Hey there, pretty people -- you might be interested in hearing the latest news about Telltale's upcoming WiiWare series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. As for the rest of you uglies, just movie on -- there's nothing to see here. (If you're perusing Wii Fanboy, you're clearly hot stuff, so don't worry and read on.)

Telltale reports that the first episode of the game, titled "Homestar Ruiner," centers around Strong Bad's desire to pummel Homestar Runner. He then decides that the best way to beat his rival would be to defeat him in the tri-annual Race to the End of the Race.

You can check out the video of "Homestar Ruiner" above, although it doesn't show too much gameplay. Occasionally, it looks like you have to choose something from a thought bubble in order to progress the story, but often there's only one item to choose from. Joystiq did report that the demo for SBCG4AP was pretty linear, but hopefully the episode in its entirety will have more to offer.

We've also added some new game screens to our gallery, which feature some beloved characters from the Homestar Runner-verse, so be sure to check them out.


[Via press release; also, thanks fco!]

Rare unveiled a trailer yesterday for its forthcoming Xbox 360 vehicle-based platformer Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It looks very lovely, as Rare games often do, but discussion about the video now seems to be less about the game, and more about a brief cameo from Mario.

Towards the end of the two-minute trailer, the bear and the bird are seen flying a customized plane towards a huge model of Mario, before blasting the revered plumber's head clean off! The cheek! Later versions of the same footage have had the decapitation edited out (there is an unedited version after the break), which suggests that Rare got a slapped wrist over the (hardly scandalous) "scandal."

Anyway, with grim predictability, this scene resulted in the entire internet getting its panties in a bunch. Everywhere one looked, people were speculating boringly over what this could possibly mean. And now, Rare has enlightened us: it means nothing. Zilch. It was all a bit of light-hearted fun. Haha.

MTV's Stephen Totilo spoke to lead software engineer Salvatore Fileccia about the cameo, and came away with the impression that some rascal at Rare had constructed the Mario figure using the game's vehicle editor, and that the scene had been added to the trailer at the last minute, with Microsoft none the wiser. But before you all grab your pitchforks, know that Rare still has tons of respect for Mario, with Fileccia himself commenting at the presentation of the trailer: "Action platformers have gotten a bit stale, except for Mario."

Crisis over, then. Now back to praying for a Banjo game on the Virtual Console.

Buried in the latest Japanese Namco Bandai financial report, in a chart showing their sales projections per game for 2008, is the first mention of a Taiko no Tatsujin (Taiko Drum Master) game for Wii, planned for late this year. The company released Ennichi no Tatsujin (Festival Master), a spinoff minigame collection, as a Wii launch title, but this would be the first for-real Taiko on the Wii. They expect to sell around 500,000 copies, the same as they project for Family Trainer.

We're anxious now for an official reveal, because we want to see how the controls will work. Will it use a drum controller, or will players be asked to air-drum with the Wiimote and Nunchuk? There's also the third, more unlikely, option of hitting a drum with the Wiimote, though that would get expensive.