Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: 3DS
GameStop: Comcept or Deep Silver told us Mighty No. 9 will not be released in 2015
Last week, we told you that most retailers had removed Mighty No. 9‘s previously-announced release date of September 15, 2015 from their online storefronts. Today, GameStop revealed to Game Informer that their corporate policy states this type of release date change is only made at the request of the developer or publisher. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that Mighty No. 9 will be released for any of its planned platforms (PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One) by the end of the year. Mighty No. 9 is also in development for the 3DS and Vita, but its tentative “late 2015” release date has probably been erased as well.
Game Informer attempted to contact both Deep Silver and Comcept for comment, but the publication was unsuccessful. Publisher Deep Silver refused to comment, while developer Comcept didn’t reply to the request at all.
While it’s just speculation on my part (and Game Informer’s, for that matter), I believe Comcept is staying quiet about Mighty No. 9’s delay because the crowdfunding campaign for their next game, Red Ash: The Indelible Legend, is currently in its final hours. With just under three days to go, the game has only secured funding for 60% of its $800,000 target, and a delay to their high profile spiritual successor to the Mega Man franchise can only hurt the public’s confidence in the developer.
At this pace, it probably won’t reach its goal, but Comcept recently signed a publishing agreement with Fuze and will complete the game regardless.
Square Enix officially announces a US release for Final Fantasy Explorers
US gamers first got wind of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Explorers a little over a year ago, when the publisher filed a trademark application for the title. Available in Japan since last December, Square Enix announced yesterday that the game will make its North American debut in early 2016.
Final Fantasy Explorers is an action RPG for the 3DS that will give one-to-four players the chance to find the Grand Crystal and push back the hordes of monsters overtaking the land:
The world is on the brink of war over its reserves of crystals, the planet’s chief source of power. Players must band together to form an elite squad of Explorers on an island rich in crystals, braving hordes of monsters in hopes of conquering a newly discovered Grand Crystal – every Explorer’s dream.
Final Fantasy Explorers focuses on cooperative play with friends and utilizes a refined party system allowing Explorers to master over 20 new and familiar jobs—including Knight, Monk, Black Mage and White Mage—to defeat the realm’s mightiest monsters and even recruit them for battle. Players will have the ability to call upon the powers of eidolons like Ifrit and Bahamut, as well as transform into other legendary characters from the Final Fantasy series via the Trance feature.
Final Fantasy Explorers will be released on January 26, 2016.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Final Fantasy Explorers
Nintendo UK will send you random packages in the mail… let’s hope they skip the Bob-Ombs
Have you ever noticed all the ads for companies that offer a monthly (or weekly) subscription for a box of random goodies? If you watch TV regularly, you must have seen at least one of these commercials. They have them for makeup and beauty care products, dog treats/items, snacks, video games, razors, tea, candy, toys/collectibles, books, baby samples, and even multiple places that will send you recipes plus all the ingredients you need to cook that meal. There’s probably even a bunch that I don’t know about. Or don’t want to know about. It’s possibly a little out of control, but people love getting packages and random surprises, so I can see the appeal.
Now Nintendo UK is throwing its hat into the monthly subscription box ring. As an alternative to the popular Loot Crate, which sends out nerdy toys, collectibles, and clothes, Nintendo is set to launch their own box — the “N-Box” (which should really look into maybe having a different name) — which will offer Nintendo items and merchandise featuring iconic characters.
MCV is reporting that the N-Box “will feature toys, clothes and other merchandise inspired by and branded with Nintendo icons such as Mario, Zelda and Pokemon” and that the boxes “are expected to be available individually, with gamers also able to subscribe to a three-, six- or 12-month plan.”
The N-Box is expected to debut pretty soon, and for now will only be available for UK consumers. Yet another reason to be jealous of the UK.
Nintendo Download: Xeodrifter, Badland: Game of the Year Edition, more
Nintendo update the Nintendo eShop today with a trio of new games for the Wii U and another three for the 3DS. Though one can be played on both systems with a single purchase.
Yes, Nintendo is offering another Cross-Buy promotion with Rengeade Kid’s Xeodrifter. The Metroidvania-style Wii U game will offer players “mystery and adventure” as they “blast through alien landscapes, seek out valuable secrets, and defeat ancient guardians.” As a Cross-Buy title, purchasing Xeodrifter on the Wii U will also make the game available to download on the 3DS, and vice versa.
Also available this week is Badland: Game of the Year Edition, a high definition upgrade of the popular mobile game. The Game of the Year Edition of the side-scroller comes with “more than 15 hours of single-player levels” and a four-player local multiplayer mode.
More information on these titles, and a small handful of additional Wii U and 3DS games, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Xeodrifter
Dragon Quest XI: In Search of the Departed Time announced for 3DS, PS4, Nintendo’s NX
Square Enix announced the next game in the long-running Dragon Quest franchise today, while also kicking off the frenzy for more information on Nintendo’s NX system.
Dragon Quest XI: In Search of the Departed Time is the name of the next game in the series and its in development for the 3DS, PS4, and Nintendo’s NX system. The announcement event was held in Japan, and currently, Square Enix has only confirmed that the game will receive a Japanese release. However, we Dragon Quest fans in America should remain hopeful as the eleventh entry in the series will drop the MMO style of Dragon Quest X and return to the franchise’s single-player roots.
Dragon Quest XI: In Search of the Departed Time will be directed by Yuji Horii, with character designs by Akira Toriyama, and music by Koichi Sugiyama. A development house by the name of Orca will assist with the game’s production.
We don’t know much else about the game at this point, though we do know that the 3DS version will include a 3D game world on the top screen and a 2D sprite-based world map on the bottom screen. It’s a pretty neat effect and could make the handheld version of Dragon Quest XI the one to get. We also know that Toy Logic will assist in the development of the 3DS version.
A release date for Dragon Quest XI: In Search of the Departed Time wasn’t announced, but you can watch the reveal presentation above (apologies, but it’s entirely in Japanese).
Posted in 3DS, News, PS4, Switch
Tagged Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Mortal Kombat X was the best-selling game in the first half of 2015
Fortune has scoured the last six months of data from The NPD Group to assemble a definitive list of the best-selling games from the first half of the year.
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly when you realize just how few games have been released this year, NetheRealm’s Mortal Kombat X took the top spot. The latest game in the long-running series paved the way for WB Games’s complete domination of the sales chart. The publisher secured four spots in the half-year top ten including Batman: Arkham Knight (#6), Dying Light (#7), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (#9). Arkham Knight’s appearance on the list is even more impressive as it was released in the last week of June.
Among the holdovers, Grand Theft Auto V (#2), Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (#4), and Minecraft (#5) all broke into the top five. It’s likely that all three will stick around for the year-end list as well.
The complete top ten list can be found right here:
Bestselling Games in the First Half of 2015
1. Mortal Kombat X
2. Grand Theft Auto V
3. Battlefield Hardline
4. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
5. Minecraft
6. Batman: Arkham Knight
7. Dying Light
8. NBA 2K15
9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
10. Super Smash Bros. For 3DS / Super Smash Bros. For Wii U
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight, Battlefield Hardline, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Dying Light, Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat X, NBA 2K15, NPD, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Check out 45 minutes of gameplay from Mega Man Legacy Collection right here
Do you love the Mega Man franchise? And do you have 45 minutes to spare? If you answered yes to both of these questions, I think you should check out the Mega Man Legacy Collection video embedded above.
Hosted by Greg “GregaMan” Moore and Brett “Minish Capcom” Elston of the Capcom-Unity blog, the video dives deep into the compilation and explores the brand new Challenge Mode, as well the Museum Mode, which includes a very extensive collection of Mega Man arcana.
The Mega Man Legacy Collection will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this Summer. A 3DS version will follow this Fall.
Nintendo Download: Binding of Isaac Rebirth, 3D Streets of Rage 2, Dragon Fantasy, more
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and its basement-ful of monstrous monsters, comes to the 3DS and Wii U as part of this week’s Nintendo Download. It’s joined by a variety of other titles, such as…
- 3D Streets of Rage 2 (3DS), a portable remake of one of the best beat ’em ups from the Genesis era.
- Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria (3DS, Wii U), a retro-styled RPG that features “warriors, princesess, pirates, zombies, and crazy old woodsmen.”
- Legend of Kay Anniversary (Wii U) will be available on July 28 and is a brand new remake of everyone’s favorite PS2 game to star a karate cat.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Legend of Kay Anniversary, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth