Or is it early morning. What does the land of the rising sun think of GameCube after it's first time with the system? What about the new look of Zelda and Mario? Read on! We need sleep!

Warning: This may be a total rant.

Alrighty...it's 1:41 am here in Makuhari. Everyone else is crashed out in our room and completely asleep. I wanted to drop a few notes on what the whole vibe is like here in Japan on GameCube.

I have one sentence for you.

It's looking like GameCube is going to be a big hit.

Yes, and believe it or not...it's all on paper.

Pokemon Summer Road is the name of the new Pokemon game on GBA. Well, basically that's the name of the new E-Card Pokemon Game that's been demonstrated at Spaceworld.

No US release dates have been announced yet.

And we were too busy covering SpaceWorld to acknowledge it! D’oh! Oh well, we’ve got some belated b-day lovin’ for our pal J-Dub, currently in Japan!

Can you believe it? Early this morning I just found out that yesterday was Justin Wood’s 26th birthday. Well, although we missed the chance to be accurate about it, we still want to get the party started!

I met Justin Wood at my very first E3 (1999 in Atlanta) where he had traveled as a retailer... Read more...

Will Super Smash Bros. Melee be rated Teen? It looks that way...

Despite its violent nature, the original Smash Bros. on N64 got by with an E (Everyone) rating from the Electronic Software Ratings Board, or ESRB.

Thanks to tips from readers "Amir" and "Willis", we've learned that Nintendo's official website lists the new SSB Melee as being rated T for Teen. The content descriptors are "Comic Mischief" and "Animated Violence".

Last year Nintendo teased the US with Sin and Punishment at Spaceworld 2000. PGC asked NOA's Beth Llewelyn today if there's any chance for a US N64 or GameCube release....

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's not looking good. Currently there aren't any plans of Nintendo bringing this title to either the N64 or GameCube.

Yes, and we even asked if they were going to pull a Animal Forest, or Eternal Darkness with this title, and move this game from an N64 game to a GameCube game. The answer was...I don't know. Either way, it doesn't look good.

That's one of the many questions we asked Beth Llewelyn today. When will we see the orange GameCube?

Actually, it's a big unknown. There's no plans of releasing the Spice GameCube in the US as of yet. The spice controller will be available at launch in the US, but so far Japan is slated to get the Spice GC sometime in November. The US and the rest of the world may just get indigo and black.

Nintendo NCL has posted a bunch of GBA game screens, and we have them all!

Below are the games with new screens. Almost all of them have updated Japanese releases as well.

Advance Wars

The Legend of Starfi

Magical Vacation

Tomato Adventure

Dokodemo Taikyoko: Yakuman Advance

Lunar Blaze

Mysterious Retreat TV

Battland

Diddy Kong Pilot

It's interesting what people will tell you over a cup of coffee

At the Nintendo Press breakfast today, Peter Main spoke on a few subjects, such as his retirement and Gamecube connectivity. His retirement was a short subject, essentially just his stating that he wishes to take some time from everything and have some fun in the sun.

His main connectivity... Read more...

Portable 2D fighting mayhem!

IGN Pocket has revealed that Guilty Gear X is on it's way to the GBA. The official unveiling is on the 25th. Not many details are known yet - including whether or not the game will feature one-cart multiplayer.

The master himself explains why Zelda changed to the new look ...

Go read IGN's story. But to whet your appetite, this pretty well sums it up ...

"One thing I'm afraid of is that people who already saw Link in the very beautiful graphics may be looking forward to the much more sophisticated looking version of him [Space World 2000 footage] in the next Zelda.... Read more...

The strange, cutesy communication game gains a GBA counterpart and will be one of the first games to exploit the link-up between GameCube and Game Boy Advance. Scope the details.

Nintendo has revealed that players who own Animal Forest for both GBA and GameCube will be able exchange data between the two versions via the GBA/GCN Link cable.

At least one confirmed way this can work is that players will be able to design wallpapers and costumes on their Game Boy Advance... Read more...

Here's a rough rundown of the Conference Call with Peter Main and Satoru Iwata this morning ...

Be gentle, dear readers. These notes were taken on the fly this morning, but there's GREAT information inside!

Direct link to both system screens with the GBA link cable. GBA screen appears to be a physical extension of the TV screen Kirby falls of edge of TV screen, and into the GBA.

GameCube love, meeting Peter Main again, and dislocating my shoulder. The press event was interesting and amazing (and crappy) to say the least...

It's approximately Midnight as I type this. I'm about to keel over due to exhaustion and pain. But overall, today was a most wonderful day. Nintendo put one hell of a show on for us, and I'm proud to be one of the PGC representatives at the event.

The presentation itself was a lot different... Read more...

Nintendo must ship on November 15 to meet Nov. 18 street date. Plus, Color Quantities ...

Peter Main confirmed for Planet GameCube that Nintendo would be shipping on November 15 to retailers.

Also, there will be 350,000 of each color GCN at launch (Black and Indigo).

More news once the conference call is over

Shigeru admitted today that this little change in Zelda was done before E3 2001?! What?!

Another thing Shiggy dropped at the round table was the fact that these cosmetic changes to the look of Zelda were already underway before E3 2001.

There was a split second of in game footage shown of Metroid Prime, and that's it. Why not more? Shiggy gave us the official word.

Today during the Shigeru round table Q&A he was asked why Metroid wasn't playable. He said he actually had more video in his backpack (laughs), but it wasn't up to his personal standards.

Shigeru also hinted at a late 2002 (if not 2003) release date.

I'm not sure if Nintendo checked out our poll or not, but we've got the beef on the new colors and controllers that will hit the US this November!

When the GameCube hits the US this winter, you'll actually have some choices! The GameCube will initially launch in two flavors: Indigo, and Black. Spice (orange) will be available later on, but will NOT be available at launch.

As far as controllers you'll be able to nab Indigo, Black, Spice, and Indigo/Clear (indigo on top, clear on the bottom) at launch.

The commercial that will air in Japan for Luigi's Mansion is now online. The commercial reveals some cool, new footage! UPDATE: Link fixed.

For those of you with a broadband connection or a great deal of patience, click the link above to download the movie (in MPEG format). For all of you 56kers out there, here's a run down of the commercial.

The first sequence (entirely FMV) starts at the foot of a stone path leading up the mansion,... Read more...

Unfortunately, "truckload" isn't an official measurement. Check out the official numbers from Nintendo!

There's going to be a ton of GameCube's ready for launch in the US as well as Japan. How many you ask?

Japan: 500,000

USA: 700,000

By the end of 2001: 1.4 million (including launch)

North America: 1.1 million (including launch)

Even though this is a huge number, I would suggest pre-ordering a GameCube the first second you get.

We got to see a couple of second and third party GameCube titles on video at the show. Not a lot of surprises, but more or less confirmation of what PGC has been telling you before...

We got to see some footage of a couple new second and third party titles at Spaceworld today. These titles are confirmed:

1080 GC

Soul Calibur 2

Sonic Adventure 2

No official dates as of yet, but these titles looked amazing! Footage coming shortly!