Following the brief tease earlier this week, EA today officially announced The Simpsons Game for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PSP. Developed by EA Redwood Shores, the game is expected to ship this fall and marks EA's first use of the Simpsons license since the company acquired it from Vivendi Universal in 2005.

Based off the long-running television show and soon-to-be feature film, The Simpsons Game follows Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa as they attempt to save the world. According to the announcement, their efforts will be supplemented by "exciting, all-new powers," "an amazing array of villains" and "parodies of multiple popular games." All of the voice actors from the show are slated to reprise their roles for the game.

"Our goal in developing The Simpsons Game is to create the most original game ever, which is a lofty goal and only possible given the close collaboration with 'The Simpsons' creative team," revealed The Simpsons Game executive producer Scot Amos. "We're also especially proud of the game's warm visual feel, which captures--for the first time ever in a game--the look of the TV show."

The executive producer then took the opportunity to reference of the most well-known Simpsons jokes. "As Comic Book Guy says," Amos jested, "'Best. Simpsons Game. Ever!'"

"The EA group was so enormously talented and beyond belief energetic that I am thinking of suing for second hand exhaustion," said Simpsons television and film executive producer James L. Brooks.

Though the Square Enix Party 2007 blowout isn't set to begin until this weekend, the most recent issue of Japanese gaming publication Weekly Shonen Jump has the scoop on Square Enix's latest DS effort, a remake of Final Fantasy IV. Much like the Final Fantasy III remake released on the DS last year, FFIV will be rendered in full 3D, ditching the 2D aesthetic of the original. Originally a Super Nintendo title, FFIV has also seen release on the PlayStation, the Japan-only WonderSwan Color, and Game Boy Advance.

While there has been no official word, the DS version of Final Fantasy IV will most likely arrive later this year in both Japan and North America.

Namco has confirmed rumors of a new Soul Calibur title on Wii, though fans may be dismayed to learn it is not a traditional Soul Calibur game. Instead of a 3D fighter, Soul Calibur Legends will be a third person action adventure set in the Soul Calibur mythology. Throughout the game, players will take control of various Soul Calibur characters as they fight to gain experience, earn titles and unlock more powerful attacks.

No specific mentions of a release date or control scheme were made, though the game will utilize both the motion-sensing Wii Remote and Nunchuck.

This isn't the first time Namco has produced a third person action game based off one of its fighting series. Fans of Namco's Tekken may recall 2005's poorly received Death by Degrees, which starred series assassin Nina Williams.

THQ will be publishing 5TH Cell's DS doodler Drawn to Life, a game which allows players to draw their own characters and take control of them. After customizing one of four different hero forms with the game's arsenal of stamps, colors, and brushes, players can modify the surrounding environment, sketching out different items to help their hero in his or her journey to save the land from darkness, as well as share their character with other players.

Drawn to Life is expected to release this fall.

Though Nintendo has yet to comment on the matter, a report from the Seattle Times reinforces last week's rumor that Nintendo would be relocating its sales and marketing team and sheds some additional light on the move.

According to the article, Nintendo executive Bruce Meyer told Redmond deputy planning director Jim Roberts that the company would be moving its sales and marketing division--which employs roughly 80 people--from Nintendo's Redmond, WA-based headquarters to an undetermined location in either New York or San Francisco. No other divisions are known to be affected at this time, and the company informed Redmond mayor Rosemarie Ives that the loss of any jobs moved out of the city would be offset by the creation of new local positions.

A game based off 2004's feature film is on its way to DS and PSP courtesy of publisher Crave Entertainment. Apart from the inclusion of distinctive characters such as Napoleon, Kip, Uncle Rico, Pedro, and Tina the Llama, no other details were provided.

"Napoleon Dynamite is one of the great cult classics of the past decade," commented Mark Burke, senior VP of product planning and business development at Crave. "It's one of those films that has great memorable lines and characters, and we expect that fans of the movie will really like the game."

Community manager Che Chou has revealed that the demo for Turn 10's racing sim Forza Motorsport 2 will be available for Xbox Live Gold subscibers through the Xbox Live Marketplace on Thursday at 2 AM PDT (5 AM EST). Weighing in at about 700 MB, the demo is said to include 24 different cars and support for the Xbox 360 force feedback racing wheel. The full version of Forza Motorsport 2 is slated to hit stores on May 29.

Sony Online Entertainment's version of Midway's Rampart arrives on PlayStation 3 tomorrow, May 10, via the system's online PlayStation Store. Priced at $4.99, SOE's edition adds online multiplayer to the classic strategy game.

Ubisoft has released a set of new maps for Ubisoft Paris and Red Storm Studios' Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 on Xbox Live Marketplace. Selling for 800 Microsoft Points ($10), the Throwback Pack features remakes of 7 maps drawn from Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike (Xbox) and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PS2, Xbox, X360, PC).

Over the weekend, internet detectives spotted a countdown site hosted on the official Electronic Arts site, which many have taken as a sign that EA plans to unveil its upcoming game based on animated series The Simpsons. The page features a yellow background, text in the font faced used in The Simpsons' promotional material, and a large "XXII" in the same font and color scheme as that used on the "IV" on Rockstar Games' recent countdown page promoting Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, X360). The timer is set to expire on Wednesday at 12:00pm. The "XXII" most likely refers to the number of total games based on the license.

In November 2005, EA announced that it had acquired the video game rights to The Simpsons, which were previously held by Vivendi Universal. Vivendi released Radical Entertainment's critically and commercially successful The Simpsons: Hit & Run (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PC), following a string of less well received titles.

In the last several hours, the EA site became unreachable, and currently states, "The following error has occurred: Web Page Not Found Error." Somewhat oddly, following a standard error explanation, the page concludes with the phrase "See you tomorrow."

Shacknews has sent further inquiries to EA but has yet to receive a response.

Citing unnamed sources within Sony, Australian technology site Smarthouse is reporting that a new model of Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 could be released within 18 months. According to Smarthouse's alleged source, this new machine would retain the existing PS3's Cell processor (and presumably its RSX GPU) but would add significant media capabilities. New features would allegedly include a packed-in media streaming software suite, as well as possible server functionality.

The product described is reminiscent of the PlayStation 2-based PSX hardware released to the Japanese market in 2003. PSX included a digital video recorder and media transfer capabilities, as well as all standard PS2 functions. Following its release, the device failed to reach significant commercial success and did not see worldwide distribution.

Recently retired SCEI CEO Ken Kutaragi, chief architect of the PlayStation line, has spoken about PlayStation 3 as a console with a long lifespan intended to take multiple forms to keep the machine up to date. This philosophy can already be seen in the existing PS3, which includes the ability to install a new standard hard drive and plug in various standard USB peripherals, such as keyboards, mice, and flash card readers.

Sony has declined to comment on the Smarthouse report.

This week's slate of three Wii Virtual Console releases sees one game each from the libraries of the NES, Super NES, and Turbografx-16.

Tecmo's oddly complex platformer Mighty Bomb Jack (NES, 1 player) is available for 500 Wii Points ($5). Capcom's SNES port of it classic brawler Final Fight (Super NES, 1 player) runs 800 Wii Points ($8). Finally, the TurboGrafx-16 version of Namco's cooperative sidescrolling shoot-em-up Ordyne (TurboGrafx-16, 1-2 players) goes for 600 Wii Points ($6).

As usual, check back tomorrow for the official Shack reviews of all three Virtual Console games.