Yes it's true... This time it took only a week to prepare for the next edition of Advance Weekly. Today we'll tell you something about the AM3 player, the Time Machine, the GP32, 'knock-knock'-jokes and (of course) some new games. Like last week, let's start with reviewing all the hardware issues of the previous week.

First of all, the AM3 cartridge was said to be shipped throughout Japan. For those of you who don't really know what the AM3 is supposed to be: AM stands for "advance mobile". The '3' stands for three major markets: Japan, U.S. and Europe, but the 3 also stands for three outperforming industries of Japan: Animation (Manga), Flash Memory and VideoGame Platform. Combine these three facts and you'll get animations on your GBA all over the world. The AM3 consists of two components, a AM3 adapter (which plugs into your GBA or GBA SP) and SmartMedia cards (which'll be plugged in the AM3 adapter).

The AM3 is still scheduled for the US and Europe, yet no release date was given.

The AM3 might sound a little predictable to you. The developer of the TV de Advance (util to connect your GBA to the television) announced something completely new: the Time Machine.

The Time Machine is a device which can be plugged into your GBA's cartridge slot. Next step is to put a NES/Famicom cartridge into the Time Machine and you're ready to start playing Zelda, Metroid, Pirates! and all those other classics you might still own. Since the NES cartridges are a bit larger than the GBA (and even more compared to your GBA SP), I think this product will make your handheld a bit less portable. It is supposed to be market ready within the next couple of weeks.

Next one up: the GP32. The GP32 was said to be one of the most powerful handhelds on the market nowadays, and that it was quite succesful in Asia. People started cheering when Mitsui announced a European release almost a year ago. However, this week Mitsui (the producer of the GP32) informed several retailers that the GP32 release, scheduled for March 2004, is completely cancelled. The initial release was announced prior to the Games Convention for October 2003, but has been postponed for a few times without further explanations. Result: one less competitor for Nintendo.

Time for a step-up to GBA software. Luckily for me Nintendo helped me with this. All self-respecting GBA fanatics must have heard about Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga by now. Nintendo wanted to promote their upcoming game a bit and started a new competition: 'knock-knock'-jokes. Mario chose a knock-knock joke contest because the brothers' back-and-forth patter reflects the kind of slapstick humour that gamers will find in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. So if you think you've got a funny 'knock-knock'-joke, you can submit your jokes online at www.gameboy.com/marioandluigi until Nov. 16.

Finally we get to the software part. You must've read about Mario Golf here on Cube-Europe. You might've heard about Mario Golf: Advance Tour. Nintendo finally released some images of the GBA version of Mario Golf. Unfortunately they didn't supply any information about the game, except for the fact that you can transfer your GBA character to the GameCube version (hurray!).

The online retailer EBGames showed a new GBA title in its release schedule: Peter Pan. The game is said to be developed and published by Atari. Again, no further information available.

Enough vague information! Time for action! Metal Slug Advance is coming to your GBA screen. Not only do we have screens, we also got you some information on the game. Metal Slug Advance will feature 5 big missions, 4 mini stages and some hidden bonus missions. These missions will include diverse areas such as Subterranean dungeons, Mysterious ruins, Limestone caverns, Lava zones and Subterranean lakes. To keep you playing after you've beaten the game, SNK Playmore came up with the collectible E-cards idea: Collect over 100 different types of E-cards to enhance your abilities and to assist in the completion of your missions. This means you'll be spending months to find that last card.

I also encountered a nice marketing strategy this week. The skill-based game Gem Smashers wasn't released in Japan yet, but FrameStudios (the developer) saw some opportunities there. They took the original US/EU game and swapped all images of the main characters (Bau, Bam and Bom) with those of a very known license for Japan, the Umininn characters. No doubt this strategy will work. Just imagine what would've happened if Nintendo requested a Pokémon version of the game. Perhaps this is also the way to convert some of the Japanese-only games to have a decent chance in Europe and the US.

Of course I can't describe all GBA-related events in this weekly feature. That's why we decided to put a few links below which direct you to some new screenshots or information about a game.

• James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (Screens)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Info & Screens)
• Yu-Gi-Oh: Dungeondice Monsters (Screens)
• Zooo (Info & Screens)

I hope you enjoyed reading this (or just watching pictures). Comments are welcome (especially positive ones) and can be send to advanceweekly at gba.n64europe.com.

Dennis Stam
(aka Blackbird on the boards)