Weekly Multiplayer Releases: Week of January 15, 2008

The third week of the new year brings three new Wii titles and a couple of handheld games.

Pick of the Week: Nitrobike Ubisoft’s answer to Excitebike arrives on the Wii this week from developer Left Field Productions, the same studio behind Excitebike 64. This arcadey motorcross title features 6-player online multiplayer and should be easy to pick up and play for anyone familiar with Excitebike 64 or Excitetruck. In fact, besides the online multiplayer, it’s difficult to tell this game apart from the Excite titles. Oh well, at least it’s not a minigame collection.

Runner-Up: Furu Furu Park Looks like we spoke too soon. Square Enix thrall Taito brings us yet another minigame collection for the Wii, this time with games inspired by a few Taito classics like Bubble Bobble and Pocky & Rocky to try and rope in the “core” gamers. Still, the game’s almost certainly better than the rest of this week’s releases. And besides, it includes a multiplayer mode called “Love Challenge.” We don’t know what it is, but we’re sure it’s awesome.

Hit the jump for the rest of the week’s multiplayer offerings.Also available this week:

Flatout: Head On The Flatout series arrives on the PSP with all of its patented rag doll physics and destruction derby mayhem in tow. Online multiplayer modes include ragdoll stunts and a party mode (also featuring ragdoll antics). So, if you like rags, dolls, and cars and can’t stand being away from them for even a little while, Head On will most definitly scratch your itch.

Miami Nights: Singles in the City Hey, look! The game’s subtitle is very similiar to “Sex and the City,” that HBO show featuring painfully vapid women talking about one boringly banal subject after another. Well done, soulless marketer. This game is basically Sex and the City for the tween crowd, which is becoming a more and more profitable demographic for publishers to target. Unfortunatly for all you eager pedofiles out there (and fortunately for the rest of us), Miami Night’s Wi-Fi multiplayer is local only, so keep saving your money for that Pokemon MMO instead.

Samurai Warriors: Katana Koei brings innovation to the Samurai Warriors series by transforming it from a button mashing hack-n-slasher to a wrist waggling hack-n-slasher. A throwaway multiplayer mode featuring – wait for it – eight minigames is also included on the disc because this is a Wii game and Wii ownsers LOVE minigames. It’s true. Just the other day I was at my grandparents’ and they couldn’t stop talking about this new Wii Bowling thing. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Anway, long story short: publishers hate you and are going to fill the Wii with minigame collections until all those coveted casual gamers give up on the medium entirely.