Fire Emblem Heroes has reportedly now made more than $1 billion in revenue, blowing Nintendo's other mobile games out the water by becoming the first to hit the landmark amount.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz, Sensor Tower's latest report revealed that Heroes, compared to Nintendo's other selection of mobile games, was only fourth overall in number of downloads but first in revenue by a long shot.

Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are sitting in joint second place, for example, but have only earned $282 million compared to Heroes' $1 billion. Dragalia Lost is fourth at $168 million, followed by Super Mario Run at $87 million (despite having 47% of overall downloads), and Dr. Mario World at $14 million.

Heroes has also made more than $29 million in the first quarter of 2022 alone. The game is most popular in Japan (which accounts for 54% of its lifetime spending), followed by the U.S. (at 32%) and Canada (at 3%).

The game was released more than five years ago in February 2017, and was the third mobile game released by Nintendo as part of its venture into the new market. While the company said at the time it planned to release 2-3 mobile games a year, Nintendo's not released a mobile game itself since 2019's Mario Kart Tour, not including the Niantic-developed Pikmin Bloom that was released in 2021.

Heroes has seemingly proved successful enough by itself though, and in our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Fire Emblem Heroes is a lighter but still engaging interpretation of the beloved tactical RPG series' signature combat."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Minions: The Rise of Gru hits theaters on July 1, 2022.

It would be a fool’s errand to judge a Minions movie on anything except its own terms, but figuring out what those terms even are is a challenge. The Minions, with their speech comprising made-up French, bits of English and Spanish, and near-total gibberish, are the kind of babbling caricatures used to entertain babies, yet they’ve taken on a life of their own on social media, as digital stationery for wine aunts and weird uncles to type up harmless mundanities (“Exercise? I thought you said extra fries!”) The Despicable Me series has an entire history behind it (or rather, ahead of it; The Rise of Gru is a prequel), so it must serve a narrative function, and as a movie, it technically has a story and characters, but they all exist in service of slapstick gags that may as well be isolated vignettes.

Wrapped up in all this is the question of who this movie is for, if the Minions rose to prominence over a decade ago? The teens who were children during the first Despicable Me? Probably not. Little kids today? Perhaps. Their millennial parents? Maybe, but the film’s 1970s setting leads to a flood of period-specific allusions aimed at Boomers and Gen X’ers. Am I thinking too hard about this? Absolutely, but it’s difficult not to in a year that gave us the Pixar instant-classic Turning Red. Minions: The Rise of Gru is ultimately inoffensive, but children deserve a little better than a flurry of random images that feel barely connected.

The prologue gives us a fun look at a group of baddies, the Vicious 6, as they steal an ancient artifact. There’s Taraji P. Henson’s Belle Bottom, whose abilities aren’t quite clear, but there’s also Svengeance, a Mad Max-style roller-skater voiced by Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo as the metal-handed Stronghold, and the two most amusingly conceived villains in the group, Lucy Lawless as Nunchucks (a nunchuck-wielding nun), and Jean-Clawed, a Frenchman with an enormous lobster claw, voiced by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Rounding out the crew is Alan Arkin’s Wild Knuckles, an aged martial artist who gets booted from the team as soon as he helps them steal an ancient pendant. He’s the closest thing the movie has to an actual character, since his five former teammates mostly melt into the background as an indecipherable blob (a handful of funny gags aside).

Sometime later, we’re reintroduced to little Gru (a pitch-shifted Steve Carell), whose dreams of supervillainy get him laughed at by his classmates (if you think this embarrassment might inform his story, think again). And of course, what would Gru be without the Minions in his basement, hundreds of whom appear on screen, but four of whom are the actual focus. The main three were pseudo-characters in the 2015 Minions film. They don’t have distinct personalities as much as they do recognizable shapes — there’s the short two-eyed one (Bob), the short one-eyed one (Stuart), and the tall one (Kevin) — and joining them this time is Otto, a round one with braces. He screws up a lot. Gru yells at him and doubts him, the same way other people doubt Gru’s own capacity for mischief, but neither of these things amount to very much.

Gru’s story revolves around auditioning for the Vicious 6, and subsequently crossing paths with its disgraced former founder, Wild Knuckles, who, it turns out, is Gru’s favorite villain. Knuckles is a loner with henchmen who he treats like garbage. Gru is pretty much the same. And yet, their collective coming-to-Jesus moment exists only theoretically, through tonally “serious” scenes that make them reflect on no one and nothing in particular, and for no real reason.

Whatever semblance of story The Rise of Gru features, it wobbles like the empty skin-suit of a real kids’ movie (like the three Despicables Me!). It sends Kevin, Stuart, and Bob in one direction, and Otto in another, on divergent missions to help Gru, but both storylines seem to suffer from severe cases of anti-drama and anti-comedy. The Minions are on a mission, and part of the fun stems from them being chaotic yellow pill-creatures pretending to be people via an assortment of costumes, but no one seems to really care that they’re Minions at the end of the day. Some of their jokes are dialogue-based, but they depend on being able to decipher literal gibberish. When the Minions come up against obstacles, they usually talk(?) their way out in a matter of seconds — which also makes the involvement of side characters voiced by Michelle Yeoh, Julie Andrews, and RZA speed by without impact — and when they do cause a ruckus, it’s usually the result of “lol random” decisions that are fully at odds with whatever they’re trying to achieve in a given scene. It shouldn’t matter, but the Minions’ Gru-centric objectives are pretty much the only things that define them as “characters,” in the broadest sense. If the humor doesn’t stem from these annoying little goblins trying to do meaningful human things, then it rests solely on their buttocks sticking out of their overalls, a gag that repeats itself like clockwork every 10 or 15 minutes.

Minions: The Rise of Gru has a plot, but no story. It features references, but few jokes. Ultimately, enjoying it comes down to whether or not you can tolerate 90 minutes of “le ooga booga banana por favor,” and if you’re under the age of 3, the answer is probably yes — but in that case, any parent may as well just plop their kid in front of a YouTube playlist of D-Billions instead.

Here’s an excellent deal for fans of classic Nintendo games. Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda is on sale for $39.97 at both Amazon and Walmart. It’s an adorably pocketable device that functions as a retro gaming machine and a clock. It normally costs $49.99, and this is the lowest price we’ve seen yet.

Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda Deal

• Also at Walmart

Like Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros., the Zelda one is a dedicated handheld device that offers a few different functions. For one, it comes with the following games:

• The Legend of Zelda (NES)
• Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (NES)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Game Boy)

That’s a lot of hours of classic gaming (34 hours total, according to How Long to Beat). You can also play the Japanese versions of the first two Zeldas, which feature different soundtracks and sound effects, and the Game & Watch game Vermin. The screen looks nice, clear, and colorful, and the speakers offer plenty of volume.

In addition to offering games, it also functions as a clock. In this mode, Link walks around in Zelda landscapes and fights enemies. You can take control of the green-clad hero at any time and clash swords with enemies yourself, if you so choose. There’s also a timer.

The box the device comes in also functions as a stand, which comes in handy when using it in clock mode. You can check out our full Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda review for full details.

In any case, if you’ve been on the fence about picking this thing up, now’s a good time to do so, seeing as it’s on sale for the lowest price it’s ever been.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

The much-maligned remake of XIII is now being, well, remade by a completely different developer after it was released to scathing reviews in 2020.

Announced on the game's Steam page, publisher Microids revealed that XIII's remake will essentially be released again thanks to a major update that arrives on September 13.

The hefty update from French studio Tower Five will redefine the art style (which was criticised for abandoning the original, comic book look), enhance the A.I., rework the HUD, revamp the sound design, and add multiplayer for up to 13 players.

XIII will be released on Nintendo Switch the same day (which will run at 30fps) and Microids' update also mentions PS5 and Xbox Series versions (which will run at 60fps).

"To achieve the quality standards and offer an optimal gaming experience, Microids decided to entrust the development of XIII Remake to the French studio Tower Five," the post said. "Hard at work for more than a year on a major update, this update will be released on September 13th.

"On that date, owners of the game will receive a free update and enjoy the game as intended. The development studio reworked the entire game from the Art Direction to the AI and added numerous technical improvements."

Those who bought XIII on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One when it was released in November 2020 will therefore receive the update at no extra cost. The game was criticised heavily for myriad technical issues amongst other things and currently has an "overwhelmingly negative" review on Steam.

Original developer PlayMagic, who will not contribute to the remake's remake, apologised at the time alongside Microids, saying "players expectations have not been met by the launch version and we hear loud and clear the legitimate criticism and disappointment."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Despite what the title suggests, Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is much more than just a fancy flan or fruit tart to top off the gourmet meal that was the original game. This is an expansion that certainly favors quality over quantity, consisting primarily of only six mainline boss fights, but they’re six incredible boss fights that each stand tall as some of the most fun, challenging, and visually jaw-dropping ones yet. Sweetening the pot are several new weapons, new charms that each add subtle new approaches to fighting bosses, some tantalizing secrets with worthwhile reward, and a brand new character in Ms. Chalice, who comes with several skills that take some of the edge off of Cuphead’s intense difficulty without outright feeling like an “easy mode.”. My first playthrough was over in just a few hours, but they were hours I’d deem essential for any Cuphead fan.

The Delicious Last Course is all about making Ms. Chalice, a character who appeared in the main game only as a super-move-granting spirit, a real living and breathing cup person. To that end, Cuphead and his pal Mugman head towards a brand new isle where they’re told that Chef Saltbaker, the greatest chef in the land, is able to create a Wondertart that can permanently grant Ms. Chalice a body. The catch, of course, is that they must collect its ingredients by defeating the powerful foes that are guarding them. The story obviously isn’t the reason anyone is here, but it’s nonetheless charmingly told with quick cutscenes and more of the outstanding art that fans have come to expect.

Thus the stage is set for another round of some of the most spectacular 2D action-platformer bosses I’ve ever faced. The content of The Delicious Last Course is accessible nearly right from the start of a new game, just after you clear the first mausoleum and meet Ms. Chalice for the first time – but if you’re new or rusty, you’ll definitely want to get your feet wet with some other foes first as the six bosses in this DLC do not pull their punches.The very first one has you contending with projectiles in the air, spikes on the ground that force you to keep moving, shifting platforms that put you in danger if they raise you up at the wrong time, little gnomes that emerge from the floor to shoot more projectiles at you, and more gnomes that appear on the platforms and will hammer you if you stay on for too long. And that’s just the first phase.

While the mechanical difficulty of the bosses in The Delicious Last Course are cranked up, Studio MDHR is not without mercy. There’s of course still an easier difficulty, but there are also a number of new charms and weapons that help tip the scales back in your favor, including the one that lets you play as Ms. Chalice herself. When you play as Ms. Chalice, you’re unable to equip any other charms, but she comes naturally equipped with a double jump, a dodge that she can use while on the ground to roll through obstacles, a dashing parry that makes it much easier to parry objects coming straight at you, and most crucially, four HP instead of the standard three.

Some may look at that and think “oh, so it’s essentially an extra easy mode,” but that’s not quite right. Ms. Chalice also has a much worse single jump than Cuphead, so she has to use her double jump in order to get over certain obstacles that Cuphead would easily be able to clear; her dash parry is great for objects coming straight towards her, but is harder to use than the traditional double jump parry in some situations; and she’s unable to equip any of the other powerful charms that are available – like my new personal favorite, the heart ring, which rewards you with HP on your first, third, and sixth parries, essentially giving you the ability to double your HP if you can successfully parry a boss’s attacks. Another powerful one is the Coffee charm, which passively refills your super meter alongside all of the normal ways to build it, meaning you get access to your super moves far more regularly.

As for the new weapons, I'm a big fan of the homing weapon called the Crackshot, which can be fired without worrying too much about aiming and has a special EX move that drops a turret, which can then be parried and launched into an enemy for big damage. Another great new addition is the Converge shot, which fires three full-screen projectiles in a wide spread, and that spread can be constricted by holding down the aim button. It’s a great weapon for quickly clearing out small weak enemies that get spawned by a boss, making it a perfect pairing for my usual go-to weapon, the Charge shot.

To get the coins needed to afford these new weapons and charms, The Delicious Last Course introduces a replacement for the run-and-gun levels of the main game in the form of a series of mini bosses led by the King of Games. Early on in the DLC, you’ll be able to climb a ladder to reach the King of Games’ castle (which is a totally awesome hand-sculpted stop motion model, by the way), and from there you’re free to challenge his champions. The catch is that each of these chess piece themed mini-boss fights aren’t won with your weapons or charms – they’re won entirely with your parry technique. One fight requires you to parry all of the tops of an army of pawns, while another requires you to blow out a bunch of candles in order to make the boss damageable with a parry. They’re all clever fights, and tackling them is a fun change of pace and a unique challenge, especially when you try the gauntlet mode and attempt to beat them all in a single life. More than anything though, it’s certainly a step up over the run-and-gun levels when it comes to earning the currency needed to purchase new equipment.

Everything else in The Delicious Last Course is what you’d expect from Cuphead, but taken to an even greater degree. Studio MDHR’s Maja Moldenhauer has stated that the animation frame count in this DLC alone is comparable to the entire core game, which sounded crazy to even think about before playing – but now that I have, it’s not a hard thing to believe. Every phase of every boss in The Delicious Last Course totally transforms the battle. You’ll go from fighting an ice magician to a diabolical refrigerator to a deranged snowflake all over the course of one fight, with each phase having anywhere from three to seven unique attacks, and each attack being so absurdly packed with detail that I didn't even notice most of the smaller bits until I recorded and watched back my footage. That includes things like the way those gnomes climb up the side of the mountain and scootch under the fur, the way the background subtly changes during every phase of the fight against Sheriff Winchester, or the way the aforementioned deranged snowflake literally wrings its own body to pop out its eye for one of its attacks.

The magic of Cuphead’s boss design, and something that all of the bosses in this DLC exemplify, is that while it throws a ton of stuff at you, everything is generally pretty easy to avoid if you know it's coming. Every attack is exceptionally well telegraphed, patterns are easily recognizable, and the visual language is always simple and clear. So even if I was expected to do something that’s not normally very intuitive, like parrying a pink bell to close the mouth of a cow skull floating in acid in order to create a platform, it’s something that I can quickly pick up on because I had already been taught to parry pink objects before now. The Delicious Last Course skillfully nails that hard to hit balance of being tough but fair, and saves the truly difficult stuff for expert mode, which provides a very worthwhile challenge for hardcore fans once the main campaign is completed. And for those that want even more of a challenge, well there’s something for you too, but I wouldn’t want to spoil what it is or how to get it.