Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
Hyrule Warriors was such a success that it may lead to Super Mario Warriors
Polygon recently talked with Hisashi Koinuma, Koei Tecmo’s Executive Vice President, about the success of the Dynasty Warriors series (and its various spinoffs) in Japan and the rest of the world. Naturally, the conversation drifted towards Hyrule Warriors, one of the most recent spinoffs for the series and one of Koei Tecmo’s biggest successes. But instead of resting on his laurels, Koinuma admitted that what he’d really like to do is develop a Dynasty Warriors game set in the Mushroom Kingdom:
He’s open to the idea of a Musou game targeted at kids, for instance, if the right license comes along, and in a recent interview with Eurogamer, he even mentioned a Mario Musou game, saying, “One of my ultimate dreams would be using that character with the red hat on top.”
Asked whether he was joking with that comment, Koinuma says he thinks it could actually work. He sees Mario as a character that would need to branch out from hand-to-hand combat but could focus on his distinctive moves. Speaking hypothetically, Koinuma suggests Mario could “blast enemies off the screen or knock them unconscious” with his moveset. “I suppose the game would be balanced so the kids could enjoy it as their first action game experience, whereas the adults could enjoy the game with friends and families as a group,” he says.
While this doesn’t mean that a “Super Mario Warriors” game is definitely in development, it seems like it could be a possibility, and an intriguing one at that. At the very least, Koinuma’s words likely point to a world where we’ll see more Nintendo/Koei Tecmo collaborations in the future.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Hyrule Warriors
Dead Rising: Watchtower debuts on Crackle on March 27… here’s the first trailer
Capcom and Crackle have released the first trailer for Dead Rising: Watchtower, the first English-language film adaptation of the popular game series. Watchtower will star Rob Riggle as a more comedic version of journalist Frank West. He’ll be joined by Virginia Madsen as “Women Driving Away From Zombies,” Jesse Metcalfe as “Reporter Who Isn’t Frank West,” and Dennis Haysbert as “Army General Who Tells People Not to Panic.” I’m sure they’ll have actual names in the film, but that’s the best I can do from a few seconds of screen time in the trailer. More screen time was devoted to the makeshift weapons that the game series is known for, proving that the filmmakers have at least some idea what the fans want.
Dead Rising: Watchtower will be available to watch exclusively through the Crackle streaming service on March 27.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Dead Rising: Watchtower
State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition will be released on April 28
Undead Labs was gearing up to announce the final release date for State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition at this weekend’s PAX South convention. But it looks Xbox Wire has stolen their thunder as Microsoft’s official Xbox blog spilled the beans a few days early.
According to Xbox Wire, State of Decay’s Year-One Survival Edition will released on April 28 for the PC and Xbox One. This updated version will add a nice 1080p sheen to the graphics with new textures and lighting effects. Other additions planned for the Year-One Survival Edition include new weapons, new vehicles, and new characters. Both expansion packs, Breakdown and Lifeline, will be included as well.
If you’ve already purchased State of Decay on the Xbox 360, Microsoft wants to make it worth your while to upgrade to the Year-One Survival Edition. All returning Xbox 360 players will receive a new playable character, Gurubani, a “sword-wielding Indian-American badass,” and a 33% discount off the game’s $29.99 price tag. Returning PC players will also get Gurubani and Undead Labs expects to announce a similar discount offer soon.
Undead Labs will set up shop at Booth 1059 in the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center for this weekend’s PAX South and they have plenty of giveaways planned as well as playable demo stations for State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged PAX South 2015, State of Decay
Nintendo Download: Punch-Out!!, Citizens of Earth, SCAT, more
“Dance like a fly, bite like a mosquito.”
The Little Mac Amiibo figure may have eluded me (and a lot of other people), but Nintendo is bringing the scrappy little fighter back by adding 2009’s Punch-Out!! to the Wii U eShop. Developed by Next Level Games, Punch-Out!! was originally released in 2009 and it perfectly recaptures all the epic video boxing action of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (and a little bit of the slightly more forgotten Super Punch-Out!!).
Throwbacks are a theme in this week’s Nintendo Download as players will also be able to download Citizens of Earth, an RPG from Atlus that’s partially inspired by Earthbound, and SCAT, a side-scrolling shooter that originally made waves on the NES in 1990. Both games are available to donwload on the 3DS and Wii U.
More information on all of these games (and a pair of other Wii U releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Citizens of Earth, Punch-Out!!
Telltale will release Game of Thrones: The Lost Lords in two weeks
Episode Two of Telltale’s Game of Thrones adaptation is almost ready for release. The developer unveiled the debut trailer of the second episode, The Lost Lords, today. Here’s what gamers can expect, but if you haven’t completed Episode One you may not want to read any further:
House Forrester is in disarray. Their liege lord and his heir are dead, and Ironrath is occupied by Whitehill soldiers. The survival of the family depends upon those who are left.
Placed at King’s Landing, the epicenter of intrigue, Mira Forrester must weigh her loyalty to Margaery Tyrell against the needs of her family, while choosing how to play the political games of Tyrion Lannister. One misstep could spell doom for Mira and her entire family. To the far north, Gared Tuttle finds that the wall and its crows hold little love for a squire from the Wolfswood, but finds kinship in the bastard son of Ned Stark.
Gared must prove worthy of becoming a ranger in order to carry out the mission given him; one that is vital to the future of those he serves. To the east, Asher Forrester, the exiled son, is called back to Westeros to aid his family, but how can one man help when the Boltons rule the north with an iron fist? Meanwhile, an unexpected source of hope returns to the Forresters, but Ironrath is no place for the weak.
Game of Thrones: The Lost Lords will be available to download in two weeks. PC, PS3, and PS4 players will be able to play it on Tuesday, February 3 while Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners will have to wait until Wednesday, February 4. All five platforms will receive The Lost Lords before Android and iOS owners, who will be able to download it on Thursday, February 5.
Dive deeper into The Order: 1886’s story with this trailer
The release of Ready At Dawn’s The Order: 1886 is just about a month away, so here’s a new trailer that dives a bit deeper into the PS4 exclusive’s storyline. It seems that the battle between the titular Order and werewolf-like Half-Breeds is being interrupted by some kind of rebellion.
We don’t know what the rebellion is just yet, but if you want to see a man punch a werewolf in the face, then this trailer is for you. The Order: 1886 will be released for the PS4 on February 20.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged The Order: 1886
Prepare for Evolve with this Survival Guide video
With three eldritch horrors living it up on the planet Shear and a variety of other deadly fauna and flora, the world of Evolve is not a safe place for humanity. So the planet’s leaders have ordered an evacuation… except for a group of Hunters who have volunteered to challenge these creatures and protect the fleeing colonists.
Since fighting a beast from beyond the stars isn’t your average job, Turtle Rock Studios has put together this “Survival Guide” to acclimate players to the harsh realities of Shear. The video breaks down all four Hunter classes (Assault, Medic, Trapper, and Support), all three Monsters (Goliath, Kraken, and Wraith), all four game modes (fighting deathmatches in Hunt, breaking eggs in Nest, rescuing colonists in Rescue, and defending generators in Defend), and the Evacuation campaign. According to Turtle Rock, the Evacuation campaign can play out in more than 800,000 different ways based on which objectives are completed by the Hunters or the Monsters.
Evolve will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 10. Players who pre-order the game will receive the Monster Expansion Pack for free, which will add a fourth Monster as a playable character sometime this Spring.
Xbox Store Today: Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, Resident Evil HD
Are you ready to do battle with a horde of hellspawn, a gaggle of zombies, and a spaceship full of aliens? If you’re interesting in purchasing anything in today’s Xbox Games Store update, you better be.
Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners can return to Raccoon City to fight zombies in the latest re-release of Resident Evil. This version of the “REmake” includes enhanced graphics and a new widescreen presentation.
Also available this week are a pair of Saints Row titles: Saints Row IV: Re-Elected and Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. Re-Elected marks the franchise’s debut on the Xbox One and includes all of the previously released DLC as the Third Street Saints attempt to stop an alien invasion. In Gat Out of Hell, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners will travel to the underworld and “Shoot The Devil in the Face.”
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Resident Evil, Saints Row IV, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell