As January turns to February, so does Winter to Spring� (not that its much to do with gaming or anything, but I've got a column to fill here) and with it, a whole bunch of pretty interesting slices of news from the world of Nintendo.

Nothing earth-shaking to report this week, but there have been an usually high number of new GC games confirmed; UK developer Zoonami are definetly working on a GameCube game- which wouldn't have been particularly interesting if it wasn't for the fact that the company's lead man is none other than former Rare employee Martin Hollis, who headed up work on the Nintendo 64 classics GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. The games working title is apparently 'Game Zero'- somehow it seems unlikely that the game will be released with this moniker. Of course, Zoonami are displaying one particularly annoying trait of Rare's; total secrecy. It certainly should be one to keep half an eye on, anyway.

Nintendo also this week announced that every GameCube in Europe will come with a free game- from a list of seven largely excellent games. This mirrors the scheme in America, although, oddly, it appears that it is for a limited time only. Well, it certainly is a step in the right direction.

In other 'exciting' announcements, Acclaim announced a few games- none of which particularly inspire the imagination, although the sequel to the rather good XG3 is looking promising. Acclaim, of course, will be looking to turn things around after a stack of disappointing high-profile games- The underwhelming Turok Evolution and the frankly putrid BMX XXX being only the latest examples of the company's recent slide.

EA officially confirmed The Sims; Pitfall Harry is coming to the 'Cube; and the excellent Ikaruga gets a European release (April, Treasure fans).

The usually-quiet Nintendo of Australia revealed the company's line-up for the year along with some pretty interesting release dates during the week, and although they do not reflect European launch dates, they do give is some insight into potential releases for some of the year's biggest games. Animal Crossings' 'will they won't they' journey out of America towards Europe was also thrown up in the air again � It is confirmed, and down as simply '2003' for Australia. Granted, this in no way indicates a Europe-wide release, but remember if and when it makes it to Australia, it will be a PAL version- which we can all play. Interestingly, the long-awaited GBA Pokemon games, Ruby and Sapphire, will be making their appearance on April 3rd in Australia. The Sims is also confirmed for March 27th- not too bad at all.

But the really good news this week- which renders Animal Crossing's possible release Down Under irrelevant- is the final, official, certifiable confirmation that the games industry's most oft-delayed peripheral, the Freeloader, is finally coming out on February 5th. For those not in the know click here for the press release. Essentially, the Freeloader is a GC disk which allows you to play imported games from the U.S or Japan- without any fuss or invalidating your warranty- its all very clean and above board, as they say. May I draw your attention to www.dvdboxoffice.com where the U.S version of Animal Crossing is available for 44 Euro (postage is free)- the Freeloader from KingCube is also a pretty attractive offer, all told. All of this means that Animal Crossing, is, finally, within the grasp of European GC owners. And all without the help of Nintendo of Europe, who have not been as forthcoming as they should on the Animal Crossing issue, despite the difficulty and expense of the translation and country-specific holidays inherent in converting the game for a European audience.

One final bit of pointless video game trivia, for you- according to my pocket calender, (bear with me) on this very day, Friday, the worlds first video game (no specifics) was installed in a Californian bar in 1972. Intriguing, I'm sure.

That's all from me- until next week. Email me your comments- on this or any other issue- at [email protected]. Or contact me via MSN at [email protected]