Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Top Story
Warpback: What We Played in January 2017
January was cold, but our gaming time was on fire! We spent a ton of time on our backlogs, though some of us managed to play a few new games. Read on to see what the Warp Zoned staff did to fight the winter temperatures! (more…)
Women of Color In Video Games: A Much Needed Dialogue
Have you ever heard of the “magical negro” trope? Perhaps you haven’t. How about the one regarding black women being “hypersexual?” No, haven’t heard of that trope either? Well, here’s the thing… you’ve definitely seen it, read it, digested it, but you might not have consciously absorbed it. Don’t feel too bad; most people don’t recognize it, either.
The fact that most people don’t see how offensive the portrayal of black and brown women in video games is, is exactly why commentary on this valid argument is so direly needed. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, Opinions, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Resident Evil 5, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Michonne, Tomb Raider
The Video Game Canon: Resident Evil
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at how Resident Evil brought the then-moribund zombie genre back to life. Here’s a teaser…
If a Bizarro Universe doppelganger of Jerry Seinfeld was a hacky comedian who worked the nerd belt, I have a feeling he’d start off every set with, “What’s the deal with all the zombies?” And he wouldn’t be wrong. Zombies are everywhere. Just absolutely everywhere. But why? And why now? If you trace the epidemic all the way back to patient zero, it leads to a publisher named Capcom and their desire to create a scary game with zombies known as Resident Evil.
George A. Romero is rightly considered the godfather of the modern zombie movie. Starting with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, his first film inspired a horde of filmmakers and lead to a pair of sequels in 1978 and 1985. But after the release of Day of the Dead and Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead, the genre fell out of favor with the moviegoing public and was reanimated only when some low-budget film studio wanted to add something to the direct-to-video slush pile. Not even Romero himself, who helped visual effects master Tom Savini remake Night of the Living Dead in 1990, could bring it back to life.
Six years later, Capcom brought the zed menace back in a big way with Resident Evil. First released on Sony’s fledgling PlayStation console (and eventually re-released 12 times over the next 20 years), the game’s amateurish acting and stiff tank-like controls never obscured the terrifying zombie tale underneath. You might say that exploring Spencer Mansion and delving deeper into the story behind the T-Virus infected players in a way that few games ever had before.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 PS4 Review: Final Justice
At Sony’s PlayStation Experience event in December, Capcom surprised fighting game fans everywhere with two major announcements. The first was Marvel Vs Capcom: Infinite, a brand new entry in the ever-popular Marvel Vs Capcom franchise. And the second was that Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, which originally debuted five years ago, was getting ported to current-gen systems. Now available as a timed PlayStation 4 exclusive, and eventually making its way to the Xbox One and Steam, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 hopes to scratch gamers’ fighting game itch until Infinite comes out later this year.
So now several questions arise… Is Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 worth picking up on the PS4? Should I purchase it if I still have the original? What’s included in the PS4 re-release? Has Zero finally been nerfed? While I’ll do my best to answer all these questions, I will definitely tell you this is one worth picking up… but maybe not just yet… (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Super Mario Bros. 3
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at Mario’s actorly ambitions in Super Mario Bros. 3. Here’s a teaser…
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
– As You Like It, Act II Scene VII
Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom cohorts have held a surprising number of occupations over the years. In addition to his plumbing business and the hero-for-hire game, Mario has been employed as a multi-sport athlete, a race car driver, a referee, a dancer, an artist, a virologist, and a typing tutor. He’s practically done it all, and I think only political office has eluded him. I guess that’s the trouble with monarchies.
Bouncing from genre to genre like that is usually considered a liability for other game characters. As sublimely silly as the idea seems, no one wants to see Kratos squeezed into a go-kart. And yet, fans readily accept Mario’s multitasking, and many of his spinoff adventures are now more popular than some of the franchise’s traditional platformers. There’s a strong possibility this all stems from the fact that Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, designed the character this way from the beginning.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in 3DS, Features, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Wii, Wii U
Tagged Super Mario Bros. 3
The Big List of Nintendo Switch Games: Nintendo Switch Presentation Update
Nintendo hosted their big Nintendo Switch Presentation last week, and the blowout reveal has finally made hybrid console/handheld feel real for a lot of fans. And this feeling of realness will only increase as the Switch’s is just under a month-and-a-half away. This kind of quick turnaround between announcement and launch is literally unprecedented (and frankly, kind of awesome).
But what about the games? Nintendo’s notorious penchant for secrecy went into overdrive during the run-up to the Switch Presentation, but now we’ve got a pretty good idea what the console’s first year (and beyond) will look like. The Switch’s release schedule is packed with big titles, and more than 80 games are said to be in development for the console.
So lets-a-go and have a look at every game in the works for the Switch… (more…)
Posted in Features, Switch, Top Story
Tagged Nintendo Switch Presentation
The Video Game Canon: Tetris
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at how moms helped Tetris become the gaming gargantuan it is today. Here’s a teaser…
In 1989, most mothers believed that video games were a childhood distraction that eventually would be brushed aside as their offspring grew into responsible adults. But something happened along the way that prevented this. Perhaps the Nintendo Entertainment System, the most popular console of its day, was just that much better than previous attempts to bring video games into the living room. But I have a different theory. I believe it was Tetris.
Tetris brought mothers and their children together to play video games for the first time. And then something magical happened. Instead of jerkily moonwalking Mario into a pit or being the most unrad racer on the planet, the mothers were good at Tetris. They were so good that brother and sister soon had to compete with mom for control of the television. And mom wasn’t going to be finished until she made the castle take off into the stratosphere.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
The Games of January 2017
We’re all super tired from the holidays, and have tons to play in our backlog! So there’s not much that interests us this month of January. That’s not true… quite a few of us are into Double Dragon IV! Read on to see which one of us plan to pick that up when it releases. (more…)