Zelda DS dated, Metroid 3 delayed

During the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Nintendo announced its best-selling Zelda franchise would be heading to its best-selling handheld, the DS. Since then, though, little has been heard about the game--until today. This morning, Nintendo sent word that The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will arrive in North American stores on October 1, joining an already crowded fall holiday season.

A sequel of sorts to 2003's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass picks up where Link and Tetra last left off on their ocean odyssey. The first DS installment in the long-running franchise features Wind Waker's cartoony art style, and all of Link's actions can be controlled using the handheld's touch screen. In addition to a full single-player mode, players can test their mettle against one another locally in a two-player battle mode.

Fans fond of Nintendo swag will also be interested to know that members of Nintendo's rewards club, My Nintendo, can pick up a quill-pen-style stylus by registering their Phantom Hourglass game and Nintendo DS hardware at MyNintendo.com. (Supplies are limited.) For more on the game itself, check out GameSpot's impressions from an imported retail version from Japan, where it was released last June.

Unfortunately, Nintendo also had some semibad news today, namely that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has been delayed. Fortunately, the postponement is minor. Initially slated to be released a week after Madden NFL 08 on August 20, the game now won't arrive until August 27.