Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: DS
Nintendo Download: Splatoon, Don’t Starve, Mega Man Zero 3, more
A large number of new releases were added to the Nintendo eShop today, but one game stands above all the others and it actually won’t be available until tomorrow. Are you ready… because Splatoon is finally available for the Wii U.
Nintendo’s take on the team-based shooter involves human/squid hybrids known as Inklings fighting for turf using paint guns. Use your squid powers to swim through the ink and use your human powers to blast other Inklings while claiming territory for your team. if multiplayer gaming isn’t your thing, there’s also an extensive single-player story mode that offers more towns to paint red (or yellow or purple or blue).
Also available for the Wii U this week is Don’t Starve: Giant Edition, a survival game from Klei. The game’s description says it all: “Fight, farm, craft, scavenge and do whatever it takes to survive in a wilderness filled with science, magic and things that go bump in the night.” Best of all, players who purchase Don’t Starve will receive a giftable bonus code to give to a friend.
Finally this week, Capcom is closing out Mega May with three classic Mega Man titles, all of which were originally released for the Game Boy Advance. Mega Man Battle Network 4: Blue Moon and Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun continue the saga of Lan and Mega Man within the computer world, while Mega Man Zero 3 closes out Zero’s story in one of the hardest platformers ever produced.
More details on all of these games, and a few others, can be found after the break. (more…)
Insert Quarter: Should Mega Man Make a Comeback? Maybe We Don’t Need Him…
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
With Shovel Knight, 20XX, and the upcoming Mighty No. 9 giving the gaming populace their fill of homages/spiritual successors to Mega Man, some people have started to wonder if a new game starring the original Blue Bomber is even necessary. GameRadar’s David Roberts is one of those people.
According to Roberts, Capcom is so handcuffed by the Mega Man formula that we might just be better off with the imitators. I’m not sure I agree, but he makes an interesting case:
It’s been nearly five years since Capcom released the last official Mega Man game. Mega Man 10 was just like all the other Mega Man games (Mega Mans?) that came before it; crunchy 8-bit graphics, a series of themed robot bosses, and soul-crushing difficulty. Since then, Capcom has released a fan-made Street Fighter/Mega Man crossover and let the Blue Bomber fight against a stable of Nintendo characters in Super Smash Bros. That’s all Mega Man has to show for the last five years; everything else has been cancelled. And you know what? Maybe that’s for the best.
The full article is available for your perusal at the GamesRadar.
Nintendo Download: Dot Arcade, Namco Museum, Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, more
Six new games were added to the Nintendo eShop today and the two Wii U titles will definitely be of interest to anyone who loves retro gaming.
Dot Arcade is a Wii U compilation of three minimalist games (“Mr. Snake,” “Dodge Club,” and “Rally Driver”) that all take place in 8×8 light cabinets. While “retro” is a fair description, Dot Arcade is almost “pre-retro” in that it evokes the penny arcades of old. Also available for the Wii U is the Virtual Console re-release of Namco Museum, which was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 and includes Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Pole Position, and Dig Dug.
If you’re looking for something a little more modern, WB Games has added Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin to the 3DS eShop. The latest Lego Ninjago game pits the Ninjas against Ronin and his memory-sapping ancient weapon.
More information on all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Lego Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin
Nintendo Download: Donkey Kong Country trilogy, DK Land trilogy, Ironfall Invasion, more
It’s Donkey Kong Country Day on the Nintendo eShop as Nintendo has added all three Donkey Kong Country games to the Wii U eShop and all three Donkey Kong Land games to the 3DS eShop.
Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble were all released in the waning days of the Super NES in an attempt to stave off the then-new PlayStation and Saturn systems. All three games launched to widespread critical acclaim, helped bring Donkey Kong back to the mainstream, and showed just how beautiful 2D side-scrollers could be.
Meanwhile, the Donkey Kong Land series attempted to adapt these landmark titles for the pea-green Game Boy. They weren’t exact translations, but Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong Land 2, and Donkey Kong Land III were all well-liked in their own right.
Also available this week is Ironfall Invasion, a free-to-play 3DS eShop title that attempts to bring a Gears of War-like third-person shooting experience to Nintendo’s handheld.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Pokemon Shuffle, more
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse brings its claymation-styled side-scrolling to the Wii U eShop this week… tomorrow to be exact. The pink puffball (Can clay be puffy? Probably a question for another time…) is joined by Axelay, a Super NES shooter that is now available through the Wii U’s Virtual Console service.
Over on the 3DS eShop, the free-to-play puzzler Pokemon Shuffle is available today along with the Flappy Bird homage Flap Flap and a pair of RPGs: Excave and Adventure Bar Story (and yes, it’s about saving a local bar from a greedy businessman).
Finally, the DSiWare Shop makes a return with a brand new pair of match-3 puzzlers: Fishdom and 4 Elements,
More details on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Insert Quarter: The Rise and Fall of THQ’s Empire
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Gamers often didn’t know what to make of THQ. The publisher built its empire on the backs of tie-in games based on Nickelodeon and Pixar properties such as SpongeBob SquarePants and The Incredibles. But they also produced intriguing original games such as Saints Row: The Third and Darksiders. They were even the initial driving force behind Evolve, one of 2015’s most anticipated games. But that all changed when the company went bankrupt early last year.
So what happened? Tracey Lien, writing for Polygon, set out to discover the answer by talking to as many former THQ employees as she could including the charismatic (but possibly crazy) Danny Bilson. Her portrait of a publisher in free fall makes you wonder, could anything have been done?
Many blame the company’s fall on the licensed games well drying up. Some pin it on the commercial failure of the company’s uDraw tablet for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Others point to poor management and too many risky bets.
“There isn’t any one, isolated event that killed the company,” says a former THQ executive who asked to not be named. “This was one of the most successful video game businesses in America. We were a billion dollar company. It was complicated.”
THQ suffered a “death by a million spider bites,” the executive says.
The full article is available for your perusal at Polygon.
Posted in 3DS, DS, Insert Quarter, Mobile, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Retro, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Darksiders, Evolve, Saints Row: The Third
Insert Quarter: Unreleased Games and the People Who Trade Them
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Unreleased games will always be of interest to gamers. Who among us wouldn’t be interested in Nintendo’s 64DD version of Mother 3 or Free Radical’s late, lamented Star Wars: Battlefront 3. But these games have managed to live on thanks to a shadowy network of collectors and archivists who trade and preserve the neglected pieces of gaming history. Kotaku UK’s Leon Hurley sought out some of these amateur historians to get the complete story on the trading of unreleased games:
You’ve probably seen videos of unannounced or cancelled games. Not necessarily the older retro stuff, but more recent things like Star Wars Battlefront 3 or Stranglehold 2. Did you know there’s a keen, and occasionally zealous, culture of collectors and traders passing these things around?
[…]
There are many levels to all this. Some simply collect and play the games, others code and and hack, extracting fresh info from old files or reinstating missing features. There’s even a community quite happily extracting and modding Halo maps. For others it’s about preserving the often transient world of video game history.
The full article is available at Kotaku UK.
Insert Quarter: Remembering the Best Instruction Booklets Ever
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Creating a beautiful and engaging instruction booklet has become a lost art in today’s go-go world of downloadable games and extensive in-game tutorials. Some, like Yacht Club Games and their awesome booklet for Shovel Knight, are attempting to keep the practice alive. But it seems like a foregone conclusion that the instruction booklet will have breathed its last in the not-too-distant future.
Thankfully, Jason Dafnis of Game Informer took some time out of his day to honor ten of his favorite instruction booklets, manuals, and strategy guides:
Let me spin you a yarn. Times were, you’d open that brand-new cardboard (or plastic) box and there, nestled right next to your cartridge (or disc), would be a booklet. Yes, a booklet – paper pages stapled together that told you how to play the game (and sometimes more). Remember those?
Now the left (or right) side of your game case sits bare or thinly veiled with tie-in ads or DLC codes. Those clippies that once held your booklet are all but obsolete. Booklets might not be completely extinct, but they are on the way out. Here are ten of our favorites in no particular order.
The full article is available at Game Informer.