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May 2015 isn’t exactly teeming with new releases, but the Warp Zoned staff is all turning towards an unlikely source for this month’s most-anticipated new game… their Wii U consoles. That’s because Nintendo will launch Splatoon, their ridiculously flashy team-based shooter, before the calendar turns over to June. But don’t worry, if you’re not interested in Nintendo’s inky experiment, there are a few other games to tide us over until the Summer.
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Well that was unexpected.
Proving that the public’s hunger for a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie is currently going unfulfilled, the Kickstarter campaign for Playtonic Games’ Yooka-Laylee has already reached its funding goal… less than 40 minutes after it began. The development team, which is comprised of several former Rare employees, was seeking £175,000 ($270,041) to produce the game. Instead, they’ve blown past that mark and are well on their way to the first stretch goals. As of this writing, the game’s backers have already pledged £250,578 ($386,665).
With their goal reached, Playtonic Games has vowed to release Yooka-Laylee for the PC by October 2016. Console versions (including the PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U) will be released sometime later, but if the campaign reaches £1,000,000 ($1,511,565), Playtonic will release the game on all four platforms simultaneously.
More details about the game’s world, characters, music, and platforming mechanics can be found at the Kickstarter page. But odds are you’ve already looked at it and already emptied your wallet in Playtonic’s general direction.
Galaga: Tekken 20th Anniversary Edition is now available to download from the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play store. As you might expect from the title, the free-to-play game takes Tekken characters and drops them into the space-based shooting of the Galaga franchise.
This Tekken twist on Galaga includes the ability to “Tag” in other Tekken characters to perform a double-powered attack and assist attacks that call on classic characters from Namco’s archives (including Pac-Man, Splatterhouse, Rally-X, Mappy, and others).
“Tekken is one of our longest running franchises and has enjoyed a strong fan following for two decades,” said Katsuhiro Harada, the Game Director and Chief Producer of the Tekken series. “With Galaga: Tekken 20TH Anniversary Edition, we wanted to give our fans something unexpected to celebrate such a huge milestone for Tekken. The crossover gameplay is sure to surprise and delight both Tekken and Galaga fans.”
Bandai Namco actually teased Galaga: Tekken 20th Anniversary Edition last month, but many brushed off the announcement trailer as an April Fool’s prank.
Sony has announced that Naughty Dog’s Ellie-centric expansion for The Last of Us will be released as a standalone PlayStation Store download in May. For $9.99, players will be able to download The Last of Us: Left Behind for either the PS3 or PS4 on May 12.
The downloadable add-on, which is currently priced at $14.99, will get a permanent price cut on May 12 to match the price of the standalone game.
In case The Last of Us has completely passed you by, you can catch up with Left Behind’s opening cinematic right here.
Ever since Disney Interactive added Lightsabers to Disney Infinity, fans have been waiting for the first full expansion that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. Today, a product listing on Saturn, a German retailer, seems to confirm we’ll actually get to play it this year.
According to Saturn, Disney Infinity 3.0: Star Wars will be released for the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on August 20. An image of the box shows that Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, will be the two pack-in figures. Other characters depicted on the packaging include Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2.
It’s unlikely this product listing will stay active for very long, but Disney Interactive will probably make an announcement officially confirming the existence of Disney Infinity: Star Wars in the lead-up to this year’s E3 Expo.
Deep Silver originally planned to unleash Dead Island 2 on the world in Spring 2015. But with the end of Spring rapidly approaching, that seemed less and less likely by the day. And today, the publisher made it official, announcing on Twitter that the game has been delayed into 2016.
Elaborating on their decision in a TwitLonger post, Deep Silver said: “We have been looking at the game long and hard, and we have decided we didn’t reach that goal we set out to achieve quite yet. This is why we have decided to delay Dead Island 2 to 2016. Right now we are focusing purely on development, and we will have more info to share at a later stage.”
Deep Silver also said they’ll share more about Dead Island 2, which is in development with Yager for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, at “a later stage.”
I’m a real sucker for horror games. Ever since I played Shadowgate for the NES, scary and macabre games really struck a chord with me. One of the things I love most about horror games is that there is so much variety. I can paint a wall with zombie brains in one game, outrun a silent killer in the woods in another, and avoid an unstoppable space creature in a third. In the case of the recently-released downloadable title White Night, I found myself in one of my favorite horror settings: the haunted house. Nothing spooks me more than being stalked by an unseen entity. Add in a dark, decrepit mansion and an ever-dwindling supply of light, and you’ve got all the makings of a real fright fest. But where White Night shines in style, the substance makes you feel a bit like you’ve been left in the dark.
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