Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Switch
Roundguard is a Peggle-inspired roguelike that’s launching on March 13
Players will get a chance to flex their Peggle muscles next week as they explore the procedurally-generated dungeons of Roundguard, which will be released for the PC, Switch, and Xbox One on March 13 (a PS4 launch will follow “shortly after” that date).
The three members of the Roundguard (a Warrior, a Rogue, and a Wizard) will hurl themselves into the game’s dungeons (and off the walls) to complete quests and collect gold. But rather than crawl their way through torchlit hallways, players will use Peggle’s pinball-like gameplay mechanics to find the exit and return with the loot:
About Roundguard
Roundguard is a bouncy dungeon crawler with pinball physics, lots of loot, and a randomized castle full of oddballs. Press your luck against hordes of dangerously cute monsters and challenging roguelike elements in this all-round bouncy adventure!Features
- Bouncy Fun: Intuitive pinball physics-based gameplay like no other dungeon crawler.
- Multiple Classes: Play as the Warrior, the Rogue, or the Wizard, each with their own unique skills, items, and cheeky sense of humor.
- Randomized Dungeon: Each time you play, levels are procedurally generated, and quest events and elite monsters are randomly placed.
- Permadeath with Benefits: When you die, you’ll have a chance to bring a special trinket with you on your next run. The more gold you grab, the more powerful the trinket!
- A Cast of Oddballs: Chat with the castle’s colorful cast to pick up quests. You’ll meet a goblin poet, a smarmy teenage skeleton, a dark elf master chef, and tons more.
- Lots of Loot: Over 100 items and trinkets, each with effects that present strategic choices and combo possibilities.
- Show Off Your Skills: Compete on the leaderboards and try to master all the challenging, rule-bending relics.
A new trailer for Roundguard, which was developed by Wonderbelly Games and will be published by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, has been embedded above.
See more of the Trials of Mana remake in this new Gameplay Trailer
Trials of Mana, the third game in the Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu franchise, was originally released for Japan’s Super Famicom all the way back in 1995. But in a cruel twist of fate, it didn’t make its way to the US until 2019 (as part of the Collection of Mana compilation). Thankfully, we won’t have to wait quite so long to play the upcoming remake, which will be released on April 24 for the PC, PS4, and Switch.
Square Enix recently unveiled a brand new Gameplay Trailer for Trials of Mana that gives prospective players a look at some of the changes made to the game in the last two decades, including a gorgeous visual upgrade, character classes, hundreds of abilities, and its unique branching story structure:
Square Enix today released a brand-new trailer for Trials of Mana, a full, high-definition remake of the third entry in the classic Mana series. Launching on April 24, the game will bring the beloved story and characters to the modern era with real-time combat, beautiful 3D graphics, and updated gameplay.
Originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 3 in 1995, Trials of Mana immerses players in an unforgettable adventure filled with exciting gameplay, memorable heroes, and villains. Players will craft varying experiences by selecting a party of three from six unique characters as they embark on the adventure of a lifetime, upgrading their characters’ classes into more power forms, learning over 300 different abilities, and discovering a world of secrets and mysteries to explore.
Trials of Mana’s new Gameplay Trailer has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch
Tagged Trials of Mana
Control and Death Stranding set a BAFTA Games Awards record with 11 nominations apiece
This year’s BAFTA Games Awards are likely to break some records as the nominating process has already yielded two games that can lay claim to the honor of “highest number of nominations in a single year.”
Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding both earned 11 nominations this year, one up on Sony Santa Monica’s God of War, which earned 10 nominations ahead of last year’s ceremony. While both games received a bucketful of nominations, only Control will be competing for the BAFTA’s “Game of the Year” prize, and it’ll be going up against ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, Nintendo’s Luigi’s Mansion 3, Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and House House’s Untitled Goose Game.
The 2020 BAFTA Games Awards will be held on April 2. You can find a complete list of the nominees in all categories after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Untitled Goose Game
Wallachia: Reign of Dracula mixes Castlevania and Contra and its available for the PC now
Migami Games mixed together a little inspiration from Castlevania and a little more from Contra to help create Wallachia: Reign of Dracula, which is now available to download for the PC through Steam. The side-scroller tries to bypass the “typical vampire myths,” but Dracula still looks very hard to kill in the Launch Trailer embedded above:
Wallachia: Reign of Dracula, is an epic adventure in the land of horror. The year is 1462. Prince Vlad Dracula is six bloody years into his second reign. After losing the throne once before in 1448, Dracula vowed not to let it happen again. After years of exile, he regained power in 1456 and started purging the land of anyone who might oppose him.
Wallachia is an insane action platformer depicting a world of ferocious fights. With spears, arrows, or sword in hand, your survival depends on your ability to fight. Trust no one, embody the Princess, and enter a deadly journey to claim your kingdom back.
Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is also currently in development for the Switch, and it’ll be available for Nintendo’s newest console at a later date.
Game Developers Conference postponed amid fears of coronavirus
The organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced that this year’s edition of the annual gathering has been postponed.
While the announcement on their official website doesn’t name the coronavirus (more formally known as COVID-19) as the cause, it comes after dozens of exhibitors and media outlets (including Sony, Microsoft, and Activision) dropped out of the show to protect their employees from coming into contact with the disease during travel:
After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we’re genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time.
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
GDC 2020 will now take place sometime this Summer, but in an FAQ posted alongside the announcement, the organizers confirmed that the Twitch livestreams for the Independent Games Festival Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards will still happen as planned in March.
The Wonderful 101 Remastered will be released on May 19
With their Kickstarter campaign entering its final days, Platinum Games and Nighthawk Interactive have announced a release date for The Wonderful 101 Remastered. The campaign’s backers are still on track to receive the game in April, but all PC, PS4, and Switch owners will get a second chance to play the quirky superhero game on May 19.
Along with confirmation of the release date, Game Designer Hideki Kamiya published a heartfelt message to fans of the game on Platinum’s official website:
Re-Introducing the Wonderful 101
Hello, everyone. Platinum Games Chief Game Designer Hideki Kamiya here.
About seven years ago, we released The Wonderful 101. I’ve moved up to become a member of the Platinum Games executive board, but back in those days, I didn’t think very much about the business end of things (okay, I’ll admit that maybe I still don’t). I devoted all of my attention to creating games that met my own personal standards. The Wonderful 101 was the sixth game I’d directed throughout my career. Unfortunately, I can’t say it was much of a success, from a business standpoint.
But I’ve also never thought of it as a failure. I didn’t back then, and I don’t today. That’s because, to a game creator, a game is only a failure if it disappoints the gamers who play it. From the start, The Wonderful 101 didn’t quite reach a large enough audience for me to clearly call it either way.
So regardless of how The Wonderful 101 fared in the marketplace the first time around, I’m considering this a chance to show it to the world again. I’m looking forward to seeing how it measures up.
The Wonderful 101 has gotten this miraculous second chance thanks to all of you who’ve told us you wanted to play it, as well as the passionate PG staff who worked on it with me. We’re delighted to see it return on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
This isn’t just a simple port, either. We’ve tuned the controls for each new platform and made several adjustments that should make it easier to grasp and play. On top of that, we’ve improved the image quality and frame rate to suit modern hardware. On the whole, I’d say The Wonderful 101 Remastered is the definitive edition of the game!
We’ve loaded The Wonderful 101 Remastered with as much Platinum spirit as we could. I sincerely hope you’ll all play it and let us know what you think!
If you’re attending PAX East this weekend in Boston, you’ll be able to get some demo time with The Wonderful 101 Remastered at Platinum’s booth. A short Release Date Trailer for the game has also been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch
Tagged PAX East 2020, The Wonderful 101
See the first Gameplay Trailer for Alien Hominid Invasion
PAX East kicked off this morning, and The Behemoth has used the annual game expo to give fans a chance to try out their next project, Alien Hominid Invasion. But for those of us who couldn’t make the trek to Boston, they also uploaded a brand new Gameplay Trailer for the game, which has been embedded above.
The short clip gives us a nice peak at the developer’s commitment to “reimagine” Alien Hominid for a new generation of players. In addition to showcasing a variety of new ways to beat the dreaded Agents, Alien Hominid Invasion will include four-player cooperative play, a non-linear world map, procedurally-generated levels, and customizable alien mutations that grant superpowers such as speed, healing, and flight:
Alien Hominid Invasion is packed with chaos, mayhem, and a whole lot of explosions. Unlock and equip an arsenal of weapons and boosts, level up, then beam down to invade Earth with up to three other friends. Abduct intel from your enemies to sabotage their plans, observe the oddities of human life, blow up bosses, and mutate into a variety of powerful Alien forms in order to take down the not-so-secret Agents that are dead set on ruining your day.
Alien Hominid Invasion doesn’t have a release date, but it’s currently in development for the PC, Switch, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Alien Hominid Invasion, PAX East 2020
Yacht Club Games announces Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon
It looks like Shovel Knight is spinning off once again, as Yacht Club Games announced Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon during a livestream earlier today.
According to the developer’s official website, Pocket Dungeon was designed as a unique “puzzle adventure mashup” that brings together the world of falling block puzzle games with a dungeon-crawling twist. Shovel Knight will need to keep his wits about him (and his trademark sense of humor) as he teams up with Puzzle Knight to navigate the mysterious Pocket Dungeon:
Delve with Shovel Knight into the depths of the Pocket Dungeon in an action-packed puzzle adventure mashup like none other! Join your mysterious guide Puzzle Knight as you shovel through scads of foes, procure new equipment, and battle bosses both familiar and new. Explore a tale with endless twists and turns, quest as your favorite heroes, and even challenge a friend for fast-paced head-to-head competition in Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon!
Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon will include multiple playable characters, each with a unique style, and players will be able to compete in a single-player Story Mode or two-player Versus Mode. And Yacht Club’s musical maestro, Jake Kaufman, will once again provide the soundtrack.
Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon is currently in development for the Switch and fans will be able to try it out at this weekend’s PAX East expo in Boston. The game’s first trailer has been embedded above.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged PAX East 2020