Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We usually don't have high hopes when it comes to games that are based on movies, television shows, brands, or other licenses. With that said, though, we know that there are some good ones around. What is your favorite licensed game? And, if that license is not on the Wii yet, would you like it to be?

Also, are there any movie or other licenses that haven't been gobbled up yet that you'd like to see on the Wii? Or, would you rather that these types of games stop being made in the first place?

Famitsu has put up the first screenshots we've seen for Major Dream, Takara Tomy's recently announced Wii game for the baseball anime, and ... They look exactly like how you'd expect a low-budget anime sports title to look like. What's up with the crotch pinstripes in the above image? His outfit resembles a wacky line graph more than it does a baseball uniform. Even with the game's Eyeshield 21 similarities, all the motion blur in the world couldn't distract us from that mess of stripes.

WayForward has actually had a Wii development kit since last year (they got access to some early pre-release duct tape) and they've been doing research and development since then. We know the licenses are coming, but we're really hoping that WayForward will have the time and resources to do some original stuff too.

[Via DCEmu]

We'll admit to being somewhat negligent in our anime viewing. To put a fine point on it, we don't know the first thing about One Piece. But we know brawlers, and any such game where you can play as a stretchy-arm guy is okay with us.

One Piece Unlimited Adventure uses limited "swing attacks" that are activated by waggling-- specifically, shaking the Wiimote. The high-speed pummeling shown above is such an attack. Check the link for pictures of all the other (significantly less stretchy) characters and their swing actions, and click the post break for a couple of screens.

We don't want to make any value judgments, so we'll stick to the facts. A Wii game based on Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End exists in some unreleased stage, and Jeux-France posted two screenshots of it, which we have posted here for you.

The screens depict characters from the movie in what appear to be situations from the whole series. Sometimes the characters engage in combat against enemy characters. There is a display on the screen of the appropriate Wii controller motions for the situation.

We don't want to speculate too much, but we're guessing that this game will be pressed onto discs and released to retailers near the time of the movie's release (late May). Should people want one of these discs containing the game, they will be able to obtain one in exchange for currency.

[Via NeoGAF]

You might have to take some notes on this one, because it's a little complicated, especially since the games involved have very long, very similar names. Tomy and D3 Publisher have announced a new Naruto game called Naruto: Clash of Ninja MVZ, to be released on the Wii in the US with exclusive new content.

However, exactly which Naruto game it is is somewhat of a mystery. The unruly (but perspicacious) NeoGAF horde thinks that it's not the Wii Naruto (Naruto Shippuden Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX) that just came out in Japan, but rather a port of the Gamecube Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 with some new characters, minigames, and, we would assume, new controls.

But Gamespot is reporting that we're getting a version of EX with the animations and characters changed to reflect where the US localization of the anime is in the Naruto storyline.

We don't exactly know what's going on. There will be a Naruto game of some kind on the Wii this fall, and the rest is obscured by ninja trickery, deployed in a successful attempt to confuse and disorient us.