January 16^th, 2003 (12:00am) - NOA has released a tentative release list for titles hitting the GameCube and Game Boy Advance for the first and second quarters of 2003. As always, a new title makes its way onto the list, like for the GBA games such as Donkey Kong Country, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. For the GameCube, shockingly The Sims is planned for a release sometime soon and that comes to me as a big shocker since I don’t think anyone expected it to appear on any home platforms other than the PS2.

To illustrate, here’s a sampling of some of the new Nintendo GameCube offerings available by this summer:

-- All Star Baseball 2004 - Acclaim (First Quarter 2003)
-- ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 - Acclaim (Q1)
-- Vexx - Acclaim (Q1)
-- X2: Wolverine’s Revenge - Activision (Q2)
-- Lost Kingdoms 2 - Activision (Q2)*****
-- Resident Evil 2 - Capcom (Q1) *
-- Resident Evil 3 - Capcom (Q1) *
-- Hitman 2 - Eidos Interactive (Q1) *
-- Def Jam Vendetta - Electronic Arts (Q1) *** Aki is Back Biatch!
-- The Sims - Electronic Arts (Q1)*
-- NBA Street Vol. 2 - Electronic Arts (Q1)
-- D&D: Heroes - Infogrames (Q2) *
-- Micro Machines - Infogrames (Q1)
-- Transworld Surf - Infogrames (Q1)
-- Enter the Matrix - Infogrames (Q2)
-- Backyard Baseball - Infogrames (Q2)
-- Ikaruga - Infogrames (Q2) ***
-- Superman: Shadow of Apokolips - Infogrames (Q1)
-- Batman Dark Tomorrow - Kemco USA (Q1) *
-- Disney’s Sports: Basketball - Konami (Q1)
-- Evolution Snowboarding - Konami (Q1)
-- Black & Bruised - Majesco (Q1) *
-- MLB Slugfest 20-04 - Midway (Q1)
-- Freaky Flyers - Midway (Q2)
-- Freestyle Metal X - Midway (Q2)
-- E.T.: The Search for Dragora - NewKidCo (Q1)
-- Tom & Jerry: War of the Whiskers - NewKidCo (Q1)
-- Skies of Arcadia - Sega (Q1) ***
-- Conflict Desert Storm - Take Two Interactive (Q1) *
-- Shrek Super Party - TDK Mediactive (Q1)
-- Battlebots - THQ (Q1)
-- Summoner: A Goddess Reborn - THQ (Q1) *
-- WWE Crush Hour - THQ (Q1)
-- Red Faction II - THQ (Q1) *
-- Bust A Move 3000 - UBI Soft (Q1) **
-- Sum of All Fears - UBI Soft (Q1)
-- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon - UBI Soft (Q1)*
-- The Hulk - Vivendi Universal (Q1)
-- Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter - Vivendi Universal (Q2) *
-- Army Men: Air Combat "The Elite Missions" - 3DO (Q1)
-- Army Men: Sarge’s War - 3DO (Q1)
-- High Heat MLB 2004 - 3DO (Q2)
-- Street Racing Syndicate - 3DO (Q2)*
-- Army Men: RTS - 3DO (Q2)
-- Jacked - 3DO (Q2)
-- The Legend of Zelda(R): The Wind Waker(TM) - Nintendo (March)***
-- Wario World(TM) - Nintendo (May)*
-- F-Zero(R) - Nintendo (June) ***

On top of first-party games, Game Boy Advance also has phenomenal third-party support this spring. Here is a sampling of some of the titles available by summer:

-- All Star Baseball 2004 - Acclaim (Q1)
-- X2: Wolverine’s Revenge - Activision (Q2)
-- Wakeboarding Unleashed - Activision (Q2)
-- Lufia: The Ruins of Lore - Atlus U.S.A. (Q1)*****
-- Mega Man & Bass - Capcom (Q1) ***
-- James Bond 007: NightFire - Electronic Arts (Q1)
-- Dragon Ball Z: Legacy II Future Shock - Infogrames (Q2)
-- Superman: Countdown to Apokolips - Infogrames (Q1)
-- Woody Woodpecker Crazy Castle - Kemco (Q1)
-- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Konami (Q2) ***
-- YU-GI-OH! World Wide Edition Stairway to the Destined Dual - Konami (Q1) *
-- Iridion II - Majesco (Q1)
-- Wings - Metro 3D (Q1)
-- MLB Slugfest 20-04 - Midway (Q1)
-- Dr. Muto - Midway (Q2)
-- Medabots: Metabee - Natsume (Q2)
-- Medabots: Rokusho - Natsume (Q2)
-- Tom & Jerry Infurnal Escape - NewKidCo (Q1)
-- Little League Baseball 2003 - NewKidCo (Q1)
-- Dora the Explorer - NewKidCo (Q2)
-- Dr. Seuss - NewKidCo (Q2)
-- Sega Rally Championship - SEGA (Q1)
-- The Muppets: On with the Show - TDK Mediactive (Q1)
-- Ultimate Brain Games - Telegames (Q1)
-- Radium - Telegames (Q2)
-- Crazy Taxi: Catch a Ride - THQ (Q1)
-- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Return of the Dark King - THQ (Q2)
-- Finding Nemo - THQ (Q2)
-- Jet Grind Radio - THQ (Q1)
-- The Simpson’s Road Rage - THQ (Q2)
-- Space Channel 5: Ulala’s Groove - THQ (Q1)
-- Sega Arcade Gallery - THQ (Q2) *
-- GT Advance 3 - THQ (Q1)
-- Bratz - UBI Soft (Q1)
-- Rayman 3 - UBI Soft (Q1)*
-- Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book - UBI Soft (Q1)
-- Lost Vikings - Vivendi Universal (Q1)
-- The Incredible Hulk - Vivendi Universal (Q2)
-- Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced - Vivendi Universal (Q1)
-- Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend - Vivendi Universal (Q1)
-- High Heat MLB 2004 - 3DO (Q1)
-- Pokemon Ruby - Nintendo (March) ***
-- Pokemon Sapphire - Nintendo (March) ***
-- Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Nintendo (April) *
-- Hamtaro(TM): Ham Ham Heartbreak - Nintendo (April)
-- Wario Ware(TM),Inc: Mega Microgame$ - Nintendo (May)*
-- Advance Wars(TM) 2 - Nintendo (June) *****
-- Donkey Kong Country - Nintendo (June)* *

*GamersMark Editor’s Picks

My thoughts:

That’s odd. How come NOA doesn’t confirm the release of Pikmin 2 and Animal Crossing 2 when both NOJ, and NOE do? Anyways, it’s great to here that Nintendo is releasing Donkey Kong Country for the Game Boy Advance, but I wonder…Is it a new game or just a port? We all know that the Donkey Kong Country series is what made Rare the developer it is today, but can Nintendo do justice to the series without Rare? Without a doubt, Yes. Personally, the game I’m looking forward to the most on the GameCube side of things, currently, is NOT Skies of Arcadia, is NOT The Wind Waker, or any other Nintendo published titles, but From Software’s Lost Kingdoms 2. The original released for the GameCube last year is one of my favorite GameCube titles, it had a very innovative card battle system for an RPG and the sequel improves on all the downsides to last years game, which honestly could be completely overlooked. If you have not played Lost Kingdoms, than do so now, it might not have great graphics, it might be a bit short, but damn that game still kicks ass.