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
Droid Character Pack is exclusive to PS4 and PS3… but everyone can watch this Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character Trailer
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available in stores starting next week, so you’d be forgiven for assuming there wouldn’t be any more Character Trailers for the game. But Sony has surprised us with another one, this time focusing on the PlayStation-exclusive Droid Character Pack.
Available as a free downloadable bonus on launch day for the PS4 and PS3, the Droid Character Pack will include plenty of familiar faces. Here’s what Jamie Eden, the Game Director at TT Games, had to say about it on the PlayStation Blog:
The Droids have always been some of my favorite characters in Star Wars films. Even though they’re machines, they still seem to have more personality and charm than a lot of humans do! Which is why it’s really exciting to be able to give players a pack that features these awesome characters. To show you what I mean, we’re here to reveal our latest vignette detailing this exciting content.
Some of the franchise’s most memorable droids have made the cut including R5-D4 (the astromech droid Luke buys before R2-D2 in Star Wars), IG-88 (the bounty hunter droid from The Empire Strikes Back), General Grievous, and more. Your droids will also be able to go looking for trouble in two additional vehicles.
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released on June 28. In addition to the PS4 and PS3, the game will also be available for the 3DS, PC, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Sonic Team confirms they’re working hard on another Sonic the Hedgehog game
Sonic made his worldwide debut in 1991’s Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis. Since then, the “Blue Blur” has starred in dozens of games, and he’s also appeared on television and in comic books. Naturally, developer Sonic Team has big plans for a character with such long-running popularity.
Speaking to Famitsu (as translated by Soah City), Takashi Iizuka, the Head of Sonic Team, said his team is hard at work on a completely new game starring everyone’s favorite hedgehog:
Famitsu: Finally, our last question – please tell us about Sonic’s future.
Iizuka: We at Sonic Team – are developing a completely new game, as well as developing a full movie, actively done by Sony Pictures, and animation on Sonic Boom. We are also ready to improve sponsor ties.
The most important thing is not the fact the series survived for 25 years, but how many games was developed.
Our goal – add something new and overcome any potential hardships.
Sega is holding a huge 25th Anniversary Party for Sonic during this year’s San Diego Comic-Con on July 22. It’s a safe bet that the next Sonic game from Sonic Team will be announced there.
But don’t forget, the Sanzaru-developed Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice will be released for the 3DS on September 27.
Posted in News
Tagged Comic-Con 2016, Sonic Forces
Crash and Burn… Criterion’s first-person driving/extreme sports game canceled by EA
You might have noticed that Criterion Games got namechecked when EA was updating the audience on their Star Wars projects at their E3 Press Conference this year. According to the video, the developer lent a helping hand to Star Wars: Battlefront and recently began work on Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
Unfortunately, that means the GoPro-inspired first-person driving/extreme sports game announced by Criterion at E3 2014 is no more. EA delivered news of the cancellation to GameSpot yesterday:
“While they’ve moved on from the previous project they’ve spoken about and aren’t pursuing it, they are continuing to build new ideas and experiment with new IP for EA, in addition to continuing to collaborate with other EA studios,” an EA representative told GameSpot today.
Criterion’s untitled “Vehicle Game” was very early in development at the time of its public debut, but a teaser trailer hinted at the possibility of a garageful of vehicles including cars, bikes, ATVs, wingsuits, helicopters, and more.
Posted in News
Tagged Criterion's Vehicle Game
Nintendo Download: Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mighty No. 9, more
It’s a big day for the Nintendo eShop as three major new releases are joined by four classics of yesteryear through the storefront’s Virtual Console section.
Leading the way is Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, an RPG for the Wii U that drops the medieval adventurers from a Fire Emblem-like adventure into a present-day version of Tokyo inspired by the Persona series. It’s joined on the Wii U eShop by Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the latest athletic battle royale between the two mascots, and Mighty No. 9, Keiji Inafune’s side-scrolling spiritual successor to Mega Man.
Also available this week on the Wii U eShop is a trio of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. The three roguelike RPGs including Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (originally released for the DS in 2006), and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (originally released for the DS in 2009).
Finally, Capcom will add the Super NES classic, Super Ghouls N Ghosts, to the 3DS eShop. Chivalrous Arthur will battle demons, devils, and giant beasts to rescue his Princess from the evil Emperor Sardius. Still just as great today as it was in 1991.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mighty No. 9, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
Yacht Club sails in with an update on Shovel Knight’s Specter Knight campaign
Yacht Club Games is still toiling away at Shovel Knight‘s heaping helping of post-launch content, and after giving us a quick glimpse at the King Knight campaign a few weeks ago, the developer has returned with an extended profile of Specter Knight’s upcoming adventure.
Using a series of GIFs to illustrate Specter Knight’s moveset on their official website, Yacht Club Games seems to be mining another 8-bit classic, Ninja Gaiden, for inspiration. Specter Knight can slash with his trusty scythe, be he also has a lightning quick dash that can be performed on the ground or in the air. The character’s nimble form will also allow him to wall run to reach greater heights.
Yacht Club Games is developing the add-on campaigns for Specter Knight and King Knight simultaneously, though Specter Knight’s will launch first. The team isn’t ready to talk release dates just yet, but both campaigns will be available for free, alongside the also in-development Body Swap Mode and Battle Mode.
Finally, Yacht Club announced that Shovel Knight will be available on store shelves for the Vita soon. The limited physical version is in production at FanGamer and will be released in early October.
Xbox Store Today: Mighty No. 9, Pac-Man 256, Deadlight: Director’s Cut, more
Today’s Xbox Games Store update will look very similar to anyone who has already studied up on this week’s PlayStation Store additions. But school’s out for the Summer, so stop your studying and start playing more games…
This week’s first new release is Mighty No. 9, Keiji Inafune’s spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise. The side-scroller has had a very troubled development cycle with multiple delays, but it’s finally ready to go for the Xbox One and the Xbox 360. Inafune previously warned fans that the Xbox 360 version of the game would be delayed, but it’s available to download through the Xbox Game Store right now.
Also available this week is Pac-Man 256, an isometric “infinite mazer” from Crossy Road developer Hipster Whale. Previously available on mobile devices, the Xbox One launch comes compete with a co-op multiplayer mode for up to 4 players and several new themes.
Finally this week, Tequila Works has launched their side-scrolling zombie game, Deadlight: Director’s Cut, for the Xbox One. Originally released four years ago for the Xbox 360, the Director’s Cut adds enhanced graphics, improved gameplay and controls, and extra game modes.
More information on all these games (and a few others) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Deadlight, Mighty No. 9, Pac-Man 256
Umbrella Corps, Mighty No. 9, Pac-Man 256, more added to PS Store
With most of the world still recovering from the E3 Expo, Sony dropped a big batch of new games onto the PlayStation Store yesterday.
First up is Capcom Resident Evil-themed team shooter, Umbrella Corps. Available to download now for the PS4, players will battle it out with a second team of mercenaries, all the while avoiding the shambling undead who are also in the arena.
Speaking of the shambling undead, Tequila Works has brought their side-scrolling zombie, Deadlight, to the PS4 as Deadlight: Director’s Cut. In addition to enhanced graphics, the Director’s Cut will include improved gameplay and controls, and extra game modes.
The retro vibe of Deadlight carries through to another pair of new releases this week, Mighty No. 9 and Pac-Man 256. After more than three years in development, Keiji Inafune’s Mighty No. 9 is ready for release as a PS4 + PS3 Cross-Buy title, and fans will finally get the chance to see if his Mega Man successor can live up to the hype. Meanwhile, Pac-Man 256 brought the infinite maze of the mobile hit to the PS4 for the first time.
Finally this week, Grand Kingdom is NIS America’s latest strategy RPG and it’s available to download for the PS4 and Vita.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new release) can be found after the break. And don’t forget, a complete rundown of new add-ons and discounts is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Deadlight, Grand Kingdom, Mighty No. 9, Pac-Man 256, Umbrella Corps
Shigeru Miyamoto wants to make a Zelda game starring Sheik
Nintendo fans got the chance to play as Sheik, Zelda’s ninja-like alter ego, for the first time outside of a Smash Bros. game in 2014’s Hyrule Warriors. Last week, legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto said he’d like to develop a game that shines an even brighter spotlight on the character.
Miyamoto revealed his desire to create the spinoff while speaking to Game Rant during the E3 Expo:
“Within the development team, too, there have been talks about how it might be cool to have a game that features Sheik as a protagonist. It’s having maybe a Zelda spin-off with Sheik as a protagonist, for example, I don’t think that’s an impossibility.”
Sheik made her first, and thus far only, canon appearance in the Zelda series in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild set to be released for the Wii U and NX sometime next year, any spinoff starring the character is likely to be quite far away.