The game, developed by Monolith Soft, the folks also responsible for Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos, looks like your standard Japanese action role-playing game with all the trappings: stat-heavy HUDS, fancily dressed world saving heroes, and monstrous creatures that must be dispatched by laser blade.

We don't know much more about Monado: Beginning of the World at this point, with its "TBD" release date and an absence of cold hard facts. But we have screen shots!!

We may not agree with the grooming choices of Disaster: Day of Crisis — chinstraps make us queasy — but we have to admit that our first look at the Wii game in action is pretty satisfying. It looks surprisingly good, not just in that "looks good for a Wii game" way either and will hopefully go a long way toward curbing bitching and moaning about a lack of "core" targeted games. Disaster still doesn't have a North American date, but it's hitting Japan at the end of the month meaning we'll know soon whether the game lives up to its namesake.

Thanks to Calos for the heads up!

From developers Monolith Soft (Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga), Disaster puts gamers in the shoes and beard of Raymond Bryce, retired U.S. Marine and former International Rescue Team operative, as he takes on terrorist organization SURGE and various natural disasters. "What kind of natural disasters?" you've clearly asked — earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, with a dash of "roaring pyroclastic flow" thrown in.

Bryce will punch boxes, shoot bears and be manly as he tries to stop global destruction and rescue a brilliant but helpless woman.

No announcement yet on the stateside release date for Disaster: Day of Crisis. Nintendo of America's press site has removed all mention of the title, so we'll poke their flesh and blood resources for more details.

Keep in mind that OFLC rating applies only to Australia and that we have no idea when it will be released — or if the rating is an indication it will be released any time soon. Perhaps we'll see it at Games Convention next week? Nah, doubt it.

Disaster: Day of Crisis [OFLC via Vooks]

Reason for the delay: lengthen the development process to improve the quality of the product. That has back-to-the-drawing-board written all over it, IMHO. The game involves surviving/coping with repeated natural disaster strikes while taking down a rogue military unit that's seized a nuclear weapon — 24 meets The Day After Tomorrow meets The Core meets ... So it will need big visuals and super realistic physics to be a winner. Maybe that's the problem, who knows.

Disaster: Day of Crisis Delayed Indefinitely [Quickjump Network, thanks El Cernex]

This single screen features the promised (new word alert!) "roaring pyroclastic flow" and heaps of crotch pointing. It also gives us a good indication what "gripping visuals" means at the Nintendo marketing department. Still no word on a release date, but we'll assume it will occur sometime in the future. Michael McWhertor