We all know (and possibly love) Ubisoft – the French game studio has been bringing us multiplatform hits for years. This month's preview event hosted by the developer was a Nintendo-centric affair, though they were nice enough to include Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in the swag haul.

Pictured:
Autographed pink Rayman Raving Rabbids Thong (?!)
Rayman Raving Rabbids T-Shirt
Red Steel 2 T-Shirt
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles classic cartoon logo sweatband
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for the Xbox 360
Ubisoft logo laptop case

About a week earlier than that – in fact, the very day Fawcett and Jackson passed away – I attended 1C's annual Another Night in Moscow event held at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Now, 1C is more obscure than Ubisoft, but I'm told it's like the Microsoft of Russia. Judging from the lavish party and modest swag haul, I could see why somebody would say that.

Pictured:
1C logo Russian fuzzy hat
Another Night In Moscow t-shirt
1C logo swag bag
1C logo pen

Not Pictured:
1C logo notebook that I totally lost at Santa Cruz

But whether you love them or have even heard of them, both companies delivered a huge haul of previews and early looks at games we can expect this year. Just in case you missed them, here they are:

Another Night In Moscow
Get Some Russian In Your Independence Day
XIII Century: Blood of Europe - All The Brutality, None Of The Plague
Death To Spies 2: Moment of Truth Preview: SMERSH is a fun word to say
Trucking It In Rig 'n' Roll
Captain Blood Preview: Errol Flynn He Ain't - But He'll Do

UbiNintendo
Academy of Champions Preview: It's Harry Potter But With Soccer And Sam Fisher
C.O.P. The Recruit Preview: If Only Becoming A Police Officer Were So Easy
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage Preview: Snow In Summer
TMNT Smash-Up Preview: Will The Real April O'Neil Please Stand Up?
Rabbids Go Home Preview: Rabbids Go In Your Wiimote
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes Preview: The Might Of Mana… and Puzzles
Red Steel 2 Preview: Whack-tastic Fun

Whatever it is, it's part of Academy of Champions' charm right from the menu screen. The cartoony soccer game opens with a giant castle where soccer legend Pele beckons youngsters to join is academy and master the fundamentals of the sport. He's got an effective sales pitch, too: if soccer's cool enough for Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher to play, why shouldn't you? Other Ubisoft characters also appear though out the game, like the Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed's Altair. If you stare at that opening menu screen of the academy long enough, Rabbids start popping out from behind the towers.

What Is It?
Academy of Champions is a soccer game similar to Mario Strikers Charged as opposed to a soccer sim, like FIFA. Players can jump right into multiplayer quick matches or spend time building a team in story mode. In story mode, players can choose to be a boy or a girl – though it doesn't make much of a difference – and plow through an entire academic year of soccer training. Different days of the week and terms of the school year determine what kinds of things you do in a day – it might be a mini-game to build fundamental skills like shooting, a dialogue tree to recruit new players, or a scrimmage game against another team – and throughout the year, you can buy skill upgrades and special items to bulk up your team in multiplayer mode.

What We Saw
During Ubisoft's UbiNintendo press junket, we were given about half an hour of hands on time with the title plus some Q&A with product manager Carsten Myhill.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out September 2009.

What Needs Improvement?
Separate Tutorial Would Be Nice: For players that just want to jump into a quickmatch without fiddling around in story mode, it'd be nice to have an optional tutorial mode that just walks you through the basics. For the most part, the game is intuitive, but there are things that need explaining and maybe a little bit of practice. For example, each characters have special abilities that can only be triggered with a specific button under certain conditions and there's a tussle challenge during games where players have to press a sequence of directions on the Nunchuck's analog stick to steal or protect a ball from another player. These subtleties aren't the kind of thing you can really pick up while you're playing and they can totally turn the tide of the game once you master them.

There's No Dating Sim: Some of the 30 characters you can recruit in story mode require social interaction. Maybe you have to successfully navigate a dialogue tree or maybe you have to win a certain number of games before you join. The social interaction definitely feeds into the school feeling of the game – like a primordial version of Persona 3's social interactions – but without a more detailed friends system like maybe a dating sim, I wonder if it won't get dull after a while.

What Should Stay The Same?
Saving Throw Versus Sexy: There's a power meter that builds up the longer a player is in possession of the ball. This meter fuels both the special attacks – like Sam Fisher's stealth mode or Altair's flying hawk kick – and the basic dodge or sprint controls that you need to get from one end of the pitch to the other. This creates a sort of endurance contest whenever you get control of the ball where you're trying to see how long can you go without dodging or sprinting. It's a subtle, but spiffy game mechanic.

It's Fun: Once you get the controls down and start seeing Ubisoft characters in story mode matches (Pele vs. Jade from Beyond Good and Evil – so awesome), Academy of Champions evokes both a sense of gameplay satisfaction and nostalgic fondness for familiar Ubi characters. Even better, the story mode appeals to the collectors by offering a ton of unlockable characters, items and upgrades over the course of the academic year.

Final Thoughts
I get the feeling a lot of hardcore soccer fans with sniff with disdain at Pele's character model and other types of gamer will steer clear of Academy out of apathy. But this is pretty fun game that's well put together. I was sold after my second match and I recommend it for anyone who enjoyed Strikers or is just quasi-obsessed with fantasy British school systems like Hogwarts.

C.O.P. The Recruit is all about a petty criminal who becomes a one man episode of Miami Vice set in New York City. Rather than using the DS to capture the city in a bird's eye view the way that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars does, The Recruit renders New York in 3D open world on the upper screen and uses the lower screen for inventory, maps and objective details. So while the game might resemble parts and concepts of other games and TV crime procedural shows, it really is a fresh take on DS gaming.

What Is It?
C.O.P. The Recruit is an open world shooter/adventure game with 60 some-odd missions and six square miles of city to explore. Like GTA games on consoles, the game is made up of three primary parts: shooting, driving and the occasional mini game. Right now, I'm told the ratio in The Recruit is 30-50-20.

What We Saw
I played through a couple of early main story missions. Then I watched the developer jump to a later mission to show off the "catching up" cut scene feature where the game splices together pieces of cut scenes and text to explain what you're supposed to be doing.

How Far Along Is It?
The Recruit is due out this fall.

What Needs Improvement?
Too Much Driving: Your character can commandeer pretty much any car in the whole game by standing in front of it to make it stop and then pressing one of the face buttons. This is fun for the first five minutes of driving across town to a mission, but it rapidly becomes un-fun when you spend all your time bumping into other cars or trying to navigate around Central Park. At times, The Recruit feels more like a driving sim than an open world crime adventure game.

What Should Stay The Same?
Nice Shooting Controls: Tapping your weapon with the stylus (or poke it with your fingernail) in the lower screen snaps the upper screen's third-person view into an over-the-shoulder view so you can shoot people. Basic movement still gets done with the D-pad as with the rest of the game, but to adjust aim or turn left, right, up, or down, you have to drag the stylus along the lower screen – which feels more intuitive than it sounds. To fire the weapon, you can double tap the lower screen or squeeze the left shoulder button.

Impressive Scope: There is so much to do in this game. Besides the 60 missions, there are five different times of day you can view the city in (depending on which missions you're playing) and the city itself is so big for a DS game. Even if the driving gets a bit monotonous, it seems like the variations in missions will make up for the dull bits – and you can always commandeer boats when you get sick of cars. In the 20 minutes I spent plowing through the early part of the game, I could be doing anything from shooting criminals to putting out fires (because apparently the NYC Fire Department is always late) and the lone mini game I played where you had to pick out a redhead on a series of security cameras certainly felt like a nice change of pace.

Final Thoughts
This game is invariably going to be compared to Grand Theft Auto and I think what The Recruit lacks in hookers, it hopes to make up for with its story. Twenty minutes really wasn't enough time to get a feel for the story, but if it's even half as solid as the shooting gameplay seems to be, I'm optimistic.

I'm not a fan of the Wii Balance Board, so I wasn't really looking forward to "feet-on time" with the game until I saw the demo master wipe out on a slope. His character model came up coated in a fine powder of snow and for one second I forgot that it was stiflingly hot in the city and forgot the gigantic sunburn on my back.

What Is It?
Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage is sequel to the 2008 Wii game, Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip. World Stage opens up the world of snowboarding to competitions and throttles back on the free riding from the first game, though you can still play with buddies in the multiplayer free mode. The game supports up to four players, although only one person can use the Balance Board while other players have to use the Wiimote and Nunchuck control scheme.

What We Saw
Because I'm a total amateur with Shaun White and not big on the Balance Board, I played a beginner course about five times to get used to the controls and poked around a bit at the campaign mode hub (an airport with an arcade machine) and more difficult course.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out in November 2009 – when the novelty of snowboarding in summer will be long gone.

What Needs Improvement?
Counter-intuitive Jumping: This is probably more the Balance Board's fault than World Stage's – but the jumping mechanic takes some getting used to. The rest of the controls are so smoothly integrated into the snowboarding that you barely have to think when it comes to speeding up, slowing down or turning. But when you want to jump, you have to press downward with your feet instead of lifting upward or, you know, jumping. The temptation to jump is so hard to resist, the game is even programmed to chide you about damaging the Balance Board if you so much as rock back and forth on your heels too quickly.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Rest of the Controls: Jumping aside, nearly all of the snowboarding controls were tight and immersive. I thought it was strange to hold the Wiimote in one hand and use the board for the rest when watching someone else play, but I didn't notice it at all once I got my feet-on turn.

Final Thoughts
I know nothing about snowboarding and even less about Shaun White, but World Stage is such an intuitive game, I don't think that matters. What more could you ask for from a serious sports game besides authenticity and a low barrier to entry? I may not go out and buy it for myself, but I'd never turn down a chance to play it – especially on a hot day in July when there's not a beach in sight.

To that end, there will allegedly be different characters from the new kids TV show, the old kids TV show, the comic books and possibly even from the other video games. Unfortunately, Ubisoft is saving most of its announcements about TMNT's stage and character lineup for San Diego Comic Con later this month, but from what few characters were available, it looks like the April O'Neil they're working with is the anorexic-looking chick from the new show. Alas.

What Is It?
TMNT Smash-Up is a brawler in the same class as Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It even looks like Brawl probably due to the fact that the developer, Game Arts, did preliminary development on Brawl for Nintendo. Gameplay is a straight-up smackdown between for playable characters in various stages with environmental hazards like man (or turtle) eating crocodiles.

What We Saw
UbiNintendo's schedule was running a little bit behind, so journalists only got about 20 minutes of hands-on time with the brawl mode. The build we were on only had four selectable stages and just seven characters (although an additional two were announced at E3 and more are still to be announced at Comic Con, we're told).

How Far Along Is It?
Not very, based on what stages and which characters were available. The game is due out September 22, 2009.

What Needs Improvement?
My Thumbs For A GameCube Controller: Currently is only demoing two control schemes – a Nunchuck/Wiimote setup and a sideways Wiimote setup. Because this is a fast-paced brawler where you have to tap twice on the D-pad to dash, that second control scheme is absolute murder on your thumbs. I asked if the GameCube controller would be an option and was given a definite yes. Although, the associate producer did tell me that Game Arts is aware of Smash Bros. fans' preference for the GameCube controller.

I'm Uneasy About Motion Controls: I noticed a mechanic where if a player's grab was broken or they took a bad hit, they'd get dizzy and an icon would encourage the player to shake the Wii Remote to restore them. This was hard to accomplish with the sideways setup because you had to turn the controller around in your hand to a normal Wiimote position to shake – and it was border-lining on the tacked-on feel many Wii games give into when integrating motion controls. Again, the associate producer says the developer is aware of the revulsion many gamers have to waggle-fests.

Ugh. April: I'm sorry, but I just don't like this version of longtime turtles ally April O'Neil. Her character model isn't very attractive and the yellow ninja outfit she's sporting is even more of an eyesore than the yellow 80s jumpsuit she wore in the cartoon of my childhood. Bring back the raincoat-wearing, jean-sporting April from the comics; she was cool. And a computer hacker!

What Should Stay The Same?
Yay For Brawling! I rather liked the fighting styles of most of the characters and the controls were easy to figure out by virtue of knowing Smash Bros. inside and out. Donatello had a good range with his bo staff and Raphael had speedy combos with his sai; the special ninja attacks were easy to trigger even with the sideways Wiimote setup and the grab system allows for players to break free and inflict dizziness on the jerk who grabbed them.

Detailed Environments: One of the cityscape stages maybe a little bit too much like something out of Smash Bros. (think Earthbound levels), but I could tell the sewer and jungle levels were all turtle. Each environment was interactive in some way – like the jungle level, you can destroy the hanging platforms that would normally protect players from crocodile attacks – and it looks like some stages will have multiple parts.

Final Thoughts
It's early days yet, so I'm not really sure how I feel about TMNT Smash-Up. On the one hand, I'm glad to have another Wii brawler, especially one developed by the guys who had a hand in Brawl. But on the other hand, I don't really watch the new cartoon and I haven't seen enough homage done to other parts of the Ninja Turtle franchise for me to justify buying it. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what turns up at Comic Con.

Previous installments of Rayman Raving Rabbids games have all been about mini games that make use of the Wii's unique controls in perverse and silly ways. Like the one where you used your butt on the Balance Board to steer a Rabbid down a slope.

This game breaks away from the mini game compilation formula by giving the Rabbids an actual adventure – which is nothing new for the Wii – plus a really cool customization mode that may just be the first virtual torture chamber Nintendo's little white monster has ever featured.

What Is It?
Rabbids Go Home is an adventure game where the player controls two Rabbids out to gather all the stuff they can to build a giant pile of stuff so that the Rabbids can climb up to the moon. Clearly, the series hasn't abandoned its wackiness even if it's ditched the mini game format.

What We Saw
I played two of the three available levels and spent a lot of time futzing around with the Inside The Wii Remote feature where you can torture and customize the Rabbids you play in the adventure mode.

How Far Along Is It?
Very, very early days. The game isn't due out until October 2009.

What Needs Improvement?
Shopping Cart Physics: The goal of the game is to fill a shopping cart with as much stuff as possible; but I noticed that no matter how many wet floor signs, guard dogs, fire extinguishers and other junk I collected, the shopping cart always handled the same. As someone who's famous for losing control of her shopping cart at the grocery store, I think it would be way more fun (and challenging) for the cart to have physics that adjust to the amount of stuff the Rabbids collect.

What Should Stay The Same?
Inside The Wii Remote: Players can select this mode from the main menu and spend as long as they want customizing their Rabbids with unlockable items from the game. Once selected, the Rabbid is sucked "inside" your Wii Remote and you're treated to a surreal view of what your Wii Remote would look like if it were hollowed out and the size of your TV. From there, it's all about customizing your Rabbid with unlockable items obtained in adventure mode, like an air pump that can shrink or puff up the eyes, ears or lips of your Rabbid for an even more disturbing, slightly mentally impaired appearance. And when you get bored of that, you can shake your Wiimote or mash buttons like crazy to watch your Rabbid get bounced around inside the hollowed out controller. It's probably a bad thing to encourage kids to torture retarded rabbit creatures – but the Rabbids seem to enjoy the abuse, so I guess it's okay…

Same Old Humor: Anyone who's a fan of the Rabbids' brand of insane humor is going to have a lot to laugh at here.

Final Thoughts
I'm really not sure that the Rabbids – inane, insane little buggers that they are – can inspire enough sympathy to carry an entire adventure game by themselves. They don't talk, they're not that smart and I'm pretty sure they don't do well without air, so what happens when they get to the moon? I might be happy slamming them around a Wii Remote replica, but I'd feel terrible for actually killing them.

The game is still turn-based and there's still a lot of strategy involved. But this adorable DS game is more of a puzzle game than an RPG, even if it does have the anime cut scenes and party stat balancing. Secret of Mana fans and Puzzle Quest-ers alike will definitely want to take a look.

What Is It?
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a puzzle RPG where players build up an army of various units to take into battle. Combat is all about forming lines of like-colored units – horizontal for defense and vertical for attacks – and trying to do as much damage to your opponent's hit point gauge before he wrecks yours by shooting attacks through or over lines of defense.

What We Saw
Games writers got a crash course of the tutorial levels and a glimpse at one of the more complex battles (which can last up to 30 minutes, it sounds like). Later I was able to sit down with the entire tutorial section and two early quests, one story and one optional.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out this fall.

What Needs Improvement?
No Quicksave Option: I realize that the DS can go into hibernate mode just by closing the lid, but I'd really like a quicksave option for the middle of boss fights. You know, just in case I'm tempted to rage quit or enter a hospital's intensive care unit where the doctors will get uppity with you for not turning your handheld devices completely off.

What Should Stay The Same?
Easy-to-Learn, Difficult-to-Master: Based on the pace of the tutorial and first missions, I'm pretty sure most players won't have trouble picking up the game's controls. However, based on the sheer number of units you can accumulate (way more than can actually be deployed in battle at one time) and the fact that there's local multiplayer versus, I think this is going to be a tough game to truly master. Exactly the kind of thing you'd look for in any game, even a handheld.

Final Thoughts
I really liked this game both because the puzzle combat was solid and because the 2D sprite and anime cut scenes were so cute. It reminded me of Secret of Mana, Puzzle Quest and the anime Record of Lodoss War all at once – and at the same time, Clash of Heroes felt like a totally unique experience. Very impressive.

After five minutes with the demo though, I take back everything bad I ever even started to think about this game. It's almost completely unrelated to the first one besides the name and the revolver/katana gameplay – and it's blessedly awesome in several ways.

What Is It?
Red Steel 2 is sequel only in name to the 2006 Wii launch title, Red Steel. The first person combat is similar and the weapons are the same, but the story takes place in a completely different setting and the player is a different character – and it's a Wii Motion Plus exclusive. Details are scarce on the exact story other than the reveal about it being an alternate reality where high tech cities are safe but the open desert is dangerous. The primary inspiration for gameplay comes from desperado films like Yojimbo, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or Six String Samurai; so we can expect a nameless lone hero in an East-meets-West setting dominated by gangsters.

What We Saw
I played through the demo, which appears to be the tutorial of the main game.

How Far Along Is It?
Red Steel 2 is due out "this holiday season" which could mean late 2009 or early 2010.

What Needs Improvement?
Targeting is a bit twitchy: You have the ability to lock onto enemies with Z and switch between targets just by tapping Z – but in melee situations, this can lead to confusion. For example, you could be locked on to an enemy and succeed in killing him. You'd press Z to lock onto the next enemy right beside him, however, because you killed your targeted enemy, the game will auto-select the closest enemy – which might just be the guy behind you instead of the one you were trying to target.

Have to keep the remote anchored: It could be because there were so many other active Wiimotes in the room, but I felt like if I didn't keep my Wii Remote pointing within a narrow field in the center of the screen, the controls wouldn't work right. For example, there's a blocking mechanic where you have to turn your "sword" (read: Wii Remote) in the direction opposite of the attack (horizontal blocks vertical, etc.) – but if you start to block with your Wii remote pointing somewhere outside that narrow field (because you just finished a horizontal slash for example), the hero would just sort of freeze instead of blocking and I'd have to re-center my remote at the screen to before trying to block or attack again.

What Should Stay The Same?
Tight Shooting Controls and Authentic Sword Swings: This is the first game I've played that makes the Wii Motion Plus feel like a godsend. The targeting reticule for the revolver barely wobbled even when I was wheeling sharply right or left to shoot at enemies or glass bottles. It also seems like the game can tell the difference between an actual horizontal slash and a lazy sort-of-horizontal slash that's actually more like an upward diagonal slash. Best of all, the game can read the strength of a slash, which feels so satisfying when you're delivering a strong vertical slash to the head of an armored enemy. Just be sure to actually wear your wrist strap.

It Looks Fabulous: The character designs and animations were smooth and the colors popped. I know there's not a lot of visual intensity to a dusty desert town, but the sky, sand and occasional fiery explosions looked really good.

Safe-cracking mini game: You can find safes in a level and crack them open for money to upgrade or buy weapons. The way it works is you hold the Wiimote to your ear to listen for the tumblers clicking as you turn the dial of the safe in the game with the Nunchuck. Sure, it might look a little silly – but I'm pleased to see the Wiimote's speakers being put to good use. And what kind of Western would it be if you couldn't crack safes?

You Can Deflect Bullets With Your Sword: Win.

Final Thoughts
I thought my bias against Red Steel 2 from not liking Red Steel would be canceled out by my bias in favor of Westerns and that I could pretend to be objective about this game. But truthfully, my love of Westerns and the sheer amount to which Red Steel 2 appeals to it overpowers any memories of Red Steel, so I have to admit I'm biased in favor of Red Steel 2.