Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Minit, The Adventure Pals, Dangun Feveron added to Xbox Store
A trio of retro-styled adventures are now available to download for the Xbox One through the Xbox Games Store.
First up is Minit, a minimalist take on the Zelda formula that’s played sixty seconds at a time. Also available to download today is The Adventure Pals, a side-scrolling platformer, and Dangun Feveron, a vertically-scrolling shooter that slots nicely into the “bullet hell” subgenre.
You can learn more about all three games after the break. (more…)
Penny-Punching Princess, Minit, Impact Winter, more coming to PS Store this week
You gotta be quick if you want to stay on top of this week’s PlayStation Store update.
Leading the way is Minit, a Zelda-like adventure for the PS4 that players have to complete sixty seconds at a time. Also available to download now is NIS America’s Penny-Punching Princess, an isometric brawler for the PS Vita with a retro-styled look.
Retro gaming fans might also be intrigued by The King of Fighters ’97: Global Match, a PS4 and PS Vita remake of the popular one-on-one fighter. KOF 97 will be available this Thursday, as will Impact Winter, a new PS4 game from Bandai Namco that asks players to survive for as long as they can.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Penny-Punching Princess
WB Games will publish Hitman: Definitive Edition on May 15
IO Interactive separated themselves from Square Enix about a year ago, and today they teamed up with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to publish a Definitive Edition of Hitman for the PS4 and Xbox One.
The Hitman: Definitive Edition will be available on retail shelves on May 15. In addition to including all previously-released content and game updates, the Definitive Edition will also feature a new Outfit Bundle inspired by classic IO Interactive titles:
Hitman: Definitive Edition Content and Features
- Hitman: Season One (Main Game) – Seven exotic locations from the first season, including Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado and Hokkaido, along with the ICA Facility
- Hitman: Game of the Year Edition Content – Four missions from the Patient Zero Campaign, three themed Escalation Contracts that unlock three unique weapons, as well as the Clown Suit, Cowboy Suit, and Raven Suit from the recent Game of the Year Edition digital release
- All Game Updates – Featured Contracts, Escalation Contracts, and Challenge Packs from Hitman: Season One and the Hitman: Game of the Year Edition
- Hitman: Summer Bonus Episode – Featuring ICA bonus missions in Sapienza and Marrakesh
- Hitman: Blood Money Requiem Pack – Including the Requiem Suit, Pale Duck Explosive and ICA Chrome Pistol
- IO Interactive’s 20th Anniversary Outfit Bundle – Three new outfits inspired by Freedom Fighters, Kane & Lynch, and Mini Ninjas
The Hitman: Definitive Edition will also support enhanced visuals and performance improvements on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.
Chasm will come to the PC, PS4, and Vita this Summer
After more than five years in development, developer Bit Kid is finally ready to release Chasm on the PC, PS4, and Vita this Summer. If you’re unfamiliar with Chasm, it’s a MetroidVania that asks players to take control of a young knight on his first adventure. Together, you’ll explore a procedurally-generated world stitched together from a batch of pre-built rooms:
Welcome to Chasm, an action-adventure game in which you play a new recruit undertaking your first mission for the Guildean Kingdom. Thrilled to prove your worth as a knight, you track strange rumors that a mine vital to the Kingdom has been shut down. But what you discover in the mining town is worse than you imagined: The townspeople have begun to disappear, kidnapped by supernatural creatures emerging from the depths.
Honor-bound to solve the mystery and restore peace to the Kingdom, you embark upon an epic adventure, with deadly battles against cunning monsters, exploration of ancient catacombs and castles, and powerful new equipment hidden at every turn. Though the overall story is the same for all players, your hero’s journey will be unique: each of the rooms has been hand-designed, and behind the scenes Chasm stitches these rooms together into a one-of-a-kind world map that will be your own.
Bit-Kid’s James Petruzzi talked a bit more about Chasm’s development process on the PlayStation Blog, and a new trailer for the distinctly retro-styled game has been embedded above.
Viz Media will publish a Dragon Quest Illustrations artbook this December
I think it’s safe to say that the Dragon Quest franchise wouldn’t be quite as popular as it is without Akira Toriyama’s colorful character designs. Going all the way back to the franchise’s debut in 1986, the Dragon Ball creator’s unique style has helped the series stand out in the crowded RPG genre.
Late last week, Viz Media announced an English release of Dragon Quest Illustrations: 30th Anniversary Edition, an artbook that compiles a large number of Toriyama’s sketches and drawings for the series. Writing on Twitter, the publisher said that it’ll be available this December for a retail price of $34.99.
True to its title, Dragon Quest Illustrations will include an archive of Akira Toriyama’s “iconic illustrations and designs” from Dragon Quest titles released from 1986 through 2016.
Owlboy will fly onto the PS4 and Xbox One on April 10
Owlboy originally made its PC debut in 2017, before landing on the Nintendo Switch’s digital storefront in February. Yesterday, D-Pad Studio announced (via Twitter) that the side-scrolling platformer will finally be available to download for the PS4 and Xbox One on April 10:
#Owlboy will be hitting #PS4 and #XboxOne on digital stores April 10th! pic.twitter.com/ADwzFFrue3
— D-Pad Studio (@DPadStudio) April 2, 2018
A Retail Edition of Owlboy is also in the works for the PS4 and Switch, and it’ll be available in stores on May 29.
Square Enix will release a patch to restore SNES-era graphics to Chrono Trigger on PC
Square Enix surprise-launched Chrono Trigger for the PC back in February, but fans were disappointed that the publisher used the remastered visuals from the mobile re-release instead of the 16-bit sprites from the original Super NES game. Thankfully, it looks like they’ve seen the error of their ways.
The publisher announced (via Steam) that a series of patches will be coming to Chrono Trigger, and the first will include an option to switch back to the RPG’s “original graphical style.”
Thanks for all of your feedback, patience and support so far.
We have been working on addressing the issues that you’ve raised, and will be releasing a number of patches over the coming months as we continue to support CHRONO TRIGGER on Steam.
We’re aiming to release the first of these patches in the first half of April, and the biggest change is that it will include an option to switch between the current high-resolution graphics, and the original graphical style of CHRONO TRIGGER.
The patch is scheduled to be released sometime in “the first half of April,” so it should be available any day now.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Chrono Trigger
New Retail Releases: Penny-Punching Princess
Just one new game will make its way to retail store shelves this week, and it’s NIS America’s Penny-Punching Princess for the Nintendo Switch. “Cash is King” in the isometric brawler, and players will need to embrace their greedy side to reclaim their kingdom…
In a world ruled by capitalism, cash is king! Use the money you gather to bribe enemies to fight for you, activate deadly traps with your dough, and when all else fails, smash all that stand against you with your fists! Fight your way from nothing and amass treasures to take on the mighty Dragoloan Family and reclaim your kingdom!
Cash Rules Everything Around Me
Fight smarter, not harder! Bribe your enemies to fight for you, or activate deadly traps to turn the tide of battle in this fast-paced brawler.Who Says You Can’t Buy Popularity
Recruit/Buy flunkies to your cause to unlock stronger equipment and master over 70 special moves based on weapons you craft!A Madcap Romp of Dollars & Dragons
Embark on a wildly funny adventure as Princess, a girl robbed of her royal heritage in a world obsessed with money.
If Penny-Punching Princess doesn’t strike your fancy, don’t worry, we’ll be back in a few days with a look at all the upcoming additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Penny-Punching Princess