Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We spent yesterday going through the big releases that've been announced for next year so far -- Smash Bros. Brawl and/or Wii Fit likely topping your personal "must get" list -- but what about the second-tier games that don't usually receive much press or attention?

Though we haven't forgotten about the low-key releases, we've collected a selection of games and media to ensure that these titles stay on your mind too! Read on for our top ten list of awesome 2008 games that you totally forgot about!

The most recent screens of Starfish's Kiki Kai World are looking ... well, a little bit sparse. We're somewhat disappointed by the basically blank environments. It's quite a contrast from the lush graphics seen in earlier screenshots. The sprites look quite nice, but some of the screenshots seem a little low on detail, like the one above. Spamming the screen with a pile of identical enemies-- it's bizarre, but doesn't make for a super-impressive screenshot.

Of course, our impression could be a result of the snow level, which, for a game with this perspective, means pretty much solid white. We're just glad Famitsu is calling this a Wii game, because we had some doubts recently.

The first real screens of Kiki Kai World-- as in, not screens of the cancelled Kiki KaiKai 2-- have been released, with the new character sprites. Since we're not heavily invested in the Kiki KaiKai universe, we couldn't care less that the characters look a little different. The gorgeous high-resolution 2D art and brilliant colors make us very happy that this game exists. The NeoGAF audience seems to be less impressed with these shots than the previous Kiki KaiKai 2 stuff (mostly for technical reasons: the images are resized and there's a bit of JPG artifacting), but we still like them.

What doesn't make us happy, however, is that Gamespot labels Kiki Kai World as a PS2 game only. And, to make things worse, publisher UFO Interactive only shows the PS2 version as "Coming Soon" on their website, with no mention of the Wii version at all. We may have just posted screens that have nothing to do with the Wii! We posted them out of faith.

[Via NeoGAF]

Cubed3 talked to Starfish's Chong Ahn, a producer on Kiki Kai World, and nailed down the question that all (three or so) of us wondered: Is Kiki Kai World based on the cancelled PS2 Kiki KaiKai 2, or did they start over? It is, as suspected, the cancelled game with new art, which means that Taito's cruel cancellation of Kiki KaiKai 2 will not deprive the world of that game. Ahn promises that Kiki KaiKai/Pocky and Rocky fans will be right at home playing World.

When asked about possible online features, Ahn responds in the negative, stating: "As for the WiiConnect24 service, we do not feel it is something that needs to be utilised for this title." We're pretty sure we didn't need online integration in Kiki Kai World, anyway. Starfish plans to release the game in the first quarter of 2008-- we're optimistic about the chances of this actually coming out.

UFO Entertainment announced today their plans to release Kiki Kai World for the PS2 and Wii. Kiki Kai World is a "spiritual successor" to Taito's classic shooter Kiki Kaikai, known in the US as Pocky & Rocky.

Developer Starfish announced a sequel to Kiki Kaikai last year with crisp, bright 2D art. It was cancelled. According to the UFO rep Game|Life's Chris Kohler spoke to, this isn't the same game, but it's "very similar" (which probably means just similar enough to avoid problems with Taito.)

We were sad when Kiki Kaikai 2 died. Little did we know that it would come back on a system that is so dear to us. Everybody, cross your fingers and hope this actually makes it to the shelves in early 2008.