This may not be the worst news in the world, but it’s never good to hear that a project won’t be able to meet its expected release date and that seems to be the situation for Star Fox Zero.  A statement posted to Nintendo’s Facebook page by creator Shigeru Miyamoto announced that the games release on the Wii U has been delayed into 2016. For those who can’t read the announcement on Facebook (for whatever reason that may be) you can read it in its entirety below.

“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 is going to bring new game play and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64. All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations. And the game will not be delayed for a very long time – we’re aiming to launch the game in Q1 2016. Please stay tuned for further announcements.”

While it sounds a bit disconcerting, it is great to see that the company is more than willing to delay the release if it means putting out a product to be proud of when the time comes. It seems like the fans will be handsomely rewarded whenever Fox McCloud and the crew make their highly anticipated return to a major Nintendo platform.

Stephon W. is a contributing Editor for Teh Lunchbox Publications and sorry, he doesn’t do social media. But you can follow the team on facebook (Teh Lunchbox Publications), and on twitter @tehlunchboxpub