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PaRappa creator raps about Natal's musical possibilities
Masaya Matsuura (creator of PaRappa the Rapper and Major Minor's Majestic March) says he and his posse over at NanaOn-Sha are interested in making a music game for Microsoft's Project Natal. "We are thinking about ideas," said Matsuura to Videogamer.com at the UK Develop Conference. " I think any kind of interaction with a camera will be good for music games, but the important thing will be how we can find the new breed of gameplay."Matsuura thinks he can create something fresh -- something other than the rock genre, which he points out Guitar Hero and Rock Band cover quite well. Instead, he thinks there's room to grow for other sounds: "There is other attractive music, so please try to find another style, another interaction, another gameplay with another type of music." Activision is breaking out with DJ Hero. So, what could Matsuura work on? Wait a minute... breaking. How about a pure break dance title? Baraver the Breakdancing Beaver? No?
Matsuura wants hardcore gamers to sit back and enjoy 'Major Minor'
Rhythm game pioneer Masaya Matsuura, known for popularizing the genre with titles like PaRappa the Rapper, told MTV Multiplayer that hardcore gamers should take a break and get ready to enjoy his upcoming game, Major Minor's Majestic March. "PaRappa was released about 12 or 13 years ago, and being a hardcore gamer the entire time since then must be kind of tiring," Matsuura jokingly answered when asked if the marching band game would appeal to PaRappa fans. Matsuura also fielded questions regarding Nintendo's upcoming peripheral, the Wii MotionPlus, saying Major Minor had been tested with the accessory but in the end it "didn't really make it any more fun." While the add-on could be added in the future, Matsuura hypothesizes that titles may "need to be planned" from the beginning for its use. Matsuura also throws kind words toward Harmonix, reminiscing about a time when he "implored" the team to create games and noting how proud he is of the success of Rock Band and Guitar Hero as though they were his own creations. But don't worry, Matsuura isn't prepping a frivolous lawsuit ... he was just being nice.
Major Minor's Majestic Trailer
A new trailer for Major Minor's Majestic March just hit our inbox and you can subsequently let it hit your eyeballs right now. Within the confines of this new trailer, you'll find some gameplay, some charming characters, and child actors showing you how to play the game. Because, you know, you'd never figure it out without them.If you're looking for more after the video, head into our gallery below for a bunch of new screens.%Gallery-15020%
More Screens of Majesco's Major Minor's Majestic March
Despite Dave's troubling experience with Major Minor's Majestic March, we remain hopeful for the music game, which is scheduled for release March 24th (the perfect month for this game). We refuse to believe that the team of developer Nana-On-Sha and illustrator Rodney Alan Greenblat can produce anything but wonder, even though Nana-On-Sha has a history of not-that-great games outside of the delightful PaRappa series. We must admit, however, that we have one issue with the game: it can be really hard to tell old screens from new ones. It may be totally dynamic in motion (with the music playing, and all) but the screens are all just pictures of Major Minor's back with varying numbers of musicians lined up in a window on the bottom. We're still totally happy to see the new ones Majesco sent out, however.%Gallery-15020%
Square Enix leading Major Minor's Majestic March in Japan
Square Enix has picked up Majesco's Major Minor's Majestic March for Japan, releasing the title on April 23rd. They've launched a site for the game to get some buzz going, but it's kind of bare bones at the moment. You'll find little there, save for some character descriptions and an explanation of how the game works. Look for more later, though, as there is space reserved for videos and the like. If you want some new screens to eyeball, check out Famitsu. They've just uploaded a few.%Gallery-15020%[Via Go Nintendo]Source - Major Minor's siteSource - Screens at Famitsu
Nintendo unleashes full Q1 schedule
Nintendo's carrier pigeon just landed on our windowsill with a complete list of Wii releases for Q1 2009. We do actually know most of these dates already (so yeah, maybe the mushroom cloud is a bit excessive), but there's still the occasional scrap of new news buried within.Those Tenchu and Little King's Story dates are fresh to us, and there's also confirmation of the first Play on Wii "New Play Control" games, Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis. For the record, "New Play Control" is a bit of a rubbish name for the series. In our humble opinion, obviously.Make the jump for the full line-up, and remember you can click on a game's name to bring up screens (where available)!%Gallery-22964%
E308: Wii Fanboy leads the band in Major Minor's Majestic March
Click for larger image Ever since it's been rumored, the whole team has been patiently awaiting PaRappa creator Masaya Matsuura's next project. Once it was revealed, I found myself puzzled as to what to expect. Would it be as good as PaRappa? Has Matsuura lost it? Well, that confusion is gone now that I've had time to play the game at E3. Is it good? Well, read on and find out!%Gallery-15020%
Major Minor's Ultimate Raving High School All-star Samba de Dance Dance party @ E3 2008
The first thing we noticed when we stepped into the Showcase Pavillion at this year's E3: This is really quite small. The second thing we noticed: Everyone seems to be dancing! Everywhere we looked, there seemed to be someone (usually with a Wii Remote/Nunchuk in hand) waggling about to some vary hard-to-hear music. But don't just take our word or it. Check out our video montage of just some of the dancing fools on this year's show floor. See if you can guess which dancers are random attendees and which ones are PR people who've been assigned to pretend to be interested in dancing these same steps ALL DAMN DAY. Fun!
Majesco parades a Major Minor trailer
We won't even front -- this rhythm game's cartoonish design isn't for everyone, and there are a lot of you who won't appreciate the "Dreamcast-era" graphics, either -- but we still think Major Minor's Majestic March looks like the cat's pajamas. If you need any proof, there are actually saxophone-playing cats in striped sleepwear in the clip above. We can't tell you how many nights we've spent marching in place to the tune of some distant melody in our living room, waving an imagined, magical baton and granting tubas to dancing pigs. It has been a fantasy we've indulged in for years. %Gallery-15020%
E308: Majesco confirms line-up for the show, including Major Minor's Majestic March
The cat is out of the bag concerning Majesco's line-up for next week's E3. They've got several DS and Wii games that will be available at the show, and you can bet we're going to try and get our grubby little mitts on all of them next week. For the full list, head on past the break.%Gallery-15020%
Major Minor's Majestic March screens parade in
The first actual screens of Major Minor's Majestic March have arrived, and we've been anticipating the first look at the new collaboration between Masaya Matsuura (and his NanaOn-Sha development studio) and Parappa character designer Rodney Alan Greenblat for some time. It's really weird seeing Greenblat characters in full 3D!The game partitions the screen into two areas: on the top, Major Minor walks through the town, gathering up new musicians. Also, there's some kind of ... gumball machine meter? On the bottom, your current band of animals is presented in side view. We're hoping that the return of Greenblat will help make Majestic March a work of Parappa-level excellence instead of another Tamagotchi Corner Shop. %Gallery-15020%
First screens of Major Minor's Majestic March look ... Parappa-esque
click to enlarge There are few games with an aesthetic as immediately recognizable as Parappa the Rapper, so our expectations were understandably high when we first read about Parappa designer Masaya Matsuura and Parappa artist Rodney Greenblat's latest collaboration: Major Minor's Majestic March.Publisher Majesco (enough with the M's!) has released the first batch of screenshots of the Wii-destined marching game and we're not disappointed. Sure, the screens aren't knocking the collective wind out of us the way Parappa's 2D-slash-3D graphics did back in 1997, but c'mon, look how cute the whole thing is!%Gallery-15021%
Masaya Matsuura on Majesco's Major Minor's Majestic March
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal interviewed Masaya Matsuura about his upcoming Wii music game Major Minor's Majestic March, allowing us to learn a bit more about the game. Apparently, the tempo of the songs will actually change in real time with your waggling, and not always to the best effect. "We have a situation where if you shake the remote to quickly switch from faster tempos to slower tempos or vice versa, the music goes very strange. Everybody plays a very strange sound. Those kind of things are very interesting for me. It really sounds like original tracks."The licensed marching band music has been "aggressively arranged" such that it will seem original to players. And, of course, the sound will change dynamically as you attract people into your band. "At the start of the stage you will not yet have a gorgeous orchestration. Maybe it will be a very simple and monophonic type of music coming from the speakers. But if you get a new member, one part will be played by that new member. If you can keep going and recruiting new members, the music grows bigger and more gorgeous."While we suspected that marching band music may have fallen into the public domain and that this was the motivation for making a band-based game, it doesn't sound like that's the case. For one, the music has apparently been licensed. But most importantly, Matsuura seems to have been inspired by personal exposure to marching band music.Was he also inspired by that other conducting game? Not so much: "We are just a third-party, and at this moment, I shouldn't have any detailed information about Wii Music. Maybe that would make me confused a little about what I'm trying to do."%Gallery-15020%[Via Joystiq]
Newsweek gets the skinny on Major Minor's Majestic March
When we first heard about Major Minor's Majestic March, we, much like you, were confused. We had never asked for a game about a marching band, we hadn't ever really thought about it. But, as the game was developed by Parappa masterminds Masaya Matsuura and Rodney Greenblat, we had to, in accordance with federal law, believe. Now, after reading Newsweek's feature on the game, we're officially intrigued for reasons other than its pedigree.You'll want to read the full piece, but we're interested in the way that, serving as the band's drum major, you'll be able to not only set the pace of the music but dynamically effect it. Other interesting nuggets from the interview include the fact that Matsuura is happy he doesn't know much about Nintendo's upcoming Wii Music, as well as his thoughts on the Guitar Hero series. (Spoiler alert: They need more Insane Clown Posse.)
Parappa creators bringing 'Major Minor's Majestic March' to Wii
Yeah, yeah, we're intrigued by the possibilities of Wii Music but, like you, we're disappointed by that game's apparent lack of marching! Someone at Majesco apparently feels the same way, because the company today announced Major Minor's Majestic March for the Wii.Featuring the talents of Parappa the Rapper designer Masaya Matsuura and artist Rodney Greenblat, the game will ask players to use the Wii remote to "keep tempo, recruit new band members and pick up valuable items." The release promises eight "whimsical" locations, a "dynamic procession" of up to 15 instruments and 25 "popular marching band songs." We hope they can secure the rights to some of the hits from Sousaphone Hero. The promise of conducting our own version of "Stars and Stripes Forever" by Holiday 2008 is just too delicious to contemplate.%Gallery-15021%
