Predator: Killer of Killers review – animated anthology of Arnie's old antagonists
It's hard to imagine, back in 1987 when the first Predator film came out showcasing big Arnie's rippling biceps, that anyone could have predicted it would spawn such a diverse array of sequel material. But here we are: 2025 brings us an animated anthology, with Predators tearing human kind a new one in Viking times, samurai-era Japan, and Florida during the second world war. This follows the excellent 2022 movie Prey and the mostly stupid Alien vs Predator from 2004, in which a lady makes friends with a Predator, which rather nullifies the scare factor.
Killer of Killers opens with the Viking chapter, The Shield, set in AD841. One of the film's better ideas is the Vikings referring to the Predator as Grendel, a reference of course to the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, in which a humanoid monster walks in darkness and hunts the weak … sound familiar? Much Game of Thrones style Sturm und Drang follows, before the most powerful Viking is abducted by the Predators who are essentially doing casting for their version of a reality show.
This essentially sets the pattern for the rest of the film. Medieval Japan follows in The Sword, with some handy lessons about teamwork, and then it's on to The Bullet, set in Florida in wartime, a section home to some of the better action sequences, with planes getting sliced into cubes in mid-air by Team Alien.
The only problem with this stuff is that you can't help picturing how much more spectacular it would look in live action. The animation is all perfectly competent but it's lacking a little something – that spark of life and ingenuity that can make even flawed animation so fascinating. There's something quite slick about all this, almost to a fault. Was AI involved? We'll probably never know, but it's a problem that the suspicion has got inside the door.
Things pick up when we get to the Predators' homeworld for the final showdown, with a Viking, samurai and US pilot set to fight to the death in an arena for the entertainment of the locals. There are some decent jokes and the basic issue of communication between the three is a nice note. It could have sparked a little more joy, perhaps, but it's nice to see a franchise nearly 40 years old committed to constantly defying expectations.
Predator: Killer of Killers is on Disney+ from 6 June
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Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Cons Jake: The new Joy-Con controllers are bigger, and that's an incredibly welcome change. They feel more comfortable to hold, especially in longer sessions. One slight disappointment is that the wrist strap attachments no longer include the shoulder buttons like the original Switch, which made the controllers feel a bit more protected and functional when used horizontally. The Joy-Cons themselves feel familiar if you've used the original ones, just with a couple of key upgrades. The rumble has been improved (HD Rumble 2 is noticeably more precise), and the big new feature is the addition of mouse-style motion controls. I first tried these at Nintendo's preview event back in April, and they felt fun and intuitive in the right context. I gave them another go while playing Cyberpunk 2077, but to be honest, it wasn't really for me. As a console-first player, I naturally gravitated to the new Pro controller, which Nintendo kindly sent me to test. It's very similar to the last-gen one but includes a C button, HD Rumble 2, and now an aux port, which is great if you want to plug in wired headphones or a mic. Alex: One thing I keep doing – out of sheer muscle memory – is sliding the Joy-Cons on the old way. You don't need to anymore. The new magnetic attachment system means they just snap into place with a satisfying click, and it's so much easier than the old rail system. I didn't realise how awkward the original design was until I stopped using it. I'd also add that the HD Rumble 2 is absolutely fantastic – the vibrations are sharper and more detailed. It's frightening when you get shocked by lightning or blue-shelled in Mario Kart World. The Joy-Cons feel great overall, though I do find they're maybe a bit too big for my hands. It's not uncomfortable, just something I've noticed over longer sessions. The new dedicated GameChat button is a nice touch too, letting you quickly mute or jump into a chat during online games, something Nintendo's never really tackled before. However, the mouse controls are finicky and a little inaccurate. I think it's a nice feature to have, but I'll need to try it out with more compatible games. Right now, I don't think I'll be using it very often. It's worth flagging that older Joy-Cons don't work on the Switch 2, though the older Pro controller does work with the new system. While the new design feels sturdier, there's no official word yet on whether Nintendo has finally fixed the Joy-Con drift issue. Fingers crossed, but we'll have to wait and see. Nintendo Switch 2 features Alex: One of the biggest new features on the Switch 2 is GameChat – Nintendo's attempt at building social features directly into the console, so you can say goodbye to Discord calls. It's baked into the UI and works incredibly well. I tested this with another group of reporters, and I could jump into a group call from anywhere – whether I was mid-game or was just on the home screen, even if we were all playing different games. The new GameChat button on the Joy-Con and Pro controller made it easy to open up the menu, mute myself, turn on or off the camera or share my screen. I think it'll be a big deal for competitive gamers. The built-in mic is genuinely really good. It picks up my voice clearly from across the room and filters out background noise well enough that I didn't feel the need to grab a headset. It's not quite Discord-level quality, but it's really impressive. Then there's the new plug-in 1080p camera. Right now, there's not a huge amount you can do with it – it's mostly used for showing your mates' faces on screen while you play. When you're racing against your friends in Mario Kart World, their little face pops up above their kart in real-time. It's a bit uncanny and very Nintendo. What I did like was that, even when I was playing solo but plugged into a GameChat session, I could still see faces below the game screen, making it feel less lonely. The camera's not the best quality, but it's decent enough. There's definitely room for Nintendo to build on this. AR minigames are the big one – and the company's already hinted at this for Super Mario Party Jamboree. I've also seen some reports that third-party cameras work too, so you could get a higher-res one (and it might be cheaper, too). Another addition is GameShare, which lets someone else play your game locally, even if they don't own it. I've not been able to test this one yet, but it's a nice way to share games without splashing out on a second copy. It's a feature that was on the old Nintendo DS – I remember playing Super Mario Bros. with friends who didn't have a copy. Jake: GameChat is a great addition – and not just because it lets you see people's faces mid-race. What stood out to me was how much more social it made everything feel. When we played a Knockout Tour with three other reporters (including Alex), it was hilarious to watch everyone's reactions in real-time when the inevitable Mario Kart item chaos hit. I'm sure there was a collective groan when I crossed the line in first and celebrated with a smug fist bump – sorry, Alex. I'm especially excited to see how this plays out in Super Mario Party Jamboree TV Switch 2 Edition – the minigames are chaotic enough already, and seeing everyone's faces as it unfolds will only add to the fun. Nintendo Switch 2 games Jake: Now on to the most important part – games. A console is nothing without them. Aside from Mario Kart World (which I'll leave to Alex, as he's spent more time with it), the first-party launch line-up includes Nintendo Switch Welcome Tour. I'm firmly in the camp that if Astro's Playroom was free on the PS5, then Welcome Tour should be too. It's fine for what it is – a quick way to show off the new console features – but it's unremarkable. More exciting are the Switch 2 Editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, both of which look and run so much better than on the original console. Watching comparison footage is one thing, but experiencing it firsthand is another. Cyberpunk 2077 has been dubbed a 'miracle port' by some tech experts, and while CD Projekt Red downplayed how tough it was to get it running, it's still impressive, especially in handheld. From what I've seen, the game has stayed within the advertised performance limits, and – hot take, maybe – keeping motion blur on actually helps here. It adds to the cinematic look and smooths things out in a way that feels necessary. If a demanding title like this can run well on Switch 2, it could open the floodgates for more ambitious third-party games down the line. It's also great to see other titles like Split Fiction available at launch. While there are a few backwards compatibility quirks floating around, the vast majority of older games seem to run without issue, and I haven't encountered any problems myself. Alex: I'm more into my first-party Switch titles, so I've stuck to Mario Kart World, but I've also played Survival Kids – one of the new Switch 2 launch titles. I'm conflicted. Visually, Mario Kart World is one of the best-looking Nintendo games I've ever played. The art direction is stunning, and it really shines on the Switch 2's brighter screen. But the whole open world just feels... lonely? Soulless? You drive long straight stretches between tracks in Grand Prix mode, often through massive, empty spaces, just holding accelerate and praying for a coin. The intermissions between tracks feel more like corridors than actual racing, and I don't feel like the 24-person races add anything because of the vastness of the tracks. Worse still, most Grand Prix races only give you one lap on a proper circuit. I don't mind Nintendo trying something new, but I just wish there was an option for classic three-lap Grand Prix races (which I guess is just VS mode). Maybe it's just me being too used to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but everything here feels a bit too spread out. I needed a palate cleanser after the colourful, attention-grabbing Mario Kart World, so I gave Survival Kids a go. You and up to three friends are shipwrecked on an island, and the goal is to survive by chopping wood, cooking food, building tools and gliding over ravines with makeshift umbrellas. There's no real peril, it's just a nice, slow and gentle. Nintendo Switch 2 battery life Alex: Nintendo says the Switch 2 should last between two and six-and-a-half hours on a full charge, depending on what you're doing. I found that I got closer to the lower end of that spectrum while playing Mario Kart World and using GameChat. It'll probably last longer if you're not playing a CPU-intensive game and running GameChat at the same time, but at least it's easier to charge while gaming now. Jake: I got around two-and-a-half hours out of it while playing Mario Kart World with a few game downloads running in the background. You're not always going to be downloading while gaming, of course, but it's probably smart to top up before long sessions. Also, a small but welcome new feature is the option to cap charging at 90 per cent to help preserve battery health long-term. The console is physically bigger than the original, which makes it slightly less portable, but not to the point where I'd leave it behind.
