Just back from The Kingdom (that's County Kerry to you and me) and after a five-hour car journey, between you and me let's say I'm more than a little tired; so please excuse the lethargy of this edition of the digest. Much of this week's Nintendo news is of the bad kind, I'm afraid, so I'll get it over with.

Sony have just announced that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil will be exclusive to the PS2 in all PAL territories during 2003. It's the curse of Ubi-Soft time-based exclusivity again, for the second time in as many weeks (after Rainbow 6 III's Xbox news last week) . And this time, I'm really angry. Why? GameCube owners are being deprived for a few months two of the most promising games of the year; Ubi's Beyond Good and Evil is one I've been keeping a close eye since last year's E3- since then, it has blossomed into an artistic, beautifully stylised game reminiscent of Nintendo output. The upcoming iteration of the classic Prince of Persia series wowed audiences at E3, and won a host of 'Game of show' awards; no mean feat for a game hitherto unseen. And now both have been pulled from our grasp by the all-pervading power of Sony's limitless coffers. I'll just say one thing- videogaming is the ultimate loser.

Moving swiftly on, British retail giant Argos have decided to ditch the GameCube from their catalogue of products; I say to them good for you, I'm not getting into this tiresome discussion again, and I suspect none of you want to hear it. Period. Part III of the unholy trinity of bad news stories is that you needn't bother importing a copy of F-Zero GX ahead of its European release in a few months time; some Freeloader issues mean that the game won't run properly. Boo, hiss etc. Memo to Cube Magazine: get your people working on a covermount Freeloader Lite disk for F-Zero and I guarantee copies of the magazine will fly off the shelves. But you knew that already, didn't you? Anyway, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire hit European shores this week- I picked up my copy today. And despite the overwhelming feeling of deja vu in the early parts of the game, I'm quite happy to get stuck into this latest adventure from Game Freak; it's a class game, as we'd say here in Ireland. The much-anticipated Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (groan, etc.) is released in the US of A tomorrow; get your Freeloaders out, people. Or you could wait until next year, when Nintendo have told us we can expect it over here. Speaking of release dates, Nintendo, in a typically unfunny press release with more than enough 'clever' golf references, have let slip several key release dates for the U.S. Read on: In November, Mario fans rejoice with the release of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Party 5. Both have a suggested retail price of $49.99 and launch Nov. 17 and Nov. 11 respectively."
Hudson, if you don't change Mario Party 5 enough, I'll come over and. No, Mark, remember those anger management classes. Breath deeply. And more:
On Dec. 1, a storm watch for 1080�: Avalanche will consume the nation, while the all-new Pokémon Channel makes its television introduction, with a suggested price of $49.99 and $39.99 respectively."

On the Game Boy front, some crackers are set for release towards the back end of this year- Mario Advance 4 (yes, that's the remake of a remake) is on its way on October 21. It's the best selling game of all time, and that frankly speaks for itself. The tactical strategy game, Fire Emblem, makes it U.S debut on November 3, while the fascinating Mario and Luigi comes out on the 17th of the same month. It gets even better: Sword of Mana, the long-awaited addition to the critically acclaimed Mana series launches on the 1st of December. Crushingly, though, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube has been delayed until February 7th in the U.S. Read: May/June for Europe. Argh. Plenty more for GC owners though: Asd Nintendo say in their own 'inimitable' 'style' : Filling out the year are a host of incredible third-party exclusive titles, including Soul Calibur II from Namco, featuring Link from The Legend of Zelda series; WWE WrestleMania XIX from THQ; P.N. 03 and Viewtiful Joe from Capcom; Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg from Sega; Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike from LucasArts; and Hideo Kojima's entry to Nintendo GameCube, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes from Konami, among others. Not bad, all told. In fact, its very good. In other news, the threequel to Eidos' Hitman series will be unveiled in Germany next month- (what's the betting Sony or Microsoft snap it up? ) Acclaim's F-Zero wannabe XGRA has been delayed- quailing before the presence of the 'real thing', possibly?

Nintendo has announced its plans for the ECTS in London. They are going to park a whopping big bus outside the entrance to the ECTS trade show, Brompton Road, London, as part of the London Games Week in August. This truck will facilitate 40 Cubes rigged up with the full version of Mario Kart: Double Dash. The ECTS trade show runs from August 27 through to August 29. Nintendo's truck will be there for the same period of time. Nintendo decided not to showcase any of its titles at the ECTS, because Sony is the main sponsor of the event. This could be a great move on Nintendo's part- let's hope they park in front of the entrance to ECTS, wouldn't that be hilarious? Talk about gatecrashing Sony's party, eh? Rest assured, Cube-Europe will be on hand with reports, photographs and, gasp, hands-on reports of Mario Kart.

Ah, yes. Cube-Europe is delighted to be able to bring you an excellent new feature to the site- direct feed movies. To the uninitiated, that means video footage direct from the game (custom-made by The Boss himself), and its very high-quality. But best of all, unlike some of C-E's competitors, its free! Yes, that's right, F-R-E-E. Got it? Everyone's an 'insider', if you catch my drift. Well, that's about it for this week.

Unfortunately, I'm going on holidays for the next while, so you'll be left in the capable hands of Conor next week. I'll still answer your emails though, so keep them coming to [email protected]

See you soon.
Mark Cullinane