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.

Bithell Games announces the “fight-choreographed chess” of John Wick Hex

Posted on May 8, 2019 by John Scalzo

John Wick will return to theaters on May 17th in the highly-anticipated John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, but Keanu Reeves’s third most-popular character is also thinking of coming back to the world of video games in the not-too-distant future as well.

Mike Bithell, the creator of Thomas Was Alone and Subsurface Circular, will bring John Wick Hex to the PC/Mac (exclusively via the Epic Games Store) and consoles. No release date was announced, but the developer describes the game as “fight-choreographed chess,” and players will need to tap into their strategic side if they hope to survive each encounter:

Created in close cooperation with the creative teams behind the films, John Wick Hex is fight-choreographed chess brought to life as a video game, capturing the series’ signature gun fu style while expanding its story universe. Players must choose every action and attack they make, while considering their immediate cost and consequences. Every move in John Wick Hex feels like a scene from the movies, and every fight contributes to your progress on the job and requires precise strategic thinking.

Perform well and progress in the main story mode (which features an original story created for the game) to unlock new weapons, suit options, and locations. Each weapon changes up the tactics you’ll use and the manner in which you’ll play. Ammo is finite and realistically simulated, so time your reloads and make the most of weapons you scavenge on the job.

Ian McShane and Lance Reddick will reprise their roles from the film series in the game, and publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment plans to show off a playable version of John Wick Hex at this year’s E3 Expo.

Employing a “unique graphic noir art design,” the first trailer for John Wick Hex has been embedded above.

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

Donkey Kong Jr, Vs Excitebike, Clu Clu Land coming to Switch’s NES app on May 15

Posted on May 8, 2019 by John Scalzo

Nintendo has announced this month’s trio of new additions to their Nintendo Entertainment System app and they are Donkey Kong Jr, Vs Excitebike, and Clu Clu Land.

Donkey Kong Jr is the sequel to Nintendo’s first big hit and it actually casts Mario as the villain for the first (and possibly only) time in his career. Meanwhile, Clu Clu Land is an underwater puzzle game that was originally available at the NES’s launch all the way back in 1985. And Vs Excitebike is a multiplayer variant to the popular racing that was originally released in 1988… but at the time it was only available in Japan.

Here’s what Nintendo has to say about all three titles:

Donkey Kong Jr. – Based on the popular arcade game, Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to the immensely successful Donkey Kong game. Play as Donkey Kong’s son, and rescue your dad who has been kidnapped and imprisoned in a cage by Mario. Use jumping and climbing abilities to clamber up vines and chains, gather vital fruit and keys, and open the cage to free your father. Make sure you avoid the pesky birds, nasty electric sparks and creepy chompers. Four different worlds filled with numerous climbing and jumping puzzles await you in this timeless classic.

Vs Excitebike – Fans love the Excitebike game for its frenetic races, high stakes, and sweet jumps. With this game, you can take it to the next level with the Famicom disk version of Vs Excitebike – complete with two-player split screen. Create tracks from 20 classic Excitebike track parts, and go for a best time or take on friends. Racing is even more exciting when the rivalries are real. You can also try out the single-player mode in Vs Excitebike. It adds tracks, music, and the ability to save your high score.

Clu Clu Land – The greedy Sea Urchins have stolen all of Clu Clu Land’s gold bars and buried them in a series of mazes. As Bubbles, a brave bubble fish, you’ll set out to uncover all of the gold bars in each maze. With 20 stages to complete and increasingly complex conditions (like having to pass over the gold bars twice to uncover them), you might just want to bring along a friend for help.

Donkey Kong Jr, Clu Clu Land, and Vs Excitebike will be available to download for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers on May 15.

Posted in News, Switch |

Mojang launches browser-based Minecraft Classic so you can play like it’s 2009

Posted on May 7, 2019 by John Scalzo

Mojang didn’t call it “Early Access” when they first made an unfinished build of Minecraft available to download in the Spring of 2009, but the game’s revolutionary distribution model has certainly changed how many developers release their games and interact with players. As Minecraft’s tenth anniversary approaches, the developer is giving fans a chance to return to those exciting early days with Minecraft Classic.

Minecraft Classic is a browser-based (and free-to-play) version of the game that rolls back all the updates Mojang has applied to Minecraft over the years. Just what does that mean? I’ll let the developer’s official website explain:

You can run Minecraft Classic in your browser and you’ll soon see why. With just 32 blocks to build with, all the original bugs, and an (inter)face only a mother could love, Minecraft 2009 is even more glorious than we remembered! You’re in for a real treat, particularly if you’re really into dyed wool (and who isn’t it?).

Minecraft Classic is now available to play at Minecraft.net, but don’t get too obsessed with it, more tenth anniversary surprises for Minecraft will be revealed on May 17th.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Bruce Campbell says Evil Dead’s Ash won’t come to Mortal Kombat 11 as DLC fighter

Posted on May 7, 2019 by John Scalzo

The latest game in the long-running Mortal Kombat franchise, Mortal Kombat 11, made its way onto store shelves in late April, but we got a possible peak at the game’s upcoming downloadable characters shortly after it launched thanks to dataminers over at Reddit. At the time, the game’s code pointed towards the addition of series stalwarts Fujin, Nightwolf, Shang Tsung, Sheeva, and Sindel down the road, as well as guest characters The Joker, The Terminator, Spawn, and Evil Dead‘s Ash.

However, Bruce Campbell creatively debunked the rumor on Twitter earlier this week. According to the actor (who has starred in three Evil Dead movies and the recently-concluded Ash Vs Evil Dead cable series), he won’t be appearing in the game as Ash:

This is disappointing news (and it throws the rest of the DLC slate into question), but I guess Evil Dead fans will just have to be content with the character’s recent addition to Dead By Daylight.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to dig out my copy of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and perform a few Fatalities with my Kreate-A-Fighter version of Ash.

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

Devil May Cry is coming to the Switch this Summer

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

Capcom has announced (via Twitter) that the original Devil May Cry will be hacking and slashing its way to the Nintendo Switch this Summer:

The first game to chronicle Dante’s demonhunting ways was first released for the PS2 in 2001. The game was eventually remastered (as part of the Devil May Cry HD Collection) for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, and again for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2018. Presumably, Capcom has plans in place to bring the remaining games in the series to the Switch if Devil May Cry proves popular.

But that’s all things to worry about in the future. For now, all we can do is sit back and wait for Capcom to announce more details (and hopefully a trailer) about Devil May Cry’s upcoming Switch debut in the coming weeks.

UPDATE (5/7/19): Capcom has launched the official website for Devil May Cry on the Switch, and they’ve confirmed the game will not receive a physical release and that it’ll be exclusive to the Nintendo eShop. A few screenshots are also available for your perusal.

Posted in News, Switch | Tagged

Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be released for PS4 on May 10

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

The PlayStation Store is about to get a little more radical this week, as Berzerk Studio has announced that Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be available to download for the PS4 on May 10.

Just Shapes & Beats originally launched for the PC and Switch in 2018, and it’s probably best described as a “dodge ’em up.” Players are attacked from all sides by a variety of Shapes, but as long as they survive until the end of each level’s chiptune-like Beat, they’ll move on. You could watch the new trailer embedded above, or see how Berzerk’s Mike Ducarme tried to explain it to the PlayStation Blog:

Just Shapes & Beats is a musical bullet-hell-ish? It’s weird to explain… you play a shape, you dodge beats, which are also shapes, you can play with up to three friends, who are also shapes. It’s not a bullet hell in the pure sense of the term since it’s a lot more based on dodging and surviving than attacking. It’s more like a dodge ‘em up I guess?

As you might have guessed from the new subtitle, Just Shapes & Beats’s PS4 debut will introduce Hardcore Mode, which ratchets the difficulty up to “dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal” level. Again, I’ll let Ducarme explain:

Of course, my good sir, you’ll be happy to know that the PS4 release also introduces HARDCORE MODE. We made our designer watch videos of things that anger him, like people cutting in line at the coffee shop because they know the staff, and dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal, and then let him loose in the wild. Every stage has been redesigned in some form or another to give you a whole new experience that will make even seasoned Souls-like players weep, longing for their mother’s warm embrace.

According to Berzerk, Hardcore Mode will be coming to the PS4 “first,” so PC and Switch owners will (hopefully) be able to try it out sometime soon.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch | Tagged

Platinum Games plans to self-publish two unannounced games so they can control the sequel rights

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

Platinum Games rose from the ashes of Capcom’s beloved Clover Studio, and the developer has gained quite the large following over the years thanks to a game catalog built on unique ideas and wild concepts. But the vast majority of those titles were produced in collaboration with larger publishers, and even though Platinum has been interested in revisiting those worlds in sequels and spinoffs, the contracts they signed have prevented them from doing so on their own.

This conundrum was on Executive Director Atsushi Inaba’s mind when he recently sat down for an interview with Video Games Chronicle. According to Inaba, Platinum Games has decided to begin self-publishing some of their future projects so they retain control over the sequel rights:

“It’s absolutely the truth that there are cases where you want to do a sequel but if you don’t own the IP, you can’t do it,” Inaba explained.

“It’s that simple, and quite frankly in the case of Bayonetta it took a lot of time and energy to get it to the point where sequels could be made. It wasn’t as simple as picking up the phone and asking, ‘hey, can we do this?’ There were a lot of pieces that needed to fall into place and a lot of negotiating that had to occur.

“That’s a pain. That’s a hassle. For us as creators, we want to get to the point where self-publishing allows us to own our IP and do what we want with it, including making sequels. So the faster we can have that freedom, the better if will be for all the creators here.”

Platinum Games is currently developing Astral Chain for Nintendo as a Switch exclusive, but Inaba confirmed that the company also plans to self-publish two unannounced games at some point in the future. The veteran developer later said that one of these titles goes beyond the typical Platinum weirdness and is “unlike anything else”:

“Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else,” he said.

“Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.”

Hopefully we’ll learn more about Platinum’s upcoming projects very soon.

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

New Retail Releases: Saints Row: The Third for Switch, Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, More

Posted on May 6, 2019 by John Scalzo

As we inch ever closer to the Summer sun, there’s just a small smattering of new releases heading to your local game shop this week.

Deep Silver and Volition will bring Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package to the Switch, making it the first game in the franchise to land on a Nintendo console. The Full Package will include the entire Saints Row: The Third experience, including the main game and all three expansions.

Also this week, PS4 owners will be able to give Ghost Giant a look. The puzzle adventure is a PlayStation VR title where players take control of the titular Ghost Giant and help a little boy named Louis feel less lonely.

Finally this week, Microsoft will take their first step into a discless “all-digital future” with the release of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. The console will feature a 1TB hard drive and it’ll come packaged with full-game download codes for Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3.

That’s it for this week’s retail releases, but you’ll find plenty of other new games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop later this week.

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