit with the question in the time between the Season 1 finale and now, what do you think? Was Joel right?

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is in full swing, bringing a boatload of savings on just about anything you could need or want. From gaming gear and TVs to books and cleaning essentials, you’ll see the biggest savings of 2025 so far. However, in addition to slashing prices, Amazon does something a little sneaky by slipping in clickable digital coupons on a range of items. These deals can be easy to miss, and if you don’t check the tiny box before checkout, you could miss out on major discounts.

To make life a little easier, we’ve sorted through all the top coupon deals and listed our favorites below with the final price after all the possible savings. If you want to go rogue and scroll through the seemingly endless offers yourself, Amazon has a page dedicated to coupon deals. Just don’t forget to click the box to score the money off.

You can add to your book collection, as the three-volume Skyrim Library collection is over 50% off with a clipped Amazon coupon, or you can grab the Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 for only $7.50. Prefer to watch your entertainment? Top Gun: Maverick also has a clickable coupon, so you can enjoy all the extras that aren’t available when you’re streaming the box-office smash.

Turn your camping trip this summer into more of glamping experience with the 50% off EnginStar 300W Solar Generator. Plug the discounted NexiGo PJ40 (Gen 3) Projector into the portable generator, and you’ll enjoy a full-on movie marathon deep in the woods. If you’d rather stay home in the AC, this low-cost air purifier will bring the fresh air feeling inside, while the roborock Q5 Pro Robot Vacuum and Mop Combo ensures your floors remain spotless with minimal effort.

Clearly, there are a whole lot of different product categories with awesome coupons at the moment, and these 12 picks are only scratching the surface of all the clickable savings that could be had.

What Are Amazon Coupons?

Amazon coupons are digital discounts that appear just below the price of a product. It’s a way for sellers to incentivize potential customers. Just like physical coupons that you’d use in a retail store, you must “clip,” or in this case, click, the coupon to enjoy the savings. You can use these coupons that offer specific dollar amounts or percentages off on top of already discounted products. Best of all, you usually don’t need to be a Prime Member to enjoy the additional deal. However, typically more savings come with Prime membership, especially during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale.

How Do I Use Amazon Coupons?

Using Amazon coupons is as simple as clicking a little box just below the price before adding the item to your cart. Amazon notes these deals by highlighting the “coupon” in orange just before the clickable box. The actual savings are listed in green writing next to the box. If you skip selecting the coupon before adding it to your cart. Amazon provides another opportunity to apply it in your cart before checking out. In the cart, a “Clip & Save” button is available to press to easily apply the discount to the product. However, only when you checkout, will you see the final savings with the coupon.

Shop More Amazon Big Spring Sale Deals

Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.

Looking to snag some free resources in Fisch? We’ve put together a list of all of currently active and working Fisch codes, so you can get your hands on a host of rewards and goodies in the Roblox fishing simulator without having to spend a penny.

Working Fisch Codes (March 2025)

Below, you’ll find all of the currently active and working Fisch codes in March 2025 that you can reedeem for free rewards:

• SorryReward – C$1,500, 5x Golden Tentacle (NEW)
• THEKRAKEN – C$2,500, Sunken Ship Bobber
• CARBON – Carbon Bopper
• SORRYGUYS – 2x Kraken Tentacles
• ATLANTEANSTORM – 2x Hangman’s Hook
• GOLDENTIDE – x3 Instant Catcher
• NewYear – 2 Holly Berry, 2 Peppermint Worm
• NorthernExpedition – Rewards
• RFG – 3x Instant Catcher

Expired Fisch Codes

The following Fisch codes have expired and can no longer be redeemed as of March 2025:

• GOODBYEFISCHMAS
• 1BVisits
• FISCHMASDAY
• MERRYFISCHMAS
• ThankYouFollowers3
• ThankYouFollowers2
• Advent
• Prehistoric
• AncientIsle
• ThankYouFollowers
• TheDepths

How to Redeem Fisch Codes

To redeem Fisch codes, boot up the Roblox Experience and, once you’re in, follow the steps below:

1. Look at the top of the screen. You’ll see a button labelled “Menu“.
2. Click the button to open the menu screen, then scroll down to the bottom of the menu tab.
3. At the very bottom, you’ll see the codes bar. Input your code into this bar and then press the ENTER key to redeem it.

Why Isn’t My Fisch Code Working?

If your Fisch code isn’t working, it’s likely due to one of two scenarios. The first is that the Fisch code was inputted incorrectly. Check the spelling and that the case is correct, then redeem again. You can even copy and paste the codes directly from this article over to Roblox if you want to make sure you’re inputting them correctly.

The other possibility is the code has expired or you’ve already used it. In this scenario, you should see an error message pop up below the code bar informing you that the code has already been used or is invalid.

How to Get More Fisch Codes

The best way to get more Fisch codes is by joining the Fisch Discord server. However, it’s worth noting the server can be difficult to join considering it’s frequently full, with a whopping 500,000 members. If you do run into that issue, keep checking back every few days until you’re provided access. Luckily, the team also posts Fisch codes over on X, so even if you can’t join the server, it’s worth checking the Fisch X account to see if you can find some there.

Although Bleach is the flashiest member of the shonen anime “big three,” standing shoulder to shoulder with mega-popular series like One Piece and Naruto, it has long suffered from middle child syndrome when it comes to arena fighter adaptations. Bleach Rebirth of Souls aims to break the cycle of run-of-the-mill anime fighters this series has previously been part of, delivering a unique action game that attempts to raise the genre to greater heights. Its story mode is admittedly an uneven jumble, ricocheting back and forth between a laughable attempt at a visual novel cobbled together like a last-second afterthought and a visually striking and stylish spectacle, as Bleach should be. But developer Tamsoft’s herculean effort to enrich Rebirth of Souls with complex combat (with some room for improvement) saves it from being just another fly-by-night arena fighter.

It’s easy to get overloaded by a bunch of confusing anime jargon as Rebirth of Souls’ tutorial explains how its health bar, counters, and super moves work, but here’s the quick way to understand things: This is a 3D arena fighter with Super Smash Bros.’s life stock system, Sekiro’s stance-breaking swordplay, and Bleach’s unique visual flair. Unlike other arena fighters, which often have combat so shallow you only need to find a single combo or spam super moves to win matches, Bleach’s combat feels like a challenging game of tug-of-war – one where victories are clinched rather than mindlessly stomped out of your opponents.

Each sword swing feels snappy and weighty as you teleport around the screen, ambushing your enemies from behind and breaking their guard. It never gets old to see large blocks of text wrap around freeze-framed characters with every successfully landed counter and super move. Even when you play Rebirth of Souls on its Standard Mode button layout, which streamlines things by letting you dish out flashy auto-combos, it harbors a wink of complex and unique mechanics specific to each character that warrant further exploration. That could be Shinji’s counter-heavy moveset or the in-your-face brawler style of my personal favorite, Soi Fon – it’s so satisfying to stun lock opponents whenever she zips all over the place with a flurry of punches and kicks. Plus, her super move is a massive missile arm canon that she has hunker down to fire, which is too enticing a contradiction to pass up as a main.

However, Standard Mode matches do have a samey button rhythm to them after a while without much expression outside of mashing light and heavy button combos into a super. Having two move inputs that double as a distance closer alongside often unreliable ranged attacks does not make for a remarkable competitive game. It also doesn’t help that the movement feels oddly stiff, with slow dashes and a scarcity of defensive options. Typically, whenever you’re getting your ass kicked, fighting games bail you out by filling up your meter that effectively allows you to take some pressure off with a flashy super or counter. Other arena fighters like Naruto and Dragon Ball get around these counter move deficits by giving you a dedicated button to charge your super bars or spend portions of your meter for last second teleportations to avoid disaster.

In contrast, outside of two defensive retaliation mechanics called Awakenings and Reversals (with the former activating as a late-game transformation to buff your damage), the only way to build your super move or flash step teleports in Rebirth of Soils is tied to having dealt enough combos in the first place. The limited defensive mechanics grow even more dire when successfully blocking an opponent’s offensive onslaught can be immediately undone by them comboing into a guard breaker — which should be virtually unheard of in any self respecting fighting game.

All of the above makes the back and forth of Standard Mode matches a bit tiring as you wait for a flash step bar to come back or pray you don’t get whiff punished into oblivion thanks to a weird attack range. Thankfully, playing Rebirth of Souls in Manual Mode alleviates a lot of the restrictiveness those training wheels can cause, giving you the ability to mix together (or cancel out of) a variety of light and heavy combos into metered special moves. That makes Manual feel like the “intended” way to play if you’re looking for a more serious fighter because you aren’t limited to a light and heavy combo string with the occasional super move punctuation mark. Manual Mode allows you to cancel out combos on a dime and deliver an infinite string of attacks, letting you effectively express yourself as you learn what assortment of attacks will deal the most damage while looking good doing so. That said, it could still do with more optimization to things like sluggish dashes, inconsistent attack range hit confirmations, and a deficit of defensive movements to make matches feel less rigid and constrictive.

As a massive fan of the Bleach anime and manga’s stunning artistry, stirring character development, and shocking plot twists, I had high hopes that Rebirth of Souls could deliver a worthwhile story mode. Sadly, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. By and large, cutscenes in an anime fighter should act as a sparkly reward at the end of battle, meant to bring the momentum of a fight to a thrilling climax. At the best of times, like in the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm series, they can be so well animated that they could substitute for watching the actual shows. That is not always the case with Rebirth of Souls – if anything, they nearly bring things to a screeching and embarrassing halt where you’re not sure if you’re meant to laugh on purpose or not.

The look of combat clearly had a lot of tender love and care put into it, but the story moments between that action instead play out like a cheap visual novel. Outside of a few pre-rendered cutscenes, the SparkNotes version of the anime this story mode attempts to tell is a rushed, hobbled mess. Instead of being greeted by bombastic scenes where my favorite characters clash, I was met with Machinima-looking animations where in-game models would fart out energy waves at each other and stiffly fall to the ground. Even the emotionally heady scenes lose all sense of tension as its characters move around like clumsy action figures with limited points of articulation in bright, low-poly arenas. What’s more, exciting moments like sword clashes and beam struggles lose all of their gravitas as these scenes incessantly cut to black with bright slashes on the screen that look less like a creative choice for dramatic effect and more like a placeholder for an animation that wasn’t added in time.

If this was a genuine attempt to resemble a visual novel, it definitely missed the mark, as it feels more like an unfinished first draft – and with review codes less than a day before launch, it’s hard not to see this as an intentional hope that fans will buy-in based solely on the goodwill of the franchise. Which is a shame, because both its English and Japanese voice cast are putting in work with their vocal performances and the character models are faithful recreations that do look great in action. As if Bandai Namco took pointers from Invincible season 2’s joke about how animators cut corners to make more scenes, Rebirth of Souls put all of its focus on the fights, and every moment outside of them looks like a fan-made animator’s first crack at recreating the anime as a result.

At the same time, however, Tamsoft is weirdly able to weaponize its limited, awkward looking cutscenes to drive home the charm of Bleach’s filler episodes. Moments of levity during a handful of original story mode chapters where characters take a break from slashing each other to play high-stakes games of soccer, go on haunted house dates, or rinse each other at fighting games have the right kind of jank to their slapstick animation. These periodic excursions are disarmingly charming to watch. Side characters who’d otherwise be ignored on Rebirth of Souls roster like Shuhei or Izuru get more dimension to them, encouraging you to invest time in learning how to play them because of how compelling and personable their slice-of-life segments are.

JAKKS Pacific is going all-in on The Simpsons license, with the company revealing a downright epic lineup of new toys and figures at WonderCon 2025. IGN has an exclusive first look at everything featured in the WonderCon panel, including a talking Funzo doll, a Krusty Burger diorama, and multiple new waves of action figures.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at this perfectly cromulent lineup of toys:

As usual, JAKKS Pacific is focusing on a wide range of scales and figure types with its Simpsons line, including new waves of both the 5-inch and 2.5-inch figures and several plush dolls.

The centerpiece of this lineup is definitely Funzo, inspired by the iconic doll introduced in the episode “Grift of the Magi.” Funzo measures 14 inches tall and includes moving facial effects, a launching missile feature, and sound effects like “If you don’t have Funzo, you’re nothing!” The Funzo doll is priced at $49.99 and will be released in Fall 2025. You can preorder the Funzo doll on Amazon.

Eclisping even Funzo in height is the mighty King Homer plush doll, inspired by “Treehosue of Horror III.” This 16-inch doll features a vinyl roto head and is priced at $29.99.

JAKKS Pacific also revealed a smaller, 9-inch Bartman plush doll that’s priced at $9.99 and will be exclusive to Walmart stores.

As for the figures, JAKKS Pacific revealed Waves 3 and 4 of the 5-inch figure line, featuring characters like Baseball Homer, Lenny Leonard, Milhouse, Marge Simpson, Barney Gumble, Carl Carlson, Bumblebee Man, and Bart with Blue Shirt variant. These figures are priced at $12.99 each.

They also showed off Waves 3 and 4 of the 2.5-inch figure line, including Grampa Simpson, Milhouse, Ralph Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Bart with Krusty the Clown Hat, Principal Skinner, Nelson Muntz, Martin Prince, Selma Bouvier, and Dancin’ Homer. These figures are priced at $4.99 each.

Finally, it’s only fitting that the company reveal a new diorama set to go along with these 2.5-inch figures. Next up is a Krusty Burger set featuring an exclusive Krusty figure. The diorama is priced at $19.99.

JAKKS Pacific’s WonderCon panel will be held on Friday, March 28 from 5:00-6:00 PM PT in Room 213CD at the Anaheim Convention Center.

For even more Simpson-y goodness, here are the toys JAKKS Pacific revealed at Comic-Con 2024.

For more on The Simpsons, read up on our picks for the Top 34 Simpsons episodes of all time. And be sure to check out the many TV-related collectibles on offer at the IGN Store.

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

I spoke with actors Joseph Quinn and Will Poulter today for their new A24 drama Warfare during which time the topic of this week’s Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement came up.

“It was relief, I suppose. It was a nice thing,” Quinn, who plays Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, said when asked about seeing his name on the back of a chair during the Doomsday live stream reveal (watch the video below).

“I think I’m in very good company. I would love to see Will there, too, just because we have a laugh but the road is long in this Marvel land so God willing because it would be fun.”

Will Poulter played Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which saw Warlock join the new Guardians lineup by the end of the movie.

Despite Guardians Vol. 3 announcing that Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord would return, no Guardians actors were among those announced as being in Avengers: Doomsday.

“I’m so excited for Joe and I can’t wait for Fantastic Four,” Poulter said as he sat beside Quinn. “I’d love to come back with Adam Warlock and if I can cross over with Joe and the Fantastic Four crew that would be even better.”

Perhaps Adam Warlock and Quinn’s Johnny Storm will cross paths in the Doomsday follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars. Avengers: Doomsday is now in production.

Joseph Quinn isn’t the only Marvel actor to break their silence this week on being in Doomsday. Paul Rudd played his cards close to the chest when interviewed by Jimmy Fallon on Thursday.

For more on Avengers: Doomsday, read up on a theorized Avengers vs. X-Men tease, why the cast reveal probably doesn’t spoil Thunderbolts, the Secret Wars hints in the video announcement, and how even more Marvel stars could still join Doomsday.

Manscaped is a well known boutique retailer of men’s haircare products, with a great name to boot. Right now, most Manscaped shavers are 20% off during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale that runs through March 31. Alternatively, if you want to buy from Manscaped directly, you can get a 15% off coupon when you sign up for their newsletter.

Featured in this article

The Chairman Plus at Manscaped