The title ships in the US on March 24th, and crucially for NoE, just five weeks later in Europe on May 3rd, and could be the title to stave off any further retail deserters looking to free up space for PS2 and Xbox.

US retail support, seemingly, couldn’t be better, with retail giant Electronics Boutique reporting its pre-orders outpacing even the mighty GTA: Vice City. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the most anticipated video game in Electronics Boutique’s [US’s] history based on our pre-orders, said Jerry Madaio, the firm’s vice president of merchandising.

The chances of the game’s success on these shores seem solid, particularly with the likes of Game and Amazon selling the title for a cut-price £29.99 on their respective websites. What the effect will be on sales of the console is, however, an unknown quantity. With around 500,000 loyal hardcore users already owning the machine, the key question for Nintendo is whether its latest Zelda title has enough crossover appeal to pull in the mass market, as Vice City has managed so successfully on the PS2.

George Harrison, NoA’s senior VP of marketing and corporate communication certainly believes so: It doesn’t matter which system you own, gamers across the world respect and anticipate the launch of any Zelda game and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a killer application that will move hardware.

In the meantime, NoE has another ace up its sleeve in the form of Metroid Prime, arguably its answer to Halo. The first person shooter finally ships to retail next week, and for many is the GameCube’s first true killer app. The game sold over 250,000 copies in its first week when it went on sale in the US, and it stands a good chance of repeating that performance across Europe, with an outstanding critical response. Indeed, many of the company’s frustrated supporters – and detractors – feel that had NoE been able to release the title in time for Christmas, that the GameCube would be performing significantly better than it is.

But that’s something we’ll never know.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz