Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Top Story
Kickstart This! The Return of Way of the Rodent
I keep promising the people of France that I will cover a French game, and I will, but not in this edition. I stumbled across a project here in the UK that I though was worth this segment. Imagine that you run a cool, semi-retro online gaming magazine. You have been doing so for 12 years, and have managed to produce 94 issues, just six away from the big 100. Then, hackers decide to corrupt your system beyond repair, erasing all that work and effort.
This is the story of Rodent. (more…)
The Games of June 2017
The video game industry is slowing down for the Summer, but there’s still a few new games to talk about over the next four weeks. Whether you love fighting games (Arms and Tekken 7) or RPGs (The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind) or racers (Dirt 4) or remakes (Wipeout: The Omega Collection and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy), there’s something for everyone.
Find out what else the Warp Zoned staff is looking forward to this month after the break. (more…)
Warpback: What We Played in May 2017
I’m sure no one will be surprised to learn that almost every Warp Zoned staffer is still playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But there were plenty of other new games that we tried out in the merry month of May including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Injustice 2, and Friday the 13th.
Read on for some quick thoughts on these titles, and more, after the break. (more…)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Review: Grab Some Coins, Race to the Store, and Buy it Again
Aside from a rather shoddy Battle Mode, Mario Kart 8 set the gold standard for Nintendo’s venerable franchise when it launched for the Wii U back in 2014. The racing game was already bursting at the seams with characters, courses, and customizable kart parts before the consolemaker expanded it with two DLC Packs and added crossover characters like Link and Animal Crossing‘s Villager. However, the public’s poor reception to the Wii U lead to the sad realization that three times as many people had purchased Mario Kart Wii versus its sequel. So Nintendo has decided to re-introduce the game to a new audience on the Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe… and with a real Battle Mode, too! (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Switch, Top Story
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Arms Global Testpunch Impressions: Nintendo’s New Fighter Needs a Helping Hand
After launching their newest console with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and a “Global Testfire” for Splatoon 2, Nintendo gave Switch owners a taste of their first wholly original game this weekend with a “Global Testpunch” for Arms.
Arms is what you get if you take Punch-Out‘s behind-the-back viewpoint and give every character a stretchy extendable set of arms and a pair of superpowered boxing gloves (which are, strangely enough, also known in-game as “Arms”). It’s all very silly, and the gameplay often feels a little wishy-washy, but Nintendo might be able to overcome these flaws and transform Arms into another big hit. (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Street Fighter II
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at Hollywood’s influence on Street Fighter II (and it’s influence on Hollywood). Here’s a teaser…
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior wasn’t the first fighting game ever released, but it single-handedly helped shape the genre for decades to come.
Capcom’s masterpiece rose to prominence by replacing the small and stiff characters of previous fighting games (including its predecessor, 1987’s Street Fighter) with highly detailed characters that seemed to fly around the screen. Instead of generic fighters clad in traditional karategi uniforms, Street Fighter II starred a diverse group of characters with fantastical “special moves.” And young fans lined up around the block to do battle with “World Warriors” like E. Honda, a sumo wrestler with a lightning-quick Hundred Hand Slap; Zangief, a Russian giant who fought bears; Blanka, a green-skinned prince who controlled electricity; and Dhalsim, a yoga master who breathed fire.
Rather than rest on their laurels, Capcom refined Street Fighter II’s controls and added more characters to the select screen through the release of four subsequent revisions. This parade of improvements (and Street Fighter II’s eventual release on home consoles) helped ensure the game’s status as the biggest fighting game of the early 90s arcade renaissance. By the late 90s, a loosely-connected group of enthusiasts for Street Fighter II began building a “Fighting Game Community” online, which eventually grew to include organized tournaments (like the annual Evo gathering) and a dedicated fandom that could rival any professional sport.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in Features, PS3, Retro, Switch, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter II
It’s 2017 and Adventure Games Are Mainstream Again
“What kind of video games do you play?” It’s a broad question that I often find myself faced with, to which I’d respond “adventure games.” That answer is then followed with an exhausting amount of game name dropping, that, in most cases, have nothing to do with the type of games I’m talking about. “You mean, like Zelda?” Not quite.
The easiest way to reiterate what I’m talking about is by calling them “point-and-click” adventure games, which is a genre and style of game most notable on the PC in the mid- to early 90s. It’s a genre that was also declared dead after the commercial failure of the critically acclaimed Grim Fandango; a genre that, over the past few years, has slowly but surely been coming back into the mainstream. (more…)
Posted in Opinions, PC, PS4, Top Story, Xbox One
Tagged Broken Age, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Thimbleweed Park
Mr. Shifty Review: Not Ready to Shift Into the Spotlight
Mr. Shifty is a top-down brawler from Team Shifty, a new development studio out of Brisbane, Australia. As Mr. Shifty, you are able to shift/teleport your way through walls and bullets, taking down your enemies at lightning speed while trying to break into the world’s most secure facility. There are 18 levels to shift your way across, all with varying difficulty. New enemies help keep the gameplay fresh and exciting, but the replayability of the title is lacking a bit.
So, you’re a teleporting thief who has embarked on his biggest heist yet. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if you are Mr. Shifty, the answer to that is everything. (more…)
Posted in PC, Reviews, Switch, Top Story
Tagged Mr. Shifty