Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get 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
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
Grimm Bros. plans to bring a darker mentality to PC/tablet RPGs
Grimm Bros. is on a mission. They want to bring the darker notions of Grimm, Chaucer, Tolkien, Stoker, and many others to the world of PC/tablet RPGs. The studio, which plans to showcase their first title at next week’s Game Developers Conference, was started earlier this year by Ash Monif, the former COO of Human Head, and artist Randis Albion.
Speaking to the Cogswell Polytechnical College blog, Monif said, “I have always been a fan of complex subject matter. I grew up reading the classics Grimm, Chaucer, Tolkien – and I feel that today’s games gloss over a lot of the richness that can be found within these great works. Our goal is to build a community of core and mid-core gamers who are seeking out a redefined RPG experience.”
The Cogswell blogger pitched the team’s sensibilities as “Evil Dead meets Monty Python.” You hear that? That’s the sound of a gaggle of geeks just shrieking in joy.
Shrieks of joy (and terror) will also be produced when you view the Albion-created concept art (which may or may not be representative of Grimm’s first project) based on Little Red Riding Hood, Dracula, The Golem, and others after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Dragon Fin Soup, GDC 2013
XBLA Today: Alien Spidy, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Capcom Arcade Cabinet: 1986
A trio of new games have been added to the Xbox Live Arcade today. Come take a look…
The Capcom Arcade Cabinet continues to fill up as Capcom Arcade Cabinet: 1986 Pack was released today. The 1986 Pack has been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10) and includes Side Arms, Legendary Wings, and Trojan.
Another blast from the 80s past has been added to the XBLA today in the form of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. Priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), Twisted Dreams is a new and original take on the Giana Sisters, a pair of game characters who originally rose to fame in 1987 with a game that blatantly ripped off Super Mario Bros.:
Rescue the Giana Sisters in this fast-paced platform game! Jump through tricky levels and transform in an instant from cute to rebellious and back. The entire environment changes with you in real time, including the soundtrack, which was produced by sound magician Chris Hülsbeck. Use your skills, solve challenging puzzles, and defeat nasty end bosses. Start an unusual adventure in this dreamlike remake, and experience the rebirth of a real cult classic of the 80s!
Finally, there’s Alien Spidy. For 800 Microsoft Points ($10) you can control an alien spider (bet you didn’t see that one coming) as he attempts to find his way home:
After losing contact with his explorer friend Virgi, our fearless alien hero Spidy heads to Earth in his spacecraft to find her. While entering the Earth’s atmosphere, his spacecraft suddenly fails and starts to break up, causing Spidy to crash-land on the strange planet, with his craft scattered across forests, throughout ponds and into dark caves. Spidy finds himself alone on an alien world and faces the epic challenge of tracking down Virgi, battling strange new enemies and finding the missing pieces from his spacecraft in order to repair the damage and make their escape home.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Capcom Arcade Cabinet
Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, DOA5 Plus, Dollar Dash, more added to PS Store
Welcome to yet another weekly update of the PlayStation Store. This week, it’s all about the fight.
Activision has added The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, their first-person shooter based on the AMC show (which was based on the comic), to the PlayStation Store. Also available this week is Dollar Dash, a Bomberman-like multiplayer game that substitutes bags of cash for bombs. And then throws in a few bombs just to be on the safe side.
In classic gaming releases, this week sees the release of the next installment in the Capcom Arcade Cabinet, Capcom Arcade Cabinet: 1986 Pack, as well as the PSone Classic Hogs of War.
Over on the portable side of things, Dead or Alive 5 Plus and Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland Plus have both been added to the Vita store. And on the PSP store, Carnage Heart EXA is now available (that’s right, there’s a new PSP game today!).
More details on this week’s new releases can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PSP, Vita
Tagged Dead or Alive 5, Dollar Dash, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
Dollar Dash Review: No Honor Among Thieves
Candygun’s Dollar Dash owes a massive debt to the long-running Bomberman series. Instead of cartoony robots blowing each other to bits with comically large bombs, it features cartoony robbers blowing each other to bits with comical weapons to obtain large stacks of cash. This wholesale borrowing of Bomberman’s main theme isn’t highway robbery, but don’t expect Dollar Dash to make you an offer you can’t refuse. (more…)
Final Fantasy X-2 HD announced for PS3, Vita
Square Enix announced that they’re bringing a high definition remake of Final Fantasy X to the PlayStation 3 and the Vita all the way back in 2011. The publisher has been surprisingly tight-lipped about it since, but it appears they had a good reason… Final Fantasy X for the PS3/Vita is being turned into an HD compilation that also includes Final Fantasy X-2!
The news comes from the latest issue of Jump magazine (via Gematsu), which also confirms that Square Enix plans to release the collection in Japan this year.
While Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 will be packaged together for the PS3, the Vita version of each game will be sold separately. And, for Japan at least, the remakes will include the “International” bonus content.
It’s currently unknown if these director’s cuts will be used for the US release of Final Fantasy X HD (or if Final Fantasy X-2 HD will even make it across the Pacific). But we can sure hope so.
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster
Pottermore casts a spell on PlayStation Home in April
Pottermore, the social networking hub for J.K. Rowling’s sprawling saga about a boy wizard named Harry Potter (perhaps you’ve heard of it), will be available through PlayStation Home beginning in April.
Your PlayStation Home Avatar will be able to board the Hogwarts Express, explore Diagon Alley, get a set of free school robes, take part in an illicit Wizard’s Duel, experience Book Herding, or challenge your friends to a Pottermore quiz.
Pottermore users will also be able to link their Pottermore.com username with their PlayStation Network ID to share Pottermore Trading Cards.
Secret Ponchos is a multiplayer western for PSN, XBLA and it’s coming to PAX East
Switchblade Monkeys is made up of developers previously employed by Blizzard, Hasbro, and Radical and they’re bringing their first game to this weekend’s PAX East show. Check out the debut trailer above and be sure to stop by the Switchblade Monkeys booth if you’re going to be in Boston this weekend.
Secret Ponchos is a multiplayer spaghetti western with a Smash TV flair. The overhead shooter pits six outlaws, each with their own weapons and skillsets, against each other in a wild west arena.
When the team at Switchblade Monkeys began development of the game, they left behind the overtly corporate, money-driven world of commercial game development and set out to create something of a passion project between a group of friends. They studied elements from their favorite games, including team shooters, fighting games and isometric action-RPGs, as well as the style and flair of graphic novels and classic spaghetti westerns, to create a game they could call their own.
Secret Ponchos is in development as a a downloadable title for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. It’s expected to be released this year.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged PAX East 2013, Secret Ponchos
NinjaBee bringing new game Nutjitsu, A World of Keflings to PAX East
A few days after announcing that Windows 8 and Wii U versions of A World of Keflings, NinjaBee has confirmed that both versions of the world builder will be available to play on the PAX East show floor this weekend. The developer also plans to let gamers get their hands on Nutjitsu, their next original game.
If the idea of playing an unreleased game doesn’t get you excited, how about receiving a free game after you play the unreleased one? While supplies last, NinjaBee will give away a free copy of the PC version of A Kingdom For Keflings to anyway who tries out Nutjitsu or A World of Keflings.
The developer will also be holding a Nutjitsu high score challenge (two winners a day will receive 1600 Microsoft Points) and a fully-stocked merchandise booth.
Posted in News, PC, Wii U
Tagged A World of Keflings, Nutjitsu, PAX East 2013