Phew, what a week its been. And I'm not referring to my mind-numbing exams during the week, but rather, the avalanche of news and announcements concerning everyone's favourite piece of cubular plastic during the past seven or so days.

And what better way to start than to celebrate the earth-shattering news that Konami are bringing Metal Gear Solid to the Gamecube. The announcement made by Konami, and was later confirmed by Nintendo of Europe, has signalled joyous street parades all over the world, and world leaders have decreed tomorrow be a national day of celebration. Er, quite.

Although Konami won't yet divulge any other information other than the cast-iron fact that Hideo Kojima's celebrated Metal Gear series is coming to the Cube, it has emerged that Nintendo will be working closely with Konami to produce the title- yet another example of Nintendo's willingness and interest in having Japanese games makers firmly on board the good ship Gamecube.

Just a couple of short years ago, the mere thought that Nintendo would be working so closely with the likes of Capcom, Sega, Namco, Square, and Konami would have been nothing short of ludicrous; but the industry is changing rapidly; Nintendo are changing too. Magical. It also appears that Konami are going to support the GC more heavily, too- more on the company's biggest franchises will hopefully be revealed in May's E3 exhibition. Here's hoping Konami are in for the long haul. Whatever Konami's longer-term commitments are, having the Metal Gear series on the Gamecube is a big psychological boost for Nintendo owners everywhere- the recent spate of big software houses ditching the Gamecube (most notably Codemasters) was disappointing- this news not only cements the GC as being a platform for 'mature games, but it is a declaration of faith for Nintendo's console, too, on Konami's part. Great news all round, then.

In entirely unrelated but almost equally heart-warming news is the confirmation that Ubi Soft will bring the utterly delightful Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life to the GameCube in Europe, for an October release. The GBA version, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town will also be released. For those not in the know (a significant proportion of you no doubt), the Harvest Moon series is an agriculture sim, with dating and community aspects, not altogether too far removed from Nintendo's beautiful oddity Animal Crossing. A link-up feature (thankfully, the link up capabilities are being used in far more games these days) will also be a key component of the experience. If the rest of the Harvest Moon games are anything to go by, it'll be a cracker.

Some amusingly contradictory reports concerning Nintendo' s future prospects have surfaced; they are worth a read, I think. Take a look here and here- you make up your mind about them. As we reported earlier in the week, its been made official that Capcom are in intensive development with a new GBA Zelda game- and shock, horror, its going to be an all new, original game- something the GBA could do with. Great news then, and considering what an exemplary job Capcom did with Oracle series on the Game Boy Color, we have every faith in them to deliver. Rest assured- as you'd expect, Nintendo will be keeping a close eye on them. Hopefully, a can or two of beans will be spilt on this at E3. It certainly looks like its going to be a big E3 for Nintendo. Incidentally, the imaginatively titled Pikmin 2 (don't worry- the name will be changed) was shown, albeit very briefly, during Miymoto's glorious visit to the UK last week. There will definetly be a two-player mode in the game, and I'm prepared to bet good money that online play will be an option. Again, all will be revealed at E3.

Granted, its hardly part of this weeks news, but how and ever- next week, for the first time ever in Europe, a Nintendo console is going online. The console being the GameCube, obviously, and the game being the sumptuous Phantasy Star Online, by Sega. In a laughably ironic twist of events, Nintendo- by far the most tentative and cautious of all three major console manufactures when it comes to online gaming- are getting to the party before both Microsoft and Sony, albeit slightly. Although, of course, Sega, rather than Nintendo, are providing the online infrastructure . Still, good to see Nintendo dipping their toes into the uncertain waters of online gaming. Hopefully, we will see some more online games confirmed at E3.

Well, nothing more of significant magnitude to report- until next week, dearest readers.

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