And I do mean blatantly!
Today, Activision unveiled its new Wii and DS mini-game game titled Science Papa. Yeah, Science Papa! Doesn’t that have a familiar ring to it? It should, because it’s an obvious attempt to rip off and cash in on the success of Majesco’s Cooking Mama franchise.
“With Science Papa, we’re taking real-world elements of science and giving players the chance to interact with them in safe and creative ways,” said David Oxford, Activision Publishing. “While the focus here is clearly family fun, the game can stimulate interest and discussion about science.”
Science Papa, which is a collection of 30+ different laboratory experiments presented in mini-game form utilizing the DS touch screen and Wii motion controls, may very well turn out to be a fun game, but it’s poor form on Activision’s part to essentially play off of the branding of another publisher’s successful franchise. From a business perspective it’s probably a smart move. I can guarantee that many unsuspecting customers will see Science Papa on store shelves and buy it thinking it has some relation to Majesco’s Mama games. But it doesn’t, and to me that just seems like the wrong way to get customers to buy your product.
We’ll find out how much of a rip off Science Papa is (or isn’t) when it ships for DS and Wii in July.
We need a fight game – Cooking Mama vs. Science Papa … 😀
Now now, don’t go inciting domestic violence between Mama and Papa. Just look at Papa’s hair. His mugshot would probably look a lot like Nick Nolte’s. Not pretty. 😉