Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- “Animal Crossing” and Undertale” Lead the Way for New Book Series About Games at University of Chicago Press
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)
All Articles: Switch
Tetris 99 Review – Nintendo Transforms the King of Puzzle Games Into Battle Royale-ity
How do you talk about video games in 2019 without mentioning the “Battle Royale” genre? While players have been fighting to be the last one standing since the early 90s, it’s obvious that games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite have transformed how people play multiplayer games.
But it was only a matter of time until Nintendo entered the fray and shook up the “Battle Royale” genre with their own take. The consolemaker has never been quick to react to gaming’s biggest trends, but their unique style has been moving the conversation around games in wildly divergent directions for decades. They zig where others zag, and we’re all better off for it.
Which brings us to Tetris 99, a 99-player variant of the popular puzzle game that’s now available to download through the Nintendo eShop. (more…)
Yacht Club delays Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown
Yacht Club Games originally planned to close the book on the Shovel Knight saga on April 9 with the release of Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown. But plans change, and late last night the developer confirmed (via their official website) that both titles would be delayed by “several months… at most!”
Naturally, this delay will also apply to the upcoming retail release of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (a compilation containing all five Shovel Knight games), as well as the Amiibo 3-Pack featuring Specter Knight, Plague Knight, and King Knight.
This is not a major delay so much as more space to bring everything together for a polished and complete finale. As always, these last steps require coordination with many teams beyond our own.
We realize the delay is disappointing. To communicate better with everyone moving forward, we will not be announcing a new date until we know one for sure, from all partners involved. All builds shipped out, updates ready to launch, for everybody and everyone. We will announce it for good once it is 100% all across the board!
The final two games in the Shovel Knight saga are currently in development for the PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, but other platforms will also get in on the fun. King of Cards will be available as a free expansion on the 3DS, PS3, Vita, and Wii U for owners of the original Shovel Knight, while Showdown will receive a similar release on the PS3 and Wii U.
Posted in News
Tagged 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight Showdown, Shovel Knight: King of Cards, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
New Retail Releases: Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Yo-Kai Watch 3, God Eater 3, More
The 3DS will be briefly back in the spotlight this week as a pair of new retail releases will launch for Nintendo’s handheld.
Atlus will release Etrian Odyssey Nexus, an RPG that includes ” ore classes, characters, gameplay systems, and labyrinths than any other game in the series.” The game is so jammed full of content that the publishing is calling it “The Definitive Etrian Odyssey Experience.”
Also set to launch for the 3DS this week is Level-5’s Yo-Kai Watch 3. The third game in the series will feature a series of cases for a pair of “Yo-Kai Detectives” to solve. Players will also meet the first “American Yo-Kai” in a land known as BBQ.
Finally this week, Bandai Namco will release God Eater 3 for the PS4, the first game in the popular monster-hunting franchise designed exclusively for current-generation consoles.
A complete look at the rest of this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)
13 Nintendo-published games for the Switch have sold more than 1 million copies
Nintendo-branded products have always taken up a hefty portion of Santa’s sack, and 2018 was no different as Switch sales were huge during the holiday season.
Nintendo sold 15.05 million Switch consoles during the last quarter of 2018, bringing the platform’s total install base to 32.27 million. Consumers also spent the last three months stocking up on software, purchasing 63.51 million games from October through December.
Two games stood out last quarter on the sales charts, as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 12.08 million copies and the combined might of Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! sold 10 million copies. All told, 13 Nintendo-published Switch games have joined the vaunted “Million-Seller” club during this fiscal year (April 2018 – December 2018):
| Title | Apr 18 – Dec 18 Sales | Total Sales |
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | 12.08 Million | 12.08 Million |
| Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee! Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu! |
10 Million | 10 Million |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | 5.8 Million | 15.02 Million |
| Super Mario Party | 5.3 Million | 5.3 Million |
| Super Mario Odyssey | 3.35 Million | 13.76 Million |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | 3.21 Million | 11.68 Million |
| Mario Tennis Aces | 2.53 Million | 2.53 Million |
| Splatoon 2 | 2.25 Million | 8.27 Million |
| Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze | 2.08 Million | 2.08 Million |
| Kirby Star Allies | 1.16 Million | 2.42 Million |
| Octopath Traveler (US + Europe Only) |
1.08 Million | 1.08 Million |
| Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit | 1.06 Million | 1.06 Million |
| Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker | 1.05 Million | 1.05 Million |
Even Nintendo’s dedicated handheld was still kicking along in 2018 (albeit slower than before). 3DS owners scooped up 1.07 million copies of Mario Kart 7 during the April through December period, bringing its total to 18.11 million copies sold.
Nintendo’s current fiscal year will end on March 31, and the consolemaker will announce their full-year sales figures sometime in April or May.
Posted in News
Tagged 3DS, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Kirby Star Allies, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, Mario Tennis Aces, Nintendo Labo: Variety Kit, Octopath Traveler, Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee, Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Party, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Fitness Boxing, Catastronauts, KoF 2002, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
It’s January 3, have you already broken your New Year’s Resolutions? If not, Nintendo has a perfect new game for the Switch for you in this week’s Nintendo eShop update.
Like Wii Fit, Fitness Boxing is a game that wants to get you active. Players will be able to workout with a variety of routines in Fitness Boxing, all of which feature “boxing-based rhythmic exercises set to the instrumental beats of songs by popular artists.”
Also available to download for the Switch this week is Catastronauts, a fast-paced party game that asks players to “repair systems, extinguish fires, arm the torpedoes, avoid deadly solar flares, destroy your friends, and clone them back again.”
Finally this week, Hamster Corporation will bring The King of Fighters 2002, a classic from SNK’s NeoGeo days, to the Switch eShop
You can read more about these three games, and the rest of the new releases now available to download through the Nintendo eShop, after the break. (more…)
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
Excelsior!
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
Bot Gaiden Is A Side-Scrolling Platformer With Style: An Interview With Doug Pohl of SwordSwipe Studios
MetroidVanias rose to fame in the 80s and 90s thanks to the popularity of the Metroid and Castlevania franchises, but the genre went dormant in the 2000s as developers pushed pixels aside for polygons and aspired to create sprawling 3D worlds. After being rediscovered and remixed by the indie community, the MetroidVania is finally having its moment here in 2018.
But what if you’re looking for something else from a side-scroller? What if you want the fast action and self-contained levels that characterized the Ninja Gaiden and Contra franchises? Enter SwordSwipe Studios, and their upcoming game, Bot Gaiden.
The gameplay style and artistic inspirations for Bot Gaiden came to us straight from the 80s, but unlike most side-scrollers now on the market, SwordSwipe’s platformer doesn’t look like it came from the 80s. We sat down with Doug Pohl, one of the developer’s co-founders, to find out exactly how he’s bringing back the fast action and precision platforming of those classics in a new package. (more…)
20XX Review – Batterystaple Games Has Perfected the Ability to Generate a Great Mega Man Game
Back in 2015, we all got to relive the instantly recognizable beats of the first six games in the Mega Man series thanks to the Mega Man Legacy Collection. It was surprisingly easy to slip back into the familiar patterns of the franchise, but at the time I wondered if we’d ever get the chance to apply that muscle memory to something new. So while we continue to wait for this Fall’s Mega Man 11, the newly-released 20XX is here to fill the gap… and to prove that games inspired by the Blue Bomber can feed your nostalgia needs just as well. (more…)