Nintendo of America confirms 2004 dates

Nintendo of America says it plans to ring in 2004 with three massive titles, and clearly Mario's American cousins are bigger party animals than we'd realised, stretching their New Year celebrations all the way through February and most of the way into March...

The most important date out of the three confirmed is surely Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles which, no, hasn't slipped again, but will definitely positively absolutely without a shadow of doubt come out on February 9th. Probably.

Also on the 9th of February, the Yanks can expect to get their hands on the new GBA Metroid: Zero Mission title, which is "based loosely on the original NES maps" according to this release. Clearly a good day to be buying a GBA then, what with FFCC's much-publicised connectivity features and the promise of a new Metroid...

Finally, NoA has another treat set for March 22nd, when the GameCube will finally welcome Pokemon Colosseum, which "will offer 20 hours of 3D role-playing game fun" apparently and allow players to upload all 200 Pokemon from GBA titles Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire if they so wish.

Colosseum also features a hidden character Jirachi, who apparently stars in the next Pokemon movie. Martin is literally frothing at the mouth in anticipation.

In terms of European dates for the above, Nintendo is being rather unspecific, although retailers seem to have Crystal Chronicle and Pokemon Colosseum down for March 5th.