We're nearing the end of the year and it looks like everybody has had enough of 2003 already. But enought complaining, let's be happy with the little news I do have.

This week, only 3 games came in the news. Max Payne Advance, Peter Pan and a new Kirby game.

First of all: Rockstar finally officially announced Max Payne Advance. We've seen the images, we had heard the rumours, but 'Bullet Time' is finally confirmed. First of all, the game will hit the stores on December 16th, 2003 in North America.

Max Payne is the stylish, urban, revenge-driven story of a fugitive cop with nothing to lose. Based in New York City's grimy underground, Max Payne is a fully realized rendition of the best-selling PC and console hit which sold over 4 million units, combining narrative-driven, cinematic gameplay with the latest in handheld videogame technology.

Max can choose from over 8 weapons as he fights his way through more than 10 levels filled with some of New York City's most sinister inhabitants. By utilizing Bullet Time, players can gain an edge over their enemies with Max Payne's slow motion gunplay technique. Max Payne's classic graphic novel scenes return to tell this twisted story of deception and despair.

Peter Pan was (like I said earlier) the other game mentioned this week. As Atari described it, the player will "battle fierce pirates, escape hair-raising danger and face off against the notorious Captain Hook". The game script is taken direct from the movie script, only edited for length. So, what does this actually say? Well, we'll get to control Peter pan himself which allows us to fly, jump, explore, communicate and swordfight. Puzzles must be solved to find secret passage ways and hidden buttons. This sounds exciting...

Atari also promised to include digitized movie scenes and cinematic sequences to help tell the story.

On to our third game of the week: Kirby. The original scoop comes from KoroKoroComic magazine (Japanese). They showed some nice images and some information on an upcoming game called Hoshi no Kirby : Kagami no Daimeiky�...

Translating the title gives you something like Kirby: The Large Labyrinth Mirror. The game will follow the previous games in gamestyle, thus it will be another action-platformer. Though Japanese is still very hard to translate (for me at least), the magazine shows something about Kirby needing help from your friends throughout the game. The Japanese game is said to be capable of using a mobile phone adapter. However, when Kirby is in a cave, the game won't respond to the radio signals.

Transformations will also be available this time. An 'angel' is one of the new creations here. The new Kirby game is scheduled for a release in Japan in March 2004. For now, you'll have settle with a scan of the magazine showing the angel, the phone-signals and a few screenshots.

So... that's it?

No, I've still got three small messages for you. First one is about the PSP. For those interested in Sony's upcoming handheld: we've got you a presentation showing you some of the specs of the PSP, a piece of sample code, the hardware requirements if you wanted to start developing yourself and... a nice example of what the PSP should be capable of in terms of object modeling (ie. showing you a smooth alien-figure). The PDF-file of the presentation can be downloaded here (link temporarily offline).

Next notice: Capcom's upcoming PAL release dates for Q1 2004. First of all, Megaman Battle Chip Challenge will hit the stores in February 2004. Only one month later (March 2004), both Aladdin and Disney's Magical Quest 3 starring Mickey & Donald will be released.

And we end this week's Advance Weekly with a somewhat happy story. Over 10 million GBA's have been shipped across Europe, and we're still counting... With Game Boy Advance shipment figures now passing the 10 million mark across Europe, of which over 3 million are Game Boy Advance SP units, the Advance remains the number one choice for gamers on the go.

And that was really everything for this week. Comments are welcome (especially positive ones) and can be send to [email protected]. Dennis Stam (aka Blackbird on the boards)