Majesco
Latest
DS Daily: Download stations
With Majesco's environmentally aware RTS, Eco-Creatures, scheduled for the next DS Download Station update, we're reminded of how great it is that we can actually try out some handheld games now before buying them. And it's not all Nintendo-developed titles, either -- third-party manufacturers are putting out demos for quality titles, too.So, have you taken advantage of Nintendo's DS kiosks yet? Or are you waiting for Nintendo to finally bring Everybody's Nintendo Channel to North American Wiis so you can download demos without ever leaving home?
Yes, you can build your own blocky TIE Fighter dragon monster thing
If you become skilled enough with Blast Works' item editor, there's no end to what you can do! Like this ... thing with what kind of looks like the sides of a TIE Fighter as ears! It's pink and spiky and shoots triangles at seaplanes! Then, when you've finished creating horrible monsters made out of neat-looking white-outlined blocks, you can take them on with up to three friends -- also flying around in homemade avatars.This set of four screens found at Wiiz doesn't just tease the multiplayer and the capabilities of the editor, but also shows the creation tool at work. Now we just have to find a way to become creative before the game comes out.
Eco-Creatures demo to come to a DS download station near you
Should you know the location of a DS Download Station near you and want to give Eco-Creatures a whirl, then today is your lucky day. Majesco has revealed that a demo of the game will be hitting DS Download Stations in the United States starting this month. The demo will be available at over 10,000 stations located in major retail locations throughout the country, residing on units until the month of May (where these cute and cuddly creatures will no doubt have to hibernate for the upcoming winter).Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations for Majesco says the company is excited about this, stating that "Eco-Creatures now joins the ranks of Cooking Mama, Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends and Cake Mania as a phenomenal game launching with the support of a great demo available through the Nintendo kiosk program." He adds "We are confident that anyone who tries Eco-Creatures will be compelled to pick up the full version once it ships and help save the world from ecological disaster."Are you going to be running out to your local download spot to give this a try?%Gallery-4106%
Majesco releases early version of Eco-Creatures as DS download
With a healthy collection of casual DS favorites to its credit, the once financially gridlocked publisher Majesco has much thanks to lay at the feet of Nintendo's touchable portable. Now the company has announced that it plans to give players an early taste of its latest project, a tree-hugging RTS for the DS, by releasing a demo for Eco-Creatures: Save the Forest over nearly 10,000 Nintendo DS Download Stations across the U.S. It's unclear how much of the game will be included in the demo, or if in fact this move will save any trees at all. What we do know, however, is that the download will be available from now until sometime in May – well beyond the game's expected March 4 release -- giving those of you with access to a station plenty of time to warm up to Majesco's green-minded ways.
Furu Furu Park's minigames vs. regular-size games
Taito's collection of mostly classic-Taito-themed minigames, Furu Furu Park, is out this month courtesy of Majesco. For $19.99, if the versions of arcade classics like Bubble Bobble, Cameltry, and Arkanoid are actually good remakes, the game would be an irresistible value. That was exactly what MTV Multiplayer's Jason Cipriano had in mind when he took the game for a test drive. Maybe this unassuming value minigame collection has improved on the arcade classics!Basically, it hasn't. As you may expect, the minigame versions of the Taito classics are not better than the arcade games, mostly owing to the fact that you can only play them for a few minutes at a time. No matter how awesome the one level of remade Arkanoid is, it's just one level. On top of that, Bubble Bobble has been simplified severely.Surprisingly, there were a few cases in which the potential was there for the remake to be an improvement, or at least a worthwhile addition. Both Arkanoid and Cameltry benefit from motion controls, which makes the lack of content hurt that much more. As it stands, just pick up one of the Taito Legends sets for the PS2.
WRUP: The hot, hot Miami Nights edition
Taking a look over the NPD sales data for December, we cringe at the thought of how much money we plunked down on gaming goods. Heck, we're floored by how much we just spent on ourselves, let alone the gifts of Nintendo we gave to friends and family. So, no new games for us this week: we've got plenty of titles waiting to be picked up off the back burner. Looking over the new releases this week, we can't imagine you all are all enthusiastic about picking one of these new games up (except for Nanostray 2, but we're holding off on that one for a few weeks ourselves). Unless you're some kind of weird person who wants to play Miami Nights: Singles in the City. And, hey, if you are, then that's cool with us. We won't make too much fun at your expense around the watercooler. Mainly, because Joystiq won't give us one.So, what are you playing?
Majesco takes the DS to the Toy Shop
The artificially-generated virtual Toy Shop, that is, not one of the thousands of toy shops around the world that already carry the DS. Uh, in a game. In other, clearer words, Majesco has announced a new DS game called Toy Shop for an April release, developed by Gameinvest.The game is a business simulation in which players, as Mel and Mark, inheritors of their grandfather's toy shop, do their best to make sure they don't ruin the family business. The player is in charge of making toys (via minigames), setting prices, monitoring customer satisfaction, and maintaining the appearance and layout of the store. The game will allow the player to choose the level of interaction, from simply making toys all the way up to micromanagement of the store.We're all about making toys on the DS, but we aren't sure about the whole dealing-with-people aspect. Luckily it sounds like we'll be able to enjoy the toymaking part and ignore the human interactions, just like in real life. We have the first screens of Toy Shop available in our gallery.%Gallery-14107%[Via GamesPress]
Majesco forms Majesco Studios, a new internal studio with a Nintendo focus
Like the tortoise, Majesco has been slowly and steadily trying to make progress. The latest move on the part of the publisher is to form a new internal development house, Majesco Studios. Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton detailed the news in an interview with Gamasutra, commenting that this is "an attractive, low risk opportunity" for the company and the new studio will focus exclusively on creating casual titles for the DS and Wii. Sutton has hopes for Majesco Studios, stating that the goal is for the new studio to produce three titles within its first year and to turn profitable by 2009. [Via Joystiq]
Blast Works developers on creating the game's creation engine
Blast Works: Build, Fuse, and Destroy developers Budcat Creations have started blogging on IGN about the process of remaking Kenta Cho's TUMIKI Fighters into something much more than the original free game. According to the blog, the remarkable item editing capability grew from a desire to create more complex ships than the original game engine would allow. So they built a more fully-featured Shape Editor.They then stipulated that the artists had to use the Shape Editor to create all the game's assets. The final Shape editor used to develop the levels and the Shape Editor on the disc differ in that "the limits to the maximum dimensions of an individual block and the total number of blocks were removed in the PC version for prototyping." Feedback from the artists then went into refining the engine. The results can be seen above, in this amazing video of a ship being constructed. We were excited enough when this was just a port of a free game. Now it's a completely new game, and one that looks like it absolutely should not be missed.[Via NeoGAF]
Majesco details Majesco Studios, new internal developer
Talking with Gamasutra, Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton recently went into detail regarding the company's new internal development studio, Majesco Studios. Sutton refers to the LA-based studio as "an attractive, low risk opportunity," and aims to utilize the studio to develop casual games for the Wii and DS. According to Sutton, Majesco will be developing its own IP within Majesco Studios, focusing its attention on internal development, and away from third-party titles. Sutton hopes that the studio can produce three games within its first year, and become profitable by 2009. Recently, Majesco has primarily made its profit from importing otherwise-obscure Japanese titles to the States, such as the Cooking Mama series and Nanostray, rather than publishing big-budget titles. Sutton refers to Cooking Mama as "the anchor of our portfolio," with 1.4 million copies sold across the Wii and DS.
Majesco is manic for cake
Clearly we're dinosaurs. "Traditional" gamers like us are so out of touch with the tastes of the newly expanded audience that we can't seem to tell the difference between an awesome casual game and an incredibly tedious, ugly timewaster. Case in point: Cake Mania, which apparently sold "over 280,000 units worldwide." Co-publishers Majesco and Sandlot Games and developer Digital Embryo are, of course, preparing a sequel on the DS, featuring new kitchen upgrades, wacky new settings and an "endless baking" mode. There's even a branching storyline with six different endings! All of which are "cake is delicious." A Wii version is also in the works, but no details have been released yet. Expect Cake Mania, but on the Wii. We've embedded the official press release after the break.
ESRB rates Peggle, Bust-a-Move and Bliss Island for Xbox 360
Get ready to experience Joystiq's #8 game of the year Peggle on your Xbox 360. A search of the latest ESRB ratings revealed that casual games Peggle, Ultra Bust-a-Move and Bliss Island were all rated for Xbox 360. Now one could infer that this means the games will be XBLA titles, but they could very well be retail products and Ultra Bust-a-Move may be an Xbox Original. There is currently no release information, just that the games have been rated M ... no, kidding, they were rated E. Although that gives us the horrible idea for Peggle with adult themes and noises, perhaps with the orange pegs being cherries -- think about it.[Update: Peggle has been confirmed for XBLA.]
Design a very, very, very fine house with Our House
Building or remodeling a home can be extremely frustrating and expensive -- it can ruin you, if you're not careful. That's why we suggest watching other people toil on TLC and HGTV instead of actually doing any work yourself. If you're dead set on constructing your dream home, though, you'll be happy to hear that Majesco Europe and Budcat Creations (Blast Works) are bringing that joyful experience to the Wii with Our House. This sim will have you shopping for raw materials at the "Home Store," building the house via remote-based minigames (e.g. hammering in nails, sawing wood), and decorating your new rooms with the stuff you've bought. Finally, you can have the joy of tiling your very own home, right in your very own home. In addition to its party options with which you can compete against your friends in the different construction stages, Our House will allow you to share your completed designs with the "literal community-building feature" of its Wii Connect 24 Neighborhood Mode. This way, you can see whose taste is most likely to lower everyone's property value. We'll keep you updated with screenshots and a release date, once those are made available. [Via Press Release]
Eco Creatures trailer shows that saving our planet is the thing to do
From watching trailers of Eco Creatures, we've come to learn that having an army of squirrels is the best way to go about saving the environment. What we've also learned is that Eco Creatures might be a pretty fun game. There's a certain charm about this giant orange protagonist (Dorian) and his squirrel army, out to stop industrial harm from polluting and destroying their forest. Besides, how many other environmental RTS games can you say you've played? Also, multiplayer battles with level-create aspects are always a plus.We can't say that we're champing at the bit for this game, but, at the very least, we're looking forward to it. How about you all?
Welcome to the next generation of crosswords
Those of you who have been getting your crossword on for a while may have come across this clue already, but it's new to us. Reader Genoboost snapped this picture of a clue in New York Times Crosswords that immediately sent us back into our memories of the tooth-and-nail mid-'90s console war. Back then, (spoiler) Sega and Nintendo were opposing forces, seemingly destined never to meet. Sega's "edgy," screaming ad campaigns sold millions of impressionable kids on Ecco the Dolphin and blast processing.And now look where that advertising has ended up, thanks to Majesco, who actually manufactured and sold Genesis and Game Gear systems before they got into game publishing. Put some fresh batteries in your Nomad and take the trip past the break for the original commercial from which the clue takes this slogan. SEGA!
Ten down: NYT Crosswords
For about what seems like the fiftieth time this year, Amazon has New York Times Crosswords up for sale as its deal of the day, this time for $9.99. It's a decent portable puzzler, and, though we've featured bargains for the game several times already, after seeing its casual ALF plug, we promised ourselves that we would do whatever we could to support NYT Crosswords. So , here we are, supporting it ... with an internet link.Don't forget that this half-price markdown ends today! Also, if you add another $15 worth of stuff to your order (e.g. ALF Season 1 DVD), Amazon will ship everything for free. Now, peek past the break for ALF's recent interview on The O'Reilly Factor. No, we don't have any idea why he appeared on the show, either.
Wild Earth: African Safari is like Regular Animal Snap
Majesco has announced another Wii game: Wild Earth: African Safari. Based on (or more likely, ported from) a PC title called Safari Photo Africa: Wild Earth, the game takes you through the Serengeti National Park as you attempt to photograph over 30 African animals. The Wii version includes a multiplayer mode which designates one player as the driver and up to three others as photographers. Of course, being a Wii game, a hilarious minigame has been added as well, which allows you to play from the animals' perspective! It's all the fun of looking for some food with the added possibility of maybe being photographed.After being reminded recently of our enjoyment of the (tiny) photography-game genre, we're maintaining tenuous faith that fun can be extracted from this title. The press release follows.
An amusement park-themed minigame collection? On the Wii?
We hope this news isn't too shocking for you. Majesco has announced Wonderworld Amusement Park, a Wii collection of "30 mini-games that mirror real carnival games but are re-imagined in the park's five stylized fantasy areas."We don't have to remind you that the Wii is no stranger to games based on carnival games. We really don't have to remind you that the Wii is rife with family-friendly minigame collections. Bizarrely, the game also includes simulations ... of rides. We've had fun in the past with roller-coaster games, but only because we could also design the rides. These are just rides. That you pretend to ride.Not only is this the second carnival-games game, it's the second Park-titled minigame collection being published by Majesco. But this one, as evidenced by the screenshot, has some kind of nursery rhyme theme. That's pretty different. The full press release is after the break!
'Remember ALF? He's back! In crosswords form.'
This late-night post marks the fourth time we've referenced Milhouse's ALF quote from "Bart Sells His Soul," the Simpsons episode in which Bart trades in his soul for five bucks. Out of all the ALF pog allusions, however, we can confidently hold up this one as the best. How is that, you ask? Two reasons: Check out this screenshot that Gray Whitten took from a New York Times Crosswords puzzle on his DS! Any game that makes an effort to mention furry, large-nosed Melmacians sounds like an obviously fantastic game to us! We've finally obtained a video clip of that classic scene from when Bart confronted Milhouse about getting his soul back. We've embedded it right after the five-letter word for interruption.
Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship launches early 2008
Long-time readers of PSP Fanboy have already tried Blokus Portable. We offered a Japanese demo months ago. Now, Majesco is ready to bring this anime-infused puzzle game to the States. "With three million units sold and credit as the most acclaimed game of the century, the Blokus board game is clearly an international sensation," said Gui Karyo, Executive Vice President of Operations, Majesco in a recent press release. "Based on this incredibly successful property, Blokus Portable combines strategic gameplay with 16 player support to make it the perfect social puzzle game that's easy to pick-up, yet hard to put down."Up to 16 players can compete in Ad Hoc wireless mode. More exciting, however, is the addition of Game Sharing. Up to four players can compete using a single UMD. This rarely used feature is ideal for puzzle games. Best of all, Majesco plans on releasing the title at a budget price -- $19.99.
