They're tiny, they're toony, they're all a little looney, and in this video game they're exploding your TV. Steven Spielberg's first foray into video games brings us Boom Blox for the Wii. Reviews have been pretty glowing or just good. Don't expect some Spielberg epic here, it's definitely a casual title designed for the Wii, which apparently uses the Wiimote quite competently.

• 1Up (100/100): "Boom Blox is simply a laundry list of great features and options wrapped around an incredibly fun, expertly designed, and well-tuned puzzle game. Sure, its cute veneer won't do it any favors with the more intense console crowd, but I found it charming and refreshingly cheery. It's a casual game made for a casual crowd, but it's far and away the best one I've ever played. Buy this game."
• IGN (81/100): " If you're looking for a game you can play with friends and family - - one that everybody will be able to pick up and enjoy in a matter of minutes -- look no further than EA Boom Blox. It's a fun puzzler and also a game that really puts Nintendo's controller to great use."
• GameTap (80/100): "In Boom Blox, however, you might complete one level that is pretty challenging only to unlock a new level that's strangely simple, which is particularly odd in a game that requires you to finish one level in order to move on to the next. ... Nevertheless, Boom Blox is still a worthy purchase for Wii owners. It's one of those rare family games that doesn't fall into the genres of minigame collection or rhythm title, and your seven-year-old kid will have as much fun as you do."

Electronic Arts Los Angeles just sent us a press release providing new details two of Steven Spielberg's upcoming game projects, codenamed LMNO and PQRS.

Spielberg's PQRS game for Wii will sport versus and co-op play. User-generated content is referenced, as with the Wii remote you can reportedly "build your own fun games and structures or turn the same Wii remote into a destructive tool to bring them crashing down."

The vague description for project LMNO sounds much like a science fiction film: it "focuses on a touching and ever-changing relationship between you and a mysterious female character who holds the key to many futures." The game is announced for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now PC.

Two of filmmaker Steven Spielberg's three projects with Electronic Arts have been shown to Newsweek's N'Gai Croal. Brought to you by the letters L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, and S.

In an article dated July 16 (published a bit too early?), Croal talks about his projects codenamed LMNO (Xbox 360 and PS3) and PQRS (for the Wii). The latter title is reportedly a physics-based action puzzler simulator "that neatly blends the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon," he said. Blocks are manipulated using motion gestures via the Wii remote.

Project LMNO is described as North by Northwest meets E.T. and has you playing as an ex-secret agent alongside an AI-controlled woman. "The challenge is," said Spielberg, "can the game have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?"

We know Spielberg has one other project in the works. Is it ABC, DEFG, HIJK, TUVW, or XYZ? And what happens when he runs out of letters? Hiragana? No news on release dates, but the Wii title was previously mentioned in an EA financial report as coming out before April 2008.

[Update: revised unannounced project suggestions]

Which of these two recently-announced Steven Spielberg games would you want to play?

• an action-puzzle simulator that "neatly blends the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon," or
• a game in which "you're an ex-secret agent, and the bond that you forge while on the run with [a] computer-controlled woman -- good, bad, indifferent -- determines the nature of her special abilities and the ways in which she'll assist you."

We hope you picked the former because that's the project Electronic Arts and the famed director plan to bring to the Wii! The other title -- the one which Newsweek's N'Gai Croal described as "yet another hit" from Spielberg -- is headed for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Expounding on the Wii action-puzzle sim, code-named PQRS, Spielberg explained, "It just seemed like a great thing for the entire family to play together over Christmas." We bet you can't wait for Christmas!

Electronic Arts said in a conference call today that the Steven Spielberg-helmed Wii project will be released during the upcoming fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2008. This would likely make the Wii project, dubbed "Wii Spielberg" in the conference call, his first of three games planned to be released.

Regarding Spore's delay, EA's recently-returned CEO John Riccitiello said that though it might come out at the end of the fiscal year, it is more likely to be pushed until the following quarter, which puts the release date sometime before July 1, 2008.

The Spielberg Wii project is said to join other Army of Two, SKATE, EA Playground and Boogie as original IPs being released this fiscal year. In terms of quantity of release, EA said that they are planning around 20-23 games for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 10-13 for Nintendo DS and 10-13 for the Wii.

EA Los Angeles VP and General Manager Neil Young slipped a little tidbit about the studio's trio of Steven Spielberg games to GameDaily in an interview to be published next week. "I can't really share any game details, but recall our original announcements was for three projects. Well, two of those are underway right now in the studio," Young told GameDaily, adding, "The second project is something Lou Castle is producing, one of the great producers in this industry, and that's one of the products we're building for the Wii."

Apparently Spielberg pops into the studio for a few hours a week to practice his backhand goad the projects along. Aside from the Wii game, he's spinning one of those "big stories shown through the eyes of a small group." The third project remains a total mystery.

FiringSquad has done its best to out 18 high-profile "black ops" projects currently in development. While the site's sleuthing skills might not be up to par with Mr. Holmes', the report does a good job of rounding up under-the-radar titles that are begging for some attention.

We'd like to direct the spotlight on two studios in particular: Tim Schafer's DoubleFine and Bungie expats Wideload, which are responsible for Psychonauts and Stubbs the Zombie, respectively (both titles landed in our top 10 'gems' of last generation). The two developers are hard at work on new projects; and with DoubleFine striking a publishing deal with Vivendi, its next game is sure to stir up more buzz (when it's time) than Majesco managed to generate for Psychonauts. Also, we can't wait to see what Warren Spector and Junction Point have under lock and key. Keep those ears (and eyes) glued to the street!

After trawling through a considerable number of entries for our latest Joyswag contest and being subjected to images both hilarious and infinitely disturbing, we've finally picked four winners. There were plenty of superb entries, though it was certainly alarming to note how quickly we became numb to decapitated Sony executives, Indiana Jones crossovers and, lest we forget, gigantic male genitalia.

The AP managed to snap some shots of Shigeru Miyamoto -- often called the Spielberg of video games -- and Steven Spielberg -- the, uh, Spielberg of movies -- playing a quick round of tennis in LA last week, as celebrities are wont to do. Couple things though: they played using Nintendo's new Wii console, and they did it in amidst the frenzy of E3.

Really wish we got in there for this although, judging by the relatively empty space behind them, it appears Nintendo had these VIPs isolated from the unwashed masses. That reminds me, things to do before I die: play a Nintendo game with Shigeru Miyamoto.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]