Majesco
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An eight-letter word for 'reduced pricing'
We never understood why The New York Times Crosswords wasn't a runaway success, sales-wise. You would think that with Touch Generations' momentum and Nintendo's buzz for attracting older gamers, this puzzle title would be a sure thing. But even with the Gray Lady's backing, the rest of the mainstream media just didn't seem to pick up on it. Maybe Nintendo was more interested in putting its efforts and marketing money behind its own crossword game? Poor Majesco.We suspect that the $30 tag was also partially to blame. For those of you that agree, Amazon has temporarily listed The New York Times Crosswords at $19.99, bringing the stylus-driven title down to bargain pricing where it probably should've been from the get-go. This deal expires at midnight -- or when the item goes out of stock -- so don't wait too long to jump on it![Via CAG]
Kenta Cho talks Blast Works
ABA Games' Kenta Cho, who has nothing to do with Majesco's Blast Works other than originally creating TUMIKI Fighters, is apparently more positive about the whole deal than previous reports made it sound. Speaking with Siliconera's Spencer Yip, he allowed himself to briefly stop being aloof, a little: "I'm glad that I was able to see my game working on the Wii. I hope it would be released also in Japan."He went on to say that he's interested in the new editor features, but worries about ruining the game's simplicity. And, to be clear, Cho is referring here to intuitiveness rather than low difficulty level-- as a shmup fan and creator, we assume he has a lifelong addiction to cripplingly difficult games.
Why not throw a bunch of freeware games in with Blast Works?
That's what Majesco and Budcat thought, anyway. They were already making a game based on a Kenta Cho freeware shooter, with no legal hoops to jump through. There's basically no reason for them not to throw a bunch more Cho games on there! It works out well for them, because it's bonus content, and it works out nicely for us, because we'll be able to play more great abstract shooters on our television, using our Wiimote!Siliconera played Blast Works at E3, and realized very quickly that they were just playing the original TUMIKI Fighters. The Budcat rep explained that it was an early build and that Blast Works would indeed be a new game. He also revealed that not only will TUMIKI Fighters be on the disc in its original form, but rRootage and possibly Gunroar and Torus Trooper will be bonus content as well.This means that you can go preview some Blast Works bonus content right now! It's like being at E3. Just like it. We recommend rRootage especially-- it's a parade of randomly-generated bosses.%Gallery-4821%
Majesco takes advantage of freeware license for Blast Works
How would you respond if you were an amateur game developer and a publisher approached you about remaking one of your freeware games for a home console? If you were ABA Games' Kenta Cho, you'd dismiss the publisher and your own game in a supreme act of powerful nonchalance.When Majesco announced that a version of TUMIKI Fighters was being made for the Wii, we kind of assumed that Kenta Cho himself would be involved in its creation, or, at the very least, at the receiving end of a nice check. Why wouldn't we assume that? But apparently that is not the case.The original game is under a BSD license, which means that anyone can use it, even commercially, as long as they include the proper copyright notice, and they don't use Cho's name to endorse it without permission. And that means that Majesco can just pick up this game and set Budcat Creations to work on a new version. They don't even need permission, because Cho put it (nearly) into the public domain. Before you jump on Majesco for "stealing" free IP, you should know that they did ask Kenta Cho for permission. Cho, being the baddest dude in game design, basically "whatever"-ed them, saying "I'd received an offer of porting TUMIKI Fighters to Wii from Majesco and Budcat and I replied [they could] feel free to use it under the BSD license." Like he didn't even care. Maybe he's just nice and principled: earlier in the same interview, he said "...I want to help many amateur developers to create their own games. I released all my games under the free software license with the source code. I hope the source code helps someone to create a game by referring to or using a part of my code."
Majesco to localize quirky Wii game Furu Furu Park
Released in Japan in April, Furu Furu Park is a Wii-exclusive title that features over two dozen mini-games based on classic Taito franchises such as Araknoid and Bubble Bobble. Majesco recently announced the game will be localized for North American audiences, pulling out those squiggly Japanese lines and replacing them with the glorious Roman alphabet. In addition to its battery of "quirky stylized" arcade games, Furu Furu Park includes three multiplayer modes (including one where you compete to win "female affection") and a number of original games that, naturally, take advantage of the Wii remote's motion sensing, such as "Safe Cracker" and "Super Karate".
Furu Furu Park making a surprise trip to the US
Furu Furu Park, Taito's self-referential minigame collection, is coming to the US courtesy of Majesco. Normally, we're all GRR TOO MANY MINIGAMES. But this one's got Arkanoid bits in it, so it gets a pass.In other words, Taito has figured out the winning formula for making us care about a minigame collection: well-designed gameplay making it look like old games. It may even be fun, with games like Super Karate (in which you waggle karate moves), Safe Cracker (The Wiimote becomes your, uh, combination lock dial!) and Bubble Bobble (which is Bubble Bobble!) Man, that version of Bubble Bobble looks sharp.
Majesco brings indie game TUMIKI Fighters to UK Wii as 'Blast Works'
It's been an indie day for Nintendo: first the announcement of the WiiWare developing platform, and now comes news that Majesco is officially bringing unique indie shoot-em-up TUMIKI Fighters to the Nintendo Wii in Europe, under the sadly generic name Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy.The original TUMIKI Fighters, created by Kenta Cho, is a Katamari-esque freeware shooter on the PC, where the polygons of exploded enemy ships can be "stuck" to the player's ship for increased firepower and greater points. According to Majesco's press release, Blast Works will retain the gameplay and "retro" aesthetic of the original, and will include a new ship editor, level editor, and a two-player cooperative mode. No word yet on a US release, but Majesco states that Europe will be building, fusing, and destroying sometime this fall.[Via Wii Fanboy]
Majesco officially announces Tumiki Fighters as Blast Works
We had just about forgotten about the Gamefly-supplied rumor of a Wii port of Tumiki Fighters, and now we have confirmation from Majesco! They'll be releasing an upgraded port of Kenta Cho's freeware shooter, with the new title Blast Works, in the first quarter of next year-- in Europe. No US date has been announced.Not only will the game feature the same awesome mechanic the original had (grabbing parts from exploded enemies to upgrade your ship) but it'll include weapon, propulsion, armor, ship, enemy, and level editors. Grab the freeware version and give it a try, then join us in hoping for a US release-- it beats online petitions, at least.
Analyst: Cooking Mama spices up Majesco's forecast
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that publisher Majesco is "close to returning to profitability" and predicts the Cooking Mama series has earned sales of $15 million this quarter. That figure, according to Gamasutra, is above the $13 million consensus estimate for quarterly sales. "We are increasingly positive on shares now that the company has been able to stabilize revenues in the $12 – 13 million quarterly range," he said, "and believe that Majesco can break even at $65 million in annual revenues." Majesco had at one point hit the proverbial rock bottom, spurred by dismal sales of Advent Rising and Joystiq favorite Psychonauts. The publisher is moving into the black through its sales of budget titles (six DS, one Wii and one Xbox 360 titles are coming this quarter), and we fully expect them to keep with what works. Folks who were hoping for a high-budget Cooking Mama Xtreme Beach Cookoff will probably have to wait for at least a few years of profitability.
The Wild West as you've never seen it before [Update 1]
We've got a bunch of screens for the Wild West, Majesco's new DS shooter. Looks like there'll be shoot outs, mine cart rides and cow herdin' a plenty in the budget title. Navigation, aiming and shooting will all be handled through the stylus, of course. They've really tried to keep things historically accurate, with 30 foot robots and killer bats populating the game, but hey, you'll be able to defend yourself with your trusty machine gun. Oh, and you're a lion.Click through for the screens.
Orta, Mercenaries, JSRF join 360 compatability list
Microsoft has supplied 33 more compelling reasons to finally stuff your old friend the Xbox in the closet with their new backwards compatibility update for the 360. How compelling, you ask? How about Jet Set Radio Future and Mercenaries? How's that grab you? No, still not enough? How about Panzer Dragoon Orta? The BC update doesn't seem to be working just yet, but we hope that'll be rectified soon. The full list is available here with all the new additions, like Return To Castle Wolfenstein and Breakdown. When asked to comment on the update, a Microsoft spokesperson wrote "We're continuing to work hard to certify as many original Xbox games to work on Xbox 360 as possible," and don't think we don't appreciate it. In fact, we're so grateful, we're not going to wonder aloud how NFL Fever 2004 snuck on to the list. We're rising above. Still conspicuously absent from the updates: Your Favorite Game that No One Else Liked. But chin up, we hear it's a lock for the next update. You can see a full list after the break. [via Snackbar Games]
Wii Are Tumiki Fighters?
A listing for a Majesco-published Wii version of Tumiki Fighters has shown up on Gamefly, and we really, really hope it turns out to be real. Tumiki Fighters is a freeware shmup by Kenta Cho that involves collecting pieces that fall off of destroyed enemy ships to power up your own ship. We like Kenta Cho's games. They're gorgeously presented abstract shooters that either (like Tumiki Fighters) invent new gameplay mechanics or, like rRootage, artfully (and openly) rip off mechanics from other shmups. We aren't sure we'd want to pay full price for them, since they're free right now, but we would consider paying budget price for sufficiently expanded versions.
Toon-Doku threatens to break our brains
Despite thinking we're pretty smart in general, we're just terrible at sudoku. We know that, conceptually, you can use any nine symbols instead of numbers to play the game, but we never wanted to try that because it sounds pretty confusing. It's a lot easier to glance at a line and see that 4 and 9 are missing than it is to see that walrus is missing.Majesco's Toon-Doku, then, is a puzzle weapon that can be used to melt our unfortunate psyches. Not only does it have picture-based sudoku, where you line up rows, columns, and squares of little dessert icons, but it has custom "distractors" that block the screen with a drawing of your choice. We feel our Brain Age approaching infinity.
Majesco to release The Wild West
"This town isn't big enough for two screens ..." No, that doesn't work. We'll have to find another Old West cliche. Oh, oh, we got it: "There's a new stylus in town." Yes, that one works nicely.Majesco announced today that they're releasing Happy Happening's The Wild West this summer at the budget price of $19.99. We don't have any screens, but the press release describes shootouts using the touch screen, two animal characters with separate storylines, and, of course, a spate of minigames.We quite like the idea of DS quick-drawing, but we aren't sure about the animal characters. We're just going to assume that by "animal" they mean "unbelievably rugged Wild West dude."[Via GoNintendo]
Majesco focuses on Nintendo
Majesco has stated that their future plans will include a lot of Nintendo, as the company has reshifted its focus primarily to the gaming giant's platforms. This should come as a welcome surprise to Nintendo fans, as the company has reported during its latest financial reports that losses are down after their shift toward budget titles. Majesco's interim CEO Jesse Sutton explains a bit about the move, stating "Looking forward, we remain optimistic about the successes of both the Nintendo DS and Wii systems as their installed bases continue to grow, and we will focus the majority of our game development efforts on these platforms." They should be optimistic, as sales figures show that Nintendo is really doing a good job of selling their hardware (their software is doing well, too) to consumers in the past few months.
Cooking Mama not quite ready for Europe
Bad news for European gamers: Cooking Mama: Cook Off was originally scheduled for late March, but rumor has it that the game has been pushed back over a month to May 10th. Tragic! For now, you'll have to console yourselves with a mouth-watering video (and maybe the DS version). [Via GoNintendo]
NY Times crossword puzzler headed to DS
If Dr. Kawashima can do it, so can Will Shortz. The New York Times crossword puzzle editor is poised to become the next DS icon when Majesco releases The New York Times Crosswords, a collection of 1,000 wordplay puzzles for Nintendo's handheld. Well, that's if developer Budcat decides to pixelize Shortz.Even without another goading head, Crosswords has the makings of a DS crossover hit -- you know, popular with the old folks -- with its proper usage of the touch-screen (allowing wordsmiths to scribble in answers or use an on-screen keyboard), progressive difficulty modes, and head-to-head wireless battles ... yeah, we said battles!The New York Times Crosswords ships this spring. Wurd.[Via 4 color rebellion]
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.
Scrolling through Nanostray 2
The official site for Nanostray 2 has been updated with a shiny new video. We don't want to spoil anything, but it's a lot like taking one of the screenshots and waving it up and down in front of your face. With, y'know, music. Really, this video deal is going to be the hot new thing.You know the drill -- check it out after the jump.
Eye-popping Bust-A-Move Bash! screens
By that, we mean they're bright. And colorful. And all sort of the same. But hey, that's the downfall of all puzzle games -- not a lot of variety when it comes to the screens. When it comes to gameplay, however, all that matters is the sweet, sweet puzzle action -- and the Bust-A-Move franchise promises to deliver that to the Wii next year.There are a few more screens, complete with the beautiful IGN watermark, tucked away after the jump.
