Those lucky enough to live in the UK will find that the new issue of the Nintendo Official Magazine comes free with the Nintendo GameCube preview Mini-CD. The dinky cd is the same size as the normal Gamecube disk and runs on your PC. You will find that virtually all modern PCs cd drives have a slight indentation in the cd tray, which allows you to run the mini cds.

The cd gives you access to information, pics and movies of the european Gamecube launch titles - plus a few more thrown in. A movie, images and description of Starfox Adventures is also included in the disk, which may hint that Rareware's highly anticipated title will release in Europe sooner than you think. The disk is multi-lingual - English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian gamers can all enjoy the delights of the preview cd.

The interface of the preview disk is very stylish, and matches the current Nintendo-Europe.com website. However, the preview is not without its flaws. For example, some of the movies on the disk are not of the highest quality. But at least the disk shows an indication that Nintendo really do care about europe, and that the distant memories of the underpublicised N64 launch are long forgotten. But is it worth buying the Nintendo Official Magazine just for the cd? Well I'd say yes. Just don't expect the magazine to be any good (hopefully NOM will improve by next issue - a overhall is promised). Less impatient gamers could just wait until the preview-cd is given away free from major game stores closer to Gamecube launch.