Screenshot party in the gallery!During his financial results briefing to investors, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata revealed the next game in the company's flagship "Wii" series: Wii Party. The game, Iwata said, is designed to be a "marquee party game for Wii" -- akin to Mario Party minus some of the frills, like the board-game framing or the Waluigi. You could also think of it like any of the dozens of minigame collections already available for the Wii, but with the potential to be good.

Wii Party joins Wii Sports and sequel Resort, Wii Play, the Wii Fits, and (cough) Wii Music in the Wii-branded game series. The party game stars player-created Miis (instead of Mario characters) and includes a "Living Party" mode that uses just the Wiimote. 1-4-player games shown in screenshots include sugoroku (the Japanese board game that's also the basis for WiiWare's Family Pirate Party), "International Vacation Game," "Mii Jyan," roulette, and bingo; and 1-2-player games, filed in the "Pair Party" category, include Mii compatibility check, "Balance Ship" and Mii Match.

"Nintendo has not launched a marquee party game since Mario Party 8, launched in summer 2007," Iwata told investors (through translation). "However, since Wii is usually being played by several people at once and the global sales of Mario Party have reached 7.6 million units, a party title has great potential. This is one of the titles which, we hope, will play an important role for this fiscal year." In other words, Wii Party will be released, at least in Japan, before the end of March 2011.

The best thing about Wii Party? It'll allow Nyko to bring back the canceled Party Station as a game-specific accessory.

[Via Kotaku]