Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Wii U
Nintendo Download: Splatoon 2, Boost Beast, Fate Extella The Umbral Star, more
Nintendo’s quest to make everyone love the Switch continues this week with the launch of Splatoon 2.
The team-based shooter will be available to download from the Nintendo eShop this Friday, and players will get the chance to compete in several different competitive multiplayer modes, as well as the cooperative Salmon Run mode, and a single-player Campaign.
Two other options are available through the eShop for Switch owners today, including Boost Beast, a match-3 puzzler from Arc System Works, and Samurai Shodown, a fighting game that was originally released for the NeoGeo in 1993.
Finally, Fate Extella: The Umbral Star will be available to download for the Switch beginning on Tuesday, July 25. Fate Extella: The Umbral Star is the first action game in the Fate series, as well as the first to appear on a Nintendo console.
You can learn more about all of these games (and the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop) after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Splatoon 2
Max Brooks’s Minecraft: The Island novel is now available at bookstores everywhere
Mojang teamed up with Max Brooks (the author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) to create the first official tie-in novel based on Minecraft. Titled Minecraft: The Island, the book is targeted at a younger audience and it’s available on store shelves today.
When writing Minecraft: The Island, Brooks found inspiration in classics like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe to tell his own tale of survival and mystery:
Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!
The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island… like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.
In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.
You can read the first chapter right now at the novel’s official website.
Nintendo Download: Hey! Pikmin demo, Miitopia demo, five new Switch games, more
Nintendo is planning to release several big games this Summer for the 3DS, but they’re giving handheld players a chance to try out these upcoming games titles with the launch of two special demos on the Nintendo eShop.
Hey! Pikmin will be released on July 28, and the demo asks players to “use the touch screen to throw Pikmin into action, solve environmental puzzles and survive hostile wildlife.” Miitopia will also be available on July 28, and its “Casting Call Demo” lets players add Mii characters to three different in-game video trailers for the RPG.
A quartet of new games for the Switch are also available to download today including Fatal Fury Special, a NeoGeo classic; I and Me, a puzzle platformer that stars two cats; De Mambo, a multiplayer arena game with one-button attacks; Death Squared, a puzzle game about “cooperation, communication, and robot explosions”; and Levels Plus, a puzzler with sliding tiles.
You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)
Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma is “gathering ideas” for next Legend of Zelda game but it will require a “long period” of development
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has been a massive hit for Nintendo. It’s garnered rave reviews from critics and fans alike, and it instantly solidified the Switch as piece of must-have tech for a consolemaker in desperate need of a win. But if you were hoping that Nintendo was secretly working on the next game in franchise, I’ve got some bad news for you.
Franchise Producer Eiji Aonuma recently sat down with Gamereactor, and he confirmed that Nintendo is currently in the “gathering ideas” phase for a new entry in the Zelda series, but he also said that the game is still “far” off and will require a “long period” of development:
Gamereactor: Regarding the next Zelda, is there a schedule settled on yet? Could you give us any exclusive insights into that?
Eiji Aonuma: No, you will not get a scoop! Sorry, my dear friend [laughs]. We have no plans for a future Zelda, we are still far from all this unfortunately for you. Today, I’m at a stage where I’m trying to gather a number of ideas for a sequel, but I cannot do it alone. It’s a lot of work that will have to be done over a long period of time, and we’re still far from having planned anything. Leave us a little time…
For now, it looks like Zelda fans will have to make do with Breath of the Wild’s Expansion Pass. The first add-on, The Master Trials, was released two weeks ago. The second, The Champion’s Ballad, will be available this Fall.
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo Download: Kirby’s Blowout Blast, Metal Slug 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids, more
Nintendo spent the morning delivering a huge dose of news for Splatoon 2 during the latest Nintendo Direct presentation, but the consolemaker also spent the afternoon updating the Nintendo eShop…
First up, 3DS owners will get the chance to download Kirby’s Blowout Blast today. Based on a minigame from Kirby: Planet Robobot, Kirby’s Blowout Blast asks players to inhale foes and blow them away across more than 25 3D stages.
Switching over to the Switch storefront, Nintendo’s newest console is now home to Metal Slug 2, a side-scrolling shooter that originally debuted on the NeoGeo in 1998. This time around, players will be able to choose from four different characters as they try to defeat Morden’s Rebel Army.
Finally today, Wii U owners will be able to download Rayman Raving Rabbids, which was originally released for the Wii in 2006.
You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break. (more…)
Yacht Club continues to joke about Shovel Knight 64… and talks seriously about King Knight expansion
Developers from Yacht Club Games have joked about creating Shovel Knight 64 for a few years now. But the company’s “Pixel Artmancer,” Nick Wozniak, revealed that their fanciful daydreaming about a Shovel Knight sequel that uses the blocky polygonal style made famous by the N64 might be real during an E3 2017 interview with App Trigger:
App Trigger: I’ve seen a little bit of Yacht Club talking about working on more Shovel Knight, or more things besides Shovel Knight after all this is done. What would your personal preference be? If you could work on anything, what would it be?
Nick Wozniak: Anything? I think one of the things we want to work on in the far future is definitely like a Shovel Knight 64, a 3D platformer. We would all love that. We all love Mario 64 to pieces and would just love to be able to jump into that.
Of course, this wasn’t an official announcement for Shovel Knight 64. Wozniak said that Yacht Club doesn’t just want to be known as “the Shovel Knight company,” and that they’re currently hard at work on “something new.”
However, the developer is also putting the finishing touches on Shovel Knight’s King Knight expansion, and Wozniak also had a bit to say about the game’s final add-on:
App Trigger: [King Knight is] great. He’s the light-hearted guy. Even though you guys gave us choices at the beginning of Shovel Knight, your eye is drawn more toward King Knight, so I think that’s the one a lot of people start with.
Nick Wozniak: He’s great. He’s the first guy you probably encounter, and he sets the tone of the rest of the game. You know what to expect, kind of, when you see King Knight. He’s a joke, even in his name. He’s not a king, he’s a knight who’s kingly, and that’s ridiculous and stupid and it sets the bar for your expectations of what the game is and what the knights are. His campaign is going to be a big departure from the very tragic story that Specter Knight was, but it will be interesting and focused on his journey to becoming King Knight. I’m not sure what the timeline is now, we’re still working through what it is, but it’ll be goofy.
Yacht Club has previously said they want to release the King Knight campaign before the end of the year, so it shouldn’t be too long before we can all be royals.
The Master Trials expansion for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now available
The Master Trials, the first expansion for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now available to download through the Nintendo eShop for the Switch and Wii U.
Players who purchase the Expansion Pass will be able to participate in the “Trial of the Sword” challenge, a wave-based dungeon that will “awaken” the Master Sword when completed. New armor pieces, a more challenging Master Mode, and other additions to the game will also be included in The Master Trials:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Expansion Pass: The Master Trials
More adventures await in the Master Trials pack. By completing the Trial of the Sword challenge, Link will prove that he has grown worthy, and the Master Sword will be awakened to always be in its glowing, powered-up state while usable. Master Mode ups the challenge, Hero’s Path mode tracks 200 hours of footsteps on the map, the Travel Medallion creates a warp point, eight new armor items offer unique effects, and the Korok Mask helps locate Koroks.
The Master Trials is available as of Breath of the Wild’s Expansion Pass ($19.99), and cannot be purchased on its own. But players who own it will also receive access to a second downloadable expansion, The Champion’s Ballad, that’ll be available this Fall.
And in case you missed it, the Nintendo Treehouse team recorded an in-depth look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Expansion Pass: The Master Trials during this year’s E3 Expo. You can find the video after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged E3 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo Download: Mighty Gunvolt Burst, GoNNER, more
It’s time for another look at the weekly Nintendo Download, and two new side-scrollers have been added to the Nintendo eShop…
First up is Mighty Gunvolt Burst, a retro-themed 3DS side-scroller from Inti Creates that features characters from Azure Striker Gunvolt (Gunvolt) and Mighty No. 9 (Beck). Unlike the mashup franchise’s “bite-sized” first installment, Mighty Gunvolt Burst is a “full-sized” game with “a much deeper and more expansive world.”
Also available to download today is GoNNER, a roguelike side-scroller for the Switch from Raw Fury and Art in Heart. According to the developers, players will follow the “largely misunderstood and altruistic Ikk” in his quest to cheer up a giant land-bound whale named Sally.
You can learn more about both of these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Mighty Gunvolt Burst