Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Island Backup Service Arrives This Month

Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Summer Update - Wave 2 will arrive on July 30, 2020, and will bring with it a weekly fireworks show, that ability to visit other's islands while dreaming, and the long awaited Island Backup and Restoration Service. The Island Backup and Restoration Service was one that had been promised for a while and was of importance because, currently, if you were to lose or break your Switch, your island would be gone with it. With this new service, Nintendo Switch Online members can enable this new backup system that will automatically upload island and user save data to the internet at certain times. If you were to lose or break your switch, and this was enabled, Nintendo Customer Support would be able to get you back on your island as you last left it. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/28/animal-crossing-new-horizons-summer-update-wave-2-trailer"] Furthermore, Nintendo has reminded us that this is separate from the Save Data Cloud functionality offered for other games, so the option to move an island to another Switch that wasn't lost, stolen, or damaged is still not ready. However, later this year, Nintendo will release an update that will allow players to move users and save data to another system. As for the fireworks show, this will take place every Sunday at 7pm. Players can redeem Bells for raffle tickets in the plaza to "get various festive items." Players will even be able to upload custom firework designs to see their creations light up the night sky. Lastly, the dreaming feature will begin when players choose to take a nap in any bed placed in their home. Once asleep, Luna will greet you and give you a chance to visit other islands as a dream, or give you the chance to allow others to visit yours. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=animal-crossing-new-horizons-summer-update-wave-2-screenshots&captions=true"] This is different from visiting another island through multiplayer, as nothing you do is permanent or saved, so players are free to explore other's islands without consequence. All it takes to visit one of these dream islands is getting that person's "Dream Address." This will be the second summer update that follows Wave 1 that brought ocean swimming, new characters, sea creatures, and much more. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Powerful New Charizard Card Features the Pokemon’s Gigantamax Form

The next Pokemon TCG: Sword and Shield expansion Darkness Ablaze is almost upon us (release date August 14) and when it arrives it’ll debut a powerful new Charizard card featuring the fan-favorite Pokemon’s fiery Gigantamax form. IGN is excited to offer your official first look at the English version of Charizard V, Charizard VMAX and a few other cards from the upcoming set such as Butterfree V, Houndoom V and Suicune. Take a look by clicking through the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=Charizard-and-more-from-darkness-ablaze-ign-exclusive&captions=true"]

A Surefire Investment

It goes without saying that these Charizard cards will immediately become collector’s items. Regardless of whether a Charizard card is considered competitively viable in the game or not, you can always count on it earning some value on the secondary market. Last year a shiny Charizard-GX sold for over $10,000 at auction. Charizard VMAX is notable for being the first-ever card featuring the mighty Gigantamax Charizard.

Playing With Fire

Sure, getting cash for your cards is cool, but can this Charizard VMAX melt your opponent's face in a Pokemon match? Let’s discuss how to use it in the game. Forget the days of Base Set Charizard doing a mere 100 damage. After you evolve Charizard V into Charizard VMAX, it hits for a staggering 300 damage with its G-Max Wildfire attack and stands tall with an above-average 330 HP. Those are some impressive stats, but just like Ash’s unruly Charizard in the anime, it’s incredible power will be a challenge to use effectively. The current Pokemon TCG metagame features gargantuan Pokemon VMAX that typically knock each other out in two hits, and they give up three Prize cards when they go down. Remember, a game of Pokemon ends when six Prizes cards are taken, so the strategy for Charizard VMAX should be to land a one-hit knockout two on Pokemon VMAX to win the game. Many opposing Pokemon VMAX have 320 HP -- and the new Eternatus VMAX also debuting in Darkness Ablaze has 340 HP! -- so even though Charizard hits like an erupting volcano, its 300 damage falls just short of scoring a one-hit knockout. That means we’re going to need a little help to hit those numbers. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=charizard-vmax-support-cards&captions=true"] Luckily, there are a few cards that can help out Charizard, like Galarian Zigzagoon (a Pokemon that does 10 damage when played) and Vitality Band (a Tool that adds 10 damage to attacks when equipped to a Pokemon). Alternatively, you could first soften up a Pokemon VMAX by attacking it with a single-Prize Pokemon like Volcanion or spreading damage onto it with Salamence VMAX, then Charizard VMAX can swoop in on those flaming wings and finish it off. Now that we have an idea of how to make the G-Max Wildfire attack work, there’s the little matter of powering it up. Five energy is a pretty tall order, but there are a couple options available to help satisfy this expensive attack cost. If you go second, Volcanion’s Flare Starter attack allows you to attach three Fire energy from the deck, which is a simple and effective way to get off to a strong start. There’s also the always-popular Supporter card Welder, which allows you to attach two Fire energy from hand. Once you get three Fire energy on Charizard, you can then lean on Triple Acceleration Energy to get you the rest of the way there. So while Charizard VMAX is incredibly powerful, it will take some ingenuity to unlock its potential. Let us know how you would approach building a Charizard VMAX deck down in the comments. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/05/04/pokemons-real-metal-pokeballs-can-hold-anything"] Darkness Ablaze releases on August 14. Players can get their hands on some of the new cards early by purchasing a Build & Battle Box starting on August 1. With normal pre-release events being canceled for the time being, Build & Battle Boxes provide a selection of Pokemon, Trainers and Energy along with some Darkness Ablaze booster packs for you to build a deck to battle against a friend. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joshua is Senior Editor and Producer of Features at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

Maid Of Sker Review – Fumbling In The Dark

Maid of Sker begins in earnest as you walk under a burgundy banner advertising the Sker Hotel's grand reopening. The ivy-covered building looks more castle than inn, with gray stone walls and a central spire flanked by turrets. It's an imposing piece of architecture, starkly distinct from the sun-bleached wilderness that surrounds it. Passing under that banner and into the dark and secluded inn is the playable version of that moment in a horror flick when things in idyllic suburbia go sideways, or when a shark shows up to wreck a perfectly nice day at the beach. The banner is the dividing line between Maid of Sker's "before" and "after." Unfortunately, much of the evocative promise of the before disappears the moment you enter the after.

We move through this story as Thomas Evans, a composer who has traveled to Sker Point, a rocky peninsula on the southern coast of Wales, to rescue his lover Elisabeth. She grew up here, the daughter of renowned singer Prudence Williams--the titular Maid of Sker. Her father, owner of the reopening hotel on the Point, intends for Elisabeth to take up the mantle now that her famous mother has passed and to become the star attraction, drawing visitors to the isolated land. She tells Thomas that she has refused and that, as a result, her father has locked her up until she acquiesces.

No Caption Provided
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But as Thomas arrives at Sker's abandoned train station, it becomes clear that Sker Point has descended into supernatural chaos. Elisabeth has sent Thomas her mother's locket and asked him to compose a song that serves as a musical counterpart to the melody within. This will, in some way that remains unclear for much of the game, help defeat the "darkness gathering here." In his quest, Thomas needs to explore the hotel and surrounding grounds to collect four brass cylinders scattered throughout, then plug them into her father's harmonium, a massive pipe organ that dominates the hotel's central hall.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Maid Of Sker Review – Fumbling In The Dark

Maid of Sker begins in earnest as you walk under a burgundy banner advertising the Sker Hotel's grand reopening. The ivy-covered building looks more castle than inn, with gray stone walls and a central spire flanked by turrets. It's an imposing piece of architecture, starkly distinct from the sun-bleached wilderness that surrounds it. Passing under that banner and into the dark and secluded inn is the playable version of that moment in a horror flick when things in idyllic suburbia go sideways, or when a shark shows up to wreck a perfectly nice day at the beach. The banner is the dividing line between Maid of Sker's "before" and "after." Unfortunately, much of the evocative promise of the before disappears the moment you enter the after.

We move through this story as Thomas Evans, a composer who has traveled to Sker Point, a rocky peninsula on the southern coast of Wales, to rescue his lover Elisabeth. She grew up here, the daughter of renowned singer Prudence Williams--the titular Maid of Sker. Her father, owner of the reopening hotel on the Point, intends for Elisabeth to take up the mantle now that her famous mother has passed and to become the star attraction, drawing visitors to the isolated land. She tells Thomas that she has refused and that, as a result, her father has locked her up until she acquiesces.

No Caption Provided
Gallery image 1Gallery image 2Gallery image 3Gallery image 4Gallery image 5Gallery image 6Gallery image 7Gallery image 8Gallery image 9Gallery image 10

But as Thomas arrives at Sker's abandoned train station, it becomes clear that Sker Point has descended into supernatural chaos. Elisabeth has sent Thomas her mother's locket and asked him to compose a song that serves as a musical counterpart to the melody within. This will, in some way that remains unclear for much of the game, help defeat the "darkness gathering here." In his quest, Thomas needs to explore the hotel and surrounding grounds to collect four brass cylinders scattered throughout, then plug them into her father's harmonium, a massive pipe organ that dominates the hotel's central hall.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Report: Ubisoft’s Ex-Creative Officer Cancelled Dragon Age Director’s King Arthur Game

A report has surfaced that claims Ubisoft was working on a King Arthur fantasy RPG directed by Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw, which was ultimately cancelled by Ubisoft's former Chief Creative Officer, Serge Hascoët. According to Bloomberg, Dragon Age's Mike Laidlaw was hired to direct the development of a new Ubisoft RPG known as Avalon, a "big-budget adventure involving stories of King Arthur and his Round Table in a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world full of knights and legends." Alas, according to Bloomberg sources familiar with the project, Avalon was cancelled by Ubisoft's then-Chief Creative Officer, Serge Hascoët. Hascoët was apparently suspicious of the fantasy genre, telling the team that, if it was to be a fantasy game, Avalon had to be "better than Tolkien," referring to the hallowed Lord of The Rings franchise. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/21/multiple-assassins-creed-games-reportedly-scrapped-or-minimised-female-lead-roles-before-release-ign-news"] The report's sources noted that Avalon was "progressing well" ahead of its cancellation and that it featured a "cooperative multiplayer world similar to Capcom Co.'s popular Monster Hunter series." In an effort to save the project, the setting was reshaped into science fiction and Greek mythology, but Hascoët was still unwilling to approve it, and it was cancelled in 2019, with Laidlaw leaving the company shortly after. This isn't not the first story we've heard about Hascoët's involvement in rejecting pitched projects - the executive was also allegedly at the centre of scrapping or minimising female roles in multiple Assassin's Creed games. Hascoët recently resigned from Ubisoft following sexual misconduct and toxic culture allegations at the company and was named as "playing a central role in the company's culture problems" in a report from the French newspaper Liberation. Ubisoft recently chose not to directly address the aforementioned abuse allegations during its Ubisoft Forward conference earlier this month, but has committed to "major changes" following multiple reports of abuse and harassment within the developers' studios. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

See IGN’s Brand New Hearthstone Card Reveal!

Hearthstone’s next expansion launches on August 6 in NA (August 7 in ANZ), and it’s taking us back to an iconic World of Warcraft setting – Scholomance. This classic dungeon was a decrepit, evil place; a school for necromancers and home to one of WoW’s most infamous villains, Kel’Thuzad, but what was it like before it fell, when Kel’Thuzad was still a human Mage, and its halls were thrumming with students and teachers? That’s the premise for Hearthstone’s Scholomance Academy. It’s a fantastic twist on a famous location, and is also likely to be pretty appealing for anyone who’s a fan of schools of witchcraft and wizardry. More importantly, though, now that we’ve seen a decent chunk of the 135 cards coming in the set, Scholomance Academy is looking really powerful and distinct from a gameplay perspective too. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/28/hearthstone-scholomance-academy-cinematic-trailer"] The set’s new keyword is Spellburst, which is an effect that triggers the next time you play a spell, provided the minion or weapon with Spellburst is still around. The fact that it’s not a guaranteed effect - unless you can play a spell on the same turn as the Spellburst card - should make for some interesting decisions on both sides of the board. Scholomance Academy also introduces dual-class cards, and these lean into areas of overlap between different classes in really fun ways. Druids and Hunters both utilise beasts for instance, while Warlock and Priest both have hero powers that can impact the hero’s health. Dual-class cards even introduce new mechanics, such as Soul Fragments, which are utilised by both Warlocks and Demon Hunters. You can get a feel for these in the slideshow below. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=scholomance-academy-spellburst-and-dual-class-cards&captions=true"] That's not why you clicked through to this article, of course. Nope, you're here to see a brand new cad from the set. Introducing Professor Slate, a new Hunter legendary: Professor-Slate-IGN-Hearthstone-Scholomance Yes, if you play Professor Slate then damage a minion with a spell, that minion dies. It’s a strong effect and because it’s attached to a low cost card, you can potentially activate Slate from pretty early on. On turn four you could pair him with Rapid Fire to kill an enemy minion, and on turn five you could use the Twinspell too, killing off two. Some of the other existing spells that you could pair this with in the Standard format include Arcane Shot, Corrosive Breath, Kill Command, Marked Shot, Multi-Shot and Scrap Shot. Slate will even work with Snipe and Explosive Trap… provided he’s on the board when they trigger. [caption id="attachment_2385416" align="aligncenter" width="858"]All these spells can be paired with Professor Slate. All these spells can be paired with Professor Slate.[/caption] All that said, because Slate is a one-of (and his effect isn’t a win condition), I don’t think you’d build your deck around him or include cards that aren’t also good without him. It feels like Professor Slate needs to slot into a deck that already has synergy for his effect, and right now none of the Hunter decks really do. Highlander Hunter only has Corrosive Breath in terms of damage-dealing spells, and its minions are very focused around synergy – beasts, dragons, rush - and Slate has none of those affixes. Dragon Hunter also only runs Corrosive Breath and Explosive Trap while Face Hunter has more ways to deal damage with spells, but sure as hell doesn't want to direct those spells at minions. Face Hunter goes face. As of this reveal, however, we’ve hardly seen any of the set's Hunter cards, so Professor Slate could be one piece of a whole new archetype, or part of a package that can slot into an existing archetype. The combination of Professor Slate and Headmaster Kel’Thuzad, for instance, could be pretty spicy. Wandmaker, also, could be an inclusion, as his battlecry can hit both Arcane Shot and Rapid Fire. It’s also worth mentioning that Slate has many more spells he can be paired with in the Wild format, such as On the Hunt, Bomb Toss, Grievous Bite, Quick Shot, Powershot, Flanking Strike, Wing Blast and so on, but Hunter as a whole isn’t doing too well in Wild overall, so it’s going to need something pretty big to bring its win rates more in line with the titans of the format, and whatever that may be, we haven't seen it yet. Even so, Professor Slate is undoubtedly a good card and will likely see play in some capacity while it's in the format. You can see all the cards that have been revealed so far here, and be sure to check out the pre-order bundles and other key details on Blizzard’s Scholomance Academy site. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/26/how-the-hearthstone-team-designed-demon-hunter-behind-the-scenes] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Cam Shea is Studio Lead in IGN's Sydney office and is occasionally on Twitter.

Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Premiere Date Announced

Star Trek Discovery Season 3's premiere date has been announced and it's coming in just a few months. CBS announced Monday that the third season of the CBS All Access-exclusive Star Trek show will premiere on Thursday, October 15. The season will consist of 13 episodes released weekly on the streaming service in the United States. As for what to expect, the Discovery crew is heading, "into an unknown future far from the home they once knew," as stated in a press release. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-trek-discoverys-redesigned-uss-enterprise-bridge&captions=true"] If you've seen the Season 2 finale, you likely know what is being alluded to there. The cast sees the return of show mainstays like Sonequa Martin-Green in the role of Commander Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Commander Saru, Anthony App as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber, David Ajala as Cleveland 'Book' Booker, and Michelle Yeoh as Phillipa Georgiou. With Season 3 not starting for a few months, there's plenty of time to catch up on Seasons 1 and 2. Both are available to stream in full on CBS All Access and it's also available on Netflix in nearly 200 countries. There's also Star Trek: Picard to check out on the service in the meantime as well. Read our thoughts on the first season's final episode in our Star Trek: Picard Episode 10 review. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/09/25/is-star-trek-discovery-worth-a-streaming-subscription"] If you're clamoring for more Star Trek Discovery, check out the official Comic-Con 2020 Star Trek Universe panel which features a look back at the first season of Picard as well as a virtual table read of Discovery's Season 2 finale. After watching that, check out everything to look forward to in the world of Star Trek including a new Enterprise-based show called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, an animated series called Star Trek: Lower Decks premiering August 6, and the Nickelodeon animated show, Star Trek: Prodigy. Lower Decks will be more of a comedy than its fellow Star Trek series' and Prodigy will be a CG-animated show aimed at younger audiences. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Eiyuden Chronicle Hits Crowdfunding Goal in Two Hours

Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes, the spiritual successor to the Suikoden series developed by the same developers, has hit its Kickstarter goal in just two hours. Eiyuden Chronicles was revealed just last week. Suikoden 1 and 2 writer Yoshitaka Murayama is returning as the writer for Eiyuden while character design, system design, and direction are handled by additional ex-Suikoden team members. It launched on Kickstarter on July 27 with a goal of $500,000. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes-16-images&captions=true"] At the time of this writing, the funding has reached $564,224 although the number continues to go up every few seconds. The Kickstarter will remain live until Friday, August 28, leaving 31 days for would-be backers to commit some money to the project. The game currently has 4,800 backers. With the minimum goal reached, Eiyuden Chronicles is guaranteed to come to PC. The next goal is $750,000 and if reached, a Fortress mode will be added to the game. "The Fortress Town, the player's base of operations throughout the game, serves as the main character's military base, but also their home," the Kickstarter page reads. This mode allows players to acquire a small town and build it over time by recruiting players and putting them to work to build castle walls, expand military equipment, cultivate crops, and develop trades. The next goal is $1 million and if reached, the game will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and the Nintendo Switch. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/24/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes-gameplay-teaser"] As far as pledges go, you can pledge $10 as a show of support — this pledge does not get you any reward. You can pledge roughly $38 to get a digital version of the game as well as some unique Discord roles or, if you're looking for a physical version, you can pledge about $57. Doing this gets you a physical copy of the game, unique Discord roles, and access to the game's beta. Higher-tier pledges include double packs of the game, unique buttons, the soundtrack, and more depending on how much money you pledge. Eiyuden Chronicle is being developed by a studio known as Rabbit & Bear, which is a studio made up of Murayama, ex-Suikoden team members, and veteran developers from the Castlevania, Wild Arms, and Tales series. The game sports a 2.5D visual style and will have 100 heroes available to recruit. Combat will be turn-based with parties of six and boss battles will have different angles determined by the environment. The game is estimated to launch in October of 2022. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes

Nintendo Gigaleak: Everything We Know and All the Major Discoveries

Two major drops of confidential Nintendo code and documentation — now popularly referred to as the Nintendo Gigaleak — have seemingly revealed previously unknown canceled games, prototypes, source code, development tools, internal communication, and more. It marks what may well be the largest leak of internal video game information ever released. Throughout the weekend, hundreds of leaked files have been unpacked, pored over, and speculated about, leading to a constant stream of new information. We've attempted to pull as much of that together as possible to explain what you need to know about the Gigaleak right now.

What Is the Nintendo Gigaleak?

The Gigaleak is made up of multiple drops of information, stemming primarily from two posts on 4Chan. The posts each contained gigabytes' worth of files and documentation from internal Nintendo projects. The first set of files contained data primarily from SNES-era projects, and the second set included information from N64 projects. The leaks include (among a lot of other elements), source code for games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, and more — as well as entirely unknown games and canceled projects. The leaks' validity comes down to a couple of factors: 1) The sheer amount, scope and granular detail of information discovered make it very unlikely that someone's fabricated the data, 2) Developers responsible have already confirmed the validity of some parts of the leak. For instance, Q-Games' Dylan Cuthbert — who helped create the original Star Fox games – pointed to a development tool made for Star Fox 2 that he hasn't seen "for almost 30 years". There remains the possibility that false files have been inserted among the rest, but we know that at least some of the Gigaleak are legitimate information.

How Did It Happen?

This remains a topic of some discussion, with Nintendo so far making no official comment on the Gigaleak. Unreleased files for the Pokemon series have been leaking for some time now, with some commenters pointing to those seeming hacks as the source. Others have pointed to April's major Nintendo hack, which saw tens of thousands of user details released onto the Internet. At the time, Nintendo said those details had been accessed "by some means other than our service", and said that there was "currently no evidence pointing towards a breach of Nintendo’s databases, servers or services." There's also the case of Zammis Clark, the security researcher who was arrested for hacking Microsoft and then hacked Nintendo while on bail for the first crime. Clark was accused of accessing "Nintendo's highly confidential game development servers", where code for unreleased games was stored. While Clark's hack on Nintendo was some time ago, the Pokemon leaks, a set of Nintendo console source code leaks and, now, the Gigaleak itself have been attributed to his breach.

What's Been Found?

There is simply too much in the leak, both discovered and undiscovered, to be totally comprehensive here, but we've included the most important, weird, and wonderful finds below (and we'll update as and when more emerge).

Super Mario 64 - Luigi Discovered and More

Perhaps the most notable of the discoveries so far is that source code for a version of Super Mario 64  (which may at one point have been called Ultra 64 Mario Bros.) seems to include a model for Luigi. Those with the files noticed a folder titled 'Luigi', and loaded the contents into existing SM64 mods, creating the model you can see below. If legitimate, it confirms decades of rumors and speculation about the other Mario brother appearing in the game in some form. The game's files also reveal beta-only enemy types.

Cancelled Pokemon MMO

Fans have been calling for a Pokemon MMO for years — to the point where the makers of Temtem just ended up making one themselves. However, it seems that the idea had been pitched to Nintendo as early as 2004. Files in the leak suggest that iQue (a Chinese support company co-founded by Nintendo) worked on a prototype for a Pokemon game that would be playable by connecting a Game Boy Advance to a PC. Offline, the game would allow players to catch around 30 Pokemon in a game based on the Fire Red and Leaf Green installments. Connecting to the PC and going online would add a "hatch system" that used multiple conditions to determine what Pokemon eggs would appear, feature weather based on the region you were connecting from, add online battle tournaments based on Pokemon Colosseum's code, and more. You can see an iQue presentation in the tweet below:

Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Early Maps

The key discoveries around Ocarina of Time have centered around areas that seemingly didn't make it into the final version of the game — and others that were perhaps planned for the 64DD Ura-Zelda expansion. Pre-rendered backdrops for OoT's Temple of Time area have been dug out of the files, as well as unused areas - such as an early Kokiri Forest - that may have been created for alpha versions of the game, or the ill-fated Disc Drive expansions. We've also seen alpha enemies, such as a "Baby Skeleton".

Prototype Yoshi's Island

Seemingly at one point titled "Super Mario Bros 5: Yoshi’s Island", this playable prototype features a different art style, UI, overworld menu, and uses placeholder music:

Super Donkey

One of the oddest and most fully-fledged discoveries so far is a game seemingly titled Super Donkey, which may have been an early version of Super Mario World 2 (the game that would become Yoshi's Island). Featuring an unknown character — who could be a version of Mario rendered in Yoshi's Island style — the game features similar mechanics to what would become Yoshi's Island, but a different set of visual assets.

Prototype Super Mario Kart / Mario Kart 64

The leaks not only include a version of the original Super Mario Kart with unused or altered tracks and a lack of drifting but also seemingly include an alpha version of what would become Mario Kart 64, which seemingly uses the original Super Mario Kart sprites as placeholder art.

Canceled Zelda 3 / Zelda 2 Remake

Sprite sheets have been discovered for a side-scrolling Zelda to follow Zelda 2. The community has variously speculated that it would have been an original Zelda 3 for SNES or could have been a Zelda 2 remake to played on the Super Famicom's Satellaview peripheral. What's perhaps most striking is that Link's sword, on one sheet, appears to be marked with blood - not something we associate with the family-friendly series.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Beta

Placeholder designs found in beta files for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl seem to show off early sprites for the likes of Darkrai, Arceus, and more. Some bear an unfinished resemblance to their finished forms and others (Arceus) very much do not:

Pilotwings Prototype, Dragonfly

We've previously heard about Dragonfly, the prototype game that eventually became flight simulator Pilotwings. However, the leaks appear to have surfaced unseen visuals from the original version, which was a shooter designed to show off the SNES' Mode-7 chip.

Super Mario World

Beta visuals from the game that became Super Mario World showed off some of the funnier sides of the leaks, from a far more dinosaur-like original Yoshi, the fact that SMW's Bowser at one point showed off his legs, and that one potential sprite for Luigi showed him seemingly flipping the player the bird. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.