Your weekly update of GBA news and screens.

Ok, things are beginning to look serious. For the third time in a row, there hasn't been an Advance Weekly for two consecutive weeks. However, things are starting to look better already with the rumour mill making overtime on the Nintendo DS / Nitro subject. Nonetheless, you're looking at the next issue of Advance Weekly.

Two weeks to cover in one article. Let's go through this timeframe in chronological order (which makes it easier for me to show the evolution of the rumours). First of all, Banpresto opened up a small minisite for their upcoming Dragonball Z game: Dragonball Z - Buk�t�geki. Unfortunately the entire minisite for DBZ - Buk�t�geki is written in Japanese and entirely image-based (thus: no translation). But that won't stop you looking at the screens, right?

Next came Nintendo of Japan. To keep the crowd entertained while waiting for the next installment of Kirby (Kirby: The Mirror Conundrum) they decided to put up a small flash-based minigame. In this (Japanese) minigame, you'll compete with 3 computer-players in an all-out-eating-contest. The instructions: Wait until the dish is served. If the dish consists of apples, press the A button as fast as you can. If the dish consists of bombs, don't press the A button. Easy as eating pie, huh?

Then Majesco thought it was necessary to announce Super Collapse II once more. We already knew the game was coming, but obviously Majesco wanted to let us know once more so here goes... Super Collapse II challenges players with four exciting modes of play. In Classic and Strategy Mode, players must clear blocks by selecting groups of similarly colored blocks to collapse as blocks continuously appear at the bottom of the board. When the blocks reach the top, the game is over. Relapse Mode is twice the challenge with blocks appearing from the top and bottom of the board. The game is over when blocks from both sides touch. Finally, Puzzle Mode puts gamers' brains to the test as they try and solve a series of elaborate, block-collapsing puzzles.

If you're not sure whether this is the game for you, it's based on a web-based game so you can try it out before you decide to spend your precious money on it.

Rockstar decided to join in on the fun and spoke about three of their GBA projects. First of all, Serious Sam Advance for the Game Boy Advance is scheduled for quarter 2, 2004. Secondly, Rockstar also plans to release an extension of the Grand Theft Auto franchise for the Game Boy Advance in the third quarter. Additionally, Max Payne for the Game Boy Advance will ship to European retailers late March.

Back to Dragonball Z. Apart from the earlier mentioned Buk�t�geki game, there also a DBZ: Super Sonic Warriors heading our way. For the first time on the GBA, DBZ fighting action can unfold in the air as players can fly at will. Super Sonic Warriors features the most skilled heroes and villains, including Goku, Vegeta, Cell, Frieza and Buu. Engage in massive tag team battles, and experience the DBZ story in an all-new way, complete with alternate endings. The fighting is fast and fierce, and the flight mode gives players a nice way to date to experience the intensity of Dragonball Z.

Finally, we come to the DS news. The device was supposed to have gotten a new name, the Nitro. A weblog belonging to the Online Product Manager of EA Netherlands came up with it first. The Nintendo developers-site suddenly showed three categories: Gamecube development, Nitro Development and GBA Development. However, a few hours after the news struck most gaming websites, Nintendo spoke about the matter and dismissed it as false. The "Nintendo Nitro" was simply a codename for the machine during planning stages, certainly not the final productname. A few hours after that, the developers-site showed 'Nintendo DS Development' instead of 'Nitro development'...

The next day became even more fun. A leaked document showed some specifications of a device called the Nintendo Nitro. We managed to get our hands on it and to translate most of it. The document, a translation and a translated version of the document (can you spot the differences?) are available for viewing here. Of course, the specifications are a rough indication of the general idea for the Nintendo DS and are subject to change. For now, it looks like the DS will get some nice gimmicks, such as a touchscreen and wireless communication. It was also already mentioned by IGN that the ARM7 CPU will be used for GBA-compatibility.

Are we there yet? No, sorry to say there's still a few more words below. Majesco returned to the front with news about their upcoming Game Boy Advance Video. 4Kids Entertainment announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Majesco to publish and distribute in the United States and Canada a total of 12 episodes of certain 4Kids' produced television series. It is expected that episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sonic X will be sold as part of the new Game Boy Advance Video product line scheduled to debut in May 2004.

With this news, we also received a nice list of the features of the Video packs:

• Full-screen, full-color, full-streaming audio and video on Game Boy Advance with no additional hardware required
• Exclusive software-only technology runs on a standard Nintendo manufactured cartridge
• 100% Anti-Skip � No moving parts means movies never skip or stutter, no matter how much you move your system around
• Plug and play viewing � simply insert the cartridge into any Game Boy Advance System and start watching
• 45 minutes of video on a single cartridge with longer content, including full length feature films, coming soon
• Standard "DVD player" controls including: Fast Forward, Fast Rewind, Chapter Skip, Chapter Reverse and Pause. All content has animated chapter menus just like DVDs.
• Adjustable brightness
• Support for stereo sound, multiple languages and multiple choices of subtitles

Well, I've got to say that this does look promising. Especially when you think of the current products announced... The Ninja Turtles, Sonic X, Spongebob Squarepants (!), Yu-Gi-Oh... Finally college will be fun.

Just like in every edition (you won't hear me say "every week" anymore) there's a small list of product assets below. This time there are only 3 games worth noticing:

• Asterix & Obelix XXL (screens & info)
• Shrek 2(screens), and
• Sonic Advance 3 (movie)

And that was everything for this edition. Comments are welcome and can be send along, or simply drop a message at the boards.

Dennis Stam (aka Blackbird on the boards)

[email protected].