Majesco has revealed a new game for the DS in Hot 'N Cold. What's it all about? Well, it's basically a scavenger hunt, much like Mystery Case Files: Millionheir. You hunt down items in virtual environments, as evidenced by the screens in our gallery below. Unlike Mystery Case Files: Millionheir though, the game is fully 3D and will feature "large environments that break new ground in the hidden object genre by being fully 3D."
Check out some screens in our gallery below and look for this game to hit store shelves in "early 2009."
Welcome to the first edition of the new Bury the Shovelware. We're going to shake things up a bit in the interest of keeping it fresh. Instead of simply timing the games, we're going to explore the titles in five specific areas. They are:
Pedigree - The background of the developer, publisher, and franchise.
The Critics Said - A brief overview of what the critics said.
Rap Sheet - The main glaring flaws of the game.
Silver Lining - Redeemable qualities found (if any).
Our Deduction - The final word on the title.
We hope you enjoy this new approach. Let us know what you think in the comment section. Our first swing at this new format will take a look at Cake Mania.
Pedigree
Cake Mania is a restaurant simulation based around baking -- you guessed it -- cakes. The franchise is relatively new but is featured on several other systems, including the PS2 and PC. It's published by Majesco Games, a company which walks a thin line between quality titles (Nanostray, Cooking Mama) and shovelware (Nacho Libre, Fish Tycoon). Plus, we're totally angry at Majesco for canceling the remake of A Boy and His Blob. Developer Digital Embryo is relatively green in terms of games produced, as Cake Mania makes up 25% of its entire catalog. Other games developed include the shudder-inducing titled Puppy Luv Adventures.
Famitsu has new screens of some of Away: Shuffle Dungeon's bosses, including the first, the "blue crablike thing" Dave encountered at E3: Shuffle Show Floor. It stabs with its pointy legs, and is only vulnerable in the (conveniently) bright red jewel on its chest. The other bosses shown include a big blue worm who lives underwater (not a blue dragon), and a big ambulatory palm tree monster.
These bosses can be fought alone or in the special "Raid Battle Mode" that uses local wireless. In this mode, two players can take on a harder version of a boss, and earn better loot for doing so.
For a game whose central gimmick is a constantly-moving environment, video seems like a natural fit for promotional materials for Away: Shuffle Dungeon. It's easier to explain the "shuffling" of the dungeons by just showing you. And yet there really haven't been many trailers for Mistwalker and Artoon's collaboration.
This one features a bit of everything: cutscenes, battling, and lots of walking around in dungeons that get all messed up before your eyes. The boss battles look particularly epic, with the camera zoomed in and panned down for a more cinematic perspective. It's like the game shuffles between a Zelda: A Link to the Past look and an Ocarina of Time look.
Dave mentioned multiple weapon classes in his hands-on report of Away: Shuffle Dungeon, and now Famitsu offers new screens and descriptions of each of the four classes. They're all pretty standard accoutrements of the adventuring business, but we'll take any details we can get about Mistwalker's (otherwise) innovative dungeon RPG.
The sword is (obviously) balanced in speed, attack power, and reach. Spears attack straight forward and can knock down enemies. Daggers have short reach and low strength, but allow Sword (the character, not the weapon) to attack quickly and use combos. The axe is the slowest, but most powerful class of weapons. It can hit multiple enemies simultaneously.
Really, in a game about dungeons whose landscapes periodically shift like slot machine reels, it's probably okay for a few things to be conventional.
We've got a long time before we'll see Away: Shuffle Dungeon in the U.S. -- it's dated for January -- so we won't fuss over the smattering of screens. The game still looks decidedly odd, but there's nothing like a good dungeon crawl on the DS, and the art style is somewhat better in certain game shots than in others. Slip into the gallery to compare.
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.
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.
Babies are pretty harmless -- well yeah, they can't even walk. Most people think they are cute, while some aren't huge fans. No big deal either way. That is, until Babysitting Mania came along.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Posted May 20th 2008 3:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
IGN's hands-on of Sonic Powered's Air Traffic Chaos reveals crucial information about the simulation game -- is the guy on the cover an air traffic controller how do you simulate air traffic control in a game? We had a general idea, but it's an uncommon subject for games.
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.
When we turned on our Wii earlier to check and see if the recent habit of providing us with new DS demos every week would continue, we stumbled upon something very odd. You see, this week's new DS demos are, in fact, the first set of DS demos that released alongside the Nintendo Channel. Just now, they don't have an expiration date attached to them.
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.
Majesco has revealed a new game for the DS in Hot 'N Cold. What's it all about? Well, it's basically a scavenger hunt, much like Mystery Case Files: Millionheir. You hunt down items in virtual environments, as evidenced by the screens in our gallery below. Unlike Mystery Case Files: Millionheir though, the game is fully 3D and will feature "large environments that break new ground in the hidden object genre by being fully 3D."
Famitsu has new screens of some of 
Dave mentioned multiple weapon classes in his 
The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly features a nice preview of Mistwalker's 
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