For those of you waiting for the next big computer-animated movie, Wall-E, to hit the screens, THQ is also bringing the cute little robot to all gaming platforms including the Nintendo Wii. The game will be released three days before the movie on 24 June.

Players will have the opportunity to guide Wall-E through different challenges, but for those of you who might not know about the film, the story line revolves around a robot, Wall-E, intended to clean up the mess that’s spread all over the world. But when people eventually leave Earth and go to another planet, not only do they forget to take Wall-E, but they also forget to tell him.

Alone on Earth, Wall-E continues to do the work that he’s been programmed for and players will be able guide him to different locations. Everything gets more interesting when another robot, EVE, is sent by people to report on the condition of the planet. The game then becomes more of a cooperative one as EVE will help accomplish various challenges.

1UP reports more details about the game.

Since Wall-E’s jumping ability in standard non-cube formation is limited, it was an inspired design choice to allow for longer, more substantial jumps using Eve, who — when Wall-E jumps — can carry him for a brief period of time. Most of the game takes place in between the movie’s pivotal scenes, as a way to not only escape the rigid structure that faithfully following a film’s plot may demand, but also to provide fresh material for fans of the movie to dig into.

Gamespot reports on the Wii controls.

The Wii game mixes the remote and analog stick with some gesturing to make things a little more tactile. So you’ll swipe the remote from left to right to pick up objects, and use an onscreen cursor to aim. Waving the Nunchuk will throw your cube at your target.

Enjoy the trailer.

NAMCO BANDAI Games has announced Active Life: Outdoor Challenge, the first game in Active series which is set to release this Summer. It offers a variety of mini-games that are both humorous and challenging.

Using the Nintendo Wii remote controllers and a special board designed especially for the game, you can compete in more than ten single-player and multiplayer activities. The board looks like the Wii board from the Wii Fit games, but it’s larger and NAMCO calls it an Active Life Mat. IGN reports details about the mat.

The mat is devided into two sets of four button inputs: a blue side and an amber side. If you’re just playing a single player event you’d put your feet in the center point and tap the appropriate buttons by stepping down on them. For two player events, both cozy up on the same mat: one person takes the blue side, the other on the amber side. The game only uses one mat, so you won’t be able to bring your own personal mat over for the two person competition.

Active Life: Outdoor Challenge seems to hope to duplicate the success of Wii Fit as they both includes games which are more fitness-oriented rather than standard shooter or racing games. However, compared to Wii Fit, Outdoor Challenge might need to be cheaper if people are to choose it over the former. On the other hand, for those who already have Wii Fit and want something a little more “active,” then this product from NAMCO might prove a better purchase.

The guys at 1UP have had the opportunity to play Outdoor Challenge for a while now, and share their opinion with us.

The first event we tried was the log jumper. Standing on the center squares as the default stance, we had to run in place to speed down a straight track. Meanwhile, logs are coming down different lanes; to avoid those, we jumped off the pad to jump in the game, or hit the left or right arrow to change lanes.

Photo: © Adam

THQ is a well known and highly respected name in the gaming industry. Whenever you see its logo on a product you can feel pretty confident the game will be good. Therefore, one anticipated game from the same stable, Deblob, is in development. It’s targeted only to Nintendo Wii and will be released at the end of September.

In the game, the player is in the world of blobs full of happy, colorful and cartoon-like creatures. Their world is also full of color, but the bad guys from the INKT corporation comes and steals them all. As a result, all the buildings and blobs becoming mono-tone, but one of the blobs who manages to escape plans to “deblob” his friends and return the colors back.

As you can already guess, that blob is you and via the motion-sensitive controllers you have to color everything you see. THQ created a really attractive environment which will definitely grab the attention of children. However, the gameplay and overall storyline make this game enjoyable for all members of the family.

GAMING NEXUS reports more details.

The real fun of the game is rolling around the town and painting and re-painting the buildings. There’s a certain joy to watching the denizens of the city flock back to an area of town that’s been re-painted and I’m sure with time you could have all kinds of fun painting and re-painting the town.

CVG reports about the mutiplayer.

It offers variations on the painting theme (from painty free-for-alls to a race to such-and-such a building), and the language leaving our lips was far from child-friendly as we cavorted across roof tops aiming to splatter rival turf with our own gang colours. De Blob couldn’t be further from an Average Joe game.

Enjoy.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is the eighth game in the series. Previously known simply as Tomb Raider 8, the game is in development at Crystal Dynamics and will begin where the last Tomb Raider game, Legend, ended with Lara Croft discovering a portal leading to the underworld, Xibalba.

Tomb Raider: Underworld will be released at the end the year for all platforms including the Nintendo Wii and compared with its predecessors will feature completely new graphics and lighting system. Although Wii owners will not be able to enjoy all of that, the game will still look attractive. Underworld will also support motion-sensitive controllers which should make the game more realistic as well as challenging.

GameSpot reports about the advanced AI system.

Revamped artificial intelligence in Underworld results in new enemy behaviour and thus different outcomes depending on how they, and you, act. Panthers might slink away, attack you directly, or simply wait for you to attack. And, unlike in prior instalments, some enemies, such as those frisky felines, can follow you to hard-to-reach places, which makes it harder to find a vantage point and take potshots leisurely from afar.

The Wiire reports that initially the release date was meant to be in the summer.

With Underworld now expected to ship in Q4 2008 rather than the former date of June 2008, the company expects to post a full-year operating loss for its fiscal 2008. SCi explained, however: “The Board believes that these simultaneous multi-platform launches in the key buying period, optimizes the value that these franchises can deliver to the Company over the long term.”