Double Fine Productions brings Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster to life on Kinect

This sounds like a match made in heaven. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced today that Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions will be bringing Elmo, Cookie Monster, and your favorite childhood characters to Xbox 360 Kinect with Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. Children and Parents join Sesame Street characters as they enter the world of the story book, Once Upon a Monster, making new friends along the way and learning life lessons to solve problems in the game.

Tim Schafer said, “Sesame Street had a profound effect on me, and many members of the Double Fine team, when we were children. So did video games. Now many of us are parents and we want to share with our kids the great experiences we had, but also the completely new ones made possible by cutting-edge technology like Kinect for Xbox 360. So it’s a labor of love on many levels.”

I’ll admit it – I seriously envy the kids who get to interact with such awesome concepts in new and innovative ways. Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is set for a Fall 2011 release date, and hopefully a tear jerking presentation at E3.

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Felicia Day to star in Dragon Age webisodes

It seems like releasing webisodes to promote a new game is the cool marketing trend as of late, and all of us at Warp Zoned are extremely excited for the Mortal Kombat series accompanying the game. BioWare is the next developer jumping on the opportunity, as a six-episode series for Dragon Age II, titled Dragon Age: Redemption is already in post-production and will be hitting the net this year. The project is under the creative direction of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and The Guild star, Felicia Day. Day, a self-proclaimed “organic gamer” (?) wrote the story for the heroine she portrays, Tallis (the same name as the production company), and chronicles this Elven assassin’s quest to capture a renegade magician. Directing is Independence Day associate producer Peter Winther and cinematography is being handled by John Bartley, who also worked on “Lost.” Day commented, “They are going to take this a step above what we have seen on the Web before,” so hopefully this won’t look like recorded footage of Day and crew awkwardly LARPing.

“Tallis is headstrong, she fights dirty, and she has a really sarcastic sense of humor… I wanted to bring a modern sensibility to a fantasy character in a fantasy world.” Expect Tallis to be like every hipster chick you know who’s constantly seeking male approval.

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Noob Saibot teleports into Mortal Kombat

John Tobias may have left NetherRealm Studios more than a decade ago (when it was still known as Midway), but his namesake ninja still lives on. Although Noob Saibot is an undead ninja, so I guess it’s not really that surprising.

After being bypassed in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Noob will make his PS3/Xbox 360 debut in the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, which will be released April 19th alongside a whole mess of other Mortal Kombat media. You can check out a Noob Saibot-centric trailer, where he performs a bone-crushing finisher on Jade (and smacks around the previously unseen Sindel), right here:

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The Amazing Spider-Man: Let the Tie-In Game Speculation Begin!

After months of speculation, Sony Pictures has finally revealed that the new Spider-Man movie will be known as The Amazing Spider-Man. While Spider-Man game publisher Activision didn’t weigh on this momentous news, a game adaptation is surely in development. But what might it entail?

First of all, it’s important to note that Activision already has a new Spider-Man game on tap for a Fall 2011 release. Developed by Beenox, the currently untitled Spider-Man 2011 is shrouded in mystery. The most likely basis for the game is the upcoming “Ultimate Spider-Man” animated series, which will also debut this Fall. Besides, it’s doubtful that Sony would give Activision the go-ahead to release a movie tie-in game so far ahead of the film’s July 3, 2012 opening. So let’s assume the two games are separate.

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THQ combines forces with WEP to create Voltron game

Remember when THQ signed a deal with Mattel to produce games based on the company’s toys? Combining the forces of the game publisher, Mattel and World Events Production, the first toy line to get a THQ-developed video game makeover will be Voltron. Or rather, the upcoming Voltron reboot known as Voltron Force.

The game adaptation of Voltron Force will be released this Fall, after the new animated series debuts on Nicktoons. Who’s developing it or even what platforms it’ll appear on is still a mystery. However, WEP did say that “THQ’s games will build on the epic adventure that blazed onto television screens in 1984 as Voltron: Defender of the Universe.”

So I guess that means there will be five robotic lions piloted by five astronauts that combine to form the awesome Voltron. And really, what else does a Voltron game need?

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A Eulogy For Guitar Hero: The Day the (Plastic) Music Died

A wise man once said that it’s far better to burn out than fade away. Apparently Activision agreed with the sentiment, as after a bit more than five years of rapid-fire releases, the company has shuttered the Guitar Hero franchise. Just 40 months ago the music gaming business was at its absolute peak – Guitar Hero III sold roughly 2.45 bazillion copies across a half-dozen platforms – but now the series is in complete shambles, what with the latest installment releasing with the authority of a farting ant. This legendary tumble from grace is no doubt why the company canceled the forthcoming Guitar Hero 7 and put the entire series on hold, perhaps permanently. Rather than harp on all that went wrong and led to its untimely demise, let’s discuss what went right – and what the future may hold if Activision dares to bring the music back.

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PlayStation 2: 150 million served

With all the fanboy fighting over the “console war” of the current generation of systems, it’s easy to forget how utterly dominant the PlayStation 2 was from 2000-2006. And Sony’s second console is still racking up sales at an astonishing rate.

According to sales figures released today by Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony has sold 150 million PS2 systems to retailers as of January 31, 2011. Even more astonishingly, the console has survived for over almost 11 years, it made its Japanese debut in March of 2000.

A few other amazing numbers of note include the 10,828 PS2 games released across the world (which is comprised of over 2,000 unique titles) and the 1.52 billion copies (yes, billion with a B) those games have sold.

Say what you will about the relative success of the PSP and PS3, but the PS2 will go down in history as one of the greatest consoles of all time.

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First look at Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters

The Green Lantern movie, starring Ryan Reynolds, will be coming to a theater near you this June. But did you also know that WB Games has a game adaptation, titled Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, in the works? Well, they do, and you can check out the game’s debut teaser trailer above.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is being developed by Double Helix Games and will be available on the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 sometime this Summer. A DS version is also in the works at Griptonite Games.

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