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: Articles
Opposites kill in N++’s Toggle Mine and Laser Turret trailers
Metanet Software has released the final two “Enemy Spotlight” trailers for N++ and it’s true what they say, opposites kill. Wait, wait, opposites attract. But the Toggle Mine and the Laser Turret are opposites and they most definitely kill.
Toggle Mines are normally docile, but as soon as you step on one it springs to life like a crazed whack-a-mole. So if you want stay alive you better stay one step ahead of the spiky bomb that pops out of the hole. You can see what I mean in the trailer embedded above.
After the break you can find a trailer depicting the Laser Turret in all its deadly glory. Unlike the Toggle Mine, the Laser Turret is always on as the only thing that can break a laser beam is a solid object. In N++, that solid object will sometimes be a wall or a solid platform, but most of the time it will be your face.
N++ will be released exclusively for the PS4 sometime this year. (more…)
Smash Derby will mix Smash TV with a destruction derby sometime this year
Smash TV was a one-of-a-kind game that… wait a minute, that’s not right, let me start over…
Smash TV ripped off The Running Man and married its futuristic game show setting with the twin-stick shooting of Robotron 2084. It was a massive hit and fans have patiently been waiting for a followup for the last 25 years. Smash Derby is not that game, but its definitely embodies Smash TV’s spirit of artistic borrowing.
Developed by Fenix Fire, Smash Derby is a futuristic game show overseen by a smarmy host who is always surrounded by a gaggle of giggling babes. However, it differs from Smash TV in that all the contestants are cocooned in hovercars. Rather than blast each other with laser pistols, the contestants have to smash in to one another like cars in a destruction derby… a “Smash Derby,” if you will. A wide range of Defense Units (mines, turrets, and lasers) can also be equipped to put a hurt on the other players in competitive and cooperative multiplayer, deathmatch and team-based modes. The game will also include single-player Arcade, Survival, and Strategy modes.
Fenix Fire hopes to release Smash Derby, which is in development for the PS4, Vita, and Xbox One, before the end of the year.
Killer Instinct Season 2 ends with release of Aria on 5/29 (Ultra) or 6/4 (Combo Breaker)
Throughout the majority of the Killer Instinct saga, the UltraTech Corporation has been portrayed as your typical evil conglomerate. But UltraTech’s leader, Aria, paints a different portrait of the company as she monologues at the start of this new trailer. She doesn’t want to destroy humanity, but rather, help it prepare for the mystical, technological, and otherworldly dangers that are encroaching on planet Earth.
However, I’m not sure I put much stock in the ravings of a cyborg who is able to transform her body into different configurations thanks to a pair of floating drones that can be swapped in and out at will.
Aria is the final downloadable character Iron Galaxy will release as part of Killer Instinct’s Season 2 and Ultra Edition owners will be able to download her this Friday, May 29. If you plan to purchase the character as a standalone download, or you own the Combo Breaker Pack, Aria can be yours on June 4.
It’s unknown if Iron Galaxy will continue Killer Instinct’s seasonal structure with a third series, but the 2015 E3 Expo is just a few weeks away and Microsoft’s Fall lineup could always use another knockout title.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Killer Instinct
We Are Doomed Review: A Dreamy Twin-Stick Shooter You Shouldn’t Miss
If you love twin-stick shooters, then this is a great time to be playing video games. After reaching perfection with the release of Smash TV in the early 90s, the genre faded away for more than a decade before Bizarre Creations brought it back with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Since then, a ridiculous number of twin-stick shooters have been produced, and the control scheme has even been co-opted by a growing number of roguelikes. Basically, you can’t swing a dead hedgehog at a game convention without hitting a developer showing off their new twin-stick title.
Into this crowded fray comes We Are Doomed, the first PC/console game from Vertex Pop. (more…)
Mortal Kombat X DLC Update: Tanya will be available on June 2 for Kombat Pass owners
NetherRealm’s Creative Director, Ed Boon, has announced that Tanya will be available to download on June 2 if you possess the Kombat Pass. Everyone else will be able to obtain the klassic kharacter on June 9:
MK4's Tanya makes her return to Mortal Kombat X on Tuesday June 2nd for owners of the Kombat Pack. On sale June 9th! pic.twitter.com/22XZC97RGC
— Ed Boon (@noobde) May 27, 2015
Like Jason, Tanya will be released alongside a new costume pack for Kano, Sonya, and Liu Kang. Kombat Pass owners will receive Klassic Pack #1 for free, but other players will be able to purchase it separately for $3.99 or in a bundle with Tanya for $7.99. Tanya by herself will also be available for $4.99.
Xbox Store Today: Game of Thrones: Sons of Winter, Rogue Legacy
Are you ready to get medieval on today’s Xbox Games Store update? I hope so as this week’s new releases are heavy on the swordplay…
Telltale’s six-part Game of Thrones adaptation continues this week with the fourth episode, Sons of Winter. House Forrester is still in dire straits as Rodrik, Gared, Mira, and Asher plot their next move on the Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Also available this week is Rogue Legacy, a side-scrolling action platformer for the Xbox One where you play as a “bald ninja dwarf” that is succeeded by his children, each with a unique trait, every time he dies. Cellar Door Games refers to it as a “rogue-lite” and the mechanics should be very familiar to anyone who prefers to play “rogue-likes”
More information on both of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series
Daily Scoop: May 27, 2015 – So many games!
I’ve been playing a ton of games recently, and I’m excited to say I’ve even been wrapping some of them up! I finished up Persona 3 Portable on Friday, and we beat Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on Monday, and yesterday, I finished up Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire. I’m finally getting back to other games, which is fun. Now I just need to finish up Kingdom Hearts! It never ends…
Over at Humble, you still have one more day to get the Humble Weekly Bundle Adventures 2! It includes Stacking, The Novelist, and Blackwell Epiphany at different levels. It’s definitely worth checking out!
Over at Steam, one of my personal favorites, Catlateral Damage, just launched! You can get it right now for $8.99. They have a new Daily Deal as well – it’s In Verbis Virtus, which is marked down to $9.99.
There are tons of shirts today, I guess to make up for the drought we’ve been having! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
First trailer for Battlefield Hardline: Criminal Activity expansion released
A terrorist crime ring is set to invade Battlefield Hardline in its first expansion, Criminal Activity. Visceral briefed players on what to expect in Criminal Activity on Battlefield’s official website:
Small crews of well-trained, aggressive criminals have been using force of arms to terrorize the citizenry and are in direct conflict with the police in many cases. Public property damages and insurance claims have skyrocketed, not to mention the impact on the police force.
Detectives have uncovered evidence of a secret crime ring that could be behind all of this activity. They’re not sure why anyone would coordinate these goals – in a number of cases, the take seems to be smaller than the risk. But, orders have come down the chain to find out what’s going on and put a stop to it. Will you help the police?
Criminal Activity’s centerpiece is four new maps, which are detailed in the trailer embedded above. These new locales include “Code Blue,” a swanky nightclub; “The Beat,” the streets in and around a chop shop; “Black Friday,” a busy shopping mall; and “Backwoods,” which is pretty self-explanatory.
Other additions to the game bound for Criminal Activity include the new “Bounty Hunter” game mode, two new rides, two new ammunition types, three new weapons, a new gadget, a nailgun battlepickup, and six new masks (two animal and four police headgear options).
Criminal Activity will be available sometime in June for the owners of Battlefield Hardline’s Premium Edition. Everyone else will be given the option to purchase the expansion two weeks after that.