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)
Most Recent: News
The Starling sisters kill zombies three ways in this Lollipop Chainsaw trailer
Juliet Starling’s cheerleader-honed gymnastics won’t be the only way you’ll dispatch zombies in Lollipop Chainsaw. Zombie killing is the family business and her sisters, sharpshooter Cordelia and explosives expert Rosalind, will be on hand to help.
Also, the trailer above confirms my worst fear… Justin Bieber is a demon and he must be stopped!
Lollipop Chainsaw will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on June 12.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Lollipop Chainsaw
Operation Rainfall sets their sights on Pandora’s Tower
After emerging victorious in their battles to bring Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story to America, Operation Rainfall has now set its sights on the final game on its wishlist, Pandora’s Tower.
Changing up their tactics slightly, the group plans to pitch Pandora’s Tower directly to third-party publishers who might be interested in picking up the action RPG. To do that, they have asked their community for monetary donations to create six pitch kits. Each of these pitch kits will contain a PAL copy of the game (the game was released in Europe last week), high-resoluton printouts of concept art from Pandora’s Tower, and many of the game’s “glowing” reviews.
Operation Rainfall plans to send these kits to all of the major publishers that specialize in localizing Japanese RPGs:
- Aksys Games
- Atlus
- NIS America
- Rising Star Games
- UTV Ignition
- XSEED Games
Obviously, this campaign doesn’t guarantee that Pandora’s Tower will find a North American publisher, but with two wins under their belt already, I believe in Operation Rainfall.
Posted in News, Wii
Tagged Pandora's Tower
Weekly Warp-Up: We Interrupt Your Diablo III Open Beta…
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…
Just a reminder, Blizzard has opened up the Diablo III beta to everyone this weekend. Download the client and click your brains out until Monday afternoon!
Now then, if Diablo III isn’t of interest to you, maybe our second week of PAX East hands-on previews will. We’ve got an international in-depth look at Rockstar’s Max Payne 3. If the noiry policeman isn’t your thing, how about two Square Enix previews… there’s the first person puzzling of Quantum Conundrum and the rhythmic tapping of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.
Finally, Staff Writer Melissa Niedringhaus has come to the realization that gaming in the year 2012 is pretty damn awesome in My Golden Age of Gaming.
Want more of the biggest stories from this week? Hit the jump for more of the Weekly Warp-Up. (more…)
Posted in News
Nintendo announces New Super Mario Bros. 2 for 3DS and Kirby Anniversary Collection for Wii
Nintendo has been teasing a new sidescrolling Mario game for the 3DS for more than a year now, and this morning the company finally revealed New Super Mario Bros. 2. The game will be available this August and it’ll bring Mario, Luigi, and the popular Super Leaf with it.
Also announced this morning is a Kirby Anniversary Collection for the Wii. The game (which is currently untitled) will contain “a variety of previously released, fan-favorite Kirby games.” No release date was revealed, but Nintendo did say it would be available later this year.
“A new Mario game and a big Kirby celebration will help make 2012 an especially great year for Nintendo fans,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “Whether they’re playing at home on Wii or using Nintendo 3DS to have fun on the go, players can look forward to experiencing some of our biggest franchises in exciting ways.”
The first four screenshots from New Super Mario Bros. 2 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged 3DS, Kirby's Dream Collection, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Wii
Gambitious to offer game funding with shares and dividends
Kickstarter has breathed life into numerous video games from the smallest of retro art projects of love to ambitious undertakings that hope to redefine storytelling. There is no doubt that people have been successful using the platform… cough cough… Tim Schafer… COUGH! But what if masses of people were not just donating money in return for cool swag? What if you could invest some of your hard earned money into a project you believe in and potentially get a bit of cash in return?
That’s exactly what Dutch company Gambitious plans to do. Essentially, they are launching a video game “stock market” where individuals can purchase shares in a project and in return will be able to get some moolah in return if the game is a commercial hit. According to CEO Korstiaan Zandvliet, “A developer decides what percentage of the required funding people can buy. Someone who invests money in a project, becomes a shareholder and is entitled to dividends.”
Gambitious will launch this June, just in time for E3 2012. Initially, it’ll only be available to European investors, but Zandvliet plans to take the company global as soon as the appropriate legal hurdles are… well, hurdled.
It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with this budding funding platform. It may be just what small developers need to pad their budget and make the game the way they see it in their heads. At the very least, it might cut down on production delays since a developer wouldn’t want 50,000 investors posting angry messages on their Facebook wall.
[Source: GamesIndustry International]
Posted in News
New Releases: Prototype 2, Risen 2, Shifting World, More
April continues to lumber along with yet another small batch of new releases.
This week, Prototype 2 brings us back to Radical’s demented vision of open world games where a helicopter is something to be thrown and the best way to take out an enemy is by eating them! Yummy! Prototype 2 will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Also available this week is the pirate RPG Risen 2: Dark Waters (PC) and the PC version of Sega’s Binary Domain.
Finally, a pair of 3DS games will be new to store shelves: the shifting plotline of Shifting World and the 3D firefighting of Firefighter 3D.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Binary Domain, Prototype 2, Risen 2: Dark Waters
Dirt Showdown drifts into stores on May 29
The crackling sound of spitfire coming from rally car exhaust pipes will be back on your console soon, because Codemasters has brought you a new edition of Dirt to play around in. Dirt Showdown will be hitting the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in Europe on May 24 and here in North America on May 29. If you want to try before you buy, a demo will be released on May 1.
As is usual, Dirt Showdown will feature tons of tire squealing crashes, flips, and the occasional explosion. But there will also be “Hoonigan Mode” which allows you to pull of some insane tricks and stunts in your rip roaring rally cars. The game also features demolition derbies and figure 8 racing which will of course make for some destructive fun when you have a couple friends over. You might be able to take out some pent up animosity on their jumped-up jalopy.
Showdown is the first game from the publisher’s new division, Codemasters Racing. Dirt Showdown will also feature the brand new RaceNet beta, which will connect players to their stats to see how many doors they’ve blown off of their rivals.
But, unlike Ken Block, you can just hit the reset button if you happen to smash head-on into a jersey barrier.
Posted in News
Tagged DiRT Showdown, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Diablo III beta is open to all this weekend
Diablo III is less than a month away and Blizzard wants to ensure the launch goes off without a hitch. So this weekend, they’re opening up the game’s beta to everyone so they can “stress test” the servers.
If you haven’t already done so, head over to Battle.net and download the Diablo III beta client now. The open beta weekend begins today at 3 PM (Eastern Time) and will remain accessible until Monday, April 23 at 1 PM (also Eastern Time).
Posted in News
Tagged Diablo III, PC