Super Mario Sunshine gets reviewed. That's right. The review (a whole 12 pages worth) is very well-written and full of info. It's one of the best since they turned from N64. If you want to know what it got just highlight here: 96% .

In terms of big previews, there are 6-page previews of Timesplitters 2 and Resident Evil Zero. Both are excellent and really do make you excited about the games. TS2 got a Anticipation Rating of 5 for the first time. There are also previews of SMB 2, Soul Calibur 2 and Twin Calibur, which I only heard of in the mag.

News features a superb article entitled "Nintendo Go West", about how US and Europe are becoming more important to Nintendo. Great food for thought, we'll be discussing the idea in next weeks Roundtable. Sonic Mega Collection, Pokemon and Driver are also in the News, as well as an article on the current drought that leads into this Autumns onslaught.

Elsewhere in the reviews are F1 2002, Zoocube, Red Card and Eternal Darkness. The first 3 got average scores but Eternal Darkness is a strange one. The superbly-written review makes the score ( 89% ) seem a little too low. The main feature, named "Super Mario's World" celebrates the plumbers history, including a handy mega-family tree linking up Mario and all his rivals, friends and co-stars.

Overall, the mag is as good as ever, but feels as if more could have been put in. But the mag's pulled off with the standard NGC wit and polish, and is worth buying just for the Mario review.