With E3 just weeks away, game developers are (understandably) keeping tight-lipped about developments but in an interview with Diehard GameFAN we find out a bit more about Ubisoft's Raving Rabbids TV Party. You can read the entire interview here, but for those of you just interested in the balance board stuff, here's a summary.

DHGF: Raving Rabbids TV Party is going to make use of the Wii Balance Board that came with Wii Fit. We've already seen the clips of the racing game in which gamers will be making ample use of their buttocks. What other mini-games will feature the balance board, and what happens to those gamers who don't have the balance board? How do they play these games?

Ubisoft: We'll be unveiling the next batch of Balance Board mini-games at E3, so you'll have to wait a few weeks to find out what's in store. However, there are also a few games where you get to stand and rest your behind. For people who don't have the Balance board yet, the game allows you the option of using the two controllers at the start of each game. The wii mote and nunchuck are tremendously versatile, so the balance board games are still intuitive and fun and have been developed and tweaked to fit the controllers. But (no pun intended!), the board does add a uniquely fun dimension to the gameplay!

DHGF: It's been mentioned that in both Party Mode and Co-Op that you can somehow sabotage your friends. How will this work?

Ubisoft: Basically if you are playing on the balance board, riding the Wildebeest in multiplayer, your adversaries can toss things to throw you off your butt-balancing. It means that you can still cause havoc, even when you're not the one riding the board.

DHGF: The first Rayman Raving Rabbids was a multi-console title. With the sequel and now TV Party, we've seen the game going Nintendo exclusive, only appearing on the Wii and DS. What was the decision behind focusing only on Nintendo's systems? Was it simply a gameplay decision or something else?

Ubisoft: RRR was designed to explore different controls and the way we prototyped them allowed us to showcase Nintendo’s new controllers. Movement off- and on-screen changed the development and the creative processes and the Wii became a perfect fit for Rabbid humor and gameplay style. This unique style benefits even further from the Balance Board, and we have tried to create weird and wonderful new movements using the board as well continuing to play with the Wii remote and Nunchuk in crazy ways!

So, nothing new there but one of the things that did grab my attention, and kudos to Ubisoft for thinking about this, was the ability for other players to interact with the balance board user within the game. The whole one balance board at a time limitation has already been covered and right now, there's no way around it so we've had to make do with throwing empty cans at the balance board user or trying to poke them with a stick but at least with RRR, other players aren't simply left watching while one person uses the board.

EA Games has just confirmed the release of Boogie Superstar in the US and Europe for October this year but there was no specific mention of support for the Wii Balance Board. According to the press release, "Girls will have a blast belting their favorite tunes into the microphone, and performing real dance moves that are captured on screen using the Wii’s motion-sensing technology".

Wii Board followers will most probably recall that rumours of a balance board compatible release of EA Boogie, initially titled EA Boogie II, have been doing the rounds for some time. Earlier this year, UK NGamer magazine broke the news that the game would actually be titled Boogie Superstar and that it would be balance board compatible. The latest press release doesn't specifically confirm anything although it did say that the game's featured artist is a chart-topping global music sensation who will help promote the game. Maybe she's brushing up on her balance board skills in preparation for a big launch at E3 next month?

Update: Well it looks like despite previous rumours, we can officially scratch Boogie Superstar off the Wii Balance Board Games List. I got in touch with EA Games and asked about balance board support and here's what they had to say:

"Boogie SuperStar will not include game play on the Wii balance board. The game will utilize a microphone peripheral for singing and the Wii Remote's motion-sensing technology for dancing, to provide players with a realistic and enjoyable performing experience."

Ever wondered what it would be like to play Wii Fit on a giant 300-square-foot screen? Bored of embarrassing yourself as you hula hoop in front of friends and family and in the mood to humiliate yourself publicly? Well that's all possible now thanks to Princess Cruises which has added Wii Fit to all of it cruise ships.

Wii consoles have been available across the fleet for some time now so adding Wii Fit seemed like a logical next step. According to Jan Swartz, Princess senior vice president:

"We're very excited to partner with Nintendo to bring the Wii Fit experience to our passengers. Our onboard team has just finished training with the experts at Nintendo to ensure that we're able to offer passengers the best possible experience with this innovative fitness game."

And here I was thinking that we take holidays to get away from our day-to-day routines. I can just see everyone rushing off to weigh themselves after tucking into that full buffet breakfast. You can read the full press release on the Princess Cruises website.

Here's an interesting idea for skateboarders looking forward to EA Skate It. According to a post on kotaku, EA developers are considering the possibility of shipping Skate It with some kind of add-on form that will snap onto the balance board and give it more of a skateboard look and feel.

Some of you may think it's taking things a bit far but I can see where they're coming from. After some vigorous play, I often find that my feet have moved off the board's sweet spot, making the controls a little erratic. The idea is that having something which more closely resembles an actual skateboard will help users to realise when they're no longer centered on the board without having to look down at their feet.

Bear in mind that the developers are only 'considering the possibility' so it's far from being a done deal, but now that the idea is out there I'm sure that Wii accessories manufacturers are already seeing dollar signs. I'd actually like to see this taken one step further. Instead of a form that's shaped like a skateboard, rather make an attachment that let's you use your own skateboard deck or even a snowboard. Now that would be pretty cool - most probably totally impractical, but cool.

Can you really lose weight and get fit using just Wii Fit? That's the question everyone's been asking. Back in May, I posted an article on Vinnk's Great Wii Fit Experiment which concluded that the answer was YES. Of course Vinnk was not the only one conducting an experiment, there are a lot of them out there but the most publicised has got to be Mickey DeLorenzo's Official Wii Fit Experiment.

He's just posted the results of his 41 day routine during which he lost 15lbs. That's pretty impressive by any standards, especially when you consider that he didn't diet so the weight loss can't really be attributed to water loss (which it normally is when dieting). According to Mickey, he made a point of not changing his lifestyle at all except to introduce 30 to 45 minutes of Wii Fit exercise a day. And not just goofing around, but actual training with a focus on trying to build and tone muscle. His post makes for some interesting reading for those who either doubt the effectiveness of Wii Fit or those who just need some motivation to help them with their own programs so well done Mickey.

One of my favourite courses in We Ski is Dolphin Park because of the ramps for air tricks. The instruction booklet doesn't list the available tricks, you have to go to the Ski School to discover those and then remember the various controls for each trick. Or, if you have a crappy memory like me, you can use this handy We Ski Air Tricks Cheatsheet.

In the runnup to the release of Wii Fit, there was loads of speculation on the Balance Board about possible games and potential applications. At the time, the idea of using the Wii Board with driving simulators to control breaking and accelerating seemed a bit out there but it was only a matter of time before somebody went and did it.

That somebody has turned out to be GlovePIE wizz, Mike Sylvester, who has written a script to use both the Wii Wheel and the Wii Balance Board with Need For Speed ProStreet. Check out his Wii Racing Xperiment - it makes for some interesting reading and he's also posted a video showing the script in action.

Well Euro 2008 is certainly hotting up as world champions Italy beat France to move into the final eight. Italy's second goal came from a free kick but had France had a raving rabbid on their team well... it would have been no different as this latest teaser for Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party shows - enjoy.

Anyone heard of Audiosurf? I have to admit that I'd never heard of it until I heard about BodySurf. Basically, Audiosurf is a PC game which "is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose. You earn points for clustering together blocks of the same color on the highway and compete with others on the internet for the high score on your favourite songs."

Up until now, the game was played using a mouse and keyboard but with the release of BodySurf, a GlovePIE script, you can now use your Wiimote and Balance Board to play the game. Kudos to the author, Evan Jones, for another clever use of the Wii Board.

Before you get too excited, no, this is not confirmation that a new version of 1080° Snowboarding is coming with Balance Board support - it could almost be the opposite I'm afraid. In an interview with cubed3, 1080° Snowboarding developer, Giles Goddard, confirmed that his team are working on a WiiWare title scheduled for release this September but he wasn't willing to confirm exactly what the game is. Worryingly, he had this to say:

"Our current game uses the Balance Board actually, and it's due out in September on WiiWare. So yes, much like Theta we came up with several prototypes of games and picked one that we thought was the most uniquely suited to the interface. The interesting thing is that the games you would think would work well with the Balance Board actually don't."

So is he referring to 1080° in that last sentence since you would have thought that it was one of the best suited games. Even Wii Fit's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, mentioned 1080° in an interview way back before Wii Fit was launched globally. I guess we'll just have to wait for the rest of the interview to be published before we really know.