Nintendo's spring DS releases announced

Like London's overhot bendy buses, you wait for ages for Nintendo to release some great DS games before Christmas, but for some reason – Wii! – it decides to queue them all together until the first weeks of of the New Year.

At least that seems to be the reasoning behind the company's decision to pile into January with dungeon-battling role playing game Children of Mana, furry space combat game Star Fox Command, and hardball touch puzzler Actionloop, all looking set to soak up any remaining credit on your Mastercard.

Hopefully from then on into 2007, the company will manage a more balanced release schedule. In February, Japanese RPG Magical Starsign and the self-explanatory Mario Slam Basketball are already pencilled in for release.

March should see the release of Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis and yet another Pokémon game that's not a real Pokémon game, Pokémon Ranger.

There's still no news on the likely release date for Pokémons Pearl and Diamond though, which since their September release in Japan have sold well over three million copies.

January 2007
Children of Mana, January 12th
Star Fox Command, January 26th
Actionloop, January 26th February 2007
Magical Starsign, February 9th
Mario Slam Basketball, February 16th

March 2007
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, March 9th
Pokémon Ranger, March 30th