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Majesco picks up Disney's 'Phineas and Ferb' license, games due in August
While Disney Interactive puts its time and resources into Disney Infinity, it's leaving development of a game based on another of its licenses to Majesco. The publisher will be responsible for the development of a series of new games based on the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb, including a multiplatform console/handheld/mobile game coming in August.Licensed Disney kids' games used to be the domain of THQ, but that ended when THQ refocused on "core" games last year. Now it would appear Majesco is picking up where THQ left off.
NBA Baller Beats updated with leaderboards, Facebook sharing
NBA Baller Beats has been updated with some of the features mysteriously absent from the original version, publisher Majesco has told us. Leaderboards have been implemented in the Kinect rhythm game, allowing you to determine who is the best dribbler on your friends list, and accordingly whose living room is safest.Photo capture and Facebook sharing have also been enabled, a missing feature that made our reviewer Richard Mitchell suspect the game was unfinished. There's also a new opening cinematic. Still absent is the music store, to which the game's ESRB rating makes reference. In any case, we're impressed Majesco is putting additional work in on a game that has yet to find an audience.
NBA Baller Beats review: Sweat the technique
Let's get one thing out of the way right now: Within five minutes of playing NBA Baller Beats, a rhythm game paired with an actual basketball, I sent the ball sailing through the air and square into a table lamp. The lamp is okay, and thankfully my wife wasn't around to see it.I've never been great at sports. Between the pressure of supporting a team and a tendency to over-think just about everything, the moment-to-moment demand of most sports overwhelmed me as a child. That has subsided somewhat as I've gotten older, though even now the only things resembling sports in my life are running, cycling, disc golf and the (semi) occasional match of tennis.I couldn't tell you if NBA Baller Beats is a capable training tool for the discerning baller. I can, however, assure you that NBA Baller Beats is a lot of fun, and it just might help you learn a real-world skill.
Monaco coming to XBLA and PC simultaneously
For years, Pocketwatch Games' multiplayer heist-action game Monaco has been a hit at trade shows, award ceremonies and Joystiq parties. Now, Joystiq can exclusively reveal that it's going to be playable in your very own home on XBLA and Steam (for both Mac and PC).There's no release date, but the self-published PC version will be released simultaneously with the Majesco-published XBLA release – Pocketwatch isn't sure if the Mac version will be day-and-date, but "we're doing our best.""Monaco was originally designed to be played with four friends on the couch, all planning and executing a heist together," designer Andy Schatz said. Pocketwatch has added four-player online co-op to all the versions, in addition to the couch-based co-op and the single player ("the stealthiest version," Schatz calls it.) The XBLA release facilitates the authentic couch multiplayer by putting the game on a couch-friendly console. Schatz said that he met with Majesco at PAX East and "the stars aligned."%Gallery-168499%
Majesco cooking up Cooking Mama combo packs for Wii and DS
Starting next month, it'll be a little cheaper to spend some time with your multi-talented Cooking Mama. Majesco is bundling together six different Cooking Mama games across three different packages: Mama's Combo Pack Volume 1 and 2 on the DS and Mama's 2-pack on the Wii.Mama's Combo Pack Volume 1 includes the original Cooking Mama as well as Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures, and Volume 2 features Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends and Crafting Mama. Mama's 2-pack, meanwhile, includes Cooking Mama Cook Off and Cooking Mama World Kitchen. The bundles will be available August 14 for $30 each.Now, if you'll excuse us, writing this post made us very hungry.%Gallery-161000%
These are the beats to which you'll play NBA Baller Beats
Are you ready to bounce a ball to the beat of Justice? That's just the Frenchest of the many artists added to the NBA Baller Beats soundtrack as of today.You'll be able to dribble to their "Canon," along with Santigold's "Disparate Youth," Eric B. and Rakim's "Don't Sweat the Technique" (the perfect accompaniment to your sweating of the techniques required to successfully play) and a somewhat eclectic selection of tracks.Find the full list of new and previously revealed tracks after the break. NBA Baller Beats will roll into stores on September 11.
Get your punching fists ready with the latest Double Dragon Neon gameplay
Double Dragon Neon is coming, y'all. Who's gonna stop the Lee brothers as they punch and kick everyone on their neverending path to destroy Abobo Corp.? No one, that's who! Okay, we just made up like, all of that story stuff. But still!
Double Dragon Neon starts dispensing high fives September 11
Double Dragon Neon, Wayforward's hilariously, garishly '80s-inspired brawler update, will bring Abobo to a new generation starting September 11, when publisher Majesco releases the game on PS3 in North America via PlayStation Network. The other half of the release date high five will take place the next day, when the XBLA version arrives, according to a post on the game's Facebook page. It'll cost $9.99.Double Dragon Neon is a new game that riffs on the style of the original Double Dragon, featuring "mixtape" powerups and multiplayer "bro-op," a pun that is acceptable because the protagonists are literally brothers.
Zynga adds Majesco, 50 Cubes and Portalarium to partner program
At its ongoing Zynga Unleashed event in San Francisco, the social media game giant revealed three new partners: Majesco, 50 Cubes, and Portalarium.Majesco's current crop of top properties include the Zumba Fitness franchise and Cooking Mama. 50 Cubes currently features three titles on its website, including the "Facebook top fashion game for 2011" Mall World. Portalarium, which was founded by Ultima series creator and RPG legend Richard Garriott in 2009, recently launched a casual game based on garage sales, and is working on a project the company says will return Garriott to his RPG roots.At its conference, Zynga also highlighted three partners it announced during GDC 2012: Konami, Playdemic, and Rebellion.
Majesco snags the American Idol license for 'interactive games'
Looks like Majesco has found its next sugar-momma franchise, since Zumba Fitness has just about run its course in keeping the company afloat. Majesco has landed a "strategic partnership" to develop interactive games based on American Idol, which can mean only one thing: American Zumba Fitness Idol.In American Zumba Fitness Idol, players would have to dance their way to weight loss, all while singing the day's hottest hits, mostly on-key and with a winning personality. Now with day-one DLC, American Zumba Fitness Cooking Mama Idol, where players have to bake a cake on top of it all. Feel the burn. Pre-order today!Of course that's probably not even close to what Majesco will do with the American Idol license, apart from the singing bit. We'll see when Majesco announces details at a "future date."
Majesco remains profitable in second quarter, Zumba Fitness sales surpass 7 million units
Majesco Entertainment had revenues of $30.4 million in the second quarter ending April 30, 2012, with $2.7 in profit. These numbers aren't staggering by any stretch of the imagination for a video game publisher, but for a company that was threatened with stock delisting (twice), it's been a relatively stable year."While the overall retail environment for interactive entertainment remains challenging in both North America and Europe, we are pleased to announce that in the second quarter, sales of Zumba Fitness remained solid, and Majesco delivered another profitable quarter. Zumba Fitness has now sold over 7 million units worldwide, and is the second best selling fitness game of all time," said Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton. "We are very excited for the upcoming holiday season, during which we will launch both Zumba Fitness Core, as well as the much-anticipated, highly innovative Kinect title, NBA Baller Beats. Lastly, we are about to ramp up our social/mobile efforts with the launches of Mini Putt Park on Facebook, as well as at least four exciting new mobile games coming to iOS over the next few months."Zumba Fitness' sales have been giving Majesco the drive it needs to maintain its modest condition. Much like Cooking Mama before it, the company needs to find another hit franchise before the Zumba gravy train runs out.
NBA Baller Beats: best basketball-controlled music game of E3
The unimaginable weirdness of NBA Baller Beats finally became a reality in my mind today, as I saw, and played, the ball-dribbling Kinect rhythm game for myself. In practice, it works out to a sort of blend of Dance Central and Guitar Hero, in that you see instructions coming down a "lane" at you, directing you to dribble the ball with your left or right hand.Gestural "moves" show up to transition from one hand to another, or to dribble through a leg, or perform a fake, or a (partial) pass, all to the rhythm of the licensed soundtrack, which included songs by Busta Rhymes and Gorillaz, among others.But of course the big difference between this and those games is that you are bouncing a basketball instead of dancing or hitting buttons. I can see this being an excellent tool for teaching someone this fundamental basketball playing skill, within an exciting, clever rhythm game package. I say this as someone who could clearly use a few hours of practice, as evidenced by the video above.
NBA Baller Beats will work on carpet, comes with its own basketball
Yes, Majesco has considered the fate of living rooms when faced with the threat of NBA Baller Beats, the Kinect game that asks players to dribble a real basketball in time to licensed music. "In NBA Baller Beats, dribbling is and should be contained very close to the body," Majesco's Chief Marketing Officer, Christina Glorioso, told Joystiq in an email interview."And in real life too, or the defender will steal it from you!" She said that in QA testing, "if a ball got away, it was more likely a ball rolling out of view of the Kinect rather than a flying object."
NBA Baller Beats for Xbox 360 encourages you to play ball in the house
Forget everything your mother told you about playing ball in the house, Majesco thinks it's a terrific idea. NBA Baller Beats takes a rhythmic music game-like approach to the game of roundball, incorporating a real live basketball as a controller for the Xbox 360 title, as part of its full-body tracking Kinect action. And in case you're having trouble motivating off the couch, the gamemakers have brought the likes of Kanye, Run DMC, The Gorillaz and Common to help get you to your feet. Just make sure you remove that priceless antique vase from the living room before you do. At present, all we've got is a teaser trailer, which you can check out after the break. More info is coming at E3.
NBA Baller Beats: Make Space to Jam in your living room
You're gonna need all of Majesco's Mamas to help clean up after destroying your living room with the publisher's latest Kinect game, NBA Baller Beats. What in the world is NBA Baller Beats, pray tell? Why it's, "a fun, high energy and first-of-its kind participative basketball video game launching this fall exclusively on Kinect for the Xbox 360," of course! Yes, you read that right: it's a Kinect game played with an actual basketball in your living room.It looks like Majesco is going all out for this one, with a tracklist featuring the likes of "Kanye West, Run DMC, Gorillaz, Them Crooked Vultures, Common, Tiesto and more." No word is given on Majesco partnering with any insurance companies alongside the game's launch this fall, but we expect to hear more on that at E3.Update: USA Today's exclusive on the game describes it as more of a rhythm/music game than a dribbling coach. "Players bounce the ball to the beat of the music; your visual cue is a line of basketballs that flows on a musical trail," it reads.You'll also need to perform specific moves along the way. "An icon prepares you for an upcoming basketball move you need to perform, also in time with the music. That may be a crossover from one hand to the other, a dribble between the legs, a pass fake or shot fake." Color us intrigued! We're still terrified for our living rooms, of course.
Double Dragon Neon flickers with signs of life
The first time I laid my hands on Double Dragon Neon, I was not impressed. The bright '80s colors weren't doing it for me. The character models for protagonists Jimmy and Billy looked hunched and unnatural. Their attacks were stilted and limited. The enemy designs were silly and altogether over the top.The second time I played it, however, I slipped on a pair of headphones and something happened. The classic Double Dragon music washed over me, reworked with 80s synth and electric guitar, and I saw something I hadn't noticed before: potential.%Gallery-152707%
WayForward adds a dose of Neon to Double Dragon for XBLA and PSN
Somehow, when we weren't looking, Majesco got hold of the Double Dragon franchise, and then turned it over to its Bloodrayne Betrayal partner WayForward Technologies. The result is Double Dragon: Neon, a side-scrolling brawler in a totally '80s setting.This time, twins Billy and Jimmy Lee are fighting to save Marian from "Skullmageddon," who, judging from concept art, has an army of wizards, cyborg police, and Linda. It's scheduled for release on PSN (for PS3) and XBLA this July. Is "downloadable, high-definition 2D franchise revival from WayForward and Majesco" going to become an annual summer tradition? We'd be okay with that.
Zumba Fitness Rush gets thousands to dance in LA (Look, it's mom!)
This Zumba clip serves as a reminder about the demographic spread of gaming and the power of Zumba Fitness lady's amazing armpits. With over six million units sold, it's not surprising that a demonstration ended up having a few thousand people joining in -- probably didn't hurt that the IHRSA Fitness Convention was going on at the same time either.
Majesco revenues stay fit in quarter due to Zumba Fitness
Majesco only smells one thing when it takes a whiff of Zumba Fitness lady's pits: Sweet, sweet cash! The publisher reported net revenues of $66.2 million for the first quarter ending January 31, up 37 percent from the $48.5 million in the same period a year ago. Profit for the quarter was $7.7 million, up from $6.8 million a year ago."Zumba Fitness 2 for the Nintendo Wii got off to a great start, and we are equally excited about Zumba Fitness Rush, which was just released in February, exclusive to the Kinect platform," said CEO Jesse Sutton. "We were also pleased with the performance of several other titles from this past holiday season including Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic on the 3DS, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked on Kinect, Wii and DS."Yes, yes, be "pleased" about the rest, but look at all the Zumba money! In January the company announced the Zumba Fitness franchise had sold over 6 million units, with Zumba Fitness 2 surpassing a million in sales. The series continues to be a staple on the UK charts.
'Girl Fight' is pretty much what it sounds like
We normally don't let video game press releases speak for themselves, but we'd like to present two excerpts from the announcement for Girl Fight, by Microprose(!) and Kung Fu Factory, published by Majesco."Get Ready to Lick the Competition with Girl Fight, Coming Soon to Xbox LIVE Arcade and PSN""With hair flying, long legs kicking and the ear-piercing shrill of deadly vixens, Girl Fight is a unique all-female, fast-paced spin on arcade-style fighting games."So, yeah.
