Nintendo outlined their upcoming releases for the first quarter via press release today. While the first-party Wii-original list is spare, consisting only of Wii Play with a bundled remote launching February 14th, next week will see the release of Mario Kart 64 for the Virtual Console, bringing one of the best entries in that franchise to the Wii. In addition, Nintendo will finally be making the Wii News Channel available on January 27th; hopefully the News Channel will be more fully realized than the Weather Channel. Third-party releases will see SSX Blur coming, which has been getting some decent early buzz. Others include The Godfather: Blackhand Edition and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07; it will be interesting to see how EA handles the Wii remote in its upcoming titles.

The full press release continues after the jump.

WII LINEUP FOR FIRST QUARTER 2007 EXPANDS NINTENDO’S GLOBAL PHENOMENON

Fans Will Find Dozens of New and Classic Games Everyone Can Play

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 23, 2007 – After watching everyone from gamers to grandmas fall under the spell of ground-breaking Wii™ games during the holidays, Nintendo fulfills its promise to continue the flow of fun for veteran and new gamers alike. Nintendo’s first-quarter lineup is filled with new games that expand the breadth and depth of the Wii library and build on the kind of fun that has made Wii such a smash hit. The first three months of the year are filled with games for everyone, from sure-fire favorites like Wii Play™ to SSX ™Blur and The Godfather® Blackhand Edition from EA and a new Prince of Persia® Rival Swords game from Ubisoft. Fans can enjoy the classic Nintendo franchises such as The Legend of Zelda®: A Link to the Past® and the upcoming Mario Kart 64™ for the Wii Shop Channel. And on Jan. 27, the News Channel goes live with global coverage provided by the Associated Press.

“Our tremendous worldwide launch shows people, from experienced players to non-players, are hungry for the kinds of entertainment only Wii provides,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “Wii hardware production continues full bore, and every week we’re delivering more incredible content to further expand the experience.”

Casual game players who recently discovered or rediscovered the thrills of video games through games like Wii Sports™ and WarioWare™: Smooth Moves will be glad to know Wii Play, a collection of nine new games in the Wii Sports style, will be available Feb. 14. Wii Play includes games like Billiards, Fishing and Shooting Range, a target-practice game in the style of Nintendo’s classic Duck Hunt™. Wii Play comes packaged with a Wii Remote™ to highlight the fun multiplayer aspects of Wii, and to provide an incredible value.

Veteran gamers who spent countless hours playing through The Legend of Zelda®: Twilight Princess will find new challenges by entering worlds populated by everyone from Tiger Woods to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, thanks to a deep list of new offerings from third-party publishers.

Beyond the current library of 34 new Wii titles, the schedule for upcoming Wii releases includes:

But new titles don’t begin to describe the array of game action available on Wii. With yesterday’s Virtual Console release of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past from the NES®, the library of downloadable Wii titles grows to 42. Also, next week will see the addition of an all-time favorite, Mario Kart 64. Nintendo will continue to make weekly announcements to update Wii owners about upcoming releases.

For more information about Wii, visit Wii.com.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii™, Nintendo DS™, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube™ systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario™, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda™ and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company’s Web site at www.nintendo.com.