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NINTENDO ON THE COUCH.

© Dan Caines

Maybe, just maybe, the Nintendo revival has started. The last few years have not been kind to them: their much vaunted N64 got crushed buy a mixture of terrible press coverage (not from me!) and the small matter of the PlayStation, a machine which (as Nintendo keeps saying!) was not as technically good as the N64 but got in early and captured the hearts of gamers everywhere. Thus, despite still excellent sales of Game Boy titles, especially after the launch of the colour edition, they seemed to be at low ebb. However, recently things have been improving: firstly, a brutal press pack looked at their articles over the last few years and realised that Nintendo had actually produced more cast-iron classics during that time period than anyone else (Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Zelda) - and then started proclaiming the N64 'the platform of choice for the games connoisseurs'. Then they got their lucky break: Pokemon broke big across Europe and in the US. Hence skyrocketing N64 and Game Boy sales, and Nintendo was also making a fortune from millions of Pokemon spin-offs. But can they keep it up? Are they in a strong enough position to challenge Sony in the future? I went to ECTS to find out:

GAMEBOY ADVANCE:

Wow! Commentators have said that Nintendo would need to produce another gem to protect their hand-held market lead and boy, have they done it! Speculation that it would be able to out-power a SNES turned out to be accurate and the GBA left everything else trailing in its wake at ECTS. About 20 playable machines were available on the second floor of the Nintendo stand, running a range of four software titles. The belle of the ball who everyone wanted to tango with was unsurprisingly the much-hyped Mario Kart Advance: and it really did not disappoint. Pin-sharp graphics easily comparable to those of the SNES on a screen 50% bigger than that of the Game Boy original perfectly complemented an immensely fun control mechanism and clever (but fair, unlike the N64 version!) opposition carts: and peoples mouths hit the floor when it was announced that no less than four GBA's would be able to link up for multiplayer fun. Deservedly, this amazing product walked away with awards for (deep breath!) 'Overall Best Game of the Show', 'Best Handheld Game of the Show' and 'Best Multiplayer Game of the Show'. Trying to live up to this was Konami All-Star racing, which provided a fun racing experience, which while not a patch on MKA, was surprisingly good. Then there were several Zelda-style RPG's and amazingly no dedicated Pokemon game.

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