Cooking and Crayons, Virtually
By Staff -- Playthings, 4/1/2007
Crayons have finally gone digital. Console video games publisher Crave Entertainment, Newport Beach, Calif., is partnering with Crayola to develop the first Crayola-branded game for Nintendo's DS system. The game's adventures and challenging mini-games will let players color and find treasures using a treasure map and (what else?) Crayola crayons, using a game stylus instead of the real thing … Details regarding Sega's game based on New Line Cinema's feature film adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass are out. In time for the movie's December release, the game lets players take on the role of its young female heroine, Lyra, or Iorek Byrnison, the polar bear who joins Lyra's quest to save the world. Players can collaborate with in-game characters and collect special items, explore, evade and fight nemeses, plus find secrets, play mini games and roam through 13 picturesque locations that can be unlocked by using the titular truth-telling golden compass device, the alethiometer. The game will be available for Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, PC and PS3, according to its San Francisco-based publisher … And while the world waits for Sega's Golden Compass game to heat up sales, Wii is already cooking thanks to Edison, N.J.-based Majesco's Cooking Mama: Cook Off game. It lets players slice and dice up to 250 different foods—and create 55 cultural dishes from 10 different nations. Designed specifically for Wii, players move their hands up and down and side to side to slice, or in a circular motion to fry on-screen eggs. A Holly Hobbie & Friends game for DS will also be available from Majesco this fall … Agoura Hills, Calif.-based THQ will give fans two new games based on popular Nickelodeon tween series Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh, for Nintendo DS later this year … Players can enter the Disney universe with Meteos: Disney Magic for DS from Disney Interactive Studios, Burbank, Calif. Players are asked to help Jiminy Cricket and Tinker Bell reorganize the Disney storybook vault after someone changes the stories around. Players can use the DS stylus to create puzzle patterns and put the stories back together for Pirates of the Caribbean, Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Toy Story, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Lilo & Stitch and Winnie the Pooh; the game also features a secret bonus level.
