July 1, 2009 9:31 AM PDT

Summer lovin': Grease the video game coming to a Nintendo near you

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Tell me more, tell me more, can you play with a friend?

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

As if movie-to-game licenses weren't already a bizarre enough landscape, Paramount Pictures announced Wednesday that 505 Games will develop "Grease" into a family game for Nintendo systems--meaning the Wii and DS. We already have cooking shows turned games and a game version of "Grey's Anatomy," and now Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta will be getting musical with your Wiimote/stylus. How the game works has not been announced, and the mind boggles with the possibilities.

Paramount promises players will be able to "sing and dance alongside Danny, Sandy, The Pink Ladies, and the T-Birds," taking "full advantage of the Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing controls and microphone, and the DS' touch screen." Well, the Wii doesn't have a microphone, so we assume Grease is including one...unless they meant the DS microphone. Should we expect a sing-along karaoke experience? A '50s-rhythm-high-school-gang-fight game (we hope so)? Or some sort of mutant vaguely misogynistic platformer? Perhaps all three?

"Grease is the ideal opportunity to reach a broad gaming audience who love to sing, dance, and have fun with a party-style game," John Kavanagh, senior vice president of video games for Paramount Digital Entertainment, said in a press release.

Is this true? Have gamers out there been secretly hoping for a Grease game all this time, keeping their fervent dreams a secret, lest they be mocked by a legion of Mario and Zelda acolytes? Stand up and be counted.

505 Games' previous and current projects include Cooking Mama and Armored Core, as well as Hotel for Dogs and Discovery Games' Dolphin Discovery, so be sure to keep those summer lovin' dreams in check.

The release date has not yet been announced, but we'd guess it'll slide into stores this holiday.

Now, how long until our Rocky Horror video game?

Scott Stein, a New York Jets fan and CNET senior associate editor, has written about tech, entertainment, video games, and viral culture for outlets including Laptop, Wired, Maxim, Esquire Online, Asylum, and Men's Journal. He also appears on the Digital City podcast. In his spare time, you might see him performing improv in New York City (when he's not being a dad).