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
Nintendo: “People are going to be pleasantly surprised” at Wii U launch price
Reggie Fils-Aime, the President of Nintendo of America, sat down with IGN during this year’s E3 Expo to talk about where the company plans to go in 2012. One of the major themes of this talk was the Wii U launch price. While Fils-Aime wouldn’t commit to a specific dollar amount, he does believe that gamers will be “pleasantly surprised” when they hear the final number:
Nintendo believes in being a mass market product. So unlike our competitors, when they’ve launched historical systems, to maybe start at a really high price and work their way down. We don’t believe in that. We want to launch at a price that’s going to represent an ongoing, great value.
You look at the Wii, we stayed at $250 for a really long time. So we’re going to give that same thought to the Wii U. How do we launch at a value that we’re going to be able to sustain for a long time? And I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised, if you will, at how we’re managing the value equation.
So it’s going to be low, but not too low. Gotcha.
The Avengers: Battle For Earth trailer hulks its way online
With the 2012 E3 Expo over, the arguments over which of the Big Three “won” E3 have just begun. But no one can deny that from all the developers, it was Ubisoft who stole the show with the likes of Assassin’s Creed III and the surprising ZombiU for Nintendo’s new console. However, the company also showed a trailer for its upcoming Marvel Comics title, The Avengers: Battle For Earth.
The ambitious title is a beat ‘em up utilizing motion controls, and is being designed to be played with either the Wii U or the Xbox 360’s Kinect sensor. There will be initially be twenty playable characters, which will not be limited to those who appear in the film, as the game is instead based on Marvel’s 2008 comic book event Secret Invasion, which saw the shape-shifting Skrulls infiltrating superhero teams from the entire Marvel universe. While Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of that story arc, is not involved, the great and often hilarious Peter David, writer of the Multiple-Man led “X-Factor” comic, is working with Ubisoft on the storyline.
Since it is not attached to the movie, fan favourites such as Spider-Man and Wolverine will be involved in the action. My fingers are crossed that Wade Wilson, the Merc with a Mouth known as Deadpool, will make a wise-cracking appearance. While the full roster has still to be revealed, the E3 demo showed off the ability to tag up to two other players in, allowing the initial character to regenerate some health.
It is not known how the Wii U version will differ from the Xbox 360 game, or how it will utilize the new Wii U GamePad, but it’ll be available this Fall.
Posted in News, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2012, The Avengers: Battle For Earth
Scribblenauts Unlimited coming to 3DS, PC, Wii U
Warner Bros. and 5th Cell are expanding Maxwell’s horizons yet again, bringing him to the 3DS, PC, and Wii U with Scribblenauts Unlimited this holiday season. We’ll finally be learning more about Maxwell’s background as well – not only do we get to find out how he got his magical notepad, but we’ll also get the skinny on his parents and twin sister, Lily.
The PC and Wii U versions will also include an Object Editor, allowing players to make and share creations online. All objects – shared and summoned in the game – can be stored in your “magic backpack.” Jeremiah Slaczka, C.E.O. and Creative Director of 5th Cell, said, “With new gameplay modes and features, Scribblenauts Unlimited sets no limits on how players can use their imagination. The game breaks the franchise’s previously set boundaries and allows for unlimited creativity.”
This sounds promising. Even though I never finished the first one, I’m ready to put my Maxwell hat back on and jump into another creative adventure with him.
Injustice ditches block button, adds Clash System
I think NetherRealm’s Injustice: Gods Among Us announcement was met with a worldwide chorus of, “It looks like Mortal Kombat with DC characters.” But there’s apparently more going on here under the hood.
For one thing, the game has jettisoned the block button, which was a staple of the Mortal Kombat series. Instead, Injustice will use Street Fighter-style blocking (pressing Back on the control pad).
Injustice will also use something called the Clash System, a chatty combo breaker system that attempts to emulate the verbal tet-a-tet often found in comic book fights.
“Once you go into this Clash thing, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, the characters will interact with each other. Batman will say specific stuff to Superman and vice-versa, different things than he would say to one of the other characters,” Lead Designer John Edwards said.
After they exchange a little smack talk, both characters will enter a “betting” phase, where they wager all or part of their super meter. The bets are kept secret (Edwards didn’t say how), and the higher bet wins the Clash.
“So if the defender wins the Clash, then he gets back all the health from that combo that he would have lost,” Edwards said. “If the attacker wins, [the defender] takes that damage plus a little bit more.”
It sounds a bit confusing, but hopefully it’ll all make sense when we see it in action ahead of Injustice’s 2013 release on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.
[Source: Joystiq]
Lego City: Undercover trailer makes it look like GTA for kids
When I was watching the Lego City: Undercover trailer yesterday during Nintendo’s E3 2012 Press Conference, it felt very familiar to me. Obviously, the formula that developer TT Games refined with Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, and Lego Harry Potter was self-evident. But there was something else…
Today it hit me. Lego City: Undercover is basically “Grand Theft Auto: Legoland” and that is quick possibly the coolest realization ever. Watch the trailer above and judge for yourself.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged E3 2012, Lego City Undercover
Danica Patrick joins Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed; Wii U version announced
Horny teens and auto nuts everywhere can now celebrate the announcement that NASCAR racing hottie Danica Patrick will be a playable character in Sega’s Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed. To promote the game, the driver and model will be racing a “No. 7 Sonic the Hedgehog Chevrolet” in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on November 3 at the Texas Motor Speedway. Danica herself was bursting with enthusiasm when asked about her being turned into a video game character:
“It’s a very exciting experience since I’ll be sharing the screen with such an iconic character. I cannot wait for gamers to jump into my customized, transformable vehicles and give Sonic a run for his rings this holiday season!”
The sequel to Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing will see the players take to the land, sea and air, similar to the N64’s underappreciated Diddy Kong Racing. Here, however, the vehicles will transform during the race in a triathlon fashion.
Sonic, Danica and the other All Stars will be appearing on the Xbox 360, PS3, 3DS, PS Vita, and PC this winter. The sequel will also race onto the Wii U this winter as well.
Nintendo working on Wii-to-Wii U file transfer system
While in the past, game saves and downloadable content would be lost at the end of a console cycle, Nintendo has revealed that won’t be the case with the Wii U at this year’s Developer Roundtable.
According to Katsuya Eguchi, hardware producer of the Wii U, the company is currently readying a system to transfer game saves, WiiWare and Virtual Console purchases from the Wii to the new Wii U. Considering the fact that file transfers aren’t currently possible from Wii-to-Wii, this is pretty impressive.
It is not known how the file transfer system will be implemented, although there is speculation it will involve the recently rumored cloud storage app for the upcoming console.
[Source: Joystiq]
Nintendo says Wii U version of Aliens: Colonial Marines will ship on February 12
UPDATE: A Sega spokesperson told us “We’re still nailing down the Wii U release date.” So I guess February 12 is only the official date for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions as of now.
When Sega set the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions of Aliens: Colonial Marines for release on February 12, 2013, they said that the Wii U launch date would be announced “at a later time.”
That later time appears to be today as Nintendo has gone ahead and revealed, courtesy of their E3 2012 Hub, that the Wii U version of the game will also launch on February 12, 2013.
Of course, it’s not real until Sega says so. So we’ve contacted the publisher for confirmation on the February 12 release date.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Aliens: Colonial Marines, E3 2012