Star Fox

Legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto himself wrote a Facebook post Sept. 17 to announce that Star Fox Zero would not ship this year.

Even though the goal had long been for a holiday season launch of the anthropomorphic fighter pilot game, more work is needed Miyamoto said.

We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year. Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes. While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play that we are proposing.

To the people looking forward to the launch of the game this holiday season, I am very sorry.

Star Fox Zero was playable at E3 and it received widely mixed reactions. Some praised the control scheme, which employs the use of the Wii U game pad to steer the ships and some found the gameplay distracting and awkward.

Miyamoto said they hope to see the game released in the first quarter of 2016. This leaves Yoshi's Wooly World (in America) and Xenoblade Chronicles X as the only first part Wii U games to see a release through the rest of this year.

In true Nintendo fashion, the company let loose a wealth of information Aug. 24, involving release dates, combo packs and a Super Mario Maker Wii U Bundle.

Gamespot has the details:

According to Nintendo, Star Fox Zero will launch in North America and Europe on November 20. Xenoblade Chronicles X, meanwhile, will be available in both territories on December 4.

Although Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is listed as "Holiday 2015" for North America, Nintendo has confirmed the more specific November 20 date for Europe.

A new combo pack bringing together New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U will go on sale on October 16 in North America for a recommended retail price of $59.99.

Walmart will be the exclusive retailer for the Super Mario Maker Wii U bundle, which includes the game, an Idea Book, and the 30th Anniversary Mario Modern Colour Amiibo. It will be available on September 11 for $299.96.

You can read the full list here.

An article on Time.com describes Miyamoto's "smaller, personal projects," which include a new Star Fox title, and two new games that are exploring different uses of the Game Pad:

In one of the games, which Miyamoto called Project Giant Robot, players control sky-scraping automatons, angling the Wii U GamePad in front of a TV screen while shifting their torsos left and right or up and down to maneuver the robot's upper-body while thumbing the controller's joysticks to punch or grab — almost like a full-body game of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

In another, titled Project Guard, the GamePad became a quick-jump map of a fortress manned by numbered, laser-firing security cameras. As robots encroach on different entry points, you have to tap the GamePad to leap from camera to camera, blasting enemies that trundle or come at you sprinting — even some that sneak under your radar.