Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC 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: Vita
PS Store This Week: Sundered, Pyre, Super Cloudbuilt, more
The indie titles keep coming on the PlayStation Store, and this week’s update includes three titles of particular interest…
Sundered is a side-scrolling MetroidVania from Thunder Lotus Games, and it’ll be available for the PS4 this Friday. Incorporating some terrifying Lovecraftian themes, players will fight for survival (and their sanity) in this hand-drawn adventure.
Also available for the PS4 this week is Pyre, a team-based Action RPG from Supergiant Games. Players will compete in a series of mystical competitions to help win freedom for their exiles in the Campaign, but they can also fight it out with friends in the Versus Mode.
Finally, Coilworks’s Super Cloudbuilt will bring a futuristic platforming (with a dash of parkour) to the PS4 this week.
You can learn more about all of these titles (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: Hey! Pikmin, Miitopia, Collar X Malice, More
It’s another big week for Nintendo as the consolemaker will release two games for the 3DS on Friday.
First up is the first portable game in the Pikmin series, Hey! Pikmin. The side-scrolling adventures adds touchscreen support for Captain Olimar, who can now fling Pikmin at enemies and obstacles with the swipe of a finger. Also available from Nintendo for the 3DS this Friday is Miitopia, a turn-based RPG featuring Miis “based on your favorite people.”
Elsewhere in the portable section of your favorite game store will be Collar X Malice, a new visual novel from Aksys that’ll be available for the Vita this week.
Finally this week, Marvelous’s action brawler Fate Extella: The Umbral Star will make its way to the Nintendo Switch after debuting on the PC and Vita last year.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be back soon with updates on the rest of this week’s downloadable additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
PS Store This Week: Superhot, Fortnite, Orcs Must Die Unchained, more
The mob is marching on the PlayStation Store as three games that are all about crowd control will make their digital debut this week.
Team Superhot will bring their unique first person shooter, Superhot (and its VR-focused spinoff, Superhot VR), to the PS4 this Friday. Both games pit the player against an army of “Red Guys,” but don’t worry, “Time Moves Only When You Move” in Superhot.
Joining Superhot on the PlayStation Store this Friday is Fortnite, a new “action building” game from Epic Games. In Fortnite’s post-apocalyptic reality, players have to build up the defenses in their base, but also go on the offensive against the game’s mutant attackers.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is Orcs Must Die! Unchained. An army of Orcs are making a beeline for your base, but players will be able to “slice them, burn them, skewer them, and launch them” in this tower defense game.
You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)
Max Brooks’s Minecraft: The Island novel is now available at bookstores everywhere
Mojang teamed up with Max Brooks (the author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) to create the first official tie-in novel based on Minecraft. Titled Minecraft: The Island, the book is targeted at a younger audience and it’s available on store shelves today.
When writing Minecraft: The Island, Brooks found inspiration in classics like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe to tell his own tale of survival and mystery:
Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!
The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island… like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.
In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.
You can read the first chapter right now at the novel’s official website.
PS Store This Week: Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, Minecraft Story Mode Season 2, Serial Cleaner, more
We might be in the middle of the Summer gaming drought, but there are plenty of new releases available this week through the PlayStation Store.
Leading the way is a game that actually made its debut more than a decade ago. Originally released for the PS2 in 2006, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will feature enhanced graphics and sound on the PS4, as well as the Zodiac Job System that was only available in the RPG’s “International” edition.
Square Enix will also publish MotoGP 17 for the PS4 this week, which includes all the riders, teams, and tracks from the 2017 season.
A second epic tale will launch for the PS4 this week, as Telltale Games will release the first episode of Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2. Jesse and friends return in Episode 1: Hero in Residence, but there’s no rest for the wicked, as a strange gauntlet has latched itself onto Jesse.
Finally this week, a trio of new indie games will provide some interesting new experiences for PS4 owners. Serial Cleaner is a 70s-set adventure about body disposal, Iron Crypticle is a Gauntlet/Smash TV hybrid, and Mr. Shifty features a teleporting thief.
More information about all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Final Fantasy XII, Iron Crypticle, Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2, Mr. Shifty, Serial Cleaner
NIS America will bring Penny-Punching Princess to Switch, Vita in Spring 2018
It looks like Disgaea 5 Complete was just the start of NIS America’s relationship with the Nintendo Switch. The publisher, famous for their uniquely Japanese games, waltzed into this weekend’s Anime Expo and announced that Penny-Punching Princess will be released for Nintendo’s newest console (and the PS Vita) in Spring 2018.
The brawler RPG features an overhead view, and a very materialistic sense of combat:
In a world ruled by capitalism, cash is king!
Use the money you gather to bribe enemies to fight for you, activate deadly traps with your dough, and when all else fails, smash all that stand against you with your fists! Fight your way from nothing and amass treasures to take on the mighty Dragoloan Family and reclaim your kingdom!
NIS America also announced plans to release a special Limited Edition of the game for the Switch, and you can pre-order it now through the NIS America Online Store:
Penny-Punching Princess Limited Edition
- Copy of Penny-Punching Princess
- Royal Family Lapel Pins
- Sebastian and Coin Keychain
- Credit Card Shaped 2GB USB (with Official Soundtrack)
- Collector’s Gold Bar Box
The first trailer for Penny-Punching Princess is embedded above for your viewing pleasure, and a closer look at the Limited Edition can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch, Vita
Tagged Penny-Punching Princess
PS Store This Week: SpeedRunners, Toby The Secret Mine, That’s You, more
Not even the 4th of July can stop Sony’s weekly PlayStation Store update. Though it did slow it down a bit…
But there’s nothing slow about SpeedRunners, the multiplayer runner from TinyBuild and DoubleDutch Games. And it’s now available to download for the PS4.
Also available to download this week is Toby: The Secret Mine, a shadowy puzzle platformer for the PS4 from Headup Games and Lukas Navratil. Players will join Toby on an adventure into the deep forest as he tries to rescue his friends and family from a mysterious kidnapper.
Finally this week, That’s You is a party game for the PS4 that turns your smartphone into a controller. That way, everyone can join in the fun with “tons of funny questions, texting games, and drawing challenges.”
You can learn more about all of these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) after the break. (more…)
Zero Time Dilemma’s PS4 debut leads a packed announcement schedule from Aksys Games at Anime Expo 2017
The 2017 Anime Expo welcomed anime fans from around the globe to Los Angeles this weekend, and Aksys Games was there to announce a massive slate of upcoming games for release in 2017 and 2018.
The localization house started things off with confirmation that Zero Time Dilemma, the third game in the Zero Escape trilogy, will be released for the PS4 on August 18. The visual novel is currently available for the 3DS, Vita, and PC, but the PS4 re-release will be remastered with “impressive” high definition graphics. [Source]
Aksys is planning to bring several other visual novels to North America over the next year. During their Anime Expo panel, Aksys revealed a handful of such titles from Idea Factory including Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk. Both Psychedelica games are tangentially connected by haunted locales, and both will launch for the Vita in 2018. [Source]
The publisher will also team up with Idea Factory to bring 7 Scarlet to the Vita in 2018. 7 Scarlet features a story involving a mysterious town, a missing university student, and a search for the truth. [Source]
More ghostly tales will be told in Creeping Terror, a horror exploration game that’ll launch for the PC and 3DS this Fall. Players will travel through a haunted house, an old tunnel, and a shadowy cavern in search of a monster in Creeping Terror. [Source]
Players will also be in search of monsters in SG/ZH: School Girl/Zombie Hunter, a third-person shooter developed by D3 Publisher for the PS4. The goofy game follows five girls who attempt to save their school from a rampaging horde of zombies. [Source]
A different kind of “ghost” story is at the center of Jake Hunter Detective Story: Ghost of the Dusk. Developed by Arc System Works, Ghost of the Dusk is a hard-boiled detective story that’ll be released for the 3DS in North America in 2018. [Source]
Aksys announced plans to package together two games in the Code Realize franchise, Code Realize: Guardian of Rebirth and Code Realize: Future Blessings, as Code Realize: Bouquet of Rainbows. The bundle will be available for the PS4 next year. [Source]
Moving on (or rather, not moving on), the publisher will release Bad Apple Wars for the Vita on September 29. The visual novel takes place in a school (not surprising)… that’s located in Purgatory (whoa). Bad Apple Wars follows a battle for the soul of Purgatory between the Delinquent Team of Bad Apples and the Disciplinary Committee. [Source]
Under Night In-Birth, a 2D fighter from Arc System Works, will receive a major update this Fall with the release of Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late[st]. Set to be released for the PS3, PS4, and Vita, the Late[st] version of the game will include two new characters, Enkidu and Wagner, and a story-focused Chronicle Mode. [Source]
Finally, the craziest game on Aksys’s radar might be Drive Girls, which will be released for the Vita on August 11. In Drive Girls, players will control a team of superpowered girls who can turn into a fleet of speedy supercars. The girls will do battle with an invading alien force in a genre mashup that includes melee action and driving prowess. [Source]
That’s all for now, but new trailers for most of these games should be available online shortly.