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
Insert Quarter: Video Game Titles Have Gotten Ridiculous
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Video game titles have gotten ridiculous. I think I really noticed it earlier this year when Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix decided use Rise of the Tomb Raider as the title of the next game in the series. I’d gotten my fill of the word “rise” (and its variants) after being subjected to The Dark Knight Rises, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Hannibal Rising, and many others at the movie theater. Especially because very few of the people or groups who are supposed to rise in those movies actually do!
Destructoid’s Steven Hansen shares my pain and has put together his own list of words that need to be stricken from game titles. Unsurprisingly, it all loops back to Call of Duty:
Lords of the Fallen and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare just came out and they should be laughed out the damn building for their horrible, generic videogames names.
I originally typed “Armored Warfare” and was confused when Google failed to bring up results for our “Call of Duty: Armored Warfare” review. Then I realized it was “Advanced Warfare” after remembering I kept getting it confused with Advance Wars originally.
DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?
You can read the rest of the article at Destructoid.
New Releases: Super Smash Bros Wii U, Far Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto V PS4/Xbox One, More
After years of revealing screenshots and teasing trailers (including one 35-minute “Extravganza“), Nintendo is finally ready to release Super Smash Bros. For Wii U this week. It’s a big week for Nintendo in general as the publisher will also release Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon: Omega Ruby for the 3DS along with their first wave of Amiibo figures.
What can the rest of the publishing world do to compete? A lot, actually. Rockstar will bring Grand Theft Auto V to the PS4 and Xbox One for the first time while Ubisoft will release the Himalayan-set Far Cry 4 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One) too. Those are both massive open-world games… though only one lets you ride an elephant. Also available this week is BioWare’s latest RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One); Sony’s latest LittleBigPlanet game, LittleBigPlanet 3 (PS3, PS4); and Deep Silver’s Dead Island spinoff, Escape Dead Island (PC, PS3, Xbox 360).
And if you’re looking to pick up some previously released major releases on new platforms, now’s your chance. WWE 2K15 makes the jump to the PS4 and Xbox One, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor downgrades to the PS3 and Xbox 360, and Watch Dogs finally makes its way to the Wii U.
And you can find even more new releases after the break. (more…)
NBA 2K15 smashes to the top of Oct 2014 best-seller list (yes, even over Smash Bros 3DS)
Even though the month of October saw the release of a new Borderlands game and the first Smash Bros. title for a handheld, NBA 2K15 emerged victorious in The NPD Group’s recounting of the best-selling games of October 2014.
The basketball sim managed to hold off a pair of new releases as well as the continued sales success of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS (which landed at #2). A trio of new releases, The Evil Within (#3), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (#4), Skylanders: Trap Team (#6), were close behind.
And believe it or not, but Minecraft continues to hold a spot in the top ten as the retail release of the PlayStation 4 Edition propelled it into #10 on the list. Sunset Overdrive, Microsoft’s big Xbox One exclusive for the Fall, did not make the top ten though Joystiq is reporting that it was the ninth best-selling game among individual titles.
This month’s top ten can be found in a handy list format after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Destiny, FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Minecraft, NBA 2K15, NPD, Skylanders: Trap Team, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, The Evil Within
Creepy Mario meets Peach and Luigi in new commercials for the Mercedes GLA in Japan
Remember the creepy live-action Mario Kart 8 commercial promoting the Mercedes-Benz GLA downloadable content? Well… Mercedes-Benz Japan is back with two new entries in the series and they’re just as crazy as the first one.
In these new spots, live-action Luigi emerges victorious against Mario and decides to do some kind of not-quite robot dance in celebration. Meanwhile, Peach stares down the plumber and then does a dainty hop-step to avoid a green shell. That stare… she’ll stare into your soul.
You can check out the Luigi commercial above while the Peach advertisement is available after the break. Don’t say you weren’t warned. (more…)
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Valve, others teaming up for The Game Awards 2014
Geoff Keighley is leaving the familiar confines of the Spike TV-sponsored VGX Awards to launch a brand new game industry event: The Game Awards. The VGX Awards polled a wide range of game journalists to select the best games of the year, but The Game Awards will take a different tack. Their advisory board will instead be made up of some of the industry’s biggest executives and developers:
- Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo of America)
- Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft)
- Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions)
- Shawn Layden (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Peter Moore (Electronic Arts)
- Phil Spencer (Microsoft)
- Martin Tremblay (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- An unnamed representative from Rockstar Games
- An unnamed representative from Valve
The nominations for this year’s Game Awards haven’t been announced yet, but we do know that the ceremony will take place on December 5 at the AXIS Theater in Las Vegas. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow and those of us that aren’t planning to attend the live show will be able to watch an online stream of the events through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo Network, Steam, and “many other sites and platforms.”
And you’ll probably want to pay close attention as, just like the VGX Awards, the show will feature a series of trailers promoting a variety of upcoming games. Musical performances and appearances by “game developers, eSports players and online content creators” will round out the 2014 Game Awards agenda.
Spike TV has yet to announce whether the VGX Awards will be held this year.
Shigeru Miyamoto confirms that Pikmin 4 is in development
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Pikmin 4 is in development during a recent shareholders Q&A session. In answering a question about development costs, the famed developer began to discuss the recently released Pikmin short films he created as well as the demo version and downloadable content for Pikmin 3. Miyamoto said that all of this bonus content is meant to be a way to prepare consumers for a planned Pikmin 4:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called Pikmin Short Movies on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. […] At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of Pikmin 3 so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of Pikmin in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U.
Because of the Wii-to-Wii U transition, Pikmin 3 took five years to go from announcement to release. Hopefully, launching Pikmin 4 on the Wii U means that the fourth entry in the franchise won’t spend so long in development.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse will be released in February 2015
Can’t get enough Kirby? You won’t have to wait long before you get a play to play the next game in the series. Nintendo has confirmed that Kirby and the Rainbow Curse will be released in February 2015 and that it’ll feature a four-player multiplayer mode:
The newest game in the charming Kirby series finds the lovable pink puffball journeying through a world made of clay. Players guide Kirby along a rainbow line drawn on the Wii U GamePad controller’s touch screen. A new four-player multiplayer mode lets one player play as Kirby and focus on drawing rainbow lines on the GamePad, while the others control a trio of Waddle Dee characters that can collect items or carry Kirby around.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is exclusively in development for the Wii U at HAL Labratory.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Explore the worlds of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in this new trailer
Are you ready for your dose of Sunday cuteness? I hope so, because Nintendo has released a new trailer for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Featuring the “Mini-Universes” of the game, this trailer ping pongs through 70 different levels from the game and each one offers plenty of sights to behold. Keep your eyes peeled for #56, it appears to be based on the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be released exclusively for the Wii U on December 5.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker