TGS '07: Namco Bandai embraces Active Life

TOKYO--Developers for the Nintendo Wii seem determined to get gamers up and off the sofa while they play games. First there was Wii Sports, although that may be relatively docile compared to Wii Fit, which was announced at this year's E3 Media & Business Summit. Now, there's an even more energetic Wii game coming to the console in 2008--with a working title of Active Life: Athletic World for the Western world.

Called Family Trainer: Athletic World in Japan, the Wii-exclusive game uses a special custom mat controller and will feature a series of minigames for one or two players. Namco Bandai demonstrated some of these minigames at the company's offices in Shinagawa as part of this year's Tokyo Game Show.

The first was called River Rapid, and gamers use the Wii Remote like an oar to paddle left or right, which steers the boat through the rapids. Other games shown briefly included a snowboarding game, a two-player log jumping game, and a barrel jumping game. Players use the mat to run in place, which makes characters move around.

Namco Bandai also showed off some new levels of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and a trailer of the weapon-based brawler Soulcaliber IV. The new Soulcaliber IV video introduced a brand-new character, Hilda, who was dressed head to toe in armor. The title is being developed for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, and is due for release in 2008. Other games shown in the presentation video were Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and Time Crisis 4.