May 23, 2025 at 8:25 AM EDT
Some Game Boy games for your long weekend.
Nintendo just updated its Switch Online subscription service with a nice mix of four retro handheld titles: the survival game Survival Kids, sci-fi shooter Gradius: Interstellar Assault, puzzler Kirby's Star Stacker, and RPG The Sword of Hope.
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Digital Trends
2 hours ago
- Digital Trends
Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is a solid first RPG for Nintendo Switch 2
Sometimes you need to put a game down in order to appreciate it. That's exactly what happened to me while playing Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. For its first six hours of the RPG, I was thoroughly unimpressed. I enjoyed its town-building and farming systems enough, but a dull story left me feeling like the niche series simply wasn't for me. I put it down and switched to the next game on my queue, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. It was far more similar to Rune Factory than I expected, using the same action RPG meets life sim hook. I sank a good seven hours into it before a surprising thought crossed my mind: I missed Rune Factory. Recommended Videos That anecdote speaks to the ultimate power of Guardians of Azuma. What starts as another run-of-the-mill farming game soon blossoms into an obsession thanks as its sticky hooks reveal themselves one at a time. Even with a bland story and thin combat, there's an engrossing adventure here that will give Nintendo Switch 2 owners their first meaty RPG to sink their teeth into. Learning to love Rune Factory Like previous entries in the long-running Rune Factory series, Guardians of Azuma is an RPG that's just as much about slashing enemies as it is tending crops. This entry follows a (surprise) amnesiac hero looking to heal a world thrown into chaos by an event known as the Celestial Collapse. There's a whole lot of story here, and that's consistently the weakest part of the package. While there's some thrill in battling dragons and uncovering the Gods of the world, flat writing and long bouts of dialogue can feel like more of a chore than, well, the actual chores. While that turned me away initially, the fact that I came back is a testament to what Guardians of Azuma does so well. More central than the high stakes story is the farming and town-building hook surrounding it. This time, my hero needs to take care of four different villages in towns named after the seasons. Each one has polluted plots of land that I can clear out and start building on. I start small in Spring Village, making a 3×3 patch of vegetables that I water, harvest, and sell in a shed. Then, I begin to expand. First I create a blacksmith's shop so I can upgrade my weapons. Then, I'm adding extra business like flower carts to give my town character. Soon enough, I'm obsessing over every detail down to the placement of small decorations. There's not too much thought behind my decision making at first. I'm simply crafting whatever items I can and placing them in spots that seem nice with a grid-based decoration system (it's much easier to use a classic overhead view to decorate than trying to place objects in third-person). The deeper I get, the more I start to pick up on the nuances. Certain shops will raise my stats, while others will give a boost to stats like trading. I begin to make more deliberate decisions, just as I start amassing villagers and assigning them to tasks. Soon enough, I'm making thousands in passive income each day. It's around this point that I bounced off of it and moved on to Fantasy Life. At first, it was a relief. It's a much more streamlined life sim despite having a lot of the same hooks. I spent hours picking up eggs and chopping down trees, happy that I didn't have to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of it all. But as my chores began to feel tedious, my mind started wandering back to Rune Factory. I began to miss my fully automated villages and the dozens of stats powering them. I yearned for all those complicated RPG hooks that gave me a constant sense of progression. Before I knew it, I picked my Switch back up and went back to that digital life. What I found calling to me was the incredible sense of automation that's possible in Guardians of Azuma. In the countless games I've played like it, my constant input is needed to keep the world running. I need to water the flowers, to harvest the crops, and to bargain with merchants. Here, I feel more like the mayor of four towns that can run themselves so long as I'm willing to invest in the right infrastructure. If I build houses, I can court more capable workers. If I construct businesses, they'll make money for the town. If I lay down soil, my farmers will take care of the rest. My job becomes more that of a financier who is setting these towns' economy in motion. There is a sense that the world moves even when I'm not there, and that's a very rare feeling for a video game to truly nail. Of course, there's plenty of work for me to do even when I'm not creating functional towns. The action side of the story has me flying to floating islands and slashing my way through dungeons full of orcs and tanuki. The combat is fairly repetitive, mostly requiring me to mash one button to attack and time dodges to activate slow motion counters, but I even come around to that with time. There's a lot of character building to be done through dense skill trees, equipment to upgrade, and spells to learn that are tied to tools like drums and umbrellas that are unlocked through the story. Most of my fights still tend to go one way as I slash enemies with my dual blades and poke their weak spots with a bow, but I have a lot of control over my build as well as six slots for party members. But frankly, I'm in no rush to see the story through to the end. After trying to blaze through it initially, I've found it more enjoyable to slow my roll and make my villages better piece by piece. I love hunting for frog statues out in the world that unlock more food and decoration recipes. I'm trying to tame as many beasts as I can and turn them into farm animals that hang out in my towns and produce goods. I'm still deciding which of my companions to marry as I go through each one's surprisingly lengthy side-stories that are often more engaging than the primary quest. And above all else, I simply love waking up on a new day and seeing a giant list of yields pop up in the corner of my screen, showing me just how much work my villagers did while I was out adventuring. Guardians of Azuma requires a lot of patience from players and that's something that may keep the Rune Factory series firmly in its niche despite a more vibrant art style that makes it look as grand as a Fire Emblem game. Give it enough time for the wheels to start spinning, though, and you'll find that it's hard to get it off your mind. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma launches on June 5 for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Vanessa Kirby of 'The Crown' Reveals First Pregnancy in the Slinkiest Teal Gown
Vanessa Kirby revealed that she is expecting her first child at the CCXP Mexico 2025 at Expo CitiBanamex on May 31. She wore a slinky, shimmery teal gown that showed off her growing bump for the occasion. Kirby and her partner Paul Rabil have been linked since Kirby is pregnant with her first child. The actress, who starred as Princess Margaret in The Crown and also appeared in both the Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious franchises, revealed the news on May 31 when she showed off her growing bump on the red carpet. Attending the CCXP Mexico 2025 at Expo CitiBanamex in Mexico City, the actress wore a slinky, shimmery teal gown and held her bump as she smiled for the cameras. Kirby was attending the event alongside the rest of the cast of the upcoming Fantastic Four film—Kirby stars as Sue Storm alongside Pedro Pascal, Joe Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Kirby is reportedly engaged to former lacrosse player Paul Rabil, whom she has been dating since 2022. Back in 2023, Rabil shared a rare snap of Kirby on Instagram, writing, "from the very minute we first met in des moines, around the world and back, life is far better, more purposeful and more beautiful with you ❤️." Kirby also recently shared a few cute pictures from a holiday with Rabil. Rabil previously dated actress Eiza Gonzalez—the pair reportedly split in December 2021 after seven months. Prior to that, he was was married to lacrosse player Kelly Berger from 2014 until 2017. Kirby was previously linked to Callum Turner, who is now reportedly engaged to Dua Lipa. Kirby and Turner first met on the set of their 2014 film Queen and Country. They reportedly split in 2020. Read the original article on InStyle
Elle
14 hours ago
- Elle
Vanessa Kirby Reveals She Is Expecting a Baby With Partner Paul Rabil
On Saturday, Vanessa Kirby revealed she was expecting her first child at the Fantastic Four: First Steps photocall in Mexico, wearing a sleeveless shimmering green gown with a mock turtle neckline, crisscrossed with geometric patterns. The star posed with her hand gently resting on her abdomen, with a baby bump visible through the fabric. She left her long blonde hair down and wore the gown with strappy sandal heels. She had on a glowing and bronzed makeup palette with luminous eyeshadow and a nude lip. In her ears, Kirby wore a pair of silver hoops and on her hands were several silver rings. The unspoken announcement stirred up curiosity about Kirby's boyfriend and rumored fiancé, Paul Rabil. Here's everything to know about Rabil and his relationship with the Mission: Impossible star so far. Paul Rabil is originally from Maryland, according to a 2010 profile in the New York Times, where he was raised by Allan and Jean Anne Rabil, who worked respectively at an aerospace company and as a Catholic school art teacher. They encouraged him early on to get involved in sports. While he was an accomplished athlete in general, his particular love of lacrosse skyrocketed him to a career in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) and National Lacrosse League (NLL). In college, he played for John Hopkins University. According to his LinkedIn page, he became a co-founder and president of Premier Lacrosse League. He's also a businessman, working as a partner for Rabil Ventures and founding Rabil Companies. Rabil was married to Kelly Berger between 2014 and 2017 and went on to briefly date actress Eiza Gonzalez before being linked to Kirby. According to The Daily Mail, they were first linked in October 2022 when they were seen walking around New York City. In November 2023, Rabil shared a tribute to Kirby with a carousel of pictures on Instagram, stating that they met in Des Moines. He wrote in the caption, 'from the very minute we first met in des moines, around the world and back, life is far better, more purposeful and more beautiful with you ❤️' He recently made an appearance on her Instagram in April in a carousel of photos from the Four Seasons hotel, which she said was great for spending time with the 'people you most love. In December 2024, it was reported that the couple had gotten engaged. However, they have not officially confirmed the news.
