Like many Nintendo party games, Mario Kart has a reputation for being accessible. The skill ceiling can be high for dedicated players, but the randomness of the racer makes it possible for newbies and casual players to still have a fighting chance. That core design ethos is still present in Mario Kart World, but Switch 2 owners are discovering that the game is deeply adaptive to your playstyle. And depending...

If you want to race on mirrored versions of Mario Kart World tracks, you’ll need to play quite a bit of the game to unlock Mirror Mode. While it took a bit to figure out the exact requirements, it turns out that you’ll simply need to complete every race at 150cc and then grab a handful of the Free Roam collectables before you can unlock the backwards tracks. Below we...

Just a couple minutes into the Demonschool demo, I caught myself distracted; this game, developed by indie studio Necrosoft Games, packs such a banger soundtrack and appealing aesthetic that those areas alone warrant your attention. Luckily, Demonschool also thrives on a ton of substance to accompany that flashy style. Demonschool is an upcoming isometric RPG built on tactical battles and war-like strategy. Battles are split between two phases: planning and...

The Gears of War: Reloaded beta is the first real taste of Gears on PlayStation 5 before Reloaded’s release late this summer. The beta will be on other platforms too, but, y’know, Gears on PlayStation is a pretty big deal! Across two weekends, the Gears of War: Reloaded beta allows players to test out some parts of the game’s competitive multiplayer, though sadly, nothing to do with the series’ famous...

Unstable Exotic Weapons may be your key to victory in Fortnite. Introduced in Chapter 6 Season 3, a.k.a. the Super Season, these weapons are the closest thing to fighting with special superhero abilities. As is usually the case with unusual weapons, however, they’re quite difficult to obtain. Here’s a list of all Unstable Exotic Weapons in Fortnite, plus details about how to get them and how to use them. How...

The annual Summer Game Fest is more than just livestreams of trailers and announcements; it’s also an in-person experience where many game developers are showing off their playable games for the first time. Polygon was on the ground for the 2025 SGF experience and we played a lot of demos while we were there. Typically these are 20-, 30-, or 40-minute experiences, so they’re not always indicative of what the...

Capcom first announced Pragmata, an original sci-fi action game, way back in 2020 during a PlayStation State of Play. Three years have passed since its target release date, with the Japanese company only offering the occasional bleak update. Even when Capcom announced that it would finally show Pragmata off at the 2025 Summer Game Fest, many assumed the finished product was doomed. Sucks to be wrong? Who knows if Pragmata,...

Time is a concept that is very hard to master in video games, and few creators have been fascinated by it as much as Hideo Kojima. The legendary designer behind the Metal Gear Solid series and Death Stranding, whose second installment, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, showed off some impressive gameplay footage at Summer Game Fest, recently shared on his KOJI10 podcast some ideas for future games that he...

The Alters, a science-fiction game and the next big release from Frostpunk dev 11 Bit Studios, is out this week. You’re cast as Jan Dolski, a miner who crashed on a less-than-hospitable planet. To survive this ordeal, you must build a base, explore his surroundings, and create alternate versions of yourself. It present a mix of action, adventure, survival, and management sim genres at once. If that sounds like your...

Nintendo Switch 2 is off to a roaring start. Early on Wednesday, Nintendo announced that it had sold 3.5 million units of its new console in just four days, making it Nintendo’s fastest-selling console ever. In fact, this is likely the biggest console launch of all time — by quite some margin. For comparison, PlayStation 5 shipped 4.5 million units in its first seven weeks, PlayStation 4 sold 2.1 million...