Labor Day week officially starts off the fall gaming season with some high anticipated releases such as FaceBreaker, Infinite Undiscovery, Mercenaries 2 and, of course, Wiil Wright’s Spore. One of the most surprising, and delightful, releases for me this week is the classic SNES RPG, Super Mario RPG for the Virtual Console.

All I got to say is wow, too much gaming already this past month, and with even more hit titles coming out in the next few weeks and months, it looks like we’re all gonna be broke.

Pick of the Week: Tie: FaceBreaker (Xbox 360, PS3) and Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)

Xbox 360:

• FaceBreaker
• Infinite Undiscovery
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• NFL Head Coach 09
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (XBLA)
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• Warhammer: Battle March

PS3:

• FaceBreaker
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• NFL Head Coach 09
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy
• Vampire Rain: Altered Species

Wii:

• Clu Clu Land (VC)
• My Aquarium (WiiWare)
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (VC)

PC:

• Combat Mission: Shock Force – Marines
• FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
• GTR Evolution
• Spore

Nintendo DS:

• PictoImage
• Spore Creatures

After the abomination that was Double D dodgeball, I can’t imagine anyone getting too excited over this; but for lovers of pirates and ninjas, they’ll be dodging balls on XBLA this coming September 3rd. Read more after the break.

The Gamecock-published title will feature ninjas, pirates, zombies, robots, and at least one unannounced team. Also, each character on each of the teams will be unique and have special movies.

The game will also feature multiplayer battles for up to eight players.

Source: 1up

Gamecock gets faulted a lot for their outlandish publicity stunts, but after receiving a fresh new batch of screenshots from the unstoppable publisher we’re actually rather impressed by the scope and variety of their upcoming games.

Look at these screens– you have a downloadable Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball game (with Zombies and Aliens, too!), a first person shooter called Legendary with crazy werewolves and griffins, and a trippy Wii platformer called Mushroom Men. Hardly a bald space marine in sight!

So here is your credit where credit is due, Gamecock– thanks for the original ideas. Some of these haven’t proven to be entirely successful in the past, like Fury and Dementium, but we really can’t fault them for trying.

Somewhere in this pack of new games there’s bound to be something for everyone. Check out the screens in the gallery below and let us know what you think. Platforms and release dates are as follows:

Pirates vs Ninja Dodgeball, XBLA, available Sept 3.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars, Wii, available Nov 11.

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When you first download PvND for 800 points, there are only two types of characters (pirates and ninjas) and the maximum team size in story mode is two players. However, as you work your way through the game, you’ll unlock four players for each team, and two new character sets comprised of Zombies and Robots.

Each team has their own unique arena to play around in, and while there aren’t any gameplay differences between them, they’re all quite attractive. As you might guess, Zombies hang out in the graveyard, Robots have a factory, Pirates are on the beach, and Ninjas dwell in a cherry blossom forest.

PvND seems to work best as a multiplayer game, and up to four players can play on local co-op or eight players can compete online. The controls seem to offer some impressive depth, like a counter system that lets you swat the ball out of an enemy’s hands with a sword, and the ability to catch the ball in order to regain some vital hit points.

But still, this is dodgeball, so it’s neither intensive combat nor a genuine sport. You’ve got a health meter, so you can survive multiple strikes before getting knocked out, and a stamina meter that lets you pull off special moves, which are different for each character. Although we were hoping for a little more action in the game, flaming power shots and ball-swatting is about as intense as it gets.

If you thought a pirates vs. ninjas matchup might make for an interesting competitive situation in, say, a fighting game, the playground antics might be a disappointment. But as a party mini-game, it looks like it’ll be fun in small doses.

If you’re a big fan of pirates, ninjas, and dodgeball, this is definitely the right game for you. Pirates vs. Ninja Dodgeball is due out sometime in early 2008.

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The Internet has put in some long hard hours on the issue, but Blazing Lizard’s first game promises to solve it once and for all—Pirates or Ninjas? Yes, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball should do the trick. But how exciting can dodgeball get?

Well, instead of being stuck on one side of a gym like in elementary school, players will be free to run all over each of the six arenas. This leaves lots of fighting room, and each character will have a special move. While the Singleplayer exhibition, story, and challenge modes could be nifty, the real draw will most certainly be multiplayer, with up to four local and eight online.

The game will be up to download for undisclosed consoles (but honestly, there are only three…so how difficult do you think it is to guess?) early next year. In the meantime, let us speculate as to who the remaining three of five teams are– my money’s on Monkeys, Robots, and Zombies.