Nintendo Not Publishing Any Wii Games Until March

Like Animal Crossing: City Folk? That’s Nintendo’s last first party Wii title until March 2009 when Wii-makes of Mario Power Tennis and Pikmin arrive in stores under the “New Play Control!” label. Meanwhile, Nintendo of Japan spaces out releases so they release at least one game a month, not including “New Play Control” games. The drought is disappointing since Nintendo has games like Disaster: Day of Crisis, Another Code R, and Captain Rainbow (OK maybe not Captain Rainbow, the characters might be to obscure for a mainstream release here) but still Nintendo has games they could localize for North America.

Good thing third publishers are filling the void. In February zombies take over the Wii. Shoot them in The House of the Dead: Overkill and skewer them in Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers. March brings another wave of games like Madworld, Sonic and the Black Knight, and Rune Factory: Frontier.

Here’s what Nintendo has on the books for the first quarter of 2009. See if anything catches your eye.

Activision
Monsters vs. Aliens – March 24

Crave Entertainment
Monster Pals™ – March
Solitaire & Mahjong – February
Puzzle Challenges and More! – February
Crayola Colorful World – March

D3Publisher
Onechanbara™ Bikini Zombie Slayers™ – February
Coraline – January

Destineer
WordJong Party – January
Battle Rage – February
Cradle of Rome – February
Cate West: The Vanishing Files – March
Burger Island – March

Disney Interactive Studios
Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year – Winter

DreamCatcher
Play the World – March

Electronic Arts
NASCAR® Kart Racing – Feb. 10
SimAnimals™ – Jan. 27
TRIVIAL PURSUIT – Early spring

Hudson Entertainment
FISHING MASTER WORLD TOUR – Jan. 6
Marble Saga Kororinpa™ – Spring

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
DanceDanceRevolution® Disney Grooves – March

Majesco Entertainment
Escape the Museum – January
Major Minor’s Majestic March – March

Marvelous Entertainment USA
Little King’s Story – Feb. 17
Rune Factory: Frontier – March

Mastiff
Deer Drive™ – Jan. 20

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
We Ski™ and Snowboard – March

Nintendo
New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis™ – March
New Play Control! Pikmin™ – March

Sega
The House of The Dead: Overkill™ – February
SONIC™ and the Black Knight – March
MADWORLD™ – March

Southpeak Interactive
Roogoo Twisted Towers™ – Feb. 17
Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball™ – March 17
Brave: A Warrior’s Tale™ – Feb. 17

THQ
Paws & Claws Pet Resort – Jan. 5
Neighborhood Games – Jan. 5

Ubisoft
Tenchu™: Shadow Assassins – February
Broken Sword™: Shadows of the Templars (Director’s Cut) – March

XS Games
Super PickUps™ – Q1

Images courtesy of Nintendo.