Pokemon cards have been around since 1996 and have always been a fairly popular collectible. However it’s safe to say that their popularity has made a massive resurgence in recent years. Collectors and scalpers have begun buying up as many packs as they can find. Whether it’s to build their decks or to sell off the cards at a higher price. Some stores even saw people lining up outside before open to buy up their stock of Pokemon cards. So why would McDonald’s be any different?

The Pokemon Cards of McDonald’s 2021

Pokemon already teamed up with McDonald’s last year in order to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary. For the collaboration McDonald’s distributed Pokemon cards within their Happy Meals, a nice alternative to the usual plastic toy. There were 25 cards in the set being the 24 starter Pokemon, across all 8 generations of the franchise, and Pikachu. However each card also had a holographic version increasing the number total cards to 50.

This of course meant that there were some cards more rare and more valuable then others, which brought problems. Collectors and scalpers in the US immediately began buying as many Happy Meals as they could to get their hands on the cards. The demand created a shortage of cards to distribute in Happy Meals leaving many kids who just wanted a neat card with their McDonald’s left with nothing. Meanwhile scalpers were reselling the cards online to other Pokemon card collectors.

This issue got so bad that when the promotion later came to the UK they had to implement restrictions. McDonald’s restaurants were limiting the number of additional toys and cards customers could get to one per customer. This meant that people buying multiple Happy Meals to get the cards would not get a Pokemon card for every individual Happy Meal they ordered. This restrictions help to prevent the shortage issues.

McDonald’s Brings Pokemon Back for 2022

After the popularity of 2021’s Pokemon promotion is appears that McDonald’s have partnered with the franchise again for 2022. The promotion is being referred to as Match Battle and will feature new toys and cards in its Happy Meal. Customers and Pokemon fans will be able to get a pack of four Pokemon cards, a special Pokemon coins and Pokemon themed spinners with their Happy Meals. The Happy Meal box itself also now has a Pikachu designs complete with pop up ears.

McDonald’s are looking to avoid the issues that they had with last years promotion to make sure there is enough for everyone. McDonald’s restaurants everywhere will be implementing the same restrictions used by the UK branch during the 2021 promotion. Once again customers will not be able to receive more than one set of additional toys and cards by purchasing multiple Happy Meals. This will prevent people from buying many Happy Meals just for the toys reducing concerns about wasted food. It will help to stop the shortage issue from last year happening again.

The Cards Available In 2022

Of course the biggest question on every collector’s mind is what Pokemon cards are available this year? The 2022 Match Battle set is smaller that the previous 2021 set with only 15 unique cards. However once again every card also has a holographic version increasing the total to 30. The only two returning Pokemon from last year’s promotion are Pikachu and Rowlett who appear on new cards for the new set. Every other card features a Pokemon that was not present in last year’s promotion. The full list of new Pokemon is: Chinchou, Cutiefly, Growlithe, Flaaffy, Gossifleur, Victini, Tynamo, Lapras, Ledyba, Smeargle, Drampa, Pangoro and Bewear.

Of course with the return of holographic cards there are still some that are more valuable than others. Once again collectors and scalpers will most likely be trying to their hands on the more rare cards of the set. However, with the restriction in place there is no longer a concern about them buying out the whole stock. Overall 2022’s promotion is looking to be more enjoyable for the casual consumer and Pokemon fan than the previous year’s.

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The post Pokemon Cards Return To McDonald’s first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Final Fantasy XIV inspired cake anyone?

Final Fantasy XIV is celebrating its 8th anniversary this year and they have gone all out on the celebrations by hiring a familiar face to bake the celebratory cake.

Square Enix gave Kim-Joy, someone you might recognise from the only slightly popular show The Great British Bake Off, the challenging task of baking the cake and it’s fair to say she succeeded. She was a finalist back in 2018 and has since become a professional baker and has published her own baking book, along with being a frequent columnist for The Guardian.

Final Fantasy IV Cake

So what is the cake Kim-Joy baked to celebrate the massively multiplayer online role-playing game?

Kim-Joy used her incredible skills to create a lovingly layered vanilla cake topped with a massive (and edible) Moogle centrepiece, with plenty of Chocobos, Cactuar and Spriggans decorating the cake’s tiers.

She uses plenty of buttercreams, food dye, mochi, biscuit dough, bread dough, and edible gemstones to make this creation really come to life.

The official Final Fantasy XIV YouTube page uploaded a montage of Kim-Joy’s handiwork and how she went about making the cake, along with the mochi Spriggans, biscuit Cactuar and bread Chocobos.

Final Fantasy XIV has already had an incredible year so far, with the game becoming so popular it sold out of digital copies, and there is plenty of content still to come with the Endwalker expansion set to release on November 23 worldwide.

If you want to try making your own Final Fantasy inspired food, there is The Ultimate Final Fantasy Cookbook coming your way on November 9. Sadly though, this cake won’t be featured in it, but there are plenty of other delicious dishes for you to try out such as the Coffee Biscuits and the Dodo Omelette.

Grab these voucher codes for our website for some discounts! Offers must end on September 3rd!

Use BACK2SCHOOL – For 5% off all Pixie Crew stock!

Use MOON10 – For 10% off Harvest Moon: One World (Switch)

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Use TOON5 – For 5% off Splatoon 2 (Switch)

The post Final Fantasy XIV: GBBO Star Bakes Spectacular Cake For 8th Anniversary first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Let’s get that bread…

Everybody loves a gaming-themed home appliance. A personal favourite of mine was the “Jugger-Nog Mini Fridge” which released alongside Black Ops 3. For Destiny fans a new must-have home appliance has become available for pre-order in the form of a Destiny-themed Toaster.

Last year, Bungie announced that if the Destiny community was able to raise around $800,000 USD for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital then they would release an official Destiny-themed toaster. Well, the community did in fact hit this target and now this exciting bit of gear is set to hit the streets.

The Toaster is made in reference to the frequently used term “let’s get this bread” by Destiny players during loot runs and the Jötunn rifle itself being nicknamed a toaster.

Get that bread, Guardian.
The Destiny Toaster is now available for pre-order on the Bungie Store.

🍞https://t.co/PkT7JDH9S7 pic.twitter.com/qQOashWywT

— Bungie Store (@BungieStore) June 17, 2021

The Destiny-themed toaster excitingly burns a Tricorn emblem into your bread, which means making toast has never been done with so much style. For any hardcore Destiny fans out there this is a must buy.

The toaster itself is retailing at $85 direct from the Bungie Store and it comes with a free container for all your Destiny-themed sandwiches. Additionally, you’ll also receive a free Destiny 2 in-game Burnt Edges emblem.

Notably, 10 percent of the purchase proceeds will again go to St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Shipping of the product is expected to commence between December and January. It’s almost time to get that bread.

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The post Official Destiny-themed toaster available for pre-order first appeared on Get2Gaming.