Popverse's top stories of the day

• The 2025 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award nominees are out, and it's a good year for Fantagraphics Books, Wonder Woman writer Tom King, and (of course) comics in general
• MEMBERS ONLY: For Your Consideration: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Scream perfected the horror sequel years before Final Destination: Bloodlines
• WATCH NOW: How to be a D&D Dungeon Master, according to Wizards of the Coast's game director James Wyatt and principal game designer James Wyatt

Look, I get it. Dating today is hard. And it can feel even more pointless when you're a gamer and you'd rather be at home working your way up the ranks in competitive Marvel Rivals. But guys, creating unofficial dating apps around Nintendo properties is not the answer. Because, among other things, Nintendo will hit you with a cease-and-desist. 

This is what happened to a "premium dating site for Super Smash Bros enjoyers of all kinds" called, I kid you not, SmashTogether. SmashTogether (I can't even say this in my head without laughing) pitched itself as a place to "meet your dream Doubles partner (in and out of Smash)" with some help from their "robust matchmaking algorithm, tailored to connect you with your ideal Smash Partner." Okay, so would their algorithm have taken into account that I main Chrom and hit the same combos over and over again because they're fun to look at? Or that sometimes I pick Sephiroth when playing with friends just because I like looking at him?

We'll never know the answers to these questions, which is perfectly fine with me, because SmashTogether got hit with a cease-and-desist message from Nintendo. They announced the news in the funniest possible way on the site that used to be called Twitter, though I'm sure it wasn't a laughing matter for them. The app had announced its open beta on May 11, and announced that it got hit with a cease-and-desist 2 days later. SmashTogether had been in development for almost a year. The development time makes you wonder why the creators of the app wouldn't just have invested their time in working on a dating app for gamers instead of building an app around an intellectual property they don't own?

Well, there you have it folks. If you were hoping to join SmashTogether, might I suggest going to a Smash tournament in your area? Or attending one of the PAX shows? 

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.