We had quite a bit of fun at Nintendo's Media Summit this year checking out the new DS, Wii and WiiWare titles. Enjoy our impressions from the event, including several WiiWare launch titles (Major League Eating!). While we keep re-reading the amazing "Cooking Mama 2" letter, check out all of our hands-on impressions and reviews from the Joystiq Network this week:

Nintendo WiiWare

• Joystiq impressions: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (WiiWare)
• Joystiq hands-on: LostWinds (WiiWare)
• Joystiq hands-on: Major League Eating: The Game (WiiWare)
• Joystiq hands-on: Pop (Wiiware)
• Joystiq impressions: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (WiiWare)
• Joystiq hands-on: World of Goo (WiiWare)

'The road less traveled' seems the mantra for Irvine, California-based Atlus USA. With an impressive catalog of obscure titles to its credit, Atlus is looked to by many North American gamers as a beacon of originality, having localized such titles and franchises as Odin Sphere, Persona, and Growlanser, among many others. But why does this company remain dedicated to games of such niche appeal? Unable to come up with a consensus, we marched upon Atlus USA itself, and spoke with some of the employees who didn't duck out of sight when they saw us coming, including editor Clayton S. Chan, PR and sales assistant manager Aram Jabbari, production director Bill Alexander, and QA lead Victor Gonzalez.

What did they have to say? Read the complete interview, including in-depth insight into the company's upcoming PS2 and Wii 'hardcore' dungeon crawler Baroque, after the jump.

When the chips are down and creativity's glass feels half empty, we know we can always look to the mavericks at Atlus to come up with something just a hair shy of normal for an experience that is, if anything, unique. With surgery sim Trauma Center: New Blood's release sewn up and a pair of Japanese-style strategy RPGs for the Xbox 360 on the way, Atlus is one of the last remaining 'garage bands' of video game publishing.

Now the company has announced its next project, namely a dungeon crawl-style action RPG called Baroque, describing the game as "hardcore" and "a pure RPG experience" for both the mini-game addled Wii and aging PS2. With an art style that is all its own, Baroque is set for release on both consoles in February, and is a remake of Japanese dev Sting's Saturn/PlayStation original, no doubt throwing yet another log on the fire for those weary of the Wii's growing catalog of last-gen ports. For us, we're just more interested in finding out what a trek through a post-apocalyptic dungeon has to do with excessively intricate art. Color us intrigued.