The UK's Fun4All label is, for all intents and purposes, North America's "Wee 1ST" label, a branding scheme that will result in carefully considered shovelware.

The first six games to hit Europe under the Fun4All umbrella will be Pirates: Hunt for Blackbeard's Booty, Monkey Mischief, Block Party, Pitfall: The Big Adventure, World Championships Sports and Little League World Series Baseball. That last one may be Little League World Series 2008, part of the Wee 1ST line. All are Wii exclusives. All ship this week.

Man, is that World Championships Sports box art suspect.

Activision's PR folks say that "Parents can feel reassured that buying a game from the FUN4ALL range will be safe, enjoyable and provide entertainment for children of any age." As long as that age is six or younger.

The equine game scientists at The -Minus World Foundation have assembled a comprehensive guide to the year in horse gaming... nay, the BEST year in horse gaming — at least in the PAL regions — which may be more expansive than you might think. It was a spectacular year to be a pre-teen girl with access to Nintendo hardware and aspirations of pony ownership, trust me.

Seriously, girls, what's with the horse obsession? And does Europe have more lax laws on shovelware? What gives? Watch out, Mr. Sensitive, there's naughty language at that link (but all the horse stuff is on the up and up).

2008 Was The Best Gaming Year Ever…For HORSES [The -Minus World]

"I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform," he says. "And with very few exceptions today, that's not the case."

I know what you're thinkin'. Yep, don't worry, someone's already got this covered. He writes for the Dallas Morning News.

"I think most game creators got into the industry in the hopes of writing the next Doom or Halo or Command & Conquer," writes Victor Godinez, "and not the next Hannah Montana video game adaptation. So the best game makers gravitate to the consoles that seem to specialize in the kinds of games they like."

Godinez continues:

Nintendo bears some responsibility here, as well.

The Wii is the least powerful of the three current consoles, and you simply cannot easily duplicate a high-end Xbox 360 or PS3 game on the Wii.

Dead Rising on the Xbox 360, for example, was fun and amazing in part because there were often hundreds of zombies on the screen at one time, each shambling toward your brain.

The Wii version under development, though, is limited to a dozen or so monsters on the screen simultaneously, and the downgrade makes the game seem kind of pointless.

But Nintendo chose to go down this path of less-powerful, lost-cost hardware, and one side effect of that decision is that some games simply cannot be ported over.

So as much as developers do need to step up their efforts, Nintendo hasn't done them any favors.

The Wiire (saw this one when I was reading up on Jennifer Aniston) points out that Capcom's Seth Killian said the Dead Rising build Godinez references was really "just a tech demo," and not close to the final game. But the larger point made here is a valid one. To demand that your underpowered console get the best of a developer's effort, otherwise they don't "get it," when they're selling tons of their best stuff on the PS3 and 360 already, that's just arrogant. It also ignores the tremendous incentive for others to develop lightweight titles, an incentive very much furthered by Nintendo's continuous touting of the casual market's growth.

Wii Games are Just a Wee Bit Too Tame [Dallas Morning News, via The Wiire]

It is April 1945...The fall of the Nazi rule is imminent...Still, a tightly knit group of SS generals and officers, involved in the most heinous and dark deeds, is seeking for a way to save the remnants of the Third Empire. They have conspired to move the leaders of the Reich, together with precious resources and classified equipment, to a remote hideout in the Tibet mountains. There, in the heart of Asia, they can wait for their time, kept safe by the tireless vigilance of zombie monstrosities created in the Nazi secret labs.

From the product page, it looks like one of those cheap, nutty (yet brilliant for it) Eastern European shooters. If the game comes in at under $20 (no price yet) and can play out as corny as that plot outline, it could seriously be worth a look for anyone still stuck on that "can games do B-grade" argument from a few months back.

UberSoldier 2 [Product Page]