Nintendo's US DS dates

Nintendo of America has outlined its DS release schedule for the fourth and final quarter of the year, and since it features several games absent from Nintendo of Europe's recent counterpart and you'll be wanting to import them, you'd best pay attention.

Not content with that, and perhaps aware how tedious July can be, Nintendo's even teasing us about the Wii release date. "Perhaps the secret to the launch information for Wii is somehow encoded in the text of this news item. You might want to pore over it for a few hours before staying up all night to debate phraseology and comma placement with your friends online. Or maybe it's all just a scam to get you to read the other games we have launching this fall. One of the two," the text reads. Those jokers.

RPG fans are surprisingly well represented, to kick off, with Magical Starsign (the second of the Japanese Magical Vacation games, fact fans) due out on October 23rd, and Children of Mana turning up on October 30th, as keen date-spotters already know.

Those of you who had Yoshi's Island 2 pencilled into their diaries on December 1st, its European release date, may also wish to revise, as it's out a little earlier in the US on November 13th.

Good news for fans of brilliant Japanese rhythm-action import Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, too, because iNiS' westernised sequel Elite Beat Agents will be with the yanks on November 6th.

Other games you might want to talk to your importer about include Pokémon Ranger, which is out on October 30th and not to be confused with the DS and GBA Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles we'll be receiving over here on November 10th.

Then there's Custom Robo Arena, which is listed as December 4th, which is also the day when, if your eyesight's really impressive, you can expect to see Kirby Squeak Squad materialising on American shop shelves. The latter was shown briefly during Nintendo's E3 conference, you may recall, and is more of a traditional platformer than its DS predecessor Kirby: Canvas Curse/Magical Paintbrush. Let's hope it can maintain the quality level.

Finally, there's also Clubhouse Games on October 9th, but that's better known to us in the land of the really annoying sun as "42 All-Time Classics", and since we'll be getting it on September 29th there's really no need to charter a jet. The same goes for Nintendogs Dalmatian edition, which ships on October 16th in the US and is already out here.

Finally, it's worth noting that Nintendo is promising The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube will show up in the US during fall, i.e. autumn, which means we can expect it before the end of the year basically - no surprises there.

Here then, in its entirety, is the US DS schedule announced by Nintendo of America:

• Clubhouse Games - October 9th
• Nintendogs Dalmatian edition - October 16th
• Magical Starsign - October 23rd
• Pokemon Ranger - October 30th
• Children of Mana - October 30th
• Elite Beat Agents - November 6th
• Yoshi's Island 2 - November 13th
• Custom Robo Arena - December 4th
• Kirby Squeak Squad - December 4th

Aaand just to save you looking it up again, here's the recently announced Nintendo of Europe DS release schedule for the same period:

• 42 All-Time Classics - September 29th
• Nintendo DS Browser - October 6th
• English Training: Have fun improving your skills - October 13th
• Sudoku Master - October 27th
• Actionloop - October 27th
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team - November 10th
• Mario Slam Basketball - November 10th
• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - November 24th
• Yoshi's Island 2 - December 1st
• Harvest Moon DS - Q4