Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
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: Retro
Nintendo will release the NES Classic Edition (packed with 30 games) this November
The NES is back… in microconsole form!
Nintendo has announced they’ll release the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition just in time for the holidays on November 11. The system will be HDTV-compatible and include an NES Classic Controller and a built-in hard drive packed with 30 NES games.
Sadly, NES Classic Edition owners won’t be able to add additional games to the microconsole (or relive the joys of blowing into cartridges to get them to work), but they will be able to play these NES-era favorites:
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It’s a great selection of games, though I’m a little shocked that other NES gems like Tetris, Dragon Warrior III, Mega Man 3, and Tecmo Super Bowl (minus the NFL licensing, of course) weren’t included.
Rather than forcing players to futz around with passwords or the dreaded “Hold Reset While Turning Off,” the NES Classic Edition will also include multiple suspend points for each game.
The NES Classic Edition will be priced at $59.99, and extra NES Classic Controllers will be sold for $9.99 apiece. If you’re a fan of Nintendo’s Virtual Console, an NES Classic Controller can be paired with a Wii Remote for use with the Wii or Wii U. Likewise, a Wii Classic Controller can be plugged into the NES Classic Edition for two-player action.
Colbert kicks off Summer Games Done Quick 2016 by pitting a SMB3 speedrunner versus relay runners and a Hot Pocket
If you don’t have the stomach for the Nathan’s Hog Dog Eating Contest this July 4th, maybe Stephen Colbert can interest you in Summer Games Done Quick 2016…
On Friday’s episode of The Late Show, Colbert welcomed Mitch “MitchFlowerPower” Fowler, a speedrunner who’ll be competing in the charity gaming marathon later this week. To kick things off in appropriately goofy fashion, the host asked Mitch to pit his Super Mario Bros. 3 prowess in a “3-Legged Race” against the Columbia University 4×400 relay team and a microwave timer manned by his own Hot Pocket-stained fingers.
Marvel as Mitch nails a flawless running jump to grab the Leaf in the first Fortress. Whoop it up when Colbert plays through the pain after burning the roof of his mouth on a Hot Pocket. And calmly watch as the Columbia track team circles the track with nary a lion nor Terminator in sight.
Ready… Set… Press Play… to see who wins when three elite competitors go head-to-head-to-head.
Summer Games Done Quick 2016 begins today and will continue through July 9. All proceeds from the charity event will benefit Doctors Without Borders, and you can follow all the action by visiting the Games Done Quick website.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Super Mario Bros. 3
It’s In Your Blood: A History of Horror Games (Part Three)
If you’re anything like me, you like to be scared. Horror movies accomplish this nicely from time to time, but for a truly memorable experience, horror games are unmatched. They drop you into terrifying situations, leaving you no choice but to wade through unforgiving environments and do battle with grotesque creatures… but when did this genre begin? How did it evolve? If you find yourself asking these questions, take a seat. Welcome to our domain!
We recently covered the birth of horror games, and then waxed poetic about the genre’s evolution. This time around, you’ll be reading about a far more stable period for this type of game. As certain horror titles began to stand out from the crowd, developers and publishers quickly took notice. This leads us directly into… (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, Retro, Top Story
Tagged Resident Evil 2
Vans releases their Nintendo-themed shoe and clothing line
As a plumber, Mario usually wears work shoes, but if you’re in the market for some athletic footwear, Vans and Nintendo have announced that their “Vans X Nintendo” collaboration is now available in stores and online.
More than just fancy sneakers, the “Vans X Nintendo” collection will also include Nintendo-themed t-shirts, backpacks, bags, socks, and hats.
The shoes and clothing from the “Vans X Nintendo” collection will feature 8-bit artwork from a quartet of classic titles (Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda), as well as apparel adorned with the iconic NES design.
Head over to Vans.com/Nintendo now to browse the entire collection.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda
It’s In Your Blood: A History of Horror Games (Part Two)
Video games are a diverse and long-lasting medium, with something to offer everybody. From those obsessed with scores and bragging rights, to more relaxed individuals looking for an enthralling story with limited interaction, to gamers who spend upwards of 100 hours in open worlds with random battles. Then there are oddballs like me, who just want to get the crap scared out of us.
With horror games currently experiencing a much-needed boost in popularity, now is the perfect time to glance back at the genre’s rich history. In Part One, we took a look at the infancy of horror in gaming… from 3D Monster Maze to the much derided Friday the 13th adaptation. Today, we’ll be shining a spotlight on the titles that helped mold the genre into what it is today. (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, Retro, Top Story
Tagged Parasite Eve, Resident Evil
Wes Copeland set a new Donkey Kong world record with a near-perfect run
The King of Kong is one of the truly great “video game movies” because it depicts a pair real-life players (Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell) battling it out for high score supremacy. But their Donkey Kong duel is over as both men have been left in the dust by a new group of wizards who’ve mastered one of Nintendo’s earliest efforts.
That group includes Wes Copeland, and the near-perfect world record he set late last week. Copeland was able to put 1,218,000 points on the scoreboard before Donkey Kong’s “kill screen” knocked him out in Level 22, better the previous record by 28,200. Writing on Facebook, Copeland said he doesn’t believe the record can be broken: “This will be my last record score… I don’t believe I can put up a game any higher than this.”
And he’s probably right. Copeland lost just a single life during in his run, which ultimately clocked in at over three hours. But congratulations are definitely in order, and Wes Copeland gets a big thumbs up from all of us here at Warp Zoned.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Donkey Kong
World Video Game Hall of Fame Class of 2016 announced: Legend of Zelda, GTA3, Sonic, Space Invaders, Oregon Trail, The Sims
The votes have been tallied and the results are in, the Strong Museum is ready to announce the induction committee’s selections for the World Video Game Hall of Fame Class of 2016.
This year’s shortlist includes many well-known names, but only six were able to secure the support of the committee, which weighed each title on its ability to appeal to an international cross-section of players, longevity in the eyes of the public, iconic status, and influence on the industry as a whole.
After much thought and deliberation, the committee chose to honor the following games with induction into the the World Video Game Hall of Fame:
- Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar’s operatic open world crime saga.
- The Legend of Zelda, Link’s inaugural adventure and one of the first open world RPGs.
- The Oregon Trail, a revolutionary educational game that also taught a whole generation of kids about dysentery and cholera.
- The Sims, Will Wright’s “virtual dollhouse” is one of the most popular PC games of all time.
- Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega’s blue blur starred in several classic side-scrollers and served as a foil to Mario in the 90s.
- Space Invaders, the originator of the iconic “Invader” design and one of the first space shooters.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame was established in 2015, and this year’s class will stand alongside last year’s class, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Pong, Doom, World of Warcraft, and Pac-Man, as some of the best that video gaming has to offer.
A few days ago, I attempted to play oddsmaker for this year’s finalists, and I’m happy to say that I pegged three of this year’s inductees as “Sure Things” and two more as “Coin Flips.”
Nine other games, Elite, Final Fantasy, John Madden Football, Minecraft, Nurburgring, Pokemon Red/Blue, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Street Fighter II, and Tomb Raider, came up short during the induction process. But all of them will get another chance next year, and the Hall of Fame is already accepting nominations for their Class of 2017.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 will be on permanent view in the Strong Museum’s “eGameRevolution” exhibit. And congratulations to all designers and developers who helped bring each of them to life.
Posted in News, PS2, Retro
Tagged Grand Theft Auto III, Space Invaders, The Legend of Zelda, World Video Game Hall of Fame
Handicapping the 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists
We’re just a few days away from learning which games will be inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame this year. In 2015, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Pong, Doom, World of Warcraft, and Pac-Man were selected as the inaugural class by the institution’s induction committee. The Hall’s Class of 2016 will be announced on Thursday, May 5, and five or six games are once again expected to rise above the other finalists.
But which of the 15 finalists will be honored this year? Using the Hall’s induction criteria as a guide, I can think we can determine the odds of which games will make it in and which will have to wait until next year. (more…)