Nintendo is considering delving into animation projects beyond the previously announced Super Mario animated movie. In a recent interview between Fast Company and Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, the Nintendo bigwig said, "Animation, in general, is something that we are looking into, and not just [the Super Mario] franchise." Furukawa said Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is very hands-on with the upcoming Super Mario movie. Illumination Studios, creators of Despicable Me, and adaptations of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax and The Grinch is handling production, but that doesn't mean Miyamoto's influence will be absent. "It’s not that we’ve asked Illumination to handle everything,” Furukawa said. “Mr. Miyamoto is very, very hands-on with the production of this movie.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/02/03/why-the-mario-movie-might-actually-be-good"] This echoes statements Miyamoto made last year, where he said, "I was originally against Nintendo expanding into video-making, but am currently involved personally in using our company’s IP in film production, and the background behind this change is because Nintendo has re-released many games via Virtual Console." Both Furukawa and Miyamoto remain in agreement that these additional projects are intended to add to Nintendo's games, not detract from them. When talking about expanding the use of Nintendo's IP, Furukawa said, "We must make sure that the results are true to the players’ experiences, and that they would never prevent Nintendo’s developers from making another unique game featuring the same characters.” Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Kirby have all received television adaptations at some point, but it's been decades since a full-fledged Nintendo TV show, excluding Pokemon, of course. Still, Nintendo has been known to experiment with animation projects. In the Wii U era, Nintendo dabbled in releasing animated shorts directly to the Nintendo eShop and its YouTube page. In 2014, Nintendo released three Pikmin animated shorts on the eShop, before putting the videos on YouTube last year. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/28/pikmin-3-deluxe-review"] In 2016, to coincide with the Wii U release of Star Fox Zero, Nintendo partnered with Production IG and WIT Studios of Attack on Titan fame to create Star Fox Zero – The Battle Begins; a 15-minute animated short about the Star Fox crew of Fox, Falco, Peppy, and Slippy. Miyamoto was hands-on with both the Pikmin and Star Fox projects. In addition to these standalone animation releases, Nintendo also partnered with Robot Chicken to create segments for its E3 2014 Digital Event. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-video-game-movie-in-development-almost&captions=true"] The Super Mario movie is still scheduled to release next year. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

The comics industry lost a number of beloved creators in 2020, among them cartoonist and animator Richard Sala. The silver lining here is that Sala completed one final graphic novel before his untimely passing. It's called Poison Flowers and Pandemonium, and IGN can exclusively debut a new preview. Poison Flowers and Pandemonium is actually a collection of four short graphic novels, each one featuring that same blend of horror and camp humor that defines so much of Salas' work. Those stories include "House of the Blue Dwarf," featuring Sala's master criminal character the Bloody Cardinal, "Monsters Illustrated," "Cave Girls of the Lost World" and even the superhero-centric "Fantomella." Get a closer look at this posthumous release in the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=poison-flowers-and-pandemonium-exclusive-graphic-novel-preview&captions=true"] Sala's past works include graphic novels like The Chuckling Whatsit, Evil Eye and Peculia, as well as webcomics like Super-Enigmatix and The Bloody Cardinal. Even i you're not familiar with Sala's comcis work, you may remember his "Invisible Hands" animated shorts that aired on MTV's Liquid Television block. A number of comic book artists point to Sala as being a major influence, including everyone from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to Uncanny Avengers writer Rick Remender to Ghost World creator Daniel Clowes. “I always loved reading his new books and then talking about them with him,” said Clowes in Fantagraphics' press release. “Every character and idea had an interesting origin (the name Peculia, for example, came from a childhood misreading of pelicula in a Spanish film magazine) or a connection to some tangible event in his life. It was all so much deeper and more loaded emotionally than the surface implied. I loved him so much, loved hearing his thoughts on every subject, and his utterly unique Richard Sala-ness ("Sala-esque" is an oft-used adjective in the Clowes house), and feel so deeply grateful that I got to know such a private man. I'll be having conversations with him in my head for as long as I live.” “Richard Sala was wonderfully unique,” said Mignola. “ It was all there in everything he did, his love of old monster movies, the pulps, mystery and horror in general ― the good stuff and the terrible ― wore it all like a badge of honor and did wonderful things with it. I miss him.” Poison Flowers and Pandemonium is published by Fantagraphics and is slated for release on Tuesday, May 4. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/03/marvels-updates-mcu-phase-4-movies-with-new-titles"] May 4 is also the release date of The Black Ghost: Hard Revolution, the first print collection of the acclaimed comiXology Originals series. Learn more about that series and fellow comiXology title Youth in an exclusive interview between writers Alex Segura and Curt Pires. Then learn how Marvel finally solved the lingering mystery of Luke Skywalker's missing hand. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The comics industry lost a number of beloved creators in 2020, among them cartoonist and animator Richard Sala. The silver lining here is that Sala completed one final graphic novel before his untimely passing. It's called Poison Flowers and Pandemonium, and IGN can exclusively debut a new preview. Poison Flowers and Pandemonium is actually a collection of four short graphic novels, each one featuring that same blend of horror and camp humor that defines so much of Salas' work. Those stories include "House of the Blue Dwarf," featuring Sala's master criminal character the Bloody Cardinal, "Monsters Illustrated," "Cave Girls of the Lost World" and even the superhero-centric "Fantomella." Get a closer look at this posthumous release in the slideshow gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=poison-flowers-and-pandemonium-exclusive-graphic-novel-preview&captions=true"] Sala's past works include graphic novels like The Chuckling Whatsit, Evil Eye and Peculia, as well as webcomics like Super-Enigmatix and The Bloody Cardinal. Even i you're not familiar with Sala's comcis work, you may remember his "Invisible Hands" animated shorts that aired on MTV's Liquid Television block. A number of comic book artists point to Sala as being a major influence, including everyone from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to Uncanny Avengers writer Rick Remender to Ghost World creator Daniel Clowes. “I always loved reading his new books and then talking about them with him,” said Clowes in Fantagraphics' press release. “Every character and idea had an interesting origin (the name Peculia, for example, came from a childhood misreading of pelicula in a Spanish film magazine) or a connection to some tangible event in his life. It was all so much deeper and more loaded emotionally than the surface implied. I loved him so much, loved hearing his thoughts on every subject, and his utterly unique Richard Sala-ness ("Sala-esque" is an oft-used adjective in the Clowes house), and feel so deeply grateful that I got to know such a private man. I'll be having conversations with him in my head for as long as I live.” “Richard Sala was wonderfully unique,” said Mignola. “ It was all there in everything he did, his love of old monster movies, the pulps, mystery and horror in general ― the good stuff and the terrible ― wore it all like a badge of honor and did wonderful things with it. I miss him.” Poison Flowers and Pandemonium is published by Fantagraphics and is slated for release on Tuesday, May 4. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/03/marvels-updates-mcu-phase-4-movies-with-new-titles"] May 4 is also the release date of The Black Ghost: Hard Revolution, the first print collection of the acclaimed comiXology Originals series. Learn more about that series and fellow comiXology title Youth in an exclusive interview between writers Alex Segura and Curt Pires. Then learn how Marvel finally solved the lingering mystery of Luke Skywalker's missing hand. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Apple Original Films has won the rights to Finch, a film featuring Tom Hanks, a robot, and a dog, Deadline reports. Formerly titled Bios, Finch will be helmed by Miguel Sapochnik, the director behind several of the most ambitious episodes of Game of Thrones, including the famous "Battle of the Bastards." Hanks will star as the eponymous Finch, an engineer living in a bunker following an apocalyptic solar event. Finch forms a bond with his dog, Goodyear, and a robot of his own creation, and the unlikely family sets out on a journey across the American West as Finch attempts to show his robot what it means to be alive. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/10/02/igns-top-10-tom-hanks-movies"] Bios was first announced back in 2017. It was originally slated to be released by Universal Pictures on April 16, 2021, but was pushed back to a later date. Its cast includes Samira Wiley, Skeet Ulrich, and Laura Harrier. Caleb Landry Jones will play the "motion-capture" role of the robot that Finch Builds to look after his dog after he dies. Finch is just one of Hanks' projects slated to arrive on Apple TV+. He previously released Greyhound, a World War II drama that earned the platform an Oscar nomination. Hanks also has a deal to produce Masters of the Air, another World War II miniseries, which is currently in development. Robert Zemeckis, who has collaborated with Hank on projects including Cast Away and Forrest Gump, is one of Finch's executive producers. All in all, Hanks is keeping very busy, and Apple TV+ seems more than happy to vacuum up as much of his output as it can. The platform has been enjoying a great deal of success of late between For All Mankind and Ted Lasso. Tom Hanks only adds to Apple TV+'s newfound prestige. Finch is expected to be released later this year. [Thumbnail Image Credit: Contributor/Getty Images] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

Apple Original Films has won the rights to Finch, a film featuring Tom Hanks, a robot, and a dog, Deadline reports. Formerly titled Bios, Finch will be helmed by Miguel Sapochnik, the director behind several of the most ambitious episodes of Game of Thrones, including the famous "Battle of the Bastards." Hanks will star as the eponymous Finch, an engineer living in a bunker following an apocalyptic solar event. Finch forms a bond with his dog, Goodyear, and a robot of his own creation, and the unlikely family sets out on a journey across the American West as Finch attempts to show his robot what it means to be alive. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/10/02/igns-top-10-tom-hanks-movies"] Bios was first announced back in 2017. It was originally slated to be released by Universal Pictures on April 16, 2021, but was pushed back to a later date. Its cast includes Samira Wiley, Skeet Ulrich, and Laura Harrier. Caleb Landry Jones will play the "motion-capture" role of the robot that Finch Builds to look after his dog after he dies. Finch is just one of Hanks' projects slated to arrive on Apple TV+. He previously released Greyhound, a World War II drama that earned the platform an Oscar nomination. Hanks also has a deal to produce Masters of the Air, another World War II miniseries, which is currently in development. Robert Zemeckis, who has collaborated with Hank on projects including Cast Away and Forrest Gump, is one of Finch's executive producers. All in all, Hanks is keeping very busy, and Apple TV+ seems more than happy to vacuum up as much of his output as it can. The platform has been enjoying a great deal of success of late between For All Mankind and Ted Lasso. Tom Hanks only adds to Apple TV+'s newfound prestige. Finch is expected to be released later this year. [Thumbnail Image Credit: Contributor/Getty Images] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

Capcom is promoting Resident Evil Village with a series of timed demos that left some fans scrambling to play it in time. However, PC players have seemingly bypassed the 60-minute time limit for the demo. Resident Evil Village is out later this week, but Capcom is giving fans a chance to check out some key locations early thanks to a time-limited demo. The 60-minute demo released for all platforms lets players explore the village and castle portions for exactly one hour. If you don't finish the demo in time, you'll be booted from the session and it leads to a trailer. Having played the demo it's actually quite easy to see all the content the demo has to offer within the time limit, but for PC players who might want to spend extra time luxuriating in Resident Evil's gothic setting, there is a quick way to get around the demo's 60-minute timer. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-village-the-evolution-of-lady-dimitrescu-and-her-daughters&captions=true"] The method is being shared on the Steam pages and really just involves deleting a few files. This will reset your progress and the timer, letting you do the 60-minute demo again from the start. It's not perfect and it won't unlock any content not already in the demo, but it's great for players who want to explore the environments further and study the details more closely. IGN covered Resident Evil Village extensively as part of IGN First. We got a chance to play Village hands-on for five hours so check out our preview, along with details on Mercenaries and how Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

Capcom is promoting Resident Evil Village with a series of timed demos that left some fans scrambling to play it in time. However, PC players have seemingly bypassed the 60-minute time limit for the demo. Resident Evil Village is out later this week, but Capcom is giving fans a chance to check out some key locations early thanks to a time-limited demo. The 60-minute demo released for all platforms lets players explore the village and castle portions for exactly one hour. If you don't finish the demo in time, you'll be booted from the session and it leads to a trailer. Having played the demo it's actually quite easy to see all the content the demo has to offer within the time limit, but for PC players who might want to spend extra time luxuriating in Resident Evil's gothic setting, there is a quick way to get around the demo's 60-minute timer. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-village-the-evolution-of-lady-dimitrescu-and-her-daughters&captions=true"] The method is being shared on the Steam pages and really just involves deleting a few files. This will reset your progress and the timer, letting you do the 60-minute demo again from the start. It's not perfect and it won't unlock any content not already in the demo, but it's great for players who want to explore the environments further and study the details more closely. IGN covered Resident Evil Village extensively as part of IGN First. We got a chance to play Village hands-on for five hours so check out our preview, along with details on Mercenaries and how Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor.

PlayStation has announced it has made a minority investment into Discord as a way to build a relationship between the popular online chat service and Sony. Jim Ryan, president, and CEO of PlayStation announced the partnership in a short blog post, though aside from disclosing its minority stake not a lot of other details were shared. Sony says it has taken its minority stake in Discord's Series H round and that PlayStation has spoken with Discord co-founders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy on ways to bring friends and communities together. "Empowering players to create communities and enjoy shared gaming experiences is at the heart of what we do," Ryan writes. "[S]o we are beyond excited to start this journey with one of the world's most popular communication services." Discord is an online communication service where people can congregate in user-created channels for text, voice, and video chats. These channels can be focused on hobbies, created by friend groups, or hosted by official video game companies. Discord has reported over 140 million users per month around the globe. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] The news of PlayStation's minority stake comes off the heels of reports that Discord has halted talks of a buyout with three potential buyers, including Microsoft. Reportedly the tech giant was ready to offer $10 billion for Discord, but those negotiations have been put on hold with the potential to be "rekindled in the future." There are no concrete details on how PlayStation and Discord may collaborate in the future, whether that's official Discord integration into PlayStation or something else. However, the minority stake shows Sony is at least committed to working with Discord in some capacity. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. Image credit: SIE, Discord

PlayStation has announced it has made a minority investment into Discord as a way to build a relationship between the popular online chat service and Sony. Jim Ryan, president, and CEO of PlayStation announced the partnership in a short blog post, though aside from disclosing its minority stake not a lot of other details were shared. Sony says it has taken its minority stake in Discord's Series H round and that PlayStation has spoken with Discord co-founders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy on ways to bring friends and communities together. "Empowering players to create communities and enjoy shared gaming experiences is at the heart of what we do," Ryan writes. "[S]o we are beyond excited to start this journey with one of the world's most popular communication services." Discord is an online communication service where people can congregate in user-created channels for text, voice, and video chats. These channels can be focused on hobbies, created by friend groups, or hosted by official video game companies. Discord has reported over 140 million users per month around the globe. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] The news of PlayStation's minority stake comes off the heels of reports that Discord has halted talks of a buyout with three potential buyers, including Microsoft. Reportedly the tech giant was ready to offer $10 billion for Discord, but those negotiations have been put on hold with the potential to be "rekindled in the future." There are no concrete details on how PlayStation and Discord may collaborate in the future, whether that's official Discord integration into PlayStation or something else. However, the minority stake shows Sony is at least committed to working with Discord in some capacity. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. Image credit: SIE, Discord

Microsoft is giving an FPS boost to 74 more games on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. They include fan-favorites like Yakuza 6, Alien: Isolation, and Metro: Last Light, which will jump as high as 120fps depending on the update. The new update brings the total number of games featuring an FPS boost on Xbox Series X|S to 97. Such enhancements have become a centerpiece of Xbox's overall strategy — a marked contrast to PlayStation 5, which currently features FPS boosts for previous releases including Ghost of Tsushima and Genshin Impact, but otherwise hasn't focused as much on major enhancements for older games. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/18/bethesda-fps-boost-tested-fallout-skyrim-prey-dishonored-performance-review"] You can see the full list of FPS boost games right here. Many of the enhancements are only available if you have an Xbox Series X. If you have an Xbox Series S, some games, like Battlefield 1, don't get an FPS boost at all. In the meantime, Xbox Game Pass is set for another wave of releases in May. You can see the full list of games arriving and leaving on Xbox Game Pass right here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN