A popular college pastime will soon come to video game consoles.

Thus begins The Lantern’s article on Incredible Technologies’ game version of Ohio’s noble pastime of “cornholing”. Armed with only a vague knowledge of the strange rituals conducted by the denizens of middle(ish) America and a widely accepted definition for cornholing, I expected a whole different ball game.

Sadly, Nintendo isn’t abandoning its trend of family-friendly shovelware for the Wii in favor of horrible deviant-friendly shovelware. Instead of a game in which the Wiimote is put to nauseating use, Incredible Technologies is releasing Target Toss Pro: BAGS, which, in spite of its potentially questionable title, has nothing to do with forced penetration, corn-based or otherwise.

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Eletronic Arts has announced that it will be bringing the adorable little MySims back to Nintendo’s platforms with MySims Kingdom for the Nintendo DS and Wii.

In what appears to be a story-based The Sims title, MySims Kingdom puts players to task with helping King Roland build up “the Kingdom” and bring it back to its former glory. The game will feature all of the customization you’d expect from the franchise, in addition to a new set of characters including Princess Butter, which I’m pretty sure was an adult film I saw in high school.

MySims Kindgom will be available this fall. Check the fancy fact sheet after the jump.

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As excited as I was to see My Life as a King debut along with WiiWare, I was equally (if not maybe even a smidge more) intrigued by LostWinds, which I heard word of back in February. I downloaded it right away, and quickly found myself having tumbled down the rabbit hole only moments after turning the game on — real life forgotten, lost in a lovely new universe.

To follow me down that secretive passage, click the jump, my friends (fellow editor Jonathan Holmes and I have both lost ourselves there!)

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I have to admit, today was an exciting day for me. I got up, got settled in front of my computer and started to go down the list of morning to-do’s. The Virtual Console update is usually first on my Monday list, but I realized I didn’t have a press release from Nintendo yet, and it seemed a bit late … wait … is today May 12th? WiiWare launch day?

That means, among other titles I am actually interested in playing, that I have a new Square-Enix game to play today.

Delight!

Hit the jump to check out my first impressions of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.

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What do you get when the greatest videogame company of all time teams up with the greatest film director of all time for an original project on the Nintendo Wii? That remains to be seen, as Capcom and Hayao Miyazaki currently have no plans to work together. While we wait for that to change, we can all sit around and play Boom Blox, the first game in what is planned to be a series of collaborations between Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg.

EA and Spielberg are perhaps the two biggest money makers in their given fields, not to mention true experts in pandering to the lowest common denominator. Is Boom Blox just another piece of bland, cookie-cutter crap in line with the other uninspired F.V. that EA and Spielberg have been spewing out of late, or does the game hark back to an earlier day when both creators’ monikers were synonymous with genuine artistry?

Hit the jump to find out.  

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Pretty much a Wii overload this week. WiiWare is now out, and some interesting little titles are out for it. LostWinds looks like a really fun game. I love the concept and can’t wait to play the game. And oddly enough, Pop looks really fun to me too. I don’t know why, but the trailer makes me think I could lose five hours of my life to it easily.

What’s looking sw33t to you this week? Hit the jump for all the trailers for the games listed below. 

XBLA: Assault Heroes 2
WiiWare: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, LostWinds, Defend Your Castle, Pop, V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack, TV Show King
Wii: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Deca Sports, We Ski, Castle of Shikigami III
DS: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, ATV Thunder/Monster Trucks
PS3: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Rocketmen: It Came from Your Uranus
X360: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Rocketmen: It Came from Your Uranus
PC: Ford Racing Offroad
PS2: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

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Activision’s Dave Oxford asks: “What could be more fun than using the Wii Remote to swing on a vine over bloodthirsty crocodiles as retro-cool Pitfall Harry?”

Well gee, Dave, I don’t know! But it looks like we’ll have a chance to find out this fall, when Activision plans to release Pitfall: The Big Adventure for the Wii. The game will feature 60 levels, spanning jungles and glacial mountains, as Pitfall Harry attempts to steal find ancient treasures and outwit creatures who are just trying to mind their own business when some dude in cargo pants comes in and terrorizes their home. Jeez.

Pitfall: The Big Adventure is being developed by Edge of Reality, the same studio responsible for last gen’s Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure. So now I ask you: what could be more fun than using the Wii Remote to swing on a vine over bloodthirsty crocodiles as retro-cool Pitfall Harry?

[Update: Added three screens of the game to the gallery.] 

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This really isn’t a huge surprise, since IGN accidentally barfed up the news last month, but Electronic Arts have officially announced that they will be bringing their Skate franchise to the Wii and Nintendo DS. 

Called Skate It, both versions are set to ship in 2008. Much to the delight of everyone, I’m sure, the Wii version of Skate It will support the Wii Balance Board, as well as the expected flicks and twists with the Wii remote. The DS version will use the stylus, likely mirroring the “FlickIt” controls found on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Skate. 

Also tucked in the Skate It press release was the fact that Skate 2 is currently in development. Not exactly a megaton revelation, since the first game trampled all over the sales of Activision’s long-standing king, Tony Hawk. 

Now what exactly is this “it” EA are talking about … ?

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Here’s a random surprise: Rebellion Developments’ Rogue Trooper is being ported to the Wii. The game — which is a port of last gen’s Xbox, PS2, and PC title — is being handled by Reef Entertainment for Nintendo’s console. 

The third-person shooter follows the story of Rogue Trooper, a genetically engineered super-soldier of the future who has taken on the abilities of four of his fallen comrades. The title is based on a popular British comic strip that has spawned multiple games, including a title for the Commodore 64 in the mid-80s. 

Rogue Trooper received good reviews when it was released in 2006, so this might be a good second chance to check it out. The Wii version is said to be the definitive version of the game (haven’t we heard that before?), with tweaks and gameplay mechanics adapted for the console’s controllers. The game will ship later this year.

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Either these rumors are a successful attempt to toy with my emotions, or they’re really true.

We started hearing that a sequel to the airship and pirate Dreamcast RPG Skies of Arcadia since late last year. Since then, we’ve heard a few more hints of its existence, but now Cubed3 drops a full rumor load on us. They hear that we may see Skies of Arcadia 2 debut as early as this year’s Tokyo Game Show. And while we’ve already heard that the Wii was the target platform, now they’re saying that this game could hit the PS3 as well. Of course, none of this is confirmed.

Isn’t is a bit wierd that this would be released on both the Wii and the PS3? I mean, that would be great, but that definitely isn’t typical. 

Did you play the first Skies? Are you patiently awaiting a sequel? 

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