A popular college pastime will soon come to video game consoles. Developer Incredible Technologies is bringing cornhole to the Nintendo Wii with “Target Toss Pro: BAGS.”

In the tailgating phenomenon, players take turns tossing small bags filled with corn at raised wooden boards with holes in the end. Bags landing on the boards count for one point, while those going in the hole net three. The first team to score 21 points is the winner.

“You’d go to a barbecue, you’d see the game. You’d go to a baseball game, you’d see people tailgating and they’d be playing the game. Our designers basically realized there’s no reason why you couldn’t really make a video game of it,” said Andy Kniaz, executive director of Incredible Technologies.

“BAGS” will be a home console port of its coin-op brother released last spring. Kniaz said the game was an instant hit in bars and arcades across the country, making it an easy decision to bring it to the Wii.

“We wanted a video game where you could have more precision when you threw it,” he said. “Our goal was to be able to have someone tailgate in their living room.”

In addition to the traditional game of cornhole, “BAGS” will also have scoring options such as the five-point swish shot, which rewards players for pinpoint accuracy. Other customizations include adjusting the sensitivity settings, wind factor and playing what Kniaz called “Vegas BAGS.” In this mode, players are given a card out of a 52-card deck for every shot made. The winner at the end of the match is the player with the best poker hand.

Developing the game for the Wii was a logical choice because of its motion-sensing remote. The controller allows users to simulate the motion of tossing a bag for a more realistic experience. The team at IT looked at the successful “Wii Sports” title as a model for how to develop the game. Kniaz said getting the feel right was the biggest challenge, as well as making the game accessible to beginners and experts alike.

“We wanted to just make a crowd-pleasing, fun game that was really intuitive and easy to use,” he said. “It’s easy to play but it’s hard to master. It’s everything that you want more-or-less in a Wii product.”

“BAGS” will be available as a downloadable WiiWare title. Nintendo’s new online service launching May 12 allows publishers to distribute their games on the Internet. WiiWare games will be purchased using Wii Points, and Nintendo will set the pricing for all titles. Kniaz said the service eliminates many of the costs that typically come with producing a game and is an effective way to get games out to consumers at reasonable prices.

“Nintendo came out and made an announcement about WiiWare and it was kind of like ‘this is the perfect storm, this is everything we want.’ It’s like what iTunes did for music,” Kniaz said.

Jeffy Mai can be reached at [email protected].