Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Meet the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025: Quake, GoldenEye 007, Defender, and Tamagotchi
- The BAFTA Games Awards Polled the Public and Shenmue is “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time”
- 2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More
- The Strong Museum of Play Acquires Prototypes and Development Documents from Volition’s 30-Year History
- Minecraft’s Volume Alpha Soundtrack Has Been Added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- It’s beginning to feel like gaming isn’t for everyone – Digital Trends (2025)
- 22 years later, modders are keeping SimCity 4 alive – The Verge (2025)
- The B-movies of Paul W.S. Anderson double as acts of devotion to his muse, Milla Jovovich – The AV Club (2025)
- Breakout, Ripoff, Genre: How Fiction Outgrows Originality – Uncanny Magazine (2025)
- ‘I Could Make “Fart Fart Boobie Fart: The Game” and Maybe It Would Eventually Get Taken Down’ – Devs Reveal Why the Consoles Are Drowning in ‘Eslop’ – IGN (2025)
Most Recent: Top Story
The Games of June 2015
With a few small exceptions, we’ll all mostly be digging into our backlogs this month. Why? Well, it’s not necessarily because nothing new is coming out, but it is because there’s not much new coming out that we feel like paying full price for. We’re not united on this front, though, so you should read on to see what we will and won’t be playing this month here at Warp Zoned! (more…)
Warpback: What We Played in May 2015
The new release schedule was pretty empty in the month of May, thankfully the Warp Zoned staff had a hefty batch of backlog titles to work through. And the month did close out with a Splatoon-shaped bang, which has enthralled at least two members of the staff.
What did you play in May? You can find out what games we dove into after the break. (more…)
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…)
Kickstart This! CCTV Nation, Overdosed, Power Drive 2000
While my own Kickstarter campaign, The Illuminant Midnight Project, didn’t reach its funding goal, the first big crowdfunding story of 2015, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee, zoomed past its initial funding goal of £1,000,000 in less than 24 hours, and met its “final” stretch goal a few days later, pushing Playtonic to add further stretch goals. The campaign still has a little less than a month left to run, so there is little doubt it will reach the £2,000,000 goal of free DLC for everybody. The campaign’s success has been built on months of anticipation, coupled with a sweet price point for backers. I pledged £15 to get the game on Wii U, which is insanely good value for the money.
Of course, the former Rare employees have two decades worth of nostalgia to help them succeed, whereas other developers must rely on more modest means to help them complete their gaming projects, bringing us to this week’s Kickstart This! We start with the curious augmented reality game CCTV Nation, before plunging into the depths of hell with top-down shooterOverdosed. Finally, there is stunning sci-fi racer Power Drive 2000.
Where we’re going, we don’t need roads… (more…)
Splatoon Global Testfire Impressions: Painting the Town Red… or Green… or Purple
I have to admit, I didn’t pay much attention to Splatoon when it was first announced. It’s not that the game looked bad, it’s just that the competitive gamer in me went into hibernation a while back. I understood the concept of the game, and I thought it looked great, but there was nothing that really drew me in. Not even the thought of adding more Amiibo figuress to my ever-growing collection was enough to warrant a second look. But after having an opportunity to play Splatoon during Nintendo’s open beta this past weekend, I must say it has my attention now. (more…)
Shovel Knight PS3/PS4/Vita/Xbox One Review: Still Digging It
What a difference a year can make! This time last year, Shovel Knight was just a promising platformer that was still two months away from release. A lot of people backed its Kickstarter campaign and still more got their hands on it at PAX East and PAX Prime, but most people were probably unaware of its existence. While we liked what we saw at those preview events, we had no idea just how good the game would actually turn out to be.
So here we are in 2015. Shovel Knight made its debut last June and instantly won the hearts of gamers everywhere. Perfect review scores (like this one from us) piled up like the sacks of gold collected by the title character. Six months later, a gaggle of “Game of the Year” awards rained down from outlets across the Internet (including a selection to Warp Zoned’s “Apocalypse List”).
So what does Yacht Club Games do for an encore? They put the exact same game on the PS3/PS4/PS Vita and the Xbox One and add a pair of platform-exclusive bosses. If you bought it last year, there’s no need to buy it again, but everyone else needs to fill the Shovel Knight-sized hole in their tool shed right now. (more…)
Mario Kart 8: Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack Review: More Tracks! More Characters! More Speed!
Nintendo has released Mario Kart 8’s second downloadable expansion during an interesting time for add-on content. Other publishers have been very welcoming to the new revenue stream, some perhaps overly so, but Nintendo has mostly shied away from creating additional content for their games. However, with Mario Kart 8 and the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles X, the company seems to have found the perfect balance between releasing extra content that generates more revenue while offering value for money. The Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack is priced at $7.99, just like the earlier Zelda-themed expansion. However, players can pick up both packs for $11.99, which would add four additional Cups to the game, each with a mix of old favourites and new challenges. Players who buy both packs will receive 16 new tracks on top of the original 32, which is 50% more game for only a fifth of the price.
Not only that, they released it a month earlier than expected!
But this second DLC add-on brings something special with it, a free update that adds a 200cc Class to the game, which is a faster gameplay mode than the Mario Kart franchise has ever included previously. The new speed setting is a game changer, and the best part is that it is free to everyone, not just those who bought one or both DLC packs. But is this new, challenging speed setting perhaps a step too far in this fun-filled game? (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Westerado: Double Barreled Review: Fastest Pixel in the West
At first glance, Westerado: Double Barreled is just a pixelated spaghetti western with a silly name. The longer you glance, the harder that feeling sets in. Developed by Ostrich Banditos, the latest game to be published by Adult Swim Games takes the style of the third-person top-down RPG of yore and combines it with an overly-dramatized and often fourth wall-breaking western revenge story. For those “in-the-know,” this is a remake of a 2013 browser-based title originally just named Westerado. (more…)
Posted in PC, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Westerado: Double Barreled