Midway focuses on casual DSers with More TouchMaster and MechanicMaster
Two touchscreen games due for the autumn
Midway's not been the most active publisher when it comes to the DS - which is perhaps a surprise considering its back catalogue of arcade games. Instead it's hoping to cash in on the DS's casual audience with the release of two touchscreen-focused games.
The first is More TouchMaster, which as the title suggests is the sequel to 2007's TouchMaster, itself a reworking of Midway's card and puzzle-based touchscreen kiosk found in US bars and leisure facilities.
The new version offers much the same form of entertainment with 20 mini-games spread across cards, puzzle, strategy-lite and other pursuits such as 10-pin bowling and pool. Development is being carried out by PhoenixSoft, the company behind the first DS game and the game will be budget-priced, with Midway hoping the simple pick-up-and-play experience will offer the sort of snack-sized gaming that appeals to the well... to the pick-up-and-play DS gamer.
Midway's other DS autumn release is MechanicMaster.
Developed by Hungarian studio Most Wanted, this takes the approach of the Incredible Machine games where you have to place various strange gadgets in the correct place to complete a crazy sequence of events.
In the Classic mode, the objects include the likes of conveyor belts, spinning wheels, rubber bands, portals, gravity shifters, laser pistols, mirrors and vortices. Frankly, what more could you ask for?
Providing a more DIY attitude however is the Drawing mode, where you can create your own elements in order to solve the puzzles. This also links into the level editor, so you can create your own cunning paradoxes which can then be shared with other players via the online infrastructure hook-up.
