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: Switch
Free Luigi’s Balloon World expansion is now available for Super Mario Odyssey
Are you ready to play hide-and-seek across the world of Super Mario Odyssey? I hope so, because according to Nintendo’s official website, the Luigi’s Balloon World expansion is now available to download through the Nintendo eShop:
Luigi’s Balloon World
After downloading the update and beating the main story, Luigi will now show up in different kingdoms to give Mario a new challenge. To start Balloon World, seek out the green-clad bro and have a nice chat with him. There are two modes in Balloon World: “Hide It” mode lets you hide a balloon somewhere in that kingdom, while “Find It” mode challenges you to find balloons hidden by other players from around the world. If you get good at hiding and finding balloons, you’ll also move up the online rankings!
Luigi’s Balloon World is a free update for Super Mario Odyssey, and it also includes new Outfits for Mario and new Filters for Snapshot Mode.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Super Mario Odyssey
Sega will bring Shining Resonance: Refrain to US this Summer
The Shining series got its start all the way back in 1991, which is when Sega released Shining in the Darkness for its Genesis console. The publisher has since added more than a dozen new games to the franchise, but American audiences haven’t had a chance to play a new Shining game since 2007’s Shining Force EXA.
But that’ll all change this Summer, as Sega has announced that Shining Resonance: Refrain will be released in the US for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One this Summer.
Shining Resonance: Refrain is a real-time action game with music-based attacks that Sega punningly refers to as the B.A.N.D. System. Players will also need to help their team socialize during events and dates to attain “Resonance” on the battlefield for even more powerful attacks.
Yuma has the soul of the Shining Dragon within him, transforming into the ancient beast by unleashing the power conducted through his sword. Dragons, long thought to be extinct, make Yuma a target for the Empire. To use him against the kingdom of Astoria, The Empire captures Yuma. Sonia, princess of Astoria, launches a rescue mission with the help of the Dragoneers. Hearing about the plight of Astoria and their fight to save their land, Yuma decides to aid them. Typically timid, will he find the courage to realize the strength he has within him?
Shining Resonance was originally released for the PS3 in Japan in 2014, and Refrain will add a number of remastered options to the game, including English and Japanese voices, all previously-released DLC, and a Refrain Mode that adds new characters to the game.
Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 + 2 will be released for Switch on May 22
Capcom has announced that Mega Man Legacy Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 will make their way to the Nintendo Switch on May 22.
The two compilations will be available to download separately through the Nintendo eShop ($14.99 for MMLC and $19.99 for MMLC2), but a retail release with the same launch date is also in the works. Unfortunately, only the six NES games from Mega Man Legacy Collection will be included on the Game Card. Players who purchase the retail edition will have to redeem a download code to receive the four games and bonus features from Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.
Capcom didn’t explain their rationale for this baffling release strategy on the Capcom-Unity blog, but they did unveil a new trailer for both compilations, and its been embedded above.
The publisher also said that that the first Legacy Collection will include a Rewind option to turn back time on a poorly-executed jump and access to a batch of 3DS-exclusive Challenges with a Mega Man Amiibo figure. Legacy Collection 2 will also include a batch of Amiibo-locked Challenges that weren’t available on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Mega Man Legacy Collection, Mega Man Legacy Collection 2
Hideki Kamiya is already thinking about Bayonetta 4
Bayonetta 3 was officially announced during this year’s Game Awards ceremony, but we don’t know much about it, and Platinum Games hasn’t even hinted at possible a release date. But that hasn’t stopped Hideki Kamiya, the game’s Director, from thinking about where to take the series in Bayonetta 4.
Writing on Twitter this morning, Kamiya mused that he already “has a plan” for the fourth game in the franchise:
まぁゆーてて４作目の構想もあるんですけどね…
— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) February 15, 2018
Obviously, any talk about Bayonetta 4 (even from the game’s director) is pure speculation when we hardly know anything about Bayonetta 3. But it’s nice to know that Platinum has a road map for where the franchise will go in the future.
Bayonetta 1 + 2, Fe, Xeodrifter, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
Nintendo and its third-party publishing partners will add 17 new Switch games to the Nintendo eShop over the next seven days. While the sheer quantity is impressive, the list also includes some of this Winter’s most highly-anticipated games.
Nintendo themselves lead the way with the Switch re-release of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2. Starting this Friday, players will be able to take Platinum’s pair of action games on the go for the first time. Also available to download tomorrow is Fe, a “wordless platformer” from Zoink and Electronic Arts.
Elsewhere on the Switch storefront, Atooi will make a return to the platform with the launch of Xeodrifter, a retro-styled side-scroller that was originally released for the 3DS in 2014. And Bloober Team will bring the horrific Layers of Fear: Legacy to the Switch on Wednesday. Layers of Fear: Legacy is being touted as the definitive version of the game with its inclusion of the Inheritance expansion, touchscreen controls, and HD Rumble support.
You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Fe, Xeodrifter
Capcom is splitting the games from the Mega Man X franchise across two Legacy Collections
Back in December, Capcom said that “multiple” games in the Mega Man X franchise would be released for modern platforms in 2018, leading many fans to assume that more than one compilation was in the works.
Today, the Australian Classification Board confirmed the publisher will indeed bundle the games from the Mega Man X franchise into two different packages known as the Mega Man X Legacy Collection [Source] and the Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 [Source].
It’s unknown how Capcom will split the franchise between the two Collections, or if the RPG spinoff, Mega Man X: Command Mission, will make the cut. But hopefully we’ll find out more soon.
Mega Man X Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 are both in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, and will be released sometime in 2018.
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn will be released this Spring
The crowdfunding campaign for Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn first appeared on Indiegogo way back in 2014, but developer Saber Interactive has announced that it’ll finally be ready to launch for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One this Spring. Not only that, but the development team also announced a partnership with Wired Productions to bring Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn to retail stores, and they unveiled a new trailer that’s been embedded above.
Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn is an intense, action-packed beat ‘em up which sees players take on the role of the unstoppable Shaquille O’Neal as he fights his way through the hordes of Hell and Hollywood. Master devastating combos, battle outlandish celebrity bosses and take on all comers with an array of weapons, including katanas, shuriken, and baseball bats. Channel Shaq’s alter egos, Big Daddy O and Big Diesel, in epic battles in the successor to the worst game ever on a mission to restore Shaq’s legacy.
Switch owners who purchased Saber’s last game, NBA Playgrounds, prior to June 10, 2017 will receive a free copy of Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn after it launches.
THQ Nordic will bring De Blob and De Blob 2 to the Switch this year
THQ Nordic launched a remastered re-release of De Blob for the PS4 and Xbox One towards the end of last year, and it’ll be followed by a De Blob 2 re-release on both platforms later this month. But yesterday, the publisher confirmed that De Blob, and its sequel, will also be available for the Nintendo Switch sometime in 2018.
De Blob was originally released for the Wii all the way back in 2008, and it was followed by De Blob 2 in 2011. Like Nintendo’s Splatoon, both games feature a big splash of color as the titular hero must bring color back to a monochromatic world:
De Blob
The evil I.N.K.T. Corporation has declared “Color is a Crime!” and leeched Chroma City of all its beauty and interest. The race to rescue Chroma City has just begun, and only De Blob can save the world from a black-and-white future with his unique abilities to color the world back to life.De Blob 2
Comrade Black is back and so is his war on Color. There will be no stopping him or his brainwashing new cult from taking over Prisma City-that is, until De Blob comes back to re-ignite color revolution!De Blob 2 is a platformer which utilizes unique painting functionality as the main game mechanic along with classic platforming actions and low gravity space. Set a few years after the events of the first De Blob game, action in De Blob 2 revolves around another attempt to wipe all colorful individuality from Prisma City and its residents. It’s up to the player to join the Color Underground and bring color back to the world. Features include: multiplayer support, 12 new single player levels, new power-ups and epic boss battles.
Hopefully we’ll learn more about De Blob and De Blob 2’s Switch debut soon.