The weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

There could only ever be one story topping the bill this week. And that's the Nintendo DS. If you happened to be living in a hole for the past week or so, here's the full story. During the week Nintendo held their long-awaited press conference- the one which would reveal what their fabled New Game Product� was. And we were not to be disappointed. NCL president Satoru Iwata announced details of the Nintendo DS, a brand-new stand-alone handheld- with two screens, hence the 'DS'- Dual Screen- name. Intriguing, eh?

Unfortunately, the press conference raised more questions than it answered. Just how powerful would the new hardware be? What kind of games would come out on it? How would the dual-screen system really work? What advantages would it bring? How will we buy games for it? We don't know the answers to these questions- and in retrospect, failing to announce any games for the news system was probably a bad PR move- people were left bewildered rather than ecstatic. But all will be revealed at E3- that much is certain. But here's a thought- seeing as the games for the DS will be stored on memory, rather than on removable media, this could mean games being downloaded via the internet, or via download stations in shops. Which could be interesting. Y'know, the possibilities here are mind-boggling. Frankly, I'm delighted with the concept of the DS- but seeing as the digest is for news reportage, rather than personal opinions, I'll leave it there. I've spoken more about it in this week's staff roundtable, which is up on C-E right now, in fact.

Since the press conference, we've uncovered a few more snippets about the DS, however. The man himself, Shigeru Miyamoto is working on a game for it, called Buzz- unfortunately, that's all we know about that. Namco, among others, have already jumped on board as developers, which is good to hear- and the console is set for a worldwide release late this year. Which is really good news, if a little hard to believe. And finally, the DS is set to be launched for the very reasonable price of �20,000 which converts to about �150. C-E will be opening a forum board dedicated to the DS soon, so you can share you thoughts and ideas on the fledgling console.

Gaming behemoth EA have snapped up yet another title for publishing duties- this time, the company have signed a deal with Free Radical Design for another TimeSplitters game. It'll be out in 2005 some time. Again, this is good news for GameCube owners, as it was unlikely that Eidos would have released the game for the GC should they have got the publishing rights. Good, good.

Meanwhile, Climax Studios, the folk behind PC/Xbox title Serious Sam, have confirmed with us that the game will be coming out on the GC and PS2 'sometime ?ater this year'. Called "Serious Sam: The Next Encounter" for GC and PS2, the game is hardly a classic, but should provide some FPS thrills.

Nintendo are at it again. NPD statistics (presumably some sort of market analyst group) have compiled a list of video games software and hardware sales in the United States in 2003, and Ninty were quick on the button to announce what categories they came out top in. If you must know, here's what the company said:

• No. 1 Selling System: Game Boy Advance, with 8.1 million sold in 2003
• No. 1 Fastest-Growing System: Nintendo GameCube, with a 40 percent unit sales increase over 2002 (compared to a 25 percent decline for Sony's PlayStation 2, and flat sales for Microsoft's Xbox)
• No. 1 Fastest-Growing Game Seller: Nintendo GameCube, with a 77 percent unit sales increase over 2002
• No. 1 Hit Maker: Four of the year's top seven sellers played only on Nintendo (Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire for Game Boy Advance; The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for Nintendo GameCube)
• No. 1 Sales Growth: Corporate retail revenues increased 16 percent over 2002
• No. 1 Landmark: Game Boy Advance just sold its 20 millionth system in America

Some of our more cynical readers had some less palatable number 1's to offer- but this is Nintendo Good News Time�, so we'll have none of that.

Pokémon fans will be able to download the EON ticket onto their Game Boy Advance on Saturday 21st February at certain GameStation stores across the UK.

The ticket allows players to visit Southern Island and encounter Latias in Pokémon Ruby or Latios in Pokémon Sapphire. These Pokémon can only be caught this way, and contain SOUL DEW (which boosts Special Attack and Special Defence). Anyway, all the information on this can be found right here.

Konami of Europe has announced that Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes � the collaboration between Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and Nintendo's development legend Shigeru Miyamoto- and of course, Dennis Dyack's superb Silicon Knight's studio � will be released on March 26th in Europe. It is a slight delay, but nothing we can't handle. In any case, Square's Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles will be hitting European shores just two weeks prior to that, on March 11th. It's going to be a March to remember, my friends.

I think that just about wraps things up for this week. Back to Mario Kart, then�

Sl�n

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