Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Retro
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is finished; Coming to Switch in March and other platforms in April
Yacht Club Games has announced (via Twitter) that they’ve completed development on Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, the latest expansion to their NES-inspired platformer, Shovel Knight. The developer expects to launch Specter of Torment first for the Nintendo Switch in March. It’ll later be available as a free update on all other platforms (3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One) in April.
The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove compilation (as well as the Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows standalone campaigns) should also be available for the Switch in March, with additional platforms to follow a month later.
Specter Knight’s campaign will actually take place before the events of Shovel Knight, and will depict how The Enchantress was able to recruit the evil Order of No Quarter. If you’re interested in learning how it all went down, Yacht Club Games will be attending this year’s PAX East expo to give fans a taste of Specter of Torment before it launches. The Boston-based convention kicks off on March 10.
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2017, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
NIS America announces release dates for Danganronpa V3, Disgaea 5 Complete, more
NIS America announced release dates for a huge batch of upcoming games last night, including their Nintendo Switch debut (Disgaea 5 Complete) and a highly-anticipated sequel on the PS4 and Vita (Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony).
Ready? Here we go…
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4, PS Vita)
- North America: September 26, 2017
- Europe: September 29, 2017
- Disgaea 5 Complete (Nintendo Switch)
- North America: May 23, 2017
- Europe: May 26, 2017
- Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (Steam)
- Worldwide: April 24, 2017
- Cladun Returns: This Is Sengoku! (PS Vita, Steam)
- North America: June 6, 2017
- Europe: June 9, 2017
- Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy (Steam)
- Worldwide: May 16, 2017
- Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy (Steam)
- Worldwide: March, 27, 2017
These release date announcements were made during NIS America’s “2017 Press Event” livestream last night. However, if you missed the big show, you can watch a replay on the publisher’s Twitch channel right now.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita
Tagged Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
Culdcept Revolt will be released for 3DS in Summer 2017
NIS America made dozens of announcements last night during a special livestream that fully unveiled their 2017 release schedule. Fans of the Culdcept franchise, their Monopoly/Magic: The Gathering hybrid, should be very pleased with confirmation of a Summer 2017 launch for Culdcept Revolt for the 3DS.
Like previous games in the series, Culdcept Revolt will include a story-based Quest Mode where players battle other Cepters (wizards who can wield magical cards as weapons) and attempt to save the Princess/the kingdom/the world. Developer Omiya Soft will also include local and online multiplayer battling in the game.
Culdcept Revolt will be released for the 3DS this Summer, and its debut trailer can be viewed above.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Culdcept Revolt
The Video Game Canon: Space Invaders
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at the simple, yet addicting, tricks that Taito used to create Space Invaders. Here’s a teaser…
“Drop down, increase speed, and reverse direction!”
Somehow, the writers of Futurama found a way to sum up the essence of Space Invaders (in 2002’s “Anthology of Interest II”) with a single succinct sentence. And yet, in the days and years after its release in 1978, the game was considered something of a phenomenon. Even today, an oft-repeated urban legend claims that obsessive Space Invaders fans caused a shortage of the 100 yen coin in Japan.
Obviously, dropping a coin into an arcade slot will keep it in circulation, so it would have been impossible for Space Invaders to be the cause of any shortage. Though one thing those obsessive fans did do was raise the profile of the game’s titular aliens so that now they’re something of a mascot for all video games.
But it all started with, “Drop down, increase speed, and reverse direction!” Which as a formula was later refined and improved upon by Namco when they created Galaxian and Galaga.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in Features, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon
Tagged Space Invaders
Weird Al Yankovic recorded a Pac-Man parody in the 80s… and now we can finally hear it
Weird Al Yankovic’s career has spanned more than 40 years, but in all that time, the geeky icon only rarely delves into doing game-themed parodies. Perhaps that’s because of a bad experience he had early in his career with “Pac-Man,” a parody of “Taxman” by The Beatles.
Speaking to Nerdist, Weird Al believes an overzealous lawyer initially rejected the song without ever listening to it: “I’d like to think that none of the Beatles ever actually heard the song back then. It was just some office [clerk] whose whole job is to litigate and prosecute people for copyright infringement.”
However, Weird Al would later become friends with George Harrison’s son Dhani, and he helped work out a deal to include “Pac-Man” on Squeeze Box: The Complete Recordings of “Weird Al” Yankovic, an upcoming retrospective box set. Squeeze Box will be available this Fall on vinyl and CD, and it’ll include every album from Weird Al’s career housed in a replica accordion (of course). A 15th disc, Medium Rarities, will feature several unreleased songs (like “Pac-Man”), as well as alternate takes on more popular parodies.
But if you can’t wait that long, you can listen to “Pac-Man” at Nerdist right now.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard shambles to the top of January 2017’s best-selling games report
It looks like there’s still some life left in the Resident Evil franchise. The latest game in the series, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, topped the NPD Group’s report on the best-selling games in January 2017. The only other new release to crack the top ten was Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, which camein at #6.
“With only five days in the market, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was the best-selling game in January. The last time Capcom had the best-selling game of the month (in dollar sales) was in March 2009 with Resident Evil 5,” NPD Analyst Sam Naji told GamesIndustry.biz.
Overall spending on game titles was up 14% last month over January 2016, thanks mostly to continued demand for 2016’s biggest releases including Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (#2), Battlfield 1 (#4), and NBA 2K17 (#5). And Grand Theft Auto V (#3) continues to burn up the charts more than four years after it was first released.
The complete list of best-selling games from January 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Tank Troopers, Ogre Battle 64, more
It’s war in this week’s Nintendo eShop update!
First up is Tank Troopers, a tank battling game for the 3DS published and developed by Nintendo. Players will choose their tank, customize it, and then go into battle against their friends in six-player local multiplayer battles. But if you’d rather go it alone, Tank Troopers also includes a single-player mode with 30 unique stages.
Also available to download this week is Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, a tactical RPG originally released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. Wii U owners will be able to take control of Magnus Gallant, a nobleman who has to decide whether to desert his kingdom and fight with the rebellion, or “turn a blind eye to the evils of his rotten society.”
More information on both games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
For Honor, Sniper Elite 4, Ride 2, more added to PS Store
Ubisoft’s epic battle between Knights and Vikings and Samurai, For Honor, is now available to download through the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Players will be able to choose their Faction and compete in the game’s online multiplayer battles or fight through the single-player Campaign to claim ultimate victory.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is Sniper Elite 4, Rebellion’s latest World War II-era shooter. This time, players will engage in missions on the Italian front and attempt to “liberate wartime Italy from the grip of Fascism.”
If you’d prefer to speed around a racetrack instead of going to war, Milestone will release Ride 2 for download on the PS4 this week. Offering more than 170 bikes, this motorcycle racing sim includes plenty of options.
Finally this week, Nidhogg developer Messhof will release Flywrench for the PS4. In Flywrench, players will need to quickly flip the color of their spacecraft to deftly maneuver around a series of obstacles.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged For Honor, Sniper Elite 4