Nintendo's shiny GameBoy Advance SP (or GBA SP) finally made its high-street debut last week, with a 10m euro (£6.8m) marketing campaign.
The sleek SP, which is no bigger than the average MP3 player is, in contrast to its colourful, chunky predecessor, being targeted at an older gaming audience. Adverts showing the handheld illuminating the toned chest of a male model, while his silk sheet-clad girlfriend sleeps next to him, bearing the tagline "The second best thing to do in the dark", have been picked up by all the leading men's magazines.
However, it's a wonder that his rejected partner can sleep so soundly: although the front-lit screen is one of the major selling points of the SP, it doesn't come with a built-in headphone socket and Nintendo have yet to announce a release date for the adapter.
This has been one of the most criticised non-features, alongside the dinky buttons that have a tendency to cause all but the smallest of hands mild digit cramp. However the £90 price tag, gaming pedigree, slick presentation and the fact that it includes a £30 voucher off a GameCube should ensure the GBA SP retains the handheld gaming crown over Nokia's as yet unreleased N-Gage, as well as boosting flagging GameCube sales.
Meanwhile Sega have announced plans to revive their European publishing arm and reclaim their old franchises such as the Sonic and Virtua Fighter series, from the likes of Infogrames and Sony. It's good news all round for Sega fans, especially as they're bringing Phantasy Star Online, the Dreamcast epic responsible for more late nights and hefty phone bills than any other game, on to the Xbox in May.
However, the outlook isn't so rosy for those awaiting the GameCube's entry into the online console war as Nintendo have announced they are not going to be showing any online games at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The company claims it does not consider online gaming to be important enough to warrant attention yet.
In an interview with C&VG, Shelly Friend, PR Manager for Nintendo Europe, explained that "Nintendo is about making things mass market and we do not see this yet as mass market. If online can bring that element of unique surprising gameplay, then it will form a part of Nintendo's plans, but until that is ready then we won't."
Considering the flourishing success of Xbox Live, and Sony's plans to bring the PS2 online later this year, is Nintendo just hoping that they can keep afloat until its recently announced next piece of home hardware (destined for a 2005 release) aids them in the console race? Or perhaps they know something we don't? Bill Roper, the man behind such legendary games series as StarCraft, WarCraft and Diablo, was in London this month promoting Blizzard Entertainment's first console-only title StarCraft: Ghost.
In the game you play Nova, a female Ghost operative blessed not only with substantially more clothing than the average gaming heroine, but also with supreme physical and mental abilities, that allow her to become a deadly assassin with the ability to cloak, Predator-style, to avoid enemies.
Ghost takes place in the famous StarCraft universe that was born five years ago and has subsequently grown up to become one of the most popular strategy games of all time, with a longevity that has meant it's still played to death at world-wide gaming tournaments. If Ghost can hook only a fraction of the legions of StarCraft fanciers out there, then Nova looks as if it will ushering in a new era of kick-ass chicks.
Competition To celebrate the launch of the GBA SP, we have three copies of Pokemon: Sapphire Version up for grabs for the first three readers who can email with their name, address and the correct answer to this piece of Pokemon trivia:
Which Pokemon likes to sing people to sleep?
Email your answers to Online.Competitions@theguardian.com with the subject line Pokemon Sapphire. The Pokemon are waiting for you.
