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: Etcetera
Daily Scoop: March 27, 2012 – Kickstarter edition!
It’s freezing cold today in sunny Philadelphia! March has come back with a vengeance and is reminding us it’s still too early to pull out our jackets. But hey, I know what’ll warm you up: donating money to a good cause! Check out this Kickstarter article about my talented friends over at Cipher Prime. They made my all-time favorite iPad game, Pulse, which you should also buy.
Let’s see, what’s going on today? Oh yeah, it’s an all-day Video Game Gold Box Event over at Amazon! The big deal is $40 off the 320GB PlayStation 3, bringing it down to a ludicrously cheap $259.99. That’s a great price for the system, especially with so much storage!
The rest of the Gold Box deals are:
- 6am PST/9am EST: Vicious combat, dark humor, and lightning-quick action on the PlayStation Vita – It’s Army Corps of Hell for $29.99!
- 8am PST/11am EST: Feel the exhilaration of the full-body dancing workout that you know and love! – This one is Zumba Fitness Rush for the Xbox 360 Kinect for $33.99!
- 11am PST/2pm EST: This controller redefines motion gaming on the PlayStation3! – Could this be the Move?
- 2pm PST/5pm EST: Step into the iconic octagon fighting cage to battle in one-on-one action for the ultimate fighting championship! – I’m guessing this will be UFC Unleashed 3…
- 4pm PST/7pm EST: Action RPG Meets First Person Shooter! – Probably Borderlands
- 6pm PST/9pm EST: A sports-party game set at the 2012 Summer Olympic games in London and featuring iconic video game characters! – Mario & Sonic at London 2012 Olympic Games, yeah?
- 8pm PST/11pm EST: The most technologically-advanced headset ever designed for PS3 and Xbox 360 gaming – I’m hoping an Astro headset!
I’ve also got two game-related shirts for you today: (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Gamers At Work Review: Make Room on Your Bookshelf
Morgan Ramsay’s Gamers At Work delivers a lot of behind-the-scenes information about the video game industry right from the source: the mouths of some of the most powerful and influential people involved in starting and fueling it. Ramsay interviews Nolan Bushnell, Don Daglow, Trip Hawkins, Ted Price, Warren Spector, and a dozen other founders, developers, programmers, and entrepreneurs. More than just a dry question and answer session, Ramsay gets to the heart, asking pointed questions and drawing out interesting – and sometimes emotional – stories. (more…)
Daily Scoop: March 22, 2012 – Too many shirts
There are way too many cool shirts available on the cheap today. I had to actually hide my wallet from myself! Which is really going to suck at lunchtime, let me tell you.
Amazon’s got a decent Deal of the Day in video games today… it’s an extra $25 gift card if you buy the Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle. So it’s $50 off AND you get a $25 gift card to boot. Scoop it up!
Quite a few sweet gamer shirts today – one at a daily site, and the rest part of Threadless’ sale! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, Xbox 360
Nintendo Video service gets 3D music videos from The Shins, Wale, B.o.B., more
Nintendo recently announced they are teaming up with top musical acts to provide new music videos in 3D for users of its free Nintendo Video service on the 3DS.
Available for download now are “The Rifle’s Spiral” from The Shins’ new album Port of Morrow, “Sabotage” from Wale, and “So Good” from B.o.B. Additional 3D videos that will be available soon are “Skyscrapers” from OK Go, “Breakn’ a Sweat” from Skrillex, “Underneath the Sycamore” from Death Cab for Cutie, and “Save World Get Girl” from I Fight Dragons.
All 3DS owners have to do to get these awesome videos is connect their 3DS to the Internet and download the Nintendo Video application. The music videos that are currently available will download automatically!
Nostalgia Goes A Long Way at Art of Video Games Exhibit
The Smithsonian American Art Museum was full of a new kind of art this weekend: “The Art of Video Games,” their newest exhibit. While many joked about the absence of Roger Ebert, mostly there was an atmosphere of awe and reverence. It was a relief to see this much-contested medium celebrated instead of seeing it as the dispute of some controversial legislature. To many gamers present that weekend, the nostalgia felt a lot like our childhoods: it felt like home.
The exhibit was developed by guest curator and longtime gamer Chris Melissinos, who worked hard for nearly three years on it. The exhibit begins with an introduction from Melissinos, who talks about his introduction to – and romance with – video games. A room to the side has dozens of televisions, showing games in different countries throughout history. Continuing into the exhibit is a montage of some of the industry’s greatest creations: from Marble Madness to Heavy Rain, Pitfall to Shadow of the Colossus. I let the images wash over me, remembering the countless hours I spent as a child on Marble Madness alone. (more…)
Daily Scoop: March 21, 2012 – Another Wednesday
Ah, Wednesday – also known in some circles as “hump day.” How we appreciate the way that you lead us into the weekend so elegantly. Keep up the good work!
What’s going on today besides Dungeons and Dragons Encounters? I’m glad you asked! Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games today is Sega’s Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympics for the Wii. It’s $32.99 today down from $49.95, so if this is a title you wanted, now’s your chance! Amazon’s also having an Xbox 360 Gearfest, in which you can save 30% on select Xbox 360 accessories. And if you buy a 320GB PS3, you can get a game free! The games are MLB 12 The Show, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Twisted Metal, and the XL edition of Gran Turismo 5. Scoop ’em up!
Again, no game-related shirts today, but I really like this Calvin ‘n Hobbes/Spider-man mashup… (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, Wii
Daily Scoop: March 20, 2012 – Whew!!
It has been quite a busy few days for me, dear friends! I went to Game Fest this weekend at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was an amazing little festival to kick off their newest exhibit, “The Art of Video Games.” It was a weekend full of Pac-Man cookies, celebrity sightings, and video games. I couldn’t have asked for more! Keep checking back here for my articles about the event.
Also, I’ve got a bunch of deals for you today! Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games today is Ubisoft’s The Black Eyed Peas Experience. It’s $29.40 on the Wii and $30.02 on the Xbox 360. They’re also running an awesome deal to buy Final Fantasy XIII-2, get Final Fantasy XIII free! Seriously hop on that. If you’ve already got the first game, they’ve also got the Collector’s Edition of the sequel for $59.99 for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
That’s not all. There’s also the Red Dead Redemption Game of the Year Edition on sale for $29.99 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This includes the original game, plus Undead Nightmare, as well as all the other DLC available for the game. This is a must-buy if you don’t already have this game! And last up is $50 off the Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Value Bundle, bringing it down to $249.99. This is a pretty good deal for the 250 GBs of space, plus two games, a controller, a headset, and three months of Xbox Live. Considering that Star Wars one I want is nearly twice the price, this one is awfully tempting…
No game-related shirts today, but there’s a repeat up that I promised myself I would buy if I ever saw it again… (more…)
PBS thinks Super Mario Bros. is a surreal work of art
PBS launched their latest online venture, the PBS Idea Channel, on Wednesday. Hosted by Mike Rugnetta, the channel attempts to answer all those crazy questions you get in your head. And believe it or not, the debut question was “Is Super Mario Bros. a piece of surrealist artwork?”
Rugnetta makes the point that when viewed from outside the influence of the series, a flower that lets you spit fire after you eat it, giant walking mushrooms, and a dinosaur that lays eggs is just INSANE! Except, it’s not…
“Spitting” fire was just a euphemism we kids came up with in the 80s. The canon depiction of a Fire Flower has always shown Mario throwing fireballs after touching it. Weird sure, but not as weird as Rugnetta wants to claim. Goombas (and other made up species that the host cites like the Hammer Bros. and Latiku) can be traced back to the zaniness found in Looney Tunes cartoons and Dr. Seuss books. I mean, is a Goomba all that different from The Lorax? As for Yoshi and his egg-laying, well, dinosaurs do lay eggs! It was even a major plot point in Jurassic Park.
Rugnetta does make one good point, and that is that surrealism is everywhere nowadays. Mario is a bit surreal, but most of the weirdness in the Mushroom Kingdom makes perfect sense… except for Birdo.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Super Mario Bros.