Chris Kohler at Wired's gaming blog puttered around unenthusiastically with an import version of Captain Rainbow, the newest Wii game from Skip Ltd. Skip are the creators of Chibi-Robo, a brilliant and sadly overlooked Gamecube title.

Chibi-Robo was about helping out a family by doing mostly mundane tasks. Yeah, sure, there was stuff about toys that come alive at night, aliens, and an evil teddy bear. But it was mostly a parlor room drama seen from the perspective of a two-inch robot servant who does a lot more for his family than just pick up the trash and scrub away that stupid dog's muddy pawprints. It was like Toy Story meets Mary Poppins meets family therapy. It didn't sell well. There was a Nintendo DS Chibi-Robo game, but it was exclusively available from Wal-Mart. That's hardly the way to extend a license.

Captain Rainbow sounds very much like Chibi-Robo, but on an Island of Misfit Toys where Nintendo's fifth-rate licensees go to languish. Here former superhero Captain Rainbow has to recover his powers and his special battle yo-yo. Unfortunately, I'm guessing this one won't make it to the United States since it relies on a fondness for Nintendo esoterica and Viewtiful Joe style anime superheroics.