Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Wii U
A Green Thursday for The Division… it was the best-selling game of March 2016
Tom Clancy’s The Division deals with the horrific aftermath of a terrorist attack on New York City on Black Friday, but everything came up green for Ubisoft last month. According to The NPD Group (as reported by GamesIndustry.biz), the multiplayer shooter took the top spot as the best-selling game of March 2016.
A bevy of new releases helped the retail game sector perform just as well in 2016 as it did in 2015. That includes The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD at #3, EA Sports UFC 2 at #5, MLB The Show 16 at #6, and Pokken Tournament at #7. And don’t worry, Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft continue to hang around the top ten, at #4 and #10, respectively.
A complete look at last month’s top ten best-selling titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, NBA 2K16, NPD, Pokken Tournament, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Tom Clancy's The Division
Nintendo Download: Bravely Second, Another Round of SNES Classics on 3DS, more
It’s a big day for the Nintendo eShop as more than a dozen new titles are now available to download through the digital storefront on the 3DS and Wii U.
Leading the way is tomorrow’s release of Bravely Second: End Layer, an RPG sequel from Square Enix that continues the story they began to tell in Bravely Default. Designed as a throwback to the turn-based RPGs of old, Bravely Second asks 3DS owners to rescue Agnes Oblige and save the kingdom of Luxendarc.
Speaking of throwbacks, Nintendo is flooding their Virtual Console service with new releases this week. The 3DS eShop is now home to a trio of certifiable Super NES classics… The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. Meanwhile, Wii U owners can now download Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, a DS game that took the world by storm back in 2006.
Finally this week, Bandai Namco’s Lost Reavers, a free-to-play co-op game for up to four players, is now available in a “Beta Test Version.” Wii U owners can put it to the test now ahead of its full release on April 28.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Bravely Second: End Layer
Nintendo is teaming up with Nickelodeon for a SpongeBob Splatfest
Brace yourselves… the SpongeBob Splatfest is coming.
Nintendo is teaming up with Nickelodeon to decide, once and for all, who is the greatest resident of Bikini Bottom. Players in the US and Europe will be able to visit Splatoon‘s Inkopolis Plaza today to register their choice for SpongeBob SquarePants or his starfish pal, Patrick… even though everyone knows the best character on that show is the squirrel in the spacesuit (Google tells me her name is Sandy).
This jumbo-sized Splatfest begins on Saturday, April 23, at 9:00 AM (Eastern Time), and will be the first time that North American and European players can be matched together. Participating Inklings (but not Squidward) will be able to splat it out in Turf War for 30 hours and the Splatfest will end on Sunday, April 24, at 3:00 PM.
Now, someone get that freakin’ theme song out of my head.
Disasterpeace’s soundtrack to Hyper Light Drifter is now available to download
The haunting music of Hyper Light Drifter has captivated prospective players ever since the game’s first trailer was released way back in 2013. Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less from Richard “Disasterpeace” Vreeland, the maestro behind Mini Metro, Fez, and It Follows.
Yesterday, the composer released the full soundtrack to Hyper Light Drifter through his official website. You can listen to the entire album, which clocks in at just over two hours, in your browser or you can download it via Bandcamp for $5.
Hyper Light Drifter, a Zelda-like adventure in a heavily pixelated world, was released for the PC on March 31. A PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One release is planned for later this year.
Tonight’s Splatoon update will add eight new weapons to the game
Almost three months after delivering the final “major” update to Splatoon, Nintendo is putting the final brush strokes on a “minor” update to the game. The “Version 2.7.0 Update” will go live at 10:00 PM (Eastern Time) tonight and apply a number of bug fixes and adjustments to Splatoon. The patch will also include “Sheldon’s Picks Volume 1,” a new series of weapons that can be purchased from the Ammo Knights weapon shop.
Naturally, the ever-reliable Squid Research Lab is on the case with details and screenshots for all eight new weapons including the Wasabi Splattershot, Berry Splattershot Pro, Fresh Squiffer, Permanent Inkbrush, Soda Slosher, Bamboozler 14 Mk III, Tempered Dynamo Roller, and Refurbished Mini Splatling.
Full patch notes for the “Version 2.7.0 Update” will be available on Nintendo.com shortly.
Insert Quarter: What Does the Return of Nintendo’s Red Logo Mean?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
During the Wii’s heyday, Nintendo dropped the iconic red coloring from their logo and switched to a sleek silver shade. Combined with the smooth white of the Wii chassis, the rebranding gave Nintendo an air of cool that is typically reserved for the design-obsessed Apple. But after a while, many fans began to feel that draining the color out of the logo drained some of the fun out of Nintendo.
Nintendo Enthusiast’s A.K. Rahming is one of those fans and he argues that Nintendo’s red resurrection might be a signal that the company is getting ready to bring back that fun-loving spirit with the upcoming launch of the NX:
Nintendo is known for dropping major surprises, but the company’s latest surprise has a lot of folks in the gaming community quite pleased. Nintendo of America has recently done a full re-branding of their logo back to the classic red and white. The whole company transformed to the minimalist gray-white color scheme with the dawn of the Wii and DS era, and this branding went on to continue for the current Wii U and 3DS era (albeit with a little hint of color provided from the logos of both systems).
The full article is available for your perusal at Nintendo Enthusiast.
Nintendo Download: Game & Watch Gallery 4, Super Robo Mouse, Epic Dumpster Bear, more
Fans of weird and wacky games will likely find something of interest in the quintet of new titles that’s now available to download through the Nintendo eShop…
First up is Game & Watch Gallery 4, a minigame collection that attempts to recreate several of Nintendo’s Game & Watch handheld devices. Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, Game & Watch Gallery 4 is now available to download for the Wii U. It includes both the original minigames, as well as “Modern” versions starring Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and others.
Also available for the Wii U this week is Super Robo Mouse, an overhead game where you navigate a robotic mouse through a maze; Epic Dumpster Bear, a platformer where you control a “dumpster bear” who is very angry about humans messing with his forest; and Mojikara: A Clever Emoji Match Game, a puzzler about matching emojis.
Owners of the 3DS handheld will be able to download a single new game this week, Doll Fashion Atelier. It’s a dollmaker game where players can choose from five different doll types (Pretty, Gothic, Victorian, Princess, or Antique) and customize them to their heart’s content.
More information about all of these slightly-left-of-center games can be found after the break. (more…)
Tumblestone will be playable at PAX East 2016 and it’ll be released this Summer
Tumblestone is a massive match-3 puzzler from The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild that continues to get more massive with each passing day. Set to launch this Summer, Tumblestone will include a 40-hour Story Mode, an endless Arcade Mode, and over 1,000 completely unique Quests. The game will also be playable at this year’s PAX East convention, which kicks off April 22, in the Indie Megabooth area.
Naturally, such a massive game will launch on a truly massive number of platforms. Tumblestone will be released for the PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One, and the PC (Windows, Mac, and Linux) through Steam. It’ll also be available for mobile devices (Android, iOS, and Windows) and microconsoles like the Amazon Fire TV and the Ouya. A Facebook app is also in the works.
And with a little prodding, I’m sure we could get The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to develop a version of Tumblestone for your toaster.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2016, Tumblestone