One of Future Gamer’s sources in Japan has informed us that Bandai’s WonderSwan handheld has finally hit the shelves. The compact and light machine is competitively priced at 4,800 yen and already has 10 titles including Densha de Go! (a train simulation), Wonder Stadium (baseball) and Choco-bo No Fushigi Na Dungeon (Choco-bo’s Wonderful Dungeon). The slightly bulkier NeoGeo Pocket Color will be released on Friday March 19 and boasts nine launch titles, including King of Fighters R2 (which can interact with the Dreamcast).

Get a load of this Japanese Dreamcast release schedule:
March 18
White Illumination (‘girly’ RPG, powered by Windows CE)
March 25
The House of the Dead 2 (7,800 yen including gun, 5,800 w/o)
Blue Stinger (designed by Hollywood staff no less)
Marvel vs. Capcom (includes 35 characters)
April 1
Get Bass (9,800 yen with rod controller, 5,800 w/o)
Buggy Heat (uses steering wheel peripheral)
Looks like a good time to find a reliable import dealer.

Jon Romero’s eagerly awaited Daikatana deathmatch demo has finally arrived. What are you waiting for? Download the demo at The Future Gamer website and then head on over to the The MPlayer site to get in some practice. Will you be ready to deathmatch with Jon Romero?

"Hooked" is on his Holiday this week, so it falls to me, "Felix", to inform you of the weird and wonderful goings on in the Future Gamer forum. Unfortunately it's been a frustrating week. Gamers have had to put up with broken steering wheels, Championship Manager 3 delays (again), "Steve B" and his Premier Manager ‘99 save problems, "Clam's" state of depression and grumpy moods and no LAN party for "Attica" (it appears he’s the only gamer in South Wales). In other forum activity, PlayStation 2 views continue to flow in steadily and more recently, talk of Nintendo's next machine N2000, “what next PlayStation 3?” asked "Gav". Current debates include "Can a game be too long?" and the excellent (and long) posting about the "uppers and downers of piracy" provided by one of our international friends "Kaneda". Future Gamer is already world renowned it would seem. If you have any views on any of the above topics, would like to bring up a new topic, or simply want to bunk off work for a bit and chat to "Clam", "Gav", "Hooked" and "Andy Smith" (to name but a few) then simply click here for the Future Gamer Chat Forum. That’s what it's there for. Until next week…