Taking a cue from the hollywoodian habit of milking games from movies before they even premiere, the Japanese anime and gaming industries are coming together in the production of a Wii game based on the upcoming The Sky Crawlers animation film. The project was revealed in the pages of Famitsu (via Gamersyde), who say that the Wii game is being developed by the Namco Bandai team responsible for the Ace Combat series.

The only reason I give a damn is that the Sky Crawlers anime is directed by Mamoru Oshii, who made a name for himself by directing the Ghost in the Sell animation film and its sequel Innocence (among other anime and live-action stuff). It's based on a novel series which follows a group of young fighter pilots involved in dogfight warfare, during an alternate historical period, and it's animated by Production I.G. The film premieres on August 2 and, by the way, I lied: I don't really give a damn about the game.

Looks like I was spot-on last month, by suggesting a skiing game for that Wii Balance Board which Nintendo will be bundling with Wii Fit. Curiously, though, the new game announced today isn't called Wii Ski - but We Ski. The reason I'm hesitating to call it a "new" game is that this is, in fact, an older Namco Bandai project initially known as Family Ski. Along with the change of title, the dual publisher also said it would release We Ski during spring 2008, and revealed a few more gameplay details.

According to IGN's feet-on preview, the good news is that We Ski can be played entirely with the Wiimote and Nunchuk, but the bad news is that even if you will have a Balance Board, it can only be used in single-player mode - so no drunken balancing in multiplayer, boo!

More gameplay features after these screenshots.

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 Continue reading 'We Ski Announced For Wii Balance Board'...

The rumour of Ace Combat 6 getting a PS3 version pales in significance, compared to the initial betrayal of the series' decade-old PlayStation legacy, by fraternizing with the Xbox 360. Nevertheless, less exciting topics are making the "news" these days, so I might as well fake some interest. So, as the story goes, the British PSM3 magazine published a feature titled "2008 Year of the PS3", which - as shown below - also happens to include Ace Combat 6. An honest mistake? I doubt it. A hazardous speculation? Could be. Anything official? Nope, not yet.