Namco Bandai today announced We Ski, revealing its intent to poach some fresh powder on the Wii. Due out later this spring in North America, the title allows up to four players to take their personalized Mii avatars to the slopes.

According to Namco, the game will offer a variety of events, including ski school, freestyle skiing, moguls and slaloms, and photography.

Along with the expected motion-sensitive Wii Remote controls, the game can played via the upcoming Wii Balance Board, which will be bundled with Nintendo's Wii Fit when it arrives May 19.

We Ski marks one of the first times an external third party has used either the Wii's customizable Mii avatar system or the Wii Balance Board. Though numerous Nintendo helmed titles, such as Wii Sports and WarioWare Smooth Moves, utilize Miis to literally bring players into the game, few third-party games have integrated the functionality.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said consumers can expect a huge number of Wii consoles in stores this holiday season. Fils-Aime spoke with San Jose Mercury News game guys Dean Takahashi, Mike Antonucci, and Troy Wolverton in a video interview posted today on the Mercury News blog.

"The good news is we're flowing more and more product into the marketplace and the amount of Wii hardware that will be in North American stores will be unprecedented," Fils-Aime said. "Substantially more than the launch, substantially more than has been seen to date."

Though the president gave no hard numbers, and said prospective buyers would most likely have trouble finding a Wii in stores because of high demand. Fils-Aime also touched on Wii Fit, saying there's much more to the casual gamer-oriented, Shigeru Miyamoto-helmed software than consumers and media have been shown.

"What we showed for Wii fit was just small taste. The game is... Read more

During its E3 press conference today, Nintendo demonstrated Wii Fit, a game allowing players to participate in a variety of fitness-related activities and track their performance and health over time. Using a pressure-sensitive pad peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, the game will track players' movements, and keep a running log of their body mass index figures as they change over time.

The game will consist of 40 different activities from four categories: aerobics, balance, Yoga, and muscle condition. Activities include pushups, balancing, simulation of a hula hoop, a rhythm game serving as step aerobics, a balance-based soccer goalie mini-game, a Marble Madness-like rolling ball game controlled by shifting weight on the pad, and more.

Wii Fit is being developed under the supervision of Nintendo design head Shigeru Miyamoto, and will include the Wii Balance Board. No release date information was announced.