Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Author: John Scalzo
Nintendo delays Game & Wario, Wii Fit U, Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101
Nintendo spent the morning announcing official release dates for a huge number of games set to be released between January and April. But they also dropped a delay of game penalty on four high profile titles that were originally part of the Wii U’s “launch window.”
Game & Wario, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, and Wii Fit U will all miss their previously scheduled first quarter release and, according to Nintendo, will now be released in the first half of 2013.
The new release date is vague enough that Nintendo could release any of these games by March 30 and still make the “launch window.” But if that was a possibility, why announce the delay at all?
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Game & Wario, Pikmin 3, The Wonderful 101, Wii Fit U
Nintendo gives release dates to Lego City, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and many more
Nintendo has announced new release dates for many of the Wii U’s “launch window” games including Lego City: Undercover and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.
The Grand Theft Auto-like Lego City: Undercover will be released on March 18 while the monster mash that is Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be available a day later on March 19 (a demo will be added to the Wii U eShop on February 21). Sadly, two of the biggest “launch window” games, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Bit.Trip Runner 2, are still without release dates.
Nintendo also took this opportunity to tag the Lego City 3DS spinoff, Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins, with an official release date. Lovers of all things Lego will be able to purchase it on April 21.
Hit the break for a look at the complete Winter/Spring release calendar for all four of Nintendo’s currently active platforms. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii, Wii U
Tagged Lego City Undercover, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Bethesda has applied for a trademark for a Fallout TV series
After the success of The Walking Dead, it’s not surprising that other people want to jump on this “apocalyptic television show” thing. Enter Bethesda and their hugely popular Fallout series. How popular? Well, they think it would make a pretty good TV show.
Bethesda has filed a trademark with the
US Patent and Trademark Office for an “an on-going television program set in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world” that uses the Fallout name. This doesn’t mean that a Fallout TV show is in the works, but it does mean that Bethesda would like it if a Fallout TV was in the works.
Sure beats a TV show based on the life of Jessica Simpson, that’s for sure.
[Source: The Vault, the Fallout Wiki]
Bungie will unveil Destiny at GDC 2013
Bungie’s Destiny, the first game in their multi-year, multi-project deal with Activision, has been hidden behind enough security to make a man in black blush (discounting that unfortunate leak back in November). But the developer is ready to blow the doors off of their “New Universe” this March with an eye-opening presentation at the Game Developers Conference that will delve into their world building skills.
Design Director Joe Staten and Art Director Christopher Barrett will be on hand to describe the Bungie process, including “a glimpse” of Destiny. Here’s what your GDC 2013 program will say about the presentation:
Two decades of success in the gaming industry is no small feat, but after ten years of Halo, Bungie found themselves faced with a tremendous challenge: to build a whole new world, filled with even more amazing mysteries, places, creatures, and opportunities for player investment. For the first time ever, Bungie creative directors will discuss their world building techniques, from concept to production. Attendees will walk away with key insights into Bungie’s battle-tested design process. They’ll get a glimpse of the brave new world that has been built, a place where the next ten years of great Bungie adventures will unfold.
Destiny is expected to be available this Fall.
Nintendo Download: Fire Emblem Awakening demo, Tokyo Crash Mobs, more
It’s a 3DS kind of day as this week’s Nintendo Download features four new games for the handheld as well as a Fire Emblem: Awakening demo. Awakening is the first game from the strategy series to make an appearance on the 3DS and it’ll be available in stores (and on the 3DS eShop) on February 4.
Also available this week is Tokyo Crash Mobs, a live-action match-3 puzzler with real people; Kirby Star Stacker, a classic Game Boy puzzler; minigame collection Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue; and Deer Drive Legends, a hunting simulation.
More details for all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Fire Emblem: Awakening
Ubisoft sneaks Splinter Cell: Blacklist release into August
The good news… Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist has an official release date!
The bad news… the game’s previously scheduled Spring 2013 release date has been erased, like so many of Sam Fisher’s targets. Blacklist will now be available in stores for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on August 20.
To celebrate, Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the game, which you can view above. And for some reason it intersplices the assassination action with video and audio from recent Presidential inaugurations. Yay for being timely, I guess, but why?
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Final Fantasy: All the Bravest brings massive battles to iOS tomorrow
Square Enix’s next mobile game set in the Final Fantasy universe will be available tomorrow! Final Fantasy: All the Bravest is all action as the app has jettisoned the heavy plot threads that the series is known for and instead focuses on the Active Time Battle system first introduced in Final Fantasy IV.
Players will be able to build massively huge parties as they battle a succession of monsters, behemoths, and bosses from throughout Final Fantasy’s history. More than 20 classes of characters will be available including White Mages, Fighters, Monks, Black Mages, and more. DLC packs will allow players to add 35 additional characters to the game including favorites such as Cloud.
Final Fantasy: All the Bravest is currently available on the iTunes App Store in New Zealand and will be released in the rest of the world tomorrow. It’ll likely be priced around $4.
MotoGP 13 races onto PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Vita in June
Milestone, an Italian development team, has announced that they’ve begun work on MotoGP 13, the latest iteration of the motorcycle racing simulation series. MotoGP 13 is currently scheduled to be released in June 2013 for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Vita.
Milestone’s last MotoGP-licensed game was 2008’s MotoGP 08. So for MotoGP 13, the developer has created a brand new gameplay engine that they say will allow enhanced “graphics, physics, bikes, environment modeling and in-game sound.”
“We’re very proud to announce MotoGP 13. After four years, [we] have the license again in our hands and we’d like to put all the expertise we have developed during this time into the game. This new project will offer players the chance to experience a brand new MotoGP game that will include the most-loved features plus brand new ones,” said Luisa Bixio, Milestone’s Marketing and Sales Director.
MotoGP 13 will include all the tracks and riders from the 2013 MotoGP season, as well as Quick Race Mode and a first-person/third-person Career Mode.