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.

Konami unveils full game lineup for Contra Anniversary Collection

Posted on May 28, 2019 by John Scalzo

We still aren’t sure when Konami plans to release the Contra Anniversary Collection, but we now know which games made the cut. As revealed on IGN, the compilation will include the first seven games in the series, as well as three regional variants.

Contra on the NES was a completely different game from its earlier arcade incarnation, but the version released in Japan for the Famicom was just as unique, adding between-level cutscenes and updated visuals. Konami will include all three versions as part of the Contra Anniversary Collection.

In Europe, Konami swapped out the Contra name and launched the franchise under the Probotector banner, replacing Bill and Lance with robotic doppelgangers known as RD008 and RC011. Contra III: The Alien Wars is probably the high watermark for the franchise, and it made its European debut as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels. Two years later, Contra: Hard Corps was released across the pond in a much easier version known simply as Probotector. All four games will be included in the Contra Anniversary Collection.

Rounding out the compilation is the arcade-only Super Contra (and it’s NES adaptation, Super C), as well as the portable Operation C:

Games Included in Contra Anniversary Collection

  • Contra (Arcade – North America)
  • Contra (NES – North America)
    • Contra (Famicom – Japan)
  • Super Contra (Arcade – North America)
  • Super C (NES – North America)
  • Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super NES – North America)
    • Super Probotector: Alien Rebels (Super NES – Europe)
  • Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Genesis – North America)
    • Probotector (Sega Mega Drive – Europe)
  • Operation C (Game Boy – North America)

Like the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Konami will add six Japanese variants to their Contra compilation through a free update. These variants include Contra (Arcade), Super Contra (Arcade), Super C (Famicom), Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super NES), Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Mega Drive), and Operation C (Game Boy).

The Contra Anniversary Collection will be released for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One sometime this Summer.

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

Doom: Sigil “MegaWAD” from John Romero is now available to download

Posted on May 27, 2019 by John Scalzo

John Romero recently delayed the release of Sigil, his new “MegaWAD” for 1993’s Doom, a few weeks ago. But the famed developer returned late last night to confirm that the new levels for the groundbreaking first person shooter are now available to download from his official website.

Doom fanatics interested in playing Sigil before anyone else will have to spring for the Soundtrack Pack, which includes the expansion and a digital download of the soundtrack from Buckethead, for €6.66 (a little over $7.00 in US currency). Everyone else will need to wait for Sigil’s free download, which will be available on May 31.

As a “MegaWAD” for Doom, Sigil will add nine new levels to the game that Romero helped co-create with John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack in the early 90s.

Romero left id Software after the completion of Quake in 1996, but he’s been slowly working his way back into the shooter genre in recent years. In 2016, he released a pair of standalone maps for Doom (“Tech Gone Bad” and “Phobos Mission Control”) and he’s also working on an original shooter (with Adrian Carmack) known as Blackroom.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie pushed back to 2020 so filmmakers can “make Sonic just right”

Posted on May 24, 2019 by John Scalzo

The first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie gave fans all the 1990s nostalgia they could stomach. There was “Gangsta’s Paradise” on the soundtrack and Jim Carrey doing his Jim Carrey thing as Dr. Robotnik, but the CGI rendering of Sega’s Blue Blur was just as bad (and downright nightmare-inducing) as we all expected it to be.

Somehow not anticipating this reaction, the producers vowed to change Sonic’s look before the film opened in November.

Unfortunately, we’re just a few days away from Memorial Day right now and there is definitely not enough time left for the film’s animators to transform the character into something that’s acceptable to fans. So director Jeff Fowler took to Twitter today to confirm that Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie will now be released on February 14, 2020:

Presumably, we’ll get a look at the new Sonic sometime in the next few months.

Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro | Tagged

Rumor: Disney is FINALLY making a movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Posted on May 24, 2019 by John Scalzo

If you’re looking for one story that best captures what made the old “Star Wars Expanded Universe” special, it’s hard to go wrong with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The Xbox game (which was later also released for the PC) was developed by BioWare and it took the Star Wars in sometimes startling new directions… and one those jumps was directly into the past. Knights of the Old Republic took place nearly 4,000 years before the original Star Wars, though players could still expect to find massive starships, snarky droids, Jedi Knights, and Sith Lords. Just after the release of Attack of the Clones, many fans latched onto Knights of the Old Republic as a Star Wars prequel done right.

Now, it looks like beloved characters as Revan, HK-47, Ordo, and others will finally be making their way to the big screen.

Buzzfeed is reporting that “three sources close to the project” at Lucasfilm have confirmed that a movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is currently in the works. The film is currently being written by Laeta Kalogridis (who also has credits on (Avatar, Shutter Island, and Alita: Battle Angel), and if it’s successful, it could spawn an entire KOTOR trilogy.

Disney, the current owner of the Star Wars franchise, refused to comment, but they’ve definitely got a desire to create more Star Wars stories. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a new game from Respawn, will launch this Fall. Around the same time, Jon Favreau’s The Mandolorian television series will debut on the Disney+ streaming service. And after that, Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren will put an end to the Skywalker saga in this December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Further down the line, the first movie in a new trilogy from Games of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will premiere in 2022. Rian Johnson, the director of The Last Jedi, is also working on his own trilogy, but it doesn’t yet have a release date.

Where a Knights of the Old Republic film would even fit into this schedule remains to be seen.

Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, Retro |

ChessFinity is the Chess-based “Endless Runner” you’ve always wanted

Posted on May 23, 2019 by John Scalzo

Chess is the regal and sophisticated “Game of Kings” that has captivated players for more than a thousand years. Meanwhile, the “Endless Runner” is a platformer subgenre that rose to prominence only within the last decade. Naturally, someone has mashed them together to create the first game “that combines the rules and figurines of traditional Chess with the thrill of an endless runner.”

Produced by THQ Nordic’s HandyGames division, ChessFinity is currently in development for iOS and Android devices. The procedurally-generated game’s first trailer has been embedded above, and it looks about how you’d expect it to look, with players attempting to navigate a “road” littered with opposing pieces:

ChessFinity retains what makes Chess the “Game of kings,” the strategic masterpiece board game that has been played for centuries all over the world, and combines this with a new spin on how you as the player approach Chess. You won’t be confronted with an all-too smart AI that keeps on destroying your army nor with an experienced player. In ChessFinity, you’ll be confronted with procedurally-generated challenges that get harder and harder but are always beatable. Every time you play, you’ll get better and better and leave a high score for others to beat.

During the game, you can always swap to a piece that fits the situation best… of course, the mighty queen has the most movement options, but she can’t jump like a knight can. Sometimes, it may be best to sacrifice one of your pieces… we’re looking at you, pawn.

ChessFinity will be available to download for iOS and Android devices soon.

Posted in Mobile, News |

Mortal Kombat 11 was the best-selling game on all platforms in April 2019

Posted on May 22, 2019 by John Scalzo

The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella has given us a look (via Twitter) at the best-selling games from April 2019.

Unsurprisingly, Mortal Kombat 11 KOed the competition as the top game during the period. And according to Piscatella, NetherRealm’s fighter also became the first game to sit atop the charts as the best-selling individual game on the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One in the same the month.

Not far behind was Sony’s Days Gone. The post-apocalyptic action game was developed by Sony Bend, and while it might have been overshadowed by some of the other titles in the consolemaker’s catalog, it landed in the #2 spot for April.

The remainder of April’s best-selling games chart is made up of a lot of titles we’ve seen before, including recent releases MLB 19: The Show (#3), Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (#4), Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (#7), and perennial mainstays Grand Theft Auto V (#6) and Minecraft (#14).

You can find a full list of best-selling games from April 2019 after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged ,

Sony offers up more details on their plan for the PlayStation 5

Posted on May 21, 2019 by John Scalzo

Sony has been quietly talking up the PlayStation 5 a lot this Spring, and now they’ve offered up even more details about the next-generation platform during their most recent Investor Relations Day.

The PS5 is known internally as the “PlayStation Next Gen,” and it’s expected to deliver lightning-fast loading times on PS4 titles. Using Spider-Man as an example, Sony showed that players on the PlayStation Next Gen could be ready to play in just 0.83 seconds, versus 8.1 seconds on a PS4 Pro. This comparison is important as the PlayStation Next Gen will include full backwards compatibility with the PS4.

Sony isn’t ready to discuss when the PlayStation Next Gen will be released, or how much it’ll cost, or what its launch lineup will look like, but the consolemaker did confirm that the platform will include an “All New CPU and GPU,” as well as support for Ray Tracing and visuals up to 8K Resolution, a Blu-ray Drive, a Solid State Drive, and 3D Audio.

However, this next-generation console doesn’t mean that the PS4 is going away anytime soon. According to Sony, the PS4 will “remain the engine of engagement and profitability for the next three years.” They also reconfirmed that Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima will all be released for the PS4. That said, the report doesn’t rule out a cross-generational PS5 re-release for all of these games (though neither does it confirm one).

While Sony has no plans to give up the Blu-ray disc format or full-game downloads, the consolemaker is hoping for an increased focus on PlayStation Now streaming with their next-generation console. Currently, PlayStation Now is sitting at 700,000 subscribers, but Sony projects that the service’s subscriber base will increase to more than five million after the launch of the PlayStation Next Gen.

You can view Sony’s entire presentation about the future of the PlayStation platform within the consolemaker’s Investor Relations Day report.

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New Retail Releases: Team Sonic Racing, More

Posted on May 20, 2019 by John Scalzo

Sonic the Hedgehog is stepping out of his famous red sneakers this week and strapping on a racing helmet in Team Sonic Racing, which will be available for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One (and as a digital download for the PC).

The Blue Blur’s latest automotive aspirations will be joined on store shelves this week by a slew of pair of less-speedy new releases. Sony and Clap Hanz will tee it up in virtual reality in Everybody’s Golf VR for the PS4. And Koei Tecmo will begin writing the next chapter in the Atelier series with the launch of Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland for the PS4 and Switch.

Elsewhere on store shelves, publishers and developers continue to fill out the Switch’s library with seemingly every game ever released. During the next seven days, Ubisoft will bring Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (which contains the original game and the Liberation spinoff) to the Switch, while Capcom will package together a Resident Evil Origins Collection (Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0) for the platform, and 11 Bit Studios will do the same for This War of Mine: Complete Edition.

And speaking of expansions, Bethesda will release The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One (UPDATE: The release of the Elsweyr expansion was delayed to June 4).

Finally this week, Oculus will expand their product line with a pair of standalone VR headsets (the Oculus Quest 64GB and the Oculus Quest 128GB), as well as the PC-powered Oculus Rift S.

You can find even more new releases after the break. (more…)

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