Nintendo of America details early 2005 releases

Nintendo of America has released a list of planned US releases across Nintendo DS, GameCube and Game Boy Advance for early 2005, giving us a better picture of when certain key DS titles will emerge and clarifying the positions of a number of other important projects on other systems.

There are no entirely new games on the list, but then that's to be expected. There are however a few titles for projects we've previously only seen under working titles. WarioWare Touched! on DS (due Feb 14th) and WarioWare Twisted! on GBA (March 21st), for example, or Star Fox: Assault on GameCube (Feb 14th).

You might as well cast your eyes down to the list rather than wait for us to ramble all over it, but before that it is worth noting that, somewhat disappointingly, future Nintendo DS owners will have to wait until Q2 of 2005 to get their hands on Metroid Prime Hunters (even though the DS hardware comes with a playable demo of it), while more worryingly "New titles for Nintendo franchises like Mario Kart, Animal Crossing and Advance Wars remain in development," and have yet to earn themselves solid release targets.

The list also specifies that Q2 will see the release of Geist, Donkey Konga 2 and Fire Emblem on GameCube, with The Legend of Zelda still to come (possibly in the same timeframe), so there's still life in the old thing yet, despite the increasingly steady march towards the next generation. Meanwhile the GBA can also look forward to its own new Fire Emblem game in the second quarter.

The list as supplied by Nintendo of America for early 2005 releases:

• Nintendo DS
• WarioWare Touched! - February 14th
• Pokémon Dash - March 14th
• Yoshi's Touch & Go - March
• Atari Classics - March
• Pac Pix - March
• Need for Speed Underground 2 - Q1
• Metroid Prime Hunters - Q2
• Ultimate Card Games - May
• Ultimate Brain Games - June

• GameCube
• Resident Evil 4 - January
• Virtua Quest - January
• NBA Street Vol.3 - February 8th
• Star Fox: Assault - February 14th
• Winnie the Pooh - February
• Donkey Kong Jungle Beat - March 14th
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory - March
• Dragon Ball Z Sagas - March
• Mortal Kombat: Deception - Q1
• Donkey Konga 2 - Q2
• Fire Emblem - Q2
• Geist - Q2
• The Legend of Zelda - Q2

• Game Boy Advance
• The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - January 10th
• Banjo Pilot - January
• Rave Master: Special Attack Force - February
• Shaman King: Legacy of Spirits - Soaring Hawk - February
• Ace Combat - February
• Klonoa 2 - February
• Winnie the Pooh - February
• WarioWare Twisted! - March 21st
• Mario Party Advance - March
• Backyard Baseball - March
• Pac Pinball - March
• Pokémon Emerald - April
• Fire Emblem 2 - Q2
• Ultimate Pocket Games - Q2