Fly this bird with the Nunchuk and Wii Remote

Although it's been out for over a year in Japan, The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Ages for the Wii has so far failed to drum up much excitement over on Western shores. However, with a North American release date now set for January 5th 2010 and a European release planned for February, that could all be about to change. Looking at these latest screens it's obvious that Namco's development team 'Project Aces' has been hard at work squeezing every last drop of graphical loveliness out of the Wii's hardware, and it's hard not to get excited at the prospect of some high-octane aerial combat making its way onto our screens in the next few months.

It's also good to see a game that promises to back action with substance - the game is based on a 2008 anime film, which hopefully means we'll be treated to a storyline with some depth to complement the arcade-style action of the main game.

It's a shame it's taken this long to secure a Western release, and being released in January Sky Crawlers could well fall victim to the usual post-Christmas fall in spending, but with NGamer scoring the Japanese version an impressive 88% this could well be a title worth picking up.

What are your predictions? Air-ace or divebomb? Thoughts in the comments please!

Dogfighting promises to be fast and frantic

[source gamespress.com, via namcobandaigames.com]