Nintendo DS Japanese Launch Line-up Revealed

Nintnedo officials have made an official announcement regarding the software line-up for the Nintendo DS portable console in Japan. It's been confirmed that there will be twelve titles available at Japanese launch on December 2nd - five from Nintendo and seven from third parties. The Nintendo titles are Super Mario 64 DS, Pokémon Dash, Big Concert! Band Brothers, Touch! Made in Wario (aka Wario Ware, Inc. DS) and Intuitive Stroke. The third-party launch titles have been confirmed on the Nintendo Japan DS page, and include Mr. Driller from Namco, Zoo Keeper from Success, Mahjongg Tournament from Koei, Cool 104 Joker from Aruze, Kimishine (aka Feel the Magic) from Sega, Tendo Dokuta from Spike and The Urbz from EA. Also announced for Japan, although not necessarily as a launch title, is a remake of Final Fantasy III, which is the only remaining part of the series never to be translated for the West (and should not be confused with the U.S. SNES game of the same name, which was actually a re-branded Final Fantasy VI.) Another surprise announcement was that Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, recently revealed as creating music-puzzle title Lumines for Sony's PSP, is also developing another puzzle title, Meteos, for the Nintendo DS. The game, developed by Q Project and published by Bandai, is not listed as a launch title, however. The titles for the November 22st launch of the DS in America are likely to be announced later today at a Seattle press conference. Interestingly, first party titles will be selling for as little as $29.99, with the implication that third party games could cost more. With an alleged 150 games currently being worked on world-wide, this looks to be Nintendo’s most expansive launch in recent memory. Both the Game Boy Advance, and particularly the GameCube and Nintendo 64 launched with a paucity of both first and third party titles – which many have argued contributed to the latter two consoles' relative lack of success.