April 15th Letdown

April 15th fell on a Saturday this year, so tax filers had until Monday to mail in their returns. April 15, 2006 is important for another reason: it was the date that Nintendo was to publish its long-delayed and much-anticipated videogame, Zelda: Twilight Princess. (Some of the most popular videogames over the past two decades have been Zelda adventures.) Now it appears that the game's release date has been pushed back to the fall.

Like procrastinating taxpayers, Nintendo will suffer a penalty for missing another deadline, the loss of its fan base to the Playstation and Xbox. Our Nintendo Gamecube hasn't been turned on once this year, while our Microsoft Xbox is used (ahem) regularly. We don't intend to buy Nintendo's forthcoming console, the inaptly named Revolution. It is reported to be only a slight improvement over the Gamecube.

Will the fading Nintendo be able to rejuvenate its fortunes, a la Apple? I hope it does, but I'm not going to pay to find out.