Oxygen Interactive has a slew of upcoming DS software in its lineup, which involve make-up, pirates, and pool respectively (although a combination of the three would be interesting, as that would likely involve applying eye-liner to Johnny Depp).

The games now have release dates (or months), which seem to be Europe-only even though the company is bringing them to the U.S. eventually. We don't imagine that this lot will take long to localize, though, as there won't be any translation issues.

The one that piques our interest the most is the August release of Pirates: Duels on the High Seas, because, well, it involves pirates. It's also a sequel to a WiiWare title called Pirates: The Key of Dreams, which should hit Nintendo's service sometime this month.

As for the pirate-less games, you have 8Ball All Stars, which is a "modern and stylish take on pool," slated for September. Then, in October you can expect Oxygen's line of demeaning girls' titles to hit the market, including My Make-Up, My Dress-Up, and My Secret Diary.

Does anyone think they'll be swashbuckling this summer -- you know, in the legal way?

Publisher Oxygen Interactive announced plans to start a new U.S. branch of their company, called O-Games. Their planned 2008 releases feature DS games heavily; whether or not any of those DS games are of interest is somewhat of a matter of debate.

Their lineup includes Oxygen's three "young girl games:" My Make-Up, My Secret Diary, and My Dress-Up. Also coming is 8Ball All Stars, a pool game, Pirates: Duels on the High Seas, and the amusingly-named board game Hurry Up Hedgehog! The nautical-battle-based Pirates looked pretty neat, and the new company may decide to localize the decent-looking Chronos Twins, so we're relatively happy to see the news.

Many of you fancy yourselves swashbuckling fiends, which means you grab onto any pirate-related news as if it were treasure. At least, Oxygen is banking on this, which is why they're bringing Pirates: Duels on the High Seas to the DS.

Originally, the game was supposed to end up in Europe on April 18th. Oxygen revealed today, though, that the game's release was pushed back to June. The title seems to have a lot of gameplay content (multiple single player modes, single-cart multiplayer, varying tasks, etc.), but we suppose we'll have to wait until June now to see if it's actually any good.

You can also expect a a WiiWare prequel for this game at some point this summer (called Pirates: The Key of Dreams) to expand upon the story of Duels on the High Seas.


[Via press release]

Finally! A game about a cartoon hedgehog who runs fast! We've had that idea for years, and while we're a little upset that someone got to it before we did, we're just glad to see it happen. "Probably the cutest hedgehogs to be seen on the Nintendo DS" will be out on the 28th, according to the press release (which sounds kind of like it was written by Napoleon Dynamite).

Yes, we know that Hurry Up Hedgehog! is based on the popular (?) board game Igel Ärgern. But putting it in the same medium as Sonic the Hedgehog still hits close to home. Just like European board game enthusiasts would laugh if a Sonic the Hedgehog board game were to come out -- which has probably already happened.