Originally it was indicated that Zelda: Twilight Princess would be released In mid Novemeber in the United States, but Nintendo has indicated that they will be pushing back release until after March of 2006 amid concerns that the game wasn't polished enough as it could be, wanting to add more features and capabilities. Now, this could be a good thing for players and fans, meaning a far better game, but for Nintendo as a company, without much of a heavy hitter this holiday season, they are going to suffer disappointing sales when the Xbox 360 releases and many of hits for the PS2 debut during the holiday shopping season.

Speaking with the gaming press at IGN, Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs, Perrin Kaplan explained that Nintendo has not yet committed to a new release date for the game, except to say that it would arrive sometime after March 2006. "But it will be worth the wait," she added. It is very possible that Nintendo may decide to cancel Zelda for the Cube in lieu of debuting the game as a launch title for the Revolution to bolster sales of the unit, which would make sense from a business standpoint.

Originally Ocarina of Time was planned to release in 1997, but as it were the game got delayed several times until it was released on November 23rd. Ocarina was a great game as a result. Of course I wanted to play Twilight Princess yesterday, but my better judgement tells me that it will be a better experience overall if they truly are adding more things and haven't made up some excuse because of financial difficulties. Nintendo lagging far behind their competitors may be facing more troubled waters ahead in the console market if they don't get their act together, hire more employees to make and finish incredible games, and create new gaming experiences.

I can only speculate as to what additional things they could add to the game, but various subquests, character dialogue, events that transpire based upon a temporal sequence, fun and unusual items, more hidden rupees in grottos (lol), who knows. Hopefully the delay is truly worth. The same thing was done with Halo 2, and that rather underwhelming single player campaign that seemed rushed toward the end of the game. Only time will tell.

THE ODYSSEY OF HYRULE