Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game 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: Wii U
Rumor: New Sonic game to be released for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U in 2015
The image above, which was posted at a site called SpinDash, pretty clearly shows that a new Sonic game is on its way to PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U next year. This image, which came from the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, is sure to make Sonic fans happy.
As announced last year, the agreement between Sega and Nintendo from last May states that the next three Sonic games must be Nintendo exclusives. Sonic: Lost World and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the first two games on that list, were both exclusives, which means Sega owes Nintendo one more before this mystery game can be released on the other two platforms.
New Releases: Bravely Default, Fable Anniversary, The Lego Movie, More
This week’s New Releases Report kicks off with the long-awaited 3DS RPG Bravely Default. If you like your RPGs Japanese and old school, you’ll want to give Bravely Default a look. And in fact, the game is a semi-sequel to another throwback RPG, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. And speaking of throwback RPGs, Microsoft plans to release Fable Anniversary, their Xbox 360 remake of Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, this week.
Also available this week is the “Videogame” adaptation of The Lego Movie. You can hear a Lego version of Chris Pratt say “awesome” a lot on the 3DS, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Finally, a trio of PC simulation games will soon be available for your purchasing pleasure including Civilization V: The Complete Edition, Airport Simulator 2014, and Professional Farmer 2014.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies, Fable Anniversary, The Lego Movie
Space Pioneer could be flying onto Wii U too
After a slew of doom and gloom articles, Nintendo’s Wii U may be finally finding its feet. During a recent investor’s meeting Nintendo announced that the Wii U is nearing the six million mark in sales, while both The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Super Mario 3D World have sold over one million copies each. And while the announcement that Mario Kart 8 would be revving its engines put fans into overdrive, another game was tentatively announced for the console.
Ambitious spacefaring project Space Pioneer, which featured in the most recent edition of Kickstart This!, will be released for the Wii U should the game reach its initial goal of $150,000. At the time of this writing, the Kickstarter campaign had reached just under $20,000, with 39 days to achieve the remained 87%.
Space Pioneer is being developed by Space Enigma Studios, and seeks to be an entertaining, as well as educational, experience, with a number of real world astronauts, architects, and scientists of various fields helping the studio realise a universe for players to explore and colonise. As well as the exploration, there will also be plot threaded throughout the narrative, driven by a mystery regarding some ancient artefacts. Given the talent involved, this could be the next Mass Effect.
Posted in News, PC, Wii U
Tagged Space Pioneer
Nintendo Download: Zelda: Link to the Past, Mario Bros., Wii Fit U, more
Another pair of classic titles are now available to download thanks to this week’s Nintendo Download. The Wii U eShop is now home to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past while the 3DS eShop has been invaded by the crabs from the original and non-super Mario Bros.
If you’re looking for something original, a trio of new games have also been added to the 3DS eShop…
- Castle Clout 3D is a physics-based smasher that’s reminiscent of Angry Birds.
- Arc Style: Solitaire is a solitaire compilation from the people who make the Guilty Gear series of fighting games.
- Touch Battle Tank 3D 2 is an overhead shooter featuring… you guessed it… tanks.
Finally, tomorrow is the last day to download the free 30-day trial of Wii Fit U. Beginning February 1, the exercise program will revert to its regular $29.99 price on the Wii U eShop.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Nintendo’s Plan: Mario Kart 8 in May, DS games on Wii U, more third party development deals
In an investor’s briefing over night, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata outlined the company’s plan to come back from an incredibly poor performance in 2013. Nintendo plans on improving the Wii U, nailing down a launch window for one of their biggest 2014 releases, and pushing their business into other areas. However, I don’t know if the Big N is heading in quite the right direction.
First off – and most importantly for those who already own a Wii U – Mario Kart 8 is finding its way to shelves this May. That’s not just a Japanese release date either; that is worldwide. This newest entry in the series introduces anti-gravity courses, allowing races to move to the walls and ceilings.
In other Wii U news, DS titles are coming to the system’s Virtual Console service. Iwata said that the firm had “overcome technical hurdles” to allow the portable games to work on the big screen. “The dual-screen Nintendo DS, one of which is a touch screen, has a very strong software lineup, and so we plan to add the Virtual Console titles from Nintendo DS software to the future Virtual Console lineup for Wii U,” confirmed the boss. No titles or launch dates have been offered up so far. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t Nintendo also bring DS titles to 3DS and not the other way around. Anyway…
The Wii U is going to get a “Quick Start” menu this Summer. Iwata stated that the 20-30 second boot time for the Wii U impairs the system’s simplicity of use. To solve this – because system firmware updates have not in the past – another firmware update will patch in a new, faster start-up menu that will enable instant game access.
The new boot-up sequence, which is featured in a video on Nintendo’s site, will immediately display a simple menu of recently played icons on the GamePad screen. Tap the game you wish to play, then select your Mii, and the system bypasses the slow main menu and directly loads the game.
Nintendo wasn’t done yet. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Nintendo President cuts salary in wake of poor Wii U sales
Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, has already apologized to shareholders for the poor sales performance of the Wii U in 2013. But now the beleaguered executive is going one step further and slashing his salary to atone for Nintendo’s overly optimistic Wii U sales forecast.
Iwata will take a 50% reduction in his salary for the next six months. At that time, if Nintendo is still hurting financially, Iwata said he may continue to discount his salary through the Summer and beyond. Other members of Nintendo’s Board of Directors, including legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, will also reduce their salaries by 20 to 30 percent.
This isn’t the first time Iwata has cut his salary to save face in front of investors. In 2011, poor sales of the 3DS also forced Iwata to take a 50% pay cut.
[Source: AFP]
Here are three new screenshots from Mighty No. 9
Development on Keiji Inafune’s Mighty No. 9 is humming right along inside the walls of Comcept and Inti Creates. In fact, development is going so well that Inafune recently released a new trio of screenshots for the game’s Kickstarter backers. But with the Internet being the Internet, the images are now available to all. The game is still clearly in the early going, but be sure to check out the screenshots after the break and savor that sweet Mega Man-like flavor.
Mighty No. 9 will be available on nearly every platform imaginable (current-gen consoles, next-gen consoles, handhelds, and the PC) sometime in 2015. (more…)
Get a closer look at “Nightfall,” the first expansion to CoD: Ghosts’ Extinction Mode
A gun that shoots exploding alien blood. That should be all that’s required to get you to watch this trailer for “Nightfall,” the first expansion to Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ Extinction Mode that is packaged with the Onslaught Map Pack. Sure, there’s also a ton of stuff about a secret research facility in Alaska and aliens run amok, but seriously, it’s all about the alien blood gun.
Because that is just insane.
The Onslaught Map Pack (and “Nightfall”) will be available to download from the Xbox Live Store (for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One) on January 28. The DLC pack will be released for the PC, PS3, and PS4 (and hopefully the Wii U) at a later date.