Your weekly roundup of everything Gamecube and DS

Welcome, once again, back to Cube-Europe's Weekly Digest- delivered to your inbox, ahem, every week.

You may have noticed a certain 'irregularity' in service over the past few months- but we are having some teething problems, and we hope that full weekly service can be restored shortly.

The last seven days have been hugely significant from a Nintendo point of view, for a variety of reasons. So, without further ado, let's dive in...

Firstly, though, topping the bill this week has got to be the U.S launch of Nintendo's highly anticipated, dual-screened handheld, the Nintendo DS. The system, almost inevitably, has gone down a storm in the US of A, with most retailers selling out in a short space of time. Each console is bundled with the impressive demo of the forthcoming Metroid Prime: Hunters. Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS is the company's flagship title, and by all accounts is a must-have title. Our Tim has already got his hands on a DS, with several more members of the Cube-Europe team following suit shortly, so suffice to say we'll have a lot more of the DS to show you soon.

Despite having a less-than-stellar US line-up, the system has got off to a flying start. And with the second wave of first-party titles set to begin filtering in early next year, the only way is up. And this of course means that the European release of the console will see probably the best-ever launch line-up for a Nintendo system, with the likes of Metroid Prime: Hunters, Wario Ware DS, and Yoshi's Touch & Go almost certainly slated for day one in Europe. Phew.

Sticking with DS news for the moment, and in a recent interview with Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Shigeru Miyamoto, let slip some mightily interesting details. Here are the translated highlights:

• Within the next 3 to 4 years, online gaming will be mainstream. Nintendo knows that and will try to move into that direction.
• The Nintendo DS will get online gaming 'sooner than we all think'.
• Square-Enix and Nintendo are working on getting the Nintendo DS online.
• The recently announced Mario Baseball is a joint project with Namco.
• 'Mario 128' is still in development for the GameCube (not for the GameCube successor, codenamed 'Revolution'). Miyamoto could not tell when the game will be released.
• Nintendo is working on a new Pokemon game for the GameCube. Shigeru also added that this game is in development with strong allies.

Brilliant stuff, eh? We must, though, add some caveats: Translations from interviews like these have been known in the past to be slightly incorrect- one well-known Nintendo site, for example, is claiming that Miyamoto didn't say that Mario 128 is coming to GameCube after all, and that things are very much up in the air even at this point. Still, though, it's all good- even if it's not 100%, absolutely, definitely, crystal-clear confirmed.

A 'proper' Pokemon adventure on GameCube? After the disappointing half-measure that was Pokemon Colosseum, this comes as a welcome boost to the series and straight away means that the GC has another hugely significant 2005 title under its sleeve. As well as that, Mario Baseball, the next entrant in the Mario sports series is under development by Nintendo and Namco- although whether or not we'll ever see the game released over here is very much doubtful- baseball isn't exactly a popular sport on this side of the pond. That said, you can bet that it will be an accessible, fun, and different sort of game to the usual hyper-realistic fare on offer.

It's heart-warming, then, that Nintendo aren't quietly going to let the GameCube keel over and die in 2005, with all the talk of DS and Revolution being bandied about. Adding to the list of big 2005 Cube games comes a brand-new, previously unannounced Kirby adventure- and it appears to be the very first 'proper' Kirby game in three dimensions (not counting the 2 � d N64 iteration. Need another use for your DK Bongos? Brilliantly, Nintendo have also revealed the existence of a third Donkey Konga game (despite the fact that the second game hasn't even a European release confirmed yet). All in all, 2005 is shaping up to be something truly special- with TimeSplitters 3, Zelda: 4 Swords, DK: Jungle Beat, Resident Evil 4, Star Fox: Assault, possibly 'Mario 128', definitely the new Zelda game on Cube being only a tiny selection of GameCube highlights for 2005. Impressive stuff.

That's all for this week. With any luck, next Sunday should bring a new edition of the digest...

Enjoy the coming week.

Mark Cullinane
[email protected]