US sales of DS top 1.3m, Nintendo hypes 2005 line-up

Almost 250 titles are planned for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance systems this year in the USA, according to information from Nintendo of America, which is currently celebrating strong handheld sales in 2004.

The new Nintendo DS console sold through 1.3 million units in North America by the end of last year, adding to eight million sales of the Game Boy Advance hardware during 2004 to make for an impressive year for the firm's handheld products.

Nintendo of America claims that over 120 titles are in the pipeline for the Nintendo DS in 2005, along with over 125 GBA titles - which will, of course, be compatible with the new DS hardware thanks to the GBA cartridge slot.

Key DS titles which Nintendo is promoting for early this year include first-party games WarioWare Touched!, Pokemon Dash and Yoshi Touch & Go, along with EA's Need for Speed Underground 2 and Atari's Retro Atari Classics.

On the GBA, meanwhile, the firm's first-party line-up is also impressive, with WarioWare Twisted!, Mario Party Advance, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and Pokemon Emerald set to be joined early in the year by Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, which curiously appeared in Europe before Christmas but not in North America.

While trumpeting the success of its handheld range, however, the company did not release any figures for hardware sales of the GameCube during 2004 - a silence that says quite a lot, although with a strong software line-up for 2005 on the platform, it will undoubtedly be hoping to see some improvement in its retail performance this year.

The company claims that 60 titles will be released on the Cube in 2005 - a relatively small number, but one which includes high profile titles such as Star Fox Assault, Geist, Donkey Konga Jungle Beat, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory - and possibly even the new Legend of Zelda game.