Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Marvel's What If…?: Season 1! For more on the animated series, check out our review of the Season 1 finale, and then see our breakdown of the most shocking What If…? moments and a list of all the returning MCU actors.

Marvel' What If…? has officially wrapped up its first season on Disney Plus, but it's safe to say the story is just beginning. The finale wraps up a number of loose ends and reveals the secret threads tying together what seemed to be a series of standalone, isolated adventures. In the process, we're starting to get a clearer picture of how the series will evolve in Season 2.

Let's break down what we learned from the finale. But first, let's touch on the most confusing element of Episode 9 – the mysterious version of Gamora who Uatu the Watcher recruited for his Guardians of the Multiverse.

What If…?'s Missing Gamora Episode

The Season 1 finale turned out to be an unexpectedly confusing experience, as it features a version of Gamora we've never seen before. Fans could be forgiven for thinking they missed an episode somewhere along the way, because that's exactly what happened.

Executive producer A.C. Bradley has revealed that Season 1 wound up being one episode shorter than planned due to some pandemic-based production setbacks. That lost episode is reportedly set in a universe where Tony Stark never makes it back through the portal at the end of The Avengers. Instead, he's dragged to Sakaar and becomes the galaxy's new favorite arena champion in place of the Hulk. That causes a chain reaction of events that somehow results in Tony joining forces with Eitri and Gamora (wielding her father's armor and double-bladed sword) and destroying the Infinity Gauntlet before Thanos can unleash its power.

The good news is fans will eventually see this missing episode, but it's been bumped to Season 2. That's sure to stir up some debates over the proper viewing order for What If…?, much like how watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars in chronological order requires a bit of extra homework.

Weirdly enough, multiple toys based on this missing Iron Man/Gamora episode have already made their way to stores. LEGO released a set that includes Tony's Sakaarian armor, Uatu, and a mohawked Valkyrie, and Funko released a "Gamora: Daughter of Thanos" figurine in its What If…? line.

The Guardians of the Multiverse

Episode 9 ties the whole series together by introducing a team called the Guardians of the Multiverse. We now know that characters like Captain Carter, T'Challa Star-Lord and Strange Supreme aren't just isolated characters in an infinite multiverse, but characters with a pivotal, shared role in saving reality as we know it.

The Guardians of the Multiverse is a new concept that doesn't directly draw from Marvel's comics. The closest analogue would be the Exiles, a team of heroes from across the multiverse tasked with fixing unnatural deviations to the timeline (not unlike Loki's Time Variance Authority or DC's Legends of Tomorrow). Traditionally, Exiles has been more of an X-Men-centric franchise, though the most recent incarnation did induct Captain Carter into Marvel's comic book universe. [Note: She actually originated in the mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest, of all things.]

Marvel Comics is also introducing a similar team in the upcoming Avengers Forever, which features many incarnations of Earth's Mightiest Heroes from across the multiverse. Do we sense corporate synergy at work?

Presumably, the Guardians of the Multiverse will continue to be the glue that holds together the many separate universes of What If…?. Even if new episodes continue to prioritize standalone stories over the ensemble format, sooner or later another threat will emerge that forces Uatu to intervene again and assemble his team. The roster may be fluid, but the mission remains the same.

Episode 9 is called "What If… The Watcher Broke His Oath?" That title seems to hint at some ominous consequences to his actions here. Uatu may have saved the multiverse, but what fallout will he face for violating his sacred oath to observe but never interfere? He fixed the damage he inadvertently caused with Ultron, but what if Uatu becomes overconfident and tries to "fix" things that would have been better left alone? That may well be one of the central themes of the series going forward.

What If…?: Post Credits Scene and What to Expect From Season 2

Marvel has already confirmed that at least some of the characters introduced in Season 1 will continue to appear in future seasons. Stories like the Captain Carter plotline will become serialized, revealing even more far-reaching ramifications of these deviations.

Episode 9's mid-credits sequence gives us some idea of what to expect from the next Captain Carter episode. Peggy discovers Hydra was working to recover Steve Rogers' old Hydra Stomper armor, and we're left to believe Steve himself may have somehow survived inside the suit. Just as the series premiere explored a new take on the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, the sequel may tackle the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (presumably with Steve himself playing the Winter Soldier part).

Between a Captain Carter sequel and the aforementioned missing Sakaar episode, we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from two Season 2 episodes. The Season 1 finale also implies Strange Supreme's story is far from done. When last we see him, Strange has trapped the Arnim Zola-possessed Ultron and the rogue Killmonger in a pocket dimension, ensuring neither villain can threaten the multiverse. But given that Strange Supreme is mourning the loss of his entire universe, who's to say he won't crack and decide to unleash the Infinity Stones once more?

It's also worth remembering that by the time Season 2 debuts, both Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will have hit theaters (barring any further release date changes). Both films look to deal heavily with the Marvel multiverse, so they may open up new storytelling angles and alternate universes for What If…? to explore. Who knows? Maybe characters like Captain Carter or Uatu will make their live-action debuts in the Doctor Strange sequel.

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

Metroid games have always encouraged a speedy completion rate, with multiple endings and other rewards based on your time, how many items you collected, or, in some cases, how few. It will take some testing to unlock all of Metroid Dread’s secrets, but for our review, I have two in-game logs to report:

• Metroid Dread took 11 hours to beat with 82% completion
• Metroid Dread took 13 hours to beat with 100% completion

The completion rate includes the many optional missile tanks, E-tanks to extend your life gauge, and other expansions. But there are caveats. First off, the completion times do not include time spent on pause screens. According to the Switch’s Parental Controls app, I’ve spent 23 hours playing Metroid Dread, achieving 100% completion. Why does that matter? Because the in-game map is on the pause screen, and you can spend a lot of time there solving puzzles.

Another caveat: The in-game completion screens also don’t include the time you spent before a Game Over screen. So if you fight a boss battle a few times, none of those attempts will be logged in your completion time until you beat the boss and save again. But there’s a caveat to these caveats, as the reviewer, I was also pausing to write my review and take notes — although I don’t think that added more than an hour to my count since I would put my system to sleep, effectively stopping the Parental Control clock most of the time.

From these two stats you can hopefully get a sense of game length, but how does that fit in with previous Metroids? According to our sister site, How Long to Beat, here are the stats for 100% completion:

• Metroid: Zero Mission – 4.5 hours to beat, 7.5 hours to 100%
• Metroid Fusion – 5 hours to beat, 8 hours to 100%
• Metroid – 6 hours to beat, 7.5 hours to 100%
• Super Metroid – 7.5 hours to beat, 9 hours to 100%
• Metroid Prime – 14 hours to beat, 18 hours to 100%
• Metroid: Samus Returns 11 hours to beat, 15 hours to 100%

You can go to How long to Beat and search “Metroid” to see even more games and stats for the series. The stats for Metroid Dread are just starting to roll in on How Long to Beat, so give them a few days for accuracy.

So how does Dread measure up? It seems to measure up with the longer Metroid games, including Metroid Prime and Metroid: Samus Returns. Check out our Metroid Dread review if you want to learn more before diving back into the cold reaches of space.

The time of Nintendo's great OLED switcheroo is upon us. Available in both 'neon' and 'white' variants, this Switch model refresh features a larger and purtier touchscreen display, new dock, new Joy-Con colours, and it's out on October 8. We sure liked the cut of its jib during testing. Today, we're out to ensure you can score one cheaply.

Below is a list of where to acquire one (and if the general state of console buying in 2021 is anything to go by, these will probably sell out quick). We've also got a bunch of recommendations on some must-own games to accessorise with!

Nintendo Switch Console OLED White

Nintendo Switch Console OLED Neon

Games worth getting

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The Harder They Fall was reviewed out of the BFI London Film Festival, where it made its world premiere. It will have a limited theatrical release on Oct. 22, and debut on Netflix on Nov. 3.

Writer-director and musician Jeymes “The Bullitts” Samuels begins The Harder They Fall with a notice: “While the events of this story are fictional… These. People. Existed." A quick Google search confirms that statement; Nat Love, Rufus Buck, Stagecoach Mary, and Cherokee Bill — the characters played by Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Zazie Beetz, and LaKeith Stanfield, respectively — were alive and kicking back in the Old West. But they exist in all but name in this subversive take on the cowboy genre, as their characteristics, motivations and misadventures don’t quite line up with their real-life counterparts. Still, Samuels has cooked up a fun, slick, and suave Black-centric narrative that has as much in common with the likes of Carmen Jones as it does the Spaghetti Westerns and Tarantino films it riffs off.

A tense prologue sets the violent tone for this bloody revenge saga, where a young Nat Love is introduced to outlaw Rufus Buck through the murder of his parents. Marked with a straight razor cut to the forehead, Nat grows up to become an outlaw himself, but like Omar from The Wire, he’s got a code and he and his crew only target outlaws. Majors is not your typical stoic cowboy; he’s got charm, charisma, and never fails to show Nat’s humanity when key emotional scenes call for him to dig deep.

Similarly, Elba serves up a powerful yet understated performance as this Kingpin-esque crime boss, inflicting fear, pain, and death in order to achieve his ultimate goal of a Promised Land for Black Americans. In one scene, a train carriage expands to make way for Buck’s entrance; Elba’s a big guy, but this clever use of CGI, plus sharp angles and even sharper tailoring throughout, makes his towering character even more menacing. A potent scene in the final act allows the British actor to truly revel in the complexity of this villain in a performance that ranks among his career’s best.

Buck and Love are reinforced by eclectic ensemble gangs who bring class and swagger to their criminal escapades. Regina King as “Treacherous” Trudy Smith and Stanfield’s Cherokee Bill, especially, imbue their lethal bandits with equal parts poise and peril. Meanwhile, Edi Gathegi’s Bill Pickett and RJ Cyler’s Jim Beckwourth reliably balance the light and the dark with their comical duo. There’s a real contemporary sense of humour in Samuels and co-writer Boaz Yakin’s script; not every shot fired is a bullet. Sometimes, it’s a punchline, and it's often used to defy expectations of how a tense confrontation might play out.

This droll temperament coincides with a playful soundtrack that includes nods to the classic Western scores of Italian composer Ennio Morricone, essential reggae and afrobeat bangers, and a new track from Jay Z (who’s also a producer on the movie). These remixes reinforce the Black experience in this usually white-dominated genre. Samuels’ Wild West is one that disrupts the oppressed stereotypes by keeping white people in the peripheral and Black performers playing every key role, from outlaw to marshall to stage performer to villain, with nary an N-word in sight. There’s no deference to whiteness, and that’s never more clear than in a hilarious use of production design for a whites-only town with a bank decorated like a grandma’s dated bungalow — frosted glass, sconces and all.

It’s certainly refreshing to see this Old Hollywood tradition continued through a Black lens. Cowboy shots frame gunfighters with authority, wide shots show off the expansive, Americana backdrop, and hybrid zooms make for amusing crash close-ups. And this journey of vengeance between friends and foes culminates in a bloody and brutal showdown for the ages, too. But for a new breed of Westerns with a character called “Cherokee Bill '' it would have been cool to see an indigenous actor in Buck’s crew considering his real-life exploits. Still, Samuels’ feature debut is an impressive display of myth-making that has made the Old West great again.

Big Ant Studios and Nacon have officially revealed Cricket 22, which will see the series debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and introduce a number of important new licensed competitions and teams.

Following on from 2019’s successful and extensively-supported Cricket 19, Big Ant claims Cricket 22 will deliver “the most robust, substantial game of cricket that fans have ever seen.”

Cricket 22 will feature Australia’s T20 Big Bash tournament alongside the Caribbean Premier League, England’s The Hundred, and The Ashes, and it will also include fully-licensed national teams for Australia, England, New Zealand, the West Indies, and Ireland. As with Cricket 19, the men’s and women’s games will be represented throughout all of Cricket 22.

Cricket 22 will also include new bowling and fielding controls, “real-time ray tracing elements”, and a “deep, narrative-driven career mode” including injury management and off-field commitments like training and press conferences. It will also feature a new commentary line-up, with Michael Atherton, Ian Healy, Mel Jones, Alison Mitchell, and David Gower.

“The number of cricket fans that have been asking us about our next-generation cricket plans has been overwhelming,” said Big Ant CEO Ross Symons in a statement alongside the announcement. “We’re incredibly excited by what we’re able to bring to the table with Cricket 22. This is our fifth cricket simulation title, and it really represents the cumulation of everything that we’ve learned on this ten-year (and counting) journey. We have the most passionate fans, and we can’t wait to get this into their hands.”

Cricket 22 will be released on November 25, 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and pre-orders for these formats will get access to Cricket 22’s The Nets Challenge from mid-October. Big Ant has also confirmed any players who purchase the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One will be able to upgrade their version of the game for free if and when they decide to migrate to new generation consoles. Cricket 22 for Nintendo Switch will be available in January 2022.

Publisher Nacon announced its acquisition of specialist sports studio Big Ant in January 2021 with the intention of becoming the world’s leading player in rugby, tennis, and cricket. At the time, Nacon noted cricket is considered the second most popular team sport in the world, with 120 million players and 1.5 billion fans, and that it regards Big Ant as “the world reference for video games in this discipline.”

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.