Posts with tag Majesco
E308: Away screens shuffle into view
Majesco bringing Away toward North America in January
The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly features a nice preview of Mistwalker's Away: Shuffle Dungeon, which also happens to contain a nice bit of news: the game is given a January 2009 release date for North America, with Majesco publishing. This is somewhat surprising since AQ Interactive, who is publishing in Japan, owns an American game publisher; in addition, dungeon crawling is pretty divergent from the kind of casual games Majesco generally publishes.Not that we're complaining, of course. Away looks awfully clever, and we're just happy we'll get to play it. One warning: given the history of this game, we wouldn't get our hopes up for it to make January.
Majesco draws up PAL release for Marker Man
We don't just love MarkerMan for its imaginative physics-based puzzles, or because of the similarities it shares with the tremendous Pocket Physics. We also adore it because finally, for the first time since Pac-Man hit the scene, we have a character who is simple enough for us to draw effectively. Brilliantly, even. No longer will we have to endure the cruel snickering of DeviantARTists when we submit our crudely drawn tributes to Marth. The picture to the right isn't a piece of official MarkerMan art, but we'd totally forgive you for thinking it was!And now, European artists will be able to try and better our efforts, because Majesco has signed up the rights to publish MarkerMan in the region. For the Euro release, the camel case will be dropped from the title, with the game instead known as Marker Man Adventures. It launches there in early 2009.
In the meantime, if you want to use this image in your European campaign, Majesco, just drop us a line on 000-1337-1337, and we can discuss fees.
[Via press release]
I am Ugly Baby
This new gallery is an insult to babies all over the world, featuring pretty ghastly renders of a stereotypical bald little tyke. Babysitting Mania. It's a time-management simulation game, featuring teen girls taking charge over piles of babies in the most efficient way possible. These kinds of games can turn out to be pretty addictive, but the cuteness-challenged mascot isn't doing the game any favors so far.
Gallery: Babysitting Mania
[Via press release]
Cooking is so fun, cooking is so fun ... yay! Video is ready!
Cake Mania 2 is roasting away in the proverbial oven of development, ready to rock our socks on the DS. The original title was a bit on the non-good side, but hopefully this latest entry can pull something magical out of the baking tray.
Funnily enough, the above trailer claims that we will experience "cake-baking nirvana," reaching a higher plane of human existence localized entirely within our kitchens! If a lifetime of happiness isn't enough, CM2 features Endless Baking Mode -- for those who feel the need to get their cake on until the end of time.
Ice up that mouse and click through past the break for some extra screenshots. This is simulation with sugar, people.
Funnily enough, the above trailer claims that we will experience "cake-baking nirvana," reaching a higher plane of human existence localized entirely within our kitchens! If a lifetime of happiness isn't enough, CM2 features Endless Baking Mode -- for those who feel the need to get their cake on until the end of time.
Ice up that mouse and click through past the break for some extra screenshots. This is simulation with sugar, people.
Continue reading Cooking is so fun, cooking is so fun ... yay! Video is ready!
Carnival Games DS gets an equally unwelcome rival
With their queues, extortionate prices, dissatisfied workforces, and insistence on assaulting you with lights and noise at every turn, there aren't many activities that are less fun than attending a theme park. Here's one, though: playing a game that simulates these meccas of misery.
Then again, however curmudgeonly we are about amusement park games, it's not about to stop companies making the damn things. Following in the surprisingly creepy footsteps of Carnival Games DS is Wonder World Amusement Park from Majesco. Due for release this holiday, WWAP will feature "over two dozen mini-games and rides," with the touchscreen allowing players to "toss, drive, shoot, whack, fish and spin" their way throughout five themed zones. Triumphing in some of the minigames will in turn unlock "interactive rides," and eventually accessories for their characters.
"Our internal team is very excited to be developing original Majesco IP for such a strong, marketable concept," trumpeted Majesco Studios Santa Monica VP Bill Petro. Sure they are, Bill.
[Via press release]
Green game Ecolis now requires less green
With Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest already out in the U.S. and due for Europe on June 13th (interestingly, with the original Japanese title, Ecolis), there's no reason why anyone should import the Japanese game, right?Play Asia thinks differently and has marked down the environment-conscious RTS to an unbelievable $5! That's banoodles! Basically, starting today until next Tuesday, the game is now cheaper than most of the meals on Arby's menu! You could buy Ecolis/Eco-Creatures for less than the price of a chicken sandwich, a drink, and curly fries.
Speaking of Arby's curly fries, how frickin' delicious are Arby's curly fries? Maybe you should go out and buy some anyway, that way you can eat them while playing Ecolis. It might cheer you up after hours of navigating the game's Japanese menus and frustrating controls.
Gallery: Ecoris
Friday Video: Mama's famous recipe
This series of videos makes us happy, but it also makes us a little sad. Why? Because we had the idea a while ago to try a recipe using the exact ingredients, instructions, and timings found in a Cooking Mama game, and never actually had time to try it. And now Thwomp Factory has undertaken a very similar experiment. It's actually part of an ongoing series of theirs about making recipes based on video games! Check it out if you want to try some Contact or Harvest Moon-inspired cuisine.
They skip to the last hilarious step in Cooking Mama 2's chili dog recipe: catching all the ingredients with the bun. "Why does Mama make her chili dogs like this?" Thwomp Factory's Amelia wondered. "Does it improve the flavor, allowing the subtle spices of the chili to mature in the open air? Does it work up an appetite, with all that running around and panicking?" Mostly it makes a risible mess. But it's a surefire recipe for awesome videos.
[Via GameSetWatch]
I am a preview of Air Traffic Chaos!
IGN's hands-on of Sonic Powered's Air Traffic Chaos reveals crucial information about the simulation game --
Players tap on planes to see their status and options, and issue commands related to flight speed and choice of landing lane. In this way, monitoring the planes' status on the bottom screen, you guide planes taking off and landing. Each successful move awards points, and each level has a score quota to meet.
Chaos also features a glossary of air traffic control terms, in case you want to write angry comments about what the game does wrong, using accurate language.
New DS demos are the old DS demos
For those of you with a bad memory (or no desire to click links), the list of demos available has been placed past the break.
Boxart battle: Air Traffic Chaos U.S. vs. Japan
Speaking of that Japanese boxart, it's interesting to see the differences in marketing strategy evident from the contrast between the two. Majesco's box is very kid-friendly and cartoony, suggesting a casual, simplistic experience. But the Japanese box is all business: stock photos of airplanes and air traffic controllers hard at work, with a text bar at the bottom stating "You also become an air traffic controller on the DS!" It looks more like a training game than anything.
Taxi past the post break for larger images of both boxarts, as well as a couple of examples of what other boxes would look like with the Air Traffic Chaos exposition.
Continue reading Boxart battle: Air Traffic Chaos U.S. vs. Japan
Roll your eyes across these Rollin' Rascals videos
We don't have to tell you longtime readers how crazy we are for the puzzle games. When Majesco revealed Rollin' Rascals, we were taken back by the odd name and even odder representation of the titular rascals. Seriously, these are some odd looking critters! But, for some reason, it made us think of Chu Chu Rocket, and that is a good thing.
Now that we've checked out some videos of the game in action, we're even more excited to try it ourselves. We're not sure if we will be able to get past the act of erasing cute creatures, though. See what we mean in the video above, then head past the break for another trailer from the game.
Gallery: Rollin' Rascals
Continue reading Roll your eyes across these Rollin' Rascals videos
New York Times one half
With the release of Crosswords DS this week, will a $10 price cut compel you to buy New York Times Crosswords instead?Amazon's "Deal of the Day" happens to be everyone's favorite alf-loving crossword game (again). While $10 for any game is hard to resist, keep in mind that puzzles from the New York Times are tough -- make sure you have the mental fortitude before picking this one up. You might also want to note, though, that Mother's Day will be here soon, and this might make a nice, cheap gift for DS-owning moms.
Majesco puzzles DS owners with bizarre spherical animals
We think the puzzles in Majesco's newly announced Rollin' Rascals are actually based on moving the rotund critters around: players roll animals around to match them, causing the matched pair to disappear from the screen. But we think the real puzzle found within the game is: where did these limbless cartoon animals come from, and why have they been put into boxes?In addition to occupying the line between adorable and horrifying, Rollin' Rascals contains a feature that allows players to build their own "Kololohouse" for their Rascals. Hopefully the houses are built on flat land. Rollin' Rascals will be out in July for $20.
Gallery: Rollin' Rascals
New screens help make sense of Air Traffic Chaos
Work on Air Traffic Chaos seems to be flying along -- according to the latest screenshots, Majesco has got the whole English-text thing going now, which we find important in games like this. That's not to say we'll have any better luck understanding how to play this game in English than we would in Japanese; from the appearance and genre of the game (and the nature of the profession on which it's based), we're expecting a level of complexity beyond pure button-mashing.The bottom screen shows all of the planes in the air under your guidance, with little icons showing whether they're taking off, midflight, coming in to land or on the ground, along with the gate to which they're headed. There's also a text crawl under each plane's information bar that writes out your directions.
It appears that the Japanese airports in which the original version of the game took place will return, or at least Nagoya will; but it looks like other airports (Honolulu and Seattle, that we can see) will also appear -- though they may just be renamed versions of the original levels.
Gallery: Air Traffic Chaos
