For our 30th Roundtable, we look at an issue that we Europeans are concerned about more than many others; release dates. NOE released the Gamecube release list for the year ahead, but what do our staff think of the dates?

What did you make of the recently-released European release dates?

Ash: Some games are in great places, well better then we anticipated, but some in disappointing places. I look forward to March, its going to be a great month! Some of the releases, such as Zelda are going to get in the way of GCSE which is a bummer. I also noticed that some of in strange places, such as on thurdays and saturdays.

James: In a word? Fanflippintastic.

What a great year 2003 is shaping up to be!

We have Monkey Ball 2, Sonic Mega Collection and MK: Deadly Alliance in February.

We have Phantasy Star, Metroid, Hitman 2, RE0, and Galleon in March, not to mention the GBA SP. And May...in May we have several games, but only one I care about....Zelda: The Wind Waker will be released exactly a year after the GC's Europe release. So many amazing games in a few short months!

If only I had more cash, because March especially will prove why Nintendo is the best frickin' company out there.

Better start saving.....

Franklin: 2003, bring it on, tons of games coming and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on May 3rd! That is way sooner than i expected, i thought it would be a long wait between US and PAL releases of Zelda like with RE:Zero and Metriod, but it looks like NoE and taking things up a notch.

Link: 2003 looks like it's going to be a great year, but not all things are great. I never really thought that Europe was being treated all that baadly by Nintendo until I read a recent interview about Animal Crossing where Satoru Iwata said that Animal Crossing wasn't going to be released in Europe because AC2 was in development so they didn't want to waste man power. Well then why did they "waste" man power on the first one? Anyway, apart from that some truly amazing games are coming out such as Metroid Prime and Zelda. Even if these are the only two games you get this year, you will not be disappointed!

bjlangley: I think it's great that we're getting Zelda as early as May. I was expecting a much longer wait, considering that the US aren't getting it until March. I also think that it's kinda cool that Nintendo are using it's release to mark the 1st birthday of the Gamecube in Europe, hopefully that will make slippage less likely.

Wario World has seen a fairly huge delay now, considering it was originally pencilled in for last November, so when we get to see it again it's quite possible that a fair amount will have changed.

I guess it's a little disappointing that we don't have more information of Phantasy Star Online. Yes we know it's coming in March, but will it be bundled with a broadband adapter or modem? Will both be released here, or will we be in the same situation as PS2 and Xbox owners, with the prospect of broadband only around these parts?

Still, I'm more than satisfied with the line up, I just don't know how I'll fund it all!

Tim: It looks like we are going to see a lot of announcements and new media on some highly anticipated Nintendo titles. Mario Tennis, Mario Kart and Pikmin 2 have finally been giving a - sort of - release date. I expect that a lot of info on these titles will be published by Nintendo in the upcoming two months. Can't wait!

The Q1 title I expect a lot from is Batman Dark Tomorrow. This game has been delayed for so long... it has to be a smash title! Q2, obviously, will be for Zelda. I have been playing the Japanese version for a while now, and I must admit it would be nice to understand some of the conversations in the game.

So many titles to be released! Got to save up some money...