If you're still left wanting from today's earlier announcement that EA has struck a deal with Hasbro to bring Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf N-Strike to the Wii, perhaps you'll perk up for news on a game you actually want to play. Say, G.I. Joe, for example, which Variety says is part of the EA-Hasbro alliance and should ship alongside the film adaptation of the cartoon in Summer 2009. Details are scarce, but in the EA fashion, we expect it come to every platform under the sun. We certainly hope for it to be better than EA's Catwoman.

Hopefully, it won't just be relegated to mobile phones and Pogo.com, instead featuring billions of red lasers and blue lasers generating next-gen sparks, ultimately missing every single intended target. Sure, the G.I. Joe movie may have a few head-scratching choices, but that doesn't mean our inner eight year olds aren't wicked psyched.

EA develops Hasbro properties [Variety]

Electronic Arts today announced nine Hasbro games that will be hitting a variety of platforms over the next year.

Littlest Pet Shop and NERF "N-Strike" are both set to come to the Wii and DS this fall, with Littlest Pet Shop also making its way to the PC. Scrabble, Monopoly Here and Now and Yahtzee Adventures are all being developed for mobile phones. Electronic Arts is also developing Yahtzee, Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition, Trivial Pursuit and Operation for their online casual gaming service, Pogo.com.

"EA and Hasbro want to give families new ways to enjoy games; we want give them a new way to come together, connect, spend time and have fun around the TV or online," said Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA's Hasbro Studio. "Bringing the spirit of these games to life as video games has allowed us to create really unique and creative experiences for families and friends of all ages to enjoy together at home or online."

"We are thrilled that together we are bringing our great toys and games to life in the digital world and providing consumers with new and dynamic ways to enjoy our amazing brands," said Mark Blecher, Hasbro's Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Gaming.

EA will be showing off a number of the games at the upcoming Toy Fair in New York later this month. Hit the jump for the full release with game descriptions.

The last time I played Risk was New Year's Eve, 1999, which I spent with some folks from the local Renaissance Faire, figuring if the world were catapulted back into the Dark Ages, they would be the people to hang with. It went like many Risk games do...two hours of engrossing play followed by people wandering away from the table for various reasons, eventually forgetting we were playing. The game is just too damn long, and manufacturer Hasbro knows this. Their answer to the problem? Risk: Black Ops. It's the Risk you've come to know and love in short bursts, redesigned with a sleek and sexy new look, a new resource system that rewards possession of territorial capitols, and the big change - an objective system. Objectives are tasks such as "Control Europe" that reward a player for completing them. The game starts with four major and four minor objectives from a pool of twelve, and completing any three is considered a win. This changes the face of the game completely!

Hasbro, the makers of the word game Scrabble, have asked Facebook to remove its popular online take on the game, Scrabulous because of copyright infringement.

"Letters have been sent to Facebook in the United States regarding the Scrabulous application," said a Mattel spokeswoman in Britain.

"Mattel values its intellectual property and actively protects its brands and trademarks.

"As Mattel owns the rights to the Scrabble trademark outside the United States and Canada, we are currently reviewing our position regarding other countries."

Hmm, while it may seem silly, I believe Scrabble is an entirely original game, as in it's not one of these throw-offs of games created in the middle ages or ancient china. I wonder if they makers of Scrabulous can get away with a name change only?

Facebook Asked to Remove 'Scrabulous' [NYT]

Our own Luke Plunkett recently pointed out that the word "lesbo" is in the list of Scrabble DS suggested words, and elaborated that if he'd known that the Scrabble dictionary were so naughty, he'd have "played a lot more Scrabble."

Well suffice it to say, I intend on playing a bit more Scrabble, too, based upon this update from a reader:

Hey, my wife was playing ds scrabble and it suggested the word CUNT...Just thought it was way funnier than Lesbo

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