Zelda delayed on GameCube

Today was a good day for Wii news. There was an abundance of information on the system's release date, price, and launch games, and the Wii's multimedia functions were revealed and displayed in video form on Nintendo's Web site.

While future Wii owners celebrated en masse, the GameCube faithful hung their heads. The most anticipated game for the current-generation console, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, has once again been delayed.

Thankfully, the postponement won't be as torturous as last year's lengthy delay and will instead be limited to just a few weeks. Originally planned to launch alongside the Wii version of the game with the next-gen console's launch, Twilight Princess for the GameCube is now slated for a December 11 release.

Nintendo did not mention a reason for the game's delay, but the timing is a bit odd. The GameCube version was announced in 2004, but the Wii version was revealed long after the current-gen version had already been in development. Though logic would presume that the GameCube version would be finished well ahead of the next-gen version, this simply doesn't appear to be the case.

A fairly polished version of the GameCube version was on display at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2005 and drew hours-long lines from hordes of Zelda fans. At this year's E3, however, the GameCube version didn't even make the trip to Los Angeles, and the hours-long lines at Nintendo's booth were for the Wii and its roster of games, which included the next-gen version of Twilight Princess.