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
Insomniac’s Song of the Deep will be released on July 12
Insomniac Games has unveiled a new trailer for their “underwater Metroidvania,” Song of the Deep, and also announced the game will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on July 12. The new trailer dives a bit deeper into Merryn’s search for her father and the decidedly non-cuddly marine life she’ll find under the waves. The Little Mermaid this ain’t.
The developer’s Chief Creative Officer, Brian Hastings, has also penned a tie-in novelization for Song of the Deep, and it’ll be available in stores “soon.”
In addition to its digital release, Song of the Deep will receive a retail launch exclusively through GameStop. The retailer, which currently operates more than 6,900 stores, will publish the game through their GameTrust publishing label.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Song of the Deep
Weekly Warp-Up: PAX East 2016 Preparations…
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 Boston Convention and Exhibition Center will open its doors for PAX East 2016 in less than five days (118 hours, to be exact) and the exhibitor list is filling out nicely:
- Square Enix will have playable demos of more than a dozen games on the show floor including Final Fantasy XV, I Am Setsuna, and Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness.
- Sony’s booth will be overflowing with more than 20 PS4 gamees, including several PlayStation VR titles. Congoers can look forward to demoing Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Ratchet & Clank, Rez Infinite, and more.
- Bethesda is also shipping up to Boston next week with a brand new multiplayer build of Doom.
Elsewhere around Warp Zoned this week, we published a review of Ska Studios’s Salt and Sanctuary. It’s a little like Dark Souls, and if you don’t have the time to dive into Dark Souls III, it’s the next best thing.
Hit the jump to read up on more news from the week that was. (more…)
Posted in News
New Retail Releases: Star Fox Zero, Lichdom Battlemage, Zombie Vikings, More
Team Star Fox flies again with this week’s release of Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. In addition to piloting an Arwing, a Landmaster Tank, and two new vehicles (the Walker and the helicopter-like Gyrowing), players will also receive a copy of Star Fox Guard, a tower defense take on the series using the Wii U GamePad.
Also available on store shelves this week is Lichdom: Battlemage, a magical first-person game for the PS4 and Xbox One. Instead of firing shotguns and flinging grenades, players will employ elemental magic to take down their enemies and save the kingdom.
Speaking of saving the kingdom, Aksys will release Langrisser Re:Incarnation Tensei, a strategy RPG, for the 3DS. Players will use their tactical knowledge to explore three different branching story paths, leading to glorious victory or traitorous treason.
Finally this week, Rising Star Games will release Zombie Vikings, a multiplayer brawler, for the PS4.
We’ll be back throughout the week with a look at the newest additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Wii U eShop.
Posted in 3DS, News, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Lichdom: Battlemage, Star Fox Zero
Rumor: The Pokemon Company is holding a “secret auction” for the rights to a live-action movie
Hold on to your Pokeballs, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, The Pokemon Company is currently holding a “top-secret auction” for the rights to create a live-action film based on the beloved game series.
As of now, the bidders are said to include Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and Legendary Entertainment, with a source saying that Legendary, which will release Warcraft this Summer, is the current frontrunner. However, Warner Bros. is also heavily involved in the competition as they released the animated Pokemon: The First Movie way back in 1999.
All three companies declined The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment, but I’m sure we can all guess what Pikachu would have to say about this news.
Mercury Steam announces Raiders of the Broken Planet
Mercury Steam took the wraps off their mystery project earlier this week and revealed Raiders of the Broken Planet, a “Multiplayer Online Asymmetric Adventure.” The Spanish developer is still keeping a tight lid on most details concerning the game, but they did reveal a bit of its backstory:
In the Lira Constellation, light years from Earth lies a Broken Planet. Long ago, its inhabitants discovered a powerful ability enhancing substance called Aleph. Today, this Broken Planet is home to the entire Universe’s intergalactic scum and criminal lowlife. All are here to wrest control of the Aleph and thereby control the Universe.
We don’t know exactly how Raiders of the Broken Planet will work, but the developer did say that it’ll feature a “distinctive blend of shooting, brawling and thinking man’s strategy.”
Mercury Steam, best known for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, also announced plans to publish Raiders of the Broken Planet themselves using an episodic release model on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The first episode is expected to launch sometime this year and Mercury Steam is now accepting applications for an upcoming beta test at the game’s official website.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Raiders of the Broken Planet
Activision will release Ghostbusters (consoles, PC) + Ghostbusters: Slime City (mobile) in July
As expected, Activision is answering the “Who Ya Gonna Call?” call and will release a pair of Ghostbusters games alongside the new film in July.
Ghostbusters is an overhead shooter for 1-4 players, who will take control of four rookie Ghostbusters as they battle spooks and spirits in New York City after the events of the film. According to the Activision Games Blog, the four characters will each have their own play style and players can “level up their character’s gear and abilities by battling ghosts, completing objectives, or discovering hidden collectibles.” Ghostbusters will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on July 12.
Meanwhile, Ghostbusters: Slime City will be available for mobile devices (iOS and Android) and it “lets players collect powerful ghosts.” The rather vague description continues to say that players will also be able to “collect components to craft [their] own proton packs, upgrade [their] own headquarters, and complete jobs around the city for new weapons and rewards.” Ghostbusters: Slime City will be released sometime in July.
The Ghostbusters reboot will open in theaters on July 15.
The Super Mario Bros. “Any Percentage” record has fallen again
Last October, “Darbian” platformed his way into the record books by completing an “Any Percentage” run of Super Mario Bros. in four minutes and 57.627 seconds. This ridiculous feat managed to squeak in underneath the old record time for an “Any Percentage” run by just 0.063 seconds.
But earlier this week, “Darbian” managed to top himself.
Using both warp zones and barely stopping to take a breath, the speedrunner managed to complete Super Mario Bros. in four minutes and 57.26 seconds. In case you were curious, the 367 milliseconds separating the new record from his old one is about the same amount of time that it takes the average person to blink.
After his epic run, “Darbian” announced his retirement from Super Mario Bros. speedrunning, saying, “I have reached my potential in this category.” And in true Mario fashion, he added, “I’m done! My quest is over.”
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Xbox Store Today: Soda Drinker Pro, Gear Gauntlet
If you’ve ever dreamed about playing a soda drinking simulation (With full Kinect support, because why wouldn’t there be?), then Soda Drinker Pro might just be the game for you. Available to download for the Xbox One today, Soda Drinker Pro has one of the trippiest trailers I think I’ve seen in quite some time. Also available to download for the Xbox One today is Gear Gauntlet, a side-scrolling platformer where players have to navigate a gauntlet of gears.
More information on both games can be found right here:
Xbox One Games
Soda Drinker Pro ($9.99)
Soda Drinker Pro is the premier in software in the first person soda drinking genre. Experience what it’s truly like to drink a soda at the beach, in the park, and even… in SPACE!!! With Soda Drinker Pro, you don’t need to have a soda in hand to experience a soda in your mind.Gear Gauntlet ($9.99)
Gear Gauntlet is a fun but rage inducing 2D action arcade game from Drop Dead Interactive. Test your patience through ever more punishing gauntlets while boosting, teleporting, reversing and rotating to survive. Use your reflexes to break through colored barriers and earn your place on the leaderboard.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Soda Drinker Pro