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Developer Tom Soderlund explains the frights of Ghostwire

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 16th 2010 at 5:00AM }

Bumps in the night. Unexplained sounds. A chill up your spine. Extreme terror. These things aren't associated with the Nintendo DSi, unless you unexpectedly leave yours behind in a taxi. But A Different Game CEO Tom Soderlund wants to bring all of that augmented paranormal activity to your DSi with Ghostwire and turn you into a ghostbuster (minus the proton packs). Now you're armed with a stylus and the power of Nintendo.

Originally conceived four years ago for Symbian-powered smartphones, the idea is to turn your handheld into a tool for communicating with the paranormal world. The built-in camera, sound meters, light meters are all a part of the experience, providing a combination of real-world and computer-generated data. Soderlund's team built an adventure game around it -- you talk to ghosts, find out what's troubling them, and either capture them or attempt to ease their pain.

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Attack of the Movies 3D also attacking Xbox 360

by JC Fletcher { Mar 15th 2010 at 9:30PM }

This May, Wii owners won't be alone in shooting their way through scenes reminiscent of classic action movies in glorious, anaglyph 3D. Majesco has announced that it will release Attack of the Movies 3D on Xbox 360 as well.

Attack of the Movies sends groups of up to four players (wearing up to four pairs of goofy 3D glasses) through movie-themed worlds, rich with hostile sea creatures, aliens, and robots. Don't have your own glasses? No worries -- the game comes with four sets. Not only will you get to shoot stuff with your friends, you'll all get to look like that one guy from Back to the Future when you do!

Gallery: Attack of the Movies 3D (Xbox 360)

Gallery: Attack of the Movies 3D (Wii)

Impressions: Pirates Plund-Arrr

by Andrew Yoon { Mar 11th 2010 at 2:30PM }

Pirates Plund-Arrr is best summed up as Castle Crashers, but with pirates. On the Wii. For $30.

Unfortunately for Majesco and developer Boomzap, PSN and XBLA have spoiled us with a number of high-quality downloadable beat 'em ups for under $20. By skipping WiiWare and releasing as a retail game, Pirates Plund-Arrr seems a bit too pricey for its genre.

Still, if you've been hankering for a four player co-op brawler on the Wii, Pirates Plund-Arrr delivers the action and humor we've come to expect from the genre. The title alone is representative of the spirit of the game. Boomzap has taken every opportunity to inject pirate lingo and iconography into a colorful, well-animated world.

Gallery: Pirates Plund-Arr

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Majesco cooks up Crafting Mama for DS

by JC Fletcher { Mar 11th 2010 at 10:33AM }

Almost a year ago, a trademark for "Crafting Mama" was spotted. It's now being put to use, as Majesco has announced, well, Crafting Mama for DS. In her latest endeavor, Mama will occupy her seemingly endless time with a new task: arts & crafts.

In a series of 40 projects, players will create things like birdhouses, quilts, kaleidoscopes and adorable new aprons for Mama to wear, as well as Mama dolls. Of course, these creations will all be realized through the familiar touch-based minigames, played alone and in multiplayer, which so many of us have grown to love in the utterly populous Cooking Mama game franchise. It's kind of crazy that a company can announce a game about making quilts and birdhouses, and we can already pretty much imagine how to play it!

Majesco plans a fall 2010 release for Crafting Mama, but we suspect the publisher is at least considering bumping that up a bit.

Flip's Twisted World team spins a dev diary

by Andrew Yoon { Mar 9th 2010 at 10:40PM }

Flip's Twisted World is a rare third party game that sets to do something original for the Wii. Yet strangely, it's gone almost completely unnoticed. While platformers are a dime a dozen, Flip's gravity-twisting gameplay offers a unique spin (get it?) that deserves a look. The "gimmick" at the heart of Flip's Twisted World is the player's ability to "flip" the world at whim, turning floors into walls, ceilings into floors, and more.

Majesco has released a dev diary for Flip's Twisted World that better explains its gameplay. It's easy to make comparisons to Super Mario Galaxy, but that's not really a bad thing, is it? Flip's Twisted World comes out on Wii this April.

Gallery: Flip's Twisted World

Majesco threatened with Nasdaq delisting, again

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 8th 2010 at 11:10AM }

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2010/03/gardeningmamasadface580px11.jpg

Majesco, publisher of Cooking Mama and ... other stuff, has received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock market. The company now has 180 calendar days to bring its stock above $1 per share, the minimum required to remain on the exchange. The trick, though, is it can't just pop its fiscally hurting head above a buck for a day and everything will go back to being right with the world again. The company needs to hold the price for "a minimum of 10 consecutive trading days prior to August 30, 2010."

This is not the first time Majesco was threatened with being kicked from the exchange. The company came back from the brink of that potential delisting disaster early last year. If you're curious to see what happens after a company is delisted, here are two case studies: Midway and Atari.

Tetris Party Deluxe coming to Wii and DS this June

by Andrew Yoon { Feb 25th 2010 at 7:04PM }

Tetris Party is coming out again, this time in the more expensive "on disc" format. Originally a WiiWare release, Majesco and Tetris Online, Inc. are teaming up to release Tetris Party Deluxe for both Wii and DS this June. The retail release has a few enhancements over the WiiWare original, such as three new modes: Sprint, Master, and Bombliss. Unfortunately, none of these three modes are as inventive as the modes introduced in the original WiiWare game, like Field Climber, Stage Racer and Shadow.

A price has yet to be set on Tetris Party Deluxe, but it'll be difficult to justify much more than the $12 asking price the downloadable version currently sports. A retail release on the DS is a bit more palpable, promising all the content found in the Wii version while offering a key feature DSiWare cannot capitalize on: the ability to play on every DS system out there.

To see all the differences between the three versions of Tetris Party, check out a publisher-provided chart after the break.

Gallery: Tetris Party Deluxe

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'Let's Draw,' says Majesco to Nintendo DS owners

by JC Fletcher { Jan 21st 2010 at 3:00PM }

Majesco's Let's Draw is ridiculously cute. Chances are it won't be as cute in untrained hands, but that's no reason not to try! Let's Draw combines minigames with Drawn to Life–style customization -- it's part drawing book, part game -- and adorability varies (based on the player's skill).

Kids (and yes, this is for kids) draw and color images as prompted by the game, which are then animated in minigames like Whack-a-Mole and Air Hockey. Let's Draw also includes simple drawing lessons, based on a Japanese drawing book series. Drawn to Life was a big success for THQ -- we'll see how this younger take on the idea works out for a somewhat bruised and beaten Majesco when the game releases this March for $19.99.

Gallery: Let's Draw (DS)

Cooking Mama taking on two more side jobs this year

by JC Fletcher { Jan 14th 2010 at 6:45PM }

In its latest financial results release, Majesco reported satisfying sales for its Cooking Mama franchise. It didn't provide specifics, but CEO Jesse Sutton said that Cooking Mama 3 "performed well," Gardening Mama was "very successful" and Cooking Mama in general was "the most successful third party franchise on the DS" and "an evergreen brand." So, naturally, Majesco is going to retire the series on a high note.

Oh, did we say "retire the series on a high note?" We meant "release two more games this year." Sutton said that following the success of the gardening-based spinoff, Majesco is working on two "additional extensions for 2010," as well as looking to "new media channels" for further extensions of the brand.

Majesco reports $6.6 million loss for 2009

by Richard Mitchell { Jan 14th 2010 at 6:15PM }

Majesco has just released the financial data for its fiscal 2009, which ended October 31, 2009. The company posted revenues of $23.9 million in the three months ending October 31, 2009, a significant increase over the $18 million in revenue during the same period in 2008. Still, Majesco didn't manage to post actual profits, instead posting a loss of $5.5 million in the fourth quarter, compared to a $0.4 million income during the same period in 2008.

Looking Majesco's entire fiscal 2009, the company reported revenues of $94.5 million, which it claims is a 47.8 percent increase over 2008. Again, though, Majesco reports an overall operating loss for the year, amounting to $6.6 million. This is compared to an operating income of $2.8 million in 2008. The publisher cites "the Cooking Mama franchise, Jillian Michaels' titles and strong distribution revenue" for pushing its "top line," but blames a retail market "especially hard on non-branded and new IP titles" for its losses.

Majesco's major goal for 2010 is profitability, which the company will pursue by cutting costs, releasing "fewer, but stronger titles" and, of course, "leveraging" the Cooking Mama franchise.

Pirates Plundarrr sailing Wii-ward this April

by JC Fletcher { Jan 7th 2010 at 5:00PM }

click to plund-arrr the gall-arrr-yMajesco followed up its announcement of Attack of the Movies 3D with another multiplayer Wii experience, this time with a much sillier title: Pirates Plund-arrr. Three r's. If it were two r's, it would be the planet that the Thundercats' enemies come from. Obviously.

The Wii game, developed by casual game creator Boomzap Entertainment, is a 2D side-scrolling brawler, with (obviously) a pirate theme. You and up to three friends beat up a bunch of pirates and ghosts (and pirate ghosts, presumably) in a quest to find Captain Rudebelly and retrieve the Scepter of Power.

To help them along, players will be able to ride warthogs and ... "trigger meat meteor showers raining down from above." The combination of four-player fighting, Flash-like 2D graphics, and character leveling makes this sound somewhat like a take on the Castle Crashers style, which sounds good to us. Majesco plans to release Plund-Arrr in April.

Gallery: Pirates Plund-arrr (Wii)

No Wii is safe from 'Attack of the Movies 3D'

by JC Fletcher { Jan 6th 2010 at 11:05AM }

Avatar may be the big buzz in 3D flicks these days, but for many, the technology is always going to be associated with monster movies and those red-and-blue anaglyph lenses. For those of us hopelessly infatuated with those ridiculous-looking lenses and cheesy movies, Majesco is publishing Attack of the Movies 3D for Wii.

The on-rails shooter features set pieces heavily inspired by movies, for up to four players to ~~blast~~ point-and-click their way through. With your friends, you'll "battle large alien space cruisers, shoot underwater monsters, join the resistance against the machines and more" against enemies "culled from the annals of film history." And you'll get to do it in glorious red and blue -- the game includes four sets of 3D glasses!

Attack of the Movies 3D is expected for release this spring.

Data East Arcade Classics drops in Feb. 2010 for $20, new trailer

by Richard Mitchell { Dec 4th 2009 at 12:45PM }

Majesco has released the first trailer for its upcoming Data East Arcade Classics collection. You might not remember the names of all the games in the video, but children of the 80s are likely to recognize at least a handful of them. One or two of them might even prompt shouts of "Hey! I remember ... that game! With the guys, and the explosions."

The good news is you won't have to wait too long to figure it out, as Majesco has announced that Data East Arcade Classics will release in February 2010. Even better news, it will only cost twenty bucks. Yeah, $20 for Bad Dudes, Burger Time and Magical Drop III. As if that weren't enough, the game also ties your high scores to your Mii and features unlockable bonus material.

The best news of all, the pizza joint down the street isn't getting any more of our hard-earned quarters ever again.

Uwe Boll is adapting everyone's favorite video game, Bloodrayne 3

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 22nd 2009 at 11:30AM }

At the risk of being repeatedly pawnched, we think we can accurately describe all of Uwe Boll's video game-based films as "wretched." However, we've got a theory for why that is -- his attempt to adhere to the plot of these games limited his otherwise limitless directing potential. Fortunately, that won't be a problem on his next film project: Bloodrayne 3: Warhammer, a film based on a video game which does not exist.

We'll contact Majesco to find out if this means another Bloodrayne title is secretly in the works -- but let's be honest, now. This sounds a lot like some good ol' fashioned Bollnanigans. Bollshines. Bollduggery.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Hands-on: Dawn of Heroes (DS)

by David Hinkle { Nov 12th 2009 at 3:30PM }

You might expect Dawn of Heroes, a tactical, turn-based RPG from Wicked Studios and Majesco, to be super serious. It seems games in this genre seldom stray into the territory of slapstick and humorous banter, but here's Dawn of Heroes, doing just that -- and doing it well!