Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent
Mario Kart 8: Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack Review: More Tracks! More Characters! More Speed!
Nintendo has released Mario Kart 8’s second downloadable expansion during an interesting time for add-on content. Other publishers have been very welcoming to the new revenue stream, some perhaps overly so, but Nintendo has mostly shied away from creating additional content for their games. However, with Mario Kart 8 and the upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles X, the company seems to have found the perfect balance between releasing extra content that generates more revenue while offering value for money. The Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack is priced at $7.99, just like the earlier Zelda-themed expansion. However, players can pick up both packs for $11.99, which would add four additional Cups to the game, each with a mix of old favourites and new challenges. Players who buy both packs will receive 16 new tracks on top of the original 32, which is 50% more game for only a fifth of the price.
Not only that, they released it a month earlier than expected!
But this second DLC add-on brings something special with it, a free update that adds a 200cc Class to the game, which is a faster gameplay mode than the Mario Kart franchise has ever included previously. The new speed setting is a game changer, and the best part is that it is free to everyone, not just those who bought one or both DLC packs. But is this new, challenging speed setting perhaps a step too far in this fun-filled game? (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Kickstart This! The Silent Roads, Dimension Drive, Wildfire
So it finally happened. Almost three years after discovering the weird and wonderful world of crowdfunding, and having backed several projects along the way, I have finally joined our Senior Editor Nicole Kline in going from backer to Kickstarter campaigner. I am trying to raise £15,000 to produce a series of three short films dubbed The Illuminant Midnight Project. It’s no easy task, and I am taking in all the lessons I have learned from the campaigns I have covered for Warp Zoned over the years. With a bit of luck, I just might make it.
With that ghastly piece of self-promotion firmly behind us, let us cast our eyes over three video game projects vying for your contributions. Up first we have post-apocalyptic adventure The Silent Roads, followed by space shooter Dimension Drive. Last, but not least, we have Wildfire, a stealth game where everything burns. (more…)
Kickstart This! 10 Pointers To Get More Gold For Your Game
Nearly two years ago, I augmented my regular Kickstart This! column with a guide for prospective campaign creators called “How To Get More Coin For Your Game.” Since then, there has been an explosion in games funded via crowdfunding platforms. There have been highs and lows, ups and downs, and despite a recent decline in donations, it is apparent that crowdfunding is here to stay as an alternative way of independent financing.
Yet whenever I browse those vying for my coins, gold rings, or rupees, I am often disheartened by how many of these projects appear to have been cobbled together in a Katamari-like rush, with strips of duct tape covering over the cracks. Finding projects I feel passionately enough about to fund has gone from an exciting trek of discovery to an aimless slog through a myriad of garbage bags and run-down half-way houses. Wander too far and you will get lost among people trying to fund their own lifestyles rather than a game project to be enjoyed by the masses.
Kickstarter, by the nature of its funding model, manages to dissuade those attempting to fund the purchase of a new PS4 or an upgrade to their YouTube Channel, which are found on other platforms such as Indiegogo. Both of these examples were lazily set up, with the Indiegogo placeholder descriptions left in place rather than writing their own. The world is saturated with gaming channels on YouTube and Twitch, bedroom podcasts, and one-man gaming blogs, so if you do need money to fund these endeavours, it is going to be a hard sell, even more so if you are asking for someone to simply buy you a PC, turning a crowdfunding platform into a crowded begging centre.
Yet, at their core, all of these people want to celebrate games, and the more games that are funded through crowdfunding, the more independent voices there are to counter the stale sequelitis being spewed by EA, Ubisoft, Activision and their ilk, the better.
So, armed with a stern brow and steadfast determination, I have revisited my original guide to bash it into a slightly different shape, remoulding it with some blunt advice for anyone looking to run a successful campaign. Follow this, and your project will stand a better chance of reaching its funding goal. (more…)
Kickstart This! Ira, Izle, Upside-Down Dimensions
Apologies for the absence of Kickstart This! on Warp Zoned in March, but my sister decided to get married and then invite a few of us to join them in New York for the first leg of their honeymoon (not as weird as it sounds). While seeing the many sights the Big Apple had to offer, and munching my way through the trifecta of pizza, pretzel, and hot dog, I managed to pop into Nintendo World at Rockefeller Plaza. It was great to meet and play with some American gamers, though my girlfriend dragged me out before I was able to buy some of the amazing tees on sale. It re-invigorated my love for video games, which everyone needs once in a while. Sometimes we all go through slumps where our enthusiasm wanes, and for much of March I was stuck in one.
But I have crossed back over the Atlantic buzzing to play some great games, and help fund some beautiful and unique ones on Kickstarter. This week, I’m travelling into space with Ira, creating new lands in Izle, and becoming a papercraft samurai in Upside-Down Dimensions. (more…)
10 Actresses We Think Could Play Zelda in The Legend of Zelda TV Series
The three corners of the Triforce are now complete as we’ve come to end of our Casting Ideas for Netflix’s rumored adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. This time we shine a spotlight on the titular character, Princess Zelda, after previously posting our picks for Link and Ganondorf. Zelda has had an interesting development arc during the saga, from being the damsel in distress to becoming a woman of action, notably through her alter ego Sheik, one of the legendary Shiekah (“Shadow Folk”).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to begin. (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, Features, Top Story
Tagged The Legend of Zelda
10 Actors We Think Could Play Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda TV Series
A good hero is only as good as his villain, and Link has had many, but Ganondorf (or Ganon), is his greatest nemesis, seeking out the pieces of Triforce which Link and Zelda strive to protect time and time again. How Ganondorf will be imagined on screen in Netflix’s rumored Legend of Zelda series is anyone’s guess. while Link and Zelda have largely remained the same throughout all the games, he clothed in a green tunic, she dressed in a regal dress (or prancing about in a ninja outfit as Shiek), Ganondorf’s appearance has undergone regular transformations. The one possibly best suited for TV is the humanoid Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where he is a leader of desert bandits known as the Gerudo. They might lose the green skin and bright ginger hair as well, but whoever they choose to play him will have to embody his power-hungry desire and brooding, dark presence.
With our picks for Link already locked in, we focus on the King of Thieves next. (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, Features, Top Story
Tagged The Legend of Zelda
Kickstart This! Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse, Glitch Hunter, Sneaky Ninja
Recently in the UK, pressure has been building against HSBC Bank after the shoddy dealings and tax evasion tactics of their Swiss subsidiary. The US Government has previously brought the bank to account for its association with Mexican drug cartels, but so far the British government has only charged one person with tax evasion.
What has this to do with gaming? On the surface, nothing. But if all these ultra-rich people were paying their taxes instead of working so hard to avoid them, our fragile economy may have recovered quicker, wages may have risen, and more people would have spare money to spend on things they want, like funding games. It’s hard not to be bitter when developers work so hard to try and get a project off the ground, while some shady businessmen and shadier criminals pay dodgy banks to hide their money.
I digress. This week’s Kickstart This! features a trio of smashing titles, starting with action adventure game Deadwood: The Forgotten Curse, digital cyberpunk collectible card game Glitch Hunter, and stealth 2D platformer Sneaky Ninja.
Let’s sneak right in. (more…)
10 Actors We Think Could Play Link in The Legend of Zelda TV Series
Marvel must have thought they had the gong for news of year all sewn up when they announced their deal with Sony to finally allow Spider-Man to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then rumours started swirling that two mighty Ns, Netflix and Nintendo, were possibly going to collaborate on a TV adaptation of Nintendo’s long-running RPG series, The Legend of Zelda. Suddenly, Spider-Man was yesterday’s news. After all, we have already had two versions of the wallcrawler spanning five movies. But ever since the trainwreck that was the Super Mario Bros. movie, Nintendo has been hesitant to allow its characters to star in a live-action film.
Until now. Hopefully. Though there has been no official statement from either party, so the news that set the Internet aflame is currently nothing more than rumour and conjecture. Yet, it has not stopped many, including myself, from wondering what shape or form it may take – a more family friendly Game of Thrones? Or Lord of the Rings for the streaming masses?
Before we go spending our rupees on a Netflix membership, let us have a look at which actors and actresses would be best suited for the trio of main characters, starting with the hero, Link. Will they cast an adult in the role, a boy, or maybe even both, as Link has appeared as many different ages throughout the years (sometimes even in the same game). Given the age we live in, where everything is reimagined with gritty realism, I imagine Link will be a teenager/young man, at least for the majority of the series. (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, Features, Top Story
Tagged The Legend of Zelda