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
Nintendo Download: Mega Man X2, Bravely Default demo
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nintendo Download… which is strikingly similar to last week’s.
As you might remember, the Nintendo Network suffered several terrible outages in the wake of an apparently successful Christmas for Nintendo. So rather than flood the eShop with a ton of new games, Nintendo has decided to remind everyone that a bunch of great games were added to the online storefront last week including Dr. Luigi (Wii U), Super Punch-Out!! (Wii U), CastleStorm (Wii U), Mario Tennis (3DS), and several others. You can read all about last week’s eShop update here.
One new game did make its way onto the Wii U eShop, Mega Man X2. Capcom’s Super NES is joined by a 3DS demo of Bravely Default, Square Enix’s upcoming RPG.
Enjoy! (more…)
WB teases Mr. Freeze story DLC for Batman: Arkham Origins
As promised, WB Games made a “big announcement” concerning Batman: Arkham Origins. As we were all ringing in the new year with parties and playtime, WB Games had a different kind of party in mind: Gotham City’s Humanitarian of the Year Awards.
The gala event will be held at Wayne Manor and will serve as the setting for a story-based downloadable expansion to Arkham Origins planned for release this year. A post on the Batman: Arkham Facebook page confirms that the party will have an ice theme, which likely means an appearance by Mr. Freeze. Further evidence can be found in Batman: The Animated Series, which set the first battle between Batman and Mr. Freeze at the Humanitarian of the Year Awards.
WB Games has promised that more details will be revealed soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham Origins
Capcom will resurrect a classic IP, announce next Ace Attorney and fighting game in 2014
It looks like Capcom has big plans for 2014. Game designers from the Japanese publisher recently sat down with 4Gamer (via DualShockers) to discuss their development pipeline.
First up, Deep Down Producer Kazunori Sugiura confirmed that Capcom wants to get back into the fighting genre in a big way. In addition to the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, the company wants to “reaffirm its presence in the fighting genre” in 2014.
After that, Kenji Kataoka, a Producer on Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, said that the company plans to resurrect another classic franchise in 2014. Expect an official announcement “when the weather gets a bit warmer.” So… E3 2014… maybe?
Finally, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies Director Takeshi Yamazaki has revealed that his team has begun work on the next game in the Ace Attorney series. It’s still very early in development, and it’s unknown if he’s referring to Ace Attorney 6 or another spinoff, but work has begun.
I guess we shouldn’t hold our breath for a new Mega Man announcement… yet.
Posted in News
Weekly Warp-Up: Good Luck Hello Games 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…
The Warp Zoned staff compiled a list of our favorite articles from 2013 this week, The WZ Year in Review, but this week’s biggest story is what happened to Hello Games on Christmas Eve. The British developer is the team behind the amazing No Man’s Sky, and they were the victim of massive flooding a few days ago. Everything appears to be lost, but the team has been tweeting their progress in sifting through their water-logged office and they seem surprisingly upbeat. We’re pulling for them.
If you’re interested in the handful of stories that broke during Christmas week, you can find them after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Another Deep Down trailer mixes monsters and medieval knights
Deep Down will make its debut on the PlayStation 4 sometime next year as a free-to-play title. While we still have no idea how that’ll work, Capcom has released a new trailer showcasing the game’s “Prologue” scene.
OK, I watched it and I still have no idea what Deep Down is going for.
Mojang is too busy to work on Wii U version of Minecraft
Bringing Minecraft to the Wii U seems like the most natural thing in the world. Kids love it and the GamePad’s screen would be perfect for crafting. But according to Minecraft’s creator, Markus “Notch” Persson, the game’s Wii U absence is solely because developer Mojang doesn’t have time to work on it:
I agree a Wii U version would make sense, btw. The only reason for no current plans is we've got too much work already. I <3 Nintendo.
— Markus Persson (@notch) December 27, 2013
That’s a bummer for Wii U owners. But maybe Nintendo can offer to pay for development themselves? That way, everybody wins.
Nintendo eShop will go offline for maintenance today at 4 PM
Nintendo has announced (via their Facebook page) that the Nintendo eShop will go offline for maintenance today beginning at 4:00 PM (Eastern Time). The online storefront will reopen tomorrow at 4:00 AM (Eastern Time). Due to this maintenance period, today’s release of the Pokemon Bank app has been delayed. A new release date hasn’t been announced, but hopefully it’ll be available soon.
Here’s Nintendo’s full statement:
We sincerely apologize for the connection problems in the Nintendo eShop. We understand this is taking longer than expected, but we can assure you that providing a solution is our top priority. We are determined to make sure everyone can enjoy all that Wii U and Nintendo 3DS have to offer. In an effort to manage the high volume of traffic and ultimately improve your experience, we are temporarily taking the Nintendo eShop services offline between the hours of 4 PM – 4 AM ET. Thank you so much for your continued patience. We will keep you updated.
The offices of No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games were flooded on Christmas Eve
Hello Games, the developer behind the Joe Danger series and the upcoming No Man’s Sky did not have a very happy holiday. Their office is currently underwater due to massive flooding that took place throughout Guildford in Surrey, England on Christmas Eve.
Oh god. Water moves really quick. Hello Games has been totally flooded. Everything in the office has pretty much been lost :(
— Hello Games (@hellogames) December 24, 2013
A river broke its bank nearby yesterday, and A LOT of water flooded in really quickly. A biblical amount. It was coming in the windows!
— Hello Games (@hellogames) December 25, 2013
We've lost most things – PCs, monitors, furniture, a door, a wall. You'd think the massive water cooled mega PC would be ok? It was not :(
— Hello Games (@hellogames) December 25, 2013
We're taking stock today, but already I know we'll come back stronger :) – all we'll need is a place to work and a machine to work on :)
— Hello Games (@hellogames) December 25, 2013
Thankfully, no one from Hello Games was injured during the flooding. And what this means for the future of No Man’s Sky is currently up in the air, but the team seems to be in good spirits.
Posted in News
Tagged No Man's Sky