The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess GameCube

It has been a long, tough road for GameCube loyalists eagerly anticipating one of the system's last big titles, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. After causing huge lines at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game was noticeably AWOL from this year's E3, replaced instead by its Wii counterpart. Then Nintendo confirmed that the GameCube edition of the game, which had already been delayed, wouldn't release November 19 alongside the Wii version (and the Wii itself) as previously announced. Instead, the GameCube version was to follow some weeks later in December.

The winding saga of Twilight Princess' voyage to the GameCube took another twist today, as Famitsu.com is reporting that the Japanese current-gen edition of the title will be available only through online purchase from Nintendo's Web site. According to Famitsu.com, preorders for the title will begin November 6 in Japan, and the game will ship on or after December 2. The price, including tax, will be 6,800 yen, or about $57.

Nintendo of America representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment and confirmation of the company's US launch plans for the GameCube Twilight Princess.