Key Note Gaming

LEGO and Pokémon were my childhood (well, those and TMNT, but that’s for another time). I grew up building everything from simple cars and unrealistic houses to whatever amalgamation my creative mind could imagine. Never, as a kid, did I expect to see a fully licensed Pokémon set like the one we have now. When I was a child, Pokémon was a game that, even now 30 years later, still has its claws in me with no sign of letting up. My younger siblings and I spent hours as kids, sitting with our Link Cables and GameBoys, trading Pokémon back and forth while we restarted one of our games enough times so we could each start with all three starter Pokémon. I knew I was hooked after spending an afternoon at my grandfather's house manually typing out my own Pokémon guide listing every Pokémon, their evolution levels, and what level they learned each move. There is no Pokémon more iconic to the franchise than Pikachu , and while this set's first images weren’t as impressive as I’d ho...

You may have clicked into this review thinking, “A review of Under Night In-Birth 2 Sys:Celes? In the year of our Lord 2026?!” And you know what, that’s fair. This fighting game came out at the beginning of 2024, and it’s one that builds off a foundation laid by the 2012 original, which we also never reviewed . Well, I’ve decided better late than never, because Under Night In-Birth 2 is quite simply one of the best 2D fighters on the market right now – especially for fighting game fans that pine for the days of fast-paced anime fighters but with all the modern conveniences we’ve come to expect. It’s full of gorgeous pixel art and completely outlandish character designs alongside things like exceptional netcode and the ability to take control of a character during a replay, making its satisfyingly steep learning curve a joy to try and overcome, and its online play a staple of my fighting game rotation well past its initial launch. For those completely unfamiliar, Under Night In-Bir...

The Marathon Server Slam is off to a quick start, with impressive player numbers on Steam. As part of the Server Slam event, Bungie’s extraction shooter was made available to download for free across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S yesterday, February 26, allowing players to give it a shot over the weekend. Marathon hit a peak of 143,621 concurrent players on Steam, although the true figure across all platforms will be higher (neither Microsoft nor Sony make player numbers public). And while the Server Slam is free and Marathon will cost $39.99 when it launches proper next week, the numbers do suggest significant interest. Perhaps a useful comparison is to rival extraction shooter Arc Raiders, which went on to enjoy enormous success and huge sales after a similar server slam event ahead of launch and the same price point. Arc Raiders’ stress test hit a peak of 189,668 concurrent players on Valve’s platform . Marathon is behind that for now, but its peak number will sur...

Where Winds Meet is taking us back to "one of China's most glorious eras," the Tang Dynasty, with its next major update, the Hexi expansion, which kicks off, for free, on March 5. Between March and May, the team will release Hexi's three chapters in sequence, taking wanderers "from desert to ice fields to grasslands," starting with Jade Gate Pass next week. "In ancient China, friends would write poems for each other. Think of these three chapters as our poem to all of you," the team explained, stressing that this marks "a much more cinematic approach to storytelling" that feels "quite different from our previous storytelling." Set in a vast desert landscape, developer Everstone Games said the Hexi expansion represents the "biggest expansion since the game’s launch, and will offer up brand-new narratives, new bosses, fresh gameplay features, and martial art styles." We can expect three major maps, which, combined...

Pokémon Day 2026 is a particularly special celebration for fans, as it's officially the 30th anniversary of the famous Red and Blue release in Japan in 1996. There's plenty of excitement going into the day, which also makes it one of the best times to check out the best deals on everything Pokémon. TL;DR: The Best Pokémon Day Deals Whether that's restocks or price reductions on the latest and greatest Pokémon TCG releases, or some sizable discounts for almost every Pokémon game on Nintendo Switch - I've done the hard work for you, and found the best offerings available today. Pokémon TCG: Restocks and Best Prices Quite surprisingly, there's actually a whole lot of great Pokémon TCG restocks and deals available right now online, with Amazon having some of the best around. The online retailer has gone through something of a massive restocking mission this week, and at just the right time. Pokémon Day Finds at Amazon The biggest highlights from Amazon's ...

The We Were Here series is the stuff of co-op magic, and at IGN Fan Fest 2026 we got to see its latest evolution. One look at the We Were Here Tomorrow trailer and it's clear the cult co-op series is taking a giant leap into new territory. Previously set in the labyrinthine rooms of an abandoned castle, We Were Here Tomorrow sets its perplexing puzzles in the raygun retrofuturistic looking Norcek facility. The core of the game – shouting at your friend through a walkie talkie as they prove to be dumber than you ever thought possible – remains the same, but there are other changes to go with the new look. "It's a story that has some familiar characters and some totally new ones, and we've also done a lot with giving you new tools for puzzle solving and moving through the environment," said Martín Mittner, creative director at Total Mayhem games. "And we've done a ton of work on the walkie-talkies to keep you in the game instead of on Discord." In...

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight developer TT Games has shared a positive-sounding update on whether suits from the Dark Knight's brooding Ben Affleck era will be included in the game. While the game's character roster may be limited (and we've also got more detail on why that is, too ), LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight will feature an enormous wardrobe of 100 Batsuits to celebrate the character's long history. Already, there have been confirmations of Bat-clothes as worn by Robert Pattinson, Christian Bale, Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton and Adam West — but what about Ben Affleck, who portrayed the character in a handful of movies through the DCEU era, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Batfleck's Batsuit has been a key question among fans of the Caped Crusader, and one that IGN was keen to ask TT Games Head of Production and Strategic Director Jonathan Smith when we recently got a chance to find out more about the promi...