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
ClamCase announces GameCase, the first iOS 7-powered controller
Yesterday, Apple gave users their chance to download iOS 7, the latest update to the operating system behind the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. In addition to a variety of interface design changes, iOS 7 adds controller support to your iDevice. Today, ClamCase announced the first controller attachment for iPhones and iPads… the GameCase.
Exploring the add-on’s official website gives you a pretty good idea what the GameCase is capable of. It appears to be a dock that your iPhone or iPad (no iPod Touch support at this time) sits in. The controller inputs (which are laid out in a traditional console controller pattern of two analog sticks, a D-Pad, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons) interact with the iPhone/iPad using iOS 7’s MFi wireless controller standard. As the GameCase is considered a “wraparound” controller, it also allows players to use the gyroscope/accelerometer for motion controls and the touchscreen for, well, touching.
No release date or price for the GameCase were revealed, but it’s sure to be the first of many iOS 7-powered controllers announced in the coming weeks.
New Crimson Dragon trailer looks to fill your alien dragon quota nicely
The Tokyo Game Show trailer for Crimson Dragon doesn’t open with this narration, but it may as well have:
“After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and a new Earth. We named the planet Draco… and then we discovered that it’s full of alien dragons and an alien Moby Dick that wants to eat us! Seriously, what are the odds?”
Crimson Dragon will be available during the Xbox One’s launch exclusively from the Xbox Games Store. The storyline might be a bit of a stretch, but its the spiritual successor to Panzer Dragoon Saga and it looks to share more than a little DNA with Star Fox 64. If you’re starving for a new rail shooter, I recommend watching this trailer again and again until November 22.
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Former President of Nintendo: 1927-2013
Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo’s President from 1949 through 2002, has died. If you had to pick one man most responsible for the modern video games industry, Yamauchi would be the unquestioned choice.
Before 1956, Nintendo solely manufactured hanafuda cards, specialized playing cards used to play games like hanafuda and koi-koi, which were popular in Japan. However, Yamauchi dreamed of more and shifted the company’s focus towards toys in the late 1960s after a Nintendo taxi service and a Nintendo hotel proved to be failures. The first toy produced under Yamauchi’s reign was the Ultra Hand, an extendable grabber designed by Gunpei Yokoi (who would later go on to create Metroid and the Game Boy).
Yamauchi steered Nintendo towards arcade games in the 1970s and into the home console market in the early 1980s. After “The Video Game Crash of 1983,” Yamauchi and Nintendo stood alone in the console market, releasing the Famicom in Japan that same year. The system would be rebranded as the Nintendo Entertainment System for its North American launch in 1985. Worldwide acclaim, and an avalanche of sales that would make Yamauchi one of the richest men in Japan, followed.
In a statement, Nintendo said they are “mourning today from the sad loss of the former Nintendo president Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning.”
If you’d like to read more about Yamauchi’s life and his relentless pursuit to make Nintendo one of the biggest companies in the world, I highly recommend reading Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped An American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children by David Sheff.
Posted in News
Nintendo Download: Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Scribblenauts DC, Super Mario Bros., a lot more
Nintendo plans to add a bunch of new games to the DSiWare Shop, 3DS eShop, and Wii U eShop over the next few days, including one of the most acclaimed GameCube games ever and everybody’s favorite NES game.
Let’s start with today’s additions to Nintendo’s download services. The NES classic Super Mario Bros. is now available on the Wii U eShop, but the real action is on the 3DS. Nintendo’s handheld will receive Star Wars Pinball, Solomon’s Key, Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi, Rage of the Gladiator, AiRace Speed, Mahjong 3D: Essentials, and Shifting World today. There’s a little something for everyone there including a few puzzles games, a great fantasy fighter, a romantic RPG, and a racer. If you’re still rocking a DSi, two interactive stories (Tales to Enjoy! The Ugly Duckling and Tales to Enjoy! Three Little Pigs) were also added to the DSiWare Shop today.
So what else can we look forward to? Tomorrow, Nintendo will add The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD to the Wii U eShop, a full two weeks before its disc-based debut. And on Tuesday, Wii U and 3DS owners will be able to go on a superheroic adventure with Superman, Batman, and hundreds of other DC characters in Scribblenauts Unmasked. Finally, FIFA 14 will also be added to the 3DS eShop on Tuesday.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged FIFA 14, Scribblenauts Unmasked, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Dark Souls II will be released March 11 in Black Armor and Collector’s Editions
Namco Bandai has announced that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Dark Souls II will be available on March 11. But don’t worry PC gamers, the PC version will arrive soon after. The publisher has also announced that the game will be available in three distinct editions: a regular game-only edition, a limited Black Armor Edition, and an even more limited Collector’s Edition.
The Black Armor Edition will be available only for those who pre-order and it’ll house the game and a soundtrack CD in a “Collectible Metal Case.” The Collector’s Edition will also feature the metal packaging and the soundtrack CD as well a 12″ Warrior Knight Figurine, an Authentic Cloth Game Map, and a Collectible Art Book.
You can get a look at both packages at the end of the game’s 2013 Tokyo Game Show trailer, which has been titled “Aching Bones” by the sadistic freaks at From Software.
Full version of Wii Fit U available as a month-long trial download on November 1
Nintendo is trying something a little different with the release of Wii Fit U. If you’ve got a Wii Balance Board, the game will be available through the Wii U eShop as a free download beginning on November 1. Naturally, there’s a catch.
The free download of Wii Fit U includes the full and complete game… all 77 Activities, all the Custom Workout options, and all the Miiverse support. But the download comes with a countdown clock that only gives you 30 days of access after the game is first launched. If you want to continue using Wii Fit U, you’ll have to purchase a separate Fit Meter (for $19.99), which will be available in stores on November 1.
If you’d prefer to bypass this offer and just buy Wii Fit U outright, the game will be available in stores on December 13 (in both game-only and game + Balance Board editions) and as a paid download through the Wii U eShop on February 1, 2014.
XBLA Today: Foul Play
Side-scrolling beat ’em ups have been taking the Xbox Live Arcade by storm over the last few weeks, and this week is no exception. Now available on the XBLA is Foul Play, a beat ’em up from Devolver Digital that takes place entirely on a theater stage. Priced at $14.99, Foul Play is also available for the PC through Steam:
Play as the daemon hunter Baron Dashforth in a side-scrolling brawler set ENTIRELY on a theater stage. Perform shattering takedowns and reversals! Electrify spectators with linked attacks, have a friend join as sidekick Scampwick and use every stage-trick you know to bring the house down! Play out the most spectacular moments of the Baron’s life; improbable beasts, astonishing villainy and, at the heart of it all, the mysterious Foul Play.
Grand Theft Auto V’s $800 million day is franchise’s biggest debut ever
Surprising no one, Grand Theft Auto V had a very big launch yesterday. When all was said and done, the game tallied day one sales of more than $800 million worldwide. Official numbers will surely be released at a later date, but that dollar amount translates to at least 11 million copies sold, making it the biggest launch in franchise history.
Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two Interactive’s Chairman and CEO, was especially happy about this news: “All of us at Take-Two are thrilled with the initial response to Grand Theft Auto V. Once again, the team at Rockstar Games have outdone themselves, setting the entertainment industry’s new standard for creativity, innovation and excellence. Beginning at midnight on Monday, consumers around the world gathered in anticipation to be among the first to experience the evolution of this remarkable series. In North America alone, more than 8,300 stores opened their doors at midnight to welcome fans whose loyalty and enthusiasm were rewarded with what The New York Times called ‘the most immersive spectacle in interactive entertainment.’ We are incredibly proud of Rockstar Games’ creative achievement and could not be more pleased with the success of this launch.”
It’s unknown if Zelnick was holding two sacks with comically large dollar signs on them when he made this statement, but I’d like to believe he was.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Grand Theft Auto V