Key Note Gaming

2025 marks 40 years since Akira Toriyama’s ground-breaking Dragon Ball manga first hit shelves in Japan. The Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri was held in Japan over the weekend to celebrate the global manga, anime and video game phenomenon. Taking up the huge Makuhari Messe event space near Tokyo, the event featured everything from exclusive merch, live game contests, and specially-curated exhibits of original artwork. The main stage was packed with exciting announcements about where the series is headed after the death of series creator Akira Toriyama , including two new anime TV series, a new game and a “massive” new DLC for Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero. Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol Anime The event kicked off with a brief talk between Son Goku’s Japanese VA Masako Nozawa and Dragon Ball series executive producer Akio Iyoku, followed by the premiere of a special video marking the 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball. Featuring music specially composed by Hans Zimmer, the film celebr...

Stella Montis is known for its cold, suffocating halls and cutthroat Raider encounters, but Arc Raiders players can’t get enough of the real-life Stella Montis hotel. Yes, there is a real-world hotel located in Italy that just so happens to share a name with one of the most brutal locations game developer Embark Studios has to offer. Thankfully, the luxurious hotel Stella Montis won’t have guests looking over their shoulders for loot goblins, and instead features spots for hiking, biking, skiing, and relaxation. It’s for these reasons – and maybe more likely just for the bit of it all – that Arc Raiders players are slamming the forest getaway with dozens of five-star reviews . Photo from the Stella Montis hotel in Northern Italy, a new location teased in the latest dev blog. by in ArcRaiders “Great place,” one seemingly earnest review starts. “But I do recommend travel solo for this hotel. Any group bigger than 2 has very high chance of meeting rats in the lobby. Hotel has a ...

If Animal Crossing: New Horizons' 3.0 update earlier this month wasn't enough for you, don't worry, there's a new hype train you can board. IKEA just recently posted a TikTok with some very familiar sights and sounds, and it has us hoping for a furniture collaboration soon. As spotted by Polygon , the official TikTok page for IKEA France posted a video two days ago that very much seems to be teasing something Animal Crossing-related. In the video, a very distinctively Animal Crossing leaf floats down from the ceiling of an empty room, before a hand cursor clicks on it and turns it into furniture, cycling through four different types of IKEA furniture (two bookcases in different styles, a dresser, and a couch). The video description, via TikTok's translation from French, reads, "We still don't accept cash bells. #ikea #animalcrossing" @ikeafrance On n'accepte toujours pas les clochettes en caisse. #ikea #animalcrossing ♬ son original - IKEA...

After watching Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s gorgeous opening cutscene on Switch 2, I instinctively reached for the PlayStation 5 controller sitting on my coffee table instead of my Switch 2 Pro Controller. That’s not to say VII Remake looks exactly as good on Switch 2 as it does on the beefier PS5, but this is an impressive port that’s easily up there with the best third-party games we’ve seen so far in the Switch 2’s first year, and I’m still not used to games looking this beautiful on my Nintendo console. That strong first impression held up as I blasted through the familiar first hours of Cloud’s adventure in Midgar – which remains one of my favorite RPGs of the decade – with solid performance both handheld and docked. Digging through the menus also revealed tons of options to streamline progression for newcomers looking to see what all the hype is, or for returning fans who just want to blast through the epic adventure at a quicker pace on the go. No matter your experi...

The Nintendo Switch 2 was the best-selling console of 2025 in the U.S., both in unit sales and dollar sales, selling a total of 4.4 million units in the U.S, and continuing its streak of selling faster than the original Nintendo Switch. This comes from Circana's full-year reporting on the U.S. games market courtesy of analyst Mat Piscatella, and shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. The Switch 2 has been at the top consistently since it launched earlier in the year, amid a period of decline for the steadily aging PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of last year, and the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller was the best-selling accessory. Overall, the U.S. games market reached $60.7 billion in sales for all of 2025, and $7.8 billion in December alone. That's up 1% and 3% year-over-year, respectively. In hardware, spending was up 9% year-over-year to $5.4 billion for the year, and up 6% year-over-year to $1.2 billion in December. The Ninten...

Text-based games, management RPGs, and visual novels – of whatever kind – rarely make the most exciting previews. It's just not easy to build a rich interest in the world and characters of a story you can only get the slightest taste of. I'm very pleased to say that a few hours with Sovereign Tower broke that trend entirely. Whosoever turns the key in the giant magic lock on the tower becomes king. So, as the mystically-appointed lord of the tower, your poor faceless wanderer becomes a very important person overnight in what developer Wild Wits calls a "story-rich, Round Table management RPG." It's an entertaining concept that draws its characters and dialogue equally from fantastical tradition and modern life. Couple that with a deliciously detailed art style and a sense of what's most entertaining to do in both management games and visual novels. That's enough to sell it, I think, but it also has some nice surprises and a weird little twist on the g...

Forza Horizon 6 is set to release for Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 19 — unless you buy the most expensive edition, which comes out May 15. This latest installment of the reliably excellent Microsoft racing series whisks drivers to Japan to get their speed on. It’s available now to preorder in a number of editions ( see it at Amazon ). Below, you can find out what comes in each one, how much they cost, and more. Let’s put the pedal to the metal and take a look. Standard Edition Xbox Get it at Amazon - $69.99 Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 Get it at GameStop - $69.99 Get it at Walmart - $69.99 Get it at Xbox Store (digital) - $69.99 PC Get it at Steam - $69.99 If all you want is the base game for now, the standard edition is the one to preorder. It comes with the game itself, plus the preorder bonus (see below) Deluxe Edition Xbox Get it at Xbox Store (digital) - $99.99 PC Get it at Steam - $99.99 The deluxe edition includes the game, the preorder bonu...