Here's something to look out for come next year if you fancy imports from Asia. Japan's Rakuten has confirmed that the Karous vertical shooter developed by Milestone Inc. has been dated for a March 27 release next year for the Nintendo Wii. More details on the game follow in the full article.

Are you itching for more new stuff involving Namco Bandai's Tales of Vesperia since our last report? Well, Namco Bandai has a new website and a new video trailer out for eager fans of the series. Unfortunately, they're both in Japanese, but at least you don't have to be fluent in the language to get an idea of what Tales of Vesperia will be like once it's finally released.

View the video after the jump!

If you're a Star Wars fan and a Nintendo Wii owner at the same time, then this little peripheral may interest you: the Nintendo Wii Light Sword is now available.  Reminiscent of a Jedi's lightsaber, the Wii Light Sword plugs directly onto the front end of your Wiimote, which becomes part of the sword's hilt. Read full article for more details on this.

Time to clear out your current playlists, people, because the Sonic and the Secret Rings soundtrack will be making its way to retail stores in Japan a couple of days from now. Called "Seven Rings in Hand," the soundtrack will be on sale starting March 15 for ¥3,400 (US$ 30).

Those of you who want to import a copy might also want to wait for a few autographed copies to show up on eBay. Apparently, there's also a launch event for the soundtrack in Japan where lucky buyers can get their copies autographed by the Sonic and the Secret Rings soundtrack composer and producer.

As for the reason why you'd want to buy this soundtrack, well, that's up to you. Some of the game's music was actually pretty cool. A bit cheesy, maybe, but still fun. We just want a copy so we can make our own "defeating the evil genie" video and maybe get a mountain of hankies in the process. OK, that didn't make sense.

We found an interesting little tidbit on the GameFAQs forums that some of you might not have heard about. In this case, it's got something to do with playing import games for free, and once more people verify it, it should make for interesting gaming days ahead.

According to the forum post, Particleman08 wanted to see if his Naruto import games for his GameCube worked on the Nintendo Wii. When he originally bought the Naruto games, he also got a copy of a program known as Freeloader to play them on his Wii. Apparently, he can still use the Freeloader on the Wii to start up GameCube imports on the next-gen console.

He does offer a bit of caution though:

I inserted the freeloader disk, and selected it from the disc channel, the system read it and restarted. Went back to the disc channel again, selected the freeloader and the system took me to the normal freeloader screen and asked me to swap the disk like normal. I am assuming that the freeloader disc needs to be in the system from the start, or it may restart after the first read.

Still, if it works on your console, and you have imported GameCube titles, that's going to be reason number 11 to grab the Wii A.S.A.P.

Three websites for three different Wii titles were sighted on the net signalling the start of the Wii Open Season. The game sites are for Wing Island, Kororinpa and Ennichi no Tatsujin.

Wing Island from Hudson Soft features a bi-plane controlled by the Wiimote. The player flies the plane by tilting the remote horizontally to turn and vertically to go make it fly higher or lower. By flicking the Wiimote two times to the side, the gamer sends his virtual plane to do a barrel-roll.

Kororinpa, a Marble Madness-type game also from Hudson that uses the Wiimote to gyrate the surface of the playing area to guide a ball to its goal. Set for a December release in Japan, rumors have it  the game will not be elsewhere.

Ennichi no Tatsujin from Namco Bandai is the next-gen version of Taiko Drummaster series. It is a package of mini-games that include shooting, fishing, and other games often seen in fairs. We're not really sure how the Wiimote is used in the gameplay but it does look like a Japan-only title.

Japanese is a beautiful language, but when you try a direct translation, the English comes out atrocious. Still, we went over to Taito's Japanese-language website because Cooking Mama still looks great no matter what the language! Here's what's simmering for Cooking Mama for the Wii.

Multiplayer opposition against the world: Confrontational cooking! It's Iron Chef Mama. You can play against a friend. And you can play against the evil CPU AI (please correct me if my translation is wrong)?

Judge Mama: Your cooking is judged. If you do well, a new menu item is added.

Wok like a man: The Wiimote makes the game sizzle (yeah, that was a bad pun).

All around the world...: Go all around the world and cook menu items from nine different countries! We love the "hanbagu" (hamburger).

We should probably try to finish this article up with a conclusion or something. But words fail us (especially me). I'm such an otaku, and Cooking Mama, like food, is better experienced than described. Now I gotta go get me a snack. This article has made me hungry.

More images after the jump (click on the Full Article link below).

Great news is here for import gamers! The Wii will be region-free for first party titles, just like the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS can play any game from any region no matter what region the system is from. The same will apply to Wii titles. However, third parties will have the choice of region-locking their games and annoying hardcore fans.

The GameCube required separate software to play imported games making importing quite a hassle. With this news, it seems that Wii games will be much cheaper to get a hold of! The Xbox 360 is also region-free. Whether or not GameCube games will be playable on the Wii without a Freeloader (used in the GCN to play imports) is still unknown. Hopefully they are!

Are you itching to get your hands on a Wii? Well, there is only one thing you can do to get yourself one step closer to scratching that itch: Pre-order one! That's right, Lik-Sang is now taking reservations on Nintendo's much anticipated console. This a great alternative for those who are weary of pre-ordering the system from a video game store.

Currently, the popular import site is letting visitors pay nothing for a spot on the list. People who sign-up for a pre-order will be emailed when release information and pricing is confirmed and asked to finalize their order. There is no commitment and you can cancel your reservation at any time. Sadly, there is a limit of one Wii per person. Nobody likes a Wii hog.

What have you got to lose? The price is right and you may not have to wait so long for the release date. September 14th is just around the corner!