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
The first Angry Birds Epic gameplay trailer is suitably epic
Healing spells… fireballs… lightning bolts… Yup, the first gameplay trailer for Angry Birds Epic proves that the game is definitely a turn-based RPG.
The free-to-play Angry Birds Epic is available now as a “soft launch” game in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Other countries will follow with a full launch planned for later this year.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Angry Birds Epic
Yoshi’s New Island Review: Not Quite A Stroll Down Memory Lane
Yoshi’s New Island has been a long time coming. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, the first game in the series, was originally released in 1995. It was well-liked by gamers and critics and was even included in Nintendo’s 3DS Ambassadors program as a gift for the handheld’s early adopters. But where that one took me weeks to complete – replete with dozens of “Game Over” screens and more Mario tears than anyone could handle – Yoshi’s New Island took me just six hours. It was a fun six hours (spread out over four days), but the original had me dying more times than I knew I even could die in a platformer. While in the new game, I rarely died more than once per world. It was a breeze, and while I’m not surprised, I am just a tiny bit disappointed. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Yoshi's New Island
Daily Scoop: March 17, 2014 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and we got a nice amount of snow – though not enough to actually stop the city from functioning. I could have gone for a nice quiet day at home, snowed in with some hot chocolate and video games, but alas! It just wasn’t enough. I mean, I’m grateful I got some time to do that this weekend, but the weekend just never feels like it’s long enough.
Let’s talk about deals, shall we? Steam’s new Daily Deal is Mars: War Logs, which is 75% off at $3.74. They’ve also got a bunch of new Weeklong Deals, including Deathspank for $4.49, Spore for $4.99, Warp for $2.99, and many more.
There are lots of games for sale at the Humble Store as well. Card City Nights is $1.99, Teslagrad is $7.99, and the Total War Grand Master Collection is $41.24 (from $164.99 – yowza). Scoop ’em up!
Time for a whole bunch of Pokemon shirts!
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Gauntlet returns as a PC-exclusive this Summer
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment plans to reboot another popular Midway franchise this Summer with the release of Gauntlet. In development at Arrowhead Game Studios exclusively for the PC, Gauntlet will bring back the top-down dungeon-crawler in the most faithful way possible:
Gauntlet innovates on past titles while staying true to the brand’s legendary format. Players select from four classic fantasy-based characters: Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf. Each character has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior does the most damage in melee combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the most armor and the Elf moves the fastest. Distinctive play styles, procedural dungeons and an impressive art style keep the gameplay fresh.
Gauntlet will include a local or online four-player multiplayer mode as well as support for SteamOS and the Steam Controller. If you’re in San Francisco for the 2014 Game Developers Conference, WB Games and Arrowhead will have a playable version of the game on display at the convention all week.
Finally, we can expect more classic reboots from WB Games in the near future as Gauntlet will mark the first release from the WB Games Vault, which will reimagine “popular Warner Bros. and Midway brands” as brand new downloadable games. I hereby request a new Smash TV, please!
Here’s what the Steam Controller looks like as of March 2014
Valve revealed the first version of their Steam Controller back in September and the company’s initial vision for a PC controller featured a few unorthodox choices, such as a touchpad instead of face buttons. After undergoing a beta test in late 2013, Valve dropped the touchpad and added face buttons in a new version of the controller that debuted during the Steam Dev Days convention in January. And now, the papier-mache mockup is a real controller, as you can see to your right.
Valve plans to let developers and the media play with the prototype during this year’s Game Developers Conference, which begins today in San Francisco. And don’t go thinking this is the final, Valve’s Eric “Axiom” Hope said, “We will be posting more updates very soon about the continuing testing, development, and refinement of the controller.”
[Source: Steam Universe]
Weekly Warp-Up: Snowmapocalypseageddon 2014 Edition
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…
After being blanketed by nearly two feet of snow on Wednesday, my little corner of the northeast is almost completely snow-free this Sunday morning. Weather is werd. Thankfully, there were plenty of games to talk about this week as Mike Ryan reviewed the second episode of Telltale’s new Walking Dead series, The Walking Dead Season 2: A House Divided. And Nicole Kline tackled the final release in Level-5’s “Guild01” series, Weapon Shop De Omasse.
And over in Hollywoodland, Andrew Rainnie is once again musing about the Uncharted movie. This time he looks at 10 Actors We Think Could Play Victor “Sully” Sullivan in the Uncharted Movie.
More news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: MGS5: Ground Zeroes, InFamous: Second Son, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, More
TitanFall made a huge splash last week, but a new set of publishers are ready to compete for your gaming dollar this week with a new set of games. Are you ready? Here we go…
Konami and Kojima Productions will release Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for next-generation consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) and current-generation consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360) this week. The game will serve as a prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which does not currently have a release date, and will serve as an introduction to the franchise’s brand new open world mechanics.
Also available this week is the next major PS4 exclsuive from Sony, InFamous: Second Son. With Second Son, the InFamous series gains a new protagonist and a new city to wreak havoc in. And speaking of havoc, Tecmo Koei will release Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, a wild collaboration between Team Ninja, Spark Unlimited, and Keiji Inafune’s Comcept, for the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week.
Finally, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster will bring the beloved pair of games to the PS3 and Vita this week. It will be joined the week’s lone Wii U release, the kart racing game Hello Kitty Kruisers.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, InFamous: Second Son, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
A new trailer explores the combat and narrative of Hyper Light Drifter
A new trailer for Hyper Light Drifter has been posted to the PlayStation Blog along with more details about the game’s combat system and narrative style.
On the topic of combat, developer Alex Preston had this to say about how enemies will attack The Drifter:
Creating intelligent and tactical scenarios with enemies is key, rather than stacking cannon fodder that waits gleefully in line to get their heads chopped off. Some enemies dodge projectiles, others deflect attacks, some (the poison wolves) attack you and vulnerable enemies as a pack. We even have enemies that command weaker types in order to gain an advantage. Each encounter should feel different, and remain challenging.
And for the narrative, Preston will attempt to tell the story of Hyper Light Drifter using no dialogue:
We are wary of endless blocks of text, poorly designed UI, and explicit handholding, which can often dilute a great experience. These leave a player frustrated, or worse, disinterested. Instead, we want players to uncover the rich mythology along with the Drifter in a more organic way, with a narrative that’s not explicit. We chose to recognize that players are smart.
Dialogue and quests are presented in storyboardlike sequences, which convey a specific mood without the use of text or voiceovers. This also allows us to keep the game as visually lush as possible and break past language barriers.
If you’re interested in one of the most interesting Kickstarter success stories of 2013, the remainder of the PlayStation Blog post is a recommended read. Hyper Light Drifter will be available for PC platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) by the end of the year with PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Ouya versions coming later.