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
Tetris Effect’s Launch Trailer is out of this world
How do you make Tetris relevant for an entirely new generation of gamers? You give it to Tetsuya Mizuguchi (the creator of Lumines and Rez) and let him go nuts.
Using an eye-blistering arrays of colors, along with a unique soundtrack and full PlayStation VR support, Mizuguchi applied his trademark aesthetic to the Tetris franchise to create In Tetris Effect. Still not convinced? Don’t worry, all of these tricks are on full display in the game’s Launch Trailer:
Tetris Effect is Tetris like you’ve never seen it, or heard it, or felt it before—an incredibly addictive, unique, and breathtakingly gorgeous reinvention of one of the most popular puzzle games of all time, from the people who brought you the award-winning Rez Infinite and legendary puzzle game Lumines. Fully playable on either a standard display (up to 4K and 60fps on a PS4 Pro), or optionally in mind-blowing 3D on PS VR.
Music, backgrounds, sounds, special effects—everything, down to the Tetris pieces themselves, pulse, dance, shimmer, and explode in perfect sync with how you’re playing, making any of the game’s 30+ stages and 10+ modes something you’ll want to experience over and over again.
A challenge for the mind and a feast for all the senses, Tetris Effect is the perfect excuse to play Tetris again… and again…and again, and again, and again and again and again and again and again and again and…
Tetris Effect launched today, and it’s exclusively available for the PS4.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Tetris Effect
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Crashlands, Road Redemption, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
More than 30 new games will be added to the Switch eShop this week, so let’s once more dive into Nintendo’s newest digital offerings.
Available to download next Tuesday, November 13, is SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. Now known for its huge stable of fighting games, this compilation goes further back into SNK’s legacy and plucks out a few gems such as Crystalis and the Ikari Warriors trilogy.
Other games of interest in this week’s eShop update include Crashlands, an adventure game about an intergalactic delivery driver who took a wrong turn; Road Redemption, a racing game about post-apocalyptic motorcycle gangs; and Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft’s side-scrolling story of “friendship, love, sacrifice, and tragedy” centered on World War I. All three games are now available to download.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Astebreed, Forgotten Anne, Syberia 1 & 2, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Crashlands, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Valiant Hearts: The Great War
The NPD Group shares list of best-selling games on PS4, Xbox One, and Vita… also the Saturn, PS1, N64, GBC, and Dreamcast
The NPD Group has never been too keen on sharing their historical lists of best-selling games, but that might be changing. Using data from the analyst firm’s vast archive, Mat Piscatella recently tried to pull back the curtain a little bit by sharing the list of best-selling games on several legacy consoles (the Saturn, the original PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Color, and the Dreamcast) and a nearly defunct handheld (the Vita). He also examined the best-selling games through September 2018 on two modern consoles (the PS4 and Xbox One) and published a list of the top-selling titles for each year from 1995 to 2017.
It’s a very interesting collection of information, and the lists provide our best window yet into what games were considered popular in the United States in the 1990s and into today. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Retro, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Crash Bandicoot, Grand Theft Auto V, NPD, Super Mario 64, Uncharted: Golden Abyss
World of Final Fantasy Maxima, Chasm, Carnival Games, more coming to Xbox Store this week
Three very different fantasy worlds lead the way in this week’s Xbox Games Store update.
Two years after its PS4/PS Vita debut, Square Enix will bring World of Final Fantasy Maxima, an enhanced and updated version of their chibi-styled crossover RPG, to the Xbox One. Players will receive the original game, along with extra heroic Champions and monstrous Mirages, and playable versions of Reynn and Lann.
Also available to download this week is Chasm, a procedurally-generated MetroidVania from Bit Kid. In this side-scroller, players must earn their stripes as a knight, and come to the aid of an endangered village.
Finally this week, 2K Games is heading down to a fantastic fair and players will once again be able to compete in the minigames from Carnival Games.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Chasm, World of Final Fantasy
Tetris Effect, Deracine, Omen of Sorrow, more coming to PS Store this week
The eye-popping visual style employed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi invades the ordered puzzle landscape of Alexey Pajitnov in this week’s PlayStation Store update.
Tetris Effect is a new spin on the classic puzzle game for the PS4 that includes ridiculously colorful psychedelic visuals, full PlayStation VR support, and a huge number of new modes and play styles.
Speaking of the PlayStation VR, players can also use their headsets this week to try out Deracine, the first VR game from From Software. Players take control of a spirit in a boarding school, and they need to “prove its existence and build a unique bond with the students as the world is uncovered through discovery and exploration.”
Spirits, ghouls, and ghosts are also at the center of Omen of Sorrow, a new fighting game for the PS4 which stars classic monsters such as a werewolf, Dracula, and Frankenstein’s Monster.
Finally this week, 2K Games will bring back their midway minigame collection, Carnival Games, for the PS4. And the vehicular combat of Road Redemption, from Pixel Dash Studios and EQ Games, will also come to the PS4.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Tetris Effect
Fortnite will add NFL-themed Outfits on November 9
Are you ready for some Football Royale? Epic Games and the NFL have announced that NFL-themed Outfits will be available to download in Fortnite beginning this Thursday, November 9, at 7:00 PM.
According to an update on Epic’s official website, jerseys will be available for all 32 NFL teams, plus an additional Fortnite-styled jersey:
Each Outfit can be swapped to any of the thirty-two NFL teams, plus an additional unique Fortnite team. You’ll also be able to choose any number from 1-99 to place on your jersey to complete the official NFL look.
A trailer for the “Fortnite X NFL” crossover has been embedded above.
Kingdom Hearts III lets its hair down in a new trailer featuring the cast of Tangled
Square Enix has dropped yet another trailer for Kingdom Hearts III from their magical tower… and I mean that quite literally, as this video clip takes us to the Kingdom of Corona and the world of Disney’s Tangled:
As Rapunzel leaves her mysterious tower for the first time with the help of charming bandit Flynn Rider – Sora, Donald and Goofy join the pair on their adventure to the kingdom, taking on the Heartless along the way. The new trailer also showcases some of the unique combat players can enjoy in the Tangled-inspired world as the team defeats the Heartless with the help of Rapunzel’s magical golden hair.
Kingdom Hearts III will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on January 29, 2019.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Kingdom Hearts III
Bryce Harper will be your MLB The Show 19 cover athlete when the game launches on March 26
The Boston Red Sox closed the book on the 2018 season with a World Series win last week, and if you listen closely, you can already hear the “Wait ’til next year!” chants coming from the fans of every other team. So now’s the perfect time for Sony to announce that MLB The Show 19 will be released for the PS4 on March 26 with Bryce Harper.
Harper is currently a free agent, and we have no idea where he’ll play next season, but he made a big name for himself in Washington, winning the 2012 NL Rookie of the Year, 2015 NL MVP, and the 2018 Home Run Derby. But it sounds like Harper has big plans for the future:
Bryce’s unapologetic raw passion for the game and search for a potential team makes him the player to watch this off-season. We’re at the beginning of a new chapter in the epic MLB legacy of Bryce Harper. He’s got the skill and tenacity to be a hall-of-fame ballplayer. He’s got an explosive drive to win, and he’s hungrier than ever for a World Series ring.
MLB The Show 19 will be available in four different bundles next year, beginning with a Standard Edition with a pretty standard price ($59.99).
But fans will also be able to grab the Gone Yard Edition ($99.99) exclusively at GameStop, and it’ll include 1 New Era Gone Yard Edition 9FIFTY Hat, Limited Edition Steel Book, 1 In-Game Digital Diamond Dynasty New Era Gone Yard Edition 9FIFTY Hat, 1 Prestige Gear Up Choice Pack, 1 of 30 Diamond Flashbacks, 15,000 Stubs, 20 Standard Packs, 1 Classic Stadium, and 30 Custom Avatars.
The Digital Deluxe Edition ($99.99) will offer up a similar package exclusively through the PlayStation Store. The MVP Edition ($69.99) will cut out the hat and a few of the digital bonuses, but it’ll include 1 Prestige Player Gear Up Choice Pack, 1 of 30 Diamond Flashbacks, 6,000 Stubs, 1 Classic Stadium, 10 Standard Packs, and 30 Custom Avatars.
You can read up on all the game’s editions at the PlayStation Blog.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged MLB The Show 19