Cooking Mama serves up 500,000

It's no secret that the past couple of years have not been good for Majesco. After suffering the fallout of several retail bombs in 2005, the publisher spent the latter part of 2005 and most of 2006 in triage mode, canceling projects and selling off game licenses in an effort to shift away from top-tier, big-budget development.

With its sights now set on casual and handheld games, specifically for Nintendo's monstrously popular Nintendo DS and Wii, Majesco seems to have turned a corner, to the point of prompting some industry analysts to upgrade their stock advisement to "Buy" and projecting a return to profitability for the once-thought dead-in-the-water publisher.

Majesco's turnaround in fortunes was further evidenced today, as the New Jersey-based publisher announced it has shipped more than 500,000 units of its chef-in-training simulation Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS. The milestone comes 11 months after Mama first opened for business last September. Hoping to surpass this success, the publisher announced Cooking Mama 2 last week.

Developed by Office Create, Cooking Mama features more than 75 different dishes that players can slave away in the kitchen creating. Players must serve up high-quality dishes, lest they incur the wrath of the ever-watchful Mama. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.