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
Mutant Mudds Super Challenge Review: Dirty Deeds
When one hears the word “bully,” the archetypal image that usually comes to mind is that of a hulking brute. A dimwitted, slack-jawed, pit-stained-t-shirt-wearing oaf that couldn’t tell what a rhombus is, let alone be able to spell it. Not often do you hear of the nerdy kid with glasses being the jerk in the bunch. But I tell you this – I got my ass kicked by this bespectacled geek more times than I would by any bully. And these were brutal beatings, causing me great pain, uncompromising fury, and the occasional tear. Cruelly mocking me with every blow. Unrelenting. But you know what? I was totally cool with it. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Mutant Mudds Super Challenge
Nintendo has sold more than 3.5 million copies of Super Mario Maker
With the launch of the NX looming, it’s painfully obvious that the Wii U failed to hit the mark with the video game community. According to their most recent financial report, Nintendo has sold less than 13 million Wii U consoles, which is just a fraction of the install base owned by Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. But that hasn’t stopped the consolemaker from creating compelling software that speaks to Wii U owners everywhere.
Just yesterday, Nintendo revealed that more than 25% of all Wii U owners have purchased Super Mario Maker, which translates to more than 3.5 million copies sold worldwide. These Mario fanatics have also managed to produce more than 7.2 million courses, and it would take the average person quite a long time to play them all:
If you played every level in #SuperMarioMaker for 1 minute each, it would take you nearly 14 years to play them all! pic.twitter.com/vEzBMTLGg8
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 17, 2016
Super Mario Maker’s 3.5 million copies puts it just outside the Wii U’s Top 5 behind Mario Kart 8, New Super Mario Bros. U, Nintendo Land, Super Mario 3D World, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and Splatoon.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Super Mario Maker
Kickstart This! Lynn and the Spirits of Inao
UPDATE: The Kickstarter campaign for Lynn and the Spirits of Inao has been canceled after allegations that Bloomylight Studio illegally refused to pay a group of interns who helped develop the game. More information is available in this post on Reddit and in an update to the campaign.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Welcome back, potential crowdfunding donors, to the weekly Kickstart This! This week’s focus is on Lynn and the Spirits of Inao, a magical platformer courtesy of Bloomylight Studio. It had some stiff competition, namely from Pirates of the Polygon Sea by Praxia Entertainment, which is a fast-paced, cartoony version of the sailing sections in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. There’s also 80s arcade space shooter Dystoria, which piqued my interests with its retro style, but also looked like a retread of The Last Starfighter.
So let’s see why Lynn and the Spirits of Inao won me over… (more…)
Dark Souls III envelops your very being in darkness and despair… it was also the best-selling game of April 2016
I’m sure this is a surprise to no one, but people really love the Dark Souls franchise. And according to The NPD Group (as reported by GamesIndustry.biz), Dark Souls III was the best-selling retail game in April 2016.
The finale to From Software’s brutally difficult trilogy beat out some stiff competition in April including the Ratchet & Clank reboot (#2), Quantum Break (#7), and Star Fox Zero (#10). MLB The Show 16 also got a boost from the opening of this year’s baseball season (#3), but it wasn’t enough to unseat the Babe Ruth of gothic action RPGs.
But even with a handful of big new releases, the retail sector as a whole suffered a huge decline from the year before, when Mortal Kombat X obliterated all expectations. “In April 2016, overall trends (hardware, new physical software, and accessories) were down 15% (or $88.5 million) compared to April 2015 due to a $41.6 million decline in hardware and a $52.8 million decline in software, with the $5.9 million growth in accessories unable to offset these losses,” said The NPD Group’s Liam Callahan.
However, Callahan added, “Despite these declines, keep in mind that Xbox One and PS4 are trending over 40% higher in cumulative sales after 30 months in the market compared to their predecessors.”
A complete look at last month’s best-selling retail games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Dark Souls III, Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, MLB The Show 16, NBA 2K16, NPD, Quantum Break, Ratchet & Clank, Star Fox Zero, Tom Clancy's The Division
Nintendo Download: Super Meat Boy, Minecraft Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, Zelda Phantom Hourglass, more
The Nintendo eShop is about to get a meaty update as the brutally hard (and monumentally weird) platformer Super Meat Boy is now available to download for the Wii U.
Also available for the Wii U this week is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, a game that was originally released for the DS in 2007. Borrowing Wind Waker’s cel-shaded visual style, Phantom Hourglass also brought touchscreen puzzles to the Zelda franchise for the first time.
Minecraft: Wii U Edition is getting a “super” update later this week (on May 17), though more specifically, it’s the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack. The update will include new Character Skins for Mario and all his friends, a Super Mario-themed pre-made world, and a set of Super Mario-themed music and item textures.
Finally this week, the budding artist in all of us can pick up Disney Art Academy for the 3DS to learn how to draw all the characters from Frozen, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and dozens of other Disney characters.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Minecraft, Super Meat Boy
Disney shuts down all console development and cancels Disney Infinity franchise
Two months ago, the Disney Infinity franchise was put on hiatus by Disney Interactive. Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company announced the end of Disney Interactive with the cancellation of all console development and the closure of the entire division.
Speaking during the company’s quarterly financial report, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said, “During the quarter, we took a charge of $147 million in connection with the shutdown of our Infinity console games business. Going forward, our console games strategy will focus solely on licensing our great portfolio of content.”
This closure extends to developer Avalanche Software, and Disney Interactive General Manager John Blackburn thanked them for all their hard work on the publisher’s official website:
Our goal for Disney Infinity was to bring the best of Disney storytelling to life in homes around the world, and with your support we accomplished that. We hope you had as much fun playing the game as we had making it.
And as we turn to the next chapter in our story, I want to thank everyone who helped bring Disney Infinity to life, particularly Disney’s Glendale-based production and publishing teams, our external development partners, and of course the incredible Avalanche team for their tireless dedication to this project.
Avalanche will complete work on the remaining Disney Infinity content that is currently in development, including three figures from Alice: Through the Looking Glass (which will be available later this month) and a Finding Dory Play Set (coming in June).
With Disney’s console development future tied up in licensing deals, we should probably expect to hear about more third-party partnerships, like the one the company struck with EA to create Star Wars: Battlefront, soon.
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Disney Infinity, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, Disney Infinity: Star Wars
Minecraft: Wii U Edition is getting a free Super Mario Mash-Up Pack next week
Ever since Minecraft made its way to the Wii U as Minecraft: Wii U Edition, we’ve been waiting for the inevitable announcement of a Super Mario Mash-Up Pack. Well, we won’t have to wait much longer, as Nintendo and Mojang announced today that players will be able to pick up a Super Mario Mash-Up Pack through the Wii U eShop beginning next week.
Best of all, the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack is a free update:
After downloading the update, players who own the Minecraft: Wii U Edition digital game, which launched last December, will have immediate access to new skins (including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and even troublemakers like Bowser, Wario, and all seven Koopalings), a Super Mario-themed pre-made world and a set of Super Mario-themed music and item textures. All this new content is inspired by games in the iconic Super Mario series, such as Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine.
The Super Mario Mash-Up Pack will be available to download on May 17, and it’ll also be included on the disc of Minecraft: Wii U Edition’s retail release, which is currently scheduled for June 17.
And if you do nothing else today, be sure to watch the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack’s awesome Announcement Trailer, which is embedded above.
Splatoon will hold a big party for its first truly global Splatfest
Throughout the year, Nintendo has been trying to bring the global Splatoon community closer together with Splatfests that involve all three regions.
Back in February, a Pokemon-themed contest gave players in North America, Europe, and Japan the same choice for the first time… though matches were restricted to players within the same region. But last month, European and North American players were finally able to directly compete against each other in a Splatfest celebrating SpongeBob SquarePants.
Today, Nintendo announced that the upcoming Splatfest will invite players from all three regions to be matched against each other for the first time. And what will they be fighting over? Miitomo, of course.
Taking a cue from the communication app, this Splatfest will ask players to choose between a “Fancy Party” or a “Costume Party.” It’s not The Beatles versus The Rolling Stones, but it’s a start. The Splatfest Kiosk is now available in Inkopolis Plaza to make your choice, and the contest will begin on Friday, May 13 at 11:00 PM (Eastern Time). Players will be able to battle it out all day Saturday before a winner is crowned on Sunday, May 15, at 6:00 AM.
Good luck and don’t get inked!