Your weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

Welcome again to the Weekly Digest, C-E's weekly (no, really) round up of GameCube and Nintendo news. Normal service has definitely resumed...

Well, by now the dust has settled on a hectic, eventful and pretty damn impressive E3 showing from Nintendo. The DS was unveiled as a fascinating device which promises to revolutionise how we interact with games. The likes of DK Jungle Beat presented us with new (and brilliant) ways of controlling standard GameCube games- and of course, there was that Zelda announcement, which had show attendees shedding real tears of joy. But all that was only the tip of the iceberg as far as E3 was concerned. Nintendo had a lot of quality software on show, across three consoles- GBA, GC and DS. But what was just as impressive is that Nintendo excelled at E3 despite failing to make a long-awaited series of announcements- neither the N5 (apparently now codenamed 'Revolution') the mysterious Mario 128 or the promised new official GameCube peripherals surfaced. All three are potentially explosive announcements, which Nintendo are keeping in reserve for the time being. By now you'll have read the numerous news stories and write-ups by my fellow C-E staffers on E3- on the site right now is an insiders guide to the DS, as well as another edition of Conor's excellent GameOff, in which he examines Nintendo's E3 performance.

But even since the big L.A show, news hasn't been at all thin on the ground- so, let's have a look, shall we? Ever since the announcement of the shocking new GameCube Zelda game, the Internet has been buzzing with rumours of who is to direct the project. Well, we can confirm that Mitsuhiro Takano is in charge of the game. Takano has worked for both Nintendo R&D2 and Nintendo EAD in his 7 year tenure with the Kyoto �based company as everything from a script writer, graphic designer, to assistant director. Takano spoke briefly of his project and mentioned the development team was working very hard on expanding the controls and hoped to fully utilize the GameCube controller- which tallies with Shigeru Miyamoto's assertion that now Link has grown up, the controls too have to grow up and become more complex. Hopefully more information will surface in the near future. A playable, near-finished version of the game will be shown at E3 next year. Nintendo also confirmed their intentions to show the N5 (or whatever it's called today) at next year's event. You can bet your bottom dollar, that we'll know a fair bit more about the new console before then- you may recall Nintendo 'announcing' the DS a few months back.

Speaking of the DS, Konami's Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid and most recently the excellent Boktai on Game Boy Advance, has said in an interview that he has no intention of making an MGS game for Nintendo's dual-screened handheld. When asked about the possibility of a DS MGS, he replied:

"It would be nice to have a Metal Gear game for DS, but the thing is I personally think that the audience for DS will be like that of GBA - it'll be a much younger audience. And this Metal Gear's not really suitable for them."

"If I come up with an idea that allows the player to do things that no other videogames creator would do with the two screens and the touch panel, then I'd come up with a game. I want to do something totally different." While he doesn't completely rule out a DS game, his comments go to show that even the 'best' make very, very bad mistakes sometimes. DS for kids? Hasn't anyone told him yet?

Paper Mario 2 is coming along very well, and is set for an imminent Japanese release! RPG fans in Japan won't have to wait for long for the sequel to the N64's swansong RPG, Paper Mario. In fact, the game is coming far sooner than many people think, as it will be available to Japanese gamers on the 22nd of July, significantly sooner than previously anticipated. This means that a U.S November/December launch is likely, with a PAL release soon after. Judging from the game's E3 incarnation, it will be an excellent addition to the Cube RPG roster.

Staying in Japan, and the sequel to Donkey Konga, the hit DK-based rhythm game is nigh-on complete, and will be released in just over a months time, on July 1st. If you're wondering why the sequel is being released in the Far East even before we see it's predecessor, it's because it's just the first game, tarted up a little, with new songs. Sounds rather like your average EA sequel, then. Pardon, that was my cynical alter-ego there. He doesn't get out much, you know. More soon.

Nintendo's worldwide profits are significantly down on last year's- but this can be accounted for by the currency situation, which is absolutely out of the company's hands. More worrying is poor American GC sales, which have slumped further. Brighter news from the UK though, with the release of Pokémon Colosseum and it's GC bundle pack sending GC sales soaring by 80%. Good to see that Pokémon still hasn't lost it's old magic. It's all swings and roundabouts, eh?

Finally this week, and Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that he hasn't decided which console to release Mario 128 on. He says he's running some 'tests' to find out which console- the DS, GC or, ahem, N5, is most suitable to host the game. He described the progress of the game's development so far as "moving along secretly like a submarine under the water". Let's hope it comes up for some air soon.

Well, that's all for this week. Check your inbox next week for the next edition of the digest.

Sl�n,

Mark Cullinane
[email protected]