Your weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

Hello again, and welcome to the Weekly Digest, Cube-Europe's exclusive weekly GameCube and Nintendo news round-up. It's delivered direct to your inbox each and every week (subscribe via C-E's homepage).

As always, there is a shed-load of news to get through this week. Let's dive in...

Well, there can only be one story this week. We've played the Nintendo DS. Our very own Tim and a couple of other members of the Cube-Europe team were this week given the extraordinary opportunity to test-drive Nintendo's new baby, away from the glare of E3. We're delighted to report that it is every bit as good as we had hoped, and then some. Read Tim's exclusive report here.

But it doesn't stop there. By the time I'm putting the finishing touches on next week's Digest, we'll have extensively played all of Nintendo's E3 titles. You can expect in-depth hands-on previews and impressions of everything from Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Donkey Konga and Paper Mario 2 to Geist, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Zelda: 4 Swords Adventures, as well as a host of the coming year's biggest GBA games- Mario Pinball, DK: King of Swing and Pokémon, not to mention Zelda: The Minish Cap.

But back to the present for now. This week we've discovered a whole load of new information on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. In fact, we've got 2,000 words of info on a game which is shaping up to be one of the GameCube's best. Click here to read more on Samus' new visors, weapons, enemies, multiplayer modes, storyline- everything, in fact. Staying with Metroid news, but this time of the dual-screened sort. Nintendo Official Magazine's latest issue has an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto revealed that they plan on include a control scheme for Metroid Prime: Hunters that does not require the touch screen, due to worries about the current control system. Miyamoto also announced that Nintendo decided not to show Mario 128 and are experimenting with the game and deciding upon which system to create the game for.

Meanwhile, Toshiro Nagoshi, the man behind the brilliant Super Monkey Ball series, has been speaking to C&VG, and in it, he confirmed the development of a new Monkey Ball game. He didn't say what console it would be for, unfortunately. It coincides with speculation that the series will have a PS2 outing later this year. We'll know more soon.

Those of you looking forward to Blizzard's StarCraft: Ghost will have to wait until next year. Blizzard have confirmed the recent rumours about a delay to their highly anticipated StarCraft game. The reason? Blizzard say they want to "expand and evolve the design of its upcoming tactical-action console game". They intend to add new features and gameplay enhancements, so at least fans of the series will know that the extended wait will be worth it. NOE have confirmed that the next version of the Game Boy is currently in development.

Managing director of NOE, David Gosen, has effectively confirmed that the new Game Boy is already in development. Speaking at the ELSPA games summit, Gosen said that "New Game Boy iterations are under review right now, before the first DS is sold". This isn't anything new, though, as Nintendo announced a long time ago that a) the DS was entirely distinct from the GBA and b) the GBA's successor was in development. Perhaps Gosen was fed up with new upstart Reggie Fils-Aimes stealing his limelight, and felt he should announce a new console of his own...

Our newest feature, the Public Roundtable, continues apace this week. In this week's edition, members of the Cube-Europe forums give their opinions on the best third-party game at this year's E3 show. There's plenty of time to give your two cents for next week's edition, so log on to the forums and let us know what you think about this week's topic.

Finally this week, those kind people at Atari have confirmed the development of two new Matrix games. More details will be forthcoming in the near future. That's about all for this week. Check back same time next week!

Mark Cullinane
[email protected]