I think we can mostly agree that Activision's announcement of Science Papa, a science-themed minigame collection for the Wii and DS, is pretty shameless, yeah? The whole endeavor--the name, the gameplay format, the cartoony art style, the platforms--seems engineered very specifically to capitalize on the surprise success of Cooking Mama, a game published by Majesco. There's nothing illegal about it, apparently, but it's just kind of greasy, you know? Like, Transmorphers greasy.
Majesco, it seems, shares in this opinion. When Kotaku asked for a comment on the whole Science Papa announcement, Cooking Mama herself chose to respond, and she had some choice words for the old man.
So you want some dirt on "Science Papa" to splash on your site? I'll shovel it. We dated briefly (when he had much better hair). And now he clearly wants a piece of the best-selling pie by associating himself with an incredibly successful, and I'll emphasize, happily married, woman. Frankly, he never appreciated my cooking and I grew weary of his tedious "experiments." You want real mind-bending science, go figure out how to make Toulouse Cassoulet for your next dinner party of 20 and let me know how it goes, Papa.
My favorite part of this story is imagining the Majesco PR person furiously banging out this email, trying to slag on Activision as much as possible while still staying in character. I doubt Activision will respond in kind, but oh man, if they did? I'd much rather see fictional characters do the corporate mudslinging than CEOs.
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