The weekly roundup of everything Gamecube.

Welcome again to the Weekly Digest, Cube-Europe's weekly newsletter packed with news from the world of Nintendo gaming. It may be Easter weekend, but that doesn't stop us. So, as ever, on with the show...

Starting with the news that in Japan, Nintendo are still number one. According to the president of Enterbrain, a respected Japanese magazine, Nintendo sold nearly 6.5 million units in Japan in the last fiscal year. This does not include popular titles Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green which are now classed as part of the "Pokémon" company (which Nintendo has a hefty stake in). Square Enix were second behind the big N. Significantly, they stated that Nintendo planned to unveil an impressive 30 games for the Nintendo DS come E3 in May (a mere couple of weeks away now!)

Staying with news of that videogame exhibition, our friends at Cube magazine in the United Kingdom have published a list of games they claim have been confirmed to be shown at E3. The full list is on our new section right now, but in the meantime here are the first and second-party highlights;

• Donkey Konga
• Geist
• Golden Sun
• Mario 128 (could it be true?)
• Mario Tennis
• Metroid Prime 2
• Paper Mario
• Pikmin 2
• Wind Waker 2
• Zelda Four Swords

That little lot is only the top of a very impressive-sounding iceberg, though. A veritable ton of other first, second, and third-party titles will be shown at E3, and that's not even including the slew of DS titles expected to be announced, as well as the unveiling of the actual system. But wait- it gets even better! Nintendo are readying a mysterious new peripheral for the GameCube, to give it extra functionality. Typically, we don't even have the slightest clue what it may be. All in all, it's shaping up to be one of the most extraordinary E3 showing Nintendo has had in a long, long time. And after last year's relative dissapointment, it's all the more relieving. C-E will be on hand, as in other years, to report the news the moment it happens.

It seems a month doesn't go by without news of yet another videogame apparently being turned into a film (and usually, disappearing without trace immediately afterwards) but this time we're a little more confident. Hollywood big-shot John Woo has optioned the rights to a film based around Nintendos' hit Metroid franchise. Regular readers of the digest will remember that a year ago Warren Zide and Craig Perry took the film options from Nintendo, but they let them expire without coming up with a product. Tiger Hill -Jon Woos' very own games production studio, stepped up and asked Nintendo for the option to produce the film themselves. They're working to an expected release of 2006. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Ubi Soft, that most prolific of publishers of late, has announced that the GameCube version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 will be released in June 2004 in Europe. Developed by Ubisoft's Shanghai studios, the game offers, ahem, the 'most thrilling and realistic single- and multi-player counter-terrorist experience available anywhere'. Online play and communication features have been ruthlessly excised, but that was to be expected given the Cube's lack of online infrastructure. Still, the Xbox version was quite warmly received, and who can resist another slice of 'ol Clancy?

Ghost Recon 2, another Tom Clancy and Ubi Soft game, has just been confirmed for appearance on all systems for this Winter. Far Cry, the company's recent acclaimed PC title, is also slated for appearance on 'select next-gen consoles' this year under the title Far Cry: Instincts. The game will feature remixed gameplay with extra modes and challenges, which is fine by us. The question is, will it come out on GC? We're frantically trying to find out from Ubi Soft, but they're remaining tight-lipped.

Nintendo will, this week, make another appearance on BBC3. The station is showing a series of programs called "Outrageous Fortunes" which investigates the rise of some of the world's biggest family-based companies. Nintendo is to be the subject on Monday April 19th at 9pm.

Apparently, the Nintendo episode will contain an interview with Miyamoto and other Nintendo employees as well as owners of fan-sites. You can expect plenty of information on the Yamauchi dynasty, whose family gave birth to the company we all know and love.

For those without access to BBC3, the programme will be repeated later on in the year on BBC2.

Well, we'll leave it there for this week.

Mark Cullinane

[email protected]