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
The Pinball Arcade will finally be released for the Wii U in Early 2016
FarSight Studios has announced (via their Facebook page) that The Pinball Arcade will finally make its way to the Wii U in early 2016:
We know you won’t believe this one, but we are very proud to announce that the WiiU version of Pinball Arcade is coming soon! We are aiming for a very early 2016 release, so stay tuned!
This is great news for gamers who exist at the cross section of “pinball fanatics” and “Wii U owners,” as they’ve been waiting for The Pinball Arcade for a long time. And just how long have they been waiting? Rob Mann, FarSight’s former Community Manager, told us in a 2012 interview that The Pinball Arcade was originally scheduled to be a Wii U launch title. Better late than never, right?
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged The Pinball Arcade
Level-5 will announce “a sequel to a very popular series” and something “completely new” in 2016
Level-5 is riding high after this Fall’s North American launch of Yo-Kai Watch and the recent announcement of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. But it looks like the developer has even bigger plans in store for 2016.
Speaking to 4Gamer (and translated by Siliconera), Level-5’s President, Akihiro Hino, revealed the company has something “completely new” planned for next year alongside a sequel in a very popular series:
“We here at Level-5 are always thinking of new things to present to the world,” said Hino. “While I can’t go into too much detail, we plan to announce all kinds of new titles that consist of completely new ideas in 2016. There will also be a sequel to a very popular series among them. Please look forward to it.”
Hino’s pronouncement isn’t much to go on, but idle speculation is what the days between Christmas and New Year’s are all about. Personally, I’m hoping this means a Guild03 announcement is eminent.
Posted in News
Excitebike Racer, Captain Toad, Birdo costumes coming to Super Mario Maker
Super Mario Maker course creators get ready, Nintendo is about to add three new Costumes to the game as part of a trio of new Event Courses.
A Costume for Captain Toad, the star of last year’s painfully adorable Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, has already been added to Super Mario Maker. In addition to his explorer’s helmet, Captain Toad stops and holds up a star when crouching.
Meanwhile, Costumes for an Excitebike Racer and Birdo will be added to Super Mario Maker on December 31. Birdo is the same egg-spitting dinosaur you know (and tolerate) from Super Mario Bros. 2. But a platforming Excitebike Racer (complete with a crouching animation that pops a wheelie) is something I never knew I wanted until now.
Mini-trailers for all three new Costumes can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Super Mario Maker
Chart-topping songs from Coldplay, Justin Bieber, One Direction, and more are now available from Rock Band 4’s Music Store
Harmonix has decided to spin a few more chart-topping songs onto Rock Band 4‘s Music Store as players of the reborn rhythm franchise can download new songs from Coldplay, Justin Bieber, One Direction, and other popular acts beginning today. The following songs are now available to purchase for usual price of $1.99 apiece (and you can get a preview of each track in the trailer embedded above)…
- Coldplay – “Adventure of a Lifetime”
- Ellie Goulding – “On My Mind”
- Justin Bieber – “What Do You Mean?”
- One Direction – “Drag Me Down”
- Sam Hunt – “Leave The Night On”
- Weezer – “Thank God for Girls”
If you haven’t picked up the new-gen game yet, Harmonix is also trying to spread the word about a major Rock Band 4 sale going on this week at GameStop. The Game-Only package has been slashed to a more wallet-friendly $39.99 on the PS4 and $59.99 on the Xbox One for the next seven days. Both instrument bundles have also been heavily discounted as the Band-In-A-Box Bundle is currently priced at $199.99, while the Guitar Bundle is just $79.99.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rock Band 4
Rebel Galaxy will be released for PS4 and Xbox One in January
Double Damage Games has announced that Rebel Galaxy, their space combat sim that debuted for the PC earlier this year, will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One in January. The developer took to Twitter earlier today to reveal that PS4 players in North America will get a chance to purchase it on January 5, while Xbox One owners will have to wait until January 13:
Console Launch Dates! PS4 USA: Jan 5th. XBox One: Jan 13th. PS4 Europe: TENTATIVE Jan 12th (possibly 19th)
— Rebel Galaxy (@RebelGalaxy) December 28, 2015
As you can see, Double Damage confirmed that Rebel Galaxy will also be available through the European PlayStation Store on either January 12th or the 19th.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rebel Galaxy
Sony themselves will make sure The Banner Saga is released for Vita
With a dwindling trickle of new releases, it’s no surprise the PlayStation Vita isn’t as popular as it used to be. But Sony still wants their handheld to receive a semi-steady stream of new content, so they’re partnering with Versus Evil to help bring The Banner Saga, Stoic’s tactical RPG with a Viking-inspired setting, to the Vita. Gio Corsi, Sony’s Director of Third Party Production, delivered the good news through Twitter:
Great news! We're partnering with @vs_evil to continue work on #BannerSaga #Vita. More news in 2016. Happy Holidays! pic.twitter.com/txbawVDqpb
— Gio Corsi (@giocorsi) December 23, 2015
Stoic has been working hard on a console release of The Banner Saga since its launch for the PC in 2014 and the developer plans to release the game for the PS4 and Xbox One on January 12. It’s unknown when the Vita version of The Banner Saga will be completed.
Posted in News, Vita
Tagged The Banner Saga
Steam Store shows a January 2016 release date for Rise of the Tomb Raider
We knew that Rise of the Tomb Raider would be released for the PC in “Early 2016,” but an update to the game’s Steam page has narrowed it down a bit.
According to Valve’s digital storefront, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be available to download for the PC in “January 2016.” Steam wouldn’t (or couldn’t) get more specific than that, and Square Enix has yet to make an official announcement concerning the game’s PC launch, but it seems very likely that Rise of the Tomb Raider will be released for the PC sometime in the next four weeks.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was originally released for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on November 10.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Rise of the Tomb Raider
Weekly Warp-Up: Say Goodbye to 2015 Edition
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…
We’re about to wrap up 2015 and, as usual, the vast majority of the video game industry has taken the week off. But there’s still a few new things to talk about, and our own Andrew Rainnie even filed another entry in his Kickstart This! series. If you’ve got some extra Christmas cash lying around, Andrew suggests funneling it towards Deserted, Wanda: A Beautiful Apocalypse, and Night City Assault.
Or you could read up on the games news from the rest of the week, which is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in News