Will you find this on shop shelves?

You'd think a football game from the creators of the Professor Layton games would be enough to pique the interest of games retailers, but judging from the complete lack of awareness and availability in the marketplace you'd be greatly mistaken.

Inazuma Eleven for Nintendo DS launches across the UK and Europe this Friday, but Nintendo has made next-to no noise about the title, not even listing it on its "coming soon" schedule.

It's not just Nintendo that's silent about the game: none of the major UK games retailers – that's Game, Gamestation and HMV – have the game available to pre-order online in store, and neither do Play or Amazon. The only retailer we could find preparing to sell the game this Friday was Games Basement.

It's possible, of course, that the game has simply suffered a delay as Nintendo works to bring the entire Inazuma Eleven experience to Europe – in Japan the series is a phenomenon, with comics, cartoons and more merchandise than you can shake a goalpost at. If not, though, it looks like DS owners may have to hunt high and low to find what could be one of the DS's most promising titles of 2011.

We'll be bringing you a full review of the game shortly after its release.