In the upcoming issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the rumors section has news on a bunch of new SOCOM, Katamari Damacy and Viva Piñata titles coming out as well as Microsoft's plan for continued domination.

* Sticky Balls - New Katamari for Wii, PS3 and Xbox Live arcade.

* Turning War Around - Microsoft is crafting a brilliant plan to flip flop Gears and Halo every year, so expect Gears of War 2 in 2008 and a new Halo game in 2009.

* Count the COMs - three new SOCOM games are in the works. One on PSP and two on PS3.

* Mii Crossing - Mii's will be your avatar in the next Animal Crossing. All the shirts and accessories you collect will cross over to other games.

* Hudsun is releasing a TG16 pack with 3D remakes of Bonk, Adventure Island, and Super Star Soldier for the PS2.

* Rare is working on a Viva Pinata Kart racing game.

* NFL may drop EA once it's contract expires in a few years.

I always wonder why game companies continue to turn any type of successful franchise into a cart game but they must sell if the trend continues. Oh, before I forget, I hope the NFL drops EA like a bad habit if they don't step up their next gen efforts with Madden in the upcoming years.
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A Hudson employee has kicked off speculation that classic shoot-'em-up R-Type may well be released for Wii Virtual Console next week.

In a post titled "INSIDE SCOOP! Unannouced TurboGrafx game coming to VC!" on official Hudson forums, the company's John Lee has teased with this: "Stay tuned! This upcoming Monday Dec 11th, there will be a new TurboGrafx game coming to your Virtual Console on the Nintendo Wii! It's a new one, which has not been announced yet. Best of all, it's one of the most requested games that fans want. Oooohh! Tasty!"

"Which one is it?", he added. "Here's a tip: All brain, no skull. All eyes, no nose."

Fans have pointed out that R-Type is the only unannounced game from Hudson that has been given an ESRB rating. Bonk's Adventure, Bomberman '93, Victory Run, Super Star Soldier and Dungeon Explorer, which have also been rated, have of course been previously confirmed for VC.

So will it be R-Type? Well, we don't have long to wait to find out.
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