Take a deep breath, gang.  I have some bad news.  AMN and 1Up are reporting that Nintendo has decided to delay The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess until sometime next year.  I have to admit, I felt all the blood rush out of my head when I saw the headline.  Here's the official word from Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan:

"After much discussion, the Zelda development team has requested extra time to add new levels, more depth and even higher quality to Zelda: Twilight Princess. Consequently, we're announcing a new global launch in 2006, after the conclusion of this fiscal year (March 31). We'll provide a specific date at a later point in time. While this may come as a disappointment to many eager fans, it will absolutely enrich the game and make it a multi-million seller."

I'm all for making a game even better, but even I have to ask "Why Nintendo?  Why?!"  Twilight Princess was shaping up to be the best damn video game released in 2005 for the GameCube (if not for any console), and now it's been delayed by nearly six months.  Some members of the Wind Waker team recently commented that they were aware the end of that game treaded on tedious to boring thanks to the Triforce hunt, so hopefully they've learned from their mistakes and are making sure that Twilight Princess doesn't suffer from the same mistake.

One more thought that crossed my mind: before this delay happened, Nintendo did not have any A+ Triple Gold Gotta-Have-It GameCube games scheduled for release next year.  Now Nintendo can have a decent holiday sales season with the first of the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi games and then get the next fiscal year off to a great start with Twilight Princess.  While I don't doubt the finished game will be better due to this delay, I also can't help but think there's financial wrangling behind this delay rather than artistic concerns.