GameCube Proves to be `Old Reliable` in the Far East...

So despite the fact that it's being 'phased out', the Gameboy Advance is still sitting pretty in third. Its replacement, the SP, storms up the charts and, in a matter of weeks, has managed to achieve half of the annual PS2 sales and almost three times as many as Microsoft's XBOX. The GameCube is half hidden, half in view, with a slow and steady performance at number three.

However, things are different in the other major gaming areas. In America sales of Metroid Prime and Zelda have propelled Nintendo's little box of tricks to stunning new heights. Now perched atop of the hardware tree at number one, this just goes to show that people have not lost faith in it yet. Also, in Europe the GameCube is currently selling like pre-warmed buns, finally ousting the PS2 from the number one spot in the hardware charts [exact figures were unavailable at the time of writing], and with Metroid Prime shooting to number one and becoming the second game to do this for what many people initially deemed a 'Fisher Price toy', things are certainly once again hitting a spike; for reference, Super Mario Sunshine was the first to achieve this feat as well.

So, things are definitely looking up for Nintendo, and the release of Zelda in Europe this May really cannot come soon enough. Then there is the massive E3 event in the US and, well, God knows what they have planned for that!

[b]But keep it here, as the Cubed