New Kirby's Dream Land headed to Wii

It took four years for amorphous Nintendo mascot Kirby to get his own original Wii game with last year's Kirby's Epic Yarn. The wait for his second game on the system looks to be considerably shorter, as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata today announced a new installment in the Kirby's Dreamland side-scrolling platformer series is in development for the Wii.

Iwata didn't give the game a name, but he did say it is in development at Hal Labs. The studio has decades of experience working on the franchise, from the original Kirby's Dream Land on the Game Boy in 1992 to more recent efforts like 2008's Kirby Super Star Ultra. The new Hal Kirby game is expected to see release later this year.

That wasn't the only new game unveiled by Iwata. The executive also confirmed that the DS Rhythm Heaven series (Rhythm Tengoku in Japan) would be getting a Wii installment, with a multiplayer mode allowing friends to call out each other's missteps. Like Kirby, the Wii version of the game is expected to debut later this year.

Iwata also announced Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS, a typing tutorial game set for Japanese release this April. Designed to appeal to adults, as well as children, Pokemon Typing will come with a wireless keyboard that will communicate with a Bluetooth receiver in the game card. While Nintendo isn't guaranteeing the keyboard will work with other devices, Iwata noted that he has personally managed to get it working with the iPhone and Android devices.