Another day at Spaceworld

If Nintendo's performance at E3 this year wasn't enough for you, surely by now the incredible scale of its Spaceworld offerings must be giving your heart a workout. From Mario Sunshine to 1080 Snowboarding 2, there's a lot on offer. Yesterday we discovered that Mario Sunshine and a new Zelda game were in production, along with a Kirby title inspired by Marble Madness with a Game Boy Advance link-up feature. In the literature we've received from Nintendo about the link-up device, the technical features appear to extend far beyond the swapping of statistics and nurturing of characters Tamagotchi-style. Of course, those features are included, but the GBA can also be used as an enhanced controller for the GameCube. For example, in Kirby's Tilt 'n' Tumble, Kirby can fall through a hole on your TV screen and land on a level displayed on your Game Boy Advance! As well as a standard control device, the GBA can act in plenty of different ways to replace the GCN controller. One example demonstrated at Spaceworld was the Tilt Control, again used in the new Kirby game. The console also wants to act as a glorified memory cart, and we dare say developers will find plenty of interesting ways to exploit this crossover. Imagine all of the games where a secondary screen of information would be useful… The "NINTENDO GAMECUBE Game Boy Advance link cable" will go on sale in December for about 1,400 yen. American details are yet to be announced. Of course the real stars of the show were Mario and Zelda. Although Shigeru Miyamoto was pretty vague about the two earlier in the week, the video footage we've witnessed is amazing. Zelda looks like a cross between Paper Mario N64, Zelda III on the Super Nintendo and something out of Johnny Bravo. The music is straight from Zelda III with a twist, which had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling, and the real-time fighting is far, far and away more exciting than anything in Link's previous adventures. After the almost grown-up machinations of Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time, it's nice to see Link appearing a little younger, and almost effeminate, with incredibly detailed cartoon character animation. I dare say this Zelda adventure will be one of the most entertaining yet, harking the series back to its glorious spritely roots. With a cheeky wink our hero left the crowds at Spaceworld applauding! Mario Sunshine is also radiant. The portly plumber is flanked by some tappy-tap-tapping Samurai music that perfectly matches the Crouching Tiger-style hopping from wall to wall and roof to roof. The game looks very similar to Super Mario 64, but with delightfully improved visuals. Mario appears to be wearing some sort of jetpack-alike backpack, although the video doesn't reveal its purpose. The videos are available from Computer & Video Games at theseaddresses. Another game from Nintendo's 16-bit past we're desperately waiting to catch up with is Metroid Prime. Although rumours of Miyamoto's distaste for the game have been grating at us, the first screenshots of this first person shooter look daunting. Hopefully we'll see more of it at The Nintendo Show in London next week. Elsewhere, third parties also did their best to catch our attention. Soul Calibur 2's visuals were absolutely luscious, with the characters looking more like Final Fantasy renders with every passing day. SSX Tricky and 1080 Snowboarding 2, perhaps two of the games this writer is most looking forward to, also look delightful. Although technically it is PS2 footage, IGN have an excellent selection of videos on show. (Except for the 10th one, which is just Elysium Alps from the original game looking a bit fluffier.) Nintendo fans will be going away from Spaceworld with smiles from ear to ear. With Microsoft making virtually no effort to showcase their wares prior to their console's launch in November, Nintendo seem to have the run of it. September 14th will be a day of reckoning. Personally, I can't wait. In fact, I think I'm going to modify my bodily functions in preparation. If I can just get my left leg up over my right arm, twist my neck back over my spine and rotate my ankles until (will you shut up with the damn Goon Show jokes? -Ed)