Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Author: John Scalzo
Marvel has “quite a few” unannounced console games in the works
Disney Interactive may have turned out the lights for good last month, but the Mouse House’s Marvel Entertainment division is working hard to secure development deals with outside publishers. For proof, you only need to look back to last week’s E3 Expo and the reveal of an Insomniac-developed Spider-Man game exclusively for the PS4. But Marvel has also teamed up with Telltale Games for an episodic adventure game that is scheduled to launch next year.
But rather than immediately look to the future, Polygon was interested in the fate of 2011’s Marvel vs Capcom 3, and they asked Marvel Games Vice President Jay Ong about it at E3.
Ong admitted that Capcom’s license for the game has been expired since 2013, so a balancing update to Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 isn’t currently in the cards. But he also hinted at a possible rekindling of the partnership: “We love our fans and we certainly want to please them. Beyond that we can’t say anything at this time. But who knows what the future holds?”
And in an offhand aside, Ong also revealed that Marvel Games has “quite a few” unannounced games in the works:
Ong said Marvel Games has “lots of things in the works, quite a few in the console space that are unannounced.”
What is Marvel Games up to? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’d be down for a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the tie-in game from 2009 was surprisingly fantastic.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2016, Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Kylo Ren angsts up the latest Character Trailer for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Exactly a week from today, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available on store shelves for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. So WB Games has released one last Character Trailer, this time focusing on Kylo Ren’s exploration of “the lighter side of the Dark Side.”
Featuring new dialogue from Adam Driver, be sure to pause Kylo Ren’s vignette after seven seconds to get a great look at his bedroom. It looks like something of a college comedy, but I think the Warhol-inspired Darth Vader portrait is an especially nice touch.
And in case you missed it, a Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens demo is now available to download through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Three Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games will be added to Wii U eShop this Thursday
Nintendo has announced that three games in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series will be added to the Wii U eShop this Thursday, June 23.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (originally released for the Game Boy Advance and DS, respectively, in 2006) will be added to the digital storefront alongside Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, which was originally released for the DS in 2009.
In case any of these games are unfamiliar to you, Nintendo supplied us with these expanded descriptions:
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team
What if you woke up one day, and you were a Pokemon? What if all of a sudden you find yourself in a NEW world, where you can speak and interact with other Pokemon? The adventure begins when you and your partner Pokemon set out on rescue missions in a world ravaged by natural disasters. But, what is your true purpose and destiny in this Pokemon world? That’s the REAL mystery…Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Become a Pokemon and Save the World! In the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky game, players become a Pokemon and team up with a partner Pokemon. Together the two set out on an adventure of exploration and discovery, ultimately saving the world from destruction. This game is a great starting point for players to enter the world of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and for returning players to discover even more secrets.
Nintendo also revealed that additional Pokemon games from yesteryear will be added to the Nintendo eShop this Summer.
NetherRealm’s Ed Boon still wants to do a fighting game starring “horror icons”
After Freddy Krueger’s post-launch inclusion in Mortal Kombat was announced back in 2011, Creative Director Ed Boon revealed that when he was employed by Midway, his team considered including characters such as Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and Michael Myers in a special horror movie-themed entry in the series.
With three-fourths of his wishlist now playable in 2011’s Mortal Kombat or Mortal Kombat X, Game Informer once again pitched Boon on a fighting game filled with “horror icons” ahead of last week’s E3 Expo, and the famed developer still seems into it:
When asked about the possibility of using this trend of guest characters to throw them all together in one big horror icon showdown, Boon was not dismissive of the idea. “Yes, yes! You know, as we’ve been accumulating them, that idea has been coming up more and more frequently,” he says. “You brought it up and a few other people have brought it up like ‘why don’t you do a horror movie fighting game?’ Maybe one day we’ll do it.”
It’s five years later and I’d still sell my soul to make this game become a reality.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Mortal Kombat X
Players can go straight to the final boss in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo has described The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as an “open-air” adventure, but just how open will the game’s world be? Well, when Polygon spoke to Producer Eiji Aonuma at this year’s E3 Expo, he revealed that players can start a new game and head directly for the final boss:
“Users may not actually get the full story depending on how they play this game and how they strategize and solve puzzles,” producer Eiji Aonuma told Polygon. “Users are able to go to the very end goal without revealing why Link woke up the way he did and where he did. Whether you want to reveal the storyline and find out why Link woke up, or you want to just go straight to the goal, that’s an option totally up to the user.”
While I’m sure a successful attempt at beating Breath of the Wild like that will make a great speedrun video some day, Aonuma thinks players who try are a bit on the “crazy” side:
“Anybody who can go straight to the goal without doing anything else — there’s two possibilities,” Aonuma said. “Either they’re a really good gamer, or they could be somebody that’s a little bit crazy. But it’s not impossible. I created the game like that.”
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will released for the Wii U and NX sometime in 2017.
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged E3 2016, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Developer Lilith tries to explain Allison Road’s cancellation
A few weeks ago, Lilith revealed that Allison Road, their first-person horror game partially inspired by PT/Silent Hills, had been canceled. Earlier this weekend, the development team supplied something of an explanation for the unexpected news on Facebook:
After a long consideration between Team17 and ourselves, we have reached a mutual agreement to end our collaboration on publishing Allison Road under Team17’s Games label.
Sometime things pan out differently than expected as game development and publishing have so many layers of complexity… We’d like to especially thank everyone for their support through-out, it has and will always be appreciated!
There’s no beating around the bush here… Lilith’s “explanation” for the cancellation is extremely vague and doesn’t explain much of anything. In all likelihood, Allison Road, like PT/Silent Hills before it, will become one of those games where the mystery of “What happened?” can never fully be explained. It’s sad that it had to happen to such a promising-looking title, but it’s the way of the world sometimes.
UPDATE: Publisher Team17 sent a similarly-worded statement to VG247 earlier this morning. We still don’t know what happened.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Allison Road
Weekly Warp-Up: The A-Z of E3 2016
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…
The 2016 edition of the E3 Expo has come to a close, so it’s time to look back on the weeklong festival upcoming games with our annual alphabetical rundown of everything from the show floor, the press conferences, and the pre-Expo hype period. You can find Warp Zoned’s E3 A-Z after the break, but first let’s talk, about that polarizing “Beginning Hour” demo for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Looking ahead, Sony will bring a little piece of E3 to stores across the country next weekend with their plan to install PlayStation VR demo units in hundreds of retail outlets. We even got a sneak peek at next year’s E3 Expo when Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that he’s working on “A New Kind of Mario.”
But the future is now, and the A-Z of E3 2016 is available after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, Mighty No. 9, Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, More
The major game publishers clearly didn’t want to compete with the annual E3 Expo last week, but a number of them are back this week with a handful of intriguing new titles.
Leading the way is Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, an Atlus/Nintendo collaboration for the Wii U that mashes together characters you’d find in a Fire Emblem game with the mood of a Persona title.
Nintendo is also getting ready for the Summer Games this week with the release of Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games for the Wii U. Players will get to try out 14 Olympic sports including soccer, track, and rugby.
Another highly-anticipated title this week, though for very different reasons, is Mighty No. 9 for the PS4, Wii U, and Xbox One (it’ll also be available digitally for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360). Keiji Inafune’s tribute to the Mega Man franchise has been facing development woes since the very beginning, and it’ll be interesting to see how the final product came together.
Elsewhere on store shelves this week will be The Technomancer, an action RPG for the PS4 and Xbox One from Spiders; and MXGP 2, the latest motorcycle racer from Milestone, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Finally, Microsoft will re-release Minecraft: Xbox One Edition in a special “Favorites Pack” bundle that includes the base game and seven additional add-ons (Battle & Beasts Skin Pack, Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack, Natural Texture Pack, City Texture Pack, Fantasy Texture Pack, Festive Mash-up, and Halo Mash-up).
We’ll be back later this week with a look at all the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
UPDATE: The release of The Technomancer was pushed back a week to June 28.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mighty No. 9, Minecraft, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem