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
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
Most Recent: News
Tetris turns 30 years old today and creator Alexey Pajitnov still plays every week
Forget Pong. Forget Pac-Man. Even forget Space Invaders. The greatest gaming obsession was undoubtedly Tetris. The game, which single-handedly invented the “falling block” puzzler, is celebrating its 30th birthday today.
On June 6, 1984, in a country that was then still known as the Soviet Union, Alexey Pajitnov completed development on the first version of Tetris. Pajitnov, who moved to the United States in 1991, said he still plays his creation a few times a week: “I never imagined Tetris was going to be this successful. But the simple, yet addicting nature of Tetris still has me playing it a few times every week. I meet fans from around the world who are also as passionate about Tetris as me, and there is no doubt in my mind Tetris will continue to expand and bring its classic appeal to new players in new ways and on new devices, whatever they may be.”
Together with Henk Roger, the two men founded The Tetris Company in 1996 and continue to license new entries in the series to this day. And with the game’s 30th anniversary upon us (which they’re calling “We All Fit Together”), they’ve got plenty of cool stuff planned for this year:
- Ubisoft’s new Tetris Ultimate lands on PS4 and Xbox One this Summer (and on the PC in the Fall).
- Electronic Arts introduced a new mode to Tetris Blitz (iOS, Android) called Retro Blitz with shapes, styles, and colors that are an homage to the original Game Boy version from 1989.
- Tetris Online is joining in the celebration with 30th Anniversary updates to the Tetris Battle game on Facebook and the all-new Tetris Battle: Fusion game, now available for download on Amazon Fire TV.
- Rasta Imposta is bringing the Tetris lifestyle to adoring fans in the form of great Tetrimino-shaped Halloween costumes, interactive costumes and accessories.
- Robe Factory is extending the Tetris lifestyle into our everyday lives from the moment we step out of bed with plush robes and slippers, and into the bathroom with great Tetris designs on shower curtains, towels and rugs. The Tetris fun will continue on great new leggings, socks, footwear and more.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to buy a birthday cake for my favorite game and blow out the candles with my screams of frustration after I don’t get that long piece I need.
PAXpocalypse 2013 selection Pandamonium hits Kickstarter as Bearzerkers
We’ve had so many great games in our PAXpocalypse lists, and it’s always exciting when the indie ones go to Kickstarter. Pandamonium, which we played at PAX Prime 2013 and fell in love with, is now on Kickstarter as Bearzerkers – and it’s looking better than ever! The great team at Australian-based Wildgrass has been hard at work on the game. They’ve also launched a Greenlight campaign. There are so many ways you can help them succeed! They’re developing it for Windows, Mac, and Linux – but that’s just so far. Who knows what the future holds!
In Bearzerkers, you play as a Critter who is trying to stay alive by outrunning and outsmarting the giant, terrifying Bear that is relentlessly trying to kill you. But you can’t win just by running away – you can also trap the Bear in with your opponents, giving yourself some extra time by allowing him to feast on your enemies. It’s hilariously gory, and a lot of fun!
Check out the original prototype for Pandamonium at the Wildgrass site, and then try to look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want to back it. Just try it.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Bearzerkers
Square Enix will publish Remember Me developer Dontnod’s next game
Dontnod Entertainment, the developers that created 2013’s Remember Me, is teaming up with Square Enix on their next title, according to Develop Online. The game will be a digital release, though neither company has made it clear if the game will be a new IP, a sequel, or a spin-off.
The CEO of Dontnod, Oskar Guilbert, said, “We’re very excited to be working with Square Enix on our new game… It’s a twist on traditional story-driven games and we can’t wait to share more with you soon.” Lee Singleton, GM and COO of Square Enix London, said, “I’ve known Oskar and some of the team at Dontnod for quite a while now. They’re very talented so they’ve been on my list of studios I’d like to work with but we’ve never found the right game until now… We are not ready to announce the game details today, but I can tell you that I’m excited. This game feels refreshingly different from traditional story-driven games and you won’t have to wait long before we share more details.”
“Soon” and “won’t have to wait long” both indicate to me that they’re referring to next week’s E3, which means we won’t have to wait very long at all to hear the news. I would secretly love to see a sequel to Remember Me, which – while it wasn’t a phenomenal game – had so much potential and could really benefit from feedback for the first game. Seeing as they published that with Capcom, though, that’s probably not going to happen.
Posted in News
Tagged Life Is Strange
Daily Scoop: June 6, 2014 – Penny Arcade t-shirt extravaganza
First of all, today is Anthony Amato’s birthday! I let him open one present last night, and he chose the Tetris Lamp! We tore it open and set it up right away. It turns out it’s way cooler than I ever imagined! He gets to open his other gifts tonight after dinner and cake. And it’s a real cake! Not a lie.
Penny Arcade has announced a Spring Cleaning sale – all of their t-shirts are on sale for $9.99 (or less, in some cases). Some of them will be gone forever once they run out, so go grab the ones you want before they disappear!
There are some new sales happening at Steam today. Their Weekend Deal is Magic 2014 — Duels of the Planeswalkers, which is free until Sunday at 1pm. And their Daily Deal is one everyone should buy right this very second: it’s Hotline Miami on sale for $1.49. Go get it!! Now!!
Let’s finish this up with some awesome t-shirts! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Crystal Dynamics to announce “New Game” (cough Tomb Raider 2 cough) at E3 2014
GameTrailers has published the complete schedule for their “All Access” E3 2014 coverage and it looks like we’ll be getting our first look at Tomb Raider 2 next week. Or should that be Tomb Raider 10? What is the correct numbering scheme to use for an unannounced sequel to the reboot of a long-running franchise?
Anyway, the reveal will occur during GameTrailers’ “All Access” coverage at 2:00 PM (Eastern) on Monday, June 9. According to the show’s description, Crystal Dynamics will make a “new game announcement” during the telecast, carefully evading the use of the words “Tomb” and “Raider.” However, Phil Rogers, the CEO of Square Enix Europe, confirmed that the game was in the works last year, so what else could it be?
Unless Crystal Dynamics is resurrecting the Legacy of Kain series. Hmm, as much as I loved 2013’s Tomb Raider, can I change my answer to that?
Posted in News
Tagged E3 2014, Rise of the Tomb Raider
Happy Friday! Have some hilarious Luigi Death Stare videos
Jason Schreier over at Kotaku has done the Internet a great service by compiling a bunch of Luigi Death Stare videos (some of these are NSFW, because of cursing!). I dare you to watch these and keep a straight face. Make sure your volume is up – wayyyy up.
You can see Luigi’s Death Stare in the new Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel celebrates release date with moon dance trailer
In honor of announcing the October 14 release date for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (and the imminent 2014 E3 Expo), 2K has released this awesome new trailer featuring a moon dance. Yes, you heard me right: a moon dance. Watch the trailer above to see it in its full glory. While it’s no Doomsday trailer from Borderlands 2 (that trailer STILL gives me chills), it’s still pretty great.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will be released on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on October 14.
Shovel Knight will be released on June 26
I’ve been digging things up all Spring to prepare myself, and now, Yacht Club Games has announced that Shovel Knight has passed certification and is finally ready for release. Their retro-styled platformer will be released as a digital download for the PC (via Steam), Wii U, and 3DS on June 26.
In anticipation of Shovel Knight’s pending release, Yacht Club has revealed the game’s official box art and given everyone a sneak peek at the NES-inspired instruction manual via their official website. In the coming weeks, some of the game’s Kickstarter backers will receive physical copies of both.
And if you’re attending next week’s E3 Expo, you might run into members of the Yacht Club team on the show floor. And if you ask nicely, they’ll hand you a 3DS with Shovel Knight on it.