Nintendo updates US schedule
WarioWare, Custom Robo, Mario Golf and more dates, plus reportedly leaked estimates for other key titles.
Nintendo of America has updated its official release list with firm dates for four first-party titles. On the Cube, WarioWare Inc. Mega Party Game$ (this does seem to be the title) is due on April 5th, with Custom Robo Battle Revolution due a month later on May 10th.
GBA owners meanwhile can finally look forward to getting their hands on Mario Golf Advance Tour on June 28th, with the rarely mentioned Mario and Donkey Kong a month before on May 24th. The latter, originally dubbed Mario vs. Donkey Kong, was unveiled at E3 2002 as a connectivity title, but seems to have turned into a GBA-only title in the meantime.
Perhaps more interesting than the confirmed dates though is the unconfirmed list printed with typical nonchalance by The Magic Box, which lists a number of other titles allegedly due out over the rest of 2004.
It's difficult to gage most of these dates, as Nintendo's official site only acknowledges that a couple of the games even exist, but we were able to find a few entries by scouring US online retailers. The question is, did these mysterious dates come from retailer estimates, or are TBM and retailers both singing from some sort of official hymn sheet lurking in the shadows somewhere? Well, it's fun to speculate anyway...
First out of the can according to TBM and EBGames is Pikmin 2, supposedly due on May 1st. GameStop disagrees. Then, says TBM, on May 11th we can expect the delayed Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. GameStop concurs. A couple of months later on July 13th, TBM and GameStop claim that Namco's Tales of Symphonia is due out on Cube. EBGames, for its part, actually lists the game as June 30th.
Beyond that, we're relying on The Magic Box completely. None of the retailers seem to list StarFox 2 (June 15th), Killer 7 (October 15th), Resident Evil 4 (November 15th) or Super Monkey Ball 3 (late 2004), although there was some rather promising speculation last month about that last one.
So what does all that prove? Not much - it's either a list of as-yet unannounced dates that have slipped into retail channels in some areas, or a rather optimistic guestimate of the rest of the year's first-party Cube output. Is that my ass covered? Great.