Things have been fairly subdued on the Wii Zapper front since the device was shown off at E3 in July, but news of a release date in North America just landed in the GamerSquad mailbox - November 19 is the date to mark in your diaries. As previously announced, it’ll cost US gamers $19.99 (£10 / €15).

However, while dates and prices are sorta interesting, they’re not as interesting as new Zelda games, right? Right. Well, here’s something: the Zapper will also come with a new Zelda title bundled in! OK, we’re stretching the truth a little there, as "Link's Crossbow Training" probably isn’t most people’s ideas of a traditional Zelda experience. But it’s got Link in, not to mention a world "in the style of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess," so that’ll do for us.

Presumably, Link's Crossbow Training will essentially be what Wii Sports and Wii Play were to the Wiimote: that is, a disc-based tutorial designed to get people acclimatised to the Zapper. A series of tests will help players to perfect their crossbow marksmanship, starting with stationary bull's-eyes, before graduating to moving targets, and then "all kinds of enemies".

A trio of third-party Wii Zapper-compatible games - Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 - will also be appearing during November. No news for those outside the US yet, though we reckon Ninty would be barmy to miss the Christmas boat on this one; those Wii Zappers can’t be hard to churn out, anyway.