Warp Zoned Presents
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Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Crashlands, Road Redemption, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
More than 30 new games will be added to the Switch eShop this week, so let’s once more dive into Nintendo’s newest digital offerings.
Available to download next Tuesday, November 13, is SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. Now known for its huge stable of fighting games, this compilation goes further back into SNK’s legacy and plucks out a few gems such as Crystalis and the Ikari Warriors trilogy.
Other games of interest in this week’s eShop update include Crashlands, an adventure game about an intergalactic delivery driver who took a wrong turn; Road Redemption, a racing game about post-apocalyptic motorcycle gangs; and Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Ubisoft’s side-scrolling story of “friendship, love, sacrifice, and tragedy” centered on World War I. All three games are now available to download.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Astebreed, Forgotten Anne, Syberia 1 & 2, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Crashlands, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Valiant Hearts: The Great War
The NPD Group shares list of best-selling games on PS4, Xbox One, and Vita… also the Saturn, PS1, N64, GBC, and Dreamcast
The NPD Group has never been too keen on sharing their historical lists of best-selling games, but that might be changing. Using data from the analyst firm’s vast archive, Mat Piscatella recently tried to pull back the curtain a little bit by sharing the list of best-selling games on several legacy consoles (the Saturn, the original PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, the Game Boy Color, and the Dreamcast) and a nearly defunct handheld (the Vita). He also examined the best-selling games through September 2018 on two modern consoles (the PS4 and Xbox One) and published a list of the top-selling titles for each year from 1995 to 2017.
It’s a very interesting collection of information, and the lists provide our best window yet into what games were considered popular in the United States in the 1990s and into today. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Retro, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Crash Bandicoot, Grand Theft Auto V, NPD, Super Mario 64, Uncharted: Golden Abyss
Call of Cthulhu, The Quiet Man, Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum Session, more coming to PS Store this week
“If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.”
H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu is now available to download for the PS4, and this adaptation of Chaosism’s tabletop RPG might make a nicely spooky companion for tonight’s Halloween festivities.
For more seasonally-appropriate thrills, Square Enix and Human Head’s The Quiet Man will be available to download for the PS4 beginning tomorrow. Taking place over the course of a single night, players will take control of a deaf man named Dane as he attempts to figure out why a singer was kidnapped by a “mysterious masked man.”
Other new PS4 launches of note this week are Taiko No Tatsujin: Drum Session, the next entry in Bandai Namco’s unique rhythm franchise, and Dream Daddy: Dadrector’s Cut, the dad-dating simulator that took the indie community by storm in 2017.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Call of Cthulhu, The Quiet Man
Full PlayStation Classic lineup includes a lot of the platform’s earliest hits
When Sony first unveiled the PlayStation Classic, they said their microconsole would feature a total of 20 games, including Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms. Today, the consolemaker confirmed the identities of the remaining 15 titles.
Culled mostly from the early days of the console (likely due to the lack of analog sticks on the included controller), the PlayStation Classic will include another early 3D fighter (Battle Arena Toshinden), a pair of car combat games (Destruction Derby and Twisted Metal), and a few 3D action games (Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil: Director’s Cut), all of which helped define the PlayStation’s style in its fight against the Nintendo 64. But Sony will also reach way back and resurrect Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto and Atlus’s Revelations: Persona for the PlayStation Classic as well.
The microconsole’s lineup is so heavily skewed towards the PlayStation’s 1995-1997 era, that I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony is planning to release an updated edition of the PlayStation Classic for fans in the future. But that’s just speculation on my part, so for now, here’s a look at all 20 titles set to be included on the microconsole:
PlayStation Classic’s Full Lineup of Games
- Battle Arena Toshinden
- Cool Boarders 2
- Destruction Derby
- Final Fantasy VII
- Grand Theft Auto
- Intelligent Qube
- Jumping Flash
- Metal Gear Solid
- Mr. Driller
- Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
- Rayman
- Resident Evil: Director’s Cut
- Revelations: Persona
- Ridge Racer Type 4
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Syphon Filter
- Tekken 3
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
- Twisted Metal
- Wild Arms
The PlayStation Classic will be priced at $99.99 when it launches on December 3, and will comes packed with two controllers. A new trailer for the microconsole, showcasing all 20 games, has been embedded above.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Final Fantasy VII
New Retail Releases: Call of Cthulhu, Diablo III: Eternal Collection, Lego Harry Potter Collection, More
It’s All Hallows Eve Eve Eve, and while you might assume that that’s the perfect time to unleash a terrifying new survival horror game on the populace, you’d be (mostly) wrong. Instead, game publishers are following up last week’s launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 with a slew of re-releases and a smattering of smaller games.
But don’t worry fright fans, a monstrous entity from beyond our human comprehension will also make an appearance on store shelves this week…
H.P. Lovecraft’s greatest creation, the elder god Cthulhu, will return to video games this week with the release of Call of Cthulhu from Cynaide Studio. The PS4 and Xbox One game is based on the popular tabletop RPG, players must infiltrate an island of “unfriendly locals” and thread the needle between “sanity and psychosis” to uncover the truth. Call of Cthulhu will also be available to download for the PC.
Another fictional godlike being drives the story behind Blizzard’s Diablo III: Eternal Collection, which makes its way to the Switch for the first time this week. The Eternal Collection includes the original Action RPG, as well as the Reaper of Souls expansion, the Rise of the Necromancer Pack, and an exclusive Ganondorf Armor Set.
A very different set of magical spells will be cast in the Lego Harry Potter Collection, which will be released for the Switch and Xbox One this week. The compilation includes both Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7.
And speaking of compilations, Square Enix will package together the entire Kingdom Hearts saga this week for the PS4 with Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far.
Finally this week, we loop back around to a scary sight with Digital Dreams Entertainment’s Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition, a retail release of the supernatural sports sim for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
A complete look at all of this week’s new retail releases can be found after the break. (more…)
My Hero One’s Justice, Lego Harry Potter Collection, Mutant Football League, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
It’s another packed week for the Nintendo eShop, and the newest update for the online storefront even includes a few Halloween-themed surprises.
But first, Bandai Namco will bring My Hero One’s Justice to the Switch on October 26. The fighting game is based on the popular My Hero Academia anime and it allows players to “battle through iconic moments” in Quirk-to-Quirk battles.
Also set to launch for the Switch this week is Lego Harry Potter Collection, a two-game compilation that brings together Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 in a new remastered package on October 30.
Mutant Football League: Dynasty Edition will also be available to download for the Switch on October 30, and players can dig in to the strategic options available in the brand new Dynasty Mode, or they can tackle the action on the gridiron with the “deep strategy and deadly humor” the game is known for.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle, Gal Metal, OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes, Steven Universe: Save the Light, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Mutant Football League
Battle Princess Madelyn will officially launch sometime this Fall
Casual Bit Games has announced that Battle Princess Madelyn has completed development and is now awaiting certification from the three consolemakers. That also means that the game is currently on track for a Fall 2018 launch on the PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, Wii U, and Vita.
Heavily inspired by Super Ghouls N Ghosts and Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Battle Princess Madelyn was built using design ideas from Creative Director Christopher Obritsch’s daughter, and he’s thrilled with how the final product came together:
From its initial concept days, right through the successful Kickstarter campaign which reached over $212,665 CAD, until its imminent release, Battle Princess Madelyn has developed and grown from inspiration from feedback from my daughter, who inspired the original idea, gamers and ideals from the very best of classic retro games fused with modern presentation complete with gameplay and fun. I believe all our goals have been achieved with much much more added ingredients, features and elements that will have gamers engaged in a game that has been crafted with real planning, dedication and, a lot of love.
A new trailer for Battle Princess Madelyn has been embedded above, and an exact release date will be announced “very shortly.”