Hello again digesters, and welcome to another information overload, filled with the most interesting and important morsels of news from the crazy world of Nintendo of the past seven days.

Quite a bit to get through this week, digesters- the news machine is starting to pick up again after a relatively quiet summer. So, lets get to it, then.

Beginning firstly with the news that Nintendo this week has given us a comprehensive enough list of release dates for the remainder of 2003, on both the Gamecube and GBA.

Nintendo boldly proclaim that over 200 GC titles will be on the shelves by Christmas. Here's exactly what we have to look forward to:

Exclusive games only for the GC:
P.N.O3- Capcom- 29th August '03
F- Zero GX- Nintendo- 31st October '03
Viewtiful Joe- Capcom- 31st October '03
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike- Lucas Arts- 7th November '03
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!- Nintendo- 14th November '03
Billy Hatcher and The Giant Egg- SEGA- 21st November '03
1080 Avalanche- Nintendo- 28th November '03
Pikmin 2- Nintendo- 28th November '03
Mario Party 5- Nintendo- 5th December '03
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes- Konami- tba

3rd Party Games:
Soulcalibur II- Namco- 26th September '03
Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup - EA- 31st October '03
FIFA Football 2004 - EA- October '03
James Bond 007 Everything or Nothing- EA- November '03
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King- EA- Winter '03

There will be over 400 Game Boy Advance Games available by Christmas 2003 including,

Game Boy Advance software releases

Golden Sun2: The Lost Age - Nintendo- 19th September '03
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land - Nintendo- 26th September '03
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising- Nintendo- 3rd October '03
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3- Nintendo -17th October '03
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Nintendo- 24th October '03
Top Gear Rally- Nintendo- 7th November '03
Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire - Nintendo- 14th November '03
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga - Nintendo- 21st November '03

3rd Party Games
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup- EA - 31st October '03
FIFA Football 2004 - EA- October '03
Banjo Kazooie- THQ- October '03
Tony Hawk's Underground - EA- November '03
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing- EA - November '03


I don't know what you all think, but in my book that's a line-up not to be sniffed at. In fact, its really great. Let's put this into perspective for a moment- must-have titles between now and Christmas are plentiful- we've got the stupendous F-Zero GX coming at the end of October, the brilliantly unique Viewtiful Joe arriving the same day- two very hardcore games, them (worthy of purchase by most C-E readers then, methinks. Before that there's the best 3D fighting game ever made- Soul Calibur II launching on the 26th of September- that's only a few weeks away folks! It gets even better, though, with the very promising Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike- from Julian and co. at Factor 5 coming just a week after F-Zero and Joe, on the 7th November. Wait another seven days, and the 14th November sees the launch of, gasp, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!! The interesting Billy Hatcher sees the light of European day on the 21st. 1080 Avalanche is released the following week, on the 28th. Ridiculously, another AAA title also gets released on that very day, the gorgeous Pikmin 2. Those of us still with the energy to party only have to wait another week to get their hands on Mario Party 5 (which I'm fervently hoping Hudson have the sense to polish after the disappointing forth instalment last year.)

And that's with Nintendo holding back the forthcoming Mario Golf and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes until next year (apparently).

Now there's a great line-up- eclipsing the line-ups of the PS2 and Xbox (that's my honest assessment of the situation). And wait for it- those games mentioned above (excepting Namco's Soul Calibur 2) are only the exclusive titles. Phew! Let's be honest here, as much as we seem to like knocking Nintendo, that must be considered a massive turn up for the books after a dismal Christmas last year. And here's a tip: keep any eye out for Natsume's Harvest Moon for GC and GBA, out soon. It's going to be a cracker, with any luck.

Moving on now, Sega have released new information on their website about the upcoming game Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. It has emerged that you will be able to download several games onto your Game Boy Advance.(much like Animal Crossing, in fact) It is not known how you unlock them but you can unlock the games NiGHTS into Dreams, Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket and more. These can then be downloaded onto the Game Boy Advance and played. Regardless of whether you like all this connectivity business (and I know opinion is divided) thumbs up to Sega on that one.

During the week, Cube-Europe reported that 1080 Avalanche would feature LAN compatibility. Better still, Star Fox 2 is also getting the LAN treatment. The game will feature LAN play in the multiplayer battle mode as shown recently at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. It is also likely that the Co-Op mode will utilize the LAN support the game offers. Granted, LAN play is going to be restricted to the select few (and don't persist in telling me otherwise) but what's really interesting is that LAN technology is easily adaptable by those in the know, to take the game online. Several companies are working on this at the moment. It seems Nintendo are going online with the GameCube, although very much by the back door, and not on their own account. Good news though.

Nintendo of Europe have confirmed that Paper Mario will make its way onto the GameCube during the first half of 2004.

The title appeared amongst Nintendo's release schedule for Germany along with other titles such as Pokemon Colosseum, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Mario Golf, Nintendo Puzzle Collection, Kirby Air Ride, Mario Tennis, and Star Fox 2. Presumably the game is a conversion/update of the N64 game of the same name, which although was released in Europe, was extremely hard to get hold of. Can't complain, though- by all accounts is a fine piece of work by the Big N.

This week, a new build of Mario Kart for the GC emerged- and thankfully, the game has been significantly upgraded (although not much in the graphics department) . Critics of the slow game speed (the UK's NGC magazine being one of the most amusingly vocal) will be pleased to hear that Ninty have given the game a huge speed increase. Just as good is the successful inclusion of the legendary Mario Kart power-slide which was mysteriously absent from the E3 version. Oh, and they fixed those rubbish-looking clouds. As I mentioned earlier the game has a fixed European release date- 14th November. Our very own Tim though, will get to see it much sooner than that. He's heading off to London Games Week, and more importantly ECTS, outside which the Nintendo Bus� will be showing of Double Dash!! to a captive audience. Don't hog it for too long, now, Tim. He's also going to be running interviews with the great and the good of gaming from Nintendo to EA to Sega. Stay tuned for full, real-time (ho) news from the show floor on C-E. The ECTS button on the main page will do the trick nicely. It all kicks off this week on the site.

Another quick piece of news for you- several new screenshots of Zelda: The Four Swords have emerged, and thankfully it's had a lovely graphical overhaul. No longer does it look exactly like A Link to the Past- now it looks like a cross between it and the Wind Waker, with its pastel-shaded hues. Still strictly a 2D affair though, but coming on nicely- If GBA gaming on your Cube is your thing (which I'm a little undecided about)

Animal Crossing is getting a PAL release. But don't hold your breath, we mean PAL, as in Australia, rather than Europe. NoE's head honcho David Gosen said, somewhat predictably that "We have to translate the game into six languages in Europe. They don't have that problem in Australia." I have a feeling that many of you are waiting desperately for AC's European release, so here's my advice. I picked up the game for a total price of less than 45 Euro recently. I used the Animal Crossing Freeloader disk that came free with a Cube magazine recently, and imported the game from a well-known Canadian site (email me if you want to know). In a couple of weeks I was able to play the game for less than the cost of buying it here in Ireland. So I would advise you to do that, or to pick up the Australian PAL version whenever it comes out.

Here's the bottom line on the E-Reader: Its been delayed until next year in Europe, not cancelled as previously believed. Here's the official line: "The launch of the E-Card Reader in Europe has been moved into the first half of 2004, as Nintendo's focus for the remainder of 2003 is the strong software release schedule for both the Nintendo GameCube and the Game Boy Advance."

Finally this week, I'll mention that Ben's new BitchZone article is go- as is Conor's in-depth History of Gaming series, which continues this week. You owe it to yourselves to fill in those blanks in your mind about the roots of video gaming.

Okey doke, we'll leave it there. See you all next week. Oh yes, keep those emails coming in- but please, no viruses if you can help it�

Sl�n
Mark Cullinane
[email protected]