Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in an exclusively compiled list.

While Japan takes the week off in celebration of the new year, the United States and Europe will manage to eke out a select few releases in the first week of 2007. New releases will remain a rarity until February, but in the meantime, titles like Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Spirit Caller will face little competition on store shelves.

The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions -- for the week ending January 6, 2007.

Games Released in the United States:


Games Released in Europe:


The Nintendo DS will receive five of this week's eight total releases in the U.S. and the UK, with awaited sequels in the Micro Machines and Yu-Gi-Oh! series being among the most notable. Also making its debut is Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol, which will likely be the last PS2 entry in Konami's long-running Karaoke Revolution series.

Japan will resume its release schedule next week, which should also see a slightly fuller and more diverse selection for all regions.