I love my Wii. I love Nintendo. With that being said, I'm beginning to wonder what's going on with the Mario Factory. It's now March and Nintendo is still having problems filling Wii demand. Granted, demand remains high, but, at what point do we ask if Nintendo is having production line problems, or if they're purposely keeping production low to maintain the media hype?

What's more, the news of today is that of a Mario Party 8 delay, meaning the next 1st party Wii title will be on April 9, when Super Paper Mario comes out. While some are upset that this means a March drought in Wii titles, I'm more worried about what this means for Q2/summer titles, as this is where Nintendo placed the MP8 release.

If this were a Zelda title being delayed, I wouldn't be suspicious in the least. However, the fact that it's a Mario Party title does raise a few flags. It's not as though the eighth incarnation of a board/mini-game mash up is something that's difficult to develop and has unforeseen complications. Nope, this was purely a scheduling move meaning Nintendo needed a game to fill the Q2 gap...which most likely means no Metroid Prime 3 Q2 release, nor any big Nintendo surprises.

Finally, I have to say I'm a bit annoyed that Nintendo quietly moved the date back just a week or two before it was supposed to hit the streets. A solid month warning is the courteous thing to do. Think of all the disappointed kids, Nintendo. Sheesh.