I don’t know about you, but I hate it when promises are broken. A promise to buy my favourite cereal and then not picking it up, trivial as it may be, still pisses me off. Wikipedia defines a promise as “a psychological contract indicating a transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.” Whatever you call it, if a promise isn’t kept I call it being screwed over.

We’re all aware of Nintendo’s amazing quality of first party titles, and the way that only they can produce titles that will have all gamers agreeing in unison of their eminence. Now CVG are reporting “reliable sources close to Nintendo have told CVG” that Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for Wii, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS, will not be reaching store shelves until Q4 2007 - which at the earliest would be October 2007, latest December 2007.

We’d all rather have an excellent game then a rushed title (Madden 06 or Perfect Dark Zero for 360, anyone?), but I for one am getting mighty sick of Nintendo promising one thing and doing another. Twilight Princess was to be a Gamecube title, but was pushed so far back it launched for Wii, the same for Super Paper Mario.

We all remember the Gamecube’s lack of titles across its lifespan. If this were to happen for Wii, Nintendo would be making a grave mistake. They know the effect a lack of quality titles, first party or third, had on their purple box, and would have on Wii. To tell the truth, Nintendo cannot allow this to happen. Period. It would be the end of Wii’s chances of winning this generation.

So hopefully, this comes to fruition. In an interview with Newsweek’s gaming columnist N’Gai Croal (got to make sure I spell that right) in October, Reggie promised that Wii will get an influx of quality titles, enough to satisfy gamers through 2007.

Reggie – “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.”

N’Gai – “So are you willing to make a “Read my lips” pledge right here?”

Reggie – “I thought I just did.”

There you have it folks. Now taking a look at Nintendo Europe’s (DS and Wii) launch titles for Q1 2007 will show us that neither Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or Super Mario Galaxy are to be found. Granted, not many people expected either games to launch that early, but at least we can cross off 3 months of the year.

9 months left Nintendo. Don’t screw us over.

- Aaron Kleemann.