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Lifetime: Games for women
There are moments you just couldn't make up the story if you tried -- this is one of those times. Lifetime network, television for women, and RealNetworks (yup, they're still around) are joining up to make downloadable games for women. The first game will be Sally's Salon and releases July 25. The game has players "direct Sally through a virtual beauty salon by performing and customizing beauty services and hiring employees." Kind of sounds like Diner Dash and Cake Mania, but minus the entrepreneurial feminist ideals.The game will be promoted online and on Lifetime's television network between reruns of Unsolved Mysteries and Golden Girls (oh Rose, you still bring a smile to our face). Apparently Lifetime and RealNetworks have been collaborating since 2004 and the games section of Lifetime's website is its most popular with million of games played on topics such as "makeovers, prom dresses and cleaning." Ah yes, Lifetime casual games, doing its part to show women their place in the 21st century.
Conjecture Countdown: One more day!
With only one more day of waiting before the debut of the diminished E3, we've decided to get serious and offer up some real predictions about what we will -- and won't -- see at the show. Check after the jump for the breakdown, by writer, of the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of our E3 hopes and fears.
DS releases for the week of April 9th
Well, unless you're just dying for a little portable Cake Mania -- and we know some of you are, you baking fiends -- then if you're in the U.S., all you can do is see what everyone else is going to be playing this week. And the you can make time for that stack of games you haven't finished yet.U.S. releases Cake Mania For the rest of the world, hit the jump.
DS releases for the week of April 2nd
What a week! At this rate, we could almost use a DS drought, just to give us time to save up some cash! But we shouldn't complain, since our counterparts in the UK and Australia aren't having much of a week as far as releases go. Isn't that always the way of it? One week, we get a ton of games and they get none, and the next week it's reversed. The only thing we can ever count on is that Japan is going to debut a veritable truckload of new titles. No matter what's going in the rest of the world, the Japanese must have their new DS games.US releases Cake Mania Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales Honeycomb Beat Konami Classics: Arcade Hits
Maniacal amount of Cake Mania screens
Maniacal in the sense that there aren't enough of them. But, the five images on offer, embedded past the post break for your convenience, will have to be enough to sustain us in our time of need. And, in case you're still in the dark about this Cake Mania thing, here are the ingredients.Check past the post break for come cake-slingin' action.
Pirates of Emerald Islands and other Digital Embryos
Sometimes, we sure love the series of tubes through which information flows. There we were, happily slaving away in this tiny cell, listening to the shouts of our overlords, and we stumbled upon screenshots of pirates. Awesome, we thought, we can lure people into another round of pirates v. ninjas. But before we could enact this sinister plan, we headed over to the developer's site and there we found more screenshots for more games. Ain't life grand?The company, Digital Embryo, is also responsible for the upcoming port of Cake Mania for the DS, and their site profiles some of the other DS titles they've got cooking, from Intergalactic Casino (shockingly, filled with casino games) to the aforementioned Pirates of Emerald Islands. Though from these few screens, the games don't look too involved, they are characterized by a crisp and colorful style. Hit the jump to check out Pirates and a few of the others.
DS Daily: From PC to DS
We've spent a some time in our daily feature talking about games themselves, and what better topic for a Monday morning? Specifically, we want to know how you feel about flash games heading to the DS, like Cake Mania and Line Rider. These, and others, are still available to play online, so some gamers don't see much reason to bring them to the DS. Of course, portability is a plus, and some games -- particularly Line Rider -- will benefit from stylus-based controls. So how do you feel about the pros and the cons? Are these tempting titles for your DS, or will you pass?
Screens: Cake Mania adds to casual cooking commute
Cake Mania, along with a growing group of the formerly PC-centric casual games market, is finding a comfy little place on the DS. Following the girl power model of casual games like Diner Dash or Carrie the Caregiver: Jill's family owned bakery is forced to close when "Mega-Mart" moves into the neighborhood. Determined to fight back, she opens up a new bakery to prove herself and re-open her family's bakery. Of course, in the process she'll become a destructive corporate entity in her own right and learn a moral lesson -- kidding about that last part.Retailing at $19.99, with screens after the break, it's not a bad price for commuter folks who just need something to fill in the gap from point A to point B. Before getting it on the DS, you can "demo" any of these casual game ports at numerous sites on the web to see if they're for you.
Cake Mania looks good enough to eat
Luscious new shots from the flash-to-DS game Cake Mania have surfaced, along with further details on the port. Looks like the game might sell for as low as $19.99 -- and that makes this exciting. Sure, it's available all across the web, but for a bargain price on the DS, you can take it with you. So what's all this Cake Mania about, anyway? In this baking sim, young chef Jill has to -- gasp! -- bake her way to success in order to save the family business. You can even take the baking show on the road in other locations, like Hawaii, or even a casino. Who doesn't enjoy a sugar high while hitting the slots? The port features 80 bakealicious levels -- the full original game, plus the Back to the Bakery expansion.We like this idea of flash games working over to the DS -- especially at twenty bucks a go. Anything you've got a craving for?Screens after the jump from Worth Playing, complete with slight watermarking.
Have your cake and eat it too -- Cake Mania for the DS
Originally an online treasure, Cake Mania tells the tale of Jill, a recent graduate from culinary school, who returns home to find her grandparents bakery closed thanks to the new neighborhood Wal-Mart Mega-Mart. Jill, in order to save the family business, must bake up a storm of cakes and manage the store to keep customers coming. The DS version will feature the same cake baking madness along with an expansion titled Back to the Bakery. Cake Mania is scheduled to release in 2007 and sounds like it could start a new craze of bringing popular online games to the DS.
Online bakery sim heading to PC
Anyone interested in the success of online titles may do well to watch Cake Mania, a downloadable puzzle game set in a bakery. Developer eGames, Inc has partnered with Sandlot Games to bring this online game to retail outlets.Apparently spurred on by its online popularity, the boxed version will feature new levels. Lars Batista of eGames claims that Cake Mania "strikes the perfect balance" between "fun and educational" -- however, we doubt running a bakery is much like the clean-cut cartoony world of this game.
