Zelda: Skyward Sword Euro release date confirms Christmas will come early this year

We've known for a while now that The legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is scheduled for release in Q4 this year. So we expeced some point in December, sufficiently early to secure massive Christmas sales, but long enough away that we'd be in perpetual yearning for what would feel like forever. Turns out we were wrong. Nintendo's taken the opportunity of Gamescom to unveil the official European release date and it's pleasantly surprising...

How does November 18 sound? Yes, we agree. It sounds very nice, thank you very much. In what is almost certainly Link's swansong on Nintendo's waggle-tastic Wii, Skyward Sword represents perhaps the last of the big hitters for the machine as everything gears up for 2012's release of Wii U.

**UPDATE: Nintendo has also confirmed that the US release date for Skyward Sword is 20 November.**


Above: If only the red dude knew the futility of attacking Link. Mate, you're not even a sub-boss

There's some very good news for European 3DS owners, who will be getting not only Super Mario Land 3D, but also Mario Kart 7, Super Pokemon Rumble and Kirby: Mass Attack before the year is out, although sadly without any firm dates. If you want to see the rest of Nintendo's 2011 plans, check out Nintendo's official European websitehere.

So, all good. The only possible fly in the ointment for us multi-platform gamers is that Skyward Sword's November 18 release is only a week after Skyrim comes out. Guess we'd better do the Christmas shopping before 11/11 then, eh? Cos no-one's going to see us for weeks.

Aug 2011

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.