Most Recent: Top Story

Warp Zoned’s 2017 Golden Pixel Awards: A New Beginning for Video Games

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Warp Zoned Staff

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When we looked over the gaming landscape at the beginning of 2017, we opined that game publishers had done their best to wipe the slate clean throughout all of 2016. Many of gaming’s most mysterious projects were finally released, Nintendo closed the door on the Wii U, the VR revolution was in full swing, and upgraded versions of the PS4 and Xbox One were on the horizon.

In these first few days of 2018, I think it’s safe to say the last 12 months definitely fulfilled that promise. Nintendo’s Switch roared out of the gate in March and the consolemaker filled the calendar with big titles on “Day One” and throughout the rest of the year. Night in the Woods, Persona 5, and Golf Story told new kinds of stories that gamers had never seen before. Cuphead delivered a decidedly retro side-scroller packaged within a unique visual playground packaged. And someone even managed to create a fun Friday the 13th game.

It was quite a year, and you can find more of our favorites from 2017 after the break. (more…)

Posted in Etcetera, Features, PC, PS4, Switch, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Games of January 2018

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Warp Zoned Staff

It’s a new year and time for a brand new batch of video games from developers both big and small.

Fighting game fans will have a lot to look forward to in January with the launch of Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Square Enix’s Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, and Capcom’s Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. And if you enjoy games with a retro aesthetic, you might want to keep an eye out for Cellar Door’s Full Metal Furies, Square Enix’s Lost Sphear, and Nintendo’s 3DS re-release of Pokemon Crystal.

You can find what we’re looking forward to after the break, along with a complete release schedule for all of this month’s new releases. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, Top Story, Vita, Xbox One | Tagged , , , ,

Kickstart This! The French Are Coming!

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent

A little while ago in a string of Kickstart This! posts, I teased that I would cover a French game in the future. That future is now. There are not one but two two brilliant games currently seeking donations on Kickstarter from the country that gave us cafetiere coffee and the Etch A Sketch. So let’s give these hard-working developers the kindness and support that this holiday season is meant to be about.

What have you got, France? (more…)

Posted in Features, Mobile, PC, Top Story |

Interview: Pocket Mana on the Launch of My Uncle Merlin’s Kickstarter Campaign

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent

Today, Pocket Mana launched a Kickstarter campaign for the company’s debut game, My Uncle Merlin, an interactive adventure for the PC about wizards in space. We caught up with Predrag Mladenovic (who composes stuff), Milan Andrejevic (who writes stuff), and Stefan Sladic (who draws stuff), to find out more about the game, and what had led them to crowdfund the project. (more…)

Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, Previews, Top Story |

Kickstart This! Ara of the Wanderers

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent

After a trip to Amsterdam and an absence due to tonsillitis, Kickstart This is back with a bang…

OK, so I wrote this on Guy Fawkes Night, and that opener might just be funny to me. I blame the medication. I’ll shut up now…

Due to games being cancelled, there have been a few stalled attempts to write a new installment, and the one I finally chose has not even reached the 10% mark yet, but I’m hoping we can change that. So let’s go meet Ara of the Wanderers. (more…)

Posted in Features, PC, PS4, Top Story, Xbox One |

The Video Game Canon: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Posted on November 3, 2017 by John Scalzo

Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at the creation of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and the massive growth of the Call of Duty franchise. Here’s a teaser…

General William Tecumseh Sherman famously declared that “War is Hell” in a speech in 1880, though I think it’s safe to assume that more people are familiar with the anti-war protestations of a certain green Muppet from 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. While this sentiment has existed in the public consciousness for hundreds of years, the basic structure of a game as a confrontation that pits the player against the CPU (or another player) makes armed conflict an ideal setting.

War might be Hell, but it has also been very good for Activision’s bottom line thanks to the Call of Duty franchise.

Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.

Posted in Features, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

SteamWorld Dig 2 Review: Groundbreaking

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Mike Ryan

It’s hard to believe that four years have already passed since the original SteamWorld Dig first graced gaming systems. Image & Form’s platformer came out of left field and garnered attention and praise from gamers and critics alike (it was even in the running for the “‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson Award” in our annual Golden Pixel Awards roundup). At the time, we couldn’t wait to return to the SteamWorld universe and see the characters “fleshed out” in a sequel, so-to-speak.

Instead, the next entry we got in the series was a spinoff, SteamWorld Heist. It was still set in the same universe as Dig, but Heist wasn’t a direct sequel, and took place much further in the future. Gameplay was also different, as Heist took on a turn-based strategy approach as opposed to Dig’s resource-collecting, mining, MetroidVania style. While fun in its own right, many wanted to see a return to SteamWorld Dig’s roots.

And almost half a decade later, we got our wish. (more…)

Posted in PC, PS4, Reviews, Switch, Top Story, Vita | Tagged

The Video Game Canon: Mega Man 2

Posted on October 13, 2017 by John Scalzo

Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at the the blockbuster success born out of the simple ambitions of Mega Man 2. Here’s a teaser…

The first Mega Man game is a bit of an odd duck, which has become even more pronounced as the years go by. The graphics are simplistic, the sound is tinny, there’s only six Robot Masters instead of the traditional eight, and there’s even a score counter (a feature that was jettisoned from the dozens of sequels that followed). There’s just a smoothness to subsequent games in the franchise that Capcom had yet to master with the first entry.

But like most Mega Man fans, I only learned all this after the fact. At the time, whatever memories I have of the first game were formed by guide writers who described it as an unfairly difficult game, old episodes of Captain N, and the fact that none of the local rental outlets owned a copy (unsurprisingly, Lee Trevino’s Fighting Golf was always available).

I finally got the chance to see what all the fuss was about with Mega Man 2, which was also the first game in the Mega Man franchise to be spearheaded by Capcom’s Keiji Inafune. With an expanded role in the sequel’s development, Inafune became known as the “Father” of Mega Man to plenty of fans, and codified many of the traditions and patterns the series is known for.

Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.

Posted in 3DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS2, PS4, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Wii, Wii U, Xbox One | Tagged