Jay

Totally agree on DK: Jungle Beat - One of the cubes best games and frankly the best Donkey Kong game since the first Country title on the SNES, its short but its great fun and it feels really fresh, although my hands started to hurt after a while. Pikmin 2 as well, I think a lot of people were put off by the 30 day limit in the original (Which doesn't make it too hard, but it makes you rush through it instead of exploring) and so didn't buy this although its probably one of the strongest games on the system. As for Starfox Adventures, I loved that game - The graphics are still some of the best on the cube and even though the controls on the bike sections were sloppy and the game was quite short it was great fun and I feel it's one of the most under-rated cube titles. Say what they will, I still believe most magazines marked it down because of the Rare leaving Nintendo thing. DK64 was a 'not as good' Mario clone, yet it got rave reviews. The 'not as good' zelda clone on the other hand... One game I would say got exactly the press reception it deserved was Geist. A great concept with sloppy gunplay and too many cut-scenes breaking up play (Everytime you posess something, is it really necessary?) - Had some cool little moments but could have been so much more, much like Crystal Chronicles I hope the inevitable Revo version builds on the potential and creates a truly top drawer game.

I used to play as Captain Falcon in the original but his annoying scream when he fell off the edge put me off in Melee - I used Link and Kirby mostly until eventually settling for Roy. Problem was that although I always came out on top in any of the single player or melee modes (against bots) I wasn't all that great in multiplayer, so I experimented with a variety of characters and now I'm a Luigi master Pink Luigi too Barely anyone ever seems to use him but I think he's a great character, his smash moves are easily the strongest in the game.

I'm not going to be able to fit anymore stuff under (I currently have a freeview box, PS2, N64, SNES, NES and Gamecube) without buying a new stand but fortunately because I can play my Cube games on my revo its an easy choice.

Geist has just been the briefest addition to my games collection - I bought it on Friday after seeing it in a local independent shop for £12 pre-owned but with VIP Stars. I bought it inspite of reviews as I loved the concept but the cut-scenes breaking up the action so much and the sloppy FPS sections were disappointing, it wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as it could of been and I decided to trade it in. Made a £5 profit in gamestation with the credit note being saved to go towards my Revo quite probably

Comix Zone (Mega Drive) and I'll be happy.

No arguments but I found the game quite easy, just not particularly enjoyable. I guess I can see why people enjoyed it but it just wasn't my cup of tea

Beyond Good and Evil is horibbly over-rated. There's nothing particularly wrong with it but its far from amazing, the whole 'but it merges lots of genres together so well!' thing was done years ago by Frederick Raynal with his Little Big Adventure Series. Also, I hate Metroid Prime - Respawning enemies, cumbersome controls, badly placed save points - I couldn't stand it, I know most loved it but I thought it was poor. Under-Rated? Got to be Luigi's Mansion, short and easy but so much fun and so full of character. Really enjoyed that game

That'd be quite a good idea actually, it'd certainly draw in the "50 Cent: Bulletproof" crowd.

I got my Gamecube the day it came out for £130 - According to XE.com that equates to $232.98 - Best money I ever spent, I've had a hell of a lot of fun from my Cube. So is it worth $99.99? Hell yes.

It'll be called Playstation 4 - Sony have yet to trademark the name and Nintendo feel that no-one will want to buy a PS3 when they see the new, even better PS4. You heard it hear first

If the system is going to launch at the end of the year worldwide then it'd be suicide for Nintendo not to announce launch details and have the bulk of the launch line up fully playable. With the cube they had almost every launch game shown in full and playable at the E3 before it launched and they announced release dates for the US and Japan, and the price and they even showed what the boxart would be like. They've done the same with othe systems at E3 so I can't see the approach that they and all other developers have always done changing.

Yeah, I think straight after E3 they need to start getting stores to promote it and ideally have demo pods in stores nationwide by September with a good variety of games. If it has a good presence in stores (And not just Game/Gamestation, I'm talking HMV, MVC, Virgin Megastores etc.) then people will sit up and take notice. At the moment most people are clueless, the average joe hasn't heard of the Revolution and most I've explaiend it to think its a brilliant idea. Even usually knowledgeable staff in my local Gamestation seemed totally clueless, when I asked "When can I put my name down to pre-order a Revolution" I got the response that it'd either be christmas or next year. A solid date, price-point and launch line-up must be announced at E3 because the way the Gamecube was messed about in Europe (no launch date for ages, price keep changing, stores didn't have a clue till about two months before it came out) was a joke and I believe it practically killed the system before it launched. They need to get people trying the Revolution because my feelings are that people will try it and love it, even if they wouldn't normally even think of playing one - Much like with the DS.

Yeah it would seem sensible - I'm not banking on it but I do think we will see the system launched in November here, or failing that early December. Nintendo really need to get it out, promote it and make it the system to have at christmas. A lot of parents may be more inclined to buy their kids a Revo as its a cheaper alternative to 360/PS3 and the christmas period could really give the Revo a chance to establish itself. A strong launch line-up, good promotion, a competetive price and no system shortages and I don't see why they can't do it.

I think we're certain to see the system with one controller and the analogue stick attachment in the box. Ideally Nintendo would include another controller and a controller shell to cover everything, but I think its unlikely. I wouldn't rule out the shell but unless there's a launch title which requires two controllers at one point I don't think there's any chance of it happening. I think most people will be buying two controllers on day one anyway to enjoy some multiplayer gaming. Personally I'd like to see the system come with some sort of demo disc, with a sample of each launch title. I think its unlikely though as Nintendo will likely have such demos available on the Nintendo WiFi service from day one and allow people to download them that way.

Not really, there's normally a gap of about 2 weeks between the magazine reviews and the actual release, the only exception to that rule is when developers don't get their games to the reviewers in time - Which usually only happens with crap games. For example - ONM this month, officially out on the 20th April. The main reviews are Tetris DS (Out 21st April), Metroid Prime (Out 5th May), Pokemon Link! (Out 5th May) and Trauma Centre (Out 28th April). If NOM launches 27th October then around 10th November would seem a reasonably solid guess for Revo launch.

As official Nintendo Magazine I have my doubts that they'd review the US/Japanese launch line-up because it encourages people to import and Nintendo don't want that. It is probable though that the launch will be sometime around that date. Usually the launch line-up is reviewed by magazines a couple of weeks before launch, October 26th would suggest a mid November launch for Revolution. We already know for a fact that it will be available before November 26th 2006 in the US, Nintendo have confirmed this. We also have been assured that it will launch worldwide, within a 14 week period in 2006 repatedly by Nintendo. That leaves it wide open for a late November/December launch over here. It seems strange that they would specify such a particular date and leave such a huge hint.

I got my Issue 3 in the post today - No new shots of Revolution games but its very well written and its becoming more like NGC, a good issue. If anyone's interested in scores I'm more than happy to post them.

Why can't games be played in third person? The analogue stick moves the character around, the freehand controller controls the camera and the buttons perform the other roles - Basically the freehand controller just replaces the C-Stick, hardly revolutionary but it would allow for more accurate camera control and remove any need for a controller shell to play these games. For example - Freehand controller, look around and choose an appropriate view, press A to lock the camera in position. Analogue stick attachment and shoulder buttons control all movements. Nice and simple.

Isn't the players choice range related to how many it sold. As I understand it Metroid Prime 2 didn't sell particularly well, my local gamestation always have loads of copies and they've been shunted onto the 4 for £20 range now (£8 each) and they apparently can't get shut so I doubt they will release it on players choice. Worth a look on ebay or instore, its fairly cheap and i guess if you want to play it you're just going to have to risk the glitch. Perhaps back up your save on another memory card every few hours?

Sealed game in Box - Comes just like it would if you bought it new

The blood thing is no big deal, having much blood in games is something that has gradually decreased in recent times and to be honest I only see it as really necessary if the game is a horror game, in which case the sight of blood makes it more real and scary and it can often be integral to the game experience. Halo featured minimal blood (And most of that was green alien blood), Call of Duty/Medal of Honour feature no blood at all. Even the likes of GTA don't feature all that much blood or gore and what is in the game is far from realistic. I don't think its necessary at all, I think a good physics engine is far more vital to giving the game a realistic feel.

As it says, its the people behind Red Steel who are showing it off and that's why they have the ugly grey controllers. Dev Kits usually resemble a PC with a plain, grey controller with no more than the basic markings (to denote buttons). I'm sure the final controllers will come in the lovely array of colours we've already seen.

My local Game charges £34.99 for a second hand batallion wars... From my experience Gamestation are a far more reasonable shop than Game pricewise, particularly when it comes to trade-in prices. Their staff also tend to have more of an idea about Games and be friendlier (One time I was trading in some stuff and I was a few quid short of what I wanted, the guy behind the counter said he'd use his discount on it so I could get it ) I used to buy only from Game, then I started going to Gamestation and discovered cheap pre-owned games and then after an incident where the manager at Game refused to sell me Die Hard Vendetta as I had no ID (I was 15 at the time) I stopped buying from them at all. Sounds ridiculous now but at the time I was quite offended Anyway I normally shop online now, its far cheaper although I do trade stuff in at gamestation as by the time I've taken off listing costs and postage it often works out the same as eBay, sometimes I get a better deal and obviously its a far quicker process and you can get some bargains with pre-owned games. I have recently started going to a lot of independent games shops as well as they're good for bargains. Shopping around is always the best way

Unfortunately not - It worked fine on PC's around the recommended specs but for whatever reason on newer PC's it does that, rendering it pretty difficult to do them properly. Brilliant game, I own it for PC and recently rebought it for the PSX, I fail to see how its apparently a poor port on PC, some of the backgrounds are a little washed out as a result of the port but the character models look sharper, the music sounds better (on good speakers) and its still the same incredible game !

Virtual Console I believe the virtual console system will work something like this - There will be three ways to actually purchase the games, these being A) By using VIP stars, gained from buying games and systems, in this way you will essentially get a free game with the Revolution as it will have enough VIP points to buy one NES game (or something along those lines) B) By using a credit/debit card to pay for more VIP points which are then added to your total and can be used on the virtual console or online star catalogue. C) If you don't have a debit/credit card you will be able to buy vouchers for stars with cash, these will work in the same way as the VIP vouchers included with games and systems now where you simply enter a code into the Revolution. This will top up the stars total. Basically it will work in a very similar way to Xbox Live Arcade, only with the stars also included with systems and games. Somethings about that may not be quite as I've predicted but I think I'm probably going to be fairly close. What I would like to see is something that I feel is one of the best functions of Xbox Live Arcade, the ability to demo a game first - For example you can play the very first level, or the first 20 mins of a game for free. Then you get to choose whether you want to buy it or not, this gives a very small taster and gives those who haven't played games a chance to see whether they like them or not, this would also work ideally for any new games developed for the system. I think its likely and I really hope Nintendo include such an option. I also think downloadable demos and videos will appear, free of charge for new Revolution games and DS games. The Revo games will be playable as you would expect, and the DS games can be sent to your DS simply by enabling the "download play" function on your DS nearby, although these cannot be stored. I'm not totally convinced yet that games will be downloaded in their entirety onto the Revo's memory either, think about it this way - It would take some clever copyright work to stop someone plugging in a USB hard-drive or an SD card and copying Virtual Console Games/Revo Demo's onto them and putting them online, and then no-one would ever pay for them. What I think may happen is the bulk of the file be streamed from an online server, this is certainly possible with NES/SNES games. The only thing stored on the hard-drive will be saved games, which can be backed up on a PC. Once you have bought a game however you will be able to stream it off the server as many times as you want as it will essentially have been "unlocked to you" and your VIP account will keep track, therefore if you accidentally delete a VC game it will still be accesible, likewise if your Revo breaks and you have to replace it you will not have to buy all your VC games from scratch. I could be totally wrong, Nintendo may just have security that prevents VC games being read by PC's but I'm not convinced. All will be revealed in due time