Nintendo UK's Summer Confirms Tingle RPG Release

Officials from Nintendo UK have announced the company’s line-up of Nintendo DS and Wii games for the third quarter, with a number of long delayed titles including Super Paper Mario and Trauma Center: Second Opinion. There is also the first confirmation of the Nintendo DS Tingle game being released in the West. According to the company, the Nintendo DS is the fastest selling console to reach the 10 million mark in Europe, with sales in access of 12 million in the region. By comparison, the Wii has already sold approximately 2 million units in Europe since its launch. Despite this success, Europe has continued to endure significant delays for many of its titles, with many of the games in the new third quarter line-up having been released in North American and/or Japan many months ago. The next major exclusive release on the Wii in Europe is Capcom’s Resident Evil on June 29th, with Mario Party 8 now due on July 13th after missing its June 22nd release date for unspecified reasons. Big Brain Academy for Wii is due for release on July 20th, with Trauma Center: Second Opinion, published by Nintendo of Europe themselves, scheduled for August 10th. Super Paper Mario, which has drawn the greatest amount of criticism from European fans for its long delay, is scheduled for release on September 14th, with recently announced exclusive Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire from D3Publisher is also due on the same day. Metroid Prime Pinball is released this week on Nintendo DS in Europe, twenty months after its debut in North America. More Brain Training (aka Brain Age 2) is a rare example of a game appearing in Europe before North America, with a release date of June 29th, compared to August 20th. Puzzle League DS is also due on the same day. Over a year after its North America debut, Elite Beat Agents is to be released on July 13th, while Pokemon Diamond/Pearl makes a relatively speedy appearance in Europe following its North American debut, on July 27th. The most surprising entry on the release schedule though is Freshly Picked: Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland on September 14th, the first time the title has been confirmed for release in the West. Featuring the extremely strange character from recent The Legend of Zelda titles, the role-playing game enjoyed a relatively successful run in Japan, but was thought an unlikely candidate for Western translation. Other third party titles scheduled for the Nintendo DS include Square Enix’s Heroes of Mana on September 14th, Sonic Rush Adventure from Sega on September 28th and Happy Cooking from Ubisoft for an unspecified date in September. Majesco’s Cake Mania and New York Times Crossword are also scheduled for release, although only given a release date of “Q3 2007”. Hinted at for release in the fourth quarter are Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, with no listings yet for Super Mario Galaxy or Super Smash Bros. Brawl during this calendar year.