May 11, 2004 - Kuju's collaboration with Nintendo has received a lot of press in the past few months -- ranging from rumors about a Castlevania project to speculation that Cube Wars was in development. It turns out that the latter prediction is true. Kuju has taken over Intelligent Systems' reign of the Advance Wars empire and is developing the GameCube edition Advance Wars: Under Fire.

This isn't the Advance Wars that you remember. In its transition to the console world, Under Fire is losing its turn based pedigree in favor of real-time strategic action. Players will take control of a squad of soldiers who will follow your lead. You'll guide your troops into battle and instruct them on who and how to attack. As they gain experience, your troops will gain new abilities. Also, your soldiers will be able to commandeer vehicles, including tanks and gunships.

The trailer that Nintendo showed at its Media Briefing made the gameplay look more akin to Call of Duty than Advance Wars, but with the few details revealed in Nintendo's Media Kit, it appears that this may be a hybrid of the two -- a strategic Call of Duty with cartoony army men.

While Kuju isn't planning a release until 2005, IGNcube will have more details on Advance Wars tomorrow when we actually get some hands-on time with the game.