Written by Stephen Thomson

2008 marks ten years of N-Europe! We look back at the month of January in the world of Nintendo gaming over the past decade.

It's been ten years since "Tim & Gerben's N64 Page" hit the 'net, which quickly became N64-Europe. A couple of name changes later, (Cube-Europe in 2001, and then Revo-Europe in 2005) and we're now finally settled with the N-Europe you know and love.

Ten years ago, who could have predicted the decade of gaming wealth that lay ahead? We look back at what made the news each January of the past ten years...

January 1998

A packed month begins this feature, with Rare announcing plans for a possible sequel to GoldenEye - but then a matter of weeks later at the end of January announcing instead that their follow up won't star Britain's well known secret agent, but instead Joanna Dark. As well as the announcement of Perfect Dark, this month also saw the confirmation of Turok 2: Seeds of Evil.

At the end of January, Nintendo held a rather special Media Summit - showing off 1080 Snowboarding (which also got a release of the Virtual Console lately, coincidence?) in playable form, allowing journalists to bask in it's attractive glory. Also shown at the summit was Rare's hit game Banjo-Kazooie, and to top it off, Nintendo surprised those lucky folks at the with a full viewing of one of the best games of all time - 10 minutes of the then jaw dropping glory that was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

January 1999

A year later, Worms becomes official and, as expected, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time breaks records by selling over 2.5 millions copies, with Nintendo claiming that the game would sell over 6 million by the end of the fiscal year. Thanks to the success of Zelda and the pet Pikachu game "Pikachu Genki Dechu" hardware sales of the N64 increased rapidly. Acclaim announced their Turok successor would ship in time for Winter '99. Super Smash Bros. got its release in Japan (and Nintendo of Japan would be doing the exact same thing again nine years later!) The game was a hit and sold out, and this after Nintendo of America said they weren't sure if it would get a release outside of Japan!

Nearing the end of the month, former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi stated that he would be stepping down from Nintendo in 2001 (originally 2000), stating how he wanted to watch over the release of the Japan-only Nintendo 64 add-on, the 64DD.

January 2000

America was being kept in the dark about whether or not they would get the coloured N64 consoles for the price of $99.99 (the colours Grape, Fire, Watermelon, Smoke, Jungle Green and Ice - purple, orange, red, grey, green and light blue respectively). Also this month, Conker's new makeover was finally shown (since the original design was deemed 'too cute') after a year without news, during which time most expected the worse for the title. Turok gets another mention with the release of the third entry for the N64 'Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion'. A tentative release date for the Game Boy Advance also got revealed for America.

The 'Dolphin' project (the GameCube's development code-name) was discussed with Miyamoto-San - and he spoke about the Mario game for the console. He stated how he wouldn't mind using Zelda as the basis of the new game and that it'll be a new gaming experience that will appeal to everyone.

January 2001

After having hit games and high software sales, the N64 begins to die down for the build up to Nintendo's next console, the GameCube. This was a transition period, though there are however, a few games announced (another Turok, and Resident Evil 4 for the Cube). SquareSoft (now known as Square Enix) stated there was no development contracts between them and Nintendo, and that chances were low for any to be made in the future. Yamauchi-san also denied rumours of Nintendo buying out SEGA since they were working together to create Game Boy Advance software. And the greatest news of all, Cube-Europe launched on the 6th of January 2001, changing from N64-Europe.

January 2002

A month of cancelled projects, with N-Sider reporting that developers Metro-3D were working on an online shooter named Armada 2: Exodus for the GameCube, just like Grand Theft Auto III that NextGenerationCube claimed and the infamous Galleon which got continually delayed but ultimately never saw a release for the GameCube.

On a brighter note for European Nintendo fans, details of the GameCube's launch were revealed, the date set for May 3rd and the launch price initially �150 and nearer the date, the price got reduced. Also what's worth noting is that Cube-Europe were the first ones to break the launch details. Along with European details, Australia also got its Cube launch-date confirmed for the 17th of May (but with only 50,000 units compared to Europe's 1 million).

January 2003

Remember hearing news of a portable GameCube? This is where it began, with Yahoo hinting that it may very well happen. Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream said that the next instalment of the Mario Kart series would be online. Details of the new GameBoy, the Game Boy Advance SP emerged, which featured an in-built battery and a back-light, with the date set as March 28th.

The first 'Tri-Force' arcade game by Nintendo, SEGA and Capcom got announced and confirmed as being part of the Gundam franchise. Link also got confirmed to be in the next Soul Calibur game and rumours swirled about a Metroid movie. There was also gossip of a second Metroid game, plus Fire Emblem and Kirby titles heading to the Cube. And to top off this month, the famous Freeloader device got released, allowing poor European and Australian players, to finally play Animal Crossing.

January 2004

It was this far back we started hearing details of Nintendo's next home console, though back then we hadn't a clue what the cryptic messages meant. It was in this month however that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata stated the new console would "enable fun and movement not seen before." Capcom also finally gave out the release date for the much-awaited 4th instalment of the Resident Evil franchise. It was also this month that Nintendo announced the Nintendo DS - with news that the console would feature two screens with separate processors, that it would be roughly �102 and developers would get kits shortly after E3 in May. Also announced was a Tales of Symphonia sequel (though the original wasn't out in Europe at the time) named Tales of Legendia, with news it would feature GC-GBA support. And interestingly, one of the designers of the hit game NiGHTs said that as long as SEGA keeps him, he will make a sequel to the title. And right enough, he did.

January 2005

Remember the days of wondering what Zelda: Twilight Princess was actually called? Can anyone remember the title "The Legend of Zelda: The Gates of the Realm" after a picture was 'leaked'? That all happened this month, along with the first news of how popular the DS was - with 2.8 million units having already been shipped in Japan and the USA (it was out on December 2nd and November 21st 2004 respectively). Also worth mentioning is Sonic Team's Yuji Naka saying how Sonic was intended for Smash Bros. Melee but that he couldn't be fitted in due to time constraints. He did however mention that we may see Mario and Sonic "working [or fighting] together soon." Hmm...

Details of the European launch for Nintendo DS emerged - it would have a March 11th release. Nintendo released a movie of how the company were trying to get rid of their 'kiddie' image. And rumoured details of the 'Revolution' were leaked, stating it would allow for motion-sensing technology and have 4 controller ports, but also that it wouldn't connect with the DS. Finally, details of online DS games were revealed, with the news that online gameplay would happen soon.

January 2006

Still with the Wii formally known as "Revolution", Nintendo of Europe gave out some more hints regarding the console and its features, confirming that the console will be released some point in 2006, and finishing their statement saying how 2006 will be "very interesting indeed". Soon after this the Big N stated the DS had sold over 10 million units worldwide (3.5 million in Europe and to be more specific just over 1 million in the UK). Also it was this month that two developers would merge their North American operations to form 'Namco Bandai Games America Inc'. On the GBA front, shortly before the Consumer Electronics Show, an in-car GBA was revealed with the ability to play CDs, DVDs and GBA games, and also it was revealed that Europe wouldn't be getting customisable face-plates for their GBA Micro.

Tetris was revealed for the DS and with it, online capabilities. Jim Merrick, head of NoE's marketing division moved to rejoin Nintendo of America. He over-saw the launch of the DS and Wi-Fi Connection within Europe, and also made the "14 week claim", meaning the Wii would be out in all territories within that time frame. Laurent Fisher was to take over Jim Merrick's position after he left. And finally, the new DS Lite re-design got revealed, making the fast selling console lighter and brighter.

January 2007

First off, in some non-Nintendo related news, the Stamper brothers who founded RARE announced they would make their leave and pursue 'other opportunities'. Matt Casamassina claimed that Halo DS had been in development but was no longer. More sales figures were released with the Wii selling over 200,000 units over the Christmas period in the UK and over Europe the DS selling 1.7 million units in December alone. In America, 1.2 million Wii consoles got sold and it was revealed that since the launch of the DS, 10 million units had been sold. In Japan, the Wii had also almost reached the 1 million mark.

E for All, the spiritual successor for E3, got dated to for the 18th-20th of October, with Miyamoto-San to hold a keynote speech at this years Game Developer's Conference. Sony claimed that the Wii was 'just an impulse buy'. Rumours began circling that the Star to Wii Point conversion ratio was 4:1, which later turned out to be true. Finally, the Wii News channel got launched.

January 2008

'The People' website claimed that Queen Elizabeth was 'hogging' Prince William's Wii and was a hit at Wii Bowling. CEO of McDonalds UK, Steve Easterbrook boldly claimed that the main problem for children's obesity wasn't eating or drinking, but was instead due to video games, as children always played them sitting down. Nintendo took its second Emmy in a row for 'excellence in engineering creativity' thanks to the Wii's motion controls and the DS Lite's touch screen.

WiiWare developers Engine Software with the title named "Project Bang" stated that the WiiWare service would be launching in March. The infamous Jack Thompson returned to court, but this time on the other side by being sued by Take-Two for being a 'public nuisance'. The DS invaded Disney Land for use as a tour guide, and Nintendo stated that they're currently producing 1.8 million Wiis a month to help meet the demand worldwide. To date, 5 million Wii consoles have been snapped up in Japan and 6 million in Europe - with 20 million DS units too.

And finally, starting and finishing with Goldeneye, rumours circulated that the hit N64 was to hit Xbox Live Arcade and that Activision didn't need Nintendo's permission to release the game. They had however approached them for their blessing, offering the game in its original format for the Virtual Console, though president Satoru Iwata had sadly shot the proposal down.

That's all for now, but we're celebrating all year round baby, so look out for February's edition up next soon!