Author: John Scalzo

John Scalzo is Warp Zoned's Editor-In-Chief and resident retro gaming expert. You can email him at john AT warpzoned DOT com.

Nintendo’s E3 2017 presentation will focus on Super Mario Odyssey and other Switch games coming this year

Posted on May 11, 2017 by John Scalzo

Nintendo has announced that they’re kicking off their E3 2017 activities with a special “Nintendo Spotlight: E3 2017” presentation on Tuesday, June 13. “Nintendo Spotlight: E3 2017” will deliver new information about Super Mario Odyssey, as well as other Switch games scheduled to launch this year. The presentation begins at 12:00 noon (Eastern Time), and fans can watch it via e3.Nintendo.com. As in years past, Nintendo will follow their consumer-focused Press Conference with a series of “Nintendo Treehouse: Live at E3” segments all throughout the week.

Nintendo’s E3 portal will also feature livestreamed coverage of the first tournaments for Arms and Splatoon 2 at this year’s Expo:

Nintendo will also host game tournaments that will be livestreamed from the E3 show floor. The 2017 Splatoon 2 World Inkling Invitational splats onto the scene on June 13 and features Splatoon 2 for Nintendo Switch. Composed of four pre-qualified squid squads from the U.S., Japan, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand, the tournament will find teams participating in the first-ever international Splatoon 2 competition. The second tournament, the 2017 Arms Open Invitational, takes place on June 14 and will feature Nintendo’s upcoming Arms fighting game for Nintendo Switch.

Finally, E3 attendees will get the chance to try out Super Mario Odyssey for the first time, along with other games coming to the Switch and 3DS this year.

Posted in 3DS, News, Switch | Tagged , ,

Xbox Store Today: Butcher, NBA Playgrounds, Lethal League

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

Three new games are now available to download through the Xbox Games Store…

First up is Butcher, a side-scrolling shooter from Crunching Koalas that resembles a 2D homage to Doom. Players who download the game now for the Xbox One will get to become “a cyborg programmed to eradicate the last remnants of humanity.”

Also available for the Xbox One today is NBA Playgrounds, a new arcade-style basketball game from Saber Interactive. Players will unlock hundreds of NBA superstars, and fly high through the air in two-on-two pickup games.

Finally today, the baseball-themed fighting game Lethal League is now available to download for the Xbox One. In Lethal League, players “have to hit an anti-gravity ball into the face of [their] opponent to win.” Sure, why not?

More information about all of these games is available after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

Sega will bring Vanquish to the PC on May 25

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

Shinji Mikami is best known for creating terrifying works of art like the Resident Evil and The Evil Within. But the prolific developer has also tried his hand at a number of action games over the years, including 2010’s underappreciated Vanquish.

But if you missed it the first time around, Sega announced that Vanquish will soon be available for the PC (through Steam) on May 25:

Directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, Vanquish is a sci-fi shooter of epic proportion. Take control of DARPA operative Sam Gideon, who has been assigned a mission to battle legions of future-tech enemies using a vast arsenal of weapons. Vanquish boasts fluid and frenetic combat, spectacular melee moves, and intense speed, wrapped in a gripping story. Vanquish is the latest best practice conversion from Sega, and features a host of PC optimized options, including an unlocked framerate, 4K resolution support, extensive graphics options, and full keyboard and mouse support.

Best of all, Sega’s John Clark also revealed that even more Sega-published titles will soon be available for the PC.

“It was great to see the positive response from our community to the Bayonetta PC launch last month, and we are pleased that we are in a position to be able to announce Vanquish, another of our highly requested back catalog titles,” said Clark, the Senior Vice President of Commercial Publishing for Sega Europe. “There’s more to come from Sega in this space, so stay tuned for further announcements.”

Steam users who pre-order Vanquish before its May 25 launch date will also receive a five-song soundtrack sampler, character and enemy avatars, a digital art book, and exclusive wallpapers. On top of that, fans who already own Bayonetta on Steam will receive an additional 25% off when they pre-order Vanquish.

Posted in News, PC |

Visor sees everything in the latest Quake Champions trailer

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

The Quake Champions “Large Scale Technical Test” begins this Friday, May 12, but Bethesda and id Software have decided to whet our appetite for destruction with a small appetizer… a sneak peek at the newest Champion to enter the Arena, Visor.

Here’s what players can expect when they encounter the “Cybernetic Clone,” straight from the developer:

Visor (Cybernetic Clone)
Now – let’s turn our attention to Visor. Another veteran Champion returning from the bloody halls of Quake III: Arena, this cybernetic clone is as cold as the Russian winters of his youth. His mutilated body — impervious to panic or pain — is the result of attempts by Moscow’s GRU to create the perfect infantry; his grafted mask is filled with putrefied blood that allows him to see through matter with his Piercing Sight Active Ability. And he has unlimited speed with his Passive Ability. That’s a vicious combination for Deathmatch and an absolute killer in Duel.

Active Ability – Piercing Sight: You can’t hide from Visor. Using his Piercing Sight Active Ability, Visor can briefly see through all matter, glimpsing foes as outlines running behind walls. You might think you’re sneaking up on Visor, but he’s probably waiting for you with a tasty Rail Gun gift. Твоё здоровье!

Passive Ability – Grasshopper: Speed kills. Are you sick of all those psychotic Anarkis hoverboarding around the Arenas, turning it “up to eleven” all over your face? Visor’s Passive evens the playing field. Grasshopper allows Visor to continually gain speed when strafe-jumping – with no cap. Skilled players will be able to keep up with anyone, even that drug-addled freak.

If you haven’t signed up for Quake Champions’s “Large Scale Technical Test” yet, there’s still time to request a key. All you have to do is head over to Quake.com now and fill out a short form.

Bethesda is also encouraging fans to join the “Large Scale Technical Test” so they can practice for the first Quake Champions tournament, which will be held at this year’s Quakecon. A qualifying round for the tournament, which will feature Duel and Sacrifice Mode, will be held in June.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Contra is being adapted into a live-action movie in China

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

Konami gleefully ripped off Aliens and Predator when they were developing Contra back in 1987, but they also wound up creating one of the greatest side-scrolling shooters of all time. so I’d call it a wash. But 30 years later, it looks like Contra will finally be going the other way, as a group of Chinese filmmakers have stepped forward to create a live-action adaptation of the game.

According to China Film Insider, Contra: The Movie will shift the action to an island in the South China Sea, but it’ll otherwise stick to the same story beats:

In 1988, a huge meteorite lands on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea. Chen Qiang and Li Zhiyong investigate but come up empty handed. 29 years later, Chen sends commandos Bill and Lance into a combat mission there to neutralize the villainous Red Falcon Organization, but end up facing a different enemy altogether.

Contra: The Movie is being produced by Beijing Starlit Movie and TV Culture, and a short teaser video has been embedded above.

Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro | Tagged

EA delays BioWare’s untitled next game and EA Sports UFC 3

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

Electronic Arts hosted their quarterly financial report yesterday, and while the publisher was quite proud of their increased revenues, they also chose to delay two upcoming titles.

BioWare is fresh off the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the developer was planning to launch a brand new game unconnected to any of their previous franchises in Early 2018. But according to CEO Andrew Wilson, that title has been pushed back to “Fiscal Year 2019” (April 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019) to make it more “disruptive”:

Looking forward, we will continue our aggressive pace of innovation through experiences that capitalize on our technology, network and creativity. We are very pleased with the progress of our new action IP from BioWare. The design is stunning, gameplay mechanics are excellent, and the action will be exhilarating. This game is built around a live service, and through our creative process, we’ve decided to add more to the disruptive new social designs for our players. To accommodate that, we are moving the launch date for this project into Fiscal Year 2019.

Earlier in the same presentation, Wilson also confirmed that EA Sports UFC 3 won’t be released by the end of the year as originally planned. The fighting game is now scheduled to launch in Early 2018.

With the 2017 E3 Expo less than four weeks away, we’ll likely learn more about both of these games soon.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged ,

LocoRoco Remastered, Strafe, NBA Playgrounds, more added to PS Store

Posted on May 10, 2017 by John Scalzo

It’s another throwback day for the PlayStation Store as several classic games receive re-releases on new platforms and long-forgotten genres get another chance with the gaming public.

First up is LocoRoco Remastered, a PS4 re-release of a quirky puzzle platformer originally released for the PSP. Players will need to tilt LocoRoco’s world of “blowing flowers, lively creatures, and pastel scenery” to fight back against a group of evil outer space creatures.

Also available to download this week is Strafe, a retro-styled first person shooter for the PS4 that includes procedurally-generated levels and tons of gore. And speaking of retro style, Saber Interactive has brought back the arcade antics of the NBA Jam franchise in NBA Playgrounds, which also launched yesterday for the PS4.

Fans of the Harvest Moon series will be pleased to learn that Yasuhiro Wada is back with another life simulation, Birthdays the Beginning. It’s launching on the PS4 alongside Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, which was originally released for the PS2 in 2001. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X was also added to the PS2-On-PS4 section of the PlayStation Store yesterday.

You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita | Tagged , , ,

Deus Ex composer is working on Retro Studios’s next game

Posted on May 9, 2017 by John Scalzo

When Nintendo unveiled the Switch in January, they shared the stage with most of their development partners to give fans a glimpse at what was coming soon to their then-unreleased console. But one notable name missing from that party was Retro Studios, the creators of the Metroid Prime trilogy.

It’s been more than three years since Retro launched Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014. In all that time, they’ve been completely silent about their next project, but fans received an interesting clue about the developer’s future last week. Posting on Facebook, composer Alexander Brandon revealed that he’s joined forces with Retro to help shape their next game:

I’m currently working with Retro Studios here in Austin. As much as I’d like to say more (except the work is incredibly exciting and the team is awesome), I can’t.

Brandon is best known as the composer of Deus Ex, but he’s also created music for Unreal Tournament, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Torment: Tides of Numenera. Some fans might be tempted to say that the composer’s expertise in scoring so many fantastical games makes him the perfect candidate to work on a new entry in the Metroid Prime series, but that might be jumping the gun a bit.

Either way, Retro Studios is clearly working on something, and hopefully we’ll find out what it is soon.

Posted in News, Switch |