Nintendo's Cold Autumn

Delays of several big games means that Nintendo's Christmas outlook is bleaker than it would have hoped.

It's a fact that Nintendo consoles and handhelds sell mainly on the popularity of the company's approachable and colourful stable of franchises, so it's perhaps surprising that the company has relatively little on the horizon for any of its machines.

Several of Nintendo's big names will be missing this Christmas

Nintendo sent out release lists this week for all three of its platforms - DS, Game Boy Advance and Game Cube - and they make for frustrating reading for fans of the company.

The DS, which has done well at the tills despite a major slowdown in releases over the summer, will only be home to four more Nintendo games by the end of the year. Non-game Nintendogs leads the pack, with the critically acclaimed Kirby: Power Paintbrush (aka Kirby's Canvas Curse) coming in behind.

Nintendo is propelling the DS onto the Net later this year too, and the big game for the new service is Mario Kart DS. The company is also resting its hopes on a new version of Animal Crossing for the touch-screen portable, but there's no sign of it hitting Europe before 2006. Ditto for the highly touted action game Metroid Prime: Hunters.

There's a lot riding on this cute face

Oddly, Nintendo seems to be giving the PSP launch a wide berth.

Sony is set to debut its delayed portable on 1 September. But instead of aggressively surround the launch with games of its own, Nintendo appears to be taking a defensive approach, with its next in-house release (the aforementioned Nintendogs) not due until October.

Things aren't much better on the Game Boy Advance, though the eventual arrival of Pokémon Emerald will probably do wonders for the portable's fortunes. The newest iteration of the Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Micro, is also expected around the same time and priced at £69 it's a sure hit.

Not so for most of the GameCube offerings in the wings. With Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess recently delayed until spring 2006 at the earliest, Nintendo is betting that Mario fans will pick up the baseball, dancing and football titles starring the rotund pipe-dweller.

Link's delay leaves a gaping hole in the GameCube line-up

Unlike Sony and Microsoft, which are also seeing a downturn in releases for their consoles, Nintendo does not have the luxury of relying on guaranteed sales from its next-gen console - Revolution.

The company has been needlessly vague with specifics for the new machine, other than that it will feature a brand new type of controller (which several big-name industry developers have given the nod) and be able to play games from every previous Nintendo home console.

Nintendo has also not come clean with a firm release schedule for Revolution, with current estimates putting the console's debut at anywhere between June and December 2006.

The full line-up of Nintendo games due by the end of the year is as follows:

DS

• Nintendo DS Hardware Blue, Pink - 7 October
• Nintendogs (all three variations) - 7 October
• Mario Kart DS - 11 November
• Touch Golf - 18 November
• Kirby: Power Paintbrush - 25 November

Game Boy Advance

• Pokémon Emerald - 21 October
• Game Boy Micro - 4 November
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - 4 November
• Donkey Kong Country 3 - 4 November
• Dr Mario & Tetris Attack - 4 November
• Mario Power Tennis - 18 November
• Dynasty Warriors - 2 December

GameCube

• Geist - 7 October
• Dancing Stage: Mario Mix - 28 October
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 4 November
• Mario Baseball - 11 November
• Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness - 18 November
• Mario Smash Football - 18 November
• Battalion Wars - 9 December

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games