Obviously looking to cash in on the lucrative Japanese non-game market, upon which Nintendo has a stranglehold, Sega's Homestar Portable will let you look at stars from the comfort of your bed or toilet. In addition to looking at stars without actually having to leave the house, Homestar Portable will teach you all about constellations, our galaxy's planets, and giant clouds of space gas. The game is scheduled to ship in Japan this October for a cool 3280 yen, with a US release date projected somewhere around Q4 of never.

Image courtesy of the lovely Neo2046 from GAF. More scans after the jump! Michael McWhertor

Rebranding stuff isn't exactly news, but hey, it's Nintendo, so someone's going to be excited about it. This morning the big N announced that they would begin selling all of their casual games under the label Touch Generations. Why does that name make me feel mildly uncomfortable?

The label so far includes seven titles:

* Big Brain Academy(TM) (launches June 5): The second title in the
brain-training series tests players in five areas: thinking,
memorization, computation, analysis and identification.

* Magnetica(TM) (launches June 5): A simple puzzle game challenges players
to connect and eliminate like-colored marbles before they reach the
goal.

* Sudoku Gridmaster (launches June 26): This version of the wildly popular
puzzle grid features more than 400 sudoku puzzles, all of which were
hand-picked by the original creators of sudoku.

Touch Generations also will include the following already-released titles:

* Brain Age(TM): Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (launched April 17):
More than 5 million people around the world test their brains daily in
areas like math, counting, reading and memorization. Many purchasers
include older people who had never previously played a video game.

* Nintendogs(TM) (launched Aug. 22, 2005): The hugely popular puppy
simulation and communication program lets users pet their pups using the
touch screen and teach them commands using the microphone.

* Tetris(R) DS (launched March 20): Nintendo's greatest characters team up
with one of the most popular puzzle games of all time.

* True Swing Golf (launched Jan. 23): In this realistic golf game, players
simply slide the stylus across the touch screen to strike the ball and
send it flying.

No word yet on whether a DS version of Sweet Kiss will be coming to the freshly minted label. Brian Crecente

After the tremendous success of the brain games in Japan, Nintendo has decided to experiment with some even stranger "games."

The trifecta of non-gaming goodness teach you to cook, write kanji and have fun on vacation.

Shaberu! Ds Oryouri Nabi is loaded with a bunch of recipies and instructions on how to make the meals. The coolest part is that you can tell it to change pages without having to fiddle with buttons.

DS Bimoji Training is a straight up writing tutor.

Tabi No Sashi Kaiwachou DS is a sort of point and say travel guide. It basically allows you to point to a picture to have the DS say it in the proper language for you. It comes with Thai, Chinese, Korean, English and German languages.

DS Brain Game Explosion [Gamebrink]