Netflix’s ’80s-hued fantasy phenomenon Stranger Things has, in particularly timely fashion, made its way to Minecraft in the form of a new skins pack.
The Stranger Things Skins Pack, to give it its full name, launched earlier today on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC. Its arrival coincides with the release of Stranger Things’ highly anticipated second season on Netflix.
“Hold onto your long blonde wigs, kids,” barked Minecraft developer Mojang as it celebrated the news, “because the whole cast is here! Break into a classified facility with Hopper, kick off some Dungeons and Dragons with Mike or heck, why not go totally telekinetic with Eleven?” There’s even an announcement trailer if you fancy a game of ‘Guess which beloved Stranger Things character is represented by this particular collection of squares’.
For a complete list of characters included in the pack – there are over 50 skins in total, inspired by both seasons – you can visit the official Minecraft blog. However, Mojang does warn that there may be mild Season Two spoilers in there.
Anyone whose interests lie at the centre of the Venn diagram labelled “spooky ’80s nostalgia” and “block-based survival” can pick up the Stranger Things Skin Pack for £2.49.
The excitement around Stranger Things season 2 has been building for months. We’ve seen soundtracks, merchandise and all kinds of promo tie-ins with other companies along the way. As the show returns this week, the buzz is already so high that reviews probably won’t even matter — people will binge it anyway. It also helps that the first season was both really good and seemed to be really popular, despite the company not releasing any numbers. The Ringer takes a look at how Netflix creates the feeling of must-see TV even though we might not ever find out how popular its shows really are.
Minecraft has partnered with Netflix to create a new set of skins based on the Stranger Things series. The skin pack is available for download right now, and we’ve included the video trailer above.
The skin pack is surprisingly comprehensive, and includes characters and outfits from both the first and second seasons of Stranger Things. Perhaps the most unsettling is the demogorgon, which features both an open and a puckered set of toothy, viscous mandibles.
Minecraft players who love the upside down of Stranger Things have a new skin pack to acquire. It’s available now in concert with the new season of the hit retro-horror show on Netflix. It looks like the whole cast is represented as a Minecraft character, including Hopper, Mike, Eleven, Dustin, Lucas and Will.
Stick around to the end of that trailer and you’ll see the Minecraft skin for that scary monster from the alternate universe, too. The skin pack is ready for purchase now on all “Bedrock” versions of Minecraft (which means mobile, Windows 10, and Xbox One for now) for $3 or 490 coins in the Minecraft Marketplace.
Minecraft [$6.99] is so huge that it has captured almost every corner of pop culture—toys, games, novels—and today we got an announcement about a new endeavor from those behind the huge franchise: a YouTube miniseries. Specifically, we are getting a Mattel miniseries based on the company’s Minecraft Mini-Figures. Challenge of the Spooky Isles, as the miniseries is titled, is all about a Hunger Games-like contest where ten crafters are teleported to a strange island and have to survive the crazy challenges while also settling their rivalries. As you can see from the trailer, the miniseries is definitely geared towards a younger audience, but I’ll still watch it because I enjoy pretty much anything Minecraft. And I do like the way they managed to keep the blockiness and still make it cute.
The miniseries will consist of 8 episodes, with the first one launching this Thursday on the Mattel Action YouTube channel. Will it be fun to watch? It does seem to be focused a bit too much on the killing things part of Minecraft, which isn’t personally my favorite part of the game, but if you like Minecraft, you’ll probably enjoy the series, especially if you’re a younger player. Next stop for Minecraft? Possibly TV.
The Wii U version of Minecraft was basically put out to pasture when it wasn’t included in the “Better Together” cross-play update. In summation, any version of the game that retains the “Edition” moniker will be limited to its own platform, while everything else can play together. Notable exceptions include PS4, Vita, and of course, Wii U.
This led to a lot of people naturally upgrading on Switch (where Better Together works), but they had to leave their save files behind. Well, that changes this week, as Nintendo has implemented a cross-save transfer from Wii U to the newest Nintendo generation. Just load the game up on Wii U, select your save, select transfer, then import it on Switch.
I never really got into the Wii U version (I kept playing Xbox One and only dabbled in the new Mario sandbox), but if I did, this would be a nice concession. Provided that you’re okay with eating the cost to upgrade of course.
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