April Fool's: Yuke's developing <i>View</i> game

APRIL 1--Encouraged by the recent announcement of the Desperate Housewives game, one major game publisher is backing a new title aimed at female nongamers. Like Housewives, the title will be based on a show on the popular ABC network. It will be one of a few games based on a reality show, in this case The View.

Like Housewives, The View: The Game will put players in the seat of a fictional new member of the show. As is often the case with the daytime talkfest, players will have to hold their ground as they fend off barbs from cohosts Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Meredith Vieira, Barbara Walters, and Star Jones-Reynolds (pictured).

Inspired by an ongoing on-air rivalry between Jones-Reynolds and Behar, the game will feature text-based verbal sparring. Players will be forced to respond to various and snide insults without swearing, which will lead network censors to bleep your comments. Bleeping will affect a player's popularity, which can eventually lead to the player getting kicked off the show.

However, while Housewives is strictly a lifestyle sim game, The View: The Game will take the show's hosts' hostility to the next level. When an argument reaches an extreme tenor--measured by a "cattiness index"--the game will shift into full-fledged hand-to-hand combat. Each host with have her own special set of moves, and parts of the daytime show's set will be able to be used as weapons.

The Japanese developers of WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw will handle development of The View's combat system. The developer will use a modified version of the engine it licensed to Konami for the female-wrestling game, Rumble Roses.

Referring to the nasty in-game moves, the game's lead producer told GameSpot, "Sometimes you just want to be meaner than you can be on TV."

While no release date has been set for The View: The Game, the financial arrangements have apparently inspired one of the show's stars to sign her own game deal. According to sources, Jones-Reynolds is in final negotiations for a localized version of the popular DS surgery game, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. However, while the original centers on life-saving operations, the new version would let players perform Jones-Reynolds' numerous cosmetic surgeries, which are one of her primary subjects of discussions on The View.