Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

I hope no one got their hopes up about Nintendo releasing their 1st Party content on-time. Anyone who’s been playing games for any significant amount of time has learned a few things. One of those things was that a Nintendo home console had never been released without Zelda or Mario in it’s launch lineup, which ended with the ‘Cube Wii.

Unfortunately, Nintendo hasn’t decided to go completely against the norm this time around. According to ComputerandVideoGames.com, two of the most anticipated Wii titles, Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, have been bumped to Christmas 2007. That basically means anywhere from October-December of next year.

Newsweek dropped us a line to let us know that Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime pledged that this wouldn’t happen to Nintendo this time around. When N’Gai gave us some quotes from his interview, I thought I should share.

Here’s a piece of their original interview with Reggie:

NEWSWEEK: Let’s look at first-party software for a minute. As evidenced by software sales, gamers who purchase Nintendo platforms do so primarily to play Nintendo-developed games. But from the Nintendo 64-era on, Nintendo has a history of repeatedly delaying key titles, creating long droughts between the AAA games for which its fans bought the hardware. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, your flagship title for the Wii, is in fact a long-delayed Gamecube game that has been moved over to the Wii, as has Super Paper Mario. So how can you assure gamers that are considering a Wii–keeping in mind that they’ve heard such promises before–that they won’t endure the same droughts between AAA first-party titles that they suffered on the Nintendo 64 or the Gamecube?

Reggie Fils-Aime: The way I answer that question is with three very real examples. First, Zelda: Twilight Princess, on Wii, is arguably the best game we’ve ever made. Period. It is fantastic. It’s been essentially made, from the core essence of that game, to be perfect for Wii. And yes, while its development started as a Gamecube title, the fact is the Wii version plays fundamentally different. A consumer can buy the Wii version and the Gamecube version and have two fundamentally different experiences. Now certainly, the Gamecube version of Zelda is fantastic. But the Wii version of Zelda is without peer.

The second example I point out is Metroid Prime 3, which is a from-the-ground-up creation of Metroid for the Wii system. That title is going to come out early in 2007. That will give us fantastic momentum coming off of the launch, and will certainly be an example of how there will be no new game drought for this system.

The third example I would give you is Mario Galaxy, another from-the-ground-up Wii game that we are strategically timing the launch to make sure that we continue driving momentum through 2007. So N’Gai, how do I answer the question, “Will there be no drought,” and “How will we make sure that there are fantastic titles for Wii?” The answer is Zelda, Metroid and Mario. Which is a pretty darn good lineup.

NEWSWEEK: So are you willing to make a “Read my lips” pledge right here?

Reggie Fils-Aime: I thought I just did.

NEWSWEEK: ll right. I’ll be checking in with you when these titles actually ship.

Reggie Fils-Aime: [Chuckles] Exactly.

[sighs] Exactly. What exactly is coming out for the Wii that’s even worth a SNIFF until next Christmas?

News via ComputerandVideoGames.com, Newsweek blog

**Edited to replace Wii with ‘Cube, which was my intention. I apologize for the typo**