Come see what Nintendo has in store for gamers in the coming year... looks like Zelda has its title...

Cube-Europe has obtained a partial list of Nintendo's planned software offerings for the 2006 lineup. To clarify, the fiscal year 2006 starts on April 1 of 2005 and ends March 31st of 2006. As you folks can see by glancing down, it will be a very good year for Nintendo fans...still with me? Check out the list already!

GAMECUBE
• Battalion Wars
• Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix
• Donkey Konga 2
• Mario Party 7
• Pokemon XD (a full-blown RPG)
• Super Mario Strikers (a Mario soccer title)
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Formerly listed as The Legend of Zelda)

NINTENDO DS
• Advance Wars
• Animal Crossing
• Mario and Luigi 2
• Mario Kart DS
• Metroid Dread (a new 2D Metroid title)
• Metroid Prime Pinball
• Nintendo Tetris
• Touch Golf

GAMEBOY ADVANCE
• Donkey Kong Country 3
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• Mario Tennis Advance (in development at Camelot)

Again, this is just a partial list, yet we can see already a handful of surprise titles: on the DS, the development of a new 2D Metroid side-scroller will come as a relief to fans of the old school style of the franchise, and it should be interesting to see if the second DS screen is used exclusively for the map or whether it will be used for stage environments. Also new on the DS front is the announcement of the Touch Golf title which apparently Nintendo has tabbed to stand on its own legs apart from the Mario franchise. Given the excellent play mechanics of Nintendo golf titles, this should be one to look out for.

On the GC front, aside from new instalments to the Donkey Konga and Mario Party lines, we can see Nintendo really pushing their new "Super Mario Stadium" sports label. Super Mario Strikers joins the already announced Mario baseball title. It is unknown currently if Battalion Wars is a new property, or a spinoff of the successful Advance Wars franchise.

Of course, we also have the matter of a certain Gamecube Zelda title...it looks like Nintendo has finally settled on the game's theme. Gamers will recall the wolf at the end of the second trailer shown at GDC in March...could that be the Twilight Princess?

Stay tuned to C-E during E3 as we deliver all the details on these games and more coming titles.