Hello again C-E -ers, for another info-packed edition of the weekly digest; Cube-Europe's in-depth review of the past 7 days in the mad world of Nintendo.

ECTS was the word (?) on everybody's lips this week, of course, but as Sony were doing a good impression of a company trying to take over a games show in its totality, Nintendo changed tack this year and opted for something a little�.different. Regular C-E readers will know that this year Nintendo weren't exhibiting any of their own games inside the show per se, but rather inside a massive huge truck parked outside ECTS' gates, filled with and surrounded by the most powerful of Nintendo's gaming arsenal. And believe it or not, it went down a real treat with attendees. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to attend this year (something about being under 18�argh) but my time will come soon enough (it had better). Still, several of C-E's intrepid staffers took the trip into deepest London for a spot of serious 'investigative work' at Earls Court, the venue of the show. Tim, our revered boss, managed to blag a host of exclusives for us, including several interviews with the great and good of gaming this side of the Atlantic (and beyond, as it happens). We've got a transcript of a Q and A session with Atsushi Inaba, the producer of the wonderful Viewtiful Joe. Click here for that. We sat down with Marko Hein, Product Manager of Nintendo of Europe, for a chat where he was asked by Tim the hard questions - click here to see it.

More is to come on the interviews front in the near future.

On to the truck itself, then. The truck itself had cubicles inside, all demonstrating playable versions of Viewtiful Joe, F Zero GX, Metal Gear Solid :Twin snakes, Pokemon Colosseum, Rebel Strike and, of course, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, as well as plenty of GBA titles including the stupendous Advance Wars 2. The much-improved Four Swords was also drawing the punters. The truck didn't just have games playing inside it, but all around the edges are playable versions of the fabled Mario Kart and Zelda: Four Swords. The whole area around the truck looks like a go kart track, which circles the vehicle. This isn't all- on the side of the track areas and chicane markers is a huge TV screen with 4 go-karts in front of it. The go karts have a screen above the wheel and a wavebird controller in place of the wheel itself... fantastic, eh? Take a gander yourself, below.

Mario Kart outside the bus- what will they think of next?

Inside the bus itself

The general vibe surrounding Mario Kart was overwhelmingly positive- since E3, some small but vital gameplay touches have been added- not least the legendary Mario Kart power slide. Its looking like Ninty will reward us for our waiting patiently since MK64. November 14th is suddenly looking a good deal closer.

All the rest of the ECTS coverage on C-E is easily reached by clicking here. Take my word for it, there is plenty to see; Hands on reports from virtually every Nintendo game on display, as well as plenty of screens are all in there, and well worth taking a peek at. Bottom line for Nintendo at ECTS- they didn't announce anything, or do very much out of the ordinary, except confirm that the Christmas line-up and beyond is looking very rosy indeed. And that's good enough for me. Back to school tomorrow, eh? Thought so. Me too, so I'll just run through the remaining non-ECTS pieces of news for you before I collapse in my chair due to exhaustion�

The newly-released Tales of Symphonia from Namco is flying off the shelves in Japan, with the game selling over 200,000 copies in its first day, easily outperforming the arrival of Final Fantasy a few weeks ago. Hopefully it'll come out here some time, although don't hold your breath. Good to see the GC's repertoire of excellent RPGs increase, all the same. With sales like this we will most likely see the GameCube sales figures rising as well when the official Japanese charts are released soon.

Natsume this week announced that the US version of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life has been delayed. The title could see a release in the US as late as early next year. The delay, according to Natsume US representatives, is a reflection of the recent delay in Japan. When asked for a more specific date on when the title might release in the US, a Natsume spokesperson commented: "Nothing has been completely finalized, but it's looking like December or January."

Harvest Moon is a 3D life/farm simulation in which players must manage crop, interact with townspeople, and build a life for themselves in a virtual world. The game's story spans 30 years and in that time the main character and those he knows will grow of age. More importantly though, its going to be brilliant, if its anywhere near as good as its predecessors. It should also be a worthy alternative to Animal Crossing, with any luck. The game has gone through delay after delay- let's hope this is the last. Will this change the PAL date as well? Likely. We shall see.

Now here's an amusing story� Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America's Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, gave birth to a healthy 7lb. 15oz. baby girl on Sunday at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, Washington. During labour Perrin played Donkey Kong Country on her Game Boy Advance as her focal point. That, my friends, is called devotion. I doubt the husband gets much of a look in�. We wish Perrin the best, of course. We have some bad news about the Double Dash bonus disk. Nintendo announced this week that Mario Kart 64 will not be a bonus game to Double Dash. When Double Dash is pre-ordered starting in October, a special demo disc featuring future GameCube games will be packaged inside. Standard games will not include the demo disc. So there a bonus disc, but it will NOT include Mario Kart 64. My response? As the ad went, why have cotton when you can have silk?

Another phoenix rose from the flames of 'development hell' this week. Except it never was in hell at all. As I mentioned earlier, Cube-Europe had an exclusive Q&A session with Atsushi Inaba, the producer of Viewtiful Joe. We asked him what the deal was with Dead Phoenix, and got a very interesting reply. Atsushi told us that he did not know that a rumour regarding the cancellation of Dead Phoenix was being spread over the internet. In fact, he told us that the game is still in development at the Capcom studios in Japan.

When we said Famitsu contained an article claiming Capcom officially cancelled the game, he replied saying that he has a good relationship with the magazine and he never knew they published that news. There has probably been a communication error he said. He continued saying: "Capcom has never officially cancelled the game". So there you have it. Dead Phoenix is still being developed. A word to the wise, however- when last we saw it, it looked like being easily the weakest of the 'Capcom 5' . Still, time will tell. More bonus-disk shenanigans next. Game have updated their website stating that when you pre-order Rebel Strike you will receive a bonus disc, which we've detailed numerous times in the past. Game state they are the only ones at present who offer this but it is unknown if other stores will also offer it yet. Great news. Well, we'll leave it there. See you all next Sunday evening! Before I go, I've had a few 'issues' with my [email protected] address, which I use for C-E related correspondence. 'Issues' meaning an average of 150 virus-containing emails a day. I'll be changing my address next week, hopefully to stem the flow of the Blaster (or whatever is doing the rounds this particular week). Until then, add me to your MSN at [email protected]. (No emails to that address, mind, because I never check it) Anyway, see y'all later.

Sl�n

Mark Cullinane