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Majesco sent out these new screens along with the release date for Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appetit. You can see Mama dressed up for "the new Cooking Dojo mode where Mama slips into her gi for some serious culinary training." Serious, serious sticking kiwi to a cake.
You can also see the screen declaring "Parfait: perfect!" which I just find amusing.
Totally didn't realize this was coming so soon, but the 3DS sequel to Gardening Mama came out yesterday in North America for $30. Strangely, it's retail only, but Majesco plans to put a demo on eShop soon.
Anyway, super cute as always, but why are you shearing a sheep, Mama? You didn't garden that sheep.
[Update: Or maybe it's officially out April 29? Majesco put out a release saying it shipped today.]
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When I saw Majesco's announcement of Gardening Mama 2 for 3DS, I thought, "oh cool, they're still doing these! I like these." I also like the concept, in which you grow plants for little animals to sell in their shops, sort of like one step back from Hometown Story.
But Eric pointed out something I hadn't really considered, and that is that these Cooking Mama games are getting increasingly distant from their sensible, realistic concept they started with: a mom cooking for her family.
Now a mom is... living with talking animals in the forest, and growing crops for them to sell? The animals aren't her kids, right? I guess this game is about Mama's day job before she gets back home to spend a few precious hours with her family.
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Pet Zombies trailer spoofs those super sad ASPCA/Sara McLachlan animal cruelty commercials. This is just a terrific idea for this spot -- it almost makes up for the otherwise nonexistent promotion for the game.
The concept for the game is also great: it's a parody of those Ubisoft Petz games that flooded the DS, but instead you're nurturing, feeding, torturing, and playing minigames with the undead. It's a fun idea, but I don't think that joke will be compelling enough to convince people to spend $30 on a zombie pet-raising sim...
Preorder: Pet Zombies (out this week)
See also: More Nintendo 3DS news
Nano Assault trailer debuts on the microscopic shoot'em up's newly launched official website.
Speaking of Shin'en, the German developer recently revealed that its graphically impressive and well received WiiWare platformer, Jett Rocket, will see a sequel on the eShop. It's also reportedly working on another downloadable game for the 3DS service, too!
Preorder: Nano Assault (November 15)
See also: More Nano Assault posts
[Via Nintendo-Online.de]
First Nano Assault footage captured with a shakycam. The first portion of this clip shows a minute-and-a-half boss fight, followed by a three-minute stage playthrough.
This plays nothing like Shin'en's previous, technically impressive shoot'em ups, but I like this different direction, as I wasn't fond of its Iridion or Nanostray releases.
Much props to the guys at Nintendo World Report for recording the only video I've seen online for Nano Assault. As usual, they killed it with their E3 video coverage.
Buy: Nano Assault
See also: More E3 trailers and news
[Via Nintendo World Report]
Dazzling screens for Nano Assault, Shin'en's shoot'em up releasing to 3DS in the third quarter of this year.
I'm not surprised that Shin'en was able to create a game that looks this good so early in the 3DS's life -- this is the same team that released Iridion 3D as a GBA launch title and somehow fit Jett Rocket into a 40 MB WiiWare game.
Still, the studio's Nanostray games never excited me much (Euroshmups have never been my thing), so I'll likely wait to see video of this before putting down my preorder.
See also: More Nintendo 3DS news and media
So, here's the bad news. If you preorder DreamRift/Majesco's Monster Tale at GameStop, you get an exclusive ... code for a new color scheme for Ellie and 5% off at in-game shops. Five whole percent! The good news is that such a code exists, and will be available to all five minutes after the game is released.
In case you've missed this game, it's a new DS platformer from part of the Henry Hatsworth team, in which the top screen is a platformer about a little girl saving a world of monsters from evil kids, and the bottom screen is home to her pet monster, Chomp, who you can feed and grow into several different forms. I played it at E3 and found it more interesting than the "virtual pet" bit may make it sound.
And here's the recent trailer:
For the nerdiest holiday season ever -- for when just sending an e-card isn't nerdy enough -- Majesco has posted a site allowing you to send free Cooking Mama-themed e-cards.
I guess if you wanted to go all Crafting Mama, you could print out the image and make a card with it. But I'm sticking with Too Busy Actually Playing Cooking Mama Mama, or simply Lazy-Ass Mama. E-cards for all (I remember to send e-cards to)!
Buy: Crafting Mama
See also: More Cooking Mama stuff
Crafting Mama napkin ring template, featuring space to write what you're thankful for. I'm thankful for Majesco producing actual craft projects to promote Crafting Mama. If you want, you could probably ask your mom to stare at you and judge your progress for the authentic experience.
Buy: Crafting Mama
See also: Cooking Mama: The Fountain
Cooking Mama fountain by theatreorchid. This is the winning entry in Majesco and Craftster's Crafting Mama contest, consisting of hand-cut clay tiles, painted cookware, and, of course, a working fountain. This is pretty damned amazing.
The runner-up in number of votes went to the "Mama will fix it" bag, with this button-mosaic apron receiving the most votes after that. My favorite of the (non-winning) however, is this amazingly creepy Cooking Mama costume. HER FACE IS SEQUINS.
Buy: Crafting Mama
See also: More Cooking Mama stuff
Crafting Mama DS stylus, a preorder bonus for the upcoming DS game from GameStop. I was going to post this with the joke "if they were really serious about crafting, they'd just pack an instruction sheet and you could make it your damn self," and I was proud of that. Then I showed this to Eric and he noted that you would "need to buy two copies to actually knit with it." Which is clearly so much better!
Anyway, I really want one of these. I totally find the character endearing. She helps you cook food and stuff, and sometimes her eyes are on fire, and her English is not perfect.
[Via @Majesco]
Majesco has smartly teamed up with the Craftster forum, turning one of the forum's periodic challenges into a Crafting Mama-themed contest that charges entrants with "Pixelating" Mama. Entries will be accepted starting October 1, which gives people time to make something.
"With Mama as your inspiration, your pixel project might be a quilt where the squares create an image of just Mama’s face, Mama’s entire body, or even Mama in her garden or kitchen. Maybe you'll use tiles to create a mosaic wallhanging of Mama. Maybe you'll use sequins to represent your pixels and you'll create a tote bag adorned with Mama."
The person whose project receives the most votes will get a prize package including every Mama game. Maybe Majesco will set us up with a contest like this when it releases Self-Effacing Blog Post Writing Mama.
Pre-order: Crafting Mama
It seems odd that Majesco, the same company that's lived off Cooking Mama sequels/spin-offs and licensed rubbish in recent years, would contract an indie dev like Jason Rohrer to produce something as offbeat and serious as a “two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola”, but the publisher is following through with its plans to release Diamond Trust of London this year.
The blood diamond theme isn't the only feature from this game that's caught my interest; Diamond Trust of London has its roots in resource-gathering German board games (see pen and paper prototype in the image above) but takes advantage of players using different systems to allow behind-the-scenes bribing and spying:
"One thing about the screen environment that pen and paper can't offer is a unique view of the world for each player, says Rohrer -- in a board game both individuals are looking at the same world, which makes something like spy mechanics difficult to pull off: 'One thing you can't do [with a physical game] is send a spy, unbeknownst to your opponent, into your opponent's secret area,' for example.
Spy mechanics are really hard to pull off in a board game. The opportunity for one player to do things that the other is unaware of led Rohrer to explore what he calls "knowledge chains" with Diamond Trust; he defines it as 'how one player knows what another player knows about what they know.'
Rumors, gossip, the secrets people keep from each other and the assumptions people make about what others are and aren't aware of create social dynamics that fascinate Rohrer. 'Every tier that gets added evolves the social dynamic and changes behavior,' he says.
From what I understand, the goal of the game is to make as much money as possible by turning around diamonds you've acquired. Throwing them out to the market as soon as they come in isn't the best strategy, though, as diamond companies prefer not to have so much supply available on the market. At the same time, you need to keep an eye on your opponent's business and sales.
In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Rohrer describes Diamond Trust of London as more about the psychology and subterfuge of the diamond trading business than a commentary on blood diamonds:
"The pictures on their Rolodex cards have black bars over their eyes. And you’re commanding them remotely via satellite phone. So that kind of world, the world of corporate memos that have been photocopied 25 times before they reach you, that kind of stuff — it’s a celebration of that, in a noir kind of sense.
But at the same time, after you’re done playing, you can’t help but get into it. Because you’re bribing and counterbribing and spying on your opponent, and trying to get as many diamonds as possible. The winner is the person who has figured out how to extract more from Angola than the other person. So it tricks you into getting into that. And I guess it causes you to reflect on that. But not necessarily about blood diamonds themselves [as much as] the whole underground culture."
[Via Gamasutra, Image via TIGSource]
For reasons I can't understand, some people refuse to pay full price for games like A Boy and His Blob or Muramasa because of their 2D graphics. Totally ridiculous! Anyway, those people can finally pick up A Boy and His Blob, as Amazon has cut its price down to $19.99.
If you want the free shipping that comes with any orders over $25, you could also throw the Mistwalker-designed tactical RPG Blue Dragon Plus into your cart for $8.77.
The above image, by the way, is a custom figure created by toy artist Donald “KodyKoala” Kennedy.
See also: Sculpey model of A Boy and his Blob
[Via CAG]
Small, cropped screens from Diamond Trust of London, a "two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola" just before the formation of an initiative (Kimberly Process) to hinder the flow of conflic diamonds.
The simple graphics aren't pushing the DS's hardware, but it's a Jason Rohrer project, and most people don't play his indie releasess (Passage, Between) for the visuals -- even though they're typically referred to as "art games."
I'm really surprised Majesco is publishing this, as their recent slate of titles (Cooking Mama series, A Boy and His Blob) tend to target a much wider audience. I can't imagine a game about conflict diamonds attracting many shoppers at GameStop. It wouldn't surprise me to see this appear on DSiWare like the other indie project Majesco is pubishing, Ghostwire.
[Via IndieGames.com]
Developers taking their game up and down the streets of Stockholm. It's odd to see a Nintendo DS development kit carried around with the portable system! (I think that's what the red box is, though I've always seen the devkits with a blue casing. Maybe this is new for the DSi?)
The three guys in this shot are from A Different Game, the Swedish studio behind the DSi's upcoming augmented reality ghost game Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal. They were featured in the latest issue of Metro Teknik, where the team shared these two screenshots:
It doesn't look too different from what was shown in the trailer released five months ago, but it seems the studio is busy fleshing out other portions of the DSi-exclusive game, coming up with compelling ghosts like the Angelmakers.
