Welcome to another Sunday evening edition of the Weekly Digest- Cube-Europe's weekly news round-up of all that is worth knowing form the world of Nintendo.

Topping the bill this week is the news that Nintendo will apparently be making a long-awaited price-drop to the GameCube in October of this year. The French website Nintendo Difference has informed us that the GameCube's price in Europe will be lowered to 99 Euros from October 1st. Trés bien. This is really quite a significant reduction, and, as the GameCube has reached probably the middle of its life-span, this signifies Ninty's desire to make the Cube a commercial success. The Player's Choice range is seeing some changes, too: Pikmin, StarFox Adventures and Super Mario Sunshine are all getting cheap-ified. But that's not all- the price of these budget games has been reduced to a very affordable 19.99 Euros. Nice one, Nintendo. Presumably, these price drops, effective in a few weeks time, will make a considerable impact on European sales.

Nintendo of Australia this week announced the exact release date for Animal Crossing. And that date is: 17th of October. I've discussed the pros and cons of importing Animal Crossing before, but frankly if you want to get the game, this is an ideal way to do it- import, via an Australian mail-order site, the PAL version. Job done. And it won't cost you all that much. Or you could wait for the sequel...

Some welcome news this week from those generous folks at Capcom. Capcom this week contacted us and said that all GAME reward card members (who purchase Gamecube games) will be sent a demo disc of Viewtiful Joe in early October. The company expressed its regret that the P.N.03 preorder bonus disk campaign was limited- there weren't near enough disks to go around. Thus, they've decided to give one to everyone in the audience, to paraphrase a great Irish broadcasting legend. Well done Capcom, and well done GAME. Capcom Europe continued saying that Nintendo are sending demo discs to various shops that have demo pods available. The disc will contain demos of Viewtiful Joe, PN03, Soul Calibur 2, F Zero GX as well as others. These demo discs are for shops only though. Finally Capcom confirmed that Killer 7 will be fully unveiled at the Tokyo Games Show. The show will take place September 26-28. Super. Personally, I'm awaiting Killer 7 with baited breath. Ninty are running a fascinating F-Zero championship in the United States- thanks to the power of the internet. By inputting a code available on the F-Zero website, you can you can get a personalized password for your high score in the F-Zero GX's Ruby Cup Time Attack Mode. Nice idea, eh? Anyone remember the secret tournaments in N64 Mario Golf, which were U.S only? We're looking at a repeat perfomance, friends. Expect the password feature to be comprehensively removed for the PAL version.

Cue moaning-Rareware. The word inspires many emotions in a lot of us, ranging from love to disgust, to bewilderment. News reached us this week that the companies long-awaited Perfect Dark Zero (sequel to one of the most astonishing games ever on the N64) won't be coming out on the Xbox, but on the consoles successor. And that, my friends, won't be out until 2006-ish. Oh my.

EA's latest Bond 'em up, Everything or Nothing, has been delayed for a few months. Originally slated for the lucrative Christmas market, EA felt that the game needed a while more in development. So, they did the decent thing and delayed it. And for that, EA, you deserve the warmest congratulations. The EA of a couple of years ago wouldn't have contemplated delaying a game to miss the Christmas rush. Quite a nit of revenue will have been lost because of this move (after all, nothing sells games like Xmas) but in the end, the winner is gaming. It's marvellous to see the company maturing. Granted, it's only one step, but it's a positive one.

Some more information on Mario Kart: Double Dash was made available this week at a "Gamer's Summit" in San Francisco, for the US press. Most notably, the multi-player modes have been laid bare- and it's all good. Battle mode has been expanded with two all new modes added to the original. Along with "Balloon Battle" players can now choose from "Shine Thief" and "Bob-omb Blast". The first, Balloon Battle, is the standard mode as seen in all previous games- nothing new there. Shine Thief sees players fighting over ownership of a Shine Sprite as seen in Mario Sunshine. The last player in possesion of the little begger wins - Much like the Flag-Tag modes in many FPS games. Bob-omb Blast has players racing around trying to collect up Bob-ombs that are spread around the arenas and firing them at opponents. Each time you hit someone you fill a star tank and each time you are hit one of your star tanks is emptied. The aim of the game is to be the first to fill a set number of tanks.

Just as good is the revelation that one of my favourite modes from the Super NES original is back- the split-screen multiplayer Grand Prix mode returns with a bang. And there's more! You can also play co-operative Grand-Prix mode, which involves one player controlling the kart (or motorized pram, as the case may be) and the other firing the weapons. To add even more spice to proceedings, the powerslide boost must be performed by both players, working in unison. Brilliant. Players can swap between driver and 'weapons firer' by pressing z- but both must press it at the same time. Super.

No doubt about it, Nintendo are answering all our prayers in this game- they have addressed just about every problem pointed out to them since E3 in May. I'm hoping the AI will be tidied up quite a bit- I'm fed up not being able to lap certain characters like in the other games. Roll on November- it's going to be absolutely great, We'll call a halt there, ladies and gents. You can email me at [email protected] if you like, with your questions/queries/rants and ravings/ complaints/praise. All are welcome. Especially the last one.

Sl�n go f�il.
Mark Cullinane