The Entertainment Software Rating Board hasn’t been as reliable as it has been in year’s past when it comes to inadvertently revealing publishers’ upcoming new releases. However, the industry rating board did slip up last week, listing the as-yet-announced Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron for the Nintendo DS and PSP with an E10+ ratings as well as fantasy violence descriptors of the lightsaber and blaster rifle kind.

Elite Squadron on the PSP.

Thunder thus stolen, LucasArts today officially announced Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron, saying the handheld title would arrive for the DS and PSP this fall. Rebellion Software has been tasked with the PSP edition of Elite Squadron, having crafted the well-regarded Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron for Sony’s handheld in 2007. LucasArts also confirmed for GameSpot that n-Space has been tasked with the DS edition of the game.

Elite Squadron on the DS.

One of the primary new additions to the Star Wars Battlefront franchise is the ability to fight in various capacities, according to LucasArts. Players will be able to pound the ground as an infantryman, battle in vehicles close to terra firma, and dogfight in spacecraft. Elite Squadron also offers an all-new storyline, in which players assume the role of X2, an Imperial trooper cloned form a Jedi Master who defects to the Rebellion.

Elite Squadron also supports what LucasArts called “the deepest customization options ever seen in a Star Wars Battlefront title,” which extends to players’ weapons, armor, species, gender, appearance, and physical attributes. Both editions of the game will also feature multiplayer modes, with the PSP game offering action for up to 16 and the DS version supporting up to four.

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Nintendo has added yet another feather to its lifestyle cap with new title, Personal Trainer: Walking, for DS, promising to “turn an ordinary activity like walking into a fun daily adventure.” Part of the Personal Trainer series, which so far includes titles to improve cooking and mathematical skills, the new Personal Trainer enhances walking, by combining it with interactive activities and statistics on the DS.

Statistics come in the form of charts which Nintendo are saying can reveal “life rhythm” patterns, such as when the most active and sedentary moments of the day are, in order to plan for more or less activity in future days. Days can also be rated, based upon the amount of activity, or daily walking goals can also be set to encourage more activity.

Activities in the game include Illuminate, which allows users to brighten up a virtual town, and Walk the World, which converts footsteps in images of interesting locations around the globe. Avid walkers can also share their data over the internet, combining it with other users step totals to virtually space walk to other planets. The game also allows users to import Mii characters from the Wii, as well as design one on the DS when creating profiles.

Walking comes bundled with two activity meters, which count and record steps over time, and sync to the DS, where the data is analysed and

presented. The activity meter can store up to seven days worth of data before needing to be synced to the DS, which itself can hold up to five years of data. Information for up to four people can be stored on one copy of the game. Nintendo also indicated that the activity meter could be attached to a pet’s collar to track the activity of owner’s animal companions.

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To get an idea of what we’re talking about, you can play the game here.

It’s a simple set up in which you play as the happy-go-lucky robot that needs to hit the green key in the level and then return to the elevator door-like pod he started from. Obstacles that stand in your way include platforms that can only be raised if someone is standing on it or doors that need to be held open, so they all require an extra hand (or full-sized robot) so that you could get through. This is when you go back to the blue pod–which acts as a trusty time machine–and travel back in time so that your former self will mimic the movements you just did. Now you can follow yourself as you clear the way and open doors for…youself. The game starts off relatively basic, but as you go through the levels, the difficulty ramps up considerably and it starts to get confusing when managing multiple copies of yourself because sometimes you’ll need 3 or 4 robots to help you get through the stage.

This game caught the eye of Santa Cruz Games, who is working on bringing Chronotron II to the Nintendo DS and possibly other platforms. A representative from Santa Cruz Games came by to show us what it would look like on the DS. It looks very much like the flash game that you see above, with the stage displayed in the top screen and the bottom screen is currently where the restart button is. You use A to jump and B to enter the pod to go back in time. The few demo levels that we played were very similar to the first few levels of Chronotron; the only difference is that physics have been included so there are now new approaches to completing certain levels. Instead of hitting a switch to raise a level, you can push yourself against it to get it open. If it only moves one way, you still need help to get back out, but this is just an example of how the game will work. Another example is that platforms will rise at a slower speed if there is something standing on it.

The original creator, Joe Rheaume, had other characters in mind when he worked on the first Chronotron, so we were told that we can expect a story with multiple characters and perhaps a reason that could tie together all this robot time traveling. We’ll update you with more information as soon as it becomes available. Right now Santa Cruz Games hopes to have the game come out on at least one platform later this year. In the meantime, be sure to check out the original Chronotron for free at Krongegate.

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As part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference last week, DSi project lead Masato Kuwahara offered an in-depth look at the second revision of Nintendo’s best-selling handheld. One area the developer addressed was the DSi Shop, an online service that features downloadable games and other applications in a manner similar to its Wii Shop equivalent.

Today, Nintendo confirmed just what gamers can expect to find on the DSi Shop when it launches in the US on April 5. WarioWare: Snapped, which GameSpot previewed during this year’s GDC, is perhaps the highest profile of the five games that will be available on day one. Nintendo will also have on offer a new Brain Age title–Brain Age Express: Math–which focuses on the arithmetic portion of the gray-matter-growing franchise.

Of the lesser-known titles, Nintendo announced Bird & Beans, where players will use “an elastic tongue” to collect falling beans of varying point totals. Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face serves as a portable magician; players can draw a face on the DSi’s touch screen that can perform card tricks. Lastly, Art Style: Aquia is a minigame compilation that features a variety of underwater-themed puzzles.

Nintendo did not reveal pricing information for any of the launch-day titles. However, as previously announced, the publisher did say that anyone who connects to the DSi Shop before October 5 will automatically receive 1,000 Nintendo DSi points ($10) on the house. Also previously mentioned, DSiWare purchases, along with music, photos, and other content, are stored in the new device’s new SD Card slot.

Along with the premium content, the DSi Shop will offer an Internet browser application as a free download. Similar to the Web browser released for the DS Lite in 2007, the DSi Browser will be powered by Opera. It offers a variety of display options, with either an entire Web page shown on the lower screen and a zoomed-in version appearing on the top, or a widescreen mode, in which pages are displayed to match the screen size.

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Warner Bros. expects to release the made-for-TV movie Scooby-Doo 3: The Mystery Begins later this year. To complement the release, the studio’s Interactive division announced today Scooby-Doo: First Frights, a game featuring the young Scooby-Doo and teenage versions of the Mystery Inc. gang, with the player taking on the role of the titular canine.

WBIE, which recently released Wanted: Weapons of Fate and F.E.A.R. 2, has described the game as an action adventure, complete with puzzle-solving, combat, and clue-collecting. Players who solve mysteries in the game will be able to unlock new costumes for all the characters, as well as gain access to hidden sections of the game.

Torus Games games has been tasked with developing the title for the Wii, PlayStation 2, and DS, and it is expected to arrive this autumn. The Melbourne, Australia-based developer’s most recent work includes the multiplatform racer Monster Jam: Urban Assault, which was released in October 2008.

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