Famitsu's readers review Magical Vacation for the GBA, with promising results!

In Famitsu this week, User's Eye features a reader review of the GBA game Magical Vacation. While not an official review by the Famitsu staff, it is nonetheless an excellent indicator of a game’s merits. In this case, Famitsu reader opinion highlights the good and bad points of Magical Vacation, finally awarding it an 8.8 in overall score.

More news from the homeland about pricing, availability, and what E-Cards will actually do for games.

According to Nintendo Japan’s website, Animal Forest trading cards will go on sale starting February 14 of this year. Cards will be sold in packs of 5 for 191 yen ($1.50 US). Initially 64 different types of cards featuring animals from the game will be available. Each card comes with a picture... Read more...

Free is good. Well that is...if you've imported Animal Forest.

If you are the owner of an imported version of Animal Forest, that is. If you go to Nintendo Japan’s website and register the name of your village and your character’s name by January 31, you will receive a unique password. Send this password to a village member in your Animal Forest save, and... Read more...

Harry Potter goes to Japan, as well as another GCN game under the microscope this week.

Konami will be quite busy this week, releasing six games across four platforms in Japan, including a GCN game. Here are the notables.

Hyper Sports Winter 2002 (GCN, Konami): 29 (7 7 7 8)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (GBA, Square EA): 27 (7 6 8 6)

Hyper Sports Winter 2002 (GBA, Konami): 26 (7 6 7 6)

Three great Sega classics, one GBA cart!

THQ has revealed the contents for the first GBA Sega Smash Pack:

Golden Axe

Ecco the Dolphin

Sonic Spinball

Golden Axe is said to "feature single player action (no link play for two players), and have three modes of play: Arcade Mode, Easy Mode, and Duel Mode."

Want to see how Nintendo is going to plaster itself all over America in the first half of the year?

Hot off the presses, Nintendo just announced its line-up of some of the promotions it would be running with other companies in Q1/Q2 of 2002. Nintendo notes that this is just an "update," and that more promos will also be announced in the months ahead.

NINTENDO GAMECUBE

NBA Jam Van

Timing: Jan. 8 – April 14

Sources all over the internet are posting the webcast early. Don't want to wait until Monday? Click away! HAX0R TEH GIBSEN!

Click the above link to be taken directly to Nintendo GameCube-Europe's website, and see the entire press conference early!

It even comes in three oh-so-tasty flavors!

THQ announces that their next Motocross game will be heading to the GameCube as early as this summer! The juice is inside kiddies...

THQ ANNOUNCES NEXT INSTALLMENT FOR MX FRANCHISE

Next Game in Successful Motocross Series Coming to PlayStation 2, Xbox and Gamecube

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif. - January 24, 2002 - THQ Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: THQI) today announced the latest installment in its highly successful MX franchise.... Read more...

It's in November! Hahahahaha! Suckers! Oh I'm kidding. The official release date, price, and launch list await you....

According to our good friends at Computer and Video Games, the GameCube will be launched in Europe on May 3.

While we haven't heard anything from our friends at Nintendo of Europe on this, we believe this announcement to be true. Here's what C&VG had to report...

The speculation has ended.... Read more...

It's coming. The true release date for the release date is this Monday, and you can all be there to see it.

As expected, the European GameCube website launched today at www.nintendogamecube-europe.com.

Sporting the same design as the US site the main feature currently is, of course, the launch announcement webcast this Monday, January 28th. The countdown (provided by the site) to the announcement... Read more...

A news piece from the Wall Street Journal illustrate one of the key points of "The Nintendo Difference" ...

In a fairly well written story, Joseph Pereira explains how Nintendo is tackling the video game industry using new and innovative "non-violent" games.

For a company that historically has pinned it's success on the Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong franchises, Pikmin is a big gamble. Bigger than most people realize, as Pikmin turns out to be Nintendo's costliest game ever to develop.

THQ and Jakks Pacific finally make it official, issuing a press release for WWF Wrestlemania X8, an exclusive for Nintendo GameCube!

The following press release has been issued today. The following summary of features are listed in the press release, or could be seen from early screen shots. The final product is very likely to have additional features.

-35 WWF/WCW/ECW Stars

-Hardcore Matches

-Tornado Matches

-Triple Threat Matches

Nintendo and Sony face off for world domination (in Japan)! See who fared best this week!

 Game Title

System

Maker

Last Week's Rank

Week Before Last

This Week's Sales

Total Unit Sales

1

Gran Turismo Concept 2001 Tokyo

PS2

SCE

2

-

50,101

248,285

2

Mobile Suit Gundam Federation VS Zeon DX

PS2

We get a lot of e-mail asking if GTA3 is coming to the Cube as rumored. In short, no.

IGN Cube has contacted Rockstar to inquire about the rumors that a port of GTA3 is in the works for GameCube.

Rockstar's response was that other than the X-Box and PC versions (in addition to the already released PS2 version), there is not a GameCube version planned at this time.

Bam! just officially announced that Wallace and Gromit are headed to ALL next generation systems. The press release awaits you...

BAM! To Make Video Game Stars Of Wallace And Gromit

BATH, UK -- BAM! Entertainment (Nasdaq: BFUN) today confirmed the forging of a new licensing and publishing partnership with the Oscar® winning Aardman. Coming shortly after similar deals with Spyglass, Franchise Pictures and Cartoon Network,... Read more...

In an interview with SPOnG, the executive producer for the Medal of Honor series drops hints on a possible GCN version ...

To get the details of the game's mechanics, head over to the SPOnG interview, but the news is that the developer is contemplating a GameCube version ...

Q: What about the future of the Medal of Honour series?

RG: The MOH series, I can tell you, has a very strong future across new platforms.... Read more...

Sylvester Stallone in a GameCube game. What more could you ask for?

After the PS2 and GBA versions of the game, BAM! has announced that Driven, the videogame based off of the movie about the CART racing series, will be coming to the GameCube before the end of the year is up.

Reports around the web are pointing to a signifigantly enhanced version of the game compared to the PS2 version, as well as a few extra features thrown in for good measure.

Nintendo's European branches will hold a press conference on Monday to announce the final GameCube release date and launch details.

Nintendo's various European subsidiaries are sending out announcements to regional press about a major GameCube press conference to be held this coming Monday, January 28th. The press conference will be broadcast live via webcast at http://www.nintendogamecube-europe.com (although the site is currently inactive, it will open to the public tomorrow).

Capcom's upcoming Shantae could be one of the last GBC titles ever released in America. Why should you care? It has special GBA-only features, that's why!

According to GameSpot, Capcom's upcoming GBC platformer Shantae features a genie who battles enemies by shaking her butt. (No, I'm not making this up.) Platforming fans might be interested to know that the game will include some special features unlocked only when you play it in a Game Boy Advance...an... Read more...

Capcom officially boasts so many Resident Evil titles for 2002 that it's scary!

As everyone who visits this site knows, Capcom is bringing its entire Resident Evil/Biohazard series to GameCube. But Capcom's Gamers Day has managed to provide a new surprise: all five known RE titles are coming out THIS YEAR and will all be released overseas. After unleashing the massively updated... Read more...