Publisher Majesco has returned from the kitchen with a piping hot plate of second quarter results. However, unlike the previous quarter's delectably sweet increases in both sales and profits, the company's second course of financials proved to be much less appetizing. For the period, Majesco announced second quarter sales of $12.8 million, down from last year's $14.6 million as well as the previous quarter's $18.7 million. Much of this decline, admits Majesco, can be blamed on the lack of key releases from company during the period, particularly from cash cows Cooking Mama and Bust-a-Move, both of which were key ingredients in Majesco's success during 2007's second quarter.

However, even with a lighter wallet, the company noted that it expects to report between $53 and $58 million in revenue for fiscal 2008. The company also took the opportunity to blow kisses at Nintendo, confirming that of its upcoming lineup this year some 59 percent will be released for the DS with the remainder "almost entirely" coming to the Wii. Jeeze, guys, get a room.

When Majesco's lifeblood depends on the Cooking Mama franchise, it's pretty easy to see how the company might get defensive when their cash-cow is threatened. Former Gamespot reviewer, Alex Navarro, learned just how defensive the company could get late last year when a Majesco employee sent him an email dripping with so much sarcasm that, if it were ever printed, the acidity of the words would burn through the paper.

Navarro shared his email from last December (found after the break) with PassiveAgressiveNotes. Here's a taste from Majesco's corporate Cooking Mama defense force: "With the first Cooking Mama DS reaching 1 million units in Europe and near of 1 million stateside, I began to worry that this might begin to go to our heads. Majesco's parking lot would be flooded with Bentley's, Maybach's and rare hybrid cars that run on pure ego." Can cars run on passive aggressiveness?

Majesco Entertainment's Q1 sales (period ending Jan. 31, '08) saw $18.7 million in sales and $2.7 million in profit. The publisher's got nobody to thank more than dear sweet Cooking Mama for the cash. The company saw 77% of its sales from handheld titles, like Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends on DS, and made 22% off console sales, with a heavy showing by Wii titles.

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton says the quarter was exceptional and in line with the company's plan to focus on the casual market; he continues that Cooking Mama delivered revenue increases of 47% compared to the same period last year. The company's projections have it staying the course set by this first quarter throughout the year and here's hoping Majesco can find some franchise beyond Cooking Mama and her broken English over the next year.

From its humble beginnings as a simple title on the Nintendo DS, the Cooking Mama franchise has gone on to sell 1.6 million units in the United States. The press release touting the accomplishment is quite awkward in how it plays with the numbers. For example, it says the original Cooking Mama on DS sold 1 million units, which means the two sequels make up the other 600,000, and that's fine --- but it's no coq au vin with white asparagus and a glass of 2004 Ravenswood Cooke Zinfandel.

Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton says the success of the franchise is like catching lightning in a bottle. Although the Cooking Mama games obviously cost very little to make, it might be time to generate more lightning. Since the first game did well and subsequent games didn't enjoy the same return, it means Majesco can't feed on Mama's cooking alone.

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.

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.

If you love slaving over a hot stove, mindlessly chopping things and stirring, stirring, stirring, but hate having any sort of payoff for your labor, have we got great news for you! Cooking Mama is back! Well, it will be back, according to UK publisher 505 Games, at some point early next year.

Still only available on Wii and DS, expect the new iteration to have twice as many mini-games and a new multiplayer mode. We don't know that Majesco will once again be bringing the game to America, but the original did a lot of good for the company, so we wouldn't be surprised. Now if you don't mind, we need to stop by Caketown for some supplies.

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.

It's no secret that many players found the Cooking Mama: Cook Off controls just a little frustrating. Instead of being a game that could highlight the further potential of the Wiimote, what we ended up getting at a whopping $50 price tag (for what really should have been a budget title) was a game which highlighted Wiimote issues. Some who don't fear the Nintendo Defense Force might even have defined these issues as "problems." This made Mama angry and you wouldn't like Mama when she's angry. So, Majesco came out with some tips on how to improve your Cooking Mama: Cook Off experience:

• For rolling truffles, place the Wii Remote flat in the palm of your hand, as if it's the truffle. Once in your hand, roll the Wii Remote in your hand as if it's the truffle.
• For egg cracking, hold the Wii Remote up in the air vertically and bring it down as if there is an invisible bowl in front of you.
• To grind meat, hold the Wii Remote horizontally in your hand and make the crank motion as if there is a meat grinder in front of you.
• For stirring, hold the Wii Remote upside down and stir as if it's a spoon.
• To flip items in the frying pan, flick your wrist as you would with a real pan. Three flips consecutively will earn you bonus points.
• Cracking 3 eggs with only one initial attempt will earn you bonus points.
• In certain recipes, you can turn the heat up or down on the stove before the direction reaches the line.

After the break we have an "infomercial" perfect for late-night viewing. We don't even feel the need to say anything about it, but the simple fact that we put it after the break probably tells you something ... watch if you dare.

In Gamespot's review of recent Wii release Cooking Mama: Cook Off, they make a complaint that is becoming an all-too-common refrain among Wii fans: "The motion controls just aren't reliable. Some are overly sensitive... and some aren't sensitive enough."

There are bigger stakes here than the occasional botched omelette. Over the months since launch, the unpredictable Wii Remote has led to a maddening dichotomy. Some games are too easy, while others are too hard -- for all the wrong reasons.

The easy games, like Wii Sports Bowling, let the most feeble grandma instantly taste sweet victory. But the player's actions don't seem to have that much impact on the results. Swing the remote more-or-less the right way, and you're almost guaranteed a strike.

Gamers who crave a deeper challenge have to settle for battling incomprehensible controls. Wii Sports Boxing is certainly "difficult," but that's because the best strategy is "Flail your arms like a Muppet on PCP." In Wii Sports Golf, you can take the exact same swing five times in a row and get wildly different results each time. And then there's Cooking Mama. Here's a tip: go into your real-world kitchen, and cook some actual food. It'll be about 9,000 times less frustrating, and might result in you eating something healthier than your regular diet of Slim Jims and Funyuns.

So far, the revolutionary controller that was supposed to be universally accessible is confusing, finicky, and imprecise. Maybe over time, developers will learn how to create challenging games that also have intuitive controls, not just one or the other. Until then, the Wii Remote is breaking more than just TV screens... it's breaking hearts.

As part of the launch for Cooking Mama: Cook Off on the Wii, Majesco is holding a little cook off celebration of their own. On March 31 at the Nintendo World Store in New York's Rockefeller Center, Majesco will host an event from 11 AM until 4 PM. There will be snacks, competitions featuring Cooking Mama and winners will acquire a copy of the game. Everyone who attends the event will receive a Cooking Mama apron while supplies last.

It's the perfect event to bring a little sibling, niece, nephew or even your own child to. Then again, that's what everyone else who reads this is thinking. Beware the hardcore Cooking Mama fanboys, they may look innocent, but they know how to wield a Wiimote like a knife -- ALLEZ CUISINE!

Another Thursday in Japan, another round of lovely digital entertainment. Today is our favourite day of the week -- even more so than Sunday. We put our skates on (not literally, you understand) and got down to our local game dealer for some home cooking, mama. Here's what we picked up, the best of this fine February release day:

• Cooking Mama (today we've been twirling pizza dough, fiercely whisking eggs, and rolling ham around asparagus spears -- tomorrow, we're going to try some haute cuisine; Wii)
  
• Virtua Fighter 5 (yes, it's just a bit good; PS3)
  
• Out Run 2 Special Tour (back to Japan in time for its 20th anniversary, but only just, and how we've been waiting for another Passing Breeze; PS2)
  
• Jet Impulse (this game is giving us impulses already, but what have the skies done to deserve our ascent?; DS)
  
• Luminous Arc (marvelous strategy from Marvelous; DS)
  

Like an Easy Bake Oven for the 21st century, Cooking Mama on the DS warmed its way into gamers' hearts with Wario Ware gameplay propelled forward by the shame of disappointing dear mother. Now Mama returns in Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii. All the original fun will be there including Iron Chef competition against a friend -- "ALLEZ CUISINE!" Using the Wii-mote gamers will chop, grate, slice, stir and do all the actions of cooking without actually being able to eat anything afterward. There will be 250+ foods to create 55 dishes. No word yet on an actual release date, but find screens for the game after the jump.

Now you're cooking with gas. Er, the Wii. We initially joked on that there were several games you wouldn't see on the Wii, and yes cooking was one of 'em. Now we stand corrected, because Cooking Mama actually looks ... well, delicious. Fun, too. We never thought we'd be saying that about a cooking video game, but here it is. Next up, games based on cleaning and doing your homework.

Check it out after the jump. You can practically smell the soup from here, and maybe we'll actually learn something while we play this one. When's Quantum Mechanics Mario hitting the shelves?

Lumines Live! (XBLA)
On a big screen with surround sound, Q Entertainment's Lumines Live was easily the most-played game in my library (if you stretch the definition of library to digitally distributed titles). Although I railed against how microtransactions were implemented in this title and still think the extent to which they disclosed the dearth of features was misleading, both the Basic and Advanced Pack got more than enough play time, as did the multiplayer. It is the best Xbox Live Arcade title since Geometry Wars.