| Doki Doki Majo Shinpan! | |
|---|---|
Touch! Catch! Witch? |
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| Developer(s) | SNK Playmore |
| Publisher(s) | SNK Playmore |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure, fighting |
| Mode(s) | Single Player |
| Rating(s) | CERO: C |
| Media/distribution | Nintendo DS Game Card |
Doki Doki Majo Shinpan! (どきどき魔女神判!, lit. "Thump-Thump Witch Judgement", or more accurately translated as "Heart-Pounding Magical Investigation") [1] is a game developed by SNK Playmore for Nintendo DS.
A game journalist from the gaming blog Kotaku asked an SNK spokesperson if this game would be released in the US, and the response was "...this title is only for Japanese market. We do not have any plan for localize to the other versions.",[2] despite the game originally having official sites in English, Chinese, and Korean. These were taken offline when the Japanese language site was rewritten to focus on the upcoming sequel game.
The player assumes the role of a junior high school student who is asked by an angel to locate a witch that has sneaked into his school. In order to find the witch, he must search the suspects' bodies for a "witch mark." The preferred method is by using touch (using the stylus to guide his hands).
A sequel titled Doki Doki Majo Shinpan 2 Duo was released 31 July 2008, and a third game titled Doki Majo Plus was released on July 30, 2009.
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According to online retailer Amazon.com, the game is the best selling pre-order game in Japan, and is more popular than The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.[3] However the actual numbers show that the game met with minimal sales and as of 2009 has only sold 50,000 units. Although the game has not been confirmed for a North American release, it has been the subject of a number of webcomics. These include:
The import review of the game in the UK publication NGamer (like its predecessor NGC Magazine, famous for comical reviews of particularly bad games), felt so disturbed by the game that it abandoned its normal percentage scoring system and awarded it a 'score' of simply "NO" in every category. In a later issue (18) it "awarded" it "The Superman 64 (a reference to what the magazine considered for years as the worst game ever made) Award For Worst Game (of 2007)", remarking "There are bad games - technically flawed and conceptually lazy - and then there are bad games. Evil bad. Doki Doki a.k.a The Meh Witch Touching Project, is one such title." . The sequel, however, received 40%, an actual score.