Shippin' Out June 11-15: Fantastic 4, Tenchu Z, Naruto 2, Big Brain

Even if it is short on big-name titles, this week's release list brings scads of new games to the market.

With Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer hitting theaters this week, it's Take-Two's turn to give Hollywood its due. As opposed to other recent feature-film tie-ins, Fantastic 4 will be surfing to a modest five platforms: the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

As the ouster of pirates from the release chart is now complete, ninjas have been given free rein to move in. Though it's been out in Japan since June 2006, Tenchu Z from developer K2 will be sneaking onto Microsoft's next-gen console this week. In other ninja news, Namco Bandai's Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 explores the ninja way on the PlayStation 2, and Zendoku from developer Zoonami brings the ninja ethos to the art of Sudoku on the DS. Running with the martial arts-mayhem theme, the Dragon Ball Z crew is given the collectible-card-game treatment by Atari in Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu, also for the DS.

Speaking of themes, Nintendo's recent retail success seems to have the company thinking gold. On the Virtual Console this week, Sonic shows up with his golden rings in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Dark Guld threatens the world once again in Golden Axe II, and Hudson's Lode Runner arrives with, well, piles of gold. Golden sand was the best Microsoft could come up with, as Gameloft will bring out a revamped version of Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia original as part of the Xbox Live Wednesday's weekly update.

Lastly, Nintendo will be bringing its brand of brain-training to the Wii this week, with the release of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree.

This week's new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information--actual dates may vary).

JUNE 11, 2007
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Wii)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Wii)
Golden Axe II (Wii)
Lode Runner (Wii)
UFO: Afterlight (PC)

JUNE 12, 2007
Tenchu Z (Xbox 360)
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 (PS2)
Call of Juarez (PC)
Raw Danger (PS2)
Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia (Xbox 360, PC)
Crash Bandicoot Action Pack (PS2)
Zendoku (PSP)
Time Ace (DS)
PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient (PSP)
The Sims 2: Pets (Wii)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (PSP)
7 Wonders 2 (PC)
Scarface: The World Is Yours (Wii)