Warp Zoned Presents
Author: John Scalzo
Rise of the Triad Remastered will be released for PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One in 2021
3D Realms might seem like a name from another era, especially after Duke Nukem Forever‘s protracted development seemingly doomed the company to obscurity. But its output from 1996 through 2001 (which includes Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, and Max Payne) was groundbreaking at the time, and is still fondly remembered today.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that while its a bit smaller nowadays, the publishing house has continuously kept the lights on since its founding in 1987 as Apogee Software.
It’s true, 3D Realms never really went away, and they’re even looking to expand in 2020. As part of this plan, they hosted Realms Deep, a virtual convention dedicated to their current projects. Possibly the biggest announcement to come out of Realms Deep this weekend was the reveal of Rise of the Triad Remastered.
Rise of the Triad was originally conceived as a sequel to id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D, but the developer canceled the contract in 1993 to keep players focused on Doom, which launched that December. So 3D Realms rebuilt Rise of the Triad into an original title and released it on their own in 1995. In the years since, the game has developed a loyal (but very small) cult following.
Frederik Schreiber, the current Vice President of 3D Realms, introduced the Remastered re-release in the trailer embedded above, and promised that it’ll be a “brand new source port” for the PC, PlayStation (presumably the PS4), Switch, and Xbox (presumably the Xbox One). The game will also include widescreen support, mouse look, and a revamped multiplayer mode.
Rise of the Triad Remastered will be co-developed by 3D Realms and Destructive Creations, and it’ll be available in 2021.
Nintendo will release Super Mario Bros. 35, a Mario battle royale, on October 1
The 35th anniversary of the worldwide launch of Super Mario Bros. is finally here, and after months of rumors, Nintendo has finally rolled out their expected (and not-so-expected) slate of Mario-related announcements.
One of the biggest surprises has to be Super Mario Bros. 35, a battle royale game similar to Tetris 99 that pits 35 players against each other… and the toughest courses from Super Mario Bros. You can see how it works in the trailer embedded above, but it looks like Coins will add time to your clock, and defeated enemies will respawn on an opponent’s screen to make their progress just a little bit harder:
Super Mario Bros. with a 35-player twist
Race against time, defeat enemies, and sabotage your opponents in an online battle to be the last Mario standing!Classic Super Mario Bros. gameplay gets an adrenaline boost!
Each player is given the same timed stage, but you must defeat enemies to earn extra time and attack your opponents. Don’t forget to pick up some coins on your way—they can be used to get in-game items like power-ups. With speed, skill, and strategy, you could be the last Mario standing.Only on Nintendo Switch Online!
Super Mario Bros. 35 is a free-to-download software that’s exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online members.
Super Mario Bros. 35 will be available as a free download for the Nintendo Switch on October 1, but you better hurry, because it’ll only be playable until March 31, 2021. It seems strange that Nintendo is already planning an end date for the game, but hopefully they’ll explain more about Super Mario Bros. 35’s limited availability in a future update.
The Video Game Canon’s 2020 Update is Here
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The latest update to the Video Game Canon, Version 4.0, has arrived!
The Video Game Canon now includes a total of 1,232 games, which were pulled from 59 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists published between 1995 and 2020. Each game was ranked against the rest of the field using the C-Score, a formula that takes into account a game’s “Average Ranking” and the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency” across all lists.
Finally, games released after December 31, 2016 were excluded from the ranking because of their newness.
Three brand new lists were added to Version 4.0 of the Video Game Canon, including “The 100 Best Video Games in History” from GQ Spain, a “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” ranking from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, and a massive look back at “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” from Popular Mechanics. Alongside these new additions, updates to IGN‘s “Top 100 Video Games of All Time,” Popular Mechanics‘s “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time,” and Slant Magazine‘s “The 100 Best Video Games of All Time” were also added to the calculation. Thanks to reader CriticalCid for providing research assistance with some of these new lists.
But even with all this new data, there was surprisingly very little movement near the top of the Video Game Canon, and the Top 3 was once again represented by Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris (#1), Valve’s Half-Life 2, and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 (#3). There was some slight shuffling in the rest of the Top 10, but no new titles were able to crack the highest tier. Nintendo’s classic quartet of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (#4), Super Mario 64 (#5), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (#6), and Super Metroid (#10) all hung around, as did Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (#7), Irrational’s BioShock (#8), and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption (#9).
Things get more interesting as you move further down the Top 100, especially for the 2015 and 2016 releases that now qualify for inclusion in the Video Game Canon.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to learn more about this year’s update to the big list and to explore the rest of the Top 1000.
See the first trailer for Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part One
Gas up your chainsaw and sharpen your Doomblade, Bethesda and id Software have announced that Doom Eternal‘s first expansion will arrive on October 20.
Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part One will bring players back to Urdak to fight “fierce new demons” as the Doom Slayer travels through a variety of “never-before-seen locations in the Doom universe”:
Your war is not over… slaying the Khan Maykr left an imbalance of power that threatens all of creation. With the aid of an old ally, battle your way back to Urdak and decide the fate of the cosmos. Your mission is now your own.
The Ancient Gods Part One will be released as one half of Doom Eternal’s Year One Pass, and the story will conclude in The Ancient Gods Part Two, which is expected to follow sometime in late 2020 or early 2021, though no official announcement about its launch has been made.
And in a surprising twist, Bethesda also announced that players interested in the expansion won’t need to own Doom Eternal to play it. In addition to its inclusion in the Year One Pass, The Ancient Gods will also launch as a standalone game.
But for now, the first trailer for Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part One has been embedded above.
Posted in News
Tagged Doom Eternal, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Pharaoh: A New Era will rebuild the classic city builder in 2021
Following on from the success of Caesar, 1999’s Pharaoh helped form a core of historical city builders that were very popular on the PC throughout the decade. After the launch of Zeus: Master of Olympus in 2000 and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom in 2002, the subgenre mostly faded away over the 20 years that followed, but Dotemu is hoping to bring it back in grand fashion in 2021 with Pharaoh: A New Era…
First released in 1999 by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment, Pharaoh puts players into the role of an Egyptian ruler. Plan and execute the construction and management of cities as well as settlements in ancient Egypt and oversee every aspect of life within your borders. Juggle resources and strategize the administration of your empire to ensure that citizens are fed, employed, healthy and protected.
Remade “from the ground up” by Triskell Interactive (their joke, not mine), Pharaoh: A New Era will feature “all-new 2D graphics with brand new UI and improved mechanics.” The package will also include all of the content from Pharaoh’s expansion, Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile, which was originally released in 2000.
A teaser trailer for Pharaoh: A New Era has been embedded above.
Version 1.0 of Hades will come to PC, Switch this Fall
Supergiant’s Hades will be leaving Early Access on the Epic Games Store and Steam this Fall, but the developer also confirmed that the roguelike action RPG will be making its way to the Switch at the same time.
The game’s new destination was revealed during today’s Indie World presentation from Nintendo, along with a promise of cross-save compatibility between the two platforms:
Hades is a god-like, rogue-like dungeon crawler that combines the best aspects of Supergiant’s critically acclaimed titles, from the fast-paced action of Bastion to the rich atmosphere and depth of Transistor. As the immortal Prince of the Underworld, players will wield the powers and mythic weapons of Olympus to break free from the clutches of the infamous god of the dead himself, while growing stronger and unraveling more of the story. Thousands of viable character builds and a fully voiced cast of colorful, larger-than-life characters ensure each and every escape attempt through the ever-shifting Underworld is unique. Hades will feature cross-saves with the PC version when the game comes to Nintendo Switch this fall.
Supergiant also unveiled a new trailer for Hades this morning, and it’s been embedded above.
Twin-stick shooter Funtime launches today from Quantum Astrophysicists Guild and One Guy Games
Publisher Quantum Astrophysicists Guild and developer One Guy Games have announced that Funtime (officially rendered #Funtime with a hashtag symbol, but we’re not doing that) will launch sometime today for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Fusing the neon-drenched color palette of Geometry Wars with the color-swapping mechanics of Ikaruga, Funtime looks to be a… well… a fun time.
Here’s what the developer had to say about their debut game:
Bright lights and space fights! Blast your way through grids of multicolored madness while changing color to adapt to your environment and overcome the digital hordes. Persistent ship upgrades will keep you going further and longer into the great unknown. Can you survive the full spectrum of challenges, claim the high score, and show your dominance on the leaderboard?
A Launch Trailer for Funtime has been embedded above and it’s filled to the brim with geometric explosions and bright colors (and and even a few jokes about that hashtag in the title).
Netflix shares a short look at The Cuphead Show!
It was about a year ago that Studio MDHR announced they were working with Netflix to bring The Cuphead Show! to our streaming screens. The animated adaptation would expand the world of Inkwell Isles, and feature visuals inspired by the same Fleischer Studios cartoons that the brothers used when creating the game.
Since that initial announcement, Netflix would go to say that The Cuphead Show! was “Coming Soon,” and while “Soon” still appears to be at some indeterminate point in the future, the streaming service did recently share a short look at the show on Twitter:
Fast & Furious: Spy Racers‘s Tru Valentino will voice Cuphead, while Frank Todaro (who was most recently credited as “Creature Sounds” in Dolittle) will voice Mugman. A quick montage of beautifully-animated scenes also introduces us to a handful of new characters, as well as King Dice, The Devil, and Elder Kettle.
The Cuphead Show! is still “Coming Soon,” and hopefully Netflix means it this time.
And don’t forget that The Delicious Last Course, an expansion for Cuphead, is still on track to launch for the PC, Switch, and Xbox One before the end of the year.