Namco-Bandai Finds Balance on the Wii

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Author: Rayman Tsang
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Third parties have been pretty silent about Wii Balance Board-based games, but Namco-Bandai has opened the floodgates with the first third-party announcement.

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The Wii balance board has sparked interest from companies like Activision, and Square-Enix, but neither has officially declared a potential title using the Nintendo's new peripheral. Now Namco-Bandai is the first third-party developer to announce that it will be utilizing the board. Advance Media Network reports that the title is called Family Ski for Japan:

"Family Ski, a ski and snowboarding game, will be officially supporting the Wii Fit Balance Board. The title is currently set for release in Japan this year with no plans to bring the title the US at this time. Wii Fit will also be releasing in Japan this year and is expect to come to the US in early 2008."

A skiing/snowboarding game is no surprise as the first third-party game to utilize the board. Even Shigeru Miyamoto said, "Probably the simplest and most straightforward would be a snowboarding game." in Q&A with IGN.

It will be interesting to see how Family Ski comes out. Not a lot of third-party developers have correctly utilized Nintendo's new input devices, and Namco-Bandai is going to combine the whole shebang. AMD stated that Namco-Bandai currently has no plans to release Family Ski outside of Japan.

Hey, thanks: AMN

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