Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: 34BigThings
Developer: 34BigThings
Release: February 6, 2026
Rating: Mature

In the '90s and '00s, vehicular combat games were commonplace. Franchises like Twisted Metal, Burnout, and Carmageddon were instrumental in establishing the brand of high-octane, aggressive driving that is much rarer in 2026. Though Twisted Metal and Burnout have been dormant for years, Carmageddon: Rogue Shift introduces a roguelite right turn to the genre, proving that while the vehicular combat genre often feels like a relic from a bygone era, it still has some gas left in the tank.

Rogue Shift is a post-apocalyptic, single-player racing game that takes the age-old formula of competing in crash-filled events and applies the roguelite formula to mostly strong results. Each time you fire up a new run, you select a vehicle from an ever-growing garage; I appreciate how each one not only controls differently, but features distinct weaponry and perks. I loved using the beefier vehicle I unlocked early on, which not only gave me more battering damage but more health, durability, and a special perk that increased my damage every time I improved my defense. This tank-like vehicle let me stay alive longer than the speedier, sportier options as I gained my bearings in Carmageddon: Rogue Shift. However, as I unlocked more vehicles and improved my skills, I started shifting towards those faster, less sturdy cars.

Once in a run, you navigate a menu-based map as you select the route to each phase's boss encounter. I admire the risk/reward elements at play in choosing which way to go at every fork; do I want to head towards the weapons shop where I can upgrade my shotgun, even though there's a more challenging Elite event right after it, or do I want to steer clear of the risk and just go on to the next standard event? When any failure, whether you miss the specified placement for the event or your vehicle is demolished, results in a game over and the end of your run, these decisions carry great weight. On multiple occasions, I fist-pumped as my risk paid off, but more often, I fell victim to my own hubris, and I watched helplessly as my vehicle exploded and my aspirations went up in smoke.

 

On the road, Carmageddon is an often-glorious symphony of explosions and speed. Most events are lap-based races, where you compete against a field of fellow armed-to-the-teeth racers as you jockey for position and aim for the checkered flag. Speeding through zombie-infested streets as you blast, smash, and bash your competition creates white-knuckled affairs where I found myself holding my breath until I crossed the finish line. Picking up ammo, locking onto your opponent, and blasting them sky high with whatever weapon you have equipped is a thrill only rivaled by the feeling of shoving your foe into a barricade and watching them explode like a firework to mark your triumph.

Every car controls differently, which is exacerbated by the disparate road surfaces and weather conditions, creating situations where one bad roll of the elements can bring your run to a screeching and demoralizing halt. This is particularly true because the controls don't allow for fast recovery if you get turned around or caught on a jagged environmental element; with the game's entire premise being based on vehicles wiping out, it takes entirely too long to course-correct if you get nudged off course. And since there's no retry button outside of special items that grant you an extra life, frustration mounts when you spin out near the end of a race.

Since the controls are a little more slippery than I prefer in my arcade racers, every time I had an event with rain on a dirt road, I knew I had to focus extra hard to ensure I didn't spin out on every high-speed turn. And since zombies walk across every racetrack, you also need to watch out for special variants that explode when you go near them. I enjoy smashing through the hordes of undead to earn bonus credits, but the post-apocalyptic setting is perhaps the least memorable part of the overall package; I would have had just as much fun taking part in these high-speed destruction derbies without zombies spilling into the streets. 

Playing into the roguelite elements, you accumulate two kinds of currencies during your run: credits, which can be used at various shops within your run, and beatcoins, which are used at the Black Market dealer at the start of each run. The shops scattered throughout the map offer new perks, like boosts to your weapon damage, repairs to your vehicle, or one that converts the credits you earn into HP. 

At first, building my preferred killing/racing machine often came down to the luck of the draw, as each shop is randomized, but through a permanent perk unlocked at the Black Market dealer, I could reroll each in-run shop once for free. The Black Market dealer, which you access at the start of every run, is where more meaningful upgrades that carry from run to run occur. Here, you can unlock permanent upgrades, like one that adds an extra item for sale in every shop, as well as new perks and weapons that cycle through the shops, plus new vehicles. These upgrades help keep the experience of racing the same handful of tracks over and over again feeling fresh.

Though survival is at the forefront of every race, and I always built to survive the next escalation of opponent, the boss battles were always at the forefront of my mind when determining my loadout. Though the pool of bosses is shallow, I always looked forward to taking on these decked-out adversaries. Whether you're talking a bulldozing tank that blasts fire in all directions, a duo of bosses that blast projectiles at you until you destroy them, or a speedster that is nearly indestructible, these phase finales effectively shake up the pacing of your run, giving you a distinct experience from the more standard race events. 

Even the most seemingly straightforward events have the potential to devolve into a chaotic pileup, which can be a blessing and a curse; it enhances the excitement, but I sometimes frustratingly got stuck sideways as opponents pushed me into a wall. You can force a respawn, but often by the time I did that, my chances for prevailing were long gone, even with some noticeable rubber-band AI; several times, I went into the final turn in first place, only to get spun out by an overly reckless AI opponent who sabotaged their own placement just to ruin my race. When you add to that the poor AI of the cop-like Enforcers, who more often than not steer into the walls, and a couple of times when the boss battles ended because the boss just decided to stop driving, it's clear that these post-apocalyptic racers are lacking in the smarts department. 

The AI would be a problem in a multiplayer game, but in a single-player title like Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, it's a much more impactful issue. And really, the underwhelming enemy AI somewhat typified my experience with Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, as a persistent lack of polish permeates the experience. Muddy textures that pop in while you're playing may not be the end of the world, but on a couple of occasions, my controls outright froze, disabling my ability to steer, leading to an unceremonious end to my run. It wasn't a common problem, but it was frustrating enough to stick with me long after I stopped playing.

Even with some of those runs feeling like they came to an end due to little fault of my own, Carmageddon: Rogue Shift had me eagerly saying "one more run" time after time. This novel twist on vehicular combat may not be the full revival longtime genre fans have been craving, but it delivers a genre mashup I never knew I needed while simultaneously providing a fun callback to racing's most explosive eras. 

Score: 7.75

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Mario Kart World was the marquee launch title for the Switch 2 last summer, and to nobody's surprise, it's the best-selling game on the console. At 14.03 million units sold, including units sold with the Switch 2 bundle that included the game, Mario Kart World is far and away the best-selling software on Nintendo's newest console. In fact, it nearly dwarfs second place by 10 million units. 

That second-place game is Donkey Kong Bananza, which launched in July, roughly a month after Mario Kart World – 4.25 million units have been sold as of December 31, 2025, according to Nintendo's latest financial earnings report. Close behind Donkey Kong Bananza is Pokémon Legends: Z-A, at 3.89 million units sold. If you combine Pokémon Legends: Z-A's Switch numbers – 8.41 million units – with its Switch 2 sales, its total sits at 12.3 million units sold, closing in on the Switch 2-exclusive Mario Kart World's total. 

After Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Kirby Air Riders sits at 1.76 million units sold, with roughly 900,000 of those units (so more than half) sold in Japan – it's clearly a hit there in Nintendo's home country, and notably, Kirby Air Riders only launched on November 20 last year, meaning it hasn't even been available for purchase for three months. 

"For software unit sales, Nintendo Switch 2 software totaled 37.93 million units, and Nintendo Switch software declined 12.1% year-on-year to 108.93 million units," the earnings report reads. "The steady increase in unit sales of software has also been enhanced by the wide variety of titles released by software publishers, providing a solid lineup." 

For more from this earnings report, check out this story about how the Switch is officially Nintendo's best-selling console ever. After that, read Game Informer's list of the top 10 best Nintendo Switch 2 games, and then check out these new Joy-Con 2 colors hitting stores this month. 

What's your favorite Switch 2 game so far? Let us know in the comments below!

The Nintendo Switch is officially the company's best-selling console ever, surpassing the Nintendo DS, which long held the record at 154.02 million units sold. As of December 31, 2025, 155.37 million Switch units have been sold, making it Nintendo's best-selling console ever, according to the company's latest financial earnings report. 

This doesn't necessarily come as a surprise, as the Switch has been trending toward taking that top spot for a while now, but it is perhaps surprising that the achievement occurred after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 last summer. Of course, there are plenty of people still buying Switch consoles, especially with sales happening more frequently to liquidate stock in light of the Switch 2's launch, but it's a funny coincidence nonetheless. 

"Through the third quarter, cumulative sell-in of Nintendo Switch surpassed that for Nintendo DS, reaching the highest sales volume of any Nintendo hardware," the earnings report reads. "The most recent figure shows that the number of annual playing users has remained steady. Even at this juncture between platform generations, the number of annual playing users remains above 100 million users, as in the previous year." 

Nintendo says that in prior generational leaps, its relationship with consumers was disrupted and challenged as consumers upgraded to the latest console. "In contrast, the Nintendo Switch install base, which is our largest ever, and the fact that many consumers continue to play on the platform, provide a strong business foundation that has supported the launch of Nintendo Switch 2," it notes in the earnings report. 

The Nintendo Switch 2 has already sold through 17.37 million units, according to the report, with 15 million of those sold in the console's first six months. Nintendo says Switch 2 adoption is growing at the fastest pace ever, "significantly outpacing even the Switch."

Perhaps the Switch 2 will surpass the Switch's total units sold, but if that were to happen, it's years away at this point. 

For more about the Switch 2, check out the new Joy Con 2 colors launching alongside Mario Tennis Fever this month, and then check out Game Informer's list of the top 10 Nintendo Switch 2 games. 

Have you picked up a Switch 2? Let us know what your favorite game on it is in the comments below!

Last week, Nintendo invited me to an event in New York where I played a handful of upcoming Switch 2 titles, including the Virtual Boy and the Super Mario Bros. Wonder DLC. I was far more curious about the event's third-party titles, though. Specifically, Capcom decided to demo Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata for the Switch 2, and after playing both, I'm shocked at how well Nintendo's newest console handles them.

Both demos are ones we've played before at Game Informer, though it was my first time with either. The Requiem demo is the same as what was offered at Summer Game Fest and Gamescom last year, showing Grace scramble through a dark medical facility to escape a mutated monster in a hospital gown. Meanwhile, the Pragmata demo is now available on PC and features protagonists Hugh and Diana as they hack and blast their way through a station on the moon.

The clearest downgrade between the Switch 2 versions of these games and the higher-quality footage I've seen in trailers, presumably captured on other consoles or PC, is in the texture quality. It was especially noticeable in Pragmata, where the sci-fi environment is plastered with high-tech walls. In the PC demo, you can see how shiny and detailed these metallic surfaces are, but on the Switch 2, they're slightly more blurry and less reflective. Outside of cutscenes, however, it was less noticeable, and having played my fair share of subpar Switch ports, it certainly could have been much worse.

 

Requiem was similar but looked cleaner, especially in the lighting. I played with headphones on in the corner of the event space, and I got so immersed that I genuinely forgot which console I was playing on at times. It didn't feel like a Switch 2 version of Resident Evil Requiem – it felt like Resident Evil Requiem. I'm sure that after playing the full game on a more powerful system, I'll eventually be able to pinpoint the differences more accurately, but I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

It's worth noting that I played Requiem in first-person, but in both games, the character models also had a clear downgrade. This is most easily seen in how the RE Engine rendered hair, which is fuller and flows more smoothly on more powerful machines. Like the textures, it was far more noticeable in a cutscene than in a faster-moving gameplay section, but not quite egregious in either. Meanwhile, the performance of each demo was extremely stable. The fast-paced gunplay and puzzle-solving of Pragmata felt buttery smooth, and Requiem felt the same, even though the latter didn't have twitchy combat to test frame rates to the same degree.

There are plenty of caveats. I only had time to play each game in docked mode, but I heard good things about handheld as well. My sessions were also limited to bespoke demos, and it's fully possible that technical success is limited to these earlier builds, or that later areas might look worse. Still, based on what I played, these seem like the best-case scenario for a Switch 2 port. There's an expected, minor drop in visual quality, but the game runs just as well as on other platforms, and you can take it on the go.

It's a theoretically even trade-off that has me excited not just for Pragmata and Requiem, but for the other Resident Evil games coming to Switch 2 (Resident Evil Biohazard and Resident Evil Village launch on Switch 2 the same day as Requiem), along with whatever else Capcom decides to bring to the console. I play my Switch 2 all the time, but if this is the level of quality to expect from third-party releases going forward, I think I'll be playing that handheld even more often.

By all accounts, I am not the target audience for the Virtual Boy. The ancient VR console was launched and subsequently discontinued years before I was born. I'm extremely prone to motion sickness, and I wear glasses, which seldom fit in gaming headsets. Also, word on the street was that the console sucked, and that I wasn't missing out on much.

As such, I've never been interested in even trying it, and haven't had many opportunities, but that changed last week. Nintendo flew me out to New York to play some upcoming Switch 2 titles, and I knew I had to do my due diligence and try the new Switch 2 peripheral and the accompanying library of Virtual Boy games. I entered the event, and after procrastinating by playing basically every other game present, I peered into a pair of plastic ruby-colored lenses.

And honestly? It was kind of cool.

Many of the complaints about the Virtual Boy are still valid. It's a headset with legs, so you can only play it if you're sitting at a table with the correct height. Nintendo's representatives had an adjustable table ready for the demo, but the best the average person can probably do is an adjustable desk chair. I also can't imagine I'd love leaning into one of these things for hours at a time, but I didn't have the option on the day of the event. 

That said, it didn't make me motion sick or give me a headache, and I'll typically have motion sickness triggered within minutes of starting a game, VR, 3D, or otherwise. I suspect it has to do with the higher quality screens developed over the last 30 years, as I didn't have to strain my eyes to see what was going on. To that end, my glasses also fit into the headset just fine. I wear wide frames, so I bet most pairs would fit, but I heard from another attendee that she had trouble with her glasses, so it probably varies by person. Still, I was able to wear it comfortably, and the visor successfully blocked out any of the room's overhead lighting.

The actual gameplay experience was similarly positive. The Virtual Boy is an odd, gimmicky console with genuine 3D graphics, thanks to its stereoscopic lenses. It was cool to see developers from the mid-90s being creative with the newly added depth, especially as someone with a lot of nostalgia for the 3DS. Landing 3D blocks in 3D Tetris is surprisingly challenging, and Virtual Boy Wario Land uses the background as a secondary area to jump into and side-scroll through.

I also played a bit of The Mansion of Innsmouth (known as Innsmouth no Yakata in Japan), which is coming to the US for the first time with this classics collection. I enjoyed it less, partially since it didn't make use of the 3D as effectively as the other games I played, but after only a few minutes with it, I can't make a complete verdict.

A cardboard Virtual Boy on display

I did not get a chance to play with any of the most recently announced quality-of-life features, like the option to change red pixels to another color or the rewind feature. Both features are coming later in the year, so this isn't a huge shock. I was far more disappointed, however, that I didn't get a chance to try out the weird little cardboard headset, which I'm endlessly curious about. They had one in a glass display, though, and it seemed much smaller in person. At $24.99, it's far more affordable than the proper model, and I'm not quite enthusiastic enough about my experience to get the $99.99 plastic peripheral, so I hope the cheaper model is at least comparable to use.

I'm far from a Virtual Boy convert, but I'm definitely not a hater either. People speak so poorly of the 1995 model that I fully expected to immediately reject the Switch 2 version, but I came away mildly impressed. When the baseline expectation is "headache, neck pain, and nausea" but the actual experience is "huh, pretty neat," I think it's fair to say this exceeded my expectations. It's far from a perfect device, but it very well may be the best way to revisit Nintendo's worst console.