Recent Articles: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire lead 2012 BAFTAs with 8 noms each

Posted on February 16, 2012 by John Scalzo

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced the nominees for the 2012 BAFTA Video Game Awards. In all, 48 games were nominated in 18 categories including four new awards for this year: “Debut Game,” “Online – Browser,” “Online – Multiplayer,” and “Performer.”

Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire garnered the most nominations from the BAFTA board with eight apiece. Several other games have a chance to win big when the awards are handed out on March 16 including Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (six nominations), LittleBigPlanet 2 (also six), Portal 2 (five), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (five), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (four).

Arkham City, Skyrim, L.A. Noire, and Portal 2 will be competing for the prestigious “Best Game” award along with FIFA Soccer 12 amd The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Finally, voting for the BAFTA’s yearly audience participation award, The GAME Award, is now online at BAFTAGAMEAward.com.

Hit the jump for a complete list of all the nominees. (more…)

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Seven Ways The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Made Me Crazy

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent

Having played every console entry in the Legend of Zelda series, I was as giddy as a school girl meeting Justin Bieber when I unwrapped The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on Christmas Day. While at first it proved to be the standard Zelda fare, including swordplay, shields, dungeons, and the lovely Zelda herself (sporting some sexy new bangs), I had a growing sense of frustration at some of the new features, degrading my love of all things Zelda. These grew and grew until I was hurling my Wiimote at the TV, wondering why Nintendo would implement these annoying features in their flagship RPG. (more…)

Posted in Opinions, Top Story, Wii | Tagged

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review: Motion-Controlling Hyrule’s Destiny

Posted on January 19, 2012 by John Llewellyn Martin

2011 was definitely the Year of Zelda. The franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary with symphonies, re-releases of previous Zelda games on handhelds, a swanky display in the Nintendo World Store in New York City, and the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It is the first true console Zelda game since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and was promised to take full advantage of the Wii’s capabilities. With the addition of the Wii MotionPlus support, does Skyward Sword live up to all of the hype? Or will we wish to play the Song of Time and be whisked away to an era of better Zelda games? (more…)

Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii | Tagged

3DS sells 4 million in 2011; New Mario Party, Pokemon announced

Posted on January 3, 2012 by John Scalzo

It’s no secret that the 3DS is not selling as well as Nintendo would like…

Sorry, wrong article. That was actually the opening sentence to our news report on the 3DS’s August price drop. Needless to say, it doesn’t quite apply on the third day of 2012, as Nintendo has announced that they sold four million 3DS handhelds in the US in 2011.

Besides the sales turnaround of their newest portable system, Nintendo had a very good year last year. Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land became the first games to sell a million copies on the 3DS while The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword also pushed a million on the Wii.

To ensure that the 3DS continues printing money, Nintendo wasted no time in announcing that two of their biggest franchises, Mario Party and Pokemon, will make the jump to the handheld in the near future.

The word “duh” comes to mind. As does the word “cha-ching.”

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The Golden Pixel Awards 2011: Gaming’s Best, Worst, and Everything Else

Posted on December 29, 2011 by Warp Zoned Staff

Welcome to Warp Zoned’s first ever Golden Pixel Awards. Sit back and relax as we reward the best (and worst) games of 2011 with accolades based on their rather unique accomplishments.

The Apocalypse List

The bombs have fallen, the zombies have horded, food is scarce, and you’ve boarded yourself up in a bunker that’ll stand for a hundred years. What better way to spend your time in “The Vault” than by playing Warp Zoned’s favorite games from 2011? It doesn’t matter if you call it a “Top Ten List” or “Our Favorites From 2011,” but these are the games we plan to keep playing even if there was no game industry to keep making games. (more…)

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Minecraft tops Time Magazine’s top 10 video games of 2011

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Time Magazine has announced their “Top 10 Everything of 2011″ lists, which of course contains a list of video games. Did your favorite games of this year make the list? Number 10…

10. Battlefield 3
9. Sword & Sworcery
8. Dark Souls
7. The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim
6. Bastion
5. Batman: Arkham City
4. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
3. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
2. Portal 2
1. Minecraft

My favorite game of 2011, Dead Space 2, did not make that list – nor have I seen it on any other lists. That’s what happens when games get released at the beginning of the year, I suppose. Ah well. For full commentary, check out the Time Magazine article.

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Skyrim wins Game of the Year at 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards

Posted on December 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s seems like we’ve been hearing about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim non-stop since the game’s release on November 11. Apparently, the Spike TV Video Game Awards Advisory Panel took all that chatter to heart as they awarded Bethesda’s RPG masterpiece their Game of the Year award last night. Not surprsingly, Skyrim took home Best RPG and Bethesda was awarded Studio of the Year as well.

However, the big winner of the night was Portal 2. Valve’s full-fledged retail sequel to the surprise hit Portal took home five VGAs including Best PC Game, Best Multiplayer, Best Performance by a Human Male & Female, and Best DLC.

Another big winner, believe it or not, was Bastion. The Supergiant Games-developed action RPG won for Best Downloadable Game, Best Original Score, and Best Song (“Build That Wall”). Congratulations to everyone at Supergiant, you deserved each and every one of those wins.

Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword each won two VGAs.

The complete list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)

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3DS sells more in first 8 months than DS did in first year

Posted on December 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

I think Black Friday needs a new name. And after their sales success in November, I think Nintendo agrees with me. Long live Green (as in money) Friday!

The Big N sold over two million consoles and handhelds last month, of which almost 800,000 were 3DS systems. Since it’s launch in late March, nearly 2.5 million 3DS systems have been sold. That total pushes it past the DS, which sold 2.37 million systems in its first year. Pretty impressive for a “failed” launch.

Several other sales milestones were set during the month of Nintenovember…

  • Super Mario 3D Land: 625,000 copies sold, making it the fastest-selling portable Super Mario title in U.S. history.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: 600,000 copies sold in its first week.
  • Wii System: 520,000 consoles sold on Black Friday, a new record for the five-year old console.

That’s right, it still prints money. Along with the rest of Nintendo’s 2011 lineup.

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