Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards
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: Etcetera
The 8 Bits of Christmas
What happens when Arthur Rankin, Jr.-esque stop-motion films join The White Stripes video for “Fell In Love With A Girl” and the most wonderful time of the year? It results in Andrew Jive’s “8-Bit Holiday” on YouTube, where Mario, Mega Man, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man sneak out to spread some holiday cheer. The best part? They’re all made out of Legos.
With only 19,770 views as of this writing, it’s surprising that “8-Bit Holiday” hasn’t gone completely viral (maybe it was the post-Christmas posting date), though stop-motion software company Dragon posted the video on their Facebook page. Since his Tumblr is sprinkled with Pac-Man-related posts on every page, perhaps we’ll see more 8-bit tributes from Jive in the future.
Halo: Cryptum on bookstore shelves today
More than half a dozen novels have fleshed out the expanded universe of the Halo franchise since the first game in the series was released in 2001. Today, 343 Industries delves even deeper into the pre-history of Halo with the release of the first part of The Forerunner Saga.
Written by acclaimed science fiction author Greg Bear, Halo: Cryptum travels more than 100,000 years into the past:
Eons ago, the galaxy was home to many species, but chief among them were the Forerunners, who exceeded all others in both technology and knowledge. They ruled peacefully, but countered opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness. They were of the Mantle, the next stage of life in the Universe’s Living Time.
And then they vanished.
This is their story.
If you want a small taste of the story before you take a trip down to your local bookstore (or library), Tor and the Halo Waypoint have the first two chapters available for viewing.
Chapter One can be found at Tor.com while HaloWaypoint.com has Chapter Two.
The Brothers Mario battle Bowser in a gangland tale
Created by the geniuses at CountryClubPictures, The Brothers Mario is a machinima that recasts the Super Mario Brothers’ battle against Bowser as a gangland tale between the mafia and Bowser’s “Koopa Troopa Gang.” It was originally posted on YouTube almost three weeks ago, so you may have seen it already, but if not, it’s a great way to spend a few minutes on a lazy New Year’s Day.
The constant barrage of characters and references is amazing including “Bullet Bill” as an assassin and the “Hammer Brothers” as crazed enforcers (causing Luigi to quip “Never bring a hammer to a gun fight!”). There’s also “real world” versions of Toad and Yoshi along the Koopa Troopas as a literal paratrooper force…
I could go on, but listing all the references to Mario games and the crime film canon would just ruin the surprise. Watch it and be entertained.