Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Top Story
Warp Zoned Wish List: What We Want from Tetris 99’s Future Updates
Tetris 99 is already a tremendously-addictive puzzle game, but after participating in this past weekend’s Maximus Cup, I’ve been thinking a lot about its future.
After its launch, Nintendo promised that Tetris 99 would (like all “Battle Royale” games) receive regular updates, and if I had my way, the consolemaker would add these features to the puzzle game as soon as possible… (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Tetris Remains the Best Game of All Time in Version 3.0 Update
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…
Once again, Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzle masterpiece, Tetris, stands atop the Video Game Canon.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Video Game Canon, it’s a statistical meta-analysis of 53 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that were published between 1995 and 2018. To qualify for inclusion, each list had to include at least 50 games, as well as some form of editorial oversight in the process (lists made up solely of reader polls or fan voting were excluded), and no restrictions on release dates or platforms.
After feeding each “Best Games” list into the Video Game Canon machine, the games were ranked against each other using the C-Score, a formula that adds together a game’s “Average Ranking” across all lists with the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency.” Combining these two factors allows us to create a list of games that have universal appeal across a long period of time without punishing any game for being too old or too new.
Five new lists were added to the Video Game Canon in the Version 3.0 update, bringing the total number of games to be selected by at least one list up to 1,182. The most expansive new list came from Game Informer, which published The Top 300 Games of All Time in April of last year. Hyper (The 200 Games You Must Play), IGN (Top 100 Video Games of All Time), and Slant Magazine (The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time) also published new lists in 2018.
I was also able to reach back into the history books a little bit after stumbling upon a list from 2009 by Benchmark.pl, one of Poland’s largest technology blogs. Aside from a handful of titles (most notably, 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), most of the games created in Eastern Europe or played by Eastern European players aren’t on the radar of your average gamer, so digging through The Top 100 Best Games of the Twentieth Century gave me an interesting window into a population of gamers that I probably don’t think about as often as I should.
Even with these new additions to the dataset, Version 3.0 didn’t signal any huge changes to the Video Game Canon over last year’s Version 2.0 update, but the movement amongst the games in the top ten does bring to mind a round of musical chairs. And after the music stopped, nearly all the titles scrambled to find a new place to sit.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
An Interview With PizWiz, the Developer Behind Warp’s Hand-Drawn World
Although there have been many games over the years that use a hand-drawn style, none have managed to encapsulate the sheer sense of creative doodleness of Warp. The game’s developer, PizWiz, is currently seeking $7,000 on Kickstarter, and you can read a bit more about it in our latest edition of Kickstart This!
We chatted with the New Orleans-based developer and artist to find out more about the project, what he has in store for the future, and how to “become cow.” (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, Top Story
Tagged Warp (2020)
Jumpgrid Review: Pac-Man + Super Hexagon = An Addicting Action Puzzler
All the way back in 1980, Pac-Man took the world by storm with its grid-based gameplay around dodging ghosts and munching dots. A little over 20 years later, Terry Cavanagh helped kickstart the fledgling mobile game boom with Super Hexagon, his geometrically-based keepaway game.
And now here we are in 2019, and Australian developer Ian MacLarty has combined the two into a wonderful little gem known as Jumpgrid. (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Half-Life
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at how Half-Life’s opening tram ride changed first person shooters (and may even have created an entirely new genre). Here’s a teaser…
“Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel.”
It’s just another day at work for Gordon Freeman. The well-groomed scientist is running late for an important meeting and he’s forced to board the tram alone as he travels to the secure wing of the Black Mesa Research Facility.
It’s a rather lowkey introduction to one of the most ambitious games ever created, but easing the player into the game’s world was a big part of what made Valve’s Half-Life so ambitious. You’re free to move about the train car as you’re ferried from the facility’s living quarters to the research levels belowground, but for those five minutes, you’re also at the mercy of the developers and how they want you to interact with their game.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Kickstart This! Gigabuster
After several months, Kickstart This! returns refreshed and rejuvenated. Those following this column likely saw that I recently had a rather sour experience with the Pelda Pro, a battery expansion and dock for the Nintendo Switch. It is still sitting in its box and will probably stay there for all eternity.
However, one bad experience in over five years of crowdfunding various projects is a great statistic, and one that I think only serves to illustrate how well this model of funding has been embraced both by creators and consumers. I very nearly bought an automated cat toilet last week, but I narrowly missed all the early bird tiers.
Anyway, I digress. I’ve been eagerly awaiting a video game project I could rally behind after months in the wilderness of non-crowdfunding. I started writing about Omno, a pretty puzzle game from Jonas Manke that has smashed its funding target, but I prefer to shine a light on games that need your funding.
Games like Gigabuster (though Omno is definitely worth checking out). (more…)
The Games of November 2018
I’m sure that many gamers have decided to check out for the season now that Red Dead Redemption 2 is available on store shelves. But like always, November is just jam-packed with new titles, and some of them are impossible to ignore.
We here at Warp Zoned have a lengthy shopping list for this month, and that includes the long-awaited return of a few well-loved franchises (Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Darksiders III), as well the first multiplayer experience in the Fallout series (Fallout 76), a psychedelic VR-powered take on Tetris (Tetris Effect) from Sony.
Find out exactly why we’re looking forward to these games after the break. (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, PS4, Switch, Top Story, Xbox One
Tagged Darksiders III, Fallout 76, Grim Fandango, Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee, Spyro the Dragon, Tetris Effect
Kickstart This! The Cautionary Tale of the Pelda Pro
Regular readers of Warp Zoned will know that I’ve been covering crowdfunded game projects for just over five years now, and through most of it I have had a wholesome, positive outlook on the path that it takes. Someone has an idea, and they have the skill, talent, and (above all else) passion to make their dream a reality, but what they don’t have is money. So people give them money in exchange for the finished product and some other cool extras. Everyone wins. The person can sell their idea-made-whole to the masses, while those who contributed to its creation can bask in the glory of its success knowing that they, in part, made it possible.
But what happens when it goes wrong? (more…)