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
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Most Recent: Switch
Ubisoft reveals full Just Dance 2017 tracklist… including Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know”
Just Dance 2017 will boogie its way into stores on October 25, so now’s the perfect time for Ubisoft to unveil the game’s full tracklist.
In addition to previously-announced tracks from Justin Bieber, Sia, and DNCE, Just Dance 2017 will also include music from Beyonce (“Single Ladies”), Ariana Grande (“Into You”), and Zayn (“Like I Would”). “Don’t Wanna Know,” the newly-released single from Maroon 5’s upcoming new album, will also be a featured track in the game.
Just Dance 2017 will be available this month for the PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is also in development for Nintendo’s NX console and it’ll presumably launch alongside the console in March 2017.
The full Just Dance 2017 tracklist can be found after the break, and a gameplay trailer featuring “Don’t Wanna Know” has been embedded above. (more…)
Rumor: Lots of games might be in development for Nintendo NX including Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII
I have begun to wonder… will we elect a new President before Nintendo unveils their NX console? Back in September, many fans expected an announcement to happen at any time, but here we are in mid-October and I’m no longer so sure. Thankfully, we’ve got a fresh batch of rumors to sift through.
Yesterday’s report comes from Gameblog.fr, a very popular destination for French gaming news. Helpfully translated by NeoGAF, the report is said to include insider information from multiple sources.
Not surprisingly, the hybrid nature of the NX was reconfirmed and the console/handheld is still expected to include detachable controllers. However, Gameblog.fr’s sources said that the docking station used to connect the NX to a television is actually a “wireless dongle” that can upscale a game’s graphics for 1080p displays. Nintendo is also still keeping some of the NX’s “gimmicks” a secret from developers.
But the real meat of this report focuses on the console’s launch lineup. Gameblog.fr’s sources believe that at least 20 games are currently in development for the NX including remasters of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and Splatoon. We’ve heard this story before, but yesterday’s report includes a new wrinkle of additional Nintendo 64 and Wii remasters as well.
Other games are said to be in the works outside of Nintendo’s offices including Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII Remake from Square Enix, a new Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell game and a Yoshi/Rabbids Crossover from Ubisoft, and untitled new games from Platinum Games and Capcom.
Finally, Nintendo is believed to be testing a virtual reality headset for the NX, but the results aren’t “satisfying.”
As always, it’s good to take any rumors with a massive grain of salt, and I think that’s especially true with this batch. But who knows, maybe we’ll all be surprised when Nintendo officially announces the NX… someday.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Mario Kart 8
Bloodstained’s Wii U release may move to the Nintendo NX
The release date for Koji “Iga” Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was recently pushed back to 2018, and now it looks like the planned Wii U version of the game might be in trouble. Speaking to IGN, Igarashi said that his team may want to move on to the new hardware found in the Nintendo NX:
“Yeah, it’s a very complicated problem,” Iga said. “The reality is this: As timelines move on, certain pieces of hardware become irrelevant. Sometimes new pieces of hardware come out that make you think about what is the right strategy. And as a creator, usually you want to make stuff for the new hardware. That’s the reality.”
“Unfortunately, some of those don’t make as much sense anymore as they did before, and that’s also reality. So you’re in a very difficult position, and at the end of the day, if you’re going to go in one certain direction, you want to make sure that you have support from them,” he explained.
“But so far we’ve, I think, been incredibly transparent through all the things that have happened with our backers, and they have been very supportive. So I’m hoping that if there is going to be a difficult decision some day, and we don’t know, that we’re able to have that conversation. If they say they don’t get it, well that’s where we’re at. And if they say they do get it, well then, we’ll be able to do things that are maybe more interesting. We’ll see.”
Moving Bloodstained, a side-scrolling “MetroidVania” developed by one of the great masters of the genre, to the Nintendo NX makes sense from a lot of angles. Looking at the technical side of the equation, the game is being built with Unreal Engine 4, which is not designed to work with the Wii U. Porting house Armature Studio said they can make it happen, but it would be tricky even if the Wii U was in the prime of its life.
But that leads us to a secondary question about Bloodstained’s recent delay. If the NX launches in March 2017 as announced, then the Wii U will have been dead for more than a year by the time Bloodstained is ready for release. And the console is already struggling now, in 2016, as it nears the end of its life cycle. From a financial perspective, it just makes sense to release Bloodstained on the NX instead of the Wii U.
But as Igarashi said, “we’ll see” what happens.
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Turn-based strategy Dungeon of Zaar is now on Kickstarter for the PC and Nintendo NX
The Nintendo NX is coming to Kickstarter! Don’t get too excited, the consolemaker isn’t funding the creation of their mystery console on the crowdfunding site. But a young development team has given prospective backers the option to select an NX copy of their upcoming project, Dungeon of Zaar.
Dungeon of Zaar is a turn-based strategy game in development at Kurb, a development studio located in France. Looking to Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, and Pokemon for inspiration, Dungeon of Zaar will feature 5v5 battles that focus on lightning fast decision-making to win the day. Multiple multiplayer options are also set to make the game stand out from the traditional solo-only genre.
Kurb is seeking €25,000 ($27,828) to help fund Dungeon of Zaar’s creation through Kickstarter, and they hope to release the game on the PC in Summer 2017. The Nintendo NX launch for Dungeon of Zaar is planned for a few months after that. Their pitch video, which explains quite a bit more about their dreams for the game, is embedded above.
The Big List of Nintendo NX Games: October 2016 Update
The calendar will turn over to March 31, 2017 in exactly 176 days, which is the last possible day for Nintendo to release the NX and still hit their planned March 2017 launch date for the console. And if that seems abnormally short, it should, no console in history has ever been released with such a small window of time between its public unveiling and its launch. It’s disappointing that we still don’t know anything about it yet (though yet another executive has hinted at the handheld/console hybrid concept), but it’s kind of exciting as well.
E3. Gamescom. PAX West. Tokyo Game Show. All of them have come and gone with nothing. Even though it was ultimately a bad idea for Sega to drop the Saturn on an unsuspecting public, this information blackout is almost enough to make me hope Nintendo pulls the same trick. And they just might be able to pull it off too, as the latest rumors around the NX say Nintendo performed a trial production run of their upcoming console in preparation for the beginning of full production.
But what about the games? Thankfully, we learned a lot more about the NX’s in-development lineup of games in recent weeks. (more…)
Pre-production on Beyond Good & Evil 2 officially begins at Ubisoft
It’s happening! It’s finally happening!
Last week, Michel Ancel unveiled a stray piece of Beyond Good & Evil 2 concept art through Instagram. But today, the famed developer went ahead and confirmed that the game (which was first announced by Ubisoft back in 2008) has officially entered the pre-production phase.
Once again, this barrage of good news began on Instagram, with Ancel uploading images of a shark monster and a bipedal rhino. The image of the rhino was accompanied by a caption confirming the game’s newly-minted status as an in-development project: “Endangered species – now saved – Game in pre-production – Stay tuned!”
It will likely be quite a while before Beyond Good & Evil 2 receives a splashy public debut, but in the meantime, Ubisoft wants to further stoke the hype train with a free giveaway of the original Beyond Good & Evil through their Ubisoft Club. Fans will be able to be able to pick up the PC edition of the game for $0 beginning on October 12.
Rain Games might release World to the West on Nintendo NX
Rain Games will release World to the West, an overhead action-adventure game, for the PC, PS4, Wii U, and Xbox One in Early 2017. But during a recent interview with Miketendo64, the developer hinted the game might also be released for Nintendo’s NX next year:
Artist Ole Ivar Rudi spilled the proverbial beans during this exchange:
Miketendo64: “Since World to the West will be coming to the Wii U, and the NX is set to release next year, are there any plans to release it on the NX as well?”
Ole Ivar Rudi: “Hehe, gotta keep answers straight here. As we mentioned earlier it’s very unlikely to come out on 3DS, but it *will *show up on additional platforms. Maybe even another Nintendo platform, but our lips are sealed though.”
World to the West is a sequel to Teslagrad, a side-scrolling puzzle-platformer that’s now available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One. The developer clearly has experience working with many different platforms, but they also have a fairly cozy relationship with Nintendo (the consolemaker demoed the Wii U version of World to the West at PAX West this year).
With all this evidence, I’d be shocked if World to the West doesn’t make its way to the NX eventually.
Michel Ancel is possibly teasing a Beyond Good & Evil prequel on Instagram
Even though we’ve only glimpsed the barest scraps of information about Beyond Good & Evil 2 since its unveiling all the way back in 2008, the game has never really gone away. And as recently as this past Summer, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the sequel is still on the way.
Earlier this morning, developer Michel Ancel teased Beyond Good & Evil 2 once again with a post on Instagram of concept art featuring a young Uncle Pey’j, Jade’s mentor/sidekick from the original Beyond Good & Evil. Does that mean the sequel is acually a prequel? It’s still too early to tell, but at least we know that Ancel is still thinking about the game.
Ubisoft France also posted a link to the image on their Twitter account, lending some legitimacy to the belief that this is “official” concept art and not just something Ancel whipped up in his spare time.
It’s rumored that Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be announced for Nintendo’s NX console in the coming weeks, but it’s probably a tad too early to speculate about that. You can find Ancel’s Beyond Good & Evil 2 tease after the break. (more…)