Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get 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
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
Inti Creates teams with Yacht Club Games to release Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack at retail
Developer Inti Creates has announced they’re teaming up with Yacht Club Games to release Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack for the 3DS.
Announced this weekend at the 2016 Anime Expo, the Striker Pack will include Azure Striker Gunvolt and the upcoming Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 in a single retail package. If you’re not very familiar with the Azure Striker Gunvolt universe, don’t worry, Inti Creates also released an extensive announcement trailer which extensively details everything you ever wanted to know about the SNES-inspired side-scrolling shooters.
The original Azure Striker Gunvolt is currently available to download through the 3DS eShop, and the sequel will be released sometime this Summer. The Striker Pack containing both games will be available on store shelves on September 30.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Azure Striker Gunvolt, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
Colbert kicks off Summer Games Done Quick 2016 by pitting a SMB3 speedrunner versus relay runners and a Hot Pocket
If you don’t have the stomach for the Nathan’s Hog Dog Eating Contest this July 4th, maybe Stephen Colbert can interest you in Summer Games Done Quick 2016…
On Friday’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert welcomed Mitch “MitchFlowerPower” Fowler, a speedrunner who’ll be competing in the charity gaming marathon later this week. To kick things off in appropriately goofy fashion, the host asked Mitch to pit his Super Mario Bros. 3 prowess in a “3-Legged Race” against the Columbia University 4×400 relay team and a microwave timer manned by his own Hot Pocket-stained fingers.
Marvel as Mitch nails a flawless running jump to grab the Leaf in the first Fortress. Whoop it up when Colbert plays through the pain after burning the roof of his mouth on a Hot Pocket. And calmly watch as the Columbia track team circles the track with nary a lion nor Terminator in sight.
Ready… Set… Press Play… to see who wins when three elite competitors go head-to-head-to-head.
Summer Games Done Quick 2016 begins today and will continue through July 9. All proceeds from the charity event will benefit Doctors Without Borders, and you can follow all the action by visiting the Games Done Quick website.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros. 3
Weekly Warp-Up: Nintendo Schedules the Final Splatfest…
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Nintendo has a habit of sticking to tried and true franchise these days, but they took a big leap of faith with Splatoon last year and it paid off handsomely. The game sold millions of copies and made stars out of the Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie. Earlier this week, the consolemaker announced that Splatoon’s final Splatfest event will take place on July 22… but it’s certainly been quite a ride.
Hopefully we’ll get more Splatoon on the NX, but in the meantime, you can read the third part in our history of horror games right here: It’s In Your Blood: A History of Horror Games (Part Three).
And you can find the rest of this week’s news after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Retail Releases: Rocket League, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII, Carmageddon: Max Damage
Just three new releases will be available on store shelves this week, so let’s get right to it…
First up is Rocket League: Collector’s Edition, a special retail edition of the popular “soccer with cars” simulation for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The Collector’s Edition will include a variety of bonus content (Chaos Run DLC Pack, Supersonic DLC Pack, Revenge of the Battle-Cars DLC Pack, and four new Vehicles), as well as an all-new Season Mode. And if you’re looking for a new multiplayer game, don’t forget, Rocket League offers local splitscreen play for up to four players and online play for up to eight.
Also available this week is Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII for the PS4. The long-running strategy series has enthralled fans since 1985 and the latest entry will include a Campaign Mode where players follow the events of the novel, and a Hero Mode where players will be able to create their own destiny with more than 700 historical characters.
Finally this week, Carmageddon: Max Damage is a new entry in the car combat franchise for the PS4 and Xbox One, but it’ll update the extreme vehicular violence of the 1997 original (and its 1998 sequel) for the 21st century.
We’ll be back later this week with a look at the latest digital releases for the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rocket League
Xbox Store Today: Banner Saga 2, Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II, Prison Architect, more
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that 2016 will be one of the hottest Summers on record, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a nice cold snap during 4th of July weekend. Get out your parkas, The Banner Saga 2 is now available to download through the Xbox Games Store for the Xbox One.
In The Banner Saga 2, players will once again take command of a Viking clan and experience an “epic” and “emotional” story-based RPG. And if you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you can grab it for free as part of this month’s Games With Gold promotion.
Also new on the Xbox Games Store this week is Prison Architect, a warden simulator from Introversion Software. Previously available through the Games Preview program, the full version of Prison Architect will include the Prison Stories campaign and a sandbox mode where you can build “the prison of your dreams.”
Finally this week, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II (Xbox One) will return to slay vampires and other demons in another Diablo-inspired adventure.
More details on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Prison Architect, The Banner Saga 2
Slayer Shock is a procedurally-generated homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
There have been several games based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the years, but none since 2009’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice, and even that one never made its way to North America. Enter Slayer Shock, a first-person RPG from David Pittman and Minor Key Games that follows a teenage vampire hunter and her friends.
Heavily inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Slayer Shock features procedurally-generated missions and campaigns that mirror Buffy‘s mix of episodes and season-long “Big Bads.” Pittman and his team are now seeking votes on Steam Greenlight, where they’ve posted a pretty through walkthrough video and a few more details about the game:
Operating from your headquarters at a college coffee shop, you take missions to patrol the streets, rescue captive humans, and weaken the undead threat. A team of fellow vampire slayers assists you from HQ, providing new weapons, skills, and research.
With a format that lovingly recalls scripted television (missions are “episodes”, each campaign is a “season”), Slayer Shock blends immersive first-person action, lightweight strategy, and procedural narrative into a uniquely thrilling experience.
If that weren’t enough, Pittman also wrote on his development blog that Slayer Shock is using “the exaggerated characters and angles” from professional wrestling to help create the game’s narrative arcs.
Slayer Shock will be released for the PC this Fall.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Slayer Shock
Now Blizzard is hiring a Game Director for their “Unannounced Diablo Project”
Blizzard first mentioned their “Unannounced Diablo Project” back in August in an employment listing for an Art Director.
Today, the developer is once again looking for applicants to join its ranks. More specifically, they want to hire a Game Director for a project that is starting to look more and more like Diablo 4. Blizzard is seeking candidates who are “knowledgeable and passionate about Diablo games” for the position, and they want a person who will “lead the Diablo series into the future.”
Further fueling the Diablo 4 fire is a separate job opening for a Senior Character Artist that refers to the project as “[Blizzard’s] next hit game.”
Blizzard is a developer who works on their own schedule, so it might be quite a while before we see anything connected to Diablo 4. But there’s always this November’s BlizzCon to look forward to.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Diablo 4, Diablo III
Shenmue III is “coming together” on the first anniversary of its Kickstarter campaign
The Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue III was one of a kind. And I mean that literally, as it eventually became the most-funded video game project of all time after 69,320 backers pledged $6,333,295 towards the development of the sequel.
That was a year ago, and now Yu Suzuki has offered an update on Shenmue III in a new video he recently posted to Kickstarter.
According to the developer, Ys Net started building a prototype of the game in January, and “battles and facial expressions are coming together.” Suzuki also confirmed that backer surveys are “still a ways off.” It’s not much, but it’s good to know that progress is being made.
Shenmue III is expected to be released for the PC and PS4 in December 2017.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Shenmue III