Key Note Gaming

A classic Nintendo handheld turned 25 this week amidst an ongoing bust-up about the very future of graphics tech, an anniversary that reminds us how hollow the pursuit of ever increasing graphical fidelity is when all the post-processed path tracing in the world can’t make the driving in Cyberpunk 2077 feel as good as V-Rally 3 on the Game Boy Advance. Look at it. Squeezing every bit of horsepower out of the GBA’s dinky 16MHz processor, a system explicitly designed to run sprite-based 2D games, V-Rally 3 represents an incredible feat of software engineering: a fully 3D racer conjured from textured polygons, clever art direction, and three entire volts of copper-topped power. This was damn close to PS1 quality gaming you could enjoy on a bus (at a time when the PS1 was still very much a going concern), making the GBA a very early taste of what would be possible decades later, where any lingering distinction between a handheld game and a home console or PC game has been utterly oblite...

It seems like every few weeks , we're finding out about another developer using generative AI to create assets for their games, or at least strongly considering it. So I'm pretty intrigued at the latest interview from the dev team behind Pragmata, wherein they said they're hand-crafting one of the levels in the game to look like it was AI-generated, despite it being fully made by humans. This comes from an interview published by 4Gamer and translated by Automaton , which has director Cho Yonghee and producer Naoto Oyama from Capcom talking about Pragmata's New York City-like stage, which was designed intentionally to feel AI-generated to the player. (You can see some snippets of this stage in the trailer below.) “For Pragmata, we set the premise as ‘a fake New York generated by AI,’” said Cho. “When familiar locations appear, players can relate more easily. On top of that, to make it clear that this isn’t the real New York, we wanted something slightly distor...

On March 26, a female store clerk at Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo in Japan was fatally stabbed by a man, who then turned the weapon on himself. Both died of their injuries in hospital later that evening . Today, Japanese news outlets have revealed that the perpetrator was the victim’s former boyfriend, and had previously been arrested for stalking her. An employee at the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo, Moe Harukawa (21) was stabbed multiple times by Daiki Hirokawa (26) at 7.20pm on Thursday, after which the perpetrator stabbed himself in the neck. Subsequent reports by TBS News Dig and others revealed that Hirokawa was Harukawa’s former boyfriend. According to Asahi News , they were in a relationship up until around July 2025. After the break-up, the victim reported to the police that she was being stalked by Hirokawa, and that he would lie in wait outside her home and also secretly film her. Later that same day, Hirokawa turned up outside her residence again and was arrested under Japan’...

All of Forza Horizon 5’s remaining time-limited bonus cars have today been added to its store, where they can be purchased with in-game vouchers. Forza Horizon 5’s Festival Playlist system previously added new, free cars to the game every week since the game’s Xbox and PC launch in November 2021. However, while the cars were free, they were admittedly only ever available for a limited time – and required players to complete a series of events or challenges over the course of a week (or month) to earn. The themed, monthly Festival Playlists began to be repeated in early 2025, giving us a chance to collect cars we may have missed previously. We’ve also been able to unlock some of them from a curated selection of rare cars voted for by players by exchanging vouchers that can be redeemed or earned each week. However, today all of the remaining cars that had not already made it into the ‘Horizon Backstage’ store have been made available. Players will now be able to complete their car ...

Game engine maker Unity, whose tech powers many games, from 2025 hits like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Peak to anticipated 2026 offerings like Mouse: P.I. for Hire and Replaced (both of which are due out next month), announced its preliminary Q1 financial results today. The company expects to beat forecasts, with revenue anticipated to be between $505m and $508m, above the $480m-$490m guidance. Adjusted EBITDA, meanwhile (which is a measure of profitability), is expected to land in the $130m-$135m range, above the guided figure of $105m-$110m. This amounts to 58% year-over-year growth. According to SteamDB , more than 8500 games powered by Unity were published to Steam in each of the past two years. Recent notable games that have been built using Unity include LEGO Voyagers , PowerWash Simulator 2 , and Terminator 2D: No Fate . The impressive results come just two years after the company navigated choppy waters, watching then-CEO John Riccitiello retire after his controversial ...

There's a whole bunch of great Pokémon TCG deals available right now online as part of Amazon's 2026 Spring Sale . As part of the 30th Anniversary celebrations ongoing throughout the year, you can expect to see plenty of special offers ongoing in sale events like this. Amazon has recently gone through another massive restocking mission as part of its new sale, with several sets back available, and even discounted a few as well. Most notable in the sale right now is the Perfect Order Booster Box , including 36 packs, for $239.75. It's a little over market price from somewhere like TCGplayer right now (averaging about $225). But, if Amazon is your preferred retailer, say you want the boosters promptly, or maybe even have some gift cards to spend, then the option is there. There's also the remarkably popular 151 Booster Bundle , which is now back, albeit for an eye-watering $195. That's around $7 over market price, but still worth mentioning for the same reasons ...