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Posts with tag mechassault

Majesco back in the game, returning to profitability

Majesco Entertainment never really stopped publishing video games, but it was a very real possibility after its troubles last year. Following the disappointing sales of its banner titles, Psychonauts and Advent Rising, stock values plummeted, CEO Carl Yankowski resigned, and several class-action lawsuits were filed by the company's shareholders. Majesco decided to turn its focus on "value and handheld video games," and has been slowly recovering from its losses with this strategy.

So why should we be cheering on the company that brought us throwaway games like F-24 Stealth Fighter and Super Black Bass Fishing? While you're right to shake your head at those titles, Majesco was also the publisher behind niche gems for the DS like Nanostray, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings, and Cooking Mama. And for that, we wish them the best of luck.

MechAssault Phantom War dev diary #5

IGN has been doing a series of developer diaries for MechAssault Phantom War and they just released #5.

This diary talks with Bob Baffy about voice overs, music and sound effects for the game.

The tech wiz explains how difficult it was to score music for the DS since the speakers aren't as powerful as ones for a PC. His team ended up starting from scratch after one score attempt and realizing that, halfway through game development, they were too ambitious.

Voice overs he enjoyed and they recorded over 300 lines of dialogue. That seems quite a bot for a mech game if you ask us.

This isn't the most exciting of the dev diaries but it is from an angle most people don't think about. It is easy to forget that someone made that gunshot sound when spraying bullets. Plus, every part made in a game to create a whole puzzle takes a lot of people and they each deserve credit for their work.

So, next time you blow an enemies head off, remember that someone out there made that sound just for you.

Mech Assaults DS, charges filed

Though we spotted this about a month ago, Majesco Entertainment has officially revealed some concrete information regarding a DS version of MechAssault, now subtitled Phantom War instead of Shadow War. Personally, we would have gone with Spook Hostility, but we understand that mech fans would prefer if Majesco took this seriously.

Judging by their standard PR list of features, they are. Developed by Backbone Entertainment (they worked on the PSP's Death Jnr), the game allows you to commandeer over 20 types of vehicles, upgrade weapons, engage in four-player wireless combat and just generally obliterate anything you can aim your guns at. The only point of worry may come in with the use of the touch screen: "The touch screen lets players intuitively ‘touch’ the cockpit controls to hack into giant ‘Mechs, eject pilots, switch weapons and check battle techniques."

That sounds a lot like "There's an in-game menu at the bottom screen," a design that may prove to be irksome in the heat of battle. We thought that aiming via the touch screen (just like in Metroid Prime: Hunters) would be far more intuitive and closer to the dual-analog control of the Xbox titles. Still, we'll wait and see what the exact control scheme is before we stomp on a game that, at the very least, promises giant robots for our puny portable.

[Thanks mandarin!]

Mech Assaulting the DS?

MechAssaultPotentially incorrect online retailer listing news now, as GameStop has put up a page for a MechAssault game on the DS. Apparently, MechAssault: Shadow War will be released by Majesco this coming May. Now, there's at least a vaguely believable element here, as Majesco is also publishing a portable version one of Microsoft's other big franchises, Age of Empires, on the DS.

Naturally, we're drawn to any game that features gigantic robots wreaking havoc, so we'd be quite pleased to see this one adapted to a stylus driven blast-a-thon in the vein of Metroid Prime: Hunters. But then again, Majesco may just decide to go with recent silly trends and make it a tactical card battle game instead.

[via DSupdates]

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