In a recent interview with Nintendo by the Dutch Nintendo-fansite Club Nintendo an interesting fact surfaced! Here is a snippit of the interview:

Will Zelda and Metroid Prime be released this year in Europe?

Unfortunately I cannot answer that question yet. Though, in the past we have seen that relase dates are easily changed. I can tell you that Super Mario Sunshine and Eternal Darkness will be released this year. Super Mario Sunshine could even be released sooner than everybody expects.

There you have it boys and girls! We might see Mario sooner than the announced release date of Q4 2002. Could it be this summer?