Zelda gets US release date

Earlier this week, Nintendo held a bit of a shindig in London to show off the apparently completed The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, along with the likes of Metroid Prime and a clutch of GBA titles. However, it would have been nice to wake the next day comfortably endowed with the game's European release date.

Sadly that was not to be. We're still in "Q2 2003" territory with a boatload of new screenshots to tide us over, but following recent confirmation of a Japanese date, Nintendo convened the US hacks and proclaimed that on March 24th, 2003, The Legend of Zelda will return to GameCube. Import-happy Cube owners will naturally be lapping that one up. We'd be lying if we said we weren't one of them.

Meanwhile, Datel will no doubt be trying to get Freeloader ready in order to capitalise. But having missed the console's launch, Resident Evil, Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, one does wonder what the hell they are waiting for. We hear it won't be seen this side of the New Year now, but then we don't really expect to see it full stop at this rate.