Paper Mario: The Origami King is celebrating its five-year anniversary today, July 17, 2025. Below, we examine the ways the Paper Mario series has changed over the years, and how Origami King tried to recapture its early magic.

Though Mario's platforming adventures are universally adored, the Paper Mario series has a much more mixed reputation. Its first two installments, Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64 and its GameCube sequel, The Thousand-Year Door, are widely regarded as Mario's finest role-playing outings, enchanting players with their imaginative storybook worlds and irreverent humor. As the series progressed, however, it gradually deviated from its RPG roots, shedding many of the elements that had made the first two games so beloved. While the series has never quite been the same since, its Switch installment, Paper Mario: The Origami King, is the only one that has come close to matching the heights of the original titles.

Paper Mario's identity crisis can be traced all the way back to 2007's Super Paper Mario. Originally announced for the Nintendo GameCube, this particular entry effectively began life as an offshoot of an offshoot--one last hurrah for the aging purple console spun out of repurposed assets and ideas from The Thousand-Year Door. By that point, however, GameCube sales had flatlined and a new generation was on the horizon, prompting Nintendo to move the title to the Wii, where it became many new players' introduction to the series.

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Razer BlackWidow V4 X Wired Mechanical Keyboard - Pokemon Edition

$170

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Razer Kraken V4 X Wired Gaming Headset - Pokemon Edition

$100

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Razer Cobra Wired Gaming Mouse - Pokemon Edition

$60

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Razer Gigantus V2 Mouse Mat (Medium) - Pokemon Edition

$30

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Razer has announced a new lineup of official Pokemon-themed versions of several of its gaming accessories, including the Razer BlackWidow V4 X mechanical keyboard, Kraken V4 X headset, and Cobra gaming mouse, as well as a new Pokemon edition of the Razer Gigantus V2 mouse pad. The entire collection is available now at Amazon, Best Buy, and Razer.

While the new Pokemon x Razer products don't add any new features beyond fun new yellow color schemes and skins featuring fan-favorite Gen 1 Pokemon Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Nevertheless, these limited-edition Razer devices are sure to be popular releases, so it's worth grabbing them while they're available.

Razer X Pokemon Collection

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Almost five years after it was announced, Netflix's Assassin's Creed TV series is now moving ahead.

Netflix has officially greenlit the show and announced that Robert Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, The Killing) are the creators, showrunners, and executive producers. In 2023, the previous showrunner, Jeb Stuart, quit the show over a "difference in vision."

Here is the official description for the TV show (via THR): "Assassin's Creed is a high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions--one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity's destiny."

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Ghost of Tsushima is celebrating its five-year anniversary today, July 17, 2025. Below, we revisit the juxtaposition between its revenge-soaked narrative and the calm, reflective moments of meditation.

Drenched in thick, burgundy-colored blood after tearing through dozens of enemy Mongol camps, I rode slowly through the Tsushima countryside searching for my next target. There was only one thing that would defer my thirst for revenge: a brief dip in a hot spring.

Ghost of Tsushima tells a complicated and deeply troubling narrative about revenge, possible avunculicide, and a warrior pushed to commit atrocities in order to protect the people he loves. The exploration of those themes gets more difficult with each passing mission as the Mongol invasion of Tsushima takes more and more--in terms of family, friends, and even his own home--from protagonist Jin Sakai.

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Video game industry veteran Julian LeFay, known by many as the "Father of The Elder Scrolls," is stepping away from the industry due to his ailing health.

LeFay co-founded the independent game developer OnceLost Games with other former Bethesda developers in 2019, and the team has been working on a new RPG called The Wayward Realms. LeFay has been fighting a battle with cancer for the past several years, producer Victor Villarreal said in a video. "He has fought bravely and strongly, but it seems he doesn't have very much time left," he said.

Villarreal said LeFay has chosen to leave the game studio to spend time with his family and loved ones. He added that the studio had been preparing for LeFay to eventually leave the company, adding that LeFay made his "visions for the game" very clear to the studio. The team will "work tirelessly to bring that vision to life," Villarreal said.

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