OK, fellow Mario fans and people waiting for this game to come out so the Mario fans will shut the Hell up about it already, we may finally have a release date.

As many of you know, Mr. Miyamoto has not given a specific release date yet for SMG, but he has assured us that the game will definitely be out within the first 6 months of the Wii's launch:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/707/707709p1.html

So, the latest release date that we can expect is likely somewhere in mid-May, about the same time summer begins for us college students. Woot.

Now, several other sources around the net have information as well. First, Wikipedia (OK, everyone in this thread except maybe Heald please feel free to skip over this one.) has recently put up an expected US release date of sometime in February:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Galaxy

I'll admit, this one seems doubtful, but it would be very nice if it were true. You never know.

Now, more likely and more reputable is this article from Gamestop, which has given a somewhat tentative yet still quite possible release date of - of all days - April 1st:

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?...t%5Fid=T000229

Unless this is an elaborate (and in-poor-taste) April Fool's joke, we may have a winner.

Finally, would seems to be the most reputable (and most confident) source, Amazon.com, has announced that the game's release date is set for March 30th:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nintendo-Sup.../dp/B000E6DYZ8

Just to clarify, this is NOT the date pre-orders are going to start being accepted. Pre-orders are already being accepted; March 30th is the RELEASE DATE.

Now, I see that this is for the UK before anyone bothers pointing that out, but if this is true, then Wikipedia may not be that far off after all: SMB, SMW, SM64, and SMS all came out in Europe AFTER they came out in the U.S., so a UK release date of March/April may mean a February release date after all...

So, what have we got?

It is currently mid-January; release dates for the US have been speculated to be sometime in February, UK release dates have been estimated for March/April, and the upper limit of a release date is May.

Hmmm... Easter, maybe?