Look how handsome everyone is, after just a few moments with Wii Fit. Where can I score some of that sterile Wii Fit brand workout gear, Nintendo? I want a total Wii Fit lifestyle too!

Yes, the game was still in its infancy, but we got a decent glimpse at the gameplay mechanics that should make Sonic Chronicles another BioWare hit.

The game is almost entirely stylus controlled, with Sonic (or whomever you're playing) following touchscreen taps and drags. Context sensitive pop-up actions will appear at certain points, letting the player enter doors, sprint through corkscrews or cross gaps. Some are character or ability specific, requiring the use of a flying Rouge the Bat, for example.

In battle, fights with angry woodsy creatures will require a knowledge of turn-based RPG tactics. Your quartet of fighters will load out with a series of special attacks that depends on who is in your current party. Tag-team moves may require both Sonic and Amy, with some special attacks that can only be done via threesome.

Those special attacks are executed with a rhythmic Ouendan-style series of touchscreen presses, an addition that brings a bit of welcome action to an otherwise passive Sonic game.

There's no lack of options for stats obsessive RPG gamers, with a skill leveling system and a Chao breeding mechanic that will let players tailor how Knuckles or Tails evolve. Expect Sonic Chronicles to feature an impressive depth in line with the BioWare pedigree.

It's hard to pass any sort of judgment on a game so incomplete, but the few minutes of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood we played certainly held our interest in playing a more plodding, calculating Sonic the Hedgehog game. Put it on your 2009 wishlist.

Boom Blox's main gameplay draw lies in the ability to knock down towers of inconsistently shaped blocks with the toss of baseballs, bowling balls, whatever, all of which adhere to an accurate physics model. Simply line up your shot, after a careful panning and scanning of the camera, then whip the Wii-remote at the screen to start knocking blocks off. Special blocks and multipliers pile on the tactics, but gamers of any skill level can compete from the get-go.

If any game needs to be bundled with the Wii Remote silicone safety condom, it's Boom Blox. Players may be encouraged to violently whip the Remote at the TV, adding extra force to their throws—and extra muscle strain. It's not entirely necessary to give it your all with dramatic, forceful throws, as side pitches and underhanded tosses were just as, if not more, effective in toppling blocks efficiently. A more measured flick of the wrist recommended, as is a tight Wii Remote wrist strap.

Spielberg's first collaborative effort with EA may not have been what you were expecting, but there's something indescribably fun about deconstructing the pre-built levels with up to three other Wii gamers. The only downside to four-player competitive Boom Blox-ing is often the long wait between turns, as your rivals can take an extended period to plan out their shots as you watch. They'll be taking all the good shots, too, or so it seems as you're left with nothing but clean up duty.

The concepts behind Boom Blox may not sound like much, but the impressive number of puzzles and game modes, combined with a deceptively simple mechanic, may warrant more looking into.

Taku can only progress through the game with the help of the wind, displayed on-screen as a pale blue cursor, a sentient being whose motions are controlled by the Wii Remote. The nunchuk is used to control Taku himself—his motions are quite limited—with the two working in tandem to lift the wee protagonist to high ledges and across wide gaps.

The wind in LostWinds can be used to manipulate more that just Taku, as stiff breezes can move fire, water, even rock to other locations on the map, lighting torches, watering plants and weighing down levers respectively. Players will, however, find themselves moving Taku to and fro with the help of a strong gust and the little boy's cape.

LostWinds looks to be rich in puzzle solving and platforming, a winning combination that doesn't seem to be represented elsewhere on WiiWare. Add to that solid gameplay mechanic a gorgeous artistic design that evokes warm memories of Ico, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and various Square Enix classics, and Frontier may very well have a hit on their hands.

LostWinds is innovative, especially easy on the eyes and the clear product of high production values, making it one of the most high anticipated titles to appear on Nintendo's system, regardless of how it's being delivered.

But how true to the original will Sega's casual-friendly music game ultimately be?

The alpha version of Samba de Amigo for Wii looked to borrow heavily from the Dreamcast classic and its semi-sequel Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000, as a good portion of the stages were lifted from the original with the "Hustle" mode from 2000 included as a gameplay option. (For those unfamiliar, it adds more "dancey" arm swinging moves to the violent, rhythmic shaking that made the game famous.)

While the game's soundtrack is still to be finalized, a grouping of classic Samba jams was already in place, including "Samba de Janiero," "Cup of Life," "Hot Hot Hot" and "Vamos a Carnaval." We heard that over three dozen tracks would make it into the final version, but Sega reps were mum about what exactly those songs may be.

The game played as one would expect Samba de Amigo to play—simply shake the controller in time and in the right position for maximum monkey satisfaction. A handy calibration mode makes things more accurate, but even factoring that in, there were more than a few shakes that felt a touch off. That may be due to the way that Gearbox is determining the location of the controller, but whatever they're doing, it's better than not having Samba at all.

Samba de Amigo's Wii port was obviously still in the very early stages of development, yet it still remained to capture the gleefully fun experience of flailing about to Ricky Martin songs with plastic controllers in-hand. That said, not having actual maraca controllers, ones that rattle realistically, hurts the experience somewhat. We sincerely hoping that Sega and Gearbox Studios release a proper maraca controller alongside the game for the million of Wii owners who will want the authentic feeling that only maraca shaped controllers can provide.

Check out a new batch of screen shots—portions of which look suspiciously crisp—in our gallery.

The biggest additions to the Mario Kart formula come in the form of a new ride—the motorbike—the ability to pull off tricks mid-jump for an extra boost, and the option to race others via the internet. How do the new features stack up?

Mario Kart Wii does a respectable job of integrating the completely new vehicle, one with different handling properties, courtesy of some well-timed exposure. Bikes are initially only available during the 100cc league races, with 150cc races, the final tier of single player, featuring a mix of karts and bikes. With bikes added, each character will have plenty of racing options to choose from, the most ludicrous of which is the high speed baby stroller, which characters like Toad and Baby Mario can pilot. It's far more emasculating that choosing Princess Peach as your driver.

Mario Kart Wii also adds one new power up, the Mega Mushroom introduced in New Super Mario Bros. It does exactly what you'd expect, increasing the size of your driver and their ride to steamroller-like proportions without slowing him or her down. Sadly, the Blue Shell power up returns—the one that attacks whomever is in first place—bringing all of the frustration and unbalance it's known for with it.

The Wii Wheel, the steering wheel shaped shell for the Wii Remote that is packed in with Mario Kart Wii—the value of which we've regularly questioned/mocked—is actually quite good. Steering your kart with the wheel feels natural, with the ability to execute tricks via Wii-mote flicks totally feasible. Keeping one's thumb depressed on the "2" button while turning the wheel can be a bit of a finger dexterity challenge, but we found that power sliding (and applying the appropriate corrections) with the Wheel worked better than anticipated. It's certainly more comfortable that holding a horizontally oriented Wii Remote. The Wheel attachment also undeniably makes "B" button pressing much more comfortable, but that aside, it's mostly a decent peripheral.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to try out any of the other control methods

Nintendo Treehouse employees were available for online matches, in locations as far off as Germany, Italy and Japan. We played a handful of matches with Asian and European challengers and were pleased with the results. The frame rate takes a noticeable hit, but remains locked in a manageable rate. Our online races were mostly lag free, as were the trio of battles—both Balloon Battle and Coin Runner types—in which we engaged.

The only downside to our online experience was the inability to tailor the multiplayer games to our liking. We couldn't, for example, set up a match that forbade the use of Blue Shells or limit the vehicle choices to karts only.

Mario Kart Wii may be largely familiar, recycling stages from the SNES, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS entries, but it sticks closely to the tried and true Mario Kart gameplay conventions. Online multi-player is a nice touch, but fans may be more excited about the ability to replay classic stages with new rules (and a host of controller options) than what the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection has to offer.

The demo began with Strong Bad waking up on his couch, after dreaming of Super Punch Out!!, a quick musical number and a hasty interaction with his portly brother, Strong Sad. After hassling his housemates, Strong Bad heads downstairs to chat with a despondent Homestar.

We're introduced quickly to Strong Bad's motivation. Homestar has been caught for indecency and Strong Bad is either tasked with cheering him up or making reparations for Homestar's pantslessness.

Interaction with characters uses a simple pop up talk bubble, with a minimal HUD that can be interacted with via Wii Remote pointer or the plus, minus and B buttons on the remote. Players will check the game map, use game tools and access other menus this way.

In the house kitchen, Strong Bad picks up a cell phone adding it to his inventory, giving him the ability to make prank phone calls. Strong Bad then heads outside to make a call to Marzipan and dig up a hidden Teen Girl Squad comic.

Heading upstairs, Strong Bad sits down in front of a television and Videlectrix console to play Snake Boxer 5, a simplistic top-down boxing game in the vein of Atari 2600 Boxing, but with snakes.

The demo ended there, but it certainly nailed all the right Strong Bad points. It was funny—genuinely funny, not typical video game writing funny—featured many of the series' beloved characters and looked very polished visually. The Telltale Games point & click adventure pedigree should do right by the IP and looks to please the rabid Strong Bad fanbase.

Hit the jump for the full list of titles on hand at the Media Summit.

Nintendo and third party publishers plan to show off the following software:

• Wii - Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Boom Blox, de Blob, Samba de Amigo, Rock Band
• WiiWare - World of Goo, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle: My Life As A King, Pop, Major League Eating: The Game, Lost Winds
• Nintendo DS - Crosswords DS, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness, Kung Fu Panda, My Weight Loss Coach, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Space Invaders Extreme, Zenses Ocean

During today's presentations, Nintendo's Bill Trinen showed off his Wii Fit progress, including his aptitude at push ups, giving us a first listen to the North American voices. A little chirpy for my taste! Bill's a monster when it comes to Wii Fit's slalom mini-game, though, and most likely wouldn't blink in the face of a virtual K-12 challenge.

We also got an extended look at the new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, but will spare you the details until we go hands-on with it. Activision reps were on hand to show off the new Guitar Hero: On Tour attachment, which we can't tell you about quite yet and EA's Amir Rahimi walked the crowd through more of the Steven Spielberg backed Wii game Boom Blox. We're surprisingly interested in the title, as were a number of folks we talked to who came away impressed by the presentation.

Our impressions of the available titles will be yours for the absorbing once the magical embargo disappears early Tuesday morning. Do check them out.

Mario Super Sluggers uses a control scheme built on the foundation of Wii Sports baseball, with only Wii Remote gestures required to play. With Mario as his pitcher, Trinen demoed the game's controls, using Wii-mote swinging to throw fastballs, curveballs and, naturally, fireballs. Twists of the remote during your swing allows for curveballs, with a properly timed swing—performed just as a set of glowing rings centers on your character—adding extra heat to the ball.

Power moves can be pulled of with an A+B button combination, when charged.

Fielding appeared to be largely controlled by the game's AI, with a shake of the Wii Remote making your fielder sprint to the ball. Throwing to a baseman requires just a simple toss. A quick press of A will make your defensive player dive for the ball, for dramatic last second catches.

Batting used a similar control method, with a Wii Sports-like batting swing and timing for hits following the same ring indicator. Your character can use power-ups while at bat, with Mario delivering a flaming baseball to center field, which Donkey Kong obviously dropped when caught.

Nintendo was light on details during the brief demo of Mario Super Sluggers, but it looks to follow previous Mario-themed sporting events, with guest appearances from a big number of Nintendo mainstays. We saw Mario, Luigi, Peach, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, Shy Guy, Monty Mole, and Donkey Kong—who opts for a boxing glove instead of a bat—in the line-up.

Mario Super Sluggers was described as one of Nintendo's "bridge games", one that is designed to appeal to the Wii Sports crowd, and looks to aim for accessibility for traditional non-gamers. No one will mistake it for anything resembling a sim, but it's clear Nintendo is going for an even more casual audience-friendly look and feel.

It doesn't appear that Nintendo will be offering hands-on time with the Mario Super Sluggers at the Media Summit, but we'll be asking more about details on the game while we're here.

In case you actually spent time working during the week and not, you know, reading Kotaku, hit the jump for a run down of what you may have missed from our Ubiday 07 and Nintendo Media Summit 07 coverage. Brian Crecente

Ubiday
Ubiday: Voice Controlled RTS, Tons of Vids
EndWar to be Voice Command RTS
Ubisoft Working on Beowulf
Dark Messiah Headed to Xbox 360
The Assassin's Creed Speech, Trailer
Tom Clancy's EndWar Impressions
Haze Impressions
Splinter Cell: Conviction Impressions
My Word Coach DS/Wii Impressions
Raymans Raving Rabbids 2
Jam Sessions Rocks My World
My Life Coach
Ubi's Games for Everyone
Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WW II
Justify Your Haze
Digital Beowulf Movie Shares Assets with Game
Settlers: Rise of an Empire
Naruto: Rise of the Ninja Q&A
New Hells Highway Clip
Surf's Up Gallery

Nintendo Media Summit
Reggie Confirms Big 3 for 2007
Nintendo Media Summit Schwag Bag
Boogie
Jam Sessions (Mike's Impressions)
Drawn to Life
Carnival Games
Brain Age 2 Impressions
Planet Puzzle League Impressions
Mario Strikers Charged Impressions
Gallery: Pokemon Battle Revolution
Picross DS Awesome Impressions
Gallery: Mario Party 8
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Impressions

Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree shares plenty with its Nintendo DS ancestor, but transitions to the Wii nicely. The more colorful sibling to Brain Age features a prettier presentation and makes for a surprisingly fun minigame showcase broken up into five categories familiar Big Brain Academy DS fans.

How is it different from the handheld version? The game features Mii integration and allows players to share their Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree scoring data via the WiiConnect24 service. It also takes advantage of the Wii remote in one unique way. Holding the Wii remote like a telephone, players receive take-out orders through the Wii-mote speaker and tick off food items onscreen. Simple, but clever. Much of the rest of the gameplay involves simply pointing to items on the screen.

It's a solid multiplayer game and better than I expected in that regard. Those who have played the DS version to death, however, may find much of it too familiar. Michael McWhertor

Of the dozen titles on hand at the Nintendo Media Summit, none captured my imagination more than Picross DS. After a 45-minute gameplay bender, I simply could not suppress the puzzle lust burning in my figurative loins. I asked of everyone, "Did you play Picross DS?!" As the game isn't due to come stateside until July 30, it's going to be an agonizing wait. But since Picross has seen three (or eleven, depending on your hair-splitting preferences) games released on Nintendo platforms, and only one of those has come to the West in the form of Mario's Picross for the Game Boy, we should be used to waiting.

The description of Picross gameplay might turn you off, so I'll do my best to keep you interested. Picross DS is awesome, features dozens of puzzles, daily challenges, and a built-in editor. It's perfectly suited for the DS and not unlike seeing the face of God on a touchscreen. Yes, I'm quite serious. Michael McWhertor

While at the Nintendo Media Summit, we were shown a Pokemon Battle Revolution online battle via the Wi-fi Connection and, let me tell you, it was definitely Pokemon. Online. And things were definitely battling. Was it a revolution? I'm afraid I can't be the judge of that. It sure looked pretty, though. While the turn-based gameplay of Pokemon Battle Revolution makes lag concerns mostly moot, interested parties should know that it looked like smooth sailing.

If you're the kind of guy or gal who loves Pokemon and gets pumped for screenshots, keep those eyeballs scrolling downward for 10 new shots of the game in action. Michael McWhertor

If you're new to the Mario Strikers series, it follows the Mario Sports Formula fairly closely—start with Sport X, add Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Wario and a number of Nintendo B-listers like Boo and Shy Guy, throw out most of the rules, make it easy for anyone to control. Mario Strikers Charged not only perfects the Mario Sports Formula it kicks it up a notch by adding a nearly seamless 4-player online component.

The game's art style is "extreme" with gameplay a close match. It's frantic and fun and took me by surprise. I lean closer to a soccer anti-fan more than I do for any other team sport, yet Mario Strikers Charged quickly rocketed to the top of my summer Wii purchases.

For fans of the series, you'll want to know about a few changes. In addition to new team captains like Bowser and Diddy Kong, you'll be able to customize your teams with the sidekicks of your choice. New second-stringers include Dry Bones and Monty Mole. Charged's eight new interactive stadiums add additional chaos to the Mario Sports Formula, with player crushing Thwomps, flying cows and lava pits wreaking havoc on both teams and adding a new strategic element to certain stages.

Mario Strikers Charged uses the Wii-remote and nunchuk, with little in the way of waggle to make the soccer title unnecessarily complicated. Players can flick the remote to knock over other players but the rest of the control scheme follows a simple, traditional set up. Passing is done with the A button, goal attempts with B (held down to charge a Mega Strike), Z chips the ball and C performs character specific special moves.

The Wii remote is used as a pointer in one additional way, blocking Mega Strike shots. After a short, somewhat jarring cutscene, the action will change to a first-person view and require quick reflexes to stop incoming shots.

Online play was, as I mentioned earlier, mostly seamless. We played a handful of multiplayer matches with Nintendo of America employees in Redmond and experienced no noticeable lag, but did see a few dropped frames.

Mario Strikers Charged is a solid addition to the Nintendo Sports Formula and looks to be a great multiplayer title. Michael McWhertor

Planet Puzzle League for the Nintendo DS is the stylus-controlled version of the classic Nintendo game which has been released under a wide variety of names—Tetris Attack, Panel de Pon, Pokemon Puzzle League—while retaining the same, some say perfect gameplay. Planet Puzzle League adds touchscreen controls to the colored block-arranging fun and takes the game online via the Wi-Fi Connection service. It also adds voice chat for online games, with Friend Codes required to keep the kids safe.

It's hard to slight Planet Puzzle League in the gameplay department. It plays just as well as its predecessors, with touchscreen controls adapting easily to the formula. The only possible negatives are that it's yet another Panel de Pon/Puzzle League game and the it suffers slightly from the newest trend in puzzle gaming, brightly colored, sometimes distracting Lumines-style skins. Neither of those complaints should keep fans of the series or rookies from picking it up. Michael McWhertor

With over 4.2 million copies of More Brain Training for the Nintendo DS sold in Japan, a Western release of the sequel to the original Brain Training was inevitable. The North American iteration, Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day doesn't divert too far from the brain game formula established by the original, but adds a few new tricks to keep it fresh.

There's still a focus on tricky math exercises, including Sign Finder, a spin on the original's Calculation. Sign Finder asks players to fill in the missing operator (÷, ×, + or -) instead of the final number. Math Recall takes a different angle on Calculation, giving you a sequence of math problems that scratch out a number carried over from the previous equation, forcing you to keep up while quickly computing.

Other creative exercise types include games like Word Scramble, a jumbled word that rotates on the left screen, and Word Blend, which will vocalize multiple words on top of each other and require great focus (and, sorry senior citizens, decent hearing). Memory Sprint sees the return of the Head Count man who races at varying speeds requiring you to remember in what position he's placed. Change Maker and Piano Player are aptly titled descriptions of their challenges, with the latter adding a welcome musical challenge.

While most of the mini-games seem harder at first blush, they're simply more difficult because they're less traditional than the first. Rock Paper Scissors, for example, forces you to rethink as it will randomly ask you for a winning or losing hand form. And you have to speak the answer.

For those looking for more traditional handheld gaming fun, Brain Age 2 includes an unlockable version of Dr. Mario (redubbed Virus Buster) and an additional 100 Sudoku puzzles. There's plenty to do for $20 and while it may look very familiar, the puzzle are less dry stuff when compared to the first Brain Age.

Brain Age 2 was a surprising amount of fun and, as a Brain Age sudoku junkie, an easy purchase. Check out 10 new shots in the gallery below. Michael McWhertor

Instead of megaton bombing the press, Nintendo wisely, but cruelly, focused on games that are expected to ship before the end of summer. This gave some of their first and third party titles an opportunity to shine before E3 kicks off in July.

So what was shown in the fine city of Seattle this week? In addition to third-party efforts like Carnival Games, Drawn To Life, Jam Sessions, Boogie and The Bigs,which I've already covered, we played:

• Mario Strikers Charged (Wii)
• Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)
• Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii)
• Mario Party 8 (Wii)
• Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day (DS)
• Planet Puzzle League (DS)
• Picross DS (DS)

For the next few posts, expect impressions, new screenshots and new video of all of those titles. There's plenty to see, so stay tuned. Michael McWhertor

For those who haven't imported the original Japanese version, the game "plays" quite simply. The touchscreen requires only simple strumming, with quick strokes emitting louder strums, softer strokes for quieter chords. You can't play individual strings, mind you, just chords.

Directional presses on the DS d-pad will choose your chord, from a stable of eight, with the left shoulder button modifying that set for another eight. Those two chord palettes and the pitch of the chords themselves are completely customizable with the game's drag and drop palette editor. You'll also be able to save these custom chord palette's to your cart's internal memory.

Jam Sessions will let budding musicians record their performances to the game's internal storage as well, so if you've come up with some catchy toe-tapper or sappy folk tune, you can play it back later. The game will also ship with a bunch of popular tunes included in lyric and chord chart format, so you won't have to learn songwriting on the side.

A number of guitar sounds and effects (reverb, chorus, tremolo, high and low pass) are available which can be toggled with the right shoulder button for those moments when you need to kick up the distortion. Players can also tweak their effects processors, which are simple, two-knob pedals, and can stack a pair of processors for a wide variety of sounds.

The interface is quite simple, as you'll see in the screenshot gallery below. Michael McWhertor

Sorry, but due to embargoes, I can't reveal what exactly what was covered at the Nintendo Media Summit, but I will say this: mini-game fans will not be disappointed. Michael McWhertor

In addition to some highly coveted press releases (you should feel this paper stock), we got Wii water bottles, light up Wii remote keychains, a Nintendo branded notebook, some Wii points and an unknown amount of Wendy's giftcards. Mmmmm... Wii points.

While I'll be taking advantage of what both cards have to offer, freeing the remaining and useless $3 held hostage by the Shopping Channel, the rest is going into the schwag pile to be given away to some lucky reader. Watch for an upcoming contest, packed with videogame branded junk... err, highly prized and valuable items! Michael McWhertor

Boogie now presents players with a much more finely-tuned, simpler to control experience. Many of the gameplay principles are the same, including Wii-remote waving to kick off dance moves, but now they must be done on-beat. A newly added metronome display gives players better feedback about when they should be waggling in time and new HUD improvements show your current dance style, with additional visual cues indicating how well you're performing. Moving your customized Boog around the dance floor is also easier, thanks to a switch in the controls. Superfluous modifiers done with the nunchuk appear to have been dropped.

While only one new song, a Daft Punk tune, had been added to the list, a huge number of character customization options were now available. No doubt about it, this game has great style. Boogie looks to be progressing nicely with new builds and further gameplay improvements expected at E3. Michael McWhertor

Boogie Hands-On, New Screens [Kotaku]

That's good news for Nintendo, obviously, but the better news for gamers was that the company will ship three of its biggest, most highly anticipated games before the end of the year. During Reggie's Nintendo Media Summit presentation, he confirmed that Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would all arrive before December 31, 2007.

This follows close on the heels of the announcement that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption would this summer, making it a very good year for Nintendo fans. It's also going to be an expensive year. I'm now thinking to myself, "I will work more hours to buy these games." Michael McWhertor

While I can't write about any of the first-party content that was shown during the first day of the Nintendo Media Summit, the third-party stuff is free game. Not that there was an overabundance of it, mind you, but impressions and new screens of the few titles on hand will still be flowing throughout the next two days.

For the rest of the goods, make sure you set your Kotaku checking alarm clocks for 8 AM PST this Friday. I'll have plenty to show you starting then. However, those two high profile Nintendo titles mentioned in my previous post? You're gonna have to wait for E3 or make do with some (now) old Metroid Prime 3: Corruption screens. Michael McWhertor

If you missed our previous posts on Drawn To Life, it's a sidescrolling adventure that also affords the player the opportunity to literally draw his or her own character. Character creation is robust, but easy to design. The included simple MS Paint-like interface used to pencil, fill and color your avatar couldn't be easier.

That's not all, there are multiple things throughout the title that you'll draw... well, you'll be given the opportunity to draw. From weapons to accessories to usable objects, the simple, pixel-based image editor lets you design how you want aspects of the world to appear.

However, those drawings, whether carefully detailed or crude, seem to have absolutely no impact on how the game plays. Appearances seem only skin deep. Being presented with an outlined version of a platform, a cloud, a boulder, or wildlife that will act as transport are simply drawn for decoration. Crafting a customized sword is just as effective as scribbling within the weapon's parameter. While that may satisfy some, it left me wanting, wishing for the title to be given more time to up the impact of the unique drawing tech.

Sure, you can save multiple heroes, share your creations over wi-fi, making Drawn To Life a personalized adventure. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling the game was a fascinating tech demo attached to a run of the mill 2D platformer. I also couldn't help look forward to whatever the developer, Fifth Cell, has planned for the sequel.

There's no question the game is easy on the eyes. It may spawn a real following for those looking to express their pixel manipulating talents. With plenty of unlockable character templates and in-game tunes, replayability and content aren't lacking.

The game still has time to progress before its September release, and admittedly, I didn't actually get to control the game as it was still early, but those looking for a more customized platforming experience may be slightly disappointed. Michael McWhertor

Take-Two Interactive's budget label is tapping into the desire of those who pine for the simpler days of gaming, knocking down weighted milk bottles, sinking some poor sap into a dunk tank, winning reems of tickets at Skee-Ball, but without that meth-addicted inbred carny odor.

While the groans of "not another mini-game collection" are easily understood, there's something oddly addictive about the selection of games. They're made even better by the fact that special "sideshow" modes of many, plus the comforting knowledge that the games aren't rigged, add variety and the potential to win fairly.

Carnival Games' rewards are akin to what you'd win at a real carnival, stuffed animals, goldfish, even accessories that your Mii-like avatar can wear while playing the 25-plus included games.

Among the games available for play during the Nintendo Media Summit today were Alley Ball (a renamed Skee-Ball, presumably for trademark reasons, that plays nearly identical to Wii Bowling), Nerves of Steel (a shocking, Irritating Stick-like game of concentration and steady Wiimote precision), Ducky Hunt (the classic tin duck shooter) and Day at the Races (requiring you to hold the remote sideway, and "roll" rubber balls up the game alley). All controlled surprisingly well and featured realistic physics courtesy of the Havok engine.

There are plenty of other mini-games that will see little more than one or two play throughs—the hammer swinging Test of Strength comes to mind—but like most carnival-style games you'll be tempted to revisit them again and again, for "just one more time" chances at a better performance and more tickets. Those tickets can be used in a series of mostly non-interactive bonuses, for instance in the game's Magic Eight Ball-like fortune teller.

At $40, it may seem like a pricey me-too collection of casual games, but there's a surprising fun quality to it. Carnival Games will definitely appeal to those looking to marginally improve on their mini-game scores or collect item #239 in the virtual prize list. However, with a seeming flood of similar titles, it's going to have a more difficult time standing out and justifying its worth in the crowded field. Michael McWhertor

The Nintendo Media Summit goes down tomorrow morning, starting at 9 AM Pacific Standard Time and wrapping up that evening. No word on what will be announced or playable at the summit, but I have a good feeling we'll have plenty of time to get our hands dirty with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

I expect that particular game and many others given release dates earlier today by Nintendo to be on hand, but also suspect a few surprises. I'm not sure exactly what time I'll be able to dish the dirt, but check in with us tomorrow for Nintendo related updates. Super Smash Bros. Brawl news? Probably!

Alright, back to Ouendan 2 and these savory pretzels. Michael McWhertor