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
Nintendo President reveals more about company’s move into mobile gaming
Gamers the world over are still in a state of shock after Nintendo announced they would start developing mobile games. Especially since the “how” of this historic news is still a big question mark. Thankfully, Time Magazine approached Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, to ask the big questions about the company’s mobile push.
According to Iwata, Nintendo is not outsourcing development of their planned mobile titles to DeNA. The consolemaker themselves will develop the games while DeNA offers assistance with the “service side of things.” Iwata also said that famed developer Shigeru Miyamoto may work on mobile titles in the future, but for now, his time is being spent working on a trio of previously-announced Wii U games (Star Fox, Project Guard, Project Giant Robot) that are scheduled to launch in 2015.
Finally, any discussion of the mobile game market will include the big question… Premium or Free-To-Play? According to Iwata, Nintendo is not committing to either scheme and will chose each game’s pricing scheme on a title-by-title basis: “[F]or each title, we will discuss with DeNA and decide the most appropriate payment method. So, specifically to your question, both can be options, and if a new Nintendo-like invention comes of it, then all the better.”
For more insight into Nintendo’s mobile partnership with DeNA, I recommend reading the rest of the Time Magazine interview.
Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition will be available on May 22
Nintendo has announced the Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition compilation pack will be released for the 3DS on May 22. More than a simple match-3 game, both 3DS titles (which will available on a single game card) will expand on the formula of the franchise:
The newest game, Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, resembles a classic Super Mario Bros. game with a puzzling twist. Players drag and match colorful orbs to chain combos to battle opponents, level up and clear stages. But the action beyond that simple drag-and-match premise reveals much deeper game play. The game transports players to the Mushroom Kingdom, where they recruit Bowser’s baddies, like Goombas, Koopa Troopas and the Koopalings, along with much-loved characters like Toad and Yoshi to help fight more than 80 classic enemies across a variety of different worlds.
The second game, Puzzle & Dragons Z, which became a big hit in Japan and sold more than 1.5 million units in the first six months after launch, features similar drag-and-match game play with an even richer storyline. Players collect and battle a fantastic array of more than 250 Monsters, which can be hatched from Eggs that players gather from defeating enemies. Then, using collected Chips (from defeating enemies), players can evolve their Monsters to gain new Skills, a higher level cap and better stats on their quest to rebuild the world.
A demo version of Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition will be added to the 3DS eShop in early May for those interested in trying it out early. But if you already played the puzzler at this month’s PAX East convention, you might see yourself in the new trailer Nintendo filmed on the show floor.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged PAX East 2015, Puzzle & Dragons Z, Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition
Insert Quarter: What’s the Deal With Video Game Tie-In Novels?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
It’s no secret that a lot of gamers look down on the dreaded “tie-in novel.” Even when they’re not poorly written, your average video game tie-in doesn’t have much going on below the surface. Or do they?
Writing for GamesRadar+, Benjamin Abbott tracked down Karen Traviss and learned all about the nitty gritty that goes into creating a tie-in novel. Traviss, who has lent her pen to the Gears of War and Halo franchises, revealed that authors of tie-in novels are given much more freedom than the average reader might expect. It’s this freedom that often creates a pretty decent book:
Tie-in novels in particular suffer from growing franchise cynicism, leading to something of an image problem they don’t always deserve. Presumed to be b-side lunges at tertiary publicity, it’s tempting to dismiss them out of hand, but to do so is to misguidedly tar them with the same brush as the million cheap movie novelisations that came before them. Celebrating gaming’s capacity for storytelling is currently in vogue, and for very good reason. Consequently, books set in these worlds are contradictory blends of potential and stigma. Such projects carry potential that their inspirations simply can’t, making them ideal for expanding those universes in meaningful ways. If people will just give them the chance to.
The full article is available for your perusal at GamesRadar+.
Posted in Etcetera, Insert Quarter
Xbox Store Today: Battlefield Hardline, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Fruit Ninja Kinect 2, more
Big franchises rule the day in this week’s Xbox Games Store update.
EA is bringing back the Battlefield franchise this week with Battlefield Hardline, which is now available to download for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Since they’re busy working on a proper Battlefield 5, DICE tagged in Visceral Games for this installment, which focuses on the eternal battle between cops and criminals.
Also available this week is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, an Xbox One remake of a PSP game that was originally released only in Japan back in 2011. As if that weren’t incentive enough to try it out, Square Enix has also packed the game with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XV.
If you’re into episodic gaming, Capcom has released Metamorphosis, the final chapter in the Resident Evil Revelations 2 saga, while Telltale has countered with the second episode of Tales From the Borderlands, Atlas Mugged. Both games will be available for the Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Finally this week, you can wave your hands in the air like you just do not care as you play Fruit Ninja Kinect 2 on the Xbox One. How do you like them apples? Which aren’t going to cut themselves, after all.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break and a complete rundown of this week’s Xbox Live Gold discounts can be found at Major Nelson’s blog. (more…)
Daily Scoop: March 18, 2015 – OK, I’ll go to the doctor!
I’m still feeling horrible, so I decided to call the doctor. I’ll be going later today. In the meantime, I’m just going to be miserable everywhere forever until I get there. Yay!
But first, let me bring you some deals! At the Humble Store, there are some new sales happening. You can get Goat Simulator for $3.39, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Collection for $14.99, and early access to Godus for $4.99. Over at Steam, the new Daily Deal is Tales of Maj’Eyal for $1.74 . You can also splurge and get a four pack for you and your friends for just $4.99.
There’s also a brand new bundle at Indie Royale – the Mixer 16 Bundle. Beat the average to get Pulstar, FootLOL: Epic Fail League, Residue, 99 Levels to Hell, Mana Crusher, Catmouth Island, Growing Pains, Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory, Frayed Knights: The Skull of S’makh-Daon, and Ensign-1. Scoop ’em up!
Just a few t-shirts today, but there are definitely some amazing ones. (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
CoD: Advanced Warfare Ascendance Pack coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360 on March 31
Activision has announced Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will receive its second downloadable expansion, the Ascendance Pack, beginning on March 31. As always, Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners will get first crack at the DLC. PC, PS3, and PS4 players will likely gain access to the add-on content sometime in late April or early May. The Ascendance Pack will feature four new multiplayer maps including an alien crash site, an apartment complex down under, a Pauly Shore-less biodome, and a illegal robotics chop shop:
Perplex: Venture to the streets of Sydney and battle through a five-story modular apartment complex. With elevated vantages and tight corridors, Perplex is small-to-medium sized map that fits variety of play styles. Construction drones will shake things up, however, as they shift apartment modules and create new strategic pathways.
Site 244: An alien craft has crash-landed beneath Mt. Rushmore, USA, making for an awesome medium-to-large sized three-lane map littered with extraterrestrial debris. Gain a competitive edge by earning the map-based scorestreak to open an alien spore that enhances your perks and exo abilities.
Climate: Settle in to your dome away from home in Climate… a lush climate-controlled biodome. With a circular layout with a central island structure for teams to fight for control of, Climate keeps the pace of the action high. The tides can turn, however, when the rivers begin to rage and become a treacherous obstacle.
Chop Shop: Discover the seedy underbelly of the unauthorized exoekeleton trade in Chop Shop, a medium-sized industrial complex with a devastating map-based scorestreak: the Advanced Repulsion Turret.
The Ascendance Pack will also add the OHM directed energy hybrid weapon and a brand new Exo Zombies chapter, “Infection,” that finds the four survivors “on the outskirts of the mutant-ravaged Atlas Corporation facility and facing new, never-before-seen enemies.” John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and Jon Bernthal will once again supply their voices to the cooperative game mode.
According to Activision, the first gameplay trailer for the Ascendance Pack will be unveiled on March 29 during the Call of Duty Championship.
Heart Machine will release Hyper Light Drifter on PC in 2015, consoles may slip to 2016
The good folks at ICXM‘s TIC Podcast recently got the chance to speak to Alex Preston of Heart Machine. The ensuing discussion got right to the heart of why everyone’s excited for Hyper Light Drifter, Preston’s retro-styled action RPG.
But Preston also delivered some bad news. Because of the game’s ambitious scope (backers obliterated Hyper Light Drifter’s $27,000 Kickstarter goal with $645,158 in pledges), it may not make it out in 2015 as originally planned. According to the interview, Preston still wants to release the PC version this year, but the console launch of Hyper Light Drifter will likely be pushed into 2016:
TIC Team: With so many games releasing this year, we know it can be hard to find a perfect time to release.
Alex Preston: We have not yet announced the release date. We have only said 2015 for PC first. Consoles take some time so, for example, Xbox One has a certification process that you have to go through. There are hundreds of things on that list you have to make sure are good to go on that system. It takes time. We’re a small team to do that. We want to get it out the door on PC first and we will give ourselves the correct amount of time after. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes much longer depending on the certification process. It’s all about getting it on the platform as quickly as we can, but doing it the right way. That stuff can be really intense and expensive.
TIC Team: It sounds like we will see it on the Xbox One in 2016.
Alex Preston: It’s possible. We’re trying to get it all out as quickly as possible. We can’t rush the certification process. We don’t want to release a broken game. We don’t want to release a bad game. We’ll take the time that we need to. Those are the realities of it and those are the goals.
After its PC release, Hyper Light Drifter will ultimately be released for the PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One. However long the game’s development takes, it’ll probably be worth it. A closed beta was held last year for Kickstarter backers and we loved it.
Battlefield Hardline, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Jamestown+, more added to PS Store
Are you ready to play cops and robbers? I hope so, because EA’s Battlefield Hardline is now available to download through the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and PS3. Developed by Visceral Games, Hardline moves away from international conflicts and instead depicts the ongoing war between criminals and cops.
Also available this week is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, an action RPG from Square Enix that is making its PS4 debut more than three years after it first appeared on the PSP. But in all that time it never made its way across the Pacific, so Final Fantasy fans definitely have something to celebrate. But those fans also have another reason to be happy about Type-0… it comes packaged with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XV.
Jamestown+, a PS4 shooter that takes place on a “17th-century steampunk Mars,” is this week’s Spring Fever selection. And over on the PS3, NIS America has added the roguelike RPG The Awakened Fate Ultimatum to the PS3 side of the PlayStation Store.
Finally, we have to talk about new entries from two episodic games. This week marks the end of Resident Evil Revelations 2‘s episodic release. Episode 4, Metamorphosis, is now available on the PS4 and PS3. But Telltale’s Tales From the Borderlands is still ramping up as Episode 2, Atlas Mugged, was also released for the PS4 and PS3.
More information about all of these games (as well as a few others) can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)