Samurai Warriors 3 headed to North America courtesy of Nintendo

In a probable trend that Nintendo looks to be heading towards, the hardware giant has announced that they have reached a publishing deal with Tecmo Koei to bring the publisher's Wii-exclusive title, Samurai Warriors 3, to North America.  This arrangement follows on the heels of last month's announcement that Nintendo will be bringing Square Enix's DS title Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies stateside.

Originally announced for Japan in October 2008 and releasing there last December, Nintendo is targeting Samurai Warriors 3 for a fall release this year.  The game will feature seven new characters for a playable total of 37, with 30 of those characters having their own personal story modes for players to go through.  Both online and offline two-player cooperative play will be available for Samurai Warriors 3, allowing for friends near and far to get together.

Unique to Samurai Warriors 3 is a mode based on Nintendo's Japan-only Famicom title Nazo no Murasamejou (The Mysterious Murasame Castle), where the game's main character, Takamaru, will be playable.  This mode was developed with the cooperation of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takamaru is added as a bonus character separate from the seven new characters added to the main game.

With Nintendo taking the publishing helm for both Samurai Warriors 3 and Dragon Quest IX, what other third-party games are they looking to cross the ocean with?