Warp Zoned Presents
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Battle Princess Madelyn smashes its Kickstarter goal in two days
Casual Bit Games’s latest crowdfunding project, Battle Princess Madelyn, has managed to hit its target of $60,000 CAD on Kickstarter in less than two days. Not only that, but the project has also burned through nine of its stretch goals with more than 24 days remaining on their Kickstarter clock.
And if backers help Casual Bit reach their last goal of $150,000 CAD, they have promised to port the game to the PS Vita. Though it is already heading for the Nintendo Switch, so backers will have at least option for a portable version of the game.
Battle Princess Madelyn takes its licks from Super NES classic Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and the titular trainee knight and her ghost dog Fritzy will embark on a similar journey to save the kingdom from an evil wizard. The spectral canine can be used to solve puzzles and deployed to tackle end level bosses.
The team at Casual Bit Games is now adding more features to the game as a result of the enthusiasm and support shown during the crowdfunding campaign, including an “Insanity’s Blade King Mode,” which ups the difficulty of the classic Arcade Mode. The developer expects to release the game for the PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One, and Switch in February 2018.
With fast-paced 2D action, silky smooth animation, and a retro soundtrack set against an epic fantasy story, Battle Princess Madelyn might just be the next Shovel Knight.
New Retail Releases: Mass Effect Andromeda, Mario Sports Superstars, Zero Escape The Nonary Games, More
Venture into new worlds with this week’s new retail releases…
BioWare will help Mass Effect fans explore the unexplored this week thanks to the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Leaving behind the rest of the universe, players will visit the Andromeda galaxy and discover “rich, alien worlds in the search for humanity’s new home.”
Mario and friends will also get to try new things this week in the biggest “Mario Sports” game ever. Coming to the 3DS on Friday, Mario Sports Superstars will include Mario-themed versions of baseball, golf, tennis, horse racing, and soccer. The game will also feature support for a new line of Amiibo Cards that’ll power up your favorite athlete in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Oculus VR owners will be able to become a different kind of superstar this week with the release of Rock Band VR. Harmonix’s latest rhythm game will offer “unprecedented stage presence” in virtual reality and a brand new soundtrack.
But if you’re worried about stage fright and would much prefer to battle giant beasts, Koei Tecmo and Omega Force will release Toukiden 2 for the PS4 and Vita. And if you’d rather explore a more familiar world, Aksys Games will bundle together Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue’s Last Reward for the PS4 and Vita in Zero Escape: The Nonary Games.
You can find even more new releases after the break. (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Tomb Raider (1996)
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon by checking in with Tomb Raider (1996), the debut adventure of one of gaming’s most famous female characters. Here’s a teaser…
For better or worse, Lara Croft is the most famous woman in all of gaming. But all her fame might be a fluke, because the developers behind her creation claim it was all an accident.
Formed in the late 80s, Core Design was an unlikely candidate to be creating a wide open 3D title like Tomb Raider. The developer’s biggest claim to fame at the time was Rick Dangerous, a game that could charitably be called an “homage” to Indiana Jones. Other gamers might remember Chuck Rock, a platformer created by Core that starred a dimwitted caveman. But like many British developers of the time, they didn’t think about their limitations and just went for it. This definitely applied to Toby Gard, the artist behind Lara Croft’s original look.
Like Rick Dangerous, Lara began life as a man with no name that bore a striking resemblance to Harrison Ford. Fearing a lawsuit, Gard redrew the character as a woman and began tinkering with a number of different personalities. The artist told IGN in 2008 that the proto-Tomb Raider began life as a “sociopathic blonde” before morphing into a muscle woman, a “flat topped hip hopster,” and a “Nazi-like militant in a baseball cap.” None of these looks fit the game that Core envisioned, but Gard’s final pass at it proved to be the winner. Laura Cruz, “a tough South American woman in a long braid and hot pants,” was born.
We’ll never know if Laura Cruz would have received the same reception, but Gard continued to tinker, and eventually, the character became a descendant of British royalty when the developers plucked the name Lara Croft out of a City of Derby phone book. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when Gard was playing with a slider that controlled the size of Lara’s breasts and accidentally inflated them to 150% their original size. The Core Design team gathered around Gard’s computer and hooted their approval, even if the artist himself was skeptical of the character’s inflated curves.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
For Honor rises to the occasion as the best-selling game of February 2017
Ubisoft’s For Honor conquered all comers during its first month of availability, as The NPD Group declared it the best-selling game during February 2017. The multiplayer brawler faced some tough competition, but it emerged victorious on the retail battlefield, besting both Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (#2) and Grand Theft Auto V (#3).
The only other new release to crack last month’s top ten was Nioh, an action RPG developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo.
But the overall retail health of the industry was on a downward swing in February. According to GamesIndustry.biz, hardware and software sales were down: “Total hardware sales amounted to $204 million, down 30% from last year. Console and portable software dropped 14% to $344.2 million, PC software fell 26% to just $25 million, while accessories fell 21% to $150.8 million. All told, industry sales took a 21% hit, declining from $918.7 million to $724 million.”
However, it seems likely that the successful launch of the Nintendo Switch (and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) will change that trajectory in March.
The complete list of best-selling games from February 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, For Honor, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 17, NBA 2K17, Nioh, NPD, Overwatch, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Nintendo Download: Binding of Isaac Aftermath+, World of Goo, Picross 3D, more
The Switch’s lineup of games continues to grow with five new releases as part of today’s Nintendo Download.
First up, we’ve got Binding of Isaac Aftermath+, an action-packed dungeon-crawler from Nicalis and Edmund McMillen. The procedurally-generated roguelike includes “more than 11,000 unique room configurations” and “a nearly endless variety of enemies, items, challenges, and secrets.”
Also available to download this week is a trio of Wii and Wii U re-releases from Tomorrow Corporation. Switch owners will be able to pick up physics-based puzzler World of Goo, fireplace adventure Little Inferno, or “puzzle game for nerds” Human Resource Machine. And speaking of re-releases, SNK and Hamster Corporation will bring The King of Fighters ’94, the first game in the King of Fighters franchise, to the Switch.
Nintendo will also add Picross 3D, which was originally released for the DS in 2010, to the Wii U eShop.
You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Review: Death Takes Over in a Perfect Prequel
Yacht Club Games has built a strong reputation over the years for their ability to deconstruct, modernize, and regenerate the side-scrolling platformer. Using Ducktales and Mega Man as a template, the original Shovel Knight was a game that honored the past, while only being able to exist in the present. Meanwhile, its first expansion, Plague of Shadows, brought back the gadget platformer in a unique adventure that felt more like a true sequel than an add-on.
The developer must have had the same thought, as Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is the first game in the franchise’s rapidly-growing expanded universe to be available as a standalone game as well as a free expansion. Widening their playing field has also lead Yacht Club to tackle the cinematic storytelling and swordplay found in the NES era’s ninja platformers, best exemplified by Ninja Gaiden. (more…)
NIS America will also release Culdcept Revolt in a special Limited Edition
Culdcept Revolt made its Japanese debut back in July, but NIS America wants to ensure players are just as impressed by its US launch. The publisher has announced that a special Limited Edition for the game will be available alongside the Standard Edition and the digital download on the 3DS eShop.
Culdcept Revolt’s Limited Edition will be sold exclusively through the NIS America Online Store. Players who purchase the premium version of the newest entry in a franchise that melds Monopoly with Magic: The Gathering will receive the following extra items:
Culdcept Revolt Limited Edition
- Culdcept Revolt for Nintendo 3DS
- Collectors Box
- Hardcover Art Book
- Official Soundtrack (1 Disc)
- Oversized Foil Cards (Set of 7)
- Metal Culdcept Revolt Dice (Set of 2)
Culdcept Revolt’s Limited Edition will be priced at $59.99, and NIS America will release the game in the US this Summer.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Culdcept Revolt
Danganronpa 1-2 Reload, Styx: Shards of Darkness, Momodora, more added to PS Store
With the northeast buried under a literal mountain of snow, now’s a great time to explore this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store…
After slowly gaining momentum with PS Vita and PC players over the past few years, NIS America will bring the first two murder mysteries in the Danganronpa franchise (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair) to the PS4 this week as Danganronpa 1-2 Reload. Also available to download this week for the PS4 is Styx: Shards of Darkness, a stealth adventure from Cyanide Studio and Focus Home Interactive.
And later this week, PS4 owners will be able to download Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, a “MetroidVania” with “highly satisfying combat and gorgeous pixel art.”
So keep shoveling and dig into more details about all these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc