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"Well howdilly doo, shoot some squirrels for me too!"

I remember last weekend. I was in town with a couple of my mates, going to the cinema. Before the cinema, we went into town to do stuff (I dunno what, you know, just stuff) Anyway, I popped into my local Electronics Boutique just to have a look. And what surprised me, was that a wall, a whole wall, was decked out in empty gamecube boxes and games. Like how there's a massive wall with PS2 stuff on. Except with GameCube boxes, for games which aren't out yet. Anyway, I continued to purchase Mad Maestro! (Bravo Music for those in the East...) for my PS2 at the meagre 20 quid asked, and while paying I read one of the GameCube pre-order leaflets stacked on the counter. Apparently, if you pre-order, not only do you get your deposit back (shock horror!), but you get a video of never before seen footage of Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race Blue Storm and any number of bargain bin inevitables. Whoop dee doo. I said to my friend 'I wonder how much it'll cost' (in a sarcastic way), and the lady serving me piped in by saying 'A price hasn't been confirmed yet, but it'll probably be about £200.' And this was last Saturday...

Then I visited HMV and shock horror, the similar GameCube approach had been taken. Wow. Except here they're going for £130 which is a great price (ie. not more than they should be) In the shop window, which was quite big, they had a giant big pyramid type thingy of GameCube boxes.

But what I find most unusual is that GameCube never usually does this. A console could be released and you wouldn't realise until you walk into a shop and see it on the shelves. But actually having big GameCube displays in shops ranging from dedicated game shops to multiformat is great. Its almost as great as the Xbox launch, with the obvious downer of no demo machines.

So is Nintendo finally getting it right this time? I'm still yet to see any advertising on TV or at the cinema, but at least Nintendo are trying to get the public's eye. Anything is better than nothing.

What worrys me though, is that it may just be too late. Everybody who I've talked to about the Xbox knows about the price drop, yet nobody knows about the GameCube price cut. In fact, many people don't even know there is a GameCube.

But when it comes to the crunch, Nintendo should eventually pull its finger out. It doesn't necessarily have to have a massive pre-launch campaign, but if we don't see much in the way of proper GameCube advertising within the next few weeks then I think it would be a good time to start worrying. Nintendo cannot afford to botch this up. Already there is a massive PlayStation 2 fan base, and many people are taking 'advantage' of the 'unexpected' Xbox price drop which so conveniently happened to be just before the GameCube was launched...

Either way, if the GameCube is a failure, then we could see something similar to the tragedy that happened to Sega. Despite the GameBoy Advance, despite Pokemon and Mario, if Nintendo don't lift a finger then they will bring upon themselves the destruction of Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer. Sigh. If only they'd learn...

And referring to the title, I pressed the letter 'W' and found this fairly un-suitable title in the list that popped down. Heh heh...

There are demo machines, apparantly. But they are all supposed to be in shops that aren't in Felixstowe, my town :-(

HMV, EB and others are supposed to have demo machines, dammit! Maybe SR have, I dunno, but if there weren't any in the stores you visited, then Nintendo have slipped up. I think they promised demo machines, y'know. Maybe they'll have 'em AFTER release :-S

Bah. It won't fail. There have already been 60, 000+ pre-orders in Europe - bigger than the Xbox's actual sales! I think it's safe to say Nintendo are safe. And they are advertising on TV, too.

I remember last weekend. I was in town with a couple of my mates, going to the cinema. Before the cinema, we went into town to do stuff (I dunno what, you know, just stuff) Anyway, I popped into my local Electronics Boutique just to have a look. And what surprised me, was that a wall, a whole wall, was decked out in empty gamecube boxes and games. Like how there's a massive wall with PS2 stuff on. Except with GameCube boxes, for games which aren't out yet. Anyway, I continued to purchase Mad Maestro! (Bravo Music for those in the East...) for my PS2 at the meagre 20 quid asked, and while paying I read one of the GameCube pre-order leaflets stacked on the counter. Apparently, if you pre-order, not only do you get your deposit back (shock horror!), but you get a video of never before seen footage of Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race Blue Storm and any number of bargain bin inevitables. Whoop dee doo. I said to my friend 'I wonder how much it'll cost' (in a sarcastic way), and the lady serving me piped in by saying 'A price hasn't been confirmed yet, but it'll probably be about £200.' And this was last Saturday...

Then I visited HMV and shock horror, the similar GameCube approach had been taken. Wow. Except here they're going for £130 which is a great price (ie. not more than they should be) In the shop window, which was quite big, they had a giant big pyramid type thingy of GameCube boxes.

But what I find most unusual is that GameCube never usually does this. A console could be released and you wouldn't realise until you walk into a shop and see it on the shelves. But actually having big GameCube displays in shops ranging from dedicated game shops to multiformat is great. Its almost as great as the Xbox launch, with the obvious downer of no demo machines.

So is Nintendo finally getting it right this time? I'm still yet to see any advertising on TV or at the cinema, but at least Nintendo are trying to get the public's eye. Anything is better than nothing.

What worrys me though, is that it may just be too late. Everybody who I've talked to about the Xbox knows about the price drop, yet nobody knows about the GameCube price cut. In fact, many people don't even know there is a GameCube.

But when it comes to the crunch, Nintendo should eventually pull its finger out. It doesn't necessarily have to have a massive pre-launch campaign, but if we don't see much in the way of proper GameCube advertising within the next few weeks then I think it would be a good time to start worrying. Nintendo cannot afford to botch this up. Already there is a massive PlayStation 2 fan base, and many people are taking 'advantage' of the 'unexpected' Xbox price drop which so conveniently happened to be just before the GameCube was launched...

Either way, if the GameCube is a failure, then we could see something similar to the tragedy that happened to Sega. Despite the GameBoy Advance, despite Pokemon and Mario, if Nintendo don't lift a finger then they will bring upon themselves the destruction of Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer. Sigh. If only they'd learn...

And referring to the title, I pressed the letter 'W' and found this fairly un-suitable title in the list that popped down. Heh heh...