With F1 set to take a break over the Easter period, racing fans can get their hands on a budget-friendly Ferrari build to fill the time

LEGO fans have plenty to get excited about this Easter, with the brand unveiling a range of new sets to suit all kinds of builders. From a Ferrari inspired by childhood dreams to beloved characters from Monsters, Inc., there’s something for both younger fans and seasoned enthusiasts alike.

Leading the line-up is the Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale Sports Car set, priced at £22.99. Aimed at builders aged nine and above, this 339-piece model captures the sleek, cab-forward design of the real-life supercar and includes a minifigure driver dressed in their very own Ferrari racing suit and helmet.

Builders can use the LEGO Builder app for an interactive experience, with 3D instructions that allow you to zoom in and rotate the model as you go. For those with a passion for motorsport, there’s also the Speed Champions Audi Revolut F1 Team R26 Race Car at £22.99, as well as the LEGO Icons Ferrari F2004 & Michael Schumacher set, priced at £79.99.

If cars aren’t your thing, LEGO has plenty of alternatives on offer with one standout being the all new Monsters, Inc. set featuring Sulley, Mike and Boo, available for £19.99. Designed for ages 10 and up, this 303-piece build brings the much-loved characters to life, reports the Express.

The website states fans can ‘recreate Monsters, Inc. scenes with the cherished characters‘, making this an excellent compact film-themed present idea for girls and boys. The collection features the three brick-constructed character figures, alongside three display stands.

Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale Sports Car

£22.99

Lego

Shop the range

Get the LEGO Ferrari SF90 XX Stradale Sports Car

Also available is the Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny figure for £34.99, which is suitable for ages 14 and over and contains 605 pieces. Once finished, builders will have a bust of Bugs Bunny mounted on a buildable baseplate. The creation can be personalised by adjusting the movable head, ears and fingers, and the set also comes with a bee and spring toy flower.

Rounding off the selection is the LEGO Botanicals Sunflower Bouquet for £54.99. Aimed at adults aged 18 and over, it comprises 686 pieces and the bouquet features one sunflower bud, three sunflowers beginning to bloom and two large fully opened sunflowers.

The set boasts adjustable petals and stems, along with four eucalyptus stems for ‘added authenticity’. Once assembled, builders will have a ‘gorgeous’ floral display to show off, making it an ideal gift for any plant enthusiasts.

For a more budget-friendly option, Amazon stocks the Flower Garden Building Toys set for £11.90, produced by the brand DOTDROPTRY. Suitable for children aged three and over, it features interchangeable pieces, allowing kids to create ‘hundreds of possible flower arrangements’, according to the listing.

Alternatively, Debenhams offers the CaDa Master Italian Super Racing Car set – a investment piece at £214.99. This enables builders to construct the ‘iconic Italian supercar’ using 3,187 detailed pieces using a ”challenging building experience’ with the finished result being an impressive 1:8 scale model.

Customers have shared glowing feedback about the LEGO sets. One reviewer commented on the Ferrari car: “LEGO was my favourite toy as a child and I was looking for a new hobby. Why not try a childhood dream. Loved building this and have ordered two more models.”

Another wrote: “Very solid build and looks great when fully put together. Speed Champions has always been a great theme and this set further shows that.”

One purchaser knocked off a star for the car, noting that while “this was my first Speed Champions set and I was impressed with the level of detail, especially around the rear diffuser and exhausts”, they did find some of the stickers somewhat fiddly to apply.”

On the whole, however, most buyers were delighted with their purchases. One remarked about the Monsters, Inc. figures: “I love Monster Inc., one of my favourite Pixar films, when I saw this, I had to pick it up. Love it!”

Customers can browse the LEGO sets on offer in the run-up to Easter.

The Friday letters page tries to guess what the Nintendo Switch 2 Lite will cost, as one reader is shocked by the behind the scenes info on The Last Of Us Online.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

First party trio
I know that Xbox gets ragged on a lot everywhere nowadays, and I’m not going to pretend they don’t deserve most of it. However, it’s not all bad and, as someone that owns an Xbox Series X/S, I feel I have to try and look on the bright side.

This is easier than you might think because they have a really stacked first party line-up this year, including Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and Fable. There might also be Gears Of War: E-Day, but I’m not clear if that’s meant for 2026 or not.

That is a much better line-up than either Sony or Nintendo at the moment, in my opinion, and while I agree it may get overtaken by the end those are not games to be ignored. I would assume Forza to be the biggest, but I think Fable has a chance to do very well too. I’m not so sure about Halo though, given we’ve already had one remake of it and there’s no multiplayer.

Crazy to think Halo has gone from Xbox’s most important franchise to a second-stringer. Nothing lasts forever, I guess.
Korey

GC: Gears Of War: E-Day has no release year, so it could conceivably be this year.

Lite on value
With prices constantly going up it seems to be only a matter of time before the Switch 2 is even more expensive and I still haven’t got one. I have to assume this is encouraging Nintendo to fast-track the Switch 2 Lite, although who knows how quickly it will be to appear. But perhaps the biggest question now is how cheap could it be?

The normal Switch 2 is £400, or thereabouts, so surely the aim would be to get the Lite version to under £300. But even that seems a lot. That’s still only what the original Switch was at launch, so I’d appreciate at least another £50 off. Although in this case I do accept that there are outside factors.

Gaming is going too expensive in every aspect and I really think it’s about time console manufactures acknowledge this and make an effort to change things as a priority. I would look to Nintendo more than anyone to lead the way on this but so far there’s not really been anything.
Ollienaut

Come back later
I completed Life Is Strange: Reunion over the weekend and basically agree with your review. The whole thing is a rushed mess, with reused graphics, bad branching storytelling, and a terrible plot. Not only do I not think there’ll be another one after this, but I don’t want it after this; Max and Chloe deserved so much better.

Square Enix obviously knew all this would be disaster or they wouldn’t have held back the review copies, so why do it at all? Better to let the series rest for a few years, until people really start to miss it, and then do a new game, even if it ends the story, then with a team that wants it and hasn’t just been gutted by their corporate overlords.
Grackle

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The budget of Zelda
The idea of Nintendo becoming a big time film studio is so funny to me. The company with the least interest in telling a story is making the most successful movies… even if they don’t have stories either. The success of the second Mario film, which I haven’t seen, is only going to cement them further and other studios will be knocking down their door trying to get involved.

But like you said, that live action Zelda seems near impossible to get right. It could be done but I don’t have enough faith in the director or Nintendo as producer to make it work. I also can’t believe that Nintendo will pony up enough money to do the visuals justice.

An animated movie would’ve been such a better choice and a really good thing for more adult themed animation at the cinema. Or at least more adult than Mario. Zelda is the best video game franchise ever but what’s the betting it won’t be the best film ever? Or anything less than an embarrassment?
Coolsbane

Virtual worlds within worlds
Buying a game to pretend to own boxes of games you already have on digital is a hell of an elevator pitch. It’s always fascinating to me to read about these weird PC simulators, like truck sims and that powerhouse one.

I’d never want to play them but after thinking they’re a joke I always end up looking them up and it turns out they’ve sold 10 million or something. It’s easy to forget that non-gamers have very different interests and priorities to the rest of us.
Snoopy
PS: What is an elevator pitch anyway? Is that an American thing and they mean lift?

GC: We think they mean lift, yes.

Cyberdyne Systems
That guy that was working on The Last Of Us Online for seven years only for it to cancelled must have a level of patience I can’t even begin to imagine. Apart from anything, I’m surprised he stayed in the games industry and didn’t go off and work for a saner kind of company afterwards.

Never mind the amount of hours everyone must’ve spent on the game, how much money did it cost to employ hundreds of people for seven years to make absolutely nothing? And the reason they cancelled it is because they didn’t want to spend the next 10 years making more content for it? Did they not know what a live service game was before they started?!

The more you learn about the games industry the more you begin to wonder whether anyone in it has any common sense. There are some creative geniuses making the games but everyone else around it seems to be running on only half a tank.

They keep trying to replace developers and artists with AI but how about swapping out some of these producers and exec types? As useless as AI is I don’t see how it could do any worse in most cases.
Lynch

Resiopia PD
I knew fans would get creative with Pokémon Pokopia and some of those examples were really great. I particularly appreciate whoever did the Resident Evil one because they edited the video for it so well too!

My dream is to recreate the towns as they were, but I don’t know if I’ll ever really get there. I still hold out enough hope that I don’t want to read that Reddit that tells you how to do it though. The fun of the game is working things out for yourself, and I appreciate that it doesn’t hold your hand as much as you’d think.
Bosley

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Do a barrel roll
Nice article on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I agree that it’s definitely not a dumb Minions style movie that just wants you to ‘switch off your brain’ (ever notice that the people that say that are the least likely to ever watch something where you need to switch it on?).

It’s crazy and weird (I saw it yesterday with my kids) but it’s meant to be like that and, as you say, it’s closest thing you can get to a game without actually playing it. Is there a better movie that could be made with more character depth? Maybe but I don’t know who you’d get to write it.

As far as I’m concerned the only thing it could do with is more proper jokes in the dialogue, as it was kind of flat like that. But I enjoyed it. The only character that came anywhere close to being annoying was Yoshi and he was fine. I don’t anticipate getting to watch it 100 times when it hits streaming but the first time at least it was pretty fun.

I especially like the Star Fox bit, which I don’t see how any kid could properly understand, but Glen Powell was perfect and I now fully expect a new game to appear, because there’s no way they did all that just so people can play Lylat Wars on Nintendo Switch Online.

I do wonder what it’s going to be but perhaps something lower budget, that is just an on-rails shooter, and go back to basics like that? That’s not the normal approach Nintendo takes but then they don’t have many dead franchises like that, that they have to try a different trick with.
Gordo

Inbox also-rans
If it really is just a fiver I think I’d be a lot more interested in an Indie Game Pass than the Xbox one. I had it for a while and I barely played any of the first party games.
Renton

I’m not sure I see the point in a PlayStation 6 portable. If you’re only going to use it in the house how would it be any different from using a PlayStation Portal?
Wilks

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The small print
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Michelle Dick, who was previously accused of stalking former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and making threats against him, is speaking out after the star was attacked in Los Angeles. Police have not publicly identified a suspect. 

On Wednesday, the two-time Grammy Award winner, 76, was attacked by a woman when he showed up for an appointment in Santa Monica, Calif., according to NBC4 Investigates. The alleged suspect, who authorities described as “a stalking suspect,” threw an unknown substance at Buckingham and immediately fled, the outlet reported. 

While the Santa Monica Police Department (SMPD) has reportedly identified the suspect, no arrests have been made and authorities have not publicly named the individual. Buckingham was not injured, authorities told NBC4. 

FORMER FLEETWOOD MAC GUITARIST LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM ATTACKED BY ALLEGED STALKER: REPORT

Lindsey Buckingham previously filed a restraining order against a 53-year-old woman named Michelle Dick in 2024. The musician accused Dick of stalking, harassing and threatening to kill him and his family. (Getty Images)

According to the LA Times, the woman is known to the musician and has been the subject of prior action with the LAPD threat management unit.

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Dick — who claims Buckingham is her biological father — told KTLA on Wednesday that she had approached Buckingham last week and had previously gone to his Brentwood home. 

In court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Buckingham filed a request for a restraining order against Dick in December 2024. 

“I am afraid her conduct may escalate into something physically dangerous to me and my family,” Buckingham wrote in the petition. 

RIHANNA’S BEVERLY HILLS HOME TARGETED IN BRAZEN DAYLIGHT SHOOTING

The harassment began in 2021 when Dick allegedly got “ahold of my wife Kristen’s business cell phone number and called the number dozens of times a day sometimes, leaving long drawn-out messages that included the claim that she was my child and threats to kill me and my family,” Buckingham stated in the petition. 

Buckingham was granted a restraining order against Dick in 2024.  (Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

“She also blamed me for facial deformities she apparently suffered as a child and demanded money. I do not know Ms. Dick and I am not her father,” he added. 

While the harassment seemed to quiet down for two years, Dick made movement in 2024. 

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In September of that year, Dick allegedly taped a piece of paper to Buckingham’s California residence with a photographic collage of herself and Buckingham.

One day later, Dick was pulled over for sitting outside Buckingham’s home. As officers detained and questioned her, Dick stated that Buckingham was her birth father and had “suffocated her as a child.”

The musician was attacked in Santa Monica, Calif. on Wednesday.  (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for NARAS)

On Nov. 3, Buckingham stated he was “awoken out of sleep by nearly a dozen police persons. When I answered the door, I was handcuffed and asked to step outside of my house. The reason given was that a 9-1-1 call had been received stating that my son William was in my house and suicidal and that the caller had heard gunshots.”

The detective assigned to the case, Det. Marisol Landeros, stated that she believed Dick to be “mentally unstable and dangerous.”

“She is clearly mentally unfit and harbors delusions which makes her scary to me and unpredictable,” Buckingham added. 

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge granted the restraining order, which states that Dick stay at least 100 yards away from Buckingham and his family. She was also ordered not to harass or attempt to make contact with him in any way.

On Wednesday, LAPD officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that they’re coordinating efforts with SMPD.

“The Los Angeles Police Department’s Threat Management Unit is working with the Santa Monica Police Department to investigate this incident,” officials said. “To protect the integrity of the open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be provided at this time.”

Lindsey and wife, Kristen, have been married since 2000.  (Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Buckingham has been married to photographer Kristen Messner since 2000, and the couple share three children.

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The musician first gained attention in the early 1970s as part of the duo Buckingham Nicks with Stevie Nicks, but his career took off when both joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

Beyond Fleetwood Mac, he’s built a respected solo career. Buckingham is known for his experimental edge, cementing his status as one of rock’s finest musicians.

Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this post. 

The new Super Mario movie is already breaking records, despite a critical mauling, but does the Nintendo formula really make sense when applied to motion pictures?

Shigeru Miyamoto is one of the most important creative geniuses of the last century. As the creator of Mario and Zelda, and innumerable other Nintendo characters and franchises, it is impossible to imagine the modern video game world without his input, and yet until very recently he had no experience in making films.

He’s also not directed a console game in decades (he’s 73 at this point) butinstead he’s busied himself with being a producer and ensuring a new generation of talent. That changed when Nintendo got into the movie business, and he was credited as the co-producer of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The film was a massive hit but a critical failure, with this month’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie likely to end up as one of the worst reviewed major releases of the year. That is not a situation he will be used to, but since he didn’t take any notice of the criticism from the first film it seems fair to assume he doesn’t care – especially as the new movie has already been a major hit, right out of the gate.

I watched the film on opening day, along with my autistic nine-year-old nephew, who seemed to enjoy it even more than the first movie – even though his favourite, Donkey Kong, didn’t have a starring role. He squealed with pleasure every time a character he recognised appeared and often shouted out (but not too loud) their name.

It wasn’t just him though, half the audience seemed to be doing this, with the loudest laughs and noises of recognition coming from what were clearly adults. Everyone seemed thoroughly entertained and I have to say I enjoyed it more than the first, with everyone given something to do, despite the surprisingly large cast, with Peach, Luigi, Bowser, and even Fox McCloud all enjoying several moments in the sun.

There was a certain amount of character development for Bowser but in truth all the characters are paper thin; although that’s still substantially more rounded than the video games, where they’re just colourful avatars with little or no discernible personality. Not only is that not a flaw – nobody wants to have to stop playing an action game like Super Mario to watch a cut scene – it’s always been the attitude of Miyamoto, who insists on paring down the linear storytelling to a bare minimum.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is many things but it’s certainly the most authentic video game adaptation of all time. The characters look and act exactly as they do in the games, down to the smallest background details and even mimicking specific gameplay elements – in one case to the detriment of what little character growth Mario shows (I can’t be specific because it’s right at the end).

Miyamoto’s insistence that the cameos of Fox McCloud and Pikmin (I’m sure I saw Samus’ gunship too) are not leading up to a Smash Bros. movie are hard to believe given how random some of them are, especially the one in the final battle which makes absolutely no sense and is given no context whatsoever, even to people who know what it is.

So you have a movie that is both blatant product placement (rumours of a new Star Fox game are now very easy to believe) and an endless stream of memberberries, where there’s no joke or clever excuse for a character’s appearance… they’re just there, with no explanation, and you’re supposed to get enjoyment from that alone.

I’m not surprised to see some film critics decrying the death of cinema, after having watched the film, because I can absolutely see their point. Especially as anyone not familiar with the games is going to find it all absolutely baffling.

The Galaxy Movie might be nonsensical, but it has at least some kind of emotional heart, with a likeable line-up of characters. It also doesn’t have the incongruous pop music of the first film and despite all the different characters none of them is the screeching, overly talkative and infeasibly incompetent boob that most animated movies seem to consider a necessisty. There’s also virtually no potty humour or fart jokes.

Clearly, it gets nowhere near the artistic or philosophical highs of the best Pixar films but that’s not what it’s trying to do. Many balked at the idea of Nintendo teaming up with animation studio Illumination in the first place, given how low brow the Minions films are. But it’s now clear why they did. Whatever faults they might have, Illumination movies are always far more abstract than their peers, with less focus on storytelling and plot. And as far as Miyamoto is concerned that’s a positive.

There are multiple sequences in the movie where it’s just an elongated action scene, often based very closely on an existing game and… they’re all great. There’re no stakes, because you know no one’s going to get hurt, but they’re very competently shot and framed and genuinely exciting. Like a family friendly John Wick.

Miyamoto is not interested in exploring the personality of Mario, because he doesn’t really have one, and yet you still get a bit of new lore and Peach in particular is portrayed far better than almost any of the games, especially the asinine Princess Peach: Showtime! (That’s not entirely fair as the usual joke with Peach is that she’s so hilariously old-fashioned and borderline sexist that she wraps around again to being cool, but that’s never going work in a modern movie).

Miyamoto doesn’t like stories in his games, and he apparently doesn’t like them in his films either. And they are his films, so he can do what he likes with them, especially while they continue to make money. Could there have been a way to make a proper movie with more complex humour? Almost certainly, since all you have to do is follow the lead of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but that’s a fairly niche corner of Mario’s gameography.

The intention with these movies is to recreate the joy of playing the games on the big screen, of turning something interactive into non-interactive entertainment and still having it inspire some of the same emotions. Story and character complexity are not a part of it because they’re not part of the games either and while Miyamoto is in charge that’s very unlikely to change.

How long the franchise can remain popular, given how many different game references they’ve already packed into the last two films, remains to be seen but the real worry is what happens with The Legend Of Zelda movie. It seemed an immediate mistake to make the film live action, not only because of the difficulty that will create bringing the world to life but because having barely any plot or characterisation is going to be a lot more off-putting in live action.

There is more story to the average Zelda game, compared to Mario, but not that much more and so either the film is going to have to add a lot of padding or you’re going to end up with some weird indie style experimental film with more vibes than dialogue.

Nintendo’s move into movies – and theme parks and other merchandising opportunities – is very purposeful and it’s been going on for years now. As Miyamoto plainly stated in a recent interview, the number of people playing console video games is not increasing and yet the cost of making games is, so new revenue streams are needed from somewhere.

So far, the plan to become a movie studio has worked perfectly, but while it’s easy to understand why the film has not reviewed well it would be a mistake to regard it as artless or overly cynical. It’s simply the formula for making Nintendo games applied to a movie and while you wouldn’t want that all the time it is a fascinating divergence from the norm.

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Richard Kind knows exactly what kind of comedy The Producers trades in — and he’s under no illusion about how it might be received if it debuted today.

The actor returns to the West End this spring to play Max Bialystock at the Garrick Theatre, revisiting a role he first took on more than 20 years ago after Nathan Lane.

It marks a full-circle moment in a long, legendary stage career, but also a chance to see how one of comedy’s most outrageous shows lands with a modern audience.

‘Funny is funny,’ he says. ‘But some of the funny that we have in the show, if it were not couched in the production it is, would be called wrong, and people wouldn’t like it.’

Created by Mel Brooks, the musical has always thrived on pushing boundaries, from its central scam plot to the deliberately shocking fictional number Springtime for Hitler.

Kind is very aware that tastes have changed, and if it weren’t for the nostalgia surrounding the musical, he doesn’t think it would get produced.

‘Out of context, people might be insulted,’ he says. ‘But in the whole of the show, it’s very funny.

That balance is especially clear in Max himself, a character driven by excess in every direction. His attitude towards Ulla, the show’s Swedish ingénue, is one example that might raise eyebrows now.

‘My relationship with Ulla is one of only a sex object — that’s how it was written,’ Kind says. ‘If you were to write that today, no, no, no! But that’s who Max is. He has appetites for everything, money, success, women, all of it.’

Even so, he doesn’t believe the laughs have disappeared. They simply land in a new way, shaped by the specific audience before them each night.

This London revival also changes the dynamic in ways he hadn’t expected. Earlier productions leaned into spectacle, with huge sets and a sense of scale that matched the show’s outrageous tone. This version is far more intimate.

‘There’s no scenery,’ he says, still amused by the idea. ‘I always thought of it as big and gaudy. Now you look down and there’s a face looking back at you.’

Performing in a 700-seat theatre instead of the vast spaces he’s played before, including the Hollywood Bowl, has altered the rhythm of the performance.

The character remains the same at his core, he says, but this Max is a challege because he’s scaled back, allowing the actor to discover new layers.

Kind is also open about the shadow cast by Nathan Lane, who originated the role on Broadway and remains closely associated with it.

‘I think Nathan is a genius,’ he says. ‘He’s facile and funny and a great actor.’

Their interpretations, he explains, come from different traditions. Lane’s performance had a lightness and speed, while Kind draws on a broader, more old-school comic influence.

‘He glides,’ he says. ‘My take is just different.’

Kind also acknowledges that conversations around comedy have shifted since he was first in this show 20 years ago. He brings up Blazing Saddles as a familiar example of something audiences still watch and laugh at, even if its tone belongs to another era.

‘My kids won’t watch it and laugh,’ he says. ‘They don’t think it’s funny.’

That generational gap doesn’t trouble him. He is more interested in what happens in the room, in real time, when an audience meets the material as a whole.

Away from the stage, Kind has built a career across television and film, from Mad About You and Spin City to Only Murders in the Building, along with voice roles in Inside Out and A Bug’s Life. None of it quite replaces what he finds in theatre.

‘Theatre is my love,’ he says simply, when asked if he prefers theatre or screen acting.

What draws him back each year is the process as much as the performance. Rehearsal, with its arguments, ideas, and shared discoveries, is where he feels most at home for the larger than life actor.

The connection with a live audience comes later, bringing a kind of instant response that screen work can’t replicate.

‘I like instant gratification. That’s what it is.’ he says. ‘I’ll do it film and televsion because it’s my job and it pays a lot of money, but theatre is my love.’

Looking ahead, he sees that connection becoming even more valuable. As technology reshapes how people consume entertainment, he suspects audiences may start seeking out something more human.

‘I think people will want to see humans up close,’ he says. ‘They’ll want to watch something unfold in front of them.’

‘Yeah, I have a prayer. I have a theory that, which coincides with the prayer, that, because of AI, theater will become even more successful.’

That instinct extends to the business side of theatre too. Debates around stunt casting have become more prominent in recent years, but Kind is pragmatic about it.

‘Young people will clamor to see a famous guy, even if the show sucks, but it’ll have a good run. Business is business. They call it show business! It’s business. They should stunt cast! Get people in the seats. Okay? Bottom line, get people in the seats!’

He doesn’t see it as a threat to actors, but as part of how the industry works. Big names bring audiences, and audiences keep productions alive, even if they are reality stars.

He seems almost offended at the implication that a reality star or influencer would give a bad West End performance, saying in his characteristically animated way: ‘You can’t just paint with a broad brush like that!’

He continues: ‘We don’t know that every reality star is going to come unprepared! I bet they would be more prepared because they’re terrified.’

For now, he is focused on stepping back into Max Bialystock’s world, fully aware of its contradictions and excesses.

The humour may sit differently in 2026, but in the right setting, with the right audience, he believes it still works exactly as it should.

See Richard Kind return to the West End stage to star in the major revival of Mel Brooks’ hit musical comedy The Producers at the Garrick Theatre from March 23, for a strictly limited seven-week run.

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It was always going to be a massive hit, but what does the success of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie mean for future Switch 2 games.

When the first Super Mario animated movie launched in 2023, it was met with a critical drubbing yet was so beloved by audiences that it became the most profitable film of the year and one of the highest grossing animated movies ever made.

Its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, has so far been met with even harsher reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes score is 42% compared to the first movie’s 59%), but that’s done nothing to deter fans or hamper its box office performance.

It only came out in cinemas yesterday (Wednesday, April 1) and has yet to release in Japan, but it’s not only have had a stronger opening than the first movie but the biggest opening day of any movie so far this year.

According to Deadline, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has made at least $34 million (£26 million) in its first day, which is more than the $31.7 million (£24 million) the original Mario movie made on its first day.

It’s also surpassed Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary’s opening day earnings, which made $33.1 million when it launched on March 19.

Deadline notes that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has also had the best April Wednesday opening of all time, which is an oddly specific record. The question now is what sort of legs the movie will have but with little in the way of competition in the next few weeks it’s likely to continue to do very well.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $1,360,847,665 (about £1.03 billion) by the end of 2023, making it the second highest grossing movie of the year behind the live action Barbie movie.

Currently, the highest grossing movie of 2026 is Chinese sports comedy Pegasus 3 at $632,040,000 (£479 million), with Project Hail Mary in second place at $330,412,913 (£250 million).

If The Super Mario Galaxy Movie makes as much money as its predecessor, that would handily make it one of the biggest movies of 2026. Distributor Universal Pictures is said to be forecasting the sequel will make $186 million (about £141 million) in its first five days.

That’s less than the $204.6 million (about £155 million) the first movie made in the same time frame, which suggests its total earnings, while likely still massive, won’t reach the same dizzying highs as the first movie.

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What will be interesting is what kind of impact the movie’s success will have on game sales. Nintendo purposefully re-released both Super Mario Galaxy games last year to drum up excitement for the movie, so they’ll no doubt see a bump in sales.

We won’t know until Nintendo shares a update itself, in a future financial report, but it’d make sense as Nintendo reported a boost in sales for Mario related games after the first movie came out.

Nintendo had a new Mario game prepped that year, in the form of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which was announced and launched several months after the movie.

Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Granted, Nintendo hasn’t shared firm plans for the second half of 2026, but it was recently rumoured that the next big Mario platformer isn’t until at least 2027.

Instead, the new movie does more to promote Star Fox, of all things, through protagonist Fox McCloud’s cameo, with a new Star Fox game reportedly planned for this summer.

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The Thursday letters page has initial fan reactions to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as one reader is annoyed that Sora and Pragmata are coming out at the same time.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Review in progress
I’m sure we’re probably only a month or too away from Sony officially announcing the PlayStation 6 now, just like Microsoft already has for the Xbox. I’m not going to bother saying I think it’s too soon because I think that’s almost everyone’s opinion.

The PlayStation 5 still selling so well makes it seem extra unnecessary, but it did make think what the legacy of the console will be. For me the PlayStation 4 was Sony’s best console, thanks to its great games line-up, so I’d give it a solid 9/10.

But what about the PlayStation 5? For me personally it’s no more than 5/10, maybe less. There has been great games on it but Sony hasn’t had much to do with most of those and most seem like they could’ve just been PlayStation 4 games.

Am I being too harsh? Curious to know what other readers think as I realise that’s quite a drop.
Purple Ranger

Subliminal marketing
Just seen The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I already don’t believe a word about not building up to a Smash Bros. film. No spoilers, but let’s just say the Fox McCloud cameo is not the only one that comes out of nowhere.

The amount of time spent on Star Fox kind of surprised me though. There is no way they aren’t building up to a new game reveal. That whole bit was basically an ad for a game that hasn’t been announced yet. Although I’m perfectly happy with that.

I thought the film was good, at least in terms of pleasing kids and Nintendo fans (i.e. me). The story’s very basic but I was surprised that all the characters got a little chance to shine, even though there’s a lot more heroes than the first one. My kids loved it.
Penfold

Portable games for portable consoles
The idea of a PlayStation 6 (or more likely PlayStation 5) handheld sounds all well and good but I sincerely doubt that Sony is going to make or encourage games that are exclusive to it, which means you’ll only ever be playing the same home games on a handheld.

I know some people like this, but I’ve never really seen the appeal. I’m not that desperate that I need to still be playing on the train and even if it’s in bed or something I’d rather just set up a TV there, it’s not much effort.

Am I the only one that only likes to make games made for a portable? That’s how it was for the PSP and PS Vita after all.
Gauntlett

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Out of control
I am an avid fighting game fan and have been enjoying Street Fighter 6 and the recent release of Virtua Fighter 5 on Switch 2 (it plays fantastically well, by the way). However, when playing in handheld mode I find the Joy-Cons, especially the L and R buttons, way too easy to accidently hit and cause the wrong move to come out in a match.

Nintendo designed the L and R buttons to be longer and extend round the side of the Joy-Con. This design choice means I frequently make input mistakes. Am I the only person experiencing this? Nintendo seem to celebrate the design choice, but it removed handhled play for me with some games. Using a Pro Controller in desktop mode is a workaround but it would be good to be able to pick up and play in my hands sometimes. Have you in GC has this issue?
Bristolpete

GC: Not really but the Joy-Cons are a jack of all trades, master of none type situation. So there’s always going to be some games where they’re not very well suited.

A game of two halves
I don’t know about a backlash for Resident Evil Requiem, because I don’t think there’s any doubting it’s a good game. But I do think it’s been overrated and the way it gets worse the longer you play it is very disappointing.

What I find interesting though is a comment GC made where they said that the second half in Resident Evil games is almost always the worst. And it’s true! The problem is that most of the time that always involves some kind of underground laboratory and at that point all the gothic horror goes out the window.

Mind you, I think they were trying to avoid that in Village and I don’t think it worked. Probably because that one was just okay all the way through.
Grinch

Ring out
I don’t know what’s going on with the rights exactly, but The Lord of the Rings seems to be having its Star Wars sequel trilogy moment right now, where they’re just churning out any old rubbish because they’re desperate for content and they know they’ve already done all the obvious stuff, so they’re just throwing things at the wall in desperation.

You’ve got the awful Amazon series, the deeply uninteresting sounding Hunt for Gollum movie, and almost every video game ever made since the movies were out.

Now we’ve got rumours of the Tomb Raider people making a game, which has got to mean it’s an action game, because they’ve never done anything else (also, you would’ve thought they’d be too busy with the new Tomb Raider).

A Lord of the Rings game should be about strategy and dialogue, not trying to turn it into a Dark Souls clones or whatever it is that Crystal Dynamics are planning.

In terms of action, what everyone remembers from the films is the epic battles on a huge scale. I don’t think there was any on-on-one combat that was particularly memorable, unless you count Gandalf vs. Saurman.

The Shadow Of Mordor games were okay in themselves but they weren’t really anything like the movies and definitely nothing like the book. It’s not a question of getting the visuals or the lore right, you’ve got to let the game match up with the nature of the source material and I don’t think any Lord of the Rings game has really done that.
Focus

Extinction event
In Wednesday’s Inbox, Solabound said, ‘Also, I echo the reader’s sentiment that Sony have just removed any chance of me buying into a PlayStation 5 or 6; I’ll be very surprised if that isn’t the death knell of the traditional home console industry.’

I made very accurate predictions about the PlayStation 7 and the future of gaming that other readers in the Underbox simply scoffed at, at the time.
LeeDappa

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Bad timing
A useful summary of the most interesting game for April but I do find it interesting how which months are busy now seems to have become completely random. It used to be that November was busiest, ahead of Christmas, then Easter (because kids are off the longest) then just a bit run-off early in the year from games that missed their spot.

Now it seems a big game can come out at anytime of the year. I think that’s for the best, as everything coming out at once doesn’t help anyone and it stops video games seeming like just a kid’s toy, even if Christmas is never not going to be the busiest time.

For April I’m most interested in Pargmata and Sora, which both seem to have something in common with each other, as old school third person shooters, that seem to require quite a bit of skill to play.

I assume them both coming out at the same time is just a coincidence but it’s odd how often that happens. We haven’t seen anything like them for what seems like years and yet, just like buses, here are two of them at the same time.

It may seem like just a meaningless quirk of fate but it’s actually more important than that because I can’t afford to get both at once, so I’m going to have to wait for the reviews and make my decision then, which might not have happened if they’d come out a bit more spread apart.
Grant

Inbox also-rans
Having just seen the new Super Mario movie (which I thought was all right) I don’t believe for a minute that Nintendo isn’t building up to Smash Bros. There’s a cameo near the end that makes absolutely no sense otherwise.
Lawton

Just came back from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure it makes much sense if you’re a non-fan but the big surprise is that Star Fox is in it quite a bit and I thought that worked really well.
Xama

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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Actor Billy Porter warned Saturday that the wave of “performative wokeness” may have come to an end as many arts jobs have dried up with it.

The Emmy-winning actor, known for appearing as a gender-neutral Fairy Godmother in “Cinderella,” spoke to Rev. Al Sharpton on MS NOW about the shifting landscape of the entertainment industry.

“As a Black, gay, out artist, I caught the wave of what we now know as performative wokeness,” Porter said on “PoliticsNation.” “I caught the wave of being in the center of that very progressive space. And I crashed through glass ceilings that were concrete.”

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Billy Porter spoke onstage at an event hosted by the Committee for the First Amendment on March 27, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Committee for the First Amendment)

Porter also attended a rally outside the Trump-Kennedy Center as part of the “No Kings” demonstrations over the weekend. The venue recently underwent a name change when the Kennedy Center board voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts center, drawing criticism from some artists and cultural figures.

Protesters at the event claimed the Trump administration’s policies pose a threat to artists’ First Amendment rights. Porter was joined by other celebrity activists, including Joan Baez and Jane Fonda.

Porter noted that following a peak in progressive projects, he has seen a clear change in the culture and his own career prospects.

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Billy Porter attended the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards at the Royal Festival Hall on May 11, 2025, in London, England. (Jeff Spicer/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)

“I have noticed the opportunities slowly drying up for the work that I do,” Porter said.

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“The Midwest CBS shows and the cop shows all of that stuff still exists, but when it’s time to talk about heart, when it’s time to talk about connection and when it’s time to talk about people that don’t look like everybody else, those of us who are on the margins. There’s not a lot of that going on right now. There’s not a lot of that work going on right now,” he said, urging activists to “stay vigilant.”

The actor and musician accused the Trump administration of attacking the arts, saying “authoritarian governments go after the arts first.”

Billy Porter introduced Elton John during the 2024 “A Year in TIME” dinner at Current at Chelsea Piers on Dec. 11, 2024, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for TIME)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

He said the arts can change people, adding, “That is dangerous for fascists, and they know it. And that’s why they attack us first.”

A veteran of the stage and screen, Porter is known for appearing in the FX series “Pose” and is set to appear in “The Hunger Games” spin-off “Sunrise on the Reaping.” He also appeared on Broadway, winning a Tony Award in 2013 for “Kinky Boots.”

After Square Enix prevented the game from being reviewed before launch, a passionate fan of Life Is Strange gives her opinion of what may be the last entry in the series.

It’s a strange cosmic space to occupy, being both a Pricefielder, who sacrificed Arcadia Bay in the first game to stay with Chloe and a gamer largely unsatisfied with the frictionless writing of Reunion, the game expected to be the death knell of the franchise for Square Enix and developer Deck Nine.

After the critical flop of Double Exposure, insider gossip suggests that Deck Nine shifted their plans for Reunion. So perhaps we will never truly know how much of Chloe’s return was planned and why Square Enix previously took such a hard line approach to shutting down fan criticism of her absence in Double Exposure.

What the rumours also suggest is that many of Deck Nine’s developers were laid off as the project wrapped up. The combination of a short development schedule (Double Exposure was only 2024), reduced staff, and a possible story pivot has led to a game that would have perhaps been better suited as an apology DLC, à la Mass Effect 3’s Citadel DLC.

The studio (and/or Square Enix) has made the decision that this curtain call should be a love letter to Max and Chloe – the heroines and potential lovers from the original game – while hoping that nostalgia will make up for the disappointments of Double Exposure. Chloe’s return is certainly a welcome change from the Avengers style team-up that the ending of Double Exposure seemed to be hinting at. Although retconning the ending of Double Exposure as Max’s ‘Storm Amnesia’ is a bad way of doing it.

If you’ve ever been in a lesbian situationship, you will be familiar with elongated conversations about each other’s feelings and extended, longing handholding. Rest assured, the title delivers firmly on this premise. There’re also some fun Easter eggs available via Max’s time-rewinding superpower, which makes for a fun touch of extra detail.

The game shines when you get to play as Chloe, who is as outspoken as ever, but now with a decade of extra lived experiences, leading to some funny interactions with pre-established characters in the town of Lakeview.

However, Deck Nine’s attempt to fix the damage caused by Double Exposure unfortunately doesn’t change the fact that the game is still its sequel, so it continues to struggle with many of the same problems.

An average playthrough takes around nine hours and is missing the chapter structure Life is Strange fans will be accustomed to. The reduction in scope plays out across the limited mechanics, with very few proper quick time events, let alone any action sequences that aren’t pre-rendered cinematics. I established very early on that you could walk away from the controller without fear of messing up a quick time event or interrupting the flow of a scene.

Chloe’s much advertised backtalk feature, where she’s able to bamboozle antagonists and talk her way out of trouble, appears a mere three times and is a shadow of what could have been. It’s lovely to return to Max’s rewind powers, even if their use is a little limited in places, but it does lead to some narrative inconsistencies.

Locations in-game are incredibly limited and are mostly sections of locations already seen in Double Exposure. There’s a lot of those moments throughout the game, where we are given an off-screen hint at things that would have been really cool to see play out on a grander scale.

The game does shine when it is allowed to do things without reference to Double Exposure. The Abraxus house section is certainly the most well-designed section of the game, feeling like a return to form for the franchise. The game is at its darkest here, and the split perspective between Max and Chloe works well, despite the continued issue of a lack of player agency.

Reuniting Chloe and Max is the game’s saving grace. However, I can only wonder whether any of this was even necessary. In my playthrough of the original game I left Chloe and Max racing off into the sunset together – having to piece back together their lives in the fallout of Max’s decision, rightly or wrongly, to sacrifice the Bay.

Unfortunately, having also played the version where Chloe died in the school bathroom, I can say that the story here is weak – Max’s reactions are noticeably reduced to the bare minimum that can be reused across both timelines.

The game’s retconning of the core ideas and lessons of the original is its biggest crime. In Life is Strange, regardless of your final choice, we learn, alongside Max, that even superpowers cannot fix everything. Grappling with the topic of evil and moral choices is what made it so compelling, leading to the continued debate between Arcadia Bay-ers and Ba-ers over the last 10 years of fandom.

But now there is no debate, because Max can have her cake and eat it.

Reunion’s writing establishes a universe where anything is theoretically possible. Could Max simply jump into a childhood photo and save Rachel? The consequences of her time travel and the butterfly effect seems to have been solved and sidelined in Reunion. The way to prevent the collapse of the space/time continuum is to merely think it away.

The merging of timelines creates a paradox, so that Chloe and Safi both simultaneously exist and don’t exist. It’s established that merely thinking about this causes the two to be transported into the Overlight – a dream place where they blink out of existence for a few seconds. The fact that this is solved by the power of ‘not thinking about it’ may feel a little unsatisfying.

Meanwhile, Safi is reduced to a strange pantomime villain role, no longer on her mission to find other people with superpowers, but popping up periodically to confuse Max. Her pressing concern is that she believes herself to be half-dead, revelling in the nihilism of her semi-existence and attempting to bring down Chloe with her. Unfortunately, I found myself agreeing with her at many points in the game.

I’m not sure if it was a deliberate message by an upset developer, or divine intervention, but Safi is the character that sums it all up, late on in the game, lamenting that ‘All of us have the seeds of our deaths planted inside of us. But I’m trying not to focus on mine while I still have a life left to live.’

Unfortunately for the Life Is Strange franchise, the seeds of its death were sown long, before this final entry, and this attempted quick fix, to get things back on track, isn’t nearly good enough to achieve that goal.

Whilst ultimately an underdeveloped entry, it does make for a loving send off for Max Caulfield. Unfortunately, being another weak entry, it may also play that role for the franchise itself.

Score: 5/10

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £44.99
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Deck Nine
Release Date: 26th March 2026
Age Rating: 16

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“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” alum Nate Richert had a rare reunion with his TV co-stars.

The ’90s heartthrob, who portrayed Harvey Kinkle, snapped a photo with his on-screen love interest, Melissa Joan Hart, and Beth Broderick, per an Instagram photo on Tuesday.

Kinkle, 47, smirked while posing alongside the duo in a hat and a button-up.

“When the magic fam comes together!” Hart, who played the role of Sabrina Spellman, captioned the snap.

While Broderick, who took on the role of Sabrina’s aunt Zelda Spellman, was in attendance, actress Caroline Rhea, who played Sabrina’s other aunt Hilda Spellman, wasn’t.

Fans gushed over the reunion, with one writing, “OMG this so ICONIC 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍.”

“Harvey, Sabrina, and Aunt Zelda!! ❤️❤️❤️,” another wrote.

The castmates have seemingly kept close ties and were last publicly seen together at dinner in March 2024.

That same month, the trio came together to attend ’90s Con.

“Sabrina the Teenage Witch” aired for seven seasons from 1996 to 2003.

Richert, meanwhile, stepped away from the limelight after the hit series concluded.

The former actor has recently kept busy with his “The Nate and Curtis Podcast” alongside his co-host, Curtis Andersen. The latter, who portrayed Gordie, was a recurring character in the series.

According to the Daily Mail, Richert revealed in 2018 that he was juggling several jobs, including as a janitor.

“I’m extremely lucky to have had any success at all, let alone solid work in film and TV for six years (20 years ago),” he previously wrote on X. “I’m currently a maintenance man, a janitor, a carpenter and do whatever random jobs I can get to pay the bills.”

Additionally, Richert posts sketch comedy clips on social media.